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 new mission system is set up with specific rewards and pay outs now, no offering 10k crystal to off 1 ship to your buddy anymore
The missions will not show up if you don't have the resources to pay them. so far I've only seen 3 levels of missions, then again by the time I'm making the kind of resources and income I've "out-grown" alliances >=3
Dramatization:"I'm sorry, we just don't see a reason to pay you for this anymore. We're considering letting you leave if you give us all you're collected thus far." "Th-that's not fair" "We have people in need of homes and a little more elbow room, and your empire doesn't seem to be doing much more than feeding off of our support and collecting dust. The higher ups would like use to start 'cleaning house' and get a few new establishments going...it's just business, you understand"
Military Victory
[Keep playing] [Quit game]
No, I understand you completely, you're just not understanding me. Say you are faction A. You do that research. You can give resources to other factions, but the mission where you request resources is no longer there. It's actually still there in the entity files as well as still in the manifest, so adding them again isn't going to do anything at all.
However, once you've done that research, and I assume after faction B has done that research, you tell faction B to give faction C resources in an effort to improve their relations as opposed to only being able to ruin their relations by making them fight each other. I believe the give resources quests were retasked for this purpose since I've not been able to get it to come up for myself.
Also, to change the target faction receiving the resources by clicking on the name of the faction(top middle button)
[Give Resources] [This button here] [Time they have to do it]
[Gold 1000] [Metal 0] [Crystal 0]
[X Cancel] [V Accept]
But the mission type isn't coming up at all. Not even to tell them to give to someone else.
Retsof90: I'm not sure if this has been suggested, but, did the AI research the tech, too? Just because you've researched it, doesn't mean they have. They can offer it without you needing to research the tech, as long as you've researched it.
Start a replay and watch it from their view. See if they've researched it. Or, go multiplayer and make sure someone else researches it, and then try it.
Is anyone else seeing some ridiculously sized initial pirate attacks? I'm talking 30-50+ of most ship types, 20+ heavy cruisers, etc. I don't remember this happening prior to Diplomacy 1.3. It's rather impossible to stop at the 15 minute mark, considering they nuked a triple-upgraded starbase in under 15 seconds!
I thought I'd bring it up here, because I saw someone mention something similar in the new Mad Scientist thread. I'm curious if anyone else is seeing this in Distant Stars as well.
Hi, I have got same problem. Pirates are way overpowered. first pirate raid contains about 30 maybe more ships. Its impossible to defend againts it. It seems to be like this since last update. Can someone have a look at it pls?
Seen it and it was happening after the last patch. I'm sure DS probably has some effect, but apparently the devs decided to make the pirates more of a force to contend with and when you combine that with what others have done, it gets outright ridiculous. Saw a game where 2/3 of the players were wiped out by pirates. Not those custom missions you give them either. People were bidding fairly low and it was a small map. No one else actually got to fight the other.
Edit: Ah, I forgot that a while back Stant was playing with pirate strength values. Here's his old post. Might help...
Gameplay.constants file
raidStrengthThreshold:0 0 <--- Set to .1 or .05 raidStrengthThreshold:1 .25 raidStrengthThreshold:2 .45 raidStrengthThreshold:3 .7 raidStrengthThreshold:4 .9
As far as I can tell, 0 isn't valid (because that would technically mean no raid) so you get full strength, unlike the others which are fractions of full strength. In my testing, at .05, the raid strength falls well in line with early game capabilities so long as the AI doesn't send the pirates on a mission to kill you at the same time.
just tried your settings and it did not work. I made small random map againts one easy computer, just to try it out. First raid after 20 minutes, was arround 100 SHIPS !! no joking. Computer bidded only 250 credits againts me. Ridiculous
Wow, they must have really pumped up the pirates. Hmm... I don't know what to tell you. This is why I stick to doing 2-D art.
Well you have still helped me . Never edited anything in SotS but you pointed me in a right direction. I have found this settings and the same file in diplomacy, and copied entire pirate settings into distant stars, and instead of 100 ships, I have got 9 in first raid. Which is completely fine. I am not expert in this, however settings in distant stars is very different from vanilla one. And it seems like min and max values on each ship class create those crazy numbers.
The pirates in DS are broken atm. They have been since diplomacy came out. We during Entrechement tweaked them so they were actually usefull and fun.
Then Diplomacy came out and IC tweaked them. Those tweaks plus the ones we have done have made the pirates like they are now. Ryat has been working on a total rework of both standard pirates and Powerful Pirate add-on.
Till then just turn them off or tweak the files yourself.
So did you tweak the files in the mod folder or in Diplomacy directly?
And I can't take the credit, I just remembered Stant mentioning it.
