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 stated a few relies ago that i am having trouble with modding in fighters. They just spawn in another universe, and i dont know why, because i am using the latest convertxsi, and dont have the hanger hardpoints anywhere near the mesh. So there may be no fighters in the mod.
I forgot that the AI spams hanger defenses. So to counter this you guys will have to do a bit of editing yourself untill demo 0.02 is ready. You can do one of two things..
1) Change all the mod ships weapons so they can fire at strike craft. Look for the lines in the ship entity files that say "CanFireAtFighter". Change the FALSE entry to TRUE.
2) Remove the hanger defense from each faction. Open each player entity example "PlayerFederation", "PlayerKlingon", etc, etc. They are in text so you can open with wordpad. Look for that factions "planetModuleInfo" then find that factions hanger defense entry Example:
Page:1 count 6 <------ Change this number from 6 to 5 entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALBEAMDEFENSE" entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALHANGARDEFENSE" <----Delete this entire line, remove the spacing entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALREPAIRPLATFORM" entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALJUMPBLOCKER" entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALANTIMATTERRECHARGER" entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALCANNON"
It should look like this when you are done
Page:1 count 5 entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALBEAMDEFENSE" entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALREPAIRPLATFORM" entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALJUMPBLOCKER" entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALANTIMATTERRECHARGER" entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PSIORBITALCANNON"
Blammo, no more hanger defense.
This will be all done in the 0.02 demo
Can we get some ships that kill fighters? the AI build hanger def and their fighters keep blowing up my defiants. its really annoying lol
i would prefer if fighters were just disabled
just read your post stress... no probs will get rid of hangars
It's honorable to decide the direction of you own mod, and in turning down an offer to have the work done for you shows how important it is to you to not have the Borg.
So I have to ask, why are you letting 7 Deadly Sins "Borg" your mod?
(maybe I should have said "assimilate", it may have come out better)
Perhaps Stress just doesn't want the Borg in HIS mod, but leaves it open to others to add them? People should feel free to add any ships or races they want... so long as they are the ones doing so. The Borg will not be an official part of the Sacrifice of Angels 2 mod.
because this mod doesn't use WLD or Bail graphics mods, and i really wanna see what feds vs. atlantians will look like. i don't get why people bash 7DS, you don't have to DL if you don't want to, but it gives people good choices for what mods they want to play, as stardock designed a system where only 1 mod at a time can be active (a huge problem with this game, IMO).
I hope you like seeing the Enterprise in ruins.
Oh no, I like BOTH Startrek and 7DS very much, and think they should be merged.
I only wanted to point out the irony of excluding the Borg when 7DS will assimilate the StarTrek mod as if it were the borg!
All we need now is for 7DS to assimilate the Borg
When I said "..it may have come out better", I was refering to my sentence, it came out sounding a bit pointed
Alex: I put out the semi-offer to make a Borg faction to see where Major Stress stood on his mod, thinking that such an offer would make it clear as to whether to pursue such an addition...
Major Stress's 'No' said to me that it wasn't a time issue, or a work issue, but a design issue, and it's his mod, so that's it... (I found myself in a position to fix the time and work issues, with my mesh-generator, so that's why I asked)
...you are right that getting Borg into SoA through 7DS is the way to go
Playing as Federation was so much fun, and the Klingons are next on my playlist...
just downloaded and played the demo..fricking amazing!! can't wait for the final version!! i was wondering if it would possible if the ships would move while firing phasers and torps...just like in the series and movies. btw what changes will be made to the tech trees?? will we have to research and build lots of research facitlies to be able to build a galaxy or soverign?? btw what about ship names?? like the random names that the original sins already had...
Yeah I know. And so do I. I was, however pointing out what will happen when the Federation tries to defeat the Atlantians.
Pssst, Helioforge, contact DANMAN about the Borg. He wants Borg. Oh, and you didn't hear this from me.
