[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 305)

4561

LimeyMan

on Mar 28, 2011

The gods of Distant Stars have tidy minds. Why put our planets in circlular orbits round stars when they can be in rows? Far more logical.

4562

Draakjacht

on Mar 28, 2011

It looks like it's actually activating the row of alpha channels used in the template. So you're seeing a reference photo used for the game.

4563

Stant123

on Mar 28, 2011

I wonder if cat's vid card doesn't like the DDS format... Will have to convert some textures back to TGA to see if that fixes things...

blobness

reply 4559

Does the Hemisphere thing happen to other planets on your install, Cat? Cuz near as I can tell it's just an annoying graphical glitch with DS. Doesn't happen in Stock Sins either.

Have you downloaded my fixes I posted about a month ago? https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/335474/page/167/#2890479 In your case, just pull out the textures for the Desert planet out of there and put them in your texture folder and see if that fixes anything. If it doesn't, I'll try to figure something else out.

OriLord

reply 4557

Isn't there any DS version compatible with vanila Sins 1.9 ?

Yes, there are a few versions. None of them are posted.

OriLord

reply 4557

I am saying this because I cant stand mines,because I dont know how to counter them late game except sending my 200 unit fleet across them to sweep them and as a result have only 50 left.

Ever heard of a nifty little inexpensive unit called a scout? They reveal mines. Jump a couple ahead of your 200 ship fleet and let them expose the mines. Then as your fleet jumps in and moves across the mine field, they'll shoot the mines and destroy them before they explode. You can also look at your jump path and move to a different part of your current gravity well and change your jump angle so you don't land right on top of the mines. Basically, mines are incredibly easy to counter and most people only use them to hold off AI's who aren't smart enough to counter a mine field.

OriLord

reply 4557

Also,there are no bugs like advent drone host building mines instead of craft or AI suiciding to starbases,.I have had enough of this.

Don't get mad in this thread about that. Until Stardock and Ironclad change the engine and allow for modders to write better scripts for the AI we're all stuck with what we're given and advent building mines instead of strike craft and AI's challenging starbases instead of just going around them aren't issues we're able to fix.

4564

blobness

on Mar 28, 2011

Stant123

reply 4563

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/335474/page/167/#2890479 In your case, just pull out the textures for the Desert planet out of there and put them in your texture folder and see if that fixes anything. If it doesn't, I'll try to figure something else out.

I just tried this, and simply putting the Desert planet textures in the Textures folder had no effect. Upon closer inspection, all the planet files save for Ice have been renamed to planets from around our Solar system. I tried getting rid of all the planet textures that logically could have been a desert world, but No go. Thanks for the help though.

4565

Lonestar123

on Mar 29, 2011

Ryat

reply 4555

Test Results.

Will do a stat analysis after work.

this doesn't seem to be with antimatter and weapon upgrades done right? cause the damage looks a bit low and so does the antimatter stores.

4566

Ryat

on Mar 29, 2011

Lonestar123

reply 4565

this doesn't seem to be with antimatter and weapon upgrades done right? cause the damage looks a bit low and so does the antimatter stores.

No, that was never an issue you brought up, though TBH Advent get far better weapon tech upgrades the TEC.

Advent:
Lasers - 60% - Damage
Beams - 60% - Damage + 30% Range
Plasma - 60% - Damage + 30% Cool Down

TEC
Lasers - 40% Damage
Beams - 40% Damage
AutoCannons - 60% Damage
Missile - 60% Damage + 30% Range

AntiMatter upgrades are fairly balanced. Advent get a 60%/60% increase as opposed to TEC which gets a 40%/40% increase but TEC gets increases in recharge from cultural effects.

4567

Ryat

on Mar 29, 2011

Okay I have two points

First, the second round of the Flagship mod is ready

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dx5j6cjjvc2d6nf/Flagship.zip

Mostly internal changes (cooldowns, and an Ultimate at its appropriate level) so you won't see many changes.
The checksum should read 148910398

Second, spoke to Nacey about the planet textures and as he also has an ATI graphics card he thinks he knows the fix.

Go to here

http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/directx.html

download and install.

Hopefully this will fix the problem for you all. And yes this includes those that have Win7. Nacey says it is the biggest culprit.

4568

blobness

on Mar 29, 2011

Just tried the DX fix. Still no joy. Could you please let us know which of the files in the textures folder applies to the Desert Planets?

4569

Nacey

on Mar 29, 2011

blobness

reply 4568

Just tried the DX fix. Still no joy. Could you please let us know which of the files in the textures folder applies to the Desert Planets?

That's a shame it didn't fix it. I know this is a stupid question here but you did run the dxsetup.exe file within the folder that file extracts didnt you? (You may also need to restart too) Sorry if that seems insulting just need to double check!

I've uploaded .tga versions of the files here for you to download and use (just delete the other versions of the files with the same name from the Textures folder.

http://distantstars.mmobase.com/other/Icons_planets.tga

http://distantstars.mmobase.com/other/Icons_planetsPictures.tga

http://distantstars.mmobase.com/other/Icons_planetsSmall.tga

Simplest fix for now until something more permanent comes about!

4570

blobness

on Mar 29, 2011

Yeah, I ran setup, but neglected a reboot. Lemme try that now. Either way, thanks for the new files Nacey, if all else fails. Like I said before, the mod runs fine aside from that one little issue with the desert worlds.

EDIT: Yeah, I can confirm that, for me at least, the DX fix did nothing. Oh well, Stock Planets it is then.

SECOND EDIT : Okay, now this is getting weird. The .tga Files had no effect either. I'm assuming I was supposed to remove the .dds Files with the same names? Because after doing so, and installing the .tga files, the planets still look exactly the same, including the huge black poles on the Desert Planets. I'm assuming I goofed somewhere?

Wait, to clarify - those files were for Icons, and the issue we're discussing here is the actual texture of the Desert Planets? Because if that was simply an Icon fix for CatInALawnMower, then I'm kinda wasting forum space.

4571

Draakjacht

on Mar 29, 2011

I think there was miscommunicae on the image fix, yes. RYAT!

4572

Ryat

on Mar 29, 2011

Sigh and Nacey just went to bed. Damn English Time Zone.

@blobness - Attempt a full redownload and work from there is all I can give. Sorry

4573

blobness

on Mar 29, 2011

Already attempted a few full redownloads and reinstalls. It isn't terribly annoying, and nothing else ever goes wrong, but I figured you guys would want to know.. If I had the time I'd just go through and find whichever texture files were associated with desert planets via trial and error, then just use the stock desert textures but I'm kinda supposed to be working right now.

Since it was brought up before, yes, I am on an ATI card, a 5570 to be exact.

BTW the Flagship mod is awesome, I had no idea such a thing existed.

4574

Ryat

on Mar 29, 2011

Its still in the development stage.

4575

Derpy_Hooves

on Mar 29, 2011

Wait...what fixes are those links above for?

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