I actually think the pirates for once were balanced. A force to reckon with and as long as you keep them away until you get a starbase and some mines sat up you can handle them. Once they hit the minefield (even their strongest force), it tares them up enough for a starbase and 2 cannons (TEC) to tare them appart.
As for taking out their base, simply wait until either a raiding party leaves or lure out the raiding party (death to the system you used to lure them out unless you "bribe" them to attack someone) then go in and take out their base!
Before he 1.31 patch, the pirates were wiping the floor with me no mater what I did!
EDIT: Just using standard pirates with DS and Dynamic Movement.
Yes, I have modified the file you said. I have looked at the same file in a vanilla game (diplomacy). Copied entire pirates section, from there, and pasted it into Distant Star. Worked well and pirates are fine now. No error at all.
Thx for suggestion about turning them off, however I do consider them important and fun part of the game, so I do not really want to play without them. Would be better if you just replace stuff which do not work, with vanilla one until you get something which does.
One thing I DID notice is the "String not found" name for the Tachyon disruption tech (TEC Defense tree) It seems to works fine other than the name is 'string not found'
Okay, here's the deal. DS did absolutely NOTHING to the quests, so if they aren't working to your likings, bitch to Stardock and Ironclad. Seriously, delete every single quest entity out of the DS folder and they will still work exactly like they are now. Those, as well as a bunch of other files are included with DS for no reason at all.
After running it through a few more times I can say for certain that if you have universal negotiation researched you can give resources. If the AI has it researched as well, you can demand they give resources to someone else, this includes you. So it still works. Is there another factor involved in this? Maybe. But I can 100% assure you it is still available and working. If you still don't care to believe me, then as Carbon would say, 'learn to mod and fix it yourself.'
Run the dev exe, send out your scouts to discover the other factions, then give every faction all research and go to the give mission selection screen and you will see exactly what I am telling you.
It was, he's just complaining rather then listening.
Yes, everyone see's it, as I said in the Mad Scientist thread, I'm going to switch everything back to required settings rather then random settings to control the horde of ships. So far my testing has proven to be very effective and I'll probably be releasing a quick fix for both mods. I just need to get in a few really good long games that increase the threat level or the raids.
Working on it.
Yeah, it was a suggestion to test out and it didn't work, it probably would have worked before the pirate system got some serious plastic surgery done to it. I've had raids of nearly 200 ships, roughly 900 points worth of supply sent after me, so no joke, really trying to get it under control.
No, it's the random settings that do. Min - Max settings helps to control the numbers which is what I'm working with right now to find a good set of values to put down for each raid strength level.
Until they do their research that let's them bypass your mines completely. ;] But yes, I've said a few times to work on putting up even a small minefield to handle the raids until something is worked out for them.
You can do that, but you lose the DS pirates which is ultimately what I'm trying to avoid having to do. I like them sending out capital ships.
The game doesn't require to have information in the string file. You could delete every single line in there and the game would still run. Just, everything would say that.
Sorry to sound like a noob, but what folder do we put the Distant Stars (D) 0.99 B4 Delete Extra Textures file in?
Wow thank god it wasn't just me. I just played a game (diplomacy, 4v4 FFA) and managed to avoid pirates for like an hour while beating back two AI on two fronts, only to finally let some pirates come and they arrived with what was over 300 ships! Not a fun way to lose....
Errr...how does one lose b/c of one pirate raid? Am I missing something?
I know they are broken, but you can only lose 1 planet per raid. Are we all playing Point Blank?!
I remember that map.
Haha, no. It was a pirate raid that hit at the same time as I got attacked by one of the AI. The pirates also wiped out my one of my forward bulwark planets before I could get any reinforcements in place, and I hadn't set up a starbase there cause I wasn't expecting such an overwhelming raid. It just spiraled out of control due to very unpleasant and poor timing.
I'm new to this mod, but really liking it so far. One thing I was wondering about was the fact that there seem to be many empty locations on random maps, such as dead asteroids or deep space. Is that by design? Should I just stick to the included maps?
It's a random map... What shows up is randomly picked out of the list. It's just how things played out. Keep playing randoms and you'll get maps where there are nothing but planets and the only asteroids are the ones that automatically show up next to each starting home planet.
You could put it in the mod's texture folder and run it there. You could also read the readme to know which files to delete manually if it's not working out for you.
The error log is giving me this line:
Failed to find data file 'AbilityDisruptionMatrix.entity'. (SubPath = GameInfo)
This doesn't effect the game though. Any idea what is causing this, and how to fix this?
WOW!
This thread has been busy since I was gone. I am working on the pirates (still have one day) and hope to have them and the Flagship mini-mod fixed soon. Sorry for the delay.
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