[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/starfleet_command_cover_3252.jpg]]
->''"Finally, a starship naval combat game worthy of the name ''Franchise/StarTrek''."''
--> -- '''game blurb'''

A series of space combat/strategy games initially developed by Creator/{{Interplay Entertainment}}/Taldren and later by Creator/{{Activision}} that took ''Franchise/StarTrek's'' SpaceIsAnOcean sensibilities and ran with them full-steam ahead. Initially inspired by the pen and paper/board game ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles'' during Interplay's time as developer. When Activision took over for ''Starfleet Command III'', the game shifted from the period of ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The Original Series]]'' to the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' era, and took an approach to the ships and gameplay that more reflected Trek Canon.

The first and second entries focus on conflicts from the various ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles'' campaigns, while ''Starfleet Command III'' is a prequel to ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''. The first and third games have been re-released through Website/GOGDotCom.
----
!!Examples:

* TwoDSpace: No Z-axis for you! The only concession is ships will go under and over each other to avoid collisions. This has no effect on gameplay.
* AbortedArc: ''Starfleet Command 2: Orion Pirates'' was originally intended to include campaigns for all the major empires [[spoiler: fighting against the Andromedans]], which were all dropped. Likely due to serious financial troubles faced by Interplay and Taldren at the time.
* AliensOfLondon: The Hydrans.
* AlternateContinuity: ''Starfleet Command III'' is set in the same [[TheVerse 'Verse]] as ''[[VideoGame/StarTrekBridgeCommander Bridge Commander]]'', ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada'', ''VideoGame/StarTrekAwayTeam'', and the ''[[VideoGame/StarTrekEliteForce Elite Force]]'' games. All also published by Activision). On the other hand, ''Starfleet Command I'', ''II'', and ''Orion Pirates'' are set in a variant continuity of the ''Star Fleet Battles'' pen and paper roleplaying game (there are a few things ''Star Fleet Battles'' aren't ''allowed'' to use that ''SFC'' has, such as ridge-headed Klingons, Excelsiors and Wrath of Khan-style uniforms, and conversely there is one thing ''Battles'' can use that ''SFC'' couldn't -- the Kzinti).
* AllThereInTheManual: The ''Sovereign's'' description connects the events of ''III'' to ''VideoGame/StarTrekBridgeCommander''.
* ApocalypseHow: Pops up occasionally, this being ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and all.
* BadassBoast: Delivered by ''the'' Captain Sulu during the opening of the second game.
--> "This is a dark time for us all, but adversity breeds innovation, and the Federation ''will not fall without a fight''."
* BarrierWarrior: The Lyrans ([[InsistentTerminology That's pronounced Lear-uhns!]]) have the ESG field. Basically a ring of death that surrounds a Lyran ship and damages everything that gets too close, it's practically a death sentence if used against a smaller ship. [[GameBreaker Gets stupidly useful in ''Starfleet Command II''' and its expansion when dealing with carriers]].
* BeamSpam: The Ph G, or "Gatling Phaser" in ''Starfleet Command I'' and ''II''. The entire purpose for the Pulse Phaser in ''II''.
* BigBad: The Interstellar Concordium in ''II'' and the [[spoiler: Romulans]] in ''III'''. The various races each had their own troubles to contend with in ''Starfleet Command 1'', but by far the greatest of the various threats was [[spoiler: the Terran Empire's plans to destroy the Federation with a ''fleet'' of Planet Killers]].
* BigDamnHeroes: A few times in the first game. Quite a bit in ''III''. There are also random missions where the player must come to the aid of another ship, starbase, or planet.
* TheCaptain: The player, for the most part.
* CherryTapping: Both subverted or played straight depending on the occasion. Fights, especially against larger ships, usually tend to end in [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill massive alpha strikes]].
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Phasers A and B in ''Orion Pirates''. The Ph A is colored blue and effective against shields, but piss against hull. The Ph B is colored red and devastating to an exposed ship hull, but won't do jack against shields.
