About this FAQ
This FAQ is all about Elite Force. It will hopefully answer all of your questions concerning the game. It will be kept updated so you'll always have the latest info at your resource.
About the author
Chris(Demolisher)Anastasia has been in the Elite Force scene since the beginning. First I started out as a news guy on Hexenworld.net, HereticII.com, and Raven-Games.com. I've been a very active member of the Hexen II and Heretic II communities ever since both games started; always playing, helping out in and participating in community events, and have made many friends. I've also done some minor level designing for both games, but they were really simple levels. When I heard Raven was making a Star Trek Voyager game, I got the demo right away and I really liked it! I did the demo walkthrough and am constantly on the look out for Elite Force news. Currently I'm in college and I wish I had more time to play games and do stuff for their sites.
What is Elite Force?
Elite Force is the ultimate in sci-fi first-person shooter action, using the Quake III Arena(TM) engine - the best 3-D shooter engine in existence. The first game based on the Star Trek Voyager universe, Elite Force pits players against a multitude of Star Trek enemies, including the relentless Borg and never-before-seen aliens in intense single-player and multiplayer combat missions. Elite Force will be the first title released using the licensed Quake III Arena(TM) engine.
Is there a demo available and where can I download it?
The demo is available for download at the following servers:
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How big is the demo?
The demo download is approximately 115MB in size. It is highly recommended that dial-up users use a download utility like GoZilla or GetRight to ensure proper downloads.
What is included in the demo?
The Elite Force demo includes a tutorial, two single-player missions and two deathmatch maps. The main cast and crew are all available for DM play. Five weapons, each with a dual-fire mode are included in your demo arsenal.
How do I install the demo?
The demo comes with it's own installing program. Simply choose the directory you want the game to install to.
What are the system requirements to run the game?
Minimum System Requirements:
· Windows® 95, 98, 98 SE, NT 4.0 SP5, or Windows 2000 with 100% compatible computer system
· 3-D Hardware Accelerator with full OpenGL® Support
· Pentium 233 MHz MMX® Processor and 8 MB Video Card
or Pentium II 266 MHz MMX® Processor with 4 MB Video Card
or AMD® 350 MHz K6®-2 Processor with 4 MB Video Card
· 64 MB RAM Required
· Quad-Speed CD-ROM drive (600 K/Sec Sustained Transfer Rate)
· DirectX 7.0a or 100% compatible drivers
· Joystick and mouse supported
· Supports the following 3D accelerator cards:
All 3Dfx Chips (except Voodoo Rush)
ATI Rage Pro* & Rage 128
ATI Rage MAXX
S3 Savage 4
S3 Savage 3
Savage 2000
nVIDIA Riva 128* and 128ZX
nVIDIA TNT and TNT2
nVIDIA GeForce, and GeForce2 and GeForce 256
Matrox G400
Intel i740
* Requires the low end (simple) shaders (see Video Options below).
Recommended System Requirements:
· Windows® 95, 98, 98 SE, NT 4.0 SP5, or Windows 2000 with 100% compatible computer system
· 3-D Hardware Accelerator with full OpenGL® Support
· Pentium II 300 MHz MMX® Processor (or greater) with 16 MB Video Card
· 64 MB RAM (or greater)
· Quad-Speed CD-ROM drive (600 K/Sec Sustained Transfer Rate)
· DirectX 7.1 or 100% compatible drivers
· Three-button wheel mouse
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What video cards are not supported by Elite Force?
There are many common video cards that are not powerful enough to run the game and/or are not fully OpenGL compatible. These include, but are not limited to:
• Matrox G100 Matrox Millenium
• Anything with Virge in it (S3 cards)
• Power VR1 (pcx2) - (The Power VR2 (neon) seems to work fine)
• Rage IIc
• Anything with Sis in it 530/640 etc.
• Permedia2 Cards (several brands)
How do I run the Elite Force demo?
Single Player: The single player game allows you, the player, to play Alexander(or Alexandria) Munro, 2nd in command of the Hazard Team, which was formed by Lt. Commander Tuvok to handle extreme situations that Voyager and her crew may encounter. When you install the Elite Force Demo, the installer will place two options in the start menu: one for single player and one for multiplayer. From the Start menu select “Programs/Raven Software/Star Trek Voyager Elite Force Demo/Play Elite Force Single Player” to run the single player game.
