Topic: Hydran Background History and TNG Philosophy

[red_green]

Just thought I would give some background into my favorite SFB race. In the rare event that someone here wonders who they are. This info in this summary comes from the SFC1 manual.

The Hydran Homeworld is rich in methane. Hydrans have 3 arms, 3 leggs and 3 arms. (always good to have an extra in case 1 wears out) They have 3 sexes as well. Hmm, interesting. Births result in triplets. One of each sex,Male,Female and
Matatriarchal. Each Hydran houshold, ship or what have you has its own god.

Hydrans were at one time conquered by the KLingons and held as a client state for almost 50 years. Lost colonies eventually developed the means to remove both the Klingons and Hydrans from there space. Those are the basics at least.


I am developing a complete Hydran fleet. Somewhere around 20 seperate models for SFC3.  I already released 8 of them.
When I get them all done I plane on putting them in an SFC3 mod in a seperate race slot. Actually I had the Klingon slot in mind. Payback for when the Klingons were in there space. Since I am only 1 person with limited time to devote to this. I may not be changing any other race slots. Though I think it would be cool to get 4 SFB races into SFC for a different flavor to the game.  If someone were able to do an entire fleet of TNG ships for an SFB race, pehaps we could combine resourses and each mod a race slot. I was thinking Lyrans would be the perfect adversary for the Hydrans.  What to do about cloak is debatable. I would be for leaving it in for the sake of less to mod and its fun. It con always be explained that the Lyrans either captured a cloaked ship or traded for the tech.

I am just testing the waters. Maybe I'll post this in the mod forum if it progresses further. What I am doing with the Hydrans is
trying to make them all look as part of the same fleet. So each class looks different, yet they all have a simialr theme.  In some cases I have been adding some ship history (hypothetical of course) just for interest.   I have been holding back on it some as I am not sure how stuff I invent would go over to hardcore SFB fans. The way I see it, is they would evolve and invent just like any other race. One of my ideas is triphasic shielding. Since 3 is a common theme with Hydrans.  

If you want to take on doing a TNG era SFB fleet. I'd like them to be all original designs. Not just a TMP refit.  Post here or PM me, though I will be gone over the holiday. My trouble now is I cant install build 531, so I would be modding in the 1st beta patch.  

[ModelsPlease]

Here ya go Red..........this passage comes from the OP Book ( I left off what you already said)


The Hydrans were once conquered by the Klingon and Lyrans and held as a client state for nearly 50 years.Powerful Hydran Merchant guilds set up the "Lost Colonies",a haven for Hydran refugees,during this time and eventually developed the technology and resources to remove the Klingons and Lyrans from their space.

The Klingons had help,I figured you may want to know that for your mod design.
-MP

   

[Marauth]

Yup, the Lyrans nicked half of the Hydran territory for themselves and at the start of the General War they still possesed a sizeable chunk of Hydran space with several base stations (read it in ADB's history of the General War)

Oh and once a Hydran scientist proved the Lyrans and Kzinti were the same race and the Lyrans used it as an excuse to start a new war on the Hydrans saying they were provoked!

[red_green]

Dang thosepesky Lyrans anyway     I don't script or anything. So if this mod comes to fruition, it would be solely a general war campaign. I prefer spending more of my time ship building. What  I would likely use  is the mini- mod I released last year (Assimilation mod) put the new races in and add my Sun mods.  I hope to use some EEK missions if I get permission.

My main goal is to have it look like visually appealing. I personnally don't like mods that have more than 1 race per slot.  Though they are great in there own respect. I am hoping though by just having 1 race per slot, it will have more of a cozy feel to it. If thats the right word.    It would be great if someone would mod the Hydran music and sounds from SFC2 into the KLingon slot in SFC3. Also the Lyrans into the Romulan slot.  If worse comes to worse, I may just port the SFC2 Lyrans into SFC3. I always thought there ships were the coolest ones from OP.  They look more advanced than other races TMP ships.

[Karnak]

Quote:
I hope to use some EEK missions if I get permission.

Be my guest and thanks for asking.  I also like Hydrans best of the Alliance races.

[red_green]

Thanks Karnak. This is great news.  I have used your missions and like them a lot. I will be installing build 531 soon hopefully.
I was having trouble with in hanging at 89% so am trying the 30mb single file install in a bit. Then I can get to work on this in earnest after the holiday.
 

