SOME GENERAL IDEAS ABOUT IMPROVING FLEET OPS

posted on July 14th, 2016, 4:14 pm

Hello everyone! As you can see I'm new on the forum, but rather long-time player of ST Armada 1, 2 and fleet ops as well (mostly SP, but also a bit of MP too). These last days I've been playing a lot of your latest incarnation (version 3.2.7.) and while I'm having quite a lot of fun with it and appreciate the work you've done on it, I do think there is a place for some improvement. Most of the stuff is already very impressive, but I'm sure the game could be even better with some ideas I've come up during my time spent in FO. And before you start pointing out that the devs have abandoned doing further patches, I must inform you that I heard or better said read almost everything about their new game engine development which is obviously a great thing despite that we will have to wait probably a while before it gets released. So instead of lecturing me on that, I will simply inform you before that I know about all that and that these ideas I'm going to represent can be implemented with new engine too.


So let's get down to the list, shall we:


CARDASSIAN RACE/FACTION - Yes, I'm perfectly aware how the devs stand when it comes to this idea, but nevertheless I have to mention my grief that my favorite race is no longer stand alone faction and I really do miss having option to play with them and/or against them. And I'm more than certain that many players feel the same about it. So if there is a way, please bring Cardassians back. Besides, having an uneven number of playable races is not the best option.

I have also some ideas about Cardassian faction gameplay/units and stations, so I will list them too. It is more than obvious that Cardassian gameplay should focus on fast hit & run tactics in overwhelming numbers since that's how they operate in canon and most of the games as well. However, that means they will have weaker armor, shields and weapons as well as lesser crew numbers compared to other races/factions.
Also I'm not sure about the avatars yet, but some that comes to mind are Garak, Natima Lang, Gul Ocett and maybe Ekoor (the guy who saved Damar, Garak and Kira from Dominion execution during last episode of DS9).

Cardassian stations:

Central command - Terok Nor/Deep Space 9 look-alike station that would serve Cardassians as their main base of operations.

Resource processing facility - Cardassian mining station.

Culat class shipyard - Cardassian primary shipyard. Constructs low tier vessels. Requires Central command to become buildable.

Lang research station - Upgrades ships with special weapons and abilities. Requires Culat class shipyard for construction.

Orias class shipyard - Cardassian secondary shipyard which constructs ships of a higher tier. It requires both Culat class shipyard and Lang research station to be build.

Kelvas upgrade facility - Upgrades ship weapons, shields, engines and armor. It can also repair damaged ships. Needs Culat class shipyard and Lang research station in order to become buildable.

Obsidian order headquarters - Cardassian special station which has several more ship upgrades and can construct dreadnought missile superweapon. Requires Lang research station and Kelvas upgrade facility to become buildable. Only one may be built at time.

Chin'toka class shipyard - Builds largest and most powerful Cardassian vessels. Its construction requires both Culat and Orias class shipyards, as well as Lang research station and Kelvas upgrade facility.

Automated weapon platforms' power generator - Generates power for all defensive turrets across entire map. Requires Central command in order to be built. Only one may be built at time.

Automated weapons platform - Equipped with both spiral wave disruptors and plasma torpedoes makes this stationary turrets almost ideal defensive measure against hostile vessels. However, they are practically useless if their power generator gets destroyed.

And that's it when it comes to stations. 10 of them is more than enough I think. Unfortunately I wasn't able to come up with better names so if someone has better ideas for them, please let me know. Same goes for ships which I'm going to list below.

Cardassian starships - Central command:

Bok'Nor class construction ship (OFF: 0, DEF: 18, SYS: 13, Weapon type: NA, Range: NA, Speed: 80, Crew: 100) - Constructs all Cardassian stations and can tow away damaged Cardassian ships.

Groumall class (mining) freighter (OFF: 6, DEF: 16, SYS: 8, Weapon type: B, Range: Medium, Speed: 50, Crew: 30) - Can harvests dilithium/tritanium or transport cargo. It can transport up to 250 units of each resource or cargo. It is also armed with light disruptor.

Hideki class scout (OFF: 4, DEF: 7, SYS: 3, Weapon type: B, Range: Short, Speed: 190, Crew: 10) - Cardassian scoutship. Equiped with one light spiral vawe disruptor and a cloaking device.

