tarfleet Command III is the simplest of the many ship-combat games that have come out based on the Star Trek universe. Combat occurs in two dimensions, so all the ships appear on the same plane. There are no top and bottom shields to worry about, and the ships don't do barrel rolls or loop-de-loops. Players maneuver, trying to line up their heaviest weapons to shoot at the enemies' weakest shields. The key to winning each battle is for the player to learn the capabilities of the various ships' weapons and systems so they can achieve this alignment with regularity.
The process of learning the ins and outs of the various races and their ships is simplified in this version of the game by the decision to reduce the number of playable races to three in the single-player campaign game and four in the conquest, skirmish and multiplayer ones. In the single-player
campaign game, the player starts as a Klingon in command of a Bird of Prey and fights a series of missions. Completing a mission improves the ship's crew and gives players prestige that they can use to buy weapons and equipment upgrades or even a bigger ship. Completing the missions also moves along
the story of the Klingons and the Federation building the Unity space station and the attempts by the Romulans to stop them. When players eventually finish the Klingon missions, they start over as a Romulan and play all of those missions, and then finally take the role of a Federation lieutenant and play the final series of missions to see the end of the grand story. The skirmish, conquest and multiplayer games add the Borg as a player race and dispense with the story in favor of simply attempting to conquer territory from enemy empires.
In addition to reducing the number of player races, the designers also simplified the interface so that all the ships are easier to control, and they have reduced the number of weapon types and equipment. The loss of these complicating systems and options (like drones, wild weasel shuttles and overloads) make the game much faster to pick up and master.
Anticipation that must be assimilated
Unlike some other ST games, SFCIII is not an attempt to place players on the bridge of the Enterprise or to let players fight space battles by twitching at a joystick. The game does put players at the helm of a starship, and it does have simplified controls, but at its heart SFCIII is a tactical game where players control the energy use and course of their ships while trying to destroy the enemy's ships.
Playing SFCIII is all about anticipation, and that is where the great fun of it comes in. The closer that players let an enemy ship get, the more damage their own phasers and torpedoes will do to the enemy's shields, but, of course, same applies to the enemies' weapons. Combat is all about how
close to get and when to turn. Can players get around to the enemy's weak shield? Can players keep the enemy ship at range while weapons recharge? Can players coordinate with their wingmen to best effect? The answers change with every mission.
The prestige system for buying ships and improvement is very nice. Since players are nominally part of military organizations, they can't accumulate money and buy ships and weapons, as in many games. Prestige, however, is a good measure. The more players win, the better they are regarded by their hierarchy, the more likely they are to be assigned the ships and weapons and systems they request. And refitting the ships is fun. Nearly all of the base ships are underpowered, under-armed and under-shielded. By upgrading all the systems in turn, even the pokey little frigates become deadly little starships. The ability to shuffle officers is less interesting because the effects of officers are less obvious. Also, once the officers have been through a few missions, the ones on the player's
ship are better than anyone who can be found on a star base waiting for a slot. Thus, officers are ultimately one less thing to worry about, and players can concentrate on the happy job of defeating other ships.
Starfleet Command III is a descendant of board game called Starfleet Battles that was played in turn and which I spent a lot of time playing many years ago. Because of this connection, I personally wish that SFC were done as a turn-based game instead of a real-time one. It really
ratcheted up anticipation to have to plot where you thought the enemy was going.
— Eric
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