ManSh00ter ManSh00ter

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

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

Previously known as "The Last Stand"

from Sins Forums

 

 

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
4,162,886 views 1,794 replies
Reply #101 from Sins Forums Top
wow, very impressed at the speed & quality of your work. Keep it up!
Reply #102 from Sins Forums Top
Cheers for the reply ManSh00ter, good news indeed, I shan't ask for an ETA, but I await a release eagerly.
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #103 from Sins Forums Top
Cheers for the reply ManSh00ter, good news indeed, I shan't ask for an ETA, but I await a release eagerly.
Reply #105 from Sins Forums Top
Cheers for the reply ManSh00ter, good news indeed, I shan't ask for an ETA, but I await a release eagerly.
Reply #106 from Sins Forums Top
Woah, I think this is a 'ZOMG' moment... Quadruple post :LOL:
Reply #107 from Sins Forums Top
Been watching this mod since original post [I think]. Looks great, I am also amazed with your speed and look forward with great anticipation to the final release. Perhaps you and bailknight could work together [bailknight doing a new race now...] Just a thought.

Anyways, great work ManSh00ter,
DrazharLn
Reply #108 from Sins Forums Top
holy crap. amazing stuff. your first building, i have to admit, is great and lives up to what i expect from what i have come to expect from you. ive been around since the beginning and won't go away. this is as amazing is it was when you released your first ship. great stuff. i just can't wait!
Reply #110 from Sins Forums Top
I'm glad to see a modder who knows what he's doing implementing some new gameplay stuff rather than endlessly debating the composition of ships in a hypothetical IP mod or making 5% changes to damage percentages.

Excellent ideas, excellent execution.
Reply #112 from Sins Forums Top
ManSh00ter,
I've been away from your posting for awhile, and the newest stuff looks hot!!!

No problem with helping me out, I totally understand what I want to do is quite over the top. I would need the help of several modders, which I hope to get, including your support. In fact, when your mod is done, I would like to incorpoarate it into my mod, along with Uzii's and Bailknight's. I am working on kind of a Super Mod, with the best mods all combined together, including the mod I am working on. Custom races, ships, planets, stars, oh my!

Anyways, if you can help, that would be great. If I can use your stuff, that would be awesome. You are truely talented. Keep up the good work!

DANMAN
Reply #113 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks for the support everyone, that's a lot of positive feedback I'm getting! Great stuff. :)

Status update. Ze frigate line is allmost complete! The pace has slowed down a bit this week since I had some other obligations to focus on, but none the less one model and texture (minus final tweaking) is complete. I generally don't post screens untill I have a finalized version to show, but that's what concept sketches are for. :p



And the inevitable lore:

The Xin version of a colony ship, the Seeder Pod is very simple in design. Basically an organic sack of hardened tissue attached to the protective metal cap which also serves to support its four propulsion drives, the Pod is virtually defenseless. Not designed for hostile environments at all, even the lightest of attacks are likely to rupture it and send its cargo spilling into space. These vessels are produced in two ways by the Xin; they are either gestated at the Drone Assembly Base or in the gestation chambers of the Xin Ark Ship. Minuscule in size, they are also employed in an unique strategy for the alien race - since they can be produced relatively swiftly and are not difficult to grow, assemble and maintain, the Xin sometimes use them in swarms, hurtling in their dozens against enemy defences in the hope that one of them will come close enough to release its plasmid pods loaded with bioforming material, spores which upon landing rapidly evolve into a myriad of specialized organisms all designed to prepare the newly claimed world for the arrival of their spacebound masters.

What does all this mean? Well, the Pods can be built fast and cheap. That means a Xin player will have an option to spam them and thus try to circumvent planetary defenses and hostile fleets (provided the planet has already been cleansed) if they so desire. However, since they are quite slow and fragile, it would take an entire little fleet to get past a moderate defense force.
In effect, little is changed, except it gives the Xin player a chance to try colonization in a spectacular lemming manner. ;)

I am toying with a concept of attaching a moderate "bombardment" ability to these ships. This would simulate the effect the spores would have on local population and biosphere. Think of it as a really slow bombardment method with immediate colonization at the end. This has to be tested though to see if it is a viable idea.

