Skyline_HUN Skyline_HUN

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

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

Improving the original game engine




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.

426,884 views 303 replies
Reply #126 Top
Don't mean to hijack your thread :) Here is a screen of the UI so far, no code is written yet.
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Reply #127 Top
Got another problem while playing the Vasari. I know some other guys were talking about it earlier, but when I went to click the Sqaudron Management button for one of my fleets, the game froze and it came up with that 'Saved MiniDump' screen before exiting.
Reply #128 Top
Andy - That's quite nice. I think this will be the default installer in every mod in the future. Thanks for you work, i much appriciate

Tolzak - Yes, others had posted that problem before. Think i know what caused this, adn currently i'm working that. Uploading the next fix when i finished the testing. Not always cames up that error, so i need to run several testes...
Reply #129 Top
When I extract it, it only extracts a the readme
Reply #130 Top
Hey Skyline, I just want to compliment you on the music, its really good. But is there any way to add more music to it, so that it doesn't have to repeat the same things over and over again?
Reply #131 Top
I have had some sound popping issues with your mod that are not present in the normal game (I tested a situation with your mod and then without it). The popping comes during combat, I imagine from the sounds of the ships firing, since it only happened during combat.

I run an integrated sound card by the way.
Reply #132 Top
Really enjoying this mod so far..agree that fighters/bombers should be toned down a bit tho..not sure how much AI is dev issue or mod issue, but would be nice to see more aggressive AI (probably more a game issue unfortunatly).

Crashes.. I'm currently playing a rather large map (230 planets and 25 odd stars, the 2nd map that Fandango has out). I'm about 18 hours total time into the game, I havn't really had any issues until now (except the known one with fleet button.. only had it crash once, avoiding it till fix). Now, right before "raiders have launched" plays (advent race), I get a minidump (crash). I've saved game right up until crash and had it repeat this at same time every time..and right after the dump when I alt/tab out to the minidump window it then plays that sound, "raiders have launched"..so I'm not sure exactly what it is, but think thats it. Hope its not something to do with the game size as I like the long/large game plays :)

Keep up the awesome work!!!

edit: ya, def w/ the sound.. when a lot of them are playing at once maybe? crashed right when fleet was starting to jump, and one of my support ships started repairing hull on another..seemed to crash as the sound for that was starting to play..I know your reformating the sound files with the program the devs used..maybe that will solve all of this :)
Reply #133 Top
The game sound engine is limited to play one sound, 5 times simultaniusly. I'll going to reduce that maybe to 3, this will help the sound popping issue, also incease a little the game performance when you use integrated audio, just like me.
Those popping sounds are mostly caused by the enhanced boost and harmonization effects. If there's someone, who got a good sound card, not an integrated, and tryied the mod, please gimme some feedback about the sound.

Thanks Rotorfib for the feedback. Please look in the log folder, if the game didn't generated a log file, just send me that, so i can figure out what exactly casued the problems.
Reply #134 Top
I'm using a Phase26 Terratec Producer Sound Interface. Not exactly what you should use for gaming but I'm having the same issues with it. I believe that the fact that the engine can't handle stereo samples causes crazily increased volumes (left channel + right channel = twice the amplitude) what causes clipping (/popping) effects if it goes beyond the max level.
Reply #135 Top
I realized that. The main problem is not to handle stereo samples, just to handle lots of them simultaniously. The funny thing is, the game plays stereo in mono and mono in stereo.
The musics also converted in stereo, with 160 avg bitrate in 48 Khz.
Today i'll finish reconvert the sound, then upload.
Reply #136 Top
The funny thing is, the game plays stereo in mono

I guess that's because it's easier to write algorithms that are able to pan 1-channel-signals (mono) about in the surround field than stereo signals. The latter would require more complicated stereo width adjustments which aren't provided by the Sins-engine.
Apart from that it's more realistic if an explosion appears to be coming from a specific spot on the battlefield instead of sounding ultra-wide and its location being indeterminate.

Well let's just leave it at that until we'll see what happens after the reconversion ;)
Reply #138 Top
I know some other guys were talking about it earlier, but when I went to click the Sqaudron Management button for one of my fleets, the game froze and it came up with that 'Saved MiniDump' screen before exiting.


Hmmm... i am selecting the ship of the fleet one by one for create the fighter/bomber... and no more problems after...

Have around 30 hours with these mod on a huge ramdom map...

In my case, only one bug who repeat always... once i wish to quit the game, when i am in the "statistics" menu and i click "main menu"... the program frooze the computer... a ctrl-alt-del don't help... only method is a hard reset of the computer ! This have never happen before using these mod !

GREAT WORK...



Reply #139 Top
Ok I've added some code behind the installer. You create (i'm making it for you SkyLine) a small XML file with the details needed to install the mod and it will do it. It will also detect if the mod is already installed. The tool will allow you to execute files as part of the install and will provide some simple XML tag definitions to do simple things like copy a folder. Here is the latest screenshot. All the details are loaded from the XML file

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

I tried to post the XML file in here, but it doesn't render correctly using the code=xml tags...

