Skyline_HUN Skyline_HUN

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

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[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
426,884 views 303 replies
Reply #101 from Sins Forums Top
The textures compressed in Zip, just with a self-extractor.
Reply #102 from Sins Forums Top
Good to see its all sorted, I will briefly describe what happened. Some of the texture files were just to small for me to add additional icons and pictures. So I increased the canvas size of the picture, and added my custom icons/pictures at the bottom. This extra bit doesn't exist in the original texture files, so the location of my icons/pictures would be off the edge of the texture file, and so are displayed as a black square.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #103 from Sins Forums Top
Just discovered your mod, havent tried it out yet.

I scanned through your patch notes, i didnt see anything about diplomacy and missions.

As is in the game, as it goes on, our reputation gets lower and lower to the point they all gang up on us. Mission times are too short, and penalties are too great. Needs to be made easier to negotiate and make allies.
Reply #105 from Sins Forums Top
Are there penalties for failing a mission?

If so, can that be reduced?

Seems silly to get missions to attack a player on the other side of the map, that i cant really get to, and get penalized.

I am assuming there are, for it seems they all attack me mid point in the game.
Reply #106 from Sins Forums Top
Changing the mission parameters are not causing trouble at all. In the Beta i want to put just changes that have possibility to causing a problem.
As i said before... in the final, the mission parameters will be changed.
Reply #107 from Sins Forums Top
I can't find the correct path to install the Mod. For some reason it is not in my documents.
Reply #108 from Sins Forums Top
I think you using Vista.
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods\
Reply #109 from Sins Forums Top
The textures compressed in Zip, just with a self-extractor.


I've noticed that, but one usually looks out for a file with a .zip ending if it says so in the readme.

After having played 2h against 9 AIs I can say the following:
Since I'm a fan of fighters this MOD is like heaven to me. I love that I can build 8+ hangar defenses with 6 squadrons each. That's why I also like the modifications at the capital carrier ships. That thing alone can wipe out whole enemy fleets including capital ships... I think it might be a little too powerful, especially at that cost. I've compared the carrier stats with the other capital ships but they lack something that would make up for the missing fighter squadrons. So you should either increase the carrier cost (1.5-2x) or improve the stats of the other capital ships.
The new tech tree does what it says - after 8h the game won't get boring because there's still something to research, really useful on huge maps. But you should adjust the cost for some research options. e.g. Basic Shield Protection lvl 10 is a lot more pricey than Advanced Shield Protection lvl1.
The planet miniature icons (new planet types) are messed up or in the case of the oceanic planet not visible at all.
The new sounds are interesting but a tad too loud and only audible on the left speaker.
A good MOD altogether, keep up the good work guys!
Reply #110 from Sins Forums Top
The cost of the researches are going to be changed, i just want to hear your opinions about that. Cost of the hangers will be increased, too. If the AI won't build anti-fighter vessels, than you can beat them with strikcrafts...
The sound effects will be replaced. Now i got the same encoder, that the developers used, but with that i can convert effects one by one... so this takes a little time.
Until i finish with the sounds, just delete them, if you want.
Reply #111 from Sins Forums Top
The research prices are fine from what I've seen. I mean I'm getting 200 creds a second, 50 metal a second, and like 20 crystal a second. So I can easily afford to max out all my tech rather quickly.
Reply #112 from Sins Forums Top
you playin' with HIGH RESOURCES and FAST SPEED/RESEARCH ???
Reply #113 from Sins Forums Top
I created an Install.vbs script that will handle the folders for you if you're on xp or vista. It will:

1) Copies the ([current directory]\Distant Stars 1.0 Public Beta) folder to the (%userprofile%\[vista or xp path]\[game folder]\Mods)
2) Copies in the textures from the game folder to the mod folder
3) Extracts textures.exe to ([current directory]\Textures) silently
4) Copies ([current directory\Textures) to the mod textures directory, overwriting any existing files

Note: step 3 will be skipped if the current folder already has the Textures sub folder

It is only available for 7 days. Skyline_HUN, you can include it with your zip\rar of your mod if you want. Anyone else can download it, extract it to the same directory the mod install was extracted to, and run it.

