Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations
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| Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Fleet Operations team |
| Engine | Armada II |
| Release date(s) | April 30, 2003 (Beta 1.0) |
| Genre(s) | Space RTS, Game Modification |
| Mode(s) | Skirmish, Multiplayer Internet/Lan |
| Platform(s) | PC |
| Media | Internet Download |
Fleet Operations is a popular multiplayer orientated total conversion modification for Activision's real-time strategy game Star Trek Armada II adding advanced graphics, a new user interface, completely replaced ship models with new improved ones, new gameplay for every race and easy to use utilities for advanced options.
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[edit] General
As Armada II is much different from what many thought the successor of Star Trek: Armada should be, Fleet Operations was created to change the philosophy of the game. The objective of the mod is to bring the game back to Star Trek's roots.
Fleet Operations attempts to change gameplay style from creating big fleets within seconds and battles based on the pure number of materials, to one more strategy based. As such, the warp system was removed and map depth was reduced to the point where it became practically non existent. New map surroundings were created including new asteroid fields, stars and star maps.
Each ship has been redesigned to focus on a defined task so it does not lose its importance during the game. Many of the graphics were redesigned with new textures, and each race was given a new tech tree. In addition, a credit system was introduced that gives the possibility to create a certain number of race specific special ships.
[edit] Version History
- Fleet Operations Beta 1.0 (April 30, 2003)
- Fleet Operations Beta 1.0 Patch 1 (May 02, 2003)
- Fleet Operations Beta 1.1 (May 06, 2003)
- Fleet Operations Beta 1.1 Patch 1 (August 21, 2003)
- Fleet Operations Beta 1.1 Patch 2 (September 21, 2003)
- Fleet Operations Beta 2 (October 04, 2003)
- Fleet Operations Beta 2 Hotfix 1 (October 04, 2003)
- Fleet Operations Beta 2 Patch 1 (October 13, 2003)
- Fleet Operations Beta 2 Patch 2 (December 31, 2003)
- Fleet Operations v3.0 Pre Release (June 17, 2006)
- Fleet Operations v3.0 Pre Release Patch 1 (June 27, 2006)
- Fleet Operations v3.0 (Currently Unreleased)
[edit] Playable Races
One of Fleet Operations features is that every race has been rebuild from ground up. Gameplay is meant to be different for each species - each has advantages and disadvantages. This can be seen for example when looking at technology research - while the Federation has to research technology levels to unlock new vessels for build, the Dominion has to construct prototypes first.
The first Beta version of Fleet Operations featured only the most well known Star Trek races - the Federation, Klingons and Borg. This is related to that the team created new models for all races and didn't use existing models, neither official nor those available from 3rd party designers. This has the advantage that Fleet Operations got a harmonic look as they all share a similar style but is of course very time consuming in development.
With Beta 2.0 the Romulan Star Empire and the Noxter were added to Fleet Operations. The Noxter are not "canon". They can be roughly compared to Zerg featured in StarCraft.
In the current 3.0 Preview Release and the upcoming 3.0 Final version the Noxter have been removed again due to a rare multiplayer bug that causes the game to get out of synchronization between the players. The Borg didn't make appearance in the preview version as they were planned to get new models and gameplay in 3.0 Final and were still in development that time.
The Noxter and another race are planned for either a patch or other major release after version 3.0. Iconians and Ciadan (non "canon") are planned for a major release after version 3.0
| Beta 1.0/Beta 1.1 | Beta 2.0 | 3.0 Preview Release | 3.0 (unreleased) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Federation of Planets | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Klingon Empire | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Romulan Star Empire | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Borg | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Dominion | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Noxter | No | Yes | No | No |
| Iconian | No | No | No | No |
| Ciadan | No | No | No | No |
[edit] Resources
Fleet Operations 3.0 has 5 different resources; which are Dilithium, Tritanium, Crew, Supply and Credits.
- Dilithium is used for the construction of vessels and stations. It can be obtained from Dilithium Moons or similar sources.
- Tritanium is used in the construction of vessels and stations. It can be obtained from Tritanium Moons or similar sources. The mining rate in Tritanium Moons is slower than on Dilithium Moons but you often need not as much as Dilithium for construction.
- Crew is no longer a resource in v3.0PR you have to build stations for to gain. Unlike as it was with Armada, you always have enough to build any unit. Crew has still importance in aspects of boarding, assimilating and effectiveness of vessels.
- The Supply resource symbolizes all kinds of materials and spare parts a starship needs during its journey through the galaxy. Supplies are loaded on a ship as soon as it leaves the yards. The Player has to pay the supply costs along with the Dilithium, Tritanium and Crew costs. You can get additional supplies at your starbases by extending your supply routes. (Supply was introduced with v3.0PR)
- Credits is a special resource type in Fleet Operations. You start with a predefined limit of Credits to spend (you can choose between 10 - 30 Credits, 20 is default). Credits are used to construct special vessels, stations or for research on special technologies. Therefore you have only a limited number of Credits during a game you maybe cannot use not all special technology a race have so you have to decide what of these technologies fits most for your strategy.
