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[Virex]

If Paramount hasn't actually granted them a formal "permit & proceed", then they are complete idiots for thinking that they are safe.  Even bigger idiots than if they hadn't heard about that project at all.  Until they have it in writing, I consider their project to be as good as cancelled.

Mind you, if they DO have formal permission, then they win at everything.

Permit and proceed letters aren't official or binding. The next time management switches, they may find the "go" they received is worth as much as the word of any CEO...

[Fayrik]

It's true. But for once, we could actually just hope this works out.
I mean, this is quite possibly the best thing to happen to Star Trek in at least the last five years, if not more.

Also, does anyone actually know what the rough player figures for Star Trek Online are? It seems like a game that you're either not enough of a Star Trek fan to be into it, or you're too much of a Star Trek fan and feel it's not Star-Trek-ish enough to bear the name.

[nuker w]

Looks niiiice. Just hope it doesn't flop, eh.

[Mech#4]

Huh, I thought I'd discovered something interesting. Trust people here to have found out about it 3-4 years previous.


ANYWAY. This is still going, and seems to be making some good headway. From what I've read they're planning on releasing a Quick Battle mode as a demo of the game where you choose your ship and those you'll fight against.

As a primer. Star Trek: Excalibur is a fan made game focused on creating the Star Trek universe as a sandbox. Players will be able to command their ships from the bridge, giving orders to their crew, walk around the inside of their ship, as well as interact with the other factions in a way that seems similar to X3: Albion Prelude (That is factions will expand, interact with and trade with each other, produce ships and go to war).

Neat aspects of the design to me are the aforementioned walking around inside your ship, combat will be more about disabling subsystems rather than destroying outright (I think they're desire was for battles to not always end with the death of your opponent like in Star Trek Online where enemy ships are really just that), and the planned high moddability of the engine allowing future mods to change the universe to other settings, like Star Wars.

They've got a number of screenshots on their forums, but maybe they don't show up unless you've got an account because I've seen a number of posts talking about screenshots that I couldn't actually see.

[Duuvian]

Looks pretty neat.

[Sirus]

Huh, I thought I'd discovered something interesting. Trust people here to have found out about it 3-4 years previous.


ANYWAY. This is still going, and seems to be making some good headway. From what I've read they're planning on releasing a Quick Battle mode as a demo of the game where you choose your ship and those you'll fight against.

As a primer. Star Trek: Excalibur is a fan made game focused on creating the Star Trek universe as a sandbox. Players will be able to command their ships from the bridge, giving orders to their crew, walk around the inside of their ship, as well as interact with the other factions in a way that seems similar to X3: Albion Prelude (That is factions will expand, interact with and trade with each other, produce ships and go to war).

Neat aspects of the design to me are the aforementioned walking around inside your ship, combat will be more about disabling subsystems rather than destroying outright (I think they're desire was for battles to not always end with the death of your opponent like in Star Trek Online where enemy ships are really just that), and the planned high moddability of the engine allowing future mods to change the universe to other settings, like Star Wars.

They've got a number of screenshots on their forums, but maybe they don't show up unless you've got an account because I've seen a number of posts talking about screenshots that I couldn't actually see.

Holy necro, Batman!

Not that I'm complaining mind, this looks pretty neat. Shame that the quick battle doesn't work yet (or if it does, I'm just getting a blank page).

[Mech#4]

I believe the page on their website is a progress tracker, showing about 40% done at the moment for the quick battle.

I think there is actually something people can play around with. It's a in game model viewer where you can fly some of the ships and fire weapons and so on.

Here's a link to the model viewer on their IndieDB page. I think I read something about the older version having more, but older, ship models in it and being able to import them into the more recent release of the model viewer but I wouldn't know how to do that.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

Will there be a sandbox? Or just instanced battles?

[Mech#4]

From their notes, the main scope of the game will be an open sandbox like X3: Albion Prelude and the like. Fights will take place within the area you're in and won't be instanced.

Maybe X3 isn't a good example as I believe that has zones. What the developers are planning is to have an open universe with no zones or instances. Flying between areas will involve plotting the course and using the warp drive to travel the large distance. I think one focus of their design is to give different mechanics to the player but not restrict their usage, but let the restrictions come about through the interacting mechanics.

Spoiler: An extended explaination (click to show/hide)

Take the Warp Drive. Usage of it won't be restricted, so you can use it in and out of combat, as often and whenever you want. However, the plans they have means that the warp drive will overheat as it is used, and if used too much will cause damage to the drive and possibly other parts of the ship. Parts of the ship interact with each other, so a damage generator would effect things attached to that like engines, weapons, transporters, holodecks and whatever else.

The quick battle demo I would guess will take place in a limited space, where beforehand you selected the ship you wish to fly and your opponents ship(s). The full release will be an open sandbox.

[jocan2003]

A game with that scope has a high chance of becoming a vaporware in a few year, hell after 4 year they dont even have a battle demo.... Idlike to play a game like that before i retire in 30 year...

[Neonivek]

Even if whoever owns the rights to star trek tries to shut them down there's not much that can be done to stop this, swap a few letters here, change some names, and hopefully we will have a game that is teh epic winzorz.

Well they should be shut down. Who wants a game that simulates being a captain of a starship in an accurate representation of the show? Barf, that was just what people watched to get to the good stuff.

No clearly what people want from Star Trek are more shooters and dog fights. I wish there was an episode where Kirk just gets a big gun and mows down entire armies, but I'll just have to settle for the excellent FPS to give me that honest experience to the startrek franchise.

It is glad to know that Triple A developers have our backs over these pathetic indie developers who clearly don't even know their own audience.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

I think it should include Kirk seducing alien chicks, minigame for figuring out how exactly to score with a girl who has alien girlparts, engineers scampering around looking for that one blown EPS relay, the head engineer standing next to the warp core visibly straining to get more speed out of it, the bridge rocking and lights flickering when the ship takes a good hit, randomized planets with weird crap going on and it's always the captain and a bunch of redshirts beaming down, etc. I could blow through a few hundred pages of design doc before we even got to ship combat.

[Duuvian]

Sparks flying out of a flickering console that sends some unknown bridge officer jumping sideways to lay on the ground until the Chief Doctor appears.

[Kaje]

Even if whoever owns the rights to star trek tries to shut them down there's not much that can be done to stop this, swap a few letters here, change some names, and hopefully we will have a game that is teh epic winzorz.

Well they should be shut down. Who wants a game that simulates being a captain of a starship in an accurate representation of the show? Barf, that was just what people watched to get to the good stuff.

No clearly what people want from Star Trek are more shooters and dog fights. I wish there was an episode where Kirk just gets a big gun and mows down entire armies, but I'll just have to settle for the excellent FPS to give me that honest experience to the startrek franchise.

It is glad to know that Triple A developers have our backs over these pathetic indie developers who clearly don't even know their own audience.

I must admit, I had to read that a couple of times before the sarcasm came through!