Star Trek: Bridge Commander - Modded Story Playthrough

[VonFrank]

I am posting a complete playthrough of my favorite Star Trek game of all time, Bridge Commander, on Youtube. I'm splitting each game 'mission' into its own video, so I plan for there to be about 25 videos. There will be a new video every day or so.

Link:

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Initially released back in 2002, the game was ahead of its time for gameplay and still holds up as one of the best 'Capital Ship' space combat simulators ever made. The story is incredibly fun and truly feels like you are playing in a Star Trek episode, as you will see during this series. Visually though, the stock game leaves a lot to be desired by today's standards...

In come mods!

Bridge Commander has had an avid modding community for the 16 years it has been around. Many talented modders (and some passable ones such as myself ) have brought this game into the modern era with models and textures that almost match the CGI of the Star Trek TV shows. Thanks to the work of the community, we now have a game that looks and plays better than the original developers would likely have thought possible. The updated models and textures are far too many to list, and a significant portion of the scripting is my own custom work, but the actual number of non-visual mods are light in order to allow the singleplayer story to still function properly.

If you are interested in finding out more or getting some of these mods for yourself, check out Bridge Commander Central:
http://www.bc-central.net/forums/index.php/index.php

I'd love to hear your feedback and constructive criticism. I'd also love to answer any questions you may have about the game, mods, or other related info!

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I loved modding this game back in the day, just one of those Trek games that did it all right, just a pity we never got a sequel and quite annoying that with the tech we have today Trek gaming is dead, could you imagine BC2 on todays hardware, or Armada 3 or Elite Force 3....

 

[Ghost]

I would not mind checking out some of the mods that you have been using OP but I need an account in order to access that forum or download any mods.

One problem I noticed with Kobiyashi Maru was when I installed it years ago that it really unbalanced the single player campaign as missions in which for example a ship needed to be protected became much harder as the Cardassian rebalanced ships were now a lot stronger.
I also did not like that the story intro had been completely replaced.

Daedalus later on told me how to get around the problem I experienced by creating two separate BC files, leaving one original and modifying the other.

I would love to update all the graphics in the game but I am not sure about mods that modify ship capabilities.

 

[VonFrank]

I would love to update all the graphics in the game but I am not sure about mods that modify ship capabilities.

Yes, balancing the game is definitely a big chore in order to make the ships preform the way they do in the shows while also keeping the gameplay fair and fun.

It has taken me years of on-and-off tinkering with hardpoint files and mission scripts to accomplish this, because in my opinion, not modifying the ships' capabilities was simply not an option. Stock BC was a great framework for a game but it had very dull ship variety. Almost every ship had the same weapon layout and combat was very slow paced.

Adding variety to the ships and updating the visuals was all it took to make this old game shine again... But it was not an easy task by any means.

 

[Ghost]

How does it work when you bring in new ship classes such as the Steamrunner which i saw in one of your videos or any new alien ships?
In one video a Cardassian space station specifically design for BC was replaced with another model. Is that one suddenly more powerful?

Have you considered making a mod package of your own modifications for other people to download?
I would be interested.

 

[VonFrank]

How does it work when you bring in new ship classes such as the Steamrunner which i saw in one of your videos or any new alien ships?

I've added a number of additional NPC ships to various missions in order to make the environments seem more lively. Also to make battles a bit more exciting, I've increased the number of friendly and enemy vessels in certain missions.

As far as how it works, the Steamrunner in the drydock area, for example, has its own AI so that it acts as it should.

In one video a Cardassian space station specifically design for BC was replaced with another model. Is that one suddenly more powerful?

It doesn't have to be more or less powerful. If I wanted I could have changed the physical model and left the weaponry and defenses exactly the same as the stock game's station. But to adjust the weapon ports and hull systems to fit with the completely different shape of the new model, a lot of tinkering had to be done. The same goes for any ship and station in the game.

For the new Cardassian installations, I replaced the non-canon models of the Outpost and Station with the canon model of the Cardassian Monac shipyard. The Station is the full Monac base and the Outpost simply lacks the 5 docking arms. The Starbase (which is the Nor-Type station such as DS9) was left alone but given an updated model that is far more detailed and screen-accurate. And to match up with the new balance of the vessels in my modpack, the stats of these stations were buffed a bit from stock.

Have you considered making a mod package of your own modifications for other people to download?
I would be interested.

I definitely plan to do so. I have a few more little tweaks to finish off before I consider it "ready", but they are mostly minor things.

