• Hello and welcome to MSFC. We are a small and close knitted community who specialises in modding the game Star Trek Armada 2 and the Fleet Operations modification, however we have an open field for discussing a number of topics including movies, real life events and everything in-between.

    Being such a close community, we do have some restrictions, including all users required to be registered before being able to post as well as all members requiring to have participated in the community for sometime before being able to download our modding files to name the main ones. This is done for both the protection of our members and to encourage new members to get involved with the community. We also require all new registrations to first be authorised by an Administrator and to also have an active and confirmed email account.

    We have a policy of fairness and a non harassment environment, with the staff quick to act on the rare occasion of when this policy is breached. Feel free to register and join our community.

[Mod] STA2 Upgrade Project 2014

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
The STA2 Upgrade Project 2014 is a complete stand alone Stock Armada II mod for Fleet Operations originally based upon, but taking a step further the work done by Blade in STA2 Classic for Fleet Operations and has turned into a continuation/progression of the original Upgrade Project released about 5 years ago by Freyr. This mod takes the base Armada 2 game and uses the stock 1.1 patch and the Midnight Universe mod as a base to spiff up the graphics and updates about 99% of all ship/station/object/effect/background models and textures with far superior versions using works from those around the Armada/Fleet Ops community like redone Borg, Cardassian ships (stations by Dan1025,) Federation, Klingon, and Romulans by Aad_Moerman, Species 8472 by Chiletrek, explosion and shield effects by the Fleet Operations team and much more.

Also new is the addition of omni directional lighting* to enhance the lighting effects of each maps atmosphere. You'll see ships light up when next to mining moons, latinum nebula and also when firing pulse or torpedo weapons. (*The omni lights as worked on by Freyr and Medafusion, but never released weren't directly compatible with the FO engine so I actually just altered the light settings already on the moons/latinum nebs thanks to a bit of code by Cabal. I may release updated maps in the future that have all the various nebula lit with omni lights, however this may be too performance intensive on the engine as some maps have a huge amount of them. (I've put this last idea on the back burner for now.)

In the interest of better game play I've further modified the Instant Action AI, build lists and physics files along with the RTS_CFG, ART_CFG and some of the various ODF's to make it look better and hopefully play a little better without straying much (hopefully not too much) from stock play. I've changed the lighting effects of all stock maps and I've left the single player campaign intact as well as included the ideas and in most cases the work of the Improved Single Player Campaign mod from stock A2 to make the missions more challenging.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Cborg1700

Cadet Senior
Joined
27 Sep 2013
Messages
78
Age
37
I suppose you could say that you had a Chief O'Brien on board every ship and station saying "Captain I can beam through the shields with this frequency." :D
 

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
I had initially released this FO version mod and am putting the finishing touches on the stock A2 version. I was looking for opinions as to whether I should call it the same or call this version Upgrade Project 2015 or Upgrade Project for Stock A2 or something?

Also, after one installs stock A2 they really should delete all the textures that have _1, _2, _3, and/or _4 from the textures/RGB folder to avoid some graphical anomalies. Should I just keep the note in my readme or can a script be made that will do it for them?
 

Terra_Inc

MSFC's Cheshire Cat
Staff member
Site Manager
Necromancer/Troll hunter
Kitten Commander
Joined
16 Dec 2009
Messages
3,121
Age
34
I had initially released this FO version mod and am putting the finishing touches on the stock A2 version. I was looking for opinions as to whether I should call it the same or call this version Upgrade Project 2015 or Upgrade Project for Stock A2 or something?
I would just call it the Upgrade Project for Stock A2 to be clear.

Also, after one installs stock A2 they really should delete all the textures that have _1, _2, _3, and/or _4 from the textures/RGB folder to avoid some graphical anomalies. Should I just keep the note in my readme or can a script be made that will do it for them?
A batch file should do the job. I can write one for you if you need one.
 
Last edited:

Zelph

Elder
Blue lantern corps
Joined
18 Feb 2011
Messages
978
Age
34
A year tacked on to the end might not hurt. Especially for uninformed neophytes like myself who are easily confused haha
 

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
Thank you for the suggestions. I have a couple other things I'd like some opinions about in regards to stock game play.

