[MOD] Sins of a Solar Empire: INVASION (new screenshots, May 28th, 2012.)

ManSh00ter

Join Date 02/2008

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[MOD] Sins of a Solar Empire: INVASION (new screenshots, May 28th, 2012.)

Previously known as "The Last Stand"

Sins of a Solar Empire: INVASION is an addon project aiming to expand upon the existing universe of the Sins of a Solar Empire, providing original and high-quality content on top of the original game. Aside from the new content, the addon will also include multiplayer-friendly gameplay changes as well as reworked or new visuals/sounds.

ETA: To Be Announced

Planned changes/content will include:

A new playable race, created to the highest quality standards. The Xin are a race of utterly alien origin, and the massive fleets of their living, semi-sentient ships have been ravaging the galaxy for millenia. Countless races have perished under their onslaught - and now TEC, Advent and the Vasari will have to face this terrible enemy and win - or die trying.
Assume the role of the defenders and try to stem the tide of death and destruction, or take command of the invading armada and destroy the impertinent insects wherever they choose to make their last stand.

Volumetric Explosions & Damage Effects, providing not only greater excitement to your space battles by transforming all explosions and persistent damage effect into true 3D affairs, but also better visual cues as to how the battle is going, enabling you to spot at a first glance the hotspots and even the level of damage on particular ships.
Dynamic Battle System, where each ship class' strenghts and uses are not determined only by its stats and abilities, but also by its flight characteristics. Certain ship classes will be able to move during fleet battles, which, coupled with the reworked stats of all ship classes should prevent "cookie-cutter" or "spam" strategies.
New Ship Classes for the new faction, ranging from specialist ships such as the Warmaster or Emperor Battlecruiser all the way to Titans acting as mobile superweapons capable of facing down an entire fleet on their own or even destroying an entire gravity well in one powerful surge.
Reworked Balancing, aiming to further focus various ship classes on their roles, removing any overlapping advantages which ultimately make one ship type or the other the ship to produce. Changes will also include increased gravity wells as well as greater class difference in turning rates and top speeds in order to further accentualize fleet placement, strategic positioning of forward bases and other such details which a great admiral make.
New Planet Types, which will also be visually enhanced, primarily by increasing their size in order to make them a true centerpiece of a given sector. New planet types will provide greater variety without providing game-breaking advantages to players.
Enlarged Gravity Wells which, coupled with the dynamic nature of space combat, will challenge players to an even greater level, requiring careful placements of planetary defenses and orbital structures, as well as fleets.
Unique Structures for the new faction, ranging from formidable Heavy Defense Batteries to deployable Outposts which will be capable of guarding even sectors around otherwise uninhabitable astronomical bodies such as stars or gas giants.

==MEDIA SECTION==

==SCREENSHOTS==

==TRAILERS==

DRONE SPOTLIGHT I

A short ingame exposition of the Scout, Assault and Siege drones.

==BACKGROUND LORE==

Pangalactic War Timeline

Clicking the above link will lead you to the download of a .pdf document detailing the rich and dynamic history of the factions which will play a major role in the Last Stand mod, so if you are into background lore, be sure to check it out!

==UNIT INFORMATION==

Pending.

modding

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Sobekeus
G_Bison
4rearo
Distorted Truth
brummyuk
Banthracis
starratt
The_Regicide

hey um, i just read the full thread, so excuse my noobishness for a sec. Do u know where we can get the Carnage in Space mod, and when u finish the last part of the mod, can u make a version that keeps the vanilla factions for skirmish and multiplayer. For race selection, it could have TEC, Vasari, Advent, Xin, Remnant, Hegemony, Random All (random for all factions), Random Vanilla (random for old factions), Random Last Stand (random for new factions).

My final request: can u make gameplay faster by making weapons for all races do more damage?

(begging on hand and knees)

and if u need concepts for remnant and hegemony, i've got plenty of time burn at school and draw some really cool ships based on ur guidelines and then post them on this thread in a scanned version. Let me know, i'd love to help!

thx manshooter, well done on a fine and fast mod.

-Flankers 1010

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uuh i doubt this will be faster than any other sins mod..

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Darkstar, I am using XSI to make models and Photoshop for texturing.

Flankers, the Carnage in Space mod is still in the works, and will probably be released very shortly after the 1.1 Sins update. This is because, word has it, the devs are going to lift certain restrictions which currently prevent me from making ALL the features work in the mini-mod, such as every faction having completely different explosions. In the meantime, work continues on the art assets, and with the release of Particle Forge I am finally able to tinker with special effects seriously now - and without losing too much time!

