Major Stress Major Stress

[MOD WIP] Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels 2 (updated 01/10/09)

[MOD WIP] Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels 2 (updated 01/10/09)

Featured (by a small mention) in the October edition of PC Gamer magazine

Candidate for Mod Database's 2008 Mod of the Year

This is the OLD "Work in Progress" thread for the Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels 2 mod.

The new WIP topic is here https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/342747

The "Release" topic can be found here https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/322473


The mod is intended to be a hommage, and tribute to the original Sacrifice of Angels mod for Homeworld. It will use many of the same models, and effects created for that mod by the Trekmods team. Like the original SoA mod SoA2 is set during the Dominion War era of Star Trek. Using both canon, and non-canon units to recreate those battles with Sins "empire building" mechanic added. Like in SoA you can fight battles in SoA2 using hundreds of starships. Sometimes thousands if your computer can handle it ;)

While the mod was not intended as a "Total Conversion". That is exactly what it is winding up being. There is much about the Sins engine, and mechanics that we still need to learn. There are some hard coded stumbling blocks we have to overcome.

The factions will be the Federation, Klingons, Romulan, and the Dominion (with Breen, and Cardassian ally units). The main factions seen in the Dominion War. With a "Surprise" as the Pirate faction.

Factions like the Borg "may" be added in the future. LokiGodofMischief is working on a very good 3rd party Borg add on for SoA 2. It is very possible his add on may be merged with SoA 2 at a much later time.

The current version of SoA 2 is  0.03b   "The Second Dominion War". Look for it here  https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/322473

0.03b only works with Sins versions 1.1, 1.11, and 1.12.

All previous versions of SoA 2 are obsolete, and will not be supported, or hosted anymore. All older version downloads will be removed.

We will NOT port SoA 2 over to Entrenchment until after Entrenchment is out of beta, and released. Along with proper forge tool updates.

I am working on the models mostly ALONE so it may take a while for any new ship model updates.

Darkshimmer is the Balancing guru, Code monkey, and Master at arms. We do have other contributers, and the best 3rd party work from the finest artists in the trek mod community to help make SoA 2 the best it can be.

Status of Demo 0.04  "The actors are in place" 

Will update when i have news.

General Changes:

Manshooters Volumetric Explosions mod will be included as of 0.03a

May include Sins Plus (planets), but ill need to see how much that mod needs changing to incorporate into SoA 2.

SoA 2 0.03 and above is now patch 1.1, and better compatable. Sins patches 1.11, and 1.12 only address balancing, and online exploits, and have no effect on the mod.

Ships will have some anti stike craft weaponry.

Ships are still being added and balanced accordingly.

More re-balancing so that one faction is not overpowered over the other.

The Federation:

Faction is complete. Only structures left

The Klingon Empire

Faction is complete. Only structures left.

The Romulan Star Empire:

Faction is complete. Only structures left

The Dominion:

Faction is complete. Still needs balancing work.

Pirates:

They were going to be the Borg, but that idea failed. So we are looking into Random multirace ship spawns.

Planetary Defenders

Basically "Ships of the week" like the Maquis, Sona, Ferrengi, Tammarian battle cruisers and the like.

Balancing:  Darkshimmer has the Federation, Romulan, and Klingon Empire, and Unified Dominion balanced.

Gameplay: We now have a working Cloaking Device! Check the ModDB page for the WIP video. Cloaking will not be fully implemented in the mod until version 0.04

Art: We are working on an LCARS style UI, adding proper icons, and pictures for all of the new units. The UI is going to take a while to do, because of all of the redundancy of the Sins UI. SoA 2 uses 2 sets of UI textures. Instead of the standard 4 textures for buttons, and 2 textures for icons. SoA 2 uses 8 textures for buttons, and 4 textures for icons which IMO is a major waste of resources, because sins loads all these textures at startup. Unfortunetly i dont see any other way to do it. What is kind of cool is that we dont have to use the same HUD for each faction. It is possible to have unique HUDs, but again the perfomance hit, because of the extra drain on resources could be big, and not worth it.

In Planning: (No promises, or guarentees, but we will try to add these if possible.)

Troop Transport effects.

Planetary invasion animations

Tractor beams. (need a code monkey for this)

Whatever else we can think of and are capable of doing.

Future Updates:

SoA 2 0.04 is now in planning, and will be focused primarily on Proper research trees, Ability's, and adding proper Structures. More than likely demo 0.04 will be the last demo. After that then the full mod should be ready.

