Star Trek: Starship Creator
Star Trek: Starship Creator is a computer-based simulation released by Simon & Schuster Interactive in . While not a game in the strictest sense, the program was designed to allow a user to create their own starship, crew it with personnel from the Star Trek universe, and send it on a mission to evaluate its performance.

The program was designed with input from Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, Rick Sternbach, and Doug Drexler – responsible for many of the technical or reference-oriented Star Trek books produced – and on which Foundation Imaging CEO Ron Thornton served as executive producer.

Game design
The user could start the program from one of three experience levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Experienced. As the game progressed, more options for customizing a ship and newer missions were available. Different "logins" were also available, allowing multiple users or multiple fleets to exist without drawing on the crew pool or credits of another login. The interface was modeled after the TNG era LCARS format, with Judi Durand providing the voice of the computer.

Screens

Class screen
From this screen, a user picked a class to build, or was able to manage and refit ships already added to the fleet. Different ships cost varying amounts of "credits," the  being the cheapest and the  being the most expensive.

Structure screen
Upon the purchase of a ship hull, the ship whose hull had been purchased was added to the user's fleet inventory, and the user proceeded to the structure screen. Typically, there were three or four different prefabricated component designs for the primary hull, secondary hull, and warp nacelles of the ship which could be combined in any fashion, although parts from different classes could not be intermixed.

Assembly screen
This screen showed a three-dimensional representation of the ship, which could be inspected from any angle.

Naming screen 
Once the user had chosen a satisfactory design for the ship being built, it was named and a five-digit registry number randomly assigned, or a four-digit one for the . The ship was then recorded into the fleet inventory.

Systems screen
For the Beginner and Intermediate levels, the new ship generally came already equipped with a number of vital systems; they could be further customized at the Intermediate level, but not to the extensiveness offered at the Experienced level. The user had to fit the ship with a number of vital systems, such as warp drive, impulse engines, life support, and a navigational deflector. Optional systems included shuttlecraft, weapons, and holodecks among other things. The systems were organized into main categories, such as propulsion, then into subsystems, like warp engine, warp core, impulse engine, and fusion reactor. Detailed information could be accessed concerning a particular system by selecting the "info" button. Certain systems, like engines or crew quarters, could only have one version of the component installed, while others, like sciences labs and torpedoes, could have a variety of different types and be installed in different numbers.

The success of a mission sometimes depended on the presence or absence of a system or component. For instance, a certain mission might have required the use of a class-8 probe. Additionally, one component generally depended on another; for example, a shuttle could not be launched without a shuttlebay, and a powerful warp drive could not be supplied by a weak warp core. Not all systems were available to all classes; small ships or ones with limited profiles like the  only had a small choice of available systems, while large multipurpose systems such as the Galaxy-class had a large variety of subsystems. 

Components also had a credit cost; more advanced and elaborate systems cost more than basic ones. Also, energy requirements prevented large amounts of equipment from being installed. A heavily-loaded ship would generally be much slower and less responsive than one with a more balanced complement.

Custom crewmembers could be created through import of a formatted text file and a *.bmp or *.pic image.

Crew screen
After a ship had been fitted with its on-board systems, personnel of a crew could be assigned. The crew screen had two aspects: a command-crew aspect and a complement-breakdown aspect.

Command-crew aspect
In the command-crew aspect of the crew screen, there were several available positions, including captain, first officer, science officer, chief engineer, chief medical officer, counselor, and communications officer. Only the assignments of a captain and a chief engineer were actually needed to make the vessel flyable, but missing personnel in other areas could harm mission performance. The user could select a variety of Starfleet personnel as crew, ranging from the main characters to minor characters from the four Star Trek series that existed at the time. (The game was released before  premiered.) Assigning them to a position had an associated credit cost based on the experience of the officer in a particular area; the more experienced the officers were in a position, the more expensive they were to recruit for that position.

Certain officers, mostly the main characters, were restricted to either the captain or first officer position and their position from their respective series; for instance, Geordi La Forge could only be placed in the captain, first officer, or chief engineer roles. Also, crews from the TOS and TNG eras could not be intermixed. The Constitution-class could only be crewed with TOS-era personnel and the Miranda class was restricted to one era or the other. Also, crewmembers could be assigned to multiple ships within the same fleet.

The Biographies of available characters that have been killed in canon, such as Lieutenant Tasha Yar's, either omit or contradict details of their untimely demise.

