Hey guys,

The mod is looking amazing!   I haven't had a chance to play in awhile and the new changes are really incredible.

Now that I have some time I wanted to get back into editing the mod and try making a more long form game.

I talked about this awhile back and got a few things working, but things got pretty busy in real life so I didn't have the time to put into modding.

I think i'm going to have some more free time available now , so I wanted to see if you guys had any tools that you recommend using to edit sins files.

I saw ZombieRus had a plugin for eclipse, but I couldn't really figure out how to get it working.  I've been using notepad++ which works well for editing single files, but when editing things in the research tree it really gets tricky.

Basically I'm trying to change the way a game starts off to make more ships and technologies available, but I'm having a hard time removing things from the research tree.  For example with the feds I wanted to make the ship yards repair ships from the start, with out requiring that anything be researched.  I tried removing the research prerequisites from AbilityRepairPlatformPsi, deleted the RESEARCHSUBJECT_PLANETMODULEACCESS_REPAIRPLATFORMFED file and removed it from the entity.manifest file but then sins crashs out.

I think i'm missing something, and I'll keep taking a look at it.  I thought I should see if you have any tools you use, or if you know how to use zombieRus's plug in.  It looks like zombieRus's plugin links all the files together to make it much easier to change things, without having to go through and find where each file references other files by hand.

thanks for any help.

you need to remove it from the PlayerFed.entity research list and change the count. If you remove from the player research list, you should not need to remove from the manifest or delete the file, the file will just sit there unused. I do this with addon's research so I only need one manifest.

Once the original research is no longer there, then move to the next one and remove the prereq's to the research you removed.

Actually, first removing the prereq's to all the ones you want to edit or remove may help a lot. Then remove from player research section to not load it.

EDIT: There is also another method you could play with, change the dlcId 204880 to dlcId 100000 which is a number not recognized by sins and will make it like a DLC you have not paid for.

If you ever want to get into adding research instead of removing them, let me know, we could use a researcher on the dev team

When you go to remove an entity file and are unaware as to it's full nature, connection wise, simply search all files in the directory for references to the name.  A single reference left in, and you're hosed.

Wow!! So I have been playing the new rebellion mod and am completely stumped.  The game has become a lot harder, I have random klingon attacks on every planet, and some sort of maquis super weapon I cannot defeat.  I am very rusty in this game and am getting whooped.  How do you defeat the "dreadnought"?  It seems to never run out of shields and I have lost a whole fleet to it.  I also do not understand how to get terraforming to work.  I researched it, but it doesn't seem to do anything for me at all.  Help?

The random Klingon raids are from the House of Duras, they will have a colony nearby you need to eliminate. Watch out, they like to hide cloaked ships all over the damned place.

The Maquis Dreadnought is tough, it, will raid later game so you should have a sufficient fleet nearby to take the shields all the way down and stomp it, otherwise, let it kill everything in sight and then blow the crap out of your planet. If you don't have bombardment shelters, all your people on the planet will die and the planet will be lost. I think the Dreadnought raids are a lot less frequent in the next patch, coming soon.

Terraforming needs the research 1st, then if the planet can terraform, use the scuttle button on the planet (very bottom middle), it will take 10 minutes or so, but once scuttled it will be your new planet type. I keep a colony frigate there waiting, don't let another player steal it on you.

If the raids are to tough on you, this can be edited 2 ways. 1st is easy, 2nd one you will need psy's guidance.

1st: Go into the mods Galaxy folder and open the map you like to play in notepad or notepad++

Find the lines with militiaColonizationPerc above 0. 0 is no chance, 1 is 100% chance, of colonized by neutrals

 ...\SOA2\Galaxy\Huge Multi-System Random Map - SoA.galaxy

ring
starRadiusRange
minPercentage 0.2
maxPercentage 0.3
militiaColonizationPerc 1 <--- 100% colonize chance if loaded
planetGroupCount 1
planetGroup
minCount 0  <--map may load without the Maquis base
maxCount 1
planetTypeCount 1
planetType "MaquisBase"

if you change the militiaColonizationPerc 1 to 0.5, every time the map is loaded, there is only half the chance it will be a colony that launches raids. Change to 0 and never get a dreadnought raid. any value between 0 and 1 (0.25 is 25% colony chance etc.)

The dreads are new and we are open to balance suggestions.

2nd involves editing the timing of the raids in the entity files.

