Sword of the Stars I mod update

[solops]

The SotS 1 mod Bastard Sword of the Stars has a new version in testing!

http://kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=55175&p=562662#p562662

[JasonPratt]

 :o :D

[bobarossa]

Didn't know you could mod SOTS1.  What does this mod do?  Is it just graphical?

[solops]

New weapons, tech tree, ship  layouts, all kind of stuff. The first post in the thread I linked goes over most of it.

[solops]

The new beta is 4.0. But, from the old version:

Bastard Sword of the Stars
What's New in 3.0.x

    New Weapons (Advanced Emitters, mini-torps, mini-mines, advanced PD for most weapon types, lots of huge turret weapon types)
    Improved weapon effects (for some weapons)
    Drones are a core tech (guaranteed for all races)
    Added some drone models from ACM to improve drone visuals
    Added techs and icons to help clue you in when you get new capabilities
    Added turret information for most weapon types in tech tree
    Exaggerated differences between pulsed weapons such as lasers and continuous beams (beamers are shorter ranged but more accurate, pulsed start out stronger, have better range, but diminish in strength over distance)
    Exaggerated differences between rapid and heavy shields (rapid is lighter & more rapid; heavy is stronger & slower recharge)
    Tweaked PD to make it more effective without becoming OP
    Tweaked all missile weapons rate of fire and improved their overall balance and consistency
    Tractor beams are now a huge weapon, not a large weapon, meaning they can't be spammed anymore
    Dual turrets have been moved to fusion age (dual missiles to antimatter)
    Dreads now have NO small weapons - medium and larger! (you will likely want to escort them with smaller screening ships for planetary assaults)
    Armors, Coatings, and Improved hull materials can be mixed together (one of each type) and are better balanced
    Streamlined stations by reduced number per system to one per 750M pop making it more of a choice: focus this system on one, or at most, 2 things
    Streamlined trade (Morrigi are only race to get trade)
    Streamlined some tech acquisitions
    Fixed any number of issues from 2.5 with model glitches and minor tech tree glitches, etc.
    Much, much more!

Bastard Sword of the Stars Core Mod:

