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

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[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!

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modding
15,662,721 views 8,423 replies +31 Loading…
Reply #3176 from Sins Forums Top

Sweeeet don't need any help this time around lol.....great work guys!

Reply #3177 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Stant123, reply 3173
@Manic

It's not that they start better then you it's that they being AI's get to cheat a little bit.  I can almost guess that you're a turtle player in the sense that you don't expand quickly because you're busy covering your ass before you move on.  Before you mess with anything, try a new strategy.  It's called "get out there and grab some planets puto."

End of Stant123's quote

I understand the factor that the AI gets a bonus resource income above hard difficulties, but I'm not talking about that.  What I mean is that I simply usually start out with a very crappy selection of random planets adjacent to my homeworld, such as dwarf asteroids with 1 single resource node, very heavily fortified "big" planets that are impossible to take early game, or planets that aren't possible to colonize immediately without research.  This makes it extremely difficult to expand my empire at a consistent rate and feasible manner every game like I am always able to without using the mod.  Also, I never turtle unless I absolutely know I have the upper hand and a well established choke point with a starbase up.  I colonize about twice the speed as the AI typically does on Unfair difficulty without the mod enabled, pretty much every single time.  Matter of fact, by the middle of the last game I played I had 14 planets colonized by the time the AI had 6 colonized (again, without using the mod).

Other than that, I already am familiar with the other points and strategies you mentioned.  Thanks for your help with what entity files I need to edit though. 

Quoting Stant123, reply 3173

You can't do anything like how you're picturing it.  Random spawns are based on what planets are listed in the galaxyscenariodef file, so in order to change the number of resource asteroids you get, you're going to have to hit up every single planet.entity file there is and change the numbers yourself.  There are a lot of them so clear up a healthy chunk of time.

End of Stant123's quote

I always play randomly generated maps.  From playing vanilla Diplomacy, I can tell that the resource asteroid spawns are always between 2-3 per planet, and on rare occasions 4, without exception (for every type of planet).  With your mod, it seems like the resource asteroids can vary between 1 and 6 per planet based on my experience, but for which planets I am not sure.  All I'm going to do is change the "minCount" to 2 so that the planets always spawn with no less than two of any type of resource asteroid. 

Again, thanks a lot for your help with what to edit in the entity files.  I'll take a good look at the information you provided and try to figure out as much as I can without bugging you any further.

DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3178 from Sins Forums Top

I always play randomly generated maps. From playing vanilla Diplomacy, I can tell that the resource asteroid spawns are always between 2-3 per planet, and on rare occasions 4, without exception (for every type of planet). With your mod, it seems like the resource asteroids can vary between 1 and 6 per planet based on my experience. Does that necessarily mean that all different types of planets spawn with a random number of resource asteroids within a specified variable?
End of quote

If you tired of getting screwed by random maps, maybe make one ingame or with GF. Random maps are just that, but IMHO someone gets screwed by them. Its either you or the AI.

 

The resource asteroids vary depending on planet type and size of planet. The smaller the planet the less roids. The larger the more.

Reply #3179 from Sins Forums Top

The resource spawns are 0 to 6, all depending on the type of planet you get.  My memory is a little fuzzy since it's been a long time since I looked, but it goes something like moons have 0 to 2, dwarf have 1 to 3, normal have 2 to 4, and giant have 4 to 6.

If you use my better gas giants minimod, those can have 6 to 16 depending on which one and how lucky you are.

Reply #3180 from Sins Forums Top

Speaking of your Better gas Giants they are added  in the Online Update.

Reply #3181 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah I saw.  Thanks.  ;Þ

Reply #3182 from Sins Forums Top

N
P

Reply #3183 from Sins Forums Top

That's happened to me too... and I win pretty much every time. I actually wound up on a map as Vasari with only one asteroid planet with a single metal and crystal. I had a carrier and a starbase. Sure, it was an 18 hour game. But I won.

They kept attacking and I kept slamming their faces in. The carrier hit level 10 pretty fast. I scraped and saved for a battleship. Waited. It hit level 10 too. I destroyed the pirate base that was next door giving me a constant boost so I could have the resource asteroids and trade/tax income from the black market.  That was about hour 7. I play with +2-4 on speed though so that's not my time.

Some things just require patience is all. Juggling around research for things is a bit of a pain too. I had to scuttle so many of my research stations so that I could get specific things it wasn't even funny xD. Vasari are the worst for that situation and I still managed to do it.

Reply #3184 from Sins Forums Top

Me and a friend of mine have an issue with this mod - he gets an incorrect checksum (36949181) when activating, while I get the correct one (36951860). We've both cleared our mod folders beforehand, have Trinity with Diplomacy 1.01, and we downloaded the exact same mod file (even tried copying over the same files from one computer to another, still doesn't work). If it's relevant: my friend's computer, the one with the wrong checksum, is an older computer with XP installed, while mine, the one that has the correct one, is rather new, and has Windows 7. 