* CoolStarship: Too many to begin to list. Collectively, ''thousands'' of models have been made for these games from ''Franchise/StarTrek'' to ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The [[VideoGame/StarTrekAwayTeam USS]] ''[[VideoGame/StarTrekAwayTeam Incursion]]'' and the technology behind it play a massive role in ''Starfleet Command III's'' plot.]]
* ChekhovMIA: The Organians.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: ''Starfleet Command III''
* CrewOfOne: Played straight. In games one and three you can gather a crew, but they only affect your ships performance (a more skilled helmsman will make your ship handle better, etc.
* DeadlyUpgrade: The Phaser X in ''Orion Pirates'' is a more powerful, [[ExplosiveOverclocking overloadable]] version of the Phaser 1.
* DeathInAllDirections: [[TheWorfBarrage And it works this time, too]]. Also the entire point of the ship's Self-Destruct system.
* DynamicDifficulty: The enemy ships you face in each mission are (most of the time) scaled to the strength of your ship(s). In ''SFC 1'' the system works just about perfectly (though it does have a tendency to spawn fleets that are slightly too strong for your fleet when you're flying multiple ships, such as spawning three cruisers when you're flying a cruiser, a light cruiser and a destroyer, but in ''SFC 2'', the difficulty is all over the bloody place, being perfectly happy to spawn a frigate and a freighter against your cruiser, battlecruiser and dreadnought, and dreadnoughts against your frigate. Part of this is to do with the fact that the game will sometimes pit you against the enemies that are already present on ''SFC 2's'' hex-based galaxy map (as on this map there are NPC ships flying around all over the galaxy flying missions of their own in the background), which can easily be much stronger or much weaker than your ship(s), instead of spawning fresh ones, but other times the computer simply (and inexcusably) gets it horribly wrong.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[StuffBlowingUp Oh so many]]. Even the smallest frigate is capable of producing one given enough time.
* TheEmpire: Plenty of actual Empires abound in both the Interplay and Activision continuities. But the in the trope's sense, the Interstellar Concordium is pretty much TheFederation's EvilTwin.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment The Interstellar Concordium, upon arrival, demands half the galaxy surrender and cease hostilities with each other or they'll kill everyone present and everyone they've ever met.
* ExplosiveOverclocking: Your ship can perform "[[Instant180DegreeTurn High Energy Turns]]" in combat that have a random chance of ''[[UnusualEuphemism frinxing]] up your ship but good''. Effects include damage to your ships hull and engines, and your ship may "break down", [[ArtisticLicenseSpace as in literally coast to a stop in space]] and shut down completely for several seconds. During which, of course, you are totally defenseless.
** Engine doubling" on Orion ships (which, as the name suggests, doubles the power output of the ship's engines) in the Orion Pirates expansion will damage the ship's engines over time.
** The only weapon that can be destroyed by overloading it is the Hydran Fusion Beam, and only on "Suicide Overload" (it also has a normal "overload" mode, which cannot destroy the weapon). Photon Torpedoes, Disruptors, etc cannot destroy themselves no matter how many times they are fired on "overload", Sulu's line in the first game's tutorial about "overload" mode on photons causing "significantly more wear on the photon torpedo launcher" being purely for flavour.
* FasterThanLightTravel: Players can warp around to their hearts' content in ''Starfleet Command III''. Not so much in the first two.
* TheFederation: [[TropeNamers Of course]].
* GameMod: Not nearly as many as ''[[VideoGame/StarTrekBridgeCommander Bridge Commander]]''. But definitely present.
* GatlingGood: The Ph G. It literally stands for ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Gatling Phaser]]''. It's one of the weakest weapons of the game, however: When you consider that it fires three times per charge, and the maximum charge for any weapon is four, that means that this one phaser can fire twelve times almost in the blink of an eye before it's exhausted. And if that hits someone's bare hull...
* HeroicMime: A downplayed example where the player character speaks often, though usually only in the form of text on the screen.