SoA 2 0.05 will be the final spit, and polish of the mod. It will focus mainly on re-balancing if needed. Also final artwork changes will be made here. Which will include some ship model re-builds, and re-texturing.

The Full SoA 2 1.0 mod will be released "When it is Finished". We are doing this on our own free time. We aren't getting paid to do this. We have no set schedule. We have no time limit. I want this one to be good. So it wont go online until we feel it is ready.

*NOTE: Much about Sins as we are all now realizing is hardcoded. SoA 2 is going to be far from a perfect "trek" mod due to these hardcoded issues. However we will try to do the best we can with workarounds, and compromises to get it as close as possible. Like i said some things wont be perfect. Some things cannot be done at all. Enjoy the mod for what it is, and try not to be too "nit picky".

SoA2 will be hosted on Mod Database once it is ready http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-trek-sacrifice-of-angels-2

This main header will be updated when i have news to post.





4,108,528 views 1,754 replies
Reply #326 Top
Well this is tough.... lol

I want to see screenshots of your progress...... but then when I do, the thought of star trek ships being out there somewhere but not availible is un-bearable!!!!! =P

Seriously, you guys should really consider releasing some of your ships for play, or mabey a beta or a demo.... lol

GREAT WORK guys, keep it up! :CONGRAT: 
Reply #327 Top
I think that's a magnificent first model, EzraeilBeatus. It's great to see some Trek ships flying around in game. Tinker on!
Reply #329 Top
EzraeilBeatus, thanks i was craving a shot of a trek ship in Sins, and personally i like the not so iconic ships like the Miranda, Oberth, Olympus, Excelsior ect...
Reply #330 Top
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_-_Birth_of_the_Federation

For your consideration.
This article lists the ships from BOTF, along with their functions. As well as minor races and techs, and basically all the 4x elements of the game. Plenty of ideas here.
Particularly ship roles and ship class names, especially for the Romulans and Cardassians.
Minor races and 'random' creatures are listed here too.
I would love to see the Sins militia mechanic replaced with minor races, which you can either conquer or diplomatically absorb into your empire, with each race having a specific bonus (i.e. Vulcans confer a research speed bonus) perhaps through the Artifact mechanic.
Reply #331 Top
BOTF is from pre DS9 and Voyager and movies era. A lot of those ships were in the THG series though. Anybody got a release date on BOTF? I know it was pre 2000 maybe 1998? 99?
Reply #333 Top
SOASETM: We have plenty of ships already intended for the mod. Problem isn't getting ships for the mod. The problem is that all the ships have to be remapped to use SoaSE's "1 texture map" system. Most of the ships from both SFC and BC use multiple texture maps.

EzraeilBeatus: Great job on your first ship model. We could definitely use more compatent modellers on the project, not so much for the modelling abilities since we already have the ships, but mostly those who are able to do mapping and possibly some re-texturing. I'll post our site link below if your interested in joining the team. In the end it's either Major Stress or Darkshimmer that approves of who get's to join, but you should definitely make your existence known to the rest of the mod team that hangs out at our site.

Main reason why development is slow atm, is because Major Stress is currently undergoing a real life crisis of sorts, and is currently unreachable. When he returns, i'm sure more updates will be forthcoming.

// DT

WWW Link
Reply #335 Top
Ok, guys, here you go, a link to the Miranda if you want it. WWW Link
I would appreciate it if maybe some of you with modeling experience would *ahem* "play test" it and see if you can figure out what is wrong with my tangents, and maybe give me some feedback. Pretty much everything is done as far as I'm concerned. I may try and make a more pronounced bump map, b/c earlier I made one that looked really awesome, but now I can't find it... whatever. Thanks for all the feedback already guys!

Ezraeil
Reply #336 Top
Oh, 'nother thing. A) This "mod" replaces your cobalt, sooooo.... If you really like your cobalt, don't use this (or just change the mesh file names to that of another unit...) B) What do you guys want to see next? Preferably something a little more obscure?(i.e. Oberth...hint-hint)
Reply #337 Top
Ok, guys, here you go, a link to the Miranda if you want it. WWW LinkI would appreciate it if maybe some of you with modeling experience would *ahem* "play test" it and see if you can figure out what is wrong with my tangents, and maybe give me some feedback. Pretty much everything is done as far as I'm concerned. I may try and make a more pronounced bump map, b/c earlier I made one that looked really awesome, but now I can't find it... whatever. Thanks for all the feedback already guys!Ezraeil


Eve Online!

WE WANT AN EVE-O MOD!
Reply #338 Top
The main reason development is slow atm is because Major Stress was the ONLY person really cappable of doing anything for it, and he found a girlfriend. Now he plays with her instead of computer games.

