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Topic: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games  (Read 3376 times)

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Offline Lepton

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Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« on: May 05, 2007, 11:54:09 am »
I have never played Birth of the Federation but apparently it is a pretty well respected turn-based Star Trek strategy game. A couple of different teams are creating very competent looking fan games based on this model. They can be found here:

http://botfii.armadafleetcommand.com/

I can't take the credit for finding these. I heard about one of them on the Hailing Frequencies podcast. Supremacy looks to the best visually, while Birth of Empires seems a bit further along in its development, but the GUI is atrocious. If anyone has any pointers on playing BotF I'd be glad to here. I can't figure out how to get any dilithium which is required for building starships.

Enjoy.
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Offline Lieutenant_Q

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2007, 12:33:47 am »
Dilithium is only found in certain stars, if there is dilithium, represented by the elongated hexagon near the star on the system display, you have to build a Dilithium Refinery.  and power it.  On small maps it is possible that there is only 6 systems with Dilithium on it.  Giving which ever empire gets there first a distinct advantage.

Drawbacks with BOTF: the combat program was not stable, the Ferengi AI is broken, and the Borg are TOO unstoppable, they often decide the game because the AI can't handle them.  They don't know how to assemble a multi-racial taskforce to handle it.  The Ferengi with the broken AI is probably the only AI that can handle ONE Cube.
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Offline VelvetAcidChrist

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2007, 07:49:59 am »
borg was stoppable with 9 marauder 2 s, roms and klinks haf no problems either, 25 bop kill a cube easily.
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Offline Lieutenant_Q

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2007, 08:03:05 am »
True, but tell that to the AI.
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Offline VelvetAcidChrist

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2007, 08:27:18 am »
somehow the ai could stop 1 cube - but if u played on highest difficulty setting like 7! cubes could appear andd that could cripple the strongest ai and even i lost sometimes.
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Offline Lieutenant_Q

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2007, 08:35:03 am »
The Borg were always like that, regardless of what difficulty you played on.  They'd start with one Cube.  Assimilate two systems and another Cube would form.  Each would assimilate 2 more systems and 2 more Cubes would form.  Eventually the AI just couldn't keep up with that, sure they may be able to take out one Cube, I could usually take out three before Wolf 359 type losses overwhelmed me.  But the AI couldn't handle any kind of Strategic Coordination to deal with the Borg.
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"Your mighty GDI forces have been emasculated, and you yourself are a killer of children.  Now of course it's not true.  But the world only believes what the media tells them to believe.  And I tell the media what to believe, its really quite simple." - Kane (Joe Kucan) Command & Conquer Tiberium Dawn (1995)

Offline Lepton

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2007, 09:23:16 am »
Quote from: Lieutenant_Q on May 06, 2007, 12:33:47 am
Dilithium is only found in certain stars, if there is dilithium, represented by the elongated hexagon near the star on the system display, you have to build a Dilithium Refinery.  and power it.  On small maps it is possible that there is only 6 systems with Dilithium on it.  Giving which ever empire gets there first a distinct advantage.

Drawbacks with BOTF: the combat program was not stable, the Ferengi AI is broken, and the Borg are TOO unstoppable, they often decide the game because the AI can't handle them.  They don't know how to assemble a multi-racial taskforce to handle it.  The Ferengi with the broken AI is probably the only AI that can handle ONE Cube.
As far as I know, these fan games are all built from the ground up so they aren't using any of the code from BOTF.  I wouldn't expect to see those same drawbacks in these fan games.
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Offline FPF-DieHard

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #7 on: May 06, 2007, 10:21:20 am »
If only they'd build a Federation and Empire rip off :)
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Offline KOTH-KieranXC, Ret.

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #8 on: May 06, 2007, 12:59:11 pm »
Quote from: FPF-DieHard on May 06, 2007, 10:21:20 am
If only they'd build a Federation and Empire rip off :)

Heh... been waiting for that since 2003. Somehow, I don't think we should hold our breath...
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Offline Lepton

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #9 on: May 06, 2007, 09:30:38 pm »
Quote from: FPF-DieHard on May 06, 2007, 10:21:20 am
If only they'd build a Federation and Empire rip off :)
Ugh!! That system is way too damn complicated.  I bought the basic set some years ago.  Every now and again I try to get through the rules and I just put it down again.  That's 45 bucks I will never see again.  I think ADB is trying to build ways to play F&E over the web but it is never going to have the polish of these fan games as they have neither the time nor the inclination to produce something easy and functional as there are more interested in selling paper rule books than creating a gratifying gaming experience.
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Offline FPF-DieHard

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2007, 05:58:21 pm »
Quote from: Lepton on May 06, 2007, 09:30:38 pm
Quote from: FPF-DieHard on May 06, 2007, 10:21:20 am
If only they'd build a Federation and Empire rip off :)
Ugh!! That system is way too damn complicated.  I bought the basic set some years ago.  Every now and again I try to get through the rules and I just put it down again.  That's 45 bucks I will never see again.  I think ADB is trying to build ways to play F&E over the web but it is never going to have the polish of these fan games as they have neither the time nor the inclination to produce something easy and functional as there are more interested in selling paper rule books than creating a gratifying gaming experience.

SFB is just as bad!   i loved that game and I still but the books for SFC modding but I have to tell you that it is overly complicated.   

That said, the rules set works out great  for a PC game.   SFC is wonderful because it does the math for you.  The same can be done for F&E.

My "perfect" Starleet universe game would be a rip off of Medival total war.   Turn-based strategy with real-time tactical.
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Offline SkyFlyer

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #11 on: June 12, 2007, 09:36:47 pm »
ST: BOTF always crashes on me in the middle of the game. :(

Freakin XP.
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Offline Lieutenant_Q

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2007, 10:29:55 pm »
You think it was any more stable under 95/98?  The game had so much promise, but it was so unstable.
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Offline Lloyd007

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Re: Birth of the Federation inspired fan games
« Reply #13 on: July 05, 2007, 01:31:44 am »
I could only ever stop the Borg in BOTF as the Roms. First strike meant a no ships lost win every time... that got boring real quick...  ;)
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