KA2: Empire at War
posted on March 22nd, 2012, 1:45 pm
Thanks 
Took me a while to get the sound and visual effects right, but it was worth it in the end. I plan to add one more "Space Monster" namely the Whale Probe. I plan to have an invisible, silent weapon (or more likely weapons; plural) that disable all of a ships systems, so that as the probe passes ships and stations they are rendered powerless as in ST IV.
Took me a while to get the sound and visual effects right, but it was worth it in the end. I plan to add one more "Space Monster" namely the Whale Probe. I plan to have an invisible, silent weapon (or more likely weapons; plural) that disable all of a ships systems, so that as the probe passes ships and stations they are rendered powerless as in ST IV.
posted on March 22nd, 2012, 4:34 pm
posted on March 22nd, 2012, 9:07 pm
It's part of the nano effect mod I believe. Integrated it a while ago. Does give a nice KA/BC type explosion effect doesn't it? 
I just finished playtesting a quick game and wow, the AI I made is ruthless! I thought "oh I'm not doing too bad, got two orbital miners, starting to construct Akula Class R DDs" and then bang, the Klingons come at me with Light Cruisers. I get my own Light Cruisers (Mirandas) and they throw K'T'Ingas at me. I try and build up my resources to build Constitution Rs, and before I can I am overwhelmed with Qo'NoS and VoD'LeH Battlecruisers! I lost both my planets, which the Klingons then colonised. They also took over my two trading stations, orbital miners and monitoring stations, used their repair frigates to repair them, and then used them to repair the rest of their forces, before steamrollering me again.
I fell back and fell back but each time was overrun. Captured a Bird of Prey, a pIH FF and a QuD DD but lost most of my own.
Now, either my AI programming is that good, my map making (twas my own map) fitted the AI so well they could build up that fast, or I just suck at playing my own mod. Not sure which! Either way, losing has never been so much fun!
I just finished playtesting a quick game and wow, the AI I made is ruthless! I thought "oh I'm not doing too bad, got two orbital miners, starting to construct Akula Class R DDs" and then bang, the Klingons come at me with Light Cruisers. I get my own Light Cruisers (Mirandas) and they throw K'T'Ingas at me. I try and build up my resources to build Constitution Rs, and before I can I am overwhelmed with Qo'NoS and VoD'LeH Battlecruisers! I lost both my planets, which the Klingons then colonised. They also took over my two trading stations, orbital miners and monitoring stations, used their repair frigates to repair them, and then used them to repair the rest of their forces, before steamrollering me again.
I fell back and fell back but each time was overrun. Captured a Bird of Prey, a pIH FF and a QuD DD but lost most of my own.
Now, either my AI programming is that good, my map making (twas my own map) fitted the AI so well they could build up that fast, or I just suck at playing my own mod. Not sure which! Either way, losing has never been so much fun!
posted on March 23rd, 2012, 1:17 am
Thanks, I will have to take a look at it. 
posted on August 26th, 2012, 3:28 pm
posted on August 27th, 2012, 3:59 pm
Disappointed patch project is nowhere to be found and that there are issues with getting the mod to with with FO .
This is a must try or die trying mod! Any mod creator inspired by botf/ tos/tmp/sfc is a god in my book, I remember playing the previous versions many eons ago the balance was very impressive. I remember it was damn near impposible to destroy a ship, usually resaults with it being crippled that was awesome.
Squire has had the toughest time too with the armada 2 community back in the day (i think fo can relate) that other website was god awful.
I keep feeling though, that Armada 2 is running out of time before there are 0 legitimate copies out there, talk about one ghetto game. Sometimes I feel you guys should really just be done with Armada abondon it and go with a supported game
Don't mind me though Im just a lurker. im good with what you guys want to-do.
This is a must try or die trying mod! Any mod creator inspired by botf/ tos/tmp/sfc is a god in my book, I remember playing the previous versions many eons ago the balance was very impressive. I remember it was damn near impposible to destroy a ship, usually resaults with it being crippled that was awesome.
Squire has had the toughest time too with the armada 2 community back in the day (i think fo can relate) that other website was god awful.
I keep feeling though, that Armada 2 is running out of time before there are 0 legitimate copies out there, talk about one ghetto game. Sometimes I feel you guys should really just be done with Armada abondon it and go with a supported game
Don't mind me though Im just a lurker. im good with what you guys want to-do.posted on August 27th, 2012, 6:27 pm
Well, I don't have the right to distribute the patch project. I highly recommend using it with KA2 EAW, I just didn't include it for that reason I would think that the patch is a must for anyone running A2 on a modern Windows 7 system anyway.
