Major Stress Major Stress

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

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

from Sins Forums

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.





modding
4,108,528 views 1,754 replies
Reply #351 from Sins Forums Top
Deckard - Starfleet certainly had multiple Sovereigns, Galaxies, and Excelsior class ships in service during the Dominion War, so I'd say you can expect to see that reflected in the mod.
Reply #352 from Sins Forums Top
Weird,

I have no problem using the miranda (no glow) but I added it to my already existing mod... wonder if that has an impact...
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #354 from Sins Forums Top
Okay, I just built a few and tested it. I don't have that strange glow about my ships.

It might be that the glow is part of some sort of group ability when you group ships into a fleet and send them off to battle.

Overall, I love the ship. Very nicely detailed and well done for a first model. :D


I look forward to its inclusion into the ST mod. :)
Reply #356 from Sins Forums Top
Stress:
I'd love to help test - let me know via PM.
Reply #357 from Sins Forums Top

wow the miranda mod is awesome. I just like seeing any kind of ship being imported, don't care what it is. The effects as it is being destroyed are top notch! Just need icons for the far away view. Thank you thank you thank you thank you for sharing.

I suggest making a thread for the miranda and whatever other creations you come up with.

KP
Reply #358 from Sins Forums Top
Agreed,

ship is awesome and the release of it is even cooler....

*ST modders take note* :CONGRAT: 
Reply #359 from Sins Forums Top
Done, guys, new thread posted here WWW Link. To the OP's, sorry for distracting from your project, and kinda chumming the waters, I'm just REALLY excited to see this mod. You have no idea. Seriously none. It's going to be awesome.

Ezraeil
Reply #361 from Sins Forums Top
I'm going to mod the Miranda ship so it uses the Kol's lasers with increased shielding and hit points. :) Then I'm going it play with it until some sort of beta for this mod is released. :D
Reply #362 from Sins Forums Top
Why do people keep requesting less factions? Major stress wants to make some major stress and create them all. Let him. It will be better.
Reply #363 from Sins Forums Top
omg. Someone said Major Stress's problem was that he found a girlfriend? It would be mean if it weren't already so funny.

By the way, Trekkies have girlfriends. Sometimes other Trekkies. Sometimes not. And people like that can get pretty kinky. Klingon love anyone?
Reply #364 from Sins Forums Top
NCC 1701 was the designation for the federation flagship, not the particular model of the ship. A-Z are just replacement model indicators when the old flagship gets blown up/replaced, other ships of the same design would have a different number.

They actually ran into quite a few sister ships in the various series, there are really quite a few of them around. This Link has a list of the actual ships shown in TOS. You don't need to go to secondary sources.
Reply #365 from Sins Forums Top
Here's my 2 cents... (btw, love this mod idea...)

make the pirates the Cardassians... at first I had thought the Ferengi but realized they aren't that tough.. the Maquis makes no sence though, they aren't out to attack other civs for money, they have their beliefs.

And make the planets designations be m-class, l-class, etc... instead of desert planet, terran planet, ice planet etc...

and why not this for the fighters... WWW Link

hmm, if i have anything else i'll post, I did have tons of ideas but for some reason they aren't coming to me know...

Reply #366 from Sins Forums Top
The Cardassians are going to be a playable side, so you can't really have them as a pirate race. The Ferengi make more sense, as they're the only ones out there out to make a profit, and their ships are formidable... but it still doesn't really fit in, since they've never really been organized or aggressive. The Maquis don't work either, since as you pointed out, they have no reason to attack anyone but the Cardassians, and the Jem'Hadar wiped them out before the Dominion War even began. Pirate attacks just don't fit in with the Star Trek Universe.
Reply #367 from Sins Forums Top
hm, orions then? supposedly they are a pirate like race... driven by money and they have some firepower too

heres a ship design of theirs

WWW Link
Reply #368 from Sins Forums Top
Why not make the borg the pirates?
Reply #369 from Sins Forums Top
the development team already said no borg in the game, plus it doesn't make any sence, the borg have no use for money and they would rather assimilate you then work with you, I like the Orions as the pirates, makes the most sence to me, i've found 5 or 6 ship designs that would work
Reply #370 from Sins Forums Top
Maybe instead of a pirate planet, there could be a wormhole to the delta quadrant... a sphere would come out and attack the player with the best stats.
Reply #371 from Sins Forums Top
theres even an expansion pack to a star trek game called orion pirates... lol.. seems like the best choice to me

the maquis would be a good neutral side though...
Reply #373 from Sins Forums Top
Can I make a small suggestion to the modders?

Obviously you can't make siege frigates for the federation....they just don't do that kind of thing

So instead how about a frigate that spreads culture wherever it is, and uses that to turn enemy planets neutral at an accelerated pace(and thus colonizable by you the conqueror)?

What I propose is the Norway-class frigate, which in canon is a diplomatic ship. I played Sacrifice of Angels mod for Homeworld (and loved it!) and know that you used Norways as minelayers, but I think it would make so much more sense to use them as a culture-spreader, particularly for sins of a solar empire.

In essence what I am suggesting is that the federation not be allowed to conquer enemy planets, but give them very strong culture abilities. A Norway ship that spreads culture (and stacks with other Norways) could be very interesting.

I know that this is supposed to be a Dominion war mod, and in the tv show they DID invade enemy planets with troops.....however I think it's still a good idea to make the Federation more peaceful and culture-oriented if possible. This could make good use of a Sins mechanic (culture) that I feel is underappreciated. Obviously there was no way you could use culture in Homeworld....but this is Sins and now you have an opportunity to accurately model the United Federation of Planets as they were meant to be!
Reply #375 from Sins Forums Top
I took your advice and read page 2. However, while I saw a discussion on "siege" tactics I did not see a solution that fit the federation, just a comment that it is a difficult problem to solve.

That's why I'm suggesting the Norway frigate, as a means of replacing siege/troop invading. If you make it spread culture and stackable (as in speed up that spread with more Norways, as well as maybe have a capital ship like the Galaxy-class have a culture-spread ability), then now you can have a non-blow-things-up approach that mechanically works in Sins and satisfies canon to an extent.

in exchange for not being able to quickly bomb a planet to death, the Norways could perhaps be able to sway the planet's loyalty rating just by being in it's gravity well. A bit slower but also more difficult to stop. For play balance you could make the culture-spread an activated ability so that the Norways can be neutralized by knocking out their antimatter.

It makes more sense to me that the Federation be able to use diplomacy/culture tactics to convince planets to join them, rather than going in with guns blazing....