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 290)
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on Mar 11, 2011

@bmw528eta: Thanks, was a bit blind ...

 

@G_Bison: Very sweet, to bad that we cant use real atmospheres on Planets (anyone see the Infinity Tech Demo? ).

Maybe some Yellow Clouds, idk.

on Mar 11, 2011

It's not exactly what I was thinking, but it's really pretty, so all is well. More detailed than I was expecting too. I dunno if you want to give it an atmosphere. If it's going to get extra resource boosts, then it could have low low population to cut on taxation. Just a thought.

on Mar 11, 2011

Yelow ugly clouds!!!

on Mar 11, 2011

Can you guys post check sum to make sure we are playing all the same versions

on Mar 11, 2011

does this work with the new hotfix wich made a  new mods folder for 1.19f version of beta?

Will the fix for distant stars for 4th beta work with this one?

on Mar 11, 2011

Stant123
-=CRASH FIXED=-

 

Okay.  Here's the fixed files that makes DS 0.99 B1 work with Diplo Beta patch 4.

http://sites.google.com/site/steelers086/gamefiles/PlayerEntity.rar

Put them in your entity folder, overwriting what's already there.

 

Had to add in the line     GameEventSound:QuestEnded ""   in the gameEventData section for all 4 players.

 

 

Enjoy the wonderful world of DS.

 

AWESOME!  THX!

on Mar 11, 2011

palidins
does this work with the new hotfix wich made a  new mods folder for 1.19f version of beta?

Will the fix for distant stars for 4th beta work with this one?

Works for me!

on Mar 11, 2011

With over 174 pages of posts.... 

 

Is this compatable with the betas for diplomacy or waiting to see what happens with the finished results? Ok, post that it IS while I'm writing all this! LOL!

 

Also, I didn't see this on the 'incorporated' list of mods but was wondering if it or something similar was added.  The Dynamic Battle System Mod.  The last I saw it worked on was Beta v0.9.

 

For those never hearing about it, this is the Maker of the Mod's discription:


     This mod enables fighter physics and behavior for larger ships, enabling ships handling characteristics to come into play beside their defense/attack values. Tactics such as tactical retreat, regrouping, fire groups, battle formations etc. now have a meaning as you want to prepare your fleet for the upcoming chaos of battle which quickly rages out of control. Superior numbers no longer guarantee victory as the large random factor of ships dogfighting comes into play. Ship roles have been further separated, with attack classes now playing the pivotal role in any fleet composition and support and fire support classes taking the back seat, as they should.

With this mod in and functioning as it should, I found the game found a WHOLE new dimension! Ships didn't just sit and fire at each other, they moved for better tactical positions and more damaging strikes while in positions where they were not sustaining as much damage. If they were taking a pounding, they would try to get the heck out of there and to get behind their opponent (s) or at least minimize firing solutions against them!

Going into the Pirate Den became easier, while at the same time MUCH more challenging depending on what they had and scouting systems had a much greater need before you found yourself out flanked and out fought. You had to decide if they had backups that could out do your fleets not only with firepower but class vs. class! A heavy cruiser could be wiped out by a frigget because it could out manuver and out run the larger and slower opponent unless you could hit the frigget fast and hard before the frigget could respond! A heavy cruiser with a few light support friggets could take down larger pray or do heavy damage as the heavy cruiser would pound the defense stations while the friggets dealt with fighters and other fast moving friggets!   The game actually became more relevent to realistic modern combat insted of the 1700's version of line up and load your muskets while we take turns firing at each other... It wasn't simply who had more guns and heavier armor with this mod.

 

Unfortunatly, as I said, last thing I saw was Beta v0.9 was released. Beyond that, I haven't seen it update. I think it died.  I was able to make a working 'patch' that alowed me to make a working version for Diplomacy. (hence my knowing how it handles!) Though after my last "oops" and the surgery of a new hard drive and full reinstall... i no longer have the working version at pressent. (and looking for something like it or better!)

Additional thought is if it IS dead and abandoned and I do make an edited version that works with the final version of Diplomacy, would it interfear with THIS mod if both are installed? (as this one looks WAY Awesome in how it effects the game)

Here is the thread on it: Dynamic Battle System

Last post was on December 15, 2010 6:24:25 AM  Roughly 3 months ago. (outside my own post)

I shot

 

Grey

 

P.S. Have to love a company that still supports a game and makes improvements and additional things for it even thought the game has been around for over 3 years! (we won't bash other game abandoners *Micro shaft* on this site however)

I just wish they would finally "FIX" the Forge Tools to support Diplomacy! I have faith in them and that they will EVENTUALLY considering there IS a public fix for it out there!

on Mar 11, 2011

Dynamic Battle System had to be modified to fit with Distant Stars. All but one of the modders don't like DBS. Mooster(ice2828) is the one that liked it and initiated the mod. He doesn't maintain it though.

on Mar 11, 2011

There are a few issues with it that cause problems unfortunately, path finding being one of the more prevelent and all issues related to it.

on Mar 11, 2011

It's not that I don't like the DBS, but I find that certain ship classes get shafted using it. LRMs are suppose to be bombarders, as are Marzas. Sovas I would normally say should stay on the rear, but they handle themselves well for carriers. So, I don't make any real use of it.

on Mar 12, 2011

But I dislike how the ships all bunch up and sit there firing. You'd expect at least the frigate to weave in and out of the bigger ships.

on Mar 12, 2011

The Update Test doesnt work now and some Planets still have the Texture Issue (i will look later wich exactly).

 

Edit: The Problem with the Dynamic Movement is that they dont fly in Formations, if you fly with very big Fleets (and you do it in DS) it will look like a big pool with drunken Ants. The standing Formation with the "Shoot the fuck out of them" Method looks better imo.

on Mar 12, 2011

It's even funnier watching DBS if you put the game on 2x or higher speeds... Like watching insects around a bug zapper light.

on Mar 12, 2011

I got lost, what is DBS?

 

Edit:  Nevermind, I found it 

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