Yeah and the mechanism for adjusting your phasers is in the style of "Don't Stop Talking And Nobody Explodes" co-operative minigames that border on silliness in their fiddly complexity at points as part of the fun (also a vehicle to poke fun at the goofy technobabble in Star Trek hahaha).
porthos
joined 2 years ago
11
The Last Federation is an obscure game made by Arcen, the makers of AI War. I haven't played this game yet, though I intend to try it at some point but I think the premise just absolutely SCREAMS Star Trek to me and I think if the people who own the Star Trek IP were smart they would go to Arcen and offer them a reasonable development budget to make a more polished spiritual successor to The Last Federation in the Star Trek universe and have basically a guaranteed cult hit created by a studio with a known record of creating games that are interested in mechanical nuance in an oddly similar way to the way Star Trek is interested in narrative nuance to storytelling and perspectives. (I mean have you played Tidalis?, "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Variations" is the whole shtick of that game's approach to the match-three genre!!!)
Not that Star Trek doesn't fumble the ball or tell war stories, I am talking about the trek that isn't too cheesey... (note: slices of cheese are necessary though to engage the audience, I mean in terms of taste not taste), you know.... the good trek
description from GOG
From the creators of AI War: Fleet Command comes an all-new grand strategy title with turn-based tactical combat, set in a deep simulation of an entire solar system and its billions of inhabitants. You are the last of a murdered race, determined to unify or destroy the 8 others.
As the last remaining Hydral, it is up to you to create a lasting federation of planets and usher in an era of peace and prosperity to the solar system. Bring spacefaring technology to underdeveloped societies, manipulate their economies, political systems, and diplomatic relations. Do whatever it takes to end strife in your solar system. Remember, when helping civilizations evolve, sometimes they evolve faster when a large multi-headed monster is glaring menacingly at them.
I think in particular any Star Trek game is probably going to need to lean a bit on the lore and story of Star Trek to be authentic.. but that requires potentially a lot of work and custom story writing but the translation is so obvious here that I am sure Arcen studios could look at the Star Trek universe and basically just map most of their pre-existing mechanisms in The Last Federation to their Star Trek closest equivalent and be off to the races with setting up naturally evolving dynamic stories, plausible "what ifs" in the Star Trek universe, without having to do a large amount of storywriting from scratch or feel constrained by needing to get an entire plotline and details approved by an overarching IP holder....
I just thought of another amusing synergy here, the most common complaint about The Last Federation seems to be that the actual ship combat feels a bit disjointed from the rest of the strategy game and there is a tension over whether those two radically different parts of the game cohere into a satisfying wholistic experience. Well.... a HUGE part of Star Trek is nerding out about the ships.. so no Star Trek Fan is going to say "Damn it WHY would I want to manually command all my favorite Star Trek ships in battle when I have an EMPIRE TO MANAGE" who is simultaneously the kind of nerd who will purchase a Star Trek strategy pc video game so boom there goes the biggest flaw of The Last Federation with just a bit of reframing.
After all most of the most venerable captains in Federation see the place where you can make a true difference is in actually being the captain of a Starfleet ship and going out there yourself to help people, it is part of the DNA of the show to never really want to leave the "buccaneering ship captain" part behind.
What was formerly an odd quirk that could be offputting to new players is now a clever excuse for fans to get to take command of their favorite star trek ships and blast it out in battles in between playing an empire/diplomacy strategy game that is actually authentic to the heart of Star Trek.
I mean COME ON the plot for The Last Federation is straight out of a Star Trek Voyager episode, a last-of-a-species ancient being with a badass ship, immense power, and a benign interest in stopping intergalactic war (or not?) that isn't widely known in the universe is totally within the realm of reason for Star Trek lore. There are probably a dozen characters/species that could fit that description pre-existing in the Star Trek lore ready to go.
....or you know make it a freakin' Star Trek Prodigy themed game where your ship is the U.S.S. Protostar and it features all the characters from Prodigy as the crew of your ship oh my gosh yes yes yes
sorry for a billion edits I am tired
Harry Kim, we all want you to be promoted, but it isn't productive to be upset with other Ensigns for getting promoted more than you.
I love how upset some people get about Tilly serving on a big burly masculine warship that sometimes has the serious job of killing people.
If a crew like this didn't have people like Tilly on it, it would have fallen catastrophically apart after the 10th crisis or so.
Especially in this season it so obvious how Tilly's intelligence manifests in being able to bypass entire complexes of prejudice and social norms (perceived and unconscious, spoken and unspoken) whether they be human or alien, and get right to the point with somebody. In an organization that is constantly trying to establish trust with a variety of unknown actors, Tilly is an incredible asset.
Stay angry, fools.
edit You know what is actually hilarious, TNG failed to really use Troi's empathetic mind reading in interesting ways for most of its run, to the shows great detriment, but Tilly is basically who Troi would have been if Troi hadn't been sidelined or written to be unconfident or naive for the stupidest reasons in most episodes. Tilly regularly walks into rooms and nearly instantaneously perceives the emotional context of the people in the room (whether or not she knows them that well) and boldly addresses it head on in a way that somehow isn't overbearing, aggressive or intimidating. I don't understand how this can be understood as anything but a minor superpower.
I am loving this seasons so far, does anyone know if I watch the TNG episode that this season connects too if it will spoil anything for later seasons of TNG? I am still in like season 4 or 5 as I am going through TNG, VOY and DS9 all at the same time.
Loved the first episode, I think the way they brought Book back made sense and I think the season set up connecting to an underutilized TNG episode is absolutely awesome, I could not be more down for this kind of season of Discovery. On to the second episode!
