Until I saw the DoV UI, did not think to change the icons. Draak, very impressive job and can't wait to see it in game....

another possible planet size indicator idea ie a dot (e.g. approx 10-20 pixels across) on the lines of the icon for each size step from the tiny similar to the current wedges.

harpo

Hai again.

I have a friend that is trying to get his Distant Stars working and is apparently getting the wrong checksum all the time - which leads to minidumps once he tries to activate the mod.

He's on Diplomacy 1.32 and is using DS (D) 0.99 B5.

The checksum he is getting is 2269 compared to my 73603744.

Any ideas?

Edit: It seems his download was broken, or the extraction of the zip went wrong.

Sincerely

Cat Empire

BUG Report:

had an odd sound loop bug happen when I zoomed in and out quickly on a battle.

It was Vas vs Vas. the loop was I think an engine sound effect loop.  But it stayed loud and continued to loop.

Strange....

@Cat Empire - It almost sounds like the mod is missing a lot of stuff to have that low of a checksum. Attempt a redownload and/or unzip. Make sure he unzips it on the desktop first. This helps with a lot of errors.

@Sivcorp - I think we have it fixed.

Okay, some serious input from me now since I've had some time to sit down and consider the icons.  The overall shape, I don't really care about.  They're grouped by research so as long as that stays consistent, then so be it, it doesn't bother me what research is represented by what shape.  As for the colors, I have some suggestions based on what I'm seeing and have observed by looking at the planet textures themselves.

First, if paradise is blue, so should be terran.  The reasoning is that they essentially exhibit the same general qualities, albeit, the paradise is a bit better.  Maybe blue exterior circle and green interior line and circle.

I like the savannah and forest being green as that's the color of the grassy plains and the dense woods that cover each respectively, however, I would suggest that the military be made green as well since it's just a forest planet with a mountain range.  Also, I'd suggest the swamp be green as well since that's it's color in the game.  It's research falls in line with the hostile (volcanic) environment, so a triangle with no interior, or a round interior or even more appropriately the section sign ( § ) in it's interior.  The oceanic planet could also use this symbol instead of the diamond.  Back to the savannah, maybe a bunch of diagonal offset hashes similar to the unstable gas giant could be used instead of one single line.  The forest could use a tree instead of the diamond maybe.

Desert should be a similar color to relic since they exhibit similar qualities in game, however, relics have this pinkish purple dot on them, maybe use that in the center of the icon for differentiation.

Barren should either lose it's interior triangle to help visually separate it from the others, or have it's interior triangle flipped over so that the design looks more like three small triangles joined at their tips forming a 4th in the middle...

Pirate base could use the open white square with the current pirate faction logo in it's interior.  Ancient Citadel could use the white box outer and a triangle with slightly dented in sides on the interior.  Consciousness of the Unity could use also the white box outer, but have a circle in it's interior.

The rest I don't have anything specific to talk about.

Potential designs for the non-colonizable space...  A parallelogram for the 'cloud' types.  Green, pink, and white for each.  Worm holes could also fall into this design using blue, deep space sector using yellow, ship graveyard using red, and space junk using orange.

Asteroid belts could use a string of connected, though slightly offset small white squares.

Stars are pretty easy if you go with the astrological symbols.  Each has it's own color except the magnetar which could be given a red, white, and blue coloring.  Black holes I think would be pretty amusing to see a black icon in game.  Others may not agree with me, but you're not really supposed to see them all that well anyway.

For unexplored, how about just a plain white circle considering the game gives us a plain white circle for a planet until we explore it?

I think this idea would be better served in the sense of viewable versus not viewable (Which is not the same as explored versus not explored before someone jumps in saying something along the lines of they like having to explore the gravity well first before knowing what's there...).  Viewable you see nice bright lines and glow, not viewable you just see slightly dulled out lines and no glow, though I believe if the glow isn't overpowering the game should get rid of it automatically when it reduces the opacity of the icon.

Interested in the ideas you have for that...  Maybe I'll redo some of the DS system maps with the new icons once they're done so people can use them as radar images or scan images of the systems.

Edit: I could see the use of chevrons, little stars, and bars like the current Advent and TEC command crew logos as appropriate indicators of size.

Siv, I have noticed this occasionally too but it seemed to go away after about thirty seconds or so. This was using the B5 beta. I haven't had it happen again.

For the non-colonizable items (since they are more anomalies than anything) feel free to get crazy in the icon department. They don't have to match the typical icons you have shown either. Give them some flair so that they stand out on the map. Space Junk compared to vanilla is a good example. For Deep Space I really wouldn't change much of the design at all.

Maybe for ship graveyard pick a TEC construction cradle for the icon style? These should probably be destinct in design from the other 'colonizable' items.

So the reason I went with blue was I was separating watery planets from earthy planets, even if the water is frozen. I'm going more monochrome for the moment.

Although the Military planet is a Forest planet with a military facility, the focus is the application. My idea behind grouping them with Urban and Industrial is to show their unique natures, which make them points of interest beyond Terrans and Forests.

I was debating green or blue as it is a very wet terran planet. The research didn't mention Swamp, so I'll double check that.

As for the tree, I would prefer something simple that doesn't potentially get cluttered given the size of the symbols.

Again, going for difference in function. The Desert and Relic look similar, but the Relic has a particular trait that makes it stand out like a sore thumb.

Not using the white box as I'm using that for asteroids, which are denoted specifically cause of their small size and value.

I figured that a plain shape in the center said something about it being plain, but I did consider including it a more complex structure under the category of asteroids.

As for the rest, I'll worry about that when I get my samples out. Then we can debate back and forth. Ultimately, it's up to something of a vote, so I call upon the POWERS THAT BE!!!!... yeah, so Nacey, Ryat and whoever wants to comment can come do their thing. Mod members get more sway. The one thing I do want to stress is that simple is better. I considered more intricate symbols and quickly discovered that, especially with a glow, the details get lost and make it ugly.

I keep getting unsupported compression format error when I try to unzip this archive

http://distantstars.mmobase.com/diplomacy/Distant_Stars_(D)_0.99_B5_[73603744].7z

As per the suggestion to everyone else who has posted here saying that:

Update your 7z program, then try again.

Can I add planet textures for this mod ?

Agree 100%. Keep it up. Me and Nacey ( ) are watching closely.

As in add your own or pull out to for your own use?

The answer if yes as the planet textures are from the Sins Plus mod.

Ryat

reply 6102

Agree 100%. Keep it up. Me and Nacey (  ) are watching closely.

So just you? 

Sorry, Nacey and I talk a lot on IM about it, but no one else ever sees it. Not sure where Carbon is at. You and Draakjacht are more of a constant here so we all know your opinion.

I always thought Nacey was your alternate personality. Or would you be his alternate personality? Something like that.