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)

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
4,110,422 views 1,754 replies
Reply #1351 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Major, reply 22



Quoting you_said_it,
reply 20
just done a bit of editing and changed the cap ship limit and the fleet supply to something huge(like 10000 with no need for research) so i can have massive battles, and changes build times i am not one for waiting! This has got to the best sins mod. ps voyager was mint, i like janeway's funny smiles where she only smiles with one side of her face and looks like she should have a cigar in the other side!


I bet your puter grinded to a screeching halt when you have 10000 units on the map. Post a screen of this. This should be amusing.

Of course the younger generation like voyager. Me i prefer thinking mans trek.

it depends on the number of players really if you do a 8 player map with all AIs set to unfair it gets a bit sluggish close to the end! But at 4 players its clean as a whistle! The most of my supply i used was 5000 and but that was with every ship with a slot count of less than ten and build with in 10 seconds. Do you know if there is a way to add more logistic slots to planets?

Reply #1352 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting darkshimmer, reply 24
if you feel that it will enhance an aspect of the mod that we can all enjoy, then go ahead. If not i would leave things alone. Please note that changing anything in the Gameinfo folder will break your ability to play online with other people due to differences in the checksum value.

Cool niceone, I just thought asking first was the right thing to do,  my net speed isn't fast enough for online gaming so thats no problem for me, but thank you for letting me know. :thumbsup:

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #1353 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Major, reply 19
Because i wanted the connie in "my" mod. The Olympic, Raven, and damn near anything else thats from Voyager fit my idea of cheese.

I wasn't aware the Olympic appeared in Voyager (must have been after I quit watching it). I just remember seeing it in All Good Things, which technically makes it a future ship, but not by much.

Reply #1354 from Sins Forums Top

hmm not sure whats wrong with my sounds then, i have a stock realtek card also with updated drivers, but for some reason its only the romulan disruptors that wont play for me in the game, although i can get them to play in the mod's sound folder which is odd,  i switched out the romulan sound files with the klingon ones in the entity folder and they work fine, so it must be something my system doesnt like about the romulan ones, i suppose ill have to do more research with it

Reply #1355 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting you_said_it, reply 1
Do you know if there is a way to add more logistic slots to planets?

Thats easy I think pick a planet,  for example the PlanetVolcanic.entity

Go down the file and look for this below, then just change the numbers

    path:CivilianModules
        stageCount 3
        stage
            price
                credits 0.000000
                metal 0.000000
                crystal 0.000000
            upgradeTime 0.000000
            maxModuleSlotCount:Civilian 8.000000
            maxModuleConstructorCount 0
        stage
            price
                credits 450.000000
                metal 150.000000
                crystal 75.000000
            upgradeTime 45.000000
            maxModuleSlotCount:Civilian 14.000000
            maxModuleConstructorCount 1
        stage
            price
                credits 550.000000
                metal 175.000000
                crystal 125.000000
            upgradeTime 60.000000
            maxModuleSlotCount:Civilian 20.000000
            maxModuleConstructorCount 1
    path:TacticalModules
        stageCount 3
        stage
            price
                credits 0.000000
                metal 0.000000
                crystal 0.000000
            upgradeTime 0.000000
            maxModuleSlotCount:Tactical 10.000000
            maxModuleConstructorCount 1
        stage
            price
                credits 450.000000
                metal 150.000000
                crystal 75.000000
            upgradeTime 45.000000
            maxModuleSlotCount:Tactical 20.000000
            maxModuleConstructorCount 2
        stage
            price
                credits 550.000000
                metal 175.000000
                crystal 125.000000
            upgradeTime 60.000000
            maxModuleSlotCount:Tactical 35.000000
            maxModuleConstructorCount 3

You will need to do this for every planet those. :thumbsup:

 

Reply #1356 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting FleetCommandCC, reply 25



Quoting darkshimmer,
reply 24
that one slipped by, it will be corrected in next patch!


Great niceone

General Mod Question.

When you've converted a .txt file into a .entity file can it be coverted back to a .txt file? I'm only asking because I've tried a few way and it doesn't work.

we didn't convert any entity files to txt, you just tell windows to open the entity files with notepad or wordpad.

Reply #1358 from Sins Forums Top

FleetCommanderCC i gone through those files and i cant find the bits to edit, its just all code stuff, what am i doing wrong? thanks for answering my question though

Reply #1359 from Sins Forums Top

Most of the mod stuff is in text format, but not all of it. What had happened was i used convertdatagui on this, and thats why we had to re-release the mod twice, because it didnt convert everything like i assumed it did. Which is why 0.03a1 had missing content. Most of the vanilla sins stuff, and some mod files are in binary. If you find a binary file use convertdata to convert it back to text. I recommend using convertdata from the forge tools, and just doing the dos thing with it. Documentation on how to use it is in the forge tools.

