Hi im sure this has been answered above, regarding the ability to only select stock sins races after installation. Ive patched to 0.5 and installed the mod to that path location. Enabled the mod, yet im still only able to select stock sins races. Any advice, have I dont something wrong?

Thanks folks

ignore that post, i know what i did wrong! doh! lol . off to play a game!

I just wanted to throw some major props out to everyone working on this mod. I stopped playing Sins maybe a year ago when their weren't any really complete mods available. I loaded it up last night with this mod and holy crap is it nice. I couldn't believe the amount of work y'all have put into this mod. Good job everyone. Now if only the B5 mod can get off the ground!

hi just a short bug that crossed me

the dominion beam weapon platforms still have vanilla dps (20 in comparisson to ~120 of other races)

the ability intimitate of the borg colonizer is not selectable once you skilled it

on balance:

the norexan warbird is way too bad for it's cost and place in the research tree, i know the abilities ar far from final and that the d'derix is the combat capital ship i suggest to keep the current hp/hull but increasing the weapon damage signifacantly and speed and turn rate making it more of a quick stealthy raider while the d'derix remains as the 'tank' of the romulans.

a general balance proposal: increase the shield restore rate of vessels out of combat, somtimes it is very annoying just to wait and slowly watch 10k shields restore.

Great update guys. You know it's good when you start playing at 11pm and don't look back at the clock until 2am. However, I did notice that some icons didn't seem to show up when zoomed out. I remember the Dominion Cap Ship(Laviathan?) and Starbase in particular didn't switch to icons zoomed out, but there might have been others. Is that a known issue?

Actually, a lot of races have capitols that restore shields to their respective fleets, so have shields recoup quickly might not be the best of answers.

First off, let me say to Jtaylor and team . . . WOW! You guys have done so much in the last week to fix a lot of problems that I am amazed at how well it has turned out !!!

As for you guys who keep coming in with bugs, first off wrong area since you should be posting them here:

http://code.google.com/p/sinssoa2sacrificeofangels/

Secondly, some of the stuff you guys are coming back with is starting to get ridiculous.  It has been posted in the mod read me, at the top of this thread, and by numerous posts from the mod creators that this is not a complete mod, so please STOP POSTING BALANCING ISSUES!!  You guys need to wait until around version 0.8 or 0.9 before going overboard with balance like you have been so far.  The only ones who should be posting balancing issues AT ALL are the beta testers and creators (and obviously not in these threads).

Since I got no reply from the tech forums, I'll ask here, instead..

Any idea as to why the only time I get meshes/textures to display is when I'm using this mod? I patched to 1.05 yesterday, started up a normal game, no meshes. Just the particle effects. I can see icons as well, and select where the meshes should be showing (as denoted by the icons and particle effects). But then everything worked when I enabled this mod (which is faaaanfriggintastic, by the way. amazing job you've all done with this).

Halp .

Tyrant, I'm guessing one of your Sins Texture config files is bust, and that everything suddenly seems to work in this mod because the mod's file is actually telling it what pictures to load. Unfortunately, without knowing which file of yours is dead, you'll probably have to completely remove and then reinstall sins.

Or you can just play this mod forever... xD

hello i love the mod and i was woundering if you guys where looking for more ideias on abialtys for the cap ships i was watching the star trek the next generation and in the episode riker was trying to rescue picard from the borg when he attacked he split the enterprise in two ships i thought that was awsome and i was woundering if you guys would be able to do anything like that in the mod. ps i really love the mod and i love the music that you guys put into it too

Siris, thanks for the suggestion and the compliments; however, I've pursued this idea fairly intensely and discovered that it just isn't possible with the current ability/buff coding system.  It's possible to split any ship into multiple parts, which I've done quite successfully with the Prometheus.  Unfortunately, recombining is just theoretical on a frigate/cruiser at the moment, and next to impossible for a capital ship.  If it were to work, the newly recombined capital ship would not reappear where the two pieces met, but at the edge of the planetary system.  And that's just not an acceptable solution in my book.

Sorry for the bad news.

I have a basic question for anyone who knows the answer:

There are two player-theme-icons between the Cardassian.. thing and the Borg hand. What races do these align with, and what color would they be under normal circumstances?

One is a diamond with two little tower-things in it, the other is sort of a curved X around a central pylon.

I only ask because I like to set each race to the proper icon and color before I start a game, and I don't know these two.

EDIT: AH! a little searching took me to Memory Beta, which said the curved X + pylon was the emblem of the Breen!

Not sure about the scarab, but the one just to the right of the Cardie one is the Dominion's symbol. So obviously you can use either the Cardie or the Dominion one for the Dominion (or if you're really sad, you can do what I do and set one to each- aligning the race pics up with the flags, and then play against them as Feds, with a friend/AI as Klinks xD).

