Star Trek: Klingon Academy
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| Star Trek: Klingon Academy | |
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| Developer(s) | 14 Degrees East |
| Publisher(s) | Interplay |
| Engine | Modified Starfleet Academy |
| Latest version | 1.02 |
| Release date(s) | June 21, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Space simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | Windows 95 or higher |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| System requirements | Intel Pentium 2 233 Mhz CPU, 64MB RAM, 500MB hard disk space, 3D accelerator card |
| Input | Keyboard; mouse or joystick optional |
Star Trek: Klingon Academy, also know as Klingon Academy, is a starship combat simulator computer game developed by 14 Degrees East, an internal development house of publisher Interplay Entertainment. It was released on June 21, 2000 to moderately positive critical and fan response. The game follows a young Klingon warrior named Torlek as he attends the Elite Command Academy, a war college created by General Chang to prepare warriors for a future conflict with the United Federation of Planets. Christopher Plummer and David Warner reprised their respective roles as Chang and Gorkon for the production of Klingon Academy.
Klingon Academy is somewhat of a successor to Interplay's Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, similar to the relationship between the Nintendo 64 games GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark.
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[edit] Story
[edit] Setting
Klingon Academy takes place during 2291 AD (Klingon year 1666 IR, Imperial Reckoning), after the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and prior to those of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The Klingon Empire is led by Chancellor Lorak, a noble but ailing ruler, and maintains a peace with the Federation much like the Cold War-type situation presented in Star Trek VI. The Empire's energy production needs are met largely by dilithium and other important resources in the Tal'Ihnor Gates system, near Romulan space. Praxis, the sole moon of the Klingon homeworld Qo'noS, is only a secondary energy production facility at this time. The Klingons have a limited non-aggression and technology exchange treaty with the Romulan Star Empire, although neither side has high regard for the other. There are no significant tensions with the Gorn Star Kingdom, the Tholian Assembly or the Sha'kurian Duchies (a new race created specifically for this game) at this time.
Just prior to the events of the game, General Chang defeats a would-be usurper named Kalnor and halts his attempted coup of the Klingon government. He then convenes the eighteenth term of the Elite Command Academy as dean and head instructor; additional field instructors are Colonel Poktarl, Brigadier K'mak and Commander Thok Mak (younger brother to Colonel Worf, voiced by Michael Dorn), all prior graduates and seasoned warriors. An Academy lesson is comprised of a lecture by Chang followed by a simulated starship mission, in which cadets play a vital role during an important stage of a fictitious war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Only five percent of cadets graduate from the prestigious but unforgiving institution.
[edit] Plot
[edit] The Academy
The game begins with an opening cinematic depicting General Chang's defeat of Kalnor's coup, by challenging him to a "blood duel" that will settle the matter in personal combat. Chang loses an eye to Kalnor before killing him, explaining his eyepatch in his motion picture appearance. The narrative then continues with cadet Torlek, who reflects upon his invitation to the Elite Command Academy and his desire to honor his father through his success, as the first class begins. General Chang begins each session with a personal address to his students, explaining the natures of honor and duty and how a warrior may live by these virtues in combat, before continuing onto the day's strategy lesson and mission briefing.
Torlek exhibits exceptional leadership skills and tactical acumen during these trials, and also proves his loyalty and reliability to Chang during two real-world espionage missions against Kalnor's half-brother Melkor. During one simulation, a Klingon version of Starfleet Academy's Kobiyashi Maru scenario tests Torlek's resolve in the face of a situation where either duty or honor can prevail, but not both. He chooses duty, and his conviction in his decision earns high praise from Chang. Another trial pits him against a simulation of Captain Sulu (voiced by George Takei) aboard the USS Excelsior, and his performance against the famed Starfleet officer is commendable. During the final simulation, an attack on Earth itself to deliver a Genesis Torpedo, Torlek destroys the Starship Enterprise under James T. Kirk's command, an incredible accomplishment even in a training scenario. Torlek graduates from the Elite Command Academy with top honors, but is not assigned a command as his fellow cadets have been.
Just as the Academy term ends, Chancellor Lorak dies. Gorkon, at this time Chief of Staff and the legitemate successor to the chancellorship, is blocked by Melkor, who gathers a large fleet and plunges the Empire into civil war. Gorkon's pacifist leanings are well-known and General Chang, believing a war with the Federation to be inevitable, refuses to back him. Chang recruits allies of his own to become a small but formidable third faction in the civil war, including one of his Academy instructors. As the greatest and most trusted student of the recent term, Torlek is also recruited by Chang to be a senior field captain.
