Major Stress Major Stress

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

▼

[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
4,112,284 views 1,754 replies +2 Loading…
Reply #851 from Sins Forums Top

I have a quick question, I know it will annoy Major Stress, but is it possible to take different mods, a la, 7 sins of the solar empire, and paste certain information,planets, rouge stars, moons, into the GameInfo file and have them work in the SOA2 mod? I did mixed the current SOA2 mod with some modders balanced verison of the SOA2 mod and it work out. But since the two mods are close there wasn't a problem, however what about Danman's mod and this one etc?

Reply #852 from Sins Forums Top

Well,  chances are it will work, although you will need to manually merge the string files of this and 7DS otherwise either the Star Trek ships or the rest of the ships will have no infocards or tooltips.

 

And you need to be careful when merging the GameInfo folders as well.  I *think* some of the standard abilities in 7DS were changed, but most likely not.  Also, you don't want to overwrite anything important, like the races.

 

Otherwise, everything else should be good.  Also, I suggest you look at the "SoA2 and Sins Plus" thread.  It will help you a lot on merging, especially on adding the custom researches to the ST factions.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #853 from Sins Forums Top

The Kvort, and Negh Var are direct ports from the Trekmods bridge commander FTB mod. No changes to the models, or textures were made other than what was needed to import them into sins. How the Sins engine renders them is whats causing them to look too dark. Looking at them from above, and below they look much better.

Granted the SoA 2 textures are lower res compared to some other mods ships. I have stated that most of the models were being ported directly from the original SoA, and FTB mods. These are older models with lower resolution textures than some bridge commander mods with ridiculous poly counts, and absurd resolution textures. The SoA 2 models arent meant to be viewed extremely close up anyway. When a few hundred of Klingon ships show up to fight the few hundred of your Federation ships then you will be glad they are slightly lower resolutuion than normal. I am making this mod so it will work on any computer that can run sins. .Not for the computer elitist. If you want higher res textures then by all means feel free to make them yourself. New replacement meshes are being planned so consider most of the work as placeholders until we can get around to making the new models.

I wont get annoyed at people merging other mods with SoA 2. In fact i encourage it. It will teach people how to mod. I will get annoyed if people post that the add ons, or mergers break the mod on any of the SoA 2 threads. If you do 3rd party add ons, or mod mergers then posting them on a new topic is all i ask. Other than that learn to mod, and knock yourselves out. :)

Reply #854 from Sins Forums Top

OK the mods really need to fix the edit button. It is turning into double post hell here.

 

Now for the worst nightmare the Feds have faced since the Borg, Berman, and Braga :p

The Jem Hadar Enslaver (the battleship). 1500 meters of Valiant eating goodness. Here she is with the battlecruiser, and bugs. Now the canon lineups are complete for demo 0.02

 

 

 

I dont want to hear any bitching about the textures. I know they are low res. This is another straight port from the Trekmods Favor the Bold mod. Unless someone voulenteers to make higher res versions this is the best its gonna get.

Reply #855 from Sins Forums Top

guys if u are looking for ships for any group u can get them from other startrek games and import them in to sins thats how  the people did it for the mod starwars vs startrek in the game empire at war (starwars) and they all look good and all work i own sins and eaw and play both all the time and neverhave a problem seeing all the detail anyway looking forward to the full releas Remember the Klingon empire is watching you fight with honor

Reply #856 from Sins Forums Top

Ok So I loath Star Trek Vrs. Babylon 5..............

But this video has some of the most incredible independantly done C.G. work I have seen & some wicked battle shots.

