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 535)
562 PagesFirst 533 534 535 536 537  Last
on Dec 10, 2012

Liondrome
Something wrong with ship graveyards?

Its was causing too many crashes.

on Dec 11, 2012

Its was causing too many crashes.

Did it cause crashes when in use, or when you load up Sins? I ask as SoGE has ship graveyards in it, admittedly as something map-makers can make use of and currently isn't in any maps, and it has yet to cause any issues.

on Dec 11, 2012

Aww, no more graveyards?  Twi haz a sad nao... [e digicons]:'([/e]

 -Huzzah!

on Dec 11, 2012

@GoaFan

Thanks for the links. I'm at a split between your mod and the infinite space mod. As much as I love the detailed textures of the infinite space one, I'm not too sure how I feel about having random solar system planets spawning in a random match. Plus, it does not appear that he fully uses Sins Plus in his mod, but it is fantastically beautiful (I wonder if he sized up the planetary bombardment animation? I still appreciate how the TEC look like they strapped Tsar Bombs on their missiles)

I like yours in that it still feels like sins, but I'm taken aback by the numerous other mods you've added onto the package, I'm just looking for planets and balancing, although the re-sizing thing in infinite space looks amazing.

Could you possibly message me or link me the details of all the additional mods that come with yours? As much as I like seeing ships in greater detail, as I said I'm not looking to add new ships or structures; I'm fine with any rebalancing necessary to the planets themselves.

The one thing I miss about Uzii's mod was those city-planets, as OP as that population was I felt at ease knowing I had my own Coruscant

 

-DANEWWBE!

on Dec 11, 2012

One more thing, a suggestion:

Either have an upgrade, or put it as a planetary bonus, have planets have the ability to attack by themselves, have a slow-firing, powerful weapon (Guass for TEC, Laser for Advent, Missile for Vasari; switch it around a bit if u want) and have it's attack radius near where most bombardment ships would move into range to attack. Also have it able to attack as many ships as it can target, but still with that slow, powerful weapon (Think Advent Assault Cruisers how they can attack multiple structures, but it fires at each at the same rate. When it attacks just one, it's the same rate as it attacking 3)

That way, planets without orbital defense would still be able to defend against one or two bomber frigates

on Dec 11, 2012

That's a bad idea as that allows planets to hard counter their hard counter.

on Dec 12, 2012

noobsauce94
One more thing, a suggestion:

Either have an upgrade, or put it as a planetary bonus, have planets have the ability to attack by themselves, have a slow-firing, powerful weapon (Guass for TEC, Laser for Advent, Missile for Vasari; switch it around a bit if u want) and have it's attack radius near where most bombardment ships would move into range to attack. Also have it able to attack as many ships as it can target, but still with that slow, powerful weapon (Think Advent Assault Cruisers how they can attack multiple structures, but it fires at each at the same rate. When it attacks just one, it's the same rate as it attacking 3)

That way, planets without orbital defense would still be able to defend against one or two bomber frigates

We tried, it can't be done.

on Dec 12, 2012

Could remove the uplink structure from the game, and instead make every structure grant its bonus in a radius around the planet.  (I.E. make the planet a target, similar to how the Ankylon shield power works.  That way the enemy would have to wipe everything out first, in which case, the planet is boned anyway.

-Huzzah!

on Dec 16, 2012

Fucking bullshit logged me out when I posted my reply...  Anyway, long story short:

Boshimi: DS Wiki http://sinsdistantstars.wikia.com/wiki/SoaSE_Distant_Stars_Wiki  there's your list of bonuses.  Anyone care to contribute to it and make it better, be my guest.

Goa, there's no such thing as other mods.    Also I was waiting for AxelDude to finish his artwork so I could upgrade all of the planets in DS...

Noobsause, if you don't invest in orbital defenses, how do you expect a planet to defend itself from orbital threats?  (That's a Rhetorical question.)

on Dec 16, 2012

Stant123
Boshimi: DS Wiki http://sinsdistantstars.wikia.com/wiki/SoaSE_Distant_Stars_Wiki there's your list of bonuses. Anyone care to contribute to it and make it better, be my guest.

 

Thanks!

on Dec 18, 2012

I'm having trouble downloading the file - it doesn't seem to know how big the file is

 

Any advice?

on Dec 18, 2012

Not sure, never had that issue. Works for me.

on Dec 19, 2012

Works great for an Alpha , havent had any issues yet , but when i loaded it first time the game crashes , same problem i had with entrenchment tho , after restart of the game i could load it without a problem .. strange that it always gives a minidump 1st time you load it lol.

There a few differences between entrenchment and this version , but i am happy i can now as tec build 2 starbases haha.

Ok .. the planet defenses are kind of worthless .. it gives your planet a weapon to fire back when you get bombarded.. however usely fleets destroy anything around orbit.. so when they destroy it..your planet defenses are gone also..

Should make the planet defenses build on planet and not in orbit just a thought

on Dec 19, 2012

They can't be built on the planet, we only have orbital real estate to work with in Sins...  However, try having a starbase or two out there to protect it.  Most AI fleets get wiped out fairly quickly and without any intervention on your part.  Add in some mines at the entry points to the gravity well to soften up the opposition before they even get there and you really don't have to look at an AI fleet.

on Dec 19, 2012

zwijnstijn
Should make the planet defenses build on planet and not in orbit just a thought


Quoting noobsauce94, reply 8016One more thing, a suggestion:

Either have an upgrade, or put it as a planetary bonus, have planets have the ability to attack by themselves, have a slow-firing, powerful weapon (Guass for TEC, Laser for Advent, Missile for Vasari; switch it around a bit if u want) and have it's attack radius near where most bombardment ships would move into range to attack. Also have it able to attack as many ships as it can target, but still with that slow, powerful weapon (Think Advent Assault Cruisers how they can attack multiple structures, but it fires at each at the same rate. When it attacks just one, it's the same rate as it attacking 3)

That way, planets without orbital defense would still be able to defend against one or two bomber frigates

We tried, it can't be done.

562 PagesFirst 533 534 535 536 537  Last