Difference between modding for Fleet Ops and Armada 2

[navygrizman]

I have been doing okay with modding in STA2, tweaking files and working with files to make buttons and things. I have Fleet Ops but the ships I have put in STA2, can I move them over "easily" to FO? My biggest question I guess is where do the ODF files go? Does it feed from the STA2 ODF? I a virgin STA2 install that I do not mess with and then my modified installation but the FO is in the virgin Activision folder. Should I try adding FO to the modified installation?

 

[Hath]

Hi Navy.

The main difference between the two is just the massive amount of odf files used if FO. Like 100 times more. The odf files are compressed into FPQEdit.exe which can be found in the data folder. You well need to open this file, then mod the odf files, and then save them before you exit the program. I would definitely make a new copy of FO for your modding endeavors. If you are like me you well need up crash it a few times before you get the hang of it.

A little more on FO odf files. Each ship will have at least 6 odf's. FO makes use of the REPLACE WEAPON. What this does is when the ship in FO ranks up the game replaces one odf for the next more powerful ship odf. So if you want to mod a ship to have more shields, for example, you will need to change the shield valves on all of the ships odfs.

Watch the spelling on the weapon files. Excelisorr2 I missed one of the "R's" and I spend over a week trying to figure out my mistake! Copy and paste of weapon names is your friend.
Also I would not make new weapon files. I would reuse existing weapons.

FO also uses a LOT of "passives". A passive weapon on the ship does NOT do anything but add a cool graphic to the ship gru. If you want your new ship to make use of what the passive should do you will need to mod "ALL" of the weapon files in the entire game. We are talking several hundred files. Instead of going down that rabbit hole I would suggest that you start by "Only" replacing the model of an existing ship that you way not like with your new ship's SOD. For example I replaced the Monsoon model with a ship I liked better. The new ship looked right and it had all of the passives working and I didn't have to do anything.

Hope that helps. FO can be daunting to mod, but if you start small and go slow YOU CAN DO IT!

 

[Adm_Z]

FO also has a lot of engine improvements and changes,, such as the mod manager. In fact, there are people who have modded FO back to stock... so you install stock A2 and/or FO, and then install stock mod back onto FO, and any further mod can be used there and take advantage of the engine improvements, and you don't have to deal with the more complicated odf structure that Hath mentions.

 

[navygrizman]

Hi Navy.

The main difference between the two is just the massive amount of odf files used if FO. Like 100 times more. The odf files are compressed into FPQEdit.exe which can be found in the data folder. You well need to open this file, then mod the odf files, and then save them before you exit the program. I would definitely make a new copy of FO for your modding endeavors. If you are like me you well need up crash it a few times before you get the hang of it.

A little more on FO odf files. Each ship will have at least 6 odf's. FO makes use of the REPLACE WEAPON. What this does is when the ship in FO ranks up the game replaces one odf for the next more powerful ship odf. So if you want to mod a ship to have more shields, for example, you will need to change the shield valves on all of the ships odfs.

Watch the spelling on the weapon files. Excelisorr2 I missed one of the "R's" and I spend over a week trying to figure out my mistake! Copy and paste of weapon names is your friend.
Also I would not make new weapon files. I would reuse existing weapons.

FO also uses a LOT of "passives". A passive weapon on the ship does NOT do anything but add a cool graphic to the ship gru. If you want your new ship to make use of what the passive should do you will need to mod "ALL" of the weapon files in the entire game. We are talking several hundred files. Instead of going down that rabbit hole I would suggest that you start by "Only" replacing the model of an existing ship that you way not like with your new ship's SOD. For example I replaced the Monsoon model with a ship I liked better. The new ship looked right and it had all of the passives working and I didn't have to do anything.

Hope that helps. FO can be daunting to mod, but if you start small and go slow YOU CAN DO IT!

WoW. Thank you for that awesome information. I think I will spend more time mastering the craft in STA2 before jumping into FO. Sounds like a lot of work and a lot of frustration before good at it. Thanks again.

 

[navygrizman]

FO also has a lot of engine improvements and changes,, such as the mod manager. In fact, there are people who have modded FO back to stock... so you install stock A2 and/or FO, and then install stock mod back onto FO, and any further mod can be used there and take advantage of the engine improvements, and you don't have to deal with the more complicated odf structure that Hath mentions.

Good tip. Thank you. Like I told Hath, I think I need more practice on STA2 first before jumping in to slay that dragon.

 

[Tryptic]

If you're interested my mod, Tactical Maneuvers, takes the Fleet Operations code and massively simplifies it, adding tools to add your own new ships. The downside is that you have to start with TM rather than Fleet Ops.

I set up a "Community Mod" system where people can create and add anything they want to the mod, and there's a menu option to play with community additions or without. So far there's only one addition: a working Prometheus class.