So I had to share it.....:fuzzy:

 

Code: html
  1. &lt;form id="myspacepostto" method="post" action="<a href="http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=postto">http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=postto</a>" target="_blank"&gt;
  2.     &lt;input type="hidden" name="t" value="MySpace Post To Feature Example" /&gt;
  3.     &lt;input type="hidden" name="c" value="&lt;p&gt;HTML content to post goes here &lt;i&gt;(e.g. text, images, objects, etc.)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;" /&gt;
  4.     &lt;input type="hidden" name="u" value="<a href="http://www.myspace.com">http://www.myspace.com</a>" /&gt;
  5.     &lt;input type="hidden" name="l" value="3" /&gt;
  6.     &lt;a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('myspacepostto').submit();return false;"&gt;
  7.     &lt;img src="<a href="http://cms.myspacecdn.com/cms/post_myspace_icon.gif">http://cms.myspacecdn.com/cms/post_myspace_icon.gif</a>" border="0" alt="Post to MySpace!" /&gt; Share on MySpace!
  8.     &lt;/a&gt;
  9. &lt;/form&gt;

Reply #858 from Sins Forums Top

just wanted to know will the mod replace the individual unit sound effects?? it just seems a little weird when federation units say things like "VENGENANCE IS OURS!!" or something like "FOR THE UNITY!!"

Reply #859 from Sins Forums Top

I dont have any decent voiceovers to replace those sounds yet, but i am working on it. For now try to ignore it.

Reply #860 from Sins Forums Top

A big well done to all those involved in this mod. I;ve had a good play with it over the past few days and it really is very good. Its reinvented SOE, theres a good trek feel to the game and its better in practically every way to the original. I believe the creators really have made the best trek game ever with this.... and this is only the demo!

 

I cant wait for the full game, i have some ideas of what could go into it, forgive my ignorance if these points have already been covered and will be the full version:

 

- Quantum Torpedos (blue) as an upgrade for advanced ships

- Cannon names for ships and planets

- Full tech tree relevant to the new ships

- Changed names to the upgrades and tech tree

- Changed names for resources, ie   Cyrstal - Dilithium    Credits = Latinum  etc etc

- Shield effects

- Cannon fighters for the hanger defences (shuttles etc) change hanger defences to a starbase and/or outpost

- Torpedo and phaser turrents

- Remove voice overs from the mod, or change them.

- Cloak for certain ships (when engaged this could drain resources directly meaning it couldnt be used all the time)

 

There just a few ideas, i dont know how doable or impossible they may be.

Again thanks for this MOD major stress, its very well done and if this is just the demo i cant wait to see the final thing! well done

 

Reply #861 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Carott, reply 10
A big well done to all those involved in this mod. I;ve had a good play with it over the past few days and it really is very good. Its reinvented SOE, theres a good trek feel to the game and its better in practically every way to the original. I believe the creators really have made the best trek game ever with this.... and this is only the demo!

 

I cant wait for the full game, i have some ideas of what could go into it, forgive my ignorance if these points have already been covered and will be the full version:

 

- Quantum Torpedos (blue) as an upgrade for advanced ships

- Cannon names for ships and planets

- Full tech tree relevant to the new ships

- Changed names to the upgrades and tech tree

- Changed names for resources, ie   Cyrstal - Dilithium    Credits = Latinum  etc etc

- Shield effects

- Cannon fighters for the hanger defences (shuttles etc) change hanger defences to a starbase and/or outpost

- Torpedo and phaser turrents

- Remove voice overs from the mod, or change them.

- Cloak for certain ships (when engaged this could drain resources directly meaning it couldnt be used all the time)

 

There just a few ideas, i dont know how doable or impossible they may be.

Again thanks for this MOD major stress, its very well done and if this is just the demo i cant wait to see the final thing! well done

 
End of Carott's quote

1. Not sure what Stress has planned for that

2. May be added eventually

3. Working on that

4. Working on that

5. Nice idea but not sure about it

6. Already done

7. Not sure what Stress has planned for that

8. May be added eventually

9. Will be added eventually

10. Stress is having prolems with cloaking. May or may not be added depending on if he can it to work properly

Reply #862 from Sins Forums Top

This is simply amazing: the best trek game ever arrives as the demo of a mod.  Things have come a long way from the little tactical simulator in Star Trek 25th Anniversary [anybody here remember that?] and EGATrek.

