Despite the changelog speaks mostly for itself i'd like to highlight some of the additions with this patch. The good old ingame interface, which has been largely untouched since Fleet Operations 1.0 was released in 2003 now finally got it's deserved update. The new interface is not just a new "skin" but also has gotten some technical updates. It is now possible to select up to 30 vessels at a time instead of the previous 16 limit.
We have also taken on the inflexible cloaking system that Armada 2 provided us. Instead of having just one level of cloak that is always detectable by any sensor station, we now have different stages of cloak. That is quite comparable what you find in the shows where some races have cloaking devices which can be detected far more easily than for example the ones being used by the Romulans.
3.1.0 features also some important balancing changes. We have dug through a lot of input regarding balancing that you have made in our forums and combined some of the best of your ideas in this patch. Thanks for all your input, enjoy 3.1.0.
Map Makers: Please note that there have been changes to the bzn file format. That means, previously made maps do work, but have to be patched. Read more here: How to convert maps to FO 3.1.0 from earlier versions.
3.1.0 is a full install. A previous installation of Fleet Operations or Armada II is NOT required. An incremental patch from version 3.0.7 is not available.
Download Fleet Operations 3.1.0 Full
Changelog:
Features
- Game in-game interface complete overhaul
- Detailed weapon and system information in single ship display
- Up to 30 selectable vessels (bf: 16)
- New Font
[li]Brand new interface graphics
[/li] - Be warned, AI players may now build special units of all avatars
- Further improved AI weapon usage
- A new Klingon research option is available: Large Scale Cloaking Devices. Take a look at the Imperial Research for details
- As honor and experience plays an important role for the Klingons, their supply system has been changed: Klingon vessels will now refund a fraction of their supply costs with each level up. Normal supply routes upgrades are more costy for them. Qapla'!
- A complete new cloak and cloak detection! Detectors will now send out a tachyon ping, that reveals cloaked vessels. But stay alert! There are reports of some Romulan vessels using advanced cloaking, that is not detectable by normal pings
- Many passive abilities have been changed or renamed and a lot of new passive abilities have been added to vessels.
- AI now uses allied repair contracts
- Cease fire option now also available in Skirmish mode
- Improved 'physics' for the Dominion Attack Destroyer Collision ability
- Map Editor: Added 'simple mode' to the gameobject inspector
- Integrated online update check
- Reimplemented support for some special characters in chat mode
- Updated models/textures or complete remakes
- Federation Norway Class
- Federation Nebula Class
- Federation Fighters
- Klingon B'rel Class
- Klingon K'Vort Class
- Klingon Attack Probe
[li]Federation Galaxy Class
Changes
- Graphic settings are now set to 'high' by default. Default resolution is determined by chosen desktop setting.
- General
- Intelligence Report and Tachyon scan have been moved from the main starbases to the sensor stations (or the Borg Probe)
- Vessels cannot be traded anymore when they are affected by a Romulan Spy or Klingon Graviton Mine
- Slight changes in global construction costs and movement speeds, especially on short-range vessels, in order to give those units a better stand against long-range-kiting. Many short range vessels are much faster now, in order to give each faction certain anti-kite vessels. Scouts move faster now too
- Fighters are now launched automatically and will guard their carrier. You do no longer need to manually launch fighters and they don't cost resources anymore
- Most special weapons that cause the unit to enter a different mode do now have a 10 second cooldown
- Refits may now be purchased while the unit is cloaked
- Troopships are now capped at a maximum of 10
- When a shipyard has been successfully boarded, it now loses it's allied repair contact upgrade
- Analyze Alien Technology in Mixed-Tech Yards now costs more resources and takes longer to research
- Recycling starships or stations now yields the correct amounts of resources (calculated with uniform formulas), including tritanium
- Main base weapon upgrades bonus increased to 30 (bf.: 20) and defense upgrade bonus increased to 90 (bf.: 60)
[li]Stations (including turrets) will now chose their targets automatically and ignore given attack orders. Special Weapons will still require interaction of the player, of course. This change also fixes several issues where stations or turrets stopped to fire - Avatars
- Federation Admiral Risner: System Value bonus for Eraudi-Yard vessels reduced to 4, but now also grants a small Offensive Value bonus epending on the military status of a vessel (bf.: only plus 5 System Value)
[li]Borg Assimilate Collective: Connections costs reduction for Assimilators decreased to 20 percent (bf.: 50 percent) - Borg
- "Resistance is futile" costs increased to 500 dilithium and 700 tritanium (bf.: 400 / 400), but may now be purchased repeatedly
- Beam Modules now only add the ability to strike at two targets. The individual beams deal more damage. Additional Beam Modules do now also add damage reduction from beam weapons (13% per module). Costs increased
- Direct hull damage caused by Torpedo Modules is now affected by damage reduction effects. Additional Torpedo Modules do now also add damage reduction from torpedo weapons (9% per module). Costs increased
- Holding Beam Modules do now also add damage reduction from special weapons (20% per module). Costs increased
- Tactical Armor Modules now decrease damage received based on the Offensive Value of attackers. the weaker the the attack is, the less damage is received. Costs increased (bf.: beam damage reduction)
- Nanites no longer disturb the interface, but have a chance for subsystem failure. Special energy costs increased to 600 for the Cube and 700 for the Diamond (bf.: 400 / 500)
- Order to Chaos energy costs increased to 770 (bf.: 717)
