04-04-2000 03:33									#1
	Birth of the Federation Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I bought the game when it came out because it combined Star Trek and space empire building: I just couldn't resist. Besides the previews looked interesting.
I enjoy the game but there are a lot of things about it that could have been a lot better.
The positives:
- the 3-D space combat is a lot of fun.
- the diplomacy is well done. I like being able to change the tone of the message.
- the minor races.
- the interface is intuitive. The "wheel" lets you move quickly between any screen.
- it's Star Trek (for those that like the show, a game that is based on the show is in of itself a plus)

the negatives:
- the starmap sucks! Star trek is about exploring the vastness of space with all its mysteries. The main map in BotF has a grid with the stars and other objects in each square, and everything is static. The map completely reduces the vastness and beauty of space to nothing. The starmap in Imperium Galctica 2 is really good. That is the kind of map that BotF should have had. Imagine the starmap from IG2 with balckholes, wormholes, nebulas and spatial anomalies in addition to the various stars.
- too much micromanagement. the auto build function does not work well at all.

Things I would have liked to see:
- weapons of mass destruction like the Genesis device, Soran's weapon that destroys a star (from ST:Generations)
- a design workshop. It would have been cool to have the basic hull of a Galaxy class ship, for example, and be able to decide what to put in it (weapons, propulsion, defensive systems etc)
- a better starmap that captures the aweness of space.


What do you people think about the game?

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No permanent enemies, no permanent friends.

	04-04-2000 04:34									#2
	Remove this text

i have it but don't really play it much..... i find it dull maybe i did't give it a fair shake

	04-04-2000 22:40									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

My brother (who dosen't own BotF) said that he heard it was meant as a sequel (of sorts) to MoO2; how do the two compare?

	04-04-2000 22:57									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Moo2 is much better.

The fun of Moo2 is being able to design your own ships and moving up the tech tree for interesting buildings and ship techs.

BotF has no ship design, and the buildings are just factory level 1-9 and research lab level 1-9, you spend most of the game just upgrading your buildings.

	05-04-2000 05:21									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Thanks! I'll just stick with MoO2, then.

	05-04-2000 13:07									#6
	Suffering from ads?

I have to confess that I really like BOTF. I get the impression from what I've seen written online that it's not exactly for everyone (in fact not for most). But for me it works. Not to say there aren't things I'd change if I had my way. But it isn't it like that with any game?

But before you go out and buy it keep this mind; I'm also nuts enough to actually like CTP.

	06-04-2000 01:12									#7
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

I just read that the new Star Trek TV series will be called "Birth of the Federation" It will pick up right after the movie "Star Trek: First Contact". Premiers Fall 2001

	06-04-2000 12:33									#8
	Put an end to popups!

One of BotF's failings was it's lack of ability to design your own ships. However from what I heard the developers were not permitted to allow such a feature since all ships used had to be faithful to the Star Trek universe.

	12-04-2000 03:01									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

BOTF is quite a good game once you get into it. It does have several short-comings, but most of these can be fixed by patchs (ie extra classes of ship like the Intrepid Class, or the ability to add the Furies into the game).

On the subject of the TV series, how come the always seem to represent space as being 2D? All the tactical displays are flat screens, but surely they`d have to 3D?

	12-04-2000 13:33									#10
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Paul the answer to your question is very easy. Even today with every movie studio shelling out multi-millions for movies, television shows (even hi-profile shows) are still produced on a relatively small budget (relative to the cost of producing a movie). And with having to deal with making a dozen or so shows each season the special effects for something like 3-D screens would be prohibitively expensive to design and create.

In other words, they're too dang cheap!

	13-04-2000 02:13									#11
	Increase the size of your Attachments

I always thought it was something like that ...

Hell, I`m just a nitpicker.

	14-04-2000 03:08									#12
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

about BOTF...

is it a TBS or RTS game?

i'm too old and the reflexes are gone...

no more RTS for me...

a TBS star trek game could interest me...

thanks for any info...

the3.14rt

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	14-04-2000 03:18									#13
	Remove this text

an added word or two...

i still play an older game called -ascendency- every once in awhile.

it has a GREAT star map and the ability to build ships of your own design...

anybody else still play it?

it just didn't have enough info on what you were building on your planets...

it left some things out, but still had a terrific star map, great graphics, and some mega-possibilties for improvement...

unfortunately, the company never made a sequel... more's the pity... it had potential...

the3.14rt

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	14-04-2000 04:53									#14
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I had that game. I loved the rotatable star maps. I hated that only on ship at a time in each fleet could fire. As soon as I got Master Of Orion II, I never played Ascendancy again.

	14-04-2000 13:51									#15
	Tired of ads?

goofy: BOTF is TBS
[This message has been edited by Hanibal (edited April 14, 2000).]

	14-04-2000 16:45									#16
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

thanks hanibal...

i may have to give it a try.

the3.14rt

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how can you be in two places at once
when you're not anywhere at all?
---------------------------------
We now return you to our regular programming...
a thrilling tale from yesteryear...
which is already in progress!!!

	15-04-2000 18:36									#17
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

Ascendancy ? Good game; I liked the simultaneous movement concept, much better then either TBS or RT; good diplomacy; great variation in races; exploring and expanding was fun; the techs were cool too.
But I never play it anymore.
From the moment you had an empire with some size, the micromanagent killed the game and when you had an empire to be proud on, you literally spent 99% of your time on managing your colonies. Automation sucked.
Another thing I hated were the limitations on you fleet size, you could only build a ship per system you controlled. Fleet sizes should be limited by the costs they carry for your empire (as in moo2), not by one or another silly rule.