Star Trek: Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates
Encyclopedia
Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates is a stand-alone expansion for the computer game Star Trek Starfleet Command II: Empires at War
designed by Erik Bethke
. The game adds eight separate playable pirate cartels based on the Orion Pirates, who had been frequently fought throughout the earlier games. It also opened up a multiplayer Dynaverse for on-line play. Players may also play via the GameSpy
Service.
In addition to these 8 which were in the original Starfleet Command II: Empires at War there are 8 Pirate cartels.
Generally speaking, the pirate ships are maneuverable and have average shields. Their ships usually don't have the engine power of other ships- for example, the Orion light cruiser might have 25 or 27 power while Empire races have 31. However, Orion ships usually don't have as many weapons to charge, and they can still be energy efficient and fast. In addition, they can double their engine power for a short time at the expense of doing damage to their engines over time.
, allowing the player to design their own ships. A backup of the original file should be kept, as modified ships cannot be used for online play, unless the other players are using the same ship file.
, the game has an average score of 80% based on 13 reviews.
IGN
gave the game a rating of 7.8 out of 10 and said, "There are twelve new campaigns here along with 26 skirmish missions. Best of all there's a simple mission creator that lets you set up the engagements you'd like to see. Twelve multiplayer missions and three bonus missions based on the "A Piece of the Action" episode are included as well." IGN said the interface for ship to ship action is "well implemented enough" and "everything is laid out reasonably well", but "there are really far too many buttons on the interface for my tastes." IGN called the AI "robust" and said damage modeling in the game is "excellent", but said some of the ship's voice acknowledgements are bland. IGN said "Sadly, there is no z-axis in the game" and said it detracts from the realism. IGN said, "the folks at Taldren...have tried to expand the promising Dynaverse II engine" but said "the system still has many of the shortcomings that plagued Empires at War." IGN noted, "Orion Pirates isn't compatible with previous versions of Starfleet Command." IGN said, "it seems a lot like just an expansion at first glance, but it's really more of a stand-alone mission pack with a few new features added." and said "the real meat of this game is the tactical combat model."
Giancarlo Varanini of GameSpot
gave the game a rating of 7.9 out of 10 and said the game "has an impressive amount of content for a stand-alone expansion." Varanini wrote, "Dynaverse II is a semipersistent universe where you can travel through the universe as any one of the races in the game, engage in battles with other players, and work your way up to getting new and more powerful ships." and said the game "includes a fully functional Dynaverse II mode out of the box, and it also contains new skirmishes, a new race, gameplay improvements, and basically all of the features of the original game." Varanini said the single-player modes "are for the most part exactly the same as those in Starfleet Command Volume II, but there have been some changes made." and noted the skirmish mode with premade scenarios such as Wrath of Khan. Varanini said "the campaign mode still suffers from a poorly designed interface." Varanini also wrote, "many of the early missions can be incredibly difficult" in the campaign mode, but said the game's best feature was "a working Dynaverse II", saying it adds a great deal of replay value to the game.
Star Trek Starfleet Command II: Empires at War
Star Trek Starfleet Command II: Empires at War is the sequel to Star Trek: Starfleet Command.This 'real-time' version of the computer game based on the in-depth Star-Trek starship combat simulation game Star Fleet Battles is the closest of the Star Trek: Starfleet Command series to the original...
designed by Erik Bethke
Erik Bethke
Erik Bethke is a computer games designer.Bethke worked on UV Spectrometer experiments under Dr. D.E. Shemanksy at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Southern California, but did not complete his PhD studies in Space Sciences....
. The game adds eight separate playable pirate cartels based on the Orion Pirates, who had been frequently fought throughout the earlier games. It also opened up a multiplayer Dynaverse for on-line play. Players may also play via the GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
Service.
Voice cast
- Corey BurtonCorey BurtonCorey Burton is an American voice actor, perhaps best known as Count Dooku, Ziro the Hutt and Cad Bane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Brainiac in the DC animated universe and Spike Witwicky and Shockwave in the Transformers universe...
- Jennifer HaleJennifer HaleJennifer Hale is a Canadian-born American actress and singer best known for her voice over work in video games like Grandia II, the Mass Effect trilogy, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Tales of Symphonia, the Metroid Prime trilogy, the Metal Gear Solid games, Brütal Legend, and Disney's...
- Maurice LaMarcheMaurice LaMarcheMaurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...
