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 53)
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on Aug 15, 2009

Um... what? I found Space Ponies! Refugees from Candy Mountain!?! I must find this Candy Mountain place...

Okay, I laughed my hide off when I saw, luckily I wasn't drinking or I'd have a ruined keyboard and monitor to replace...

New Idea for planet type below:
Jump Gate - Colonizable; half the Tactical Slots of an Asteroid 15 or so; 1 Logistical Slot; and works essentially like a wormhole

Just more tactical usage unlike a wormhole being guarded by a lonely star base while your fleet is way out of position to do anything... just a random idea I had waking up this afternoon (yes I dream in Sins mode)

on Aug 15, 2009

congrata on the Space Ponies find

now find the "deadly secret"

muhahahahahaha!

on Aug 15, 2009

 Ive been burned by that planet bonus one to many times.

on Aug 15, 2009

Ive learned to save before I explore

on Aug 15, 2009

wait what if you had a starbase on that planet with can't destroy planet without destorying starbase, so what happends then? would that override it?

on Aug 15, 2009

no it only affects the population (resets it to zero with no ability to modify)

 you still have control of the planet just with nothing there

on Aug 16, 2009

I always play with pirates disabled, so yeah, the minidumps were without pirates.

on Aug 16, 2009

im sure you know but the mod takes a little while to get going (in terms of graphics) when on Very High graphics settings. that is, certain planets (especially Luna in maps of our solar system) dont have their skins on (taking butt naked to a whole new level), skyboxes dont display, and certain ship skins dont apply (differs every time) although, some times, none of these things happen...

also, i get a minidump every once in a while... dont know why, its usually when im on Very High graphics settings, but this only happens once in a blue moon, so...

another thing, in case no one has mentioned it yet, but there is a bright orange skybox that is used sometimes... it is WAY too bright... i do have a very bright/powerful/sharp laptop monitor, but still... its about on par witth the bright blue skybox...

just putting my vote down...

excellent work otherwise guys

on Aug 16, 2009

Any chance to implement the dynamic combat system?

on Aug 16, 2009

Any chance to implement the dynamic combat system?

no

to rez we are working on dimming the skyboxes, its one of my main complaints as well

the skyboxes not always displaying is actually a core problem nothing to do with mod

know about the ships (the vasari HC is annoying)

did not know about skins on planets, can you pm me a list that you have noticed so far please?

on Aug 16, 2009

Any chance to implement the dynamic combat system?

you can turn it on by yourself (that is what I did) get a converter, my suggestion is harpo's, convert all files into text and then go thru each cap and each frigate and maually turn on usefighterstyle to TRUE from FALSE

on Aug 16, 2009

Pirates were active on my game. And I know the glory and devastation of both ponies and deadly secrets. Actually, with that jump gate idea you can always make it a ringworld design a la Halo.

on Aug 16, 2009

Quoting myself:

New Idea for planet type below:
Jump Gate - Colonizable; half the Tactical Slots of an Asteroid 15 or so; 1 Logistical Slot; and works essentially like a wormhole

Just more tactical usage unlike a wormhole being guarded by a lonely star base while your fleet is way out of position to do anything... just a random idea I had waking up this afternoon (yes I dream in Sins mode)
--

After playing more Distant Stars lastnight all night till like 6am PST... I found myself loving that map "Kingdom of Heaven" and how I managed to stay on the first star "Becrux" until I had about 80% of my research complete before I moved outward to crush two AI TECs within a matter of 30mins before nodding off for an hour while the game continued and my empire unscathed give or take a few ships and mines lost. Then I started to think more on the Jump Gate system I mentioned earlier... as some of you have as well. This could come in handy very nicely given the fact that I am getting hit with pirate raids that consist of 7+ Capital ships and their supporting fleet. I quickly adapted to leaving a small garrison force just outside the colonies in nebulae, asteroid belts, deep space sectors and such with a Starbase... if they got through that, then the mines, the defenses and the Starbase guarding the colony would wipe out the remainder with ease... Then when I finally finished my Fleet/Captial Ship research I noticed I have a lot more ships to build than what I initially planned for... With huge fleets available like this, a Jump Gate styled system could be serious choke-point or strategic point to strike outward.

>>Then I thought... Jump Gates can be owned and defended given 20-25 tactical slots and 4 logistical slots for a base (research could then allow for more expansion upon reaching that point). Owning a Jump Gate and controlling it are two entirely different things. What if you could own the JG but not control who came and went through it? Kind of like Babylon5 series, the bases were deployed around logical places to have a JG for defensive and trade purposes alike. This could put a completely new spin on the gameplay and tactial level of the game and mod for Distant Stars... just a penny for my thoughts on my two cents earlier...

on Aug 17, 2009

Nacey and to the team of the distant stars mod, suggestion is to get this mod patch out asap cause star trek mod is about to come out.

btw, I am glad to report on the beta on the patches to be clean and pretty much balanced.

on Aug 17, 2009

Well, Grendel, that's an interesting idea. I can see why you would want to have tactical slots around something like a wormhole. Now that I think of it though, it seems like a bittersweet proposal. On the one hand, the jumpgate could allow anyone through, but that's just what a wormhole is. Of course, the original challenge is holding onto it with no tactical slots. I find that kinda fun. But if the enemy could go through it AND you can mine it, then the odds of an enemy getting through? Not much. Think DS9. How many Dominion ships made it through the wormhole? None. So I don't know if there would be any challenge to it. An extra perk, yes.

As for the pirates. I typically keep trade ports close to my starbases, and mine the most common flight paths. The mines whack the cruisers and caps are weakened by previous starbases and mines, making them easy peasy for my orbital defenses. No extra vessels necessary. Of course, you could keep an Akkan around to extend the starbase range.

Oh, and that reminds me. Pirate caps are normally lvl 1, but I had an enemy AI stuck behind their base. They kept trying to get through, only to die again and again. By the time I was ready to assault the pirate base, the caps were up to lvl 6. Crazy hard.

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