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.





modding
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Reply #701 from Sins Forums Top
The models i am not building myself are from the late Trekmods team. Which i was, and still am a part of (the original SoA1 and Favor the Bold mod for BC) All of the Cardassian, Dominion, and Breen models are Trekmods work. Redragon did most of the Dominion, and Breen work, and yes the battleship will be Red's. No one single person had a hand in making them. I helped with some mesh work on most of them. We ALL contributed in some form back in the day. I miss that. We had a strong community back then.

We used Schematics, Ex astris, and screen caps as our reference. They may not be 100% accurate, but they are as close as possible within our self imposed limits. Most important .. They look good.

List of the late Trekmods members. If you want to contact them. Good luck most have moved on to RL and other things.
Dolphoenix: Modeler/Texture artist. SoA1/FTB project lead. Pulled an "Elvis"
Dasher42: Code monkey elite Still around.. working on something big for someone else.
Howader: Modeler Still around, lost interest.
Thomas the Cat: Texture/concept artist. --Still currently active
Redragon: Modeler/Texture artist. Dissapeared off the face of the earth.
Charvell: Modeler/Texture artist Still around but doesnt model anymore.
Vorlon: Texture artist -- Still currently active
The Stress Puppy: Modeler/Texture artist. SoA2 project lead <-- AKA Major Stress

The Warbird was made by Cleeve at www.staryards.com. We go way back from the early days of Starfleet Command Modding. It was also used in the Age of War mod for Nexus (with the same nacelle issue). The backlit nacelles always bugged me. If you are offering a fixed model please send it my way. I would have used the Trekmods version of the Warbird, but there were major mesh, and texture issues that cant be fixed without a complete re-build of the model.

The rest of the 3rd party models i am using come from the best of the Star Trek Community. All with permission to use. From authors like..
LC Admiral aka Legacy
P81 aka Rick Knox
Moonraker
Atrahasis
Cleeve

Since i am now one of the Modelers for the ST: Excalibur project. Some of my work, and experience there will find its way here.

All 3rd party artist will be properly credited for their work. If that is your real concern. The 3rd party non-Trekmods models are only placeholders until I, or a member of my team can build our own suitable final models. Until that time comes enjoy the fine work from those artist.

I am not using anything from Zorg (No offense to Zorg. He does some good work).

You-Cheng Hsieh, Arent you using some of my TOS era stuff in your SFC3 mod? I havnt had a chance to check it out yet. SFC3 doesnt run well on my machines.
Reply #702 from Sins Forums Top
i love what you doing major stress keep up the good work i will keep a eye out for this mod the screens look awesome
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #703 from Sins Forums Top

Hello,

I found these ship designs and map on some "Fan Fiction" site but thought they were cool looking. Not sure how canon the map is, but the ships definatly arent... I also know your just making ships from the Dominion War. I just wanted to share the pictures cause I thought they were some nice concepts.

-=The Map=-






-=The Ships=-

























Reply #704 from Sins Forums Top
lol nice


theres currently alot of mod's going on.. i'd wish there'd be this function to just launch sins, pick your style go online and battle. :/ unfortunatly this wil (ofcourse) never happen.. to much work i guess.. + not enough players online


Keep going ;D i love everything wich has to do ith space fighting and having your own startrek ships fight = more then awesome, all that's needed now is extra space to fight.. i.e. more types of debry, nebulas etc.etc.etc....

if al the mods are going to be what they say then SoaSE wil definatly be called SUCKY compared with mods

1: improved gameplay
2: improved graphics
3: lots of differnt "skins"

why play SoaSE if u can play with mods change the "skin" to whatever "populair" type you want and play in it...... i tell you this, mods will take over SoaSE (even patch 1.1's promises!!! dont come close to what some mods today already are ;D
Reply #705 from Sins Forums Top
Wow what a big map but why does the Federation have a holding on the eastern boarder of the Klingon Empire? is it because of the wormole?
Reply #706 from Sins Forums Top
Wow stress I can't wait to see the Excalibur project! I can't believe it's going to be using nanofx's new graphics engine. Paramount should put you guys on the payroll, LOL. And I , to this day, don't understand why anyone who would make a pc game for Star trek or any other series for that matter wouldn't check out some of the mods that have been made to get a sense of what the community ( yea the people who actually buy and want to play a good trek game) wants to play? I mean really, if they wanted to make a bajillion $ for a game. Start it out and get it right, take as long as you need to make it great. Sorta like your "when it's done" theory. Anyway that's my ST rant for the day. LOTSA luv to all the modders out there Star trek or other. Thanks for your CONTINUED fine work. Keep it up :)
Reply #707 from Sins Forums Top
Non canon rommie looks good. Map definetly is not canon. I dont think there is a canon map in existence. Too much speculation involved, and the one "okudamap" seen in TNG was vague at best. I dont like on this map that the federation is divided in two by the klingon empire.

The map from the Franz Joseph tech manual Tho also non-canon imo is better, and had the Klingons and Romulans sorta where you would expect them to be. Of corse being made before TMP and TNG it doesnt have the races from those eras.

This could be a good challenge for map makers to make a campaign map of the dominion war era.
Reply #708 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah, that's pretty much the first single-hull adaptation of the Romulan Warbird I've ever seen that doesn't look like crap. Could do without the tail, though... kind of overdoes the bird thing, I think.

