Freespace 2
Anybody been waiting for this? Yup, pure blast-stuff-up comes to Armada Files in the form of the GTVA and Shivan combined races in this one pack, designed to destroy all that comes before them, be it each other or any of the stock races, to which this is balanced to. Don't let the term balance believe that a Sovereign can go toe-to-toe with one of these battleships...because it can't. They're huge. Kilometres long kinda large. Yeah, Sovereign doesn't sound so tough now does it? Not with flak cannons, shield-piercing beam weapons and other such blistering traits that come from the Freespace 2 universe.
So, what is Freespace 2 (FS2)? It was a hit simulator game that was developed by the same people who made Klingon Academy and sufficed to say, the awesomeness from the latter was carried onto the former. A very sharp and agile game that went free-ware, the FS2 universe is littered with races all vying for power (isn't that the way) over the other, or at the least, trying to survive. Tough life, eh?
The two races bring new game-play techniques to the plate as well. The fighters for each race provide you with early defence, along with the defensive turret you can build for each race whilst later on providing fleet support for your un-shielded capital's. Don't expect fighters to do too much though in terms of offensive power, unless you have 100 of them in which case the enemy Ai, which I've been subject to it's err 'niceness', will likely have the same power to match and then some...plus a few capital's on the side.
Ship wise, models and textures and very close to their real FS2 counter-parts, so make sure you go starship spotting early on. Each of the two races does have a small supply of ships to build, including a couple of fighters on each side, but along with the stations, there isn't too much variety. There is enough for what you need and the difference does certainly play nicely into tech and resource management with lots of things doubling up, but this led me to a bit of confusion when beta'ing the Shivans. Don't let this throw you down as it is merely the first gauntlet of the mod. Overcome this and all you need to do is overcome the enemy Ai's fleet, no easy task I tell you.
Of course, one of those points is especially important. Resource management is pivotal. These ships are not cheap to build (why would be when they're double the length of a Romulan Warbird?) and if you lose focus of this, you'll be grinding your fleet to a steady halt. However, get control of the doubling-up function of certain ships and learn capital ship role's quickly and you'll be fighting the enemy Ai just as heavily as in the actual game itself.
As a mod itself though, it is fundamentally fun, which should be your main priority. The new things it adds to the plate certainly provide a fresh out-look on the game, while giving you a chance to pick a stock race and see how a few Klingon Bird fo Prey's can handle a Shivan destroyer. Content isn't missing either. Each race comes with a fully implemented interface, build button's, wireframes plus a new multi-player set-up window that is more akin to FS2's set-up. All in all, this is a recommend download for those who played and loved FS2, those who want a challenge against some hard, but perfectly balanced ships and those who want to slug it out in huge ships. There's enough here for everyone...if only I could find my Sathanas to blow the enemy up with...
Freespace 2 Full Conversion Readme
~Introduction:
This is the Freespace 2 Full Conversion mod for Star Trek Armada 2. This mod is basically a complation of the Shivan Full Race Addon mod and the GTVA Full Race Addon mod, created so that those wishing to have both races and not just one would not have to download two seperate files.
The Shivans and GTVA are races originally from Freespace 2, a space flight simulator/fighter game. The Shivans are an extremely powerful race, as thier capital, or non-fighter class ships, all have shield-piercing beam weaponry as well as numerous flak guns. However, the Shivans only outfit thier research pods, turrets, and fighters with shielding. The GTVA are much like the Shivans, having shield-piercing beam weaponry and flak guns and being quite stingy about handing out shielding to vessels. If you wish to learn more about the Shivans, GTVA, and/or Freespace 2, I suggest going to www.hard-light.com and going to their Freespace 2 wiki.
The Shivans and the GTVA have been balanced to an unmodified 1.2 patched version of Armada 2. The Shivans only have six stations: The starbase, the Knossos Portal, the beam cannon, the research facility, mining stations, and the upgrade center. The GTVA only has seven stations: The starbase, the shipyard, the flak cannon, the research facility, the mining station, the beam cannon, and the upgrade center.
-The starbase doubles as a mining station to speed up mining, and the miners themselves can handle any resource.
-The starbade triples as a transmuting station, allowing you to transmute metal and dilithium freely
-The Knossos Portal builds every ship except the construction ship and the miners.
-The Shivans and GTVA use resources MODERATELY fast
-The research station and upgrade center have a series of pods that must be built in order to construct vessels/upgrades
-The Shivan and GTVA AI will quickly overpower you if you do not build a wall of turrets and get your super vessel or a fleet of battleships
-DO NOT attack the Shivan's without first assuring the AI doesn't have a Sathanas lurking around. I've found that with the Sathanas class that the Shivan AI enjoys warping it in right in the middle of your assault and thusly crushing it. The same holds true for the GTVA, only you need to be watching for the GTVA Colossus
-Sometimes, the AI will constantly repair their vessels. This is due to the lack of shielding. Just attack thier shipyard and it should fix it.
-Ensure the AI are using thier freighters to mine dilithium and metal, not just latinum
-You WILL have to mine latnium. This was introduced to keep other build costs low.
-The scout doubles as a repair vessel
~Installation:
In order to save space in this readme, a seperate file with the Installation Instructions has been provided
~Credits:
Models: Ultimate Dragon
Textures: Ultimate Dragon
ODF, SOD, TGA : Ultimate Dragon
Build Buttons: Ultimate Dragon
Wireframes and Admirals Log pics: STGamer2003 (BIG Thanks!)
Freespace 2 Themed Instant Action Menu: Freyr
Shivan custom GUI: Goldburg KW
Original Ship and Shivan/GTVA Concepts: Freespace 2 by Volition and Interplay
Authentic Sounds: Freespace 2 by Volition and Interplay
~Contact Info:
Ultimate Dragon can be reached by:
-Email: Gnrl_Wolf@hotmail.com
-MSN: see above
-Commenting under this file
The other's contact info is not shown because I don't wish them to get spammed. All of them can be found
on the Filefront forums
~Legal:
The author is not responsible for any damage this mod may do to your computer. This mod is not supported by Activision. Star Trek and all its Affliates are owned by Paramount. Freespace 2 and all its Affliates are owned by Interplay and Volition. Freespace 2 content is not used for any profit whatsoever, nor is any part of this mod.
| Version | 1.0 | Author | Ultimate Dragon | Website | |
| Downloads | 3,266 | Size | 15.80 MB | Created | 2007-05-30 |
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