Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations

Hi there :)

In the last weeks we spent a lot of time in model and special effect improvements. While we got a lot news posts about models and game play already we thought it would be time to show some of the special effects new in the final v3 release.
And whats the most popular special effect in all Star Trek shows? Right! The shields!

Since back to the Beta2 release we have been asked by fans to implement "race-colored" shields like they are in the show instead of Armadas "status-colored" shields. We never did this that time cause we thought that its important for the game play to see the status of your fleet with one brief look. We finally got a solution for that in v3:
Each race will have its unique set of shields, different in color and animation to come as close to the show as possible. If the shields of a vessel drop below 20 percent you will see heavy fluctuations in its shield system every time it gets a hit, just like the shields are still up but about to collapse. That way we can combine nice effects with game play information.
Some units will also have a unique shield animation due to special abilities, like the Dominion Phase-Shield for example. But enough words, here are the screen shots. Shields Up!

(http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/2815/foscreenshot07052710415kd7.th.png) (http://img184.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foscreenshot07052710415kd7.png)

(http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2520/foscreenshot07052710450bu5.th.png) (http://img502.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foscreenshot07052710450bu5.png)

(http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/592/foscreenshot07052710452mu6.th.png) (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foscreenshot07052710452mu6.png)

(http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/733/foscreenshot07052712274vl4.th.png) (http://img513.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foscreenshot07052712274vl4.png)

(http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9023/foscreenshot07052712272sw5.th.png) (http://img329.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foscreenshot07052712272sw5.png)

beautiful work well done  :thumbsup:
example at Federation or at other races has each ship thus other type shield?
or the only one type shield by race?

some vessels are going to have specific shields too. for example we have those nemesis skin shields for the sovereign class in mind.

Nice job you guys are gods among morales in the A2 world.

Side note:

I was looking at the Vor'cha and remibering a early episode of TNG where worf and Galron where on a Vor'cha being attacked from 2 K'Vorts worf used the main disrupter system take out one of the K'Vorts when he used it it looked more like the K'Vorts weapon than the Vor'cha been weapon in FO.

Side note:

I was wondering if the ship called the Military freighter onhttp://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/klingon_ships.htm#starships will be used as the main frader for the Klingon's?

Hey it looks like great work, although i can't see the klingon shields verywell and no borg shields either any chance of some pictures???

Great job guys!!!!

Nicely done, i cant wait FO to be released!  :thumbsup:

Btw, maybe my informations are outdated but i think that the reason of the borg doesnt having pictures of its shields is, that in FO they wont even have shields, just a LOT of armor.

Hmm, and special shield effects for the Sovereigns regenerative shielding sound impressive :rolleyes:

Every day i'm looking at pictures of FO and comparing them to the old Armada II, and part of me can't believe they're the same game! Everything you've achieved with the AII engine has been phenomonal, and this is definetly no different! :thumbsup: Pat on the back from me guys!

i would not do that if i was you, can you imagine if every member of the fo community gave them a pat on the back? it would be so sore!!! just give them a thumbs up, i think that would be for the best.

lol we get shield pics and it isn't enough :P

great job, for a team that is working off donations you are doing far better than the, and there are only 3 of you (4 technically). I think that says a lot about the quality of work difference between a group of 4 and the entire activision/mac doc team. quite a bad reflection on mac doc that their product is so outpaced by this mod.

excellent work guys, this is gonna be so awesome :thumbsup: :woot:

the akira pic is definately my fav of the bunch B)

maybe you should rename the mod to just fleet ops becoss it just crosted the line from A2 to some thing ells. Its between Armada 2 and legacy graphics.

that shield effect is that also at a station?
or is that another effect?

yep stations will have the same shield effects, but we adapted them a bit to make them look more believable

The efects look simaler to legasy did you figer out how to use parts of that game?

no, we created these effects from shield effects seen in the show. we haven't touched legacy in means of ripping anything

I would not think it would be wrong to take from STL but any how you have done a incredible job.

looks JUST LIKE TV! :woot:

(http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1253/seenontvbq2.png)
 :woot: :rofl:

lol...   A new logo? COOL!

what?
huh?

The FO-logo will be replaced with this one here.  ^-^
But it's true: the special effects are outstanding!

Well I'm impressed, I know the A2 engine is ridged to work with, but there are ways of stretching the rules a bit. I like the new FX. I wonder what else can be done.

When do you plan to finish all the work on the new version? When can the public expect the version fo download?

Well, the one with the right answer to that question could propably make a lot of money around here.

Please check this (http://www.fleetops.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=24) for the current development status. It's linked to the teams' to-do-list and up to date.
You can also get to this page by selecting "Information" and then "Project Progress" in the main menu.