This is the "Release" topic for the SoA 2 mod. Candidate for Mod Database's 2008 Mod of the Year.
SoA 2 0.03b adds the unified Dominion (with Cardassian, and Breen units) as a playable faction. It is the second part of the 0.03 series. You do not need 0.03a3 to play it. The 0.03b is complete. Delete any previous version of the mod and replace with the new version. This is still a "Ships Only" Release. Structures, Defenses, Research, and Ability's are schedualed for the 0.04 update.
The SoA 2 "Work in progress" topic is here https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/173883 All News, and updates will be posted there. Any non known issue bugs post over there.
Here is the Mod Database page. You can download the mod from here. http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-trek-sacrifice-of-angels-2 If the download is not there yet. It is still processing. Keep checking. It takes a while for ModDB to process new files
Here is an alternate download link for 0.03b. The link will be removed when ModDB has the file up. http://files.filefront.com/SoA+2+003bzip/;12933985;/fileinfo.html
SoA 2 0.03b "The Second Dominion War" is the second of a two part release of 0.03. All four main factions are playable. We merged Manshooters Volumetric Explosions mod into SoA 2. While still a demo we are no longer going to use the term, because SoA 2 is starting to shape up into a full blown total conversion.
You MUST be running Sins version 1.1, 1.11, or 1.12 to play the mod. It will NOT WORK ON ENTRENCHMENT! or any other Sins beta. It also will not work on any versions of Sins before version 1.1
Read the Readme file for important installation instructions.
If you have an older version of SoA 2 just delete it from your mods folder, and replace it with the new version.
For best results install the SoA 2 mod on a clean install of latest update of Sins of a Solar Empire (version 1.12 as of this release).
Before you run the game for the first time after a clean install of Sins. Delete the "Ironclad Games" folder in c:\documents and settings\"your user name"\local settings\application data\. For Vista users its C:\Users\"your user name"\AppData\Local\. BACK UP any other mods, and screenshots BEFORE you do this. This will ensure there are no stray older version, and/or beta files are in your sins installation.
Disable "Ship Mesh Highlight Filter" in your options\effects Otherwise you will see some wierd lighting problems with modded ships. We have not had time to adapt the modded ships to use this feature yet.
Disable any and all Team Color settings. There is a bug in how Sins renders team color in 1.1. It affects both the mod, and the default sins models. The Team Colors bleed through on the entire mesh. Both vanilla game ships, and modded ships are affected by this. Ironclad switched the specular, and team color shaders with the 1.1+ updates, but it seems like they failed to implement the code to render them correctly. Turn team color on and off to see for yourself. The mod doesnt use team colors anyway so you do not need this feature enabled. Ill post a bug report about this later.
The mod has been tested only on the US English version of sins. Other languages may, or may not work. If you are using a language other than English rename the "English.str" file in the mods strings folder to whatever language you are useing. Example: "German.str" if you are using the German language version.
Future planned updates:
SoA 2 0.04 will concentraite on adding all of the factions proper Research trees, Ability's, Structures, Defenses, and balance tweaks if needed.
SoA 2 0.05 will be the final spit, and polish of the mod before going into the final version. Anything that we couldnt get to do in the previous versions will be done here. Model, and texture tweaks, effects, sounds, more balancing, etc. will be all be refined if needed.
Enjoy the latest release of SoA 2
Major Stress,
Darkshimmer,
Trekmods,
Digital Underground.
I have followed the install instructions precicely, and when I try to enable the mod, I get the filedump error and the game crashes.
Ive read through the posts but I havent been able to find any solution to this problem which appearently, I am not the only one having it.
Any solution that I might have missed? I AM positive that I made a clean install and patched the game to 1.05 AND everything checks out in the mod folder. :/
My friend did the exact same thing on his computer, and he gets the same error...
I have an idea, let's complain about someone single-handedly creating an awsome mod!
Seriously people. Stress has laid out what he wants to do and why many times now. If you want to "make use of fantasy," go ahead and make your own mod. The more you complain about the way he's doing things, the less he's going to want to do it at all, and eventually you're going to ruin things for everybody.
were do i extract the files to
Read the readme file. It tells you everything you need to know.
Make sure you dont have two instances of the SoA 2 folder (One inside of the other) Sometimes if you extract the rar directly to the mod folder by using the extract here function it creates an extra folder. That will crash the game when you try to enable it. It is better to open the rar then drag and drop the SoA 2 folder into the mods folder.
No worrys, the nay sayers, and nit pickers are people who are under the impression that i am making this mod just for them. WRONG! I am doing this mod for ME. I just happen to be sharing it with the community. There always will be at least ONE who complains, or trys to force their will upon the mod. If the nay sayers dont like what they see then they dont have to play it. If people dont like the direction i am going they can always learn to mod. and make one that fits their own "fantasy", or version of "canon". Its that simple. I dont hold the exclusive on trek modding here. If you guys want something that i am NOT using in MY mod then i suggest that you.. Open up a modeling program, Open up wordpad, Open up Photoshop, and Make it yourself! There is nothing stopping you from doing so.
