In zip and 7z different files were corrupted and copied it to a working solution together.

The new icons and the new dreads are great! Love it.

Maelstrom Expansion for Diplomacy, v1.011, release 3 (added 12/01/2011)

Zip download (517 MB)  Maelstrom Expansion v1.011 release 3

Used this as an only mod and I'm getting following "errors" after only a few minutes. Tried 3 new races but the same errors on all of them.

* heavy game lag after 10min

* ships are "blank" no texture on them (as if all was made of shiny metal). Capital ships are often just one color, ie just red everywhere and glowing bright.

* screen goes blank from time to time. Sometimes when it goes blank (dark screen for 5sec) and comes back, some of the ship types get their intended textures back.

Never did a game last more than 30min, since it crashed 3 times in a row.

Settings were:

• Large map 80+ planets
• 5 ai hard players. 
• fleet size small
• Every graphical setting to highest at 1920x1200 ( yes i have a high end comp )

and everything else was on default values (ie normal speed etc etc).

Hi zerokewlz,

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

Not in front of my home PC so can't check certain things.

However, the following setting is causing your crash ...

I'm not sure if your familiar with the 2GB RAM limit for Sins, but we are all in the same boat no matter how fast your PC is. It is also independent of OS and how much RAM you have, etc. Sins is compiled as a 32 bit program. If Sins+Mod uses more than 2GB's the game will crash.

The recommend graphics settings for Maelstrom can be found at ... Installation Notes, release 3

Try lowering your graphics effect bump settings from highest to high (or medium).

If you have a 64 bit OS then there is a solution for this problem that is bundled in with your download (see readme.zip)

Integrity of files (R3) in download links verified ....

7zip for diplomacy expansion didn't work for myself

Can you clarify? Was the 7z corrupted?

When did you download it? In fact you must of downloaded in a couple of days ago.

As I said before ... "Re-uploading files now ... will make download links available when transfer integrity confirmed."

The 7zip version of Diplomacy Expansion works ... I tested it as I write this.

yes the 7z Was corrupted

"""When did you download it"" 1/14/2011

Thanks for the feedback soase-maelstrom, will try the tips you suggested.

Just re-downloaded 7z version of extended for diplomacy and it didn't have any errors.

jasonQQQ can it be that you have a cached version maybe from the last time?

Just re-downloaded 7z   Diplomacy Expansion  and it didn't have any errors. 

 Thanks

My apologies for the problem in the first place.

I found out what was causing the problem and it wasn't the ftp transfer. I was using a usb flash drive that developed a fault. So when I used the drive to transfer between two computers at home the files were corrupted ... great one! No warning from XP!!

No worries, all is good. I'm liking the new content so far. Congrats on the latest release.

Awesome mod. Thanyou for your hard work. The new dreads look awesome.

Thanks. Much appreciated.

Thanks. Glad you are enjoying it.

soase-maelstrom Can you tell me what music you used for the trade alliance?

i have been trying all day to get this mod to work!!!! i follow the instructions and try to enable it, but it wont enable!!!!!  i dont know what to do HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PM me

Can you be more specific when you say "it is not enabling ".

Did the downloaded zip (or7z) complain of errors.

Check that when you unzipped the mod and transfered it to your mod dir you are not one dir too deep (i.e checksum=0) (see jpg file included with the readme.zip)  e.g

|-Maelstrom_Diplomacy_1.011_3

|-- Maelstrom R3

hope you only move/copied Maelstrom R3 dir.

I mean that i copy it to Entrenchment mod folder, go into to game, select enable, go into game menu and nothing but the regular stuff. its like the mod isnt activated. this has also happened to the Sins of a Galactic Empire mod. What was that u were talking about mod checksum cuz thats at zero.

checksum zero sounds like the game did not find the files. Did you select the mod did you just hit enable?

you can have multiple mods in the directory, in the Sins mod folder you should have a single "Maelstrom R3" folder. The game should show you this name, then you select it and hit "enable".

i have a folder then in that folder the folder that says Maelstrom R3

i took it out and pu that one ine the mod folder, went to game activated, and under Checksum had some numbers hit apply changes but ti crashed on me

Ok i got mods to work, but the Maelstrom mod wont work. I enable it, the checksum has the numbers, but when i press apply changes the game freezes and is unresponnsive. Any ideas?

* Confirm that your version of Sins Entrenchment is 1.051

* Confirm that your version of Maelstrom is for Entrenchment 1.051

* Confirm that you have moved Maelstrom R3 (folder) to "Mods-Entrenchment v1.051" directory

If the game freezes after the above has been verified then either the file download is corrupt or when you transferred the "Maelstrom R3" dir to the mods dir a file corruption occurred.

maybe something you can use for balancing:

I was further trying out the Norlamnin and found the issue I had with them was because I tried to play them different to both the Cators and the Trade Alliance. But in fact the trade is key if you do the math (heavily simplified):

After startup if you get ~3 additional planet/asteroids you will get a base income of about 10 credits, 5 iron and 5 crystal

If I got it correct: doing all cost reduction research will give you 30% on everything, requiring 9 research items.

The mining bonuses are the worst way to go because of many research steps and the lose at cross-selling. So if I have much iron, you get only 50% value by selling. If you need to buy crystal then the value is again reduce to ~25%. So a 10% bonus on iron will leave you worst case with ~1% real value. And researching bonus for our low crystal mining will give you according little increase. A 10% trade bonus instead will even worst case (buying iron or crystal) give you 25% value.

With one research item I can get Trade ports, with four (one port at each planet) giving ~5 credits. The big advantage the trade ports also have is speed: After the research I can build them as fast as I get money to get even more money and I get additional bonus by trade treaties and any new planet will increase the production of the others when increasing the trade route length.

This I think is the reason the Trade Alliance is so strong at start. Trade ports are the fastest, most effective and efficient way to increase income. The Trade Alliance weakness is their culture. When planet become unhappy the income drops.

The Norlamin culture advantage gives them a bonus, but which again limits playing flexiblity. For a competitive play you research trade, research and culture. This takes so much time, when I get to mining or cost reduction it is already close to finish.

I would like to have the Norlamin more original: What about reducing their trade and increase the cost reduction bonus? Not sure about the mining, I would leave the big mining to the cators. The Norlamin mining could stay as it is for the case they get an mineral planet early on.

Having just played a long game, give the Norlamin a higher early research bonus. Mostly on research speed. It needs incredible time to do their research trees even if you have many resources.