k, so I found the skybox.manifest, apparently it got deleted at some point in my mod files because when I checked my backups it was there.

Remember kids, when you've lost a file, check backups, and ALWAYS HAVE BACKUPS, or you end up making embarrassing posts highlighting your silly mistakes ...like I did

Moving on, I tried slipping in some skyboxes from Novus Universum, and only the skyboxes. I took out DS' 2 added(the environment cubes are just a tad too bright for me, makes me feel like I'm lookin at their uneffected skin in gimp). Anyhow, I threw in all the files associated with the skybox files(yes I looked through the properties file in the game info folder, yes I nit picked and grabbed each and every file listed in the manifest and properties files) but all I get when I upload them are empty backdrops and the "blank" environment cubes.

So in the end I just removed all things related to skybox alterations out of DS' mod folders and thought "eh,w/e I give up" and now, somehow, DS' skyboxes remain

I have deleted all skybox/skybox environment mesh files, altered manifest and properties to use ONLY vanilla skyboxes, so I am quite confused on how the game is pulling these out of it's ass when I have surgically removed them x.x

there's two stars that connect from the companion to your empty space areas near the companion sun, to the asteroid and the clouds. I edited it myself and removed the suns and connected the same spots to the empty space areas. And the problem with not seeing your ships and stuff is caused by the suns themselves, their "circle of influence" or whatever you wanna call it, the gray ring in the forge, is becoming your fore ground and the icons of another system won't show up. The game registers you as zooming into the system of one of the other suns, not the one you're actually seeing...if that makes sense.

Just open the map in forge and edit it like I did and it will solve your error and your questions =3

p.s. I only learned about this error 'cause I made a "pillar of suns" and the planets were inter connected and I had that problem ALL the time, made it kind of challenging. Try stacking a few things in Galaxy forge, has some interesting results sometimes, but stack them off center a bit, or you'll have a lot of issues with phase jumping.

p.s.s. Damnit....double posts

Why make a map and not have a phase lane to the main star?

Ah I understand the questions at hand. and yes changing the suns would fix the issue presented. However the suns are there for a reason.

The whole point of this map is to defend against stupid odds. As you expand toward the AI area, you get the jumbled mix of grav wells you see. Its like this to promote forming a single wall of defenses beyond your Military Planet, and provide you a mix of grav wells to fight and such over. I originally had it all in the mid set to Random, but opted against it.

Could I expanded the grav a bit and made it not close. But that would give you the effect much like Kingdom of Heaven. Where you have these super long phase jumps.

I already used that idea more or less, and I tried to make each map a unique experience, each with a different set of challenges and fun factor.

For example, the main theme behind Black-5, was a map that just isnt nice. Alot crappy planets, alot of pirates...etc etc. The map was another enemy more or less. 

The AI Horde was an experimental map. Ive had some issues through out each version Ive made(Like being on the right starting position when you set teams up, GF and SINS like to put the Player on the side of the map with the bigger team. So you would start in an AI slot and not the intended slot.). The theme is obvious, and again tries to provide a set of challenges. Like how to defend several Star grav wells with phase lanes entering on different sides. To provide the AI with a choice of attack options to maximize its attacks(AKA, so it doesnt have the one phase lane to use and you just turtle behind it as you expand). 

Orion's Belt, was another fun map based on using the chance to spawn mechanics in GF. Its a very small map outside the Asteroid Belt area. Inside that area is a clusterfuck of grav wells and phase lanes all with a chance to spawn at start of game or not. Aside from the guareenteed one way through I pust to keep the map from sucking on bad spawns, the center area is never the same, each time you play it. The theme here was replayability much like a Random Map. 

I could go on but I hope everyone gets the point of my maps. They are strange, they are odd, but thats the point. I go for theme based map creation with the over point of creating an unique fun experience. 

Why? B/c I wanted it that way. 

Why you ask...to make something different.

Dont like it?

Make your own maps. Make your own Map pack, Share with the group.

I really want to try playing this mod on a balanced or mirror map, but all the maps originally made for this game will only use the same default planets for it, right?  I think I remember someone saying that you only get to see the new planets and other stuff if you plan on randomly generated maps. Is that right or wrong?  The reason I want to try it out on a balanced map is because, due to the large number and variety of planets and types of gravity wells, the randomization can sometimes be very unforgiving for the player, and fail to give him nearly enough nearby resources to compete with high difficulty AI's.

OR the map has ANY of the randoms ie random, random colonisable etc, but when a map ONLY lists fixed planet types then you will ONLY get the fixed planet types.

harpo

EDIT

See Ryat's comment below!

/EDIT

In addition to that, the random options all benefit from the new planets because of work done on the galaxy scenario definitions file.

This is true.  Only the maps that specifically designate a planet type will have that type.  All of the other options were changed up from the original to include the additional content in DS via the galaxy scenario definitions file.  Some of the non random options were added to as well.  For example, in the original, if you select gas giant, you get a gas giant.  In DS, if you select Gas Giant, you get either a stable or an unstable Gas Giant randomly picked.  This is something that you cannot choose between like many of the other options even if you use the forge to create your map.

They were updated with the variant of sizes that we introduced but we never added any of the new planets.

Beat you by 2 seconds.    I fixed.

lol

oh my god...  its been a day since the last post,  i have to bump it.

I win, 287

Regarding large map slow down, does it always happen on the big maps, like on Kingdom of Heaven or Balanced Resources I notice a massive slowdown as the game reaches mid game, even though I have a rather powerful system.(550 GTX graphics card, windows 7, and 8 gb ram) even with the efficiency pack installed. Is this normal?

Yeah, 32 bit game systems and all the pre-loaded material pretty much ensures it'll get weighed down once enough ships are present.

I believe Stant123 might have posted a few pages back what components of your machine have the most significant impact on your game as far as hardware goes.

To help reduce lag a little bit, completely un-pin all items from your Empire Tree (on the left hand side of the screen) and set all graphics settings to Low.

and skyboxes/bloom/etc. eat up memory too. skyboxes and bloom alone slow me down a good bit compared to otherwise.