General Info and starting the game

Star Command is a re-creation of an old game from the 80's on the Apple II called Star Fleet, which itself was based on even older Star Trek-inspired games on mainframes in the late 70s. If you're interested in information on the original game, just do a Google search on 'Star Fleet Krellan'.

In the game, you command a starship sent out to defend your <insert Federation-replacement name here> Alliance against the invading Kruton and Zinger empires. Krutons are basically Klingons, and Zingers are based on Romulans, names changed for trademark purposes. The Krutons make up most of your enemies. Zingers are encountered less frequently, but are more difficult to deal with, mostly because they have cloaking devices and can attack while cloaked. Your ship is equipped with phasers, torpedos, defensive shields, transporters, a tractor beam, probes, and various other devices.

When the game starts, you may choose a short, medium, or long duration. The longer the game, the more enemies in your region. This becomes more relevant in the higher-difficulty missions. After choosing the mission length, you are assigned to a particular region, which consists of an 8x8 grid of quadrants. Each quadrant in turn is made up of a 10x10 grid of sectors. Your mission briefing tells you that to complete your mission, you must destroy a certain number of enemies in a certain amount of time. It also tells you how many starbases are in your region. This number decreases as the mission difficulty increases. The location of the starbases are initially unknown for security reasons, since they are the primary target of the invading Krellan fleet.

Main screen

The Main screen is where you will spend most of your time. It contains a display of your current quadrant and everything in it, important information on your ship status, a display indicating your ship’s shield status and strength, and an array of buttons to other ship functions.

You can move around your current quadrant by simply tapping on the sector you wish you move to. You will be asked to confirm if you wish to move there and presented with 'Go' and 'Cancel' buttons. This confirmation is to prevent unintended movement caused by accidentally tapping the screen.

The Quadrant and Sector labels indicate your current position. Duh.

Bearing indicates which direction your ship is facing, with 0 degrees facing right, and the degrees increasing in a counter-clockwise direction. 0 degrees is facing right, 90 degrees is facing up, 180 degrees is facing left, 270 degrees is facing down, etc. Understanding your bearing is crucial to your survival, as your shields are relative to your bearing.

Your shields are divided into 4 sections; forward (shield #1), left (shield #2), aft (shield #3), and right (shield #4). The shield display on the main screen displays the amount of power allocated to each shield, with shields 1 and 2 on the top row, and shields 3 and 4 on the bottom.

The Power display indicates the amount of power available for all other operations, after power has been allocated to the shields.

Torpedos indicates the number of torpedos remaining. Your ship can carry a total of 30 torpedos, although upon resupply at a starbase, they will only give you enough to replenish your stock to 20.

The Aliens line displays the number of enemy ships you’ve destroyed, and the total number required to complete your current mission.

The numbers and arrow at the top-right corner of the screen indicate how many days have elapsed. The arrow indicates if you’re current rate of destroying enemies is below, near, or above a rate necessary to complete the mission in the required time.

Buttons

There are 2 banks of buttons, but you can only see one at a time.  You can alternate between them by tapping the right-most button on the bottom row. This button will alternate labels between ‘2^nd’ and ‘1^st’.

• REG - The Region map screen, which includes 3 functions : moving to a new quadrant, Long Range Scan of neighboring quadrants, and launching probes. The default 'mode' is for moving to a new quadrant, so initially a query for which quadrant you’d like to move to is displayed.  Simply tap on the quadrant you'd like to move to, and a sector map is displayed for you to choose your destination sector.  Once you’ve tapped on your target sector, the total distance, bearing, and shield facing will be displayed.

  The Region map screen displays information on all the known quadrants.   If the quadrant is known, it is indicated by a 3-digit number.  The first digit is the number of Krutons currently in the quadrant; the 2nd digit indicates whether or not a starbase is located in the quadrant; the 3rd digit indicates the number of stars in that quadrant. Tap the Scan button while in the Region map screen to scan the neighboring quadrants.

  The Probe button. Tapping this button will change the mode of the Region Map screen to Probe Control, where you can launch probes and see the information they reveal on the quadrants they visit.

