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[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
4,157,965 views 1,794 replies
Reply #1026 from Sins Forums Top

One relatively easy way to balance powerful new races with the original three would be to increase the fleet capacity required to build their ships... kinda like in Company of Heroes where if you don't have a high enough population cap you can't afford the larger manpower intensive units (akin to requiring fleet upgrades).

 

Although in theory effectively limiting the amount of units they can have compared to the original three races would probably be contrary to the idea that they are very powerful, resource heavy races. You could maybe make the case that they are running out of resources and therefore forced into outward expansion, but that might not be in line with the backstory. :P

 

I'm wondering, since I think it was mentioned that the Xin ships will cost a bit more/take more time, will their resource collection abilities be on par with vanilla races, or ramped up a bit?

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #1028 from Sins Forums Top

Since resource collection is the basis of balancing, it will remain the same as with vanilla races. The feeling of power for the Xin will stem from the fact that their ships are approximately twice as powerful as their vanilla counterparts. As you mentioned, the balancing is mostly done by also increasing the needed fleet capacity for their ships - they will thus have roughly only half as many max ships as the vanilla races. Resource costs and build times will also be adjusted.

So they are not really more powerful - but they sure feel that way, especially when you need two-three battleships to bring one of theirs down. ;)

They will have further distinctions, such as very heavy orbital defenses and the ability to construct a network of wormhole nodes which will essentially enable their smaller fleets to cover a lot more ground, as long as its Xin turf. On offense, they are going to be vulnerable to flanking, outmaneuvering, outnumbering and so on.

Reply #1029 from Sins Forums Top

Good news - seems there will be very little time lost on making the mod compatible with Entrenchment.

Bad news - can't get the damn thing to work, reportedly its an issue with the mod loader.

But 1.15 version works just fine. Expect a big update come friday! Maybe even a little movie of a Xin Outpost to show appreciation for continued support!

Reply #1032 from Sins Forums Top

woot!

Reply #1033 from Sins Forums Top

@ManSh00ter

1. How on earth did this mod not make top 100 o_O , just judging from the concepts and images it is easy to tell that your mod is by far one of, if not the, best mod for sins so far.

2. What do you do for a living that you have such amazing skill and free time with which to make a mod of this quality and scale?!?!?! I'm geussing you aren't married or have kids, if you do...well...I can't even imagine that being possible with you as the lone developer of this mod coupled with the speed of development (not to mention quality) and a job.

3. I've seen many talented modders, for others games mainly...don't know of any for sins, get scooped up by the parent company that made the original vanilla game (anybody who played the Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 saw this in action when the mod developers where hired by the company that developed Battlefield, which of course the name of which escapes me now, and developed Battlefield 2).

There for I'm starting a pool, how long do you think it will be untill ManSh00ter starts getting job offers from Stardock?

I say he gets an offer once the mod is released and stardock is forced to take notice because the site goes kaput from everyone logging on simultaneously to download it :w00t:

4. Can't wait for this mod to come out :dur: . I am seriously considering finding where you live, breaking into your house and copying the files to a flashdrive so I can finally play it, even half-done. Well...either that or have my personal clan of ninjas do it for me :ninja: .

 

P.S. Please get this mod out as fast as possible without sacrificing quality :pout: . I don't care if you have to sell your soul to the devil or make it so whoever plays the game loses their sole to the devil (that would TOTALLY be worth it).

Reply #1034 from Sins Forums Top

1. Well, y'know, there's no Star Trek, Star Wars or Stargate innit, and its not made on Half-Life2 engine.  ;) Jokes aside, probably my fault as I wasn't planning ahead and had no update handy to increase mod exposure.

2. Can't you guess? I'm a student! And a freelance web designer - the lack of steady hours, the ability to still make money and the inherent copious volume of free time associated with student life (well, at least where I live) enable me to pour extravagant amounts of work-hours into this and other projects primarily for my own creative pleasure.

