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[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
426,923 views 303 replies
Reply #176 from Sins Forums Top
seems like the converter made some corrupted files... again :)
sorry for that, but i can't test everything.
Reply #177 from Sins Forums Top
I figured mine out... I had downloaded the original and not the patched version.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #178 from Sins Forums Top
How do you remove this mod? I downloaded and installed it using ThrakaAndy's installer. When I ran SoaSE, the the graphics at the main menue were messed up; the planet in the backgroud was one of the new ones by Uzzi, but the menu was just a white box. I tried uninstalling SoaSE using Stardock Central, but when I reinstalled it, the mod was still there causing the same problem. How do I remove the mod files?
Reply #179 from Sins Forums Top
I got the same problem, i downloaded the package bundle, copied over the textures files. when i activate it, the background goes white.
Reply #180 from Sins Forums Top
Never mind, i got it working now, copied the texture files into the worng folder. Needed to copy the files themselves.. not the folder.
Reply #181 from Sins Forums Top
In two days, trying the mod with the "Patch", almost 50 minidump... always happen when something is related to "Pirate"... during the announce of a imminent pirate raid... if during these periode, i am attacking pirat base, of pirate ship... mini dump : why they call these "mini"? They are around 3.5Mb. Today, i have generate 139mb of minidump!!! ... if pirate attack me, same result... minidump...

Before the patch, no problem with the pirate !!!
Reply #183 from Sins Forums Top
Diplomacy is useless with this mod if i am teamed up with a computer AI.

I am getting a TON of missions to attack my team mate...

Overall, very nice so far. Digging more into the game atm. WIll offer more feedback.
Reply #184 from Sins Forums Top
Jascob what you need to do is delete the folder to remove it. If you copied the new textures into the game folder you need to restore those, if you copied the games textures into the mod folder then deleting the mod folder takes care of that. I figure you didn't copy the textures anywhere which is why it's not working correctly. You should read the readme that came with the mod.

The games folder is named Distant Stars something or the other and resides in:
XP: %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods\
Vista: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods\
Reply #186 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah, I have the same problems with the pirates too.


Have install again the beta version with the quick fixes... and no more problem with the pirate...

Will wait until the Patch 2, who i hope will resolve these problem...

And now, i need again select individualy my fleet ship for create the fighter/bomber  (:( 
Reply #187 from Sins Forums Top
so far so good, no mini dumps. Only time i had it was when i forgot to reactive the mod after reloading hte game from a save.

Great mod so far... couple questions.

How can i tell what the planetary bonus is? I dont see it.

also, the max supply should be increased. It is a bit strained on a 20 planet map. Any larger of a map, it will be a hinderance


I say a 100 percent increase.

Reply #188 from Sins Forums Top
I gotta agree the max fleet should be increased due to the size of some maps. Also are u goning to add Bailknight`s Graphic Mod? if you get permission to use?
Reply #189 from Sins Forums Top
With all of these files and locations of files in local settings, etc. it can be quite confusing to get the mod up and running correctly. It's worth it though and in my case I was having a problem with graphics due to the fact I did not realise I needed to copy all of the original texture files from the game's directory over to the mod's directory, then install the new textures on top of that.
Reply #190 from Sins Forums Top
Follow up, the AI defenses are relatively weak. 2-3 beam defense, and perhaps 1 hangar.


Edit
Getting Tons of mini dumps when the pirates attack, the mini dumps are happening about 75% of the time in the later stages of the game.

I love the multi levels for technologies. One idea, may be to reduce the research time on the later techs. Still running into having sooooo much cash and resources, huge fleets and a back log of 20 plus technologies. Roughly.. i have 12 of each of the military and civilian research stations.
Reply #191 from Sins Forums Top
i keep getting spammed by the pirate raid message...
Reply #192 from Sins Forums Top
I'm getting the mini dumps later in the game as well. I got my supply maxed and my AI teammate is certainly maxed... I just started getting mini dumps and crashes now a lot. I'm getting 5 minutes after a load and it's crashing.
Reply #193 from Sins Forums Top
Just wanted to add a few comments on racial differences - TEC are focused on economy, NOT resources, vas are the resource race with their nanotech, and early game refinery, in fact, it's totally viable to never build a trade port playing vas in vanilla sins.

Secondly - normally, strike class for strike class, TEC should be outclassed by both advent and vas, except when supported by the Sova carrier, which has a ridiculous OP armor boost to bombers. Advent strike fighters vs vas strike fighters should ALWAYS lose, vas have less individual fighters with much higher health and speed, advent have swarms. Thusly as the they make firing runs on each other, the advent fighters [1v1 fighter fights] can't actually deal enough damage to take down a vas fighter, which do slightly lower DPS than the advent fighters, but do it at a much impulse. Vas bombers are also the fastest bombers by a wide margin, and though techinically deal slightly less damage than advent at lowest levels, deal more at max upgrade per strike squadron, especially with phase missle penetration, which COMPLETELY negates the effect of shield mitigation by some large % per hundred damage - meaning for 100 inflicted dmg, a vas bomber [and fighters attacking things with shields] will have only 30 or 40 dmg stopped by mitigation with good phase research, advent will have a much higher amount negated.


