Starfleet Command Community Edition beta

[eyebiter]

For those that remember the Taldren Star Fleet Command series of games.  Dynaverse.net has a new beta version of SFC designed to work with Windows 7. 
Uses your SFC2: Empires at War key to activate.

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163392808.0.html

Scroll down to post #15 for the download links

[Deadskin]

sweet, thanks for the news. Been wanting to play SFC for awhile now, too bad activision ruined the last one.

[Nefaro]

Very cool.

Now I'll have to dig around to find my SFC2 case with the serial on it..  :o

[Tpek]

What of those of us who don't own SFC and are looking for a modern remake? :P

[Nefaro]

What of those of us who don't own SFC and are looking for a modern remake? :P

Good luck.  :P

I have to attempt getting my fix with STO and it's starship combat isn't near as good since it uses the usual MMO concept of firing off skills with cooldowns instead of SFC's maneuver & timing focus.   Sure it still has that to some extent, but STO's focus is on punching the same 'ole MMO buttons on the ability bar.    I'm glad they're still working on Taldren's old stuff.

Starpoint Gemini tried to recreate SFC's combat, but it didn't quite feel as solid either through the damage model, weapons, and just because it wasn't familiar Star Trek ships.

There's a link in that beta post (the one with the download info) to where you can buy a game key for SFC2:EAW (I don't know if you get a game download or what, too - the Community beta doesn't have all the single-player missions in it). 

[WallysWorld]

Reviving a very old thread here, but someone wake up me because I thought I was dreaming.

A patch was released back in April for SF2:CE that allows higher resolutions: SFC2:CE patches

"It updates your Starfleet2CE.exe, sprites.q3, shiplist.txt, and strings.txt.
Why? To fix some gameplay and visual bugs, to enable High Definition resolutions, and to permit extensive modding of weapon and system specs via the included SFC_Editor. The Q3_Editor permits you to modify any bitmap in the game's UI and to rearrange hardpoints. Of course you can play without using any of the modding tools. It's significantly better than the official 2.670. Scout clutter has been removed from the shiplist, and all ships now get a full supply of admin shuttles.
-HD resolutions are chosen through the sfc.ini file ([3D] lowres=0 thru 6; try 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 with windowed=0 or 1 to find the combination that works best for you)"


I made a copy of my SF2:CE folder before I ran the 2.677 patch. Then I modified the sfc.ini file in the home folder and changed the lowres variable from 3 to 6. Started the game and the battle screen actually came up as widescreen and not stretched as far as I can see. 1920x1080 on my monitor. The menus are still in 4:3 format.

There is also a newer 2.679 patch that can be applied AFTER the 2.677 patch is. I would definitely make a copy of your game folder before applying any of these patches.

More info on settings: Dynaverse forum thread on new patches

[Nefaro]

The SFC2: Orion Pirates HD patch is also located here:

http://www.hotandspicyforums.com/sfcop-hd-gamespy-patch-t18934.html

To set a new resolution, open your SFC.INI file, and change it accordingly to the list below:

[3D]
lowres=?

0 = 800 x 600
1 = 640 x 480
2 = 1280 x 800
3 = 1366 x 768
4 = 1440 x 900
5 = 1600 x 900
6 = 1920 x 1080

[Nefaro]

Also, for those who have missed where to buy digital copies of both games in other threads here, these are the links:



http://www.dynaverse.net/market/2-star-trek-starfleet-command-2-community-edition.html

http://www.dynaverse.net/market/5-star-trek-starfleet-command-orion-pirates.html



IIRC they come as an ISO image, but I just used 7-Zip (freeware) to extract all the files from the compressed image into their own folder and installed from those.

[WallysWorld]

Change this variable in the sfc.ini file to 0 for clearer graphics. At least that's what it did for me.

wireframe=0    It was set to 1 before the patch.

[FlickJax]

Also, for those who have missed where to buy digital copies of both games in other threads here, these are the links:



http://www.dynaverse.net/market/2-star-trek-starfleet-command-2-community-edition.html

http://www.dynaverse.net/market/5-star-trek-starfleet-command-orion-pirates.html



IIRC they come as an ISO image, but I just used 7-Zip (freeware) to extract all the files from the compressed image into their own folder and installed from those.

I had all the base games in the past, none at mo.

Which is best of the above?

[Dammit Carl!]

Personally, I liked Orion Pirates as you get the aforementioned pirates to play as factions as well as the other nationalities too.

This game (Starfleet Command), was the first game that made me purposely upgrade a computer for the sake of making it "prettier," to see and play - 2 Voodoo 2 cards linked together did the trick nicely.

There is also out there somewhere a mod that replaces the ship models in the game with their Starfleet Battles' counterparts, but damned if I know where I come across it.  Find it, install it, and giggle like a kid again as your beautiful, round warp nacelled Federation ships sail around the map kicking ass*.

* = actually, Romulans plasma torpedoed the ever living shit out of my squadron and we ran like hell, but you get the idea.

[Nefaro]

I had all the base games in the past, none at mo.

Which is best of the above?

Orion Pirates.  It was the latest version, with slightly newer DirectX version (back in the day). 

In my experience, the Empires At War Community Edition has had the occasional game-stopping bug.  I've had it freeze/crash a couple times due to some of the custom missions, in the dynaverse campaign, being bugged.  Haven't checked whether they've fixed those in EAW CE since I'd switched to doing Orion Pirates. 



Saw mention that the CE has some working(?) multi-player capability, due to the added modding.  But for single-player, OP seems to be a bit better choice.  The downloadable user-created missions for EAW also reportedly work in OP, if you want more mission variety during the campaign (they are generally randomized from a list of them).

[WallysWorld]

I just bought Orion Pirates based upon the comments here so many thanks for that.

The HD patches have really motivated me to play these old SFC games. The battles look really great now in widescreen.

[DoctorQuest]

All the OP patch does for me is break my game.

later: never mind. Needed to use the "windows 10" fix. (compat mode: set colors to 256.)

[FlickJax]

bought sfcop but cant seem to install in windows 10, windows automatically mounts the ISO but both auto run and set up will not install game, just seems to stop.