In order to get as much fun as possible out of the demo, does anybody have any suggestions as to winnable factions given that no work has been done on balancing in this version?  I have played a long game as the Cardassians but got overwhlemed though I am not sure if this is playbalancing or my lack of skill in SOSE!  Has anybody got any experience playing as the Dominion (muhahaha!)?

Anyway, simply amazing and a huge thank you to Major Stress.

Reply #863 from Sins Forums Top

The Federation and the Dominion are the factions with the biggest advantages. which is intended. While the Dominion dont have many ship choices, what choices they do have are very powerful. Also the Breen like to swarm which is intended. If you let them they will overwhelm you. as will the Klingons. The Romulans still need some work. They do "ok" but not as i intended. The Cardassians are a faction of purely attrition units (cannon fodder) Their ships are weak. However they are cheap to build, and you can build many more of them compared to the other factions, because they have lower fleet cap. You need to mass a huge fleet playing as Cardassians to be effective. The Breen were not really intended to be played at this point in the mod, because they only have one ship.

Reply #864 from Sins Forums Top

This may have nothing to do with the Mod (but they are Star Trek and Star Wars) but I want to see what people think of them so that i may improve them.                                              

Try this link to see my progress : http://www.flickr.com/photos/26168844@N07/sets/72157604918170754/

I know they arnt the best but i am only just starting on them. :)  

Also i have made them on PTC Pro Desktop that restricts me from doing alot of things with them. :annoyed:

 

Reply #865 from Sins Forums Top

pretty nice work man!

i was just wondering where u got the first station/ship in the series from as ive never seen it.

now i dont know all star trek episodes but i was just wondering if it was part of a model yet to be finished or otherwise what episode or maybe game its from so i can check it out.

Reply #866 from Sins Forums Top

Well the Station is from the Origanal Series of star trek seen in the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" called Deep Space Station K7 its very old so is the ship its the origanal Enterprise. 

The big round thing is from Star Wars its a Trade Fereration Battleship seen in the first movie episode one.

Reply #867 from Sins Forums Top

Dont hijack my thread posting about a mod, or a proposed mod of yours here. Make a new topic and post it over there.

Those models do look nice by the way.

Reply #868 from Sins Forums Top

Thaks I will do that next time but this is not a Mod by the way it is a school project.

Reply #869 from Sins Forums Top

Just a little update.

I imported 2 new (well one is not so new) Federation ships. The Sovereign is in the mod now even though it didnt participate in the Dominion War. Also the Venture class Scoutship (seen in ST:Insurrection as data's ship) is in as the feds scout. It is not to be confused with the Galaxy class Venture refit. One small problem is apparently there is a limit on how close the camera can zoom in on an object. The venture scout is only 24 meters long, and she is truescaled in the mod. well ill let the pics speak for themselves. That is as close as i can zoom in on the ship. Which is a shame, because she is very detailed. I tried editing the zoom multipliers with no effect. That is just another brick wall i have to deal with. Along with the small ships dissapearing during warp.

Reply #870 from Sins Forums Top

nice models, giev :drool:

Reply #871 from Sins Forums Top

hmm, i would have never thought of that now

cool:thumbsup:

will the venture scout have other weapons than phasers?

Reply #872 from Sins Forums Top

It only had one weak phaser in insurrection and thats what it has now. It is a shuttle sized ship (24 meters) thats filling the scout role. You would expect it to be instapopped by a normal warship. Fighting is not what it is made for. I gave it lots of speed to avoid fights ;)

Reply #873 from Sins Forums Top

Very nice ship, I forgot about that little thing.  Makes me wanna sing...

A British Tar is a soaring soul...

Reply #874 from Sins Forums Top

there was  another ship that the federation used, it was an attack fighter it was  the same ship the makey used the , federation used that same ship in the dominion wars a few times,