Cardassian starships - Culat class shipyard:

Sartan class light destroyer (OFF: 10, DEF: 10, SYS: 5, Weapon type: P, Range: Medium, Speed: 140, Crew: 20)

Rasilak class light destroyer (OFF: 16, DEF: 14, SYS: 8, Weapon type: BT, Range: Long, Speed: 150, Crew: 40)

Norin class light cruiser (OFF: 18, DEF: 17 , SYS: 10, Weapon type: B, Range: Medium, Speed: 150, Crew: 70)

Tonga class light cruiser (OFF: 22, DEF: 19, SYS: 13, Weapon type: T, Range: Short, Speed: 130, Crew: 80)

Janissary class assault cruiser (OFF: 20, DEF: 23, SYS: 15, Weapon type: BP, Range: Medium, Speed: 120, Crew: 200)

Legate class medium cruiser (OFF: 24, DEF: 13, SYS: 7, Weapon type: PT, Range: Long/Artillery, Speed: 130, Crew: 60)

Damar class medium destroyer (OFF: 19, DEF: 22, SYS: 11, Weapon type: B, Range: Short, Speed: 110, Crew: 90)

Brinok class support cruiser (OFF: 26, DEF: 24, SYS: 20, Weapon type: BT, Range: Medium, Speed: 120, Crew: 100)

Cardassian starships - Orias class shipyard:

Vasad class medium cruiser (OFF: 22, DEF: 23, SYS: 18, Weapon type: BT, Range: Long, Speed: 110, Crew: 120)

Galor class large cruiser (OFF: 24, DEF: 27, SYS: 17, Weapon type: BP, Range: Medium, Speed: 100, Crew: 180)

Kulinor class support battleship (OFF: 28, DEF: 30, SYS: 25, Weapon type: BT, Range: Medium, Speed: 100, Crew: 220)

Keldon class medium battleship (OFF: 26, DEF: 30, SYS: 20, Weapon type: BT, Range: Long, Speed: 100, Crew: 240)

Cardassian starships - Chin'toka class shipyard:

Gulad class large battleship (OFF: 34, DEF: 38, SYS: 21, Weapon type: PT, Range: Medium, Speed: 90, Crew: 300)

Hutet class dreadnought (OFF: 45, DEF: 50, SYS: 20, Weapon type: BPT, Range: Long, Speed: 80, Crew: 500)


WARP ABILITY - I have read why the dev team decided to remove this ability, but on the other hand I think that removing warp completely was not necessary as there are other ways to prevent from using it constantly. For example, you could make its usage more limited by simply adding cooldown timer on it. So, if certain ship goes to warp it could maintain that speed for certain amount of time, and when it drops out of warp it can't use it again instantly, but after some certain amount of time. That way your ships still might escape from dangerous situations or quickly traverse larger part of maps, but they can't do it any time they want. Also the warp engines could get disabled and even destroyed during battle so that also limits warp usage. Disabled engines could be repaired after some time, but destroyed ones would have to be repaired at drydock. All in all it would be nice to have the warp back, because sometimes traversing entire maps by only impulse speed can get seriously frustrating and boring as well (especially big and huge maps). And some ships even wouldn't have warp drive as it was in Armada 2 (like miners, construction ships and such).


DOMINION NERF - I've been having a lot of problems in beating Dominion in SP on hard and especially merciless difficulties (and I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one). No matter what I do, or with which race I play (aside from Dominion itself maybe), after some time of playing I get swarmed by tones of their ships every single time and I'm sure you understand how that can get very boring and irritating. I tried stopping them with multiple bases, clusters of turrets, large number of ships (even the high end ones), but nothing so far helps. The only way to beat them is in early game, but if you let them develop to the later stages when they can build S-7 defenders and V-13 battleship, you can kiss yourself a goodbye.
So my suggestions here are either somehow nerf their supply income (by limiting the number of supply gathering ships) or their ship spamming ability (especially of those high end ships like S-7 defenders, V-13 battleships, Breen battleships...). Speaking of Dominion, S-7 defender seems explicitly hard to kill (probably the most resilient ship in game next to Tavara) and I think it would be alright if you could made it somewhat weaker in the future.


