[William Taylor]

Ever since I started making my Little Starships. I've always wanted to make a game based off them. This thread will have all the info on said game. It's called 'Star Trek Tactical Alert'.

I love any sort of feedback or idea, don't be shy.
Updates may occur at any time.

ABOUT
Star Trek Tactical Alert is a Star Trek 23rd century based PBEM (Play by Email) strategy game, accentuated by my own graphics. The game has minimal to no dice usage and is completely controlled by Humans. In the game you play as a ship and its whole crew. You will fight other players to raise your position on the leader board.


CREATE, BREAK, and BEND
True to the Star Trek series. If a player can come up with a reasonable explanation of doing something that would result in doing something incredible that is not mentioned in the rules, then it will be done. Simplified it means that the player can do anything as long as it's reasonable by Star Trek standards. Examples include.

'Creating a antimatter and matter controlled explosion to send the ship back or forwards through time.'

'Modifying or Boosting power to the Deflector Array to emit a Death Ray.'

'Removing the sensor systems on a probe and replacing them with Antimatter warheads.'

'Venting warp plasma to confuse the enemy's sensors.'

I believe this adds an important Star Trek element to the game and really sets it apart from other Star Trek games.


THE BATTLEFIELD
The board of play (AKA The Battlefield) is 1000 pixels long and 1000 pixels wide, the player is free to explore the entire area but if they leave the 1000 pixel mark then they are considered forfeiting, or retreating (As long as it's done of their own free will).

The board may include obstacles such as: asteroids, planets, nebula, stars, suns, black holes, wormholes, and derelicts. The board also changes depending on what you do, for example if you fire directly at a star you could cause it to go Nova. The field is always on your point of view; for example. When you go to warp everything looks normal and you're just moving extremely fast. To everyone else you look like a blur or streak across the field.


ROUNDS, ORDERS, and RESULTS
There is no turn order in ST:TAL (Star Trek: Tactical Alert). Everyone in the game sends in their orders (what they want to do that turn) at the same time and then everything is carried out at once. Your orders are always given in secret to the GM of your game and never given out. The results of your orders at the end of every round are personally made for each player, which means no one gets the same results or tactical data that another player might get.


POWER MANAGEMENT
In other Star Trek games you have power for all systems and the only aspect of power management is to reroute your auxiliary power every once in awhile to different systems. In ST:TAL Power Management works a lot differently.

Your Warp Core generates a certain amount of power based on its current integrity. The power generated by your warp core goes into your ship's battery and that power can be distributed among your systems but you'll never have enough power to fully charge every system on your ship. Some systems can operate at half power but no all of them, and there is no in between full and half power. While a system is at half power it will operate at half the usual operations. It's also possible to put a system over full power (overload) which will cause it to perform better but the system will take extra damage if it's hit. It takes one full round to transfer power.


INTEGRITY
Every system on your ship has an integrity rating, which is equal to the normal amount of power that system can take. When a system is fired upon and directly hit it will lose some integrity rating, equal to the amount of the damage rating of the weapon that was used. If the system is overloaded when it is hit then that system will take extra damage for each unit of power over the normal amount. If the system is overloaded by twice the normal amount (or anywhere near that amount) then the system will lose a few integrity each round and will be completely destroyed when it's hit. Even though a system is damaged you are still free to use Overload, Full Power, and Half Power. Once the integrity is dropped to half of normal, then only half power can be used. Once a systems integrity is dropped to zero, it's destroyed and cannot be recovered.


DEFENSES
It's obvious that you'll want to protect the structural integrity of your ship and its systems. There are three main defensive systems that may be employed on your ship.

Deflector Shields
Easily more advanced than Armor and Polarized Hull plating. The Deflector Shield will constantly absorb any attacks and may be regenerated and relocated. To use deflector shields your ship will require a Shield Generator and power. Unlike most systems your Shield Generator has no full, overload, or half power and can be set to any power setting. Once you give your Shield Generator power you must then distribute that power among each shield. There are four shields: Fore/Forward, Port, Aft, and Starboard Shields. When a shield is hit it will absorb the damage rating at the cost of the power distributed to it until it runs out of power, leaving your hull exposed. If your Shield Generator is damaged to half of its integrity then it will be counted as disabled and every shield will fail.

Polarized hull plating
Another way to defend your ship is by applying electromagnetic power to the hull, which makes it stronger. To polarize your hull you'll need power and an Electromagnetic power converter. To polarize your hull you'll need to divert power to the electromagnetic power converter and activate hull polarization. Depending on the type of converter your hull will automatically negate a certain percentage of any attack that hits it. Polarized hull plating unlike deflector shields cannot be added to or be rerouted to different parts of the ship. The negation that happens to the forward of the ship will always be the same as the negation at the ship's starboard. If the power converter is destroyed or disabled then the polarization effect will dissipate and leave your hull exposed.

Armor
The most primitive way to defend your ship is to apply layers of armor to the hull of the ship. Armor cannot be repaired and once it's destroyed it'll expose the part of the ship it was protecting.


PROPULSION
There are three drives used to move your ship around the battlefield: Impulse, Warp, and Thrusters.

Thrusters
Thrusters are used to turn the ship and slowly propel it through space, at 1 unit per round. When the thrusters are overloaded with power the turn rate of the ship will increase.

