Anyone heard of Starfire?

[TWWolfe]

I've been reading David webers books based on the Starfire Tabletop game, and all i can say is i am amazed at this game. I've been playing dozens of space games, and i just feel like now I've finally found a game that would let me re-create the feeling those books gave me. Warp point based exploration, capital missiles.

It honestly feels like this game might have drawn a lot of inspiration from Starfire, with things like capital missiles and a whole bunch of others stuff that makes me wonder.

The only thing to make it better is if there are closed warp points and i haven't found any. In Starfire, closed points were warp lines where one end could only be found by someone coming through them, while they were in range of sensors.

[blood-phoenix]

I literally grew up playing Starfire...started when the first edition of the game came out as a one of the "Pocket Games" released by Task Force Games between 1979-1983. The Pocket Games were sold as a 5.5" by 8.5" rule booklet, sheet of counters, and folded mapboard packaged in a ziplock baggy just a little bigger than the booklet. They were dirt cheap, which is why I started collecting them, since as an adolescent $5 for a game was about all I could afford.
Several of the Pocket Games went on to eventually be developed into full fledged games: notably Starfire and Starfleet Battles.

Starfire II added fighters and carriers, and Starfire III - Empires added an entire campaign system that was a dream come true to me. Back in high school, I wrote a simple BASIC program for weapons fire in large Starfire fleet actions...rolling all those dice could be a chore, especially when you had three data-linked missle ships firing on a target with a lot of point defense! I could only dream of a complete computer portrayal of the game...until years later when I ran across Space Empires (in its 3rd incarnation at the time). This game IS Starfire brought to the computer, with much more added. Its obviously inspired by it, right down to the ship design system.

[TWWolfe]

I actually just managed to find a Physical copy of Starfire 4th edition. I wanted to get into it for a while, ever since i read the Books david Weber wrote and found out they were based on a gane, but i was hesitant since the only ones i could find readily were the PDF manuals. Now that I have a board and stuffs, i'm thinking of heading to the hobby store i play D&D at and finding out if anyone else wants to learn along with me :)

[blood-phoenix]

So if you go to this website, you can see the history of the Starfire game over the years.
Scroll down on this page below the pictures of the book covers, and you'll see the First Edition books I was talking about. I also bought the 2nd Edition when it came out "New Empires", etc, but never picked up any of the later versions. They had started to make changes to the game that, as a fan of the original game, kind of rubbed me the wrong way...call me a purist.
http://www.starfiredesign.com/starfire/introduction/

I did dust off my 2nd edition copy years later just for nostalgia, and played some scenarios with a friend. Its very easy to teach or learn. But for the most part now, if I'm going to build an Interstellar Empire, I'm going to want to do it on the computer - there's so many cool 4X games out there! And when it comes to tactical starship combat on the table-top, I've grown to love some other titles that are much more detailed than Starfire. But it will always hold a place in my heart from the many happily wasted hours of my youth! And Space Empires reminds me so much of playing the strategic-level version of Starfire.

Oh, PS: back in the day...they even made a line of miniatures for use with Starfire, though they weren't in production long. I imagine the ones I have might be worth something now, LOL!

http://spaceship.brainiac.com/TFG/starfirepic.html

[BlueTemplar]

Hmm, I think I remember something like closed warp points being discussed on the space empires forums - I'd suggest you ask on spaceempires.net

[TWWolfe]

I know i found one mod that had warp points that were invisible on one end, i think it was the Balnce mod. which is essentially what a closed warp point it.