From Star Trek Game Information
We talk to Cory Nelson of Quicksilver Software who are developing Star Trek: Tactical Assault for Bethesda Softworks. Star Trek: Tactical Assault is for the PSP/DS and is due out this Fall. This interview was published on the 23rd September 2006.
STGU: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your involvement on Star Trek: Tactical Assault?
Cory Nelson: My name is Cory Nelson and I’m the Producer for the project. My primary responsibilities are the day to day management of the project and trying to keep all the different elements of the team working together. In addition, I’ve done a great deal of the design and mission implementation work.
STGU: What has Quicksilver been up to since their work on Star Trek: Starfleet Command?
Cory Nelson: Things have certainly been busy. Quicksilver has always been a company of diversity; we do games (obviously) but also consulting, encryption software, education software, and military software. We decided about a year and half ago that we really excel at certain areas and decided to focus on the handheld market for a while. We’ve been fortunate to have really found our groove on this title and plan to do a lot more in this market.
STGU: Have you followed the progress of the other games in the Starfleet Command series and what are your thoughts?
Cory Nelson: Not particularly. We reviewed many of them for preparation of this title, but to be honest we didn’t see a lot that we could necessarily draw things from.
STGU: Have you played any Star Trek games since your work on Starfleet Command?
Cory Nelson: The majority of them we have. Obviously, since the SFC days the company has changed a lot. We have a few original SFC people here, but when I was at Interplay I also worked on Star Fleet Academy and Klingon Academy.
STGU: Are you looking at past Star Trek games to see what worked and didn't work?
Cory Nelson: Most definitely. We looked at the majority of the ones we could find and paid a lot of attention to what we liked and what we didn’t like.
STGU: Until recently Star Trek games were in limbo because of the lawsuit between Activision and Viacom, so how did Tactical Assault come about and how did Quicksilver get involved?
Cory Nelson: Actually, we had been pitching a different project to Bethesda when they mentioned that they were huge fans of Starfleet Command. The license was still in limbo at the time, but we had been toying with the idea of making a game somewhat similar for the handheld market and so we all started talking. Before we knew they had the license and we had a new project.
STGU: Will gameplay be different on the two platforms since the DS will presumably enable the player to have more control over their ship?
Cory Nelson: Actually, we’ve worked really hard to make sure the gameplay worked for both platforms. There are some differences, but the main one is really the DS touchpad. We’ve had a lot of people come back and they just love the ability to use it to control the ship. It certainly provides for finer control over the ship but it’s a tough call between which way your preference goes, finer control of the ship vs. the better visuals that can be presented over the PSP. The missions and overall gameplay however, have been created to be identical on both systems; so if you play one you’re not going to feel like you’re missing something available on the other system.
STGU: Can you tell us about the two campaigns there are in the game?
Cory Nelson: The first is the Federation which starts between movies 1 & 2. You’re playing as Mathew Renolds and taking over your first command along the Klingon Neutral Zone. I don’t want to get too far into what the storyline does, but you’ll be doing some heavy interaction with the Klingons and a little with the Romulans. The Klingon Campaign picks up about 30 years after the Federation one ends, right around the Khitomer Massacre, putting you at war with the Romulans. There, you’ll be taking the Captain’s chair as Commander Kadir, a Klingon of a noble house, who is eager to work his way up the Klingon ranks and prove his warrior status. There’s a bit of an uneasy truce with the Federation at this stage so you’ll not only be protecting your borders against the Romulans, but also you’ll be trying to figure out how to interact peacefully with the Federation. Klingons haven’t had a lot of practice at that. As you progress in each campaign, your crew can gain promotions which will increase their abilities.
STGU: The Features for the game lists "Branching missions with multiple outcomes". What exactly does this mean for the player?
