Star Trek: Armada II

Star Trek: Armada II is a real-time strategy game taking place in the well-known universe. The Federation fights against yet another Borg invasion, the Klingons fight against the Cardassians, and the Borg forms an alliance with the Federation to fight against Species 8472.

This game does not work properly on modern systems, requiring a third-party patch.

Unused AI parameters#

In the game folder AI/AIPs, there's plenty of AIP files that allow adjusting how the opponents behave. These apply mission-specific AI settings, normally used for the campaign.

A sample excerpt from a2_fed01_build_list.api (the first Federation mission) shows some commented-out entries in the enemy's build list:

//  "bbattle2",     1,0,    // tactical cube
//  "bspecial", 1,0,    // diamond  
//  "bbattle1", 1,0,    // cube
//  "borpod8",  1,0,    // sw: nanites (diamond)
//  "bspecial", 1,0,    // diamond
//  "bbattle1", 1,0,    // cube
//  "borpod7",  1,0,    // sw: computer override (diamond)

//  "bsuperbl", 1,9,    // transwarp gate
//  "bturret2", 2,9,    // photon turret

//  "borpod6",  1,0,    // sw: shield remodulation (diamond)
//  "borpod11",     1,0,    // weapon upgrade level 2
//  "borpod12",     1,0,    // shield upgrade level 2
//  "borpod13",     1,0,    // sensor upgrade level 2
//  "borpod14",     1,0,    // engine upgrade level 2
//  "borpod15",     1,0,    // life support upgrade level 2
//  "borpod21",     1,0,    // weapon upgrade level 3
//  "borpod22",     1,0,    // shield upgrade level 3
//  "borpod23",     1,0,    // sensor upgrade level 3
//  "borpod24",     1,0,    // engine upgrade level 3
//  "borpod25",     1,0,    // life support upgrade level 3

//  "brecycle", 1,10,   // recycler
//  "bturret2", 2,10,   // photon turret

//  "bhub",     1,0,    // collective hub
//  "bbattle3",     1,0,    // fusion cube
//  "bbattle4", 1,0,    // tactical fusion cube

If a player chooses to remove all commented out entries, the net result is that the opponent will produce the more dangerous ships in the first Federation mission. Even on easy difficulty, the human player will need to construct three full fleets of Federation ships in order to repel the enemy, and needs to make multiple waves when trying to destroy the enemy base. In addition, it enables the Borg colony ship, which also requires the player to identify other planets that the Borg tries to claim.

While there's plenty of missions with minor commenting-out to mask a few build entries, a2_kling01_build_list.aip, a2_kling02_build_list.aip, a2_borg02_build_list.aip, and a2_borg02_federation_build_list.aip all have significant portions commented out.

The final mission, a2_borg10_8472basic.aip, simply comments out the entire build list in that file.