Multiplayer: The multiplayer element of Elite Force is a different entity from the single player game. It has a separate game executable and a unique set of game play options. When you install the Elite Force Demo, the installer will place two options in the start menu: one for single player and one for multiplayer. From the Start Menu select programs/Raven Software/ Star Trek Voyager Elite Force Demo/Play Elite Force Multiplayer” to play the multiplayer game.
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Elite Force Quick Start Guide
If you are a veteran of first-person shooter games, you will no doubt wish to circumvent this manual and get right into the action. This quick start guide is for you. If you're new to the genre, please read on...
Basic Controls:
MOUSE:
Look Left/Right/Up/Down - Mouse Movement
Move Forward - Right Mouse Button
Fire - Left Mouse Button
Secondary Fire - Middle Mouse Button
Switch Weapons - Mouse Wheel Up/Down
KEYBOARD:
Move Forward/Back - "Up Arrow" or "Down Arrow"
Turn Left/Right - "Left Arrow" or "Right Arrow"
Strafe (Move) Left/Right - "," or "."
Run - "Shift" (Left or Right, Hold Down)
Fire - "Ctrl" (Left or Right)
Secondary Fire - "M"
Use/Open - "Spacebar"
Jump - "/" or "D"
Select Weapon - "1" through "9" (Not on Number Pad)
Special Commands:
Crouch - "N" or "C"
Select Prev/Next Item - "[" or "]"
Skip Cutscenes - "Enter"
Mission Info/Objectives - "Tab"
Starting Weapons:
1 - Phaser
Primary Attack - Low Power Setting
Secondary Attack - High Power Setting
2 - Compression Rifle
Primary Attack - Single Shot Energy Bolt
Secondary Attack - High Power setting
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How does the menu system work?
Elite Force's Main menu can be accessed at any time during a game by pressing the Esc key. Maneuver the cursor with the
mouse or use the up arrow and down arrow keys to highlight options inside the Main menu. At the Main menu, you can choose from the following: New Game, Load Game, Configure, Voyager Crew, Credits, and Quit. New Game This sub menu
of the LCARS system allows you to choose your difficulty level and gender and then launch your new game.
Game Difficulty:
Normal - Recommended for players new to the first person shooter genre.
Challenging - Recommended for intermediate players.
Hard - Recommended for expert players.
Gender:
Male - Play the game as Ensign Alexander Munro.
Female - Play the game as Ensign Alexandria Munro.
Learning The Basics:
Tutorial - Complete a Holodeck training simulation with instructions from Lt. Commander Tuvok. Playing through the tutorial level will instruct you on movement, combat, basic functionality of the Hazard Suit and other important game elements.
Starting The Game:
Engage - Once you have chosen the difficulty and your gender, click Engage to launch a new game with your current settings. Load Game This sub menu of the LCARS system allows you to load a saved game to pick up where you left off on a previous adventure.
Description - Allows you to create and view a description of each saved game for your reference. Load - Loads the selected saved game. Delete - Deletes the selected saved game. Current Saved Games - A list of the games you currently have saved.
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How do I configure Elite Force?
This sub menu of the LCARS system allows you to adjust settings to optimize your gaming experience: Video, Controls, Sound, Game Options and Default Settings.
CONTROLS
Within this sub-menu, you can customize your control set. You can change the following settings:
Weapons - Change the controls allowing you to select your current weapon.
Attack/Look - Change the controls that control how you fire your weapon and the commands to look around your environment.
Movement - Modify the keys that control moving the player.
Mouse/Joystick - This menu adjusts the mouse and joystick properties. Currently only basic joystick configurations are available.
Free Look - Allows the mouse to control the view of the player. Can be on or off.
Mouse Speed - This slider affects the responsiveness of the mouse. Lower setting will slow the mouse speed.
Invert Mouse - Switches the orientation of the y-axis of the mouse.
