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Q & A Time with Bethesda, "Star Trek: Legacy" - Interview
Posted by: Joelteon7 on 12-07-2006 @ 10:59 - Source: Bethesda Softworks Public Relations |
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This News Item has been viewed 11157 times!
Some time ago, in a galaxy...really quite close to home, behind the curtains of the site, the staff members used the opportunity to fire off some questions about the upcoming "Legacy" title. After waiting for the results, biting our nails to see if our request had been met, I was greeted by the questions being popped into my inbox in the early hours. So, I give you just over 10 questions, by the staff, about the title. I do ask you to bear in mind though that the questions might seem old as the information at that time was greatly reduced from what we have available to us now, so if there are any odd questions, that'll tell you why! Anyhow, onwards to the questions...
Star Trek: Legacy Files
We are aware that Mad Doc and in deed Bethesda wanted to let Star Trek: Legacy be “Mod friendly”. In regards to modding then, will there be any utility used for help in modding or in using different mods? An Example is with Star Trek: Bridge Commander, where there was the “Foundation Utility”. If so, how is this used and what exactly could it do?
Mad Doc
On the PC, players will be able to mod the game. While we don’t have any plans to officially support PC Mods, we don’t think people will have too much difficulty getting the results they want.
Editor's Note- It has been clearly identified that the game uses ODF Files, which modders from the "Armada" series will know, are extremely easy to work with.
STLF
In relation to the above question, will there be any modding utilities geared towards the X-Box 360 version?
MD
There are no modding options for the Xbox 360.
STLF
Whilst there won’t be a “historical skirmish” mode, in the campaign for single player, will we see any known ships, historical events or references to these? Examples include the Xindi Conflict from “Enterprise”, the “Dominion War” or the conflict between “Species 8472” and “The Borg.”
MD
There are over 80 ships in Legacy and in Skirmish and Multiplayer, you can setup any battles you wish, including re-enactments of these historical moments with your friends over Live.
Ed - With 4 players guaranteed, you should have enough slots to be able to re-create famous skirmishes as said. Most notably, the Khan fight would be very easy to replicate
STLF
Going back to modding, has it been decided how much of the game will be moddable? Is it a simple case of adding in new ships, replacing textures or backgrounds, similar to “Armada 2”, as we are in deed aware of the ‘kinship’, or will it be more complicated than that? Could you, for example, create custom missions?
MD
We don’t officially support modding, so I can’t go into any details.
STLF
How will the different technologies in Star Trek through the timeline be handled, such as the Galaxy class’ phaser-bank charge where two beams go around the main arc, collide and fire against say the Reliant’s twin beam pulse emitters, or in Star Trek X, having “Skin shields” available or would you still have “bubble shields” or “hull plating” from Star Trek: Enterprise? Or have these details been ignored for simplicity sake?
Ed - It should be known that the game supports a global shield for one ship, so don't expect to be rotating your shields like in Bridge Commander. Personally, I don't see this as an issue, but some on the official Legacy forums have complained about it.
MD
Because of the scale and sheer volume of ships, some aspects have been streamlined. However, you will find that the technology improves over time and that each ship features an accurate portrayal in the game.
STLF
How will interstellar objects be used in Legacy? These include objects such as nebulae, asteroids, planets, stars or even Starbases.
MD
The various objects are what make up the battlefield “terrain”. Nebulas play havoc with ship systems providing certain advantages or disadvantages depending on how you look at it. Asteroids make maneuvering, targeting, and firing more challenging. Starbases are fortresses, heavy and well armed.
STLF
Many are worried that with an ever-impending release date that there are no system requirements to give out to the already strong community. Would we be able to know of these?
MD
We have released these and they can be found on Legacy’s official site startrek.bethsoft.com under the FAQ section.
Ed - Additionally, the information can be found on the "FAQ" item on the menu to the left of this.
STLF
Will models receive animations? An example would be having the phase cannons on the NX-01 class move as they track and fire at the enemy.
MD
Not all ships will have all possible animations, there are just too many. But you will find some touches such as rotating Broussard Collectors on the TOS ships.
