Star Trek Excalibur - Upcoming PC Game

An interesting post from Mark over at Star Trek Excalibur.

A Point of Reference

" Excalibur was born from the Bridge Commander modding community and as such we have to start there as a point of reference for the style of gameplay we want to create. Bridge Commander’s gameplay was primarily focused on space combat and in practice the player spent most of their time playing the game in this mode because it was the best for combat. The interior view of the game was best used for cutscenes and dialogues within the single player mode but didn't offer much real playability.

Interestingly enough the first person element of Bridge Commander was originally intended to have more scope, with the player able to move between points of view on the bridge and members of the crew even getting injured during combat. I’m pleased to say that after some time the modding community managed to surpass even that by allowing the player to move around the bridge as they willed. Unfortunately even after this the interior mode of the game offered little reason to engage with it because, quite simply, there was nothing to do on the bridge that you couldn't do from the exterior view."

Making it Worthwhile

" Given that Bridge Commander’s interior mode was something of a damp squib outside of single player mode I guess it is a little surprising that we all wanted to include it again for Excalibur. We felt it brought a sense of immersion to the game that made it more than worthwhile so long as the player had a reason to engage with it. To do this effectively we simply had to think about everything that the captain had to sit it out for, particularly those occasions where the player was waiting for something to happen rather then being engaged by the game.

If your ship is seriously damaged in Bridge Commander you are quite often left drumming your fingers while the ship automatically regenerates after a battle. In Excalibur you can get your hands dirty in engineering helping out with repairs in order to get the ship operational again.

If you want to board an enemy ship in Bridge Commander you simply have to transport some men over and hope for the best. In Excalibur you could always choose to operate the transporter to get the men directly on the bridge, or even lead the boarding party yourself.

Just to be clear, our goal isn’t to make it so that you can do anything and everything on a ship but rather to let the player get involved so that you are never forced to wait around for the game to simulate something that you could be playing yourself."

Gameplay Structure

"The bridge is all-important in Excalibur, if you want to take direct command of a starship through the space view the player’s character must be on the bridge. From your bridge, whether you are in the interior or exterior view, you can issue orders to the different command staff to access the high level functionality of their stations through your user interface. If this level of detail isn’t enough for you or if there is no one at that station you can go over to the console yourself and use it directly.

A good example of this would be navigation; if you wanted to navigate to a star system you could just issue a command to the helm officer and they will lay in a course. Alternatively, if you wanted more control over the angle of your approach in order to avoid enemy sensors, you could walk over to the console and plot a course yourself.

When you leave the bridge you hand command over to your first officer or the highest ranking officer left on the bridge. From this point on you can issue your commands to them through your communicator but you will not have direct command over the ship until you return to the bridge."

 

The above post gives some good info on some of the intricacies of the game.

I really like the direction it's taking with this.

 

New STE ship update: The NX Class

"It's our final update of the year and we decided to save something special for the festive period. As the first ship to carry the name Enterprise we had to take a crack at NX01 and her sister ship Columbia. Both were made from scratch for Excalibur, originally modeled by Luiz (LC) before being textured and tweaked by Mark."

 

Engage Cloaking Device!

"Nano has been working on some great new cloaking visuals which are a real homage to the classic TNG style, with a wavy distortion passing over the ship while it is cloaking. We will be sure to get a video of this posted in when it is more complete but for now here are some preview pics."

 

Wouldn't it have been much easier to just flip the Akira model instead?

 

24th Century NX ftw!

 

Thanks for the update - looks amazing!

 

A little in game video update from the guys at Excalibur. Release date for the game is currently set for Q4.

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they turn so fake though....

 

Can't tell if trolling....

 

huh??? That was a seriously statement...it looks cool...i remember reading this a long time ago and it looks cool but they move so fake...or at least it looks like ships like that shouldn't just pivot super easily with no...er drag? Ummm where they can stop instantly in a turn...ah stop on a dim!

 

It's in space, how can they not turn like that? I think other video games "fake" space turning has ruined your perception of what is realistic or fake IMO. Also you should probably know that this game engine isn't 100% complete.

 

well i know in space you keep moving until you apply the exact amount of force in the opposite direction....so i guess federation ships can halt from a twist instantly? I figured there would have been a delay/slow down.

EDIT: btw that is a beast of a netbook lol...can the cooling handle it?

 

Inertial dampeners and reverse engines can accomplish a lot when it comes to the maneuvering aspect. But I personally didn't see it stop on a dime.

As for the netbook, all signs point to it being able to cool it fine.