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
15,657,892 views 8,423 replies +31 Loading…
Reply #3726 from Sins Forums Top

The first time it happened, I didn't realize I was playing Starcraft 2 in the background. The next few times... nothing was running in the background.

 

Reply #3727 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah that was definitely the issue.

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3728 from Sins Forums Top

Well, stuff is always running in the background, just how much stuff is the real question.  If you're running Windows like most people, then yeah, you've got a crap load of stuff running, half of which is probably unnecessary.  Firewall and antivirus are typically always running, if you've ever had anything apple, adobe, java, HP, most media applications, Nvidia, creative, etc. then you've got a lot more stuff running in the back ground, most of which is completely unnecessary and annoying...

 

But anyway, the next time you play and you think that ability is going to get used on you, zoom out of the gravity well real quick.  If you don't crash then it's probably a graphics issue associated with the ability or a combination of things happening at the same time, if you still crash then it's a broken ability that's looping until your PC gives up trying and crashes or something else is going on and that ability just happens to push you over the edge.

In the end, though, you're more then likely going to have to redownload a copy of DS, so no time like the present to get that started, then follow what I said in my previous post.  Disable the mod in game, quit, delete the contents of the mod folder, unzip the new DS download to your desktop, copy the folder over to the mods folder, then get back in the game and try it out.  If you're still crashing even after all of that, there's really nothing we can do because it's a problem with your PC not the mod since it's highly unlikely, in the neighborhood of damned near impossible, to get a copy of the mod twice that has the exact same issue.

Reply #3729 from Sins Forums Top

Well, I'm running windows 7 and there are only 50 processes. My quadcore tablet runs 100. What I meant when I said the next few times nothing was running, I mean it crashed some more. :p

Reply #3730 from Sins Forums Top

Processes don't matter with this game, if the usage of the game hits 2 gigs of memory you will hit a minidump period, no if ands or butts about it

Reply #3731 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Leuthesius, reply 3729
Well, I'm running windows 7 and there are only 50 processes. My quadcore tablet runs 100. What I meant when I said the next few times nothing was running, I mean it crashed some more.
End of Leuthesius's quote

So your entire PC crashed?  That's definitely not an issue with the mod.

Reply #3734 from Sins Forums Top

Well, as explained before, the issue didn't happen when I played, meaning it's a local problem and not one with the mod itself or I'd be able to recreate it.  So in all likelihood, barring any issues with the PC itself, a redownload would be necessary and be the easiest solution.  I could try and figure out if the ability itself is causing the issue or if it's a combination of things or when the last download of the mod occurred and if that was an issue before if it hasn't been recently downloaded, but it's really a waste of time unless a new downloaded copy has the same issue, in which case I'd expect detailed answers to my questions so I can figure out the cause and create a solution.  We'll see what happens though, maybe.

Reply #3735 from Sins Forums Top

Will there be a future update ncorporating some elements of the Sins optimised mod?

Reply #3736 from Sins Forums Top

Yes, the team is working on it, but RL has a tendency to get in the way lately.

Reply #3737 from Sins Forums Top

Sweet! I don't suppose there a projected release date, its just the problem i have is to pick between a smoother running game or an oustanding mod that i've gotten used to and now vanilla entrenchment looks shit.

Reply #3738 from Sins Forums Top

One way to optimize things would be to simplify fighter and bomber meshes to say, 5 polygons. That would seriously help the 2gb limit.

Maybe remove the textures too while you're at it.

:grin:

Reply #3739 from Sins Forums Top

Or since it's a graphical improvement mod we look at ways to reduce memory consumption while still maintaining a good or better look then what was there before.  =]  Smart ass.  ;P

Reply #3740 from Sins Forums Top

Nah, make it look like Asteroids!

Reply #3741 from Sins Forums Top

Pew pew pew....   *Blip*

Reply #3743 from Sins Forums Top

Stant, you just made me smile. ^_^

Reply #3744 from Sins Forums Top

lol Asteroids rules

Reply #3745 from Sins Forums Top

KILLER ASTEROIDS OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Reply #3746 from Sins Forums Top

Reply #3747 from Sins Forums Top

So yeah nit to put a damper on all the asteroid death but have you guys set a rough release date for the new version release date or not? The only reason i ask is because  love the mod but i'm getting too much fps drop late in game on implosion (67 planet map) with 4v4 i got down the 14 fps at some point! Thats never hapened to me before on that map and its not due to my pc specs, anything you guys could recommend?

Reply #3748 from Sins Forums Top

No rough release date because life makes that impossible.  If a date is set then things get worked on in little pockets of free time and then get rushed to meet the deadlines and you get something that's not up to the standards the team likes.  If you want an idea of the standards, the diplo 0.7 release, while receiving lots of praise from the players, was a rush job with mistakes.  I assume that it got put out when it did because of all of the game updates by starclad (or is it irondock, I just don't know any more) forcing it's release so the mod could remain playable.

 

As for recommendations, turning down graphics, unpinning things from the empire tree so less is being tracked constantly, getting rid of unused strike craft, kill off your enemies, don't build mines...  Pretty standard stuff really.

Reply #3749 from Sins Forums Top

lol I never use mines anymore... they are over-rated seeing how as soon as the enemy or pirates jump into the sector they somehow manage to miraculously blow up most of them with weapons instead of the mines impacting the hulls of the enemy ships

Reply #3750 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, no release date unless IronClad sends out an update. Sorry, I am just as anxious as everyone else, but RL is always in charge.