State of the mod:
Research in progress
As many of you will have seen in recent days via the regular screenshots Max has been posting, a lot of work has gone into re-texturing some of the vessels that we felt didn't quite make the grade.
A great deal of work has also gone into improving our sky-boxes in order to increase game immersion and really make the player "feel" like they're traversing the Star-Trek universe. We really hope you approve of the work and that you're getting an idea of the quality we hope to achieve in the mod.
On to the research trees.
In tandem with the visual work we've been doing, we've been working diligently on the research trees. As things stand we have a good idea of what we want to do overall and have implemented a good deal of the research trees of both the Klingon Empire and the United Federation Of Planets.
As it stands we've implemented about 60% of the Klingon Empire's research, and just a little less of the Federation's.
Here's your chance to make a difference!
We really appreciate the community we have here on Moddb, and we know a lot of you are Star Trek fans. We want to hear from you!
I'm sure many of you have ideas about what you'd like to see in the research trees. If you have any ideas please post them as comments on this news article and if (as I'm sure they will be) they're great ideas and we can implement them we'll do so. This is your mod every bit as much as it is the Developers and we want the final product to reflect that.
- Technophobeus "Gul Dukat"
Phase cloaks for the Federation? I mean, they have been banned because of the treaty, but if you're going for all out war, you need all the help you can get.
Klingon Boarding parties.
Would giving the Bird-of-Prey the ability to fire while cloaked be too op?
Thalaron weapons?
Hologram tech for spying/assisting in ships.
Not really research, but just a few things off the top of my head...
We've got the boarding parties :) We also have a ship ability that makes false duplicates of ships much like the holo-tech you're thinking of.
I'll look into the weapons (and indeed what they are lol) and if there's a way I'll get them in
I've looked into doing the bird of prey firing when cloaked before, but didn't find a way to do it, but I'll keep trying.
Thanks for the suggestions, they're very much appreciated.
you could try modifying the phase ability of the vassari scout to only make the ship invulrable but still be able to fire? and make it drain antimatter parsec
I might be able to create an ability that fires a torpedo when the ship is cloaked with a reasonable cooldown time.
Research for the federation to slow other races trade ships warp speed.
Description could be "Due to the abnormal amount of warp capable ships, the federation has implemented strict laws on the speed of non-military vessels, slowing other races trade lanes and economies."
I may be able to do that in the federations culture. I'll check it out.
just a thought for the late high tech game would you be able to make like a trans warp jump insted of just normal jumps ? cause i know in case's it be a great for late game when you doing all out battles and then die because you cant get your fleet into the place you need it fast enough
You mean like the phase stabilizer tech of the Vasari? I always figured this would fit well with the Borg, but why would the other factions use it? (also, you can scrape off a lot of distance with a few frigate factories close to the front).
yes the borg use it and can use it from the beginning of the game but i play on mostly very large multiple start systems and i have over 450 hours racked up on all the sins combined and i know no matter the amount of factories you have witch is normal 4 or 5 max you cant build at even 5 planets fast enough and get to the planet you need to before the fleet has proberly taken over the place and in multi-player people can be much more aggressive then ai and can attack more than one planet at a time soo it be better for late game not straight away and most factions is late era of star trek use trans warp tec
@Bornsteller: Why not all ships instead? It would be FAR better that way.
@technophobeus: First off, weren't phase cloaks made by Romulans? How would then Federation get their hands on those? Defiant was the only one that had NORMAL cloak, not phase one. To give Romulans would make some sense. As for that false illusions, that is exactly the same thing the Illuminator vessel had for the Advent. I hope that you won't make some of tech reliable on other species' tech treaties from SOA2, like Cardassian Ventures or Micro Singularities. As for boarding parties, I hope that you have given them to the Borg, too. Oh, and perhaps Tachyon Grid, whether as a ship's ability or structure, to detect cloaked ships.
Phase cloak was made by the federation, TNG Episode Pegasus ;P
also the holodeck ship from stare trek insurrection also had a cloak so the defiant wasnt the only Fed ship we know of to have a normal cloak!
