Feedback of any kind is always welcome. Ideas, balance changes, and bug reporting of any kind is always useful!
Version 1.00 Released!
Make sure to ask for permission before republishing any part of this mod to the public!
Downloads
1.05 + DLC Compatible:
0.12 ALPHA Release:Full Download:http://distantstars.mmobase.com/rebellion/Distant_Stars_(R)_ALPHA_0.13_[45189661].7z
Full Download MIRROR:http://www.moddb.com/downloads/distant-stars-rebellion-alpha-013
MD5: 69486D2FCD3F35E46E6F5EF8C9F1634A
1.34 Compatible:
1.01 Release:Full Download:http://distantstars.mmobase.com/diplomacy/Distant_Stars_(D)_1.01_[45685832].7z
1.051 Compatible:
Beta 0.9951 Release:Full Download:http://distantstars.mmobase.com/entrenchment/DS_Entrenchment_Beta_0.9951_[36672852].7z
1.14 - 1.181 Compatible:
Version 1.01:Full Download:http://distantstars.mmobase.com/soase/Distant_Stars_v1.01_[453701567].7z
Multiplayer Games:We've setup a thread for everyone to organise their multiplayer games in and also setup example times and dates for most people to meet up and start games. These are what we hope to be the main times for people to be around and want to play games together.
The times are:4pm EST (9pm GMT) Saturdays & Sundays9pm EST (2am GMT) Saturdays & SundaysIf you want to organise other games please go ahead using the same topic to consolidate all the information in one place and hopefully get more games together within our community. These games are for PvP, PvAI & PvPvAIso come along and we'll get some games going!
Screenshots:We've setup a thread so you can all post your screenshots to share with us the Distant Stars team and its players. Im sure we're all intrigued to see what kinds of battles and events you've all been having on the mod aswell.
Lore:We know some of you guys love to role play whilst using Distant Stars, and here's a topic for you guys to post all of your role playing stories, character profiles and anything else you can imagine.
Maps:Some of you avid map makers out there have produced some great maps but never really had them recognised because they've got lost. Well here's a topic for you to post a link to the download (we can even provide mirrors if necessary) a screenshot or two of the map for us all the preview and if enough people like it we'll even include the map in with the actual mod!
Please visit our website and for more information, change logs, downloads, and to report bugs. Our website can be found here: http://distantstars.mmobase.com
Bug Reporting
If you want to report a bug please use the Bug Report feature on our website:http://distantstars.mmobase.com/?m=reportabug
Please include as much information as possible, if you have an error log feel free to post it on these forums and we'll take it from there. If you can reproduce the error please include the error log (read below to find out how to enable error logs) and include as much detail on how to reproduce the problem.
To enable logging:Windows Vista/Windows 7:C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Windows Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\SettingorWindows XP:C:\Documents and settings\<Your Windows Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting
Open the user.setting file (using Notepad, Wordpad or any text editor) and scroll down to the bottom 7 lines from the bottom is the line:LogOutput FALSEChange FALSE to TRUELogOutput TRUE
and from then on any Log files will be saved to the debug folder:Windows Vista/Windows 7: C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Windows Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Debug or Windows XP: C:\Documents and settings\<Your Windows Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Debug
If you get these log files to us (you can just paste them in to a forum post) we can hopefully get your issues sorted.
Frequently Asked Questions
All files are compressed using 7Zip to shrink the download filesize. To extract these files you must use WinRAR or 7Zip.Any Patches should overwrite the original install directory, either by extracting over the original folder, or cut/copy & pasting over the existing file/folder structure.
1) My game keeps crashing, is there anything I can do to stop it?i) Are you running the game on maximum (highest) settings? if so, lower them to High or Medium, there is a known issue with the game using up too much memory, there is nothing we can do about this, also no matter how powerful your pc is, it is affected by this issue no matter the pc it is not above this crashing issue, it is a game problem not a hardware one, so quite simply lower your settings. If you still have an issue with crashing see point two.ii) Give us as detailed information as possible about the crash, what was happening at the time of the crash, what races, ships, abilities were involved. If you can supply a Debug Log (see above for more information about logging) and post a bug report on our website.
2) The loading screens and portrait pictures dont appear properly, whats wrong?i) This is an issue with ATI based graphics cards (rarely affects Nvidia based cards) we're looking in to the issue.
3) Why dont you support converting Distant Stars in to TXT format?i) Quite simply many things can go wrong with converting your mod to TXT, we cant help you with something you've probably broken yourself.
4) Can I mod Distant Stars for myself?i) Yes you can however please do not distribute our mod or our mod that you have edited to the public. You must ask for permission to do so, we will regrettably stop distributing our mod to all if users abuse our work.
5) Your mod is in BIN format I can't edit the files, what can I do?i) You can convert the mod to TXT format however we wont offer any support to versions of the mod that have been converted to TXT.
