[MOD] Distant Stars 1.0 - [22/06/08] UPDATED - Public beta 1.05 Compatible

Improving the original game engine

from Sins Forums



Public Beta available.
1.05 compatible

Introduction
Distant Stars is a collection of changes that i made to the game to become more enjoyable even on huge maps. I found the research tree to short for a 4x game. So the first thing i done is too greatly increase the levels for upgrade. Now most of the weapons, shield, armor, HP researches got 6-10 levels for each tech. Now, technology advantage is become a major factor in the game. Also tried to increase the differences between the race by research.
This actaully means, the Trader Emergency Coalition got more levels for treade and for defense, Advent have more in beam weapon tehcnology and fighters, Vasaris now can make their phase missiles to really past through shields and more weapon research.
When the research tree was finished, i tried to do some tweakings with the units. Most of this changes are posted in this thread in the last one week, but not all of them. The total list is come with the mod.

Inbuilt Mini-Mods
Sound Effect Replacement MOD
Enchanced and/or replaced sound effects and replaced Battle musics from my own collection, now mostly consists the remastered versions of the Haegemonia: The Solon Heritage OST, Band Of Brothers OST and the menu music is from E.S. Posthomus.

SINS PLUS by UZI
Another 12 more planet types from uzi to make the game far more colourful.

Bailknoght's Graphical Enhanchment
Improved Lightning and particle effects from Bailknight.


Changed
- Phase Jump charge up time increased by 100%, from 7 sec to 15 sec
- Phase Jump Inhibitors increasing charge time to 5 times than normal (5x15=75 sec), and got an increased radius to 60000 to cover a whole gravity well
- Maximum Capital slots increased from 18 to 24
- Increased Supply Slots from tier 5 with increased price too. (max supply slot is now 3000)
- Military and Civilian Research labs increased price and civilian slot requirements.
- Additional levels for weapon, shield and hull point upgrade.
- Asteroid number increased to maximum 7 per Home Planet
- All planet gravity well increased radius by 50% and 50% more normal radius
(Gas Giants ranges are doubled)
- TEC Bombers damage increased by 20% from 44 to 52
- TEC Fighters speed increased by 1/9 from 2700 to 3000
- Vasari Bomber damage increased by 10% from 76 to 83 and speed decreased by 15% from 2000 to 1700
- Vasari Fighter speed decreased from 2700 to 2500
- Advent Bomber damage increased from 34 to 40 range decreased from 2400 to 1500
- Advent Fighter weapon range changed from 2400 to 2000 and rate of fire increased by 25%
- Light Carriers increased sqaud number from 1 to 2
- ALL CAPITALS COST MORE AND BUILDS SLOWLY. Got more powerful weapons.
- Some Planetary Bonuses improved.

Some of the changes in the 1.0:
- Normal self-repair removed. Orbital stations and Fighters still have Self-repair
- Increasing Fighter squadrons on carriers, and making them more fragile
- All Capital Ships got anti-strikecraft capability.
- Making more differences between the three factions economy and military tactics.
- Increasing the planetary defenses strenght.
- Making cap ships slower and increasing the benefits from level ups.
- Adding a passive repair ability to shipyards.
- Adding new researchable ability for every races, to enhance the PJI's to prevent the enemy from leaving the area.


UPDATE [18/02/08]:
- Increased the XP need for level ups. Benefits from them are also increased.
- Added Diablo Escort Cruiser (Heavy Anti-Strikecraft) to TEC. (Now uses the Cielo CC's mesh, later i'm going to replace it with a custom one)
- Flak Gun ability added for TEC. Researchable for the Diablo (3 levels).
- New menu music.
- Some new sound effects added.
- Tachyon generator ability added and researchable by all races. This ability for Phase Jump Inhibitors. With the ability, the PJI can disable the enemy Phase drives until destroyed. (Covers the same radius as the normal inhibitor)
- Tactical slot need for orbital defense is reduced. (Now 2 platforms uses 1 slot)
- Advent Hangar Defense got 6 squadrons. need 3 tactical slots, price slightly increased.
- Vasari Hangar Defense got 6 squadrons, need 4 tactical slots, price increased.
- TEC Hanger Defense got 6 squadrons, need 4 tactical slots, price increased by 45%.
- Some research are changed for increase the differences between the races.
- TEC fighters and bombers now more slower, but got more HP and Armor. Squadron size not changed.
- Advent fighters and bombers speed and manuverability increased. Lower HP and armor. Slightly decreased the power of their weapons. Bomber squadron size increased from 7 to 8. Fighter 9 to 12. Antimatter need for building is reduced by 35% for bombers and 40% to fighters.
- Vasari fighters speed increased from 2700 to 2850, Bombers reduced by 10% from 2500 to 2250. Fighters range increased by 40%, rate of fire 25%. Bombers have +80% range, -15% rate of fire. Fighters squadron size changed from 4 to 6, bombers 3 to 4.
- By research the Advent squadrons size can be increase by additional 4 crafts in hangars
- The antimatter cost for building strikecrafts greatly reduced for capital class carriers.
- All fighters building speed increased by 30%, Bombers by 25%.
- Tec and Vasari Fleet Carriers starts with 4 sqaudrons, Advent with 6.
- Dozens of other small changes... i listed them later. sorry.