At this point in time it's up to his imcompetent lackeys to pick up the slack and they fell flat on their faces.

THIS MOD IS DEAD
Reply #339 Top
jesus, sounds like he stole YOUR girlfriend.

Reply #340 Top
All you need is love! Way to go Major Stress. :CONGRAT:

Well, at least I hope that's the case, since it doesn't add up that finding a girlfriend would equate to a "real life crisis".

Oh wait... I'm ina thread full of Trekkies.

:p

Sorry. Couldn't resist. :)

Reply #341 Top
You released a ship!! YAY!!! You guys totally freakin rock!

I hope you might do the same with the Sovereign. You know what they say... "Give a mouse a cookie...." lol

Thanks again!
Reply #342 Top
Ok, guys, here you go, a link to the Miranda if you want it.


Wow, thanks! It looks fantastic... though for some reason it appears to be glowing, which it's not doing in your screens. I just dumped it into my mods directory and enabled it. Did I do something wrong?
Reply #343 Top
The main reason development is slow atm is because Major Stress was the ONLY person really cappable of doing anything for it, and he found a girlfriend. Now he plays with her instead of computer games.At this point in time it's up to his imcompetent lackeys to pick up the slack and they fell flat on their faces.THIS MOD IS DEAD


Pardon my terrible french, but your royally speaking out of your ass on this one.

It just so happens that Major Stress is currently unavailable due to real life matters that take precedent over a freetime activity such as making a mod. I am not gonna get into WHAT real life issues he's dealing with atm, since that's his personal business. Just saying that you should all be patient during his abscence as he is our head modeller on the project. That's why i'm saying we need more compatent modellers on the project so that we can get stuff in gear.

I just hate when people make assumptions such as the one you made above, without having any of the facts whatsoever. I would consider making a report on that post, but I'll let it slide.
Reply #345 Top
EzraeilBeatus: Downloading your model now and i'll try it out.
Reply #346 Top
Well I have been playing w/ the miranda for a lil' while now and all I have to say is WOW!

It felt so good to see a trek ship in Sins! I only got one beef & believe me its not really a "beef" at all. The Miranda is placed as a frigate,(which is where it belongs) but as a frigate I cant go exploring and liberating the galaxy in just the one ship. Not that I really could in just one cap ship mind you, but I could beef it up to survive longer if I wanted.

Anyway the "beef" as it were, is that I dont have a Sovereign to go with the Miranda... :p  ;) 


In all seriousness though, this is simply a very well done ship, & it tickles me pink to be using a trek ship in sins. I truly hope that you make more ships and release them EzraeilBeatus & if its not to forward to ask, would you mind doing a Sovie and releasing it?? :p  :d 


Sincerely,

Adm. Cobbs
Reply #348 Top
Ok, guys, here you go, a link to the Miranda if you want it. WWW LinkI would appreciate it if maybe some of you with modeling experience would *ahem* "play test" it and see if you can figure out what is wrong with my tangents, and maybe give me some feedback. Pretty much everything is done as far as I'm concerned. I may try and make a more pronounced bump map, b/c earlier I made one that looked really awesome, but now I can't find it... whatever. Thanks for all the feedback already guys!Ezraeil


Hey Ez,

I installed your ship mod, but which ship do I build to "see" the Miranda starship in action?

I had initially thought it was a Sova class carrier, but it's not. Also saw that you had a frigate techtree in your mod folder, so I'm lost as to which ship I should be building.
Reply #349 Top
Acreo Aeneas:
Oh, 'nother thing. A) This "mod" replaces your cobalt, sooooo.... If you really like your cobalt, don't use this (or just change the mesh file names to that of another unit...) B) What do you guys want to see next? Preferably something a little more obscure?(i.e. Oberth...hint-hint)


Also, here's a screen I took to illustrate a) the glowing thing I was mentioning earlier, b) the phaser effect I made (a tweaked Kol beam using weapon_phasecapitalflashbeamheavy_travel sound effect) and c) how cool it is to finally have Trek ships in game!



If I get a request for the next one, I'd have to say the Galaxy. If you want something more obscure, how about the Ambassador?
Reply #350 Top
will the federation capital ships be unique (as only 1 at a time) or will we see
two dozen sovereign class starships flying about (i dont think the federation had
NCC-1701-A, NCC-1701-B, NCC-1701-C, NCC-1701-D, NCC-1701-E, flying at the same time
unless they warped around the sun at the same time or found themselves involved in
spacetime anomalies)...