Outer Worlds 2

Hi Alex,

I've been playing the Outer Worlds and it's a great game. Which is why it wasn't a surprise when The Outer Worlds 2 was announced in June 2021. I have no idea when it is coming out, but I do have a wish-list of things I'd to see in that game. So, without further ado...

Swimming

In the original game, you can walk through ankle-deep water. And on Monarch, you can walk through a waterfall or two. But that's where the interaction with water ends. 

The Unreliable...

One of the few things that is known about the story is that the setting won't be the Halcyon colony. The thing is...it wouldn't be the Outer Worlds without everybody favorite's rust-bucket. My workaround would be to take Skip Drive from Phineas Welles' ship aboard the Unreliable. (Welles' ship was totaled in the original game anyway.) The Unreliable would then be ready for a trip to new worlds...

...And Old Faces ?

...but with who onboard ? The flesh-and-blood crew all move on at the end of the game. (Presuming they survive that long.) But ADA and SAM are part of the Unreliable. So I am hoping that they will return in the next game. As for our hero....I hoping we get to pick between either creating a new one or importing our old character Mass Effect style.

Answers

We need to know what happened to Earth. And the Cornelius Vanderbilt which vanished while headed there. Which raises another question...there were TWO assault cruisers knocking around Halcyon. What is the name of the other cruiser and what happened to her ?

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

Star Trek: Forgotten Frontier

The Road to Get Here...

A while back, I wrote a letter to Robert Meyer Burnett, which he was kind enough to read/reply to on his YouTube channel. Before then, I was part of two Play-by-E-mail RolePlaying Games...First Star Trek: Pathfinder and then Star Trek: Freedom. But by the time of writing that letter, I was seriously considering starting a game of my own.

 

So what was that letter about ? It was a short demonstration of how easy it was to write something better then the brain dead Drek that Kurtzman and Co have been putting out. The letter was a short entry featuring my RPG character, a lovely Romulan lady called Yenna Chor'dan. After his reply, I decided to throw caution to the wind and start that RPG. 

 

I was planning to write a follow-up letter, but something is up with PostGeekSingularity.com. Maybe it's me, maybe it's on their end, but I can't get onto the site. So I needed to creative, and here we are. Time to move on to...

 

Shameless Self-Promotion

 

Back when I started my RPG, I wrote a blog about it and send it out on Twitter. Along with an ad

made by my second-in-command, Benjamin. One wee problem, nobody pays attention to either my blog or Twitter. So the plan was to cross my fingers and hope that RMB wouldn't tear me a new one for trying to using his channel for (shameless self-)promotion. Alas, the site didn't work...

Which brings us full circle. Besides Benjamin making the ad, I also asked my brilliant friend Richard

Clogston to write us a theme song. The result is now up on YouTube. So, what was I doing while Ben and Rick were doing this ? I was whipping up a wiki to serve as the game's website. I know zip about about coding, so that is the best I could do. (Well, that and it's free.) So, what is Forgotten Frontier about ? Well...

Forgotten Frontier

Set in 2376, the game tells the story of the tramp freighter SS Nothing. Named after he home-port of Nothing, Arizona, she is a home for those who have no other place to go to. Traveling through the Sol System, she finds adventure in the places Starfleet has forgotten about. 

 

(The first story arc will be set inside the Sol system, but if our intrepid crew beats the odds and survive it, they will set out for other solar systems.)  

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers (aka Captain Yenna Chor'dan)

NCIS and CBS' bonehead moves

Hi Alex,

Time to dust this sucker off. So, here we go....

Okay, the Paramount sale/merger has become a total mess. So, I'm not touching that one right now. Except that I figure that, somehow, Paramount/CBS will find SOME way to mess it up even further. That said, moving on to...

NCIS Mistakes

Okay, let's start with the obvious....NCIS: Origins....this show sounds the Enterprise of the NCIS franchise. It's the prequel that nobody wants. Especially since it's the reason NCIS: Hawaii and CSI: Vegas both got axed. Hawaii for the budget and Vegas for the studio space. 

The next mistake I predict CBS will make is the resolution of the Season 21 cliffhanger. Katrina Law's character Jessica Knight accepted leadership of a REACT team, leading to trouble between her and Brian Dietzen's Dr Jimmy Palmer. Looking at the top three of best-paid actors on the show....we have Sean Murray, then Dietzen and finally Rocky Carroll.

Writing out Sean Murray would anger the long-time fans and damage the franchise's ratings big time. So, how do they cut the budget ? Simple, Jess and Jimmy make up and both leave the show. This allows them to cut Dietzen's paycheck from the budget. It also leaves them with an opening to throw the Hawaii fans a bone...

Put Yasmine Al-Bustami's Lucy Tara on Parker's team. (Have her girlfriend Kate transfer to the Washington DC FBI office. Make her a mentioned/recurring character.) Why Lucy and not Tennant ? Simple, for Tara, this transfer would be a promotion, for Tennant it would be a demotion. And Vanessa Lachey was the lead of Hawaii, meaning you'd have to pay her lead money. Plus, it would be a way to score points with the LGBTQ community.

As for who would replace Dietzen....well, I don't think it was a coincidence that Season 3 hinted that Commander Chase was a student of Ducky Mallard. And since she is on the third year of her contract, Seana Kofoed will be a lot cheaper then Dietzen, who is up to year twelve...

And then there is NCIS: Tony and Ziva. Combined with upcoming firings and 500 million budget cuts, this whole thing smells of desperation. What does CBS need to do for the NCIS franchise to pull the wagon properly ? (Since Trek has totally gone down the drain.) Well, IMHO...

Vance

Oops....almost forgot, what WILL they do with Vanessa Lachey ? Well, number three on the list is Rocky Carroll / Leon Vance who has been around since Season 5. Even if you do pay her 'lead money', Vanessa Lachey is going to be a LOT cheaper then Rocky Carroll. 

So by bringing these three ladies over from Hawaii, they can cut NCIS' budget a lot, while spinning it as trying to mend fences with the Hawaii fans.

How to Fix NCIS

1. Cancel NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Tony and Ziva ASAP. Nobody wants the prequel and the premise for Tony and Ziva show doesn't sound like it's a set up for multiple season gig anyway. 
2. Rule 45...Clean up your messes....In this case, the leftover plot lines from Los Angeles and Hawaii. These need to be dealt with. So number three...
3. Bring back Linda Hunt. One of the things that ruined the later season of LA was the replacement of Hetty Lange by (retired) Admiral Filler Killjoy. Yes, I know that wasn't his real name, but that summarizes my feelings about the character. Which brings me to...
4. ...Other characters from cancelled shows. Right now, it's like these places - and all the people in them - go poof as soon as the last episode airs. Have folks from LA, New Orleans and Hawaii do appearances and cameos. And make sure that plenty of those cameos are on...
5. NCIS: Sydney. Right now, that show is getting a lot of hate. It needs cameos, more money and more episodes. Go all in on that show.
   

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)