Armada Online: a science fiction action rpg from the makers of Armada for Dreamcast.

Tube

markandroger wrote:

Roger and I (Mark Jordan) made Armada for Dreamcast (1999).
We are making a science fiction action rpg called Armada Online.

We built AO to be a platform for different types of play. Press "W" to open the warp map and warp to different places. Delta3 is a vast casual hunting zone, where most of the story will take place. Haven is a tutorial zone. The Burn is a cooperative multiplayer tower defense area. The Neutral Zone is a faction-split pvp DotA-like battleground. This is a good first time build for NZ.

Any help getting the word out about AO is most appreciated. Just having people hear about the game and play it would be tremendously helpful, since we need large-scale testing to craft things properly.

There is also info about the game on Steam Greenlight.

Please try the game, and tell us what you think!

MarkandRoger

Thanks, Tube. It was nice of PA to set this up.
Hi everyone. You are all welcome to play.
Client.
Account creation.

Having more people playing simultaneously will help us craft the game.

For The Burn (cooperative tower defense zone), a good starting build is: Mass Driver, Spartan, Stronghold, Palace, Probe. Upgrading Mass Driver and Stronghold early will give you higher attack damage and hull, and Stronghold can revive you if lose all hull.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CzPU_sCrtE

More info about us and the game.

Seriously

oh my goodness I loved armada

Alistair Hutton

I've played the alpha for a few months on a couple of occasions and enjoyed myself a lot. I even started a thread on PA a couple of years ago.

Key point: Giant biomechanical enemy crabs.

AnakinOU

Oh god why didn't I check this subforum out sooner...I would've been able to throw my money into the Kickstarter WEEKS ago.

Anyway, Armada is, quite possibly, my favorite DC game. Thanks, guys, for giving me so many hours of couch co-op goodness. Here's to the sequel!

...actually, that reminds me...any chance of controller support and local same-screen co-op?

Darmak

I only played the DC game for a handful of hours when a friend brought his over but it was a lot of fun and I'll be sure to keep an eye out for this game! I also voted for it on Steam's Greenlight.

DoctorArch

I was a fan of the original Armada, and am certainly looking forward to this new iteration.

Liked and favorite'ed.

MarkandRoger

Seriously wrote: »

oh my goodness I loved armada

Thanks for the love.
Here, have some gifs.

@Darmak: Support on greenlight gives us hope for a better tomorrow. Early access to steam tools and just knowing we can distribute through steam will help a lot.
@Anakin: At some point we will remake Armada1 using AO art, and support local coop.

piL

Armada was one of the few games I was able to get my mother to play with me. Co-op nostalgia!

MarkandRoger

piL wrote: »

Armada was one of the few games I was able to get my mother to play with me. Co-op nostalgia!

Glad to have provided a bonding experience. (I just got the old PS2 LotR beat-em-ups for my wife and son to play together--I wish more moms felt comfortable playing.)
For AO, we made most of the game cooperative. The Neutral Zone pvp area allows people to freely come and go, so sometimes people swap to alts for a coop speed run (it is faction based, so you can pick sides using alts). Latecomers tend to join the losing side to get a quick 2k exp as defenders. We're curious to see how the dynamic join plays out with a critical mass of players. We put out a small coop game called Armada Arcade for android that tests 2 player on one device (and # of ships/shots 2.2 phones could handle). Roger and I are interested in providing experiences people can share, and would like to remake A1 with AO graphics once things get going.

mustcode

This is awesome. With enough publicity, your Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight should be a success!
Love the ships and alien design, and the in-game visual is great as well. Great job!

MarkandRoger

@mustcode: Thanks! Our biggest issue is that few people know we exist. I am hoping that this part of the forum might get mentioned on the main page some day, so people can see the various games here and try them.

OVERD0SE

Long time lurker here. Just tried out the alpha. This game is AMAZING! It has all the fun of the big pc space games out there. But yet the simplicity of a game you'd find on a tablet. Not to mention despite its obvious basic graphical fidelity it looks gorgeous at the same time. I hope you guys make it mark, I'd like to see more of this game sooner rather than later.

MarkandRoger

OVERD0SE wrote: »

Just tried out the alpha. This game is AMAZING! [...] I hope you guys make it mark, I'd like to see more of this game sooner rather than later.

Same here.
I'm presently working on ways to make it more friendly to new users.

Ori Klein

Had a lot of great time playing the Armada Online alpha and meeting a lot of cool and nice people. It's evidently of very high quality professional standards.
It is also reminding me of earlier space adventure genre which sadly became a niche, such as Star Control and Star Flight (and more 'recently' Starscape and several other small indie developments).

