Nacey Nacey

[MOD] Distant Stars - Rebellion Alpha 0.13 Released! [17/06/13]

▼

[MOD] Distant Stars - Rebellion Alpha 0.13 Released! [17/06/13]

http://distantstars.mmobase.com
from Sins Forums


Feedback of any kind is always welcome. Ideas, balance changes, and bug reporting of any kind is always useful!

Version 1.00 Released!

Make sure to ask for permission before republishing any part of this mod to the public!

Downloads

Rebellion Logo

1.05 + DLC Compatible:

0.12 ALPHA Release:
Full Download:
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/rebellion/Distant_Stars_(R)_ALPHA_0.13_[45189661].7z

Full Download MIRROR:
http://www.moddb.com/downloads/distant-stars-rebellion-alpha-013

MD5: 69486D2FCD3F35E46E6F5EF8C9F1634A

Diplomacy Logo

1.34 Compatible:

1.01 Release:
Full Download:
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/diplomacy/Distant_Stars_(D)_1.01_[45685832].7z

 

Entrenchment Logo

1.051 Compatible:

Beta 0.9951 Release:
Full Download:
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/entrenchment/DS_Entrenchment_Beta_0.9951_[36672852].7z

SoaSE Logo

1.14 - 1.181 Compatible:

Version 1.01:
Full Download:
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/soase/Distant_Stars_v1.01_[453701567].7z

Make sure to ask for permission before republishing any part of this mod to the public!

Multiplayer Games:
We've setup a thread for everyone to organise their multiplayer games in and also setup example times and dates for most people to meet up and start games. These are what we hope to be the main times for people to be around and want to play games together.

The times are:
4pm EST (9pm GMT) Saturdays & Sundays
9pm EST (2am GMT) Saturdays & Sundays

If you want to organise other games please go ahead using the same topic to consolidate all the information in one place and hopefully get more games together within our community. These games are for PvP, PvAI & PvPvAIso come along and we'll get some games going!

Screenshots:
We've setup a thread so you can all post your screenshots to share with us the Distant Stars team and its players. Im sure we're all intrigued to see what kinds of battles and events you've all been having on the mod aswell.

Lore:
We know some of you guys love to role play whilst using Distant Stars, and here's a topic for you guys to post all of your role playing stories, character profiles and anything else you can imagine.

Maps:
Some of you avid map makers out there have produced some great maps but never really had them recognised because they've got lost. Well here's a topic for you to post a link to the download (we can even provide mirrors if necessary) a screenshot or two of the map for us all the preview and if enough people like it we'll even include the map in with the actual mod!

Please visit our website and for more information, change logs, downloads, and to report bugs. Our website can be found here: http://distantstars.mmobase.com

Bug Reporting

If you want to report a bug please use the Bug Report feature on our website:
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/?m=reportabug

Please include as much information as possible, if you have an error log feel free to post it on these forums and we'll take it from there. If you can reproduce the error please include the error log (read below to find out how to enable error logs) and include as much detail on how to reproduce the problem.

To enable logging:
Windows Vista/Windows 7:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Windows Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting
or
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and settings\<Your Windows Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting

Open the user.setting file (using Notepad, Wordpad or any text editor) and scroll down to the bottom 7 lines from the bottom is the line:
LogOutput FALSE
Change FALSE to TRUE
LogOutput TRUE

and from then on any Log files will be saved to the debug folder:
Windows Vista/Windows 7:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Windows Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Debug
or
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and settings\<Your Windows Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Debug

If you get these log files to us (you can just paste them in to a forum post) we can hopefully get your issues sorted.

Frequently Asked Questions

All files are compressed using 7Zip to shrink the download filesize. To extract these files you must use WinRAR or 7Zip.
Any Patches should overwrite the original install directory, either by extracting over the original folder, or cut/copy & pasting over the existing file/folder structure.

1) My game keeps crashing, is there anything I can do to stop it?
i) Are you running the game on maximum (highest) settings? if so, lower them to High or Medium, there is a known issue with the game using up too much memory, there is nothing we can do about this, also no matter how powerful your pc is, it is affected by this issue no matter the pc it is not above this crashing issue, it is a game problem not a hardware one, so quite simply lower your settings. If you still have an issue with crashing see point two.
ii) Give us as detailed information as possible about the crash, what was happening at the time of the crash, what races, ships, abilities were involved. If you can supply a Debug Log (see above for more information about logging) and post a bug report on our website.

