The download link for the alpha version of Dark Space will be up in next 24 hours.

Please read before posting any feedback, thank you.

Due to being far from finished there are several problems and some work obviously is missing. The mod was always created with the Human faction being the primary race. Due to this, most of the play testing has been carried out with the player as the Human faction. There are issues that have already been raised if the AI plays as the humans, such as how does it rearm Tactical weapons. These issues have not yet been addressed.

I'm happy with the AI playing as the Swarm. During testing, they expand their territory and build huge fleets. The few times that I've played as the Swarm, I have noticed the slow expansion rate and travel. The Swarm are still largely unfinished, the textures need improvement and they need more structures and some need to be replaced completely.

The Gorg race as the pirates are complete.

The research subjects are from finished but there is enough to give a taster of whats to come.

The main issue I'm concerned about is the gameplay! As I've mentioned I have noticed the slow expansion time when playing as the Swarm. I'm also aware of the massive amount of time it takes for the Humans and Swarm to come into direct contact. However, one of the main ideas which drove my mod was to make the map HUGE! I wanted the player to get a real feel of the vastness of Space. Unfortunately this does have a direct impact of the gameplay I feel. One possible solution I'm toying with is to introduce a couple of new races. For the humans I am thinking of introducing a rebel human faction nearby to Earth, this should have the effect of keeping the gameplay moving along by direct contact with another race. Another solution is to continue with adding interesting little bits to the Galaxy map, making the expansion of your territory more interesting as you encounter strange new things. For example, I have added a few planets that have been destroyed by an unknown force. If you investigate the solar system containing these destroyed worlds you come across a wormhole that takes you to new system populated by some very nasty aliens.

No multiplayer testing has been carried out, and I've removed the multi-player option at this early stage as I'm still concentrating on the basics of this mod.

Over the past two years I've slowly been putting this mod together and learning new skills. I've been adding, replacing, and removing all sorts of data during this time. In fact, the mod has had at least five complete overhalls. As a result I've completely lost track of where some of the models, music and sound came from. I apologise in advance for not giving credit. This was because I never kept a record as I initially never intended to release this to the public. The United Earth human faction and the Gorg Pirates are mainly drawn from a game called Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. The Swarm were heavily influenced by the Tyranid Race from Warhammer 40K, with some Swarm models also coming from Nexus. In the unlikely event that you do find some work that I've left in and the author has not been creditted, then please let me know and I'll address the matter immediately.

I'm not familiar with that download site. Is there anyway to upload it to something that doesn't require me to execute an *.exe?

I just started a quick game, and there seems to be an extreme technological dichotomy.  It's 2210 and we're still using the Space Shuttle design and 1960's style space suits for our construction astronauts while we're building some very nice warships?  In 2210 and with presumably more of a foothold in space I think the ISS and Space Shuttle would be irrelevant designs due to age and limited size and payload capacity.  I also think you should re-name the Frigates tab to "Primitive Vessels" and put the Solar vessels from Nexus in there as 1st Gen exploratory and warship designs (say, for the war against Mars and initial space exploration period) and have the Noah vessels in the Cruisers tab as "Advanced Vessels" designed in response to the Gorg and Swarm threats, and therefore need individual research to be unlocked as humanity designs all-new spaceframes in response to the escalating threat levels.

Aside from that and the very boring exploration period, your mod looks really nice.

EDIT: Some smaller, more scenario-oriented maps would be better, such as a Sol map where Earth and Mars need to fight it out for control of the Solar System.

It is probably a spam download button.

Massive wall of text incoming:

Well, there's only two maps in your mod right now and they're both extremely large, so I figured a smaller map where fleets contact sooner would be a bit more fun.

Some more feedback after more time spent playing:

Due to structures taking up few slots, players can easily build massive amounts of orbital infrastructure around their worlds.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing assuming you intended it that way, but it might be hard to balance with the current lab setup and the ease with which trade ports can be built for a massive influx of money.  Combine this with the large amount of worlds available right now and space is looking massively crowded.

Volcanic worlds like Mercury can get 200 each of logistics and tactical slots, and I'm assuming that's a typo/bug.

The better thrusters researches are nice ideas, but it currently only applies to capitals.  Using the mass reduction research modifier will produce the same result but for all vessels, and the displayed strings for that can be edited in English.str to say something like "Increased Thrust" instead of "Mass Reduction".

Rotating sections for ships can be made through attaching the rotating section to the mesh as a particle effect.  I don't think you can attach mesh points to them though, so the Stiletto wouldn't be able to deploy fighters from its gravity centrifuge if you do include the Sol ships as 1st Gen designs.

Some more weapon variety would be nice, such as lasers and Gauss and railgun weapons.  I doubt in 2210 we'll still be using chemical propellants for warship cannons, so even if you don't adjust weapon stats, it would be nice to see some sort of weapon type and particle change for them.  Autocannons are very low-velocity weapons for space combat, and even the Sol ships in Nexus used Gauss technology, after all.  7 Deadly Sins has some custom bullet GFX for Gauss and railgun weapons and we'd be happy to share them if you wanted to use them, although our railgun effects are fairly large and really only suited for large-scale warship cannons.

I think your two cruisers should get access to Excaliburs, Thunderbolts, and Sabers as they're certainly large enough to each host 2-3 squadrons and it would be nice to be able to get some strikecraft support without needing to build a capital ship.  I also wouldn't mind seeing destroyers get access to a single squadron with a choice of either Thunderbolts or Excaliburs.

Just finished a quick game and I was impressed. I thought the space suits and space suttle we're a nice touch, not very realistic but fun to watch.

I noticed all the ships for the humans take up two slots, was this done on purpose? 

I have a little suggestion the building auto place button is missing, if the logistics figures are correct for the planets I think having the auto place button would make life easier. Adding a hundred or so buildings can get a tad laborious. 

Thank you very much for this mod, its shaping up to be an excellent mod.

Very cool!!!

Notes:

Rotating Ship Sections & AI using Tactical Systems (anti-matter): Look into the B5 (Babylon 5) mod project and ask Darvoth and crew for some pointers as they have rotating ship sections figured out and have a work-around for the AI that allows it to use this without giving any cheats to the player.

Large Maps: I VERY much quite enjoy this. I like playing on Normal or Slow settings and just letting the space epic trundle along. Very exciting.

Exploration: I would contact GoaFan77 or myself (maybe both) as we've both done extensive work with planetary templates (random templates at that) that can be created to allow for debris fields, mining planets, pirate outposts, raiding parties, military drills, aliens investigating unknown artifacts, etc ... and it makes the universe come alive very rapidly. The events and what they're made of can be made to be randomly different (within boundaries) every time you load the map. These are all setup within the GalaxyScenarioDef file I believe. Very exciting stuff.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. There are some really good ideas which I'm looking to use to improve the mod.

I've just been compiling a list of all your suggestions and will be starting work on the next version within the next week. 

I know I've already said that the Swarm still need a lot of work and I haven't playtested as much with them as I have with the humans but I'd still be interested to hear any feedback or new ideas for them?

You don't happend to have a download like that doesn't require a premium account that cost 3 euro for 7 days??

Don't know really, I've seen a few files hosted on dropbox lately but I haven't tested myself.

No luck finding a file hosting site yet?

New Link is up and running. If it goes down again let me know and I'll start the whole process again