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!
No, you still need individual meshes for each planet type, however, they can be copied over from another planet type and renamed. The only editing needed for the mesh would be the materials section, which is far easier to edit when the file is in text format rather then in BIN and in some sort of modeling program.
NumMaterials 1 Material DiffuseTextureFileName "C:\PlanetIndustrial01-cl.dds" SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "C:\PlanetIndustrial01-da.dds" NormalTextureFileName "" DisplacementTextureFileName "" TeamColorTextureFileName "" Diffuse ffffffff Ambient ffffffff Specular ffe5e5e5 Emissive ff000000 Glossiness 20.000000
Change the texture names, and figure out what works better in game for the Specular, Emissive, and Glossiness, then that basically finishes off the model work.
Working the textures I already went over...
GSD is as simple as adding the name of the planet types into the random planet options, adding in their own sections for individual selection in the planet type count section, adding an entry into the planet item type section to describe what militia can be there at game start... And I believe that's it.
Entity file wise, Reply 7237 basically spells everything out, it just needs to have the info entered into a copied over entity file from either an existing terran or city.
DS for a short time did use both, I put them back in for the 0.8 release, however it appears the changes have since been removed. The GSD still shows remnants of the original planets. DS uses the protoplanet versions instead of the normal versions, and none of those use more then a single texture reference due to the old problem of running out of memory. Same with the alternate textures for the other planets. I suppose that can all be fixed up at some point to re-include the alternate textures since memory isn't as bad of a problem as it used to be.
okay stant, just one thing, I try to turn bin files into txt files but my converter closes immediately after I open it without doing anything. I tried EVERYTHING for a converter but they all do the same thing. please troubleshoot.
Try harpo99999's tools.
link?
the problem I have is trying to find the 2d texture location.
rhempire the textures ARE in the texture folder of the mod, if no there then possibly the diplomacy OR entrenchment texture folders, and link to my utility thread
harpo
how do I open dds files? I cant use gimp and cant afford photoshop.
You can get a dds plugin for gimp.
I have a stand alone DDS converter.
If the dds file has no alpha layer, you can simply open and convert it with IrfanView or you can use the official Nvidia DDS utility or any other converter to change them into something you can work with.
If it does have an alpha layer, I guess GIMP plus DDS plugin is your best (freeware) joice, though that comes with a price by itself. If you want to edit anything other than the alpha layer, you'll have to split the image into it's four layers and work on the red, green, blue and alpha layers seperately and re-compose it after finishing.
Link to a relevant post in the "Modder's "Get-an-Answer" Thread
My above converter maintains the alpha, iirc.
Don't use GIMP, so know nothing of it.
I've used GIMP before, it's free and has a free .dds plugin. If the issue is a lack of ability to install it on your computer, I think you might be able to install it into a jump drive (flash-drive) and run it from that.
That really depends into what format you convert it
It took a bit of getting used to for me (I used Photo Impact before, but a very old version without alpha-channel support), but once I got worked in, I started to appreciate it. All the menus and options can be overwhelming on first try and the helpfiles are.... not very helpfull (in regards to alpha channels anyway), but otherwise a fine programm, especially considering it doesn't cost anything. It's also available in a variety of languages.
The Nvidia DDS utilities also preserve the alpha channel, but working with it in GIMP without the DDS plugin is rather limited and odd (you can only edit the alpha channel itself, but nothing else).
And since the plugin you need to work with alpha channels can open DDS files directly, you can save yourself the trouble of converting the files into TGA or PNG or whatever first and just load them directly into GIMP.
Not saying I can't run GIMP, but I have Photoshop 7.1 and Paint Shop Pro. Neither can read .dds directly, but the converter doesn't put me off either. I'm sure I can find a plug-in for PS7
Got my dds plug-in from the Nvidia site. Probably easiest just to go there and get it for PS7.
so atm theres no plans for DS on reb/steam >
The original three have no issues with Steam so yes DS will becoming to Rebellion.
See the OP.
Coming Soon!
I don't mind throwing my hat toward any potential improvements, since it's all just looks anyway. People can e-mail me the files I need.
