Star Trek Excalibur - Upcoming PC Game

If any of you guys are a fan of Star Trek then you'll be very happy to hear about Star Trek Excalibur. It has been in the works now for a few years and although there is no concrete release date as of yet, it seems to be closer to completion. I personally can't wait for this game as I'm a huge Star Trek fan.
The guys designing this game are a lot of the best and most experienced scripters, modelers, texturers, and hard pointers from BC Files who did some of the most impressive mods on Star Trek Bridge Commander, basically reinventing it and turning it into a whole new game.

Despite being a totally free fan made indie game when it releases, it looks awesome and aims to be the best Star Trek game ever made. The game will run on the Evolved engine, one of the components of the engine is the NanoFX renderer. The game will be amazingly detailed with a wide variety of ships to use from different races spanning the TMP, TNG, DS9, VOY and post Nemesis era's. You will be able to control your ship in multiple camera views including the classic 3rd person views, an "in captain's chair" bridge view (like Bridge Commander) as well as having the ability to literally walk around parts of your ship and even beam down to planets on away missions, and much more.
The game will be so detailed that it should top efforts by even the most acclaimed professional game design companies. Below is a pre-alpha demo video of their nebula system and some ship movement. To see more about Star Trek Excalibur and it's current progress, you can visit their web site and check out their video's, screenshots and blogs below.

Note: for those of you who would like to try the game in it's pre-alpha state, you can download the NanoFX model viewer from the NanoFX website, as well as planet models and other ship models which you can manually install into the viewer and fly around. A link is posted below to the NanoFX download section. Keep in mind it's still pre-alpha and meant more as a viewer than anything, so it's not perfect it has bugs and it's missing a lot of options and content, but it's looking impressive so far.


STE Feed: Feed

STE Website: STExcalibur.com

Facebook page blog: ST Excalibur | Facebook

YouTube videos: YouTube - ExcaliburGame's Channel

NanoFX Website: NanoFX-Evolved

NanoFX Downloads: NanoFX Downloads

Star Trek Excalibur screenshot thread: Official Screenshot Thread

Interview with UFOP's The Herald Magazine: The Herald October 2010 Edition

Character model: ST Excalibur's Photos - Wall Photos | Facebook

Project Progress http://www.stexcalibur.com/forum/index.php/topic,5555.0.html

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Thank you! Star Trek fan am I from ToS on! (favorite is TNG though).

I just hope they dirty up the ships a bit. I know it's only pre-alpha, but I'm hoping these ships have battle scars!

 

hmm looks interesting. when is it supposed to be out?

 

I too am a fan of TNG, it's my fave out of all of them. As for battle scars and ship weathering, check this out.

ST Excalibur's Photos - Wall Photos | Facebook

No concrete dates as of yet, but considering how much of the game is currently completed and the overall feeling in the forums, it seems as though it's getting closer.

 

Ah yes, much better!

I dunno. I don't like sci-fi movies or shows that have spacecraft in pristine condition. I always figured space battle would have ships like the Millenium Falcon or Serenity.

 

I agree. Good damage and dirt make things realistic, and one of the many things I love about STE is it aims to be as realistic and as in depth as possible and probably will be more so than any other game before it in it's genre.

 

Updated the first post to include a pre-alpha demo link.

 

uh, where? I don't see a pre-alpha demo anywhere, not even on their site. If you mean the video, it is very important (especially for those with pacemakers) that you say the video.

 

It's in the NanoFX download link I added to the first page of this thread. You need to download the NanoFX model viewer. From there you can load an example scene with the 1701-D and a couple shuttles.

You can also download and import more ships like the Borg Cube (the original and the newer Borg Tactical Cube) as well as the Intrepid class, Constitution class, B'rel class (Klingon Bird of Prey), D'deridex class (Romulan Warbird) and more. You can also download and import planets. The ships and planets are found just below the model viewer on the same page.

EDIT: Keep in mind some of the downloadable ships are using lower resolution textures and are not indicative of the final model textures as when the game is completed the textures used will be 2048x2048, so the final product will look much better.

 

This looks good. Hope it rekindles in me the spirit that Star Trek Online put out...

