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
4,105,395 views 1,754 replies
Reply #51 from Sins Forums Top
Cool! The old school is having a reunion in order to sin again!
Reply #52 from Sins Forums Top
Have been a Star Trek fan since my teens, and this mod sounds amazing! Have been waiting years to be able to play a realistic Trek game with the kind of debth that you guys are talking about. Thanks up front for all your hard work.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #53 from Sins Forums Top
Hey Stress, I finished up a dorsal concept sketch of a Breen battleship. I have a render of the regular Breen cruiser next to it for scale. Names are conjectural.

Reply #54 from Sins Forums Top
Just a small request to any who worked on the Homeworld Star Trek Mod.....Do you have any screen shots from that project showing the ship designs and combat action? Would be amazing to have a "teaser" to look at while we wait for your work on sins! Thanks
Reply #55 from Sins Forums Top
There will be plenty of WIP shots when we do have something finished to show. Right now we are working on models to prepare them for sin import.

As you can see above we have concepts in work for the Breen. A faction that will be 99% non-canon, and made from scratch. Nice work Tom :)
Reply #56 from Sins Forums Top
Cool! Nice work on the models. Very detailed to be sure and the fact it is made from scratch makes it even more impressive.
Reply #57 from Sins Forums Top
Major Stress,
I just read through your "and so it begins" and "reviving my old Star Trek Mod" posts and was blown away by the ship renders. This is going to be an amazing game mod - the development team on Sins have done a great job on making it accessible to the modding community, in essence making sins almost the next great Star Trek game...(or Star Wars, BSG, B5, the list is endless) I can just visualize the massive battles between the Federation and her adversaries now....(gasp, oooh, ahhhh.....) Thomas Marrone's concept work on the Breen is inspired...great sketch btw Thomas. How difficult do you think it will be to incorporate the basically peacefull, diplomatic orientation of the Federation into the Sins game engine?
Reply #58 from Sins Forums Top
The game mechanics dont offer very much as far as "peaceful" solutions to problems. Then again during the Dominion War the only way to end it was through military victory. Though the Federation is peaceful by nature. Conflict is sometimes unavoidable. Especially vs a foe like the Dominion that only knows war, and tyranny.

We can use culture to the Federations advantage. The are diplomacy options available as well. You can forge alliances, and give money/resources just like any other 4x game. We can possibly start the Federation as "neutral" to all races instead of hostile. As the game progresses then the "friendship" slider will ether go up, or down depending on the interactions with other races. More research will need to be done on exactly what we can do to the game to make the Feds as "canon" as possible. It shouldnt be that difficult from what i have seen so far. If we cant do it though normal methods, then we improvise like we did in SoA1
Reply #59 from Sins Forums Top
After reading the post here is what i got as possible solutions.

Borg = Pirates : Just that simple, the are random, agressive, a constant threat and fear, they will strike anyone anywhere, and usually WITH warnring (mod the pirate taunts to "Resistance is Futile" or "You will be assimalated, your home, your culture and your peoples will become part of the Borg..." Bribing them dosent seem right, (only refrence is Janeway making deals with the Borg with limited success" so maybe remove bidding, make target 70% most powerful civ 30% second most poweverful civ (they are only interested in the most advanced technology). So every X minutes the Borg go and attack the most powerful civ at that time.

Assaulting Planets;

The Colony ships in Sins when they "do their thing" launch little colony craft (3 if i remember right) this can easily be turned from a "colony ship with launch pods" to a "troop ship with landing craft". however the coloney ship wont do anything to a hostile or settled planet so you may need to combine it with THIS... use the animation the colony ships use to "launch pods" and try to use it as the graphic for a bombard weapon. instead of every 5 seconds a missle is launched from the ship and explodes on the surface, every 5 seconds the "weapon fires" the three pods ships graphic from the ship to the planet discreatly doing damage, when you have landed enough transports (fired enough shots) you get the enemy planet.

Build a colony ship, change the colonize button to "invade" and watch it launch "attack craft" and change its pulse laser or whatever to the modded graphics planetary bombard weapon. Would that work?
Reply #60 from Sins Forums Top
There will be no Borg in the mod. At least for now. There is no way currently to include the Borg that will balance them for the other races, or without making them look stupid like they did in Voyager.

In TNG (before 1st contact) just ONE cube was more than a match for an entire fleet. If we went with the one cube for pirates it would be a game ender plain, and simple. It would take the fun out of the mod.