2) The loading screens and portrait pictures dont appear properly, whats wrong?
i) This is an issue with ATI based graphics cards (rarely affects Nvidia based cards) we're looking in to the issue.

3) Why dont you support converting Distant Stars in to TXT format?
i) Quite simply many things can go wrong with converting your mod to TXT, we cant help you with something you've probably broken yourself.

4) Can I mod Distant Stars for myself?
i) Yes you can however please do not distribute our mod or our mod that you have edited to the public. You must ask for permission to do so, we will regrettably stop distributing our mod to all if users abuse our work.

5) Your mod is in BIN format I can't edit the files, what can I do?
i) You can convert the mod to TXT format however we wont offer any support to versions of the mod that have been converted to TXT.

6) Why is Distant Stars distributed in BIN format?
i) Mods load faster in BIN format and are less likely to have issues in this format.

7) I'm having trouble installing the MOD, do you have any more instructions?
i) Carbon was kind enough to do some more advanced instructions out here.

8) Is there any way to make new maps for Distant Stars using GalaxyForge?
i) Within the Distant Stars Extras folder there is a folder called Galaxy Forge, Copy and Paste this folder (or its contents) over your original Galaxy Forge folder (or its contents) replacing any files if it asks you to. When you start Galaxy Forge next you'll be able to use all of our planets.

Or, the DIY approach (without custom icons):

ii) The GalaxyForge supplied by the devs will still work with our Mod, however to be able to access all of our planetary bonuses, templates, planet types and stars you will need to take our GalaxyScenarioDef.galaxyScenarioDef (found in the GameInfo folder of the mod) and place it in to your GalaxyForge folder, overwriting the original GalaxyScenarioDef.galaxyScenarioDef (if you still wish to make maps for the original game keep a backup of the original file). This will allow you to use all of the Galaxy changes included in our mod.

Note: Any maps made for Distant Stars will not work with other Mods. See #8.2 for DIY instructions for map making or take the appropriate files from Entrenchment, they're cross-client compatible.

Some statistics...

Since August 2009 to February 2011 we have had over...

400,000 Unique visits to the website
12,000GB (12TB) of data transferred from our website

That equates to over 60,000 Unique downloads of the entire mod, excluding the excess of 20,000 Patches downloaded. 

Thanks to everyone that has supported us this far and making our mod as popular as it is!

dyMRNwSFh9gw
modding
15,658,435 views 8,423 replies +31 Loading…
Reply #901 from Sins Forums Top

Fair enough. Just figured I would bring it up. I totally respect your opinion on the game, Ue, seeing that you work on this for free. It is important that you mention it's a TEC only ability cause I forget that once in a while. TEC is my mainstay and fighters are more the Advent's thing.

Meanwhile, I just played a 2.5 hour game with ~185 planets on 5 stars. No slow down, even when things got hairy. Using Highest across the board sans bloom. Think I'll enable that and see how it runs. I don't use anti-aliasing cause that alone eats up a fair chunk of memory. But so far so good, so I'm proud of you guys. Still compiling a list of traits to be compared cause I keep finding more.

 

Reply #902 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Draakjacht, reply 893
Actually, this research tree has more than teh Mad Scientist tree, quantity wise. The research tree will burn out a bit slower than vanilla per single research point. The tree will last vastly longer.
End of Draakjacht's quote
That's exactly the problem; you're spending way too much time and energy for too little gain. It's not about quantity or length, it's about results.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #903 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting TheDal, reply 902



Quoting Draakjacht,
reply 893
Actually, this research tree has more than teh Mad Scientist tree, quantity wise. The research tree will burn out a bit slower than vanilla per single research point. The tree will last vastly longer.

That's exactly the problem; you're spending way too much time and energy for too little gain. It's not about quantity or length, it's about results.

End of TheDal's quote

So let me clarify what your suggesting. You think that the way we currently have our reserach is not giving you enough 'results'? And you would like us to do what?

I can already tell you right now we have no plans at all to do what Mad Scientist did with their reserach. Not what we want.

And again to clarify why the reserach is how it is. We just expanded on what the orginal SINS provided for us.

