The newest patch for Fleet Operations can be seen as a foundation for a future patch. We decided to release 3.1.4 early on and pulled some bigger features we initially planned for this release, we'd like to invest more time into before giving them to you.

Croesus, who did a outstanding job for Fleet Operations in the past as voice actor now joined us as a full staff member. Some of his latest work can be heard in this patch in the form of new voice sets. On the subject of audio..have you heard the name FMOD Ex? No? I am sure you still have heard of it already. FMOD Ex is the sound engine being used in games like Starcraft II, Bioshock, Crysis and many others. Thanks to it's developers making FMOD Ex available to non-commercial projects, Fleet Operations now uses the very same engine as replacement for the flawed and now outdated sound system that Armada 2 came with.

That is not all. The fighter ship AI has been vastly improved. Fighters do now directly support their fighter carriers. Fighter stay much closer to their carriers and attack what their carrier attacks. Also many new interesting balancing changes are part of this patch including a lot of new officer abilities or repair ship usage. I can only recommend you read in the changelog below for some details.

Fleet Operations 3.1.4 is a full install. A incremental patch will not be available. Please also read this thread if you intent to use no-cd patches or encounter false virus alerts.

Download Fleet Operations 3.1.4




Changelog:
Additions

• Many new officer and veteran abilities have been added or existent ones have been reworked.


• Important gameplay features of passive abilities are now summerized in their tooltips similar to the damage and reload time on regular weaponry


• Several new voicesets have been added


• Improved fighter carriers: Fighter squadrons can now be controlled through their carriers


• Fighter squadron ship AI vastly improved


• AI Warp-In usage improved


• AI Players may now recover from their main base being destroyed


• Improved the way weapon system icon reload times are displayed


• Game observers are now able to see the amount of resources a team has


• Engine
  
  [li]Replaced the integrated sound engine with FMOD Ex
  
  • Armada 2 now utilizes RAM more efficiently on x64 systems
  
  
  • Windows 7 specific enhancements
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• Modding
  
  [li]Increased number of available ship display system icons to 32 (bf.: 20)
  
  • GameEvents can now handle up to 64 race voice soundsets instead of 16
  
  
  • Map Editor: Map preview is now generated at all screen resolutions (Use Ctrl+s to save)
  [/li]

Changes

• Many special weapons which are not directly using weapons for their effect are no longer disabled if a starships weapon subsystem fails


• Vessels do not block station constructions anymore


• Most technological vessels (including Borg ships) may now be repaired again. The repair rate of a repair ship is now reduced by 50 percent on alien vessels (which do not belong to the same faction as the repair ship) and 75 percent on Borg vessels. Range of the repair beam has been increased to short (bf.: dogfight)


• Borg
  
  [li]Incubation Center resource costs and supply rate increased by 50 percent
  
  • Transmission Matrix no longer has technology requirements
  
  
  • The EM-Field effect of Scout Cubes is more reliable in detecting cloaked vessels
  
  
  • The Holding Beam Module does now also increase a vessels maximum drone capacity
  
  
  • The Dodecahedron does now feature the same relative energy regeneration rate as all support ships
  
  
  • Reduced the damage reduction from adaption modules to 15 percent (bf.: 35)
  [/li]


• Dominion
  
  [li]Reduced the attribute bonuses of the Auto-Repair and Maintenance Systems officer ability to 2 / 4 (bf.: 3 / 6)
  
  • Decreased the base damage of the Implosion Field Device officer ability, but it is now more reliable. Damage does now correctly increase upon rank up
  
  
  • B-8 War Frigates are now equipped with civil shuttlebays, allowing them to support fighters if their carrier should be lost. Vessels with civil shuttlebays do not launch fighters on their own
  
  
  • The B-5 Battle Cruiser is now equipped with a new special ability: Bio-Warheads
  
  
  • Increased B-8 War Frigate construction time
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• Federation
  
  [li]You may no longer receive two Steamrunners at a time via warp-in
  
  • Nova Class Fleet Supply now fires additional photons instead of increasing the weapon rate of fire. Now affects 4 targets besides the Nova (bf.: 5) but no longer affects less in certain situations
  
  
  • Admiral Risner's Akira and Sovereign Class battleships are now equipped with civil shuttlebays, allowing them to support fighters if their carrier should be lost. Vessels with civil shuttlebays do not launch fighters on their own
  
