Topic: Star Trek Starship Creator Warp 2

[KBF-Kapact]

any fans out there at all? I have an Trek rpg writing/combat game I'm working on called Fantasy Trek http://fantasytrek.blogspot.com/ that has a bit in common with Starship Creator, only that you have control over your ship, you get a map that actually looks like a Trek map, you don't have to pay for it  , and you write your own missions... unless you don't want to. It's got me to thinking that I'd like to do a few things.... like maybe make it a simple program that people could play on a basic computer. Maybe use some of the Starship Creator engine to make it, and maybe even port it to either a palm m505 or symbian 80 OS.

That's a lot to ask, but if there is anyone tech savvy enough to do that, or interested enough to play the game as it is (which is entirely text.... 'imagination-based'), please click on the link and tell me what you think.


Cheers


Kapact

[knightstorm]

Have you thought of writing it for the old NES.  Due to the popularity of the system, its been emulated on pretty much everything, and would suit your goal of making the game playable on any system.  There are emulators for numerous OS's which include but are not limited to windows, Linux, Mac OSX, Windows Mobile, Palm OS 5, symbian, and ipod.  I'm sorry to say, but as far as I know there is no NES emulator for palm OS 4.  I know nothing about programing, but I think this site that I found on google would be useful.

http://nesdev.parodius.com/

[KBF-Kapact]

Hey I really appreciate that. I actually know nothing of programming. I'm a writer, but I suppose it also might be a New Years Resolution thing. Did you have a look at my Fantasy Trek site? It's more writing than anything else right now, but I have in mind eventually a MMORPG... sort of a fan-made Star Trek Online.... using the best of Starship Creator. You know, that game was such a huge bomb you can't even find more than one or two fan sites... and those pretty much just have images. Anyway, I appreciate your reply. + karma...



Kapact

[knightstorm]

Do you have something in mind like shadowgate, but with fewer ways to die, unless you're a redshirt?

The biggest problems with starship creator as I remember them were

1) the length of time it took your ships to fly missions

2) the fact that importing pictures and character profiles in the game, one of its coolest features was needlessly complex.

3) the fact that it would not let you mix and match eras.  I would have liked to send a modernized constitution class ship to fly tng missions if the thing would let me.

[KBF-Kapact]

I actually have no idea what Shadowgate is.... but I'm thinking that it will contain two main elements... that being storytelling/rpg and combat. RPG is along the lines of those books where at the end of a chapter you have choises A or B. A and you turn to this page, and B you turn to that page. And so on, and so on, and so on.... Combat is at the moment pretty basic, simple rolls of the dice. You divide your results between offense and defense. Really, the simplest 'engine' I could think of. So far, everyone who plays is Captain of their ship or commander of their station. Now... how do I work that "If A then 1, if B then 2" into a programming code? Well, I think that you have a series of fairly simple campaigns, and a whole bunch of text written by yours truly, to cover every possible choice. That still has the potential to be pretty lame.... I'm reading about Shadow Gate on Wikipedia, and I see similarities. But this sort of "If, then" thing could take place in space, as well as on planet. One of my goals is to have a Trek game that uses a fair amount of fanon.... say from the resources of the Memory Alpha Trek wiki, to take advantage of the tremendous amount of stuff out there, canon or not. I mean, for example, in my current text "Imagination-Based" version on my blog site, I am about to pull a nasty on my Klingon Cruiser DuranQo by having it leaving Deep Space Nine when it is thrown back to the TOS era. Now sure, he's in a Vorcha Class, and he could easily carve a path home. But he's allies with the Federation. He's not naturally gonna want to put holes in saucer sections. And even running cloaked, he's still crossing the bulk of Fed territory to get home, and odds are he won't make it through without combat. So you have a story with choices to make, but sometimes combat will go into it. And hypothetically, what if a few people playing in the TOS era (which I also envision... all era's playing at the same time) happen upon my errant Vorcha? They're gonna take him on. Someone is going to lose their ship. That's what I'm doing here. And what I'll try to write as a computer program.

And yes, I don't have a problem with a Connie joining TNG ships... There is always a way to work that into the story....


Kapact