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 532)
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on Nov 17, 2012

D|S moved the Vasari "enslaved population" tech into the wrong tree.

Almost all the new maps made in 1.1 are missing.

The alpha is still pretty much my iffy port over from diplomacy.  Things introduced/changed by Rebellion that weren't game breaking are not in it and won't be until the Beta is ready.  Current ETA of Beta: See Dawn of Victory thread. 

on Nov 17, 2012

Stant123
Current ETA of Beta: See Dawn of Victory thread.

Sadly true. :'(

on Nov 17, 2012

My reaction

on Nov 18, 2012

It doesnt help, that Nacey is working hard. Me and Ryat have families also.

 

Not to mention we are gamers also. With each having a game or two we enjoy. 

 

To be honest Ive not touched Sins in months. I dont see myself going back anytime soon. Unless the team gets together at the same time and we hammer out some stuff.

Ive gone down the rabbit hole of SoTS ][ for my pew pew fix.

on Nov 24, 2012

Hey guys, just dropping in back in to SoaSE for that first time since I'm done university (that was 2-3 years ago lol) I was really exited when I saw your mod was still in running!

 

It's already re installed and running, no crash or bugs to report for me except for the fact that it doesn't seem to work?!?! I'm not sure why but I see no improvements/new planet types/any other goodies. It's enabled on the mod list, everything seems normal and it's also the only mod currently running but it doesn't seem to have any effect at all.

 

Thanks for your work!

 

Cheers!

on Nov 25, 2012

Sicarii,

Questions:

1. What is the checksum that you see when you enable the mod, does it match the one listed?
2. When you enable the mod, do you also press the apply button?
3. Does the game 'freeze' momentarily while the mod is being loaded?

Your Answers:

1. No, it's zero.
2. Oh, oops.
3. No.

Solutions:

1. You have your mod buried one folder too deep, this happens because of how uncompression programs work these days, they create a folder that is the same name as the archive and uncompress everything into it.  The mod folder is inside that folder.  That's the one you want.
2. Hit apply, let the game load up the new stuff and enjoy.
3. You probably got a bad download.  Redownload the archive and try it again.

on Nov 25, 2012

Interesting, my checksum number is wrong but is not 0 (it's a negative number o.0), and the folder only contains sounds.

 

Checking my error logs too, there is an "unkown compression format" error when attempting to extract, I've never had that problem before with other mods using the same compression format.

 

Probably a bad download. Thanks for your help!

on Nov 25, 2012

Make sure your preferred compression program is up to date. We use a newer compression method that requires for example 7zip to be up to date.

on Nov 25, 2012

Spot on! it was my extracting software that was not up to date

 

I appreciate the quick responses! I'm happy to report that it's now definatly working!

on Nov 25, 2012

Question about the DS Capital Ship Enhancement removal in the current release:

I totally get why you did that -- because of the new cap ship -- but if I install the optional minimod, how badly unbalanced will the new cap ship be? Enhanced cap ships was one of my favorite DS elements.

Also: it's been so long since I played vanilla, and I'm a bit leery to use vanilla cap ships. Has their durability been bumped up with Rebellion? I used to hate how they died so quickly in vanilla.

Thanks!

on Nov 25, 2012

No, they were not boosted in Rebellion.  All the Capital Ship Enhancements do is give the non-Rebellion capitals their original DS stats back, including their ability to carry elite strikecraft, EWS bombers, and gunships.  Yes, this means the Corsev, Discord, and Rankulas aren't feasible choices anymore, but that's a small price to pay for the other five capitals a race has becoming much better.

on Nov 25, 2012

Thanks for your answer. Definitely going to go with the Enhancement then.

on Nov 25, 2012

It was bumped up a little bit. Hence the need to redo all of our enhancements.

on Nov 27, 2012

Stupid question re. mod order: when ordering the mods, do I apply the Capitals mod ON TOP OF the DS main mod? (The mod instructions state "before" I believe, but I'm still not sure which is "before" on the UI -- above or below.) Sorry, it's been a while since I've played.

It was bumped up a little bit. Hence the need to redo all of our enhancements.

Please don't hate me, but...do you know when the next version's coming down? (No rush, but if it's in like a week I will just wait before I start a new 160-planet game...)

on Nov 27, 2012

yes, 'before' means above in the activated mods list on the right side of the mods page.

harpo

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