I personally dont care if someone else does Borg, or not. In fact i encourage it. Just because i dont want them in SoA 2 doesnt mean no one else should make them at all. I dont have the "Exclusive" on trek modding here. If someone else wants to do borg, TOS, TMP, or Enterprise by all means open up your modeling programs, and knock yourselves out. They just wont be supported in SoA 2 is all. I have a vision for my mod as im sure whoever does thier "borg" mod will have a vision for them. If 7 deadly sins wants borg in thier mod I would be encouraging them instead of arguing about it.
I will repeat myself yet again... I am having trouble with fighters so they may not be included in the mod if i cant figure out a way to do them right.
Doing a TNG style phaser strip charge up effects will be next to impossible in the sins engine. I think the current weapon effects came out pretty good considering the limitations. You can thank Darkshimmer for those effects
If you dont hear from me for about a week one word wil explain it.. Warhammer.
The demo is excellent. The ships are so purty! Which is saying something in the dark and dreary Sins light sourcing... Accurate phaser graphics would be drool inducing, but they're honestly more than good enough as is. I don't dislike any of the weapon effects, and most of them are superb. If it were even close to balanced, even with the limitations I'd probably be losing a week or more to it.
A side effect of the absolutely horrific hasn't been messed with balance, it's absolutely hilarious watching Cardassians try to kill something and adds comedy to the experience. The Breen would be funny as well, but they keep raping planets so I don't have as much time to laugh.
Hey Stress, again great work on this one I am playing the tar out of it even with the balance issue : )
I just read up on the entrenchment pack, sound like they may be giving you a means to do a true star trek space station! (as long as its mod-able enough)! Just a thought.
Keep up the good work, strong demo.
"Specifically, Entrenchment promises to bring fans a Starbase defense platform for each race (extremely powerful and armored bases housing a variety of weapons and other upgrades capable of defending an entire planet), turret upgrades for each race to make them more powerful (not only stronger than the current versions, but also upgradable with long-range weapons), mine fields and a Subspace Inhibitor platform that will slow enemy ships within its range."
ok so who wants to play me with the mod online ?
The beta patch 1.09 breaks the current version of the mod. Which is why im at a screeching halt at the monent on any new work on SoA 2. I have done all that i want to do right now with version 1.05, because there is no point in continuing with a new patch looming that will break the current version. Once the 1.1 reference files are released work may resume.
Entrenchment might break any 1.1 version of the mod :/ So now i am in a new delemma. Should i fix it for 1.1 only for it to break yet again with a new expansion? or will the new expansion not effect the 1.1 patch?
I had starbases planned all along, but entrenchment will make things a little easier now
Since it's being modularized in a way so as to facilitate multiplayer matches by disabling features based on who doesn't have them, perhaps it wont be a problem?
Few points/ideas
1) Photon Torps come out sidways sometimes and then do a sharp 90 degree turn to hit their target. Can't ever remember seeing that happen is ST.
2) I know the mod is not balanced yet, but the cost of the defiant vs how long it lasts in game is way out. Its hull and shields are not high enough considering it costs way more then a galaxy, but has 1/2 the stats. Now I realise it is a much smaller ship, and it's firepower and manuverbility were what made it so great but this is where a slight issue pops up - Sins doesn't allow ships to fly around like fighters unless they are actually fighters. So it sits there and gets blown up - bye bye enough credits to get 2 galaxy ships...
3) Have you looked into long range sensor arrays for giving long range intel/ability to view othen factions???
The Torpedos (of any kind in the mod) are missile weapons meant to home in on targets which is canon. The way missiles, and all other weapons fire in sins is hardcoded. You can change only the speed, the range, the damage it does, the rate of fire. For missiles how fast they turn, and what effect they use. Thats it.
