From Star Trek Game Information
The following article by Steve Kaye was first published on the 13th August 2001.
A Visit to Mad Doc Software - By Steve Kaye
Whilst I was on vacation in Boston, MA, ChessMess informed me that I was about a 40-minute drive from the offices of Mad Doc Software, much to my surprise. Being the great guy that he is, he managed to arrange for me to pay them a visit and check out Armada II’s progress. The following is a first hand report on my visit, enjoy:
Mad Doc Software Will Tow
Matthew "theNord" Nordhaus
I got out of the car, and looked around the parking lot, and tried to locate the right building to go into, as they all looked the same to me! Finally, I saw a sign indicating a reserved parking space for Mad Doc Software (MDS) employees. I had found the building. I proceeded inside, climbed the 5 flights of stairs, caught my breath (its tough work you know!!) and rang the bell. Matthew Nordhaus– Game Core and Mission Designer for Armada II was there to greet me. He showed me in, and we walked over to his office. Luckily, when I’d got there, he’d just finished receiving the latest build of the game, so I could see some of the most recent work.
The first thing that showed up when the game was launched was the intro movie. If you liked Armada’s intro, you will love this one. One thing that I noticed was that it was a much higher resolution than Armada’s. Even in full screen, it was nice and sharp, and had some quality graphics. After the intro, I was greeted with a brand new title screen, from which you select your mode of play. This has been completely re-designed from Armada, and looks much better. Matt then showed me some of the Federation ships in the game. The thing that hit me here was just how much the textures on the ships have been improved.
Gone are the plain textures on the Akira Class for example, and in their place are textures that look almost as good as on the shows. The Sovereign Class has also undergone a texture refit, as well as the Defiant and the Steamrunner. This is a big difference from the first game, and I can bet that no one will be disappointed here.
But it doesn’t stop there, for the graphics in the game overall are improved a lot also. Nebulas are now much deeper due to the addition of the extra dimension, planets are much more detailed now, with clouds rotating separately from the planet itself, I particularly liked that effect. The games graphics are overall much richer and there is much more depth to them. The Latinum Cloud Nebula also looked very good, and when a mining ship mines some Latinum from the Nebula, you see it trailing from the ship as it moves. This is a very cool effect.
The interface has also undergone a massive refit. In Armada I, the interface seemed quite cluttered to some people, and took up quite a lot of the screen. This is not the case however in Armada II. The interface is basically, only what you want it to be, and only what you need it to be.
For example, when you select a group of ships, as you select more, the interface grows to accommodate the extra ships instead of always being locked. Another thing I liked was the fact that with the click of a mouse button, you can bring up all the options for any ships selected. In Armada I, the space for these options was always onscreen and filled up when a ship was selected, here you can bring them up only when you need them and anywhere on the screen. It was very easy to navigate and use and seemed a major improvement over the original game.
Matt then showed me a mission that he’d been working on. He played as the Federation, and started to build up a base.I was shown how base structures could be built at different heights on screen, this was very cool, and also, I saw how easy the 3D mode was to handle. Anyone that had played Homeworld may be remembering how hard it was to get used to the 3D controls. In Armada II however, they seemed very easy to use. You simply hold down a button, and move the mouse up and down to set the height. Simple.
Many things have been improved in Armada II…in fact, most things have. One example of this is scouting. In Armada I, when you sent a group of ships to scout, some of them would go in the same direction. In Armada II, the scouting has been improved and the ships will now all go in different directions to scout out the most area.
Another major thing that has also been improved significantly is the AI. I was shown by Matt how, when the enemy came in to attack, they would first try and destroy your defenses such as turrets with their artillery ships, and have the rest of their fleet waiting. If you however tried to destroy the artillery ships, the AI would send in some ships to defend them.
I also got the opportunity to sneak a look at Species 8472 whilst I was there. Matt showed me their ships and some stations, and all I can say is that you will not be disappointed. They look very good and the graphics on them are excellent. It was also interesting how they research and build. As they are organic, they evolve into different things, rather than build different structures, I though this was very cool.
Overall, Star Trek: Armada II is looking to be a more than worthy sequel to the original game. It pushes the limits of the first game and more.
I’d like to thank Matthew Nordhaus for letting me come down there and see the game, and wish him and the rest of the MDS team the best of luck in the future.
www.maddocsoftware.com
