Oh Adam, you make me laugh.
In the broad strokes, I completely agree with both Mohab and Lt Q as being two sides of the same coin. I see no reason to maintain fealty to SFU, especially if that is going to cause endless problems. What is done officially under the Dynaverse's SFC4 needs to be it's own thing, and any similarity to SFU should be just because both things are based on Star Trek. Personally, I have no burning desire to see the Andromedans, (or Jindarans, FRAX, ISC or any other purely SFU creations) in a new game. That said, if anyone else does want to see those things, and creates a mod on their own, Dynaverse is hardly responsible. Two examples:
-several modelers have created entire fleets of "Star Wars" ships, now owned by Disney, and I could convert a race ini SFC into the "Rebel Alliance/Empire". Paramount licensed Star Trek to Taldren for the SFC game series. Neither Paramount or Taldren (rip) could be held responsible by Disney for me using these models on my computer, as long as I'm not charging anyone for it. Disney could go after the modeler who made them, but if they aren't charging for it, they probably won't.
-over the years, many fan-made websites have popped up with "Ship System Displays" or SSDs for SFB. In the past 10 years, ADB has required these fans to agree to what amounts to a ELUA about what is posted for free online. No official ADB SSDs can be online, and any fan-made SSDs must be clearly identified as such. Any one not in compliance is sent a "cease-and -desist" letter from ADB.
As I see it, we all agree in this thread. Personally, I am so done with ADB I don't really care about seeing those things in SFC4. By all means, let's distance ourselves from SFU. As long as we, the players, can mod the ships and weapons (the Holy Grail of modding), we should all be happy. Most of the suggestions Czar Mohab said are somewhat interesting to me, so if later on, someone creates a invading fleet with "ship-sized transporters," it doesn't reflect on the "official" SFC4 game.
addendum to my Disney/Star Wars example. My son literally just got back from a Comic Con, where he went to find a "Star Wars/Dr Who" mashup t-shirt like his friend got there last year. The t-shirt makers, individual artists selling tees, told him that since Disney bought Star Wars, they couldn't make those anymore. Disney has an very agressive copyright protection stance.
I was only teasing you Adam. ADB, specifically Steve Cole, has made it clear that he feels that ADB is still owed money from the first 3 Starfleet Command games, and would not license SFU to a new game without that being addressed, and future compensation to be safeguarded. Lt Q is right, let's try to avoid SFU in 4.