ADDITIONAL AVATARS FOR EXISTING FACTIONS - First and foremost I must admit that I really liked the idea of avatars (as it reminds of some great games that already have them, like C&C Generals for example), but that could be even better if it is not mandatory to only pick between them, but to be also able to choose a vanilla faction (like it is in the case with C&C Generals Zero Hour). Sure, vanilla factions in that case wouldn't have the benefits of mentioned avatars, but it could have some of their own benefits which avatars would not. Also it would be better if we could choose avatars during game setup instead after loading. So for example, instead choosing Dominion first and one of their avatars after loading, you could just choose Dominion - Puretech, or Dominion - Breen alliance in skirmish/multiplayer menu.
Now let's get on to those additional avatars. If I'm not mistaken it is already mentioned there will be two more new avatars for each faction so I thought I might give you some ideas for them. These are the ones I managed to come up with:

Federation:

Admiral Kathryn Janeway:

Gives access to two new units: Prometheus class battlecruiser, Starfleet experimental technology lab
Gives access to the following benefits: Increased all stats for Intrepid class vessels, Reduced research cost for tricobalt torpedoes and shielding, Reduced construction cost for all technology upgrade stations and mixed tech yards


Captain Jean-Luc Picard:

Gives access to two new units: Galaxy-X class battleship, Starfleet temporal research
Gives access to the following benefits: Increased all stats for Sovereign class vessels, Reduced construction cost for Starfleet Command and it gains 2 more warp in slots, Increased offensive and defensive value for ships in the fleets (depends on number of ships in the fleet)

Someone from section 31 - I have not managed to come up with idea who could represent the avatar, nor the special units one may have, but I'm thinking that S31 avatar would have some ships equiped with cloaking devices (maybe even one with holo cloak, or phased cloak) and also that some ship(s) would have a special ability to infiltrate S31 agents into enemy ships/stations. Another special ability that comes to mind is sending computer virus to enemy vessels and plague like virus in order to kill off crew from enemy ships/stations. So yeah, a bit Romulan/Cardassian alike tactics, but that's how S31 operates too.

Klingon:

Ambassador Worf - I have currently no ideas for him except that he would be more focused on defense and diplomacy than current two avatars as he was serving in Starfleet for quite some time.

Someone from Klingon intelligence - This avatar would be something like Federation's S31 avatar, but a bit tonned down which means he/she would have less sneaky and underhanded tactics with more focus on espionage rather than some underhanded tactics.

Romulan:

Sela - I haven't come up with anything for her so I could use some help. Only thing I can think of is that she would have relied greatly at underhanded and sneaky tactics.

Donatra - One thing that comes to mind is that she would have improved version of Norexan class and unlike current 2 avatars she would not be associated with Tal Shiar.

Dominion:

Alliance - Son'a - This avatar would give Dominion access to use Son'a ships like Son'a assault ship, Son'a destroyer (both built at Construction yard) and Son'a battleship which would be equiped with isolytic subspace charges (built at Large construction yard).

Alliance - Karemma - I'm not certain about this one, but it would have to do something with improved economy and giving access to Karemma cargo ships.

Borg:

Directive: Eradicate - This Borg avatar would be more focused on brute force instead of assimilation and thus would have cheaper cubes and spheres as well as offensive technologies.

Directive: Adept - For this avatar is obvious that it would have better defense and adaptability to enemy weapons, as well as improved regeneration abilities.


INDIVIDUAL SHIPS AND STATIONS:


Spacedock type station - While current Outpost is nice, Spacedock type station would be even nicer. By that I do not mean that outpost should be replaced by it, but rather to implement Spacedock as separate station that would require a huge amount of resources in order to be built and that it would also require almost every building to be built before it (including Starfleet Command). It would also require at least 2 construction ships and large amount of time to be built as well, and only one could be built at time of course. Due to all these limitations and its obviously huge cost, Spacedock would have three or maybe even four times the firepower and defensive capabilities compared to Outpost, but those would also require upgrades just like Outpost does. Another bonus of Spacedock would be its ability to build and repair all of the available ship classes from both Federation yards and maybe even warp-ins as well.

Prometheus class - An another obviously painful topic for devs since one of them dislikes the ship (if I'm not mistaken), but this is one of the ships that should be available at least as a warp-in if not buildable. Also, I would have no problem if it wouldn't have MVA mode, but some other special ability instead.