 

Please stay on-topic in here, thanks. Read what's behind the link first, then ask questions . . .

 

They forgot the bottle of champagne tumbling in space Crylo

 

Yeah, where's V-ger?

 

Maybe found V-Gina and took a detour?

In seriousness, they say that they're aiming for almost similar gameplay to Bridge Commander.

Sad to say, never got into that game, so can people comment on it? My favorite Trek games was Klingon Academy, and before that Starfleet Academy. Is bridge commander close?

Really miss thoes dog fights with capital ships, running into planetary rings, nebulas and atmospheres, and warping from system to system. No Trek game has really been able to touch on what they did there, with scope and size of the game universe.

 

I liked bridge commander. The problem was they had checkpoint saves iirc, and very few and far between. So if you struggled with one hard part it was like another 20 minute trek through that hard part to get to an even harder part. Not fun. Needless to say I never finished the full game because of that.

 

I loved Bridge Commander. It was the best Star Trek game I had ever played but the checkpoint saves really hurt that game. Good news for STE is that they wont be using checkpoint saves.

STE's goal is to be a combination of Bridge Commander, Klingon Academy, and Starfleet Command. So there will be intense ship dog fighting, you can dogfight in 3rd person views or from behind the view screen on the bridge as well as other views that may be added. You can fight alone or along side any number of ships and control a fleet giving them orders during combat and stuff. During battles ship micromanagement will come into play, things like transferring power from the engines to shields to help protect yourself better or adjusting shields by strengthening them in the location that is facing your enemy etc. Sending away teams to a damaged ship to repair if they are friendly or to take over if they are enemies. There will be an out of ship game play element as well, which will require visiting planets and other ships and using tricorders and phasers etc.

The guys designing this game have played pretty much every Star Trek PC game and are hardcore enthusiasts, they want to take the best parts of all of them and splice them together with a modern graphics experience to create an ultimate space sim which is wide open to modding, like maybe adding a Vger mission, or adding Star Wars or Stargate ships just like some of the many mods there are for Bridge Commander. If you are interested I suggest checking out their forums for an idea of just how incredibly deep this game will be.

 

Yeah sounds good. I read up a little on BC and it sounds a little like KA. Also read up on this game, and their goal is worthy.

Just hoping they can pull it off, as it's no small task to create a game from the ground up. Hell, even modding communities have withered and started to die as game engines become more powerful, and set pieces need that much more work put into them.

Trek Online sounds like a medocre failure, and the last ship to ship combat game to hit was a joke.

It be nice to have an updated, persistant galaxy Trek game. Unfortunatly, it seems they have no plan for Coop or MP at this point. Personally, I'd rather that with everything else they have planned then a SP game. If they're making the engine as scriptable as they say they are, then leave the SP stories to the mod community (or the project after you get the gameplay down)

 

I know they say they have no plans for a coop or online MP but believe me, it will be there. If they don't add it, another well known modder will. They know that is an important element and that everyone wants it. I would bet my savings that MP will be available for the game at some point.

 

Wow, I really hope this game delivers as promised. Finally a good Trek game to live up to the franchise. If it weren't for Bridge Commanders checkpoint save I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but good to see that you can save anywhere (at least sounds like it). I'll have to start following this more closely.

Albeit, seems release is quite a ways off considering the level of demos and detail that has (or hasn't) been added.

 

They do have a steep hill to climb, even if it looks like they have their basic rendering engine working already.

Ugh, reading their forums is a lesson in eyerolling. Lots of wants and opinions from the fans, much of it that will never make it in or really work in gameplay. (Walking around whole ships, planet fighting, ultra realistic/miles worth power systems that need to be monitored / ect.)

Really hope the dev's aren't getting caught up in that, and are much more based in reality.

We really need another BC/KA!

 

Yeah, really, I was gonna say, sounds like Battlecruiser to me. Granted if they don't have the complete arses developing it like BC3k does, then it might turn out half-way decent.

 

Yea the designers don't really take all those suggestions seriously. I think they already had some limits set as to what they would consider for suggestions. The rest is just drivel from fans who want to see the game any way they can imagine it. I've already seen the mods respond to many of the guys there telling them that there is no way this or that is going to happen because the game will just never get done, or because it's just plain unrealistic.

