Back to Basics

[CABAL]

The countdown has reached 0 and you're all very excited (I hope) to find out what it was counting down to. I present to you, a total conversion for Fleet Operations, a recreation of that golden oldie from the year 2000 that doesn't run on most of your computers, Super Classic!

Super Classic aims to recreate Star Trek: Armada 1 as accurately as possible in Fleet Ops while also using the Fleet Ops art assets. That's right, it's an HD remake of A1 and it runs on your fancy modern computer!

Unfortunately, not all of FO's fancy graphics stuff (like burst fire torpedos) fit perfectly in something so much like a port as SC. And, of course, A1 was not without its share of balance issues. Does everybody remember those useless destroyers? This is where Super Classic Advanced comes in. SCA is a mod for SC that has the goal of fixing those issues. Sovereigns with burst fire, Defiants that aren't a joke, and Cubes without shields; SCA has it, and the game is hopefully better for it.

So if you are prepared, click here and take your game Back to Basics!

The current version is Beta 1.1.0 and includes only one map, The Very First Map.

 

[Adm_Z]

Woo! I'll give 'er a go later this evening!

 

[Majestic]

Wow Cabal, you've been busy. This was a very nice surprise and something I'll have to give a shot sometime early this coming week. Great job and a better surprise than I could have hoped for.

 

[Rifraf]

This looks cool Cabal. I only played A1 a couple of times when it came out and then gave it to a friend as I didn't care for it. I will have to give yours a go and see what I missed so to speak. I like how you've done two versions as well. Congrats

 

[Majestic]

This looks cool Cabal. I only played A1 a couple of times when it came out and then gave it to a friend as I didn't care for it. I will have to give yours a go and see what I missed so to speak. I like how you've done two versions as well. Congrats

You did yourself a dis-justice I think. A1 was really the golden years of Armada and it's modelling. It was a great game and I think much better than A1. Many things weren't hardcoded in A1, with code left over that was never used that allowed modders to use in their projects. So many things were possible that weren't in A2. Call me an old fella in the modding fields, but I really wish I could go back to those days sometimes.

Thankfully FO has brought new life to A2 for me, without it I would have been long gone from the Armada modding scene, in fact it brought me back out of retirement.

 

[Adm_Z]

I tried to give it a shot today but I think it is missing the map. Should I copy the map from stock FO or did you have a special one?

 

[Jetfreak]

This is a real treat for the genwunner A1 fans, certainly delivered the goods with this one man!

 

[CABAL]

I tried to give it a shot today but I think it is missing the map. Should I copy the map from stock FO or did you have a special one?

It would appear that I managed to delete the bzn folder before I packaged the mod. I'm going to remake the map, but in the mean time you can use FO maps by editing SC's info.ini and changing ignoreParentMaps=1 to ignoreParentMaps=0.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's fixed. Almost had a heart attack when I saw the recycle bin was empty. Everybody should re-download to update to Beta 1.1.0. The folder wasn't deleted, it was just in a different location than I expected. Specifically, C:\Documents and Settings\CABAL\Application Data\Star Trek Armada II Fleet Operations\mods\Super Classic\bzn. Does anybody know how to change the default save location for the map editor?

 

[Majestic]

C:\Documents and Settings\CABAL\Application Data\Star Trek Armada II Fleet Operations\mods\Super Classic\bzn. Does anybody know how to change the default save location for the map editor?

It was something the FO team did which I myself didn't like at all. Not everyone likes to store files on c drive, especially those who often have to do re-installs or end up having to re-install without the opportunity to back-up.

You might have to move them manually from that dir to your mod. I am not looking forward to it when I start making maps for my mods, I really hope they give us modders the option of where we want to save our maps, the current feature is one of the few things I really dislike about FO, especially considering stock A1 and 2 allow you to save them in the BZN folder.

 

[Rifraf]

I know Majestic. I was kicking myself years ago for giving it away. I've been wanting to try it again and also to have a look through some of the files for odf's and AI. I thought of even offering to buy back as I'm certain they never play it.

Cabal, the one thing I do remember from A1 is the bonus one gets from building near a planet. Did you just forgo that part or implement something different? I'm attempting this very thing with A2 so may lean on you for questions if you don't mind? I'd have to do away with colonizing and also warp so no doubt will encounter some very similar issues you have. Good job again. I'm hoping to try out your mod tonight.

 

[CABAL]

I did not implement the planetary crew boost. A2 completely overhauled planets and I don't think any of the old planet code remains.

 

[Majestic]

I did not implement the planetary crew boost. A2 completely overhauled planets and I don't think any of the old planet code remains.

I think you're right, though I heard FO is at one point going to re-introduce it or something sinilar. But they have so much they want to do and so little time it will probably be a while before we see that happen. But if/when it does it will be awesome.

 

[Rifraf]

Very nice job Cabal. Got to play some tonight and it's definitely back to "basics." I love the retro look to the main screen as well like I'm firing up an old Windows 3.1 game.

 

[Adm_Z]

Had a chance to play it a bit today, and I love it man. It will take some getting use to, seeing the defiant in all its useless glory, but still lots of fun.

The only thing I would suggest at the moment is possibly tweaking the sounds, maybe make them closer to the original A1 effects? I dunno, the defiant in particular felt a bit strange without its iconic pulse sound effects.

So far though, everything is awesome. Gonna play some more when I get a chance.

 

[CABAL]

I'm trying to use a minimum amount of original Activision content in favor of Fleet Ops stuff and hand made replacements. Version 1.0.0 will have the remaining stock textures replaced with higher-res replacements, for example. I may bring back the A1 music, though. The menu music will definitely be coming back. I also want the pulses to use SODs like FO, but there are problems with doing that and using the Corbomite Reflector.

