Stellar Frontier

Stellar Frontier
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Developer(s)	Stardock & SF.net
Publisher(s)	Drengin.net & SF.net
Designer(s)	Doug Hendrix, Neil Hillis, Brad Wardell, Chris Valleriani, Matt Hoffman, Nathan Hart Allen
Engine	2D
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Linux with Wine
Release	1997 (Worldwide)
Genre(s)	Space simulation
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Stellar Frontier is a multiplayer space strategy/shooter game made by Doug Hendrix in 1995 and later licensed by Stardock. It was one of the first games on the TotalGaming.net subscription package. The game is now open source and a small team (SF.net) have taken the role of releasing new versions. Though the Stardock nexus is down, there is now a new nexus located at nexus.stellarfrontier.net. A new release has been born as of December 30, 2008 that contains multiple updates. More information can be found at http://StellarFrontier.net.

Story

Mankind had barely gotten faster than light travel when the Drengin Empire and the Torians had arrived in the Sol System. Each race wanted full control of our solar system which was merely part of a larger goal for domination of the galaxy. They had possessed faster than light travel for centuries and their weapons were very powerful. Luckily, we had the home field advantage and more importantly, the Drengin and Torians were age-old enemies... Enemies that only had a small foot hold in Sol.

As a lowly Ensign in the Terran fleet you will command a small star ship charged with ridding the Sol System of its invaders. Once you have done that, you will take your fleets to new star systems and begin the process of bringing Earth’s presence to new frontiers. As time goes on, you will move up through the ranks until you are an Admiral, at which time you will be able to decide what types of ships or space stations to build. Until then, you’ll have to make do with whatever EarthGov gives you.

If all goes well, you will liberate the galaxy from the tyranny of the Drengin and Arceans and bring a long lasting peace to our people.

Gameplay

Stellar Frontier is a 2D top-down space shooter game where you are in command of your own starship. The player chooses a race to fight with (the four standard races are: Arcean, Drengin, Terran, and Pirate) and the objective is to "conquer the system" by taking control of the key planets. However, many players enjoy playing the game just to fight other players, these players usually do not bother to "conquer the system". Stellar Frontier can be played offline (against the computer), on a local intranet, or on the Internet.

The "warp drive" in this game is called Q-drive. Q-drive stands for Quantum Drive. Speed is stated in c (EX: 0.65c, Q-drive speed ranges around 1.00 to 4.00, with 4.00 being the max in the stock game).

Lag can be a big factor on "Player vs. Player" fights. Lag is measured in milliseconds (EX: At the moment 62ms is the lowest lag possible.) Extensive Lag coverage is on GAIN.

There can be as many as 100 AIs on the server. When the game was released, many said that the AI was the most advanced of the genre (Sci-Fi RTS).

Internet play

Players play on servers that are hosted on the "Nexus". The new online nexus is served by Stellarfrontier.net. The nexus's address is nexus.stellarfrontier.net. Anybody can join in the online game at any time.

On August 4, 2006, Stardock Systems closed the NEXUS at sf.stardock.net permanently.

On July 31, 2007, The game became Freeware, the codes to unlock the locked parts of the game are now provided for free. Instructions for getting a code is provided on the main site.

On November 18, 2008, The game source code was released, and a new nexus was set up (stellarfrontier.net). The game is now open to modification of the source code, and a small group of programmers have started working on a new release.

On December 30, 2008, The new Stellar Frontier client & server is launched, and is now operational. The game no longer requires any codes, and is deemed completely freeware.

Game information

Main races

As of Stellar Frontier version 1.3, the standard races of the game are as follows:

• Arcean
• Drengin
• Terran
• Pirate

Playable ships

The following ships are available in the game. The player must meet a rank requirement to use each ship, with a higher requirement for more powerful ships. Each two ranks gained, a new ship is available to the user to use. The Marauder & BattleCruiser in pre 1.3 has been balanced to fit the new ship scematics as the game is now freeware.

• Freighter
• Corvette
• Frigate
• Destroyer
• Cruiser
• BattleCruiser
• Battleship
• Dreadnought
• Starbase

Ranks

All ranks are universal for all the races; there are no race-specific ranks for each race. The online ranking is listed from lowest to highest as follows:

• Cadet
• Ensign
• 2nd Lieutenant
• 1st Lieutenant
• Senior Lieutenant
• Lieutenant Commander
• Commander
• Captain
• Senior Captain
• Fleet Captain
• Commodore
• Rear Admiral
• Vice Admiral
• Admiral
• Fleet Admiral
• Emperor
• Deity

External links

Official

• SF.NET The official game website
• SFOnline The old official (Stardock) game website

Forum

• StellarForum The official game forum

Other

• SF Central - Game website complementing SF.NET
• Nexus Player Management System - Allows management of your online player account