Noob Recruiting

posted on May 12th, 2008, 2:15 am

I'm very interested in this mod (been lurkin for 4 or 5 days), but I lost my armada 2 CD years ago. Therefore...I'm going to have to drop 70-100 dollars on a new one on ebay.

Before I do that, I have a list of questions that I couldn't find the answer to. Maybe this can be used to help other noobs.

How do games get organized online?...(I play EIR for COH and they use ventrilo for set up and in game)

How is the AI? (Very important if multiplayer games are hard to get)

How alive is the community...(cant really tell if I'm catching the mod on the tail-end or not)

Is there anywhere(forum post, link, readme) where I can see a breakdown of the tech-trees, Ship list and avatars before I purchase?... (since i wont get the game for days.)

How difficult is it to install FO on vista (Have read mutliple posts about it but cant tell if its difficult or not without everything in front)

Does the Campaign function? (Playable/some what enjoyable with the mod)

Is it worth 70-100 bucks...(Thats alot of money to spend on a 7 year old game... and its hard to tell just from Screen Shots if the mod is worth it...(EIR has tutorial video/gamecasts[are there any available?])

For whoever undertakes this task...THANKS in Advanced

posted on May 12th, 2008, 3:30 am

That's a whole lotta questions 
I'll try to answer a few as best as I can, but I am sure others will also offer their opinions as well 

Games get organized in a variety of ways, so far as I know: any instant-type messenger works... as well as putting up threads on this forum. Even email has worked for me. Keep in mind that the community for FO is not very sizeable (thus it can sometimes be hard to find someone online without setting something up), but I am sure you will find a few people who are ALWAYS ready to play, if you plan ahead.

Simply put, the AI stinks. There are attempts to make it better (i.e. Redman's mod) ... and supposedly it is much better in v3 full, but for anybody who plays the game semi-regularly, it is a breeze to kill the AI.

I would definitely say the community is alive... though some of us may be hampered by schoolwork/jobs you-name-it from time to time. As far as I know, the mod is definitely not pettering out. Personally I know that in the summer I will be ready to game much more 

Dunno how to help you out on the mod tech-trees... it is always changing; you could try looking around the site a little more (I seem to remember there was one place on it where trees, avatars and ships were listed). For A2 tech-trees, there are plenty of sites to find; just google and you'll find it. Ships lists can also be found that way for vanilla A2... again I am not sure about FO (you could browse thru the gallery of course). The amount of ships included can be found under basic info and stuff... (just checked... can't find the techtrees and stuff anywhere  )

Difficulty of installing... well for v3PR there are some oddball difficulties for some people (I haven't experienced any that weren't due to my own stupidity though). Personally I don't think it's that hard but...  For the full v3, it'll be a piece of cake (new compatibility thingy)

No campaign in the mod yet  That's the plan for a version after v3 
I sorta liked the campaign from vanilla A2, but it wasn't incredible.

There are definitely video bytes of FO online on youtube and the like (heck, you can even find a grainy one on the newest update from the producers... I think it is called On Screen)

Whether it is worth 70 bucks (ouch  ) is ultimately up to you. Remeber, if you need an Armada II CD "Either contact Activision or try to get the Star Trek Action Pack with Elite Force + Addon, Armada 1 and Armada 2 in it. You can still get full Armada 2 replacement Backup images from various P2P networks." (from the site)
I fiercely recommend it, but then again, I'm biased. Maybe you can borrow a friend's to find out if you like it or not first? All I can say is v3 full will inject new life into the game (it's gonna be sweet), so be there for the party 

[Champion]

posted on May 12th, 2008, 3:39 am

Last edited by Champion on May 12th, 2008, 3:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks man,

how do you contact activision (which department)...checked their site, couldnt figure it out

Can you elaborate on this
        You can still get full Armada 2 replacement Backup images from various P2P networks." (from the site)
     




       

posted on May 12th, 2008, 4:36 am

$70-$100 buck's ?!?! WTF man?! I can pick armada 2 secondhand up in town for like $20 why is it so expensive other there? plus I can get it for free on limewire as well if i tried..

Cex.co.uk : gaming : pc gaming : PC Games : Star Trek: Armada 2

Star Trek: Armada II :: PC :: Gamestation

posted on May 12th, 2008, 6:50 am

in a quick answer to your questions...

Thi game has no form of online protection so you cna use any cd you like or any downloaded version of P2P and online works fine...

The AI is extremely basic but that depends on the player and not the fault of the mod developers...

The community is pretty dead and your struggle to ever get an online game going, specially with the people on these forums (no offence cuz your all fine people but you just dnt play online or play at all)

The final version will be easy to insall on vista...

No Campgain...

anyway mate to cut things short, add me on msn and i will be able to help you greatly like i have others in the past... and it will save you 30-100 dollars easy.

posted on May 12th, 2008, 5:37 pm

Both of those sites are out of stock...(70-100 was what its going for on ebay)

posted on May 12th, 2008, 7:18 pm

Mark I resent that, I can't play cause of X64 and Vista last time i checked.

posted on May 12th, 2008, 7:30 pm

One word. Work.
This summer it'll be different, I promise 

posted on May 12th, 2008, 7:41 pm

i play it just fine with X64... just stick the flop folder on your desktop...

obviously you need a flops thats been instaleld on XP mind, which i do have thanks to Smooer for sharing it with me.

posted on May 12th, 2008, 8:49 pm

wahoo I was useful!

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on May 12th, 2008, 9:12 pm

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on May 12th, 2008, 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If you want to see mostly complete ship lists/avatar lists etc...

ST-GALAXY NETWORK - Star Trek Magazin

this is the best site... but it's in german 

posted on May 12th, 2008, 10:07 pm

and for the english spekers of us http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.st-galaxy.de%2Fjoomla%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_magazine%26func%3Dshow_edition%26id%3D7%26Itemid%3D84 (I  google)

posted on May 12th, 2008, 10:10 pm

Meredith that's awesome! 

And I love google too! 

posted on May 12th, 2008, 10:23 pm

i play it just fine with X64... just stick the flop folder on your desktop...

obviously you need a flops thats been instaleld on XP mind, which i do have thanks to Smooer for sharing it with me.

In that case I might be tempted to give the game a go again at somepoint soon just burn it and pop over

posted on May 12th, 2008, 11:20 pm

i can just send it over to you through msn like smooer did with me, once again he was very useful... its only 326mb compressed