Clash of Empires - Fleet Ops Mod Possibility

posted on February 20th, 2010, 10:54 am

Hello Fleet Operations members,

My name is Majestic, I have been semi-active over here the past few months. I have been really enjoying Fleet Operations and it's significant advantages over stock Armada 2.

For quite sometime I have been working on a modification based in the TNG era, called Clash of Empires. My aim was to bring several races to the game, however I have been concentrating on the Cardassians to start with. I have made considerable advances through the modelling side of things.

The reason I am making this post is to ask, would people like to see a full Cardassian side in Fleet Operations? Plus how hard will it be to place a new race (with two avatars) into Fleet Operations. This has been something I have debated for a long time now. I am a veteran of modding stock A1 & A2 (10 years now) but I have never touched Fleet Operations.

I am also including some screenshots as attachments to show you all what I have done. Note any in-game screenshots are in a standard A2 and not Fleet Operations.

If you want to find out more on what I've done or see more please visit the COE forum on MSFC.

Note: Due to the limitations of the upload system here I had to forgo screenshots. After trying to submit this post 5 times I really just want this posted. Images can be found at the above links anyway.

posted on February 20th, 2010, 11:17 am

It's interesting to have a Cardassian mod for FO. So I'm all for it.

IIRC, the "official" intention was to have the Cardassians either as NPC or as third Avatar for the Dominion, I think.

But having a FO mod that allows to play the Cardies is A Good Thing In My Book.

posted on February 20th, 2010, 11:18 am

The reason I am making this post is to ask, would people like to see a full Cardassian side in Fleet Operations? Plus how hard will it be to place a new race (with two avatars) into Fleet Operations. This has been something I have debated for a long time now. I am a veteran of modding stock A1 & A2 (10 years now) but I have never touched Fleet Operations.

Many people wanted cardassians back as a playable race. The difficulties of implementing them would be that you have to add all cardassian ships you want to bring up to the weapon odfs to make hitchances and damages balanced and passives working, that takes some time due to the tons of odfs in FO.
For avatars the FO-guide states that in the end there will be four for each race, and every avatar features two unique units and different strategy specialisations by now, which still could change in the future. Also there are race redos on to do by the staff, so you would have to update this modification quite often.

posted on February 20th, 2010, 11:30 am

I agree that this will never become a part of the "Official" FO package.

As I'm not a modder, I don't know how hard it should be to implement this, but just thinking of all specials for all ships, things get complicated.

And you will have to make the race taking into account the other races, so it doesn't get either overpowered or handicapped. And update with every patch to the official FO, to keep it balanced.

I'm not trying to discourage you, as I said, I'd like to have a playable Cardassian faction, but the amount of work ahead looks overwhelming.

posted on February 20th, 2010, 11:32 am

Also, some of the known cardassian ships and some new one (one at least if having a look at Zeich's blog) will make it into the game as npc-units one day due to the fact that cardassians still are present in a minor way. For me in particular, this is enough for them. Other people wanted to have them as a full race, though.

[Optec]

posted on February 20th, 2010, 12:14 pm

Last edited by Optec on February 20th, 2010, 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

yep, we have some plans for the cardassians as a major np faction to trade, negotiate and gain reputation with, but at the moment other topics, like the new engine and the race redo have priority They wont be a full playable race, but there will be some ways to gain a galor or two 

There already is a Cardassian avatar mod made by Zeich. you might want to look into that. Zeich will also be our lead designer for the Cardassians 

posted on February 20th, 2010, 1:23 pm

There already is a Cardassian avatar mod made by Zeich. you might want to look into that. Zeich will also be our lead designer for the Cardassians 

Yep, according to his blog he already made Galor, Keldon and Hideki as well as the showcase-model for a new interceptor which looks awsome 

I'm looking forward to it very much

posted on February 20th, 2010, 1:26 pm

Considering the AI now uses both Avatars in it's gameplay. E.g, Pure Tech and Breen. If you were to use Zeich's third avatar, Cardassian mod. Would the AI, use it in conjunction with Pure tech and Breen?

posted on February 20th, 2010, 2:09 pm

Considering the AI now uses both Avatars in it's gameplay. E.g, Pure Tech and Breen. If you were to use Zeich's third avatar, Cardassian mod. Would the AI, use it in conjunction with Pure tech and Breen?

