Star Trek: Bridge Commander: Difference between revisions

Star Trek: Bridge Commander is a space combat simulation set in the Next Generation universe and puts you in command of your own Starfleet starship and crew. It was published by Activision and developed Totally Games in 2002.

The Story revolves around a newly promoted captain who is assigned to investigate an explosion of a star in the Maelstrom. Throughout the mystery, the player will often encounter characters from the Star Trek universe, including Captain Picard and Commander Data. The captain and his crew take command of the Galaxy-class USS Dauntless, as well as the USS Sovereign, to combat a new threat to the Federation.

Gameplay

Following in the footsteps of PC classics like Starfleet Academy and Klingon Academy, the game gives players total command of a heavy capital ship. Using a clever mouse and keyboard interface, you do not just steer the ship manually; you interact with the bridge crew to manage power routing, target subsystems, and execute tactical maneuvers. Alternative you can do everything yourself, which is the preferred way of playing the game by most players.

Development

The game's post-launch life was heavily impacted by corporate disputes. After a series of lawsuits starting in 2003 between Activision and Viacom (Paramount Pictures' parent company), Activision dropped the Star Trek license entirely. It is rumored that only 5,000 physical copies of the game were ever produced before production permanently ceased.

Legacy

From the beginn the game had a massive modding community. Over the years, modders have built heavily upon the game's foundation to introduce massive content overhauls, adding hundreds of new starships, updated graphics, and entirely new playable factions.

These days

Finding a game copy used to be a nightmare on the second-hand marketplaces. Thankfully, that changed in 2021 when the game was officially re-released on GOG. Even better, the digital GOG release is fully multiplayer compatible with the original CD version.

Multiplayer

Because the official GameSpy master servers shut down years ago, the community had to find alterantive ways to play multiplayer rounds together

OpenSpy: The community established a master server replacement using OpenSpy, which completely restores the standard in-game server browser.
Direct IP: If you know the specific IP address of the host server, you can connect to it directly via the multiplayer menu.
Virtual LAN: Because the game supports classic LAN mode, you can easily simulate a local network using a VPN client like Radmin or ZeroTier.

Widescreen Support

The vanilla game was built for standard 4:3 CRT monitors. Widescreen support can be added by downloading community-made fix files, but resolutions are strictly capped at 1080p. Attempting to force higher modern resolutions (like 1440p or 4K) will cause the engine to immediately crash.

