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 348)
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on May 29, 2011

I can only assume the reason is because large quantities of beer and multiple cheap hookers in the same room can result in a fun and memorable experience for all, VD's be damned.

on May 29, 2011

Yeah, them passing a pap smear is higher on my priority list.

on May 29, 2011

Hi,

I've been trying to play DS for Diplomacy 1.21, and whenever I start a new game, planet/star icons are really distorted. For instance, an Ancient Citadel shows up as a distorted Uranus icon on the map when I zoom out of the gravity well, and a white star's icon is an image of nine desert planet icons in a 3x3 grouping. Is this possibly due to using DS with the newest update to Diplomacy? I've tried redownloading a new copy of DS and running, but I still have the problem :/

 

on May 29, 2011

To above: I think this was also discussed earlier, something to do with broken icon and textures. I personally get Desert Planets with great big oil slicks at the poles. Looks like some kind of ecological disaster, or like they've removed the sand or something (somehow). I like it personally.

Stant123
A patch was already made and handed over to the officials to go through and review... Though if you bribe me with beer and lots of cheap hookers, I could slip you a copy if it'll get you to write some lore.

You'll never guess the reason why both my Thenos and marines arcs are stalled.

However, I am rebooting and retconning my -UE_ GB strikeforce arc, where exams allow.

on May 29, 2011

Hi,

I've been trying to play DS for Diplomacy 1.21, and whenever I start a new game, planet/star icons are really distorted. For instance, an Ancient Citadel shows up as a distorted Uranus icon on the map when I zoom out of the gravity well, and a white star's icon is an image of nine desert planet icons in a 3x3 grouping. Is this possibly due to using DS with the newest update to Diplomacy? I've tried redownloading a new copy of DS and running, but I still have the problem :/

 

No, it's not because of the update it's because of a minimod included with DS.  The discussion before was about the version of Multiple Stars Graphics Mod that is included being out of date as of the Sins Diplomacy 1.20 update.  boshimi336 uploaded a new version here: http://www.mediafire.com/?c31g4muiyl3un51  Download it and run it as a mod on top of DS.

 

Oatesy03
To above: I think this was also discussed earlier, something to do with broken icon and textures. I personally get Desert Planets with great big oil slicks at the poles. Looks like some kind of ecological disaster, or like they've removed the sand or something (somehow). I like it personally.

The easiest way to fix that is to download my fix I posted a long while back.

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

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

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

 

Oatesy03

You'll never guess the reason why both my Thenos and marines arcs are stalled.

However, I am rebooting and retconning my -UE_ GB strikeforce arc, where exams allow.

It's either me, or gladiators...  I'm going with gladiators though since I released Thenos from his contract.

on May 29, 2011

If running the new MSGM does not solve the problem please post here as it means I may have to update my mini-mod yet again.

 

Stant, you had mentioned that there were other options for Forge that did not make it into the Galaxy Scenario Def file? If they are going to be in the next patch could I get an advanced copy of that file as you have it to play with?

on May 29, 2011

Just curious, will these fixes (the updates to the mini mods and such) be included in the next update?

on May 29, 2011

DavidFalcon
Just curious, will these fixes (the updates to the mini mods and such) be included in the next update?

I sent Nacey the info on Friday. I'll see if I can spur him on as there are more problems developing then I thought.

on May 29, 2011

Oatesy03
I personally get Desert Planets with great big oil slicks at the poles. Looks like some kind of ecological disaster, or like they've removed the sand or something (somehow). I like it personally.

 

If for whatever reason you wanted to get rid of that Oatesy, and Stants texture fixes dont work (they didnt for me) simply delete the mesh file for the Desert planets in the DS folder. It removes the black boxes with no loss of texture quality.

on May 29, 2011

Hi again,

I'm still having troubles with the icons, even with the new mini-mod, plus now I'm getting the black oil slick described by a previous poster :/

on May 29, 2011

boshimi336
Stant, you had mentioned that there were other options for Forge that did not make it into the Galaxy Scenario Def file? If they are going to be in the next patch could I get an advanced copy of that file as you have it to play with?

They are not, I only made changes based on the changes made for 1.21 and the no green star change we talked about here just recently, and then passed it along.  And no, no advanced copy, I would never pass one out since my changes are unofficial and not necessarily going to be included.  It was a joke for Oatesy, hence me asking for lots of beer and several cheap hookers in exchange...  Something I know would never be given to me, thus I will not be giving anything over either...  Anyway...

blobness
simply delete the mesh file for the Desert planets in the DS folder.

That will only work if it's only the original planet meshes causing the problems, and as the mod uses the proto planet version of the meshes for the originals to get the size differences, it may not do the job.  Though I did forget to include an important link in the above post by me with the textures, which was the associated meshes for both the originals and the proto planets.  I've added the link to it now so should one get all three downloads and incorporate them, they should be good.  I don't have any issues with any of the planets, so I'm fairly certain as long as someone doesn't get a bad download, it will be fixed on their end too.  That is, of course, if they're having problems currently and can't wait for the next full release to be available.

Hi again,

I'm still having troubles with the icons, even with the new mini-mod, plus now I'm getting the black oil slick described by a previous poster :/

Does turning off MSGM running above it at least fix the planet issue and revert you back to your original icon only problem?

on May 29, 2011

Stant123


That will only work if it's only the original planet meshes causing the problems, and as the mod uses the proto planet version of the meshes for the originals to get the size differences, it may not do the job.  

 

I only stated it as an option because it fixed this exact issue for me and a few others, and the mesh was confirmed by one of the team members as the source if the issue after we had found the solution. You also linked me those same files back when I was having this problem, and as I stated before they did not fix it, so in the event the same was true for Oatesy I gave him the other solution.

on May 29, 2011

Now that I think of it, I get the oil-like things at both poles too.  (Except they're always shaped like pac-man...I keep thinking they're gonna jump off the surface and start devouring my planets....)

I can live with the issue, though, it kinda resembles an eclipse-like event when I think of it.  (And I only remember seeing it on desert worlds that have the Moon or Moons planet discovery on them, don't know if that's important or just coincidence...)

-Twilight Storm

on May 29, 2011

It happened on all Desert worlds when I had it. It annoyed me more than most, I suppose.

on May 29, 2011

TBH it would have bothered me once, but I don't go planet-gazing anymore. I'm at the point where I don't have time to just gaze at the urban planet's lights turning on and off as it rotates.

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