Distant Stars Mod Blog


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

Comments (Page 135)
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on Jan 17, 2010

Mines lol are just the tip of the ice berg, if the AI is actually smart enough to place a Starbase right in front of where you jump in and has a fleet sitting there as well... Your ships who just took a face full of mines gets to be eaten by a fleet of enemy ships along with a starbase... yeah... that's fun stuff... always... and I mean always send in a scout ship before you jump in your main fleet otherwise you'll be hurting and bitching because you lost all those resources and ships along with a few capitals... rofl but this is rare to happen to you if you play the computer

on Jan 17, 2010

mooster,

the quickest fix for the manifests for the DM sub mod of DS would be to copy the manifests from the DS folder to the DSDM folder,

as from my understanding of the way that the manifests/folders are searched the manifests are read from the top active mod if not found then the next one down and so on untill all active mods have been checked then the expansion(diplomacy then entrenchment), then the engine starts reading in the files listed in the manifests in the SAME sequence ie top active mod, then the next active mod, etc... then the expansion (diplomacy then entrenchment) and lastly the sins sub folders.

hope this helps

threzonator, I suggest you read your pm's

harpo

 

on Jan 17, 2010

Hi guys, yesterday i downloaded the DS mod from this link http://distantstars.mmobase.com/entrenchment/DS_Entrenchment_Beta_0.995_[36672790].7z

for my Sins of a solar empire entrenchment v 1.041, checksum is 36672790. No other mods enabled. And i have some strange graphics issues. When zoomed out, some the planets are replaced by a white square (volcanic planet, terran planet, ice giant, deep space sector), some by a square with a texture (industrial planet, moon savanah planet). Some planets are fine when there are no my ships on the orbit. Same issue with explosions of ships "a lot of white squares". Some icons are missing (Improved anti-grav, flourishing systemisation, origin defense) and 3 race picture sests are missing. Anyone any idea why, or how to fix this problem?

Screenshots:

Planets , Explosion1, Explosion2, Explosion3, Explosion4, Explosion5 

Thx and sorry for my bad english

on Jan 17, 2010

aleasenir
Hi guys, yesterday i downloaded the DS mod from this link http://distantstars.mmobase.com/entrenchment/DS_Entrenchment_Beta_0.995_[36672790].7z

for my Sins of a solar empire entrenchment v 1.041, checksum is 36672790. No other mods enabled. And i have some strange graphics issues. When zoomed out, some the planets are replaced by a white square (volcanic planet, terran planet, ice giant, deep space sector), some by a square with a texture (industrial planet, moon savanah planet). Some planets are fine when there are no my ships on the orbit. Same issue with explosions of ships "a lot of white squares". Some icons are missing (Improved anti-grav, flourishing systemisation, origin defense) and 3 race picture sests are missing. Anyone any idea why, or how to fix this problem?

Screenshots:

Planets , Explosion1, Explosion2, Explosion3, Explosion4, Explosion5 

Thx and sorry for my bad english

Hey Aleasnir,
Looking at those screenshots it appears to be an issue with your Textures (and related) folders sadly the checksum doesnt apply to each of the folders including the textures so if there was a problem with those files we wouldnt know it.

It may be a corrupt download (for whatever reason, ISP's/Hosting/Routing etc) so i'd first suggest redownloading the mod to make sure you're using the correct files (I checked the file on the hosting and its the correct filesize down to the last byte as my local copy that works fine).

If you want to check your folders against what you should have here's a list of all of the folders & sizes they should be and also the amount of files they should contain:

Total Size and File Count: 746MB (754MB on Disk) 2954 Files

\Galaxy\ 2.09MB (2.21MB on Disk) 57 Files
\GameInfo\ 2.18MB (6.92MB on Disk) 1,578 Files
\Mesh\ 32.7MB (33.3MB on Disk) 229 Files
\Particle\ 1.20MB (2.28MB on Disk) 500 Files
\PipelineEffect\ 4.88KB (8.00KB on Disk) 1 File
\Sound\ 55.6MB (56.0MB on Disk) 169 Files
\String\ 688KB (692KB on Disk) 1 File
\TextureAnimations\ 3.25KB (96.0KB on Disk) 24 Files
\Textures\ 650MB (651MB on Disk) 277 Files
\Window\ 916KB (1.16MB on Disk) 109 Files
brush.manifest 1.02KB (4.00KB on Disk)
entity.manifest 96.4KB (100KB on Disk)
galaxy.manifest 1.84KB (4.00KB on Disk)
playerPictures.manifest 163bytes (4.00KB on Disk)
playerThemes.manifest 224bytes (4.00KB on Disk)
skybox.manifest 379bytes (4.00KB on Disk)

The on Disk values are for the actual space that they take up on my HDD formatted to Windows 7 using the NTFS file system these may differ but unlikely. If you use Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7.

on Jan 17, 2010

Thanks, you'r right. There is only one file in my texture folder, the starcore-black.dds, so im redownloading. Im going to turn the brain on the next time I gues it will be fine.

Thx again

on Jan 17, 2010

Shew....so many questions!!! I taking this a good think I hope. Though our poor Support budget is shot all to hell.

on Jan 17, 2010

Hai!

 

I have a question!

I didn't see any Extras-folder included in the latest full-download for 0.995 - I was wondering about this since I wanted to have Powerful Pirates mod aswell. Did I overlook something?

 

" Optional Extras (These can be found in the Extras folder):
- Mooster's Dyanmic Movement for Distant Stars
- Ryats Powerful Pirates for Distant Stars "

Only have the "Distant Stars (D) Alpha 0.7" folder - and inside it's the "Meshers", "Textures" etc.