Luna class - It may not be fully canon, but it is a very cool and popular ship that could fit as another good support ship to Federation fleet.

Aegean class - Another good choice for a support ship, and a beloved class from original Armada 2 would certainly be a nice addition to Fleet Ops.

Qeh'ral class - I'm sure Klingon's can use one more battleship at their disposal, and Qeh'ral would definitively be one since it is great looking and iconic ship from Armada 2 and Klingon Academy as well.

Fek'lhr class - This one could be also great addition to Klingon fleet as a battlecruiser or support cruiser as well. Its design is cool and it appears both in Armada 2 and SFC3, so I see no reason why it shouldn't be in FO too.

Raptor class - If I'm not mistaken there are already plans for this nice Romulan ship to be implemented in FO, so please, go ahead.

Fusion and Tactical fusion cubes - Building these was always a great fun, and playing with them even more so. Besides Borg could use some more powerful ships that could be a match for even some medium sized fleets of other races.


This is pretty much all I could think of for now. I will update my list when I get new ideas, but for a start I think that this is more than enough, so now I would like to hear some opinions on it. I hope you like at least some of them, since I'm certain that not everyone shares my opinions.

posted on July 14th, 2016, 10:31 pm

Great suggestions. Bring back the Cardi's We need an additional race. Would love more ships, maps, races, etc. Would also like to see other types of NPC races other than the Ferengi.

I played against 6 un-teamed, merciless Dominion computer opponents this week and did manage to beat them. The trick with Federation (use the guy vs. lady) is to get to building your torpedo turrets ASAP and upgrading weapons power and shields as quickly as possible. It takes control of at least three (preferably four) pairs of moons to mine in order to have the resources to wall yourself in with three lines of torpedo turrets. You also need to understand the quickest and most efficient way to wall of the passages leading to your resources and bases. After that, build and upgrade all three repair ships and station them near the walls.

Once you are walled in, you will be constantly attacked. This will seem like a lot until the final Dominion standing wipes out his other competitors. Then you will see a huge armada of the three most powerful ships swarm your walls from multiple angles. By this time, you should have multiple building facilities constructed in your safe zone. To withstand the onslaught, you should also fill the cracks between turrets with Sovereign and Excelsior II class ships.

After this onslaught, the computer will throw them at you constantly, but never "en masse" again. Build a series of fleets composed heavily of the two aforementioned ships.

I also like to throw in a Romulan opponent to the mix from time to time, because I love the idea of capturing a construction ship and building a fleet of cloakable Defiant class ships to park next to an enemy base and pop up when it is the most inconvenient. A fleet of those can easily disarm and eliminate just about anything-quickly.

I am not sure how many times the FO developers look at this blog anymore though. I think we are but a handful of people that still check the site for upgrades.

posted on January 12th, 2017, 11:52 pm

Great suggestions. Bring back the Cardi's We need an additional race. Would love more ships, maps, races, etc. Would also like to see other types of NPC races other than the Ferengi.

There could be several possibilities when it comes to NPC races like Gorn, Orions, Tzenkethi, Species 8472 (since they obviously won't be one of the main races anymore) and those minor races from Delta and Gamma quadrant. But as I have already mentioned, Cardassians definitely should be playable race.

I played against 6 un-teamed, merciless Dominion computer opponents this week and did manage to beat them. The trick with Federation (use the guy vs. lady) is to get to building your torpedo turrets ASAP and upgrading weapons power and shields as quickly as possible. It takes control of at least three (preferably four) pairs of moons to mine in order to have the resources to wall yourself in with three lines of torpedo turrets. You also need to understand the quickest and most efficient way to wall of the passages leading to your resources and bases. After that, build and upgrade all three repair ships and station them near the walls.

Once you are walled in, you will be constantly attacked. This will seem like a lot until the final Dominion standing wipes out his other competitors. Then you will see a huge armada of the three most powerful ships swarm your walls from multiple angles. By this time, you should have multiple building facilities constructed in your safe zone. To withstand the onslaught, you should also fill the cracks between turrets with Sovereign and Excelsior II class ships.

After this onslaught, the computer will throw them at you constantly, but never "en masse" again. Build a series of fleets composed heavily of the two aforementioned ships.