What most of these guys seem to forget is that the game is designed to be modded, so things that are not in the game upon release can be added in after the fact. Things like characters, ships, systems, new missions, MP, etc.

There is a bit of a ways to go with this game, but considering the mods these guys have put out in the past, it's safe to say we can expect big things from this game, and the modding community that follows it will be epic just like it was for Bridge Commander.

 

I'll try to keep this thread updated on STE info as it's released. It'll help keep the thread alive and give more NBR users the chance to see it.

 

sounds good to me. I found a used copy of BC and installed it.

we've been waiting a while for something better huh....

Edit: Tried dling the mdl alpha viewer and it's a no go. It immediately shuts down and windows tries to find a fix. Also tried it under Vista and XP compatibility mode and no good either.

Win 7 pro 64, dx11 card and have .net 4 installed...

Thinking we have a loooong way to go with this one.

 

What's the mdl alpha viewer? Are you talking about the NanoFX model viewer? if so I have no issues running it, Windows 7 x64, Radeon 5850, 10.6 drivers.

 

weird, a reboot fixed it.

 

Cool. Glad you got the model viewer working. Have you added any new ships to it yet like the 1701 Constitution class or the Bird of Prey?

 

yup, some are looking very nice. Others, not so much.

One thing I'm finding it tough to do is build scenes. There's not anything to reference space really, and it seem the positioning stuff is very rudimentary. Also, when you try to throw in positioning info, it tends to make your ship go to impulse.



tried spawning a planet rotating at 25,000kph, doesn't like that at all and defaults to like 60. Also, camera seems really weird some times.

still, pretty robust for a "model viewer". Look 1000X better then BC. Speaking of which, do you play?

Trying to figure out what mods to install and in what order to install them. lots of cool stuff, but the mod community seems to be horrible unorganized and confusing. Hopefully the STE/NFX team makes their engine more modular and gives each mod it's own directory, ala something like a source engine mod.

 

I used to play BC a lot but I lost my CD when I was moving and haven't been able to get a good copy since. So unfortunately I'm stuck waiting for Excalibur.

I made a few mods for BC, a couple torpedoes and some hardpoint mods for the Sovereign. You can look them up under the user name Excal27 at BC files. As for big mods Kobayashi Maru is the best I had experienced, but I haven't played for a while so I'm not sure about newer ones. I'm really looking forward to doing some mods for STE.

 

Star Trek Excalibur now has a new Youtube channel showing off their "Differed lighting system" You can check it out at YouTube - ExcaliburGame's Channel

I have also added the new link to the new Youtube channel as well as the new video to the first post of this thread to keep everything together..

 

Star Trek Excalibur now has a new website up. You can check it out here and I've updated the link on the first post of this thread, the new site looks great and gives much better info about the game.

 

nice to know i've been folowing nanoFX since it's begining but it's been a long time with no update

 

Yeah I've been following it since the beginning as well, it's been hell waiting for this game for the last few years, but I suspect it won't be too much longer until it's released, maybe another year at the most. The new site will be updated regularly in the feed like once a month or so.

 

A very nice new video from the Star Trek Excalibur team showing their weapons and lighting effects.

YouTube - Excalibur | Weapon Lighting

Pretty awesome stuff!

 

Yup, looks decent but one thing strikes me as odd. The impact explosions are casting on the opposite side of the secondary hull's neck from where it is originally hit, unless the torpedo is actually ripping through to the other side (which would destroy the ship pretty quickly, I'd imagine). Some sort of godmode topedo?

Can't wait for this to come out. It makes me want to reinstall the modded BC just to get the experience again.

 

Most likely due to it just not being polished yet. I think this is just a preliminary display of the differed lighting on weapons. I'm sure it will be cleaned up and improved upon later.

 

Yup, it's just showcasing deferred lighting and how it'll be applied to weapons / how it'll cast light onto hulls. They have some clipping issues here, and self-shadows aren't working either. Hell, the explosion GFX's are placeholders ripped right from BC.

My guess is they eventually be replaced with particle systems and shader explosion FX's.


Nice to see how far the engine is, as it's half the battle. Still, I'm still worried that they'll get caught up in too much detail and will meet the fate of 95% of other projects of such scope.

