I want to introduce my little MOD

[Lutz]

Hi Guys!

I'm new here so excuse me should i posted this threat wrong!

When Future Wars was released back in 2009 I was pretty suprised on what you can make with the Singel-Player-Campaign. Ever since then I wanted to make a Singel-Player-MOD just because I think it is solid but it has some room for improvment. (for an example: where are the freaking Romulans?) I tried and made a version many years ago... god it is an awful mass xD

I always imagined, for what ever reason, that Armada 2 could realy fit into the time after Nemesis. So I try to put some ships and Stations in my MOD based around ships from the Post-Nemesis-Era Novels, Star Trek: Countdown (2009), STO and the Picard Countdown comics.

For the foundation I use:

Ultimate Dominion
Ghost's Compilation MOD
Midnight Universe
and the models of Aad Moreman, k_merse, I think jetfrake and some I found on other websites.

Right now I'm working on cleaning up that mass I first created. I reduced the amount of federation stations and ships and balance them and the Borg.
I was looking around to find the MODs I used back then, when I came a cross your community. What I found was that Aad Moreman created a Odyseey class Dreadnought from STO. Looking around I found a threat with another scince ship from the game and I read somebody looked for help because he wanted to make more STO ships. Did anybody made more STO ships?
I ask now because then I have in mind to rework the federation all over again and I'm looking for some Klingon ships because most of the Klingon MODs realy dosn't do the trick for me.

I'm also thinking about redoing the federation, because the AI dosn't build all ships and stations outside the campaign. I have an idea why, but if I dont fix it I may redo it from scratch. Btw.I have the same problem with the Cardassians. They just don't build the Dominion Ships I gave them.

So as you can see I have lots to do. As soon as I cleaned up my mass and figured out how to make screenshots (yes I even don't now how to do that........ xD) I can share some things I'm working on.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I never got the single player campaign to work correctly after about mission 4 or 5 in FW. You have to be very careful about what you're replacing and removing from the installations. From what I remember, the cinematic sequences were the same in the cut scenes, just different audio and models, etc.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Modding the stock A2 campaign missions is difficult, to say the least, since a huge part of them is hardcoded and can't be changed. If you have coding experience, you could try using Megadroid's Mission Mod, which makes it possible to script campaign missions in Lua. It's not easy, but it's the only option if you don't want to be stuck with the stock missions.

Ghost's mod is pretty old at this point, if you're looking for more (and newer) Federation content, you should take a look at the Starbase 34 compilation mod. I'm not aware of a lot of STO based content for A2, though.

As for the Klingons, you might try the Art of War mod, which has a full Klingon side with high quality models. Again, I'm not aware of any STO based models for that faction.

In general, trawling ArmadaFiles (the A2Files archive site) for single ship/ station mods is also worth it, since a lot of good work was released piece by piece and never found its way into any compilation or total conversion mods.

As for the AI not building ships or stations, make sure to update the build lists for each faction with the content you mod in. Build lists are a bit complex, so make sure you understand how they work before editing them. You can find a guide to them in the Big Book of Modding or the FleetOps modding guide.

Apart from all that, maybe some general modding advice... edit and test one piece at a time, it makes it easier to find errors in your work. Always double check your quotation marks when you're done editing a file. Use the A2 map editor menu to test your changes quickly. Consult the crash correction checklist to help find the causes for your crashes. If you plan on releasing a mod, make sure to keep your credit file up to date as you add new stuff, so you don't have to go hunt for the sources at the end. And finally, if you have questions or can't solve a problem with your mod, don't be afraid to ask the community. We may not always be able to help you with everything, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Good luck with your modding, and have fun!

 

[Lutz]

I never got the single player campaign to work correctly after about mission 4 or 5 in FW. You have to be very careful about what you're replacing and removing from the installations. From what I remember, the cinematic sequences were the same in the cut scenes, just different audio and models, etc.

You are right, Future Wars is buggy, but i liked that they used all the races in there story. And yes, all cutsceens where the same other then the ship models.

 

[Lutz]

Modding the stock A2 campaign missions is difficult, to say the least, since a huge part of them is hardcoded and can't be changed. If you have coding experience, you could try using Megadroid's Mission Mod, which makes it possible to script campaign missions in Lua. It's not easy, but it's the only option if you don't want to be stuck with the stock missions.

Ghost's mod is pretty old at this point, if you're looking for more (and newer) Federation content, you should take a look at the Starbase 34 compilation mod. I'm not aware of a lot of STO based content for A2, though.

As for the Klingons, you might try the Art of War mod, which has a full Klingon side with high quality models. Again, I'm not aware of any STO based models for that faction.

In general, trawling ArmadaFiles (the A2Files archive site) for single ship/ station mods is also worth it, since a lot of good work was released piece by piece and never found its way into any compilation or total conversion mods.

As for the AI not building ships or stations, make sure to update the build lists for each faction with the content you mod in. Build lists are a bit complex, so make sure you understand how they work before editing them. You can find a guide to them in the Big Book of Modding or the FleetOps modding guide.

Apart from all that, maybe some general modding advice... edit and test one piece at a time, it makes it easier to find errors in your work. Always double check your quotation marks when you're done editing a file. Use the A2 map editor menu to test your changes quickly. Consult the crash correction checklist to help find the causes for your crashes. If you plan on releasing a mod, make sure to keep your credit file up to date as you add new stuff, so you don't have to go hunt for the sources at the end. And finally, if you have questions or can't solve a problem with your mod, don't be afraid to ask the community. We may not always be able to help you with everything, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Good luck with your modding, and have fun!