The Olympic is from Q's alternate timeline. So its not even supposed to exist. Along with the Ent-D refit. What is wrong with the connie? Its canon, It was used in TNG (as seen in various debris fields from borg attacks). Why should the Miranda, and Excelsior have all the fun? In the mod she is just not meant to be a front line combat ship. Venerate her! Dont try to replace her ;)

Reply #1360 from Sins Forums Top

Can you give us a hint as to when 0.03b comes out? :pout: PLEASE!!!!!

Reply #1361 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Big_Jible, reply 10
Can you give us a hint as to when 0.03b comes out? PLEASE!!!!!

dunno still waiting on more reports to come in from the Fed Spy network :ninja:

 

 

Reply #1362 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Major, reply 9

The Olympic is from Q's alternate timeline. So its not even supposed to exist. Along with the Ent-D refit.

Not to argue or nuthin,' but according to Memory Alpha's amazingly nitpicky page on the Olymic, a diagram of the class appeared on a display on the Defiant's bridge in, of all episodes, Sacrifice of Angels. And, to be fair, she's nowhere near as ugly as the Ent-D "hey-let's-tack-on-an-extra-warp-engine-because-that-makes-it-super-cool" refit. More of an homage to the Daedalus class.

Quoting Major, reply 9
What is wrong with the connie? Its canon, It was used in TNG (as seen in various debris fields from borg attacks). Why should the Miranda, and Excelsior have all the fun? In the mod she is just not meant to be a front line combat ship. Venerate her! Dont try to replace her.

Oh, as I said earlier, she's pretty much too cool a ship not to use. I just think it's sad to see her get the crap kicked out of her by a D-7 (or even a D-4). If anything, she should be a notch above the Miranda in firepower and durability.

Reply #1363 from Sins Forums Top

Oh, as I said earlier, she's pretty much too cool a ship not to use. I just think it's sad to see her get the crap kicked out of her by a D-7 (or even a D-4). If anything, she should be a notch above the Miranda in firepower and durability.

 

do i have to break out the numbers or we going to drop this already? and the olympic.

everyone's stated there opinion already now lets to playing and modding and just chill that goes for everyone!

+1 Loading…
Reply #1364 from Sins Forums Top

Don't worry, I'm playing...a lot! I apologize if you took any offense from my comments - I'm just making conversation. Like I said before, I was just curious as to the thinking behind the selection of the Constitution.

Reply #1365 from Sins Forums Top

Dan let the man do his work would ya :P

Reply #1366 from Sins Forums Top

I have no clue whats going on with your sounds. The sounds are working fine for me, and we havnt changed a thing with sounds since the release. Check the ship entitys and make sure there is an entry for the weapon sounds. I already checked mine, and the backup of the mod, and they are all good. What fix you did dragoon seems to be some sins wierdness. I am wondering if what hardware people are using is having something to do with this. I use crappy built in realtec sound.

Ive tried everything i can think of regarding my sound issue with the romulan weapon effects, including reinstalling the game, reformatting, updating my sound driver, making sure the files in the game were in the right place, the backups etc. I can hear the .ogg files just fine in the sound folder but for whatever reason they wont work in the game once the romulan ships fire. And as i said before if i switch out the romulan file for the klingon disruptor it works just fine.  Im using a stock realtek AC97 sound card, just curious as to whether you or anyone else may have any clue whats causing this, thx for the help.

Reply #1367 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting you_said_it, reply 8
FleetCommanderCC i gone through those files and i cant find the bits to edit, its just all code stuff, what am i doing wrong? thanks for answering my question though

Hey you_said_it

All you need to do is copy all the Planet.entity files from the ForgeTools1.1 download in the ReferenceData folder.

Or you could download the ConvertDataGUI, this little tool will convert all the files for you.

http://files.filefront.com/ConvertDataGUIexe/;12831279;/fileinfo.html

Before you use the tool backup the Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels 2 GameInfo folder just incase this goes wrong.

If your not sure how to use the ConvertDataGUI here how.

Left click on the ConvertDataGUI.exe and click run, a srceen will pop up, now pick the type of convertion (Operation) you want on do.

BinaryToText

Selet the source folder,

C:\Documents and Settings\"your user name"\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods\SoA 2 0.03a2\GameInfo

then selet the destination folder,

C:\Documents and Settings\"your user name"\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods\SoA 2 0.03a2\GameInfo

then click on the two >> and click Execute.

Note it will take some time, around 120 seconds, when its finish you can enjoy modding I hope this helps you.

:thumbsup: B)  

 

 

 

 

Reply #1368 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Major, reply 9
If you find a binary file use convertdata to convert it back to text. I recommend using convertdata from the forge tools, and just doing the dos thing with it. Documentation on how to use it is in the forge tools.

