Star Trek: Armada II

Star Trek: Armada II

Developers
	Mad Doc Software
Publishers
	Activision
Engines
	Storm3D
Release dates
Windows	November 16, 2001
Reception
Metacritic	65
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS
Themes	Sci-fi, Space
Series	Star Trek: Armada

Star Trek: Armada
Subseries of Star Trek
Star Trek: Armada	2000
Star Trek: Armada II	2001

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Star Trek: Armada II is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RTS game in the Star Trek: Armada series.

The game received a single official patch post-release.

The game runs considerably more stable than its predecessor. The most common ways of running the game are by using the unofficial 1.2.5 patch to fix some of the game's bugs, or by running the STA2Classic mod for the Fleet Operations total conversion.

General information

FleetOps forum

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Checked when starting any game. Joining multiplayer games without a disc is possible, but not hosting.
GOG.com		Uses GOG's custom Direct3D wrapper

A free demo is available from GameFront and ArmadaFiles.com.

Essential improvements

Patches

• Patch 1.1 - official patch for the game.
• Patch Project 1.2.5 (mirror, mirror of zip version) - fan patch with bugfixes. The zip version is recommended for the GOG.com release, as the installer version does not recognize the installation. To make use of GOG's Direct3D wrapper alongside 1.2.5, rename the file d3d8.dll from the 1.2.5 patch package to dinput.dll to prevent a filename conflict.
  • Note that the d3d8.dll included with 1.2.5 seems to cause a very high-speed rotation of nebulas, planets, and other astronomical objects within the game. This issue does not occur when using any other version of the game.

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename video files
Go to <path-to-game>\animations Delete or rename Activision.bik, Intro.bik, MadDocSoftware.bik, and Paramount.bik.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\ARMADA.PRF

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\save

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy

Video

Graphical settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			STA2WidescreenPatch introduces widescreen resolution support and can be used with any version of the game, including GOG.com. The Fleet Operations total conversion modification introduces native support.
Multi-monitor			If enabled, displays "action camera" on alternate monitor. If disabled, mouse cursor not locked to monitor.
Ultra-widescreen			STA2WidescreenPatch introduces arbitrary widescreen resolution support, but has not been tested at ultrawide resolution yet.
4K Ultra HD			STA2WidescreenPatch introduces widescreen resolution support, including at 4k resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		GOG's custom wrapper includes support for this.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		GOG's custom wrapper includes support for this. Disabled by default.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		GOG's custom wrapper includes support for this. Disabled by default.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS		Inconsistent, as the game suffers from frequent framerate drops (such as when loading station blueprints, loading large assets, explosions).
120+ FPS

Input

General game settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
German				Retail only; download for digital release
Slovak				Fan translation by BeamTeam; download.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play		8	Versus
Online play		8	Versus GameSpy services have been shut down; see GameSpy for workarounds.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Startup crash

PATH environment variable too large
Open System properties. Under the advanced tab, click Environment Variables. Select the PATH Variable, and click Edit. Remove any unnecessary entries. Notes: Under later versions of Windows, there are two lists. Check the PATH variable under both of them.

Launch with batch file
Open notepad or another text editor. Type the following two commands: PATH c:\windows\system32;c:\windows\ armada2 Save as a batch file with a .BAT extension (e.g. armada2-launch.bat) Run the game by double-clicking the batch file.

Issues unresolved

Shipyard infinite sound loop

If a ship is decommissioned at a shipyard, a bug often occurs that causes the decomissioning sound to endlessly loop. The only way to end it is to decomission or repair another ship at the same shipyard. The bug was fixed in the most recent versions of the Fleet Operations mod.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Modifications

• Fleet Operations

Total conversion mod.

Expands gameplay, eliminates many glitches and gameplay exploits, improves performance and modability, and upgrades the Storm3D engine with updated DirectX support, a new FMOD-based audio engine, and more.

Can run the original game as a 'mod' for greatly-reduced glitches and gameplay exploits in skirmish and multiplayer.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	GameSpy

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95, 98, ME, 2000
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II AMD Athlon - 300 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible