Stellar Frontier

Stellar Frontier is a RTS-type game made by Stardock in 1997 (Developed by Drengin.net). 2D Top-down view. Unsupported as of 2003? Recently, Stardock decided to release the game's source code, making the game Open source, the installer with the source code is not released yet. The open source is under the EULA license.

Gameplay
The game is an Online-RTS, basicly, anybody can join in at anytime. Players play in servers that are on the "Nexus". The main nexus is served by Stardock. The nexus's address is (sf.stardock.net). If the nexus happens to be offline, there are 2 choices: Stardock's Backup nexus (sf-x.stardock.net), or the 3rd party SFDC (Stellar Frontier Deveolpment Center) nexus (nexus.game-server.cc). Players can switch nexus'es if there are no servers on that particular nexus they are on. Another way to play is keep one's stats on one nexus, and then change the nexus address, then select server, then change nexus address again without pressing Refresh, then press OK.

The "warp drive" in this game is called Q-drive. Q-drive stands for Quantum Drive. Speed is calculated by c (EX: 0.65c, Q-drive speed ranges around 1.00 to 3.00, 3 being the max in the stock game.)

Lag can be a big factor on "Player VS Player" fights. Lag is factored on ms (EX: 062ms, usual server lag level). Extensive Lag coverage is on GAIN.

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

The current version/revision is 1.2RC (5,6 or 7). Any 1.2RC# will work to be able to play Online. Older versions will tend to process errors since those versions are heavly outdated.

Hacker
The game's Nexus usually falls prey to a hacker called Skillet at random times. Skillet has been known to "destroy" servers by using his well known "server attack" by crashing the server client on the victim's computer. Side effects of this reported by some player/server clients have been registry defects & other misc. stuff related to damages. Skillet calls himself Gawd, since he's at the top of the Galactic Aces list on sf.stardock.net (with 500k+ points/Deity rank). Gawd is also his shipname. All players should avoid Skillet at all costs.

Skillet has drove many players away from the game over the years, particulary veterans. Skillet is also responsible for the "possible death" of the SFDC. Only the SFDC nexus remains, all SFDC servers have ceased running as of May 2006.

Main Races
Arcean Drengin Terran

NPC Race(s)
Torian (Only mentioned in a dialog for 1 scenario)

Pirate (4th Playable race)

Playable Ships (All Races)


Freighter Scout Destroyer Cruiser Battleship Dreadnaught

"Stellar Aces" Ships (Discontinued since unsupported date?)

Battlecruiser Marauder Starbase


 * Pirates use Terran designs except the Destroyer type, where the only Pirate design, the Raider takes the place.

Ranks

 * All ranks are Universal, no specific rank for a particular race

Cadet Ensign 2nd Lieutenant 1st Lieutenant Senior Lieutenant Lieutenant Commander Commander Captian Senior Captian Commondore Rear Admiral Vice Admiral Admiral Fleet Admiral Emperor Deity

Technical
The game uses Bitmaps as the main source of pictures. Usual game space would take up 70 MB HDD space. All the ships are made out of a long bitmap file (EX: The Drengin Marauder uses the file SF-D-MA.bmp), which builds the frames required to make the ship look like it's turning direction. (36 frames). Planets do not have a 36 frame count, but Asteroids do have frames. The starfield is a 1024x1024 bitmap.

Servers are made from a .DAT file, and is semi-complex to build a "mod" out of these files. It is required that port 20001 is to be open while hosting servers. Ports 20001 to 20009 have been reported to be used as server ports as well.

Current Fleets
[SIN] (Leaders are Tovec and Burton1)

[OF] (Outcast Falcons) (Leader is Darthan)

[PoSH] (Pirates of the Stellar Hope) (Leader is CriticaLEdge)

[ZF] (Zepler Fleet) (Leader is Barsonnian)

[ACE] (Alpha Clan Elite, 3rd incarnation) (Led by ???)