I try this and I could convert TextToBinary, but just couldn't convert BinaryToText, any idea what I'm doing wrong? :maybe:

Reply #1369 from Sins Forums Top

WOW!! the new version is frickin awesome!! just can't seem to pull my self away from the game!! sorry in advance if this has been discussed before but why was the consitution class chosen as the colony ship?? wouldn't an olympic or an antares class transport be better suited for colonization?  and whts up with the curry class?? why not chose the norway or saber class?? or even the cheyyne class?? can't wait for the final version of the mod!! going to be awesome!!

Reply #1370 from Sins Forums Top

This isnt the topic to be discussing convertdatagui. It has its own topic, and i am sure its creator will be more than happy to answer your questions.

I chose the Constitution because i like the ship, and she is a classic. I felt she should have a place in the mod. The Olympic while it may be canon on a view screen in DS-9 IMO is just plain UGLY, and not worthy of using. The antares (depending on which one you are reffering to) ether is way too early TOS era, or an alien ship of the week. There has already been a heated debate about this. I refuse to discuss the shiplist. It is set in stone. It is not changing. The discussion ends here. This is my mod. The connie is staying. End of story. Ill say it again. Dont like it? Dont play the mod, or learn how to mod yourselves, and put your own ships in it. I shouldn't have to explain myself for every little decision i make on this mod, because we are making this mod for us. Not you. We just happen to be sharing it with you.

Thats not saying we dont listen to "some" suggestions. We did listen as far as balancing goes. 0.02 balancing was from listening to people that wanted long, and drug out battles. 0.03a came from listening to the opposite side of the coin. Now we are finding the true balance ;) (both in stats, and gameplay)  0.03b should be the happy medium of both. Shimmer is working over all of the ships, and re-balancing them.

The Dominion faction is almost finished. just a few more ships to import then i can hand em over to shimmer so he can do his magic on them. Once that is done and playtested a little more than 0.03a was then ill upload 0.03b.

Reply #1371 from Sins Forums Top

This isnt the topic to be discussing convertdatagui. It has its own topic, and i am sure its creator will be more than happy to answer your questions.

Hey Major Stress

I will do that thanks, sorry for posting here.

I chose the Constitution because i like the ship, and she is a classic. I felt she should have a place in the mod. The Olympic while it may be canon on a view screen in DS-9 IMO is just plain UGLY, and not worthy of using. The antares (depending on which one you are reffering to) ether is way too early TOS era, or an alien ship of the week. There has already been a heated debate about this. I refuse to discuss the shiplist. It is set in stone. It is not changing. The discussion ends here. This is my mod. The connie is staying. End of story. Ill say it again. Dont like it? Dont play the mod, or learn how to mod yourselves, and put your own ships in it. I shouldn't have to explain myself for every little decision i make on this mod, because we are making this mod for us. Not you. We just happen to be sharing it with you.

I agree you shouldn't have to explain myself on every decision you make. I'm just glad you have made your mod available for everyone to pay with, and for the people that are saying they can do this and that so much better. Instead of talking the talk start modding the Game if you can do it so much better. We all should be very grateful for all the hard work you and some other have put into to this super mod keep it up. 

:grin:

That's not saying we dont listen to "some" suggestions. We did listen as far as balancing goes. 0.02 balancing was from listening to people that wanted long, and drug out battles. 0.03a came from listening to the opposite side of the coin. Now we are finding the true balance (both in stats, and gameplay)  0.03b should be the happy medium of both. Shimmer is working over all of the ships, and re-balancing them.

Taking helpful suggestions is always a good thing with mods, but criticism on someone hard work is a load BS, I just hope that all this BS doesn't make you stop making this ST Mod available for everyone.

:(

The Dominion faction is almost finished. just a few more ships to import then i can hand em over to shimmer so he can do his magic on them. Once that is done and playtested a little more than 0.03a was then ill upload 0.03b.

That sounds good another faction to blow the crap out of with the Federation. :beer: :thumbsup: :beer:

Reply #1373 from Sins Forums Top

watch this space really close sometime between now and later an update is coming.....

Klingons vs Feds vs Romulans 0.03a3

Looking for the the following answers:

1. Are the battles longer?

2. Are there still too many torps?

3. do you like the sovy with or without the pulse torp?

4. do you like the new prices?

5. Have you tried to take out the Pirate Base? Enter at your own risk!   Please only post your first thought on here concerning this, do not repeat what is there!

:rofl:  

Reply #1375 from Sins Forums Top

Patch 0.03a3 is up on the release topic, and will be up on ModDB soon.

The patch addresses the major balancing issues. However we still need feedback to make final adjustments before releasing 0.03b

Romulans are playable, but no cloak yet. That will be dealt with in 0.04 along with the rest of the abilitys. We need feedback on their primary balancing.

Basically we need feedback on what shimmer posted above.

Oh yea... Attack the pirate base... I DARE YOU! :D