I also like to throw in a Romulan opponent to the mix from time to time, because I love the idea of capturing a construction ship and building a fleet of cloakable Defiant class ships to park next to an enemy base and pop up when it is the most inconvenient. A fleet of those can easily disarm and eliminate just about anything-quickly.

Those were actually some quite helpful advices and Dominion AI isn't that much of a problem to me anymore. Well, they weren't so much if I played Romulans or Klingons, but Federation and Borg are a bit tricky (especially against impossible Dominion AI). The best thing to do against them is to destroy their expansions as early as possible in order to deny them resources, and from that point they can be easily beaten.

I am not sure how many times the FO developers look at this blog anymore though. I think we are but a handful of people that still check the site for upgrades.

As you can see I check here from time to time to see if there's any news about NX progress. Hopefully there will be some important news soon about their current progress, since one of the developers recently stated in his post that they did quite a lot of work so far. And I understand why is it taking them so long, because this what they are working on now is not just a mod, but a whole new game which is very demanding and takes much more time. I'm sure it will be worth the wait, because FO 3.2.7 is proof they can do great things. If they managed to do that from an old source code like one from Armada 2, I'm sure they'll be able to do even more amazing stuff on this new engine.

posted on January 13th, 2017, 1:51 pm

I have a really good idea release FONX be for the world end

Joke a side it does seem like FONX is moving along a bit now DOCa has made some post on what they got done so far here https://www.fleetops.net/forums/general ... 44#p203744 YES PEOPLE DEV HAVE BEEN TALKING TO US FOR ONCE ABOUT FONX

posted on January 14th, 2017, 9:45 am

If you guys are interested in Fleet Ops development, you're welcome to help me work on Tryptic's Mod. I've been taking a short hiatus as I moved to a new apartment, new job, and am currently wiping and reinstalling my computer.

I have a framework for the Cardassian faction that is simply waiting for someone to volunteer to help with it, since I myself simply do not have the time to work on it. If direct modding isn't your thing, I welcome feedback for Tryptic's Mod (Currently version 3.0b) and the changes I have made.

posted on January 16th, 2017, 4:04 pm

I would love to help. Where can I find your mod?

I'm not much of a modder, though. The only modding I have done was on the A2 original. I changed attributes of stations, build maps, collected and added other people's modded ships and stations to my game. I would occaisionally play with the AI (which I never fully understood) to make alien races more aggressive for whole game. Graphics were completely out of my skillset and my games bluescreened whenever I messed with that area.

I used to have a fantastic compilation with "Ghost's" mods, the dominion, cardis, hirogens and special ships/stations and other fun stuff. It was an absolute blast. Sadly, I lost that version during a system crash several years ago and cannot piece it together from what is left to download online. I am glad that Fleet Ops. was still available online. Graphics are superior on Fleet ops, but I miss a lot of what I had on the old game and cannot mod Fleet ops at all.

I would love to test your beta mod out.

posted on January 16th, 2017, 4:09 pm

Here's the page for it. I have documentation in the works, but it's been in the works for a while now. The best way to figure out the changes is just to play it a lot

https://www.fleetops.net/forums/modific ... on-3-13035

posted on January 16th, 2017, 4:16 pm

I'll try to download it tonight. Thanks!!

posted on January 18th, 2017, 5:18 pm

I have a really good idea release FONX be for the world end

In that case it is my hope that we will at least have enough time to try it out.

Joke a side it does seem like FONX is moving along a bit now DOCa has made some post on what they got done so far here https://www.fleetops.net/forums/general ... 44#p203744 YES PEOPLE DEV HAVE BEEN TALKING TO US FOR ONCE ABOUT FONX

Yes, that is exactly what I was talking about in my previous post. It does seems like a decent progress. Hopefully they will keep working on it and release some more detailed news soon.


Meanwhile as I have recently been playing FO quite a lot more ideas about improvements came to my mind. But before I start writing about those, I'll expand upon existing ones from my first post.


1.) WARP ABILITY: In general I will establish how it would work in fleet ops while not being too much of a advantage like it was in Armada 2, yet still useful in game.