It may happen that the Carnage in Space will be renamed to The Last Stand: Prologue; a sort of intro to the first edition which will come after the Xin are finished. This version would contain core gameplay enhancements, such as my own visual improvements, several merged mods such as BailKnight's Effects and Uzii's planets, resized planets and gravity wells, mines and better static defenses... anyway, nothing for sure right now, I have to see how much time will I have on my hands.

Also, the Last Stand is an addon mod, not a total conversion; this means that it is being designed to play with the vanilla factions. In the final version, all six factions will be playable.
I do not plan to affect game speed however, since that can be altered through the game options already. That and I sort of lean towards longer games so it would go against my nature.

As for Remnant and Hegemony - there is plenty of work to be done on the Xin yet, but I do have concepts for all factions; however if you want to be creative, be my guest, anyone is welcome to post their concepts and ideas here! I can't promise anything, but naturally if I happen to like a particular design enough to include it into the mod, the author gets their place in the end credits.

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when does this mod come out, it looks sweeeet.

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sorry about the double posting but i got an idea involving the "titan ship." it could be a flagship and only 1 or 2 could be built, and it does not take up cap ship crews, or it could be a cap ship upgrade, like a special structure that can turn a very high lv cap ship(such as lv 9 or 10) into a Titan, at a cost, that way it would be almost impossible to spam them.

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Currently, depending on whether capital ship limit is expanded/lifted, there are two solutions I am considering:

-one, to have a high-level capital ship be involved in the creation of a Titan; this way it would take time and planning to get there, rather than just research. This solution might prove problematic on small maps though.

-two, if the capital ship limit is lifted, to have the Titan built at a Capital Shipyard.

I am leaning towards the first one, because it rewards skillful playing (not everyone can get a high-level capital with same efficiency); but regardless, Titans will consume an inordinate amount of cap ship crews and supply. These ships can take on and annihilate entire task forces, and the cost of upkeep should reflect that. If one wants a Titan, one will have to make some sacrifices in the numbers of other ships.

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If u were going to use a capital ship xp system, could u make a slider for how much xp each ship is worth, so if it had a scale of 10 to -10, 10 would be ten times as much xp as usual, and -10 would 1/10 as much xp as usual. U could put this in the game options. Also, the XP values for each class (e.g. anti-strikecraft figate, heavy combat cruiser) should be different for each race based on the differences between them. This would help get rid of an xp problem with the Remnant (their ships are weaker, right?)

and also Mansh00ter, for ship designs, can u give me some artistic guidelines for the remnant and specific classes.

THX mansh00ter!

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Unfortunately, game options are hardcoded right now - without some form of scripting it is not possible to add features like that. I agree that if it were possible it would make some problems easy to solve, but alas, it is not.

As for guidelines:

Remnant ships should be angular, with exaggerated engines, classic gun turrets and missile pods, exposed machinery etc. They should follow a very utilitarian philosophy, with little room left for aesthetic frills and unnecessary decorations.

Hegemony ships should convey a feeling of armored strength and stately majesty. A mixture of curvature and hard edges, with areas covered by thick, obvious armor plating, especially on the front and sides of ships.

If you know EvE Online, the Minmatar and Amarr designs could serve as an inspiration as well. Have fun!

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then wouldnt the hegemony have the save design in terms of curves as the xin? should i do stuff like convex curves, points, lots of armor?

thx, already working on the remnant

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Well, not really. The Xin ships are curved all around, Hegemony will have curves only in certain places, otherwise it will be angular and flat surfaced. Also the color scheme will be different. Instead of silvery/white metal and blue lights, Hegemony will sport dark surfaces, red/yellow lights and golden/silver finish at certain decorative places.

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lol use mini black holes as weapons the could suck up energy and after a while 3-4 seconds release it all bam instant death count as a torpedo or heavy missile for titans

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sorry for the double post but when you destroy ships there should be a chance that it stays and forms wrecks in space

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The Last Stand will utilize entirely new destruction effects I am currently working on. You can see some preliminary results if you go back a page or two in this thread.
To summarize, each race will have distinctively different explosions, cruisers are going to explode differently from frigates, the particle systems also use flotsam system (essentially lots of distinctive geometric pieces designed to simulate exploding fragmentation of a disintegrating ship), crew corpses (where applicable) in their various poses of doom and so on.
Future updates *may* include specific fragments for each ship, but since this requires lots of modelling, I want to finish all the important stuff first, like ships and gameplay enhancements.