Also, the Ark Ship, the colonization capital ship of the Xin will be able to produce these buggers. The Ark Ship itself will NOT be able to colonize a planet directly. In effect it ain't over untill the Ark Ship sings. Even on the brink of triumph against the alien menace, given some time and a good hiding spot, the allmost-victors might suddenly face a whole armada of these pods spraying what amounts to vicious bio-weapons at one of their undefended worlds...

P.S.

Also of note, I (finally) realized the engine's ability to blend several materials over one object. Which is great. Because you really need that in order to make a realistic metal (actually any) surface. And while the Xin frigs are intentionally mirror-polished, their big ships are not. Not to mention the rust ridden Remnant, now that's going to need some blending...
Reply #114 from Sins Forums Top
I likie the seeder pod. the idea that it can also bombard is especially creative. Good work
Reply #115 from Sins Forums Top
This Mod looks great! Keep up the good work, and the Seeder Pod is a cool and interesting idea.
Reply #116 from Sins Forums Top
First and foremost, WOW! The concept is amazing. The artwork is amazing. The everything is amazing!

I just wanted to address some of the issues I have a problem with in your mod. Wait, I don't have any problems with your mod. That was easy. =)

Keep up the great work, I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Reply #117 from Sins Forums Top
your giving me the jitters ManSh00ter. the seeder pod is a brilliant idea. it is very unique to the other races of sins and the option to spam the little bastards and rush a planet with a hundred of them just sounds really, really, really fun! People playing against the Xin will truly have to learn some tactics to defend against such a swarm.

It might be cool (if not unbalancing), if you scripted these seeder ships to automatically spread out across the galaxy on their own, conquering as many planets as they can within any given solar system. It would give a player fighting the Xin a unique feeling of trying to hold back some kind of unholy swarm of strange creatures, almost insect-like in nature.

another cool concept, in leu of your bombardment, spore thing, would be if you could sacrifice these ships and send them suicidally into the planet, in which they would unleash a storm of damage (per ship) that would plague the planet for a few minutes as your frigates and other ships did battle in space. Or you could make it so that it sits above the planet and sends out hundreds of little dropships that land and start invading the planet by use of ground forces.

You really have picked an exciting way to incorperate a new race. I can't wait to terrorize the TEC with the xin. I would just love to send in an Ark Ship, alone, against an entire planetary defense force. Then, just as the enemy starts to laugh at me, i spam a crapload of seeders and swarm them and their planet. but only as a diverion, as my other ships come along and begin ambushing ships that have become sepparated from the main defense force trying to fend off the seeders.

but anyways, i have overtalked myself. point is, you appear to have the power to make this one freaking awesome mod, and i just can't wait to play with it! keep it up ManSh00ter.
Reply #118 from Sins Forums Top
ManSh00ter,
Love that little seeder ship. Excellent design. Can't wait to see what it looks like in game. Let me know if you need any help with texturing. My services (free) are available. This is truely an awesome mod.

DANMAN

Reply #119 from Sins Forums Top
Sounds super kool! I love organic ships (bablyon 5!) Very unique!
Reply #120 from Sins Forums Top
Hi there,

I'm french, new to this forum and to SOASE, and registered just to say i really can't wait to test your mod. It looks like very unique, i love the idea of "larger" scall, titan ships, big planets... And your screenshot with the new race are quite impressive.

Add me to the testers if you need some !
Reply #121 from Sins Forums Top
Very nice, very nice indeed. I do agree, if you can make the seeders bombard, you should do it. I can imagine the Ark ships entering the atmosphere with their support ships, which fan out to take the incoming fire, while the Arks head straight for the planet and unleash clouds of pods. Could be very intense, I like it.
Reply #122 from Sins Forums Top
This mod has me very excited and the thing I'm most impressed at is the rate that you churn things out, and with great detail and ideas nonetheless. I wanna get a post in here, because when this releases it will become so well known and awesome that just posting will make me famous :LOL: The aspect of the seeder ships in some ways clash with the overall concept of more powerful ships, but an entire race that is more expensive and powerfully over all is not something that you would do, seeing that you are making pretty much making everything perfect. Everything has to have its mediums, highs, and lows besides, what is an organic race without scary small bio-terror ships?

Continue on making your kick-ass mod; you have my approval. (for what its worth)
Reply #124 from Sins Forums Top
Wow! Dude THis gnarlie Mod is looking Pretty nifty. ket it up Baller :CONGRAT: