Revisiting my 21 Year Old Star Trek Armada Mod for Some Reason 

Can you just give snipe my best wishes

*watches video and takes it's message to heart* *Looks at my early teens attempt at making a ttrpg/mini wargame/book about magic anime anthropomorphic dinosaur/reptile/amphibian/bat people* You know.... aw what the hell why not! *Starts writing*

"Myself, I've been posting my wares on the internet for over 20 years at this point..." Existence of Wib feet pics confirmed.

The "I'm not sure I knew what a trade union was." line made me laugh more than I should.

This was a fun and inspiring video. All the best to Snipe, and to you, too, Wib.

Epic! I played this mod back in the day, it had a bunch of stuff wrapped up in it so I only needed it and not any other mods. I had 56k dial up, it took ages to get anything and having one mod you downloaded that had a ton of stuff in it saved on having to download more. Its great that now 20 years later I now know who to blame for it.

Its honestly super impressive that you made all this as a teenager. :D

_"have fun blowing up voyager"_ x3 As someone who has mixed feelings about Star Trek Voyager, this was way funnier to me than it should have been. Hope you and Snipe are doing alright! :D

Such a neat mod, reminds me of what I used to do with AoE and TW as teenager. Tell Snipe we love them and hope they’re kicking ass ❤

What a lovely video! In middle age I’ve learned how important it is to be kind to your past self and see what they’ve given you. Hang in there and you and snipe are in my thoughts.

But the Pork Markets Wib! The Pork Markets will save us! The closest I have to this is all my old band's stuff is on soundcloud. Mainly because I lost it more than once over the years since the last 90s/early 2000s. I don't listen to it often, but when I do, it raises a smile. I mainly existed before the time was quite as ubiquitous. I'm kinda glad, but this was pretty cool. Oh, and 'In the Pale Moonlight' All the best wishes to Snipe. You look after yourself too.

This is such a nostalgia trip for me, I too spent my early teenage years modding Star Trek Armada, and not too long ago I dug up my old mod and had a fun stroll down memory lane. I then spent the next few month trying to build an actually good Armada mod, but the jury is still out on that.

As someone who also played a LOT of Star Trek Armada and the related mods, the name "Major A Payne" immediately sent the nostalgia bells a ringing. Ah sod files and ODF's. Star Trek Armada is really the game that because I modded so much I came to actually understand a lot more about how computers worked.

Man, Total Annihilation was so damn good.

My favourite Trek episodes tend to wildly alternate between the obvious ones everyone picks and criminally overlooked ones only I seem to rave about. Probably the best example of the latter is TNG’s ‘Frame of Mind’. Without going on an essay-long appraisal, all I’ll say is that, from a metatextual angle, it is genuinely creepy and gets under your skin. Really, did Riker _ever_ escape the asylum? There’s actually no way of knowing for sure.

oh man am I having flashbacks to my teenage years watching this episode. Also, the ad I got following the end of the episode was the yorkshire tea ad with Patrick Stewart which made me chuckle. Cause and Effect is my favourite episode. A true classic in my eyes. Thinking of you both.

Did I just watch an entire video about a game I've never played based on a series I've never watched? Why, yes, yes I did.

There is a 32nd century ship in discovery that looks suspiciously like an weird detached andor class from fasa and I only just realized it because of this video

House of Quark. I love episodes that don't directly involved humans.

The best I could manage when I was at school was playing around with the Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit on my C64, or possibly getting a single sprite moving around a monochrome screen on the same computer so I think you can be proud of producing a complete mod like this at a similar age!

I spent so much time as a teen making Civ2 maps and scenarios based around David Eddings Belgariad and Raymond E Fiest's Riftwar books. Most of the time was making the maps based on the ones in the books. I'd sit there with the novels open making the map perfect, then placing the cites in the right places, then setting up units. It was interesting as soon as I would start it up as a scenario everyone would instantly go to war with each other. But just playing on the maps was good. I don't remember if I uploaded them anywhere, probably due to the fact I had no idea what mods were a thing in 97. I want to say my favorite TNG Episode is The Drumhead. Or maybe The First Duty. I really like Lawyer Picard. DS9 I am torn between In the Pale Moonlight or Civil Defense

Honestly, I do love this kind of content. People talking about hyperspecific stuff they're passionate about and familiar with the ins and outs of is a joy! And all I have to show for my teenage internet past is uhhh...hundreds of thousands of words of anime alternate-timeline fanfic? Well, same basic drive, different mode of expression.

glory to you and your mod! ("far beyond the stars" is probably my favourite, too. i vacillate between it and "the visitor")

Oh man, I played this game so much when I was younger. Loved just doing custom games with large space battles, even though I was terrible.

As someone who spent a whole lot of my youth playing an inordinate amount of Total Annihilation and FF8, I appreciate the references. All the best to Snipe!

