textfiles/games/REVIEWS/federat.rev

 FEDERATION

 Originally titled FEDERATION OF FREE TRADERS (in its UK incarnation),
FEDERATION is a space-trading role-playing game whose design resembles ELITE and
STARGLIDER II. Visually and aurally, FEDERATION is marvelous, particularly in
the space-flight simulation and dogfighting sequences. Fifteen different (and
quite complex) missions are available. However, you can play the game
successfully without selecting any of them if you choose to be a space trader
instead. (This review is based on the Amiga version; Atari ST version notes
follow.)

 At the outset, I should mention the game's documention problems. The
documentation for the original game was considered inadequate when it was
released in Europe, but it was relatively complete. Spotlight/Cinemaware, for
reasons unknown and unimaginable, decided to omit documentation for whole
portions of FEDERATION. For example, there is a complete "computer language"
called SIMPLE (which is a cross between BASIC and Assembler) built into the
game. How this can be used, or what it can be used for, is difficult to
determine without some documentation. Nevertheless, I was able to discover a
Format command, which allows you to replicate FEDERATION's particular disk
format; this is useful for making a good Gamesave disk. And there are CATalog
and DIRectory commands as well, although they don't produce listings of the
files on the FEDERATION disk.

 Also, while some missions seem more or less straightforward, others are defined
so generally in the game itself that, without further documentation, it becomes
nearly impossible to figure out what to do to complete them. One mission we've
discussed on CompuServe is the "Rescue a Stranded Spaceship" mission. There's no
way of knowing exactly what you're supposed to do to effect a rescue, and if you
are partially successful, you get stuck at the point in the mission where you
receive the Distress Signal. It was only after a group of us searched 'til we
were gray that we discovered that merely finding and identifying the ship
sending out the signal resulted in success with the mission.

 I'm sure it would please all those who have purchased FEDERATION if
Spotlight/Cinemaware would do us the favor of providing a revision of the
documentation. (Even some of the function key assignments are improperly
documented in the manual!)

 Yet, like Dr. Frankenstein's monster, FEDERATION rises from the morass of
inadequate treatment. If you're willing to assume the challenge of figuring out
its inscrutable aspects, and can withstand the concomitant frustrations,
FEDERATION proves to be a major treat.

 There are a number of possible goals in the game, and you can pursue any of
them in whatever order you like. First and foremost is learning about trading,
so you can improve your Hartley Mk I's defensive, offensive, and speed
capabilities. Trading can take many forms, including learning which items at the
space stations are of higher value on the planets, which types of star systems
are in need of foodstuffs, hardware, medical supplies, luxury items, etc., and
which items are currently being produced at the fastest rate in your location.
You can also trade on a black market with other friendly or neutral ships in
space.

 The simplest kind of trading involves finding an item which is cheap enough so
you can corner the station or planet's entire supply. A basic economic lesson is
revealed here: When you buy up the entire stock of a particular item, you create
a shortage, thereby driving up the price; you can then sell the item back at the
higher price and make a profit (there _is_ a one percent "dock-to-hold transfer
fee" taken out of your profits with each trade, though). Repetition of this
activity (ad nauseum) will quickly net high profits, although it's the most
boring way to "succeed" in the game. It's nice to know, though, that if you're
impatient to have a Class 5 Star Drive, 5 megawatt Lasers, and some Sentient
Drones, you can equip your ship in no time with these items and then get on with
other aspects of gameplay.

 FEDERATION is clearly a role-playing game. There are 20 different weapon types,
30 different types of Engine drive, and 5 different levels of shielding to grow
into. Your successes in completing missions assigned to you by the Federation of
Free Traders lead not only to cash rewards, but to promotions in rank, from
Cadet to Admiral. Promotions are also based on the number of hostile ships
you've destroyed, and with each promotion, you gain access to new and more
challenging missions. You thus have long-term goals to reach, which help
structure your experience of the game. It's very easy to imagine yourself a
member of FOFT, working through the various missions to earn promotions. If you
fail in a mission, you're demoted and don't get the cash reward; character (and
ship) development is by no means a linear process.

 FEDERATION treats players to the best combination outer-space flight simulation
and arcade sequences around. While in space, your ship flies more like a
spaceship than an airplane, and the simulation of the effects of attitudinal
thrusters in terms of pitch and yaw is perfect. Control over the ship's movement
works primarily through the joystick, although acceleration, deceleration, and
Hyperspace jumps all involve use of the keyboard. Ship control quickly becomes
intuitive, and leaves you free to develop your maneuvering skills when
dogfighting.