If we did the "extremely dumbed down" Voyager version of the borg, it would just be plain stupid. My entire team agrees that the voyager borg sucks.

We are working on different ideas for planetary colonization/invasion/bombardment. I like your colony ship suggestion it would work for the "evil" factions (like the dominion). We will need to see if we can make that kind of effect work.

Anyways to show we arent sitting on our @ss's with the mod here is a render of the Federation "battleship". The Soveriegn. She is almost ready for Sins import. There are some areas i need to finish re-texturing (light gray areas). This is the same Sovereign that is in our Favor the Bold mod for Bridge Commander. We will have ships imported soon. Have patience.

Reply #61 from Sins Forums Top

The working title is going to be “SoA II” until we can think of something better.

Isn’t the obvious answer to call this Sins of Angels? :)


Reply #62 from Sins Forums Top
Stress - do you need another helper? I'm not much of a graphics guy, but I'd be happy to help out in other areas (maps, abilities, etc) :P
Reply #63 from Sins Forums Top
No it is "Sacrifice of Angels II: Apocalypse Rising". Apocalyspe rising is the name of the DS-9 episode where Sisko, and company disguise themselves as Klingons to infiltrate, and assassinate Gowron. Whom they belive is a changeling. Turns out it was General Martok that was the true changeling.

The theme for SoA2:AR is the time directly before, and during the all out war with the Dominion. Where the founders were turning all of the Alpha Quadrant races against each other, then all hell breaks loose.
Reply #64 from Sins Forums Top
My honest, knee-jerk reaction to "Apocalypse Rising" is: Really? It's so generic. I get the reference to the DS9 episode, but where Sacrifice of Angels sounds unique and colorful, Apocalypse Rising sounds bland.

That said, I'd play it even if you called it Mr. Snugglemuffin's Magic Beanbag Adventure as long as it's got Star Trek ships blowing the crap out of each other, so the name isn't all that relevant :)
Reply #65 from Sins Forums Top
Halo mod next...
Think about it, Covenant cruisers and UNSC battleships going at it in space.  :CONGRAT: 
Reply #66 from Sins Forums Top
I'd love to see a Star Trek mod. So many different races and species to choose from.
Reply #67 from Sins Forums Top
So you said you were including all the ships from other races. Does this mean we will see 3 vareities of bird of prey?

What ships are you using for the feds? Heres what Id like to see:
Frigates
nova-scout
Saber
Steamrunner
Defiant powerful assault frigate

Cruisers
Akira maybe a capitol?
Yeager
Intrepid


Capitol Ship
Excellsior
Galaxy
Sovreign
nebula
Reply #68 from Sins Forums Top
Wow, this is phenominal work. Great looking renders. Thanks you guys for this update. Can't wait to see these babies, in all their beauty, exploring the Sins universe.
Reply #69 from Sins Forums Top
Wow, looks like this is going to be an amazing mod! Do you have any use for a composer for this mod or are you looking to just use the standard music files? I have access to a decent sequencer and some good library files, and would be more than willing to work with you guys to produce a custom soundtrack. I've uploaded a small sample of two soase like tracks (I whipped them together in a couple of minutes, so be kind) here if you're interested! Obviously a star trek soundtrack will have a different feel to it, but hey, it's what I happen to have uploaded.
Reply #70 from Sins Forums Top

Wow, looks like this is going to be an amazing mod! Do you have any use for a composer for this mod or are you looking to just use the standard music files? I have access to a decent sequencer and some good library files, and would be more than willing to work with you guys to produce a custom soundtrack. I've uploaded a small sample of two soase like tracks (I whipped them together in a couple of minutes, so be kind) here if you're interested! Obviously a star trek soundtrack will have a different feel to it, but hey, it's what I happen to have uploaded.


New music for the game in a Star Trek "style", thou not strictly speaking being actual Star Trek songs would be a nice thing to shoot for. Sort of to set the mood of the game.
Reply #71 from Sins Forums Top

Grrrrr...Makes me angry that no one is creating a stargate mod   


Im creating a stargate mod, PM me if you want details




.. It is not a question of "If", but "When"

If you haven't been keeping up with current events in past post's A trek mod is in the works for sins.

I was going to do an "Original Series" mod. However with the new movie coming, and to be brutally honest the lack of canon TOS material to use. It would be more of a challenge than what it would be worth.