Reply #904 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting -Ue_Carbon, reply 903

Quoting TheDal, reply 902


Quoting Draakjacht,
reply 893
Actually, this research tree has more than teh Mad Scientist tree, quantity wise. The research tree will burn out a bit slower than vanilla per single research point. The tree will last vastly longer.
That's exactly the problem; you're spending way too much time and energy for too little gain. It's not about quantity or length, it's about results.



So let me clarify what your suggesting. You think that the way we currently have our reserach is not giving you enough 'results'? And you would like us to do what?

I can already tell you right now we have no plans at all to do what Mad Scientist did with their reserach. Not what we want.

And again to clarify why the reserach is how it is. We just expanded on what the orginal SINS provided for us.
End of -Ue_Carbon's quote

 

It does take a while, but I still usually max out the tech tree by end game. And am unstoppable at that point. I'll go in with my swarm and overtake a heavily fortified planet with barely any losses.

Mainly because I don't think the computer does upgrades as much...

Reply #905 from Sins Forums Top

It does take a while, but I still usually max out the tech tree by end game. And am unstoppable at that point. I'll go in with my swarm and overtake a heavily fortified planet with barely any losses.

Mainly because I don't think the computer does upgrades as much...
End of quote

Its no different that if you played the orginal SINS. You can max out your tech and steamroll everything. Playing with Reseacher AI helps. In facts thats all I play with. We cant change how the AI does its research. Thats all hardcoded.

 

Seems to me that your running into the problem that been with SINS since the get go. The AI is too easy for you. May I suggest you play DS with ppl then?

In fact for anyone interested, Friday and Saturday night around 9-10 CST. I will be online and willing to play a DS game with anyone such. My ICO name is the same as it is here. I will be in the channel Distant Stars. Up for anything, Comp Stomp or FFA. Tell your friends!

Reply #906 from Sins Forums Top

I usually LAN with a few friends and my bro. Fun times.

As for the tech tree: I think it's nice having more upgrades than Mad Scientist cause if you set it slow (to compensate for the increased research pace) it can actually stretch to the end of a medium map or well into a large map.

As for the effect of each upgrade, I'm happy with it for two reasons. 1. You can either advance due to research or numbers. Either can win if done right. If the research were pumped up more, the AI would lose sorely AND numbers could never compensate for a single pumped up ship. 2. Mad Scientist used to be a good mod for me until they started throwing in useless upgrades just to fill up space. The planetary upgrades are pretty useless (but I still like the idea of built in upgrades for each planet proposed here) especially since I don't often have every planet type. And the new focus on SC is a major turn off. SC are powerful, but space allows larger vessels to come into their own. Even nowadays, air power is actually losing its domination in warfare. And the AI doesn't do well with that mod either.

Reply #907 from Sins Forums Top

*POSSIBLE MINI-SPOILER =P *

 

This might be a silly ?, but... does Distant Stars affect the "Space Ponies" planet bonus? It's the only achievement I can't seem to get, and I figure DS might be disabling the bonus.

Reply #908 from Sins Forums Top

Its totaly random, and from what Ive heard your best chance to get it is with a random map on normal SINS.

More than likely, cuz of the addtions of more planetary that DS brings in, your chances to find Space Ponies is lower.

Reply #909 from Sins Forums Top

I think Ue might have a point when you consider statistics, but I know it's perfectly possible. I was using this mod when I found Space Ponies, BUT I was playing the huge (multi) random map. If need be, you can always use the map creator (not Galaxy Forge) to increase the number of planets and thus your odds.

Reply #910 from Sins Forums Top

Tried out the mod just now, and the new effects look really tasty!

On a first start-up I loaded a map called Mars Wars, but no planets showed up. So I made myself a mini-map and it seem to work. I'm not fully aware what's different, I maybe have to go through the list, but so far the only things I noticed are different are weapons effect...

Reply #911 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Bram_Turismo, reply 910
Tried out the mod just now, and the new effects look really tasty!

On a first start-up I loaded a map called Mars Wars, but no planets showed up. So I made myself a mini-map and it seem to work. I'm not fully aware what's different, I maybe have to go through the list, but so far the only things I noticed are different are weapons effect...
End of Bram_Turismo's quote

can you give me your checksum number?

its the number on the right of the menu when you activate the mods

it should be 34724853

if not then it might not have downloaded or unzipped properly

believe me you will see a lot of differences, from menu on up

ps make sure there are no other mods running for accurate checksum results

Reply #912 from Sins Forums Top

Guess no one was in the mood for DS online. :'(   Oh well, AI Comp Stomp for 1 please.

