Star Trek: Armada II

"Star Trek: Armada II is a computer game published by Activision in 2001, based upon the Star Trek universe. The game was developed by Mad Doc Software. It is the sequel to Star Trek: Armada. Star Trek: Armada II was released by Activision a year after they acquired the full rights to all the franchise holding of the PC Game's franchise from Viacom.[citation needed] It was the first of the three major Star Trek CP game sequel titles that were released by Activision from 2001 until their departure from the franchise in 2003.

Like its predecessor, Armada II is set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe. The game showcases events in the Alpha Quadrant between the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Cardassian Union, Species 8472, and the Borg.

Star Trek: Armada II employs many of the same features of its predecessor, though with a few improvements. The crew resource can now be gathered by creating planet-based colonies in addition to Starbases, as opposed to the bonus given for placing Starbases near planets in the first game. Depending on the type of planet, establishing a colony can produce crew at a far higher rate for a much lower cost, though colonies sacrifice defense for efficiency.

Two new resources are also added: latinum and metal. Metal is mined from planets and balances out the dilithium costs in the first game. Latinum can be traded at trading stations for metal and dilithium, and is essential to research structures. The Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians rely heavily on latinum, while the Federation has very little use for it. The Borg eschew latinum completely; they do not trade with other species, they assimilate them. To compensate for the lack of a trading station, the Borg have a structure which can convert metal into dilithium and vice versa. Species 8472 converts all three types of resources into an all-purpose "bio-matter" resource, and likewise cannot trade with other species.

The races available in campaign mode are The United Federation of Planets, The Klingon Empire, and The Borg Collective. In other methods of play, such as Multiplayer and Instant Action (Skirmish), the Cardassian Union, Romulan Star Empire, and Species 8472 are added as playable factions. There are also third-party mods for download that will add extra races.

While most races' gameplay is essentially the same, Species 8472 are different because of their biotechnology. The crew resource is not used by them; they instead use one officer per ship and have a much smaller officer limit. Since Species 8472 have no crew on board their ships, they are unable to take over enemy ships or be taken over themselves."

Source: Wikipedia, "Star_Trek:_Armada_II," available under the CC-BY-SA License.