Star Trek Armada II - GAMING

Armada II Manual 10/19/01 10:22 AM Page 86MULTIPLAYERMULTIPLAYERIf you’re playing on the Internet, you'll see a display of the other players in theroom on the right side of the screen.The Chat window at the bottom-left side of the screen lets you communicatewith other players. Simply click inside the box, type your message and pressEnter to send it.Once you've either created or joined amultiplayer game, or selected InstantAction, you'll go to the Game Setupscreen. The options will allow you tochange the game parameters beforestarting a game. If you've joined agame, you can only change your side(race), armada (a single team whoseforces are shared with another player),team, and team color. If the host haselected not to have random startinglocations, you may also pick your starting location by clicking on the startinglocation display.If you've created a game, you can set the following options for a custom game:Select MapAllows you to choose which map the game will take place on. The followinggame types are selectable from the drop down menu:Team Game—Standard multiplayer game. Teams are locked once game islaunched.Alliances Game—Standard multiplayer game. Teams can change alliances evenafter the game is launched—once both players agree (via the Comms menu),they become allies, with shared vision of the map.Capture the Flag—All teams begin with a flag near their starting location. Onlyconstruction ships (using their tractor beam) can "grab" another player's flag,and must then return to their own base. If a player's flag is captured andsuccessfully returned to the capturing base, the first player is eliminated. Thelast player with an uncaptured flag is the winner.Collect Latinum—The first player (or team) to collect (or trade for) apre-determined amount of latinum wins. The amount varies per map and by thehost’s setup.Colonize Planets—The first player (or team) to colonize more than half of theplanets on the map wins.Defend Planets—Each player starts with a colonized planet near their startinglocation. If your planet is taken from you, you're eliminated. To win, you mustseize every planet held by every player.Assault—This is a pre-set battle map. Players cannot chose their race or team,they are assigned when a start location is chosen. (Random start location modeis not available in Assault maps.)Team 1 is the defending team. If they can keep any units alive for a set amountof time (the default time is 30 minutes, but it can be changed), they win. Team2 is the attacking team. They win only if they destroy every unit on Team 1within the match time.Note: Species 8472 cannot participate in Capture the Flag, Collect Latinum,Colonize Planets, or Defend Planets game types.Mini Map Hidden/Not HiddenAs the host, you can decide to reveal the mini map to all players before thegame begins. Once selected, the mini map cannot be hidden again for thecurrent game.Random Placement/Fixed PlacementToggles between random and fixed starting location. If the starting location israndom, no one gets to see the start locations until the game begins. If it'sfixed, the players can select their starting locations. AI player startinglocations are determined by the host.Shroud/FogToggles either or both the Shroud and Fog on and off.Show All/Available/AlliesDisplays the starting locations. Can be toggled to show all locations, onlyavailable locations, or only the locations of allies.Game Open/ClosedThis can prevent or allow other players to join the game.Resources: Normal/Lots/UnlimitedSets the amount of resources available on the map.86 87