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Suggestions of races for my custom mod

Archonon

Master Chief Petty Officer of Starfleet
Joined
13 Aug 2016
Messages
539
Age
46
I've been preparing my custom mod and I've run into a bit of a creative snag. And what better place than to pick the brain of other modders than here?

My mod is fairly simple in concept. I have a whole bunch of parallel universes crammed together for maximum Armada 2 modding enjoyment. Is there a backstory? Sure. As a hopeful author, I thrive there. But I certainly won't bore you guys with any of those details.

Instead I'll stop babbling and get to the matter at hand. Ugh my posts are always long.

As far as the stock races are concerned, they are relatively being left untouched in terms of design. I will be upgrading most of the stock models with much better looking versions from the community in order to allow me to still be able to play the single player if I want. Instant Action is where the...erm, action is though. The stock construction ship or starting base will have a small addition that will allow access to a new construction ship and all new additions from there.

For many of my races I have chosen to add a two or three tier tech tree that spans either different time eras or different groups with different levels of technology. Some of my races will have "good" and "evil" versions of the same race, or their direct opponent, which is what the AI will be building in IA. Unfortunately some of my races are far better equipped than others and I'm looking for ideas to put into these races that lack content. If any of you fellas have any suggestions, let me have em!

Here's what I got:

1) United Federation of Planets and Terran Empire. This race will be unique in that it will have 3 subdivisions instead of 2. The race will have access to technology for 3 approximate time periods in each subgroup. These are:
a) Prime Universe: ENT, TOS, TMP
b) Kelvin Timeline: ENT, Axanar, AR Films
c) Terran Empire: ENT, TOS, TMP and bonus TNG ships to fill out their ranks (Come on have you seen that Conqueror Galaxy? Like I could leave that out, pfft).
How this works is through research stations. An old trick we had in B5A2 is that research stations restricted technology, instead of special weapons. So here I have that (Research this and that tech, you get this ship, etc) and a station that represents Memory Alpha. Memory Alpha was a planet sized library that records the entire history of the UFP in TOS. So Memory alpha will research "events" in the timeline. If this event is selected then the Prime Universe tree is available, if the "Narada destroys the Kelvin" the AR film line is the one playable, etc. The AI will play as the Terran Empire.

2) Klingon Empire. New addition will be fairly standard. Unless I add an entire different race, their tech tree will consist of tech from: ENT, TOS and TMP.

3) Romulan Star Empire. Same as Klingons. Tech tree goes through ENT, TOS and TMP.

4) The Borg, Ferengi and Species 8472 simply get stock replacements. I would do away with the Ferengi if I could, I can't stand them. Maybe I'll substitute them for B5's Raiders?

5) Cardassian Union. This is one I'm debating. I'm not a great lover of playing as them, but I like blowing them up. So I have some options here; I can give their stock ships a makeover like the races in 4 and leave it there, switch out a few ugly Cardassian ships for Dominion ones or add the whole Dominion tree to their ranks (Jem H'Dar, Son'a, Breen). Thoughts?

6) Earth Alliance (B5). Ah, my fave race. The EA has mostly two tiers and a very limited third that adds a handful of ships. Like the UFP, the tech diverges depending on the "events" selected. They are divided into:
a) Sheridan's Rebellion
b) Clark's Loyalists
The 3 timelines are Minbari War, Civil War and Dra'hk War. Both sides use the Minbari War tech and share some ships from Civil War (Rebellion has less advanced ships). The bonus ships are where they really differ as Sheridan gets the Warlock and the Loyalists get the Omega-X Hybrid. The AI will choose to play as Clark's Loyalist forces.

