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!
Ebla by E.S. Posthumus. Thank Oatesy03 for pointing that out earlier.
EDIT: ^Response to cepheidsoul's query last page. Damn page change.
I await my thanks.
Moving swiftly on, has anybody noticed that the Sins forum is picking up again?
I hope they make mines an optional thing for the empire tree with rebellion. Most I can do is get them to stack in piles of 50, but that long bar of"total crap in this gravity well" still sticks out half the screen when you have 500 of the little buggers floating around a sun(traveling to new,uncharted systems is dangerous
side note: skipped geography and stayed in bed, felt like I was on the verge of hurling all morning....too much itallian food not enough anti-acids
Trimming the Empire Tree is one of the best ways to reduce lag. If you go into options, you can kill off the auto-pin for them and many other things. I only leave incomplete starbases (no auto-pin options there) and fleets on my Empire Tree. There really is little reason to keep orbital structures pinned, so if you're willing to forego them, you'll see a big gain in performance.
I assume you're playing as Vasari. My advice, given the damage caused by the mines, is to go just above what's needed. Beyond that, you'll have a lot of unexploded ordinance that just sits there and takes up memory. Until pirates have star travel, there's no reason to think it should take you more than ~30 mines per phase tangent.
true, but I'm lazy, I throw about 3-6 mine layers/anima controllers there and auto-cast them while I do other things lol. The minelayers are somewhat annoying since they"auto return to position" each time they set mines, around a sun that takes forever. think you could modify the ability to "move to position with ability use" or something to that effect? as it stands, minelayers require micromanagement ~_~
and for the empire tree, I only pin my cap ships , but when they're passin through my "holy crap that's a big minefield" minefields it's a little annoying. but I mean gettign rid of them completely from the empire tree, like cargo ships. You can see their icon if you feel like, but they're never on the empire tree,even when clicked =O so I was wondering if you could transfer the "icon-display-type" of the cargo and trade ships to the mines, if that would make the whole lot of floating explosives disappear from vision, on another note, this would also enhance the usefulness of the mines.
I mean, where is the first place you see mines when you jump into some enemy planet? yeah that's right, that large 3-4 rows of junk on the empire tree(thankfully I made it into 1 icon in the .user file, but still). If they're gone completely, aside from maybe something tiny for a display icon in the gravity well,again like trade ships, they would be much more of a strategic weapon than just comp-stoppers. Send a scout in with an adjucator and poof, huge hole in the minefield, send a scout in, don't notice mines, get your entire fleet white washed in explosions? much more fearsome =3
Next Version of Distant Stars will be up soon.
YAY! updates! I love them....unless you're from AMD, then you can go bite a stick of rat-poison. But for anything NOT AMD yay! update =3
(has serious hate issues with the AMD programming and administrative staff)
Woot! Just in time for me not to have to work for two weeks, too.
With the empire tree, I know that a fleet will enter a gravity well and it shows everything in the gravity well with that fleet. But that's when I hit the little arrow next to the planet image. It draws up all the icons of stuff in orbit. Meanwhile, my fleet has their own icon which I keep expanded out for micromanagement. So if you contract each planetary branch as you come across them, your empire tree never gets too far past the height of your screen.
Hello all! Apologies for my delay in updating this patch I think this is the first time a patch has been released later than an hour or two after an official patch has been released lol.
Enough of my rambling im sure you all want the download links so here they are:
0.99 B3 (Beta Three) Release:Full Download:http://distantstars.mmobase.com/diplomacy/Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B3_[73985823].7zPatch:http://distantstars.mmobase.com/diplomacy/Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B3_Patch_[73985823].7z
This release is quite simply a patch compatibility and bug fix update. It includes the fixes mentioned by Ryat / Stant on the previous pages for textures, icons, sounds and the GalaxyScenarioDef files.
Also in this update the Entrenchment download links have been updated to include the patch, so no more updating is needed for the full download of the mod!
and SQUEE update!*mauls Nacey and walks away with update* =3
Awesome. I should have plenty of time to playtest later this week. Congrats on yet another release, DS.
Currently downloading it ... does this include the new version of MSGM v.03 - DS Compliant? I know there were quite a few things mentioned. Any chances of an in depth change log being posted?
Don't hold your breath, I'm getting drunk with a hot (recently single) Portuguese chick right now. Earlier when I looked at it, I didn't see very much different then the changes I posted back on the first day 1.21 was out, so for now, just assume that's all that was changed. I'm gonna go back to um... Yeah, I'll get back to you tomorrow.
Lucky Bastard
Heres hoping you pull it off, Stant.
Here's hoping it stays connected, Stant.
Hey Team,
So yesterday a buddy of mine and I were jammin on a game and part way through, we realized that we weren't both playing in the same instance of the game anymore. It said we were still connected and if I pinged a planet, it would show up on my friend's screen, but the events happening in one game were not what was happening in the other. It was like we were both in a mirror universe of eachother.
If we saved the game an reloaded, it would reload the same way where what was happening in both sides of the game was different. If we reloaded an auto save before that point, the game was fine, but after about another 20 minutes, we were waiting for a large pirate invasion and the pirates did invade, but only for one player. For the other player, that reality didn't happen. Quantum universes research for the pirates?
Anyhow, is this a bug or a simple matter of lost sync between the systems. I was surprised the game just didn't tell us that we had lost sync between the games.
Its a desynch. It occurs from time to time (though it has been significantly reduced) with this game. Not a mod issue.
And a good time was had by all.
Ah, I see Stant introduced his Portugese friend to his trade network, if you get what I mean.
After all, the more members of a trade network, ah screw this joke, well played Stant.
My previous question still stands.
I have a problem regarding the mod stacking when I want to use the Extras (like harder pirates). I put that one on the top right, the higher it is on the list, the higher the priority or something I recall. I'm asking because I don't see any difference from my other games, maybe I messed things up again. bah.
@boshimi
At this point, I'm going to say no, MSGS v3 was not included because I see galaxy spirals.
The changelog is what I already posted on the day 1.21 was released. I compared this release to my modified B2 release and aside from file size differences, things matched up almost perfectly... Though I'm probably going to have to fix the scouts again. With everything being reduced to an equal 6000 on the ability and the buff, the scouts don't always reach the mines when they activate their ability. So therefore, I'm going to have to leave the ability at 6000 and change the buff to 6125 to account for the stop gap. I may also try to tie this into the research so that you have to research mines to get the uncover mines ability and you have to improve the mines to get a larger range. It's a wishlist of mine so I'll play with it and see if I can't work it out....
@YourzZzZ
Correct, the game engine uses all of the files from the top mod first, then fills in the rest from the next mod in the list, then fills in more with the next one down and so on until it has no more mods and then uses the remaining needed files from the stock game.
You may actually see less from the pirates using the powerful pirates minimod since I'm not 100% sure it has been updated to what it was intended to be outside of just making the changes to make it work. I'll give the files a run through this weekend and consult with Ryat about it if I don't see any changes that make them stronger.
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