I want to create one from scratch. I envision a hex based game with a Civilization flavor. Playable races would be Cardassian, Klingon, Romulan and Federation. Year range would be 2154-2500. I have several fleshed out ideas for the tech trees. Federation would have: advanced sensors, project genesis, neutral zone, advanced warp, tachyon net and other techs. Romulans: cloak, improved cloak, sneak attack, some sort of epsionage/sabotage bonuses and others. Cardassians: Advanced spying/sabotage, DMZ, occupation/subjigation bonus, others. Klingon: unknown You would have some sort of internal happiness metric that you would need to maintain or face a penalty. I propose that you you lose the Presidency of the Federation for 2-4 turns. The Klingons would have some sort of civil war. The Romulans would be similar to the Federation but perhaps the period of paralysis would be shorter before the Senate confirms a new leader. The Cardassians will be weak so I propose giving them no penalty. You are the gestalt embodyment of the Military. Could this be done in Java? Are other people working on anything similar? I know there is some sort of BotF clone game out there but I want something that is true Trek and slightly simpler if possible.
Well, there are mods made for Space Empires 4. I personally took one such mod and modified it to make the Milky Way look more like Star Trek. I play it from time to time: However, due to the nature of the AI in that game, is quite hard to play UFP, as all the other players are prone to attacking you (even if they are not so prone to breaking treaties). http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a205/Redrake/se42.jpg http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a205/Redrake/se43.jpg http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a205/Redrake/se46.jpg Each race can be customized up to what ships uses and even what tech is available to them. I am currently playing on that map with a very large Terran Empire, which is close to conquering Romulans, Ferengi and is also at war with Dominion, Breen, Klingons, Cardassians and Borg. I also have Xindi, Vulcan, Son'a and Nausicaans as subjugated races. Betazed and Andorians were completely conquered.
Absolutely, you can easily make a 2d graphics game in java. You can of course also use one of the 3d libraries like JMonkeyEngine. If you wan't to do it without writing everything from scratch (it's fun but takes a LOT of time) you could have a look at Unity which has a free version (but you must use javascript or C# for programming) There is a forum dedicated to star trek fan made strategy games sort of, and it's located at http://botf2.star-trek-games.com and would probably be a great place for you to meet people and bounce some ideas around. This place is mainly for Supremacy which I assume is the BotF clone you mentioned, but other games as well. I'm personally working on a game called Trekwar which is a java 4X strategy game in the alpha stages. The source code will be released shortly under an apache open source license in case you wan't to have a look at how a strategy game can be implemented in Java. Drop me an e-mail if you wan't me to let you know when the code is released.