any beta testers need yet?

Ok, time to bring everyone up to speed.

To just cut to the point, the whole project ran into a major brick wall a while ago when I realized just how the Sins engine works and what kind of memory management it has. Chalk that up to my own inexperience since I was daft enough to assume that a seamless transition engine would have some sort of a memory manager which loaded and unloaded stuff as it was required (I know this can be done, but alas it was not the case with Sins).

This in short means that the mod, when fully loaded, is very inclined to simply crash the game, especially if you run it with all expansions loaded as well. That I was very liberal with texture sizes did not help either. So, I was faced with one of the worst things you can face when working on something for a long time - that I was, simply put, doing it wrong. Most of the models were textured in such a way that it is is not possible to reduce their memory footprint without making them look like something out a 90's game.

What to do, what to do.

Well, right now I am working furiously (and I mean that in the full sense of the word) to redesign the mod so that it:

• is in line with the excellent Optimization Project
• works better and looks even better
• retains the Awesomeness Factor™ 

This means I have to rework most of the models, unfortunately - fortunately however, I have gotten a lot better at it since the early days and can crank out a fully furnished model in four hours or so. Last week, I have already redone all of the frigates. I hope to be done with all of the ships by the end of this year. Modules should take a week or two more. The effects also need optimizing, but that should be a minor issue. No Sins game is complete without a set of BailKnight's Effects in my opinion!

Another major change is that, in light of the above revelations I have decided to curb my enthusiasm and limit this mod to just ONE race, the Xin. Recent news about the new memory model being in the works for Sins is great, but I won't make any plans for the Remnant and the Hegemony until I see that model in action so I can be sure it can all fit in nicely without making Sins implode.

With these major changes in mind, I will be opening a new topic soon, with a new project name, because in a way that's what it is. I've learned a lot during these years, gone from total n00bie to semi-pro, had tons of fun and want to especially thank each and every one of you who showed support for the project.

The saga continues. I have to get this out before Duke Nukem Forever...

will the xin ships still look basicly the same?

*drools* OOOOOOH, CONTENT. SHIIIIIIIINNNEEEEEY!!!!1!1!111!!1!!!!

As my TEC defenders would say ... "There's too many of them!!!" as the sounds of gunfire and battles rage on.

ManSh00ter, this is awesome.

*drools*

I agree that the older aesthetic looked REALLY good. But the new look is also pretty good and really goes with the background of their race.

In a way, it's almost like the aesthetic of the 3 major factions of an open-source space game, Vega Strike. You have the assembled ships of the Humans, the grown ships of the Rlaan, and the molded ships of the Aera.

So instead of the semi-molded/semi-grown look, ManSh00ter's going with a heavier emphasis on the "grown" aspect.

Yeah, but he might also be going for the "Eeeeww, that's unnatural" factor. But meh, it doesn't matter right now. We'll see how it turns out when he's finished.

Wow. Just, wow. That's pretty creepy/awesome, a "flying eye pod". But I think that you've definitely got something with the idea.

Though I personally would say, for the bigger ships (like the capitals), have a slightly metallic look; after all, I'm sure that the Xin would enhance the coral-carapace with some metallic compounds for superior resilience. And with the Xin being super-advanced (I like the "surf on gravity waves" bit), it would make sense, no?

I really like how it's going so far. BTW, in the OP in-game screens, what's going to happen to the Impaler Drone? Is it still in? (I really like the Impaler Drone).

Also, do you happen to still have the old models&textures? Mostly I'm just curious as to the fate of the originals.

Well, it's nice to know that the models are still in existence. I can certainly get that the Impaler didn't fit with the rest of the Xin (though I thought it looked pretty fitting next to the Overlord).

Hmm, have you heard about the Sins modding wiki? They've actually started a ship archive; they'd probably be pretty down with having the old Xin models donated to the wiki.

If I manage to recover them, I'll definitely think about it.

He's already stated that IF he's going to make them, he's waiting for the rumored performance patch to be released and (likely) after all the improvements it has have been revealed.

Xin will use mostly plasma and bioengineered weapons. For example, the Assault Drone spits a superhot gob of plasma, the long range variant uses a similar weapon, only more powerful. One of the weapons the Xin use is a sort of a living missile which latches onto the victim and literally burns itself out trying to chew through the hull (if I manage to pull off the weapon effect for that one right, its gonna look awesome). 

I do keep separate resource files, and the new workflow relies heavily on custom made texture patterns I use in ZBrush, but there will be very little mixing of art assets between races if I do decide to make more. Reason being the Hegemony has a totally different look.

If I do make them, they will be compatible, of course, and you will be able to play with both enabled.