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!
The extra planet textures will make it back in to DS before the final release. As previously stated they were removed to lower the memory usage of the MOD see'ing as we added many more planets to the mix the game the variations while nice don't particularity add much to the game so they were removed until the devs did something about the memory usage. Now they have we can re-include them.
I have been away from Sins for a long time and was lured back because a friend started playing. I reinstalled Sins and updated to the current version of Diplomacy than downloaded the current Distant Stars version .99b2 followed the most helpful install instructions in the FAQ, fired up Sins enabled the mod, and started a new game and nothing.
It's all vanilla Sins all the time and I can't figure out what I've done wrong. Any ideas?
thanks in advance
Did the checksum match, and did you click the apply button after the enable button?
Where would I check the checksum and yes apply button was clicked.
If you downloaded the full version you should see a checksum of 73571136.
Anything other then that and there is a mistake with your folder set up or you got a bad download. You can check easily by running the game in windowed mode (pressing Control+Shift+Tab will put it in windowed mode) and comparing it here.
Ignore my number shown in the image because I run the game in a text format so I can modify files to fix problems as I find them or they're brought up here, plus a couple other modifications and extras, so my number is different then the official which again is 73571136.
Ahhh ok, huh my checksum is 0 going to guess that something is seriously wrong then Let me see what I can figure out
Probably a folder issue, most likely you unzipped and now you're an extra folder deep so your mod folder is reading Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B2_[73571136] with more folders inside of that, one being the real Distant Stars folder you need with the extras also being shown.
lol Slant, I want your mods*stares at the list* at least the active ones that are DS compliant
They're all DS compliant in that list. I used to have more, like an unaltered release version of DS, different particle effects, and even more sounds, but each game update I lose a few and don't bother to update them. They've all been posted here, all of them except the modified flagship, which is me just toying with making capital ships have to be researched before you can use them, and the meshy stuff one... That is my own personal not to be released Frankenstein experiment for my amusement, because I made it all work out like Sins meets the 60's so everything is psychedelic and distorted and trippy as hell and I play it when some drunk ass or high as hell fool crashes on my couch and I don't want to throw them out in the middle of the night.
EDIT:
Went looking for them, here's Boshimi's Multiple Stars mod: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/348205
And the flagship mod is here: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/335474/page/183/#2914326
And the Mass Effect sound one can't be downloaded anymore, though hooahguy probably still has his files uploaded somewhere. (though in it's state that I have it actually is a step back from DS, but that's just my opinion and I do run it from time to time just to mix the sounds up, so bug him for updates if you're really Jonesing for it.)
lol damn, the flagship one is what I had my eye on. Oh well, got MSGM and DS (apparently I still had B1 and didn't notice since it did still work. Anyhow, thanks for the reply.
My modified flagship is not out, the other flagship one is, just view my previous post, I was editing it when you posted.
You are exactly right hadn't realized I'd done that thank you
No worries, that's why they keep me chained up around.
Just a head's up; that problem I had a few days ago installing the mod seems endemic to WinRAR, as even with a fresh download it failed to unlock everything. So I got 7z (it's been a long time since we swiped WinRAR), and it opened the file and installed fine. So that solved that...
So, first time playing Sins for a while, playing with mod, and about four systems (one of which is a dead dwarf asteroid) in I ran into a pirate system complete with four pirate capitals and a pirate starbase, completely blocking my way*. I've got, like, three crystal extractors and I've capped out my temples at 5 hostility and 4 harmony. Roughly how much do I need to take out the pirates (with this mod's changes), or should I just write that game off? (As sitting there for several hours trying to upgrade everything with a tiny crystal creep is a tad...unsatisfying.)
What little I've seen of the mod in action is marvellous though.
*I'm having a bad day, it would seem; I was playing Sword of the Stars all week until today I ran into a consistant crash bug in around turn 420...
Yeah that can get a little monotonous. Aside from speeding up the game (using the - and + keys) I would say restart if you don't want to trudge through. Flip side, with the pirates there the AI can't really break through very well which would give you time.
I've when zoomed out the planet seems shifted down (covers part of the lower info bar) and the planet is cropped at the bottom. I do have an ATI card with the shifted portraits issue. This may be an extension of the ATI issue, but previous versions of DS didn't have this issue.
Let me know if I'm not making any sense (won't be the first time).
I took a quick stab at the preliminary Advent Flagship....
The front I'm not sure what to do with, and the whole thing would need to be tied together much better. But I'm liking the direction it is going. It has the the Carrier Top, the Battleship sides and body, and the Battlecruiser wings.
This is just a rough sketch, but what do you all think of it? Moving in the right direction? (Remember, it was just put together in 15 mins....)
Thats...alright, but I prefer the Flagship currently being used for the Advent. To me, the ship you posted suffers from the same problems your Kol 3.0 did - it just looks overdone. Too many random protrusions and needless spaces, especially for a race whose whole aesthetic is smooth, flowing lines.
If you really want to continue with it, I would close up the dead space between the wings, and get rid of the talons on the front, as well as the towers on the underside. I would also set the wings back a bit further, but thats less important than making it actually look advent.
The cuttlefish of doom!!!
Interesting.
As a model in general, I like it. As an Advent vessel, I can see blobness' argument. The protrusions and engine complex I can argue are fitting, as they are components of other models, although the protrusions are give or take. The wings might benefit from closing the space, but most certainly removing the lances that stick out on the front of them is a good idea. With the protrusions gone and the wings merged into a solid whole, it would make it more unique and smooth out the top even more. The Advent are typically fine with complex underbellies as long as one side is smooth as butter.
Honesty on my end requires that I say that I like what SuperZERO0 did for the Advent better. Its an interesting ship but it just doesn't fit (IMHO) with the vision of the Advent.
Thanks for the input, guys.
I guess I'm still in Vasari mode and making things too menacing
I'll stick to finishing the Vas model before I try the smooooooth technique.
I like it much better than that mishmash from earlier. This one actually flows with itself.
Go to the textures folder and find the images starting with "Icons_planets". Convert them from DDS to TGA with an image editing program (I use GIMP personally). Save the DDS versions to a backup somewhere and delete them so the game is forced to use the TGAs.
ok i dont know if i have a setting in the graphics set wrong or installed it wrong but the tec capital ship factory looks all messed up
Need a little more info than "all messed up."
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