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[MOD WIP] Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels 2 (updated 01/10/09)

[MOD WIP] Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels 2 (updated 01/10/09)

Featured (by a small mention) in the October edition of PC Gamer magazine

Candidate for Mod Database's 2008 Mod of the Year

This is the OLD "Work in Progress" thread for the Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels 2 mod.

The new WIP topic is here https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/342747

The "Release" topic can be found here https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/322473


The mod is intended to be a hommage, and tribute to the original Sacrifice of Angels mod for Homeworld. It will use many of the same models, and effects created for that mod by the Trekmods team. Like the original SoA mod SoA2 is set during the Dominion War era of Star Trek. Using both canon, and non-canon units to recreate those battles with Sins "empire building" mechanic added. Like in SoA you can fight battles in SoA2 using hundreds of starships. Sometimes thousands if your computer can handle it ;)

While the mod was not intended as a "Total Conversion". That is exactly what it is winding up being. There is much about the Sins engine, and mechanics that we still need to learn. There are some hard coded stumbling blocks we have to overcome.

The factions will be the Federation, Klingons, Romulan, and the Dominion (with Breen, and Cardassian ally units). The main factions seen in the Dominion War. With a "Surprise" as the Pirate faction.

Factions like the Borg "may" be added in the future. LokiGodofMischief is working on a very good 3rd party Borg add on for SoA 2. It is very possible his add on may be merged with SoA 2 at a much later time.

The current version of SoA 2 is  0.03b   "The Second Dominion War". Look for it here  https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/322473

0.03b only works with Sins versions 1.1, 1.11, and 1.12.

All previous versions of SoA 2 are obsolete, and will not be supported, or hosted anymore. All older version downloads will be removed.

We will NOT port SoA 2 over to Entrenchment until after Entrenchment is out of beta, and released. Along with proper forge tool updates.

I am working on the models mostly ALONE so it may take a while for any new ship model updates.

Darkshimmer is the Balancing guru, Code monkey, and Master at arms. We do have other contributers, and the best 3rd party work from the finest artists in the trek mod community to help make SoA 2 the best it can be.

Status of Demo 0.04  "The actors are in place" 

Will update when i have news.

General Changes:

Manshooters Volumetric Explosions mod will be included as of 0.03a

May include Sins Plus (planets), but ill need to see how much that mod needs changing to incorporate into SoA 2.

SoA 2 0.03 and above is now patch 1.1, and better compatable. Sins patches 1.11, and 1.12 only address balancing, and online exploits, and have no effect on the mod.

Ships will have some anti stike craft weaponry.

Ships are still being added and balanced accordingly.

More re-balancing so that one faction is not overpowered over the other.

The Federation:

Faction is complete. Only structures left

The Klingon Empire

Faction is complete. Only structures left.

The Romulan Star Empire:

Faction is complete. Only structures left

The Dominion:

Faction is complete. Still needs balancing work.

Pirates:

They were going to be the Borg, but that idea failed. So we are looking into Random multirace ship spawns.

Planetary Defenders

Basically "Ships of the week" like the Maquis, Sona, Ferrengi, Tammarian battle cruisers and the like.

Balancing:  Darkshimmer has the Federation, Romulan, and Klingon Empire, and Unified Dominion balanced.

Gameplay: We now have a working Cloaking Device! Check the ModDB page for the WIP video. Cloaking will not be fully implemented in the mod until version 0.04

Art: We are working on an LCARS style UI, adding proper icons, and pictures for all of the new units. The UI is going to take a while to do, because of all of the redundancy of the Sins UI. SoA 2 uses 2 sets of UI textures. Instead of the standard 4 textures for buttons, and 2 textures for icons. SoA 2 uses 8 textures for buttons, and 4 textures for icons which IMO is a major waste of resources, because sins loads all these textures at startup. Unfortunetly i dont see any other way to do it. What is kind of cool is that we dont have to use the same HUD for each faction. It is possible to have unique HUDs, but again the perfomance hit, because of the extra drain on resources could be big, and not worth it.

In Planning: (No promises, or guarentees, but we will try to add these if possible.)

Troop Transport effects.

Planetary invasion animations

Tractor beams. (need a code monkey for this)

Whatever else we can think of and are capable of doing.

Future Updates:

SoA 2 0.04 is now in planning, and will be focused primarily on Proper research trees, Ability's, and adding proper Structures. More than likely demo 0.04 will be the last demo. After that then the full mod should be ready.