Complement-breakdown aspect
The other aspect of the crew screen, the complement-breakdown aspect, allowed the user to devote a certain percentage of crew to different disciplines, such as command, sciences, security, medical, and operations. The number of personnel in the crew complement was determined by the number of crew quarters units that had been installed at the Systems screen.

Fleet screen
All vessels in the fleet could be managed from this screen. A summary of the ship's systems and assigned crew could be reviewed, reports from past missions accessed, a new mission selected, and vessels selected for refit, repair, or decommission. Once a ship was taken to this point, it was possible to go back to each and every previous screen and modify each of the parameters. Once a ship was decommissioned, the appropriate amount of credits were refunded to the user account. Also, custom missions could be imported, while ships could be exported to a file for import within another login or transfer to another computer. This ability was the source of a cheat, as the same ship could be imported and decommissioned multiple times, in each instance refunding the same amount of credits to the user's account.

Mission screen
After a mission had been selected from the fleet screen, it was run from here. The ship traveled across a two-dimensional grid, while symbols and icons related to the mission appeared on the grid. Systems activity and communications between the crew were listed in a dialog box to the bottom of the screen. A pop-up window could be opened which showed damage and injury reports and systems status and efficiency. 

Sometimes, the main grid would cut away to different animations related to the mission. The mission could be run in real time or slightly accelerated. If a ship entered battle or a hazardous situation, it could take damage. That damage would remain until repaired; faster repairs could be effected if a more experienced engineer or larger crew complement had been assigned aboard. Crew members, including senior officers, could be injured as well; again, their recovery depended on the skill of the chief medical officer, the sickbay technology available, and the number of medical staff. Severe injuries could result in death, which would remove the crew member from the roster on the crew screen and assignment on other starships.

Very little input was needed from the user since the mission scripts were not designed to be interactive; the mission simply ran until completion or until a systems failure or lack of equipment caused the mission to end. The mission could be aborted at any time, returning the user to the fleet screen. Also, the program could be minimized and left to run in a small window, called "stealth mode." Upon successful completion of the mission, the user was given the choice to keep the ship at its present location or return it to the home starbase; a certain amount of credits were also deposited in the user's account.

Customization
In addition to the aforementioned ability to import custom crewmembers, a user could also script custom missions. The program came with full instructions on how to create missions using Starship Markup Language or SML. A mission could be written with SML, saved to a text file, and then imported into the program under the Mission screen.

Production staff 
Cast  
 Judi Durand – computer (voice)

Writers
 Kimberly A. Kindya
 David A. Mack

Produced by 
 Elizabeth J. Braswell – executive producer
 Kimberly Ann Kindya – assistant producer

Art Department 
 Doug Drexler – art consultant
 Michael Okuda – art consultant

Visual Effects by 
 Robert Bonchune – modeler
 Koji Kuramura – chief modeler
 Mojo – producer
 Brandon MacDougall – modeler
 Ron Thornton – executive producer

Thanks 
 Dan Dugan – grateful thanks / many thanks
 Barbara Harris – grateful thanks / many thanks
 John Ordover – thanks / thanks: Pocket Books
 Terri Potts – grateful thanks / many thanks

Follow-ups

Deluxe

The basic Starship Creator program was followed by an add-on pack, reissued with the original Starship Creator as Star Trek: Starship Creator Deluxe. (The add-on pack could also be purchased on a separate CD which required the original Starship Creator program.) New features included three new starship classes – Akira, Oberth, and Prometheus, several new missions, the ability to assign custom registry numbers, the ability to import .jpg file types for crew portraits, new commands for custom missions, the ability to run two ships on the same mission simultaneously (yet independently), and a number of bug fixes which had plagued the original program engine.

Warp II
In 2000, a new edition, called Star Trek: Starship Creator Warp II, was released. The program was quite similar to the original Starship Creator but featured a number of new features and a slightly rearranged ship lineup. However, ships and missions that had been created for the original Starship Creator were fully compatible with Warp II, and they could be used by importing certain files from the original CDs. In Warp II it was also possible to export the created ships and import them into Dominion Wars.

