Sea Of Stars - development thread

[Uncle Lumpy]

Drybreeze, thank you for resuming work on your mod. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: Uncle Lumpy

Hey, once a board gamer always a board gamer! Even if none of us still play them anymore.[:D] My first one was Avalon Hill's Panzer Blitz. Bought it back in the mid Seventies, when I was still in high school. The little group of gamers I was part of stopped playing pretty much by the mid Eighties. Too many got married for us to play regularly.

PanzerBlitz was the third wargame of my BIG collection !!!!!

I still play it from time to time.. [&o]

I still play wargames with my old friends - these days we started "Fatal Alliances [Compass Games], a World War One wargame with the same rules of the immense "World in Flames".

we plan to play it for the next two or three years.. [X(]

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: Uncle Lumpy

Hattori, who isn't a board gamer geek if they admit publicly they actually play/played them?! LOL

we are True Geeks.. [:D]

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: larrybush

During tropical storm Fay my detached garage flooded and ruined all the sealed boxes with my games! Almost cried... There were a lot of out-of-print titles lost!

BoardGame Geek, I know of it but don't go there - mostly go here and play computer wargames or sci-fi stuff.
I have a PS4 but find I'm terrible at First Person Shooters...

Almost cried.. ?????
Almost dead I would say.. !!!!!

the above is one of my more feared real-life nightmare..

ps: Larry, BoardGame Geek is truely GREAT: give it a try !!!!!

www.boardgamegeek.com/user/Hattori%20Hanzo

my profile and wargames collection [8D]

[Drybreeze]

@larrybush : Thank you I will definately check out Project Rho. I will assume you mean this Project Rho?

@Uncle Lumpy : Me too


I have adjusted a whole bunch of stuff, including component resource ingredients, resource distribution, and a few other little things to overcome blocks in play-through. Now it plays through to mid-game very well, even with the incomplete research tree. Mind you, I've only played as Borg, so there may be other problems in the play on other races. But I'll keep playing as Borg to iron things out on that race, then convert that race over to the Cydracitics. Then once that's all fully functioning, I'll create the Sed'tat race by modifying the Cydracitics, and build one race (and it's fully functioning research tree) at a time.

I have uploaded the currently functioning v0.2 alpha in the download link on the first post.

If you do download and play it, please ignore any issues that show up in any race other than Borg. Anything you see with Borg let me know, but keep in mind that research tree is incomplete. The components and resources are where I'm focusing right now until it's complete.


EDIT > Why won't my game run now??? Wtf it was working fine but now when I click the "Play Distant Worlds" in the launcher it does nothing...?

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Drybreeze]

Yeah you can't have both gas and solids resources on the same bodies. Hydrogen (or any resource nominated as a gas) may only appear on gas giants, frozen gas giants, or clouds.

I suspect that you can have asteroids ONLY have gas on them (no solids) but I haven't tried to do that because it's counter-intuitive and I'm going for realism. But the wording in the resources help comments suggest that it's possible.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[rjord2021]

EDIT > Why won't my game run now??? Wtf it was working fine but now when I click the "Play Distant Worlds" in the launcher it does nothing...?

Go to Documents\My Games\Distant Worlds Universe

Look at the file DW_CrashDump.txt and see if it has logged an error message and a line number where the problem is.

Otherwise in the same folder rename the file defaultOptions to defaultOptions_old.

Go back into Distant Worlds, change your theme back to your mod and see if that fixes it.

[Drybreeze]

@larrybush : I agree with your thinking regarding water ice on asteroids. And Sea of Stars mod caters for it. But to get around Hydrogen being a gas and other resources I have made resources reflect their refined resources. For example asteroids can contain a mix of steel [in the form of iron], aluminium [in the form of bauxite] and gravel [in the form of concrete]. They can also have hydrogen, in the form of a new resource - water. It's treated in game as a solid, and is found on asteroids as well as a variety of other solid planetary bodies. It is used as a colony growth resources (as with oxygen) and also in various builds, such as reactors, recreational facilities (swimming pools, showers, etc) and colonisation pods, etc. In SoS it's a very high-demand resource, so even though it only appears in small levels in asteroids, it's often worthwhile installing at least an ultra-light mining station to extract it and ship it, to keep colony demands satisfied.

