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 331)
562 PagesFirst 329 330 331 332 333  Last
on Apr 30, 2011

"Huh, did I miss something?"

on Apr 30, 2011

Always got a picture handy haven't you Draak?

on Apr 30, 2011

I had an idea about asteroids and movement but I'm not sure how it'd work. Ok so, was watching my fleet pass by one of those empty asteroid belts with 4 of those capture-able mines in it and yep, they smack into the rocks, grinding pace as it rose up to go around it vertically, then my idea. Why not leave the mesh, texture and al that where it is, but somehow overlay and invisible object over them that spreads out a little ways and rises up to the asteroid like a ramp for top and bottom, something like sticking a pair of invisible music symbols over it so the incline rises from a ways out.. I'm not sure anyone's gonna understand what I'm getting at @_@

on Apr 30, 2011

You want them to basically ramp jump over the object.  It won't happen as the game drives everything on a level plane until they hit something and then they try to go around it, if they can't go around it then they decide to go up.  If they can't go around or up, then they go down.  Ramping an asteroid wouldn't change that process.

 

Edit:  A better option for you is while your fleet is in transit, set them to loose fleet cohesion in their tactics management section...  That way they'll spread out more and give more room to each other to move around stuff rather then just pile up behind one another.  It's not perfect, but it does help.

on Apr 30, 2011

hmm, in that case how about putting something that's not as big, vertically around the asteroid and be something they could hit at separate levels like steps, it sounds sloppy but you think it could work? Or we could make the asteroids have 0 collision value =D lol they could fly through them   and as far as the fleets go..I rarely use the "create flee" options, I just use the selection keys 1-9 for ships lol. long as they jump to the same gravity well together I'm fine with it where as in a fleet it's left half my fleet behind when jumping, yes I had them on "move together" lol

on May 01, 2011

-Ue_Carbon
Your on it alot yes. But, your about it. I try to get on as much as possible. I know a few others jump on and off randomly but its not enought to justify the cost for me. I can gladly renew it if someone uses it. I sadly have been working alot, so not been on it too long. If Im on recently its b/c Ive been afk.

Anyhow, Guess I will ponder on if to keep it.

 

I probably should get on it more, huh?

 

Course I would have to get some free time first

 

 

 

And btw, I am having a royal hell of a time trying to get this flagship into the game.  Someone else want it?  Grrrrr.....

on May 01, 2011

pass it to me if you like SivCorp. Still have my eMail?

on May 01, 2011

I have been playing DS for some time now and i absolutely love the deeper gameplay it provides. But i have a problem as my system is lower end. My love of this game is purely gameplay orientated, the extra research levels, the new planet types and so on. I've noticed this mod carries graphic enhancing mini-mods built in. I believe these effects contribute vastly to slowing the game to a snails pace mid game. But i don't want to turn off the mod as i love it so much.

Is there a way in which i could disable the enhances graphics and particle effects without actually affecting gameplay?

Btw my knowledge of modding and the like is basic to say the least. 

I would really appreciate any help toward this.

 

on May 01, 2011

You could delete the particle folder.

You could turn the graphics down to their lowest settings.

You could get the diplomacy 1.2 update.

You could unpin as much as possible from the Empire Tree.

(There's probably some other things out there I can't think of at the moment.)

All three should help.  At some point the game makes even the best of systems slow to a crawl, so just because you're low end and experiencing super fun lagginess, it isn't necessarily a problem with your system.  Faster RAM speeds and a single core 3.6 GHZ processor will outperform mediocre RAM speeds with a 1.4GHZ quad core.  That's just how the game engine cookie crumbles.

on May 02, 2011

myfist0
pass it to me if you like SivCorp. Still have my eMail?

 

I think so, go ahead and PM me with it again, just in case.

 

What format should I save it in?  And how do you want me to organize the textures?  I'm using 4 maps of existing caps.... Not sure what to do with them for importing.....

on May 02, 2011

PMed you SIV 

on May 02, 2011

Thanks for your reply Stant123 i checked my options and i'd forgotton to turn the graphics down . Feel a bit silly really.

On another note, i enabled DS 0.99 B2 and the checksum matches, ok. I enable powerful pirates and move it above DS and the checksum changes to 147616975. If i enable it anyway, a single player game dumps after about half an hour. So i assume im not enabling the extras correctly. 

I've tried enabling DS extras 0.99 B2 and if its below the main DS mod then the checksum matches, but if i put it above the mod then it changes again. Now ive read through this thread from roughly the page where the B2 came out and i think the general consensus is you put the mini mods above the main mod.

In the meantime DS will do, but i love the powerful pirates.

Also reading through the posts i noticed a flagship mini mod, i tried to download it because it looks so cool, but  it says file doesnt exist.

And i see people talking about something called msgm or similar at least, ive tried to locate it on the mods section, but i have know idea what it stands for or what it does.

I know there are a lot of little things here , Its because ive been reading throught the treads and its all in my head now

 

on May 02, 2011

MSGM stands for Multiple Stars Graphics Mod as it's listed in the OP.

 

Here is the link:

 

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/348205

 

Enjoy!

on May 02, 2011

Stant123
Also the manifest files.  The galaxyscenariodef file is really the only one you need to screw with.  Just delete all of the references to dwarf and moons reducing the counts of those sections accordingly.  This is no small task.  It's easy to do, but it's very time consuming and if you mess up the count, then you screw up the game.  Everything else, entities and meshes can be left alone and you won't have to mess with the manifest files either.

Ugh, no luck and you was right....too time consuming and game crashed to mini dump everytime. Guess I got too carried away trying to removed Asteriods Betls, SpaceJunk, Shiyard, and NoAtmosphere planets as well. Hoping in the next coming mods someone will remove the dwarft planets at least.

Link to edit Galaxyscenariodef file: http://www.fileserve.com/file/DMDTRze

 

on May 02, 2011

myfist0
PMed you SIV 

 

It has been sent, Thanks again myfist0!   I just don't have the time to try and figure all this out right now. 

 

Let me know how it goes, I am wanting to learn it.....

562 PagesFirst 329 330 331 332 333  Last