• TOR – Torpedo control.   You are given the option for Automatic or Manual targeting.
• PHA – Phaser control. You are given the option for Automatic or Manual targeting, as well as the choice to disable any enemy vessels.
• TRC – Tractor beam.   This is used to tow an enemy back to a starbase. Only disabled or captured ships can be towed. The tractor beam can also be used to retrieve mines. It cannot operate through a shield, so you must lower the shield that is currently facing the object you want to tractor.
• TRN – Transporters.   Transporters can only be used on an enemy vessel that has been disabled.   This will send over your marines to do battle onboard the enemy ship. If successful, you will capture the enemy vessel,   including prisoners, and any power remaining on the ship will be transferred to your ship. Transporters cannot operate   through a shield, so you must lower the shield that is currently facing the ship you want to board.
• SHD – Shield control.   The options are Lower, Battle, Maximum, Individual, and Total.
• STA - Status.   You can get information on the status and power of the enemies in your current quadrant, as well as additional information on your ship, such as the number of prisoners, marines, and probes currently onboard.
• DMG – Damage.   This is where you get detailed information on damaged systems, as well as the ability to allocate power to repair those systems. Damaged systems will repair themselves over time.
• MIN – Mine control. You are queried for a destination sector within the current quadrant, and then the number of mines to lay. One mine will be laid in each sector along your path to the destination sector. Mines are taken from your current supply of torpedos, and are returned to the torpedo stock when they are retrieved. But if you leave a quadrant with mines, they do not remain there and will not be there when you return to the quadrant. Mines are a good option in higher levels of difficutly, when your enemies are more likely to move within the quadrant. Since they are basically active torpedos, any enemy coming in contact with a mine will be destroyed. To retrieve mines, simply click on the MIN button again if you are still in a quadrant that has mines deployed. You will be given the choice to either retrieve mines, or lay more mines.
• 2^ND – Second bank of control buttons.

• SEC – Security control.   This is where you set your security settings, once an intruder has been detected.
• AAS – Auto Alert Switch.   Simple screen, it just turns the AAS on and off.   The AAS is what automatically raises your shields when you enter a new quadrant that has enemies in it, or when a zinger moves into your current quadrant. Be very careful with this switch.
• NOP – No Operation.   Click this when you want to elapse time without taking any action, such as when you want damaged systems to repair and you can’t spare the power.  Be aware that if you are in a hostile area, enemies will still attack when enough time has elapsed since their last attack.
• BAS – Status screen for starbases, if their location is known.
• HYP – Emergency Hyperspace maneuver.  This is only to be used in dire situations. It requires 50 units of power and is uncontrollable. It will send your ship into hyperspace, and your ship will emerge in a random location in your region.  There is a 10% chance that the maneuver will be unsuccessful and your ship will be destroyed.
• SLF – Self Destruct.   Yet another last ditch resort, and should only be used when your ship is about to be disabled or destroyed anyway.   Your self destruction will also destroy all enemies in your current quadrant.   You will get credit for destroying these enemies in the calculation of your mission rating, but the mission will be unsuccessful.

Phasers vs. Torpedos

You have 2 main weapons at your disposal: Phasers and Torpedos. They each have their pros and cons.

Torpedos generally destroy their target upon impact. However, there is a chance that they will be deflected. This takes a significant amount of energy to do, so even if an enemy manages to deflect a torpedo, they will be left in a weakened state. The chance of a torpedo deflection depends on the distance to the target and the current energy of the target. Torpedos cannot be fired through obstacles such as stars, mines, and starbases. Torpedos only require 5 energy each to fire. Torpedos can only be fired at a fixed position. They cannot track a moving target, so if an enemy moves out of the sector that you targetted with the torpedo, it will miss unless another enemy has moved into the path of the torpedo.

Rank and Awards

As you complete missions, you will rise in rank, if your mission rating is high enough. Your mission rating depends on several factors. The main factors are the number of enemies you completed and the number of days it took you to complete your mission. There are several additional factors that can affect your rating, and these are listed below. You need an average mission rating of 75% for the missions at your current rank before being promoted. The number of successfully completed missions required for promotion also increases with each rank. You only need to complete 1 successful mission for a Cadet, 2 for Lieutenant JG, etc. up to a max of 5 missions for Commander and each rank beyond that. If your ship is disabled or destroyed, your mission is unsuccessful.

There are 2 menu options which lead to screens that contain information on Service History and Standings toward Promotions. These screens also contain a list of Awards you have earned through completing missions with a high mission rating.

As you rise in rank, the game will get more challenging in a number of ways. With the first 4 promotions, new events and enemy actions will be introduced, and are listed below. After that, the frequency of these and other effects change to make the game more challenging.

Ensign - This is the rank you start the game at. There is no enemy ship movement, no zingers; just get used to the game interface.

Lieutenant JG - minimal enemy ship movement within same quadrant; increases every level beyond this.

Lieutenant - Zingers are introduced; the frequency of encountering one increases every level beyond this.

Lt. Commander - Intruders are introduced. Intruders can either sneak aboard while you're docked at a starbase, or they can be prisoners that have escaped. Intruders will sabotage your ship systems, and can be a significant threat to your ship if not dealt with.

Commander - Enemy ship begin to move between quadrants. They tend to move toward starbases and will begin to attack the starbase if there are enough of them in the quadrant.

The remaining ranks beyond Commander are Captain, Commodore, Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral, and Admiral.

Mission Rating modifiers

+3.0%  for each Krellan ship delivered to starbase

+0.08% for each prisoner delievered to starbase

+2.0% for destroying a Zinger

+8% for rescuing starbase from attack

-15% for failure to rescue starbase, starbase destroyed