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.
well i will not tell if you dont
just had to jump out of playing the BETA to congratulate you Stress
Amazing stuff!!!!.... just stunning!
So, should I re-download the mod stress? I grabbed your MOD on Friday or Saturday last week and it sounds like you have fixed a few things since then already. As for the music, it would be original yes ranging from rock to classical as I am a writer/composer of some fifteen years.
No need to redownload the mod. Just edit the english.string with wordpad. Most of what i am doing now is for demo 0.02 for the upcoming 1.1 patch of sins.
I want the avatars and pics though
Hi there
Been following this mod for quite a while now, as a trek fan im really impressed
Now when the demo came out i installed it, but the game crashed all the time as soon as i went into the ship construction menu, it doesnt matter which faction I take.
First I re-installed (completely, incl. deleting the local apps stuff) an repatched Soase, installed the mod again (freshly downloaded), its still not working. I never installed the 1.09 release so far.
Is it possible that this happens because I use the german version of Soase?
If needed, I can upload the Crash-dump files.
Thanks for your help and keep the good work up
Cheers
My comp:
Is the Soverign ever going to be added back in?
Hei Major Stress!
Very nice Work on the demo, the game is real fun
Id be pleased if you have a short Look at https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/173883/page/33/#replies
because me and another Guy posted some pics for you there and it seems you cant move the Posts over here. (one Reply page before the last at the bottom)
Greetings and lots of thanks for the demo
Details are medium, extras are high, bumps are low, resolution is 1024x768, anti-aliasing is off
I also got some Pictures for shuttles as Fighter and Bombers:
As i cant model and do not have the time to learn it atm id at least give you some inspiration
And i just found this cool Page, it gives you pictures of nearly all ST Ships, just click on the grey silouettes ...
http://www.gomtuu.de/startrek/Schiffe%20Sternenflotte.htm
Greetings!
Just out of curiosity, is the lighting difference between the Venture and normal Galaxy class intentional for identication sake? I love the look of the venture, but the normal Galaxy is too bright - is this a defineable option in the config files or is this information saved in the mesh/texture files (I am no 3d modelling expert as you can tell he he )
AFAIK there shouldnt be any difference at all between the Venture, and Galaxy models. They are both the same model that shares the same texture. I dont see any difference at all on my machine between the two. On the main SoA2 thread (which shoulda been deleted by now) There are 2 galaxy's and a venture in formation in one of the screenshots. The only flaw i see on the model is a nasty texture seem where the saucer is supposed to separate. That cannot be helped due to the nature of the game engine, and will require a model re-build. Many of the 3rd party models have issues like that because they werent meant to be used in an engine like Sins. Which is why they are only placeholders until i can build my own model. It is caused by using 1/2 maps.
Example some saucer textures, wings, and hull sections on the 3rd party stuff are split in half, and uv mapped that way. This may have worked on engies like SFC and bridge Commander. However on import to sins this will cause a large seem straight down the middle of that section of the model, and will cause one side to be darker than the other. That cant be fixed no matter how much you weld, and smooth the mesh. The Defiant is a glaring example of this. This mapping method also screws the tangents up really bad. None of the vanilla sins models are mapped using half textures AFIAK. The only way to fix this is to completely remap the models using whole texture sections. Ill get around to doing that eventually, but not right now. Models you dont see with those errors lke ambassador, and excelsior are because they were built with sins, and this mod in mind... i should know i built them
The Soveriegn, Negh var, and Jemmy battleship will be in the full mod. I have a shiplist now set in stone. you will have to wait till the full mod to see them.
Imho, people should refrain from adding additional suggestions for this mod. I'm sure Major Stress knows exactly where he wants to go with this mod, and as such he should feel free to do so, and in his own pace.
Ofcourse, posting "Bug reports" is a good idea, but one bug report I disagree with, is the Galaxy/Venture "bug". I can confirm that the two are basically the same model, and use exactly the same textures, except that the Venture variant has the weapon pods on the nacelles. That is the only difference, and there shouldn't be any visual differences besides that ingame.
