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

Published on January 5, 2009 By Nacey In Sins Modding

Article Link

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

1.051 Compatible:

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

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

Comments (Page 123)

1831

Felkins

on Dec 22, 2009

Yeh I did overwrite, but I will try seperate instead thanks!!

1832

Felkins

on Dec 22, 2009

Ok works just fine like that. I never would have thought to stack those extras, thanks for the help!

1833

Ryat

on Dec 22, 2009

No problem, we try to offer free tech support with our wonderful mod

1834

GeneralVeers

on Dec 22, 2009

Love the mod guys.

1835

Felkins

on Dec 22, 2009

Ok, this is interesting...At first as I said I downloaded the full version DS 99 unpacked it with winrar to Entrenchment 1.041 folder, looked over the Readmes of course, merged the Strong Pirates extras, and finally used Harpos text convert program to manipulate the values to my liking. And as you know when trying to apply the mod I got a minidump. Ok, well I started all over, reapplying the original download, and copied over the DS I changed. Then added the extras seperate. The game applied the mods fine. Then selected my custom map, (DS maps, and original maps just in case) and faction. At the end of the load I get a consistent minidump. I tried this with different variations at least 6 times. Anyway, I have narrowed down the problem to converting the files to text. Isn't that odd?I have as of yet, not seen that before. But then all I know is that Text puts a heavier load on the game engine, I think. Anyway I got DS to work fine now, I just can't "personalize" it as of yet. I still can't wait to play it, see what changes are in store

By the way, best mod.....one of the funnest, mods out there, I think. I make it a point to try all of them, if I can, and I just keep coming back to DS! Just wish it was Star Wars...Thanks!!

1836

Felkins

on Dec 22, 2009

I hope thats enough info to help explain. Let me know if I wasn't clear on something

1837

Draakjacht

on Dec 22, 2009

Okay, that means I need to get my butt moving on the new cards. My brother just gave me a copy of Photoshop to use, so I should be able to do it soonish.

Happy Hannukah!

Draakjacht for President, Dead or Alive!

1838

Whiskey144

on Dec 23, 2009

@Felkins- if you want to "personalize" it, TXT the files to a separate directory; then, simple edit the files you want to to your liking, and place them in a separate folder with a copy of the DS0.99 entity.manifest. Make sure to convert back to BIN before placing them in the folder.

Now, simply stack your "DS0.99Personal" over DS0.99, and enable. This has the added bonus of if you want to go MP with someone who doesn't have your changes, you can (and very easily).

1839

Draakjacht

on Dec 23, 2009

Good news and better news! I finally got Photoshop up and running, so I can begin work on the icons when I'm not doing one of my ... 3? jobs or when I'm not buttering up my gal.

So my idea for icons on the fighters was to do a target reticle in the upper corner for gunships and a lightning bolt for EWS bombers. Might work to carry the idea over for Research buttons.

For the planetary defense research I could use the planetary shields info card and add in missiles or something coming from it. If you want, I could do different ones for each race. (missle for TEC, energy bolt for Advent, and ? for Vasari) Haven't seen Vasari use it yet.

For the Planetary defense info card I was thinking that if we continue using the planetary shield mesh, I could use that info card with the weapon projections I use on the research cards.

As for teh Tachyon generator research, I think the + works. For the ability, I'll take the Vasari image you gave me and just make it look more evil.

Questions: The EWS bomber has a new mesh (at least for TEC). I can do a window image for it, but doing a research button for that using the true mesh would be painful effort. Just change the symbol in the upper corner as above? If just a window image, can you rip one from the game for me so I can see what the dimensions are?

Nacey, to answer your question about my game, I'm not taking any classes. It's three of us so far, I'm doing story, unit design and 2-D, and two guys are on models, bones, etc. We'll either tag team programming or have to outsource. Sad thing is that we have nothing to offer other than a share when it sells, so we're not attracting or even trying to find help.

