It has been a while since our last newspost. We had many things to clean up and complete before the Fleet Operations v3 release. As it draws closer most features have been reworked and finished. We will publish a few previews within the next weeks.
We will start today with the new Warpin feature. Vessels do now warpin from the map border and jump to impulse once they reached the destination you ordered. You will be granted control of your new vessel once it droped to impulse. Here is a small video clip of a Descent Class reaching the sector just in time to assist the Fleet against two Borg Cubes. On screen!
Gameplay-wise Warpin has been split into two seperate abilities. The normal Warpin will only cost 2 credits and grants you either an good old Excelsior, a Steamrunner, a Nebula or a Galaxy, randomly selected. The "Experimental Warpin" allows you to call for aid of an NX-Ship, namely the Descent or the Avalon if you play with Admiral Risner's support. |
In the last month many doubts appeared in the community concerning the Armada2 engine. The engine - an improved version of the decade-old Battlezone engine - is of course far behind her best days. Thats why we spend much effort in improving the quality of the engine. Many new eye candy features will be presented in Fleet Operations 3.0 unseen in the community till now. That includes enhanced shaders for starships as you already saw in the great visible detail of past screenshots.
Another very important improvement was made to all effects in the game. Besides dynamic point-light sources you will find a lot of new graphical material. Here are some pictures from old special abilities in a new look. Its always hard to present an animated special effect in a screenshot, but you will get an impression on what the engine will be able to.
Federation Plasma Coil
Instead of a strange blue something you will now see an impressive plasma cyclone crushing your enemies!
Romulan Sensor Jammer
Overloading your opponents sensors with high-energy partciles will now show a correct particle explosion on the affected vessels
Federation Sensor Blackout
A complete field of high-energy fluctuation combined with an impressive shockwave? here we go! |
Today we want to take a look at some of the new units and models which will arrive in the Fleet Operations v3 final release.
Lets start with the Klingons. One of the most famous small Klingon vessels - the K't'inga is finally getting a bit old. After more then 300 years of service the Empire decided to replace it with the latest child of its production line, K'beajQ. Both vessels share a large portion of their technology and their basic construction blueprints, but the K'beajQ profits from latest shield generator technology and years of experience with the chassis. Fans of the old K't'inga will still be able to acquire it by dispatching a Topmey's storage containers.
Another addition in v3 - already promised in an earlier news post - is the Miranda-II! The Federation Mixed-Tech unit achieved if capturing Dominion Technology. The Miranda-II is what the Miranda once was, a powerful heavy cruiser. Her "Backbone" passive ability reduces damage taken from sources with a lower offensive value then her defensive value, that leads to a very durable vessel if fighting destroyer fleets. If damage reduction seems to be not enough for turning the tides the Miranda-II may still engage her "Blockade Breaker" special ability, greatly increasing the rate of fire of her heavy Quantum Pulse weapons! A powerful asset for every Federation fleet!
With all these new designs the Romulan Empire decided to give the Rhienn a small face-lift, too. A complete new model! A small gameplay addition has also been made. Booth Rhienn refits will now feature a new passive ability in addition to their normal effects. The Disruptor-Rhienn's Kaleh Maneuver ability increases her damage once every 2 minutes when opening combat, granting her superior hit-and-run abilities for evil Romulan tactics. The Torpedo-Rhienn gained the Predatory Strikes ability to deal increased damage against hostile cruiser - the Romulans never liked Akiras.
More details about Fleet Operations v3 will come soon, stay tuned! |
Star Trek Games, the biggest community dedicated to Star Trek Gaming, finally passed the first annual "Player Choice Awards". Star Trek games players all around the world had the chance to vote for their nominated favorites including the category of "Mod Excellence Awards" - nominated was: Star Trek Armada II Fleet Operations and RPG-X - EF Mod.
Now, the results were beautifully shown up in a cartoon award show covered by Hailing Frequency you can find here.
Congratulations Fleet Operations Team to another encouraging success for your hard work of the last couple of years! Best of luck for the future and a big thank you too all that voted for Fleet Ops!
|
Merry Xmas and a happy new year to the Fleet Operations Community!
The Borg took a great step from "models and ideas" to "balanced and playable" during the past few weeks. The Borg will feature, as already announced in the forums, a complete new set of models and a complete new playing style.
What are the first things that come in mind when thinking of a Borg vessel (besides cubic of course).. right, large and powerful! Its hard to balance these two aspects in a real time strategy game. A powerful and large vessel has to be expensive of course. But its no fun for a player to save an immense amount of resources and then has to wait for a long time until the construction is complete.
Fleet Operations will go another road. Borg vessels are no longer build like normal starships. They are composed of different modules which improve different aspects of a vessel. The player can choose between all available modules to construct specifically the vessel he or she wants for a certain purpose. An Assimilator for example might be tuned up to a very powerful assimilation unit or a heavy torpedo carrier, laying devastation to starbases.
Each chassis has a different number of free slots to build modules in and the maximum number of installed modules of a certain type might also differ from vessel to vessel. I want to show you a small preview of this unique module system by presenting the Sphere.
The Borg Sphere features a total of up to 4 modules slots. She may carry Beam, Torpedo, Regeneration and Holding-Beam Modules.
A Borg Sphere during construction
Beam Module
The Spheres primary module. The Sphere may carry up to 3 Beam-Modules. The Beam Module increases Offensive and Defensive Value by 8. Each Beam-Module will add an additional energy phaser and allows the sphere to simultaniously attack an additional target. up to 4 targets if three modules are installed.
Torpedo Module
The Sphere may carry one Torpedo Module. The module increases the Offensive Value by 15. Per default the Sphere is only equipped with one beam weapon and this module is the opportunity to add some additional offensive power.
Regeneration Module
Another very important module for the Sphere. Each module increases all attributes by 5 and the Sphere may carry up to three modules of this type. The module increases the repair rate by 10 percent for each Regeneration Module installed. The Regeneration special ability already known from previous releases will become available if you have at least 2 Regeneration Modules present.
Holding-Beam Module
The Sphere may only carry one Holding-Beam Module. The module will increase the Defensive Value by 5 and the System Value by 10. As probably guessed from the name this module grants access to the Holding-Beam special ability. As the Cube may install up to 3 Holding-Beam modules, the Sphere's Holding-Beam will be weaker, but its still a good choice to assimilate smaller units like Sabers or B'rels.
So, whats your choice? A multi-targeting sphere with 3 Beam and one Torpedo Module? A though and durable assimilation base with 3 Regeneration and one Holding Beam Module? Or something in between?
Thats the Borgy way to play! Adapt to your enemies strategies, customize your giant, expensive and powerful vessels! Crush fleets with just a hand full of units!
And never forget.. resistance is futile!  |
News Archive
|
News 
