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. It was the first of the three major Star Trek 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 Next Generation timeline of the Star Trek 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 Collective. The game also runs the Storm3D engine, like it's predecessor.

The last patch released by Activision was 1.1, released on January 28, 2002.

Plot
Set just six months after the events of Star Trek: Armada, the Borg once again threaten the Alpha Quadrant. They have created a new ship capable of assimilating an entire planet in just a few seconds. After routing the attempted foothold, Captain Picard discovers a new type of nebula - a tachyon nebula. Intrigued, Picard discovers a new type of transwarp gate called a Transwarp Portal, capable of sending fleets of starships from one quadrant to another almost instantly, thus giving reason as to how the Borg managed to get so deep into the Alpha Quadrant undetected. Starfleet Command then orders Picard to seize control of it and launch a counter-offensive into the heart of Borg space in the Delta Quadrant, where the Borg staging grounds are located. Though successful, some of the Federation forces, Picard included, are left stranded when the Transwarp Portal collapses due to a destabilization of the inter-spatial transwarp manifolds.

Meanwhile, the Cardassians use the sudden absence of Federation forces to begin their own offensive. Chancellor Martok of the Klingon Empire discovers that Gul Kentar, leader of the Cardassian "revolution", is in league with the Romulans. Kentar is developing a "Quantum Singularity" that allows the Cardassians to summon Species 8472 ships at will from their realm of fluidic space. Martok leads an attempt to thwart Kentar's grab for power and destroy the project. The Klingons stop the Cardassian invasion and obliterate their homeworld, Cardassia Prime. In the final battle, Martok tracks down and kills Gul Kentar, taking out the Quantum Singularity Project along the way.

The Borg Queen, stranded in the Alpha Quadrant by the same twist of fate that trapped Picard on her side of the galaxy, discovers that Species 8472 has found a way into the Alpha Quadrant. She attempts to amass an armada to suppress this threat by assimilating the native species' planets, ships and technologies, but its growth is stunted by constant attacks from the Federation. She then realizes that only by working with the Federation they can defeat Species 8472. The Federation and the Borg Collective for an alliance, and venture into fluidic space to destroy their staging grounds by destroying the Rift Maker, thus ending the threat to the Alpha Quadrant by closing the rifts.

The game ends with the two sides parting ways, the Klingons asserting control over the Cardassians and order, somewhat, returning to the galaxy.

Gameplay
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 in orbit of 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 researching 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 like the Borg, they 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 Multi-player and Instant Action (Skirmish) mode, the Cardassian Union, the Romulan Star Empire, and Species 8472 are added as playable factions. There are also third-party mods for download that can add extra races.

While most races' gameplay is essentially the same, Species 8472 is different because of their bio-technology. 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 by ships of other factions.

Modding
As with its predecessor, Star Trek: Armada II has a large community of modders surrounding it, creating new ships, stations, maps, and races for the game. There are some which include elements from multiple sci-fi universes, including Star Wars and Andromeda, some of which change the nature of the game entirely. Others may add races not included in the original game - these have included the Dominion, the Remans, the Tholians, and the Breen.