One other racial difference is that vas benefit the most from any given weapon upgrade, and most of their health related ups, because of their higher stats. While costing 1.5x as much and only having 1.25x the stats in many cases, this apparent unfairness actually equates to much higher actual values [except their light frigate, it sucks hard]


Effectively - vas units should always be more effective in any given situation because of their higher production and supply costs, and nearly every vas unit is faster than it's equivalent. [Except the Space Whale]

Phase missles are also one of their unique racial advantages - making them extremely strong vs advent's mitigation bonuses, and the reason for TEC's Kol battleship having a skill entirely devoted to negating them.

That said - another difference is the Vas's battleship - which should actually fair MUCH poorer in an individual cap to cap battle, but be incredible in fleet battles because of it's ability negation and antimatter destruction [not enough, fast enough, vs other battle caps]

Finally - the siege cap for all races but TEC with their rediculous kol have the highest DPS excluding abilities [And the vas one is actually an incredible cap assain with it's phase missle banks] with one final exception - high level carrier ships have truly outrageous DPS when taking into acount their strike forces damage and their strike force boosting abilities.

Just some notes to about vanilla sins races to help further changes [and don't forget, advent aren't about econ or resources, their about support ships working in conjuction, and going BORG on everyone and thing. Viva La Assimilation!]

Remember
TEC - Outproduce their opponents into the ground untill late game where if they haven't won, they've lost, because taxes cripple them more than any other race, even if they win nearly every fleet engagment, they will fall to the simple fact they can't build shit for bricks to replace what's fallen.
Advent - Support each other into invulnerability [And use malice for the single most OP ability in the game] and excellent culture.
Vasari - A few qualitiy units that take on forces of largely disparate size, [excepting the fact that, relatively, their caps are nothing special, unlike TEC and Advent with their Kol + Dunov combo, Mothership & anything, etc.] untill late game where they get free units to scuttle and sell thier hueg resource income to buy anything they want.

<--- Vas player mainly




Final note: Sorry for the wall of text



tl;dr - Vas have better non cap stuff [Especially late game, ESPECIALLY strike units] TEC are economic not resource: that's vas.
Reply #194 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks Jean Luke. That's an outstanding write, and you're totally right. TEC got stronger Trade ports, but their Rerineries are the samw as in the vanilla. So, they Economy got the boost. I'll adding new researches later, to improve more. Tec ships now the slowest and the Vasaries are the fastest. Tec ships got reduced mitigation, 50% for frigates, and 55% for caps. Currently the KOL main beam weapon is one of the most powerful in the game but it's ROF is the slowest, 2 shots/min.
About fighters... first time i wanted to add lots of more strikecrafts to the game, but that caused a lots of more lags, so that is removed with the Patch no. 1. I

To the others... About hte installing. READ THE README!!!
I'll find a solution for the CTD's. The problems mostly caused by the conversion to binary.

The patch no.1 set the pirates back to default.
Reply #195 from Sins Forums Top
Just a note on the kol - it's beam weapon isn't actually it's real DPS damager, its the crapload of autogun turrets it has. Run it into the middle of a normal fleet, with it's level6 abil on, and it WILL decimate it.

Also, just gonna quote someone who had the math for the vas phase missles

the math on phase missile shield bypass looks something like this:assume that you're firing on a target that has already achieved max mitigation (~60%. also assume that each missile does exactly the same damage and so corresponds 1 to 1 the DPS sum of the all missile weapons in the fleet. 100 DPS worth of phase missiles would be reduced to 40 DPS with no shield bypass. With 10% shield bypass, 1 of every 10 missiles will ignore the shield. So 90 of that DPS will be reduced by 60%, going to 36 DPS and the other 10 DPS will be untouched (negating even the base 15% mitigation). The total will be 46 DPS, or an improvement of 6 DPS over the unupgraded value. Note that if this had just been a flat 10% increase to damage dealt by missiles you would achieve only a 4 DPS increase (110 DPS x 40% = 44).With 20% shield bypass, 2 of every 10 missiles will ignore the shield. 80 of your 100 DPS will be reduced by 60%, going to 32 DPS, and the other 20 DPS will be untouched. The total will be 52 DPS, a 12 DPS improvement over unupgraded value. If the upgrade had been a flat 20% to missile DPS the damage increase after shield mitigation would only be +8 DPS (120 x 40% = 48). As can be seen in both cases the shield bypass upgrade is more or less 50% more effective than a flat damage increase upgrade would be. Simply put its the best DPS upgrade for any weapon system in the game.

Reply #196 from Sins Forums Top
I was wondering if anyone else noticed that Skeletal reinforcement only has 5 levels of upgrades, but the next tier requires 10 levels in SR. This is in the Vassari tech trees.
Reply #197 from Sins Forums Top
Artmiser. Please download the patch! That problem is solved about a week with the Quick Fix No. 1

Jean Luke - I didn't changed the AC damage on the KOL.
Reply #200 from Sins Forums Top
I'm using the package deal that has the quick fix, patch and installer all in one and I am getting mini dumps when trying to load the mod. I've copied all the textures from the game folder into the mod texture folder and I get the same issue. I've even gone as far as reinstalling the game, repatching, and reinstalling the mod to no avail. Any advice?