[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 241)

3601

Stant123

on Aug 24, 2010

Well, "our" planets are just the planets from the celestial bodies mod and sins plus mod, with some minor tweaks here and there. So the easiest way would probably just to get those mods and incorporate them into your mod like DS does.

That disclaimer aside, straight porting them over to another mod requires a fair amount of work.

First, you need all of the entity files for every planet, (referred to as objects from here on out since there are moons and other things as well as just planets).

Second, you need all of the mesh files for every object you're porting over.

Third, you need all of the abilities each entity refers to.

Fourth, you need every buff every ability refers to.

Fifth, you need every bonus that the objects can produce.

Sixth, you need the new picture sets for the buffs and bonuses.

Seventh, you need to update the galaxysceneriodef file with all of the new objects, and bonuses in their proper sections.

Eighth, you need to update the English string file with all of the proper wording.

Ninth, you need to add in references to all of the associated window files for the icons and hud, to show the images when you're zoomed out.

Tenth, you either need to modify each entity to allow for colonization based off of current research, or add in new research to be able to colonize. Adding in research of course, means more work similar to sixth, seventh, and eighth, but also with the addition of adjusting the window files for the research so that it's a possibility and has a location to show up in, as well as adjusting the player files to make that research an available possibility.

At any rate, try it with one object first, let's just say forest planet, and copy everything over. Run the Dev.exe and get into a game and find the planet, zoom all the way in, out, colonize it, do all of the upgrades, etc... Take note of the errors that pop up. Fix those errors and run the Dev.exe again. Once you get to a clean running version, you'll have a pretty good idea of every little thing you have to do for each object you port over.

Another Disclaimer, the planet abilities were made by Carbon, so before you get crazy with those, bug him repeatedly for permission to steal them, or just delete the reference to them in the object's entity file and it's less abilities and buffs to copy over. There's probably a step or two that I'm missing, but you'll figure it out soon enough.

3602

Haiyooo

on Aug 26, 2010

Hey DS team!

Wonderful mod first off, secondly may I use your Skybox(s) for my EvE-Online mod?

Please PM with approval so I can keep tabs for my thanks list

3603

Baleurion

on Aug 26, 2010

I cant believe this mod is STILL going strong
Just reinstalled the game again (for the 5th time), and the first thing i always do is go to the forums to dl this very mod

3604

BadTune

on Aug 26, 2010

Hey now, DS is like part of the main game at this point, you almost have to dl it when you get it, these guys are gonna be goin strong till the game itself ends, and that most likely aint gonna happen with this community

BadTune~ I'll bring the nachos it you bring the fireworks~

3605

lbgsloan

on Aug 27, 2010

BadTune

reply 3604

I have nothing but respect for the DS team as this mod is the ONLY reason I even look at Sins anymore. I still can't believe Ironclad didn't think to add some of these improvements in either of the official expansions. New planets kind of seemed like a no-brainer addition, but then Diplomacy in general smacked of laziness all-around. I look forward to seeing what changes and features the new DS version will bring.

3606

doberman211

on Aug 27, 2010

i think this is an exelent idea. ive been trying to combine the Sins Plus and CB mods for a while now. good job! just wondering, is this compatible with v1.19?

3607

Ryat

on Aug 27, 2010

doberman211

reply 3606

i think this is an exelent idea. ive been trying to combine the Sins Plus and CB mods for a while now. good job! just wondering, is this compatible with v1.19?

not quite yet

3608

doberman211

on Aug 27, 2010

oh. well no matter. i tried harpo's mod updater but that was bogus. im reinstalling with v1.18. solves SO many problems. the beauty of torrents.

3609

Stant123

on Aug 28, 2010

Harpo doesn't make crap stuff, and the updater works great. You just have to get into the PipelineEffects folder and delete the files GS_planet, GS_ship, GS_shipbuilding, and GS_shipphasedout... (Maybe a new feature of the updater would be to look for those files and remove them during the update, Harpo?) The reason is the game doesn't like older versions of those files being used on newer versions of the game. There are slight differences, and it screws everything up if the changes aren't made... It's easier to just delete them. You can always run the dev exe to see what error comes up and busy yourself fixing it... Or you could just wait a little bit longer and play with an official release. Reinstalling is bogus when the solution is far easier. ;Þ

3610

Ryat

on Aug 28, 2010

agree with Stant123, Harpo is an upstanding fellow modder who's tools have come in very handy, please don't knock him

3611

harpo99999

on Aug 28, 2010

stant, the current version of the mod updater DOES remove the GS_planet, GS_asteroid, GS_ship, GS_shipbuilding & GS_shipphasedout files from mods that it updates and has done since the problem popped up it's invisible head back in 1.18/e10.4/d1.00.

the problem that doberman is complaining about is the convertdata's failing to convert, which I have no control over as I use the same convertdata's as everybody else as they ALL come from ironclad games, I even tried everything I could to minimise the problem by supplying the convertdata's from each version as the later convertdata's tend to fail to convert files that were binned by older versions, but it is beyond even MY programming ability to fix utilities that I did not write.

harpo

3612

Stant123

on Aug 28, 2010

Hmm, odd, your tools have never remove them for me... Even the newest. Oh well, no big deal. I know to always run the dev exe on the first run to see what errors there are and fix them.

Maybe my copies of DS have separation anxiety and don't want to be away from those files? =]

3613

abr4

on Aug 29, 2010

How is the AI doing with this mod? Last time I played (2 years ago or so) I remember the AI being really weak because it couldn't cope with the longer research times.

3614

Ryat

on Aug 29, 2010

does just fine now

in fact with vicious (which gets a kick in research) its down right scary sometimes

3615

abr4

on Aug 29, 2010

Very nice, thanks for the info. Now all I hope is that my laptop is able to handle sins, last time I played was on a better rig, but it's broken atm ^^

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