  
  • A new Hyper Impulse Drive as been added. Now increases the efficiency of the Tiny ECM Suite and gives attacks of the Saber a chance to provide cover fire for Saber, Canaveral and Excelsior Class ships, allowing them to avoid all weapon fire for 4 Seconds. If a Saber with deactivated Hyper Impulse is affected, its Offensive Value will increase for the same duration
  
  
  • Starfleet Command now costs 75 supplies to be built to equip the many offices
  
  
  • If a warp-in ship is destroyed, you will now have to pay some supplies
  
  
  • New Field Diagnostics upgrades for the Newton Class. Level 1 increases the service efficiency on friendly non-Federation targets and improves the shield generators, level 2 increases the overall repair rate and increases the system value and level 3 allows the Newton to restore shields. No longer requires research
  
  
  • Reduced the Tactical Torpedo Pod energy regeneration rate boost by 25 percent
  
  
  • Reduced the combat efficiency of several defense platforms
  [/li]


• Klingon
  
  [li]The chance to disable an engine per volley now remains the same for a veteran K'Vort and no longer increases due to the veteran ability
  
  • Field Yard Defensive Value increased to 135 and System Value increased to 30 (bf.: 100 / 23)
  
  
  • Field Yard Extensions Defensive Value reduced to 50 and System Value reduced to 11 (bf.: 75 / 17)
  
  
  • Dispatching a Topmey freighters storage containers now grants the resulting K't'inga Class a temporary attribute bonus. If the K't'inga levels up while the effect is active, it will be granted a permanent attribute bonus. Dispatching storage containers is only available while in the vicinity of a Klingon Mining Station
  
  
  • Increased the amount of energy drained by the Draining Disruptor Cannons officer ability to 6 / 12 (bf.: 3 / 6)
  
  
  • Weapon Fatigue no longer reduces the experience required to level up, but now grants a chance to immediately rank up if the effect ends
  
  
  • Adjusted the attribute bonuses K'Vorts gain from ranking up
  [/li]


• Romulan
  
  [li]The Intelligence Center's Spy ability no longer 'pulls' ships
  
  • Reduced the supply costs of Prefab Defense Components to 20 (bf.: 50)
  
  
  • Reduced the chance to disable engines with the Generix veteran ability Arlterium Disruptor Lense to 20 percent (bf.: 50)
  
  
  • Slightly increased the Generix Spectre Refit costs
  
  
  • Slightly increased the Rhienn Disruptor Refit costs
  
  
  • Reduced damage and energy costs of the Multi Targeting Disruptor
  [/li]

Fixes

• Fixed a bug causing out of sync problems in multiplayer games


• Fixed a crash bug on Dominion veteran Dreadnoughts and V-15


• Fixed several tooltip typos


• Missing entries to the map edit menu fixed


• Fixed a crash with multi weapon requirements (fixes map object placable Prometheus)


• Fixed overlapping icons in the starship subsystem display


• Minor memory leak fixed


• Under certain conditions, vessels in waiting queues (repair, decommission, mining) could cause a crash


• The cloak hotkey is reenabled again


• Fixed several "double click selection" issues


• Map Editor: Fixed a crash when editing an object's label


• Modding: The PointDefenseLaser crashed the game


• Armada 2 Bug: Transwarpdrive jump location bug fixed


• Armada 2 Bug: Special weapon buttons were visible on Ferengi Marauders for observers


• Game Mechanics
  
  [li]Freighters should no longer try to attack vessels
  
  • Dominion Puretech Warfrigates may now be built correctly and is affected by its veteran ability as intended
  
  
  • Romulan silent resolve deals damage as intended
  
  
  • Admiral Risners Sabers no longer receive Admiral Maysons defense buff
  
  
  • On rare occasions ship experience points could get wrongfully accounted for vessels actually destroyed by a nebula but the shooter
  
  
  • The Federation Veteran ability Extended Engineering is now correctly working on Avalon Class Veterans and no longer affects shield regeneration as intended
  
  
  • The Klingon Officer ability Armor Piercing does now correctly increase its damage bonus on officer rank 2
  
  
  • The energy regeneration bonuses of Tactical Torpedo Pod was incorrectly applied to Nebulas which are not under the effect of the special
  [/li]