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!
A couple quick questions:
1. What languages are being used to mod SoaSE? (usually the core is C++ and then scripts are done in Lua, Python, Ruby, or something similar).
2. "We currently shutdown that part of our mod for rebalancing. There are files that come with the mod that you can put into the GameInfo folder that will give the capital ships more firepower but they are a bit unbalanced." What would it take to create a balance in the capital ship system? Just editing files (I'm assuming XML or something), or hard-coding parameters?
3. Is the DS team open to a part-time coding helper?
Background: mathematics student, recently software developer for robotics companies and gov/intel defense contractors. let me know.
1. Not sure as to the language but you can read it (once converted) in Notepad those we prefer Notepad++
2. LOL Just editing the files. We left them at base.
3. Sure, our other part-time helper has decided not to buy Rebellion due to its usage of Steam.
It's done in English. No special coding language is needed once you convert the files from binary to text. It was done like that to encourage modding and make it very easy.
It just takes testing and feedback which is mostly done internally between updates. Editing is again done in English once the files are converted to text. You have to look at rate of fire (prebuff cooldown and delay), damage (Bank damage value), and how quickly the weapon hits it's target (travel speed) to figure out overall damage output. On the surface it looks pretty simple, in the game, tweeking one too much can seriously over power or nerf a ship, so getting it right takes time.
Depends. Learn how to mod the game https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/407617 and post up some stuff. It's generally easier to accept someone with a body of work to show rather then take it on faith that they'll figure it out along the way.
And yet, I still find ways to get things put together. I just have this embarrassing side effect of releasing buggy stuff because I can't test it before I pass it along. How's the Flagship mini looking? Hoping I did better with that then the maps. =|
Ugh, haven't even looked at it. Too many issues like having my teeth pulled and other unfun stuff for my vacation. Can't wait to get back to work.
But more frustrating to those who do know how to code, since it limits what you can do.
Done in . . English? So they wrote some kind of DSL or something? I'll have to investigate this.
"learn to mod the game." Yeah, I'll try some stuff and get my feet wet. School starts next week, so it may be a couple weeks before I appear again.
I'm no big fan of Steam either, but I still play Rebellion.
I'll try out some mods of my own and ping you guys again soon.
Thanks, and I look forward to helping out as I can.
A question:
How god-awful difficult would it be to try to add new resources to the game? Or is this hard coded and therefore impossible? In particular I'm interested in creating the ability to harvest some 'special' resource types that unlock nifty abilities. A couple I had in mind: dark matter, exotic matter, and perhaps some crystal types you find on planets. This could help make volcanic and other exotic planet types more interesting - i.e. a volcanic planet could have a higher likelihood of having some unique resource. Obtaining dark matter unlocks research to do... something. Something crazy.
I don't want to spend ten hours on this and then figure out it's all hard coded, hence why I ask here. You guys have already gotten into the nitty-gritty stuff, so there's no sense in reinventing what you guys have done.
Thanks,
Gauss
Resource types are hardcoded, sorry. You can rename them using English.str but you cannot add or delete resource types.
Well, shucks.
Well, the game engine itself is probably written in C++ or something. But we do not have access to the source code nor can interact with it in any way. Basically its a sideways version of programming, rather than editing the program to give you the an unknown piece of output from a given input (files), you edit the input so it gives you the output you already decided you wanted (or at least close to it). And the game files are just structured English that the game reads in (plus images and other graphics related stuff).
FYI I know first hand Rome: Total War and Kotor were much the same way, and I've heard that about many other RTS games. Commercial games where the source code is totally modifiable are pretty rare, the only one I know off the top of my head is Minecraft (as the whole thing is just a java executable jar file), and unsurprisingly there are a ton of cool mods for it. Some games can be hybrids, like Rise of Nations, where the source code was untouchable, but it had support for its own scripting language based on C++.
Hey guys, wondering if it's possible to not use Balknights graphics mod with Rebellion? While the Vasari effects are awesome, the rest don't really do it for me.
Besides that, awesome mod, played it to death on Diplomacy.Thanks!
Normally I'd tell you that if you don't like part of something included, mod the parts you don't like out yourself because the vast majority of people do like it in. However!
The plan for Rebellion is to drop Balknights graphics mod because it's horribly outdated at this point (made for Entrenchment) and go with Krdax's Total Effects Mod (made in Diplomacy with Rebellion in mind). Maybe get a few custom effects for DS only, if they lock him in the dungeon with me long enough. >;Þ
At this point, it's still in purely because the current alpha is a straight port over from Diplomacy and removing it takes a lot of time and if someone is going to put in that kind of effort, they may as well just change everything to the new effects, which will come with the Beta when that is ready. Currently has the same release schedule as the Dawn of Victory mod.
But for different reasons with different attitudes.
@GoaFan77: Then you have games like the Elder Scrolls series, in which you can add just about as much stuff as you want (depending on your system specs). The actual source is not available, but the scripting for mods is powerful enough to alter game mechanics, esp. with WryeBash.
For Rebellion, I'll be contented adding some minor tweaks as time permits.
I was going to mention them. For Oblivion at least a lot of extra possibilities were enabled with the Oblivion Script Extender. I'm not exactly sure how they did that, but either way, sadly Sins has no scripting capacities (at least that we're aware of). Abilities can kind of fake them, but in places where they can' be used options can be fairly limited.
In many cases, yes, replacement would work just fine (or rather, deleting what is included with DS so the game uses the old one), but it's still potentially a little more in depth because there's the whole every entity that calls for a specific particle that does not have an original would have to be changed to something else or a duplicate of the original made and renamed to replace the current one, and the explosion data would have to be changed if you got rid of any particles that were used by that.
Freelancer had a locked kernel and no native scripting but after a few years, some players managed to get Perl and javascript to work changing text files as the game was played--something Freelancer had never been designed for.
This allowed them to create destructible, player owned bases, a dynamic economy, clan plugins and dockable capitalships--to name just a few.
Maybe one day we'll get lucky and someone will figure it out here.
Absolutely cannot wait for the pirates to be fixed, Going to love sending 'anon' pirate missions to my friends and blame the computer
Will be doing them after the next update. Stay Tuned.
the mod is great, but i am getting frequent crashes about every 30 min. Cant seem to find a common thread between them. Is this just it ALPHA-ness acting up. As usual the mod is great work. realy enjoying it while its running
Edit: update, now its just crashing every time i try to launch the game....joy. Anyone have any suggestions?
This.
The game itself will be updating tomorrow to 1.04 and we hope to be fixing a lot of issues as we update ours to 1.04 (like the pirates).
And including flagships?
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