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 90)
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on Oct 14, 2009

-UE_Carbon: Thanks for helping. I did install properly, yadda yadda. Apparently though my download somehow got corrupted. I cleaned it out, then re-downloaded and it works absolutely fine now.

on Oct 14, 2009

EternalRequiem
Might want to look into the 7DS then if you wanna add pirates to the mix, I think the Rouge race is SUPPOSE to be somewhat of a playable race for pirates... and then again you have Tesla's Tri-pirate mod he's working on. Only thing I wanna point out is... don't add to much content now... because that'll be an issue for players with low end machines if you have to much in the game they won't be able to play due to, to much information being processed in the game. I believe there was a mod called Universe at War... can't remember... where all the AI, including the neutal planets and ships went into other systems and fought one another... yeah... I don't recomend it because it's a good way to play EXTREMELY slow games... your computer will litterally slow down a hell of a lot... it isn't recomended unless you have a very, very, very high end machine. I think that was the reason why the production on the mod stopped was because it was more towards a limited area of people who were actually able to play it only because they had powerful computers

thanks for the heads up (karma ), dont worry we wont be throwing that mod into the mix and not really sure if we can pull off a pirate race (seems how the core group cant do any texturing or modeling) but I might still throw something as an extra (in other words if you dont like it then you dont have to add it in, its optional)

on Oct 14, 2009

Yeah, that's the thing with entrencement it allows you to have certain mods stacked on one another so if you have several mods that are compatible to one another, you can stack them in a certain order in order to play them... so if you have the basic DS mod and then you add say the extra optional ones on... like dynamic movement and maybe a extra pirate thingy added then it would be an optional mod that could be linked to the orginal DS mod. I do have to say though as is the DS mod is freaking awesome. It incorperates some of the other mods I've played, the Mad Scientist mod I've noticed it has some of the parts from there in it... minus the planet research which is completely an optional part on the development team of this mod and also you have your base ideas about DS you wanted in the mod. I'm also glad to be of service and help provide some suggestions and also lots of screenshots for the game of course I've taken a small break from playing the game and started watching one of my old favorite sci-fi series. Babylon 5 which I just finished downloading. About the modeling thing and the texturing... I'm SORTA getting into models but I've been a bit slow since I got a little busy in RL I had just started a few weeks ago. If I ever manage to finish one of the models I'll drop you guys a line... don't know about textures much though haha

on Oct 14, 2009

yeah I have been trying to get into them but its very complicated and have my own RL to deal with (starting to understand why its usually kids that do a lot of this)

on Oct 14, 2009

Can you make a quickfix for the annoying phase gates?

The Undying.

on Oct 14, 2009

exept dynamic wont work with this mod, atleast not for me, DS just prevents dynamic from working

speaking of witch, when can we expect the update

on Oct 14, 2009

exept dynamic wont work with this mod, atleast not for me, DS just prevents dynamic from working

speaking of witch, when can we expect the update

The dynamic movement, mini-mod will be release as soon as possible. I do have a life you know.

on Oct 14, 2009

LOL I expected someone to ask that question and get a answer of that sort hahaha

on Oct 15, 2009

...Im tired of hear about Dynamic Movement. I really am. Just for the record.

 

It will be ready when its ready, just like the rest of our patches and addons. Go count sheep or something.

on Oct 15, 2009

Hmm indeed... I know where you are coming from... Annoying little kid asking: WHEN'S IT COMING OUT!? WHEN CAN WE PLAY IT!? WHEN, WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN WHENNNNNN!!!!!?" *bitch slaps and smacks the kid over the head* damn annoying when multiple people ask the same question when it's been asked a million times already... really though... please stop asking people when the new update will come out... the mod team will NOTIFY us when it will be ready... so have patience, if you don't... well... isn't much of our problem but your own do somethine else to pass the time

on Oct 15, 2009

I really don't like dynamic movement. It unbalances everything and really isn't what the designers intended. That, and the fact that a ship does a lot less damage using it.

on Oct 15, 2009

Which is why it's going to be optional... at least that is my guess from what I've read so far

on Oct 15, 2009

Yep Dynamic movement is going to be entirely optional within our mod it will be included but will NOT be the default setting for our mod you will have to enable it yourself.

Sorry about the lack of updates and slow update this time guys I suffered a pc death at the beggining of the week and have been reformatting/reinstalling after the death of a motherboard. Ended up rebuilding half of the computer, never the less my main pc is now back online and far more powerful than previously

So here's hoping we can get on with the next patch much quicker, to war with the bugs!

on Oct 15, 2009

So here's hoping we can get on with the next patch much quicker, to war with the bugs!

*takes sledge hammer off table and and absently smacks the head of the hammer in his palm*

yeah to war with the bugs!

on Oct 15, 2009

one should not harm thyself now it'll affect your effiency in the mod if you do yes... try NOT to hurt yourself now Ryat

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