6) Why is Distant Stars distributed in BIN format? i) Mods load faster in BIN format and are less likely to have issues in this format.
7) I'm having trouble installing the MOD, do you have any more instructions?i) Carbon was kind enough to do some more advanced instructions out here.
8) Is there any way to make new maps for Distant Stars using GalaxyForge?i) Within the Distant Stars Extras folder there is a folder called Galaxy Forge, Copy and Paste this folder (or its contents) over your original Galaxy Forge folder (or its contents) replacing any files if it asks you to. When you start Galaxy Forge next you'll be able to use all of our planets.
Or, the DIY approach (without custom icons):
ii) The GalaxyForge supplied by the devs will still work with our Mod, however to be able to access all of our planetary bonuses, templates, planet types and stars you will need to take our GalaxyScenarioDef.galaxyScenarioDef (found in the GameInfo folder of the mod) and place it in to your GalaxyForge folder, overwriting the original GalaxyScenarioDef.galaxyScenarioDef (if you still wish to make maps for the original game keep a backup of the original file). This will allow you to use all of the Galaxy changes included in our mod.
Note: Any maps made for Distant Stars will not work with other Mods. See #8.2 for DIY instructions for map making or take the appropriate files from Entrenchment, they're cross-client compatible.
Some statistics...
Since August 2009 to February 2011 we have had over...
400,000 Unique visits to the website12,000GB (12TB) of data transferred from our website
That equates to over 60,000 Unique downloads of the entire mod, excluding the excess of 20,000 Patches downloaded.
Thanks to everyone that has supported us this far and making our mod as popular as it is!
Holy Shit, Sivcorp, that thing is monstrous. From this angle it appears that everything blends together much better than the old model, that prow is simply terrifying, and the deletion of the egg means that it finally has that sharp, predatory look that Vasari capitals require. That is hands down one of the most improved models I have seen in my time, and you aren't even finished yet.
This is gonna be a rough vote.
Damn, SivCorp, that is one beautiful beast of a flagship. You've done very well sir. Can't wait to see it textured, cause you already have my vote for the model.
Ryat, I was playing a short game against some AIs and was surprised to find myself in quite the pinch.
I had hunted this one AI's flagship through the heavens, crippling, but never destroying it. I go home and later find that not fully recovered flagship leading a fleet against me. Funny thing is that it had another flagship, brand spanking new, with it. I thought that it might be a problem with Kol production, as I noticed that the Kol description had a String Not Found label on one of the abilities. I figured you had toyed with it. Lo and behold, I make a normal Kol.
So how the hell did the AI get two flagships?
Btw, I managed to fight them off with only fair casualties.
Well, they can't be built unless you tweak things to give that function to one of the factories so it didn't build it. They don't randomly spawn that I know of. You can't even capture them anywhere. Maybe it just had a higher level Kol showing the Flagship tag? Outside of that, the only other situation would be an ally also had brought their flagship in.
Having trouble installing. I'm not completely stupid, so I've read the destructions (and the link to the better destructions), but I seen to be having problems. I've tried doing it twice from scratch, but every time I get as far as enableing the modules, Sins spits out a mini-dump and crashes. On the thrid try, it seems as though WinRAR is falling over on several files, and giving me these messages -
! C:\Documents and Settings\DeathDespoil\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-Diplomacy v1.2\Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B2.7z: Cannot open Distant Stars (D) 0.99 B2\GameInfo\RESEARCHSUBJECT_PLANETMODULEIMPROVEMENT_TECHINDUSTRY_CAPITALSHIPCONSTRUCTION.entity! C:\Documents and Settings\DeathDespoil\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-Diplomacy v1.2\Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B2.7z: Cannot open Distant Stars (D) 0.99 B2\GameInfo\RESEARCHSUBJECT_PLANETMODULEIMPROVEMENT_TECHINDUSTRY_PLANETMODULECONSTRUCTION.entity
- as well as several more from some of the extras folder, which I didn't paste here for space and sanity.
Any ideas? (Corrupt download? WinRAR is crap?)
Ive also run the batch file in the patch, but as it shows up and vanishes so fast I've no idea it it's worked or not. I'm running XP SP3, if that makes any difference to anything.
Could be a bad download if there are errors during the unzip process. I use WinRAR and have never had a problem with this so it's not that, not unless you've had a lot of issues with it before with other downloads of yours.
If you're downloading the full install you do not need to download the patch since that's for upgrading from the previous version. You shouldn't need to run the batch file as the files that are deleted by it aren't included.
Full download Alternate Location: http://www.moddb.com/mods/distant-stars/downloads/distant-stars-diplomacy-099-beta-2-73571136
If you are upgrading from an older version it's typically better to get the full install once it's available and get rid of the older version. If you're not into downloading large files and are sticking with the patched version, and want to verify if the batch worked or not, simply browse through the texture folder and you should not see textures for the original Sins planets.