    Tech Tree
    Image
        The technology tree is completely revamped - better organized, more interesting, new technologies and options.
        Pace of technology acquisition in the middle and late game is slowed compared to vanilla.
        Racial technologies are core.
        (e.g. Tarkas always have access to Living Steel).
        Fusion, and even more so Antimatter ages, are much more expensive tiers, forcing players and AIs to explore more options in the current age rather than trying to "rush antimatter."
        There are many finishing touches added to the tech tree to make it more self-explanatory and easy to learn.
        There is a full tech-tree map included with this mod in the root folder so you can see what techs are where, and what prerequisites they each require, and which techs are core, and which are random.
    Weapons
        There are a wider variety of weapons within each class of weapons (more torpedos, more missiles, more ballistic weapons, etc.)
        Weapons generally have longer ranges than in vanilla SOTS. So battles begin further out and can take on a more epic feeling to them.
        Most weapons technologies are NO LONGER core. They're random. Each race is guaranteed to get at least one major weapons technology line. Everything else is random, or salvageable.
        Using smaller weapons in larger mounts offers NO additional benefits.
        (e.g. a small mount pulsed laser cannon in a medium mount supplies exactly one small mount pulsed laser cannon.)
        There are explicit techs to unlock turrets with multiple barrels for various weapons systems.
        Dual barrel variants effectively increases the firepower of a given mount to 150% of a single barrel version. (you must redesign your ship to take advantage of this technology).
        You have more control over what combinations of weapons you wish to use on your ships (there are no missile-only mounts, for example).
    CnC
        Each CnC tier is available for all ship sizes.
        For example, once you've researched Advanced CnC you can design a standard, large, or huge CnC ship (assuming you've researched those ship construction techs as well), and any such ship will have the same capacity to command other ships regardless of its own size.
    Ships
        Are much tougher.
        With intelligent management and judicious use of retreat, you should be able to keep your ships alive much longer.
        Repair is available in fission age, and there is a standard version of the repair ship so that you can take advantage of repair regardless of which order you research ship size classes in.
        It takes longer to build them.
        This will tie up your worlds with construction duties longer.
        This will reduce your income, as well as force you to have to build up your fleets more proactively, instead of reactively.
        Ship Yards (formerly Repair Stations) offer a +25% ship construction rate bonus.
        Ships move faster and are more responsive than in vanilla SOTS.
        Ships come in three size classes: Standard, Large, and Huge.
        You start with the ability to design scout ships and some non-combat ship types of standard size only.
        You will have to research "Combat Construction," "Large Combat Construction" and "Mega Combat Construction" to get access to combat oriented ships in various size classes.
        You can research any level of Combat Construction in any order, assuming you have researched the appropriate prerequisites
        (e.g. you'll need Heavy Platforms for Large Combat Construction).
        Hence, it is not required that you research "Combat Construction" before you research "Large Combat Construction" - it is up to you.
        You don't have to get large or huge construction for improved or advanced CnC (due to new CnC rules).
        Many of the specialized combat sections for your ships require a specific technology to be researched before you will be able to design a ship with that specialized section.
        (e.g. "Strafe Engineering" must be researched after "Combat Construction" in order for you to design a standard sized combat ship with a strafe bridge section.)
    Huge combat ships
        Sport much larger weapon mounts than in the original Sword of the Stars.
        Are extremely deadly to smaller ships due to having many medium, large, and huge mount weapons on them.
        Are far harder to overwhelm with a swarm of smaller ships as compared to the original SOTS.
        Do not have PD mounts and should be escorted by ships which do to defend against drones, missiles, and tracking torpedoes!
    Armor
        Two levels of deflectives - which are good against ballistics, but offer no other effect.
        Two levels of reflectives - which are good against lasers (pulsed and beamers), but offer no other effect.
        Two levels of hull reinforcements - which increase the strength of your ships, but offer no other effect.
        You can combine each of these three types of armor on a single ship (one reflective, one deflective, and one hull reinforcement).
    Shields
        There are two lines of general shields plus the specialized deflective and reflective hemispherical shields.
        Two levels of "quick-recharging" shields, which offer fast shield cycle times but a pittance of the absorption capacity of a heavy shield.
        Two levels of "heavy" shields, which offer slow regeneration cycles but many times the stopping power of the quick-recharge version of shields.
        The specialized hemispherical shields require a dedicated ship section for their generators.
        One type of general purpose shield can be added to most standard and large combat ships - they don't require a dedicated generator section.
    Cloaking
        Is available relatively early.
        There is a deep-scan satellite technology available near Quantum Sensors which will offer local visibility of cloaked vessels.
        You have been warned!
    Orbital bombardment & Planetary Invasion
        Orbital bombardment destroys more infrastructure but much less population than in vanilla SOTS.
        Bombardment is mostly ineffectual in the early game against even a moderately well established colony world.
        With fusion and antimatter weapons it is more effective, but you'll risk destroying the habitability of the world in the process.
        For these reasons, planetary invasion plays a more core role in conquest.
    Orbital Stations
        Orbital Stations are cheaper, require less maintenance, and are available earlier in the game.
        Depending on the conditions of the games you set up, you should be able to build up your core worlds more extensively into fast-ship production centers or science centers or defensible positions.
        They require only 1k civilian population so you can build them sooner on a developing world compared to vanilla SOTS.
        You are still limited to 4 stations per world, maximum, subject to total population at each world.
        Construction ships are considered standard civilian ships, so you can design and build your stations much earlier in the game.
    World Growth
        Homeworlds start at 200 infrastructure, as in vanilla SOTS.
        However, all worlds can grow to 200 infrastructure if they are unmolested long enough.
        It takes 1 year (game turn) per point beyond 100. So after an additional 100 years, any given world can grow to become a "Trantor" or "Earth".
        Zuul do not get this feature - they must expand rapidly or they will be dealing with enemies who are extremely well established (although Zuul can conquer such worlds and if done so without too much orbital bombardment, they too will benefit from the extremely high infrastructure).
        Population growth factors are slower than in vanilla. This will slow world-growth, and give a longer period of time in which they are vulnerable for most races (Zuul, and to a lesser extent, Hiver, will see little change due their natural high reproduction rates).
        Standard colonizers are slightly better than in vanilla in order to reduce micro-management a bit.
    Artificial Intelligence
        Is wickedly more expensive.
        This increases the time you will be forced to spend researching it, and thus increases significantly your risks of getting an AI rebellion.
        They are organized in such a way that you can research whichever one becomes available to you directly, without having to be forced to always start with AI Research (which vanilla refers to as "AI") - hence if you unlock AI Fire Control first, then you can start there.
        There is no guarantee of any particular AI techs opening up. All are random, but there are multiple avenues to each one.
    Drones
        Start with 2 small weapons, and can be improved to have 1 medium weapon + 2 small.
        There are two additional types of drones available in fusion age:
            Mine Layer Drones
            Torpedo Drones
                Fire miniaturized versions of any torpedo technology you have researched.
                Such mini-torps are shorter ranged and lower-yield variants appropriate to the very small craft.
    Flag Ships
        You can build multiple flag ships once you've research Flag Command
            They are bank-breaking expensive, however, so you're not guaranteed to be able to afford even one.
    Trade
        There is only one size of freighters: standard - meaning you only need to set up your trade routes ONCE per game.
        Each trade route requires 1 freighter to operate it. So 1 route = 1 freighter (either Q or standard).
        Trade sectors are 50% larger - so there are fewer of them.
            This means you'll have to control more space to setup your trade.
            They'll be easier for enemies to disrupt.
            You will need to manage fewer of them.
        Trade Stations provide one maintenance-free trade route each.
        Trade Stations boost trade income +15%.
        Overall, trade will offer a smaller % of your income compared to vanilla.
            This is to help balance out the other changes that will boost your overall income.
    Racial Affinities
        Hiver:   mines, drones, COL, missiles (esp. standard and small), ballistics (esp. bursters), armor, stealth, plasma torpedos
        Humans:   pulsed lasers, missiles, emitters, drones, photon torpedos, heavy beams
        Liir:   pulsed lasers, plasma cannons, emitters, quick shields, energy torpedos
        Morrigi:   drones, COL, beamers, heavy beams, plasma cannons, disruptor torpedoes, disruptor & deflector shields, cloaking
        Tarkas:   ballistics, missiles (esp. corrosive & nanite), armor, heavy shields, gluonic torpedos
        Zuul:   beamers, combat beams, missiles (esp. corrosive & nanite), disruptor torpedoes, disruptor & deflector shields