Appendices

Starship classes

limited to TOS-era personnel

limited to either TOS- or TNG-era personnel

limited to either TOS- or TNG-era personnel
Deluxe Edition only

limited to TNG-era personnel
featured large variety of systems

limited to TNG-era personnel
Deluxe edition only

limited to TNG-era personnel
featured large variety of systems

limited to TNG-era personnel
systems restricted to mostly tactical roles

limited to TNG-era personnel

limited to TNG-era personnel
systems restricted to mostly tactical roles

limited to TNG-era personnel
featured multi-vector assault mode
Deluxe edition only

Equipment references

Propulsion
Impulse engines
Engine Class C (Miranda, Constitution)
Engine Class A (Galaxy, Intrepid)
Engine Class A8 (Miranda, Constitution)
Engine Class A10 (Galaxy, Intrepid)
Engine Class A12 (Intrepid)
Warp engines
Drive System Type 2 (Galaxy, Miranda, Oberth, Excelsior)
Drive System Type 10 (Intrepid)
Drive System Type 13
Drive System Type K (Intrepid, Excelsior (would fail halfway through missions))
Drive System Class XP (Prometheus)

Power
Matter-antimatter reactor
Class C (Constitution, Miranda)
Class A (Miranda)
Class 7 (Galaxy, Intrepid)
Class 9 (Galaxy)
Class 11 (Intrepid)
Class XP (Prometheus)
Antimatter storage pod
Mod 1 (20 max: Galaxy; 30 max: Intrepid)
Mod 3 (20 max: Galaxy; 20 max: Intrepid)
Mod 8 (50 max: Intrepid)
Fusion reactor
1 gW (Galaxy)
4 gW (Galaxy, Intrepid)
7 gW (Galaxy, Intrepid)
10 gW (Galaxy, Intrepid)
Deuterium storage tank
700 kg (Galaxy)
2,500 kg (Galaxy, Intrepid)
7,000 kg (Intrepid)
10,000 kg (Galaxy)
Power distribution network
100 rating, max (all)
Auxiliary power generation
5 redundancy, max (all)

Weapons
Phasers
Point phasers (3 max: Constitution, Miranda, Oberth)
Array (6 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Pulse phaser (2 max: Defiant)
Disruptor cannon (2 max: Bird-of-Prey)
Torpedo system
Launcher (2 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Photon (275 max: Galaxy; 20 max: Intrepid)
Quantum (300 max: Sovereign; 5 max: Defiant)
Tricobalt (12 max: Akira)

Defense
Navigational deflector (force rating 20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Shields 
Standard (force rating 50 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Enhanced (force rating 500 max: Intrepid)
Regenerative (force rating 900 max: Prometheus)
Ablative armor (Defiant, Prometheus Intrepid)
Cloaking device (Defiant)

Science
Sensors
Pallet 1 (10 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Pallet 2 (10 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Pallet 3 (10 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Pallet 4 (10 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Pallet 5 (5 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Pallet 6 (5 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Probes
Class-1 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Class-2 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
Class-3 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Class-4 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Class-5 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Class-6 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Class-7 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Class-8 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Class-9 (20 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Laboratories
 Stellar Cartography (Galaxy)
 Planetary science (5 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Basic or advanced level
 Exobiology (3 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Maximum containment field rating 5mC
 Cybernetics (2 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Basic or experimental level
 Cultural anthropology (2 max: Galaxy)
 Basic or advanced level

Command and control
 Computer core
 Mark 1 (3 max: Constitution, Miranda, Oberth)
 Mark 10 (3 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Mark 70 (3 max: Intrepid)
 Mark XX (3 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Data network
 ODN Version 17Q (Galaxy)
 Bioneural net type 1 (Intrepid)
 Bioneural net type 2 (Intrepid)
 Communications
 RF transceivers (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 5 AU, max range
 Internal comm system (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 5,000 kquad/sec max speed
 Universal translator (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Level 5, max sophistication
 Subspace radio (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 20 LY, max range

Transport and cargo
 Shuttlebays
 Primary (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Secondary (2 max, Galaxy)
 Shuttlecraft
 Sphinx Type M1 Workpod (5 max: Galaxy)
 Shuttlepod Type 15 (2 max: Galaxy; 1 max: Intrepid)
 Shuttlepod Type 15A (2 max: Galaxy; 1 max: Intrepid)
 Shuttlepod type 16 (1 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Personnel shuttlecraft Type 6 (2 max: Galaxy; 1 max: Intrepid)
 Personnel shuttlecraft Type 7 (2 max: Galaxy; 1 max: Intrepid)
 Cargo shuttlecraft type-9A (1 max: Galaxy)
 Transporters
 Primary personnel transporter (1 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 6 pads, max
 Secondary personnel transporter (5 max, Galaxy; 1 max: Intrepid)
 4 pads, max
 Cargo transporter (2 max: Galaxy; 1 max: Intrepid)
 Targeting scanners (10 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Sensitivity 10, max
 Emitters (10 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Cargo bays
 Primary (1 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Auxiliary (10 max: Galaxy; 1 max: Intrepid)
 Tractor beams
 Main emitter (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Auxiliary emitter (5 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)