Cory Nelson: Well, as a Captain there are really a lot of ways that you can complete an objective. For example; let’s say you received a distress call along the Klingon Neutral Zone and were sent to investigate. There you find a wounded civilian freighter and several Klingon Birds of Prey uncloaking. As the Captain, you need to make a decision of what to do. If you were to fire at the Klingons you might destroy them, the freighter may or may not survive and you can go back home intact. But what would happen if you were to hail them? You might find out that they came investigating a Romulan threat in the area and thought the distress call was suspicious. Both solutions were probably acceptable (you can imagine which decision Kirk would have and which would be more of a Picard-type choice), but the results of each could be different. We’ve designed the missions so that these types of choices do exist and will usually affect the later mission. Once this situation is resolved for example, you might have to go investigate a Romulan threat; if you had talked to the Klingons they might still be alive to help you here. When you talk to ships you’ll generally have multiple choices of how to proceed and how you want to interact with the other Captains and this too can affect the outcome. We’ve found that many players will complete a mission without even realizing that there were several other solutions available, making it very interesting to compare notes afterwards.
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STGU: Will we be able to play movie based missions like The Undiscovered Country and battle a cloaked Bird of Prey?
Cory Nelson: We don’t have missions that are movie-based however, in Skirmish and Multiplayer modes you can setup any type of battle you’d like. If you want to pit the Enterprise against the Reliant for that Wrath of Khan moment; go for it!
STGU: Will all the ship classes be standard or will the player be able to customise them like Starfleet Command?
Cory Nelson: The ship classes are standard. However, depending on how you solve the various missions you gain promotion points that can be assigned to your bridge crew. Their increases enable some abilities and increase the capabilities of your ship to make it faster, do more damage, etc. You’ll be assigned to larger ships as you progress through the campaign but the bridge crew comes with you.
STGU: What sort of Quick Battle/Multiplayer modes will there be?
Cory Nelson: Currently there are two modes in Skirmish and three in Multiplayer. We of course offer the standard Deathmatch modes but also have a survivor game in Skirmish. In head-to-head wireless Multiplayer you can also play Battlefest which allows you to play several different ships of the same race against your opponent. In both modes you can choose between 20 different ships split between five different races (Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Orion & Gorn).
STGU: Will Tactical Assault have any of The Original Series actors doing voice overs?
Cory Nelson: We’ve mostly kept this game to a new crew and a new experience. There are certainly a lot of the events from the timeline that will be experienced and a few the player is involved in, but we’re trying to take a fresh start to the franchise and give a fresh interaction with the events.
STGU: For some reason no Star Trek game has yet used the theme music from any Star Trek series. Since this is the 40th Anniversary year will Star Trek: Tactical Assault be the first and use The Original Series theme?
Cory Nelson: I hadn’t actually realized that; I think it’s just human nature that when we create games for a franchise that we take it and try to put a fresh spin on it. The music for this game is all new, although there are a lot of influences from The Original Series.
STGU: Is it harder getting suggestions/feedback from the community since the majority of people that use the internet and interact with gaming communities tend to play PC games?
Cory Nelson: There’s certainly a bit of that, but we’ve been very fortunate to have had a very focused goal on this project since the beginning. The team has known what we were intending to build from day one and what we’ve ended up with has actually been leaps and bounds above what we originally intended. Obviously the SFC roots helped a great deal, but with creating an entirely new game we’ve also been able to draw from other games such as Star Trek: Judgement Rites
STGU: Finally, what do you think players will most enjoy with Tactical Assault?
Cory Nelson: There are two areas that really have hit home with players. For those going through the missions for the first time, it’s really the choices they have. I’ve had people that tell me a mission is a lot of fun and after discussing it with them they realize that they actually missed an entire storyline and go back to play again. An action game with a little RPG mixed in -- that’s really the piece that we were hoping for and it’s happened.
The other element is the combat. We are a combat oriented game and a lot of time and attention has been spent to make sure the fights and the ships you’re flying are interesting and, most importantly, fun. For those of us who have gone through every mission a dozen times, we still have a blast bringing up a custom or multiplayer game and seeing how the different ships interact. When you lose to a ship of similar strength, you’re going to walk away realizing that a different tactic might have been the edge you needed and want to go back and try it again.
STGU: We would like to thank Cory Nelson for his time and also Erin Losi of Bethesda Softworks for arranging the interview. Look out for Star Trek: Tactical Assault which will be in stores soon.
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