All I have left is to add the simple XML tags that let you do things like copy files, folders. Oh and all the graphics are editable, so you just need to replace my PNG files with your own to have your own logo and background rendered.
Reply #140 Top
I know some other guys were talking about it earlier, but when I went to click the Sqaudron Management button for one of my fleets, the game froze and it came up with that 'Saved MiniDump' screen before exiting.Hmmm... i am selecting the ship of the fleet one by one for create the fighter/bomber... and no more problems after...Have around 30 hours with these mod on a huge ramdom map... In my case, only one bug who repeat always... once i wish to quit the game, when i am in the "statistics" menu and i click "main menu"... the program frooze the computer... a ctrl-alt-del don't help... only method is a hard reset of the computer ! This have never happen before using these mod !GREAT WORK...


I dont think this is to do with the mod mate, personally I've always had this "delay" between clicking the "Main Menu" Button and actually having the main menu appear, this only happens in the larger games.
Try waiting slightly longer (say 5-10minutes) before rebooting your computer, also check to see if you can still move your mouse around, if you can then your pc hasnt crashed.

Ok I've added some code behind the installer. You create (i'm making it for you SkyLine) a small XML file with the details needed to install the mod and it will do it. It will also detect if the mod is already installed. The tool will allow you to execute files as part of the install and will provide some simple XML tag definitions to do simple things like copy a folder. Here is the latest screenshot. All the details are loaded from the XML fileI tried to post the XML file in here, but it doesn't render correctly using the code=xml tags...All I have left is to add the simple XML tags that let you do things like copy files, folders. Oh and all the graphics are editable, so you just need to replace my PNG files with your own to have your own logo and background rendered.


Looking great Thraka, seriously great looking installer cant wait to give it a try! Can it update mods too? From say v1.0 to v1.1?
Reply #141 Top
I was reconverted the sound effects and also edited some of them, too. i don't hearing any popping. The effects download link is in the download section of the thread.
Reply #142 Top
I dont think this is to do with the mod mate, personally I've always had this "delay" between clicking the "Main Menu" Button and actually having the main menu appear, this only happens in the larger games.Try waiting slightly longer (say 5-10minutes) before rebooting your computer, also check to see if you can still move your mouse around, if you can then your pc hasnt crashed.


Indirectly... yes...

Simply because with the mod, a similar huge map use more memory... working with Linux and a VM machine with WinXP, not enough RAM was allocated for the VM ... and WinXP unmount my raid system when it try to use a swap drive on a EXT3 partition... with a full 4GB ram allocated to VM, it is like before... a "delay" from only 1-2 second...

Hope that one day "Sins of a Solar Empire" will be supported by Cedega... It will resolve a lot of problem and use the full power of my computer...

In any case, thank to Uzii and skyline for these great mod...
Reply #143 Top
Fighter Management CTD is fixed... Sadly, the problem caused by the removed bombers from non CV/BB classes. So... the other caps can build bombers, like in vanilla sins.
I'll upload the 2nd fix tomororow.
If someone had a crash when a pirate raid started, please tell me.
Reply #144 Top
Thraka, seriously great looking installer cant wait to give it a try! Can it update mods too? From say v1.0 to v1.1?


I'm almost done with the first release and MOD authors will be able to use it. It still needs touching up on the user experience (what the end user see's during the install and how errors are reported to them) I just put in the most simplest way. So really my TODO list is:

1) Custom error dialog
2) Logging so you know what is going on
3) Multithreaded UI - UI will update while operations are being completed
4) Detect which versions of a mod are installed
5) Determine actions to take when upgrading from version X to version Y
6) Evolve into a MOD MANAGER

I'll be releasing v1 later tonight, I'll start my own thread and it will be hosted in my own site. It will come with all source code. I was in a new job orientation today which was a lot of fluff that I already know so I got like 97% of the tool v1 done.

Reply #145 Top
When I extract, all I get is the readme, but its only 2 KB while the download is about 100000, and the installer dosen't work either. Help, anyone? This looks like a really good mod though.
Reply #146 Top
The main download is 111mb which roughly is 116,391KB
Reply #147 Top
Ok, I just completed my first full game and I'll give you as specific feedback as is possible from the top of my head. Keep in mind, I'm not criticizing your mod, I think it's great and it hits the nail right on the head, and comes closer to the mark of what this game should be than the original version of the game.

Bugs:
- After installing the new sound files, the sound popping issue was eliminated from combat. However, I noticed the sound pops at different times now. Specifically, I noticed it when the "Raze planet" ability was used by the Marza, and when standard capitols were using their planet bombardment missiles. It was only slight, but it was there. The only other popping I heard was during the explosion sound from the Advent carrier. All other ship destruction sounds did not yield any sound popping.

- After the quick fix the game is still crashing occasionally when you press the fighter squadron selection button. It happened mostly when I hit the button in a large fleet that had 40+ squads of fighters. It never happened with planetary fighter selection, only fleet fighter selection.

-The Tachyon Generator in the research tree has "string not found" written in its description.