They also talk of planetary landings, 1st/3rd person modes, moving through ships and having external events effect internal corridors. Even procedually generated ground terrain.

Personally, I think it's all too much and they should stick to KA/BC gameplay for their first release.

They can always patch in the other stuff down the line. And what the community is really missing is a true to life Ship/galaxy sim.

ST Online fell into the same trap, with a large dev team and publisher support.... hope these guys realize that.

 

Yeah, I'd rather have a truncated version that runs well than an uber one that crashes every ten minutes. That was the problem with the huge mods for BC, they always crashed the game at some point.

 

most mods for bc had problems because other mods rewrited some pyton scripts they needed so you had to rely on big packages like KM or DS9FX that had thoes overwriting issue corrected and even then sometime there was just so many mods that the game ended crashing because it exceded memory availible but these guys eem to know what they are doing

also an other project that might interest you guys is Infinity the Quest for Earth

 

Yeah, I think the dated game engine played a part too (as it was pushed to do far more than it was originally intended for the time).

 

yup i think they never intended to have you being able to launch fighters tell them to adopt a formation around you and chase an enemy vesel around three or four solar system the engines capacitie where stretched and Overstretched

 

Easily. And for doing some minor poking around in the stuff it looks like it was based on Starfleet and Klingon Academy code / base to boot.

They did some cool stuff, but the engine was made in 2002 and wasn't even considered a top notch engine then, let alone made for modding or TC'ing.

Love the idea of a Trek game by Trekkies for Trekkies, especially since it's supposed to be modular and mod friendly. Here's hoping that they narrow their focus a bit, and get the game out sooner. If that happens I have no doubt the mod community can provide anything they had to cut.

I really don't think we need 3rd/1st person, full ship interiors, planetary landings that lead to open world away mission maps. Just seems like too much for a small team if they have any hope of releasing anything.

stick to the space combat, and patch the rest in later. Or better yet patch in the ability later and let the mod community grow and evolve around your SP experience.

 

I agree with you TyrantII. Although having planetary landings would be great. But keep it simple, and let the mod community add to it later. Too much by too little a team will either result in failure or never be complete. Ambition is good, just don't go overboard.

 

New update from Star Trek Excalibur about the upcoming release of the NanoFX Viewer 1.6 which will show off their weapon/shield/lighting effects, and Warp effects, pre-alpha of course. Here is a video showing some of it.

I'll post a download link to the new viewer on the first page once it's available.

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The latest video looks nice.
Although I hope they know a Galaxy class should be able to handle itself against 2 BoP's and a Vorcha.
Take out the BoP's first and then pummel the larger ship.
It might imply cutting it close, but not necessarily.

 

I'll definitely try it. I'm also a huge star trek fan.

I tried Star Trek Online but it's so repetitive with no end game and the PVP queue has been broken since launch. Now they're just milking $ from their E-Store = / After 2 months of casual play, there isn't really anything else to do in that game.

DS9 was my favourite due to the multicultural diversity.

I'd say Voyageur is my least favourite since Janeway always took 5+ shots from enemy ships before she returned fire.

And of course, I never really watched the classic Star Trek ...just can't get into it.

 

But what about TNG? That was the absolute best IMHO, from the first episode where they introduced Q it was great.

 

nice update the last version of the viewer i saw being released was the 1.2a

 

Yeah, I enjoyed TNG alot. I just wish technology was more advanced in the late 80's b/c gigantic fleet battles like the one's in DS9 S5-6 (Fed/Klingons/Romulan VS Dominion/Breen) were pretty damn entertaining

Plus my favourite actors such as Garek, Quark and Gul'Dukat were some of the best performers in the ST universe.

I love Picard, but the Westley episodes were a real poison to the series in TNG.

Okay, I feel like a gigantic nerd now LOL

 

Funny.
I thought DS9 was more of a bore-fest.
Even after re-watching it I still maintain that position to this day.

Voyager is my favourite, followed by Enterprise and TNG.
DS9 can come in 4th with TOS taking up the rear (couldn't get into it too much either - though the 25th anniversary and Judgment Rites games were NICE - and so were the movies with Kirk and all).