I was able to get a call back from a Mr. Scott Ulrey of D.A.R.P.A to talk about games and what kind of games D.A.R.P.A, and the the Department of Defense are interested in 'funding'.

As you can imagine...they like military games.  Cheesy Smile

We talked about Starfleet as a military organization and some of the ways a Star Trek game could provide training content for subscribers and be of value to DoD clients like NASA/JPL/Antimatter Div, CERN...Fermilabs.

We talked about the games they have done in the past from America's Army to 'JIMMY NEUTRON! (I had no idea they were behind that...lol...it figures Cheesy Smile )

What it comes down to is... D.A.R.P.A., the DoD and their clients ARE willing to help support and back Star Trek Online.  They understand that you need a GREAT, fun and entertaining game if you are to work in the rest.

As a government agency it needs the private sector client who wants to hold the license to develop Star Trek Online to contact them for funding and to talk about how to benefit and serve both the consumer and NASA and they will help create intermediary software, etc.

He said if we consumers can convince a new gaming company to contact them...that they have a simple and easy 'white paper' (5-10 pages) that can be found on the D.A.R.P.A. web site: Open BAA/Information Processing Techniques Office.  That they do not to make this scary or hard on anyone who would want to approach them.

If and when a new developer shows up should we rally behind this?

Would you like to potentially see some things like: actual space content, space mission content, astrophysics, starship flight simulation, better space and ground combat requirements for Star Trek: Online? 

HF should be ready to post the new Dev's website with-in seconds of it's being released, so once Zach and the gang have it on here, I'll be flooding them with all kinds of mail mentioning the help that the D.o.D. and group have to offer.
 (Of course, any serious game development company is already reading Hailing Frequency, and would know about all this already.) :D

Oh we are ready - do not worry!

Great find Kinneas! I am suprised to hear they were behind "Jimmy Neutron" - Americas Army i knew was theirs of course, its blatent, but Jimmy? LMAO! Thats awesome.

If they are willing to fund STO, i am sure that would be great! STO is going to take a lot of money to do right, so i am sure whoever has the license atm will have a read of this topic and contact DARPA.

The only thing i would be concerned about, is the level of involvement a goverment agency might want in an MMO such as STO - You know as well as i do that most agencies "left hands" do not know what the "right hand" is doing - that obviously concerns me.

All in all though, this can only be a good thing for STO.

I think any gouvernmental organization can be a valuable recource for information, ideas and background. I am not so sure about how a cooperation in the case of ST:O could be of help, but NASA being involved in the preproduction would be an awesome cool headline to read. And even if it where just for the advertisement effect:

 :Constitution:

Realistic Space Physics developed with assistance of NASA

Ring, ring, copy sold to BotanyBay.

PS: Kudos to Kinneas!

Good Luck, Dracus!

Thanks, BB!  Yes. Even if it was just so the NASA logo could appear on the packaging etc...with links over to NASA the way America's Army is set up. Yes. It gives a lot of credibility and the two need each other imo.

Thanks, Zach.

-
Sorry, Mr. J.   
It really is up to whomever decides to do STO.  They may feel the same as you.  I kind of feel they will. Perpetual did not want to do any of the above either.

I hope whomever does so STO is more open minded and has a good perspective on where we humans are at this point. That they have a good understanding of what is headed our way and that there is a very real need to inject 'something' practical into STO.
---

Later I will get you folks the specialist list of the MHD (Magnetohydrodynamic) ship NASA plans to launch in less than 20 years.  The specialist list looks like it came right out of Starfleet.  That was one of the first things I saw that would lend itself nicely as content when developing the career paths.

The Antimatter propulsion division at NASA I am sure could offer some great new, up to date insight on theoretical design for engines, storage, processing, manufacturing.

Different engines: Impulse, Ion drives, etc.

NASA Space simulations division: Stellar Cartography:  Slices of 3d plasma galaxy simulations to use as sector maps. Most of these simulations are done on Blue Gene systems.  Blue Gene and Blade systems (EVE Online) CAN work just fine with PS3 and other platforms.  PUT simulated ships with real people in areas of space they want to see how well humans do in.

NASA, EARTH SIMULATOR GROUP: Astrobiology, Earth studies, climate studies, atmosphere simulations

DoD: Space Weapon systems,
U.S. Marines:  Marine and M.A.C.O. content and training.
U.S. Navy: Operation structures etc. Ship structures and components.
U.S. Army: Starfleet Core of Engineers.  Combat Engineers.

FAA: Academy content.  Basic flight content. basic space safety. Fire emergency drills, emergency procedures. Civil spaceways navigation.

SWIFT, Chandra and other observatories: Gama Ray, X-Ray and Infrared sensor data

MIT: Plasma flow dynamics. MHD studies

NASA medical, US Genomics, Stanford 'folding@home': Space medicine, medical nanite technology, gene therapy, real time protien observation, real-time genetic resequencing, Operating procedures.

The ideas go on and on and on.....

Greetings,

This is a way to kill STO that I hadnt imagined.
Allowing agents of a Fascist govt a hand in what an optimistic future would look like.
Lots of opportunity for self serving "predictions" and false legitimacy.
Also, if you are in the loop NASA is on its way out.  Once the space truck is done, the US is out of manned space flight.
Maybe you should contact ESA or China...

Yours in Sad but True Plasma,
Star*Dagger