 

Sincerely

on Jan 17, 2010

I am to understand that this new release does nothing for 1.18 Sins?

on Jan 17, 2010

Remember guys, there's a multiplayer Ironclad Online match tonight at 9PM EST!  Hope to see you fellow Distant Stars players there. 

on Jan 17, 2010

Cat Empire
Hai!

 

I have a question!

I didn't see any Extras-folder included in the latest full-download for 0.995 - I was wondering about this since I wanted to have Powerful Pirates mod aswell. Did I overlook something?

 

" Optional Extras (These can be found in the Extras folder):
- Mooster's Dyanmic Movement for Distant Stars
- Ryats Powerful Pirates for Distant Stars "

Only have the "Distant Stars (D) Alpha 0.7" folder - and inside it's the "Meshers", "Textures" etc.

 

Sincerely

 

If you dont have it? Try a redownload. Sometimes it doenst download right.

on Jan 17, 2010

coinich
I am to understand that this new release does nothing for 1.18 Sins?

 

Correct. There wont be any updates to Normal SINS till at LEAST Entrechment 1.0 or even after Diplomacy.

on Jan 17, 2010

-Ue_Carbon

Quoting Cat Empire, reply 2017Hai!

 

I have a question!

I didn't see any Extras-folder included in the latest full-download for 0.995 - I was wondering about this since I wanted to have Powerful Pirates mod aswell. Did I overlook something?

 

" Optional Extras (These can be found in the Extras folder):
- Mooster's Dyanmic Movement for Distant Stars
- Ryats Powerful Pirates for Distant Stars "

Only have the "Distant Stars (D) Alpha 0.7" folder - and inside it's the "Meshers", "Textures" etc.

 

Sincerely
 

If you dont have it? Try a redownload. Sometimes it doenst download right.

 

 

How big is the zip-file? Is 201 mb the correct size? That's what I've downloaded twice now and I can't find any Extras-folder in it.

on Jan 17, 2010

Total Size and File Count: 746MB (754MB on Disk) 2954 Files

\Galaxy\ 2.09MB (2.21MB on Disk) 57 Files
\GameInfo\ 2.18MB (6.92MB on Disk) 1,578 Files
\Mesh\ 32.7MB (33.3MB on Disk) 229 Files
\Particle\ 1.20MB (2.28MB on Disk) 500 Files
\PipelineEffect\ 4.88KB (8.00KB on Disk) 1 File
\Sound\ 55.6MB (56.0MB on Disk) 169 Files
\String\ 688KB (692KB on Disk) 1 File
\TextureAnimations\ 3.25KB (96.0KB on Disk) 24 Files
\Textures\ 650MB (651MB on Disk) 277 Files
\Window\ 916KB (1.16MB on Disk) 109 Files
brush.manifest 1.02KB (4.00KB on Disk)
entity.manifest 96.4KB (100KB on Disk)
galaxy.manifest 1.84KB (4.00KB on Disk)
playerPictures.manifest 163bytes (4.00KB on Disk)
playerThemes.manifest 224bytes (4.00KB on Disk)
skybox.manifest 379bytes (4.00KB on Disk)

on Jan 17, 2010

-Ue_Carbon

Total Size and File Count: 746MB (754MB on Disk) 2954 Files

\Galaxy\ 2.09MB (2.21MB on Disk) 57 Files
\GameInfo\ 2.18MB (6.92MB on Disk) 1,578 Files
\Mesh\ 32.7MB (33.3MB on Disk) 229 Files
\Particle\ 1.20MB (2.28MB on Disk) 500 Files
\PipelineEffect\ 4.88KB (8.00KB on Disk) 1 File
\Sound\ 55.6MB (56.0MB on Disk) 169 Files
\String\ 688KB (692KB on Disk) 1 File
\TextureAnimations\ 3.25KB (96.0KB on Disk) 24 Files
\Textures\ 650MB (651MB on Disk) 277 Files
\Window\ 916KB (1.16MB on Disk) 109 Files
brush.manifest 1.02KB (4.00KB on Disk)
entity.manifest 96.4KB (100KB on Disk)
galaxy.manifest 1.84KB (4.00KB on Disk)
playerPictures.manifest 163bytes (4.00KB on Disk)
playerThemes.manifest 224bytes (4.00KB on Disk)
skybox.manifest 379bytes (4.00KB on Disk)

 

My Distant Stars (D) Alpha 0.7-folder is exactly this size yes - but it does not include any Extras-folder - yours doesn't seem to have it either.. I'm confused now

on Jan 17, 2010

ice27828
Ok, I am going to stop the debate on the order the mods should be used in.

I have downloaded a fresh copy of the mod (I usually patch) but I have put them and tested how the mods with DM and Powerful Pirates should be ordered and here are the result.

It turns out that you can't put the DM in a seperate folder because....drumroll please.....I forgot to put the entity.manifest. I remember why I didn't this because I intented that you replace the files GameInfo folder into the main mod folder. However, this will be altered in 1.00 of the DM.

Hi out there,

i have probs to with DS v0.995. When i run the mod alone it works. When i add DM than it MD if i activate these two mods. ( the load order is correct: first DM then DS ) So i took all the gameinfo files from the DM directory and put them in the DS directory. By activating the mod --- MD. Another way: I took the entity.manifest from DS and put it into DM --- MD. I dont wanna play without DM ( great to see the ships moving and not just line up and shot until all are gone looks always like total war... )

Any help possible ???

Thanks and apo for my lack of english...

Teradoc

EDIT: Activating Powerful Pirates has the same result as DM --- MD ! 

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