I understand Shimmer, but is there supposed to be an FX that goes with the shot other than the muzzle flash?  If so than I am not seeing it.

Ok, I'll look for it, sorry to be a hassal, I just wasn't seeing it for some reason.

Well I'm not a klingon loving tester, but Hooray!  Starbases ROCK!

Just tested the Starbase, and I must say that it certainly is impressive!  I love the Klingon Logo's on the top (don't know if you want the skins to keep them, but they still look cool anyways), but I have found a few glitches, most of which you probably already know about.

First, you know that strange glow that the Federation platforms were doing?  Well it's back again and with an object of that size it is fairly obvious.

Next, when attacking the station, I noticed that the shields of when it was hit only encircled the middle portion of the station, not the entire thing.  I don't know if this is intentional, but it kind of looks awkward to have only the center portion shielded when the entire thing is getting attacked.  I'll try to post a pic of what I'm talking about later.

Also, when I built the Fighters and Bombers (don't know if you are keeping them around, but shuttle craft could work as models for these craft, so please don't just get rid of them yet), they initially appeared WAAAAAAAYYYY out of the grav well, and took over 5 minutes for them even to reach it.

Other than that I think everything else looks good so far.  Just needs to have that good spit and polish put to it, and it should be ready to shine like 24k Gold Pressed Latinum.

If the meshes are glowing strangly ill check it out. it is usually an easy fix, or you can do this..

open the mesh file in wordpad.

check where the normal map, and the -da texture is. Normal map should be self explanatory. the -da texture should be in "illumination".

Example: this is from the current Fed-PhaserTurret.mesh which i fixed before, but it seems the broken model wound up back in the mod. Look at these lines

MeshData
    hasValidTangents TRUE
    BoundingRadius 119.140976
    MaxBoundingExtents [ 91.831360 71.278297 91.532394 ]
    MinBoundingExtents [ -91.587692 -119.140816 -91.886650 ]
    NumMaterials 1
    Material
        DiffuseTextureFileName "Fed_PhaserTurrent-cl.dds"
        SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "Fed_PhaserTurrent-nm.dds" <--- These textures need to be swapped
        NormalTextureFileName "Fed_PhaserTurrent-da.dds"
        DisplacementTextureFileName ""
        TeamColorTextureFileName ""
        Diffuse ffffffff
        Ambient ffffffff
        Specular ffffffff
        Emissive ffffffff
        Glossiness 50.000000   <--- This is WRONG

The entrys should look like this

MeshData
    hasValidTangents TRUE
    BoundingRadius 119.140976
    MaxBoundingExtents [ 91.831360 71.278297 91.532394 ]
    MinBoundingExtents [ -91.587692 -119.140816 -91.886650 ]
    NumMaterials 1
    Material
        DiffuseTextureFileName "Fed_PhaserTurrent-cl.dds"
        SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "Fed_PhaserTurrent-da.dds"  <-- Self illumination is the -da texture
        NormalTextureFileName "Fed_PhaserTurrent-nm.dds"  <--- Normal map in the proper line
        DisplacementTextureFileName ""
        TeamColorTextureFileName ""
        Diffuse ffffffff
        Ambient ffffffff
        Specular ffffffff
        Emissive ffffffff
        Glossiness 32.000000 <--- Glossiness set to 32. This is the default setting for all of the vanilla sins models. I have not tried lowering the setting to eliminate the over shininess some of the trek models have yet

Movement is MUCH better. I couldnt play a full game , but from what i have seen the ships are starting to move like they should. Im gonna test klinks today.

I forgot to mention that you need to check the textures themselves. I fixed the broken models this time, but for new model imports this is important.

Check the -da texture and make sure the Green channel is duplicated and renamed to Alpha. If the da has an all white alpha then wierd things will happen. The alpha in the -da texture is Bloom.

Make sure the Red channel in the Normal map (the -nm texture) is duplicated, and renamed to Alpha. I am not exactly sure why it must be the red channel, only a developer can answer that, but that also keeps wierd things from happening.

I was thinking the same thing Loki, but I thought that I would just report it in case no one knew about these yet.

Thanks for the quick turn around on the mesh filter for the starbase Major Stress, it looks phenominal now that it doesn't have that eerie glow going.

