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!
Go to your control panel, click on System and you should be able to see how much Ram you have available (as well as other items such as CPU speed, type etc). So I think your system looks like it is good to go. You have more than enough ram (sins only utilizes 2gb max) to run the game.
If you can verify that the stock/standard/vanilla 'Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity' works without these minidump issues (therefore indicated that it is related to mod being enabled) that's just one more fact that can help the team get it solved.
So, with the mod NOT enabled, vanilla Sins doesn't mini-dump on you?
I have 8.00 GB of RAM
I have verify it, it didn't download anything.
I play the vanilla one alot, without any problems.
When I enable the mod, it starts freezing up and making minidumps, so I think it the mod.
BTW, thanks for fast response, more advice please.
si, which exe are you running(original(also called vanilla) sins of a solar empire, or entrenchment or diplomacy) and version?,
which version of the mod did you download for which expansion?,
and which mod folder did you erxtract the files to?
if you are using (for example diplomacy exe with an entrenchment version of the mod in a diplomacy folder then this is the cause of the dumps and another cause is trying to use a mod from a different version of the SAME expansion, eg diplomacy 1.34 exe with a diplomacy 1.21 mod in the diplomacy 1.34 folder ALSO causes DUMPS)
harpo
From what I'm understanding is that 777 is playing the most recent Diplomacy version of the mod with my little patch for compatibility.
Since he says that he got version 1.34 from steam I would hope that means he is playing the diplomacy version, especially since he typed out his mod path and it all looks like the right place to me.
Best thing I can say at this point is to redownload the mod since bad things can and do sometimes happen with larger downloads and save it to your desktop... Use the full download link only and not the patch up to B5 link as that is only for those who had the B4 release. You can get it right here: http://distantstars.mmobase.com/diplomacy/Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B5_%5B73603744%5D.7z
Redownload the little patch as well, although it's not necessary for gameplay, it only fixes the messed up menus because of the steam updates with the 1.33 and 1.34 patches. You can get that right here: http://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/DS_D1.34compatible.rar
Use the latest version of 7z to unpack the archives to your desktop.
Delete everything DS related that is in your mod folder and copy and paste the new set of files in. (Do not include the 1.34 patch yet.)
Run your game and enable the mod.
Verify your checksum is 73603744. Press Control+Shift+Tab to set the game into windowed mode so you can read this number and that one at the same time.
Apply the mod and give it a go with a game or two if they both match. If they don't, start over.
If it all works out, then add in my compatibility patch to fix your main menu and ICO screen stuff. (I don't know if this will change your checksum because I only run the text version of the files and couldn't tell you what I should have because I tweak things everywhere and have no idea what the numbers should be in binary format, but if your game is working just fine as of the last step, this one shouldn't break anything anyway, just fix a few things.)
If it doesn't work out, then I guess we're back to square one and I get to be happy that I have one more reason to not use steam.
To be honest, dealing with steam is a new one for a lot of us, so unless there are subtle differences in your version of trinity that we just don't know about, it should all still work out just fine since we all have the same version numbers.
Once had to download the stupid thing 10 times.
Well, it plays longer than usual but still crashes with minidumps.
I have downloaded the mod twice already. I didn't add the patch yet.
More advice please, what info do ya'll need?
BTW, thanks for responses and taking ya'll time to help me.
Can you activate and play any other mods? or have you only tried Distant Stars?
I have only know 2 mods, Star wars one, and this one.
For more mods: http://ricksgalaxy.homestead.com/links.html
Hi, I just downloaded the Distant Stars mod to dumb down the ridiculously overpowered pirates and I am having problems with the checksum not matching the file I downloaded. I'v downloaded it 4 times now and it always comes out different when I try to implement the mod. I decided to just go ahead and try to use it with the checksum being different and it just crashes the game. The walk through for implementing the mod just says to download the mod file again, and this doesn't seem to work. dose any one know if there is something else that can be done to make the DS mod work?
Thanks
Which file are you downloading?
Is the checksum always different every single time, or are you getting the same checksum every time but its different from the one you're supposed to be getting?
The check sum is always different, and the file is distant_stars_v1.01_[checksum#]
When Ryat asked what file I was downloading I looked again and it turned out that i was downloading the file for the original game, I have Trinity, and when I downloaded the beta file for trinity the checksum worked out and now the mod is installed.
Sorry for wasting your time with the silly problem, but thanks.
No worries. was gonna post the correct links for you this time if you were still having problems. You'll probably notice that your menu is screwed up and so is some of the ICO stuff... Just do this:
Just extract those files and paste them into the mod in their proper places overwriting the existing files to fix it.
Hrm. not sure what I am doing wrong here.
I recently bought Trinity on steam, and installed the distant stars for diplomacy the same way I had for Entrenchment in the past, but it just gives me a mini-dump the moment I enable and apply the mod. I tried the DS_D1.34compatible.rar files as well, same deal.
Not sure what I am doing wrong. =/
Yeah I seriously did all that 5 times over, no luck.
Guess I'm just screwed then, lol. Oh well.
So you are getting the correct checksum right?
If you are, it could be an issue with steam.
That's the one thing I forgot to look at, was the checksum. I'll give it another try and note the checksum, see if that works out to be correct or not.
Thanks for your help btw.
*Edit- Well now it seems to work, inexplicably. I did nothing different than the previous several attempts. Weird! This is on my laptop even, where I have to launch it from the Diplomacy exe directly, as it instantly minidumps if I launch it from Steam itself. I'll have to try getting it to work again on my desktop now.
The only errors I ran into was it minidumped once, one of the galaxy 'sky domes' has a really visible texture seam, and desert planets have a really odd texture error where about half of the upper and lower hemisphere is black. I'll let you know if I see these issues on the desktop (assuming I get it working). But hey, nothing's perfect and so long as it remains stable it's not a huge deal to me.
The skybox seams is a leftover because of optimizing the size of it so that it took up less space so we could do more things with the mod before hitting the 2GB wall common to all 32bit apps... That has been fixed in 1.00.
To fix your desert planets (and others in case you just haven't noticed issues yet), you can download the following links and overwrite the existing files:http://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/TextureFixA.rarhttp://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/TextureFixB.rarhttp://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/Mesh.rar
Or you can delete the textures and meshes for the original planets only to force the game to revert to the stock versions. Either way will fix your problem.
That indeed fixed the texture issues, nice! Top notch support, thanks man.
My avatar does say Mod Support on it.
It does?
I though it said Carbon's Shameless Manwhore.
*shrugs* Guess I need to get my eyes checked.
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