Random thoughts

posted on March 30th, 2011, 3:24 pm

I found my Armada 2 disk after 8 years in a closet and it works like new on my quad core and I got FO 3.15 and have been playing now and meddling with the map editor for a month or so.. This is my first post so forgive me in advance if I am not yet entirely up to speed. Long ago I was one of the kings of this game online and forgot how much I loved it, the new Fleet Ops version is quite an accomplishment and I applaud everyone who is/was involved.. Now then, some preliminary criticisms meant to improve an already very FUN game and then some encouragements and whatnot's..

When I first played Armada 2 way back when my biggest criticism was that there wasn't enough map space between 8 players to allow a safe development of one's forces and rushes were common as they are in all RTS games. Even in new games like Civilization-V they haven't found a way to punish rushers. With 50x50k maps much of that is alleviated but it introduces other issues... I like asymmetric warfare with a balanced "chance" if that makes any sense and there is a lot to explore with Fleet Ops that I like. Some of the things I'd like to see worked on are: The fed repair ships love to follow the enemy around like lost puppies and promptly get themselves killed after all that upgrading. They need smarter captains to say the least. Bases are too vulnerable even after upgrading and a typical borg fleet can come and wipe them out without any issues whasoever. The way the game relies on resources instead of officer cap is all fine except that it makes the game a long struggle to build up and then a simple matter to wipe out the enemy, no matter how well defended they are. There needs to be some kind of offensive cap to prevent the opposite of rushing which is prolonged breeding.

    I'd like to see deep space maps return and warp and trading.. Trading was particularly useful in online games and 2 vs. 6 ai scenerios even though it was unbalanced in terms of resource collection. One other thing i miss is the ability to convert dilithium to tritium (latinum back then or metal) and so trading stations would be great and i even see trading in the admirals log, but see no way to accomplish it... Anyway, this is my first post and i just wanted to say hi and let you all know what a great thing it is you've all done here..

Decker out..

[Tyler]

posted on March 30th, 2011, 4:50 pm

Last edited by Tyler on March 30th, 2011, 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Welcome to the forum. Long first post...

The way the game relies on resources instead of officer cap is all fine except that it makes the game a long struggle to build up and then a simple matter to wipe out the enemy, no matter how well defended they are. There needs to be some kind of offensive cap to prevent the opposite of rushing which is prolonged breeding.

FO devs hate hard caps, so they use the 'Supply' resource to limit what you can get with a massive price increase for each batch you buy. Hard caps aren't going to be in again except for special units, which aren't entirely hard themselves. Supply isn't very friendly to people trying to amass ships, especially to Klingons.

I'd like to see deep space maps return and warp and trading.. Trading was particularly useful in online games and 2 vs. 6 ai scenerios even though it was unbalanced in terms of resource collection. One other thing i miss is the ability to convert dilithium to tritium (latinum back then or metal) and so trading stations would be great and i even see trading in the admirals log, but see no way to accomplish it...

Trading is a to-do I believe, it just isn't past the drawing board yet. Warp isn't going to be back in (poorly done and out of place in an RTS is the common complaint I see), the Federation Warp-In feature took its place.

posted on March 30th, 2011, 6:31 pm

Welcome to the forums!

  I'm going to take a guess and say that you're probably beginning with games against the AI.  Most people begin that way and it's a great way to get yourself familiar with how Fleetops is different than Stock A2!

  On the other hand: FleetOps is balanced for multiplayer games, not games against the AI.

  The AI has to cheat in order to pose even the slightest threat to a good player so it ends up ruining a lot of the strategy involved for a human player.


  I'm going to suggest that, once you're ready, you join us online using Tunngle and experience multiplayer!  It's loads of fun and you'll really see Fleetops shine in it's balance and the skill it takes to play effectively. 

posted on March 31st, 2011, 1:50 am

set the repair ships as high move and weapon autominy (sp?)  and then set to GREEN alert  they will only go up to YOUR ships/ALLIES ships that have taken damage to hull (unless fully upgraded then they follow every little shield dent)  thats the only real option for auto repairing a fleet in combat with them so eather that or do more micro clicking 

tbh AI games can be good to et better at microing (the act of taking care and sending correct ships to base for repairs or using special weapons like tricobalt torps on the intreps or proxy torps on monsoons) as the ai CAN be unpredictable at times with wtf they are shooting at (mainly due to fail AI which the devs have tried to patch and fix but tbh needs a full rewrite with proper tactics)


and welcome to the boards

posted on March 31st, 2011, 2:01 am

Hey I just wanted to comment on the defenses aspect, the idea for borg is that if you can build up a really strong fleet you should be able to roll over everything, defenses and fleets included