Star Trek : Starship Creator Star Trek : Starship Creator is a computer - based simulation released by Simon & Schuster Interactive in . While not a game in the strictest sense , the program was designed to allow a user to create their own starship , crew it with personnel from the " Star Trek " universe , and send it on a mission to evaluate its performance . The program was designed with input from Michael Okuda , Denise Okuda , Rick Sternbach , and Doug Drexler , who were responsible for many of the technical or reference - oriented books produced for " Trek " . Game design . The user could start the program from one of three experience levels : Beginner , Intermediate , and Experienced . As the game progressed , more options for customizing a ship and newer missions were available . Different " logins " were also available , allowing multiple users or multiple fleets to exist without drawing on the crew pool or credits of another login . The interface was modeled after the TNG era LCARS format , with Judi Durand providing the voice of the computer . Screens . Class screen . From this screen , a user picked a class to build , or was able to manage and refit ships already added to the fleet . Different ships cost varying amounts of " credits , " the being the cheapest and the being the most expensive . Structure screen . Upon the purchase of a ship hull , the ship whose hull had been purchased was added to the user ' s fleet inventory , and the user proceeded to the structure screen . Typically , there were three or four different prefabricated component designs for the primary hull , secondary hull , and warp nacelle s of the ship which could be combined in any fashion , although parts from different classes could not be intermixed . Assembly screen . This screen showed a three - dimensional representation of the ship , which could be inspected from any angle . Naming screen . Once the user had chosen a satisfactory design for the ship being built , it was named and a five - digit registry number randomly assigned , or a four - digit one for the . The ship was then recorded into the fleet inventory . Systems screen . For the Beginner and Intermediate levels , the new ship generally came already equipped with a number of vital systems ; they could be further customized at the Intermediate level , but not to the extensiveness offered at the Experienced level . The user had to fit the ship with a number of vital systems , such as warp drive , impulse engine s , life support , and a navigational deflector . Optional systems included shuttlecraft , weapons , and holodeck s among other things . The systems were organized into main categories , such as propulsion , then into subsystems , like warp engine , warp core , impulse engine , and fusion reactor . Detailed information could be accessed concerning a particular system by selecting the " info " button . Certain systems , like engines or crew quarters , could only have one version of the component installed , while others , like sciences lab s and torpedo es , could have a variety of different types and be installed in different numbers . The success of a mission sometimes depended on the presence or absence of a system or component . For instance , a certain mission might have required the use of a class - 8 probe . Additionally , one component generally depended on another ; for example , a shuttle could not be launched without a shuttlebay , and a powerful warp drive could not be supplied by a weak warp core . Not all systems were available to all classes ; small ships or ones with limited profiles like the only had a small choice of available systems , while large multipurpose systems such as the " Galaxy " - class had a large variety of subsystems . Components also had a credit cost ; more advanced and elaborate systems cost more than basic ones . Also , energy requirements prevented large amounts of equipment from being installed . A heavily - loaded ship would generally be much slower and less responsive than one with a more balanced complement . Custom crewmembers could be created through import of a formatted text file and a * . bmp or * . pic image . Crew screen . After a ship had been fitted with its on - board systems , personnel of a crew could be assigned . The crew screen had two aspects : a command - crew aspect and a complement - breakdown aspect . Command - crew aspect . In the command - crew aspect of the crew screen , there were several available positions , including captain , first officer , science officer , chief engineer , chief medical officer , counselor , and communications officer . Only the assignments of a captain and a chief engineer were actually needed to make the vessel flyable , but missing personnel in other areas could harm mission performance . The user could select a variety of Starfleet personnel as crew , ranging from the main characters to minor characters from the four " Star Trek " series that existed at the time . ( The game was released before ENT premiered . ) Assigning them to a position had an associated credit cost based on the experience of the officer in a particular area ; the more experienced the officers were in a position , the more expensive they were to recruit for that position . Certain officers , mostly the main characters , were restricted to either the captain or first officer position and their position from their respective series ; for instance , Geordi La Forge could only be placed in the captain , first officer , or chief engineer roles . Also , crews from the TOS and TNG eras could not be intermixed . The " Constitution " - class could only be crewed with TOS - era personnel and the " Miranda " class was restricted to one era or the