- every ship capable of warp would have either special energy used for warp only, or it would use existing special energy which is currently used for special weapons and abilities
- in order to go to warp, ship would require certain amount of special/warp energy at its activation, and would also spend more energy during its travel so it wouldn't be possible to abuse it like it was case in Armada 2
- it would have to be activated manualy, meaning it would have a special button (hotkey) for activation; it could be called ''engage'' button
- during warp travel ship would be able to do only a slight course corrections in order to avoid obstacles, however if said obstacle is directly in its path, a ship would drop out from the warp and resume by impulse speed
- warp couldn't be used inside nebulas and asteroid fields, and couldn't be engaged in close proximity of stations and planets (and when I mean close, I mean right next to them)
- if ship's special/warp energy drops to zero, it will instantly drop out of the warp and resume by impulse speed
- ship's warp drive would be able to get damage during combat (and targeted as well), as well as warp engines; so as I mentioned before, if ships warp drive gets too damaged it won't be able to go to warp until it is repaired, and if one or more of ship's nacelles get destroyed, it won't be able to go to warp at all until it is repaired in drydock
- after using warp drive, ship that used it would require cooldown time before it could go to warp again
- some ships would have faster warp travel then others and some wouldn't have it at all (like construction ships, mining freighters, cargo ships and such)
- warp travel could be completely disabled before game in skirmish/multiplayer/campaign menu

And that's pretty much it when it comes to warp. So in essence while players would still have option to use warp, they wouldn't be able to use it too often like they could in Armada 2, or they could simply not use it at all. Personally I like having option to warp and especially on big maps when it often gets frustrating waiting on a ship/fleet to cross entire map by impulse speed only. Also it is nice to have ability to save valuable ship(s) rather then lose it/them in hopeless battle. And I'm quite certain that some people would agree with me on that point.


2.) SUPERSTATION/STARBASE: Last time (in my opening post) I have mentioned Federation Spacedock as their ultimate starbase, but now I have even better idea since I think it would be unfair if just Federation gets such powerful station. Instead, each playable race/faction should/would have such station.
For Federation that would be aforementioned Spacedock. For Cardassians it would be Terok Nor (DS9 type station). For Klingons it might be Ty'Gokor type station. For Borg it would be an enourmous unicomplex (like the one we saw in Voyager). Dominion could have a complex that was shown during one of DS9 episodes where Klingons are destroying their shipyards (I'm don't remember the exact episode, but I do remember that part with huge complex along with ship building facilities blowing up). Romulans would also get something like spacedock, but of their own design of course.

Although I'm not too familiar with stats of outposts (don't know them without having a look in game, and unfortunately I can't find them on net), I will try to give you some figures about such stations:

- they should cost somewhere from 6000 to 10 000 of dilithium/tritanium and 200 or 300 supply points (depending of faction).
- they would be about three or four times bigger from current starting starbases and also much more powerful, so if current starbases have around 100 offense/defense/system points, those superstations would have 200 or 250 points and twice or thrice more hardpoints.
- they would have ability to construct starships from all shipyards except mixed tech ones and to repair them as well.
- construction of such station would require two construction ships to work simultaneously
- before such station could be built all other key stations would have to be already constructed
- only one superstation could be constructed at time

There is also a possibility that one of standard starbases could be upgraded to such station after all shipyards and science/research station were constructed.


3.) CARDASSIAN RACE/FACTION

I have already given a lot of ideas about them, but now I have some more including some changes.

Command post - instead of Central command (which would be Terok Nor/DS9 look alike superstation), this would be Cardassian starting station. Essentially it would be a smaller counterpart to Terok Nor type station with only two large docking pylons instead of three and with one ring instead of two.

Unique weaponry:

- light, medium and heavy spiral wave disruptors
- spiral wave pulse cannons
- phased plasma torpedoes

AVATARS:

1.) Elim Garak:

Gives access to two new units:

- Damar class medium destroyer
- Kulinor class support battleship

Gives access to the following benefits:

- cloaking devices available for Keldon class medium battleships
- increased offensive value for all ships equiped with spiral wave pulse cannons by 3
- increased defensive values for all stations and ships by 20%
- reduced initial cost for all researches at Obsidian order headquarters

2.) Legate Ocett:

Gives access to two new units:

- Tonga class light cruiser
- Gulad class large battleship

Gives access to the following benefits:

- increased offensive values for Galor class large cruisers by 1 and by an additional point for every two ranks
- increased weapon range of Janissary class assault cruiser to long range
- you may construct two dreadnought missiles
- reduced research cost for all system upgrades by 20%

That's enough avatars for the start since current factions of 3.2.7 version also have 2 avatars each. Other two would be as I said Natima Lang and Gul Ekoor. Also it should be taken in consideration that these benefits and ships I presented for Garak and Ocett are not final and may be changed in case some of you have better ideas.