[li]Probe's Devestating Attack damage and energy costs reduced - Dominion
- B-5 Battle Cruiser officer ability Extended Hangars changed to increase the maximum number of fighters by 1 / 2
- Fighter Energy Core Upgrades now increase all attributes by 5 and increases damage to stations by 50 percent (bf.: 2 and 20 percent). Costs increased
- Active Tachyon Defense has been converted into a passive advanced tachyon ping
- B-5 Battle Cruiser Prototypes no longer count to the fightercarrier cap
- Energy Beacon no longer affects targets that may use Energy Beacon on their own. Cooldown removed
- Cascade Feedback will now only affect up to 5 individual targets
- IS Bomb will now only affect up to 5 individual targets
- Alpha Ketracel White shotdelay boost reduced to 30 percent (bf.: 45). Energy costs increased to 114 (bf.: 96)
- EM Blast will now only affect up to 3 individual targets. Shotdelay malus reduced to 50 percent (bf.: 100). Energy costs decreased to 260 (bf.: 340)
[li]Collision base damage reduced. The damage will now increase with each rank of the Attack Destroyer. Deals half damage to civil targets and stations. There is now also a chance of collision to fail - Federation
- Avalon Class carriers (Admiral Risner) only require level 2 chassis to be built (bf.: level 3)
- Hyperimpulse Drive speed bonus increased, but has a 30 second cooldown now
- Avalon Class officer ability Elite Squadrons will now increase the damage dealt by fighters to small units by 30 / 60 percent (bf.: fighter deployment time reduction)
- Beam and Pulse Platform have switched positions in the techtree and in their strategic lineup
- Sensor Blackout will now only affect up to 5 individual targets. Shotdelay malus reduced to 35 percent (bf.: 75). Energy costs increased to 429 (bf.: 256)
- Increased the movement speed reduction of Energy Rerouting
- Increased the movement speed reduction of Tricobalt Triloader. Energy costs reduced, duration reduced to 5 seconds (bf.: 6) and costs 3 supplies to be activated
- Organize Defense has been removed, but additional passive abilities have been added to the Torpedo Platform to compensate
- Emergency Power no longer affects targets that may use Emergency Power on their own
- Distortion Field will now only affect up to 5 individual targets. Damage per target increased slightly
- Vector Calculation energy costs increased to 425 (bf.: 73)
- Barrage will now only affect up to 4 individual targets
[li]The Mixed-Tech Monsoon (Borg) passive ability Tactical Armor has been adjusted acording to the Tactical Armor changes for the Borg. See above - Klingon
- Bortas' Class Attack Probes cost supplies to be deployed now, but are permanent and may be targetted and destroyed. As the probe no longer has a duration, the officer abilities have been adjusted
- Scrambling Probe duration reduced to 60 seconds (bf.: 80) and system-failure durations reduced to 4 seconds (bf.: 5). Supply costs increased to 4 (bf.: 3) and energy costs reduced to 114 (bf.: 129)
- Cho'naQ Class damage per second increased slightly
- Field of Fire will now only affect up to 5 individual targets. Energy costs have been adjusted
- Scrambling Probe will now only affect up to 5 individual targets
- Battle Plan energy costs increased to 50 per second (bf.: 25)
- Condensed Proton Warheads will now only affect up to 4 individual targets
[li]The Qaw'Duj class has a new replacement for Sword of Kahless - Imperial Stance: Gains +3 to all attributes and becomes immune to most special effects - Romulan
- Plasma Bolt minimum shot delay increased to 15 seconds (bf.: 10)
- Multi Purpose Weapons may now be toggeled while cloaked
- Rhienn Class Refits have been moved to the Upgrade Facility along with their special ability research. Rhienn Refits grant much higher attribute bonuses now. Costs increased. Both refits will now also increase the crew of the Rhienn
- Refined Pulse Disruptors (Rhienn Class, officer rank) will now increase the reload time of pulse disruptors, but the damage got increased
- The Talon Class Refit now increases defensive value by 5, emits a mobile Tachyon Ping, but has no longer cloaking ability
- Research Institute construction costs increased to 600 Dilithium and 300 Tritanium (bf.: 400 / 200). Techtree contribution increased
- Tal'Shiar Academy construction costs increased to 600 Dilithium and 300 Tritanium (bf.: 400 / 200). Techtree contribution increased. Does now require the Staryard to be built
- D'deridex type Warbird shield regeneration rate increased by 5 percent
- Sensor Jammer will now only affect up to 8 individual targets. Damage per target increased. Energy costs have been adjusted
- Stealth Field will now only affect up to 10 individual targets. Shotdelay malus reduced to 10 percent (bf.: 25) and duration reduced to 10 seconds (bf.: 15). Energy costs increased to 345 (bf.: 326)
[li]The Saeihr's Concave Plasma Coils special ability damage bonus on particle weapons has been converted into a pure Offensive Value bonus for better comperability. This leads to a total +25 Offensive Value bonus. Special Energy costs slightly adjusted to 183 (bf.: 187). May now be used while cloaked and no longer disables cloaking
Fixes
- Either the 1280x960 or 1280x1024 resolution wasn't available on some systems where both resolutions are supported by the hardware
- Cloaking animation doesn't 'jump' anymore when a cloaked vessel levels up
- Fixed some more "double-click selection" issues
- Fixed a minor display issue of the map's name in the game setup screen with game settings on default
- The game lock checkbox in the advanced options dialog in multiplayer now correctly states "Game closed" instead of "Game open"
- Fixed some invalid rank display on several ships
- Fixed Avatar icon being missing after loading a savegame
- When focused on a vessel in tactical mode, the focus would be lost when the vessel was being upgraded or gained a new rank
- In tactical view rank icons or healthbars of distant vessels could be seen that were not in render radius
- Disabled Armada 2's gameobject mouse over delay to solve the issue of giving move or attack commands unintentionally
- Fixed several tooltip issues and typos. Thanks for reporting!