 The Hartley Mk I is capable of landing on planets, as well. You have to move
carefully and at the right angle into the planet's atmosphere (after checking in
at the Immigration Control space station in each star system). Upon re-entry,
your ship begins to behave a little more like an airplane. Different planets
have different kinds of surfaces, and both the radar and out-the-window views
give you a sense of the features you're passing over.

 Some planets are very mountainous, and a real challenge to land on (you have to
come swooping down at the last moment after skimming the mountain tops in order
to be able to land at a safe enough angle on the runway). Others are primarily
ocean. Still others feature lots of hostile terrain, and you'll have to
determine how high to fly to keep out of hostile fire. (You can also fire back
at ground-based installations while making your approach, but I haven't had much
success staying on course _and_ taking out the laser bases, as well.) The radar
and the directional beacon help guide you on your course towards the runway.
Once near it and approaching at the right angle, the ship auto-lands. After
landing, you engage in trade as you would at a space station.

 Docking with the space station, a necessary part of the game, can be a bit
difficult at first. The FED.TIP file available in The Gamers' Forum's library
will help you quickly learn how to dock.

 In space, there are 32 different kinds of ships you'll encounter in each of the
thousands of different star systems you visit, some of them hostile and some of
them friendly or neutral. These ships are 3-D polygonal-filled vector designs (a
la STARGLIDER II), and are some of the most rapidly animated polygon-fill
objects I've ever seen. They vary immensely in terms of speed, offensive, and
defensive capabilities (all outlined in a nicely detailed color chart included
with the game). It's worth spending some time learning how to fly close enough
to identify the different kinds of ships, even if only to enjoy the graphics.
There's an option in the game to examine each of the ship types in your own ship
computer's database, which also helps you learn the shapes.

 When you encounter other ships, they're identified on your radar as either
hostile, friendly, or unidentified (missiles, meteors, ship convoys, satellites,
and space stations are all separately identified, as well). If they're friendly
or unidentified, you'll be able to communicate with them via your ship-to-ship
network, and can carry on a relatively rudimentary conversation about the
possibilities of doing some black market trading (I _wish_ some info on how to
conduct a productive conversation had been included!).

 However, if the other ships are hostile, you're in for a challenging dogfight,
one that's as exciting as any you'd find in a good air combat simulation. Taking
on a cluster of four or five ships simultaneously (without crashing into any of
them in the process) is an engaging effort.

 The Hartley Mk I is equipped with a cleverly designed radar system, which tells
you not only where the ships are located on a horizontal plane in relationship
to your own, but also where they are on a vertical plane. This is accomplished
by providing dynamic "stalks" above or below the points identifying the
positions of the other ships, which increase or decrease depending on whether
you're flying towards the plane they're on or away from it. Take the way STELLAR
CRUSADE indicates the positions of the various star systems and animate it, and
you'll see exactly what I mean. Although it sounds complicated, this kind of
radar gives you a simple, clear, and precise sense (once you understand it) of
the position of the other ships near you. The radar can be zoomed in and out
from 0 to 8x magnification, so you can use it either to scan the whole star
system at the 0 range, or to scan the area immediately around your ship. (I
found 5x or 6x magnification to be most effective during dogfights.)

 Along with the radar comes a rather complete ship's computer, which is used for
a number of purposes. In order to trade, equip your ship, select missions,
communicate with other ships, set courses, or check inventory, you must first
log on to GALNET. The logon process is not unlike that required by any BBS, and
your time online is recorded and indicated when you log off (incidentally, this
also contributes a lot to the realism of the imagined universe). Once on the
net, you have a range of commands available to access the various
above-mentioned tasks.

 When setting your course, you can access a view of the galaxy you're in (one of
32,767 available), and can plot a course to any star system within that galaxy.
If you've selected a mission, there's a Mission Destination command that will
automatically lock in a destination for you (if it's within the range of your
engine and fuel capacities). If you want to move to a new galaxy, you lock onto
a star system first, and then hit the "G" key to make the jump (you must have
purchased a drive powerful enough to make it, of course).

 You can also access the Navigation Library, which contains an extensive (and I
mean _extensive_!) database of all the star systems in the game. For each system
you investigate, statistics are presented regarding quality of the system's
starport, diameter of the main inhabited planet in the system, atmosphere,
percentage of surface covered by water, population level, government type, tech
index, and law level. All of this information is useful; based on the
information provided for each system, you can decide on trading prospects,
chances of making a safe landing, and the likelihood of running into lots of
high-tech or low-tech hostile ships.

 One of the UK reviews of FEDERATION complained bitterly about the fact that
hostile ships made moving around in each system a lengthy and difficult process.
Clearly, the reviewer had not figured out that the difficulty only occurs in
those systems full of hostiles. Carefully choosing which system you're going to
visit, and using the most information you can gather, makes a huge difference in
both your success in the game, and your enjoyment of it.