Anyone ever encounter a checksum mismatch of any kind? And I've never bothered much with them (since they've mostly worked out fine), so is there som kind of magic trick people know about to get it to work that I don't know about? >,< 

 

Any help would be most appreciated =)

 

EDIT: We tried the minimods. They work fine. It's just the main DS that turns out wrong. And any combination of DS and other mods results in checksums that are very similar, but not entirely (like the ones above with only main DS activated).

Reply #3185 from Sins Forums Top

It appears as though your friend is not getting all of the files into the mod folder, hence the lower checksum.

 

Unzip the files to the desktop first, then copy them over to the mod folder.  The version of windows in use doesn't matter, just the contents of that folder.

 

If the problem persists, maybe try unhooking from the internet and turning off all of windows and 3rd party security features (DEP, antivirus, antispyware, firewalls), unzip to the desktop, and then move everything over, and see if it works out better.  Remember to turn back on whatever you turned off before you reconnect to the net.

Reply #3186 from Sins Forums Top

yeah I have had that issue once, took me several tries to get it right (sometimes it doesn't download right, not sure why as the server is a personal one)

Reply #3187 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Ryat, reply 3186
yeah I have had that issue once, took me several tries to get it right (sometimes it doesn't download right, not sure why as the server is a personal one)
End of Ryat's quote

 

Yeah I remember that night...heheheh....poor Ryat.

Reply #3188 from Sins Forums Top

Will this mod work with the mod that pervents Dumps for exceding RAM?

Reply #3189 from Sins Forums Top

Not yet, we will soon be incorporating a lot of those features to help with that though

Reply #3190 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks for the feedback. No- my friend has all the files - we controlled this by comparing the exact byte values and file count of the mod folders. They are the same, so that can't be it. Any other suggestions?

EDIT: In an attempt to try an localize any error, we also attempted removing folders one by one - checking if the checksum would straighten up then, but the difference persisted =/

Reply #3191 from Sins Forums Top

yeah, like we said, sometimes happens (and it might be just a letter or two that is off, nothing to screw up the game but enough to mess up the checksum)

so reattempt a new and fresh download until it comes out right

it took me about five tries

sorry

Reply #3192 from Sins Forums Top

I would not be supprised if for some reason one of you haa underscores and one of you has spaces...

we have that trouble everyonce in a while when trying to get maps to work.

Reply #3193 from Sins Forums Top

But if the downloads are different, then it shouldn't turn out different when just copying it over from PC to PC, should it? =)

Am doing re-downloads as we speak, it has yet to change after three-four tries =/

EDIT: We've tried like a dozen times now, re-downloading, turning off and on this and that security program and internet access - it doesn't work, whatsoever.

Reply #3194 from Sins Forums Top

I seem to have been able to enable the mod in game according to the options menu but compared to earlier versions when I used to play it I'm seeing little change whatsoever so I'm questioning if it is actually working. Would the main menu music change like it used to if this was working?

I've downloaded the most recent version for entrenchment from the full download section so I don't have to patch it do I?

Reply #3195 from Sins Forums Top

Beta 0.9951 Release:
 Beta 0.995 Patch from 0.995 to 0.9951: 
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/entrenchment/DS_Entrenchment_Beta_0.9951_Patch_[36672852].7z
Full Download:
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/entrenchment/DS_Entrenchment_Beta_0.995_[36672790].7z
To play with 1.051 you must patch from v0.995 to 0.9951 with the above Patch!

 

@ llamaguy42 - are you guys connected LAN, you might want to try copying yours over to his (or use a little handy drive thing  the mod is only 200+ MB so it should be doable)

Reply #3196 from Sins Forums Top

Well the trouble here is that the patch from those links is in several ways completely different from what you are saying it should look like in the extended tutorial. There is no .txt file telling me what I need to delete only a readme that is completely the same as the readme given in the 'full download'. The 0.09951 patch folder does not contain what it says it should in the tutorial and If I do just copy and paste what is in there over to my other patch folder then it still makes no difference. I click enable mod in game, the game pauses for a little while then goes back to running while saying that the mod is enabled but with no actual differences at all. I'm sorry to sound so aggrevated but this mod always used to be my favourite and ever since you decided to introduce this self patching idea I havn't been able to get anywhere with it....

Reply #3197 from Sins Forums Top

what is your checksum?

Reply #3198 from Sins Forums Top

I will assume that its 36672852 since thats the number at the end of the most recent patch download...

Reply #3199 from Sins Forums Top

yes, if it doesn't match then you have a bad download (happens for time to time) and may need to do a redownload

Reply #3200 from Sins Forums Top

If it doesen't match to what?... That number was at the end of the patch name shown in the download menu, are you saying to compare it to the number at the end of the full download?