More Star Trek in the Works

In a few days, Simon & Schuster Interactive will officially announce the second in its Starship Creator series. Called Warp 2, the title is described as a "Star Trek Tamagotchi." Players will be able to choose from seven different Federation and one Klingon class of starship to build from the ground up. Everything from the hull skin to the size of the crew living quarters can be tweaked and can affect the capital ship's total behavior. For example, spartan living quarters will yield a larger crew, but their morale will most likely dip faster than that of a crew who has luxurious quarters. Conversely, living quarters with a lot of amenities will only yield a smaller crew. You'll have to consider a number of these choices when designing your ship.

After your ship is built, you can send it off to complete a number of missions. While you don't actively participate in these parts of Warp 2, in the end you are given a report of the events that had transpired during the mission. You can also pit your ship against a friend's over the Internet or a modem-to-modem connection. Additionally, your ship(s) can be exported and be used in Simon & Schuster's upcoming real-time/turn-based strategy hybrid, Dominion Wars, due out this fall.

Starship Creator: Warp 2 is currently in development by Imergy and is scheduled for a spring 2000 release.