Star Trek: Bridge Commander
This game is a space combat simulation set in the Star Trek: Next Generation universe. It puts you in command of your own Starfleet starship and crew. It features a single player story and various multiplayer modes. It is very often referred to as STBC or BC.
Discord
If you are looking for company or help, try the Bridge Commander Central Discord:
Game is not Starting
If you cannot start the game (properly) try the following things:
- Check if your Legacy Components in Windows 10 are on: You can find it under Control Panel → Programs and Features → Turn Windows features on or off → make sure Legacy Components and DirectPlay are selected.
- Start the stbc.exe as Administrator and in Windows XP or 7 compatibility mode.
Gameplay Tips
- We see many people on YouTube and Twitch just sitting in the captain's chair and ordering the crew around to do the hard work. This is of course a fun experience for a while, but you can do a much better job success-wise by doing it yourself. Just press the space bar and you take control over the actions of your ship.
- In the heat of battle it is very easy missing a dialog. To see what you have missed just click on your first officer (F3) and have a look at the log.
- If you want a more cinematic view, just press F9 and switch through all the different views (F1 - F9).
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For all the different controls have a look at the manual or the key binds in your settings. Some important key binds are:
- F1 to F5: Selects the different bridge stations.
- Shift + 1, resp. 1 - 3: Switch to Green/Yellow/Red Alert.
- t: Select next target.
- z: Select previous target.
- 0 - 9 / Mouse Wheel: Adjust ship's speed level.
- r: Full reverse.
- f / Mouse 1: Fire phasers.
- x / Mouse 2: Fire torpedo
- g / Mouse 3: Fire disruptor
- +: Zoom in.
- -: Zoom out.
- y: Zoom in on selected target.
- c: Switch to next camera mode.
- v: Toggle reverse chase and normal mode.
- SHIFT: Camera rotation (works only with some camera modes).
- DEL: Skips dialogue.
Playing in Widescreen
The best and fastest way to play the game in widescreen is to download the custom config. Read the text file from inside the zip archive and copy everything into the appropriate folders.
You can also change the resolution yourself. Start with changing the display height and width in your option.cfg. Download and unpack the SDK (get it from Gamefront) or the file above. Copy the files from folder Build into your BC folder. Then open the file scripts\tactical\interface\WeaponsDisplay.py with a text editor and look for the line containing import App. Add the additional resolution in the blocks below it, like this:
Click here to view configuration file example
dTORP_X_BIAS = {
640: 1,
800: 1,
1024: 2,
1280: 3,
1366: 3,
1600: 3,
1920: 3
}
dTORP_Y_BIAS = {
640: -7,
800: -7,
1024: -7,
1280: -7,
1366: -7,
1600: -7,
1920: -7
}
dPHASER_X_BIAS = {
640: 1,
800: 1,
1024: 2,
1280: 3,
1366: 3,
1600: 3,
1920: 3
}
dPHASER_Y_BIAS = {
640: -8,
800: -8,
1024: -8,
1280: -8,
1366: -8,
1600: -8,
1920: -8
}
Do not attempt to create new lines from scratch. Better copy existing lines and change the value accordingly. Next you have to go to your scripts\icons folder, open the LCARS_640.py and edit the following lines:
SCREEN_PIXEL_WIDTH = 1920.0
SCREEN_PIXEL_HEIGHT = 1080.0
POWER_GAUGE_WIDTH = 53.0 / 1920.0
POWER_GAUGE_HEIGHT = 125.0 / 1080.0
Be aware, that the upper limit for the resolutions is 2048 × 1440. The game will crash if you exceed this limit.
How to Play Online
Since the shutdown of all the Gamespy servers, it's no longer possible to play the multiplayer mode without some help. Thankfully, Bridge Commander supports LAN mode you can play it via a VPN client like Radmin or ZeroTier, alternatively (if you know the IP address of the host), by connecting directly to the address.