As those of you who are already well acquainted with the Star Fleet Universe will know, the seven "TV empires" shown in the first wave of releaes for A Call to Arms: Star Fleet and Starline 2500 are by no means alone. Over the past few decades, dozens of "indigenous" SFU species have been added to the setting; from individual member planets of the Federation and the subject worlds of the Klingon Empire (one of which had ideas of their own about what script to follow) to distinct empires with their own planets and populations on offer.
Three of these "SFU-native" realms have appeared, in one form or other, in prior licensed material; the first two-and-a-half Starfleet Command PC games from Taldren introduced the Lyran Star Empire, Hydran Kingdom and Inter-Stellar Concordium to their hybrid half-Franchise half-SFU variant setting, though all three were significantly altered from how they look in ADB's own works.
Others, like the Andromedan Invaders (with their wholly alien technological and logistical setup that defined their overall gambit against the Milky Way Galaxy), the Seltorian Tribunal (the former slaves of the Tholians I mentioned in the War in Two Galaxies thread), the Vudar Enclave (that Klingon subject species with sticking-to-the-script issues) and many others aside can be found in Federation Commander and (to a much greater extent) in Star Fleet Battles, where several empires, and entirely new regions (and time periods) have been published that have yet to make it across to FC.
For my part, it is this vast array of new places to go, and new beings to run into once you get there, which make the SFU so compelling a setting for me. Had it just been the same batch of TV powers over and over again, I may never have been interested in the setting to begin with; I was only really inspired to jump into the ADB side of things once I discovered the ISC in Starfleet Command 2. (So if you need anything else to blame them on, there you go...) However, I am quite aware that the TV powers (or at least the Big Three; I'd argue that the Lyrans and Hydrans are perhaps more popular than the Tholians within the more vocal SFU community) have been, and remain, the banner empires for the Alpha Octant, and for the wider Star Fleet Universe as a whole.
Still, I do hope that there will be more than enough room for the indigenous SFU empires to prove their worth; not least since, while I'd argue they are well worth considering in their own right, their being accepted as such by those players coming into the setting for the first time will arguably be crucial in securing the long-term future of ACtA:SF itself. (There is only so much that can be done for the "TV empires", after all.)
So, whether you are familiar with the SFU already, or if A Call to Arms: Star Fleet is your first glimpse at what the joint venture with ADB has to offer, are you open to seeing what the SFU-native empires and settings have to offer; or is your focus mainly (or exclusively) on the ships and fleets with a direct link to the source material?
Three of these "SFU-native" realms have appeared, in one form or other, in prior licensed material; the first two-and-a-half Starfleet Command PC games from Taldren introduced the Lyran Star Empire, Hydran Kingdom and Inter-Stellar Concordium to their hybrid half-Franchise half-SFU variant setting, though all three were significantly altered from how they look in ADB's own works.
Others, like the Andromedan Invaders (with their wholly alien technological and logistical setup that defined their overall gambit against the Milky Way Galaxy), the Seltorian Tribunal (the former slaves of the Tholians I mentioned in the War in Two Galaxies thread), the Vudar Enclave (that Klingon subject species with sticking-to-the-script issues) and many others aside can be found in Federation Commander and (to a much greater extent) in Star Fleet Battles, where several empires, and entirely new regions (and time periods) have been published that have yet to make it across to FC.
For my part, it is this vast array of new places to go, and new beings to run into once you get there, which make the SFU so compelling a setting for me. Had it just been the same batch of TV powers over and over again, I may never have been interested in the setting to begin with; I was only really inspired to jump into the ADB side of things once I discovered the ISC in Starfleet Command 2. (So if you need anything else to blame them on, there you go...) However, I am quite aware that the TV powers (or at least the Big Three; I'd argue that the Lyrans and Hydrans are perhaps more popular than the Tholians within the more vocal SFU community) have been, and remain, the banner empires for the Alpha Octant, and for the wider Star Fleet Universe as a whole.
Still, I do hope that there will be more than enough room for the indigenous SFU empires to prove their worth; not least since, while I'd argue they are well worth considering in their own right, their being accepted as such by those players coming into the setting for the first time will arguably be crucial in securing the long-term future of ACtA:SF itself. (There is only so much that can be done for the "TV empires", after all.)
So, whether you are familiar with the SFU already, or if A Call to Arms: Star Fleet is your first glimpse at what the joint venture with ADB has to offer, are you open to seeing what the SFU-native empires and settings have to offer; or is your focus mainly (or exclusively) on the ships and fleets with a direct link to the source material?