Smooth Mouse - This is recommended for more accurate mouse tracking. Set to off if you are experiencing difficulties with controlling the mouse.
Enable Joystick - Enables joystick control.
Joystick Threshold - Adjusts joystick sensitivity.
Other Options - This menu allows you to toggle several different options:
Key Turn - This slider affects how fast the player turns when using the keyboard.
Always Run - Allows you to always run while moving without pressing a run key. This can be on or off. If you have it turned on, pressing the run key (default is Shift) will slow you to walking speed.
Look Spring - This option can be set to on or off. If you are a keyboard-only player, turn look spring on to center the camera each time you move the player forward.
Autoswitch - When you pick up a new weapon, this will automatically switch your current in-view weapon to the one you just picked up. It can be Off (no switching), Best (always switch to a better weapon), or Safe (switch to a better weapon but not to ranged weapons).
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VIDEO
Within this sub menu, you can adjust your video setting to optimize the performance of the game. Choose Video Data or Video Additional to change specific settings, or Driver Info to view your system's current video driver version. Once you have made configuration changes, click the Apply button to restart the video system.
Video Data: The following settings can be changed to improve the performance of the game. In general, if you have a high-end system, you should be able to select High for several of the following options. If you notice a significant drop in frame rate, try lowering the settings for some of the following options:
Video Options - You can toggle through a list of preset configurations.
GL Driver - If you have more that 3D adapter in your system, you may select adapter by changing the GL Driver. This is typically useful if you have a 2D/3D primary adapter (like a nVidia TNT) and an add-on adapter (such as the 3dfx V2000).
GL Extensions - If you are experiencing video problems, try setting this to Off. Performance will suffer, but some compatibility problems may be fixed. Normally, this should be set to On.
Video Mode - You can adjust the screen size and resolution of the game. Depending on your system, you may or may not have access to all of the mode options.
Color Depth - Choose between Default, 16 Bit, or 32 Bit settings. Not all video cards support 32 Bit color. Check with your video card manufacturer if you have questions about Bit depth.
Full Screen - You may toggle this option on (default) or off (to run the game in a desktop window).
Lighting - Choose between Lightmap (default) or Vertex lighting (less accurate lighting that requires less system resources).
Geometric Detail - Choose a setting from Low, Medium or High. This adjusts the amount of polygonal detail represented in the game world geometry.
Texture Detail - Choose between Low, Medium, High, or Very High. High texture detail is recommended for high-end video cards.
Texture Quality -Choose a setting from Default, 16 Bit, or 32 Bit. Not all video cards support 32 Bit textures. Check with your video card manufacturer if you have questions about Bit depth.
Texture Filter - Choose between Bilinear filtering or Trilinear Filtering. Bilinear is the default setting. Trilinear filtering is more system intensive.
Simple Shaders - Choosing off will lower the detail of some animating textures and transparency effects. This may be useful for older video cards (such as the ATI Rage Pro and nVIDIA Riva 128).
Video Additional: This sub menu allows you to change miscellaneous video settings.
Brightness - Adjusts the brightness of the game to compensate for variations in monitors and video cards. Move the slider to the right to increase the brightness.
Gamma Correction - A scale of numbers from 1 to 18 that gauge the gamma of the game. All numbers should be visible and readable on your monitor. If all the numbers are not visible, increase the brightness until you can see them all.
Screensize - Adjusts the size of the game window on your desktop used to view the game. If you want to play the game in a window you can adjust the bar to the left.
Cinematic Detail - Can be set to low or high. This selects the quality of the video playback for optimal system performance. Set to low if you have a low-end video card to help avoid "skipping" during the playback.
Driver Info: Click on this tab to view the driver version for your video card that is currently installed on your machine. If you are having troubles with the video options, it could be because of outdated video drivers. Check with your video card manufacturer to see what the most current driver version is. If you have older drivers, update them for optimal game performance.
SOUND
Within this sub-menu, you can customize your sound options. The volume of different types of sounds in the game can be raised or lowered, depending on your gameplay preference. You can change the following settings:
Effects Volume - A slider that allows you to change the sound volume of weapon, explosion, and other ambient in-game sound effects.
