20. Change the names of the races or the planets.
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This article is from the netrek Frequently Offered Clever Suggestions list, by Tom Holub doosh@best.com with numerous contributions by others.
20. Change the names of the races or the planets.
Problem: Feds never fight Klingons, and who are these Orions, anyway?
The names are outdated and don't reflect Trek stuff.
Solution: Use Ferengi, Cardassians, or some other "real life" hostile
races. Change the names of some of the planets to reflect Star Trek
stuff, i.e. use names like "Farpoint" and "Vulcan".
Why Not: The names of the races and the planets are ingrained into
Netrek players. If somebody says "clear org", experienced players know
where to go without even looking at the map.
Races are the same way. Everyone who has played for a while is used to
Rom being top left, Orion being lower right, etc. People don't write,
"K3 is scumming in lower-left space". It's Fed space, and it always
should be. Sure, people would get used to it after a while, but I
don't think most people WANT to get used to it. In a few situations it
can be a real pain, such as when the first letter changes. If you want
to send a message to the other team, you have to use a different
key. It's also used in a lot of places in the code, so it'd be a pain
to change (and if you didn't change the code, but rather just the
external appearance, it'd be very confusing for people prying into the
source code).
Remember what this document says up top: Netrek is not Star Trek,
Netrek is not Real Life. It's a game, with names chosen as convenient
points of reference. If you want to set up a server with California
city names or campus buildings instead of star systems, feel
free. This has been done, but it's never caught on.
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