Starscape Released

Shadowstar · #1 March 8th, 2004, 12:35 PM

Starscape, the remake of the original PBEM mod for Stars! has finally been completed and is now ready for download.

The website is at: www.starscapecentral.com

Those who would like to play in the next official game should download the mod and create a race. NO EXPERIENCE IS NECCESSARY! Though some general SEIV experience is recommended, very few people (if any) will have any experience with Starscape itself. This is intended. Starscape is adaptive. In the official moderated game, the game will accomodate players, and we use human-controlled balancing to insure even newbies have a fair shot. Starscape is all about roleplaying and having fun, as well as being involved in a dynamic, mostly player-driven storyline.

NOTE: Starscape is not like other mods for SEIV. It is played and run very differently. The mod itself is designed as a cross between an RPG and 4x. It is a bit tough to explain, but it worked in Stars! and works in SEIV.

Also, the majority of Starscape's development has been spent with very little contact with the existing SEIV community. This is mainly because there was limited time to interact, and I focused most of the development energies on working on the mod itself. An early Version of the imagemod was used as a base, and then original content was implanted into this over the years it has spent in closed development. Some features were inspired by older Versions of other mods, but most of it is original, new content.

Limited beta testing was completed around the end of Last year and finalization was completed Last week, along with pre-release testing.

What we have now should work well for the official moderated game, which is scheduled to begin sometime this month (depending on how many/quickly signups come in). AI's are not specifically supported, and neither is single player gameplay. There will be oddities in single player games, but they should still work marginally well enough to run testbeds and practice games. AI support is planned for the future, but it is not critically neccessary for the official games (which do not use AI controlled empires).

Keep in mind this mod was designed from the ground up to be run in a somewhat non-standard way. It is an experiment, sure, but I think it can work.

If you're interested in playing, check out our website. It has lots of information, and the download as well. If you download the mod, please consider signing up for the official game. All you need to do is use the mod to create a race, and send it in. Be sure to read the Online manual regarding race creation as there are some differences in making a Starscape race as opposed to a standard SEIV race.

If you like roleplaying, this may just be the mod for you. In Starscape, roleplaying isn't just for fun, it's part of the game.

NOTE: This mod was designed in and for SEIV Gold. I don't think it will work in original SEIV.

[ March 08, 2004, 10:39: Message edited by: Shadowstar ]

Atrocities · #2 March 8th, 2004, 09:12 PM

Thanks for the info.

narf poit chez BOOM · #3 March 8th, 2004, 10:18 PM

sounds interesting.

General Woundwort · #4 March 9th, 2004, 02:14 AM

What SEIVG patch number is this mod built on?

Shadowstar · #5 March 9th, 2004, 06:33 AM

Well it started in patch 2, but most of the development was in patch 3, but it works in patch 4, as far as I can tell. The timing was kinda odd since I finished the mod yesterday, coincidentally at the same time the patch came out. But there shouldn't be any problems.

Captain Kwok · #6 March 9th, 2004, 06:39 AM

I like the way that the 350kT transport has a hull size of 350kT.

On a more serious note, it looks like an interesting mod with a bit of a twist - worthy of a download.

Captain Kwok · #7 March 9th, 2004, 06:53 AM

Some helpful advice:

You do not need to include the stock planet images in the mod! And if the other planet images (as I suspect) are correctly matched with the ImageMod planet pack - they are also unneccesary to be included in the mod directory.

Again, this goes for any items you've included from the imageMod in this mod, such as combat images, facilties, components etc.

This will save us, and yourself much disk space and bandwidth respectively!!!

Randallw · #8 March 9th, 2004, 07:49 AM

I notice when using a starscape quadrant, only maybe 1 in 5 systems actually have anything in them.

Shadowstar · #9 March 10th, 2004, 12:26 AM

One of the early requests I had from my old Stars! player base was to somehow recreate the feeling that there is actually empty space between star systems, so this was an attempt to do that. The theory is that warp points aren't just confined to systems, they can appear anywhere. It also presents some interesting territorial situations, such as deep space stations, and areas where anomalies can spawn. It also allows players with the right tech to build thier own star systems in areas that are otherwise empty.

As for the graphics, no stock images should be included anywhere in the files, except for the components.bmp and other icon sheets (those are included since they had to be modified). As for the imagemod, without it, those images would come up as blanks. I tried to seperate them at one point and lost some of the graphics, so I decided to keep them in.

If you know of a way to do it in a cleaner way, let me know. Otherwise, one of these days I am planning on replacing the parts of it that I'm using with my own content anyway, since I can do it, just didn't have the time. Ideally, one day Starscape should be completely independent of any other mods, namely the image mod. I always prefer to use my own graphics anyway.

BTW, the majority of new planet pics are my work, I only used a few from the image mod that I liked. I could probably remove most of that stuff in a later Version.

Shadowstar · #10 March 10th, 2004, 01:11 AM

Ok, what I've decided to do is make a bit of an update to Starscape. I'm gonna get the latest Version of the imagemod and compare that to what's in the current Version of Starscape.

After that, I'll see if I can reduce the size of the download, and post a new Version on the site. Sort of a "spring cleaning" so to speak. The mod's spent so much time in closed development, it could no doubt use some community resynching. Thanks for the advice, Kwok.

Any races created with the current Version of Starscape should be just fine in the new Version, so if there are any of you out there making races, don't worry, go ahead and finish them and send them in when ready.