Overview
This is first game in Interplay's
Star Trek: Starfleet Command-series. Set during
Star Trek's 23rd century,
Starfleet Command is a 3D-game adaptation of the Amarillo Design Bureau's Starfleet Battles universe, in particular, the General War storyline.
Starfleet Command, retroactively termed "SFC1," was later followed by direct sequels in
Starfleet Command Volume II - Empires at War and
Orion Pirates, along with a spiritual sequel in
Starfleet Command III.
Playable Empires
The Grand Alliance
- The United Federation of Planets (UFP)
- The Gorn Confederacy
- The Hydran Kingdom
The Coalition
- The Klingon Empire
- The Romulan Star Empire
- The Lyran Star Empire
Pirates and space monsters are not normally playable units.
Plot
The various space empires of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants are uneasy. War is on the horizon between the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and their allies. With a starship at your command, fight your way through this galactic war for personal prestige and the survival of your empire!
Gameplay
Single Player Campaign
The player begins the game as the lowest ranked officer at their respective empire's homeworld. They may choose to take training missions to familiarize themselves with the piloting and command of a starship or they just simply take their ship into an adjacent sector and conduct a mission, if any are available.
During the course of the game, years in the in-game timeline, the player may
acquire up to three starships of any playable class, be awarded with many medals, be promoted to the highest ranks available, and may single-handedly conquer or destroy several enemy empires. The choice is yours!
Special Missions
During the game, the player is given the opportunity to join one of their empire's elite organizations in order to play special missions that comprise secondary game plot lines. Aside from the additional challenge, players could earn extra prestige and even unique medals from playing these missions. However, due to a mistake, the Hydran special missions were not included with the shipped disc. To play the Hydran special missions, players need to download the missions separately from Interplay.
Elite organizations include:
- Federation: Starfleet Special Task Force (SSTF)
- Gorn: King's Fleet Guard, Defenders of the Egg, Guardians Errant
- Hydran: Hydran Keepership, Beast-Hunter Cult, Sacred Beast Cult
- Klingon: Klingon Black Staff
- Lyran: the Red Claw Clan, the Iron Fang Clan, and the Mountain Watchers Clan
- Romulan: the Tal Prai'ex, the Tal Shi'ar
Skirmish
Multiplayer
Ship Types
There are over a hundred starships and starbases in the game. Not all of the classes are playable, but the majority are.
- FF/Frigate: the smallest and weakest starships. Players begin the game in command of a frigate.
- DD/Destroyer
- CL/Light Cruiser
- CA: Heavy Cruiser: the mainstay capital ship of a fleet.
- BC: Battlecruiser
- DN/Dreadnought: early-battleships
- BB/Battleship: the largest, most expensive, and most powerful starships in any fleet.
Typical non-playable, but attackable units include:
- Cargo Freighter: non-playable, typically slow and poorly-armed starships. They're usually allies of the player and easy pickings for pirates.
- Asteroid Bases
- Space Stations
- Starbases
- Planets: the largest targets in the game, some missions require the player to capture a planet. Unfortunately, not only are they the most heavily-armed, guarded, and shielded objects in the game, planets are often defended by a fleet of starships.
Recruiting Officers
Every ship requires a crew, and during the game the player may recruit better officers from the Officer Pool for each of their ships. The variety of officers to choose from depends on the specific point in game and on how far the player is away from their empire's homeworld; the closer, the greater the variety.
There are five different types of officer:
- Engineer
- Helm
- Science
- Security
- Weapons
Furthermore, there are five different "ranks" of officer, as determined by their proficiency rating.
- Rookie
- Junior
- Senior
- Veteran
- Legendary
All recruited officers can gain experience through missions with the player and increase in rank up to Veteran. Legendary officers have twice the proficiency rating of Veteran officers and are unique; no recruited officer can progress to that rank during the game.
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