Star Trek Armada II Import

posted on June 9th, 2011, 3:42 am

They would still need a copy of the Armada 2 disc to play, just like with the game itself and Fleet Ops. So your argument is moot.

posted on June 9th, 2011, 7:11 am

The reason i say that people might question it is because in theory someone could uses pieces of the mod like the artwork, the models, or the sound effects wither or not they had a real copy of A2.

They would still need a copy of the Armada 2 disc to play, just like with the game itself and Fleet Ops. So your argument is moot.

No it's not moot. The artwork, music, etc is all copyrighted, so it's part of your "purchase" when you buy A2. You might not be able to play it without the A2 disk (to install FlOps in the first place), but you can still extract and port, etc. It's a very minor consideration, as it's never been an issue, but it is worth considering.

posted on June 9th, 2011, 9:07 am

I have to say that I can see where Atlantis is coming from on this. Porting over one ship/station/sound/texture or whatever could probably be considered of as fair use (especially as how games from the Armada era were all published and owned by Activision, so it wasn't as if another studio was involved), but zipping up everything is a bit...far. Perhaps (an idea) it would be easier to just have the files needed to get it working downloadable, then everyone can just copy over the needed directories.

More difficult to install, but it does cut off the problem of - essentially - putting the entire game up for download.

posted on June 9th, 2011, 9:54 am

Yes, maybe have all the files that are the same copied off the A2 disc.

posted on June 9th, 2011, 4:31 pm

Actually, some things have been upgraded graphically and already exist in Fleet ops. We could use the existing Fleet Ops Sovereign model, As well as I believe the Defiant, Akira, Steamrunner, Neg'vahr, B'rel, Vor'cha, and many others. I, for one, wouldn't mind using the fleet ops construction ship models too. They look so much nicer than the ones in stock Armada 2.

posted on June 9th, 2011, 5:52 pm

That would defeat the purpose of even having a stock A2 import.  The reason it's an import is because nothing is changed beyond what is absolutely necessary to prevent crashes.

posted on June 9th, 2011, 11:09 pm

If it is compatible with A2 multiplayer (unlikely I know) then obivously keep the original sods.

Question: If a sod is in the addon folder of one player, but both players have the same sod in there normal game files, does it change the game version?

posted on June 9th, 2011, 11:24 pm

I don't know if SOD files are checked in the asset checker, but I know that they should be.

By the way, I'm not sure if I'm going to proceed with this project.  If the devs would release their Star Trek Armada II Classic mod, then I won't have to.  Plus, I'm working on other mods such as the Tereanan Empire mod and the Buildable Warp-Ins mod.  One I'm trying to test to make sure it's balanced, the other I'm just trying to get in the game.  So I'm not going to be working on any imports of stock Armada II right now.

posted on June 9th, 2011, 11:33 pm

I don't know if SOD files are checked in the asset checker, but I know that they should be.

I know the ones in the sod folder are, I'm asking about the addon folder.

posted on June 10th, 2011, 1:16 am

I believe I remember me putting a few ODFs in the addon folder and ending up getting an incompatible version error.  So the same is probably true for SODs.

posted on June 10th, 2011, 3:34 am

Ok, so I'd like Armada 2 with nicer graphics rather than full stock. I guess that would be something for after a stock A2 for FleetOps was completed though.

posted on June 10th, 2011, 11:06 am

I believe I remember me putting a few ODFs in the addon folder and ending up getting an incompatible version error.  So the same is probably true for SODs.

I didn't know the addon folder was designed for ODFs?

posted on June 10th, 2011, 7:02 pm

I take it you somehow never played A1? Thats were pretty much all modified files go. They removed that for A2.

posted on June 11th, 2011, 8:32 pm

well Ive managed to get a2 ingame just need to sort tool tips out

posted on June 11th, 2011, 8:39 pm

Blade, do you have a version for the mod manager?  And can we see some screenshots of your progress?