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!
lol, only got violent 'cause i dled the the DAY AFTER i fixed that file and it irritated the piss out of me
I don't mean 24 hours, I mean I fixed it 'round 1am and installed yours around noon time
it's like carrying boxes up 4 flights of stairs and someone dropping them down the stair well when you get the last one up there
and I may have to look into the Powerful Pirates a bit more, and thank my lucky stars I load all my caps that CAN disable abilities with that god send of a skill apparently
Frontal shield<Detonate Antimatter
Self-Destruct<ion bolt/Magnetize
Self-Destruct In Progress<Phase shift >=3 Yes, I use a lot of Marauders, and yes they piss off pirates quite well when you jack up anti-matter and armor Techs As Vasari I make at LEAST half my total cap ships are marauders when fighting Ryat's Legion of swashbucklers
It doesn't list a file name. It says there's a run-time error with a bunch of numbers after it, then below that it says there's an automation error and the specified module could not be found. All of your GUI programs throw the exact same error when I try to run them.
Awesome, didn't know the Pirate ships could do that. It was annoying when I thought it was a bug, but now that I know it's intended, it's downright godlike .
Keep up the good work.
You sneaky bastards, I didn't know they did that!!!!!!!!
They've been able to for a long time it's just that the pirate research was a little buggy. That got fixed in one of the recent patches to the game so they actually do make a serious attempt at researching things... My games never last more then a couple of hours, so I never know if they've ever researched it or not.
BTW, Ryat, on a more serious note, I think that we should also add in the ability that the Advent have that let's their caps slowly gain levels, just cap it off sooner like at level 4 just so, 4-5 hours into the game, all those ships just left unchecked would be somewhat on par with everyone else. Something to consider for Rebellion.
spadason, what flavour of windows are you running on? I want this info so that I can attempt to duplicate the problem and fix it (you did extract the entire contents to a single folder and run them inside the folder?)
harpo
I'm running Windows XP SP3, and yes I extracted all of the contents of the rar to a single folder.
Another reason why I need to make the 'Weaker Ryat's Powerful Pirates' Mod!
No. No you don't. If you want weaker pirates, just use the inactive setting and go around.
It should be in the coding. Its in my copy anyways.
http://www.mediafire.com/?b5v8ixn7bokev5w
quick question for the DS team, should tec be able to colonize the urban moon in ds 1.0?
After you research flourishing systemisation, the TEC can and will colonize Urban moons and planets.
Edit:
I just tested it and everything is working as expected.
Edit 2:
So it is, so it is... Guess I need to play longer.
On the plus side I did figure out why the pirate Vulkoras just sits around doing nothing all of the time. Next update to the pack will have that fix included.
Sorry for asking since I know you don't suport modding but...
How do I edit the player portriats? I really want to add my own, but I can't get the .DDS files to open in gimp.
.dds has to be converted into a tga or some other image file. you can get a .dds converter several places online, just google it or try this one. It's not that we don't support modding, it's more like you should ask permission if you're going to be distributing it and give credit. If it's just for you to game at home, we all have our little modifications we've made to the game.
When you get done modifying the image file, save it as a 32 bit tga (smaller tga files don't support alpha channels) and then replace the .dds with the tga, as the game recognizes both.
P.S. This is not me giving permission, just being helpful. You should ask Nacey or pass it through Ryat or Carbon.
Okays, Thank you very much.
And I don't plan on distrubiting, just re-odering the pictures so that my favriote ones for each race are all selected at once, rather then having to change properties each time.
If that's all you're doing, it's both easy and minimally invasive. Just don't mess with the alphas. And do keep in mind there are something like 3 or 4 files associated with the portraits, so do try and catch them all.
... Now I can see why you don't suport mods.
Ummmm.... I tried just re-aranging them, and now there all messed up in game, even the ones I did not touch. Like it does not know which ones are where, sometimes there all black, others it tries to fit two in one....
Sorry.
Interesting. When you converted it to a tga, did it ask what bit count to convert it to and did you go for the highest?
And please tell me you keep backup files. Granted, you should still have the .dds and have moved it to a backup folder rather than allow it to reside next to the tga.
Yes, I have actualy modded other games before, so I do know too keep a backup.
But umm no it did not, when you were talking about the alpha did you mean the clear part? Because that was still there, but I may have acidently messed it up, because with how it fades it is hard to tell where to position them.
Sorry, I just mostly code, not texture edit.
Hey, take the original pic set and draw a circle around the ones you want aligned. Then upload it to mediafire or whatever and PM me the link. I might be able to push them out for tomorrow and I'll PM you back the revised versions.
Ok, thanks. But I think I found the issue.
I think I figured out it was an issue with conversion, the TGA that the converter linked is outputing is causing the issue even before editing.
So umm, that just means I have to get that to work, which should be easier.
Edit : Trying to get its output back to DDS gives an error of "Size=Not a power of 2" I am going to guess that is what is causing the issue.
Edit Edit : Issue solved, I found a plugin for gimp removing the conversion step... I wish I could hug you throught the internet for being so helpful, but +karma will have to do.
Glad you fixed the problem. For future reference, the game can read .dds or tga files, so you don't have to risk corruption by converting back if you don't want to. I personally use Photoshop 7 with a 32 bit plugin, so I just leave well enough alone.
Ditto.
I love what you guys have done with this mod, DS is practically the only mod i run these days. So thanks for an amazing job.
I do however have irritating issue playing DS, mainly due to my rig being quite outdated.
In diplomacy unmodded i play with small fleets so i can make it into the mid late game without too much lag, but in DS the fleet cap has been changed to that small fleets give a total of 3000 supply as opposed to 1500.
My computer doesnt handle the indredible amounts of fleet that inevitably appers during the mid late game
How do i lower the fleet caps back to 1500 again?
On another note, how do I change the default resource rate and credit income.
Would appreciate any help. Btw i'm not a modder so "dumbed down" answers would be most helpful.
The resource rate is a bit more difficult to work with, but as for supply you can change one file.
in the Gameplay.constants file look for
fleetSupplyData-Small fleetSupplyScalar 0.75 fleetSupplyData-Normal fleetSupplyScalar 1.0 fleetSupplyData-Large fleetSupplyScalar 1.25
lines 557-562
not sure but I think the resource rates can be found in there somewhere too, but I'm not real sure on what to alter to effect it the way you want
anyway, reduce the scale to .25 or .50 to reduce it to what you want, play with it ^^
and the Gameplay .constants file can be found in your DS mod's GameInfo folder
and Notepad++ will allow you to retain your sanity while looking for these
had a duh moment
incomeSpeedData-Slow incomeRateGameSpeedScalar 0.0 incomeSpeedData-Normal incomeRateGameSpeedScalar 0.15 incomeSpeedData-Fast incomeRateGameSpeedScalar 0.30 incomeSpeedData-Faster incomeRateGameSpeedScalar 1.25
right above the fleet scales lol
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