Trivia

If you repeatedly talk to Chief Engineer Brex on the bridge, he will eventually snap and respond with, "Damn it Jim, I'm an engineer, not a conversationalist!"—a classic nod to Dr. Leonard McCoy.
When the Sovereign leaves the Starbase for the first time, Commander Larsen orders, "One-quarter impulse power." This is a direct reference to Captain Kirk, who famously received a reprimand from Valeris for the exact same order in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 The Story revolves around a newly promoted captain who is assigned to investigate an explosion of a star in the Maelstrom. Throughout the mystery, the player will often encounter characters from the Star Trek universe, including Captain Picard and Commander Data. The captain and his crew take command of the Galaxy-class USS Dauntless, as well as the USS Sovereign, to combat a new threat to the Federation.
-==Where can I get it?==
+== Gameplay ==
-After a series of lawsuits, started in 2003, between Activision and Viacom, Paramount Pictures' parent company, Activison dropped the license to produce games based on the Star Trek universe. If you believe rumours, they only released 5000 copies of the game. For a long time the only option was to get the game on a market place, but since 2021 the game was re-released on [https://www.gog.com/en/game/star_trek_bridge_commander GOG]. This version is compatible with the CD version.
+Following in the footsteps of PC classics like Starfleet Academy and Klingon Academy, the game gives players total command of a heavy capital ship. Using a clever mouse and keyboard interface, you do not just steer the ship manually; you interact with the bridge crew to manage power routing, target subsystems, and execute tactical maneuvers. Alternative you can do everything yourself, which is the preferred way of playing the game by most players.
-==Multiplayer after 2014?==
+== Development ==
-Since the shutdown of all the Gamespy servers, it's no longer possible to play the multiplayer mode without some help. Thankfully, Bridge Commander supports LAN mode you can play it via a VPN-Client like Radmin or ZeroTier, alternativ  if you know the IP adress of the host, by connecting direct to the adress.
+The game's post-launch life was heavily impacted by corporate disputes. After a series of lawsuits starting in 2003 between Activision and Viacom (Paramount Pictures' parent company), Activision dropped the Star Trek license entirely. It is rumored that only 5,000 physical copies of the game were ever produced before production permanently ceased.
-== Issues with the Game? ==
+== Legacy ==
+From the beginn the game had a massive modding community. Over the years, modders have built heavily upon the game's foundation to introduce massive content overhauls, adding hundreds of new starships, updated graphics, and entirely new playable factions.
-=== How to improve the ingame performance? ===
+== These days ==
-Get a little bit more out of the game, run your STBC.exe in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and with disabled fullscreen optimizations.
+Finding a game copy used to be a nightmare on the second-hand marketplaces. Thankfully, that changed in 2021 when the game was officially re-released on GOG. Even better, the digital GOG release is fully multiplayer compatible with the original CD version.
-=== Can I play the unmodded game in Widescreen? ===
+=== Multiplayer ===
-In your BC folder you can find a file called config.cfg, which you edit to the following values:
+Because the official GameSpy master servers shut down years ago, the community had to find alterantive ways to play multiplayer rounds together
- [Graphics Options]
+* OpenSpy: The community established a master server replacement using OpenSpy, which completely restores the standard in-game server browser.
- Texture Detail|2
+* Direct IP: If you know the specific IP address of the host server, you can connect to it directly via the multiplayer menu.
- Number of Lights|8
+* Virtual LAN: Because the game supports classic LAN mode, you can easily simulate a local network using a VPN client like Radmin or ZeroTier.
- MipMaps|1
- Display Depth|16
- Display Height|1080
- LOD Skip|0
- Visible Damage|3
- Display Device=Direct3D T&L HAL on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 6GB
- Display Width|1920
- Fullscreen Mode|1
- Effect Detail|3
-Save it and go to your scripts/tactical/interface folder. There you open the WeaponsDisplay.py file and add this:
- dTORP_X_BIAS      = {
+=== Widescreen Support ===
-:   1,
+The vanilla game was built for standard 4:3 CRT monitors. Widescreen support can be added by downloading community-made fix files, but resolutions are strictly capped at 1080p. Attempting to force higher modern resolutions (like 1440p or 4K) will cause the engine to immediately crash.
-:   1,
-:   2,
-:   3,
-:   3,
-:   3,
- <em>1920:   3</em>
-                  }
- dTORP_Y_BIAS      = {
-:   -7,
-:   -7,
-:   -7,
-:   -7,
-:   -7,
-:   -7,
- <em>1920:   -7</em>
-                  }
- dPHASER_X_BIAS      = {
-:   1,
-:   1,
-:   2,
-:   3,
-:   3,
-:   3,
- <em>1920:   3</em>
-                  }
- dPHASER_Y_BIAS      = {
-:   -8,
-:   -8,
-:   -8,
-:   -8,
-:   -8,
-:   -8,
- <em>1920:   -8</em>
-                   }
-Save that and next go to your scripts/icons folder, open their the LCARS_640.py and edit the following lines:
- Screen_Pixel_Width =  xxxx to SCREEN_PIXEL_WIDTH      = 1920.0
- Screen_Pixel_height = xxxx to SCREEN_PIXEL_HEIGHT      =  1080.0
- Power_Gauge_Width = xxxx to POWER_GAUGE_WIDTH = 53.0 / 1920.0
- Power_Gauge_Height = xxxx to POWER_GAUGE_HEIGHT = 125.0 / 1080.0
-Save a final time and try to run Bridge Commander in Widescreen :)
-==What is the best mod?==
-Koayashi Maru is in the BC community considered to be the best mod available on the internet. It includes features like new ships, systems, scripts, weapons most of them are usable in Multiplayer. The mod also makes it possible to play with bots in Multiplayer.
 == Trivia ==
-If you often talk to Brex, he will respond with "Damn it Jim, I'm an engineer, not a conversationalist!" a innuendo to Dr. Leonard McCoy.
+* If you repeatedly talk to Chief Engineer Brex on the bridge, he will eventually snap and respond with, "Damn it Jim, I'm an engineer, not a conversationalist!"—a classic nod to Dr. Leonard McCoy.
+* When the Sovereign leaves the Starbase for the first time, Commander Larsen orders, "One-quarter impulse power." This is a direct reference to Captain Kirk, who famously received a reprimand from Valeris for the exact same order in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
-The first time the ''Sovereign'' leaves the Starbase Commander Larsen says: "One-quarter impulse power" a reference to Captain Kirk, who will get a reprehend from Valeris,