Which one do I want to grab?  Or are we waiting for a new release?  I have all three games and would enjoy using diplomacy, since the pacts are awsome.

Both the Entrechment and Diplomacy versions are the same content wise...with of course Diplomacy having the Diplomacy stuff. If you want to use the extra mini-mods, currently Entrechment only has those. Next patch Diplomacy will start to have some.

Heya, adore the mod. Can I ask which versions of the various GFX improvement submods are integrated into DS? Browsing some screens from the currently working version of Bailknight's in particular look a bit more impressive than what I'm seeing in game. I run the mod on High/Highest after patching the exe for LargeAddressAware and while everything is lovely some of the screenshots I've seen are positively stunning.

We try to keep up with the latest of the Volumetric and BailKnights, will have them worked in next update

What about the race specific explosions I read about somewhere, will that feature be in Distant Stars?

It already is TEC is blue, Vasari is green and Advent is purple

DS is merely a change in the values of the game not to add to the content of it

ice/mooster,

what about the extra planet types?,

and also most of the researches having MORE levels?,

and the special researches to do with the extra planet types?

harpo

Indeedio, Distant Stars isnt a re-invention of the wheel as such we have however "enhanced" soase. As such we call our mod a SoaSE Enhancement mod where we've take the original game and changed/added many things to it to make the game play more enjoyable whilst keeping the core of the game intact.

News on the next patch 'cos no doubt you guys are wanting some more news on it, we'll hopefully be releasing  the next patch within the next couple of days.

Can anything be done, from a players perspective, at remedying slow downs?

I'm playing a large map with 1 AI player at the moment and the game is SO slow, it's crawling along

(Intel quad core Q9450, 4gb of ram, Geforce 9600GT)

I turned off all the effects and set the detail levels to low, but it's still the same framerate (24fps)

Trim you Empire Tree.

You mean the tree on the left with the planets/ships? I have that turned "off" by default anyways

It doesn't list anything until I click a planet or fleet.

I will happily admit that I must have been drunk to forget to apply changes

Anyways wow, why are you guys keeping this mod a secert.  AWSOME Kudos to everyone.  It was shell shock for me so the AI got pissed off I wasnt building(jk).  Great work guys.  thanks for the extra orbital defenses, now I can further turtle.

For some reason gas giants do not seem to exist in this mod. Have they been replaced with new planet models? I have played several premade and random maps, and so far none have had any gas giants.

Every planet type has a certain chance of showing up, and when I played vanilla, gas giants were fairly rare, I guess as a balance to avoid large unpopulated regions. In any case, when you consider the chance that a gas giant will show up and weight that against the myriad of new planets (most of which have a much better chance of appearing), then the gas giants get sidelined a bit.

draak, i found ZERO in a huge multi map.

several, actually.

Gas Giant are now split into 'Dwarf Gas Giant' and 'Huge Gas Giants' . If your bringing a map from vanilla SINS into DS you have to go in GF and define it as either or.

And on random maps. The game goes on how its 'weighted' define in the files. Which one Im not sure ATM. Im gonna say GalaxyDef file. Like Draak said Gas Giants are low on the weighted scale. I do get them when every so often but they are rare.

You can always force them to show up by making your own map using the map editor in game or the forge.  I guess I'm lucky in the sense that I get at least 1 every other map or so....  But they're just eye candy and actually not all that useful and more of a pain in the ass then anything. I'll tell you why.

Huge well radius that slows progress down.  Simply trying to drive through it, or build stuff up, the distance one must travel is a pain and time consuming.

Huge well radius that makes it extremely tough to defend.  You're forced to consolidate your stuff into pockets making them easy targets and those pockets could end up on opposite sides of the well, meaning anyone who jumps in only faces half, or a third, or a quarter of your defenses and has the time to seriously damage them before any hint of backup arrives.  Skilled invaders can outmaneuver all of your defenses and just attack the planet and rob you of the ability to replace destroyed structures even before the real battle begins.

Tough defence makes it a resource hog since things always get destroyed there.  You constantly have to rebuild.  That's just life there.  They take more then they make.

Low population so no tax money.

1 exploration chance instead of 2, so you're down 50% right there.

Very few bonuses the type pulls from (I think it only has 4 or 5 in it's list, could be less).

Resources are just average at best.  Really, they should be supporting more then double the resources of the other types since they're so huge, making them somewhat worthwhile to hold.  Right now the largest types have 6 resources, the dwarf giants should hold 8 to 10, and the normal should hold 12 to 16...  That would sure as hell make it worth the effort to hold onto it...

As it is, right now, I just pass through them and not even worry about it.  If an akkan claims it as it lumbers past, I'll put out the extractors, and increase the population cap so it makes some money rather then just sitting idle, but they're really not worth the trouble.

An advantage they do have is they slow the enemy down as well.  Gives you time to marshal your forces, but a well defended planet does the same thing, sometimes even wins without the need for fleet support.

I said that they were rare, I didn't say how rare.

Stant has a point. If nothing else, the extractor capacity should be raised. The tax is worthless and extra logistics is fine, but what is there to trade or refine? Defense wise, I have very few issues, but I've rarely had Gas Giants as phase hubs.

with this mod, can you build stuff around colonized gas giants?

Yes, with the proper reasearch they are treated as normal planets.

The only good things about  Gas Giants is the grav well and they usually have higher number of resource asteroids. But there are many huge planets that have more so they seem eh. They are like Toxic planets in my book...only worth the trouble if you need it in a trade or the resources. Though I tend to get them just b/c I like the large grav well. *shrugs* The extra time doesnt bother me, I play on slow 90% of the time anyhow.

I just started playing this mod and just wanted to congratulate you guys for the excellent work on this!

I made this mini-mod earlier...  Well, yesterday now.  It's called 'Better Resource Giants'.  This changes the gas giants resource asteroid count.  Details in the Read Me included.  I also stand corrected on the number of bonuses they pull from.  The number is 8, not 4 or 5.  But still, considering there's 105 total bonuses....  8 is less then 8%.  Give it a whirl Draakjacht and let me know what you think.

http://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/BetterResourceGiants.rar

And just in case anyone wants a map that has both Gas planets already on it rather then making their own or leaving it up to chance, download the following.

http://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/FinleySystem.rar

And so no one has to ask, anything I make for DS automatically has my permission to be included with it built in or as a separate minimod if it is desired to be included.