Klingon Academy III: The Lost Years

posted on March 30th, 2017, 2:15 pm

Well, crap.

I can't get the science idea to work as i'd like. I've temporarily reverted to the standard Dilithium/Tritanium/Latinum system, without any provision for trading. Once I get everything working, I may try and get the Orbital stations to also function as trading stations. That'll add an interesting dynamic if it works.

I've got the research system figured out now. All research costs Latinum. There are three eras, including the start. Consider the start to be around 2315. Each race gets 2 (Fed) or 3 (Klingon and Romulan) ship designs "for free" i.e available from the start. The rest need to be researched on a hull by hull basis. So, the Excelsior and Excelsior Retrofit only need the Excelsior Hull to be researched. Same with other refits such as the K'T'Inga/Koloth, Imperium/Imperium AQS etc.

Once the ships for that first era are researched (Centaur, Constellation, Excelsior for the Feds, K'T'inga and Vod'leh for the Klingons and the Senator and Imperium for the Romulans) then the option to advance the era to the 2330s appears in the research station. Each race gets one new hull, (Ambassador, Qeh'Ral and Melak) and a variety of refits become available (Excelsior Retrofit, E15 B'rel, Koloth, Imperium AQS). The new hulls are built at the Advanced/Imperial/Praetorial Shipyard, with the refits being built at the Standard Shipyard.

The Advanced Shipyard and a new, Advanced Research Station are prerequisites to advance the age to the 2350s. Once this age is reached, further research is conducted at the Advanced Research Station. New hulls become available to research (Springfield, New Orleans, Nebula for Feds, NuQ'Duj, K'Vort and Vor'Cha for the Klingons, and the Talon, Shrike and Griffin for the Romulans). Whilst these are less powerful (with the exception of the Nebula) than the Battlecruisers/Battleship (Qeh'Ral) of the 2330s, they are designed to replace the starting ships (Centaur -> Springfield. Constellation -> New Orleans. pIH -> NuQ'Duj, Vod'leH -> K'Vort. Gladius -> Talon, Legion -> Shrike) and to supplement earlier heavy ships (Excelsior Retrofit + Nebula, Qeh'Ral + Vor'Cha, Senator + Griffin). Also, the TNG Era Non-Combat ships, and a new defensive turret, become available in this era.

After this the three powers somewhat separate. The Federation and the Romulans can then research a "super ship" (Galaxy and D'Dereidex) which they can then build one of. The Klingon Empire already has their most powerful ship in the mid game (Qeh'Ral) and can build 3 of them, but their fleet is rather imbalanced until the K'Vort and Vor'Cha enter service.

Once these are researched, the final layer of research begins. Speciality ships. The Federation have the Nebula Science Cruiser (Sensor Pod), which has long ranged sensors and a variety of special abilities such as repair teams to aid the fleet. The Klingon Empire has the Charghwl, which is an Assault Transport version of the Vor'Cha used for capturing ships, stations and planets. The Romulan Star Empire has the Shadow Shrike, which is a Special Ops Ship with a number of special abilities used for intelligence gathering, recon etc.

With the exception of Admirals log images, which are last on my list really, i've finished the Federation stylistically. Music is done, GUI done, buttons and wireframes are done. Tech tree is done, just balancing the research costs and times now. Should have the Federation completely finished minus AI by the end of today.

Oh also added a new loading screen and loading music. It all feels very early TNG now

posted on April 8th, 2017, 1:22 pm

Well, all three initial sides are done. Just need AI files, and the Nebula Science Pod and Shadow Shrike need their special weapons.

I decided to remove the CFDIC from the mod. It's obsolete (officially) by the 2320s anyway, and so i've handwaved and said that the power consumption problems that prevented the use of Plasma Torpedoes on the Preax Class (and additional torpedoes on the Imperium) were solved.

I also decided to add Outposts for each side, based on their TNG Starbase designs from Armada. They aren't massively powerful but they do add strength to a defensive position, and most importantly serve as repair facilities.

posted on April 23rd, 2017, 4:45 pm

Well, all three sides are fully working. Special weapons and everything. Federation AI is done, although it might not be the most efficient AI file ever at this point. I might add some line limitations in the 2310s so that it doesn't get stuck spamming light ships.