Music Volume - A slider that allows you to change the sound volume of music.
Voice Volume - A slider that allows you to change the sound volume of character voices.
Sound Quality - Choose between High or Low settings. The game will restart when clicked. This is normal.
A3D - Allows you to select A3D audio if your sound card supports it. If you're not sure if your sound card supports A3D, set this option to default.
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GAME OPTIONS
Within this sub-menu, you can customize various game options. You can change the following settings:
Light Flares - The engine's use of Light Flares or "halos" can be turned on or off. Turning light flares off will increase performance on low-end video cards.
Sync Every Frame - This option evens out the performance of various graphics cards at the possible expense of
performance.
Identify Target - Toggles the ability to identify a target with descriptive text phrases on or off.
Dynamic Lights - This option can be turned on or off. Dynamic lights are system resource intensive. Turning them off will increase game performance.
Wall Marks - Wall damage and decals from weapon fire can be turned on or off. Turning wall marks off will increase performance on low-end video cards.
Crosshair - You can choose the shape of your crosshair by cycling through the selections, or you can choose to have no crosshair at all.
Subtitles - You can set subtitles during cinematics to on or off.
DEFAULT SETTINGS
You can return all settings to their defaults by clicking this menu button. You will be asked to confirm your choice.
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How do I play multiplayer (holomatch)?
Elite Force Holomatch Main Menu - This menu is the primary interface for all of the multiplayer options. It allows you to select Solo Match, Multi Match, Mods and Demos as well as a complete set of control configuration options.
Solo Match - Allows you to play Holomatch against artificially intelligent "bots." No connection to the Internet is required. Choose from a variety of characters to play in pre-configured scenarios or set up your own scenario to play.
Multi Match - Play over the Internet against other human opponents. The Multi Match menu allows you to browse for servers on your LAN and the Internet, set up your own server or select a specific server to connect to.
Configure - Allows you to set up your controls and video options. For assistance, please see the descriptions of the configuration menus in section 6.
Demos - Allows you to view demo recordings of your multiplayer battles. Viewing the demos is a good way to analyze your strengths and weaknesses as a player so you can better prepare yourself for future online or Solo Match combat.
Mods - Allows you to select modifications of Elite Force that you have installed on your computer that supplement the multiplayer element. Mod information can be found at www.eliteforce.net
Quit - Brings up the prompt to quit Elite Force multiplayer and return to your desktop environment.
Holomatch Items
The following is a list of items you can collect during a Multiplayer Match:
Health Pickups
Booster Hypospray - Small Health (looks like a hypo): Adds 5 to your health.
Emergency Hypospray - Large Health (looks like a bigger hypo): Adds 50 to your health.
Holdable Pickups
Portable Medkit - Usable Medkit (looks like a medkit): Restores your health up to 100
Nano-Regenerative Protoplasmer - Regeneration (looks like box with power shell): Raises your health toward
Armor Pickups
Personal Deflector Screen - Armor 1 (armor with faint shield): 100 points of armor.
Isokinetic Deflector Screen - Armor 2 (armor with stronger shield): 200 points of armor.
Powerup Pickups
Metaphasic Shielding - Temporary Invulnerability (armor with gold shell).
Personal Cloaking Device - Temporary Invisibility.
Quantum Weapon Enhancer - Temporary Quad Damage.
Temporal Accelerator - Temporary Haste: Run speed increased 150%, rate of fire increased 75%.
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What are some known demo issues?
Pressing Esc during a cinematic could cause skipping problems. Similarly, do not save a game in the middle of a cinematic, as upon loading the game may not function properly.
If you change video settings while playing the demo, you may receive a sound file missing error message. However, you may continue playing without further incident.
Refreshing the server causes the sound to skip as if the game has locked up on Windows NT. Connecting to a server on the LAN takes a long time (1 minute+). We have found that NT machines with both IPX and tcp/ip protocols have caused this to happen. This can be remedied by removing either protocol and leaving only TCP/IP or IPX bound to your network adapter. You can also add "net_noipx 1" (without quotes) to the gameshortcut command line. Example: "c:\program files\raven\Star Trek Elite Force\HMstev.exe" +set net_noipx 1. You may also add this command in the console: net_noipx 1 You must enter this command before you launch the map. To bring down the console press the tilde "~" key. It is to the left of "1" and above "tab"
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Where can I find more information about the full version?