As for it not running as a FLOPs mod, I think it's a sprite issue. I will see what I can do but without sounding big headed, EAW is not your typical Armada 2 mod. I don't think I left a file unchanged in some way. That radical a total conversion trying to work on an even more radical conversion (FLOPs) is bound to cause issues.
I'd really rather not get into what happened with other community sites. Wrong was done on both sides. I've apologised and tried to prove in my time here that bygones are bygones but they are having none of it. It's a mess best left unspoken to be honest.
I have given serious consideration to moving to the Sins of a Solar Empire engine, but I have absolutely zip experience in modding that engine. I've no idea if the weapons I have will work, whether the physics can do what I want them to do and so on. From what I have seen, the research system, map layout and so forth is perfect for the 4X feel I was going for in EAW.
Anyway, glad you like it. My stepfather was a big TMP Era fan, and he sadly passed away early in KA2s development. I dedicated both the original KA2 and the new EAW to him. I hope he approves
I would think that the patch is a must for anyone running A2 on a modern Windows 7 system anyway.As for it not running as a FLOPs mod, I think it's a sprite issue. I will see what I can do but without sounding big headed, EAW is not your typical Armada 2 mod. I don't think I left a file unchanged in some way. That radical a total conversion trying to work on an even more radical conversion (FLOPs) is bound to cause issues.
I'd really rather not get into what happened with other community sites. Wrong was done on both sides. I've apologised and tried to prove in my time here that bygones are bygones but they are having none of it. It's a mess best left unspoken to be honest.
I have given serious consideration to moving to the Sins of a Solar Empire engine, but I have absolutely zip experience in modding that engine. I've no idea if the weapons I have will work, whether the physics can do what I want them to do and so on. From what I have seen, the research system, map layout and so forth is perfect for the 4X feel I was going for in EAW.
Anyway, glad you like it. My stepfather was a big TMP Era fan, and he sadly passed away early in KA2s development. I dedicated both the original KA2 and the new EAW to him. I hope he approves
posted on August 27th, 2012, 7:05 pm
posted on August 28th, 2012, 3:10 am
This mod is for Armada II, it just happens to be called "Empire at War" 
Probably should have gone with a different name, but it fit the project.
Probably should have gone with a different name, but it fit the project.posted on October 1st, 2012, 2:15 am
After clearing out a few more non-game breaking bugs (a description error and forgetting to include a pod sod for a particular Gorn research topic) I decided the Romulans needed a little more love in the capital ship department. As some of you might have saw, compared to KA2 The General War, the new Empire at War release has some very nice new models for the Federation and the Klingon Empire, the latter specifically for their Capital ships.
It's a principle i've taken from tabletop wargaming; you always make the big units the most detailed and impressive. It gives people a drive to get them. I had to make sure that the classic ships (Oberth, Constitution Refit, Miranda, Excelsior, B'rel, K'T'Inga etc) were properly modelled as they are the archetypes. Everything else sort of fits around them. I was fortunate to find some nice models for the Federation, so even the humble Okinawa and Akula Refit have detailed models. The Klingon Empire wasn't so lucky, as besides revamping the F15 QuD Class, redone models of the KA ships are difficult to find. As mentioned though, I did manage to redo the capital ships which is in my mind the most important for the above reason. (Still looking for a nice Qa'hoS if anyone knows one, will bridge the gap from the QuD to the K'T'Inga)
Now, the Romulans in KA2 are a bit of an enigma to most players. Whilst being a major race in the series, they don't really have a ship from this era that is their well-known classic. The Bird of Prey (from Balance of Terror) is too old, and of course any class of Warbird (besides one..) is too modern. They do have the Stormbird, basically a Romulan K'T'Inga, which harkens back to their use of D6s/D7s in the Original Series. That model got upgraded at the same time I redid the K'T'Inga.
I had a few potential upgrade models for KA2 stored away on my F Drive, and decided to review them recently. What you see here are the fruits of my labours (and others naturally, credit where credit is due)
Anyway i've rattled on enough. Pictures!