Colonizing planets: In stock A2 you could colonize a planet more than once, but the AI could not. This gives an unfair advantage to the player in getting crew faster. The other side of this reason is that the 4 planets that could be colonized could have populations of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 5000. The population slowly built up, but the player could keep sending colony ships over and over to boost the population faster. As a work around I would make populations 1000, 1100, 1200, and 1300. That way it wouldn't take too long for the populations to build up and makes it really not necessary to keep sending colony ships as it presents less of an advantage now.

Starbase crew level: The starting crew of a Starbase is 150 which you can then recrew to 1500 however, at the start of the game the AI automatically recrews it to it's minimum green alert level of 750 using up 600 crew right off the bat. As opposed to giving the AI a base only they can build that starts the crew at 750 which could get destroyed I just give all races 750 extra crew to over come this. Including the player.

Leave it illogically stock or add these workarounds? Thoughts?
 

Zelph

Elder
Blue lantern corps
Joined
18 Feb 2011
Messages
978
Age
34
Thank you for the suggestions. I have a couple other things I'd like some opinions about in regards to stock game play.

Colonizing planets: In stock A2 you could colonize a planet more than once, but the AI could not. This gives an unfair advantage to the player in getting crew faster. The other side of this reason is that the 4 planets that could be colonized could have populations of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 5000. The population slowly built up, but the player could keep sending colony ships over and over to boost the population faster. As a work around I would make populations 1000, 1100, 1200, and 1300. That way it wouldn't take too long for the populations to build up and makes it really not necessary to keep sending colony ships as it presents less of an advantage now.

Starbase crew level: The starting crew of a Starbase is 150 which you can then recrew to 1500 however, at the start of the game the AI automatically recrews it to it's minimum green alert level of 750 using up 600 crew right off the bat. As opposed to giving the AI a base only they can build that starts the crew at 750 which could get destroyed I just give all races 750 extra crew to over come this. Including the player.

Leave it illogically stock or add these workarounds? Thoughts?
The starbase suggestion makes sense to me.

I'm trying to figure out what you meant with the planets. Are you saying you'd cap the population at those numbers?
 

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
Correct for the planets. When you colonize you establish 1000 population. There are 4 planets than can be colonized with a total pop of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 5000. For the last 3 you start with 1000 and then it slowly accumulates over time except the player can keep sending more colony ships to colonize another 1000 in one shot where the AI won't.

I would cap it at 1000, 1100, 1200, and 1300. It won't take as long for the pop to build up, it would be fair to all players and there really isn't any incentive to build another colony ship to recolonize. The only down side is that you'll get crew faster overall, but there has to be a compromise somewhere
 

Majestic

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Seraphim Build Team
Joined
17 Apr 2006
Messages
18,272
Age
39
I would get rid of the colonization of planets. In fact I would go the FO/A1 route and have planets as background eye candy only. Will also help with pathing.

As with the starbase, if you remove the planets I would also take away the crew as a resource, that way the starbase can be build with 750 each time without an issue for AI or player. I think stock FO does this as well. It really does work better than anything stock tried to do. Stock had some nice idea but they were poorly implemented. In fact I would go as far as saying A1 was a superior game, with only a few A2 features worth it, such as more races, lightmap support etc.
 

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
I would get rid of the colonization of planets. In fact I would go the FO/A1 route and have planets as background eye candy only. Will also help with pathing.

As with the starbase, if you remove the planets I would also take away the crew as a resource, that way the starbase can be build with 750 each time without an issue for AI or player. I think stock FO does this as well. It really does work better than anything stock tried to do. Stock had some nice idea but they were poorly implemented. In fact I would go as far as saying A1 was a superior game, with only a few A2 features worth it, such as more races, lightmap support etc.
I've been thinking about that as well however, think I want to keep it as stock as possible in order to stay as true to what Freyr was doing with the original Upgrade Project. I could always add little modules that the user could swap in if they wanted to change the game play in that aspect.

I did something similar in the FO release. I included altered built lists that one could used depending on how many planets and how many dilithium moons were on a map so that the AI wouldn't be stuck building the same build list for every map type.

I also made a couple of little changes, but included original backups in case the user wanted to change it back closer to stock. I'll have to think about this. It's not like I couldn't release these extra bits in a little patch either. Thanks for the ideas.
 