* HopelessBossFight: Almost never. Whatever the situation, there is usually a way to come out alive if the player knows their ship well enough. In ''Starfleet Command III'' it is fully possible to destroy [[spoiler: the [[Film/StarTrekNemesis Scimitar]]]] singlehandedly, in a ''light cruiser!!!''
** If you're playing a mod involving the Borg though, expect this trope full stop, unless you're rolling with a fleet of [[MightyGlacier Excaliburs]].
* KnightTemplar / BloodKnight: Again, the Interstellar Concordium, ''Starfleet Command II's'' BigBad.
* LateToTheTragedy: What kicks off the plot of ''Starfleet Command'', and later ''[[ChekhovMIA Starfleet Command II]]''.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: Many of the races can use missiles, but the Mirak specialize in them. That was until Orion Pirates upped the ante to levels of insanity never before dreamt with the MIRV. Essentially, it's one missile that splits into six, which is bad enough. But keep in mind, a ship can only guide so many missiles at once up to a maximum limit of 12, but [[GoodBadBugs as the six smaller missiles register as only one]] [[DeathInAllDirections it is possible to fire up to 72 missiles at one target]].
* MightyGlacier: Gorn ships, in general, are flying mountains with every weapon you can use in game pointing in every direction imaginable. You do ''not'' screw with a Gorn ''light cruiser'' unless you have backup, and forget it if theres a fleet of them.
* MirrorUniverse: The Federation plot in the first game [[spoiler: has the player battling their mirror universe alternate and mirror [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Commodore Decker]] to prevent them from destroying the Federation with a ''legion'' of Doomsday Machines]].
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: ''Mauler'', ''Hellbore Cannon'', ''Fusion Cannon'', ''Gatling Phaser'', ''Plasma Type R''.
* NukeEm: {{Orbital bombardment}} is a common mission objective. Also, ''Starfleet Command II'' has the player in one mission beam an away team down to an enemy base to plant a massive explosive device. Fully weaponized and [[EnergyWeapon Frickin Laser Beam'ed]] by the Hydrans with their Fusion Cannon.
* ObfuscatedInterface: The interfaces of the {{Cool Ship}}s are simultaneously [[ViewerFriendlyInterface viewer-friendly]] and user-unfriendly. It's clear what the buttons are for, it's just that there are too many systems to keep track of, each demanding your attention during combat.
* ThePlague: The Romulan campaign in ''Starfleet Command I'' revolves around checking the spread of a hideously contagious disease called "The Traveler's Death", which is essentially the Black Plague RecycledWithAGimmick.
* PlanarShockwave: Everything above the fighter class generates one upon it's demise. A very [[RuleOfCool cool one]], too.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: Subverted, no it doesn't. [[spoiler: Unless you're out of Nova Mines facing an army of Planet Killers, in which case you had better start your engines if you want to get out of there alive]].
* ShoutOut: One of the missions in the Romulan campaign is named "The Secret Of Romulan Fury". This is a shout out to a cancelled game called ''The Secret Of Vulcan Fury'' that was being developed by Interplay at the time.
* ShowsDamage: In the first game you'd start leaking glowy purple plasma trails. In the sequels, you'd see scorch marks, electrical cracklies, and bits of your ship on fire.
* SimulationGame: Spaceflight/Naval combat
* SpaceCompression: A massive offender here.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: The game is built on this trope.
* SpacePirates: The Orion [[TheSyndicate Syndicate]]
* {{Space Whale}}s: More like Space ''[[ThreateningShark Sharks]].'' Things. Hideous killer death monster beasties. InSPACE. You get the picture.
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''VideoGame/StarTrekTacticalAssault'', developed by Creator/{{Bethesda}} Softworks, used much of the ''Starfleet Command'' formula. Meanwhile over on the XBOX 360/PC, ''VideoGame/StarTrekLegacy'' also shared many elements with this series.
** Starfleet Command 4 is being developed by Dynaverse, but priority is given to a Windows 7-adapted version of ''Empire at War'', to better familiarize the current developers with the source code.