I feel you. Life in the increasingly dystopian hellscape that is the UK is pretty f*cking draining right now. And winter is very much still coming. But just know that content like this is soothing and absorbing, and the fact that we get to escape for a brief time into a different reality helps. A lot. If you're having problems putting brain to paper, just know that distracting, calming stuff like this is appreciated. I love listening to people talk about the esoteric things they enjoy, that they think aren't important, but actually are. It's not self-indulgent, it's charming. All the best to Snipe. Ta ta!

I remember hearing about this on Misanthropod! (I think?) Awesome to finally see it 😁

Just re-watching the video because I'm ill and housebound, and I'd forgotten about the surprise Gowron face on the credits. Made me feel ever so slightly better :3

Yeah we’re all missing snipe but always happy to see whatever your putting out.

I like that the Borg Cubes turn into Borg Rectangles when teleporting

Was not expecting the Gowron jumpscare in the credits :D Wishing you both all the best!

Totally on board with the moral of this video. My earlier publications are embarrassing but they were important steps to the stuff I'm doing now. As a long-time Voyager apologist, I really enjoyed The Year of Hell. Best wishes to Snipe.

I used to love modding the heck out of Dwarf Fortress when I was a teenager, thanks for bringing back some awesome memories! Hope you’re all well ::)

Wow i actually remember this mod! This and Fleet Operations for Armada 2 were pretty big for me way back when. Man talk about feeling old now, lol.

No need to apologise, it was a nice video of you doing you. The best 'modding' I ever did was swapping the voices in Worms 2 on PC for Starcraft characters so you done did good! May the Emperor's light grace yourself and Snipe with the best in health and happiness!

Daaaaamn I totally forgot that game existed, nice!

I'd probably say Trials and Tribbleations as my favorite, just for how creative and funny it was

I’ve just realised that you gave your units the Matt Ward treatment. Brilliant.

As a kid I got into modding in Freelancer! I self taught (very poorly) to use the free version of 3Dstudio. Thanks for the memories/flashback! I got really involved in a mod to turn the game into a flight sim like one of my other favorite games, crimson skies

If only the JMV Red Dwarf had been an option in game too... (stares wistfully into middle distance)

This is wonderful! I remember a lot of my early game design memories are writing my own war gear cards for 40k 2E, and all the house rules I had to make to get the Dragonball Z ttrpg to work. None of it was good, but it was great that I did it! Cheers!!

"I don't think i knew what a trade union was at the time" mate that just killed me! hahahaha

Pretty sure I helped with at least some of this, maybe. I honestly can't remember, it was so long ago. Genuinely surprised you kept all the stuff! Everything I did on that game is long gone. I remember a lot of the pain of altering the models and stuff though! Simpler times, all the best to you and Snipe.

My fav star trek episode is a toss up between 'the inner light' and 'the measure of a man'

Oh boy, I've always been into customising and modifying stuff, and this took me right back to those days where I'd spend hours and hours learning how to edit various things to realise whatever vision I had in my head at the time. Good stuff, Wib. Also the end slate. * chef kiss *

13:15 Because, as seen in that two parter, absolutely nothing could go wrong. A ship that can literally retcon reality is a great idea.

I LOVE WORKBEES TOO! Also, In The Pale Moonlight. Hugs to Snipe.

The most OP mod I ever create was probably the time I edited the Doom 2 files so that the super shotgun had zero delay between shots. Which meant that when you fired it, the game would momentarily freeze, as it calculated the effects off all the ammo in your inventory going off at once. (Those effects being: everything in front of you is now dead, no matter how tough it was).

2:31 I don't know why but I immediatelly thought of that when you mentioned the name. I used to play ff8 too and I also modded that very ship into Freelancer of all games.

adored this game so much when it was released. so many hours dumped into it :) truly adored this, thank you so much for sharing!

I was working on a Death Star level for Dark Forces back in the 90s, but then somebody suddenly released one that was just 100% better than what I was working on (honestly it was amazing and stretched the engine to its limits.) I wish I could remember who made it.

So many hours put into that game myself and I'm pretty sure I remember a lot of this mods.

That DarkHawk-class is interesting as all hell. Reminds me of STO's Buran-class.

I remember back in the day watching progress on someones mod for Starcraft that turned the Zerg into Borg Protos into Dominion and Terran into Federation. I never did get a chance to play it though

Don't worry Wib as a student of games design your workflow of the mod is pretty accurate to most game development of take bits from other peoples code, smush it together and pray to god it works.

Love the view on you old work. Had fun to watch it!

love the video I too went down the rabbit hole of modding Star Trek Armada the same way as you(using existing mods and getting them to work together) just started playing star trek armada again via GOG and find its still as fun as I remember only now in high res textures on 4 K resolution with mods

Mod development video like this is supremely interesting. Thanks for sharing!

This is amazing!!! I used to play Armada and Armada 2. So random to see this video come up!! It really brought back memories and I actually recognised all the Voyager ships and loved that you have Babylon 5 ships in there too!!!! Thanks for the fun 20 minute watch, it really made my day!!!