[ModelsPlease]

Hey Red if you want to really do something truly unique why not create a Mod. around the Hydrans, tells the Star Trek story from the Hydran point of view....ie them being conquered,liberated,border disputes,alliances,etc... and make all the other races supporting cast members.  

[red_green]

Quote:
Hey Red if you want to really do something truly unique why not create a Mod. around the Hydrans, tells the Star Trek story from the Hydran point of view....ie them being conquered,liberated,border disputes,alliances,etc... and make all the other races supporting cast members.  

Well the story won't be scripted into the missions as its a mod for conquest campaign. However I believe I have found a way to insert fact/story boards with Hydran art into the ship selection screens. If I have enough, I could make every other screen a story/art board.  In addition I can add background into the splash screens as the campaign loads, though the art there is hard coded in.

Since you brought this up, would you want to do up some back ground on them.  Perhaps coming up with some new recent events on what leads to the current conflict between the Hydrans and Lyrans. Just to let everyone know, The mod will only add HYdrans and Lyrans. Fed and Borg will remain. Klingons and Romulans completely gone. Mirak will replace the pirates.

MP let me know if you want to do the back ground info. You would be credited in the readme. This would free up some more time for me to make models. btw if I end up doing all the Lyran ships myself, I'd likely have to scale back my Hydran fleet from 20 seperate models to 12 or so, to allow more time for the Lyrans.

I also could use any Hydran art. I prefer stuff you make, don't want to get in coptright trouble  but I don't seea problem using the Hydran art from SFC2, since Taldren made both SFC2 and 3, as long as I credit them. If you wanted to do a HYdran city similar to the one in SFC2 for example, or another view of a Hydran.

Also need a sound person, unless I can figure out how to get the SFC2 sounds ported over. Already wasted 2-3 hours on this. Thats time I could have gotten half a ship done.     This mod will not be big, but it should have a nice flavor to it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Contact me at red_green99@hotmail.com      to let me know what you want to contribute  or for any questions about it.  I will be out of town today thru June 3rd though.
 

[ModelsPlease]

I would be honored to help Red just tell me what you want and I'll go to work. I think your idea of story boards kicks all forms of azz. The whole premiss turns the game into a giant comic book.I do think you need to keep the Klingons in the game,after all they did conquer the Hydrans too.

As for art you need to see this..........

 http://www.toasty0.com/images/stars/Hydran-Expedition.jpg

From this site.......

 Toasty O's forum  he's one of the moderators.Talk to him maybe he can hook you up with original art.

 
-MP  

[red_green]

hehe just about out the door.

 I agree the Klingons are popular but I dont know where to put them. I found If I kept them in with the Hydrans. The ship selection starts looking funky. The Hydran blue tends to clash with everything    Plus I want to create themes to each race slot. Hard to do when you mix races.  Also wanted to keep the Borg, cause there the main theme in the TNG era.  Now I could put some Klinks in with the Feds maybe, since the they supposedly built that Unity station. What I don't like about that is I'd have to allow tech sharing between the Feds and Klinks in order for the Klinks to have accesa to there cloak and disruptors. Then the feds could equip them as well.  I want to keep each race having unique aspects.

 Now the Hydrans and Lyrans won't have there traditional weapons which opens a whole nother can of worms.
That could be explained easily in TNG. One possible way of Hydrans getting diruptors and cloak is by coming across an intact Klingon ship that the Borg had just captured  intending to assimilate it, but they were done in by a virous as happened to them in at least 1 Voyager episode. Thus the Hydrans used the mostly intact ship to gleen the tech from it.

I am open to suggestions as to how to work the Klinks into the game with keeping them different from the Feds.  

Mp as far as helping. I thought you could do up some of the story if you want. Either The Hydran history, Lyran or both.
Or a hypothical event that rekindles the war between the Hydrans or Lyrans. Or why Hydrans now use ion cannons instead of Hellbores    I am reading that the Hydrans used to have a cival war period between the Lost colonies. That is what helped them develop new tech to eventually push out the KLinks. We could even go so far as to say  that the Hydrans took advantage of the Klinks being weakened by the Borg, that they took some Klink space. Course that might offend KlingonFanatic  

Just do whatever strikes your interest. If writings not your thing. No problem. You already helped by the link to Toasty forum and by posting here. I like that screenie btw of the Hydran excursion. Course the ship needs updating  
I'll contact him when I get back. I can;t wait to try my hand at a Lyran. I want to maybe use MajorRacals Lyran also. His
puter crashed so he won't be around for a bit.  