UPDATE [24/02/28]:
- AI strenght increased.
- Terran planets now come 8 Population upgrade (over 800 the max population now).
- Increased number of trade and refinery ships.
- Main planet max alligance is now 200%.
- Speed options changed.
- Research speed settings changed (-2.5; 0.0; 2.5)
- Increased levels in research.
- Pirates stronger, increased number of attackers, but the time between raids increased. Using TEC BB in the last two alert status (1/2)
- slightly changes in diplomacy... Now the AI don't want to trade with you, when you at war.
- TEC can increase the trade/refinery ships capacity by overall 100%. Have more levels in armor and HP research.
- ADVENT have more levels in shield and culture research.
- VASARI have more levels in weapon research.
- Neither ships or platforms can build in combat.
- Platform and fighters can't self-repair in combat.
- ONLY Hangars, Carriers and BB's can build bombers.


UPDATE [27/02/08]
- Vasari Stilakus Subverter got a new researchable ability, the Mobile Phase Disruptor. (3 Levels)
- 90% of the original sound effects replaced or remixed.
- Sins Plus MOD by Uzii is merged with the Distant Stars.
- Final Beta testing is almost finished

UPDATE [16/03/08]
Changes in the final 1.0:
- Two new shield researches for every races.
- New Health Point researches. (2 for TEC, 1-1 for Advent/Vasari)
- New weapon researches. (1 for TEC,.2-2 for Advent/Vasari)
- One new speed research for every races.
- Custom icons for the new researches/abilities.
- Some new musics.


Patch Notes
Patch No.1:
- Only Hangars, Light and Fleet Carriers can build fighters/bombers.
- Reduced the squad numbers for Hangar Defenses to 5 for every races. (For Improving Performance)
- Increased the bombers damage by 50%.
- Squadron sizes reduced. (For Improving Performance)
- TEC: 4 Bombers and 6 Fighters/squad
- Advent: 5 Bombers and 6 Fighters/squad
- Vasari: 3 Bombers and 4 Fighters/squad
- Advent and TEC fighters Rate of fire increased to 60/min, Damage reduced to compansate. (ONLY FOR GRAPHIC ENHANCMENT)
- Light Carriers cost more and using more supplies.
- Battleships and Fleet Carriers supply need increased to 60/75.
- Advent Halcyon Class Carrier base squadron number decreased from 6 to 5.
- Trade/Refinery ships number are reduced about 50-75%, cargo holds increased to compensate. (For Improving Performance)
- Pirate Raids are now on default values. First attack timer is set to 30 mins and the other raids now cames in every 20 minutes.
- 2 more levels for URBAN planet population limit development. (1100 MAX without research)
- Gauss, Beam and Missile platforms costs increased.
- Hangar Defenses costs increased.
- Quests tweaked. Now you have more time for completing missions. Got more rewards for missions and penalties reduced in some missions.
- Some bugs related to researches are fixed.
- Other Bugs are fixed, too.
Now the mod causes less lags and slowdowns.