Zeich's cardassian avatar is no third one
It's a replacement mod for the Breen.

posted on February 20th, 2010, 2:15 pm

wasnt there a third avator mod called "The final frontier" in progres? i remember RCIX being in their team, but i dont know if they are strill working on it....

[RedEyedRaven]

posted on February 20th, 2010, 2:26 pm

Last edited by RedEyedRaven on February 20th, 2010, 2:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

wasnt there a third avator mod called "The final frontier" in progres? i remember RCIX being in their team, but i dont know if they are strill working on it....

Yes it was. And it has nothing to do with Zeich's avatar replacement as far as I know because the final frontier mod is intended as a full race-thing.
In fact, that mod by Zeich was what brought him into the FO staff.

Edit: Found the topic. It's outdated, but reading it may be of help
Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - Cardassian Mod For Fleet Ops

posted on February 21st, 2010, 1:02 am

Um has anyone taken a look at the links I posted? I have well over 30 ships plus about 10 stations. Modelling side of things are almost complete.

Plus it's designed as a mod rather than an add-on to Fleet Operations. I am starting with the Cardassians then going from there so it wouldn't fit in with Fleet Operations, it's not intended to. Reason I am considering basing it on Fleet Operations is the advanced features, mainly the avatar and warp-in features that stock A2 doesn't have.

Basically it's a mod using the Fleet Operations platform as a base due to the advantages it has over stock A2.

Here are also some images so you can see what I've done. Most of my models haven't been converted yet however.

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... Katala.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... ations.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... nTerak.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... hot016.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... hot022.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... g/ss06.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... g/ss01.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... g/ss02.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... g/ss03.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... g/ss04.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... g/ss05.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... origin.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... Maquis.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv11 ... aquis2.png

posted on February 21st, 2010, 1:10 am

yep, we have some plans for the cardassians as a major np faction to trade, negotiate and gain reputation with, but at the moment other topics, like the new engine and the race redo have priority They wont be a full playable race, but there will be some ways to gain a galor or two 

There already is a Cardassian avatar mod made by Zeich. you might want to look into that. Zeich will also be our lead designer for the Cardassians 

  Having made a number of maps lately I am very excited at the prospect of having a dedicated NPC race from which you can utilize certain things.


  On that subject: a nuetral trading post where a person could send a ship and buy X Dilithium in exchange for Y Trilithium would be great (at a Ferengi rate, of course ).  I don't know if you had this in mind for Cardassians but I think it could be an excellent addition and a great way to have our Cardies back.

  It would also give me something to go wild with in the Map Editor!  With another "resource" structure on the map like a trading post or a structure that could supply ships without being an actual target would be a great way to shift how maps are arranged .

posted on February 21st, 2010, 1:24 am

You should contact blade (Apocladon)

If he gives you permission, there was an old project called the Final Fronter that he, RXIC, neon,(I helped a little) and some others were working on.  It eventually died off and was never quite finished.

It was a cardassian race addition that to the game that had like 5 avatars   If he gave you permission(he actually already g=told me I could revive it if I wanted) It could save you a tone of work though it would need to be updated for 3.1, and you would proally use your own models.  Anyway, PM me if he gives you permission and I'll go look for the mod if you want to use them.


Looks to be yet another cool mod

posted on July 11th, 2010, 1:52 am

I've decided that considering people here are more interested in a Cardassian avatar to mix in with the existing game rather than the actual project that this thread is actually about I am pulling the plug on a FO version.

My apologies for wasting everyone's time. If you are interested in it however, feel free to venture over to MSFC (google it), as it's where I am based and has information and pictures on this project over there.

Any staff here are welcomed to close or delete this thread at their leisure.