[edit] Beyond Graduation
Torlek performs his duties in the field as exceptionally as he did in his training missions, becoming a vital part of Chang's war effort. Torlek's actions become highly influential to the course of the war, as he discovers Melkor's traitorous offering of the Tal'Ihnor Gates to the Romulans in exchange for their support in the war. As Chang's forces intercept Melkor and the Romulans in the Tal'Ihnor system, Brigadier K'mak reveals his unfortunate alignment with Melkor (his brother, leader of his house, pledged support to Melkor, and K'mak was duty-bound to do the same), and that he has been tasked with destroying the entire system rather than let it fall into Chang's hands. Despite Torlek's desperate appeal, K'mak detonates a gravitic distortion device, which causes a nearby black hole to destabilize and explode like a supernova. The Tal'Ihnor system and most of the enemy starships present are obliterated. K'mak's warning to Torlek allows some of Chang's battlegroup to escape.
After this incident, knowledge of Melkor's treachery makes his victory by conventional means all but impossible. He completely turns himself over to Romulan support and sets a trap for Chang in the newly-formed Tal'Ihnor Nebula, calling him out to a blood duel to avenge his brother's death. Chang accepts, reasoning that even if it is a trap he will still die an honorable death against a hated foe, but is shocked to find Melkor's Romulan support so large that he's poised to lead a direct assault on Qo'noS. Chang implores Torlek to gather whatever forces he can, stop the Romulans and kill Melkor by any means necessary. Torlek turns to Gorkon for assistance; their joint fleet halts the Romulans, but fails to kill Melkor. Due to Gorkon's assistance, Chang now owes a blood debt to him and cannot fight him or his peaceful policies, assuring Gorkon's ascension to chancellor. A furious Chang demotes Torlek and sends him on routine patrol duties along the Federation Neutral Zone.
During his first patrol, Torlek discovers a ruse by forces still loyal to Melkor. They create the appearance of a Federation invasion to draw Chang and the bulk of the Klingon fleet away from Qo'noS, while a massive Romulan invasion force seizes the homeworld and forces Gorkon from power. Chang's deep-seated hatred of the Federation leads him to fall for the trick, but Torlek convinces him to place the needs of the Klingon people first. They warp back to Qo'noS together, defeating the Romulans a second time and finally killing Melkor.
The final cutscene shows the Klingon Empire stabilized under Chancellor Gorkon but desperate for energy production. Following the Tal'Ihnor Gates incident, they are ravaging the Klingon moon Praxis for more energy. Chang's last meeting with Torlek forebodes the dark turn of events in Star Trek VI. He assigns his "conscience" - Torlek - to a long-term mission searching for new sources of energy, so that he may be free to enact his conspiracy to plunge the Federation and Klingon Empire into full-scale war. Torlek holds Chang in high regard even after these tragic events come to pass. In the future Torlek dies a glorious and honorable death, and is immortalized in the great Hall of Warriors.
[edit] Gameplay
Klingon Academy is a 3D space simulator, allowing players to command Klingon starships in the single-player campaign. Starships and facilities of all featured races are available for quick battles and multiplayer matches. Even the lightest escort classes are much tougher and slower to maneuver than the fighters and bombers commonly featured in space simulator games. Larger starships are even slower, stronger and less agile, emphasizing their massive frames and impressive firepower. Ships are controlled through keyboard shortcut commands, with the mouse as an option for directional control. A joystick may also be configured.
The ultimate objectives of most missions are to warp to a target system, destroy or capture enemy starships or installations, and return to a home base. Elements of stealth, espionage and survival or guile against overwhelming forces are sometimes featured. As one plays through the game, progressively larger and more powerful starships are awarded to the player, with enemy forces to match. Many missions offer the player escort ships of equal or lesser class to their own, which must be managed through the HUD interface.
Gameplay is entirely tactical in nature, as one's list of mission-related star systems are given at the start of each mission, or changed during the mission. All starships have shields and a variety of combat systems, including weapons, tractor beams and ECM. Shields are divided into six faces, one for each fore, aft, port, starboard, dorsal and ventral side of the ship, and must be battered down before significant damage can be inflicted to the ship's hull or subsystems.