Download Zip with the Script
Reply #114 from Sins Forums Top
Okay, I have a question. Did you also incorporate Uzii's distictive research in order to colonize the new planets? I'm just wondering if you did or not.
Reply #115 from Sins Forums Top
Now i got the same encoder, that the developers used, but with that i can convert effects one by one... so this takes a little time.


Unless it's a secret - what's the encoder called? Is it a common anything-to-ogg-converter or has it special options for surround-placement? Maybe you should try MediaCoder first because it supports batch conversion.

And I've just compared the Distant Stars sounds with the original ones. I'm pretty sure converting your sounds to mono will do the trick ;)
Reply #116 from Sins Forums Top
Hello, I am currently playing with your Mod installed and loving it.

My only complaint at this point is the that there are too many icons. I dont think I really need icons for fighter groups running around all over the map, its kind of too much with all the other icons you added to the game.

Is there way to either make the fighter,ship,resource,fleet,etc icons an option or eliminate some of them so the map is not so crowded with them?


Thank you again for all your hard work with this mod, its clearly the class mod of this game.


P.S. The Devs should hire you. :)
Reply #117 from Sins Forums Top
Hello I love this mod but I've found a bug sorta.

I play as the advent and noticed the increased research went to almost everything including the Shield migration research and at max research its a extra 50% increases to shiled migration across the board. This led to me seeing 112% shield migration on capital ships so i tested it and sent one 1 one radiance battleship against the computers 200+ army filled with 3-5 capital ships, my battleship was never scratched at all it took maybe 10 shield damage (I was fighting the TEC)Maybe should test this further and see how this could be corrected.
Reply #118 from Sins Forums Top
ThrakaAndy - Thank you. I also wanted to make such installer, but yours are definitly better that i can do, with my programming knowledge.

Tolzak - The standard researches, that came with the Sins Plus is removed, because that time, when i uploaded the beta, those researches are didn't worked. Now you have Improved and Avanced Colonization. Improved for Ice, forest and oceanic planets.
Advanced for Vulcanic and Barren planets. The population cap increasing researches are removed. there wil be in the final version

Tsukes - That's not a secret. :D The encoder is a tweaked form of normal vorbis .ogg encoder, that cames with the Adobe Audition 3. Thanks for the advice, i just thought the same.

Scorpiuscat - Currently i have no idea how to hide the icons, but i'll going to see what i can do.
Thanks, but i think the developers got the team to making their job. ;)
A great Team, BTW.

zaebos973 - I'll see that problem, and of course a fix will be in the next patch. Also i heard about a bug that cause one of the advant capital ships to have more then 20.000 HPs at level 7.

I'll keeps everyone informed of the progress, but now i'll going to sleep a little it's 4:30 AM.

Reply #120 from Sins Forums Top
When I click the squadron button on a Fleet the game crashes, what gives? I'm playing the Tec and where do I find the mini dump that the game makes when this happens
Reply #121 from Sins Forums Top
Actually I decided to do some fun programming and am doing a nice GUI installer which can be customized by other mods including yours. Hopefully I can make the time to get it done! :)
Reply #122 from Sins Forums Top
Tikipiki - Yes... They start with 3 capital slots, but the maximum capital slot are the same as the advants.

Baileych - Others mentioned that bug, and also i saw that too... really annoying one, but looks like, i know what caused that, so a fox, will be available shortly.

ThrakaAndy - A GUI could makes life easier for those, who's don't know how to handle a RAR, or just simply can't understand hungarian :D that's more likely IMO.
THANKS AGAIN. No need of rush, just take your time.
Reply #123 from Sins Forums Top
does anyone else have the issue with a CTD if the 2nd or 3rd pirate raid is launched ?
(i got this problem also in the mod Mars Effect)
Mods that dont touch pirates in any way dont have this problem.
Reply #124 from Sins Forums Top
me too dari, sometimes in mp as well when the cpu gives or ends a mission it kicks out who ever has joined the game.

anyone else using this mod for multiplayer yet, me and a friend have for a week or so now and it would be interesting to hear other peoples experiances.
Reply #125 from Sins Forums Top
I was playing a game as the Vasari on a huge map and the first problem was the blue bar on the object tree on the side was stretched a little across the screen, and no matter what I did I couldn't get the little dots on the tree to disapear, even with the objects open to view everything within my planets. Any fixes for it?