In our random maps, we really tried to get a very good list of different stuff that may or may not happen. Between all the neutals having different chances of being on that map, with or without a colony to raid from, to all the different types of X-class that choose from different random events.

If Kirk was loosing, he would reprogram so he didn't 

ANd if you like the Dreadnought, you will love the Doomsday Machine and Crystalline entity

I'm stumped.

I've tried to make it so that the federation frigate factory starts with the ability to repair ships by changing AbilityRepairPlatformPsi.entity

originally it says:

researchPrerequisites
NumResearchPrerequisites 1
ResearchPrerequisite
Subject "RESEARCHSUBJECT_PLANETMODULEACCESS_REPAIRPLATFORMFED"
Level 1
RequiredFactionNameID ""
RequiredCompletedResearchSubjects 0

i changed those lines to say:

researchPrerequisites
NumResearchPrerequisites 0
RequiredFactionNameID ""
RequiredCompletedResearchSubjects 0

but the factory still does not have the ability to repair.  is there something else I'm missing?  I thought if i removed the prerequsites, it would just have the ability.

It's research leveled, so no research means no level.

OK I have a question about the Echo Papa 607. When you take the planet is it supposed to switch to your side or is that planet just not inhabitable?

When you take a planet, the one attacking you is still programmed to attack. Take the planet, you then tell the computer that you will buy one, becoming a customer, the next one that spawns will be yours.

It would be too easy to just rush the planet and switch the EP to your side otherwise.

At least that's my understanding of the setup.

Right, I dealt with those kilngon bilgewads.  They may have some ships left cloaked, but I got there planet.

I think the dreadnought caught me off guard because I was playing very slow trying to figure out the new research tree.  I pulled the remains of the fleet back and those unfortunate colonists took one for the team. The dreadnought is interesting balance wise because one was actually defeated by 9 runabaouts and 8 phaser turrets, but the initial one wiped my early fleet(5 excelsiors, 5 miranda, 5 connies, and one survivng ambassador.)

Thank you for that, I had a hard time finding those instructions, this an awesome feature!
 

I have recovered from the whipping I received, House Duras has paid for their crimes and the Maquis are next.  I have to add that this release has definitely upped the ante with regards to this mod feeling like Star trek.  It did before but now it is much more so.  I look forward to finding more of the changes as I play through.  Thanks for all your help.

The Echo Papa Drone will finish running through it's event chain whether you take the planet or not, it spawns six times before the demonstration ends.  At which point, yes, the owner of the planet gets the next one to spawn.

Hey guys do the Klingons have an ability to take over frigates?

I have seen the Klingons take a Borg sphere and where flying it back to Kronos as a trophy.

The Kron has it.

looks good - want to get the CD

what do u guys think of the ultimate ST game?

with addable ships, edit or create, top view walkable deck layouts, SFC3 command style, and Armada 3 Admiral mode.

SFC4 Ships of the Starfleet is here!

SFC4 Ships of the Starfleet

Identification Chart

Romulan

Klingon

Borg

Cardassian

Dominion

Breen

Game Play

Build, sit back and enjoy.

Economy

Real Time (Total Annihilation) or Numeric (ST Armada)

Autonomy

Query ships from shipyards to patrol. Ships automatically return for repairs. Patrol Cruisers, Perimeter Action ships, and PKAs will automatically patrol the outer rim of an outpost. Corvettes will skip the frigates and attack the Cruisers and Combatants. Interceptor Fighters will attack fighters as first priority. Combat Support ships will protect the Auxiliary ships.

Patrol Combatants

These ships are used for patrol duties all across the Federation. Tactical sensors allow you to see other ships’ tactical status including weapon range.                              

Class One Auxiliaries

These ships are intended for massive movement of supplies, materials, and personnel needed to begin the task of rebuilding the Federation.

Specialized

Specialized ships are often kept for their role in war time; however their build time and usage deem them in limited number. Building one will satisfy the needs of an entire fleet.

Scouts

Most of the exploration fleet consists of older ships, but due to the narrowness of their mission parameters, they are still more than capable of fulfilling their intended role.

Destroyers

None of these vessels have a very effective scientific capability and additional examples are not being considered at this time. Destroyers have as many weapons as combatants. Their high speed makes engaging and retreating efficient, they’re often considered for pinpoint strategy.

Frigates

Vessels are expected to be modified during general layover. Frigates can protect cruisers and patrols, thus, these ships are the first to be attacked.