other . Also , crewmembers could be assigned to multiple ships within the same fleet . The Biographies of available characters that have been killed in canon , such as Lieutenant Tasha Yar ' s , either omit or contradict details of their untimely demise . Complement - breakdown aspect . The other aspect of the crew screen , the complement - breakdown aspect , allowed the user to devote a certain percentage of crew to different disciplines , such as command , sciences , security , medical , and operations . The number of personnel in the crew complement was determined by the number of crew quarters units that had been installed at the Systems screen . Fleet screen . All vessels in the fleet could be managed from this screen . A summary of the ship ' s systems and assigned crew could be reviewed , reports from past missions accessed , a new mission selected , and vessels selected for refit , repair , or decommission . Once a ship was taken to this point , it was possible to go back to each and every previous screen and modify each of the parameters . Once a ship was decommissioned , the appropriate amount of credits were refunded to the user account . Also , custom missions could be imported , while ships could be exported to a file for import within another login or transfer to another computer . This ability was the source of a cheat , as the same ship could be imported and decommissioned multiple times , in each instance refunding the same amount of credits to the user ' s account . Mission screen . After a mission had been selected from the fleet screen , it was run from here . The ship traveled across a two - dimensional grid , while symbols and icons related to the mission appeared on the grid . Systems activity and communications between the crew were listed in a dialog box to the bottom of the screen . A pop - up window could be opened which showed damage and injury reports and systems status and efficiency . Sometimes , the main grid would cut away to different animations related to the mission . The mission could be run in real time or slightly accelerated . If a ship entered battle or a hazardous situation , it could take damage . That damage would remain until repaired ; faster repairs could be effected if a more experienced engineer or larger crew complement had been assigned aboard . Crew members , including senior officers , could be injured as well ; again , their recovery depended on the skill of the chief medical officer , the sickbay technology available , and the number of medical staff . Severe injuries could result in death , which would remove the crew member from the roster on the crew screen and assignment on other starships . Very little input was needed from the user since the mission scripts were not designed to be interactive ; the mission simply ran until completion or until a systems failure or lack of equipment caused the mission to end . The mission could be aborted at any time , returning the user to the fleet screen . Also , the program could be minimized and left to run in a small window , called " stealth mode . " Upon successful completion of the mission , the user was given the choice to keep the ship at its present location or return it to the home starbase ; a certain amount of credits were also deposited in the user ' s account . Customization . In addition to the aforementioned ability to import custom crewmembers , a user could also script custom missions . The program came with full instructions on how to create missions using Starship Markup Language or SML . A mission could be written with SML , saved to a text file , and then imported into the program under the Mission screen . Criticisms . Although " Starship Creator " was designed more as an interactive reference guide than an outright game , many were disappointed that there was little control or interaction with a ship while it ran a mission . The user was required to watch as the ship simply crawled across great distances and there was no way to appreciably speed up the process . The graphics were nothing particularly special or novel , and were quite similar to the ones found in the " Encyclopedias " or technical manuals . Additionally , many missions required a multitude of equipment which could generally be found only on the " Galaxy " - and es , making the other classes superfluous . Crew attrition rate was also fairly high , and there was no easy way to retrieve a deceased crew member short of exporting all ships to a new login . Follow - ups . Deluxe . The basic " Starship Creator " program was followed by an add - on pack , reissued with the original " Starship Creator " as " Star Trek : Starship Creator Deluxe . " ( The add - on pack could also be purchased on a separate CD which required the original " Starship Creator " program . ) New features included three new starship classes - " Akira " , " Oberth " , and " Prometheus " , several new missions , the ability to assign custom registry numbers , the ability to import * . jpg file types for crew portraits , new commands for custom missions , and the ability to run two ships on the same mission simultaneously ( yet independently ) , and a number of bug fixes which had plagued the original program engine . Warp II . In 2000 , a new edition , called " " , was released . The program was quite similar to the original " Starship Creator " but featured a number of new features and a slightly rearranged ship lineup . However , ships and missions that had been created for the original " Starship Creator " were fully compatible with " Warp II , " and they could be used by importing certain files from the original CDs . In " Warp II " it was also possible to export the created ships and import them into " . "