I copied the ScenarioGalaxyDef file from your mod folder and pasted it in the forge folder. It crashed the first time I startedit up but worked fine after that.

Huh, how weird. Curse the randomness of Computers. So many hours have I wasted trying to fix problems that only fix themselves after you've given up. At least it was after the first try, and not the 20th eh?

Chances were it was just a random windows vista crash rather anything to do with galaxy forge. Thought I'd mention it though just in case.

Dont know if you thought about maybe adding multiple planet textures to add more variation to all the planets? Expecialy in reguards to gas giants and terrain planets.

I would hope that the developers would note the difficulty in adding new planet research development and rework the code to allow for it in 1.4. Have you ever had a direct conversation with them on this. I personally find your work so far adds the most to the game play experience and would like to think they would assist if possible.

Uzii can you mix your mod with "Texture Pack I - Stars and Planets"? That mod is just updates the old planets but it's uses some files that your mod uses too. Will this make some issues if I mix them manually? Will the 2 mods work properly with this method?

@ crazyewok
Vista? *shudders*

I have thought about adding more textures to the already existing planets, and after 1.2 is up and running, I will start creating additional ones. The new planet types are more important, and a higher priority to get out to the masses, but soon the number of new planet types will start to dry up, and each update will include more textures.

I am still open to custom textures that anyone wants to include in my mod, and full credit (in-game as well as the credits in the README) is promised. I already have had 2 textures donated to me, and another one which is just being finalised, as well as another member who claims to have an incredible 30 textures he would like to include.

So if you ever feel up to texturing yourself, just check out the Vanilla textures for the planets, or the ones from Sins Plus, and give it a go.

@ Grizzlee
So far, I have to say, I'm slightly disappointed by the devs input with regards to modding. Before I receive a salvo of abuse, I completely understand that they have work to do, and have just completed making this game, which was a huge task in itself. But, I have yet to see one helpful post in this section with regards to modding. I've seen a few answers to the basic questions about where to install it to, and where's the directory, but so far, nothing of any use to the modding community.

So, no; I, or anyone I have been in contact with (pretty much all the authors of the major mods out now) as far as I know, have not been in contact with the devs. I got a small bit of info on the new patch on its own thread, but that was with regards to the patch itself, and not directly a modding question.

There are many, many questions that need answering in this section, and if the devs want a long term community, they should really start answering a few, or at least make the occasional appearance. Once they start integrating with the modders, then maybe they will address issues like the one you pointed out.

@ Naraxel
They should work together, but I am unsure on what is included in his mod. The best thing to do is try it. Backup everything you need, then give it a shot. I may speak to him in the future about including his textures, but at present, I have more pressing matters to attend to.

Thanks for all you input, its much appreciated.

If it's the texture pack I'm thinking of, they work together fine as far as I can tell. I'm not currently using it, but I was before I had to reinstall. I suppose some conflict might have caused me problems, but I doubt it, since I'm pretty sure they weren't mod related.

Ok, just before I log off tonight, I'll post a little preview of two of the planets for the next update.


The top one, as you can probably guess is the Toxic Planet, Textured by Davedon, a big 'Thank You' to him for his help so far.
And the bottom one is, as you can probably guess too, the Paradise Planet. Textured by me

The Industrial Planet is near completion, just cloud adjusting now, and the Military Planet is very similar to the Forest world, although slightly more mountainous and with smaller urban areas/Bases.

They both look good, but i would suggest making the toxic planet appear a little darker, the atmosphere makes it look strange in my opinion. That texture without the purple atmosphere might be good for another terran planet, with some adjustments of course.

Thats just the laziness speaking though, i couldnt ever texture for my life, so i salute both of you for making the fantastic textures.

Keep it up, great job.

As there isn't a list of planet bonuses, I'm not sure if this has been done already or if it is even possible.

I'd like to request a planet bonus, "Sector Capital". This would act like a mini-capital planet with higher allegiance and causing the surrounding planets to have higher allegiance. Preferably, this wouldn't be as good as a normal capital (say 70-80% starting allegiance), but would help out on some of the huge games.

It'd preferably something that would show up on the planet after you occupy it similar to "Tundra Farms", or other bonuses that only show up after occupying, but not requiring exploration to uncover it. Then again, you may want to leave that to the map maker if map makers using galaxy forge can manually place planet bonuses (I'm not sure on how much control modders/mapmakers have over planet bonuses).

I'm very much enjoying your mod in the combined Mars Effect 1.5 package. For my personal use I grabbed the Sins Texture Pack 1: Stars and Planets mod and merged it with yours. I only had to modify the Icons_planet.tga file in photoshop to include the few changes as there is otherwise no overlap. If you are interested, I can upload a copy.

Nice planets Uzii, keep up the good work!

@ CaptainHardcore
Mmm... I may darken the glow slightly, but other than that, its supposed to be strange.

@ Caedwyr
Its a good idea, but I don't think it could be incorporated. I have seen no ability that individually changes the allegiance of a planet. And making it a bonus would also be impossible at present. Perhaps if there is an ability in-game that does this, even for a brief time, please tell me. But other than that, sorry man, it can't be done.