The first is the smallest ship built at the Praetorial Shipyard; the Senator Class Command Cruiser (RCC). This new model is a bit of a mystery. The readme claims it's by Activision and retextured and tweaked by someone called "Cpt. LC Amaral" but do not recall an Activision released Star Trek game with anything like this model. KA had it, but the KA model isn't this detailed and it was released by Interplay. Anyway, she's a beauty and faithful to the original design to the smallest detail. I converted the model for the A2 Storm3d Engine, and I redid the lightmaps to add spotlights and such. I also lowered the poly count down to 2500. This particular ship is the RSE Mavres.
3/4ish view
Showing off the underside and associated light map
And now darkened to show the topside light map
Next is the Raven Class Battlecruiser (RBKC) The original model I used was one from the E&F Mod from Armada 1 that I retextured using Stormbird textures. I originally used the same model for the Klingon C8B VoD'leH Class. I could have used the upgraded VoD'leH Class model and retextured it, but I wanted to try and create something a little different. The in-universe idea was that during his failed Ormong of 2291 when he had Romulan backing, Melkor paid for said backing by providing the Star Empire with rough schematics for the VoD'leH Class. As they were making Stormbird Class ships based on the same K'T'Inga spaceframe, and the VoD'leH was designed as a sort of "economy" design anyway, it fit Romulan needs and abilities to reproduce their own take on the design.
I kitbashed this myself from the existing Stormbird model (mesh by Moonraker), only reusing the interesting nacelle design from the original model. This Raven in particular is the RSE Terraedaere. As a point of note, the two yellow glowing "tubs" underneath the hull are Cohesive Fused Deuterium Irradiation Cannons (CFDIC).
Third is another Battlecruiser, this time the indigenous Imperium Class. (RBCH) For those not aware, during the period KA2 is set, the Star Empire had three indigenous design series due to economic austerity. Unable to complete replace old designs, they used ;
* Early Series (Refit) designs such as the War Bird Class Destroyer that date from the 2260s.
* Ornith Series designs like the Gladius Class Frigate that date from the 2270s. (with a 'Late' Subseries from the 2280s)
* KR Series ships like the Stormbird, Raven and Condor that are modified Klingon designs refit during the 2270s & 80s)
* New Series ships like the Senator, Preax and Imperial Hawk that are modern 2290 era vessels.
The Imperium is from the Ornith Series (Late Subseries). This model was originally in a style I really, frankly, dislike. Obviously inspired by the X-Ships in SFCII Orion Pirates, she had green wings that looked like solar panels, and was painted in overall slate grey. I put her back into her proper trim: all over white with stylised "flame" feathers. The original modeller is Captain KoraH with elements from Thu11s Firehawk Class. Redid the lightmaps also. The ship pictured is the RSE Heranivs. I am not sure why one wingtip insists on shading so heavily, I've redone all the smoothing groups. Just a peculiarity of that particular shape I guess.
Next up is the Condor Class Dreadnought (RDKN). This is the only one that required an ODF change to fit the new model (having two forward Plasma-H Tubes rather than one). The original model is the same model as the C9A pumwl' Class (mesh and textures originally by WickedZombie45). The new Romulan textures were made by a modder named Rod O'Neal. They are not quite of a style I usually use for my Romulans, but they work. I added my own modified lightmaps from the pumwl' and made a few modifications to the textures here and there (and changed out the red torps for proper green Plasma-Hs). The ship seen here is the RSE Eagle.
Next is another dreadnought, this time an indigenous Romulan one.
She is the War Eagle Class Dreadnought (RDN), part of the Ornith Series. This model is probably the biggest departure from the classic SFC model. It's style is almost totally different, but I think that it clearly pays homage to that design and it also fits somewhat better with it's intended ancestry as the very first of the "Warbirds". Yep, this is the grandfather of the D'Dereidex. (Father to the Melak). The base model and textures are by Moogle, with some editing for SFC by the aforementioned Rod O'Neal. I have edited the model significantly (in a technical way), remapping parts, reducing the number of textures etc. I also repainted the "glowy yellow" parts of the original to a more fitting green colour, and painted the overall ship from a white-grey to a pale green like the original War Eagle. Obviously, also redid lightmaps in my own style . This ship is the RSE Pax Remvs. (remembering that there is no U in latin...)
Not sure why those black boxes appear on the leading wing edges. I'll have to investigate the smoothing groups.
