Being free, I think they all are.

But to be more specific, I think this one is well worth it. We've pushed the tech tree to almost double its original upgrades, added electronic warfare bombers and heavy gunships. Planets can now be upgraded with ground based defenses, pirates get caps and have whole new starbases, and derelict stations and ships can be captured from graveyards. Then there's the graphic and sound improvements, the rebalancing of caps to be meaner dogs, and the addition of a multitude of planets and planet sizes.

This is very much an enhancement mod, so if you like the game, but want to see more dynamic strategy and a greater rift between the species and their abilities, then it's a good pick. On top of that, it's under continuous development and there are a few mini-mods that can be optionally attached, including Powerful Pirates, Dynamic Movement, and Flagships.

And Stant: I'm not expecting that the vessels will be able to totally defend themselves, but it's like the lasers on a siege frigate, capable of just adding a little to the pool of kick ass. It was just a thought.

Hai!

Thanks for the great mod - I've been playing this on and off for over a year!

I've a question - what should the correct checksum be if I have 0.99 Beta 3 with all the extra mini mods activated? Seems I'm getting mini dumps in the menu quite often, and I suspect I have a faulty checksum.

Sincerely

Cat Empire

Possibly it could be the checksum, but more likely it's the minimods.  They were created for entrenchment and only updated enough to get them to run with diplomacy, not run well and error free, so they throw out an error every once in a while.  If you can play DS without the minimods and not have minidumps, then you're actually just fine.

Okay, here's a list of minimods and checksums.  If these are the numbers you see when only that minimod is enabled, then you'll be fine when you stack them.  I'm not going to list all of the variations of stacking because the checksum changes based on stacking order and I just don't have the patience to do all of that.  But rest assured, if you see these numbers when they are by themselves in the list, you have the currently released version.

DS.99B3 with my scout fix:  73985823
Powerful Pirates:                474703
Dynamic Movement:          233175
Flagships:                        6894883
MSGS v0.3DS compliant:    0   (yes, 0.)

If you use my scout fix, and you've overwrote the existing files as I recommended, then your game checksum does not change.  It will stay at 73985823.  If you run it as a minimod, you're on your own checksum number wise since I didn't make it for that.

Where to get these wonderful toys?  Go to these places:
Powerful Pirates (included)
Dynamic Movement (included)
Flagships
MSGS v0.3 (DS Compliant)
Scout Mine Detection Fix

Any other request, known numbers, let me know and I can add them here so that there's one consolidated place for them all.

Hai again!

Thanks a lot for the help Stant123! Much appreciated!

My checksum is different since I don't have Flagships and that MSGS thingy. What are those two anyway? In the links you provided there was no information - only download-sources. I switched my mods a bit and now the checksum starts at 7xxxx~ - before that it was 29xxx~ - and no minidumps so far!

Sincerely

Cat Empire

Those checksum numbers are for if you're looking at those minimods enabled all by themselves (without hitting the apply button that makes sins actually try to run them).  If you compare each of your minimods enabled by themselves to the numbers I have and they match, then we both have undamaged release versions.

If I was listing stacked numbers like Dynamic Movement on top, with Powerful Pirates below that and DS below that, I'd have a number like 223140050.

If I reversed Powerful Pirate and Dynamic movement so their order on the list is different, the checksum would be 222898522.

For this reason, I did not write down the checksums with the mods stacked because I would have to do it for all of them in every possible order and combination of minimods on and off and that's just too much work to do when I'm busy updating another mod and I can give you the base checksums instead so you can verify that you have the same numbers and put them in the order you like having.

BTW, order of mods are important.  The game takes the files from the top mod and uses those, followed by any extra files from the next mod in the list, followed by any extra files from the 3rd mod in the list, and then from the fourth, then from the fifth, and so on until there are no more mods in the list at which point it fills in all of the remaining files from the core game.  Why is this information important?  Because if your list looks like this:
Distant Stars (D) 0.99 B3
Powerful Pirates
Dynamic Movement
Or really any set up with Distant Stars on top, then your game is not using any of the files in the minimods.

As for the other minimods:

My scout fix is just a version of the scouts mine detect ability where the actual buff doing the mine dephasing is pushed out a little bit beyond the range listed by the ability so that scouts actually dephase the mines properly without the need for the player to micromanage them.  If you've noticed, when you click on the decloack mines ability on the scout they will drive up to their maximum range and fire off the ability and the mine won't appear.  This fixes that.  Note, it was designed for DS 0.99 B2, so the buff range is actually a lot higher then the ability range, but the results are still the same so who cares, right?

