Compete online in the classic game of space combat. Choose custom battlefields ranging from a starless nexus to a heavily fortified warp point. Set victory conditions ranging from last man standing to strategic objectives. Set constraints on forces including available technologies, technology levels, hull sizes, and fleet size/cost. Import ships from Shipyard^TM or use the built-in editor to design ships. Save ships in a private library, and draw from that library to build your fleets. Record the events of your battle for download and review in after-action reports.

29 January 2004

Work continues on the Starfire Online Tactical Space Combat game. Version 0.3.0000 of the Starfire Online Tactical Space Combat game is going through internal quality assurance prior to being released to the play testing community. Version 0.3.0000 allows players to select from a pre-defined catalog of ship designs and scenarios, specify the starting placement of their forces, and move their units on the map.

Version 0.4.0000 is in development, and will add the capability to fire a few weapon systems (currently E, F, and G) at enemy units. With the completion of version 0.4.0000, the major functionality for the game will have been completed. At that point we will begin extending individual functional areas of the game to reach a complete implementation of the Elite tactical space combat ruleset.

With the release of version 0.5.0000, we will begin opening testing to the entire player community (testing is currently limited to Digital Gamers, Inc. staff and certain non-staff designated by the Starfire Design Studio). Watch here for a future announcement regarding open playtesting.

The Starfire Online Tactical Space Combat game implements the tactical space combat rules from Galactic Starfire, the 4th edition of the Starfire game. Within the on-line game, you may play just about any battle that can be played with the classic game, ranging from warp point defense to planetary assault and covering all the space in between.

The game will provide players with a number of configuration options, allowing the battle to be restricted by technologies and technology levels, by resources available to build the fleet, by the size of units permitted in the battle, by the characteristics of the races participating in the battle, and a number of other options. The system in which the battle is to be fought may be configured to include warp points, stars, planets, asteroid belts, and fixed installations and populations. Victory conditions may be set to a variety of requirements, such as last man standing, destruction of strategic targets, forcing the opponent to exit the system, or successfully moving specified units across the system and through a warp point. These options will provide players with the ability to play adhoc battles, or use the system to play out battles from an ongoing campaign. As an added bonus, the Space Master Aides will interface with scenario configuration features to allow Space Masters to set up battles for their players who are also subscribers.

The tactical game will provide an interface allowing players to import ships defined in Shipyard, and will provide the Shipyard interface for players who do not own the program. Players will have the option to save ship designs in a private library on-line, and draw from that library when building fleets.

The game will provide an after-action report feature as well. Players will always be able to capture a record of their orders and the change in status of their ships, and with the consent of their opponent will be able to capture a record of the same information for their opponent as well. This report can be used as a tool for review and instruction, or can serve as the basis for writing fan fiction for those so inclined.

The most important feature of the Starfire Tactical Combat game is not a technology feature. Instead, it is the community provided by the on-line game. The ability to play on-line means that a player can now draw from a world-wide pool of available players. Players no longer need wait until a major convention to play against a fresh opponent. Now every night can be an international Starfire convention.