Finally comes the real monster of the Romulan Star Navy, the Imperial Hawk Class Battleship (RBB). Originally this model was again in a style I wasn't keen on, a sort of "Lost Era" brown and green. I redid her in her original blue-grey and steel colours. It's possible that the original creator was going for a Lost Era refit scheme. Anyway, also redid the lightmaps and remapped the bottom of the central pod, since the original had awful texture stretching. The "tail feather" pattern on the stern also needed some attention. Also, you can't see them in the screenshots but I redid the engine textures as the originals were rather poor. Original modeller is somewhat unknown. The readme lists them as Taldren, but it is a far more detailed model than ever appeared in SFC. The textures were originally by the famous Pneumonic81 and Atrahasis. The ship pictured is the RSE Imperivm Trivmphvs.
and here they are together, to scale. Notice the weird wing tip thing I mentioned on the Imperium. Upon examination of the model, the wings are not properly symmetrical. I might need to rebuild part of the model. We'll see.
It's a principle i've taken from tabletop wargaming; you always make the big units the most detailed and impressive. It gives people a drive to get them. I had to make sure that the classic ships (Oberth, Constitution Refit, Miranda, Excelsior, B'rel, K'T'Inga etc) were properly modelled as they are the archetypes. Everything else sort of fits around them. I was fortunate to find some nice models for the Federation, so even the humble Okinawa and Akula Refit have detailed models. The Klingon Empire wasn't so lucky, as besides revamping the F15 QuD Class, redone models of the KA ships are difficult to find. As mentioned though, I did manage to redo the capital ships which is in my mind the most important for the above reason. (Still looking for a nice Qa'hoS if anyone knows one, will bridge the gap from the QuD to the K'T'Inga)
Now, the Romulans in KA2 are a bit of an enigma to most players. Whilst being a major race in the series, they don't really have a ship from this era that is their well-known classic. The Bird of Prey (from Balance of Terror) is too old, and of course any class of Warbird (besides one..) is too modern. They do have the Stormbird, basically a Romulan K'T'Inga, which harkens back to their use of D6s/D7s in the Original Series. That model got upgraded at the same time I redid the K'T'Inga.
I had a few potential upgrade models for KA2 stored away on my F Drive, and decided to review them recently. What you see here are the fruits of my labours (and others naturally, credit where credit is due)
Anyway i've rattled on enough. Pictures!
The first is the smallest ship built at the Praetorial Shipyard; the Senator Class Command Cruiser (RCC). This new model is a bit of a mystery. The readme claims it's by Activision and retextured and tweaked by someone called "Cpt. LC Amaral" but do not recall an Activision released Star Trek game with anything like this model. KA had it, but the KA model isn't this detailed and it was released by Interplay. Anyway, she's a beauty and faithful to the original design to the smallest detail. I converted the model for the A2 Storm3d Engine, and I redid the lightmaps to add spotlights and such. I also lowered the poly count down to 2500. This particular ship is the RSE Mavres.
3/4ish view
Showing off the underside and associated light map
And now darkened to show the topside light map
Next is the Raven Class Battlecruiser (RBKC) The original model I used was one from the E&F Mod from Armada 1 that I retextured using Stormbird textures. I originally used the same model for the Klingon C8B VoD'leH Class. I could have used the upgraded VoD'leH Class model and retextured it, but I wanted to try and create something a little different. The in-universe idea was that during his failed Ormong of 2291 when he had Romulan backing, Melkor paid for said backing by providing the Star Empire with rough schematics for the VoD'leH Class. As they were making Stormbird Class ships based on the same K'T'Inga spaceframe, and the VoD'leH was designed as a sort of "economy" design anyway, it fit Romulan needs and abilities to reproduce their own take on the design.
I kitbashed this myself from the existing Stormbird model (mesh by Moonraker), only reusing the interesting nacelle design from the original model. This Raven in particular is the RSE Terraedaere. As a point of note, the two yellow glowing "tubs" underneath the hull are Cohesive Fused Deuterium Irradiation Cannons (CFDIC).
Third is another Battlecruiser, this time the indigenous Imperium Class. (RBCH) For those not aware, during the period KA2 is set, the Star Empire had three indigenous design series due to economic austerity. Unable to complete replace old designs, they used ;
* Early Series (Refit) designs such as the War Bird Class Destroyer that date from the 2260s.
* Ornith Series designs like the Gladius Class Frigate that date from the 2270s. (with a 'Late' Subseries from the 2280s)
* KR Series ships like the Stormbird, Raven and Condor that are modified Klingon designs refit during the 2270s & 80s)
* New Series ships like the Senator, Preax and Imperial Hawk that are modern 2290 era vessels.