Stant, you know me. I'm a little better than that.
I double checked everything. They both said Phoenix class, both had the proper models, damage, hitpoints, etc. They both had the same faction emblem hovering over and the same faction name in their info cards. It was certifiable. There were two flagships. If I come across it again, I'll take a screenshot.
Iunno.... I looked at all of the files, played a few games on 8x speed against multiple AI's can't get it to repeat. Team colors with two factions just happening to have the same icon?
Right. I'll try again without the patch tomorrow, then, that's probably a good starter for ten (and try re-downloading the mod as well.) Thanks.
Another update.....
Views - Front, Top, Perspective, Close Perspective
Views - Back, Left, Bottom, Back Perspective
This is the finished model layout. I still have to weld some seams and make sure it is a solid mesh. After that, it is on to putting these 3 textures into one map.... not fun.
Feedback is welcomed! Let me know if anything doesn't look right, I've been staring at this model way too close, for way too long
NOTE: Due to the Easter season, the texturing will not begin till the week following Easter. I've got too many live shows to produce. Thanks.
Wow Siv, you really outdone yourself, most impressive....
Didn't the auto record get your game footage....
Looks good. I cant see any smoothing issues, or texture clipping, though the view isn't close enough to really pick out the individual angles. Can't wait to see ti with a proper texture.
Only if it's turned on. ;]
Did not know you can toggle that feature on/off. Guess you do learn something everyday. And yes, I'm going to beat you in saying, "Knowing is half the battle. Yo Joeee."
If I remember, I keep the auto record off. As for the factions, double checked and there are no colors or symbols overlapping. I'm playing on the Implosion map with a full cast, 2 Advent, 1 Vasari, remainder TEC. It was a TEC faction assaulting me and I was playing as TEC. No other players have territory withing 3 grav wells of that spot.
Dunno what to say.
@Sivcorp - Damn! You may have just pushed SuperZero0 out of the running. Well he did contribute the other two so I don't think he would complain too much.
@Draakjacht - That is odd as there is NO WAY for the flagship to be built. It is simply not coded in. And last I checked you can only clone frigates. Need screenies.
I would never say that...
In case you're interested in saving the hard drive space on a feature you may not use very often (or like me and you don't use it at all), in the area of the mods folders, there's one called "Setting". In that folder (if you're playing Diplomacy) you want to open the file diplomacy.user.setting In that list there's an item called IsAutoRecordOn The default setting is TRUE Changing it to FALSE means no autorecorded games.
You can change that setting to FALSE in the user.setting file too if you want the same behavior in Entrenchment and Vanilla.
Thank's Stant for the info, as usual, you guys are the best... Now I'm gonna share something as well.
For a future lore post....
Nice screenie.
And I would love to give you a snapshot, but I didn't think to do it at the time, especially with some of the abilities hindering the view. And it was a TEC faction, so cloning wouldn't be a possibility either. Again, I'll let you know if it happens twice.
Edit: SOB, I figured it out. Thanks for mentioning the autorecord, Bison, cause it turns out after my last reinstall, I didn't disable it. So, it turns out that the game bugged and the Tondam Corporation somehow started with duplicate forces. Two of everything, including frigate construction hangars, scouts, flagships, the whole kit and caboodle. Very weird.
Its no problem, SivCorp has done a fantastic job. I'm happy with what I have achieved, though its still a ways off finished. Perhaps it may be of use some where else. I know ZombiesRus5 was interested in it.
@ SivCorp, congrat's there champ, I bow to your superior mashing abilities. If you need a hand with anything with it I'd be glad to help out. And in saying that;-
You don't need to combine them into 1 map. You can use the existing texture files, and is better if you do for the overall memory if you don't create any new textures, and easier. You just need to assign each UV set from each ship you have used its own material. I can help you with this in Mod Tool if you like. Max I don't know, but would think you would be able to with that also.
Carbon will be taking your calls on TS most of today.
Except I have to work.
New capturable star base?!
New planet type?!?!
It's a Roleplaying game thing we do on the DS Lore thread. Not gonna become in-game as far as we know. Sowwy.
But look at it this way? THe flagships were a lore thing... and here we are!
I did not know this, Excellent!
I may need a little help on the textures, so I will take you up on that help SupeZero. Thanks.
3D studio has a material that can use multiple material IDs and I know how to use it and apply it. I'm just not sure how to make it work for the game import. All I need to do is just label the mesh parts with the correct ID, arrange the mesh points up correctly on the corresponding texture, and that is it? Cause if that is how its done, that is just too easy, and I may be making many more models then
EDIT: and DS Lore is Mmmmmm *Homer Simpson droooooool* blarrrrgh! Excellent!
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