Great, Thanks! I was always just using the Cardassian symbol for the Dominion, but this is much better!

Note: Due to being pressed for time, this version is downloaded as an automatic installer.  However, the automatic installer puts the mod in your entrenchment 1.041 directory instead of your 1.05 directory.  Fix as follows:

1. Make sure you can see hidden files (consult your WINDOWS help if you don't know how)
2. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire
3. Create a new directory called Mods-Entrenchment v1.05
4. Open your Mods-Entrenchment v1.041 directory, cut the SOA20.4E folder, and paste it in Mods-Entrenchment v1.05

im sorry but i dont fully understand, i have a fresh new copy of sins and entrencment that i downloaded today. with the v1.05 mods folder, do i need to create a v1.041 folder and put that inside. or do nothing at all?

Just in case anyone missed it Diplomacy is officially out now

ARKROYAL -

If you just installed today, there should already be a folder in your C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire directory named "Mods-Entrenchment v1.05"

If you haven't run the installer yet, what you want to do is run it, and when it asks you what directory to put the mod in, change the final part of the install location from "Mods-Entrenchment v1.041" to "Mods-Entrenchment v1.05"  That will put it in the right place.

If you've already run the installer, what you want to do is go to your "Mods-Entrenchment v1.041" folder and "cut" the folder named "SOA2 0.4E" then go into the folder "Mods-Entrenchement v1.05" and "paste" it.  All the mod files are inside that SOA2 0.4E folder.

Then, once you load up Entrenchment, click on "options" in the main menu, and click on "Mods" on the left-hand menu.  You should see "SOA2 0.4E" as an option.  Click the "Enable mod" button and then "Accept"

Your computer will probably freeze for a moment as the mod loads (it's basically reloading the entire program with the mod files) and then all the interface will change to look liks LCARS from TNG.

thx 4 info.

i just cant wait for that! this is really the only thing thats missing in this game. a real diplomacy system.

specally for star trek feeling...and then its perfect

Just move the soa2 0.4e folder from your mods-1.041 folder into your mods-1.05 folder. Or if you have a fresh sins install just install it into \mods-1.05. We will get around to fixing the installer soon enough. Its been pretty crazy here as you can see. Once we get the free time it will get done.

Yes i am officially back... I will start work on the 0.5E foundation this weekend (if i have a full 2 days off). Everything as of 0.4E.1 will be in the foundation, and if Diplomacy is out as you say it is i will work on the 0.5D foundation as well. I was waiting for Diplomacy to be officially released before i started work on the diplomacy port of SoA2.

I will also build a final Original Sins Port to include everything as of 0.4E.1. This port will be the last port of the mod i will make for Original Sins. If anyone else wishes to downgrade any future Entrenchment, or Diplomacy port to original sins you have our blessings. We dont have the free time, or manpower to keep track of three different ports of the mod.

To the SoA2 Team:

When i build the next two foundations STICK with the file naming convention i use when you update it. There is a reason why i am naming the files the way i do. Mainly to avoid errors. This will also avoid lots of confusion as to what is what, what does what, and where it is supposed to be. This is very important. Please do not change the mods file naming system in the future. I dont want to deal with any more errors, and dumps. TIA.

To our fans... WE NEED VIDEOS. The catch is they must NOT have UI or Icons showing. I need epic battle videos featuring ALL factions, but focus a little on the Borg. Also need single combat videos. Same thing all factions. Perhaps some nice panoramas as well.

You can disable the UI buy pressing ctrl- shift- Z. Also disable the "Ship mesh highlight filter" in your options

Actually, the Norexan Warbird has abilities that are pretty similar to what you describe, you probably just didn't realize it.  Note that the attack shields ability gives it both a strong frontal shield (I based it on the Vasari starbase's frontal deflectors) and an incredible decrease in weapons cooldown (i.e., you do 400%-800% damage for a short period of time).

The point is that this ability can be used in conjunction with the cloaking device (another special ability).  Swing around toward your prey while cloaked (note that the Noraxan Warbird is already the fastest and most agile capital ship in the mod aside from the Defiant, at about 30% faster speed and turning rate than the Federation ships, and faster still compared to the Klinks or Doms), and uncloak.  The attack shield spell will turn on as soon as you get hit with a stray shot from the enemy, and you'll do several thousand damage over the 6-10 seconds that the spell is active.  Then cloak again and wait for another opportunity.  Granted, the cooldown isn't short, but if you max it out, you'll be able to destroy any enemy capital ship with ease (note that cloaking device can't be disabled...)

