New here, and I have some questions

[Captain Kaplah]

posted on June 10th, 2011, 8:00 am

Last edited by Captain Kaplah on June 10th, 2011, 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hello,

I'm new here, I stumbled upon this site when dusting off my armada II game and trying to get it to work on my windows 7 laptop, and my brothers vista. We like to play RTS games in LAN against each other (warcraft, age of empires, ... ) so Armada seemed like a good choice. As an RTS and a Star Trek fan, this seemed like the ideal combination!

After I got it to work on both laptop's, we couldn't get the lan going due to crashing. Then I found this website which made me upgrade my game and my brothers game to version 1.2.5. Now it's working as intended, and I'm re-exploring the game.

But now the mod Fleet Ops has me really intrigued. I have the following questions, for which answers I could not find in the FAQ:

1. Is it possible to play Fleet Ops and Armada II on the same laptop? Meaning can I for example play Armada II and then play Fleet Ops? (without installing or anything, just play, exit, and play the other game) (I read something about an altered exe that's why I'm asking)

2. Is Fleet Ops really the better game (or mod) to play LAN, and is Lan or online gameplay supported for windows 7 and vista users?

3. Does Fleet Ops has high system requirements? Me and my brother have fast laptops, but only integrated video cards. These laptops are not for high end gaming, we play, like I said old RTS games on it. So if I would be downloading the Fleet Ops mod, wouldn't it be to heavy on my laptop graphic wise?

4. Did I read correctly and is species 8472 not included in Fleet Ops? Why is that ?

If anyone would take the time to answer these questions, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Captain Kaplah

EDIT: sorry for my sloppy English

posted on June 10th, 2011, 8:10 am

1.YES
2.YES
3.NO
4.YES

posted on June 10th, 2011, 8:14 am

BTW WELCOME TO FORUMS , its nice to see new ppl here 

posted on June 10th, 2011, 8:26 am

Welcome my friend, Captain Kaplah.

I don't have a great deal of experience with programming, and I know people can answer your question better than me. But I will give it a go.

1. Yes it is possible to have both games on your computer and change between them (I have them both and in fact have an older version of fleet ops on my laptop). Fleet ops shouldn't have written over Armada 2, so I would think that it should still be there unless it has since been changed. While it was ages since I loaded it, I don't remember doing anything special.

2. I haven't played armada 2 on lan for over two years now, but we didn't have any problems playing it (in fact we played it as we couldn't get fleet ops to work - but that was an error on our end). Last I check both games work fine (open to correction if needed). Game play wise, it is really up to you and your taste. Both games have a different flavour and are awesome to play.

3. No expert here, but I would think so as it is a "new" game/mod (never have checked). But don't worry. Your game should work fine on most standard computers. I play fleet ops on a two year old laptop that handles it great. The people who have been doing the mod have been doing it for a while and do a fantastic job. Most computers I have seen play it. I live in Australia, and I'm sure I can get it playing on a gum tree as I have never really had a problem and my computer is loaded with garbage.

4. You read correctly, no Species 8472's. Not sure why. But I guess because of the storyline or they haven’t gotten that far.

Hope that helps and you have a great time. And don’t worry about the sloppy English, mine is just as bad  .  Well off for dinner for me. Talk to you later
Regards,
Rob

posted on June 10th, 2011, 9:10 am

welcome to forums buddy erm all i can say is check out the game guide ,its got replays a run down of all races (present and future) . Id personnally say fleet ops is a billion times better than stock a2 it makes it the game it should have been hope to see you online with us soon 

posted on June 10th, 2011, 10:42 am

welcome cpt kaplah (nice name).

1. robrob is right, a2 and fo dont interfere, they will be installed in different folders and wont hurt each other. you can install fo without a2 being installed if u want (you still need the a2 CD)

2. fo works fine on win7 and vista over lan fine. it works online with those fine as well. most people play online via tunngle, a vpn program which basically takes the internet and pretends to be a lan connection, so as far as the game's concerned its playing by lan.

3. i have an integrated graphics card and it works fine, fo seems to be more processor intensive than graphics card intensive.

4. maybe the devs dont like 8472. i liked stock 8472 gameplay, it didnt feel like the trek 8472 though. the devs are working on a similar race (of their own invention) called the noxter, which will hopefully allow them to explore some cool biological ship stuff without being hamepered by the trek 8472 depictions.

posted on June 10th, 2011, 12:03 pm

On question 4

Species 8472 plays an important role in one or two events, too, but they no longer invade normal space. The FO Storyline is focused around the Alpha, Beta and Gamma Quadrant and Species 8472 does not play a major role in those areas. Besides that, the Developer Team thinks it’s much more interesting to have map events where fluidic gates open and super powerful ships jump out.

An Introduction to Fleet Operations - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations

You will find a lot more information about the FleetOps back story on the guide.  Hope that helps.

And welcome Captain Kaplah.

posted on June 10th, 2011, 1:43 pm

Haha, you've got people jumping to answer your questions.

Just to clarify number 1 some more: currently if you install Fleet Ops you can't play Armada II using that same install.  But you can Install Armada II on your computer as well.  There are actually plans in the works right now to integrate Armada II into the game so one install can play either, we expect to see progress on this over the next few months.

Still this is mostly for the campaign.  I think you'll find that although it suffers from occasional bugs, Fleet Ops is far superior for multiplayer diversity and balance.

posted on June 10th, 2011, 8:43 pm

Hello again,

thanks everyone for the replies . I downloaded Fleet Ops but didn't really get to playing it, I'm going to play the normal Armada II first for a while. I thought I would recall a lot from the game but apparantly I don't, so my battle skills need some sharpening .

I have indeed both Armada II and Fleet ops on my comp now and can play them seperatly, this is great! And I'm glad the programmers decided that they will put 'offspring of species 8472' in the game, these bio-matter dudes are just pure awesome.

If I run into problems, I'll make a new post, and otherwise you'll maybe see me posting some other stuff around here. And later, when the phasers are calibrated and the photon torpedoes are set, I'll see you guys online in Fleet Ops .

Thanks again!

Cheers,

Captain Kaplah

posted on June 11th, 2011, 3:19 pm

If you intend to play Fleet Ops, re-playing STA2 may be a very bad idea.

The game is so different that they could call it Star Trek Armada 3. No kidding.

If you intend to appreciate the diferences, though, then you are welcome to refresh your STA2 feels, but if you expect to get some clues for FO by playing STA2, then you're in for quite a surprise. Good or bad is up to you.

posted on June 12th, 2011, 4:53 pm

Yes after reading through the guide and stuff I realized this as well.

I'll guess I have to find out how big the diffirence is. And actuelly, the prospect of playing Armada III (like you call it) makes it all the more fun to see the diffirences between the two games.

When I start playing FO I'll have a "empty" mind set and not try to fall in SA II habits ;D

posted on June 12th, 2011, 9:30 pm

yeah dont play this like a2. the basic game mechanics are the same. but a lot has been changed.

be very adaptable, dont always turtle, make every effort to retreat and repair ships, pay attention to special weapons as they can change a battle very much.

each race techs differently, each has their own feel.