4.) SUPERWEAPONS: We all know that in Armada 2 every faction had it's own kind of superweapon. For Federation it was Temporal research facility which created some kind of statis field thus freezing in time all of ships and stations in certain radius. Klingons had Jach'eng class built from a shockwave facility which would create a devastating shockwave that destroyed everything in immediate range. Romulans also had their special Phoenix class ship which would create spatial rift with similar devastating effect to that of a Klingon Jach'eng counterpart. Cardassians had dreadnought missiles which were also very destructive. And we can say that for the Borg their superweapon was transwarp gate as it could provide instantaneous passage from one end of map to another anywhere, but it could be also said that their second superweapons were those fusion and tactical fusion cubes which could single-handledy destroy entire fleets and bases as well. Species 8472 didn't had anything like that as can I remember except their slow moving starbase called mother, but I guess they didn't need to because their ships were extremely powerful.
Besides that, it is worth mentioning that most of RTS games have superweapons and not just Armada 2, so it would be really good if those would get implemented in FO NX too. They make game(s) more interesting and certainly more challenging.

Here is what I think what superweapon(s) each faction might have:

FEDERATION - There are quite a few canon examples that could be used in game as Federation superweapons and some which come to mind are Genesis device (from Wrath of Khan), transphasic torpedoes and ablative armor generator (from Voyager's last episode), maybe even those self-replicated cloaked anti-matter mines (DS9), or Omega particle bombs (also VOY) and so on...
Also there are always non-canon weapons like already mentioned temporal stasis field from Armada 2.

KLINGONS - I'm not quite sure what they would have as their superweapon that we've seen in canon except maybe from ships that can fire weapons while cloaked (Undiscovered Country) and that huge superpowerful disruptors/torpedoes that Negh'Var used to bring down shields of DS9 (from Way of the Warrior episode I think, or Apocalypse Rising).
When it comes to non-canon weapons, first choice would be obviously that shockwave ship from Armada 2 and/or Ion storm torpedoes (although they already exist in FO I think they are bit too weak).

ROMULANS - Again, not much clues about canon stuff which could be used as their superweapons except also ships firing while cloaked (Scimitar from movie Nemesis) and quantum singularities (we all know Romulan ships are powered by quantum singularity cores).
And there is also already mentioned spatial rift created by Phoenix, but now it has also come to my mind that holo-cloak from Starfleet Command 3.

DOMINION - What we know from canon their superweapons were in form of viruses/plagues (in one episode of DS9 Dominion infected entire planet with some nasty disease which slowly killed off its population), but except from that I can't think of other things except for that Breen energy draining torpedo.
So my suggestion here would be to improve Hyperspace artillery by making their shots to have effect on enemy ships in certain radius as those Breen torpedoes had. So hyperspace artillery could completely disable ships and station it fired upon.

BORG - Transwarp conduits/gates here are definitely the best idea since they exist in both canon and not canon, and they are currently not implemented in FO.

CARDASSIANS - As I already mentioned, dreadnought missiles are the best option for them since they are powerful and exist in both Armada 2 and in canon.


5.) WARP-IN ABILITY FOR ALL FACTIONS: I find it hard to believe that other races couldn't send a distress call so I believe you will reserving that only for Federation doesn't makes sense.


6.) BORG LATE GAME NERF: Having played against merciless and sometimes hard Borg AI opponents there has been quite a lot of times I was overwhelmed by large amounts of their most powerful ships (and they have quite a few of them). So whenever I had let them develop to a stage in which they can build spheres and/or other powerful ships it was game over for me almost every time. Most often when Borg develops to that point, I have faced rows after rows of spheres, diamonds, pyramids and later even cubes and tactical cubes. Even my most powerful ships along with turrets and starbases couldn't hold against it and there wasn't enough time to build additional forces in order to prevent being completely destroyed.
That is why I think that something must be done to change that. Some ways that came to mind is to limit overall number on Borg ships on a map (so let's say they may not have more than one fleet of 30 ships at time), other is to allow others races to construct more of those special ships like Phalanxs, Tavaras, V-15 Dreads and such, or to increase cost of Borg ships. Either way something Borg is currently OP during late game and that should be changed.


