TREKCORE > GAMING > SPECIALS > Star Trek Legacy and Tactical Assault Interview

ARTICLE: Star Trek Legacy and Tactical Assault interview with Bethesda
PUBLISHED: September 27, 2006

Thanks to Bethesda, Mad Doc, and Quicksilver.

1. ST LEGACY:  Can we have any information on the new storyline?

We can’t get too far into storyline specifics, unfortunately. I will say that we have spanned the entire Trek timeline without resorting to time travel or using Q’s omnipotent meddling. You get to see a story unfold over time, during which you play different roles in a large interstellar conflict.

2. ST LEGACY: With the story changing, is the game still being released at the same time or has it been pushed back a bit?

The change in storyline has in no way affected the release date of Legacy. This has been something in the works for some time now, and the transition was relatively seamless.

3. ST LEGACY: Are there any pre-rendered movies in the game?

Connecting storyline elements that occur outside of gameplay will be portrayed using some very cool 2D still montage cinematics that Bethesda is putting together. Very cool stylistically.

4. ST LEGACY: Will the Prometheus be in the game and will it have multi-vector attack mode?

We opted not to include the Prometheus and its MVAM. While it is an interesting ship, we don’t feel as though it fits into our story, and we chose to avoid the use of MVAM in our tactical gameplay designs.

5. ST LEGACY: Are you in contact with Perpetual Entertainment at all about putting in some sort of links between your respective games?

We have no specific links between Legacy and any titles that Perpetual is working on, other than they both take place in the same universe. And that they’re similar in their awesome-ness.

6. ST LEGACY: Is there a possibility of Star Trek Legacy appearing later on the PS3 or Nintendo Wii?

While its not part of our plan at this moment, the possibility is always open.

7. ST LEGACY: Could we get some information on the talented artists and developers working on Star Trek Legacy? We know a few names from past interviews, but what about the ones that haven't been mentioned yet?

There are a group of worthy mentions that may be familiar to Star Trek gaming fans, some of which may have been mentioned before, but I’ll recap.

Firstly we have the Mad Doctor himself, Dr. Ian Lane Davis, our Creative Director. His impressive Star Trek pedigree includes the well received Armada series. Producing and Directing the project are Parker A. Davis and Lou Catanzaro, respectively. Parker also produced the popular Star Trek: Bridge Commander title.

Leading the design crew is Ian Currie, the Canadian mastermind behind the Jagged Alliance and Wizardry titles. Chris “ChessMess” Koerner, a prominent Star Trek gaming community leader, has joined the Legacy team as a mission designer.

Directing the art team is Lou Catanzaro, who also serves as the project’s art director.
Two top Star Trek starship modelers bolster the art team: The acclaimed Rick Knox, a former member of the Trek modding community, and Pete Calabria, a Mad Doc Star Trek modeling veteran who also works with UI, textures, and effects.

The programming team is lead by Mad Doc veterans Daniel Conti and Shanti Gaudrealt, and Rise and Fall: Civilations at War lead programmer (and self proclaimed Grand Nagus) Shawn Shoemaker. Our brave QA team is lead by none other than the incomparable Eric Anderson.

Aside from these notables, the Mad Doc team is rounded out by a great mix of game industry vets, young talent, and hardcore trek fanatics (who all deserved to be mentioned in their own right, but this article would get a little too long).

8. ST LEGACY: What are some of the special weapons and new technologies specifically created for the ships in the game can we expect to see?

We’ve jettisoned the idea of creating tons of crazy special weapons and gadgets, and have instead switched our focus to doing canon weaponry and ship functions right. That is to say, we want to make sure that phasers, pulse cannons, disruptors, shields, photons, etc… look really good and accurately convey an authentic Star Trek experience. You won’t see a mega-huge pulse laser beam erupting from a dorsal turret attachment to the Enterprise in Legacy.

9. ST LEGACY: Will the XBOX 360 game owners have the option to download/buy additional ships, missions, etc through XBOX Live Marketplace?

We’re strongly considering support for this sort of content. No word yet on what we’ll be doing with it if we decide to go that route.

10. GENERAL: Is Bethesda working on other Star Trek games that haven't been publicly announced yet?

Aside from the three titles being released this fall, we have no announced plans for future Star Trek titles.

11. ST TACTICAL ASSAULT: How long has Tactical Assault been in development?

The project was created with a new engine and has been in development for about a year.

12. ST TACTICAL ASSAULT: Is there an exact release date for the game?

Currently the release date is in October. I don’t have a hard street date but I can tell you that we’re going to be final in a few days so it’s mostly a matter of duplicate time.

13. ST TACTICAL ASSAULT: It has been said there are branching missions with multiple outcomes. How many missions are there expected to be in the game and how many times would you have to replay the game to play every mission in the game?

We have 31 missions split between the two campaigns. Most of the missions have internal branches but we don’t branch between them. So you can complete all the missions in a single play through, but to get an Excellent rating in each of the missions you’ll likely need to go back and replay a few of them.

14. ST TACTICAL ASSAULT: Will you encounter the Gorn, Romulans, and Orions in the single player missions?

Yes, all of the races are encountered during the course of the single player campaigns.

15. ST TACTICAL ASSAULT: Are there any special weapons in the game or newly designed ships for the game?

Star Trek never really fleshed out the Orion ships so we had to go through and design those from scratch. In addition, the Romulans were rarely seen during that time period (other than the bird-of-prey) so we had to create a new set of Romulan ship classes.

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