Some may already know that i used to go by the nick "The Stress Puppy", and I was involved in the Star Trek mods for Homeworld. I am in the process of contacting the old "Trekmods" crew to see if they want in, or give their blessing to port over Sacrifice of Angels to Sins. For those that do not know what Sacrifice of Angels was about. It was a Star Trek mod for Homeworld set during the Dominion War. Huge battles would be fought with 100's of starships from the Next Generation era. Now imagine those very same battles in Sins. Along with the Sins 4x empire building mechanic.

The working title is going to be "SoA II" until we can think of something better. Myself, and members of the Digital Underground clan will be working on the project. I would like members of the old SoA crew on the project as well. Others are welcome to help too.

While this mod will focus on the Dominion War, It will evolve into full blown TNG era mod. With all the familiar factions from that era with the exception of the Borg. I dont know how to include the Borg in the game without ruining the balance of the game for the other factions, or without making the borg look totally stupid by equalizing them like they did in armada, and SFC3. They stay on the back burner for now until we can find a way that will work.

Pirates, and NPC's will more than likely be the Maquis. Unless we have a better idea.

Factions for now will be Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Dominion, Cardassian, and Breen. The six main factions seen in the dominion war. More may be added as the mod evolves.

Models are already being worked on, and what slots/ability's ships will use is in planning.

I will answer the inevitable question of "When will it be released?" now. "When it is finished". We are doing this on our own free time. We have no set schedule. No time limit. I want this to be good. So it wont go online until we feel it is ready.




Major Stress are you also Major Payne on some forums? BTW I love the Idea
Reply #72 from Sins Forums Top
I totally agree about the Borg, TNG was about "what lies beyond" with the powers of the Borg and the Q (BOTH reduced to nothing in Voyager). But you shouldnt use the maqui as the pirates they only attack cardassian and the odd federation ship. Orian Sindicate!! They where around befour Humans got warp 5 and right into the Dominion war (which right befour i think was when they where at their hight, all over the galaxy) so i think they would be a better choice than the maqui.

"Apocalypse Rising" sounds like a movie with Bruce Willis in it. Sins of the Alpha Quadrent? play on the episode in DS9 (sorry i dont remember episode names)where sisko and the crew find out about section 9 and what lengths they go to during the war (sins of the federation), the klingons being manipulated by the founders to war on the federation and cardassian (sins of the klingons), the cardassians ala Dumar allowing the Dominion to conquar them covertly (sins of the cardassians), Romulans staying out of the war (sins of the Romulans), the maqui for trying to survive the war on their own and end up wiped out (you see where i am going with this) The Breen... damn you Breen. I get how important that time frame is, and these are all the "sins" i can think of that LEAD to this time frame. *two cents on the table*

Federation Capital ships, remember they should be different as Sins as the "roles" for Caps. Soveriegn/Galaxy Enterprise... if you can only have one... which do you choose?
Voyager should be a cap (smaller different...), Defiant (pure war ship, yet the smallest?) there is what i think is a "safe three" but we need 2 more. Dont forget the other races need Caps as well... Klingon might not be to hard, but can anyone name 5 NAMED important CARDASSIAN Ships??? How about Breen? I think this capital ship issue once you get past the Feds goes from "fun" to "challenging". I got the next two days off i could spend some time researching prominate NAMED ships from other races if you want.

I loved the score from the Gal Civ2 Star Trek Mod and the audio quality is great. It shouldnt be hard to do, just make sure its CD quality or people will just turn it off after they have heard the intro songs to all the shows once.
Reply #73 from Sins Forums Top
I only care about Klingon D7's. Without Klingon D-7's it is simply not Star Trek for me.
Reply #74 from Sins Forums Top

I only care about Klingon D7's. Without Klingon D-7's it is simply not Star Trek for me.


SoA2 should have them; SoA did, and they were all over DS9.

Anyway, some more concept art for you guys, this time for our pale friends the Jem'Hadar:

Reply #75 from Sins Forums Top

I've uploaded a small sample of two soase like tracks (I whipped them together in a couple of minutes, so be kind) here if you're interested! Obviously a star trek soundtrack will have a different feel to it, but hey, it's what I happen to have uploaded.


Your stuff sounds great, man! I can't speak for anyone else but I certainly would love to be able to claim original music for our mod if you're so inspired. It'd be nice to incorporate some of the themes from DS9 and Trek in general into new compositions...