I think I should enjoy it while it lasts... ;)

3. I'm gonna stay humbly silent on this one. :p

4. You could try that, but then I'd have to remove your brain, place it in a liquid nutrient jar and use it for an advanced AI platform which would enable me to slowly but surely gain control over the computers all over the world; which in turn would enable me to subtly take over many car factories' automated processes and produce an army of robots with which I would conquer the world and institute a new era of prosperity for mankind...

...and with robots on my side, even ninjas wouldn't be able to stop me! Muaha! Muahaha! Muahahahahahahaaaaaa!

+2 Loading…
Reply #1035 from Sins Forums Top

ill join manshooter in his quest before i get attacked by cylons while im sleeping. AND i bring an army of mechanized wolves cus wolves r awsome :wulf: and a cat named jingles. :meow: :grin:

Reply #1036 from Sins Forums Top

We demand more screenshots and/or videos!

Reply #1037 from Sins Forums Top

Working on it! You know me, when I say "today" I actually mean "next week". :p The texture and model of the Xin Outpost are pretty much done, I have to rig them up for the game and do the particle effects. Coming Soon(TM).

Reply #1038 from Sins Forums Top

You can't copyright "Coming Soon".  Its copyrighted to DANMAN you fool!

Reply #1040 from Sins Forums Top

soon(tm) was copyrighted by verant interactive back in the early days of Everquest *grin* (soon in this case meaning when they get around to it)

Reply #1041 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting _Vampir_, reply 14
HA! start a a war in SOASE for copyright, atlantians vs. Xin. Winner gets copyright!!

 

DANMAN has been itching for an Atlantian-Xin fight ever since Last Stand was announced.  Everyone is waiting on ManSh00ter to hurry up and release his mod so the two of them can get it on.  Too bad Sins doesn't really allow spectating...

Reply #1042 from Sins Forums Top

Mod looks great so far from what I've seen keep up the good work look forward to the release.

Reply #1043 from Sins Forums Top

DANMAN has been itching for an Atlantian-Xin fight ever since Last Stand was announced. Everyone is waiting on ManSh00ter to hurry up and release his mod so the two of them can get it on. Too bad Sins doesn't really allow spectating...

its a bit strange that all the other factions of the two mods are ignored.

Reply #1044 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting _Vampir_, reply 18
its a bit strange that all the other factions of the two mods are ignored.

 

That's because in 7Ds, no one beats the Atlantians for god-like epic, and in Last Stand, no one beats the Xin for god-like epic.  Saying no one gives a crap about them is like saying no one gives a crap about the expendable Carmines in Gears of War games.

Reply #1045 from Sins Forums Top

Oh, believe me, the Nomad Fleet will be able to create quite a ruckus. And the Hegemony isn't to be sneezed at either. ;)

Should have that update *finally* wrapped up tomorrow. I am working on new stuff for the volumetric mod so that took up some of my free time as well.

Reply #1046 from Sins Forums Top

Sneak peek of the Xin Outpost!

Detailed info when I finish that promised ingame movie. For now, suffice to say that the Xin Outpost is a lot smaller than a starbase, packs less of a punch and can't take as much punishment... but you can have more of them (goes with the Xin being very good on the defensive side). Notable abilities include Gravity Surge and Stable Wormhole Synchronization.

Reply #1048 from Sins Forums Top

would be great if its done this summer great work man

Reply #1050 from Sins Forums Top

seriously manshooter, with talent like that why aint you working for a game company already? stick this stuff onto a resume NOW and get yourself an awesome job where you can let your creativity and talent soar

 

oh by the way, lovely model O:) , your attention to detail is brilliant,, you're also very consistant too which i just love, everything looks like it's had some serious attention and love from you with lots of detail and polish

 

i cannot wait to see what you will do for the other factions mate *runs around screaming like a little girl* eeeeeekkk \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/

 

double edit: nevermind about first edit if anybody saw it :p