STLF
We know that there are elements from multiple game genres and whilst some have been made clear, others are not so. Could the use of strategy, as in RTS, be made clearer as it has been hinted some use of this will be required, such as making use of the top-down-view, an element common in RTS games and indeed the two “Armada” games.
MD
Players will be able to control four ships at once; each completely independent of the others. You could for example order the Enterprise to protect an important civilian ship en route for a humanitarian mission while the Excelsior and Reliant hunt for enemies, and the Oberth is heading back for repairs. At any time you can directly take command of any ship. You can also issues orders to any ship either in the tactical view or on the command view. There are no resources to gather, but each ship is a resource and within each ship you can allocate power to various systems to alter the performance of that ship to match the current needs.
STLF
As we have been told, there are about 15 missions in the single player campaign. Whilst 15 missions may seem long, is there an estimated time for how long it would take to complete each mission? If this isn’t possible, is there a predicted game play length for a first-time run-through of the campaign that would then indicate its longitivity?
MD
It takes our professional QA department two full days to do a fast run through of the campaign. Some missions are shorter, straight up battles, while others are extensive with major tactical and strategic challenges. There are various difficulty levels adding replayability to the campaign and then there’s always Skirmish and Multiplayer modes which offer endless variety.
STLF
The Ai in “Armada”, whilst good at first, was easily beatable after enough time playing against it, even on the hardest setting and even against over-whelming odds. Will the Ai in Legacy be able to think and act upon each situation or, similarly to “Armada”, will it set-out with a pre-determined course?
MD
A lot of time has passed since Armada and you will find that the AI has improved greatly since that time. A significant effort has been made to make the AI both challenging and engaging.
STLF
We’ve been told about a “Medal system”, for achieving certain objectives, be they direct or hidden. Will there be any sort of hidden reward for collecting these, such as unlocking ships, weapons or technology for the campaign or instant action modes?
MD
For the Xbox 360 the rewards for achievements come in the form of gamer points which increase your reputations and profile on Xbox Live. These tasks generally involve successfully accomplishing some heroic feats and add an extra level of challenge for players who wish to pursue them.
...and there we go! I'd personally like to thank Bethesda PR/Mad Doc for taking their time to answer these questions (along with many others I'm sure) and for the FileFront PR guys being able to get this done. I think a bit of thanks are in order for both, don't you 
 12-08-2006 @ 20:22 - Stlegacyuniverse.com is now StLegacyAlliance.com
 12-02-2006 @ 11:51 - Star Trek Legacy UK Release Date Reportedly Changed
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The following comments are owned by the user that posted them. STLegacyFiles is not responsible for their content.
Total comments: 7 | Last comment: 12-09-2006 at 04:23
this sounds great, hope the modding community will be sucsessfull as in armada2 and Bridge commander, is there any information about the space traveling, i mean can you fly through space like in freelancer or EVE online, or do i have to load the maps and the missions?, i haven't seen such infos, would be very interessting
I believe it is mission based.
Very few games sport free roaming, and this isn't one of them.
To be perfectly honest, I'm less than impressed by that BethSoft had to say about the modding issue. We will have to see how moddable the game really is...
ah Bethesda can't support modding (the same way activision never did) because they aren't the developers of the game, they are only the publishers.. Mad Doc are the Developer's and they have p81 working for them - one of the most experienced modders in the community.. even though Mad Doc don't officially support modding they have never gone against it, in fact they have been rather good to the armada 2 community in past cases...and as we have seen over on A2Files a few months back Mad Doc were planning "a big surprise" for the modding community...some speculate new modding tools... Mad Doc are good guys, they appreciate the modding community, I'm sure that they will release a mapping utility of some kind in the months to follow if the modding community is big enough
Well, with all the complaints that are popping up in reviews across the net, I think the Legacy modding community will be twice as large as Bridge Commander's.
MLeo feels there won't be much to do for scripters, but I disagreed, and it looks like I was right. Modelers, Scripters, etc. will be busy for years.
There's already a MAX exporter for the .m3d file format that the game uses, but it hasn't been uploaded yet. It's available on http://www.maxplugins.de If any of you guys manage to DL it, please upload it to the DL section. Thanks.
It seems the exporter is not available anywhere atm, I'll keep searching for it, tho
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