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

ManSh00ter

Join Date 02/2008

+92

[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

no way

i played DANMAN's mod yesterday and there are also, i guess, some TITAN-class ships.
i built one and recognized the original caps (size,power,cost) are perfectly fitting the game. some more capship-types are more interesting than bigger ones.

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Well, I don't know about what kind of Titans Danman placed in his mod pack (are we even talking about completely new ships or just "buffed" capitals?), but I can assure you, the Last Stand Titans are not only going to be as balanced as possible, but also quite fitting when it comes to the storyline.

Oh yes, this mod actually comes with a truckload of background lore.

Think of a Titan as a mobile superweapon, not some pwnmobile from hell. They will actually require a lot of skill in order to be used for maximum effect, especially when playing against other players online.

As for additional capitals, for balance reasons it would be unwise to have the new factions more capital types than the vanilla ones, since it would give the new factions a considerable edge in utility, especially since pretty much every use for cap ships already is in the game (straight-out sluggers, carriers, support ships, skirmishers, siege ships), so all you can do is either make buffed-up versions or "swiss-knife" versions, both of which are overpowered.

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DANMAN's TITANs are more buffed versions of existing caps with mixed abilities. larger and even more expensive in cost and upkeep. if your TITANs are different, i will give it definitly a try

but what i am still missing in SoaSE is cloaking. like in "Nexus - The Jupiter Incident" when cloaked, all shields are offline. when uncloaking, shields have to renew first, so this ability is not that overpowered. and you need perhaps scouts to detect cloaked ships.
another thing i want to add is, that when someone talks about an organic fleet, i think of the Zerg (StarCraft). they are weak when few and powerful in a huge number. so organic ships that are stronger than mechanical ones in a 1 vs 1 does not fit imo.
but hey ManSh00ter, its your mod and it looks awesome. and i hope it will play even better

and your ideas are good too. so prove me wrong

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DANMAN's TITANs are more buffed versions of existing caps with mixed abilities. larger and even more expensive in cost and upkeep. if your TITANs are different, i will give it definitly a try but what i am still missing in SoaSE is cloaking. like in "Nexus - The Jupiter Incident" when cloaked, all shields are offline. when uncloaking, shields have to renew first, so this ability is not that overpowered. and you need perhaps scouts to detect cloaked ships.another thing i want to add is, that when someone talks about an organic fleet, i think of the Zerg (StarCraft). they are weak when few and powerful in a huge number. so organic ships that are stronger than mechanical ones in a 1 vs 1 does not fit imo.but hey ManSh00ter, its your mod and it looks awesome. and i hope it will play even better and your ideas are good too. so prove me wrong

hehe, when i think of organic ships i think of a big hive-like creature (also like in Nexus: the Jupiter Incident) "Hive Queen rings a bell???

??)
just large organic ships floating through space, producing eggs + hatching em... voila.. pair of Organic Fighters

(i know Hive-Queen sucks energy etc, so ships are disabled instead of destroyed........ but we dont want it to be identical to Nexus right???

or just big ram-like ships, with shortrange weapons attaching themselves,tearing the hull

when i think about organic i dont think about alot of fragile ships, i think about a few heavy ships that, when feeds of ships, has a high regeneration....

but thats just what i see if u say Organic Ship.......,like that more than the old-fashion zerg thing....

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Well, Starcraft is a bit of a black sheep when it comes to organic tech in Sci-Fi... in fact, you will find that in most cases organic technology is portrayed as vastly superior to mechanical equivalents. A few examples are the Night's Dawn trilogy by Greg Bear and Yuuzhan Vong in Star Wars expanded universe.

When it comes to Zerging, the Clans Remnant will fit that role in the Last Stand. But their ships are cheap, mass-produced tin cans, so you could say - the exact opposite of Xin technology.

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Here are a few "beta" shots of the Tyrant battleship ingame. Note that the frills such as floodlights are messed up and need to be fixed yet. These shots are just for a glance and a size comparison both between a Xin cruiser and a Vasari carrier capital.

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That's huge! Looks great also

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Good. I always love hammerhead (or anchorhead maybe

)

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Is that the final texture?

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Obikirk, there are a few parts which need touching-up, most notably the rear end of the hull and engine ports (not seen here) and the "large window" areas in the middle and bottom of the ship. Other than that, its final.

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IMO if some of the modders do a good job they may well get snapped up by a Software company, why not? It is a very closed shop though and a degree is needed.

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Well, you have stories about modders ranking up to full-time developers, sure. But... degree in what? Its one thing for software engineers, but artists? A degree is a piece of paper saying you know how to use a palette of tools, nothing more.

Anyway, based purely on what I heard and read about such things, most game studios make you go through a series of interviews and even hands-on tests to see if you've got what they need. So I'd say that talent and a good portfolio come first, degree second.
Might be wrong though, never had a job in the industry. And if degrees are that important, I doubt that a degree in philosophy and informatology will get me a seat either.

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Might be wrong though, never had a job in the industry. And if degrees are that important, I doubt that a degree in philosophy and informatology will get me a seat either.

Hey... the game companies are always trying to get into the heads of gamers. So you might be able to get a job as a consultant.