 

[ModelsPlease]

Sure thing Red some fanfic thrown into the real history I like it. As for the Feds and Klingon dilema.Check this out.....
 http://www.strategyplanet.com/sfc/sfc3/faq_hexmap.shtml  having 9 race slots might solve your troubles

Oh hey check out this sig
 Wanderer's sig
Seems there's another Hydran fan out there.Why not contact him as well perhaps Wanderer has some cool ideas for your MOD. Another thought I had for you is why not post a thread in the script forum and see if anyone has or wants to write missions for your Hydrans. Well when you finalize the project parameters I'll get to work on my part for you.

Hope it helps
-MP  

[red_green]

As I understand the 9 race map thingy. No matter what, you can have only 4 race slots playable at any 1 time. Now you can have more than 4 playable races, if you add more than 1 per slot. Which like I say Hydrans and Klinks clash. However I can have several different versions of the shiplist in the same mod. One would just select there preference by clicking a .bat file to load that list. Of course then a new campaign must be started once a new list is loaded.

I have finalized the mod, just will be a while before ships are done.

Since I understand that there are already mods with Hydrans and Lyrans(but none with them in there own slot). I will have the default shiplist set for Hydrans in the Klingon slot.
Lyrans in the Romulan Slot. Fed as Fed. Borg as Borg.  

You will have the oppurtunity to add the Klingons and Roms back in using an alternate shiplist. This would then be Klinks/Hydran in Klingon slot, Rom / Lyran in Rom slot, Fed as Fed and Borg as Borg.  Due to how I am adding in the story/art boards, the mission campaigns will have to be played using the version with the Rom/Klinks.  While conquest mode will be playable in both versions of the shiplist.

Oh and I believe Wanderer is diehard SFB, meaning he prefers the original style of the SFB ships. Many prefer the original ships to ones designed hypothetically for TNG era. Cool by me.  

Hey MP- I already did up the incidents and economics that led to the Hydran conversion to ion-beams and disrupters.  I hope to change there color though if its not hard coded in.

The alliances are as follows. Klinks/Hydran/Fed are allied. Though the Hydran/Klink alliance is rather tenative as they mis-trust one another still.  Then the Lyrans/Roms are allies. Of course the Borg have no allies.

I already have plenty of Hydran ships. As for the Lyrans, they may be a mix of the stock Taldren ones and original ones I design. If the mod goes over well enough. I may add on SFB races later. ie: Gorn/ISC.   This mod won't be on a server, unless someone else hosts it  

[The_Infiltrator]

Hydran racial background, done by Marcus Smythe with assistance (mostly) from Janus and a little from myself (proofread it).

 Encyclopedia Hydrax

IIRC submitted to ADB where it may have been used as a basis for the roleplaying game that they also do.

[red_green]

Quote:
Hydran racial background, done by Marcus Smythe with assistance (mostly) from Janus and a little from myself (proofread it).

 Encyclopedia Hydrax

IIRC submitted to ADB where it may have been used as a basis for the roleplaying game that they also do.  

This is cool, I emailed Marcus asking for permission to use it in the Hydran/Lyran mod. Everyone involved would be credited.
I also like that Hydran emblem. Did you do that? I am looking for bits of art like that as well for the mod. Want to give it some flavor.

Speaking of the mod. Its coming along nicely. I figured how I am going to put the music in. Have the Hydran music from SFC1 and a taste from SFC2 in. Next is voices and then the Lyrans. Got my 1st art board in.  The hold up will be finishing up the Lyran fleet.  The Lyran ships will be exclusive to this mod.  

[The_Infiltrator]

All of our art is done by Shadow Seraph. That includes the logos and also the avatars (he's done a few of each). You'd have to ask him permission to use them - but in general the Armada would not be inclined to share it's own logo for someone not in the Armada.

Getting permission from Shadow may be hard as I haven't seen him in a while.

[red_green]

Sadly,I will never be in the Armada. I cant play either SFC2 or SFC3 online for different reasons. IN OP I never get online to gamespy cause of what they say is a firewall issue. Only I do not use one. In SFC3, If I have my IP up and run the game it crashes- sigh.  So i gave up and mostly mod or build ships.  But I have been a Hydran fan for about 2 years. Was introduced to them by SFC2. Hadn't heard of SFB before then.

 I might make up my own. hehe

[KOL_Grim]

Same here i've been flying hydran myself since early 2002, my favourite race by far. Been in a few fleets in the Hydran divisions.  

oh and goodluck with the mod