[Release] StarFall Mod!! :)
- Please Note There Are Two Threads Of This Post, I Dont Know How It Happened! :( -
Sins Forums
&
StarFall v5 mod
First off I would like to thank ManShooter and CyberD for their wonderful and beautiful mods, without which my little mini-mod would be just a collection of rather interesting, but still rather plain file tweaks on my behalf.
StarFall is the 1.15 compatible version of my mini-mod, FireFall is intended to be the Entrenchment compatible version, although FireFall is nowhere near as complete as StarFall, eventually of course I would like to somehow learn to model, so that i can re-do a skybox with a redish and flame filled solar system with a shattered sun and some planets of course burnt over and uninhabitable.
StarFall would be almost the opposite, with a few half dead stars and a almost completely blackened sky with shattered planets mostly, with a few surviving. But that is the future, what is now, is FireFall is just barely changed, more in work than anything, i have to overcome the entity.manifest and figure out how to get the changes in and stable before i can finish, that may be as long as several months.
StarFall on the other hand, is ready, not with my shattered planets or blackened half dead sky, but close.
Changes from the standard 1.15 version of Sins of a Solar Empire included in this mini are:
- ManShooters Volumetric Explosions and graphics
- CyberD's Solar Mod, with Huge planets and arifact enhancements which were updated so very nicely by DireSaint.
- Inclusion of Star Stations 
I hope you like this one alot.
- Starbases for each race - No these aren't from Entrenchment, but i like them still alot, hope you do to.
- Flagships for each race, which are oversized (about 1.5 times the size of a normal capital) and powered Capitals. Flagships carry battleship class weapons, but in addition have fleet support abilities that are particular for each race of course. These were taken from the support abilities that are used for that race.
- Kamakazi ships for each race.
- Mines, No these aren't from Entrenchment either, but my take on them.
- Mercy ships for each race (healer ships for the other ships)
- Mobile Defense platforms for each race (this is where my modding all started)
- Scoutfighers for Advent, i will be adding this to the other races soon.
these were imagined as fighter/bomber and small escort hunters. These ships will have an additional small speed bump to accomodate the low powered guns.
- ScoutGunships for Advent, this also will be added soon for the other races, and were imagined as heavy escort and capitalship hunters.
- PJI equipped ships (one each for each race which makes pji mobile)
- AM recharge equipped ships (one each for each race to make AM recharge mobile)
- Enhanced Pirates! They now have a full set of ships and tech tree!
- Now a playable Pirate race! Also with a full set of ships and tech tree!
- Upgraded research for races, including:
Advent - Upgraded shields 2 research levels to 4 levels for each of 4 tiers
Tec - Upgraded metal/crystal production for economy 2 to 4 levels for 3 tiers
Vasari - Upgraded phase missile tech 2 to 4 levels each for 3 tiers
- Re-ordered the FinalAttack ability to allow for first tier access for Kamakazi's.
- Added Planetshield & Hyperspace detect for the Advent.
- Added Phaseout hull for planets for Vasari.
- Miscellaneous adjustments for buffs, shields, hull and weapon fire rates and small weapon damage rate tweaks for all races.
- Increased ship speeds as my small and rather inadaquate way of approximating what ManShooter is doing in his figher behaviour mod. I broke out the scouts, lights and defense vessels with speed increases of almost, but not quite double their starting value.
The mid range ships, the cruisers were changed slightly down in speed and turning radius.
The Capitals i slowed about a quarter of their speed, increased their mass and reduced their turn radius to reflect a heavier, powerful but slower battleship.
- I have limited the amount of fighters in the game by removing all strikecraft from all ships except for the Capital Carriers and the Frigates Carriers. With each of those ships only carrying 3 to start. Only the Capital of course will get additional strikecraft per level.
- I have adjusted some of the abilities that some ships carry, mostly adding one to ships that normally did not carry any. But these were not many.
- In addition i have adjusted some of the costs of new ships or altered ships that i put into the game, I wanted a cost that reflected what the value of the ship became after i changed it. Or a higher level cost to discourage spamming.
