TREKCORE > GAMING > STARFLEET COMMAND III > INTERVIEWS > Interview

ORIGINAL PUBLISHER: Australian Game Zone (no longer exists)
SUBMITTED BY: Adam (interviewer)
PUBLISHED DATE: June 11, 2002

This is an interview with Erik Bethke (CEO & Co-Founder of Taldren) and the Associate Producer of Starfleet Command 3, Mark Pfeiffer.

Q. What (if any) changes to the Orion Pirates engine are being planned to bring the series from the Original Series to the Next Generation era?

Erik Bethke: The changes we have planned for TNG are quite exciting. The graphic game engine has been totally re-written from the ground up around direct x 8.1 technologies and promises an unsurpassed visual leap forward in the SFC series. We have specularity, luminosity, engine glows, localized damage, particles, and many new special effects.

Q. Will there be any major interface changes that would bring the interfaces' feel to that of the Next Generation Universe?

Mark Pfeiffer: The TNG interface has been completely reworked from the bottom up. The SFC series has always been renowned for its tactical depth; a side effect of this depth was a sometimes-challenging learning curve for new players. We have managed to keep all of the tactical depth while streamlining the interface in major ways. Most menus are now only one layer deep allowing much easier access and the system is much more intuitive with its extensive use of icons. New fans of the series should find it much more accessible while old hands will enjoy a much refined experience.

Q. How (apart from the obvious change of eras) will the game differ from the originals?

Erik Bethke: We have a number of improvements that we think are quite exciting. The biggest one that I find personally exciting is the ability to fully customize ship load outs. The player can now build their ship from the bottom up choosing hull type, warp engine, shielding, weapons, sensors et al. for there own ship to get the ultimate in custom experiences. We have also gone overboard on the officers for your ship: You have six different officers; Security, Medical, Engineer, Tactical, Helm, Science. Each of these officer have names (you can re-name them) and each of them has their own stats like intelligence and toughness. The intelligence stat governs who quickly the officer will learn his sub-skills (each officer has 18 sub-skills). It is up to you which stations to assign your officers. The toughness comes into play for each officer has their own hit-points and may be injured or even worse - killed in action. The frailty of your officers provides a whole new compelling sub-game to grow your officers and to decide how much to press a tactical situation in the missions you face. - In other words is rescuing that planet worth your Legendary Science officer?

Q. What are the expected minimum specifications of the game? What screen resolutions are expected to be supported? Will the full abilities of the GeForce 3 & 4 cards be accessible?

Mark Pfeiffer: The minimum specs have not been pinned down yet. The default minimum resolution will be 1024/800. The SFC3 engine will take advantage of hardware capabilities of video cards in ways never seen before in the previous series, and as such we have dropped support for software 3D with TNG to be able to take full advantage of the 3D cards. It would be safe to assume that a PIII 500 Mhz or better would be comfortable with SFC3.

Q. Will Voodoo cards be supported? (Many games are coming out now without Voodoo support)

Mark Pfeiffer: No.

Q. What Multiplayer modes will be included in the game?

Mark Pfeiffer: Players will be able to engage in quick skirmishes via Gamespy or partake in an ongoing campaign in the online Dynaverse3. D3 has been revamped and now has meta-missions we call goals that link multiple missions together based on the player's situation.

Q. What race match-ups do you expect to include now that you have access to the complete TNG races? Eg. Federation + Klingon Vs Cardassian + Dominion etc.

Mark Pfeiffer: Romulans, Klingons and Feds will all have playable single player campaigns with the Borg entering the fray in multiplayer. A few more will make their wishes known.

Q. In stating that the game in based in the TNG-era, will this will include Deep Space 9 & Voyager?

Mark Pfeiffer: We did not have access to some elements from those eras at the beginning of the project, so the flavour of the game is TNG.