And I hear each race got their own HUD finally.
to HUD yes, and to my q yes!! love DS
there is a problem with some dds maps, they show NOTHING I expected from the normal planet maps from in game
I assume when you say planet maps you mean planet textures...
Depending on the program you're using to view it, you may have to turn 'show Alpha layer' off. I know IrfanView sometimes will completely wash out an image if it's trying to show a layer that doesn't exist... Or will wash it out if the layer does exist... One of those two. I forget. Not really the point though. You'll have to play with the settings of whatever you got to figure it out because I can assure you, the additional planet textures all show up just fine.
I have used GIMP for resizing images at times, though primarily I use Photoshop 7.0 and I have gotten my .dds plug-in from the nvidia site as well.
Need some help guys.
I'm doing a game on the random-huge-single star map as the Advent. I've run into a bit of a roadblock since i dont usually play as advent.
Picture this: I'm fighting 9 AI's on unfair difficulty with open teams. 5 have been wiped out. i took control of about 2/5 of the outside edge of the map(so i've got about 20 planets) and my good friend Pink (also advent) is sort of enclosed by my empire. together we control a little less than half the map.
On the other side of the map the two of us are fighting three Vasari. (I don't know how powerful each is since i've not managed to get a scout in for like 15000 seconds. I do however know that the blue team controls the majority of the territory). I'm being savaged by kostura cannons and the blue somehow seems to be able to regenerate its swarms of frigates without even blinking. I've been using two groups of four Radiance Battleships to kill all his frigates. (it's working really well. I'll just jump in and cleansing brilliance about 70 frigates and cruisers at once then run. I'm killing about 200 frigates every ten minutes without losing any of my own forces.) Even so, his fleet just keeps getting bigger. I can't keep up since his kostura cannons (he has eleven at the moment) keep destroying every single resource asteroid at both of my giant ice planets. Without those, my crystal supply is 3.4 per second.
But that's not really fixable, since they are too far away to destroy. The real problem is his fleet.
At any one time he has about six capital ships (i kill them all the time so they're low level), 50 heavy cruisers, 75 assailiants, 40 subverters, 35 carriers, etc.
I've got a pretty good battle ball going with 10 guardians, 15 subjugators, 14 crusaders, 17 defense vessels, 7 starfish, 9 Radiance battleships, 5 motherships, 4 halcyons, and 2 rapture battlecruisers. (no illuminators since they die too fast in my opinion and no carriers since the AI keeps them in near constant freeze)
Full pacts with my ally, fully upgraded plasma weapons, full shielding, health, armor, mass transcendence, and antimatter upgrades. Maxed out culture and such (my homeworld's got 165% allegiance)
It's a virtual deadlock, since i can't destroy his fleet fast enough and he can't manage to ever destroy any of my capitals (all of them are level 10 and I retreat them if they're going to die). I can own his fleet but he has another one ready in just a couple of minutes.
the most progress i ever made was when we had an all out slaughterfest and i managed to destroy his entire fleet with moderate losses. I managed to take over two of his planets but he had another fleet ready in only about six or seven minutes and mine was sorely reduced so i couldn't continue.
I cannot defend well because his kostura cannons are constantly shelling my frontier worlds, destroying any and all tactical structures i choose to make. It's gotten so bad that i deleted the string that makes the game tell me that a superweapon has fired.
Is there anything i can do to reduce the effectiveness of the cannons or destroy them?
Is there anything wrong with my fleet? Any particular use for Revelation battlecruisers I've overlooked?
Any strategies for slaughtering inexhaustible numbers of frigates?
Any and all help would be appreciated. I'm 6 hours in and only able to enjoy the fireworks. No sense of accomplishment for this poor soul.
By the way, i like unorthodox tactics (as long as they work)
PLEASE! SHARE SOME OF YOUR UNMATCHED WISDOM WITH ME!
Use scouts and their kamikaze ability vs the Cannons. This will may or may not get rid of them but it will force them to move their fleets back to attack your scouts while you smash in and take over more of their frontier.
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