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 371)
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on Jul 20, 2011

As promised, here's the new release...

0.99 B4 (Beta Four) Release:
Full Download (currently uploading, should be done within an hour 2300 hours BST UTC+0100):
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/diplomacy/Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B4_[73602087].7z

Patch:
http://distantstars.mmobase.com/diplomacy/Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B4_Patch_[73602087].7z

If you have issues matching the checksum please just re-download the full version and use that. Carbon has mentioned he has had issues matching the same checksum and that may be due to various local versions of mine being updated without ever being released publically.

Anyhow, enjoy the patch more updates are to come in the near future

on Jul 20, 2011

Huzzah!!!!

 

As Nacey said, I couldnt get the checksum to match via patch yet. I assume there is a file or two that was removed sometime during the tweaking by Nacey.

 

 I suggest you just use the Full download till the crew figures it out.

on Jul 20, 2011

Awesome, downloading now!

on Jul 20, 2011

I've noticed that in several of the DS maps (one was Black-5 I think) that there is either no connecting lines to the stars/other planets so you are stuck in a two planet gravity well and in the one I think is called Ancient Gifts, even though I have the drive that allows wormhole travel from the start, it doesn't appear ships can actually travel through them.  On the the Medium Map selection screen, at the bottom of the list there is one called "String Not Found".  I installed the full download, not a patch.  Otherwise it seems to be working good!

on Jul 20, 2011

I've had issues with minidumps.  I've played a couple of games, and after my ally assigns me a mission and I go to check what mission it is in his section of the Diplomacy window, it minidumps on me immediately after I click on the button to open his window.  I couldn't tell you what mission it is because it the game just stops after I click on it.

EDIT: I was Vasari and my ally was TEC for both dumps.

on Jul 20, 2011

the full DL link broke ;.; *left out*

nvm, it was just in your post that it's broken

on Jul 21, 2011

hey what ever happened to the flagship addon? is there a newer version out or in the works? the one i got mini dumps every time i use it on 1.3.

on Jul 21, 2011

Flagships has not been updated to work with the changes in 1.3 yet.  Ryat is working on that.

on Jul 21, 2011

SpardaSon21
I've had issues with minidumps.  I've played a couple of games, and after my ally assigns me a mission and I go to check what mission it is in his section of the Diplomacy window, it minidumps on me immediately after I click on the button to open his window.  I couldn't tell you what mission it is because it the game just stops after I click on it.

EDIT: I was Vasari and my ally was TEC for both dumps.

I had the same problem when playing as Advent with TEC ally. For the record I used B3 full download with the B4 update (and deleted the files mentioned in the Read-me).

on Jul 21, 2011

The patches are good for getting you back in the action quickly, but you should still always get the full download whenever possible.  Less issues that way.

on Jul 21, 2011

I tried to download the full pack, but yesterday the link was broken. Now it works again and I'm currently downloading it. I'll report back if I get the problem with the full pack too.

Edit: No, nothing changed even with the full version instead of the patched. Missions still crash the game on occasion when entering the Diplomacy screen (or however the F1 screen is called).

Edit2: It seems it is the "Send Envoy" mission that is bugged. While the game crashes on trying to look at the player who gave the mission, it finishes just fine (as long as you do it "blindly").

on Jul 21, 2011

I have the same problem. Was playing as Vasari with a TEC ally and Advent enemy. It mini dumped when I tried to access the Diplomacy\Relationships screen.

Edit: Using a fresh install of B4

Second Edit: Happened again whilst again playing as Vasari with a Vasari ally and TEC enemy

on Jul 21, 2011

I was so excited that you included the mini mods and almost ALMOST loaded up a game with dynamic movement, but then i remembered I must kill all scout and turret files inside the mod =O

Reasons for those unfamiliar with my rantings: Turrets; far too slow, why touch them if all they did was advance engine technology? it makes no sense unless they used parts from the turrets!!

Scouts: ....seriously they fly into mines when they clear fields...he's no good to me dead Jim ;o

 

Added info: Also my own..eh.."mod" if it's even that, I figured out how to get the strike craft exhaust lines to hang a bit before fading, and I made their angles double so they can make corkscrew motions and the tail will spiral right with it =D....not that they do those =/

 

TEC-nical issues: Entity Ref not found: QuestKillCivilianModulesLow   <--dev.exe gave me this for the mini dump on opening the tab for an opposing empire's mission, I was tec they were tec but it's been reported for both vasari and tec so I thought I'd look to see what might be causing it. Might be missing the new quest setup in the entity manifest looks like, or there might be something old in there relating to the old quest methods. I'll poke around a bit and let you know if I find something. 

on Jul 21, 2011

Just to clarify: the uploaded version is compliant with new 1.31 patch that was released today.

on Jul 21, 2011

it should, I didn't see anything in the change-log that would affect anything the mod changes.

also, I think I found the culprit for the minidumps on tec/vasari alliances, I'll get back to you once I test it out but there was a missing entity string in the manifest that i copied over from the original manifest to see if it helps.

side note: I despise using  the dev.exe...it resets my diligently worked on .user file........rawr...

 

Tests conducted: problem with the dump is fixed with copying the missing entity file into the manifest and putting it's count to 2202 I suggest notepad++ to fix this and save yourself some time and stress. open the DS entity manifest and the core game's entity manifest and use the compare option under the plugins tab for a side by side view of both files. find the one missing in the DS manifest, COPY AND PASTE the line over and update the item count in the DS manifest from 2201 to 2202 and save, you're done...took you like 2 minutes =3   enjoy shared phase gates(I am)

 

Yes the update is compatible with B4 release of DS, enjoy =3

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