Major Stress Major Stress

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

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

from Sins Forums

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 #651 from Sins Forums Top
I have a UI in work, but it wont make the 1st release (maybe not even the 2nd). That is low priority at the moment i am concentrating on making what ships and factions i do have work right now. I will put out a "canon" only release of the mod soon. Which means only the canon ships seen for each faction wil be in the release. The Federation wont have its full lineup, because i dont have all of its ships finished yet. The federation has MANY canon ships. The rest of the factions will only have about 3 ships. The breen faction will only have ONE ship. The 1st release will be more or less a demo that is way WAY unbalanced, and meant as a for fun release to give you guys a feel of whats yet to come. I dont plan on doing this until after the 1.1 patch for sins is released, and i make sure that the mod works with it. I am also on my work trip still and need to test the mod on my main system. Which i am still away from ATM, and wont be back for a few weeks. Much needs to be done, and i have little time to do it.

Some issues so far many have to do with the game loading. The game is looking for vanilla components where as i replaced much of that. So if you run the mod DO NOT use the developer exe. You will be there all day clicking "Skip".
Reply #652 from Sins Forums Top
i am no modeller or coder, the only area where i could offer my help is balancing as that is something where i have a lot of experience and i think i have also enough knowledge of star trek to balance ships/abilities in a manner which makes sense.
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #653 from Sins Forums Top
This is a bit of a spill over from other posts about "outposts". Major Stress are you planning on using star bases in the mod. I think they would add a great strategic element to the game. Sorry if this has already been adressed..
Reply #654 from Sins Forums Top
I was wondering if they were going to be used and I was thinking that maybe if we combine the research laboratories in some way that add to it. would that work?
Reply #655 from Sins Forums Top
Think that would be a good idea. Starbase would be a general repair facility, outpost, and a technology center  ;)
Reply #656 from Sins Forums Top
>From: thetraviler/ post "outposts, I think we should have'em">> strategy
First, i thought somewhere in those 700+ posts on the star trek thread was talk of making out posts and starbases both options to build around planets. An out post would have some combination of maybe a research station and a fighter bay with 1 squad or maybe a trad post instead of a civ research. It would take both some logistics and tactical slots and would be able to defend its immediate area with its weapons. A starbase would be MUCH bigger, have probably a civ, a military, and a trade post. along with a full fighter bay and a repair facility and some stinkin gnarly weapons and shields. If you wanted to build this it would probably take almost all of both your logistic and tactical slots.
Reply #658 from Sins Forums Top
>From: thetraviler/ post "outposts, I think we should have'em">> strategyFirst, i thought somewhere in those 700+ posts on the star trek thread was talk of making out posts and starbases both options to build around planets. An out post would have some combination of maybe a research station and a fighter bay with 1 squad or maybe a trad post instead of a civ research. It would take both some logistics and tactical slots and would be able to defend its immediate area with its weapons. A starbase would be MUCH bigger, have probably a civ, a military, and a trade post. along with a full fighter bay and a repair facility and some stinkin gnarly weapons and shields. If you wanted to build this it would probably take almost all of both your logistic and tactical slots.
End of quote


if you could code that good luck. as far as i know right now its impossibly but it would be sweet if it were.
Reply #659 from Sins Forums Top
Is there a place where the latest version of this mod could be downloaded? Or if it isn't ready, when is it supposed to be released? I'm asking this because I'd really like to play it, but reading everything that's written in 27 pages takes a little longer than I'd hope.

Thank you
Reply #660 from Sins Forums Top
its not out yet... they don't have a release date either... right now there is only one person working to get it finished so it won't be done too soon..
Reply #661 from Sins Forums Top
only trekmod i know is the miranda ship mod
Reply #662 from Sins Forums Top
I see. We'll just have to wait then. And I don't have enough experience about modding and the skills required to help.
Reply #663 from Sins Forums Top
same here ;)
Reply #664 from Sins Forums Top
All the info about the mod is on the main topic, and any updates will be posted on the main topic so no one has to search the 700+ pages here. You should only need to read maybe 1 or 2 pages back to get any non important info.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but i am pushing for a demo release after the testing of SoA2_canon_demo on the sins 1.1 final patch (not the beta patch). Ill need to redo all of the -da textures to comply with the patch, and probably some entity tweaks to make the six factions work.

I lost my web host so i am going to post the demo download of the mod on WWW Link When it is ready.

I do plan on using stations, but not in the way that you guys are thinking. Right now the mod is nothing more than a model, and art replacement mod. Which means for every vanilla Sins unit, effect, or structure a "trek" equivalent so to speak will replace it. At least that is the plan. Each faction will have 15 units pretty much in the same slots as the ships they replaced. Structures will be done the same way. Except for example instead of a broadcast center the Federation has the "subspace" relay. Cardassia will have Nor station as a trading station, and its OWP's for defense. I am still determining what to do about the mushroom starbase. There are many good models to chose from, but most are way too high poly. The original SoA starbase is too low poly, and too low res to use. I may use it in the superweapon slot, but make its pre-req's reasonable so it is not an endgame unit. It obviously will be non-dockable.
Reply #665 from Sins Forums Top
Yes i am double posting :/ but this is for an update.

