Greetings captains!
I know I don't write often, but that's mainly because I have limited time to spend on the mod and I feel like wasting it with long articles. But it's been a while, so I decided to show some of the stuff I've been working on.
One of the most sought-after feature in the mod was to have stronger starbases, because the current ones are too weak. Well, hold onto your warpdrives, because, as I previously said, your demands were answered. Be prepared, because this will be big. I mean, REALLY BIG!
I'm sure you all recognize this shape. It's the Federation Spacedock, the biggest construction built in the Alpha Quadrant. This station is massive. So big in fact, that on some of the Fleet Operations maps it is difficult to find a place for it! But if you don't believe me, here is a picture about just how big this station is compared to some ships!
Those ships are perfectly aligned to the starbase, so the comparison is as accurate as it can be. Pretty neat, huh? At this size, this station of course has a massive amount of hull - about a thousand times more than an average starship - massive shield generators and powerful weapons. The exact capabilities of this station are still under development, I don't know how complex I want it to be, but there are some things already set in stone.
1) The Federation player will start with this station as its main starbase, if they start the game from the TMP period onwards. It was decided so other players - mainly the Klingons who can unlock the Mothball relatively early - can't rush the Federation player at the beginning of the game.
2) It will be possible to build multiple of these stations. Possible, but extremely unlikely, unless you play with unlimited resources. These stations take an insane amount of resources, and about an Era in time to be finished!
3) These stations have more complex shipyards than basic Outposts and thus will be able to build starships up to destroyer size.
4) To make it even harder to take down, they will have their own small defense fleet that cannot be controlled by the player. This fleet will never leave the vicinity of the Starbase and serves as a defensive force only.
Next is the Romulan Aviari. These stations were originally set up alongside the Neutral Zone to monitor enemy movements and coordinate the border defense fleet. They are not as big as a Spacedock, but they have powerful sensors and the ability to detect cloaked ships if they are close enough, preventing a surprise attack on the base. If you want to enter the Neutral Zone undetected, these are the boys you have to avoid.
Although they are weaker than the Spacedock, they still get all the features listed above for their Federation counterpart, and because it's cheaper, it is more likely that the Romulan player will be able to build another on a strategic point.
Klingons however will get no such starbase. Yes, yet another feature the Klingons won't have access to. I was thinking hard as it places the Klingon player in clear disadvantage if they play a defensive game, but hey! They are Klingons, they are NOT supposed to play defensive games! To compensate the Klingon player somewhat, Klingons get a few free disruptor emplacements at the beginning of the game, and they get a slight cost reduction to build more weapon emplacements.
Keep in mind that although in these early Eras, such starabases are almost indestructible fortresses, as starships develop over the ages, their relative power will decrease, and in later Eras it may be significantly easier to take them down.
About the progress of the mod:
It IS progressing. Slowly, but progressing as I have a few other things that take most of my attention. Models and graphics are in place, most of the balance stuff penned out, only the coding part remains. The Federation takes up about half of the coding required, and I am at about 30% done. Once the coding is finished, I can do some more play and stress testing before the release.
As I mentioned earlier, the hew release adds two new Eras to the mod, with the possibility to skip the first four and start from the TMP era. The mod will still feature the three factions as before, but a fourth and a fifth one are in very early stage of development already.
Stay tuned!