It takes micromanagement of your fleet, but when you build two or three of these things, there's not much someone with a similar-sized fleet can do to save his cap ships.  That was what I was shooting for when I created those two abilities - an unholy terror that you know is out there but can't see coming.  You just have to know how to use it and have the skill to manage it.  Note that the tradeoff for this is that it has less HP and armor than most other heavy cap ship, which is appropriate for a "fast" ship.

As long as people are posting critisism in a constructive manner, we're fine with some feedback.  For instance, we didn't realize that we'd given the Fed capital ships the ability to top out at over 100% shield mitigation (making them invincible) until it was pointed out on the boards.  As Stress has said, constructive critisism and pointing out errors is welcome, but don't gripe that we got the Constitution Class warp nacelle angle off by 0.83 degrees.

On this one, there are gameplay ways to do this, so I don't think it's a balance problem.  For hull, the frigate/cap ship factories can heal you, and if you want more regen, research it or build a cap ship with shield restore.  Yes, it takes up your precious cap ship slots, but the game wouldn't be balanced if a ship could escape from battle by a thread and be 100% ready to go in two minutes.  With the base regen of a Fed starship (~8-10 SP per sec) and 30% upgrade, you should be able to regen 10k SP in 15 minutes.  That's pretty fair I think.  Note that several Fed ships have upgrades that allow even faster regen (aside from the shield restore abilities).

So all in all, I don't agree that this is a balance problem, I think that you need to explore the game's intracacies more.

@G-ADM_Prawn

thanks for your reply, i always used my norexan fleet that way i simply did not know that they would gain a damage boost with the frontal shields (was this included in the latest patch? i did not played with them yet with newest version)

with the shield restore i aimed, as you can guess to my romulan norexan fleet. i always used  the rapair from the ship docks but i did not find any shield restore ability (same with dominion) in the older version

Yeah, the damage boost for the Norexan Warbird's attack shield ability is new to the version released yesterday.  The Dominion also got improved cap ship abilities, and I think one of their cap ships has shield restore, but don't quote me on it Edit: Doms didn't get shield restore, but they have so much blasted armor they had better not need it.  Try running around w/ your shields down for a while (e.g., when attacking a starbase w/ 3 or 4 Enslavers) and see what I mean - they don't need shields as much as you think.

As for Roms, I don't think we gave them a shield restore b/c with the cloaking device, they already have a huge survivability advantage if you're able to micromanage your fleet.  For instance, make sure you don't have grouping on in your empire tree, and when you start a bombing run on a starbase, watch the E-Tree, select each ship as its shields go down, and cloak it.  Uncloak all once the station is gone, and you've survived with a lot more ships than a Fed fleet would have.  Also remember that the Roms have a huge advantage in fleet supply and cruisers: the H'Veik warbird takes up only 33 supply, but can do ~200 DPS when upgraded, and has more SP+HP than any non-cap ship (way more than an Intrepid or Akira).  It's an amazing addition to the Rom fleet.

Thus, given these advantages, we didn't think the Roms needed shield restore on top of their other survivability advantages.

P.S. - note that the D'Deridex also got improved abilities in yesterday's release.  They had been filled in with generic sins abilities, but it it a more potent class now - really worth of being a battleship and on a par with the Negh'Var and Sovereign Classes.

P.P.S - and before anyone even asks why the D'Deridex has more HP than an Enslaver Class, note that while the Enslaver class is longer than a D'Deridex Class (and has more armor), it's a much sleeker ship.  The D'Deridex class was always portrayed as a tank in TNG, so we wanted to keep that.

well i do not ask for an incombat shield restore let me explain:

when i am playing romulans i usually fortify my borders and then go on raiding with my norexans:

-planets far byond the frontlines

-low upgraded starbases

-capships in transfer

-infrastructure and general targets of opportunity

and after i have crippelt my opponent enough and have a signiganct economic lead i max out foot supply and build a big fleet of doom overflooding their frontline defences,

but every now and then my capital ship fleet is so heavily damaged i have to reapir them so i fly them to my docks and wait a long time for their shields to restore. if the docks could provide a shield regen boost i'd be happy.

edit: can the ai be modified so it builds more then 1 or 2 capships per fleet?

If you can find a way to edit the AI at all Ironclad should hire you. AFAIK the AI itself is hardcoded. If its not i have no clue which file we need to edit to change its properties. The only thing we have been able to do so far is mimic the roletype, and statcounttypes so that the AI wont freeze up on building. In otherwords we had to duplicate vanilla sins as far as roletypes. Otherwise we would have factions that wont build anything at all. This was a lesson learned the hard way in earlier builds of the mod.

Great mod have really enjoyed playing thus far and you guys have done a spectacular job.I noticed after the latest update the Borg reseach structures cost much more then the other races, 1150/650/620 as compared to 750/60/80. Just wondered if this was intentional or something that slipped thru? Once again great job so far looking forward to what you have coming in the future