- Added the range overlay to many special weapons that didn't had one yet
- Klingon Scrambling Probe subsystem failure is now in sync with the optical effect
- Fixed some minimap issues on low graphic settings
- Fixed the gameobject inspector in map editor mode not taking the full window height
- Fixed a rare game startup crash
- Map Editor: It was not possible to set a Wormhole's name
- Game mechanic
- Changed the formulas for calculation rate of fire reductions. A 100% reduction of fire rates results in a doubled reload time between shots
- Fixed a bug causing Dominion Cascade Feedback to deal too much damage and to consume too much special weapon energy
- Effects which are based on the weapons of a unit (for example on the number of special abilities) do now work properly and are capped at a maximum effect
- Under some circumstances, vessels lost their previously given command when leveling up
- A vessel doesn't lose it's guard target anymore when the guarded vessel levels up or is being upgraded
- Vessels don't get stuck in repair queue anymore when their current shields value exceed the intended maximum
- Klingon mixed-tech K'Vorts (Federation) will now have a correct evasive chance to be missed on all ranks
- Klingon Attack Probe deals correct damage now
- Dominion Fighters have the correct - reduced - attribtues now
- Federation Warp-In vessels sometimes were delayed or never transferred to a player
- Federation Warp-In vessels sometimes were sent to a wrong location
- Federation Warp-In vessels were created with the same damage ratio as Starfleet Command
- Federation Warp-In is now usable during the "cease fire" phase
- Federation Saber Class vessels have the correct dodge chances now
- The Romulan Talon Repair Refit cannot repair anymore when its cloaking device is active
- Some attack modes were unintentionally deactivated when a vessel lost its weapon control system
- Dominion Collision special weapon shouldn't be able to "track" cloaked targets anymore
- Romulan Mixed-Tech Generix Class Frigates (Federation) will keep its Critical Shot ability on higher ranks
- Romulan Mixed-Tech Serkas Class (Dominion) vessels will now keep their Mixed-Tech bonuses when leveling up
- It is no longer possible to research Breen technologies on a captured Dominion Technology Lab
- Officer rank Federation Remore Class vessels no longer reduce damage of non-special weapons that consume special weapon energy to be fired
- Romulan Multi Purpose Weapons consume the correct amounts of special energy on all ranks
- A Borg Diamond's Nanites consume the correct amount of special energy now
- The Superiority Fighter and Superiority Destroyer passive abilities work as intended now
- All Avalon class ranks do now count to the unit limit
- Fixed an exploit allowing players to remove the footprint of stations in certain situations
- Klingon Cho'naQ Class vessels may now deactive their Energy Buffers on Veteran rank
- Federation Excelsior Class vessels no longer suddenly lose all their special weapon energy
- Romulan veteran Experimental Pulse Disruptors work correctly against cruisers now
- Romulan Mixed-Tech Leahval Class (Federation) vessels no longer gain invalid weaponry if Advanced Energy Reeling is activated
- Norexan Class vessels deal now correct damage on all ranks for all avatars
- D'deridex Class vessels deal now correct damage on veteran rank for all avatars
- Romulan Shrike Class vessels now actually have medium weapon range as intended
- Klingon Vor'cha Class ships deal consistent damage
- Romulan Mixed-Tech Rhienn Class (Klingon) is now medium range as intended
- Romulan Spectre-Generix Veterans do now fire their weapons at correct weapon ranges and deal correct damage
- Dominion Battlecruisers may now correctly upgraded if reaching veteran rank
- Timed shield disabling effects were not correctly applied to a vessel while being upgraded or gaining a new rank
- Vessels were able to use a destroyed weapon system after gaining a new rank
[li]Fixed some formulas causing inconsistant damage to be dealt to certain ship classes - Fixed several maps
- No Way Out
- Clear Sky
[li]Destiny Board
Modding
- Backward compatibility for most 3rd party Armada 2 SOD model files improved to allow usage without further file modifications
- Added switch to enable Single Player campaign screen button. Note: Requires some bitmap and bink files from stock Armada 2 (otherwise it will crash)