The Cardassian Faction now works.. again. It has all 3 canon ships imported and functional as well. I need to create the spiral wave disruptor and compressor phaser effects for the faction, but am using a hybrid of vanilla, and mod effects.

Now focusing on making the Dominion, and Breen factions work.

some screenies of the Galor Keldon, and Hideki in game



Reply #666 from Sins Forums Top
Excellent work Major! I used to play Cardassians in Birth of the Federation, you captured the ships just fine. :) Though, is it me or is your AA turned off for screenshots?
Reply #667 from Sins Forums Top
Love what you're cooking up here. If you need ship designs then look at the old game Birth of the Federation, there should be alot of ship designs there for the Cardassians, Romulans, Ferengi and Federation. Sad to say though that The Dominion and the borg arent present except for a random event with a borg cube.
Reply #669 from Sins Forums Top
I dont have BoTF so i am outta luck there. I have plenty of good non-canon designs to work with right now. The only faction i may have trouble with is the Breen being they only had ONE canon ship. Thomas the Cat said he would help me by sketching up some breen designs, but hes busy in RL so the breen may be the last faction completed.

My FSAA is not turned off. It doesnt exist. My laptops gpu doesnt support it, and in sins the option to use it just isnt there. Otherwise i would be using it. My main desktop does support it, and when i return home ill have some nice 1680x1050 screens (with FSAA). For now i am stuck with a crappy laptop gpu.
Reply #670 from Sins Forums Top
Right now the mod is nothing more than a model, and art replacement mod.
End of quote


Why would you do this? Is it a lack of dedicated scripters or what? Huge letdown for me, personally.
Reply #671 from Sins Forums Top
The majority of the Mod team has had to leave due to circumstances in real life, so more or less, the Major is doing it all on his own, a huge feat for sure. So, Carbon016, yes, a lack of dedicated personnel.
Reply #672 from Sins Forums Top
When you think about it 99% of all game mods are just nothing more than just unit, and art replacements. Most games are hardcoded with very little you can alter script wise. Some games you need to be both a rocket scientist, and a brain surgeon to figure out (like HW2). I can do a little scripting, but my knowledge is very limited in that area. I know enough to create factions, Add ships, and change stats. Any idiot with wordpad can do that.

As the main header says i am working on this mod ALONE. The few that did try to help had to move on due to RL issues. There are others that want to contribute like for intro movies, and such, but that is not a priority for me at the moment. Nobody here seems to know anything about Modeling, Texturing, or Scripting, or they are not interested in this project. So the chances of me getting any help are slim to zero. In a way that is better. There are no arguments over what is supposed to do what.

As to why i would do this?,,, Because i have fun doing it. There are people that DO appreciate it, and simply "Because I Can" :) Now if only i can get paid for doing this :p

Now for another update..

The Dominion have arrived (Play some dramatic music) :D Got the faction working, and the bug imported. Funny the advent beams fit the jemmy's perfectly

Now to get the other 2 jemmy ships in


Darkthunder gave me an idea that i am considering. I was going to do pretty much a carbon copy of the vanilla sins 15 ship lineup for each faction except with trek equivalents. However there is a problem. This would involve using MANY non-canon units. For the Federation faction its not so much a problem because they have plenty of canon ships.. Too many in fact. The other factions have between 3 to 6 canon ships, and the Breen have just one.

What he suggested is a lineup similar to Starfleet Battles where one ship hull can fill many roles. Example: The Cardassian Galor hull can be used as a phaser gunboat, or a torpedo cruiser, or a long range fire support ship, or a light carrier. Im not saying that i want fill all 15 slots with the same ship hull, but the idea does have merit, and will mean using less non canon units. Opinions?

Another idea involves the capital ship slots. Again i was going to try an duplicate the sins lineup. Some will argue that trek ships like the Akira are not true capital ships. I already know this. However they can be used as "hero units", and the Akira was slotted in as a siege capital ship due to its torpedo power. Thunder said "why not have both" a "Hero" version of the ship AND a "regular" cannon fodder version. How many galaxy classes did we see get blown to bits yet the enterprise-d was next to untouchable? This was because it had an "elite, or legendary crew". What he proposed was to have a run of the mill galaxy in the cruiser slot, AND have an "elite" galaxy in a cap ship slot. The early game wont have much difference in stats between the regular, and "elite" ship, They will be the same ship with the same hardpoints. The "elite" version will cost a little more, and use more upkeep. As research, cap ship levels, and ability's take effect the ship should pay for itself in the long run. Again this idea has merit. What do you think?
Reply #673 from Sins Forums Top
I appreciate all of your hard work to create this mod. This mod looks really good and I can't wait for it to come out.
Reply #674 from Sins Forums Top
I love all your ships and recognize the mountain of work for what it is: ahuge accomplishment, the number of things completed is staggering!

:CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT:
Reply #675 from Sins Forums Top
Oh and about the Breen, I remember seeing a Big Breen ship, AND a Meduim Breen ship, one with fewer sweeping arcs on it, and I'm sure it wasn't the same one further away...

I haven't seen the show much in a long time, so I can't say where it was...