What is the most useless minor race in the original game?

[brianmcfa]

My vote would be the Antedeans closely followed by the Mintakans. I can't say that increased food production is a huge benefit anyway but since the Antedeans are less friendly, they get the nod.

[Martok]

Understandable choices, brian. I wouldn't rank those two minors that low myself, as (if nothing else) they tended to have very nice star systems in most of my games in vanilla BOTF. However, I can easily see why you (and others) might not care for them as much.


Myself, I would nominate the Anticans, Selay, and especially the Bolians for most useless minor.

The Anticans' and Selays' race-specific structure wasn't worth the build cost for the ground combat bonus, especially since they also needed so much energy to run. The fact that they were (at best) neutral towards the major races didn't help.

As for the Bolians, their unique structure was largely pointless since espionage is mostly useless in BOTF. In addition, they nearly always had a crappy/small star system -- in the vanilla game, I don't think I've *ever* seen the Bolians with a system larger than 320 or so (and usually it's not even 300!). The only reason to want the Bolians at all was if you were playing as the Federation, since it's easy to get them into a friendship treaty with you...and even then I'm not sure they're really worth it.

[CommodoreGray]

I wanted to go with the three ground defense boosts, but Martok made me realize the Bolians are even worse.

Which is too bad, because I kind of like them.

Amusingly, my most recent game had a 500+ pop Antican system.
So despite their terrible building I was pleased the day they joined me. Very pleased.

[brianmcfa]

The Anticans and Selay have ususally been fairly good systems when I get them and their techs are in line with mine. That's why I hate the Mintakins. Primitive Farms or level 1 then having to upgrade. Bynars too but the computer tech is a bonus. The Antedeans are always just a placeholder system that have no real value for me.

[KrazeeXXL]

I like the Mintakans. They were the first minor I ever met playing BotF.

As Martok said, they often have a fairly good system and more importantly:

when you meet them first, they often tend to join you for free.

The Anticans' and Selays' race-specific structure wasn't worth the build cost for the ground combat bonus, especially since they also needed so much energy to run. The fact that they were (at best) neutral towards the major races didn't help.

I always hoped to get a little bonus when assimilating both of them into the Federation


I agree with you on Bolians. Espionage worthless and a bad home system. I only like to see them when playing Feds, as they join very fast. Their upgrades aren't the worst either.

Antedeans are always kinda meh, too. Really depends on their star system which can be really worth it.
It's one of those where I really like to build a lot of intel centers due to low moral. Also fits well regarding the episode@TNG, imo.

[anjel]

Mizarians by far, i think i don´t have to explain why...

[KrazeeXXL]

hm, linked with a big system, a real good place to do some research

also easy to get. They like to join automatically


I like them a bit more than some of the spacefaring minors tbh. But everything's a bit subjective ofc.

[Martok]

I agree that with the Anticans and Selay, how worthwhile they are -- or not -- depends largely on how big/nice their star system is.

I rate the Antedeans somewhat higher, since (as I noted earlier) they generally have pretty decent star systems in my games. Also (I forgot to mention this before), they sometimes offer to join you right away like the Mizarians & Mintakans do...and if not, they can often be, ah, "encouraged" into doing so.

Mizarians by far, i think i don´t have to explain why...

Fickle, fickle bastards. I can't tell you the number of times I've liberated the Mizarians from someone, only to have them turn around and immediately join the empire who'd conquered them in the first place! Gods, I hate them.

However... Once you *do* get them into your nation -- whether by force or diplomacy -- they're nice to have. They do sometimes have decent-sized star systems in vanilla BOTF, which is why I don't place them at the bottom.


All that being said, though, I don't blame you ranking them so low. Believe me, I understand!

[brianmcfa]

With the Anticans and Selay, I was a little surprised to not have one declare war on you the second the other joined when I first played the game. Would have been an interesting twist but the code was probably too much.

[KrazeeXXL]

Fickle, fickle bastards. I can't tell you the number of times I've liberated the Mizarians from someone, only to have them turn around and immediately join the empire who'd conquered them in the first place! Gods, I hate them.

ugh, almost forgotten about that. how could I? seriously... so effin' annoying

[brianmcfa]

Fickle, fickle bastards. I can't tell you the number of times I've liberated the Mizarians from someone, only to have them turn around and immediately join the empire who'd conquered them in the first place! Gods, I hate them.

ugh, almost forgotten about that. how could I? seriously... so effin' annoying

I do sometimes wonder why they picked them to be in the game anyway. I know it's essentially a TNG game but the races from TOS did still exist 100 years later. I know the Tellerites, Tholians, and Gorn were all at least mentioned in TNG even if they weren't on screen. Ah well, that's why we make mods.

[CommodoreGray]

Fickle, fickle bastards. I can't tell you the number of times I've liberated the Mizarians from someone, only to have them turn around and immediately join the empire who'd conquered them in the first place! Gods, I hate them.

Although the Federation Council is entirely non-violent, it urges you to be as violent as possible in response to this.
That's the worst kind of trechery. Many of your soldiers died to save them from slavery, and then they skip back into it with a grin on their face.

I do sometimes wonder why they picked them to be in the game anyway. I know it's essentially a TNG game but the races from TOS did still exist 100 years later. I know the Tellerites, Tholians, and Gorn were all at least mentioned in TNG even if they weren't on screen. Ah well, that's why we make mods.

This is basically baseless speculation, but I suspect the license for the game didn't cover TOS, only TNG and some DS9 elements. Otherwise I'd have expected the Constitution (or even the Excelsior) to be the Federation's early cruiser instead of the current situation where the Ambassador is.

[KrazeeXXL]

This is basically baseless speculation, but I suspect the license for the game didn't cover TOS, only TNG and some DS9 elements.

yeah, they only had the TNG licence. But somehow they managed to get the Defiant into the game. I remember that there was some Dev-talk about it. Iirc they were allowed to use the Defiant because of the original "Defiant" episode, where Jonathan Frakes captured it. The argumentation was as followed: he was technically cross-acting between TNG and DS9.

The same applies to Worf, who got it to command later on, even lived on it.

Since those 2 major TNG chars were playing such a huge part in it, the Defiant technically also became a TNG ship (licence-wise) and was allowed in this game.

[thunderchero]

Since those 2 major TNG chars were playing such a huge part in it, the Defiant technically also became a TNG ship (licence-wise) and was allowed in this game.

iirc it was allowed due to the movies, mainly First Contact (movie 1996 game release 1999) the Defiant and the Sovereign where used and this was considered "the next generation movie" But yes some said it was a loop hole.

thunderchero

[KrazeeXXL]

almost forgotten that the Defiant even was in a TNG movie.

well, if that isn't the main reason to get it into BotF


this licence jungle is really complicated. There seem to be borders between the single shows. Sometimes they easily melt and sometimes they won't for whatever odd reasons. ST is pretty complex regarding that. I'm afraid it's housing a lot of buraucrats.