I'm glad you like it, though. Also, please remember to post any bugs you encounter in SC or SCA and any glaring balance issues found in SCA.

 

[Adm_Z]

Sofar no bugs, but if you want to use FO only content, you know there is a FO version of the Temporal stasis field? It looks quite nice too. I didn't know if you just chose the old one or didn't know about the new one, but I figured I'd let ya know.

I played a 1v1 game, feds against borg(normal) and had no issues other than how easy it was lol. I will try to play with and against other(harder) races as time permits.

Also, if you ever need help making buttons or anything I have plenty of time to do a few. I am in full support of this mod and would gladly help out if needed.

 

[CABAL]

Sofar no bugs,

Yay!

but if you want to use FO only content, you know there is a FO version of the Temporal stasis field? It looks quite nice too. I didn't know if you just chose the old one or didn't know about the new one, but I figured I'd let ya know.

I did not know that FO had that. I'll have to find it and add it to the dev build. Thanks!

I played a 1v1 game, feds against borg(normal) and had no issues other than how easy it was lol. I will try to play with and against other(harder) races as time permits.

Yeah, the A1 AI was pretty bad. I want to have better AI as a feature of SCA, but it may not make it into v1. I don't expect there to be any serious issues since I play-tested it pretty extensively, but the Borg may cause performance issues on older computers.

Also, if you ever need help making buttons or anything I have plenty of time to do a few. I am in full support of this mod and would gladly help out if needed.

I may take you up on that, since I'm not entirely happy with some of mine. I'll get back to you.

 

[Rifraf]

If you're interested you could try out the AI that I posted over at FO. I'd be interested in any feedback on it. I continue to work on it to try and squeeze any more from it to play better. I'll have to see if they'll post it in the downloads here.

I don't know if you just used the same build list progression that A1 had as I don't have that game, but you could also rewrite the buildlists to pump out better ships faster and such? Just my opinion? Shouldn't take much time at all.

I was also curious in looking through your files Cabal in that you have a latinum requirement for ships/stations and give them unlimited latinum at start of game. I was just wondering if there was a specific reason as opposed to not requiring it at all if they don't have to mine it?

 

[CABAL]

If you're interested you could try out the AI that I posted over at FO. I'd be interested in any feedback on it. I continue to work on it to try and squeeze any more from it to play better. I'll have to see if they'll post it in the downloads here.

I'll take a look, thanks. I'm also a file uploader so I can post it if you e-mail it to files@msfc.com.au

I don't know if you just used the same build list progression that A1 had as I don't have that game, but you could also rewrite the buildlists to pump out better ships faster and such? Just my opinion? Shouldn't take much time at all.

I imagine that a new build list wouldn't be extremely difficult, but I've never looked into the AI much.

I was also curious in looking through your files Cabal in that you have a latinum requirement for ships/stations and give them unlimited latinum at start of game. I was just wondering if there was a specific reason as opposed to not requiring it at all if they don't have to mine it?

There's actually a good reason for that and I'm not just crazy. FO is hardcoded not to show the crew cost in the tooltips, so I faked it with a latinum cost.

 

[Adm_Z]

Oh yeah, one minor aesthetic thing, the icon for crew cost is different, at least for the Feds, the icon for crew is different from the HUD when you hover over ships to see their cost.

 

[CABAL]

Oh yeah, one minor aesthetic thing, the icon for crew cost is different, at least for the Feds, the icon for crew is different from the HUD when you hover over ships to see their cost.

I wanted each race to have unique icons for crew and officers, but that didn't work out in tooltips. If anybody has ideas for a universal officer icon to replace the gold star/faction emblem combo, I am open to suggestions.

 

[Adm_Z]

I am personally fond of the double green silhouette thing, but that might just be me.

Edit: I guess that is crew though. The star seems like a reasonable icon, but you could take liberty and just change it to "Fleet Cap" or something with an easier icon.

 

[CABAL]

I did some work on the new Corbomite Reflector visual. There's no animation (click here if you would like to help with that) but I think it looks nice so far.

Spoiler: Maneuvering with Corbomite

 

[Majestic]

Cabal that is amazing work, a huge improvement over the stock version. I can just imagine how awesome it will look with animation.

 

[Rifraf]

Wow, that looks great Cabal. Definitely beats the stock version

 

[Adm_Z]

Looks Sweet! Is is possible you could use texture animation to do it instead of SOD animation?

 

[CABAL]

Looks Sweet! Is is possible you could use texture animation to do it instead of SOD animation?

I suppose, but the texture size would balloon and it wouldn't look as nice. And I don't think I can apply that with MS3D either.

 

[CABAL]

Did an update to the GUI. There are now universal crew and officer icons instead of race dependent ones and the hull bars have been completely hidden in the basic version. They will still be visible in Advanced so that Borg ships and stations can be used properly.

Spoiler: UI Update

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
This looks like a very interesting project, I hope you'll be able to complete it as it looks very promising... specially since A1's missions and maps were very cool and they bring a huge lot of memories .

also, I love how the Corbomite Deflector looks like .

 

[CABAL]

Thanks, Chile.

I've tweaked the GUI a little more. Now the resource displayed are colored like in FO and ships and stations show how many officers they use.

Spoiler: UI Update 2

I've also coded in the Ferengi, Dominion, and Breen and given them their own race icons. The only NPC factions missing now are the Son'a, Cardassians, and Species 9341. I'm waiting on a reply from Dan for permission to use his Cardassians, but I'll probably make do with the Activision Son'a and 9341 models for now.

I also tried getting the build times into the resource cost portion of the tooltips, but couldn't get it where I wanted it without breaking the officer system. Oh well.