- John Mariano
- Jim MeskimenJim MeskimenJim Ross Meskimen is an American comedian and actor, perhaps best known for his work on the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and as the voice of President George W. Bush and other politicians for the internet Jib Jab animated shorts...
- Hidi Shannon
- Tara StrongTara StrongTara Lyn Strong is a Canadian actress, voice-over artist, singer, who is best known for her voice work in cartoons.-Early life and career:...
- Frank WelkerFrank WelkerFranklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
Governments and cartels
Galactic Governments:- The United Federation of PlanetsUnited Federation of PlanetsThe United Federation of Planets, also known as "The Federation" is a fictional interplanetary federal republic depicted in the Star Trek television series and motion pictures...
- The Klingon Empire
- The Romulan Star Empire
- The Gorn Confederation
- The Hydran Kingdoms
- The Interstellar Concordium
- The Lyran Star Empire
- The Mirak Star League
In addition to these 8 which were in the original Starfleet Command II: Empires at War there are 8 Pirate cartels.
- The Orion Cartel
- The Camboro Cartel
- The Crimson Shadow (The House of Korgath)
- Prime Industries
- The Tiger Heart Cartel
- The Beast Raiders
- The Syndicate
- The Wyldefire Compact
Ships
The Orion Pirate ships are very strange in comparison to the other government ships, Orion ships tend to have all kinds of different technology from all of the major governments. Because they have all the technology this makes them a very formidable enemy, and not one to be taken lightly.Generally speaking, the pirate ships are maneuverable and have average shields. Their ships usually don't have the engine power of other ships- for example, the Orion light cruiser might have 25 or 27 power while Empire races have 31. However, Orion ships usually don't have as many weapons to charge, and they can still be energy efficient and fast. In addition, they can double their engine power for a short time at the expense of doing damage to their engines over time.
Player Modifications
The Star Fleet Command:Orion Pirates data files which contain the information on the ships is actually a simple flat database file. The records are fixed length, and can be easily edited by any spreadsheet program such as OpenOffice.org CalcOpenOffice.org Calc
OpenOffice.org Calc is the spreadsheet component of the OpenOffice.org software package.Calc is similar to Microsoft Excel, with a roughly equivalent range of features. Calc is capable of opening and saving most spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel file format...
, allowing the player to design their own ships. A backup of the original file should be kept, as modified ships cannot be used for online play, unless the other players are using the same ship file.
Critical reception
On the review aggregator Game RankingsGame Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
, the game has an average score of 80% based on 13 reviews.
IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the game a rating of 7.8 out of 10 and said, "There are twelve new campaigns here along with 26 skirmish missions. Best of all there's a simple mission creator that lets you set up the engagements you'd like to see. Twelve multiplayer missions and three bonus missions based on the "A Piece of the Action" episode are included as well." IGN said the interface for ship to ship action is "well implemented enough" and "everything is laid out reasonably well", but "there are really far too many buttons on the interface for my tastes." IGN called the AI "robust" and said damage modeling in the game is "excellent", but said some of the ship's voice acknowledgements are bland. IGN said "Sadly, there is no z-axis in the game" and said it detracts from the realism. IGN said, "the folks at Taldren...have tried to expand the promising Dynaverse II engine" but said "the system still has many of the shortcomings that plagued Empires at War." IGN noted, "Orion Pirates isn't compatible with previous versions of Starfleet Command." IGN said, "it seems a lot like just an expansion at first glance, but it's really more of a stand-alone mission pack with a few new features added." and said "the real meat of this game is the tactical combat model."
Giancarlo Varanini of GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
gave the game a rating of 7.9 out of 10 and said the game "has an impressive amount of content for a stand-alone expansion." Varanini wrote, "Dynaverse II is a semipersistent universe where you can travel through the universe as any one of the races in the game, engage in battles with other players, and work your way up to getting new and more powerful ships." and said the game "includes a fully functional Dynaverse II mode out of the box, and it also contains new skirmishes, a new race, gameplay improvements, and basically all of the features of the original game." Varanini said the single-player modes "are for the most part exactly the same as those in Starfleet Command Volume II, but there have been some changes made." and noted the skirmish mode with premade scenarios such as Wrath of Khan. Varanini said "the campaign mode still suffers from a poorly designed interface." Varanini also wrote, "many of the early missions can be incredibly difficult" in the campaign mode, but said the game's best feature was "a working Dynaverse II", saying it adds a great deal of replay value to the game.