The real difficulty is how I go about wrapping it all up into one nice package that will be easy for others to install. It's been years since I've started with this so making sure I've gathered ALL modifications into the modpack will be tricky. One missing script and it will not function.

Then there's the issue of giving proper credit to all of the ship modelers who's effort has gone into this, but that's just a matter of research to see where I've dug up all of these high quality models over the years.

Glad you're taking an interest though! When I do release the pack it will definitely be posted here!

 

[Ghost]

Thanks, I really would like to give this a try.

Off topic and not towards you but about Bridge Commander in general instead, I am sad that it is so incredible difficult if not impossible to make complete new single player campaigns.

I would love to have seen some of them including one set during Kirk's five year mission, perhaps using some of the new ship models from the remastered episode such as the Gorn and the Orion vessels.
That is something I would like to have made.

 

[daedalus5]

^^^^ Agreed. The KB Mod does a sort-of-random-mission generator, but its only partially written, and you do not get any surprises/storyline.

 

[lurok]

Thanks, I really would like to give this a try.

Off topic and not towards you but about Bridge Commander in general instead, I am sad that it is so incredible difficult if not impossible to make complete new single player campaigns.

I would love to have seen some of them including one set during Kirk's five year mission, perhaps using some of the new ship models from the remastered episode such as the Gorn and the Orion vessels.
That is something I would like to have made.

It is actually possible to make entirely new single-player campaigns for any Trek era. Changing ships, bridges, characters is relatively easy if know what doing: the biggest issue is changing the story/dialogue and 'voice acting'. Though even that's now possible with text-to-voice software .

It mainly just needs a lot of scripting work, and those experienced in BC don't think it's worthwhile for what is now a great-but-26 year old game! What is more achievable in short term is single campaign classic missions. For example, this is the TwOK Kobayashi Maru in Bridge Commander:

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There's also DS9FX Xtended mod, which adds a lot of new elements to game.

 

[Ghost]

It mainly just needs a lot of scripting work, and those experienced in BC don't think it's worthwhile for what is now a great-but-26 year old game!

Twenty-six?! That must be a typo because this game came out in 2002 so it would be sixteen years old. I was already thinking "Has time passed that quickly?"

the biggest issue is changing the story/dialogue and 'voice acting'. Though even that's now possible with text-to-voice software

Just text would probably be okay as most as a lot of spoken content in fan mods tends to be average. Most VO actors in these are just not very good or they lack good recording equipment.

But getting a good writer is also a challenge.


I hope the new Star Trek Excalibur when released will be open and interesting enough for fans to make new Single Player campaigns with.

Other than the Original Series I mentioned I would love to have recreated some of the key battles of an old Marvel Star Trek comic called Telepathy War. Cardassian and Dominion forces attacking DS9 before the episode "Call to arms", a Starfleet-Klingon task force under command of the USS Enterprise E in the Gamma Quadrant being attacked twice by the Dominion with during the second time the Dominion using captured Romulan warbirds, and Alaya 2 where the Enterprise E alone had to defend the Telepath Conference taking place there against Dominion forces.

 

[VonFrank]

It is actually possible to make entirely new single-player campaigns for any Trek era. Changing ships, bridges, characters is relatively easy if know what doing: the biggest issue is changing the story/dialogue and 'voice acting'. Though even that's now possible with text-to-voice software .

It mainly just needs a lot of scripting work, and those experienced in BC don't think it's worthwhile for what is now a great-but-26 year old game! What is more achievable in short term is single campaign classic missions. For example, this is the TwOK Kobayashi Maru in Bridge Commander:

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There's also DS9FX Xtended mod, which adds a lot of new elements to game.

This is really interesting. I always thought that making an entirely new campaign was impossible, but from what you're saying it sounds like it's not. Simply very difficult and time consuming.

I wonder if it would be possible to take the story from another Trek game and convert it to BC. For example, Starfleet Command 3, which had a pretty decent story IMO. The voice acting is already done because the game has all of the sound files. It would "just" be a matter of scripting it and adding in those voice clips.

 

[lurok]

I wonder if it would be possible to take the story from another Trek game and convert it to BC. For example, Starfleet Command 3, which had a pretty decent story IMO. The voice acting is already done because the game has all of the sound files. It would "just" be a matter of scripting it and adding in those voice clips.

Absolutely. The voice files would probably need to be converted to BC compatible, then scripted via TGL file. That's a relatively easy part. Then you'd need to create and script all the visual elements, which would be most time-consuming aspect. But not impossible.