@Maxloef1990: Ah yes, I clean forgot about it, with so many episodes from so many series on my mind.
@MindwipeUK: But not many other ships DID have cloak, have they?
@23-down: Something similar happened in an episode when Federation ships were blockading Klingon space to detect cloaked Warbirds. The Romulans countered with I don't remember what, but Data disobeyed orders to fall back and used Romulans' own tactics to find those birds.
Also, you could set that Federation has Vasari Loyalist tech Starship Labs.
the ship labs idea is a good one, and one we'd already discussed as a team for the feds. Good thinking :)
my reply was to bornstellar whom was asking about making trade ships slower, not about cloaking.
Change microphase jumps into the Picard maneuver as a researchable ability maybe?
Federation:
-Long Range tachyon scan to penetrate cloaks Ds9 s7 once more unto the breach
- Graviton burst to slow down enemy ships
- Reverse shield polarity grants a ship a limited shield boost but will have a long energy output + cool down to maintain balance.
- Auxiliary to weapons , engines to grant specific boosts.
- Soliton wave (super weapon) to let ships jump to any specific sector in the galaxy.
all good ideas but those are more geared towards abilities rather than research.
Federation....
-Antimatter spread (as seen in Best of Both Worlds)
-changeable pods for the Nebula class (could call it mission modules)
-Exhaust tracking torpedoes to combat cloaks (STVI)
-Saucer Separation
-Cloaking Device (for defiant)
-Quantum Slipstream (Voyager)
-Android Crew (makes crew more efficient)
-Mark XII Phaser Arrays (Upgrades from Mark X for more damage)
-Probes (Allows longer sensor range)
-Picard Manuever (Creates a brief duplicate)
-Riker Manuever (spray enemy vessel with metreon gas to slow and damage over time)
KLINGONS
-Wolf Pack (Bird of prey gains 2 wingmen birds of prey, all three controlled as 1 unit much like fighters)
-Disruptor cannons (for the Negh'Var which allow some bleed through of damage from he shields to the hull as seen in DS9)
-Engine targetting (STIII)
-Wanton Aggression (allows a brief period of time with increased rate of fire)
-Drunken Ambassadors (STV - Allow Klingon diplomats to be slightly more friendly, improving relations)
ROMULAN
-Plasma Torpedoes (upgrades Romulans to Plasma torpedoes which cause heavy damage)
-Battle Cloak (allows temporary use of both cloak, shields, and weapons STX)
-Borg Technology (Allows vessels to take on Borg qualities such as regenerative shielding, enhanced weapons, at the expense of speed - Star Trek)
-Cunning spies (allow Romulans to target a vessel or station and place a spy aboard, allowing them to see that planets sight)
I don't know if people like this idea but how about an omega bomb cause when it explodes causes that system have a long warp-out time for the omega molecule which ruptures subspace makes warp travel impossible
ST:Voy (Episode 4x21 The Omega Derivative)
Also adding if you are making the ship from "Star Trek Away Team" The USS Incursion an experimental Starfleet commando ship equipped with holographic masking technology, which was in Armada 1 in the last mission.
Maybe some slipstream tech? (Could increase phase lane equivalent speed)?
some research possibilities that I first thought of:
Federation:
-Human nature (gives a boost to diplomatic relations)
-Vulcan Allies (ability to call a small Vulcan force to aid yours, possibly through the culture building)
-Vulcan aid (decreases research time for a short period)
-Stellar database (lets the player see the layout of the star system when a scout enters a new star system, just seeing all the planets not who owns them or what's in their gravity well.)
-Interspecies Medical Exchange (decreases the time it takes for a bombarded planet to regain health)
Klingon:
-Klingon territory (ships crew becomes enraged when foreign ships enter the gravity well, increasing weapon damage for a short period of time)
-passage to Sto'Vo'Kor (capital ships gain experience when friendly ship gets destroyed near by)
-shame (crew moral drops when they retreat from a gravity well, causing the ships stats to drop for a time)(not really a research item, but more of a starting trait)
-Birds of a feather (the more ships in a gravity well increases the moral of the fleet boosting whatever stats you feel appropriate. feel free to change the name)
also if you haven't already added the Genesis to the game you need to.
