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!
So I saw that enhanced 4X mod and I liked a bunch of the stuff it did/fixed, like culture being somewhat useful now.
Is there any chance of you guys asking the creator of it if you can add it in Distant stars? And if not, how much work do you think it would be too get both mods working at once without mini-dumping?
Here's a copy of them in text format so you can read them.
http://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/BuffEscapes.rar
Let me know what you discover. The dev.exe complains about a lot of things that aren't necessarily problems, at least, not game breaking ones.
I just whipped everything up while I was literally unpacking from my vacation so everything is largely untested as a group pack, however individually each thing has had extensive play testing before I left and shouldn't cause issues.
Depends on the files that were changed, realistically, as long as all necessary files are present, and the entity manifest, galaxyscenariodef file, and player entity files all agree on what is there, then it's very easy. For example, if you simply copy and paste over the DS files with the 4x mod files and there are no new additions, then you're done because DS already accounts for everything. If there are a lot of new files, then depending on how many new files and where they fit in the game, you could spend a couple of days just trying to sort everything out.
Bleh spending days sorting through files is not something I feel like doing right now, so I hope the copy-paste works then... kind of doubt it though.
BTW did anyone figure out the reason for the ATI video card graphics bug yet? Still been wanting too try and fix that
Taking a look at the 4X stuff, I must say that I really do love the 'Random Encounters' that are present. It's just, really neat. I don't suppose, with permission, that we could include these into the DS mod Stant?
DO explain said encounters or at least give a link.
No Flagship love for me.
If I add the flagship mod then the DS V1 mod, I get a minidump. I can add any of the other mods in proper stacking order and things play great.
Yes, I did the basic just Flagship and DS V1.0 in diplomacy and it is no joy for me.
I even deleted and reloaded the expansion and it still did not work for me.
Has anybody else have this issue?
I apologize for not putting the link up. Scroll down in the OP until you see the Random Encounters. We played with this in a Modder's game last Friday night and the random encounters are really cool. It just makes it 'feel' that much more awesome.
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/414639
For some reason whenever converting the files responsible for the crashing from text to binary they become corrupt. I have no idea why it's just those 6 files each and every time, but I'm in the process of rewriting them just in case its got something to do with their structure. Will post updated links when I have everything all worked out.
Hey stant, are the escape skill supposed to spawn things continuously, or is the finish condition line not necessary for the skills? I just see "spawns ships at planet" but I don't know if that's frigates/drop-ships/or what.
It says spawn ship on the buff, and the number is limited to 1 by the conditions under the spawnship line. Therefor a finish condition isn't needed because it'll spawn that single ship, or it wont if other conditions haven't been met like available fleet supply. It's not like a persistent buff or some other effect that needs to be limited by a time count or another condition like jumping to a new gravity well or stop after so much damage has been given.
As for if it's a frigate, cap ship, drop ship, whatever, that's limited by the line asking for the required ship type and the subsequent count. In the escape buff, it calls for the frigate escape pod, which in reality can be any ship entity.
Anyway, here is the buffs in text format for the flagship creation part of things.
http://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/BuffFlagship.rar
Those three files in there, combined with the three files I put up before will fix the problem with the minimod crashing. Tomorrow I'll get around to reuploading the whole thing (hopefully) with all 6 files in text format since converting them to binary just screws them all up for whatever reason...
Never had issues before with those files.
It was a compression issue. they got corrupted in the process somehow, that's why they wouldn't convert again.
lol, hit submit too soon.
But, good job Stant, and thanks for the clarification =D I've been messing with abilities here and there but I haven't delved too far into the spawning ones. Did something to the starbase phase gate that I think made it tremendously more effective. Set the autocast available and moved the duration time 60 seconds short of the cooldown. The autocast is set to nearest orbital body so there's a 60 second window of no phase gate making it a little more realistic for a "sub-system phase gate" instead of a dedicated one. Still costs antimatter and everything else remains the same, and you have the option of deactivating autocast so I feel it adds a bit more incentive to actually get it. but yeah, that's about the most balanced thing I changed lol
Also: got the laser beam mod to work with the Flagships ^^ it looks so awesome
Update: Hey stant, we need an updated string file for those same abilities. Been looking at them and I think I figured out what they do. Upon the flagship's death it makes another "creator" craft to spawn a new one. But the ability is also set to ultimate so, does that mean it would cost a point to keep this ability?