Once a shield currently facing the player's starship is dropped, a boarding attempt may be made. Marines are beamed to the opposing ship, and can either attempt to destroy various internal systems or attempt to capture the ship. A captured ship in single-player is immediately converted to friendly status and becomes an escort, while multiplayer ships are immediately destroyed and double points are awarded to the player.
[edit] Interface
The HUD displays the player ship's current status, including a percentage-based damage report on all shields, subsystems and hull strength. A radar-like sensor display gives the position of ships and celestial objects in range, while the ship or object currently targeted appears in a tactical damage display and a 3D picture-in-picture window.
One of two key features in the Klingon Academy interface is the VOS or Verbal Orders System. A list of substations along the bottom of the HUD correspond to number keys on the numpad. Pressing each number brings up a submenu for the corresponding subsystem, with possible additional submenus available for many commands. For example, entering 1-4-1-1 (without dashes) might bring up the ship to full power and run weapons and shields at eighty percent, with a corresponding verbal acknowledgement from the crew. To use this effectively, players often had to memorize long lists of such numbers to be useful, or frequently refer to a quick reference card. Some players did not find this easy to do in the heat of combat, especially with the large number of commands available.
The other key interface feature is the Gunnery Chair. Simulating the periscope-like manual control system seen on Klingon Birds of Prey throughout the Star Trek feature films, this system changes the interface to allow direct control of weapons throughout all of the vessel's firing arcs. Flight control can be delegated to an AI helmsman or retained by the player, and the Gunnery Chair may stay locked onto a single enemy vessel or remain free to move through any firing arc.
[edit] Weapons
There is an array of different weapons from the Star Trek seiries.
[edit] Interactive Terrain
[edit] Development
Klingon Academy was intended to be a sequel to Interplay's Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Starfleet Academy was released in 1996 after a lengthy and difficult development process. Both games featured 3D space battles where the player controlled their ship by use of a keyboard and mouse or keyboard and joystick, and were set in the Star Trek universe. Starfleet Academy was set during the period of the Star Trek TOS feature films and was a moderate success, although it was criticized for an overly complex interface and poor vessel movement dynamics. Interplay started laying plans for a sequel around 1997, and a development team was assembled under 14 Degrees East, Interplay development house responsible at the time for games under the Star Trek license. To save costs, the sequel was to use the same game engine with which Starfleet Academy was created. The setting of the game was moved to the time just before the events depicted in the motion picture Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which was released by Paramount Studios in 1991. Therefore, Klingon Academy is a prequel to Star Trek VI. Like Starfleet Academy, Klingon Academy features space battles interspersed with full-motion video, with real actors and sets and frequent branching dialogue response options.
As soon as Klingon Academy was officially announced, developers ran into problems with the old source code from Starfleet Academy. Parts of the code were lost, garbled or incoherent, and delays began to mount. One of the biggest limitations of using the old code was a built-in constraint that restricted the game's on-screen resolution to 640 x 480 pixels, even though some similar games were capable at the time of being run at higher resolutions. This problem was not solved until just before the game's actual release in June of 2000.
The goals of the developers were quite ambitious: 1) They wanted to add detailed damage modeling to the ships, dubbed "ginsuing" after the infamous late-night Ginsu knives commercials on American television; 2) they had to create and flesh out a large number of new ships with high polygon counts and superior graphics; 3) most importantly, they wanted to make the game fun, and not adhere slavishly to canon that some fans wanted. This created some tensions between fans and the developers during this long development process. At several points during the game's halting progress it was nearly cancelled by Interplay, like a previous game entitled Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury, which had been cancelled some years prior.
Originally slated to be released in the spring of 1999, development delays (not uncommon with many games) pushed the ultimate release date back until the summer of 2000. The game entered beta testing by the spring of 2000 and was hastily rushed to completion by Interplay on June 21, 2000.
[edit] Release and reception
Klingon Academy was shipped on six discs: one for installation and five to contain the numerous full motion video cutscenes displayed between missions and during key moments of gameplay. Once the game went gold in June 2000, Interplay terminated the entire development team, which did not bode well for the future prospects of the game. Future content patches, add-ons and a promised mission builder (which was never formally released or supported) did not come to pass. Two minor technical patches were later released by a skeleton crew of staff kept on the project, but Interplay had effectively ended their support.