 Finally, there is a nicely laid out Damage Control system; you can always check
on the status of all ship systems, and assign repair drones to those systems in
need of work (repair drones are used up, and can be replaced at the space
stations).

 The music and sound effects in FEDERATION are incredible; you have a choice of
20 different compositions, most of which are richly rendered (if somewhat
aggressive) electronic versions of classical pieces, including movements from
works by Vivaldi, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Khatchaturian, and Delibes. You can start
or stop the piece you've selected at any time, and it's a real blast to initiate
the music during the docking sequence; the experience is much like the opening
docking sequence in the movie "2001." There are klaxon alarms, special sound
effects for each of the weapons systems, and appropriate sound effects for the
Hyperspace jump sequence (a "Star Wars"-style visual sequence that is ample
demonstration of the Amiga's superb graphics capabilities).

 The graphics are equally stunning. Your ship's control panel is beautifully
designed, rivaling that in STARGLIDER II. The out-the-window universe is full of
blinking stars (all right, so stars only blink due to atmospheric conditions
that aren't present in space, but it sure looks nice). The planets, meteors,
other spaceships, and satellites are all amazing polygon-fill renderings.
There's plenty to look at wherever you are in the game, and coming up on a space
station highlighted against the background of the local planet, with the skies
of the universe framing the whole scene, is a breathtaking experience.

 The game is distributed on one disk, which (according to Cinemaware) is not
copy-protected. (I discussed this extensively with a QA staffer at Cinemaware.)
However, the disk itself uses a proprietary format, so you can only copy it if
you can figure out how to do so. I couldn't, but I'd like to, because disk
accesses are sometimes rather brutal! Fortunately, they only occur when loading
the game or playing a new music selection. A joystick is required for play, and
the game will work with 512K of RAM on A1000s, A500s, A2000s, and A2500s. Game
saves are possible, but only one save per disk is allowed.

 I _love_ this game. Simply put, FEDERATION is one of the most amazing programs
I've encountered for the Amiga. It's a shame the documentation is so shabby.

 ATARI ST VERSION NOTES

 The 512K, color-only Atari ST version of FEDERATION is much like the Amiga
version described above, up to and including the 20 background songs and the
poor and inaccurate documentation. Basically a clone of Firebird's ELITE, the ST
incarnation of FEDERATION has outstanding graphics and animation, 32K worth of
galaxies and eight million planets (eight million planets...that's funny),
joystick and keyboard control, save option, and copy protection.

 In the manual, the ST key reference lists F6, F7, and F8 as the keystrokes that
will invoke, respectively, the ship's computer, the navigation computer, and
damage control: The correct keystrokes are, respectively, F8, F6, and F7. Also,
the numeric keypad moves the cross-hair on the navigation screen, not the cursor
keys indicated in the manual.

 If you log on to the Galactic Network and enter Help, you'll be asked if this
is a new game; if it is, you'll be given an ID number that you'll have to
remember or write down if you hope to log on later. When you do sign on again
with the ID number, entering Help displays a list of the undocumented disk
commands, such as Format and Dir.

 As a space-flight simulator, FEDERATION is wonderful, I suppose. The radar
screen works fine and seems accurate, but it makes absolutely no sense. I have
yet to blow up a pirate attack ship, mainly because I can't fly the Hartley Mark
I worth beans; I couldn't fly the ELITE ship worth beans, either. All the flight
physics belong in ORBITER: If the Millenium Falcon followed the physical laws of
space flight, we'd still be at the local cinema.

 Since FEDERATION follows the laws of airlessness (as much as can be expected in
512K), it seems logical that you'll be playing this game forever -- eight
million planets is a lot of planets to visit, even without strict adherence to
flight laws. This non-astronautical bent is probably a deficiency inherent in
me, and my only consolation is that at least FEDERATION doesn't require you to
deal with space combat on the continuous, nanosecond by nanosecond basis that
ELITE demanded.

 The FEDERATION package for the ST comes with one copy-protected disk, an
MS-DOS/ST/AMIGA instruction manual, a FEDERATION poster, and a poster of all the
ships. You'll need a blank diskette for saved games (one save per disk). You
might want to format it ahead of time, although you should be able to use the
Format command available via GalNet.

 FEDERATION's graphics and animation on the ST are fabulous, some of the best
around; they're even better when you know the correct keystrokes. The sound
effects are fine. The musical selections really add something to the game, which
is unusual because most soundtracks become an annoyance after a while (usually a
very short while). If you can handle the tricky and frustrating space flight
activity, FEDERATION will reward you with a fine gaming experience.

 FEDERATION is published by Cinemaware and distributed by Electronic Arts.

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