Cruisers

The cruiser remains the focal point of the new strategy and shipbuilding program. The cruiser has the highest scientific sensor coverage.

Romulan Empire

Patrol Combatants

These ships are used for patrol duties all across the Federation. Tactical sensors allow you to see other ships’ tactical status including weapon range.                              

Class One Auxiliaries

These ships are intended for massive movement of supplies, materials, and personnel needed to begin the task of rebuilding the Federation.

Specialized

Specialized ships are often kept for their role in war time; however their build time and usage deem them in limited number. Building one will satisfy the needs of an entire fleet.

Scouts

Most of the exploration fleet consists of older ships, but due to the narrowness of their mission parameters, they are still more than capable of fulfilling their intended role.

Destroyers

None of these vessels have a very effective scientific capability and additional examples are not being considered at this time. Destroyers have as many weapons as combatants. Their high speed makes engaging and retreating efficient, they’re often considered pinpoint strategy.

Frigates

Vessels are expected to be modified during general layover. Frigates can protect cruisers and patrols, thus, these ships are the first to be attacked.

Cruisers

The cruiser remains the focal point of the new strategy and shipbuilding program. The cruiser has the highest scientific sensor coverage.

Klingon

Patrol Combatants

These ships are used for patrol duties all across the Federation. Tactical sensors allow you to see other ships’ tactical status including weapon range.                              

Class One Auxiliaries

These ships are intended for massive movement of supplies, materials, and personnel needed to begin the task of rebuilding the Federation.

Specialized

Specialized ships are often kept for their role in war time; however their build time and usage deem them in limited number. Building one will satisfy the needs of an entire fleet.

Scouts

Most of the exploration fleet consists of older ships, but due to the narrowness of their mission parameters, they are still more than capable of fulfilling their intended role.

Destroyers

None of these vessels have a very effective scientific capability and additional examples are not being considered at this time. Destroyers have as many weapons as combatants. Their high speed makes engaging and retreating efficient, they’re often considered pinpoint strategy.

Frigates

Vessels are expected to be modified during general layover. Frigates can protect cruisers and patrols, thus, these ships are the first to be attacked.

Cruisers

The cruiser remains the focal point of the new strategy and shipbuilding program. The cruiser has the highest scientific sensor coverage.

Borg

Patrol Combatants

These ships are used for patrol duties all across the Federation. Tactical sensors allow you to see other ships’ tactical status including weapon range.                              

Class One Auxiliaries

These ships are intended for massive movement of supplies, materials, and personnel needed to begin the task of rebuilding the Federation.

Specialized

Specialized ships are often kept for their role in war time; however their build time and usage deem them in limited number. Building one will satisfy the needs of an entire fleet.

Scouts

Most of the exploration fleet consists of older ships, but due to the narrowness of their mission parameters, they are still more than capable of fulfilling their intended role.

Destroyers

None of these vessels have a very effective scientific capability and additional examples are not being considered at this time. Destroyers have as many weapons as combatants. Their high speed makes engaging and retreating efficient, they’re often considered pinpoint strategy.

Frigates

Vessels are expected to be modified during general layover. Frigates can protect cruisers and patrols, thus, these ships are the first to be attacked.

Cruisers

The cruiser remains the focal point of the new strategy and shipbuilding program. The cruiser has the highest scientific sensor coverage.

Cardassian

Patrol Combatants

These ships are used for patrol duties all across the empire. Tactical sensors allow you to see other ships’ tactical status including weapon range.                             

Class One Auxiliaries

These ships are intended for massive movement of supplies, materials, and personnel needed to begin the task of rebuilding the Union.

Specialized

Specialized ships are often kept for their role in war time; however their build time and usage deem them in limited number. Building one will satisfy the needs of an entire fleet.

Scouts

Most of the exploration fleet consists of older ships, but due to the narrowness of their mission parameters, they are still more than capable of fulfilling their intended role.

Destroyers

None of these vessels have a very effective scientific capability and additional examples are not being considered at this time. Destroyers have as many weapons as combatants. Their high speed makes engaging and retreating efficient, they’re often considered for pinpoint strategy.

Frigates

Vessels are expected to be modified during general layover. Frigates can protect cruisers and patrols, thus, these ships are the first to be attacked.

Cruisers

The cruiser remains the focal point of the new strategy and shipbuilding program. The cruiser has the highest scientific sensor coverage.