Q. When in the TNG timeline are you basing Starfleet Command 3? (Early TNG / Late TNG & Early DS9 / End of TNG w/ DS9 + Voy)

Mark Pfeiffer: End of TNG w/ DS9 + Voy.

Q. What ship types can we expect to see in the game? Will we be able to use Defiant / Intrepid & Sovereign-class ships? What about the Prometheus and other special ships?

Erik Bethke: The player will see all of their favourites from the show including the Galaxy class, the Sovereign, the Defiant and of course the recognizable favourites from the other races such as the Bird of Prey and Warbird. There are dozens of new ship models for SFC3. Also we have gone well out of our way to make the game very user-extensible, so that the fan modellers will be able to not only create new models as they have in the past, but also easily create new UI art that will show up in the Vessel Library, Ship Refit and the in-game tactical UI.

Q. Will the Dominion or Borg be featuring in the game? Any plans on a future expansion pack to encompass these guys? Is there any "room" to make the Borg a randomly appearing enemy (as in Birth of the Federation)?

Mark Pfeiffer: The Borg are definitely in the game. They are fully playable online against your friends and can also be played in the ongoing campaign of Dynaverse 3.

Q. Will Starbases be able to get involved in battles more? Are there any plans on using the Nor-class space stations in the game for either the Cardassians or for the Federation's DS9?

Erik Bethke : The TNG era battle stations are deadlier than ever and can have quite an impact on any battles near them. We have starbases, listening posts, asteroid bases, we got yer bases covered.

Q. Federation Fighters (as mentioned in the DS9 series) seemed to be an integral part of their attack fleet. will the fighters still be as integral as they were in Starfleet Command 2 (even though we only saw them in DS9 and haven't seen them since). Also, if they are to be included, what ships would be able to house them?

Mark Pfeiffer: We don't have any fighters planned at this time.

Erik Bethke : But shuttles are pretty darn mean.

Q. Are you able to give any storyline info away? If so, what can you tell us?

Mark Pfeiffer: I am afraid the storyline is still being closely held under wraps but I can say that there are possible tie-ins with the upcoming Star Trek X movie.

Q. Will there be any storyline tie-ins to encompass previous SFC episodes? Who is writing the story for the game?

Erik Bethke: I worked closely with Activision, specifically Dan Hagerty, to develop the single-player story campaign, at the start of the project we had some consulting by Scott Bennie and John Boomershine. Taldren and Activision collaborated to create the story-arc, then I wrote the missions, and then Activision came along and revised the text and mission events to their considerable high level of standards.

Q. Any Trek veterans giving voice samples for Starfleet Command 3?

Erik Bethke: Yes, and a high-profile one at that.

Q. How are you addressing balancing issues between the races? (eg. Galaxy / Galor / Warbird- A being fairly equivalent)

Mark Pfeiffer: TNG is undergoing serious balance testing as I write this and I suspect the level of balance and challenge to be the best yet in the series.

Q. Will the play-map fairly accurately reflect the state of affairs in the Alpha & Beta quadrants at around the TNG era? IE. Will everyone's territory positions be "Cannon"-Trek or will you adjust this to suit the game?

Mark Pfeiffer: The territory positions are definitely based on trek cannon but we have had to make room for the assimilated systems of the Borg on the Dynaverse 3 side of things. (Mu HA HA HA)

Q. Will the TNG established ship-sizes be used "religiously" eg. Warbird being almost twice as large as a Galaxy-class starship.

Mark Pfeiffer: We had spent quite a bit of time making sure the scales look correct.

Q. Will there be more map objects (besides planets) to interact with in battle (like in Star Trek Armada with the Nebulas)

Mark Pfeiffer: We have introduced full volumetric 3D nebulas for this installation of the series. Our stars have 'living' coronas and planets have visible atmospheres, the game looks great!

A HUGE thanks to Erik & Mark from Taldren for completing this interview for us, considering their busy schedule! I can't wait to see this game when it comes out!!!