Reply #913 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Ryat,



can you give me your checksum number?

its the number on the right of the menu when you activate the mods

it should be 34724853

if not then it might not have downloaded or unzipped properly

believe me you will see a lot of differences, from menu on up

ps make sure there are no other mods running for accurate checksum results
End of Ryat's quote

 

Checksum number is correct. I just forgot to click "Apply changes"

This time the main menu music changed, as did the planets. While loading a map the DS image came up as background, so I thought it worked. The Bailknight effects worked again, and the planets seemed to be updated. But no menu changed, no changed to crafts or trees as it seems. The weirdest thing is that after 5 minutes I suddenly recieved a message that I had lost contact with my homeworld and I lost the game, WTF?

Reply #914 from Sins Forums Top

what map did you play?

Reply #915 from Sins Forums Top

Planetary Abilities image corrections --

Corrosive Atmosphere: no image

Gravitational Anomaly: no image

Storm Ridden Planet: image vertical off-center

Toxic Fallout: possible wrong image

Blue Star (Magnetar?): Magnetic Storm image vertical off-center

Perfect Holiday Destination: vertical off-center

Unstable Ground: vertical off-center

Completely Overgrown: vertical off-center; wrong image

Dense Jungle: wrong image

Galactic Trade Center: no image

Natural Radiation: wrong image

Dense Canopy: no image

Thick Atmosphere: vertical off-center; wrong image

Reply #916 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting -Ue_Carbon, reply 912
Guess no one was in the mood for DS online.   Oh well, AI Comp Stomp for 1 please.
End of -Ue_Carbon's quote

I would have been but don't really want my ass handed to me :D I've never played against a human, just with humans against computers

I'll try that AI Comp Stomp map a few times to build my confidence up

Reply #917 from Sins Forums Top

Not sure if this is a bug persay, but should I report that I researched up tp 3000 fleet points (that's what teh tech tree says), but my points add up to 9775?

Reply #918 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Draakjacht, reply 917
Not sure if this is a bug persay, but should I report that I researched up tp 3000 fleet points (that's what teh tech tree says), but my points add up to 9775?
End of Draakjacht's quote

this is more of an info bug, it is suppose to be that high, though we may bring it down, or not

Reply #919 from Sins Forums Top

Keep it that high :D

Reply #920 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Ryat, reply 914
what map did you play?
End of Ryat's quote

 

First time I played "Mars Wars" and nothing was there, it was like an emty piece of space. Thereafter, I played a random small map with maybe around 9 planets when the problem occured...

Reply #921 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Mooster, reply 919
Keep it that high
End of Mooster's quote

Yeah what he said!!!!

Reply #922 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Bram_Turismo, reply 920



Quoting Ryat,
reply 914
what map did you play?


 

First time I played "Mars Wars" and nothing was there, it was like an emty piece of space. Thereafter, I played a random small map with maybe around 9 planets when the problem occured...
End of Bram_Turismo's quote

who knows, while you were enjoying the view, the enemy may have been next door and jumped you, with that few of planets it could have happened.

Reply #923 from Sins Forums Top

If it was Advent AI then yeah, they are evil.

Reply #924 from Sins Forums Top

Alright guys for the next patch which is coming along very nicely now we have a hell of alot of bug fixes for you all:

- A pirate minidump related error has been fixed (this should fix your load screen minidumps!)
- Planetary Bonus Icons are finally fixed (thanks for your help Draak!)
- Map Designer String Error has been fixed
- TEC Lasers have been recalibrated to "pew pew" again!
- Tunneling upgrade has been updated to reflect its actual effect
- Toxic Planetary ability now has its intended effect
- Numerous string errors have been fixed
- The Ship Graveyards are back, and so are the capturable ships!

Many other minor little fixes in there too, im currently finishing up the changes in the patch and will get a patch out for internal testing in the next day or so i'd imagine and have it released to you guys (all going well) by the end of the week!

+1 Loading…
Reply #925 from Sins Forums Top

yeah the ship graveyards are back