7.) DIFFERENT AI GAMEPLAY TYPES: This idea came to me while I was playing C&C Tiberium Wars and its expansion Kane's Wrath (another great RTS game) in which you can before skirmish select AI gameplay type. So I had offered balanced, turtle, guerrilla, rushed and steamroller gameplay tactics for AIs and I think that could be implemented to FO too. It would certainly make game more interesting.


8.) SELECTING AVATARS IN SKIRMISH SETUP MENU: Instead of picking it after game loads, it would be better if you could do it before in skirmish menu setup. Not only that it is more practical, but it also removes problem of (AI) players starting before you have decided which avatar to pick, but it would also enable you to pick each avatar for each AI player in your skirmish since by current system you can't do it at all. That is how you pick your subfaction in almost every other RTS so it should be like that in FO NX too. That would also bring an option of picking so called vanilla factions which would have not specific avatars benefits, but some of their own.


9.) TECH STATIONS: In most of the RTS games (C&C Generals/Zero Hour, Tiberium Wars, Kane's Wrath and such) there are certain buildings scattered across maps which give different benefits to a player or AI when they are captured. Something like that could be done in FO too. For example, there could be a special stations which if captured could steadily give certain amount of resources. There could be other station which could construct or warp in starships if captured. And so on... There are certainly many possibilities in this case which would make game more interesting.


10.) DIFFERENT WAYS OF GATHERING RESOURCES/MAKING PLANETS USEFUL AGAIN: While I do like the way resource extraction is executed in FO, I think it's a bit too much of the same. In Armada 2 for example we had a different ways of obtaining metal, dilithium, latinum and crew. Dilithium was mined from moons (as it currently is in FO too), on the other hand metal was extracted from planets by orbital processing facilities (in this case, the metal or rather tritanium is also mined from the moons). Latinum and crew as resources are currently irrelevant or non-existent.
So I would recommend keeping dilithium extraction as it is, while changing tritanium mining to be done again by stations and from planets (only that planets would have infinite amount of it, like moons do now). It would be also probably good to bring back in colonization and crew as necessary resources (because they are used for operation of ships and stations), and latinum should be back too as it could be very useful in resource exchange (dilithium for tritanium and vice versa). I have read already somewhere on the forums that developers had in plan bringing trading back and expanding current economy so I'm certain that such ideas would help improve the game(play).


That's all I have for now, and when I come up with more ideas I'll try to post them here. I now it is a long read, but if you are interested in improving FO then you may find this useful or at least some of it.

posted on January 18th, 2017, 5:36 pm

If you guys are interested in Fleet Ops development, you're welcome to help me work on Tryptic's Mod. I've been taking a short hiatus as I moved to a new apartment, new job, and am currently wiping and reinstalling my computer.

I have a framework for the Cardassian faction that is simply waiting for someone to volunteer to help with it, since I myself simply do not have the time to work on it. If direct modding isn't your thing, I welcome feedback for Tryptic's Mod (Currently version 3.0b) and the changes I have made.

As much as I would love to help you, I must admit that like watersfam I'm not that good at modding. So far the most I've done is some maps (mostly for Generals Zero Hour and Armada 2), and I tried playing around a bit in 3d modeling (I'm just starting with it). But the things I'm really good with is making up various stuff like I'm doing in this thread. But I will try your mod and see if I can gives some ideas in order to improve upon it and when I get better in 3d modeling I might try to do some ships/stations too.

Also, when it comes to Cardassian faction I have to mention that a few years ago while I was playing Armada 2, I have found on gamefront a pretty decent Cardassian mode with some very nice models and good gameplay as well. I still have it on computer and I always thought about how to implement it in FO, but never really had a chance to do it so due to lack of my modding knowledge.

posted on January 18th, 2017, 11:48 pm

Breen Faction??????


I'd be willing to help out any way I can, but need access to new Breen Ships and Stations.

posted on January 18th, 2017, 11:50 pm

I've already Created a Weapons platform that only works with a power station, just like from the show in my personal mod.