Ages of the Federation is a new total conversion mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. This mod takes place in the Enterprise and Original series eras, focusing on the conflict between the early Federation and Klingon Empire. A resurgent Romulan Star Empire, angry and still licking its wounds after their defeat to Earth and her allies waits in the shadows, ready to take advantage of any of misstep by either the warring powers. The Xindi, new to the galactic stage are also eager to forge their own path.
A Romulan warship wreaks havoc as the Empire responds to Starfleet's new offensive.
It was true - Romulus was waging a war that, in reality, was stretching its logistics capacity to the extreme. Romulan ships lacked the fuel reserves to wage a campaign of attrition so far from the infrastructure of the Empire. Had this not been so, the war would have been won within the first year. As it was, the Imperial Navy was forced to operate from secret staging grounds on the outskirts of Coalition space - hidden bases, far from Starfleet's prying eyes, where Romulan forces could repair, rearm, refuel, and plan their next objectives. These staging grounds, of which there were only a small handful, were of vital importance to the Romulan war effort.
Starfleet's new, more aggressive tactics pushed the resources the Empire had available to the breaking point, and cost the Imperial Navy many ships. Romulan forces, already pressed to make the distance to their targets, make their attacks and return to base were increasingly being bogged down in combat with Starfleet forces - diversions that they simply could not afford. Starfleet's newfound aggression had cost the Romulan fleet the initiative.
A proud and passionate people, the Romulans' response was to meet aggression with aggression. Like most lesser beings, the humans had proven most dangerous when their backs were to the wall. The Imperial Navy's plan was to crush Starfleet with overwhelming force. Several newer and heavier warships were diverted to the front, and while the Romulans still could not commit to lengthy engagements, their attacks became altogether more vicious and more devastating. Small raids became major assaults, and precision strikes became rampages. Starfleet's casualties once more began to mount in the face of Romulan might.
By 2159, both sides were looking for opportunities to decisively end the conflict once and for all. The Coalition, however, was in no way prepared for the Romulans' next move.
In "Balance of Terror", Spock mentioned the use of atomic weaponry during the Earth-Romulan war.
Will those play any role in AotF or are they considered... retconned?
The Romulans use nuclear torpedoes. Also, I believe I've read somewhere that the warheads of Starfeet's spatial torpedoes may be fusion-based.
Cool. Thank you. :)
In the German-dub of ENT, the spatial torpedoes are called "fusion torpedoes" for some reason. It is still possible however, that a non-canon licensed sourcebook actually incorporated the fusion-part of the spatial torpedo.
Also, didn't Starfleet upgrade to photonic torpedoes at some point or was it exclusively to the NX-class (ENT season 3) at first?
(I recall that at least the Franklin still that the spatial/fusion-ones.)
Photonic torpedoes did exist during this period but they were few in number. Spatial torpedoes made up the bulk of Starfleet's arsenal during the Earth-Romulan War.
I'm assuming that photonic's will be limited to NX class ships and others like it, and probably an ability? although I can see refits getting access to full photons once the TOS era comes around. Especially since I rather like the Ent era ships and will keep using them even though there are better ships on the market.
You'll be upgrading to photonics and then photons through the reaearch tree. The same goes for advancing from phase cannons to the more powerful blue phasers.
Nice!
I noticed a lot of small (sins-vanilla-type) debris flying around when ships explode (at least it seems so in the pics). Will you retain the detailed and highly-immersive (and just outright awesome) wreckages like in STA3 or will there be another approach as how battle aftermath will look like?
At the moment the debris that's left behind after a ship explodes is mostly still stock. We plan to eventually add our own custom wreckage. In the meantime, Max has developed a really cool effect that allows debris to fly off ships as they take hull damage. The effect looks especially great on larger ships. Imagine two dreadnoughts fighting amidst a cloud of their own debris as they blast each other at close range.