Support
 Environment
 Class M
 Redundancy 5, max (Intrepid)
 Redundancy 10, max (Galaxy)
 Alien supplemental (Galaxy)
 Living quarters
 Spartan (1,000 crew max: Galaxy; 800 crew max: Intrepid)
 Modest (800 crew max: Galaxy; 600 crew max: Intrepid)
 Comfortable (600 crew max: Galaxy; 400 crew max: Intrepid)
 Luxurious (400 crew max: Galaxy)
 Medical systems
 Basic (Galaxy)
 Advanced (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Advanced + Alien (Galaxy)
 Facilities
 Holodecks (10 max: Galaxy; 2 max: Intrepid)
 Crew Lounge (5 max: Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Arboretum (Galaxy)
 Salon (Galaxy)
 Utilities
 Package A (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Package B (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Package C (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Turbolift system
 Simple (Galaxy, Intrepid)
 Complex (Galaxy, Intrepid)

Structure
 Integrity field
 Field strength 30, max (Galaxy, Intrepid'')

Personnel references

TOS-era
 Christine Chapel
 Pavel Andreievich Chekov
 Willard Decker
 Stephen Garrovick
 John Harriman
 Ilia
 James Tiberius Kirk
 restricted to captain
 John Kyle
 Reese Latimer
 Leonard Horatio McCoy
 restricted to captain, first officer, chief medical officer
 Carolyn Palamas
 Janice Rand
 Kevin Thomas Riley
 Mira Romaine
 Saavik
 Montgomery Scott
 restricted to captain, first officer, chief engineer
 Spock
 restricted to captain, first officer, science officer
 James Styles
 Demora Sulu
 Hikaru Sulu
 Clark Terrell
 Uhura
 restricted to captain, first officer, communications officer
 Dmitri Valtane
 
 Robert Wesley

TNG-era
 Allenby

 Reginald Barclay 
established his birthplace as Cleveland, Ohio.

 Albert Barnaby
 Julian Bashir
 restricted to captain, first officer, chief medical officer
 Erika Benteen
 Janet Brooks
 Maddy Calloway
 Joe Carey
 
 Chakotay
 restricted to captain, first officer
 Chell
 Beverly Crusher
 restricted to captain, first officer, chief medical officer
 Wesley Crusher
 Jenna D'Sora
 Kenneth Dalby
 Nella Daren
 Data
 restricted to captain, first officer, science officer
 Jadzia Dax
 restricted to captain, first officer, science officer
 Anthony DeCurtis
 The Doctor
 restricted to captain, first officer, chief medical officer
 Rachel Garrett
 Enek Gerron

 
 Mariah Henley
 Hoya
 Kathryn Janeway
 restricted to captain, first officer
 William Jarvin
 Edward Jellico
 Carlos Jimenez
 Irina Kalandra
 Kes
 Harry Kim
 Kira Nerys
 Joseph Kirby
 Daniel Kwan
 Geordi La Forge
 restricted to captain, first officer, chief engineer
 Sam Lavelle
 Robin Lefler
 Susanna Leijten
 Elizabeth Lense
 Nara
 Neelix
 Nog
 Miles O'Brien
 restricted to captain, first officer, chief engineer
 Odo
 restricted to captain, first officer, security officer
 Alyssa Ogawa
 Tom Paris

 Melora Pazlar
 Jean-Luc Picard
 restricted to captain
 Katherine Pulaski
 
 Thomas Riker
 William T. Riker
 restricted to captain, first officer
 Ro Laren
 Bronwyn Gail (B.G.) Robinson
 Selar
 Seven of Nine
 Elizabeth Paula Shelby
 Benjamin Sisko
 Sito Jaxa
 Veronica Stadi
 Jason Stevens
 Lian T'Su
 Zandra Taitt

 Simon Tarses
 Taurik
 B'Elanna Torres
 restricted to captain, first officer, chief engineer
 Deanna Troi
 restricted to captain, first officer, counselor
 Tuvok
 restricted to captain, first officer, security officer
 Aquiel Uhnari
 Vorik
 Samantha Wildman
 Worf
 restricted to captain, first officer, security officer
 Natasha Yar
 restricted to captain, first officer, security officer

External link
 

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Starship Creator 1