I believe at the moment just_jim that the beta testing positions are all filled at the moment, but you would have to ask one of the developers specifically to be sure (either Major Stress, Loki, or Dark Shimmer).

If you can't hold over until than, harpo has the most current version of the mod (though it is now unsupported, so don't text back any feedback about it) 0.03c posted at http://files.filefront.com/13727176 (there's also a link at the top of this page).  This mod is for vanilla sins, not entrenchment, and if you have any further questions just refer to the top of the page.

In that version, there is only a quick glimpse of the Borg (hint: try invading the pirate base and you'll see what I mean).  As for plans for them, like it says at the top of the screen, they are probably not going to be in the first release of 0.03e since they still need work, but they are on their way and will even be a playable race!!

As for the Celestial Bodies or Distant Stars mods, I don't know for sure but probably no.  This mod is specifically being focused on these devolpers works, and as those other mods are another group of developers work.  I am not even sure they want to (though since Celestial Bodies and Distant Stars are mainly focused on changing the different planetary values, and not the ships, I don't see why you couldn't splice their planetary values in yourself doing a little modding of your own, just follow the developers rules and don't go posting it around and trying to use it as your own mod and you should be fine).  To be 100% sure about this you will have to ask all of the modders on all the different teams to make sure that:

A. They are ok with doing this.

B. Whether they even want to do this.

At the moment though, SOA2 is probably not going to focus on it since these 3 guys are way too busy with what they already got.

I was wondering,  is the Prometheus class going to be in this?

Except maybe Loki's Unimatrix and several other Borg design's right? LOL

If I haven't said it before Shimmer, thank you so much for all the hard work that you have been putting into the vehicle movement.  Without it, the mod would not be as fulfilling (other than the new research tree's from Loki and meshes from Major Stress).  You all have been doing a phenominal job, but the movement has been the greatest improvement so far.

Indeed, 3 cheers for Darkshimmer.

Hip hip, HURRAY

Hip hip HURRAY

hip hip HURRAY.

doesn't have quite the same effect over the internet.

That sounds all like good news to hear Shimmer, plus removing all the other emphasis than on that stuff will increase production and make the date of release sooner (which I am quite sure all the loyal fans around here would be totally jazzed to hear).

I am also glad that you are giving a use to the antimatter that all the ships will be carrying.  It has always seemed odd to me to have that stuff and not see it getting use.  I am also glad to see differnt planet defenders (seems monotonous to fight almost all Klingons everywhere I go).

In the end, it sounds like you guys have great plans in the works for the project and I am proud to be honored with the position of Beta tester for this fantastic piece of work.

Keep up the good spirit and the fantastic work fella's.

this is such a good idea with the torpedos and the antimatter, i will be so happy when i play it release it pls as soon as possible if u guys can... (sry i know)

After having been heavily inspired by this mod (and lack for a better sense unable to find any Star Trek maps in the download area), I have gone and created my own map that can be used for play.  I have finally decided that I would just post it at my file share site and let the fans of this game give it a whirl.

http://www.mediafire.com/?w5w5oojejdd

Though this is not the fully finished product yet (I still have lots of nebula's and other galactic anomalies to add), I feel that at the moment it is fairly stable enough to be playable by anyone.

It currently supports play for up to 8 different players (all players start randomly at SoA2's race home worlds and have one extra solar system allocated to them), and boasts over 50 Stars and 150 planetoids.  I hope everyone here likes it and give me any feedback if possible.

To use this map, be sure to install it in your default Galaxy folder in your vanilla sins game, not entrenchment (something like C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Galaxy . . .).  As a small note, since I have used Galaxyforge to create this, I haven’t found out yet how to convert it so that it’s playable in entrenchment, but for all of you 0.03c players this should be a major boon.

I have tried to play it in entrenchment (by placing it in both the glaxay folders for the vanilla copy and entrenchment), but I have yet to get it to work myself (along with several other maps I have downloaded from this site).  If I am doing something wrong Harpo, by all means plesae enlighten me, but as far as I can tell, you can't use Galaxtforge to create maps for entrenchment yet.

Also to the developers of this site, don't take this as a shameless promotion of the map, I just felt inspired (like some of the other gamers) to see not only this game played with the ships, but also with the universes planets as a backdrop.  If you want me to not mention again/remove this comment, than I will totally understand.;