It's kind of ridiculous to try to create a 2D map of 3D space. Hell, on that map the two Federation chunks could be connected by a corridor underneath that Klingon piece. But considering that this map doesn't even have a Klingon/Cardassian boarder, and gives the Breen 2x the territory of the Romulan Empire, I'm gonna have to call BS.
Reply #709 from Sins Forums Top
The Warbird was made by Cleeve at www.staryards.com. We go way back from the early days of Starfleet Command Modding. It was also used in the Age of War mod for Nexus (with the same nacelle issue). The backlit nacelles always bugged me. If you are offering a fixed model please send it my way.
End of quote

Please check your PM.:)

You-Cheng Hsieh, Arent you using some of my TOS era stuff in your SFC3 mod? I havnt had a chance to check it out yet. SFC3 doesnt run well on my machines.
End of quote

No, my SFC3 mod is late-TNG era.
If you are looking for your (lost?) TOS models, some of them can be found at Fleet Dock 13.
Reply #710 from Sins Forums Top
The Map is certainly not canon, it came from a Fan Fiction site. But I agree with Major Stress, in that its really dificult to find any credible map of the ST Universe.

This map has Federation space on the other side of the Klingon Empire because it is supposably set way farther into the Star Trek timeline. But its all fan fic.

Here is the address for the fan fiction site I got it from:

WWW Link

The map is in the "Stellar Cartography" section. But again its all just Fan Fiction & not at all canon. I just found the ship designs to be well done and interesting is all...


@ Major Stress

Hey man, check your PM's please  ;)  I have been sending you messages.... ;p 



Adm.Cobbs







Reply #711 from Sins Forums Top
I leave for tomorrow to a new job location so i may not be online for a while. I have been lucky the past few weeks to get a connection :)

Fleetdock has my "older" TOS work. I havnt "lost" any of my work since then (i used to go through harddrives like i go through cigarettes). Now i double backup everything :P Since then i have meshed all new TOS models. All can be found at Battleclinic. Just search Trekmods, and The Stress Puppy.

Originally the sins trek mod was going to be a TOS era mod as a pioneer mod to test the engine. However the lack of canon material to use axed that idea. So i went ahead with SoA2. Was risky but so far its paying off.

I have been on some joint modeling ventures with Atrahasis. He textured my new versions of the TOS warbird, and K-7 station, and i re-textured his Lief Ericson model,


Reply #712 from Sins Forums Top
This map I know came out of a published star trek book. I guess it is a cannon as it gets.

Reply #713 from Sins Forums Top
OMG I can't wait for this to come out. I am glad that Major is taking his time to make sure it is done as good as possible. I don't want it to crash on me.
Reply #714 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah I've got that "Star Trek Starcharts" book laying around somewhere. It's reasonably accurate on the details, but i'm not sure if the actual map is canon or not. It does look really good, I must say.
Reply #715 from Sins Forums Top
As a long-term Star Trek fan I'm quite looking forward to it. The graphics especially that of the Cardassian ships are looking amazing so far. Keep up the good work! :CONGRAT:
Reply #716 from Sins Forums Top
I'm looking forward to this mod, looks great so far.
Reply #717 from Sins Forums Top
Major Stress,
This is fantastic work, especially for doing it yourself. If you need any help, please don't hesitate to contact me. I am sure either myself or a member of my team would be honored to help out.

DANMAN
Reply #718 from Sins Forums Top
I don't know about either of the maps. The federation is 3-4x the size of the next biggest empires. Cardassia is closer to the Federation then the Tholians....Just doesn't work for me I guess. Love the ships though, esp the one in that last post. Looks like it would make a good carrier ship.
Reply #719 from Sins Forums Top
this is still looking huge. cannot wait to play
Reply #721 from Sins Forums Top
Major Stress,
I love this mod, and I am looking forward to when it is done.

I personally have come across all the hardcode limits in the game engine, and I think this may be of use to you. I am trying to get the developers to change some of the hardcodes, and I would appreciate your voice as I know you have some pull with Ironclad. Here is the link:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/320215

WWW Link

Thank you for your support.

DANMAN
Reply #722 from Sins Forums Top
a list of ships the federation (Terrans) had active during the dominion war

Runabout (bomber?)
Chaffee assult shuttlecraft (fighter?)
Miranda class Frigate
Nebula class support criuser
Exculsiour class frigate
Akria Class missle frigate (a star trek version of the Javelis LRM)
Grissom class light frigate (cobalt mabey?)
Defiant class gunboat ( you know already....Heavy criuser?)
Ambassador class Starship (Enterprise C was one of these)
Motgomery ("refit exculsiour") class frigate (Enterprise B was one of these)
Galaxy Class Starship (i will personally slap you if you dont know about this)
Sovereign class Criuser (ditto here)
Advent class frigate (ironic i know, but the stargazer was one of these)

and the bad guys (Cardassian,Dominion etc)

Galor class frigate (cardassians only warship class)
Jem Hadar attacker
dominion criuser


sorry i forgot about the rest

ps is it possible to have the Maqius as the pirates??
Reply #723 from Sins Forums Top
sry about the above post, i didnt read the description all the way through :P
and the stargazer is in fact a constellation class, my info was wrong

FACEPALM
Reply #724 from Sins Forums Top
I have a good shiplist now thank you, and Thank you all for the support of SoA2. Danman what did you have in mind to contribute?

I am still on the road, and havnt accomplished very much especially since 1.09b broke the mod as i expected it would. I will need the 1.1 reference files to fix the crash issues i am having right now. Regardless any fix wont happen until i return home, have the reference files, and i have more time to do this.

Maquis are the prime candidate for pirates right now, but i am considering other options (as long as they make sense).

Galaxy class model is in work, and she is a beauty.
Reply #725 from Sins Forums Top
Delete this reply, internet hiccup :)