Blake's 7

rockman · #1 June 26th, 2002, 03:57 AM

Does anyone know if anyone has created a mod pack for a Blake's 7 universe? Would love to see one as it is my favourite Sci fi TV show

Baron Munchausen · #2 June 26th, 2002, 04:10 AM

How much material is there? A Federation 'Pursuit' ship and the Liberator? Also, it's a very sparse universe technologically. The technobabble is even simpler than Star Trek.

rockman · #3 June 26th, 2002, 05:11 AM

Couldn't disagree with you more! There are heaps of various races not to mention cool technology!
Maybe I'll try and make a start on it myself (although I am a newbie to SEIV). Any other Blake's 7 fans out there?

Suicide Junkie · #4 June 26th, 2002, 05:25 AM

Never heard of it, sorry.

A good way to start is to list all the races and techs you can think of. The forum members will then jump in with suggestions on how to implement it for you.

rockman · #5 June 26th, 2002, 06:19 AM

Great Tip Suicide Junkie - will begin work on the list and seek any ideas from others on the forum

Thanks for the help

P.S. can't believe you haven't heard of Blake's 7!

try www.shipofdreams.net/b7 for info on the TV series.

Baron Munchausen · #6 June 26th, 2002, 06:29 AM

Blake's 7 is a British SciFi series. From BBC, I think? There wasn't any "Independent" TV in Britain in the 1970s, was there?

Anyway, as far as I know it was only shown on PBS stations in some of the larger markets in the US. It never hit the mainstream here. Little wonder. It's got the same lack of production values as Dr. Who (horribly cheap SFX) without the clever stories. So it's not surprising that many Americans never heard of it.

[ June 26, 2002, 05:30: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

rockman · #7 June 26th, 2002, 06:51 AM

yep it was made by BBC and played 1978-1981. It was a huge hit both in Britain and in New Zealand and has been replayed many times. You are correct about the production values, they were typical BBC i.e. do anything you want as long as it doesn't cost too much! The series was created by tery nation the man behind Dr Who (not sure how popular that show was in USA?) but was far more dark and menacing. It was most noted perhaps for its habit of knocking off the stars of the show. Even the main character Blake didn't make it past the 2nd series.
I thought the stories were great and i liked the way there was a continuos thread to the series and the fact that the good guys sometimes lost (and infact all get killed) by the badies.
Maybe it was crap and I am just being sentimental?
Anyway - enough ranting from me!

God Emperor · #8 June 26th, 2002, 08:33 AM

@Rockman,
In my youth I was quite a B7 fan. Have the first 3 series on video and occaisionally play them.
B7 was characterised by weak special effects, weak plot lines but great dialogue and character interaction.

Ships; Pusuit ships (3 Marks/models to my knowledge), cruisers, Liberator.
Weapons; Neutron bLasters, plasma bolts, standard bLasters.
Defensive techs; deflector shields, force wall, armour.

Given that B7 was set during a limited time period (several years), the limited technology is understandable.

If you wanted to introduce B7 technology and components, I would suggest that you make up a tech group specifically called "B7 tech" and then have components which have "B7 tech" as a pre-requisite (this is what I did with my Borg mod).
You might want B7 Tech to have a pre-requisite tech like Physics I for example.

Regards,
GE

[ June 26, 2002, 07:34: Message edited by: God Emperor ]

rockman · #9 June 26th, 2002, 10:47 PM

Cheers God Emperor
I was beginning to think I was the only one out there who had heard of B7

Here are some extra technologies I thought could be included:

computers: orac, zen, slave
Stardrives: Federation Drive Systems Federation ships are powered by drive systems using plasma as the main source of thrust. Liberator Drive An advanced drive system which makes the Liberator the fastest ship in known space. Photonic Drive This drive uses photons instead of plasma to drive the ship. The main unit generates the photons which are then fed to the ships existing drive via fibre optic cable. This unit is an upgrade for a star ship's main drive.
Weapons: Plasma Bolt Launcher The standard weapon of Federation pursuit ships and other Federation craft.
Neutron BLasters These are the Liberator's main bLasters. They are many times more powerful and accurate than plasma bolt launchers.
Cloaking Device: The device Nij Blake used to escape from Signus Two. The cloak hides the ship from all detection including visual. It requires a lot of power to operate which increases with the size of the ship. This is why Sevener can use the cloak but the much more powerful Liberator cannot use its teleport, high speed, force wall or main bLasters while the cloak is active.
Detector shield A simpler Version of the cloaking device which simply hides a ship from detectors.
Teleport: not sure how to fit this one into the SEIV world

Any other ideas?

P.S. thanks to http://members.lycos.co.uk/B7SP for additional notes on B7 Technology

God Emperor · #10 June 26th, 2002, 11:55 PM

@Rockman,
As someone commented earlier, many of the tech's in B7 are already in SE4 but by different names (eg teleport is pretty much boarding parties). Not sure what game effect Orac should have - Slave and Zen are really Master Computers....
SE4 already has cloaking devices so not much change there I think.
The above items were what made me suggest a B7 Tech area so that a few of the items not covered can be incorporated into SE4.
Regards,
GE