How to un-install Stellar Phenomena?

Well, being a avid player of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion for over a year now, I thought all the DLCs were great, and bought all of them. When Stellar Phenomena came out, I bought it without looking into it. At first I thought it was interesting, but as time went on, I didn't really like it. The random events are annoying, so I turned them off. But the ice fields, comets, etc. I didn't like at all, especially the ship graveyards. In my opinion I think those are really annoying and take up what could've been a Terran world, and instead it's a useless ship graveyard. I know not everyone will agree with me, it's just a personal opinion. So is there any way to delete this? I tried digging around and tried to delete in manually but I couldn't find any folders. Help? 

19,666 views 12 replies
Reply #1 Top

Actually, it is it is not that likely for an ice field, ship graveyard etc. to be used instead of a terran planet. Most maps use more precise random lists, like "RandomColonizeable" or "RandomUncolonizeable" which will allow only certain types of planets. More often than not the Stellar Phenomenon planets are going to be replacing other non-colonizeable planets.

The reason you could not find any folders is that the DLCs are installed directly into the base game. You should examine the GalaxyScenarioDef file if you're really interested in how this all works.

Reply #2 Top

Thanks for your reply. When I said it would be a Terran planet, I was just using it as an example, I know it is randomized. I will look into GalaxyScenarioDef, thank you very much. :)

Reply #3 Top

How do I toggle the dlc off?

Reply #4 Top

Quoting Bartowski, reply 3

How do I toggle the dlc off?
End of Bartowski's quote

Don't think it can be done without making a mod to remove it. The closest you can come is disabling Random Events.

Reply #5 Top

 

Should work alone, or on top of a mod, as long as that mod did not rename the DLC assets. Still need to turn off Random Events in the Game Options, those are built into the engine.

 

DLC Off

Reply #6 Top

I've never modded before, I know I am a scrub. But I do know Rebellion is mod friendly, so do I just put it in my mod folder? 

Reply #8 Top

It's a little annoying that while you can turn off random events as a group, you there isn't a more fine-grained method to check/uncheck them individually (without modding). The same goes for the planet types used [by the randomizer].

And the modding needed (as shown in "DLCs Off" above) is rather intrusive, touching a lot of files, so it's PITA to carry forward (reapply changes) for every new version of Sins. You need to have a good understanding of diff and patch to do that (easily), and that's probably a little too taxing for most gamers.

 

 

 

 

Reply #9 Top

Also I'm told you can remove DLCs with steam now, so I guess modding isn't strictly needed anymore.

Reply #10 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 9

Also I'm told you can remove DLCs with steam now, so I guess modding isn't strictly needed anymore.
End of GoaFan77's quote

Yeah if you right click your game and go to the DLC tab in properties, you can select which DLCs you want installed.

Reply #11 Top

By the way, if one just wants to get rid of specific planet types popping up via the randomizer, isn't it enough to remove them from GalaxyScenarioDef.galaxyScenarioDef [via modding]?

As far as I can tell, there are no other references to Ship.Graveyard [as a case-insensitive regular expression] except in that file (GalaxyScenarioDef.galaxyScenarioDef) in the planetType lists: WeightedNonIce, WeightedNonIceFair, WeightedRandom, WeightedRandomFair, AsteroidOrDead, AsteroidOrDeadFair, RandomSpecial (but not in RandomSpecialFair), RandomUncolonizable, RandomUncolonizableNonMagnetic (but not in RandomUncolonizableFair or RandomUncolonizableNonMagneticFair), and also included in the catch-all Random and RandomFair.

Ship Graveyard is not however included in RandomTrue and RandomTrueFair lists which only have Terran/Ice/Desert/Volcanic/Oceani/Ferrus/Greenhouse. So Ship Graveyard won't replace a Terran in all circumstances in the sadomizer, but only where non-beefy planets could appear as well. What's interesting is that it can replace a non-colonizable, although not in the Fair version thereof. That's perhaps not so surprising given that it's basically a dead roid with resources.

The big 5v5s used on ICO (Huge Single-System Random Map Fair.galaxy) use basically just WeightedRandomFair and RandomFair for most of the map (except for the roid/moon/volcanic near each Homeworld), so you'll get some Graveyards in those maps, but the probability is low because there are four times as many WeightedRandomFairs than RandomFairs in those maps and [because] ShipGraveyard is only listed once in WeightedRandomFair, whereas [for example] TerranFair or FerrusFair are listed twice, DesertFair/VolcanicFair/IceFair/BarrenFair/OceanicFair/GreenhouseFair three times each, MoonFair/AsteroidFair four times, etc. Other singly listed items (like Ship Graveyard) in the WeightedRandomFairs are GasGiantFair, DeadAsteroid, PlasmaStormFair, and MagneticCloud. So adding Ship Graveyard to that Weighted list does skew it in favor of [almost] non-colonizables by a tiny amount (from 4/38=10.5% to 5/39=12.8%), but is not something to go up in arms against, IMO. In the RadomFair list [which is only sampled 1/4 of the time compared to the Weighted one], the distribution of crappy ones goes from 4/14=28.5% to 5/15=33.3% with the addition of Graveyard; still not a major skewing, IMO.

Of the other lists mentioned which can include the Ship Graveyard, RandomUncolonizable appears in a significant number of scenarios/maps (42 hits), followed by RandomSpecial (29 hits) and AsteroidOrDead (19 hits). Of the randomized lists that don't include the Graveyard, RandomTrue is perhaps the most important, with 76 hits in the galaxy files shipped with the game.

The Graveyard provides an okay level of [intermediate] variation in gameplay IMO, being somewhere between a regular asteroid and an uncolonizable body with capturable extractors (e.g. those of the Space Junk or Gas Giant, called "neutral" extractors in the entity files.) An asteroid takes a long time to pay for its initial colonization price, whereas the Ship Graveyard, while not giving access to resources simply in exchange for antimatter (as the capturable extractors do) has an intermediate cost between those two: AM-only for colonization but credits for its resource extractors. The Graveyard's extractors have higher base rate than those of a regular asteroid, and are [unfortunately] also affected by allegiance in their extraction rate, like those of the asteroid, but unlike the capturable extractors from a Gas Giant etc. The Graveyard's extractors however are not as easily flipped by an enemy compared to the directly capturable ones, because [like in the case of the asteroid], an enemy has to bomb the planet [Graveyard itself] first, except that [unlike an asteroid] the Ship Graveyard isn't eligible for a hp ("emergency infrastructure") upgrade. If the Graveyard's extractors are attacked first/directly, they also take less time to kill per unit of economic value they provide compared to an asteroid. So the Graveyard also provides an intermediate level of gameplay (between asteroid and uncolonizable [extractors]) with respect to how easy it is to lose it [and its resource extractors].

My only gripe with the Graveyard is that there isn't a Fair version of it (i.e. one with a fixed count of extractors) in the stock game, despite the fact that it's included in some of the lists with Fair in their name, but [oddly] omitted from other Fair lists, even when included in their non-Fair counterparts. For example it's included in RandomFair and RandomUncolonizable but not in RandomUncolonizableFair, which is a list type used the Small Random Fair map, typically used for 1v1, although the Graveyard can actually appear in that map via WeightedRandomFair like does in 5v5s. I guess I should mention that Ship Graveyard provides between 0-1 crystal and 1-2 metal extractors. But modding a Fair version of it is quite simple.

 

Reply #12 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 9

Also I'm told you can remove DLCs with steam now, so I guess modding isn't strictly needed anymore.
End of GoaFan77's quote

Sweet!  I hope I found out a few days earlier... I have just just updated the NoDLC mini-mods a couple of days ago LOL.