@rjord1 : Yep that fixed it, thank you. I had made a resource modification (aluminium on asteroids) but had typed it wrongly. The crash dump told me exactly where the problem was, so it's fixed now and running fine. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: larrybush

That's quite a collection! A lot of familiar titles too. I had WWII and on did not play civil war or Napoleonics though.

thanks, I like to play different historical periods: ancient, middle-age, Napoleonics, ACW, WW1 & WW2 and obviously Sci-Fi.. !!! [;)]

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Shogouki]

Holy crap! Good to see you're alive and well and congratulations on your home! Very excited to see this project continue!

[Drybreeze]

@Shogouki - Thanks! Yeah I'm enjoying having a roof. 2 years in a caravan with small children isn't fun.

Ok well thanks to Sabranan's mod editor I have made fast progress... it's a remarkable tool!
I have altered the entire Research Tree, edited the Borg to become Cydracitic in name, government, and most of the commentary. So far so good.

I've also edited a ton of the components to reduce their size, and I'm about to do another play through. I won't publish this one like I did the last one, not yet. But I will report how it went. I'm expecting it to be much more playable than the last one.

[Drybreeze]

I have done a huge play through with a now very altered and mostly functional research tech tree (for the race non-specific techs), as well as some conversion of the Borg race over to the Cydracitics race.

It plays through very well indeed now, quite balanced (although still needs some balancing). I may increase the fuel capacity of fuel cells though. As the reactors use more fuel than originally planned, the ships run out of fuel faster than I'd like. It's similar to the vanilla game, but I wanted to have it so that uranium and hydrogen both lasted far longer in the Sea of Stars mod.

The space battles are intense... really. I am very pleased with the level of action during a battle between fleets. Ships have a chance to limp away unless the opponent fleet really is vastly superior, which is what I wanted also.

So now I'll spend a little more time on balancing the components and resources, and fully deck out the characters list and ship and character names of the Cydracitics before releasing the v0.3 alpha for testing and feedback by anyone interested in trying it out.

One thing I'm puzzled about so far is that with some resources it says there's a huge stockpile in my empire, but it also says there's a shortfall. Is that just because it's not being shipped around fast enough to demanding sites, and it's all sitting in a mine somewhere, or what?

[Hattori Hanzo]

OUT-STANDING news, DryBreeze: I'm really anxious to finally be able to play your "Sea of Stars" DW:U mod !!! [X(]

about your doubt: do you have a huge stockpile of resources in each planet or only at HomeWorld or StarPorts ?

usually the shortfalls are on planet demand basis.

[Drybreeze]

@ Hattori Hanzo: Thanks! It's a very playable mod already (but very incomplete of course). But rapid progress being made, despite having lost all local files.



I spent some time last night editing into the mod a bunch of characters as per below. I will expand this list in future, but for now I just want to get a workable amount into the mod per race, and then do polishing and additions later.

For now, the Cydracitics race (primarily laser tech at this point).

Cydracitic Alphas (Leaders)




The Cydracitic Leaders are mobile but fully integrated into the race, able to move between colonies, ships, and stations without losing connectivity to the Cydracitic Core operating system. At all times connected, the leader is occasionally replaced with an upgraded model or an experimental model.


Cydracitic Central Control Units (Governors)





Cydractic Colony Governers were physical entities in earlier years, however the Cydracitics adapted to integrate the governors into the infrastructure of the colony itself, a sort of living, self-aware colony. Nothing more than extremely advanced software, able to be broadcast, downloaded, upgraded, edited, and duplicated at the will of the Cydra Alpha.


Cydracitic Fleet Control Units (Admirals)




Cydra Fleet Con units are mobile, often designed to be rapidly plugged into a new vessel during the heat of battle, and are designed purely to coordinate multiple vessels during all fleet maneuvers. They are usually plugged directly into the Cydra Alpha, however are also designed to be able to operate independantly in the case of EMP or other communication disruption.