Have you drawn inspiration from any such and how do you intend to incorporate those experience onto your vision of Armada's gameplay?

Ori Klein

Had a lot of great time playing the Armada Online alpha and meeting a lot of cool and nice people. It's evidently of very high quality professional standards.
It is also reminding me of earlier space adventure genre which sadly became a niche, such as Star Control and Star Flight (and more 'recently' Starscape and several other small indie developments).

Have you drawn inspiration from any such and how do you intend to incorporate those experience onto your vision of Armada's gameplay?

MarkandRoger

[You accidentally double posted.]

Ori Klein wrote: »

Have you drawn inspiration from any such and how do you intend to incorporate those experience onto your vision of Armada's gameplay?

The vastness of Starflight and liveliness and color of Star Control 2 are big inspirations. This type of game is not as common anymore because in the planning stage, when you multiply the huge number of separate objects, the production cost per object in modern games, making everything fun and interesting (then balance issues and server costs for multiplayer)--it is tough to get people to sign off on it unless they truly love it and are insane. That is where we come in.

RoyceSraphim

Your video made me think of a giant space whale that absorbs all light so all you see is the darkness and teeth. So many teeth.
I'm scared.....

You have my vote.

Please update your intro post to explain that I need to download a client first.

Tofystedeth

Hmm, I never played the original, or even heard of it I think, but this looks pretty interesting.
Also that wobbly anemone looking gif is simultaneously horrifying and kinda adorable.

MarkandRoger

@RoyceSraphim: I added client and account creation links to my post.
@Tofystedeth: It just wants to love.

MarkandRoger

Some people asked about running AO under Win8. It works, but you might have to install directx 9, which is packed in with the download (in the DirectX directory in ArmadaAlpha, after you install the game). Any additional feedback/testing from people running Win8 is appreciated, since it might be a few months before I get a new machine.

MarkandRoger

@RoyceSraphim: We really appreciate all the votes. Since posting on this forum, we had a nice surge in votes, but it is a long, long road. It seems like a game needs more than 30k votes to be considered.

MarkandRoger

We updated the game to be more user-friendly to new players. We added a larger and more clearly-labeled Starmap, which you can use to instantly warp to different areas, right from the start.

Masterson

It looks nice. It has some features I was missing in space games until now. Keep up the good work. I hope this game will be a success. You have put some much hard work in it and I am sure everybody loves it.

MarkandRoger

@Masterson: Thanks. Yes, there is love. Success for us hinges on getting greenlit on Steam, which seems very difficult.

ANTVGM64

Any chance of this hitting the app store?

MarkandRoger

@ANTVGM64: In some form. We are presently focused on PC for AO. We are also doing iphone contract work to survive, and mastering Unity, so at some point we will try AO for ipad at least. If you have an android device, we did a smaller game called "Armada Arcade" to try mobile dev (it is not much like AO, uses 2D sprites, but is nice in that it supports 2 player on one device and looks good on both the phone and the tablet).

OpposingFarce

I just wanted to say that I remember playing this game on the Dreamcast but I was really too young to understand some of it, but I liked the idea of exploring and going anywhere.

This looks like my second chance!

MarkandRoger

@OpposingFarce: Enjoy!

We are talking to Nintendo and Sega about potentially re-releasing the original Armada (using fancy AO art/sound/effects) with local multi for console.

MarkandRoger

We are on Amazon's cloud servers now, so the game should run better for all (and no hardware meltdowns).

AnakinOU

MarkandRoger wrote: »

@OpposingFarce: Enjoy!

We are talking to Nintendo and Sega about potentially re-releasing the original Armada (using fancy AO art/sound/effects) with local multi for console.

No chance of a PC release?

MarkandRoger

@AnakinOU: AO is a PC game, and whatever we make is for PC as a lead platform. If we can get Greenlit on Steam, PC will be our primary focus for all development. Currently, we are not authorized to release on Steam. Being on Steam is our best case.

MarkandRoger

Please vote for AO on Steam:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92981884

We are just two people, and being on Steam means development is funded.

MarkandRoger

We updated the game to facilitate mixed groups. High level and low level players can work together and be rewarded, regardless of where they want to explore. We added new powers to help new players join and support mixed groups, or solo if they want to. I revised all drops, and sped up level gain significantly.

Update: We just got Greenlit. Thanks to everyone who helped us get approved. Steam offers a lot of tools and support.

Madpoet

Congrats! I really liked the Dreamcast version. I'll keep an eye out for you on Steam.

Randuil

Congratulations!

This looks to be a really amazing space game. I played the dreamcast version, definately going to keep an eye out for this one on steam.

Signing up to give this a shot now