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This is inspired by the board game from Amarillo Design Bureau, Star Fleet Battles, which was developed prior to the Star Trek movies. The Organians have hired the Interstellar Concordium (ISC) to help restore peace and order to the Alpha Quandrant by forcing eight races into submission. You pilot your own ship in one of the eight galactic governments (Gorn Confederation, Hydran Kingdoms, Interstellar Concordium, Klingon Empire, Lyran Star Empire, Mirak Star League, Romulans or the United Federation of Planets) forced to thwart this action. This space combat simulation, features both single and multiplayer missions, with the latter played over the Internet in the online Dynaverse 2. Single player action offers tutorial, skirmish or campaign modes. The tutorial covers all aspects of ship control (weapons, defense, movement, science and command), skirmish mode puts you instantly in battle utilizing a ship of any of the eight races and the campaign provides a choice of race and missions. The Alpha Quadrant contains not only enemy races but monsters of unknown origin. You can sabotage the enemy by beaming aboard their ships and taking out specified systems. Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) are used to destroy incoming missiles. Mission success earns prestige points that are used to buy new ships or repair and restock existing craft. Although you control only one ship in battle (the computer handles the rest), you can relinquish control to a secondary officer at any time and move to another ship. Photon and plasma torpedoes, standard missiles, phasers and mines are some of the weapons available in your arsenal. Tractor beams hold missiles at bay while your defensive systems destroy them. Ships have limited energy and nearly all actions, including speed, ECM level, shield strength and weapons, drain power that must be restored. Some races, (e.g., Klingon and Romulan) use cloaking technology which also drains power. The interface is mouse and keyboard controlled with various hot keys available for weapon selection, camera angles, jumping from ship to ship and bomb placements. Other keys allow grouping of weapons, cycling through targets, launch of shuttles and probes, switching displays, toggling cloaking devices, activating tractor beams and shields and adjusting the game's slider speed. In 2013, a revised Community Edition was released by Dynaverse with updated game code, using newer DirectX 7 and runs on modern o/s. |