Anyway, that is it!! Whew! That was tiring, haha, well, fun too!!
I hope everyone enjoys this, let me know what you think, take care and keep
modding!
-Teal
March 12, 2009
link is:
http://files.filefront.com/13452865
Take care!!! Oh, here are some StarFall pics!!!
http://gallery.filefront.com/TealBlue/
Note: I've been working this morning on two new ships and some abilities and will be posting a patch update, basically just a new gameinfo folder with the small additions and the updated string folder. As soon as i finish testing and uploading i will post the link here with the others.
Download link for the StarFall v6 Patch is here:
http://files.filefront.com/13459342
Hope you enjoy it!! Let me know what you think, please. Take care
**** Sunday March 15, 2009 - Updated the mod to v7, changes and download link are below, just a dd the folders to the mod overwriting gameinfo, mesh and string.
The textures, and texture animations and the other folders in the mod will remain the same.
V7 -
I added all the previous ships that i added for advent to all the other races, including the Playable Pirates and the AI Pirates, except the Pirates dont have the boarding party ships, and the Vasari doesnt have boarding party ships, but does have returning armada now as a ship function, i lowered the cost as well to balance it against the tec and the advent having the boarding raiders.
Cleaned up a lot of the different specs and costs for the different ships, i tried to balance them, and to even them out across all the races so the cost and specs are similar, not exact, but similar. The Vasari ships remain a little more expensive, but is balanced by having additional ships available to them.
The tec costs are lower, but their shields and hull are slightly lower as well, this is balanced by their economy, once underway, that can in fact build ships faster than the other two races.
The advent costs have been slightly altered to balance them against the other races, in some cases those costs were too low, and so i have raised some, on the other hand some were more expensive for what appeared to be no logical reason, so i have lowered those.
The races still retain a high degree of individuality, and this is expressed in the research tree where the Tec get economy enhancements the other races dont, but the vasari get enhanced phase missile technology where the tec and advent dont, and the advent shielding technology is raised where the tec and vasari are not. All in all it balances, but in a specific way for each race.
Anyway, this time around you should be able to play any race you want, Tec, Vasari, or Advent, or Pirate and have fun, with all pretty much the same toys, :) all added ships are pretty much the same for each race: Starbases, Fleet Flagships and Support Deployment Carrier for each, a Disruptor vessel to short out enemy weapons fire, and scoutfighters and scoutgunships, Mines and Kamakazi ships all are part of each races new ship fleets.
Hope you enjoy!! Let me know what you think?
Download link for v7 patch
(add to mod folder overwriting the older folders and files. Please keep textures and texture animations in the folder, they are used by ManShooters Vol Expl mod and CyberD's planet mod. My tweaks and additions were all in the Mesh, GameInfo and String folders)
Take care and have fun!!!
http://files.filefront.com/13468924
Sunday March 15, 2009 -
I have been playing as Vasari to test the ships/files, there were some small errors, well, names that i should have changed but hadnt, small specs on weapons, ranges, etc. In addition i saw a thread on the forum about repair ability for the Vasari being lower than some players felt it should be, i tweaked the Vasari repair platform, and tested the returning armada that i put into the support carrier instead of the boarding raider the other races have. All looks good now, but i may have missed something. If you find something that is an error, or that you feel needs updating please let me know. I just posted a patch file, just the gameinfo and the string folder this time, no mesh changes, so if you are at v7 then just add these folders and they will update to v7.1
Download link for V7.1 is here
http://files.filefront.com/13472675
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 -
Update to v7.2 that corrects an error in the disruptor that i accidentally introduced in v7.1 is corrected here.
http://files.filefront.com/13483489
3-22-2009 - Altaran Nebula -
Hi,
> Well v7.5 has been about a week in work. Basically there were several ideas i wanted to add to StarFall in the new version. Below i will give some idea of what i have added, and some reasons for adding this.
1. Added HeavyCruisers in place of Kamakazi's. Basically having mines and kamakazi's was a duplication. Just that the kamakazi's were faster. Anyway, i thought a new cruiser, along the lines that someone spoke of in another thread on the forum, might add some almost capitals to the frigate ranks. They would be less costly and make a good counter to capital heavy battles.