Download (Host provided by Black Lotus HQ)
DS Public Beta 1.05 compatible (Including Bailknight's Graphical Stuffs by Menacer):

BlackLotus HQ:
http://www.blacklotushq.com/sins/Distant_Stars_1.0a_Beta_[453591224].7z

Filefront:
http://files.filefront.com/Distant+Stars+10a+Beta7z/;10751303;/fileinfo.html
(143 Mb)



Older releases:

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4052779/Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire_-_Distant_Stars_MOD_1.0_Public_beta
(size is 112 Mb)
HTTP
http://www.blacklotushq.com/sins/distant_stars_1.0_public_beta.rar
(size is 112 Mb)

Updated (Including Fix and Patch 1, Reconverted sound effects and comes with ThrakaAndy's installer)
http://www.blacklotushq.com/sins/distant_stars_1.0_public_beta_updated.zip
(size is 113 Mb)

Born of a Galactic Empire MOD 0.21

Patches & Fixes
Textures (In english)
http://www.blacklotushq.com/sins/Textures-English.exe

Quick Fix No. 1
http://www.blacklotushq.com/sins/distant_stars_1.0_public_beta_quickfix1.rar

Patch No. 1
http://www.blacklotushq.com/sins/distant_stars_1.0_public_beta_patch1.zip

ThrakaAndy's installer
http://www.blacklotushq.com/sins/andys_installer.zip

Reconverted Sound Effects
http://www.blacklotushq.com/sins/sound_effects.rar

Ideas, suggestions, critics (good and bad too) always welcomed!!!

Current Work: Finishing the final release of the 1.0. Adding some new research, custom icons, music.

The Mod developing is now continue.

knonwn bugs:
- the game crush when you try to point at the FULL DISRUTION ability on the PJI. This is a passive ability, so you don't need to dealing with it.
modding
426,666 views 303 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Oh! Nice stuff. Can't wait.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Awesome mod, just played a quick game, defenses actually did something. Awesome.

Do you think its possible to make supply a tad more upgradeable :)?
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Actually i want to make other methods to increase the supply slots. for example, with a Fleet Command Starbase which can increase normal supply by 100 and adds 1 cap ship slot too. Maybe weapons will be added to act as an orbital defense station. I can make the model of the base, i only need someone who can make the texturing.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I like some of the balance changes you've made. It is along the lines of what I want to work on for my own mod. Keep up the good work.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Sounds to me like a lot of these changes is stuff that should've been in the original game :P

Like for instance having the phase inhibitor work across an entire gravity well (and not just a small limited radius), and the huge penalty towards enemy ships by having a phase inhibitor. 75 second extra charge time before being able to jump should prove for some interesting matches. I look forward to trying the 1.0 version.

Downloading now....

// DT
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Alot of good changes here I think, but I'll need to try it out. I think the changes to the Jump Inhibitor look really excessive, at most I would double the charge time with the increased radius - what you have now would mean that with one Phase Jump Inhibitor, ships would take 10 TIMES as long to jump out compared to ships with no Phase Jump Inhibitor in vanilla SOASE. Also, I don't think the 100% charge up time increase is necessary, it will reduce the effectiveness and speed at which reinforcements can reach a planet.

One other thing, you've put the rate of fire of the Vassari Missile Platform at -100%. So... they're not going to fire at all now?

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Okay just a suggestion, if you can kinda power the kol down a bit, i saw you made it need 75 supply instead of the normal 50. But i've got 2 level 7 kols with some frigates, and theyre just tearing everything that moves to peaces.

They can easily take down a fleet by themselves.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
The KOL "problem" is going to be fixed. I got a match with 6 system, where i got 6! KOLs at level 10... you can imagine!!! But, if you try the other two race, you can realize there BBs also overpowered.
To GSV The End of Invention: the list is obsolute now... sorry about that. I spent the majority of the day on a bus. Now i am working on the frigates/cruisers XP gain system and several new research, such as Fighter/Bomber shield.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
i dont like the idea of increasing costs for capital ships and build time. as i find the game is "slow enough" as it is already at times :-) hehe. just my thoughts.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
slower and more expensive, but more powerful... it doesn't make the game slower because the capital ships now kill stuff a lot faster... they just take longer to build. Actually overall games should go faster since I honestly rarely loose a cap ship.

And now there will actually be a reason to build multiple capital ship factories... to build them in parallel...

That being said, I will stick with the unmodded for a little bit longer...
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
I think there is not need of a cap ship to win in a tiny map. I realized that everybody start to buid up a large fleet with several cap ships before engage the enemy, with the increased price for capital shipyard and ship price i just want to add a chance for immidiate frigate rush and this makes the game far more faster in a different way.
Another thing is, until the 1.0 i will not change the caracteristic of the frigate/cruiser ships.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
If anybody who's got an eror, or a crush with the BOGE 0.21. Please tell me. THX
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
FYI, I got an Error# 25136 when extracting the files. The error is 'error writing to file' and is from the folder researchsubject_planetmoduleimprovement_techindustry_captialshipconstruction.entity.

