anyone remember Bridge Commander?

[Noob Van Noob]

remember that game? where you could optionally command from the seat, or from a 3d view...
where shields where actually three dimensional and mattered how you distributed them...
THAT was a great game

[Firewalk]

But only when modded. The vanilla version was not really all that impressive when it came to variety. You fought the same enemies (Galors galore) over and over again and you took command of a grand total of 2 ships.

The game's design was great and it most definately would have deserved a sequel. But without its modding community, I don't think many people would remember it now.

It is sad though that it isn't on Steam. There are other ST games that should also be on here.
When it came to ship combat, my favorite game is and remains SFC II Orion Pirates. It may be 2 dimensional in nature, but it offered a variety of ships unrivaled by any other ST game.

[Gimp_Gamer64]

Yes, I loved it! I still have cds lying around with mod packs and installs!

[Gimp_Gamer64]

I don't expect to see it on steam, Activision is dead. They sold STO to PWE, remember? And don't forget "Klingon Academy" another great game that was kept alive for years by modders.

[Numenorean]

Good game; was interesting to have to yell at others, instead than see things happening immediately, which is what really happens on a batteship after all. The modding community did a great job raising this game from the average; to a more polished product, but this happened few years after the release.

SFC is still alive (table version); the computer game was a transposition of the table game; fun to play but frustrating at times, when the computer would roll bad numbers.

Chances to see these games on steam? Close to 0 sadly. More easy to see them on GOG eventually, if they decide to release the license to them, but with ST stuff, I doubt that it will ever happen (some franchise are tainted with greed, sadly)

[Lalo Salamanca]

Fun game, but only if modded. The vanilla was a good scaffold, but the mods brought it over the top.

[Linklex7]

I've heard of that game, but never got the chance to play it.

[Firewalk]

Then you probably won't. I didn't ever see that game on the shelves at stores even when it came out. You would have to pay A LOT to get it now.

To be fair, STO turned out fine with it being an MMO and all. It could be worse and we couldn't have any games for ST based on the prime universe.

[Numenorean]

You can still find it on ebay for insane prices (100 bucks in one case...good luck with that); or go for the "alternative route" (which is understandable since the game is not easily available anymore....I don't condone it, altho I may understand if you did all is possible to find it).

Considering that this is the first attempt for ST MMO, and looking at how bad things were with SW, I can say that the game is more than good :)

[Unit1]

you can still get it trough illegal downloads. And search for it on google! There are many, many websites witch offers mods for free who improves the original game by 200%. I believe that many of those websites offers the game for free as well. That game is awesome. Al do the game it self looks as old as it is. And is definitely not worth 100 bucks if you want to buy it on cd.

[Lalo Salamanca]

You can still get it through some umm... illegal methods as others said... (this thread is probably going to get killed as soon as a moderator sees it), but it's not available in stores, I can't find it ANYWHERE.

[Freakshow]

I still have my copy and extracted some of the music to play during this game. I loved how you could manually control the beam weapons to slice nacelles and other pieces off of other ships.

I've read some things that they are trying to make a fan modded sequel to it.
http://www.indiedb.com/games/bridge-commander-2

and another group is working on a game called "Star Trek Excalibur" (not sure if it has anything to do with Bridge Commander, but it looks pretty close and pretty darn awesome so far):
http://www.stexcalibur.com/
http://www.moddb.com/games/star-trek-excalibur

[Lalo Salamanca]

Originally posted by Freakshow46:

I still have my copy and extracted some of the music to play during this game. I loved how you could manually control the beam weapons to slice nacelles and other pieces off of other ships.

I've read some things that they are trying to make a fan modded sequel to it.
http://www.indiedb.com/games/bridge-commander-2

and another group is working on a game called "Star Trek Excalibur" (not sure if it has anything to do with Bridge Commander, but it looks pretty close and pretty darn awesome so far):
http://www.stexcalibur.com/
http://www.moddb.com/games/star-trek-excalibur

Excalibur has taken forever to make, but I am confident it will be released someday.

They have tried to base it off of Bridge Commander. As for Bridge Commander 2, I have never heard of it. I will check it out!

[Asphe]

You can't really compare BC to STO though. The game mechanics in STO is very much RPG type (tank/healer/dps). Even the environment is more 2.5D than fully 3D. No rolling past 45/etc. It's not even apples and oranges. More like beef-steak vs skittles.

On the other paw, not many other MMOs do a full 3D/DOF either. It'd be more of a SIM environment and the general public/casual/whatever just won't support a game like that. Too steep of a learning curve, thin-skin*. Very niche.

Thank Altana for games like War Thunder... there are some fun MMOSIMs out there.

-----

Now... imagine if the space combat in STO IS just like in BC, including firing at 100+km away, full 3D env & manuevering... then add the bridge interactions of something like 'Artemis Starship Bridge Simulator'.

So for say ISE, you'd have 5 players sharing the same bridge. Your ship in combat with fellow humans in charge of Helm, Engineering, Science, Weapons & Defence. Weapons can yell at Helm to roll port enough so their port broadside weapons can bear on the Borg cube... Science can do things like ECM while Defence takes care of EW and much more. Engineering can repair the torpedo bays... by actually going there and doing something. Maybe fighting off some Borg drones while you're down there.

Meanwhile in STO, I see players complaining about how slow their raider ships turn... I'm thinking that the Oddysey has a better turn rate than a F-15. STO's space combat is mainly point/shoot + buffs. That's RPG gameplay. Hence the typical RPG player rants.

But if we had BC + Artemis + MMO... when the Borg transport aboard your ship, someone might have to lead a squad of red-shirts to repel boarders. It can take a minute for a cruiser to do a 180 and in this game, the bigger the ship, the more powerful it is (manifestly not the case in STO). STO in the real-world would mean speed-boats outgunning cruisers and carriers.

Think about it, a 5 ship ISE with 25 players...

See.. THAT was the kind of STO I had in mind before Cryptic took over the license.

If you want to see that kind of gameplay, you'd actually have to beam down and play a game like 'Guns of Icarus Online'. four players per ship, one captain and three gunner/engineers. But GoIO also limits itself to 2.5D and there is no boarding gameplay like in Air Buccaneers. I hope GoIO's story/adventure expansion takes off... and I think it's a pity they don't allow demos yet. Still, you can always wait for a sale and get it at $5.

Well folks, take what we can get. Or man up and make it yourself I suppose.

-----

* So... go to Wonderland or ESD and /zone You can level up from 10 to 50 in 5 hours of gameplay. Or /zone Cap your refined dil with 5 mins per char.

Watch the fur fly as 'experts' (ex = has been, spurt = drip under pressure) do their level best to justify their use of planetary oxygen.

Assuming they aren't debating your religion, your politics, your taste or your parentage.

PS Yeah, you CAN go 10-50 in a few hours. You CAN transfer lobi/zen/etc between characters... even on different accounts and if your response to that is "No you can't" then that's too bad. In any case, there is a caveat but it's a small, small one by people not playing MMORPGs.

[Ceejay]

I loved bridge commander. I also own, and still play a game called Birth of the Federation. Which is a stratergy game loosely based on masters of orion 2. Love the game, though it really needs an overhaul.

Anyone else play or have played Birth of the Federation?

[Noob Van Noob]

Originally posted by Ceejay:

I loved bridge commander. I also own, and still play a game called Birth of the Federation. Which is a stratergy game loosely based on masters of orion 2. Love the game, though it really needs an overhaul.

Anyone else play or have played Birth of the Federation?

that one was also fun