I am really gonna miss Discovery, I am not sure Doug Jones is going to miss dressing up as Saru for every shoot though.
Still though wow he really knocks it out of the park with conveying an alien with a physicality much different than ours, he has to easily be one of the best aliens in the whole series.
I really hope this is good, I am actually really excited to see how this turns out, I don’t necessarily have high expectations but also I don’t think there is any reason it has to suck so long as Georghiu isn’t let of the moral hook for being an awful, murderous leader.
Also Michelle Yeoh is great so I am excited fuck it.
Paramount doesn’t even want to write about the Utopia anymore. All of the Picard series is about corruption, greed, power, and the Federation failing on all accounts. I hate them for it. Star Trek is supposed to be a glimpse into a hopeful future, not a reflection of our current problems but with phasers added.
I think there are many valid criticisms of new trek but I really just don't see this, old star trek had the same shit
How about the fact that cars are so complicated now that working on them yourself feels next to impossible but you also have to somehow find mechanics that you trust to fix your vehicle when you really have no objective way to know if the mechanics are just bullshitting you or are actually genuinely investigating the problem, not just tossing away what you are saying with a mental note that you are clueless. Fixing a bicycle on the other hand is almost comically simple in comparison.
Also can’t forget the thrill that it only takes a second or two of distraction at the wrong moment to kill yourself and other innocent people and irrevocably send your life down a worse path. To be clear, this experience is happening when you are tired, grumpy and stressed about getting to work or getting back from work. It’s a nice little detail that we aren’t all driving boats around or something where hitting other boats requires a bunch of really stupid choices chained together, all we have to do in a car is go slightly in the wrong direction for 3 seconds and boom just murdered somebodies kid.
I have an issue in general with scifi totally ignoring the existence of bicycles, but star trek is particularly fun to think about since in so many situations beaming down in an away team with electric mountain bicycles would be incredibly useful in a basic utilitarian sense. Like shuttles, bicycles could be treated as disposable if needed, you can always replicate more right?
You also don't need to build up any infrastructure on a planet for bicycles to function as transit system for huge amounts of people. A starship could arrive into a humanitarian aid situation, quickly adjust a bicycle blueprint for whatever bipedal humanoid lived on the planet, replicate a metric sh*&ton of alien bicycles and beam them down to the planet on mass. It wouldn't require longterm maintenance, lengthy training of local aliens on how to use, or return visits to resupply complex parts. A starship could drop bicycles, spare parts and maintenance gear and then leave and the citizens of that planet would be able to benefit from that for... decades? Even more? I am sure the instruction manuals would get super long with all the alien languages though....
Even if bicycles weren't being used as tools or transportation in a far future like star trek, there is no reason humans would stop wanting to bicycle recreationally or for exercise. Also you could go on crazy mountain biking rides on the holodeck right? I can't see how people wouldn't be doing that all the time along with skiing, surfing and other sports that are scary but exhilarating. Further, I think it is likely most bipedal aliens would have discovered bicycles at some point along the development into advanced technological civilizations. It would be really weird if only humans discovered them.
TNG in particular is egregious for not having bicycles since the NCC-1701 is so cavernous that unless you always used the turbolifts you probably are going to need a bicycle to get anywhere quickly...
What do yall think? Should star trek have more bicycles?
….and before you say anything mariner is definitely ONLY lurking to better keep an eye on all the other lurkers, else she would definitely be commenting and posting.
Local should be renamed to "Starfleet" maybe?
:P
Kind of a joke but honestly it might help star trek fans who are new to the fediverse grasp onto things quicker...
Why are you yelling at everybody? Surely this has nothing to do with that super fun walk we had on that planet you DEFINITELY made sure was safe for your best bud!
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I haven't, I don't have Stellaris, but to be honest I am kind of exhausted by the theme of 4x games which always boils down to "paint the map your color".... like I don't want to, I am bored with that. I want to win but the unquestioned assumptions in the foundations of 4x games is a bit too cynical for me even though I love playing war games, but then again there is a difference between two sides blasting it out in a war and an ever growing suffocating empire that consumes all under its color and banner and has no other objective than endless growth...
Almost every 4x game is concerned with consolidating power under your control, I mean yeah it is fun right! I am not trying to bash it as inherently bad but at a certain level I find it a really constricting theme after awhile even though I love playing evil villains in fantasy as the next person. I just want more from the genre in terms of evolution of game design at a foundational level not just more stuff and more dlc and more mechanics and more different kinds of space war. If the only shape of an empire game is of an oppressive unstoppable regime either succeeding or failing to rise I just think that is pretty limited in vision. Not that there isn't an amazing diversity of strategy games that don't fit the mold that I am describing, but in general I think there is truth to my point.
For a reference of what something different can look like, see modern euro game design in board gaming, in particular I think the board game Oceans creates a compelling strategy experience that while still being about winning isn't inherently about just being the most powerful creature or presence on the board at any one moment. Mutual benefits are complex and arise spontaneously because the objective isn't complete annihilation for anybody.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232414/oceans
I guess you could argue my criticism is all a matter of perspective, any kind of winning is going to encourage more winning and snowball to some degree in a system that isn't totally random, but then again the feeling of getting near the end game of almost any 4x gets a little bit tedious for most people, not only because every single turn takes more and more admin/micromanagement of a bigger and bigger empire but also because the most common impact of winning a 4x game is that the gameboard/environment becomes more and more homogeneous and less and less dynamic the closer you get to winning. Winning should reward you with interesting choices and dynamic board states not an experience that feels like a chokehold even though winning again can always be reframed as the process of gaining a chokehold on a system.
(again, a general point, I know and love that there always exception to the rule)