From Star Trek Game Information
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Star Trek: Legacy is a new game under development by Mad Doc Software and will be published by Bethesda Softworks. An in-depth look at the game can be found in the February issue of Game Informer. In the six page article the interviewer was able to sit down with Ian Lane Davis, who some of you might remember from Star Trek: Armada II days, is the CEO of Mad Doc Software and Parker Davis, the projects producer (and producer for the previous Star Trek Title Star Trek: Bridge Commander). In his talk with Game Informer Ian sported a yellow polyester uniform, complete with the Enterprise insignia. A clear indication that Mr. Davis takes his Trek seriously!
The article reveals that Mad Doc promises to take the franchise past the restrictions inherit in standard RTS games with this new title. "We've always wanted to do a Star Trek game that captures the core Star Trek fantasy. When you look at the history of Star Trek games, there have been some good games, but we felt we haven't had the chance to make the game the Star Trek fans want until now." says Ian. In meetings and surveys with fans MDS came to realize that the best way to make the ultimate Star Trek game was to focus on what was felt to be the most suspenseful moments in the franchises history; the ship-to-ship battles.
Ian indicates that some of the best moments in Star Trek are the ships battle, mentioning how memorable the last season of Deep Space Nine was in this regard. He notes that unlike other sci-fi genre, there is something very unique and special to the way space battles are played out in Star Trek and his team plans to capture this in the game.
The game's single player puts players in the ships of the Federation starting with Jonathan Archer's Enterprise NX-01. As you progresses the storyline jumps eras as you see the evolution of Starfleet and actually play a direct role in that evolution.
In the early stages of the game, as the player begins to familiarize themselves with the strategies and controls of the game, they will have fewer ships under their command. The article indicated that even during later stages players will control about four units (a unit consists of a Capital Ship and a smaller accompanying ship or two).
Players earn 'Command Points' when they win battles and can use these to purchase new ships or upgrades for ships in their existing fleet. Upgrades can consist of things such as better shields or more powerful photon torpedoes to name a few. As you continue across eras you will of course want to buy the newer ships, but itis indicated that getting that new ship isn't always the best strategy to follow.
One important aspect of the game that Mad Doc learned from Armada II is best summed up in this quote by Ian: "We treat the ships as your characters. When a ship dies, that's a big thing in Star Trek. It only happens a few times in the whole 700-plus hours of the whole Star Trek cannon where you see the Enterprise get destroyed. It's a big thing and it should mean something". Keeping your ships intact as you progress though the campaigns will be of high importance.
Ian indicates that players can vary the orders they give their fleet when attacking a target. An example he gives is defining the precise angle at which you attack a Borg Tactical cube. However the player can fall back on computer control to do more of the micro-management of the fight if he or she so wishes.
Ships do not fight with a generic AI says Ian. Ships such as the Enterprise-D will fight in the style appropriate to the captain, which in this case is Jean-Luc Picard, using such special maneuvers as the 'Picard Maneuver', as well as other more general patterns that fit the captains style of combat. Parker Davis, Legacy's Producer, explains that all the major captains will have special combat styles.
Graphically the game will be very detailed in displaying ship damage. Parker outlines that the game will have different type of mapping that will give the visual appearance of giant holes and crators in damaged ships. "We've actually had people walk by our screens in the office thinking that we had DVDs of the movies in there. But I was just watching Star Trek II yesterday, and I realized that we look way better" says Ian.
The single player campaign will consist of three eras: Enterprise, The Original Series (TOS), and The Next Generation (TNG), and will only be played from the perspective of the Federation. In each generation you will combat foes appropriate for that generation, which for Enterprise are the Romulans, TOS grapples with the Klingons, and TNG has the ever harassing Borg.
To bring these eras together the games storyline includes the Iconians (TNG Episode "Contagion"). At some point prior to Jean-Lucs discovery of the portal a Vulcan archaelogist by the name of Sovak attempts to bring about a utopia of logic and uses the Iconian technology to try to achieve, what he believes, is a noble cause (sound like the brother of another famous Vulcan by chance?). Things go from bad to worse when the Borg assimilate the Iconian technology and it requires every captain from every era together to defeat the 'Iconian-Borg abomination'.
The article ends with Ian indicating that Star Trek: Legacy brings together the eras of the game in a way never done in any previous game and it is this 'unified vision' that will set this title apart from previous Star Trek games. He further says that the game has been since conception an effort to create the definitive Star Trek title, and not to be just another game with the license tacked on.
You can find many more details and screenshots for the game in the February 2006 issue of Game Informer magazine. Discuss this article on our Forum.
- www.StarTrek-Legacy.com