I explained this before here on the forums, and on the readme. However i will go over it again. Sins use's a 180 degree firing arc per facing. There are four facings. Forward, Back, Left, and Right. You need to add the hardpoints to your model with EXACTLY those facings in mind. Otherwise the weapons on the offset hardpoints will fire a full 360 degrees out of confusion. In XSI 0 degrees is Forward. 90 degrees is Left. -90 is Right, and 180 degrees is Back. If you want 3 "Weapon-0" hardpoints to fire Left you rotate all 3 of them to 90 degrees (by default nulls are set at 0 degrees in xsi). Rinse and repeat for all the other facings. This must be exact. Sin can be unforgiving in this aspect.
You cant adjust the degrees a weapon can fire. You can only give it one of those four facings. Any ship that crosses that facings 180 degree arc will be fired upon by weapons assigned to that facing if they are in range. Which causes some weapons to fire at wierd angles when they should normally only fire straight forward. For most beam, or turret weapons this isnt much of an issue. However you have seen what it can do with torpedoes, and other Trek projectile weapons meant to fire straight forward. There is nothing that can be done about it. So we will have to learn how to ignore this bug unless Ironclad codes in a better way to control firing arcs in one of the patches, or expansions. Believe me i am as frustraited about this as you are.
The defiant is not finished yet. There are several problems that i dont think are solvable in the current engine. One is as above the firing arc hardcode situation. Next is ships dont move while in combat. Again Hardcoded. Last is we are having major trouble making a working cloak that allows ships to move, and jump. I am still working on that one.
We cant make a buildable "ship" use a fighters entity to give it fighter like movement. Just get CTD's at every attempt i make. If someone else found a way to do this let me know. As for the defiants cost,, That is intentional. she is meant to be a "Unique" experimental unit. I havent got around to doing the researches yet, but she will be mid to high tier on research in the full mod, and require several techs to unlock her. She will get an armour buff for the next release. Untill then i left no pre-reqs, and made her very expensive so she wouldnt be spammed by both player and AI. I know she needs much more work.
If you notice the akira, and the jemmy BC both use the far sight ability. so yea at least one long range sensor ship per faction is being planned.
stress, why not check with DANMAN about how he did his UFO race? He has been saying that it can move around like a fighter and attack, but be buildable as well.
Just wanted to post that I had a multiplayer game of the mod and it worked almost perfectly.
Myself and my friend played as the Feds, and another friend took the Klingons and we fought 3V3 vs the Breen, Dominion and Cardys.
The Breen were irritating but my friend and I managed to make short work out of them. The Cardys, although having a large fleet by the time we attacked, were a total push over, however the Dominion put up a decent fight. We only played it on Normal difficulty just to see how stable it would be. We did have 1 crash in a game we started earlier, and when we resumed from the auto save point things got weird (everyone was out of sync even though still in game and talking, one person saw the other with 4 controlled systems when they in fact had 8?) So when that occured we started up a new game and went start to finish without any problems.
The current demos balance is atrocious, and i know all about this. The cardies are pushovers (just like in the show). So are the Romulans, but that is being worked on. The Klingons, Dominion, and Feds are way OP. So they are getting the nerf bat. The Breen are just the Breen. All this is being worked on as i type.
I am not focusing on any new content, but instead trying to fix what is in there now. Demo 0.02 will still be unbalanced, but not near as bad as the current demo. All of the current balancing is temporary, and will be tossed when the new units are imported.
The Breens single ship was intended to be a major pain in the ass. They play like a swarm of mosquitos. Easy to kill, but there are ALOT of them. All of this was intended for the demos Breen. I forgot to add antimatter to them for this demo, but that is an easy fix, and you can add the intended 200 points with a 0.20000 recharge yourself in wordpad. This will enable the Breen energy dampener (using tech ion blast as placeholder). They really become a serious threat when using the dampeners. Once the non-canon breen units are added then the multirole ship will dissapear, and more specific roles will take its place.
None of the core game files were touched, or edited so it "should" play online just fine as long as all players have the same mod files. I am no code monkey so if an online game breaks i am clueless as to why.
Would you like any Sins Plus planets added to the mod?
Not right now, but thank you. We need to fix for the 1.1 patch, and entrenchment 1st before we add in any more new content.
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