I still do sometimes, usually I have the most success playing as Ferengi or Federation. For some reason I am rubbish at playing as Klingon, and not exactly brilliant as either Cardassian or Romulan.
Anyone still play Birth of the Federation?
- Thread starter HelenofBorg
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Oops, should this have been posted to trek gaming instead? Sorry mods, you might want to move my thread if this was the wrong place. I only just realized that there was a specific forum for star trek games.
This was always a favourite game of mine, I don't have a lot of time for it anymore but I still enjoy it. I used to play as the Romulans as their people seemed to forgive you whatever you did, war or peace, and their ships were very powerful and had cloaks. I played Federation a fair bit too but it always annoyed me how shitty your people got if you did certain things (declare war, bomb planets, etc). Get in line, minions.
Haven't played it in a long time. I had a copy on an older machine that I use to have. Had lots of fun playing that game. Now, I play other space 4X games. Pity that fan made sequel never happened.
I still have this one and probably will play it again at some point. The last time I pulled it out must be a couple of years ago by now, though.
I've played all the different races quite a bit, but I usually wind up going for the Romulans. I think the Romulans and the Ferengi are definitely the easiest races to play. The Ferengi have a weaker military, but it's not too bad, and their economic/diplomatic advantage with the trade routes is massive. The Romulans are the only real Jack of all Trades option who aren't super amazing at anything but also aren't at all bad at anything, and they get the cloaking devices to boot so you never have to lose a ship to an unavoidable battle.
By comparison, the Federation diplomatic advantage is ok, not great, and their scientific advantage only matters in a *really* long game (but I do love the Heavy Escorts when a game lasts long enough to bring them out). Meanwhile, their 'morality' outlook is incredibly frustrating. I remember one game where one of the minor races (I think Talarians, but I'm not sure) who I had done absolutely nothing to just kept attacking me out of nowhere. Their ships would be destroyed in self-defense and I would immediately ask for a peace treaty and still everyone was constantly whining about the 'war'. After like the fifth time they unilaterally declared war for no reason, I captured the planet and put a stop to it, and people rioted in response. It was utterly ridiculous.
Then there's the Cardassians who basically feel like the game's built-in 'hard mode'. Not really great at anything and also you have to start at like three steps lower down the technological chain than everyone else.
But the Klingons are unquestionably the worst option in the game. Their 'morality' stuff can be almost as bad as the Federation since they'll sometimes start rioting just because you made peace with someone. And that Dilithium deficiency is an absolute killer. If you don't get lucky enough to have at least 2/3 new dilithium rich systems near enough to colonize/conquer in the early game you're forced to spend the entire game struggling to keep any fleet in the air at all.
I've played all the different races quite a bit, but I usually wind up going for the Romulans. I think the Romulans and the Ferengi are definitely the easiest races to play. The Ferengi have a weaker military, but it's not too bad, and their economic/diplomatic advantage with the trade routes is massive. The Romulans are the only real Jack of all Trades option who aren't super amazing at anything but also aren't at all bad at anything, and they get the cloaking devices to boot so you never have to lose a ship to an unavoidable battle.
By comparison, the Federation diplomatic advantage is ok, not great, and their scientific advantage only matters in a *really* long game (but I do love the Heavy Escorts when a game lasts long enough to bring them out). Meanwhile, their 'morality' outlook is incredibly frustrating. I remember one game where one of the minor races (I think Talarians, but I'm not sure) who I had done absolutely nothing to just kept attacking me out of nowhere. Their ships would be destroyed in self-defense and I would immediately ask for a peace treaty and still everyone was constantly whining about the 'war'. After like the fifth time they unilaterally declared war for no reason, I captured the planet and put a stop to it, and people rioted in response. It was utterly ridiculous.
Then there's the Cardassians who basically feel like the game's built-in 'hard mode'. Not really great at anything and also you have to start at like three steps lower down the technological chain than everyone else.
But the Klingons are unquestionably the worst option in the game. Their 'morality' stuff can be almost as bad as the Federation since they'll sometimes start rioting just because you made peace with someone. And that Dilithium deficiency is an absolute killer. If you don't get lucky enough to have at least 2/3 new dilithium rich systems near enough to colonize/conquer in the early game you're forced to spend the entire game struggling to keep any fleet in the air at all.