The Imperium is from the Ornith Series (Late Subseries). This model was originally in a style I really, frankly, dislike. Obviously inspired by the X-Ships in SFCII Orion Pirates, she had green wings that looked like solar panels, and was painted in overall slate grey. I put her back into her proper trim: all over white with stylised "flame" feathers. The original modeller is Captain KoraH with elements from Thu11s Firehawk Class. Redid the lightmaps also. The ship pictured is the RSE Heranivs. I am not sure why one wingtip insists on shading so heavily, I've redone all the smoothing groups. Just a peculiarity of that particular shape I guess.
Next up is the Condor Class Dreadnought (RDKN). This is the only one that required an ODF change to fit the new model (having two forward Plasma-H Tubes rather than one). The original model is the same model as the C9A pumwl' Class (mesh and textures originally by WickedZombie45). The new Romulan textures were made by a modder named Rod O'Neal. They are not quite of a style I usually use for my Romulans, but they work. I added my own modified lightmaps from the pumwl' and made a few modifications to the textures here and there (and changed out the red torps for proper green Plasma-Hs). The ship seen here is the RSE Eagle.
Next is another dreadnought, this time an indigenous Romulan one.
She is the War Eagle Class Dreadnought (RDN), part of the Ornith Series. This model is probably the biggest departure from the classic SFC model. It's style is almost totally different, but I think that it clearly pays homage to that design and it also fits somewhat better with it's intended ancestry as the very first of the "Warbirds". Yep, this is the grandfather of the D'Dereidex. (Father to the Melak). The base model and textures are by Moogle, with some editing for SFC by the aforementioned Rod O'Neal. I have edited the model significantly (in a technical way), remapping parts, reducing the number of textures etc. I also repainted the "glowy yellow" parts of the original to a more fitting green colour, and painted the overall ship from a white-grey to a pale green like the original War Eagle. Obviously, also redid lightmaps in my own style
. This ship is the RSE Pax Remvs. (remembering that there is no U in latin...)Not sure why those black boxes appear on the leading wing edges. I'll have to investigate the smoothing groups.
Finally comes the real monster of the Romulan Star Navy, the Imperial Hawk Class Battleship (RBB). Originally this model was again in a style I wasn't keen on, a sort of "Lost Era" brown and green. I redid her in her original blue-grey and steel colours. It's possible that the original creator was going for a Lost Era refit scheme. Anyway, also redid the lightmaps and remapped the bottom of the central pod, since the original had awful texture stretching. The "tail feather" pattern on the stern also needed some attention. Also, you can't see them in the screenshots but I redid the engine textures as the originals were rather poor. Original modeller is somewhat unknown. The readme lists them as Taldren, but it is a far more detailed model than ever appeared in SFC. The textures were originally by the famous Pneumonic81 and Atrahasis. The ship pictured is the RSE Imperivm Trivmphvs.
and here they are together, to scale. Notice the weird wing tip thing I mentioned on the Imperium. Upon examination of the model, the wings are not properly symmetrical. I might need to rebuild part of the model. We'll see.
posted on October 1st, 2012, 4:39 am
As a fan of the TMP era this was one of my favorite mods back in the day, and I'm glad to have seen it resurfaced. A lot of bugs that caused it to crash in the past are gone and I can finally play a match for more then an hour.
If you have the time I recommend porting the mod to Fleet Ops, if you don't have the time I'd not mind trying to port it for you. I have a feeling a very nice series of campaigns could be made for this mod as a result with the tools available in FO.
If you have the time I recommend porting the mod to Fleet Ops, if you don't have the time I'd not mind trying to port it for you. I have a feeling a very nice series of campaigns could be made for this mod as a result with the tools available in FO.
posted on October 1st, 2012, 9:58 am
Indeed, campaigns would be very much desired
I will attempt to port it to FleetOps soon, but from what I've read there are still a few incompatibilities and such in the FleetOps engine (trading stations etc) which may pose a problem.
I will attempt to port it to FleetOps soon, but from what I've read there are still a few incompatibilities and such in the FleetOps engine (trading stations etc) which may pose a problem.
posted on October 21st, 2012, 4:03 pm
posted on October 21st, 2012, 11:36 pm
posted on October 22nd, 2012, 6:29 am
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