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well ManSh00ter, the new ship looks amazing, but that is what i have come to expect. i am wondering if Sins is even going to look the same once your through modding the hell out of it. Everything is going to look like it got an extra year in development by ironclad/stardock. i seriously cannot wait. i am more excited to play this mod than i am with most games. (with possible exceptin of mass effect PC, which comes out FREAKING WEDNESDAY!!) okay, i digress. peace.

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haha, it is taking him a year or more! u do state the obvious. but cheers for doing what IC and Stardock do in one year on ur own in 1 year. (no offense to them, they still kick butt for making it in the first place) end of digression.
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the Xin soud a lot like the Yuhzan Vong from the starwars expanded universe. mayby you could draw some inspiration from them. i.e. bugs that literally eat enemy ships ect... just a thought

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sorry about the double post, but it just occurred to me that you might not want any phase capacity, and have only the scout ships have phase capacity, and be able to create temporary quantum gates. this might couse a unique change in tacics for Xin players. again, just a thought

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That was an idea I considered, but you have to take into consideration such tactics which may cripple a Xin player, or make them overpowered. For example, if scouts deployed quantum gates for the rest of the Xin armada, then you might end up either with opponents destroying your scouts and gates too quickly, for example while your ships are en route and thus you end up giving a "free" sector-wide interdiction move to everyone but the Xin; or the Xin may end up spreading too quickly so you essentially remove their big disadvantage which is their lack of speed.

Right now, Quantum Gates are designed to provide a contrast between Xin home turf and enemy territory (or unclaimed space). When the Xin claim a sector, one of the first structures to be built will be Quantum Gates. This will essentially link that sector with the rest of the Xin worlds and enable them to travel there in an eyeblink, even from several sectors away.
But where there are no gates, the Xin will be noticeably slower than other races. This will put them at a disadvantage, since they will be easily outmaneuvered by the defending forces.

And yes... the Yuuzhan Vong are a sort of inspiration... if not in ship design then in the overall feel of the race as an alien, unfathomable menace bent on wholesale conquest.

As for Mass Effect... I will try not to let it interfere with my work on the mod... too much.

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another interestin concept might be to let the construction frigates be able to construct ships as well as buildings. this would fit well into the organic scheme well, because any orbital structures would be constructed much the same way as a starship. the orbital structures wold have to be grown like the ships. again, this might make some new strategies come up in the Xin

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i agree with petsta's idea. construct ships (if possible to do without full mod tools) should be able to build at least the small ships. for example, you could carry a few consturction ships along with the attack fleet to replace smaller units that are destoryed during conquest. that is a good idea. For example, in Starcraft, as the zerg, i always took along a few drones when i was on the attack so when i gained some ground, i could build a hatchery and spit out some new troops from a closer locations. (of course this is a building, i know, but it is the same concept of mobile construction units). As it stands right now in Sins, i have to wait until buildings are constructed to resupply units to my attack fleets on the front lines and that takes time that i dont usually have to spare. So, i firmly believe that these construction ships fill a very nice niche in the Xin design. plus, it would complement even more that cool, "space manace" feel as they swarm a planet, you know?

as for the quantum gates, that idea sounds fitting to me, but im a fraid of a possible loophole. imagine attacking a planet with a quantum gate...dude, there would be xin coming out of the woodwork and it would be damn near impossible. if i were the xin and defending some planet, i would just send every single unit i had at the 78 planets i have (which amounts to hundreds of units) to that single planet, demolish my enemy, and then send them back home. i don't know if you have considered this, but it could prove to be a very, very, VERY difficult thing to defeat with the other races. of course, attacking would be a pain in the butt with the xin caust they are slow in the phase lanes, but still. its something to think about, eh?

anyways, overall, still lookin' good. im glad you keep up with your thread so well.

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Well I'm probably going to get put down for this but...

1. Would you be able to make this new race something like the zerg in StarCraft as the Atlantians (a race by Danman) is already using the concept of big bucks but big punch along with some other races people are making and to tell you the truth I'm sick of it. I would love to see this race be weak but very cheap and takes up less fleet supply of course to balance it out along with faster build times. It would fit the theme of your race; organic and would make it unique as well.

2. Are you going to be adding any stars at all (not like the stars in "Solar Sins" where you can colonize them) but like the vanilla sins stars.) I hate the idea of colonizing stars and there is so much more room for improvement with the vanilla ones as dwarf stars are missing along with purple and white stars.