** Spaceflight and space combat in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' looks like it borrows quite a bit from ''Starfleet Command III''. This is in no way a bad thing.
* StandardSciFiFleet
* StarfishAliens: The Hydrans. Three armed, three legged, three gendered methane breathers... with plummy British accents. The UniversalTranslator must have an odd sense of humor.
* SubsystemDamage: Your ship has multiple systems and weapons that can and will be damaged during combat. As you have a limited supply of repairs, a major part of the game is strategically repairing your ship to give you the best possible advantage. Unless you're playing Orion Pirates, in which case you're likely screwed no matter what if an "X-ship" is involved.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Target's hull is down to one point? [[DeathInAllDirections ALPHA STRIKE]].
* TimTaylorTechnology: Usually [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact that on average, not one of the systems on your ship will be functioning at their limits, ever. This is because you only have a limited amount of power that must be divided amongst dozens of subsystems at any given time. However, the [[WaveMotionGun Mauler]] in Orion Pirates takes this trope up to eleven, as unlike the other weapons it doesn't do fixed damage. The damage the Mauler does is based purely on your ships power output, and does greater or less damage accordingly.
* UnitsNotToScale: The little planets. Oy ''vey'', the little planets!
** Canon explanation - Strictly speaking Planets/Asteroids *are* to scale, Starships themselves are not. The ship models are immensely magnified by your ships computer as a balance between presenting a full view of the battlefield and keeping you apprised of important tactical information. That only planetary scale objects are present at 1:1 scale is also why those are the only things you can actually collide with. Slightly inconsistent in that the collision detection is based on the ship size in the interface, and that you cannot collide with Asteroid *bases* which are supposedly on actual asteroids, but can't be collided with either.
* UnrealisticBlackHole: Blue funnels that blow up your ship if your engines can't boost you away. Since SpaceIsAnOcean, black holes are the whirlpools.
* UnwinnableTrainingSimulation: The modding SDK for the first installment includes a copy of ''The Kobayashi Maru'', which throws you against a total of 30 ships in four increasingly-sized waves. The mission scenario source code contains a flag which allows for an easy cheat.
* VideogameCaringPotential: The Player's fleet, depending on whether or not they're only intended as meat shields. Captured ships as well.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential:
** So goddamn much. See that planet? BLOW IT UP. See that moon? BLOW IT UP. See that ship? STEAL IT AND FLY IT INTO A BLACK HOLE. Alternatively, you could simply drop a Borg Cube into the game and embark on a bloody, psychopathic rampage across the Milky Way, YouBastard.
** You can set your phasers for disabling strikes and knock out the enemy's engines. A gentle nudge with the tractor beam towards the nearest black hole, and ''kaboom''. Even ''more'' dickishly, you can hold the disabled ship in front of you and blaze full speed aheard towards the '''sun.''' You may get a little crispy, but it's totally WorthIt.
* WaveMotionGun: The Mauler in Orion Pirates fits the trope to a T. In games one and two we have the Phaser 4 (Ph4), which is an insanely powerful weapon that can only be mounted on space stations or planets.
* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: See VideoGameCrueltyPotential above.
* WellIntentionedExtremist:
** [[spoiler: The Organians disappeared in the first game to bring back an enemy in ''Starfleet Command II'' that could force the major powers from the first game to unite, in an effort to prepare them to repel a massive invasion from the Andromeda galaxy that would have completely wiped them all out otherwise, had they not learned to put aside their differences for a common cause]]. At least that's what [[AbortedArc would have happened]].
** Said enemy, the Interstellar Concordium, themselves fit this trope. To paraphrase a Federation captain in the first mission in the ISC War of Pacification campaign, their goals (peace) are good, but their methods (forcibly destroying combatants ability to wage war) are rather questionable.
---> '''Captain Sulu:''' They believe that only the military might of the Concordium can put an end to the wars still raging across our galaxy. Ironically, this skewed idea of peace creates even greater bloodshed.
----