Thanks for the comments, I'll keep you posted.

I can see imbalancing with this mod, especially whoever colonizes the Urban zone. Nice mod though, thanks for sharing.

Well, how about a solution? Or something you'd like changed? I can't fix something when I don't know the problem. I appreciate your feedback, but a one sentence criticism/observation is a little lacking.

awsome planets but if you can remove the SINS plus in the main menu and on the Research tree makes it compleet cool
i mod the main menu but it leaves a trail of green now  (:( 
and i needed to be creative to remove the SINS art with other art


anyway the LAVA planet can realy need some rearts it realy looks ugly upclose

I wouldn't actually download this, because if it was meant to be in the game it would be. I'm not much of a "mod" player but I do appreciate the work that wannabes and n00bs put together. I was just pointing out an observation that became immediately obvious. A planet with 10K population seems like it would fluctuate your economy up to ten times.

Now, riddle me this; Why would I want to remove my logos? The research screen is for you to easily locate the custom research for the new planets, and the Main Menu is so you know that the mod is activated. If you want to remove the main menu, all you have to do is replace BackdropFrontEnd.DDS with BackdropFrontEnd.TGA from the main game directory.

To remove the research, you will have to go through a very long and tiresome process which I am not about to explain. I can tell you what files you need to change if you would like, but other than that you are on your own.

Also, the "Lava" planet is a Vanilla planet(Volcanic). Retexturing is not the purpose of this mod, so feel free to do it yourself. Maybe in future updates I will improve or edit the Vanilla textures, but not at this early stage in the Mod's life.

Thank you for you comments.

We don't need people like you here then, goodbye. And one thing before you leave, it has a maximum population of 1k, which can be written as 1,000. Not 10,000 or 10k as you put it. You didn't give me a solution, you gave no helpful input to something that was "obvious", and you insulted every modder here, by calling us "n00bs" and "wannabes".

If you didn't like this mod, give your criticisms and offer helpful improvements to be made. There was no need to throw out abuse like that. Goodbye sir, and I hope we don't meet again.

my backup of the BackdropFrontEnd.DDS got lost somehow and i don't feel like Downloading at stardocks atm

Here you go Abisha, the original menu texture file.

Rapidshare.com

Dont want to be the noob! but can we have a simple process for installing like other mods.

Just extract the mod into mods folder

please..

If you have a site that will freely upload a file of about 1Gb, and you don't mind downloading a 1Gb file, then sure, I can do that.

The readme is as clear as I can make it. Follow it word for word, and you should be able to do it.

Until Sins is updated to 1.03 this is the ONLY way to do it. A simple way that explains how to install it is on the very bottom of the first post in bold red letters.

The textures are what causes this, and that is why other mods have an "easy way" to install, because all they do is change text files which are very small and so can all be thrown into the download.

If you continue to have problems post back with what you are stuck on, I will try and help you out further.

Uzii - great mod, but could do with a little more balance in one of the researches, the Better Tunneling one.

Seeing as every other upgrade goes 7.5% (8) / 15%, it seems a little unfair to have yours go 20/40%, especially in combination with the Urban planet's already large population.

Maybe you could make it 10/20 for Asteroids and Barren Planets, but have Urban Planets affected by High Density Zoning?

my texture file is 1.19 after doing all your instructions say!
Using Vista I am..

this sound correct?

also when your mod is enabled it makes sins go to not responding a fair bit !

new issue: your new planets the forrest and baron ect show as squares when i zoom out but when close up are normal!

@ jBrereton
Mmm... you have a good point about the population increase percentage. I will change it to 10% -> 20% for the next update. However, I will not change the research for the Urban Planets to High Density Zoning from Tunneling, for two main reasons;
1. Balance. The TEC can upgrade their Terran pop-cap beyond the other two races.
2. I pointed out some while ago (I don't blame you for missing it, it must be 5 pages back by now ;)), that Urban Planets are fully expanded on their surface. There is no room for more structures, and so the only expansion option is to go down, into the crust itself.

Thanks for the feedback, it was very helpful

@ Founders
Strange, but the only way you are going to find out if it works, is try it. As long as you have not changed or added anything into the main directory, nothing will corrupt your game, the only thing will be that the mod crashes on being enabled.

The best way anyone will learn how to do things is to try it themselves. People nowadays are just to afraid of something they don't understand. Take a step into the unknown, try the mod. It might not work, so come back and ask for help. But if you have done everything according to the readme, then it should all work fine. When I and many others started modding this game, who or where did we have to turn to in order to answer our questions; no one. I don't mind helping people who are stuck, but its always best if you try things first. People are much more likely to help if someone has given it a go first, and failed.

Sorry to go off on a rant, and it wasn't just aimed at you, many people have PM'ed me asking for help when they haven't even tried it themselves.

Once again, sorry for that, it wasn't really meant for you, any problems, get back to me

EDIT: Sorry, only just seen your edit/new issue. Right, you haven't copied the textures correctly. Make sure all my textures are in the mods folder, and override the originals.