Also, the spawning method for the flagship bugs me, I saw the same method from ZombieRus5's method of "jump in upon destruction" but I was wondering if you could make it build the flagship like how a starbase is built by it's constructor. Just have the blueprint filling in out in a gravity well somewhere, but that's just an idea, think Zombie said there was some kind of crashing issue with it I think, but It's been so long I can't remember exactly x.x
Nope
Fine, what does it do? ;O
The only way to spawn a capital ship outside of a factory is to have it jump in from out of no where.
yeah, that's what you said that I couldn't remember, and now I remember why I stopped nagging at the idea
and i figured out that buff...it's an auto "revive"? x.x
No, it was not a compression issue, it was a conversion issue. I have the text files that were never converted over. Once I converted copies of them to binary, the files broke and the game crashed. Trying to convert the copies back to text failed. I repeated the process half a dozen times. Every single time, the files broke when they got converted to binary. Just those six. Compression was never even used in my testing to figure out what happened because the problem occurred before that step. Coincidentally, the files included in the archive match up with the broken binaries almost perfectly after they are uncompressed which means winRAR didn't screw anything up at all on either end of the compression/decompression. Trust me, this isn't my first day on the job, I know how to track down problems and accurately pin down the source. I run everything in text form on my end, whenever I release something, I convert it to binary because binary loads faster and prevents people from tinkering with the files, thus I sometimes miss things like that... But who really cares when it's easily fixable.
Neither have I, don't know why this time it decided to be picky as hell and stop working, but I do remember having this problem with an early release of yours when I tried converting everything back to text it wouldn't work, but the game didn't crash either, then in an update you put out everything in text, so I got what I wanted without having to ask.
Was thinking about it, but that would have delayed the release of the pack and I wanted it out while people were still not in school, not at work, wasting time playing games, etc. That's how the big guys do it right? Release buggy content and patch later. Honestly, though, it's been so long since I played, I completely forgot about the missing strings. Will work on that.
That's why it's called an escape pod. I could however make it fake build something (by that I mean build in spirit, not actually build) by way of disabling movement and making the self destruct take much longer before it actually happens and calls in the flagship. This way you would have to start the process in a relatively safe place or risk having the escape pod blown up. Thoughts?
I like the idea, is there a "useonlyinfriendlygravitywell" modifier you could tack to it? that way (sensibly) the escape pod would have to jump out to a neutral/allied/or owned gravity well before creating a new flagship, and if the enemy "pops your pod" before his get away, no more flagships for that fella
Also, would it be possible to have it "fleetbeacon" in a new "admiral's shuttle" at the edge of the gravity well...sucks for you if the shuttle is brought in on the other side of the enemy fleet though
The vasari flagship tech is behind the bombing tech. Wondering about moving the scout's phase jump immunity to the bottom category and putting the flagships tech there
Update: ok, all that up there wasn't necessary, just changed the line Block 0 to Block 1, but the research description isn't showing up in game, apparently it's also unselectable...it's transparent in the research list, and grayed still when you reach the Tier 5
Fixed: alright I fixed the problems, changed Block line to Block 2 and the cords below it to [ 5 , 1 ] puts it in it's own spot around the shields and hull upgrades, and the research info is now displayed ^^
Not that I know of.
Well, it costs a lot of resources to make one, so as a human player, the best thing to do is turn off the auto use... That is assuming you're fast enough to select the ship and turn it off before it auto fires the ability.
That's what it already does.
Yeah i saw it appear and explode in like, 2 seconds lol
so instead I put the auto-cast on default to false lol
Regarding Stant's Addon pack, I noticed that the Powerful Pirates minimod crashes the game when it's time to send out the first wave.
Since I currently have a few days free time, I can work on that a bit myself.
Is there anything more to do, in the ships entity files, for the Dynamic Movement mod than changing "usesFighterAttack FALSE" to true?
You could look into the flagship files and alter their few weapons(I just used notepad++'s compare feature and swopped out their projectile to beam on the one's they needed changed) worked out nicely, though I had to go back into all the caps and replace the squads with Elites. works out nicely ^^ But I had to add a few files into your mod Norbert =D
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