ARMADA; the best of times

[RobertScorpio]

Over the years I have lost my two copies of Armada. Recently I was able to get one from some dude in South Carolina via EBAY.

I forgot how much I really liked this game. And I don't mean Armada 2, which IMO was no where as good as Armada 1.

Luckily many of those MODS for Armada are still available on line. Though I must admit I am getting lazy. How so?

I like to go into the game and tweek DS9 so that it just can't be beaten. Then I pretty much make the Defiant unstoppable. I set up an 8 team contest, with all 7 other teams against each other and me. I pick the TIC TAC TOE map and just surround my wormhole with every thing I can.

And, like Q, I enter the game to just 'thin' out each team. Then I go back home and just pick my nose and watch some TREK on tv.

Then, eventually, I just decide to take over the entire galaxy.

As tough as one might think the Borg were, I still think the Romulans/Klingons were better. Their cloaking devices were always a problem to deal with.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

It's a great game. I wish I could play it again. I recently had to install a new hard disk and for some reason when I reinstalled Armada it now crashes.

 

[Scout101]

Just re-installed Armada 2 recently, and picked a full-conversion mod to play with it. Good times, fun game.

 

[WalkinMan]

I love Armada I, still play it from time to time, there were rumors that a mission editor would have been released, allowing one to custom create missions, but nothing came of it (source code etc). At least there is a map editor.

 

[Saturn0660]

I used to do that on starfleet command.. I made my Fed BB with all Ph4's with FX arc...

 

[CaptainStoner]

It was already old when I played it on a K6-III. Recently installed on an XP system and got the audio working (just turn down sound acceleration in Windows). Great game. I never liked the plot's switching teams every 4 missions, but the Skirmish mode has real replay value.
Fun thing with playing old titles is you can crank the resolution to the max.

 

[Jax]

I re-brought the game mid 2007 after finding out the tweaks to make it work on XP and dam the game was still good. I would love an Armada 3 with the ships of 2 but everything else of number 1.

 

[Slappy The Vulcan]

Over the years I have lost my two copies of Armada. Recently I was able to get one from some dude in South Carolina via EBAY.

I forgot how much I really liked this game. And I don't mean Armada 2, which IMO was no where as good as Armada 1.

Luckily many of those MODS for Armada are still available on line. Though I must admit I am getting lazy. How so?

I like to go into the game and tweek DS9 so that it just can't be beaten. Then I pretty much make the Defiant unstoppable. I set up an 8 team contest, with all 7 other teams against each other and me. I pick the TIC TAC TOE map and just surround my wormhole with every thing I can.

And, like Q, I enter the game to just 'thin' out each team. Then I go back home and just pick my nose and watch some TREK on tv.

Then, eventually, I just decide to take over the entire galaxy.

As tough as one might think the Borg were, I still think the Romulans/Klingons were better. Their cloaking devices were always a problem to deal with.

I bought 2 copies and my best friend and I play online occasionally, we both have "The Millenium Project" installed, we usually team up against 2 or 3 computer borgs on Hard....Good times are had by all.

 

[ialfan]

I re-brought the game mid 2007 after finding out the tweaks to make it work on XP and dam the game was still good. I would love an Armada 3 with the ships of 2 but everything else of number 1.

Prehaps the Fleet Ops Mod for Armada 2 would be worth a try for you?

It's great and I've been playing it for years. It's still in development too but a playable beta is out.

http://www.fleetops.net/

 

[daedalus5]

I prefer Armada1 over Armada2 as well. Armada1 has given me many hours of fun gameplay - plus some of the best cutscences ever! Loved the old Locutus vs Picard routines.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

The Armada series was one of the games from the Golden age of trek gaming.........you know, when people who actually cared about making a good Trek product had the licence....

 

[stormleader]

Armada's a good game. It's fun to be the borg.

 

[Kemaiku]

I got the game as soon as it was released back in 2001 and still play it from time to time, despite having lost most of the downloads I had for it.

The Achilles class, can't remember who exactly made it, was one of the best Federation addons there was. As well as the Borg "Assimilator Snare" that snagged ships and assimilated them as they passed.

But even the basic game itself has great reply value, I like to sometimes lure enemies in with spare empty freighters, knick there's while its mining and watch them come after you etc

 

[CaptainStoner]

I set up an 6 player scenario a few times this week, with a Fed/Klingon/Rommie alliance and 3 Borg, all the AI on hard. It's disgusting, we get our asses handed to us by the Borg. The Borg have that speed bonus in production. Maybe against 2 Borg...

 

[Jono]

The Achilles class, can't remember who exactly made it, was one of the best Federation addons there was. As well as the Borg "Assimilator Snare" that snagged ships and assimilated them as they passed.

The Achilles class originally appeared in the game Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars that came out in 2000 or 2001.

 

[Cyke101]

Some of my fondest memories of that game involved eight players with one ship a piece. You *really* had to be creative and resourceful if you wanted to come out of that one. I killed three players with my weak Steamrunner by positioning myself over a black hole and disabling all their engines. Sure, a third of my crew was assimilated, shields were hammered down to 30%, and life support malfunctioned, but I took them out!

As much as I love Armada, though, I could only play it with full mods. It's either all of Trek or nothing for me.

Ah, and the Star Trek Vs. Star Wars mod? Classic. Sure, the scales were way off (two X-Wings can severely damage a Miranda?), but the visuals were great.

 

[Kemaiku]

The Achilles class, can't remember who exactly made it, was one of the best Federation addons there was. As well as the Borg "Assimilator Snare" that snagged ships and assimilated them as they passed.

The Achilles class originally appeared in the game Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars that came out in 2000 or 2001.

Yes, I do know that, I have Dominion Wars as well, I was referring to the Achilles addon someone made for Armada 1 based on that ship.

It was as detailed, and had nearly as many weapons, making a very deadly addon to have for the Federation side, just 4 could hold off the Borg for incredibly amounts of time.

In fact given the more versatile nature of Armada is was more fun using the unofficial addon than the official release in Dominion Wars

 

[DS9forever]

I remember being so disappointed with Armada II. The smaller ships broke apart while the larger ones blew up with Death Star like explosions. Plus what was the deal with the ships shaking and their odd turning maneuvers?

 

[RobertScorpio]

Yep...I totally agree. You would think the sequal would be better. But to me, Amarda 1 was far more funner to play. I just played it last weekend. My four year old son is 'getting' into trek, so that means ships of course. I love to change the settings of the Defiant, Sisko's Defiant, and make it kick butt. Great animation still holds up today...

Robert

 

[Cyke101]

I remember being so disappointed with Armada II. The smaller ships broke apart while the larger ones blew up with Death Star like explosions. Plus what was the deal with the ships shaking and their odd turning maneuvers?

IIRC, they released a patch a few weeks after the game hit the shelves that fixed those two problems. The turning radius was actually more Trek-like that time around, with banking and fluid turns.

To me, it greatly helped the realization, but yeah, Armada I was still leaps and bounds better. And I think the warp system could've been implemented better.