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.
Ah. Those are the binary versions. To get the text versions, download the Forge Tools from the downloads tab.
You cant have any spaces between lines in the entity. You have a space between..
canBomb TRUE
hasBombingLevels FALSE
Lines in the entity must be formatted exactly like the vanilla sins entitys or bad things happen.
Awesome work so far, great looking mod with some very nice touches.
My main question for this release is about the differences between ships defined as 'capital' and ships that arent. For instance the galaxy class federation ship has two versions, one has a distinctly higher quality texture than the other - the lower quality one looks somewhat washed out. I was just wondering if this was an engine limitation which forces the texture dimensions on 'capital' ships or not.
Also i figure an intrepid class would make a classy scout.
Minor thing actually, the torpedo sound gets a little jarring after a while. Thats about all i can think the complain about right now given that this is a first release.
Congratulations anyway, fantastic first release.
The Venture refit, and Galaxy are the same model with only one exception. The Venture refit has the pods on the nacelles. They both share the same galaxy texture. So i dont see how the galaxy can be washed out at all. Its not on my laptop. How much ram are you running? and do you have highlight ship mesh enabled?
Intrepid is going in a cruiser slot. The Venture scout from insurrection will be the scout for the feds.
Torpedo sounds r being worked on.
Major Stress and the team have done superb job! Please continue where no man has gone before
You have our thanks and I think that you will have large community devoted to you mod!
The most beautiful models are Venture Galaxy and Romulan D deridex warbird!
STAR TREK universe and Sins are made to be together I wonder how no studio made this kind of game. They would make a lot of money with millions of star trek gamers and fans!
I'm sure the guys at Cryptic are taking notes.
anyone wanna try this online soon??
umm, i downloaded the Mod, but it dosent work. did i do something wrong?
It was such a good feeling massing a fleet of Federation ships to attack the Breen, and to have their even more massive fleet explode to the approximate rythym of the 1812 overture!
...and to be able to use the deflector beam weapon the Enterprise used on the Borg... TREMENDOUS!!!
Hmm well im running on max settings, ill check the mesh highlight thing - and upload a screenshot to show what i mean. Its not a big deal, just something i noticed.
the mod dont work. someting with the mini-dump
Honestly; I have been following this mod since day one. I love this demo and I am amazed at how well the models have come out. Great job to Stress and all who have contributed to this mod. Please keep up the amazing job. I can clearly see that you do this for the love of Star Trek and it shows completely through your hard work. I honestly enjoy it when a modder takes the attitude that you have taken, stress, and made sure that your "vision" has come to light. I can not wait to play the finished version of this mod. Do you have any clue as to how much longer we have to wait to get the finished? Believe me I am in it for the long haul, I am just curios if you had a speculated time frame... Like say, "two or three more months or longer" Just curios. Thanks again
You have to install it into the right place as well as enable mods in your options section.
This mod worked for me in single player and on LAN games, very reliable. I plan to try it over the internet soon. For now I am very pleased to see what Major has already gotten together. Thank you VERY much for releasing it at the beginning of my vacation!
Bout time someone noticed that Ya like that huh.. Its canon too Enterprise-D used it against the borg, and it is one of the ability's for the elite Galaxy.
I have ideas for other elite units ability's, but ill need help in creating them. Example "tractor beams", A micro quantum singularity effect (for the romulans), Something to replace planet mania with Jem hadar, and other factions troops fighting instead of people in hysteria.
I will need voice actors in the future as well..Purely voulentary. Unless you want a klingon ship to keep saying "behold my creations" I cannot use voices from the shows due to IP issues. Even if i could i would like some creativity, and originality in the mod.
I will need new "original" music for the mod as well to replace, and add to the other factions for the same reasons above. I am not a musician so that leaves me out. I dont want rock music. I want it similar to the TMP soundtrack but not the same. The current music is just placeholding until we come up with something original. I doubt any IP issues will arise, but lets not leave this one to chance.
By the way. Non-Elite units were not intended to bomb planets. There are a couple of exceptions. The "unique" units can bomb like the defiant, and the Breen. The Standard Galaxy and other factions standards arent supposed to be able to bomb.
I am a musician and use Cubase and Reason Stress so PM me what sort of thing you need and I can see if I have something or come up with something.
Oh yes and I noticed the special weapon! It was awesome!
i have some ideas for you music wise i dont know anything about copyright but i did some research for ya anyway here goes
game menu: gladiator [scene battle in the great arena of rome] soundtrack
i think stardust soundtrack fits the best for game menu
federation:requim for a dream lotr version or star trek first contact soundtrack
borg:terminator feels robotic {go figure}
romulan:no clue
breen:v for vendetta soundtrack i think its just perfect for the breen
klingon: planet of the apes new movie soundtrack it feels klingon to me
anyway thats my 2cents
I fixed all of the string errors today. It was a really stupid mistake on my part, and an easy fix. Open your english string file and at the top where you see TXT and number of strings,, Change the number of strings to 5314.
My mistake was thinking that a number had to be added for each line. When it is for each string.
Now you can run the mod on developer exe with no errors (least i get no errors ATM)
Not sure if this has been posted yet or not... or if you want bug reports here
Got the mod to work A-OK on my GF's computer (it runs Windows XP)
However on mine, a problem comes up. Recently got a new machine going and it runs Vista 32 Home Premium specs are as follows:
Asus Rampage Formula Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz processor
Mushkin Ascent PC2-8500 4GB ram
EVGA nVidia GeForce 9800GTX+ 512MB graphics
Seagate Barracuda 500GB hard drive
Corsair 750W PSU
And as I mentioned above.... the dreaded Windows Vista..... I'm running everything at highest settings and at my monitors native resolution (1920X1200). I click on "Load Mod" and every time, I get a "mini-dump". But like I said on my GFs XP machine... no issues... and love it so far by the way... (just want to try it on mine since it would run alot smoother Any ideas?
That's strange, my Vista runs it fine and it has lower specs that yours
Like Spartan said above, it's probably either a setup issue or a corrupt file
@rayredlab:
I am currently building in the music for the MOD. I am familar with some of your suggestions and agree with some. I will need to check out the other suggestions. One thing is for sure, there is no shortage of good music to choose from. Even original, newly composed music for the MOD specifically would add dimention to it. Star Trek: First Contact is a must, simply too much good stuff. My menu choice I have at the moment is the Star Trek: Generations theam. Has a "and now, presenting!" feel to it!
Would you be kind enough to fill me in on the settings you are using to run sins? (IE resolution and graphic detail levels) I will match them and see if that has any effect
Ok, My bad math strikes again. The english string is supposed to be 5316. Not 5314 Take the total lines in the string, and divide them by 3 ignoring the decimal. Sorry about the mess up.
Good news is All six mod factions now have thier own player portraits, Icons, and ship pictures. The bad news is you cant chose portraits in player setup. IC built the game with only the 3 vanilla factions in mind. So i had to do some trickery to get the other six factions icons, and pictures to work. You can chose in a new game setup, but it will randomly pic a faction avatar of that theme.
For the ones ttrying to help with music.. I cannot use anything that was in any episode, or movie. It is a copywrite violation. It MUST be original. Ill more than likely have to remove the current music before i receive cease, and desist letters.
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