Wow, thats alot of information Thx!

Right now I'm happy to just use the stock missions. Right now I'm thinking about to put in the Romulans in the Federation-Campaign. My main goal is the bring back this element of the end of Armada 1 where you have the allince between the Federation, Klingons and Romluans. Hopefully in the future I can ad some new voice over to explain my story... .but this is way waaaaaaaay down the future.

As for MOD you recommanded: Indeed Art of War gave me an idea, but Starbase 34's Compilation dosn't work. To look into the MOD I took a fresh start, reinstalled Armada 3 patched it to the fan Version 1.2.5 but it didn't worked.

I will definitly look into the guides you gave me. Maybe I find an answer to why Starbase 34 isn't working there, but in general this is very help full. I didn't know about them

 

[Terra_Inc]

As for MOD you recommanded: Indeed Art of War gave me an idea, but Starbase 34's Compilation dosn't work. To look into the MOD I took a fresh start, reinstalled Armada 3 patched it to the fan Version 1.2.5 but it didn't worked.

Huh, that's strange. Which version of the mod did you download? I took a look and it seems they have two different versions of the mod available for download. The last version I know they released was 1.1a (http://armadafiles.com/files/armada...se-34-federation-compilation-mod-v11a/details), so that is the one you should use.

Also, make sure you're really following the setup instructions included with the mod - it's a detailed description how to install it, and I'm sure I got it to work that way the last time I tried. Simply copying the files over will not work, and will result in a broken A2 install.

 

[Mikemckeon007]

Modding the stock A2 campaign missions is difficult, to say the least, since a huge part of them is hardcoded and can't be changed. If you have coding experience, you could try using Megadroid's Mission Mod, which makes it possible to script campaign missions in Lua. It's not easy, but it's the only option if you don't want to be stuck with the stock missions.

Ghost's mod is pretty old at this point, if you're looking for more (and newer) Federation content, you should take a look at the Starbase 34 compilation mod. I'm not aware of a lot of STO based content for A2, though.

As for the Klingons, you might try the Art of War mod, which has a full Klingon side with high quality models. Again, I'm not aware of any STO based models for that faction.

In general, trawling ArmadaFiles (the A2Files archive site) for single ship/ station mods is also worth it, since a lot of good work was released piece by piece and never found its way into any compilation or total conversion mods.

As for the AI not building ships or stations, make sure to update the build lists for each faction with the content you mod in. Build lists are a bit complex, so make sure you understand how they work before editing them. You can find a guide to them in the Big Book of Modding or the FleetOps modding guide.

Apart from all that, maybe some general modding advice... edit and test one piece at a time, it makes it easier to find errors in your work. Always double check your quotation marks when you're done editing a file. Use the A2 map editor menu to test your changes quickly. Consult the crash correction checklist to help find the causes for your crashes. If you plan on releasing a mod, make sure to keep your credit file up to date as you add new stuff, so you don't have to go hunt for the sources at the end. And finally, if you have questions or can't solve a problem with your mod, don't be afraid to ask the community. We may not always be able to help you with everything, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Good luck with your modding, and have fun!

That starbase 34 compilation mod was amazing, you should definitely take Terra_inc's suggestion. Also Armada 2 files was my jam back in the day, so pretty much terra is on point.

 

[Lutz]

I tried again. This time I could play but had no build buttons and the ships seem out of scale. Some ships where way to smale and others where gigantic. But after seeing it I think i will take some things into the MOD.

 

[Terra_Inc]

I tried again. This time I could play but had no build buttons and the ships seem out of scale. Some ships where way to smale and others where gigantic. But after seeing it I think i will take some things into the MOD.

Missing build buttons sounds like the build button entries in the sprite file weren't copied over properly (sadly these have to be copied by hand since all the sprite references are in just one file). Out of scale ships ... well, the only thing affecting ship size, as far as I am aware, is the scaling parameter scaleSOD in the ship ODF. You can try changing the size of the units by modifying that parameter.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

The Starbase34 mod, from what I remember, had units wildly out of scale anyway. I don't remember if the read-me for the mod shows who made what models originally but you might be able to find plenty of them from their original upload locations, usually as single files, and add them that way and get a better scale.

 

[Lutz]

The Starbase34 mod, from what I remember, had units wildly out of scale anyway. I don't remember if the read-me for the mod shows who made what models originally but you might be able to find plenty of them from their original upload locations, usually as single files, and add them that way and get a better scale.

That is what I want to do. Starbase34 gave me some ideas on what I want to put in. The GUI look extremly good, some ships I will search on Armada Files. What I found quit interessting was that they actualy took the utopia base as a research station. That was something I was trying but I didn't got it to work.

Missing build buttons sounds like the build button entries in the sprite file weren't copied over properly (sadly these have to be copied by hand since all the sprite references are in just one file). Out of scale ships ... well, the only thing affecting ship size, as far as I am aware, is the scaling parameter scaleSOD in the ship ODF. You can try changing the size of the units by modifying that parameter.

That is what I want to do, but I will as dvatreknerd sad look for the MODs individual.

I finaly figurt out how to makes some screenshots. Inspired by Starbase34 I added the Ronin and Achilles. Next up will be a new GUI for the Federation. I also need to update some ship models. But I'm pretty happy with what I have right now.

 

[kjc733]

Lutz, please don't spam threads with multiple posts in quick succession. It is possible to multi-quote multiple posts by selecting the +Quote icon on each post. I have merged your last three posts into a single entry.