You can find more information by visiting VoyagerEliteForce.com.
Where can I find technical support for the demo?
Technical support for the demo can be found by going to the VoyagerEliteForce.com forums here.
You can also contact Activision's Technical Support at techsupport@activision.com.
Where can I get updated drivers? My game won't run?
Like all PC games, Elite Force requires the latest video, sound and DirectX drivers to run well. Check out this page for the latest reference drivers for most video and sound cards. For the latest DirectX version, visit the downloads section of www.microsoft.com.
What is the console command to check the framerate?
Type in "cg_drawfps 1" (without the quotes) at the console and hit enter.
How do I skip the cinematics? Space Bar and Escape don't work?
Press the Enter key to skip cinematics. Or bind a key to SkipCinematic.
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Why doesn't my Voodoo card work in 1024*768 mode?
The latest 3DFX drivers for Voodoo cards can be flaky with Quake III and Elite Force. Try the Wicked3D drivers from http://www.wicked3d.com.
Why does the game chug when I'm hosting and I die?
This is by design. It is to avoid getting a chug when someone joins the game. It holds off until you die so it doesn't disrupt play. To change this, set cg_deferPlayers to 0 from the console.
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Does Elite Force have the same third person camera support that Quake III had?
Yes, it does. Go to the console and set cg_thirdPerson to 1.It's not in the menus because it is technically an unsupported feature. Your mileage may vary. Other useful commands include cg_thirdpersonangle #, where # is the angle you can rotate the camera, and cg_thirdpersonrange #, where # is the distance from you and the camera.
Windows 95 is having problems with OpenGL. How can I fix this?
If you have Windows 95a, it comes with OpenGL version 1.0 (Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98 and later already have OpenGL Version 1.1). Go to the OpenGL site and get OpenGL Version 1.1 (really a new OpenGL32.dll and some other files) that Microsoft provides. Download it and place the files in the Windows\System directory. It will fix OpenGL problems with the Win95a Operating System.
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I'm getting an error message that says "Could Not Load OpenGL Subsystem." How do I fix this error?
Check to make sure that your video card is supported by the game.
If it is, download the latest reference drivers for your video card from here or download and use the GL Setup utility if your card is supported by it.
Grab DirectX 7.0a here.
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Are there any copyright information I need to be aware of?
™, ® & © 2000 Paramount Pictures All rights reserved Star Trek: Voyager and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures. This product contains software technology licensed from Id Software, Inc. Id Technology © 2000 Id
Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. © 2000 Activision, Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.
Will Elite Force be released for other platforms? Mac? Linux? PSX II? DreamCast?
At this time, Elite Force has a MAC port on the way. This port is going to be developed by Westlake Interactive and published by Aspyr Media. Nothing else has been officially announced but John Scott hinted to a Linux port by saying this in his .plan.
"We have a dedicated EF Linux server built. A kind gent is testing
it for us. Hostname isn't resolving at the moment =(
Watch this space! We're working on it."
Other versions of the game including PlayStation II and DreamCast are entirely dependent on the success of the game in the PC market. Financial wisdom suggests that waiting to see that the game is well received and selling well is a logical step before charging into multiple contracts and serious financial commitments. If the game is financially successful and shows signs of a solid launch, the likelihood of ports to other platforms increases ponentially. Keep an eye on your local gaming news site for announcements after Elite Force Retail launches.
Is there a collectors edition of Elite Force? What can you tell me about it?
The collector's edition of Elite Force is in stores now. It contains a bonus CD as well as a collector's pin and the Elite Force comic from Wildstorm Entertainment.
Credits
A big thanks goes to all those hard working employess at Raven who helped in making this. Small amounts of info was taken from the Raven FAQ. Without the help that Raven gave us, this FAQ wouldn't be what it is today.
Revision History
October 22, '00 - v1.00 is done of the Elite Force FAQ. (EvilGreg)
