I feel that the Swarm are a bit OP but other than that great mod love it! any news or progress so far on the next version?

This might be unrelated to the mod itself but I am having significant performance issues after 4 or 5 planets are colonized.

My educated guess would be

size of the map (Milkiway Galaxy)

Amount of small ships build by the AI.

The game slows down like a 4000 fleet supply late game bomber slugfest.

Work continues on my mod. 

I've spent a lot of time trying to balance out the factions and reducing the size of fleets to make the game run smoother. 

The Humans are getting most of my attention, with a complete overhaul of their technology. They now start with a basic shuttle and have to research new ship designs to gain access to more advanced ships. 

Here's a quick preview of four United Earth ships, the Destroyer, the Cruiser, the Cruiser Mk2 and a Battleship. These ships all have rotating sections (thanks to TobiWahn Kenobi and his Babylon 5 mod for providing me with the know how) and represent the earliest form of Human militarized space craft. Sorry about the quality of the video but I was only using FRAPS.

The Skybox Background in the some of the scenes is from Axel's Infinite Space Mod. I'm still waiting to hear from him if I can use it in the next release. So it's possible that it won't be included.

ARESIV, I am making an attempt to reduce any lag later in the game by scaling down the fleet sizes, replacing some ships and structures with smaller mesh files and by modifying the planet and structure slot counts to stop spam building. You're still the only person to report such a lag very early on the game though, who is the second person? What are both of your computer specs? If it's obviously your specs then there's not a lot I can do about that but if it's the mod I can try and solve the problem.

I've got permission from Valpheus to use his Autocannon sound mod, https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/448230/page/1/#3397954. This is going to be added to all of the United Earth ships and defence platforms.

Ha, no problem mate. I thought you had a friend who was having the same problem. 

It's obviously not your computer because your specs are better than mine. The next release will run much smoother. I've just play tested a game for a few hours and it runs much better.

I'm just experimenting with a new idea. The humans don't get any astronaut constructors automatically spawned. They have to be deployed from certain structures/ships and can only exist in space for a set period of time. This is meant to represent that building structures in space is a tough and difficult thing to do. I know that the AI will throw a fit over this if it's playing as the humans but it could be resolved by having the autocast ability for deploying astronauts turned on. I've already got it working for the player and it adds a sense of realism to building orbital structures.

I've also added an ability to some of the early human ships which disables their hyperspace ability. This represents early human spacecraft that don't have to ability to move too far from their home. They are confined to the gravity well where they are created. 

I'd appreciate any comments on these ideas and any perceived problems and solutions!

I also can not see anything other than the filedropper upload page from the link at the bottom of the OP.

my guess would be either 1)filedropper DROPPED the file or 2) there is a filename changed update and the old file version was intentionally deleted, but my suspect is #1

harpo

possibles are wincustomise (but zip only) dropbox (but limited download volume before paused for 3 days), file factory (but slow downloads and ADDS).

there are also other possible sites, but do not know of them, so can not suggest

harpo

Thanks Aresiv, I'lll have a look at mega. I've tried those ones harpo and experienced problems.

Anyway, I don't want this to turn into a "best upload site thread"! 

Any thoughts on my ideas mentioned above about the astronauts?

Another update, I've changed the research field, you now research a company which unlocks ships/structures etc. For example, researching StarLink industries unlocks several structures which improve hyperspace travel. I've slowed down the Gorg and reduced the size of their raiding fleets. I'm starting work on new Swarm structures and all new abilities.

EDIT:

I've decided not to update the download link for the alpha version. Work is well underway for the Beta 0.1 release which includes all the above mentioned updates.

The alpha version was released to attract feedback and ideas. It's done it's job and given me a lot of good ideas. I want to spend my time updating and improving my mod rather than constantly uploading an alpha version. Thanks for the advice on the upload sites, I'll use them for the beta release soon!

Work continues at a good pace. I'm away from home for the next few weeks for work so there will be a lull in progress. I'll have to pay some attention to the wife and kids when I get home so don't expect any update or release till after the new year. 

I don't need any help thanks. I've updated all the files to version 1.80. Loads of new ships and extras have been added. Existing ships have been improved. A new Milky Way map has been created with jump points added, making the fortification of certain planets of more strategic importance.

the download link is down

is there a place where i can download the mod?

Fantastic news! I've been meaning to have a another go on your beta since I've had my new laptop

Will be around mid February. I've got some more work to do with the Swarm but it's all coming along nicely.