Birth of the Federation discussion

[Martok]

Hmm.  Apologies for asking what might be an insultingly obvious question, but did you first uninstall any current/previous version of BOTF?  If not, you probably want to do so (and then uninstall/reinstall the new version), as that's been known to cause issues in the past. 

Nope, this is the rig I got last June...I had done that AAR on my old rig. Never did install BotF on it.

Damn.  Well I hate to say it, but you may wish to post in the AFC forums regarding your difficulties getting the game to run (depending on how great your desire is to play BOTF again).  Not that Thunderchero & co. are miracle-workers (;)), but they have been able to help the vast majority of folks who are having technical problems. 

Is there a way to speed up the game? Turn processing time for a large map is at least 30 seconds.

Unfortunately, that's because of the memory-leakage bug that was never fixed from the original game (and which modders have been unable to fix themselves, despite their most sincere efforts -- it remains BOTF's worst bug).  Even on modern computers, turn times can drag upwards of a minute or two late in a campaign.   

While there's no known solution to this bug, there are two things that can help alleviate it:  1.)  Occasionally exiting the game and restarting it.  2.)  Destroying enemy ships & outposts/starbases (part of the memory problem is related to BOTF tracking all the vessels & stations in-game, so reducing the number of them flying/sitting around helps). 

Thanks that is the mod I will try then!

Awesome.  Hope you enjoy it! 

Sweet, a Birth of the Federation thread! i guess until recently, i had just overlooked star trek games, not that i am against star trek, i enjoyed TNG and Deep Space 9, but i just didnt know what was out there for star trek strat games and so i have just bought a copy of BOTF now after seeing it on Space Game Junkie!
all those other ones look good too like Star Fleet command series!

Happy you stumbled your way across this thread then, agathosdaimon!  :) 

You can easily be forgiven for having overlooked Star Trek games, however, as it's long been generally agreed that most aren't that good anyway.  :P  Even Birth of the Federation (much as I've always personally loved it) was, in absolute terms, only a slightly-above-average game at release (if memory serves, I believe it garnered an aggregate score of 65-70%). 


Probably the biggest reason I *continue* to enjoy BOTF is because of the small, but still active, community over at ArmadaFleetCommand that has dedicated itself to the game over the years.  This is especially true not only with respect to all the great mods some of those folks have released, but also in regards to the various bug-fixes and technical improvements (such as the higher-resolution patches) that the community has delivered in the past decade as well.  (I never play the vanilla version of the game anymore.) 

Also/besides...  This is obviously highly subjective, but for me, BOTF still captures the Star Trek "feel" better than just about any other game I've played, especially as compared to other strategy games (usually with Trek-themed mods).  Even though modern 4x titles have far outpaced BOTF in terms of better mechanics, AI, gameplay, UI, and any of a half-dozen different areas, the game still holds a little of that old magic for me.  :) 

[Nefaro]

Is there a way to speed up the game? Turn processing time for a large map is at least 30 seconds.

I'm sure it also still has that memory leak nobody can get to. 


Used to drive me nuts, the slow but progressive slowdown every turn.

[agathosdaimon]

Although it seems like the perfect star trek game is yet to appear (though i hear star trek online is good , i dont like the online part of it) I have a great fondness for imperfect games in any case - i have actually gone all the way now and ordered the starfleet command and armada games too - and even Bridge Commander and Star TRek Legacy - i saw some good mods for all these games too,