Additional ships, fighters, bombers etc will all be added in, given enough time. I think for a first release, and a demo at that, it came out exceptionally well and I applaud Major Stress for dedicating so much hard work on what is essentially, a recreational activity. The way I read some of these comments, make me think people expect Stress to perform as well as a 100% dedicated and paid game developer.
I am just happy that it works and doesn't give me minidumps! LOL great demo Major!
I'm having a similar problem with the brightly lit Galaxy. Here's a screenshot of the Elite Galaxy (dark) next to the non-elite - this issue also affects the Akira elite vs non-elite, and all of the Fed ships appear pretty bright. I'm using Vista 64 on a GTX280, if that helps you pin anything down. I also tried disabling bloom lighting, but that didn't solve the problem.
PS: This thing is awesome.
Its not bloom lighting, there is an option for a Ship Highlight Mesh, if you turn that off they should all be the same color.
Adm Cobbs
*Edit
Its the Ship Mesh Highlight Filter option in effects
Ah, that worked. Thanks! What's that Ship Mesh Highlight Filter thing supposed to do, anyway?
It is supposed to brighten up small ships so you can see them better in game. I never use it.
I didnt realize since i have the standard unitss in the cruiser slots that this would be an issue. Ill look for a way to disable this.
ok first: great work
but some questions remain:
why did u setup klingons on tec ?
and federation on advent? ok you could say the advent advantage of culture is something like "diplomacy bonus" of the federation but in case of the klingons it makes no sense ^^ vasari would have been a better choice?
are there plans to redesign the tech tree ? cuz it will be a little bit confusing if the klingon empire has the best eco
and a little basic balance would have made even this demo a great gaming expirience
i dont talk about real full scale balance but klingon ships are so low on prize and pwn the s**t out of everybody else
i mean i really would wanna test it online but everyone who dont pick klingons is litteraly dead space meat..
so plz change some of the prizes vor the next demo release a bit ^^
other thing: u r romulan (vasari) and rush for RA and what do you get ? i hoped for some warbirds but only crappy transporter and other vasari crapships came
btw: is there any defense for your ships against hangar defense with full bomber squads since there are no fighters u can pump hangar defense and fill all slots with bombers wich do still some kind of dmg in great numbers ^^
at last: i luv ya for this mod too bad sins isn't capable of better diplomacy but still it will be probably the best Star Trek Game out there even its only a mod
keep up the fantastic work
Cool, I shall try the mesh option when I get home tonight
Major Stress, you will undoubtedly accomplish what every Star Trek fan here NEEDS - the best space RTS game based around the best (IMO only - I dont intend to instigate a flame war! he he) science fiction universe.
If there is anything I can do, I would love to help. I cannot do anything in regards to 3d Modelling, however I am quite versed in paint packages should you need any 2D art (icons, UI, etc) and also I can package your mod into MSI format if you like to ease installation for end users?
I have a problem with this mod it wont work when i try to play the game it is just all the normal ships.
Had the same problem. When you unzip the RAR file, you will have a main folder and a sub folder with game data/files in it. Cut all of them out and paste in main folder and delete (now empty) sub folder.
Stress U ROCK! New food hehe i am hungry to play!
To tell the truth, i play this demo mod more then the athors. Good work Strss, keep it up!
Just a idea, i know u have a ship list in stone, but if u plan to build a carriier ship inside with shuttels.. DON'T! If u use some basic shuttles as fighters it breaks the game down in my view and feeling as well. If u wanna use, then take the fightershuttle from VOYAGER or from the old PS1 game StarTrek Invasion, u can use maybe a remoddeld carrier from that game to, or the carrier from that game. I hope u blow me and the rest of us fans away.
What the people goes with crash, the mod is made on english Sins, so u maybe re instal the game in UK or US languawitch. And problem maybe be solved. I live in europa, belgium, run Vista Ultimate and Sins in english AND NO PROBS HERE!
All mods i run and tryt work well and no crash or what so ever.
Can you give a better discription
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