I haven't played that game in maybe 15 years, but I recall the Romulans being the most fun to play as well.
The Borg were a major pain in the arse. I saw them wipe out most of the galaxy's population in several games and they strip bare the planets they conquer. I always wondered what would happen if they took on the Edo guardian at Rubicun III.
I'm pretty sure I saw that once. Hard to recall, but I think the Borg won.
I think I destroyed the Edo guardian once with a fleet of 10 Defiant-class starships, just for a lark, but I might be imagining that.
10 might be an iffy number, I think, but I generally found that 15-20 Defiants could kill just about anything with ease, including a Borg cube. Really 20 of any of the most powerful ships would usually do the job, but the Defiants had better survival rates.
The Borg could really screw you over if you hadn't invested strongly enough in researching the right areas. If they showed up too early - game over, man (or Ferengi/Romulan/Klingon/Cardassian...).
The game could do with a 20-year anniversary revival - perhaps with the option of a galaxy map more like the series and the addition of the Kazon, Founders, Doomsday weapon etc.
However, it's not really the sort of game that's likely to be in vogue again. Successors to Master of Orion 1 and 2 (on which BotF was based) were more than a bit pants anyway in my opinion. I know there are Star Trek mods to some of the galactic civ games but for some reason, I always preferred BotF (and MoO2).
The game could do with a 20-year anniversary revival - perhaps with the option of a galaxy map more like the series and the addition of the Kazon, Founders, Doomsday weapon etc.
However, it's not really the sort of game that's likely to be in vogue again. Successors to Master of Orion 1 and 2 (on which BotF was based) were more than a bit pants anyway in my opinion. I know there are Star Trek mods to some of the galactic civ games but for some reason, I always preferred BotF (and MoO2).
Maybe time to revisit it, due to this thread?
There are some great BotF mods out there, to the extent I rarely play the base game anymore. Ultimate Dominion War Mod is a personal favourite (lots of gameplay and visual mods, the Ferengi replaced with the Dominion, and the option for a fuck-off massive map), but there are also Klingon Civil War (there are two playable Klingon races of different houses), Borg Invasion (lots of cubes), and a Balance of Power mod that just tweaked the base game to make the empires more equal.
If anyone is interested, there is an All in One installer for modern systems (base game and all the stable mods) here. It's now Abandonware, so there's no piracy involved.
If anyone is interested, there is an All in One installer for modern systems (base game and all the stable mods) here. It's now Abandonware, so there's no piracy involved.
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I've never played it either. I was also an Armada / Bridge Commander guy.
I'll also move this to Trek Gaming.
I'll also move this to Trek Gaming.
I just wish that a game existed which was similar, with a much larger map, and incorporating all known races, including the delta quadrant ones. In addition to the usual playable empires, there should be Dominion, Borg, and Kazon. Instead of random events being a borg cube, it could be a prank played by Q or something like that, and the outcome of prank could be either good or bad. Just a thought.
I don't know how you have a playable Borg collective that doesn't automatically run rampant over every other species, though. Unless you're literally forced to build only one ship at a time or something.
I absolutely love Birth of the Federation! The one problem is the memory leak issue, which hadn't been fixed last time I downloaded the modern installer (or maybe I installed it wrong?). When I played when I was younger, I would usually start myself at a higher level than the enemies... I should try again and actually start on a level playing field.
One of my favourite Trek games! I played this so many times over the years, and I last fired it up earlier this year. It still somehow loads on my crappy-ass laptop.
I remember liking the Federation, Cardassians and Klingons the most when I played. I also enjoyed playing the Dominion mod with the Ferengi replaced by the Dominion.
The Borg really used to throw a spanner in the works.
I remember liking the Federation, Cardassians and Klingons the most when I played. I also enjoyed playing the Dominion mod with the Ferengi replaced by the Dominion.
The Borg really used to throw a spanner in the works.
I've not tried the mods (one day perhaps), but tended to play mostly Federation.
On one game, the Borg turned up and really wrecked things in one system, despite having a heavy fleet presence at the time.
On the other hand, in another game, I had one Defiant in system and expected things to go very badly. One short battle after, no damage to the Federation resources in place and no Borg cube.
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