The Flagships is a minimod Ryat is working on that adds another capital ship to the game.  A capital ship who's abilities are designed around helping the entire fleet out rather then just itself or a ship next to it.  It's also much stronger then other capital ships and can take on groups of them and win, just as a capital ship can take on groups of cruisers/frigates and win.  It's a fun little minimod.

MSGS v0.3DS compliant is an add on provided by Boshimi.  It removes the spiral graphics that you see when looking at your galaxy zoomed all of the way out.  His earlier work is included with DS, but recent updates to the core game has broken that work.  So he made an updated set of files.  This will be included in future updates of DS, it just didn't get included in the most recent update.  So if you want to maintain the non spiral galaxy look that older Versions of DS had, then you need this.

Cat,

Multiple Stars Graphics Mod (MSGM) is just as Stant has stated. I also have a version available for Vanilla Sins.

CheckSUM of 0 is also correct.

Here is the forum thread for the Multiple Stars Graphics Mod.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/348205

Hello all,

Just wanted to ask if there's something like the Stars Mod 2.4 will be added into DS in the near future. Currently I added Stars 2.4 into DS myself, but lost the added 16 planets. The extra detail in the planets was worth it, but still would like to see the realistic planets for the DS/Sins Plus Mods. Also if anyone esle plans to do this, you will have to copy and replace the files from Stars 2.4 over the ones in DS .099 B3. Just DO NOT copy the files in the "Galaxy" folder from Stars 2.4; the Galaxy files in DS are better the the ones in Stars 2.4. Other than that Stars 2.4 does add great visual effects to DS 0.99, but you will be stuck with the basic planet types.

It kind of occurred to me that the mines are huge if you think about it. I mean sure, space mines and all, but these things are about the size of an orbiting satellite ;  I mean look at the cars and stuff going between planetary elevators then compare them to a space mine..... at most I could agree with about 50% smaller given DS's addition to the destructiveness(oh homing mines how I love the) but still, mines are by nature hard to see hidden or not so hidden. Did anyone think about reducing the overall model's size/tri count/ and texture size? I don't think anyone would complain, most we ever see is the icon anyway unless we zoom in

Also, as far as the icons go,would it be possible to change the icon to something like a reeeeally small dot or would it matter in the long run?

Meh, ok graphic is just not enough, lol...going back to the orginal DS...HAHA!!

Random side note for Dynamic movement: Ok, so I mentioned this before but I think other people might like to know the how to with this. In dynamic movement, there are some EXTREMELY IRRITATING THINGS such as turret's turning speed and the scouts. Nothing is inherently wrong with the scouts besides when you use them for sweeping mines......they fly into them as they fire causing a bit of a mess.

How to fix it yourself: go into the game info folder inside your Dynamic Movements mod and delete the files named

(RACE)TURRET_(I forget what went here).entity   there are 3 of those and they're usually at the bottom unless you re-sorted your files by name, in which case, happy hunting.

second is the scouts, you CAN delete these, but for "just so nothing breaks" purposes copy the (race)scout.entity files from the DS main mod folder and replace the files. this makes them move normally and breaks nothing ^^

and that's how I fixed my Dynamic Movement mod, you can do the same for every ship you want to "sit still" using the transplant method of the scout (like repair and other support ships for instance)

Someone mention disguising trade ships up there?  Well, I know THAT can't be done, but how about giving them an ability(If they can have abilities) like the vasari's scramble bombers or the Sova's missile platform?  One squad pops out of the cargo hold and BLAM!  not game breaking, but annoying to say the least.  Although I have my suspisions that this may not be possible...

-Twilight Storm

EDIT:  Alternateively, is it possible to set up the disguised ship in question to become Invulnerable while it is disguising itself?

...

wait...trade ships aren't invulnerable...hmm...I'll have to think on this...I know there's a way to trick the computer into doing what I want...I just haven't thought of it yet...

I actually suggested trade and refinery ship decoys some time back.  It will have to be done with an ability and I haven't tried to see if it needs to be on the ship or module or looked for what would work and not.

I'd suggest a trigger-able ability that stops the ship dead in the water for some time when used.

Sounds like time for someone to create a test of concept mini mod addon.

Just saying.

And btw, everyone start poking Boss man. The ModDB page need love, we need another compiled update...again just saying....and...well, im having issues with abandonment.

Just saying.

I will start poking him once I finish the pirates. Well standard pirates is finished, I just want to clean up the powerful pirates a little more.

Btw, I feel sorry for the poor Free Traders...the Advent didnt like them...I tried..so hard...to...save...them....

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!