Admiral of Starfleet wanted to talk to me about this one again.
Thought I'd bring it out again here too.


One of the potentially great things about a 'reboot' is the ability to correct misconceptions about when certain technologies will roll out.

When Mr. Data was presented, it was not predicted we would have level 4 and level 5 androids before that time.  Since then we have hit the point on the chart where technology growth goes straight up and the roll-out for level 4 and 5 androids is now less than 100 years.

So I support it...  ...Androids as a playable race.

That is not to say you start with UBER parts.  Rather the most basic components/materials.
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Your take?

At first I was almost against having Androids as a playable race, and while I still haven't completely changed my mind on the matter, I can see how they could work. One thing that always seems to happen though when different races have abilities is that everyone (or should I say the leet class) wants to be one for even that minor advantage. So I would not be surprised to see entire crews of Androids. Would technology have advanced that far? Albeit it might be where canon would yeild to circumstance.

Not to mention it would put the good doctors out of business. You will have engineers running seperate Android sickbays with heads in the biobeds.  :ugh2:

I dont think that andriods would work well. You have to remember that this is an RPG...and while data did learn things about humanity, he didnt get any better at being an engineer, or a security officer, or a medic. His skills were set when he was created and besides his emotion chip (which raises another question, see lower)  he never really replaced any parts to make himself better.

as for the emotion chip, do andriods feel emotions now in the sto time? idk.

Its not the same as androids but also you could support "freed borg" players. After all as the future goes on you could have more 7 of 9 type people who are freed from the borg and try to adapt back into normal human (or other race) life. This would allow you to play a more "mechanical" race but still hold onto that "biolocial" feel.

The thing with Data is that he did evolve like any child would through life learning and such, sure he started with the advantage of being preprogramged to do some things but knowledge is differnt that "wisdom". Any good enginer on a starship will tell you (from what I've noticed in shows) that each starship has its own "personality" ie quirks that they have to deal with, some reactors may be more tempermental than others even. So as with all skills an android would learn and adapt to do their job best... heck even a tactical android would eventualy create their own way of targeting an enemy ship.

Now obviously androids have major bonuses but on the other hand they can have their negatives as well. I remember in the old D&D rules some classes required less XP to level up, with all their natural bonuses you could make androids level up slower due to their cold questioning nature.

Hmmm...

I could deal with Androids as playable, but it would have to be done well, in a way that is beneficial and respectful to all players, not just Data fans.  The androids would have to be a different type/mold than Data, since androids in popular service would be just getting started and thus would not be as advanced as Data.  This would help bring balance since Data was so totally uber.

The other thing about androids is that they're not robots... all of their parts are integrated so tightly, its not like they could just upgrade an arm on stuff... they would need entire, intrusive, systems upgrades when they got them.  Could be interesting.  The bottom line is that they could have their own advantages, that is, certain inherent invulnerabilities, and higher physical stats, which could be balanced by a slower skill acquisition rate, or something else of that nature.

At the same time, to keep Androids from overpopulating the uni, there would need to be some kind of gateway.  I would propose a different gateway for each of the 'special crewman' types that we've seen, and some new special crewman types, honestly.  Holograms, Androids, Freed Borg, Cyborgs (Geordi), Betazoid, Joined Trill... each of these guys have inherent strengths that are not available to all starfleet, and are 'special' in ways that it would make sense for them not to be available when you first make your first character, or just buy an expansion pack.

For Androids, I often suggest that challenge be to 'max out' a character, since, honestly, that's what an android is, someone with maxed out physical stats, high skills, and not really a whole lot of advancement.  Besides, if someone trades in their Picard for a Data... I'm not really going to feel like that's 'unfair.'

Other gateways for other specials could include: Random chance at login, collecting sets of trinkets from around the galaxy, a high level epic raid quest, exploring all the quests of the target race (complete all the Cardassia missions, you can play a Cardassian member of the federation), maxing out some other unknown stats (ie Social Skills and contacts to unlock a Betazoid) and etc...