2. Planets in v7.5 are "DOUBLE" what they previously were. Some of the wells i had to resize also, so as to not have tiny strips of a well about the planets.
3. I have added 3 New races: Trader, Diplomat, and the Infector. The Traders are advanced trade specialized race. They have larger capacity tradeports, being able to carry as much as three times as many tradeships. In addition their tradeships have larger cargo holds.
The Diplomats rely on culture, heavily, as a weapon actually, and use it along with a take over power. In tests they are able to hold their own against a larger fleet, but only for so long, so it tends to lead to quick and dirty battles with them, rather than long drawn out battles.
The Infectors are a race that rely on heavy infection injectors and debilitating rays to freeze and attack their victim ships.
Each of these new races has only a small fleet, only 5 ships, a handful of logistic and tactical supports and no cruiser class ships or capitals. (the exception is the Trader race that has the HeavyCruiser, but it isn't included in the cruiser class for them, but as one of their heavy frigates.)
They also do not have any research, other than to increase their fleet supply. Because of this, their ships and support structures dont have research restrictions on them, but i have made the costs average for them, to be able to give them some advantage in fighting the Advent, Vasari and Tec, who can increase the damage output and fleet support that the research gives those races.
I have playtested this mod with the new races in small scenario's and have noticed that there are some little issues, one being the planets tend to be closer together, however on large maps or with multi-star maps that should be less noticeable. And i have only played in small battles, so i dont yet know how well the new races with be able to handle themselves long term. But short term they did well.
What this means for gameplay is that each race gets a specific technology edge over the other, each different to battle and win games with.
For the Vasari, it means greater phase technology, the Advent get greater shield technology, the Tec get greater economic technolgoy.
For the new races, the Traders get greater trade technolgy, the Diplomats get greater culture technology, and the Infectors get greater virus technology. Each hopefully balancing the other, but i have to play longer games to determine if that is so, but short term, each race was able to stay alive, :) which was my greatest concern.
I have a second version, where each of the new races "Do Have" research trees and the full compliment of all the weapons and technology, so will re-label that and list it as (v7.5.1-FUll) to distinguish it from this quick and dirty version.
Please let me know what you think, it is 1.15-1.16 compatible, but not yet Entrenchment compatible, but i am working on that. :)
Take care and keep modding!!!
-Teal
[Release] StarFall v7.5.1 Mod!! 
- Please Note There Are Two Threads, I Dont Know How It Happened 
-
-
StarFall v7.5.1 is done!! Since FileFront is closing i will be uploading it to Nakido tonight, (Friday Night) it should be done loading and ready by saturday morning. Give it a test drive and see what you think, let me know.
7.5.1 was very ambitious for me, the biggest mod i have ever tried, or been able to pull off and have work. It includes 3 new races with full research and a host of new ships available for all the races, including the 3 new ones. I also have changed out the kamakazi scout for a heavycruiser for all the races, the kamakazi felt like a duplication of the mine, and i felt a heavycruiser would be a good addition. Also, each new race has its own racial identity and abilities and strengths.
The Diplomats rely heavily on culture, as a weapon as well, and their take over ability.
The Infectors use snares/shields and virus injectors against their enemies.
The Traders have 3 times as many tradeships as anyone else, and can generate a substantial economy fairly quickly.
Let me know what you think and if you like it, and if you dont, then what you dont. Oh, i tweaked the Pirates as well, haha, they are very deadly now!!! I have upped their raid strength and have included capitals now in their fleet, as well as given the Pirate base resources to generate an income with. So Look Out!!! Haha!!!
download link is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/myfiles.php#
Take care and Keep Modding!!! :)
-Teal
4-1-2009 -
A family member was in a car accident last night, and so i wont be able to get my usual output on my mods as usual, i dont know for how long. We are just praying he will get through this and be alright.
I posted v8.1 last night here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1kdzrwn00xb
Take care, pray if you want, thank you,
-Teal