Dominion

Patrol Combatants

These ships are used for patrol duties all across the Federation. Tactical sensors allow you to see other ships’ tactical status including weapon range.                              

Class One Auxiliaries

These ships are intended for massive movement of supplies, materials, and personnel needed to begin the task of rebuilding the Federation.

Specialized

Specialized ships are often kept for their role in war time; however their build time and usage deem them in limited number. Building one will satisfy the needs of an entire fleet.

Scouts

Most of the exploration fleet consists of older ships, but due to the narrowness of their mission parameters, they are still more than capable of fulfilling their intended role.

Destroyers

None of these vessels have a very effective scientific capability and additional examples are not being considered at this time. Destroyers have as many weapons as combatants. Their high speed makes engaging and retreating efficient, they’re often considered for pinpoint strategy.

Frigates

Vessels are expected to be modified during general layover. Frigates can protect cruisers and patrols, thus, these are the first ships to be attacked.

Cruisers

The cruiser remains the focal point of the new strategy and shipbuilding program. The cruiser has the highest scientific sensor coverage.

Breen

Patrol Combatants

These ships are used for patrol duties all across the Breen Confederacy. Tactical sensors allow you to see other ships’ tactical status including weapon range.                             

Class One Auxiliaries

These ships are intended for massive movement of supplies, materials, and personnel needed to begin the task of rebuilding the Breen.

Specialized

Specialized ships are often kept for their role in war time; however their build time and usage deem them in limited number. Building one will satisfy the needs of an entire fleet.

Scouts

Most of the exploration fleet consists of older ships, but due to the narrowness of their mission parameters, they are still more than capable of fulfilling their intended role.

Destroyers

None of these vessels have a very effective scientific capability and additional examples are not being considered at this time. Destroyers have as many weapons as combatants. Their high speed makes engaging and retreating efficient, they’re often considered pinpoint strategy.

Frigates

Vessels are expected to be modified during general layover. Frigates can protect cruisers and patrols, thus, these are the first ships to be attacked.

Cruisers

The cruiser remains the focal point of the new strategy and shipbuilding program. The cruiser has the highest scientific sensor coverage.

What the......

A very long what the.

Indeed... That wall of text gets the...

FYI We can not use any copyrighted IP from Amarillo Designs (Creaters of Starfleet Battles. aka translated to Starfleet Command).. We are not big fans of cease, and desist letters, and Lawsuits.

If we could use it. I would have created a "Federation, and Empire" mod a long time ago.

I reported that post as soon as it went up, looks like they are a little slow, or don't give a damn about spam as long as it's buried in other peoples threads. I'm hoping it's the former.

I wouldn't mind seeing this thread die and everyone use our Steam Group page or modDB page to post comments. Visiting the modDB page does help our modDB ranking but we don't force people to use it, the Steam group page is ad free and eyeball friendly. Both those sites give the team control over the content and it's not left to the bureaucrats.

We also have the Steam group chat room almost always open with psychoak and myself, and now our new string and sound dev, NewHorizons, are regularly online. Feel free to jump in.

Who are you directing that at? That tard made an account that day just to post spam, those assholes tend to not come back.

SFC4 Ships of the Starfleet is here!  << Will never even get a page visit from me if they need to employ spammers.

Are you guys using those sounds I fixed yet? I might be able to fix or rip others if you need. Spam me up on steam or PM me here if you've got some special thing that needs the Belgian touch. I joined your steam group for easy reference.

What's your Steam name? 

or, in your Steam friends window, there should be a groups tab with SOA2, use the dropdown arrow and "Join Group Chat".

So sorry, I can't remember what sounds to which you are referring. We have had Mike jump in to do a few sounds and supply us with a lot of old trek game sounds, and now NewHorizons has the teams okay to be totally in charge of sounds, so it has been quite a while since I added any. Frees me up to do art.

Anyways IskatuMesk, jump in our chat when you have a few minutes.  

EDIT:

went back to August to where I gave you karma for the sound file but link is dead, Im sure I have it, but just wanted to let you know if its in game or not. 
http://www.gameproc.com/meskstuff/BlackSun/SoARemaster.7z 

The last one I still have, "Ya, that's a big ship", just not sure where to use it, we dont use titans.

I should show up in your group as Malkor. I think my steam name is sweatylenny42.

iirc I resampled a bunch of the weapons, cleaned static from borg sounds, and some other such things. Maybe Mike has already done that and you don't need this anymore.

http://www.gameproc.com/meskstuff/BlackSun/SoARemaster.7z

Cheers IskatuMesk, very generous of you, I'll have listen...

