Mod Of The Century: Distant Worlds Star Trek

Distant Worlds is the best space strategy game ever made, although I'll permit some leeway for the Master of Orion 2 lovers and have a real soft spot for Ascendancy. Hell, if you want to argue a case for Master of Orion 3, I'd love to read it but I'd need a heavy dose of sedatives on hand in case things became a little too weird. If you haven't already acquainted yourself with Distant Worlds, my conversation with Edward James Olmos about its charms and intricacies may be just what you're looking for. If you're already a convert, news of a Star Trek complete conversion mod should be very exciting indeed. It's here.

Sent to me by a gracious reader, the mod is thorough and impressive, and easy to install. Download the file and copy into the customisations folder in your Distant Worlds install directory. Here's a (long) list of features:

22 Star Trek Races & 4 pirate groupings; The Shakturi and Mechanoids are not playable but are available for non-canon play.

PLAYABLE STAR TREK RACES
ANDORIAN, BAJORAN, BENZITE, BORG, BREEN, CARDASSIAN, CHALNOTH, DOMINION, FEDERATION
FERENGI, GORN, HIROGEN, KAZON, KLINGON, KTARIAN, REMAN, ROMULAN, SHELIAK, SON'A
TAMARIAN, THOLIAN & YRIDIAN ** More coming in Version 2.0.

PLAYABLE PIRATE GROUPINGS
THE ORION SYNDICATE, THE MAQUIS, THE KORGATH BARBARIANS & THE KHAN PRIVATEERS

- Shipsets - All 22 playable races have their own set. Pirates have 2 specific shipsets. Phantom Pirates have their own.
- Characters - Currently 524 specific images, over 1000 characters (some share a generic image or symbol) ** More coming in Version 2.0.
- Troop images - All races have their own set.
- Dialogue - All races have their own dialog.
- Flagshapes - All races have their own flag and color schemes.
- Music - 36 tracks from Star Trek The Next Generation's first 3 seasons composed by Ron Jones (Fair Use Respected)
- System names - 9000+ Star Trek and other astronomical system names for variety.
- Race files- Completed. May require balance tweaking, please report any major issues
- Bias settings - Completed. May require balance tweaking, please report any major issues
- Policy files - Completed. May require balance tweaking, please report any issues
- Victory conditions - Complete. Please report any issues
- Race Event types - Complete. Please report any issues
- The Borg race shipset size-scaled to near-canon (at least closely!)
- New government added - Religious Unity (Race specific ~ Bajoran only) ** More being added in Version 2.0.
- Each Race may have their own specific UI icons and graphics {OPTIONAL} (located in the images\UI\chrome\[The Race Name]\ folder)
- Minimum garrisoned troop per colony set to 4 for defense against invasion or pirate raids.
- Rumors of Crystalline Entity sightings (replaces the Silvermist)
- A few select Star Trek resource images and Component names. Galactopedia entries have been modified.
- Some weapon effect replacements
- Message pop ups appear as Starfleet PADDs
- Numerous Star Trek sound effects
- Shakturi and Mechanoids are not overwritten so you can still play the story, just with your choice of the Star Trek races.
- Milky Way Galaxy map with Star Trek race placements - NOTE: [WIP] Not completed yet - Will be included in Version 2.0 coming soon!

Tasty.

Most of it means next to nowt to me though. Star Trek, pop culture behemoth that it is, managed to pass me by entirely during my formative years. My childhood home was so defiantly Trekless that the first episode of any incarnation of the show that I ever saw was The Man Trap, the first episode ever to air back in 1966. I first encountered it three years ago, having decided to watch every Star Trek episode and film in loose chronological order. Last one I sat through was This Side of Paradise about a month ago, which means at this rate, I'll be able to watch the final season of the original series on an actual Holodeck.