I clicked OK and it says it can't be extracted correctly.
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
That's strange. Maybe your extractor (or mine) got some problem. i used a WinRar 3.42.
I have to ask... you tried to extract the mod to the MODS folder, did you?
maybe try to Download again... or just wait a day to v1.0. :D
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
I can wait. What does that file do anyway? What am I missing till your next version?

THX
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Totally nothing! I haven't changed values in that file! That's an upgrade for the TEC to increase the building speed of ships.
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
This mod sounds great. I like the removal of normal self-repair, as I felt that made ships too durable. Having some defenses with longer range makes sense. Can't wait to check this out.
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
The starting range for defenses ara about 10000 units. For compare, the normal laser got 3-4000.
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
I'm guessing you didn't change the AI to conform to these new mechanics? Because I can see a lot of problems with the AI playing by the game's original mechanics, whereas a lot of things have been drastically changed with this mod. E.g. I'm assuming the AI will still try to phase out of a system while under heavy attack, even though he'd have a 75 second wait, during which you could completely obliterate his fleet.
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
The mod sounds great. another thought, like in Galactic civilization 2, there are so many research options that you will almost never be able to finish them all in a single game. May be should make is to happen in Sins as well. Make the max level of the research subject even more, like 10 + levels for each singe upgrades, so for someone likes a bigger game, the larger maps can be an epic campaign, giving you more incentive to occupy more planets to generate more resource for the upgrades, and you can try a different pathway of research tree in different games.
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
For soase player:
I tried the full inhibiton. First the enemy is going to jump out, when realize the fact, he can't jump out, just stayed in the edge of the gravitiy well, but when my ships approching them, the enemy is engaged my ships. By the way... i made differendes in the charge up time between the races. The Vasaries superior phase travel technology grants them a bonus, they needed less time for jump, and travling 30% faster between planets and 25% faster between stars. Also, the TEC got an upgrade to decrease the charge up time.

otherhand... i make this mod for multiplayer games, rather than single. When someone tells me, how to edit the AI, i make the changes to make the mod good, with AI too.

For EMP X:
Making more levels in upgrade is good idea, in the corrent state, the research tree 1/4 is getting more levels, such as Weapon damage, range, shields, armor, Health points, metal and crystal extraction, culture, etc. I haven a difficult task with them... need to find the perfect balance between the more action orientated games in small maps, and the epic ones, on multi system maps. Now, the TEC research tree in fast speed is takes about 2 hours to fully research everything... of course you need a lots of resources and labs to do this.

I keeps everyone informed about the progress.
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
The first part of the mod sounds great but:

Some of the changes in the 1.0:
- Normal self-repair removed.

This is a terrible idea. The reason for self-repair is to eliminate the need to micro. Self-repair is slow enough that it makes no difference in a fight, and the entire reason it's in-game is to remove an incentive to turtle. Instead of blockading around repair stations, you can set up defensive fleets in neutral areas like Wormholes. Self-repair means that they can take care of themselves in light skirmishes.
- Support cruisers got enhanced abilities (Repair, shield recharge)

Eh. Not really needed IMO, just sounds totally pointless. Sounds cool, utterly uneeded and likely unbalancing. What's the point of the TEC Akkan-class capital?
- Repair Platforms can restore shield.

Between this and your ridiculous defense beef-ups, you must absolutely LOVE turtling and stalemate games.
- A new artifact which makes the owner ships to travel between planets instantly.

Wow. I'd hate to see the ideas you threw out.
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
235, you seem to enjoy attacking his ideas, but I don't see you throwing out any good ones of your own.

If you don't like this mod nobody is making you play using it, but I'm looking forward to it.
Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top
Thx Lyph3 for try to protect my work. i approciate.

For Uranium - 235: Thanks for sharing your ideas about my mod.

Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top
hi skyline.. good job with the changes. i'm trying to figure out how to install this mod. do i need to just extract the zip to the gameinfo directory, overwriting all original files? how would i be able to play ur mod for single player and standard sins for multiplayer? thanks in advance!