Options:

    I have included a couple of alternate game options (these are under TechTree folder):
        MasterTechList.tech (also in MasterMasterTechList.tech)
            This is the standard tech tree starting in the fission age.
        MasterTechList (100% Chances).tech
            This is the same tech tree, but every race can research all possible technologies (as if you rolled every possible tech you could).
            Cost is normal, so you still start in the fission age as normal.
        MasterTechList (Fusion Age).tech
            This gets you started as if you'd just researched Fusion power.
            You start with any fission age technology that you rolled (normal chances).
            This is a great "get the game rolling faster" option if you give everyone say 5 worlds to start with and maybe 2-5m cash.
        MasterTechList (All Tech).tech
            This is really for debugging purposes: you start with every tech already researched.
        MasterTechList (End Game).tech
            Similar to all tech - it's as if you researched all tech available to you (but normal chances for any given tech).

[Gusington]

 :o

[Jarhead0331]

Any impressions. This is an old game. Is it worth going back to?

[solops]

I am having a lot of fun with it. And the game has aged pretty well. The UI is better than a lot of much newer games. I still have a lot of trouble with the AI. My most common problem is not having enough warning before enemy fleets show up because I cannot make myself research detection over weapons. The new twists to the game are interesting and in most cases evolutionary rather than revolutionary. A LOT of how this game plays is in how you set the game up and it takes some trial and error before finding the mix that suits you best. Distance between stars is one of the real killers. And there are so, so many choices in R&D. I think you have to settle on a set of choices and plunge ahead on them, trying not to get sidetracked by all of the shiny detours available.

[Jarhead0331]

I am having a lot of fun with it. And the game has aged pretty well. The UI is better than a lot of much newer games. I still have a lot of trouble with the AI. My most common problem is not having enough warning before enemy fleets show up because I cannot make myself research detection over weapons. The new twists to the game are interesting and in most cases evolutionary rather than revolutionary. A LOT of how this game plays is in how you set the game up and it takes some trial and error before finding the mix that suits you best. Distance between stars is one of the real killers. And there are so, so many choices in R&D. I think you have to settle on a set of choices and plunge ahead on them, trying not to get sidetracked by all of the shiny detours available.

I'm surprised modders on focusing on SOTS I, as opposed to the newer title, SOTS II. The second title got a bad rap due to its state on release, but it eventually also turned into a very good game. I wonder if there are any really good mods out for the latter game in the series.

[Pete Dero]

I wonder if there are any really good mods out for the latter game in the series.

Sword of the Stars II Fan Update http://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=23931.msg655956#msg655956

[Jarhead0331]

I wonder if there are any really good mods out for the latter game in the series.

Sword of the Stars II Fan Update http://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=23931.msg655956#msg655956

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that thread. Have you played it by any chance?

[Yskonyn]

I have and its a bit of a mixed bag. But this is probably because the author stopped working on it due to burn out and we haven't seen him since.
Several things were in the middle of being tested (can't remember the specifics).
But the mod also fixed some stuff that was pretty broken.
I guess you'll have to research the state of the mod from the feedback in the thread to know which things you should avoid doing.

[Pete Dero]

I wonder if there are any really good mods out for the latter game in the series.

Sword of the Stars II Fan Update http://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=23931.msg655956#msg655956

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that thread. Have you played it by any chance?

No, I just remembered that post.

Here you can download the latest version (patch version 11-14-2019)  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14u-3hg5HDwbyTlYcaiSIzk1ojVu-Zrhb

[solops]

SotS1 does not have all of the neat stuff SotS2 does, but it is a finished, polished product. I like both of them. SotS1 is more trouble-free. With the fan-patch SotS2 is fun as well. So, what to play? Decisions, decisions....

[Trooperc7]

So i have been playing this mod for the last few days. It is actually well done! I like it!