Bethesda Softworks has issued a “Conquest Developer Challenge,” inviting owners of Star Trek: Conquest to try beating the best scores racked up by members of the development team.
According to an entry on the Bethesda Blog, members of the Star Trek: Conquest team competed to see who could complete the game’s campaigns with each playable race the quickest. Campaigns in the competition had to be played on “hard” setting against five AI enemies, using only simulated or instant battles. Matt Ouzounian seemed to have a particular talent for the game, setting the best score for the Federation (ten turns), Cardassians (11 turns) and Klingons (12 turns), while Justin McSweeney turned in the overall shortest game with the Dominion (nine turns). Jonathan Peake brought in the Breen at 15 turns, while the Romulans, led by Ryan Lea, managed to wrap things up in 17 turns.
Bethesda has decided to throw the contest open to everyone, giving gamers a chance to beat the best and win some prizes in the process. Using the same rules, gamers must take a photo of their best campaign scores along with a piece of paper showing their email address, and send it to [email protected], along with their name, email address and mailing address. Entries must be received by midnight on February 24. Contest winners will receive one of three Diamond Select “Landing Party” statues donated by CBS, featuring Kirk, Spock and McCoy.
Beating the developers will be strictly a matter of bragging rights, since the actual contest winner will be based on a draw. “Since there’s no way to verify from a screenshot that you used simulation only, the winners will be based on a random drawing,” according to a post on the Bethesda Blog. “That means, if you’re not as good as our developers, you’re still eligible to win. If you are better than the devs… we’ll be impressed.”
