Compatibility
Maelstrom is currently compatible with
Original v1.195 | Entrenchment v1.055 | Diplomacy v1.37 | Rebellion v1.94
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Credits
For contributions in testing and concepts ICEman, Quiet_Man, Malanthor, UncleJ and many others _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Introduction
The Maelstrom Mod introduces four new races to the SoaSE Universe.
It keeps the original races, the TEC, Advent and Vasari who are still to be found building and battling as usual.
All of the new races are independent of the original races and have unique strengths and weaknesses.
Learn more and download the Maelstrom Mod at ...
ModDB Website
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Please note that for all mods the 'Installation and Change notes' are included in the download.
Use the recommended 'Graphics Effects Setting' as stated in the Installation notes of the mod.
Hi Malanthor,
Hope you had a good holiday!
Must admit I have been distracted ... I've been interested for some time in doing some 3D animation. So if have been coming up to speed with DAZ Studio, Poser and Carrara. None the less I have also been doing optimization of the Maelstrom mods, based on the The Sins Optimization Project. So far having optimized most of the Particles effects, Sounds, Planets meshes & textures, I haven't noticed any substantial improvements in game play performance.
I am with a new ISP so download/upload bandwidth is not limiting me and hence I was thinking that I might release a beta for all Maelstrom mods i.e Maelstrom v1.191, Maelstrom the Expansion v1.191 and Maelstrom Entrenchment v1.051. Keep tuned to this station.
Aye was good, water and room to breath
Nothing wrong in beeing distracted if its in a worthwhile venture and not picking ones nose. <grins>
That sounds very nice, looking forward to the next release very much.
This mod sounds extremely entertaining, and I plan to try it out soon.
I have added a updated Maelstrom Mod (v1.191) also have released the Maelstrom Expansion (v1.191) Mod
Also back to tidying up the Entrenchment mod ... expect it soon!
Very nice. Cheers.
Their is only one minor problem I'm experiencing, any capital ship ability that adds additional fighters does not work, and it affects all the factions.
Is this normal?
Great mod by the way.
Hi 501General,
Can you clarify ... which mod version and a particular capital?
Its the expansion, and only capitals with abilities that add extra strike craft, i choose the the ability and no extra crafts are added. and I've tried it with all three factions.
There are 4 Capitals with the ability to add extra strike craft ...
Carrier (Replicators), Battle (TA), Carrier (TA) & Dreadnought (TA).
I have checked the entity files for the abilities and they look ok.
For the Dreadnought (TA), its ability is only activated once researched.
Will check further ...
Just comfirming that I have tested the above mentioned Capitalships abilities (i.e their extra strike craft) and they are working as designed. So not sure what you are seeing?
Tested and tried now, very fun.
I think he mean all the dreadnaughs, they get 2 additional fighthers per level to i think 22 at lvl 10, but when you buy the lvl 6 abbility and turn them into "starbases" they dont get 10 more as it says on the abbility. Other than that this is really nice stuff, waiting eagerly on the entrenchment version.
Quick question, if I have diplomacy how do i boot up to just vanilla?
Three quick answers:
In your start menu, Start > All Programs > Stardock Games > Sins of a Solar Empire > Sins of a Solar Empire
If for whatever reason you don't have shortcuts on your start menu, you can always go folder diving for the executable.For example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Sins of a Solar Empire.exe
Or if you're already in the game and not playing a modded version that hasn't updated their game's opening menu, you can click on the play Sins button to dump out of Diplomacy and start up Vanilla.
By the way, 25 cap for a dreadnaught is way to little, 100 would be more appropriatly.
So.. got any idea when entrenchment version is coming besides 2010?
Thanks for the feedback (for Reply #83), I'll look into it.
By the way, just for you, because you keep asking and asking and ... I have released the Entrenchment version of the Mod for v1.051. It is not complete and fully tested, so no guarantees - if you have problems let me know. Two points to note regarding the mod ...
1. for development/testing I have given the colony ships (of the 3 new races) the abilities to make Starbases basically for free and without research. You can ignore this ability and use their Starbase constructors.
2. the Solarus cloak on the Replicator Starbase is what can I say ... useless, i.e it cannot move or repair in Phase-space. Its a work in progress.
Other than that ... enjoy and let me know how you go!
In response to your comment ...
"By the way, 25 cap for a dreadnaught is way to little, 100 would be more appropriatly."
The tactical slots for s Starbase in Entrenchment is 0 ... I was tempted to make the tactical slots for the Dreadnought 0!
the new entrenchment crashes 20-30 min in game.
don't know whats causing it but wanted to know if anyone else had this prob.
Yeah, but you can just build a ton of dreads and use them as capitols only more powerfull and half the cap.
But i assume that in the entr version this point is moot so hehe. Will comment when ive tried it out.
Fun stuff, in the middle of trying it all out now. Missing the dreads in the entrenchment version though, so hope you plan on adding them later -albeit with a different lvl 6 abbility hehe. Just played for 2 hours straight and no visible bugs so all good.
The motivation behind the Expansion Mod was to emulate Entrenchment i.e by having Starbases (i.e Dreadnoughts). I am not overly impressed with mines, in fact, if you lay lots of mines you are guaranteed to slow the game. Yes, I could include mines in the Expansion Mod.
Why emulate Entrenchment? Because in my tests of Entrenchment (both the Maelstrom Mod and the non-Modded) the game was liable to slow down on large maps! Whereas with the Original SoaSE (both the Maelstrom Mod and the non-Modded) I rarely had problems!!
Now the real problem with Dreadnoughts, in the Expansion mod, is how the AI uses them. You cannot get the AI to prioritize their build. So the AI might build 1 or 2 and that's it. Whereas a human player would build several and hence have a large advantage to say the least!
Where I take the Maelstrom Expansion mod from here is not certain.
I also had a problem crashing 20 - 30 minutes in game. It Could be from the fact that the Cator Production facilities produce resources at an exponential rate and it grows... exponentially X.X. Also the Hord carrier make advent fighters not cator ones . Having fun with this, hope you keep the Dreadnaughts. (at 25 pop cap please! Continue your uniqueness and don't cave like Every Other mod that has *special* ships like that ).
Feedback appreciated ... I'll work the problem/s.
Just a note on why I haven't as yet included the Dreadnoughts:
Its a matter of mesh counts and texture counts. The Maelstrom mod approximately doubles the number of mesh in the game (particularly the large meshes: ships, planets, structures) and the number of textures is large to say the least. Also I have basically maxed out the number of sound files (2000). So there is a potential for a slow running game under all this weight!
I'll stabilize/optimize the Maelstrom Entrenchment mod, as it is, and then take it from there.
Yeah that is true, but if you up the cost of the dreadnaughts to like 100 (for entr version) they are going to cost you, so wont be totally unfair to the AI. Atleast way better than if they cost 25 hehe. If you add dreads as pure ships in the ent version at 25 cap it will be no point at all to get any other cap ship whatsoever so please dont do that. Mines is not needed. it just clogs up the game faster imo, But each to their own taste.
Okay ill be waiting eagerly for the dreads then, awaiting your optimization first. Good work by the way, i am enjoying myself very much.
Glad your enjoying it!
It was fun developing it ... and playing it, that is, when the major bugs were squashed!
Thanks to Ironclad and Stardock!
I agree with you on the Dreadnoughts.
Let me know if you encounter any problems, your feedback has been great!!
Your work looks very impressive. How did you make the textures ? I tried to mod myself a while ago with Xsi and if i wasn't too bad about modeling, i found UV mapping and texturing a true nightmare using Gimp. Do you use some special software like zbrush ?
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