7) InterStellar Alliance (B5). The ISA is a combination of B5 races that in our TC were usually their own race. Instead of having tech trees from different eras, I have different races. Like races with multiple timelines, the ISA's tech changes from weakest to strongest (Generally).
a) The League of Non-Aligned Worlds
b) The Narn Regime and the Minbari Federation
c) The Rangers and ISA

8) Centauri Republic (B5). The Centauri I decided to keep their own race because their bigger trees have a couple of other races. Their tech tree is:
a) Centauri Republic
b) Dra'kh
c) The Shadows

9) United Earth Forces (Mixed). This is one of my crazy inventions. The name comes from the world organization in one of my favorite shows, Space Above and Beyond. This race has a combination of different human techs from various sci-fi shows mixed together. They also have an opposing set of villains and this is where I need the most help. The race is divided in:
a) UEF: USAF from Stargate, USMC from SAaB, USCM from Aliens, Serenity from Firefly, 12 Colonies of Kobol from Battlestar Galactica.
b) The Covenant: Goa'uld from Stargate, Ori from Stargate, Cylons from BSG
Here is where I need the most help with suggestions. The AI would build the "Covenant" forces and right now that adds up to 3 sad Goa'uld ships, 1 Ori ship, 2 Cylon Fighters and 2 Cylon Basestars. What might be other interesting races to include as the "villains" here? I tried to find the Kilrathi from Wing Commander but sadly they are not available, their TC died long ago. Any suggestions appreciated.

10) The Galactic Republic and the Galatic Empire (SW). So my final race is divided into two sides:
a) Galactic Republic/Rebel Alliance
b) Confederacy of Independent Systems/Galactic Empire
And their tech tree would be the Clone Wars and the Civil War. The AI builds the Separatist and Empire tree.

And that's what I got. Thoughts? Ideas? Declarations of Insanity? Banishment into the deserts of Arrakis? Sorry for the long post. :sweat:
 

OpetJa

Crewman 1at Class
Joined
25 Aug 2015
Messages
159
Age
30
Hey mate, there are tons of races in 'Trek universe so maybe you could start from there...
Except UFP, Klingons, Romulans and Borg, you could add Cardassians, Dominion (with Breen and Son'a), 8472, Alliance consisting of Ferengi, Gorn, Tholians, ISC, Mirak, Lyran, Rakelli, Hydran, Kazon, Maquis, Orions, Xindi...There are also tons of ships from mentioned races from various Trek games... That's what I'm trying to do with my Armada 1 game... So you dont need to create models only to convert them to SOD...
Your idea is great, but you'll need much time to accomplish your project... If I were you I'd first start with Star Trek universe then rest...
On the other hand I don't know what's the limit with races in Armada 2??
 

Archonon

Master Chief Petty Officer of Starfleet
Joined
13 Aug 2016
Messages
539
Age
46
Thanks for the response OpetJa!

Armada 2 can have a total of 13 races. The stock races in A2 are: Fed, Klingon, Romulan, Borg, Species 8472, Cardassian and Ferengi. The Ferengi are not playable, they only appear to steal derelict ships from either the player or the AI in the unmodded game. You can add 5 more races into the game if you don't replace any stock ones.

Technically you can add more races but the race selection ingame will only let you scroll down to 12 (The Ferengi don't appear on the list but they are in the races.odf). Any race after 12 is there but you can't scroll down to it.

And you are totally right, it's a bit of an undertaking. I modded much of it way back in 2003 so a lot is just passing it into the game. What I am doing now is changing some things; change something in this race or that, substitute this ship for another I downloaded after I had stopped modding, etc. It still will take me a while to complete. But a healthy portion is just copy paste into A2.

I was wondering if people had any suggestions of races to use cause some of my current races have little stuff. The Cardassians are a stock race in A2, I could leave them as is or add the Dominion to them so they have a bigger tech tree like some of my other races (My original mod had the Dominion ingame so all I'd need to do is drop them in).

What I'm having the most trouble with is the original race I came up with. The "good guys" have plenty with BSG (I have a full Colonial race) and Stargate and those others. The bad guys however have very little. I have no stations for them and only a handful of ships, a couple of Stargate (Goa'uld) and a couple of Cylons. I was looking for ideas who I could team up with them to fill out their "bad guy" side. I hope I explained it and it's not too confusing.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll consider adding maybe Delta Quadrant species or maybe Gorn or another TOS/TMP race. Appreciate it. :thumbsup:
 
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