Extract them here
For Win XP C:\Documents and Settings\"your user name"\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods
For Vista
C:\Users\"your user name"\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods
I was having the same problem and to be honest the only way I was able to get around it, was to download it on another computer, extract it there and copy the files from that computer onto a flash drive and then copy them again onto my computer and presto... no issues. My computer (which is brand new) runs Vista and I think there was a problem with downloading the file itself because I had a hard time extracting the archive (it would lock up every time I tried to open it) so if you are able to try the method I suggest you might get it working
god i love me some warbird...
i love me some sovy
i really appriciate your suggestion, and i even tried it, twive.. but there was no change... still the minidump error.. :/
well seems like a great mod anyway! perhaps there will be a fix for this prob in the future allowing me to try it out
Did you delete the "Irongclad Games" folder as per the readme when you re-installed 1.05? There may be leftover 1.09 files causing the crash.
Also are you running any Language version other than English? If so rename the English.STR to whatever language you are using.
A nitpicky suggestion:
I notice the B'rel's disruptor cannons are set to alternate firing. I don't know if a BoP has ever been shown firing that way - every clip I could remember or find had them firing their cannons linked, usually in bursts of three. I tried this out and it looks pretty good, but in groups it starts to look messy. I think it would be a little better if the size of the disruptor pulses were reduced by about 25%.
Already fixed for both the b'rel, and k'vort
Thanks for the suggestions.. but i am using english and i checked the files, so that cant be the prob. Yes I deleted the folder before updating, I also tried to uninstalling the game, deleted every trace of it from the computer and reinstalled it. Still the same problem. :/
Try re-downloading the game itself through impulse. Make sure you have "show pre-release versions" unchecked in the impulse options. If you are runing 1.05 then I am at a loss as to why it wont work for you.
Way ahead of me, I see. Too bad we have to wait for Ironclad to get around to finalizing the 1.1 patch before we get to play with the new ships and tweaks!
Major Stress, I saw on your site that you are having some trouble getting a "cloak" to work,... if you are interested, I was able to make a capital ship ability that I call "Transphasic Cloak" which causes all of the games A.I.s to completely ignor your ships that are useing the ability while it is active... it doesn't actually make the ship "Transparent" or cause it to "vanish",... but it does create an energy effect around the ship to let you know that the ability is active, and you can turn it on and off at will.
If you'd like, I'd be happy to post the coding for it.
JC
The thing is that if you have a psudo-cloak where your opponent can still see you then it defeats the whole purpose of it. Its like having the entire romulan fleet come in with armastice activated. everybody can see everybody but all weapons on both sides are disabled. If i had the choice between a bad cloak, or no cloak at all i chose no cloak. I am still working on finding a loophole with the phase cloak that wont crash the game. Send me the code thru PM anyway, and ill see what i can do with it. Thank you for the effort
On another note: All the mods ships now have working visable shields. New sounds and weapon effects are in. All but the factions canon lineup is now complete except for the Federation. I wont add any more new ships to the feds until i start fleshing out the other factions a bit better than what they are now. Especially the Breen. New HUD is almost done, and the mod is better balanced than the previous demo. Its not perfect especially since i pulled some numbers from thin air, but it plays better than what it did before IMO. The cardies are no longer pushovers. The klinks got the nerf bat. and Rommies got buffed a little. The feds remained pretty much the same even with the new stats, and the Dominion got a major buff in the form of the Enslaver. I tested all of this against the AI so Human players milage may vary.
At the rate it is taking for the 1.1 patch to come i'll be done with the 0.02 update minus the 1.1 fixes, and adaptation. If that is the case ill release 0.02 for the 1.05 version of sins.
It's true that against human players, this would be pretty useless, but if you are only playing against the AIs, they don't react to you at all, as if you really were cloaked, they don't follow you, or even move from their location if you jump in "cloaked"... if you decloak, they will start to come after you... but as soon as you recloak, they return to their original location. I have been able to do many klingon "bird of prey" style hit and runs against their factories and other orbital structures, before their fleet could even reach me to fire its first shot at me, I simply recloak... It really is alot of fun...
Anyways, I sent you a pm with the coding I used... Maby you'll figure out something better with it.... if you do, please let me know too.. as I wouldn't mind an improved looking cloak either. lol
Good luck.
Demo 0.02 has been released. Check the main header
Sweet
Well I wonder what you have in mind for the "Full Release" Apart from changing the ships and research tree what else can you do with Sims Excellent work though number 1. This game really needs a campaign though, badly.
Its up now, by the way
Grabbed it about an hour ago and it's brilliant. Any way I can change the race names in the diplomacy window stress? Still comes up with default names i.e. Korsul armada, Xon Percept etc
Much is planned, but i have not gotten around to doing it yet. My prime focus was to get the ships in game, and working.
My goal is to replace all of the "vanilla" content. A research tree for each faction is in work. Right now i dont have any pre-req's for the demos ships but that will change.
The Defiant has been broght down to a more reasonable cost. I need to know how well the ship performs other than the fact it doesnt move during a fight. That part is hardcoded, and there is nothing i can do about it that will do the ship any justice. Believe me i tried. I also need to know if the AI spams the ship. It hasnt in any of my tests.
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