SoA 2 0.05 will be the final spit, and polish of the mod. It will focus mainly on re-balancing if needed. Also final artwork changes will be made here. Which will include some ship model re-builds, and re-texturing.

The Full SoA 2 1.0 mod will be released "When it is Finished". We are doing this on our own free time. We aren't getting paid to do this. We have no set schedule. We have no time limit. I want this one to be good. So it wont go online until we feel it is ready.

*NOTE: Much about Sins as we are all now realizing is hardcoded. SoA 2 is going to be far from a perfect "trek" mod due to these hardcoded issues. However we will try to do the best we can with workarounds, and compromises to get it as close as possible. Like i said some things wont be perfect. Some things cannot be done at all. Enjoy the mod for what it is, and try not to be too "nit picky".

SoA2 will be hosted on Mod Database once it is ready http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-trek-sacrifice-of-angels-2

This main header will be updated when i have news to post.





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Reply #551 Top
Thank you to everyone who is working on this project. It will definitely be worth the wait.
Reply #552 Top
sorry guys, as of today i will no longer be working on this project. R/L calls
Reply #553 Top
I do hope that you will pass this project on to EzraeilBeatus. He has already released a an alpha version of his mod, and there have been many people's models and other contributions that should not go to waste.

Star Trek and Sins go well together and its why I bought the game, the possibility to mod it and take a great starting base and make it a game thats tailored to our personal interests.
Reply #554 Top
I agree,

I do hope you at least release the progress you guys did make. I do know that I myself, have been waiting patiently for some time now & I would hate to think it was all in vain.


Adm. Cobbs
Reply #555 Top
Exactly, if I had spent time attempting to make models I'd be upset that my work was wasted like that.

I'm going to go over Ez's tutorial and begin work on some models myself because having played his mod I love it. I can't bear to go back to the default models.
Reply #556 Top
whoever takes the mod over don't forget all the good ideas mentioned here... i'll help any way that i can.
Reply #557 Top
yeah we have to keep this up on the list because it is important to a lot of people that really want a new ST game.
Reply #558 Top
NAUSSICANS AS PIRATES!!!!!!!
Reply #562 Top
If the Mod Team needs a video editor for movies and such, PM me. I'm available.
Reply #565 Top
at least give us what u've allready made
Reply #566 Top
Ya at least let us botch together a race.
Reply #569 Top
I hate to think of all the progress that has been lost with the mod and I hope that the former team leaders would turn over the progress.

I am willing to lead this project under the condition that all work be turned over for further development. While I only have experience with SWG and modding it I am currently attempting to teach myself modeling with EZ's tutorial and I think its coming along well.


Really though I think EZ should be the team leader and I'd love to turn this mod over to him as soon as he thinks he can handle the load. I would have thought he'd post before now and ask for the files since he seems to be the most on the ball when it comes to progress on ST.
Reply #570 Top
it doesn't look like the past mod leaders are coming back to these forums anytime soon, it would be a shame if all that work was for nothing though.
Reply #571 Top
hmm.. I'm wondering if only the mod leaders are busy with real life things. Just hoping that the others on this project don't leave.
Reply #572 Top
sorry for the double post but seeing as how we're short staffed i'm going to go ahead and use EZ's tutorial to try and help, i'll be modelling in all my spare time to try and help
Reply #573 Top
The mod aint dead, just dormant for a bit. i am still working on models for the mod, but i have little to no internet access. I wont have a permanent connection till the end of summer when my travel schedule is finished. Once all my gigs are finished then i can devote full attention the mod.

While the mod may go dormant it will never die as long as i have anything to do with it. Even if it means doing it all by myself (which looks like that just may happen).

Sorry to hear about your RL troubles shimmer, What you did so far is outstanding, and is a major contribution to the mod.

I need a devoted full time code monkey.

Ezreal if you want in the mod PM me. I cant guarantee when ill answer but i will when i see it.

Ill post more when i get net access again

in the mean time more progress on the SoA2 Ambassador.


Reply #574 Top
Nice work :d

How many polygons is that using?
Reply #575 Top
That is an amazing model! "Yesterday's Enterprise" came flying back to me. I have no skillz as far as coding and models(textures too), but I can produce trailers for the mod. I will try to produce something as a preview (using Ez's stuff) soon to GameTrailers.com, link will be posted here. Hopefully more interest can be generated that may result in some new team members.