Carriers in Star Trek

[Lord Revan]

Not carriers per say but you could deploy shuttles in a fighter like role. it wasn't that efficient IIRC (it's been a while since I played the games last time and I'm not sure they'd run on my current PC) mainly good at taking out romulan plasma torps especially the lighter ones. essentially a shitter version of the STO system.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure myself, as it's been a while since I played either of the first two titles myself(didn't get into the third all that much), and nothing I have will run them anymore.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

And, there were carried fighters in (the)two(worst) non-canon Star Trek video games, ST:Invasion!, featuring the carrier USS Typhon, and fighters which bore a vague resemblance to BSG Colonial Vipers, and the kill-it-with-fire bad Star Trek: Shattered Universe which had the Excelsior and the ISS Enterprise deploying fighter shuttles for retreads of episodes from the five-year mission, except in the Mirror Universe.

I don't remember if the Starfleet Command games featured any carriers. The first two SFC titles were essentially Star Fleet Battles set in the Star Trek universe, but I don't remember any carriers in it.

The EAW and OP most definitely did have carriers, they appeared in both the "heavy cruiser" and "dreadnought" sections. The most fighters any of them could field was 16, in 4 wings of 4. Unlike with missiles however (which were automatically replenished between missions), fighters had to be replaced manually.

For the purposes of game balance of course, the carriers weren't as well-armed as full-on warships of comparable Battle Point Value. I always found managing fighters very difficult, never knowing when to bring them in. Unlike in Homeworld 2, where as long as at least one fighter from a wing survived long enough to be able to dock and have its wingmen replaced, any fighters destroyed were lost for good.

[Prometheus Unbound]

That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure myself, as it's been a while since I played either of the first two titles myself(didn't get into the third all that much), and nothing I have will run them anymore.

Virtual PC
Windows XP ISO (Or Win98 SE)

voila

[U.P. Cinnabar]

But, what if I have Win10. Is VM still available? Or was that to run it as an XP/98 machine in 10?

[Prometheus Unbound]

But, what if I have Win10. Is VM still available? Or was that to run it as an XP/98 machine in 10?

Virtual PC is a piece of software by... Oracle I think.

It's a form of VM (virtual machine) - just a branding name. I picked it because unlike VMWare or Hyper-V it's free. It's also very easy to use.

Yes, it'll work in Windows 10. Just install it, assign it what resources it should need (CPU power, RAM, hard drive space etc - then tick the boxes for networking, sound, graphics etc as required) and then have an ISO handy of the OS you need. How you get that ISO is up to you

For older DOS based games, a Win98SE ISO should work fine - it'll literally be running a 16/32bit OS in the virtual machine. It will think of itself as its own PC within your PC. Double click the icon, it "boots up" - you can full-screen it if you like - and you have your brand new machine


If it's an older DOS based game, you could just use DOSBox - I've never had it fail for me. Win 7 here and I can play original Master of Orion, Wing Commander Privateer etc - with joysticks and all

DOSBOX is quick and easy - VirtualPC will take a *little* more setup (in that you have to isntall the whole new OS) but it allows saved states - it's essentially a fully functioning Windows 9X (or Linux or Unix or whatever - you can run ANY OS on it just about) machine as far as it's concerned.

VirtualPC also works under Linux - so if you have Linux and you want windows installing, you can use Wine of course, but also Virtual PC.


hope this helps

[U.P. Cinnabar]

It does, immensely. Thanks.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I've used Virtual Box in the past for this sort of thing.

I've found that the loading and mission screens work fine on Windows 10 for OP, but during the actual missions it crashes every time. I think it works on Windows 7 but I'm not 100% on that.

You'll find with OP that in the vessel database, for the Feds the sections for the Base Stations and the Battle Stations have been transposed- none of the patches have been able to fix that.

[Prometheus Unbound]

I've used Virtual Box in the past for this sort of thing.

I've found that the loading and mission screens work fine on Windows 10 for OP, but during the actual missions it crashes every time. I think it works on Windows 7 but I'm not 100% on that.

You'll find with OP that in the vessel database, for the Feds the sections for the Base Stations and the Battle Stations have been transposed- none of the patches have been able to fix that.

im so bad. i meant virtualbox not virtual PC....

[FaxModem1]

In Star Trek Online, which is the best carrier? And more importantly, do they feel consistent with the theme and feel of Star Trek?

Personally, I love the Jupiter Class Carrier, but I have wondered if this feels like something Starfleet would pursue.

[Lord Revan]

In Star Trek Online, which is the best carrier? And more importantly, do they feel consistent with the theme and feel of Star Trek?

Personally, I love the Jupiter Class Carrier, but I have wondered if this feels like something Starfleet would pursue.

Of the Carriers present most are alien designs of one form or another, Starfleet has the Akira family of designs(though the Akira-class itself was an escort IIRC) and the Jupiter-class and Klinks have one carrier with Romulans having 0 native carrier designs

With the aliens (Orion, Xindi, Catian and others) it's a question if you think they would design their ships that way. the Orion designs make sense (though sadly there's no T6 version) as 99% of their "military" actions would be piracy against weakly shielded and armed merchant ships not battles against warships.

That said a lot Dreadnaught designs are 1 hangar bay so they can work as sort of carrier style as well if you feel that's more closer to Trek.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

I've used Virtual Box in the past for this sort of thing.

I've found that the loading and mission screens work fine on Windows 10 for OP, but during the actual missions it crashes every time. I think it works on Windows 7 but I'm not 100% on that.

You'll find with OP that in the vessel database, for the Feds the sections for the Base Stations and the Battle Stations have been transposed- none of the patches have been able to fix that.

im so bad. i meant virtualbox not virtual PC....

I figured it out, so no worries. I've already downloaded and installed it...now, I have to find where I put those blasted game disks. Thanks again.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

The Akiras were cruisers, Revan.

[Simon_Jester]

In the specific context of the game they're talking about, Akiras are part of the "escort" tech tree- they play very much like a Defiant in that they're optimized for forward guns, strafing runs, and high agility. Whereas the Connie, Galaxy, and so on are part of the "cruiser" tech tree, optimized for massed broadside fire and defensive strength.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

In the specific context of the game they're talking about, Akiras are part of the "escort" tech tree- they play very much like a Defiant in that they're optimized for forward guns, strafing runs, and high agility. Whereas the Connie, Galaxy, and so on are part of the "cruiser" tech tree, optimized for massed broadside fire and defensive strength.

Oh, STO. My bad.

[Lord Revan]

to put it briefly in STO you got 3 main "tech trees" of ships "escorts" that are generally fast, agile and have plenty of fire power for their size on the forward arc opmizied for tactical officers, "science ships" that focus on shields and special abilities with decent durablity and firepower opmizied for science officers (duh), then last you got "cruisers" that are generally big heavy ships that focus on durability and have decent firepower spread equally on both arcs opmizied for engineering officers. though all careers can use all ships if they want to.

"carriers" are variant of the cruiser that have weaker firepower and generally 2 hangar bay slots (though some older ones might have only 1), Dreadnaughts are another cruiser variant that is bigger with even more durability and might have a hangar bay.