Star Trek: A Call to Duty (ST:ACTD or ACTD) is a public online role-playing game (RPG) set in the Star Trek universe.
ST:ACTD games are set in the ‘modern’ Star Trek times, i.e. the years following Star Trek: Nemesis, though it does host an occasional special event game set in other time periods (Currently the Phoenix, set in the 22nd century as per Star Trek: Enterprise.)
As of April 2007, ST:ACTD stands at over 230 members across 41 vessels and stations in 3 different gameplay style divisions: internet relay chat (IRC), newsgroup, and play-by-email (PBeM).
History
Star Trek: A Call To Duty was originally formed out of an organization called Virtual Trek (abbreviated vTrek) operating on MSN in May 1995. It apparently boasted an advanced sim fleet of approximately ten sims with somewhere near one hundred members. When an affiliation agreement was signed in 1996 with organization head Chad Morrett for the group to provide a simming forum on Star Trek: The Continuum, the organization's publically advertized name changed [1].
The establishment of this organization, and attempts to make it successful, are what many contribute to legal action by Paramount Pictures against AOL in 1997. The result of this court fight was the renaming of Starfleet Online to Spacefleet Online. Rapid growth followed as a result of ACTD's positioning, with links from the front page of startrek.com, causing the launch of six new ships in the space of two months at the end of 1997.
Towards the end of 1998, the game's existing record systems were unable to cope with the influx of players, and the four week training programme, which players have to complete before assignment to a game, was closed for several months; during that time, a backlog of over 300 interested players built up. The new system to cope with the larger numbers was the Information Gateway, supplanted in 2002 by ODN.
In 2001, the game began to move out from the purely IRC operations with which it had begun, with the launching of the new Newsgroup division. In early 2002, this was followed by the launch of the PBeM division. As of mid 2006, these divisions have added 15 new ships and stations to ACTD's lineup. In 2001, the game set out to create detailed technical specifications for all the classes of ships upon which ACTD games are played. The result of this was the ASDB, whose specifications and ship plaque templates have been used by many other online games.
As of 2007, ACTD operates 41 online games in IRC, Newsfleet, and PBeM divisions. An integrated 'Subspace' system, where each ship has their own board, provides a place to chat as well as a place where officers logs are posted, and the mailing list archives post a public record of played missions.
Separation
When Paramount Digital Entertainment refused to renew MSN's contract to run the official website in January 1998, Star Trek: A Call To Duty remained active on the IRC based chat system of the site. However, by January 2000 the organization had lost sponsorship by Paramount Digital Entertainment. The official Star Trek website would not recognize and advertise another role-playing group until 2002 with the establishment of the Star Trek Simulation Forum (STSF). ACTD moved onto its own servers as a result.
Current Fleet Roster
IRC Division
| Ship Name | Class |
|---|---|
| ***First Fleet*** | |
| Deep Space 102 | Buckingham class station |
| USS Don Johnson | New Orleans class |
| USS Scimitar | Akira class |
| ***Second Fleet*** | |
| USS Apache | New Orleans class |
| USS Arondight | Akira class |
| USS Dublin | Norway class |
| USS Hayden | Intrepid class |
| USS Nighthawk | Saber class |
| USS Triton | Nebula class |
| ***Third Fleet*** | |
| USS Huron | New Orleans class |
| USS Elara | Nebula class |
| USS Pendragon | Intrepid class |
| USS Seleya | Sovereign class |
| USS Tal-War | Akira class |
| ***Fourth Fleet*** | |
| Starbase 101 (Arcadia Station) |
Buckingham class station |
| USS Andromeda | Ambassador class |
| USS Cherokee | New Orleans class |
| USS Claymore | Akira class |
| USS Delphyne | Excelsior class |
| USS Quirinus | Steamrunner class |
| USS Sharikahr | Norway class |
| ***Special Event*** | |
| Phoenix | NX class |
Newsgroup Division
| Ship Name | Class |
|---|---|
| ***Seventh Fleet*** | |
| Deep Space 168 (Morgan Le Fay Station) |
Buckingham class station |
| USS Afton | Galaxy class |
| USS Broadsword | Akira class |
| USS Dakota | New Orleans class |
| USS Perseus | Nova class |
| USS Victoria | Intrepid class |
PBeM Division
| Ship Name | Class |
|---|---|
| ***Eighth Fleet*** | |
| USS Karelian | New Orleans class |
| USS Minotaur | Excelsior class |
| USS Phobos | Nebula class |
| ***Ninth Fleet*** | |
| Starbase 390 (Denali Station) |
Buckingham class station |
| USS Itasca | Intrepid class |
| USS Katana | Akira class |
| USS Themisto | Nebula class |
| ***Tenth Fleet*** | |
| PRISM: Team Vanguard | Special Ops |
| USS Columbia | Sovereign class |
| USS Pavonis | Galaxy class |
| USS Vienna | Norway class |
Staff/Command Training Division
| Ship Name | Class |
|---|---|
| ***Seventeenth Fleet*** | ***(IRC training ships)*** |
| USS Ganymede | Nebula class |
| USS Paula Greene | Galaxy class |
| USS Serpens | Nova class |
External Links
- http://startrek.acalltoduty.com The official Star Trek: A Call To Duty website.
- Subspace boards
- Ships archives
- ST:ACTD Wiki