The game's graphics were considered to be top-notch for its time, as the destruction of enemy vessels indicated a strong attention to detail. A player could blast holes through enemy vessels, blow off warp nacelles and cause other damage that would produce colorful particle shearing off into space, a visual feature known as "ginsuing". Many players and reviewers characterized playing the game as like being in a Star Trek movie. Vessels were intricately detailed and featured a wide variety of weapons, designs and appearances.Klingon Academy's soundtrack, composed by Inon Zur, was considered well-done and dramatic, creating a uniquely operatic Klingon atmosphere during combat.
Critical reception to the game was lukewarm, with GameRankings reporting a review average of 73% among professional critical sources. GameSpy.com praised the game, stating, "With top talent like Christopher Plummer and David Warner reprising their roles from The Undiscovered Country and a story that could have easily been made into feature film, Interplay's Star Trek: Klingon Academy is as much an entertainment experience as it is a computer game," and praised the game's cinematic visual effects and the measured pace of combat. GameSpot.com's review summarized the game as "an extremely ambitious simulation that provides plenty of original gameplay but fails to adequately refine its presentation," citing overly complex controls and poor AI pathfinding as major obstacles.
Klingon Academy was never the commercial success that Interplay or fans had anticipated. Released after the lackluster Star Trek: Insurrection and during a period of waning interest in the franchise, the game was not a blockbuster by any measure. However, a small but loyal core of fans continues working on and playing the game, and a large number of mods and several total conversions were released, such as "Next Generation Academy" and "Romulan Dawn."
Overall for the development of Klingon Academy did rival that of most motion pictures, the marketing and advertisment did not have an equally robust budget or commitment behind it; this is one of the key features that led to the failure of the games popularity and profitability. This was quickly reciprocated by the immediate termination of the development team.
[edit] Significance
Klingon Academy is one of the most detailed, sophisticated Star Trek games ever produced. It is one of the only Star Trek games to provide a detailed, realistic view, of what piloting a complex individual starship might actually look like, consistent with the Star Trek setting. It is the first one to truly depict and use space terrain and maneuvering, to affect individual gameplay. However, ironically, it is a victim of its own uniqueness.
Because the Interplay game "Starfleet Academy" was roundly criticized as being too simplistic for starship combat, Interplay decided to come up with an improved version. Because the game was so different, it was given an entirely new name, "Klingon Academy," instead of being called for example "Starfleet Academy - Gold Edition." Because of the name, many fans erroneously thought Klingon Academy was simply a pale sequel to Starfleet Academy.
However, it is not. It is clearly a unique game, with its own unique strengths. Only its name kept it from achieving the significance it deserves. Furthermore, many of the critics of Starfleet Academy failed to realize that Klingon Academy is precisely the game which they had been asking for. It is true that there are some problems with game mechanics and playability, as has been noted by various reviews. However, if it had received more customer support and popularity, these problems might have been addressed and solved in later versions. It does remain a valuable part of the Star Trek computer game library.
[edit] Modifications ('Mods')
From the outset, Klingon Academy was designed to be easily modified by its players. Virtually every facet of the game can be modified, requiring varying degrees of skill, ranging from simle text editing for ship specs and menu lists, to complex 3D model creation for the ships and terrain. After the game's *.dat files have been unpacked, the game's file system is accessable to the player, and does not need to be repacked to the *.dat file to be used, allowing for easy installation by novice users.
Klingon Academy models are made in LightWave 5.6, with the raw LWO files being accessable in the unpacked game folder system. Unfortunately, this version of the program has become rare due to its age, but a user-made freeware alternative has been devised by Jörg Körber, used as a converter for the Anim8or 3D freeware program.
While numerous gaming sites across the web host a smattering of the literally thousands of mods made for Klingon Academy, the central modding community forums are found at Klingonacademy.com, of which also includes a growing central database of collected mods, and links to individual modder sites with downloads can be found there. As well, links to modding FAQs and tutorials can be found there.
[edit] References
- GameRankings.com review archive for Star Trek: Klingon Academy. URL accessed on August 6, 2006.
- GameSpot.com review of Star Trek: Klingon Academy. URL accessed on August 6, 2006.
- Archive.org mirror of Interplay's Star Trek: Klingon Academy official website. URL accessed on August 6, 2006. Website archived on July 11, 2000.
- GameRankings.com review archive for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. URL accessed on August 6, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Star Trek: Klingon Academy article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