Couple of small screenshots taken during testing.

2310s Battle between KDF D7C qItI'tinga' Class Light Cruisers, a C8B VoD'leH Class Heavy Cruiser, and Starfleet Class Centaur Class Destroyers with support from a Constellation Class Light Cruiser and a Miranda Class Frigate.

FOScreenShot_170423_010355.png (927.02 KiB) Viewed 1930 times

2330s Battle between KDF D12 Koloth Class Light Cruisers and Starfleet Constellation Class Light Cruisers, with support from a Centaur Class Destroyer.

FOScreenShot_170423_012301.png (679.39 KiB) Viewed 1930 times

I'd forgotten to tell the AI to build an Advanced Shipyard so it got stuck. Should see more Ambassadors in the next shots (although I can't see why it was holding it's Excelsior Class Retrofits back in reserve *shrug* )

posted on April 23rd, 2017, 6:35 pm

Awesome man, can't wait to try it out.

posted on April 23rd, 2017, 6:53 pm

Great work, absolutely :-)

posted on April 24th, 2017, 12:58 pm

well done looks good

posted on July 15th, 2017, 9:27 am

This looks excellent! Nicely done!

posted on July 17th, 2017, 6:36 pm

Thanks. Just a quick post to say that work is continuing, albeit slowly. Currently two main problems. The first is I can't seem to "write out" the Borg/ISC side. If I change their ODF so they aren't playable, the game crashes at the Instant Action menu.

Second is more of a stylistic issue. It just sort of feels, bare? At least compared to how detailed and rich KA2 feels to me. I am pondering whether I can solve both issues by changing the Borg/ISC side to the Cardassians and incorporating them as a new side, showing their slow growth in the early 2300s to the First Cardassian War in the 2340s.

I've been doing some work on the Dominion War mod for FleetOps in the meantimes, which has also lead to me researching the Cardassians more, so, we'll see

posted on July 17th, 2017, 7:54 pm

There are some non-canon ships from the Lost Era that would be nice to pad it out - such as the Apollo-class (which is an ambassador-style Nebula-class equivalent).

Could you add the Freedom-class as a destroyer? And maybe the three-nacelle Niagara-class which could be a light, faster cruiser than the Ambassador?

Maybe the Curry-class as both a carrier and/or repair ship?

posted on July 17th, 2017, 7:56 pm

And maybe the Cheyenne-class?

posted on July 18th, 2017, 3:46 am

I'm quite happy with the fleet compositions in the mod. Any more on the Federation side would also require new ships for the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire, and Lost Era designs for them are hard to come by.

posted on July 18th, 2017, 12:13 pm

When I saw a KA mod in the works, my first thought was "Ooh, at last, a mod with a Constitution Refit in it!".

But then I saw no refit, and was sad.

I love that you're going into TLE with this mod, but is there a slither of hope that the Constitution Refit would make an appearance at the first tech level alongside the Miranda and Excelsior, before it gets phased out?

Besides that, the mod is looking awesome and I'm rather looking forward to getting my hands on it.

posted on July 19th, 2017, 5:33 am

When I saw a KA mod in the works, my first thought was "Ooh, at last, a mod with a Constitution Refit in it!".

But then I saw no refit, and was sad.

I love that you're going into TLE with this mod, but is there a slither of hope that the Constitution Refit would make an appearance at the first tech level alongside the Miranda and Excelsior, before it gets phased out?

Besides that, the mod is looking awesome and I'm rather looking forward to getting my hands on it.

You should check out KA2: Empire at War...

https://www.fleetops.net/forums/modsinp ... ?start=255

posted on August 12th, 2017, 3:08 am

Woohoo! I'm glad to hear this is moving forward, still play KA2 to this day ^_^ Definitely like the idea of slowly moving forward in history, and that planets/orbital stations may have more features to them; always felt Armada2 didn't really give them much use beyond metal, and seems odd that an entire planet's only real contribution was one resource.

posted on July 15th, 2018, 7:37 pm

I have a question with this. You mention Age of Empires like dynamic for aging up. When we are talking phasing out a ship, do you mean that all currently built ships phased out automatically become the next replacement, that the old ships disappear, that they become unbuildable but otherwise playable, or that they remain buildable but impractical in the shifting tech levels?