Not many weapon effects have been changed recently, but dialogue sounds have been expanded quite a bit.

Basically, there was a bunch of sounds that were from really low bitrate sources (probably youtube videos or old games). It is possible to restore some fidelity to those by first raising the sample rate (so you get more to work with), then using something like an equalizer, or a directx smooth/enhance plugin like what I used, to boost the upper channels a bit to get rid of that "flat" sound.

A bunch of responses had really bad background static and some crackles. Removing the static is pretty easy if it's consistent and not too severe; capture a profile of a blank spot and apply a max strength removal to the entire piece. Crackles can be a bit more troublesome, but I have worked on restoring some pretty god awful recordings in my time, so it takes a lot to find something I can't at least mostly fix.

I also think I removed a bunch of pointless empty audio spots at the beginning or ends of files. This is important because Sins has very limited audio channels. As long as an audio piece is "playing, it's occpying a channel. Brood War only had like 16 channels, so I got pretty accustomed to min-maxing tails.

Here's another long post, but this one is actually contributing some thoughts and not spam.

Love the mod. The only glaring error I really detect is that the AI cannot play the Dominion for anything. I mean, they are literally hopeless. 5 player FFA with 1 of each race and if the Dominion isn't my neighbor they will often be destroyed before I meet them.

I don't actually feel that the Dominion are particularly underpowered, but rather that the AI doesn't use the synergies that are required to make them competitive. Two Keldons, a Devastator and an Enslaver put them on par with the Borg in the hands of a player, so I completely understand having no desire to buff them.

So, here are a few thoughts about how you might resolve this issue. I've tried it in my game and it seems pretty effective.

1) This first one is a no-brainer. Have Will of the Founders cover the entire gravity well. Virtually all human players are going to place them fairly close to their turrets anyways so that anyone wanting to attack them has to get shot at by a lot of firepower to do so. It let's the AI actually get a little bit of mileage out of these buildings, as otherwise they will often not even overlap with a single turret. I suppose in small gravity wells a player could finesse this and make them a real pain, but overall I think it's an easy change with a minimal buff to overall Dominion power.

2) Let's talk capital ships. Most of the Dominion power comes from overlapping bonuses from their Cap ships. Virtually every major mid-late game fleet is going to have 1 leviathan, 2 keldons, a devastator and an enslaver. I say 2 Keldon's because intentionally or not, those buffs stack twice, and 20% weapon cooldown and 20% mitigation is way too good to pass up, not to mention the gravity well bonuses to Cardassian ships. Honestly, the spiral phaser or whatever on the Keldon is pretty much just a way to screw with the AI as no human would take it before level 8. I'd either buff that ability (significantly) or re-think it entirely. An extra few hundred damage every 20 or 30 seconds makes no difference in a battle, but I digress.

The best way to solve this? Move some of these bonuses from the capital ship buffs to the ships that they buff, inherently. Because a human is going to almost always have them, and the AI almost never will. So I propose moving 25-33% of all these buffs (leviathan: regular, not ult; keldon: both, devastator: glory; enslaver: see last) to the ships they respectively buff. This sounds more problematic than it actually is. So the Keldon gives say, 7.5% cooldown and mitigation instead of 10%, and all Dominion ships (capitals included, as this buff effects everything) get 5% more mitigation and 5% off their weapon cooldowns in their base files (because a human player will have 2). Jem'Hadar ships get +12.5% weapon damage and 12.5% better cooldowns, and Glory of the Founders caps at 3.75% instead of 5%. etc.

The Enslaver is more tricky and can probably be left alone, though I have no idea if the AI even uses the ult, I feel the same about the Leviathan Ult.

Anyways, in this way the buffs from the capital ships are still important, and the loss of your capital ships is still felt. This does buff the Dominion slightly on the player end because it makes losing a capital ship a little less devastating (25% less devastating, roughly :P), but more importantly your fleet will never be more powerful than it is capable of being now, and the AI is a lot less useless because as they almost never attack with more than 2-3 capital ships (4 is a rarity even on vicious near the fleet cap, which is a Sins AI issue, not a problem with the mod) and so never get the buffs a human player relies on.

I've tried it and the AI Dominion is a lot more competitive this way, but doesn't feel OP.

Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts on it. Keep up the great work!