It's been over three weeks since our last news post and a lot of important stuff has been implemented to get the mod to a near complete playable state. Let start with some aesthetics to get your appetite going.
UI wise Mindwipe has implemented all the necessary changes to make our UI unique to the vanilla one. Buttons have been standardised to fit better with the over all Star Trek theme, they look rather clean and unobtrusive. Sounds have also been changed to some genuine Star Trek bleeps and bloops minus the blinking and flashing lights going back and forth. Shells have been completely replaced too, to better fit the theme that we are aiming for and because each race can't have a completely unique UI theme apart from certain areas we went for as neutral as possible.
New art work has also been added to further the Trek experience, loading screens, victory and defeat and character icons have all been gutted as well as some faction icons. Research buttons will also be getting an overhaul in the coming days so you'll have to read the description instead of looking at the image and just clicking it. Some icons will be the same like planetary development but a lot of the military and civilian buttons will be different to the vanilla game.
This Saber did not survive incase you were wondering
In other aspects of the mod Tech has been bashing out something fierce working on research to make the Borg playable throughout the game. They now have the necessary research to make them unstoppable, they have such nasty research late game they will have you up the wall and possibly everyone else. However it's expensive and slow so there is no chance of you rushing to annihilate your foes quickly. You have to build up slowly and form a 'collective' to be an effective fighting force, that is unless you're not already spare parts.
Max has also been working hard on the Borg and most of their models are done including the Unicomplex, research stations and other important ships. The Titan is yet to be done but that at the moment is so secret even the NSA don't know about it. In fact on the modelling front there are very few left to do and most of these are mining stations. All the other races have all their respective ships done and pretty much all their stations in game working.
Getting there!
I bet you're wondering now how do these races play? What are the defining features that makes 'x' race unique well lets do a quick run-down.
Federation
The Feds as you can imagine are very much a jack of all trades kind of faction. Fed ships are well balanced and have a good mix of weapons and abilities to make sure they are effective in battle. However the one aspect of the Feds that really shine is its economy, they are designed to get income fast and incremental economy research makes sure they stay ahead of the resource war. To beat the Feds you have to hit them in the wallet and any strain on the budget will ensure they stay a second rate power.
Klingons
The Klingons are essentially the Soviet Union of the Star Trek universe, yes their resource collection isn't up to scratch but that doesn't matter when you have endless cheap ships flooding the enemies territory. The Klingons are all about smashing your foes back door in and making them uncomfortable. However Klingon ships don't scream longevity and it's not until late game do the late game ships have something that equals the Feds in terms of power.
Romulans
The Romulans are all about the espionage. You want to move about freely and without harassment? Ha! Forget that with a Romulan player, they'll know everything about you. Your ship movements, installation placements even your dinner will be tracked to ensure the Romulans will be able to strike anytime and anywhere they like. Thier ships are certainly not designed to be in a fight long but the plasma weapons will ensure you're not around long enough.
The Borg
Survive long enough in the early game and release your wrath...
Doing so will make this a common sight
Thats all folks and remember we are always happy to answer your (intelligent) questions and any ideas you may have will be discussed.
P.S. We've also hit nearly 1000 watchers! You beautiful stalkers you!
P.P.S: TheXPGamers hosted by CaptainShack has done a lets play of the mod!
I just can't wait.
The hype is real!
IT'S A FAAAKE!
BUT ITS REALLL
This mod is so perfect, the Borg have designated it Particle Omega.
This mod is so brilliant, if the Replicators assimilated it, they'd have an overload.
This mod is so awesome, even the Cybermen can't upgrade it.
This mod is so amazing, I need to relate it to three different fandoms to compliment it.
Wait, there's no dominion?
ST armada only had them in the campaign iirc.
2nd installment I'm afraid. you'll have to wait a little longer for them.
Just started following us? Read some of our previous news articles to get you up to speed on current and future plans :)
Pretty please add the Breen if you add the Dominion
I will love you forever if you do
they'll be in there, don't you worry about that. they're my favorite ships after all
I personally hope to see the Cardies. :D
I hope later this mod could be improving with more factions and ships this is very likely.
I just picked up the base game solely for this mod, it looks fantastic and is bringing back all my nostalgia. I saw in a previous post that one DLC pack is supported by the mod but what about Forbidden Worlds? Will the mod make use of it?
Both sets of DLC are supported
*Throws knickers at Gul-Dukat*
My my. This reminds me of Kira's mother.
One day, I hope you include the USS Typhon.
One day! ~
Lovely news i can hardly wait for it.... And some day in a far future cardi, dom & ferengi factions as well....
i can already tell you Dom Cardi and Breen will be one faction ;)
Pity i think think having each individually as seperate faction would probably offer more variations... Then again getting something is better than nothing... Cause they are independant factions...
Well to be fair i dont think there is enough material for Breen, Cardies and Doms for a single faction. Can you think of 20 different breen ships designs, or dom or cardie? This is also set around the Dominion war time too so it matches well having all 3 in one.
it certainly would, but it would also introduce endless problems. not least of which would be the gamebreaking everything loading at once mess.
other mods have circumvented this by having a modular system where you can pick and choose the races loaded. That's not what we want to go for though to be honest.
Coupled with the fact that you don't even know just how much work you're casually suggesting :D
@Dukat: Ya you're probably right..However regarding ships you folks are very creative I'm sure you would come up with many awesome fitting designs in Trek style for any named specific faction. But yea lets make em to one larger faction if it helps you guys to keep things simple balance wise. Besides one step at a time lets just finish the 4 current factions for December then you can still decide how to approach future things :)
@Jonsin: Star Armada2 had an own unique Cardassian faction in mp. Many of the ships this mod uses are from Star Trek Aramda1&2 + Starfleet Command3 :)
This mod for Armada2 even had an own entire Dominion faction, canon ships + self invented fan ships. Yet in a fitting style:
Guide.fleetops.net
watch the videos it's very interesting if you never played Armada2 before you should. For a professional model author it ain't hard to come up with some unique designs fairly quickly. They have that creativity in their blood just like the Armada3 team.