Channel reserve energy to forward shield reinforcement, and prepare electronic counter-counter measures in case he begins erratic maneuvers." The crew hastened to carry out their duties, knowing that the outcome of the battle depended not only on their captain’s expertise but their own efficiency, and a lot of luck…
Star Fleet Command is the long-awaited computer translation of Task Force Games’ Star Fleet Battles. Designed by Stephen Cole in the 1970’s, SFB simulates ship-to-ship combat in the Star Trek universe. Players control either a single ship or fleets from several different races. Originally, SFB included Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Gorn, Kzinti and Tholian; added later were the Lyrans, Hydrans, ISC, Andromedans, and Wyn. SFB has undergone many revisions over the years, and the rulebook is massive, with rules and exceptions abounding. With Star Fleet Command, Interplay is attempting to capture the flavor of the board game in a real-time computer environment. Judging by the beta I played, they are definitely on the right track.
So far, six major races are present: Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Gorn, Lyran and Hydran. The available ships for each race are based on size class: frigate, destroyer, heavy cruiser and dreadnought. There will be many more ship types in the final release, including carriers, scouts and battleships. Terrain effects include open space, asteroids, nebula, planets, dust clouds and black holes, all of which have various effects on movement and combat. Interplay has tried to include as many of the special weapons and systems from Star Fleet Battles as possible, so there will be all kinds of possibilities. For example, plasma-using races like Gorns and Romulans can fire shotgun and enveloping plasma torpedoes, but cannot bolt them. Drones are called missiles, but function just like they do in SFB. There are literally hundreds of features that I could pour over; for a complete listing, visit Interplay’s web site at http://www.interplay.com/sfcommand/.
Graphically, the game is wonderful. Ship details are amazing, right down to the actual weapons on the different hulls. Each weapon has a different visual effect, from the beam of a phaser to photon torpedoes to seeking weapons like plasma torpedoes. If a ship is damaged, small pieces fly off into space. Terrain effects such as asteroids and planets are incredibly detailed, with different spins and velocities as they move through space. The ships are easy to tell apart, and can be identified by anyone familiar with SFB. The Federation ship designs look like those from the Star Trek movies, not the later TV series.
The thing I found most confusing about the game is the interface. Without any solid documentation, I found myself going through a lot of trial and error to find out what each button and icon does. Each race has a different interface style, so the control layout and button arrangement varies a bit depending on which race you select, and the icons are totally different. It took me several missions to get the hang of maneuvering the ship around the map, and several more before I could easily zero in on my targets. One nice touch is that the most-used features, such as weapon selection and fire, are the most prominent, making it easy to select a group of weapons (or all of them) to fire at your opponent.
In the games I played, the computer didn’t seem to employ very complex tactics – it always seemed to fly directly at me and then circle closely, trying to bring weapons to bear on the same shield arc without getting destroyed in the process. It was difficult to try out some of the more famous maneuvers from SFB, such as the saber dance, knife fight or oblique approach. I did try the Gorn anchor at one point, but the enemy broke the tractor beam before I could fire my weapons. (For those of you unfamiliar, the Gorn anchor is a maneuver where you get as close as possible to your enemy, lock onto him with a tractor beam, and hold him there while you hit him with all your weapons. It is particularly effective if you are Gorn because it keeps the enemy from outrunning your plasma torpedoes, which do incredible damage at short range, and Gorns usually have more power available to keep the tractor beam locked on.) Still, the possibilities are thrilling for games full of intricate tactical maneuvering.
Game flow is very quick – most single-ship battles take no more than 10 minutes of real time, with multi-ship battles taking slightly longer. I haven’t tried out the multiplayer game yet, but I would think that the games would take longer because players are more likely to try some of the tried-and-true SFB tactics rather than just charge in with all guns blazing.
So far, Star Fleet Command looks like it just might live up to the promise of bringing Star Fleet Battles to the computer. The translation from a turn-based board game to a real-time computer game is very smooth, and the level of detail is staggering. If Interplay can clean up the interface a bit, improve the AI and provide good documentation, Star Fleet Command may be a candidate for simulation of the year. I can hardly wait for the final release.