Startrek Birth of the Federation

[adam]

Did anyone else pickup or try this game when it was released? It's a turn based star trek game
I found it to be one of the most addiciting games when I was young, I still kept going back to it years later
Only downside is it's buggy, crashes a lot and has slow down issues the further into the game you get
But it was addictive.
Uploaded some old videos I took of the game, bear in mind, it IS an old game :P
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNhsNV7TiYKfcv_Nn7kdFIA/videos

[BobbyBullets]

Yeah, I never got in to it because my computer at the time DID NOT LIKE IT, even though I bought it and still have the box around somewhere. I hear it was pretty awesome if you could get it to run.

[adam]

Lol, yea it was a bit hit and miss.
There's a bunch of pre packaged mods which do improve the gameplay quite a bit, here - http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/onscreen/botf/

[Icemania]

Yeah I found it addictive as well

These days Star Trek Armada 3 scratches that itch pretty well:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-trek-armada-3

[adam]

Yea I played that mod in the past, it's pretty damn good!
Been trying to get BOTF working on windows 8.1, it's not a happy game!
Mouse doesn't work right at all, need to look into it more.

[GM Pax]

I got it at the time. I kind of enjoyed it, though the inability to design my OWN starships was kind of a bummer.

Originally posted by adam:

Been trying to get BOTF working on windows 8.1, it's not a happy game!

Shame it hasn't come to GOG; even though I have my original SMAC and SMAX disks, I got so tired of fighting to install them, I re-purchased through GOG .... and now all is bliss. Same for MAster of Orion 2, and Master of Magic.

... I'm'a go check GOG for BotF again ... :D

[Martok]

Birth of the Federation remains my "first love" when it comes to 4x titles. Not until Armada 2526 and Distant Worlds were released (over a decade later) would I find anything to challenge it in terms of my affections.

Given I love both grand-strategy games and Star Trek, BOTF was pretty much guaranteed to be an instant hit with me, despite numerous flaws (of which there are admittedly a fair few). Even to this day, I continue to spend many happy hours playing it, if not nearly so much as I once did.

[Nasarog]

Never got into it, or any of the star wars games. No clue why either.

[daveyg2611]

I loved BOTF for the fact that it was a 4x Star Trek game. It certainly had its fair share of flaws and was far from a polished game, but it was enjoyable and definitely had enough of that Star Trek TNG feel to make me want to go back to it again and again.

[GM Pax]

I think BotF is one of the very very few games out there, where one of the truly stand-out features ... was the UI. I loved how the shape, color, sounds, and even overall layout was diffrent for each of the four main factions.

[daveyg2611]

Forgot about that with the UI - really added to the immersive experience of the game!

[Nasarog]

@GM pax - I never really played the game. I knew of it, but never played it. Have you played EL? how does the UI compare?

[GM Pax]

Haven't played EL, so I can't say.

But to describe the UI of BotF: if youplayed as the Federation, you got a very LCARS interface. The Klingons, OTOH, had that red, triangles-and-blades sort of interface you may have seen bits and pieces of in various Trek films or TNG episodes. Romulans had a blue-green thing going on, I don't recall it very clearly. And the Ferengi had a rainbow-and-golden-yellow color scheme ... and all their UI sounds were very coin-drop-like. Vice elements for all three, were all "in character", too.

Overall, VERY immersive.

[Nasarog]

AH, faction specific UI screens. Nice. I wish more developers did that.

[Icemania]

Yeah agree, faction specific UI does wonders for immersion.

I know you dislike Distant Worlds Nasarog but you should see what Blackstork is cooking up ... just for the scale of it ... 48 races all with unique UI and soundtrack. Amazing.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3657646

[Nasarog]

Hmm, that does look interesting. I don't dislike DW:U, I just find it visually unattractive, but like I said, one of these days, I will have to give it a spin.