Impulse
The impulse drive is for moving across small distances giving you speed anywhere from 2 to 8 unites per round on normal power, 9 with thrusters. Your impulse drive will only go to 2 to 4 when at half and the impulse drive cannot be overloaded. If the impulse drive suddenly loses power or is destroyed while activated, then the ship will continue to move at that speed.

Warp
The warp drive is used for traveling across the board there are different speeds each needing a different level of power to maintain. The warp speeds are. Warp 1 which moves at 10upr (Units Per Round), warp 2 which moves at 20upr, warp 3 which moves at 30upr, warp 4 which moves at 40upr, warp 5 which moves at 50urp, warp 6 which moves at 60upr, warp 7 which moves at 70upr, warp 8 which moves at 80upr, warp 9 which moves at 90upr, and finally warp 10 which moves at 100upr.

It is possible to overload the warp drive to go faster than warp 10 but it will damage the warp drive. The thrusters and impulse drive may not be used while the ship is moving at any warp speed. Weapons cannot be used while moving at warp. Whenever the warp drive is used the warp engine temperature will go up, once it reaches its limit the warp drive begins to take damage and once the integrity reaches zero it will explode, if the warp engines are fired upon at this stage it will also explode. Warp may only be engaged if the ship is sitting still.

More to come!
Your feedback and ideas are greatly appreciated, no matter the type!

[William Taylor]

UPDATED
Added Defenses section.

DEFENSES
It's obvious that you'll want to protect the structural integrity of your ship and its systems. There are three main defensive systems that may be employed on your ship.

Deflector Shields
Easily more advanced than Armor and Polarized Hull plating. The Deflector Shield will constantly absorb any attacks and may be regenerated and relocated. To use deflector shields your ship will require a Shield Generator and power. Unlike most systems your Shield Generator has no full, overload, or half power and can be set to any power setting. Once you give your Shield Generator power you must then distribute that power among each shield. There are four shields: Fore/Forward, Port, Aft, and Starboard Shields. When a shield is hit it will absorb the damage rating at the cost of the power distributed to it until it runs out of power, leaving your hull exposed. If your Shield Generator is damaged to half of its integrity then it will be counted as disabled and every shield will fail.

Polarized hull plating
Another way to defend your ship is by applying electromagnetic power to the hull, which makes it stronger. To polarize your hull you'll need power and an Electromagnetic power converter. To polarize your hull you'll need to divert power to the electromagnetic power converter and activate hull polarization. Depending on the type of converter your hull will automatically negate a certain percentage of any attack that hits it. Polarized hull plating unlike deflector shields cannot be added to or be rerouted to different parts of the ship. The negation that happens to the forward of the ship will always be the same as the negation at the ship's starboard. If the power converter is destroyed or disabled then the polarization effect will dissipate and leave your hull exposed.

Armor
The most primitive way to defend your ship is to apply layers of armor to the hull of the ship. Armor cannot be repaired and once it's destroyed it'll expose the part of the ship it was protecting.

[Neo]

isnt this going to just like...

http://www.dan-dare.org/FreeFun/Game...V/StarTrek.htm

???

[William Taylor]

@Neo
Not at all. Flash Trek is a flash game with an open star trek environment where you can trade and attack enemy ships. Star Trek: Tactical Alert is a Star Trek PBEm game starship combat strategy game and although I haven't completely finished TAL, I can assure you that the two games are going to be radically different.

[William Taylor]

Updated
Added Propulsion Section.

PROPULSION
There are three drives used to move your ship around the battlefield: Impulse, Warp, and Thrusters.

Thrusters
Thrusters are used to turn the ship and slowly propel it through space, at 1 unit per round. When the thrusters are overloaded with power the turn rate of the ship will increase.

Impulse
The impulse drive is for moving across small distances giving you speed anywhere from 2 to 8 unites per round on normal power, 9 with thrusters. Your impulse drives will only go to 2 to 4 when at half and the impulse drive cannot be overloaded.

Warp
The warp drive is used for traveling across the board there are different speeds each needing a different level of power to maintain. The warp speeds are. Warp 1 which moves at 10upr (Units Per Round), warp 2 which moves at 20upr, warp 3 which moves at 30upr, warp 4 which moves at 40upr, warp 5 which moves at 50urp, warp 6 which moves at 60upr, warp 7 which moves at 70upr, warp 8 which moves at 80upr, warp 9 which moves at 90upr, and finally warp 10 which moves at 100upr.

It is possible to overload the warp drive to go faster than warp 10 but it will damage the warp drive. The thrusters and impulse drive may not be used while the ship is moving at any warp speed. Weapons cannot be used while moving at warp. Whenever the warp drive is used the warp engine temperature will go up, once it reaches its limit the warp drive begins to take damage and once the integrity reaches zero it will explode, if the warp engines are fired upon at this stage it will also explode.

[William Taylor]

Edited
Propulsion Section

Impulse
If the impulse drive suddenly loses power or is destroyed while activated, then the ship will continue to move at that speed.

Warp
Warp may only be engaged if the ship is sitting still.

[William Taylor]

It has been far too long since I've updated this.

I've been thinking of changing the system a bit. Instead of giving each system a certain amount of power to operate; you will instead give the system any amount of power and it will immediately use that power to perform the orders you have given it. The editing process will take awhile but I'll post when I'm finished. I won't start till tomorrow to see if there are any objections to it.