Oh... wait, philosophy... not psycology... D'OH!!! LOL

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Well, they are always going on about "a whole new philosophy of approach" so... I may get a job as an approachment consultant!

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Finally, after a week of hard work, I am proud to present the first official teaser for this mod, and the new official name:

The Last Stand: Episode I
First Contact

Ok, now on to business!

For those who want a quick-but-grainy (not really recommended, but there you have it) peek at Youtube:

Low-*Low* definition video

There is also a better quality streaming video available at the mod's ModDB webpage.

For those who like to strike a balance between quality and quantity, here is a medium quality version (17Mb)

And finally, for those who don't care about the size but do care about not seeing any pixellation, the mega-turbo High Definition version (154Mb):
Filefactory download

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That trailer was beyond insane i cant wait to try it out for myself. This is what i call the ultimate mod.

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damn that looks good

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W O W !!!!!

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DANMAN3712

Join Date 02/2008

+101

OMG......WOW....Thats it....when this comes out...7 DEADLY SINS will get totally owned.

ManSh00ter....THIS IS AWESOME!!!!! I have been a big fan since you started this, and honestly your TITANS gave me the idea for the Titans in 7 DEADLY SINS. Without a doubt, this looks amazing. That trailer was increadible. Also, thank you for the comments on my forum, and I will definatley take your advice to heart with creating new races. I think I need to step up my game, if 7 DEADLY SINS is going to come anywhere close to the quality that your mod is. My hat goes off to you, you get the standing ovation, and you have my full support if you need it. Thanks for the advice you gave me, I will take it all to heart. That XIN race is awesome. WELL DONE!

DANMAN

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awesome trailer, this mod will rule, and i don't want to rain on this great, awesome parade, but what do you intend to do about v1.1 and any other patches that will come out before or after the mod makes its debue? what about new planet types? will there be any? im getting tired of the same old same old asteroid, asteroid, lava, ice, lava, lava, ice, terrain, terrain,desert capture order.

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DANMAN3712

Join Date 02/2008

+101

Well, you have stories about modders ranking up to full-time developers, sure. But... degree in what? Its one thing for software engineers, but artists? A degree is a piece of paper saying you know how to use a palette of tools, nothing more.Anyway, based purely on what I heard and read about such things, most game studios make you go through a series of interviews and even hands-on tests to see if you've got what they need. So I'd say that talent and a good portfolio come first, degree second.Might be wrong though, never had a job in the industry. And if degrees are that important, I doubt that a degree in philosophy and informatology will get me a seat either.

ManSh00ter, this is also a goal of mine. I first started this mod for my own enjoyment, then it turned into helping others, and helping the gamers get the most our of Sins by combining all the great mods together, since Sins does not support multiple mods running at the same time. Then the mod just got bigger, and bigger, and then finally famous. PC Gamer brought tons of attention, in which brought more demand for the mod, and more demand of my time. I had to assemble a team of modders just to help me out, and I would not be where I am if it was not for people such as yourself, Uzii, bailknight, and others who have helped me along the way. My team is critical, and I give them most of the credit.
I also heard stories of modders going on the be part of the game's full time staff, such as a modder from EverQuest. He mad a mod so great, that the developers hired him, and his content is now in EverQuest 2.
To be honest, I wold love for the same thing to happen to me, and to other Sins modders. It would be great to get paid for what we do. It would be an honor to grace the ranks of Ironclad or Stardock, but right not it is just hopes and dreams, and the only thing us modders can do is make a great impression, for which I am striving for and in doing so, will help out the modding and gaming community as a whole.

I wish you luck Mansh00ter, you have certaintly done much with this mod. And as such, I know the gamers will be demanding for this mod to be merged with others. So please consider this my formal request to merge your mod when you make it available.

Keep up the great work!

DANMAN

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Hehe, glad you guys like the video, got a lot more goodies coming your way before the release.

Gamerking, I will of course try to keep my mod compatible with the latest version of SoaSE. The 1.1 does a lot of changes, but that is partially why I have been doing mostly graphical assets and only basic scripting so far - that way I have less work every time a new patch comes out... besides I sort of expected at least one major patch to be released during development of the Last Stand.
So worry not - as it seems I only have some minor texture overhauling to do, otherwise the development of TLS is on schedule.
As for new planet types, I will be relying on work done by Uzii, though with certain changes (only realistic planet types and some attribute balancing). So there will definitely be more planet diversity than in vanilla game.

Danman, thanks man, appreciate the praise.

Here's to the bright future, if Fortune would favor it.

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DANMAN3712

Join Date 02/2008

+101

ManSh00ter,
You are very welcome, as it is very deserved. And yes, here is to a bright future, for both of us!
I would also like to extend to you the offer of all my custom planets within 7 DEADLY SINS. Since Uzii isn't around anymore, and I have basically have been running his mod in his absence through 7DS. I will also be putting out an update for Sins Plus soon, so feel free to use the for TLS.

Good luck with The Last Stand.

DANMAN

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Awesome

Well the Xin rocks, but what fear the Xin. That they expand to Trader Space. Well could that be some kind of anti-life, which make them move. Maybe a being how evolve from a "Von-Neumann-Sonde", that would be so unbelievable bad, i think.

But we'll see what kind of being, you make their foes.

Killy

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Officially Teased...

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