3. Will you be adding any planets at all? I know sins plus added many planets to the game but some I find are just stupid and others unrealistic. Some though like the barren, oceanic, and toxic planets are believable and are awsome but the forest , savahnna and Old naval base planet which I find is the dumbest by far are completely pointless and unrealistic. So will you be doing any planet work at all? (I love your mod Uzii but some planets I find are just stupid)

4. Will your race have unique everything? By this I mean a unique research tree not one that is just ripped off one of the vanilla races. Will it have unqiue icons for choosing what to select in certain areas like choosing a ship to build? Will it have unique planet elevators like the vanilla races? I know you are doing this alone but I just want to know, I'm not pressuring you to do anything so don't take it the wrong way.

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Dragonics:

1. Yes, the concept of the Remnant has them pretty much zerg-ish, with lots of cheap but individually weak ships as opposed to the Xin with fewer but stringer units and Hegemony which fit somewhere in the middle.

2. I am not sure if there will be any new star types right now. There certainly are not going to be colonizable stars (though the new races will be able to build certain special structures in otherwise uncolonizable sectors).

3. I plan on incorporating Uzii's work in the Last Stand, with modifications. First, all the planets are going to be resized (enlarged) to fit better in the increased gravity wells. How much I cannot yet tell, I have to see what strikes the balance between looking good and looking how I would like it to look

)
Second, some planet types are not going to make it in. I find Uzii's work to be quite good, but certain types like Naval Base do not fit in so... also the planet abilities and bonuses are going to be revised where needed to fit with the core balance.

4. Big yes. Right down to ship icons and voice work (I am also doing that one myself - its kind of fun trying to make yourself sound like an alien) - which is why this mod will take longer than usual to complete. For example, there are over 100 research topics to update and configure.
But, when its done, you will have a *completely* new race to play with, so in essence (I hope) it will feel like a free expansion.

Bss, of course there may be loopholes and balance issues... in fact I am counting on having them and having to fix them. Its pointless to try to catch all of them because other people will always use the system in the way you haven't thought of. That's what patches are for.

Anyway, when it comes to Quantum Gates, those are not going to be exactly sturdy... its more of an energy aperture in space-time continuum supported by a few fragile free-floating generators which are not exactly armored. So a fast strike team might zip through the sector defences and blow up the gate before the Xin can react. And the "in an eyeblink" thing, take that with a grain of salt... it won't be insta-travel for the Xin, just much faster than usual phasing. So there will be room to maneuver.

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Where is the edit button when you need one... I forgot to comment on Petsta's suggestion on having ships build stuff.

Right now, only one Xin ship will have the ability to replenish basic drone forces and that is the Ark capital ship. So it will in essense be like a small mobile base. You will get the ability to produce a few attack drone types and Seeder pods for colonization. Basically, it ain't over while there is an Ark ship around.

Aside from special structures like Forward Bases, ships will not be able to build stuff in space. Not only does it take a massive amount of resources (I am talking here from the lore perspective, not the actual in-game cost) to construct orbital structures, which only a planet can provide, but it would also mess with the whole "you have to actually own the sector before you can build anything" concept.

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if you havent already got a strike craft idea, i twold be fairly easy (from a lore point of veiw) to justify a huge swarm (30 or so per squad) of low armor(say 1-5Hp), low weaponry (25 attack), high speed fighter-bombers. y'know.. trading armor and weapons for speed, putting quantaty over quality. i dont know how you could make this balanced, mayby make the carriers more expensive... but it would definately work well with the whole unpiloted ships kidof thing.
another weird concept would be to have any unmanned ship have a "life time" because these are single organics, they would eventually get old and die. unless the Xin have found the cure for aging.
also, because of the organic factor you cold let the new races have a disease weapon that could kill Xin ships.

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If you want to kill Xin, you have to shoot them dead.

They are a bit too advanced for Holywood tricks like viruses and, khm, computer hacks (he who guesses the name of the movie I am referring to first will get in the credits)

.
But don't worry - other races will have their toys as well!

Strike craft are several in size and strength, and I will make sure they are as balanced as possible. All Xin squadrons will have more strike craft than usual and those are going to be also more frail than usual, but with faster "respawn" time, given enough antimatter.
Big Xin drones have, for the game purposes, unlimited lifetime. Perhaps they do grow old and die, but since their lifespan might be hundreds of years... well, no campaign lasts that long anyway.

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