--these are just a few ideas of mine. use them and change them however you want. hope this helps
Few more ideas which could lead to possible research options decided by you the devs:
Federation:
- Section 31 either spying on enemy systems of choice or sabotaging and destroying buildings in randomized systems. The cool down for that research and activation should be a lot longer though than that of the TEC renegades assaulting random systems otherwise it may become annoying.
- Pathfinder Project: Establishing contact with lost Starfleet vessels. Once activated you get control over few federation ships in randomized sectors no matter if in enemy controlled sectors or not. The player could then attempt to bring em home or harass the enemy with it works only if free man power is available.
Klingons:
- Doomsday device: Allows you to build or call in one TOS doomsday machine besides the Jach'eng class ship that will be one of the most powerful ships klingons have at their disposal. It is a planet killer toasting everything in no time unless countered by a massive fleet. That research or production should be very expensive and only come in use in very late game.
- Unholy Alliance:
Gives a boost of abilities by another faction be it romulans, breen, Orions etc. It could result in increased firing power, ship production, free reinforcements etc.
I do like Frelance009 his ideas a lot. Investigate for possibilities to implement these ideas by him.
I'm liking the idea of having section 31 being of use for the federation. I would say however that if the Klingon were to get such a dooms day device, then the federation should have use of section 31's virus to wipe out a planet to balance it out. there would have to be a negative effect with the use of this be it the inability to colonize that planet for a time or a decrease in income for a short time because the general population is in uproar about the federation using such a weapon.
other than that i think 23-down has some great ideas here.
Yeah Slipstream would be a really good Research Upgrade for the Federation! If it is possible :)
In this case the transwarp (travel to unconnected systems) could be kept to the borg but maybe later any race can steal/get it, and the federation instead of transwarp could have increased warp speed instead (maybe others too)
Thanks to everyone for all the input and ideas :)
At first i have to say, the work you guys are doin' is just great. I'm really excited to play the mod when it's finaly done ;)
I dont know if you guys are familiar with the Fleet Ops Mod for ST Armada II. If not, you definatly should risk a look, they did some good work there and for v 4.0 they're planing a bunch of really cool things such as war patterns etc.
What They dont have is a real Techtree, but like old armada 2, some research that's done in the research stations.
One of the best ideas i think is the "alien technologie". If you conquer an enemy construction ship, you're able to build an uniqe spacedock and with it some special ships. For example, if u get you're hands on a romulan constructor, you're able to build the "pimped" cloaking device Defiant.
I dont know if SOAE's engine is capable of such things, but i think special techs, only researchable if u have an romulan, etc.. ally would be just great. Conquering an construction ship wont be very usefull if u cant leave the system with it, would it?
A Runabout upgrade for Fed Carrier ships would be cool too.
"Good Day to die" - bonus DMG for srsly damaged klingons, dunno like 20% dmg increase if HP goes under 30%.
Emergency Fleet - every ...min (?) a federation player is able to order a small random fleet to a specific solarsystem, the fleet cant leave the system and will defend it for ...min. Vulcan ships would be cool :)
War Patterns- if you combine the right ships they get some bonus. For example Nova + Intrepid = slightly more MS.
And please make the Impulsdirve and the Warpdrive researchable/ upgradeable, more MS for ships would be just great.
That's it for the moment, keep up your good work and enjoy you're rest of summer! If Armada 3 is playable round about christmas, it's still intime ;)
Not to copy ofc but look at SOA2 and their research trees for some guidance, but please keep it canon ish, some of those crappy abilties like the Nebula creating a literal duplicate of a Fed ship you kinda never would see in Star Trek. I kinda dont like Star Trek Armada 2 and you guys are doing WAY more than making a modern sequel to that garbage.