Cydracitic Interface Units (Spies)




Cydra Interface Units are designed to enable the Cydracitic Core to interface directly with foreign powers. These units employ a range of technologies to achieve this depending on the foreign bodies that are being interfaced with, ranging from direct neural manipulation through holographic technology, all the way to complicated organic simulacrums of individual units of the foreign power being interfaced with. All these technologies are geared towards one end - successful infiltration and integration with the target foreign power to enable the Cydracitic Core to obtain useful information or to sabotage enemy efforts.


Cydracitic Morph Units (Ambassadors)



Cydra Morph units are essentially overt spies. They interface with a target species in a direct and obvious way, usually using holographic technology to help keep the target race from being uneasy with their presence. They are designed to clearly and obviously interact with a target foreign power, usually as a non-hostile action by the Cyrdacitic Core.


Cydracitic Infantry Control Units (Troop Generals)




Cydra Inf Con Units are a sub-division of Cydra Alpha which takes direct control of a division of infantry units on a colony or fleet, rendering them much more rapid response to the dynamics of a theatre of war, and enabling the Cydra Core to focus on larger issues that present themselves as the empire expands. Cydra Inf Units are usually battle units themselves but with some significant investments that essentially serve in the same way as a Fleet Con Unit except dedicated to Troop coordination.


Cydracitic Link Units (Scientists)




The Cydra Link Units operate as sub-routines to the Cydra Core, problem solving various complicated issues to develop new technologies and understandings, and presenting the solutions to the industrial arms of the Great Core.


The Cydracitic race is now fully playable, the research tree for the race is fully functional (but still needs a lot of balancing which will come after the introduction of other races), and the resource and component aspect of the mod is fully functional and fairly well balanced.

It is not possible to play through an entire game with this mod, although it is still very unbalanced overall.

Anyone wishing to test the game at this time can do so by downloading the v0.3 version found in the first post, or directly below.
Any feedback is very welcome!

v0.3 alpha - shared zip file
DOWNLOAD HERE
490mb
Release includes:
Revised research tree to ensure all technology lines are able to be researched in a logical sequence.
Revised component weights and outputs.
Revised resources distributions and balances.
Revised costs for some components.
Cydracitics race characters added.
Faults and incompletions include:
Racese-specific technology will be worked on for next release.
Other Races beyond Cydracitics will be worked on for the next release.
Ship graphics are yet to be worked on.
Planet view graphics are yet to be worked on.
Sound effects are yet to be worked on.
Music is yet to be worked on.

[Hattori Hanzo]

awesome to say the least, DryBreeze.. !!!!! [X(]

I will "Download & Try" it when you will add some other Races and it will be possible to play through an entire game, balanced or unbalanced it will be.

in the meantime I will continue to monitor you closely [;)]

[Drybreeze]

Added all the characters and the race image for a new humanoid race called the Solics. These guys also have their base tech tree completed (I'll add race-specific tech later). I still need to add ship and base graphics and designs for both Cydracitics and Solics. I'll add the race images for Sed'Tat next.

Once I've got a bare-bones mod with at least a couple of characters per class, I'll pad them out so that there's a lot of different characters for each race.


Solic Leader



President Branderton overseas the democratic empire of the Solics for now. Many other presidents will be added to the collection later.


Solic Governors



The colony governors oversea the governing of individual colonies, reporting directly to the President.


Solic Fleet Admiral



The Fleet Admirals are responsible for coordinating a fleet of ships, providing a boost in the fleets' overall performance.


Solic Spies and Assassins




Spies and Assassins are used to infiltrate enemy forces and damage enemy assets, tipping the balance.


Solic Amassadors




Ambassadors are useful for influencing foreign forces, helping to improve relations and generally assist in aligning the foreign forces with the Solics' own initiatives.


Solic Troop Generals





Inspirational Leaders and powerful Generals, Troop Generals are useful for bringing out the best in the Solics' troops.


Solic Ship Captains



Accomplished Ship Captains grant special bonuses to the vessels they command.


Solic Scientists



Solic Scientists develop new technology and theories that help maintain the Solics' edge over competitors.