1840

Ryat

on Dec 23, 2009

as to the Vasari Planetary Defense they use a phase missile variant

1841

Draakjacht

on Dec 23, 2009

I love their phase missiles. Like little blacklight cannons just brimming with Dark Matter!

Mmmm... dark matter

1842

Nacey

on Dec 24, 2009

Ryat our resident bug tester found a minor bug with the Vasari Marauder capital ship (one of its abilities was causing a minidump) this issue is now fixed and heres the tiny patch for it, the files were removed from the manifest accidentally in the last patch heres the new manifest file:

http://distantstars.mmobase.com/entrenchment/DS_Entrenchment_Beta_0.99_QuickFix.7z

This file will be required to play online matches with us so as not to cause minidumps!

Update on Diplomacy and whats to come: We'll be releasing an update for Diplomacy in the days to come after christmasto incorporate any other changes we are planning on releasing.

We're also looking at releasing another smaller patch for Entrenchment probably starting in the new year to add in some new little features we've been talking about for a long time within the team. More information on that to come in the coming week.

GeneralVeers

reply 1834

Love the mod guys.

Glad you're enjoying it mate, btw great lore writing between all of you guys so far

Felkins

reply 1835

That is actually a very strange issue, some file is probably being mis-converted somewhere and causing a major issue but when converted back it gets corrected by the converter i'd imagine. Never had this issue myself although I dont use Harpos converter. As Whiskey mentioned above his is the best way to keep your own edits & original files seperate so you always have some way to fall back & quick multiplayer options.

Draakjacht

reply 1839

So my idea for icons on the fighters was to do a target reticle in the upper corner for gunships and a lightning bolt for EWS bombers. Might work to carry the idea over for Research buttons.

For the planetary defense research I could use the planetary shields info card and add in missiles or something coming from it. If you want, I could do different ones for each race. (missle for TEC, energy bolt for Advent, and ? for Vasari) Haven't seen Vasari use it yet.

For the Planetary defense info card I was thinking that if we continue using the planetary shield mesh, I could use that info card with the weapon projections I use on the research cards.

As for teh Tachyon generator research, I think the + works. For the ability, I'll take the Vasari image you gave me and just make it look more evil.

Questions: The EWS bomber has a new mesh (at least for TEC). I can do a window image for it, but doing a research button for that using the true mesh would be painful effort. Just change the symbol in the upper corner as above? If just a window image, can you rip one from the game for me so I can see what the dimensions are?

Nacey, to answer your question about my game, I'm not taking any classes. It's three of us so far, I'm doing story, unit design and 2-D, and two guys are on models, bones, etc. We'll either tag team programming or have to outsource. Sad thing is that we have nothing to offer other than a share when it sells, so we're not attracting or even trying to find help.

Awesome news Draak those icon designs sound great, the mesh will be staying the same for now unless I learn to model, or someone on the team learns to model or someone with modelling experience comes along so for now its safe to say its going to look the same for a little while longer atleast.
Just changing the symbol in the top corner is fine for the TEC EWS bomber, keeping the icons uniform helps players when playing through each of the races.

Sounds like a fun little project you and your friends have undertaken mate, good luck with it and try to keep us updated on your progress

And to all...

Merry Christmas!

Have a great Christmas all

1843

TheRezonator

on Dec 24, 2009

just a question are there any known minidump issues with the Diplomacy version of the mod?

quite simply i tried to engage the mod and it dumped so are there any issues?

i understand diplomacy is a beta so im not so worried but just asking

1844

-Ue_Carbon

on Dec 24, 2009

I think so, but it has to do with beta part and not us as far as I understand....but....Ive been wrong alot soooo....Nacey can tell you more but thats where my money is at.

1845

TheRezonator

on Dec 24, 2009

eh, im not worried, if it was an easy fix then sweet otherwise ill just play it original recepie

also, the new mines are crazy... i did sorta prefer mining a good section of my grav well (i prefer to protect territory rather than the planet) but then i jumped a fleet into a vasari asteroid without scouting it, and half the fleet went up in smoke, i was totally confused! but at least the mines are a force to be reckoned with now...

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