The trade union! 🤣 Thank you for sharing this. It was wonderful.

As someone currently making a mod, mods are hard even with advanced modding tools and an expansive modding community, so what you achieved with the tools available at the time, and the new skills you bravely sunk your teeth into, is really impressive. It's impressive either way, but it seems like modding tools when you were a teenager are less sophisticated and easy to learn and access than they are now. That old mod of yours is worth being proud of. This video was a joy to watch.

I fucking loved this game

As someone who used to make sprite comics from Sonic games, it was still a portion of what led to me learning to write, which later on gave me a published book. Formative experience is a real thing. Personal fav episode is probably Measure of a Man. I keep coming back to it.

Niche topic and cute lighting, exactly what I want from a Wib video :) And I really liked how it turned into a nostalgic origin story in the end, an unexpected and very welcome twist.

Oh man, I thought you meant the Armada 2 mod for SOASE:, and now I'm just thinking about Sins of The Prophets again....

Fab video, mate. The Gowron Eyes at the end got me giggling. Been a while since I've even heard of Armada... :P Hope you and Snipe are doing well!

Holy shit, Worker Bees are from the wider Star Trek universe? I only know them from the (severely undercooked) land-based Star Trek RTS "New Worlds" (have fun googling that now with the new ST show of a similar name coming out.). It had some neat ideas for land-based vehicles in thr ST universe, plus a BANGER soundtrack.

Thanks for this blast from the past. I really liked "Armada" and have fond memories of it to this day.

On the Trade Union thing, any chance it was a reference to the Trade Federation? Phantom Menace would have come out a few years before and almost certainly would be associated with "bad guys" in a lot of young teens of the era? Also, this entire video was a delight, just a joyous look into creating for the sake of creating :) Also also! I genuinely think the best episode is DS9's "Duet". It was the first time an episode of Star Trek got "real" for me...

Hey, best wishes to you and Snipe. I hope things are moving in the right direction.

This was really good to see. It's always a pleasure to see people talking about the things they made and the things they're proud of (come on, you should at least be a little bit proud of this), and now I think I'm going to work on my own projects a little bit more. Thank you for the motivation Wib, fingers crossed that Snipe gets well soon!

Great video mate. Really enjoyed Armada back in the day. Hope Snipe is doing alright.

Pretty sure I remember seeing this back in the day when I was playing this when it was new. I remember modding it some myself when I was young, though I didn’t download yours (working on a 56k modem at the time!). Love the trip down memory lane!

Give snipe our well wishes man. Great video

Oh lord you made that mod. I remember downloading it as a teen

Fun stuff! Hope you guys are doing well, 😊

I never played this game but played the heck out of the Starfleet Command games and instantly recognized that Gorn ship model!

Loved playing the sequel when I was younger.

I remember star trek games on the PS2, minus the mods of course. Nostalgic. Also, please give Snipe my regards and best wishes.

I miss this game and need to play it again.

Love the RoboCop/Ariston BGM

Best wishes for Snipe

The best star trek episode according to my opinion is 'In the pale moonlight".

Still play this game today, It's a shame it didn't have a big modding community.

Me and my brother loved this game! We were not even interested in Star Trek either!!

"have fun blowing up voyager" Rightio

You're the first person I've found thats also played endless amounts of Total Annihilation. You should checkout "Beyond All Reason" It's basically a fan remake of TA.

Ah this was a rlly fun video! ^-^

Love seeing FASA Trek ships in there

Y'know, some sprite animations i made for giggles in my mispent youth were part of the work i submitted that got me in to university on an animation degree. Max cringe, but i guess they saw the potential?

Total Anihillation review when LESSGO

Holy shit, I remember this game. A friend lent it to me, and I played it to death. It was pretty limited as a RTS but it was good fun. Hope you are doing ok with everything going on and give our love to Snipe!

As a kid, programming stuff in games was less about balancing and more about "This character/fan character is super cool and strong and no one can beat them so should be super powerful" and i would just max their stats. M.U.G.E.N was where i mostly committed this sin

Fuck yeah Total Annihilation, one of my favourite games ever. Came across big box copies of both it and the expansion pack Core Contingency for $10CAD each in a big old barn converted into a thrift/used book store in Northern Ontario when I was around 11 (so 2000ish?) never having heard of it before. I spent hours on single skirmish matches with the game engine slowing to a crawl because there were so many fucking units in the match.

I liked the "funny" in-game messages. They were... quaint!

NGL the humour bits made me chuckle

Can we have an episode like this on Wibble the Fish?

Much love to Snipe btw

Wow this brings back memories … I was massively into ST Armada. My handle was ALI_G and I very young and cringe back then, but lived for that game and community. Good times! I was also involved with the Millennium Project mod. I also co-managed some forums on ezboard about the game and community. There were plenty of great people in the community - too many to mention! Many of the new ship models were made by a guy named “Deemon” IIRC

Reminds me of dawn of war apocalypse