Positive Observations:
- In my opinion, the increased fighter capacity is a great idea. Sova Carriers are finally worth having a couple of, and it looks better when you have 5 or six squadrons of fighters following it instead of 2. The fact that the original game allows carriers to have so few fighters is just plain stupid. Not allowing the other ships to carry fighters was also a good idea, it's unfortunate it had to be scrapped because of the crashes. I like the increased capacity of the hangers as well. All these fighters force both you and your enemy to build anti-fighter ships, something that wasn't really necessary in the original game.

- The research system is much better with this mod, my only complaint being that it costs so much crystal. However, the economy bonuses make up for it, allowing you to make the money to purchase more crystal. This research system really forces you to focus only on certain aspects, and makes some research (such as the resource bonuses) much more worthwhile, and sometimes necessary. Making research stations more expensive was also a good idea.

- Adding more logistics slots to some planets turned out to be a good idea. Now the computer will actually build some formidable planet defenses, which they almost never did before. They still kind of build them in a weird fashion, bunching structures in seemingly random places, but that's just because of the terrible AI that Stardock included with this game.

- The increased amount of capitol ships finally allowed me to distribute my fleets better. Just those couple extra makes all the difference, and their increased strength allows me to keep them in smaller groups. It is much easier to keep key planets safely garrisoned with fleets in this way. This is a good change, since instead of having a larger fleet that I have to play hopscotch between planets to keep them defended, I can have smaller fleets that stay in one place and don't force me to move them around constantly (and this is good, since you made capitols a lot slower).

- Giving home planets more resource asteroids is good, it makes your HP more valuable so there is more incentive to keep it safe. I actually had the AI engage me as I was bombarding his home planet, even though he was clearly overmatched. That never happens, so this is a good thing.


Negative Observations:
- The defenses are a little overpowered. Making the defenses stronger was a must, but I think you made them a little too strong. Before, 6 turrets couldn't even take down a group of frigates. Now, 3 turrets (upgraded) can take down a capitol ship. I would say you should make the turrets count as 1 slot again since the increased capacity of hangars and the damage/rate of fire increase more than makes up for it.

-I noticed with the modification to the fleet supply, the AI seems to make A LOT of frigates. By a lot I mean 1:45 into the game my ally had one particular fleet with 130 Cobalts. I never recall the AI building this many frigates before, and it could lead to some frame rate issues with so many ships on the screen. I didn't really have any problems, but I imagine if the game went differently and I ended up fighting an AI with that many frigates it might be.

Those are my insights after a 7 hour game. Overall, good mod so far. Good luck, I hope to see more additions in the future.

Reply #148 Top
^awesome post. will try this mod and see whats its like. btw why is the mod so large in size (111mb)?
Reply #149 Top
Bonerfest:
First... Thanks for that very detailed feeedback. i hope you enjoyed that match.
Bugs:
- The sound popping is maybe caused by the increased bass and harmonizations also the added Hi-Fi chorus. As i remember i don't changed the missile sounds for bombarding, and the capitals using the same dying sounds. I have popping sounds sometimes, mostly when the CPU is running at 100%, that caused by my integrated soundcard. A friend of mine tested the sounds on a Creative X-Fi Fatality Edition soundcard, and didn't noticed any trouble.
- The fighter menegment problem is fixed, but the patch isn't uploaded yet. That's because the patch contains other changes, mostly for optimizing the performance. The detailed list of changes will be available when the Patch uploaded. Currently the Patch is in the testing phase. The first fix is only to remove a bug from the Vasari research tree.
The patch will be released today, i hope.

- I know about the missing string problem, and that caused by the duplicated files i used. I'll try to insert that fix in to the patch, too.

Positive Observations:
- The increased squadron numbers are causing lots of lag, mostly on larger maps. The patch optimization is mostly aim the fighters. I'll list the changes later.
- The crystal need for researches isn't really balanced now, that's why released a public beta before the final. i'll reduce the cost a little, but researches are tha main crystal consumptions in the mod, so you need a lots of them, to perform researches.
- The AI is writed by the programmers from Ironclad games. Stardock is only a publisher, not software developer.
- in vanilla sins, the ships got nearly the exact maximum STL speed. Now the Vasari ships a little fasters and the Tec vessels are a little slowers.
- With the increased resources for the homeplanet is maded for quicker games, and also needed for increase because the structures/ships/techs are more expensive.

Negative Observations:
- I incresed the price of the defensive platforms, also slightly reduced the damage
(about 10%-15%). Hangar Defenses also more expensives and cost 5 Tactical Slots for every races (with the patch). Try to using another siege strategy, like bombers to take out the defenses. Those Platforms mainly builted to destroy enemy ships and i think there now capable to make this.
- The incresed ship building priority is camed with the mod, because i found the AI to weak. Mostly incresed the priority for AGGRESIVE AI, and to the FORTIFIER. Also they now building more defenses.

Bob211:
The MOD size is came from the Sins Plus textures and from the replaced Musics/Sound Effects. In Extracted the MOD takes about 210-220 MB.
Reply #150 Top
In Extracted the MOD takes about 210-220 MB.


And installed takes well over a Gig ;)