Terra_Inc

MSFC's Cheshire Cat
Staff member
Site Manager
Necromancer/Troll hunter
Kitten Commander
Joined
16 Dec 2009
Messages
3,121
Age
34
I would get rid of the colonization of planets. In fact I would go the FO/A1 route and have planets as background eye candy only. Will also help with pathing.
From a gameplay point of view, I definitely agree. Planet colonization was IMHO one of the unnecessary additions in A2. A lot of great TCs like FleetOps and AOW have removed it as well and work fantastically without it. However, for the Upgrade Project I would leave it in, at least as an option. If my memory serves me right, it's also needed for the campaign.

On the topic of starbases, I agree. Giving everyone the extra crew needed seems to be the best solution.
 

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
I'm wrapping up everything before releasing the Upgrade Project for stock Armada 2 and was hoping someone could help me? In Instant Action when the game is over you get the tally screen with all the races and ships killed etc, but my screen is blank and for the life of me I can't find what files are involved with that. I'm not understanding why the fields would be blank. Even if you start a game and immediately abort there should still be some stats displayed?
 

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
I'm readying the next chapter of this mod for release and had an important question. To be called "Vanilla Ultimate" would say the mod has to be 100% exactly like the original as far as game play (not including AI improvements/etc.)?

What I'm meaning is like hull damage modifier and crew damage modifier (how much crew dies with each weapon hit). I've modded it so no one dies until the shields are fully down to 0 and then only a small percentage after that instead of the insanely high amount in stock. Basically ships/play last a little longer and it effects all AI's and the player equally.

Or the threshold for the # of colonists on a planet needed to progress that planet to it's next level. It is to help the AI play better and gives it a more equal footing against the human player even though I don't feel it breaks anything.
 

Jetfreak

Filipino Expat
Staff member
Forum Moderator
Seraphim Build Team
Master of Art
Joined
22 Mar 2008
Messages
2,554
Hey Rifraf, I've always wondered about the AI bit with STA2 Classic. I've always noticed how nerfed the Cardassian AI was compared to say, the Romulans.

I've been playing some AI matches in my spare time with my modded install and they seem pretty tame, barely churning out Galors. Maybe 5-6 and that's it. I also noticed they never bother with the research pods, takes them ages to get higher in the techtree.
 

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
Hi Jetfreak. The stock AI including the built lists certainly leaves much to be desired assuming you're using stock AI and build lists. Forgive me if you already know this, but is "int checkTechnologyAvailable = 1" at the top of each build list? This tells the AI to follow the techtree and it's requirements. If 0 then it'll build anything in any order you want.

If it is following the techtree requirements then it leads me to believe the build list is less than optimal. Perhaps it's reaching a point where it builds a small number of Galors, but then something it's trying to build gets it stuck and it can't proceed? I don't know how modded your game is, but for instance in stock the AI's have a scout ship in the build list ahead of the basic shipyard. If the AI ever loses that scout before it builds it's basic yard then it'll be forever stuck and can't proceed down the list.

8472's stock build lists are also a mess if I recall among many other things. The use of latinum is also a not well thought out mechanic with the AI stopping all dilithium gathering to go get latinum at the most inopportune times. I'm going off on a tangent here so if anyone is interested I can list more, but if you're interested Jet I can send you my latest modded AI and build lists for stock if you wanted?
 

Rifraf

I know just enough to be a danger to myself
Joined
25 Aug 2013
Messages
1,205
Age
51
I was hoping someone could help me with the sounds again. I thought I had this fixed years ago in past versions, but in getting this ready to release again I am having problems in that I can hear ships come out of warp from across the map.

Does anyone know if it's a specific setting in my audio file? This doesn't happen in stock FO just my mod inside FO. The ambient settings I have in my planets also are too high now it seems as when I can see a planet (not covered by the fog of war) it has a load ambient sound too.

I just tested and I can hear a ship come out of warp across the map in the Classic mod as well.
 

Jetfreak

Filipino Expat
Staff member
Forum Moderator
Seraphim Build Team
Master of Art
Joined
22 Mar 2008
Messages
2,554
I gotcha, I'm using the stock AI, with a few added entries for more modded ships. I will check out the "int checkTechnologyAvailable" command and see how it goes when marked 0.

Regarding the sounds I've noticed they're too loud as well in A2 Classic. I just removed all the space body .wav sounds altogether as it was grating to hear them anyway.
---------------------------------------
Just got back from testing, just a marginal improvement I'm afraid. Still weak battleship construction with the Cardies. I'd be interested in checking out your modded AI files though.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top