Howdy folks,

If you are wondering where the progress report for the first week of September is I can answer your question as of currently I do not have a graphics card making my computer temporarily a very expensive paperweight and my AMD motherboard doesn't have on board graphics so right now I have literally no way of accessing my pc, as such I have been unable to post the newest progress report however to give you a slight over view of the progress

A lot of UI work

Continued work on the travelers ship model

And much more

This will all be included in the next progress report hopefully next Friday dependant on how fast my graphics card replacement is sent to me

Thanks

Viking Warrior

Stargate Invasion Progress Report August (Week 4)
Intro
Continuing our updates, below is a change-log covering our progress since we last weeks post. Most of the changes are already on the public GD, or will be arriving in the next few hours.

Spotlight Videos
For anyone that wishes to post spotlight videos featuring SGI:

- Please mention that this is an early access build and that not everything is as we intend it to be

- Since this is an incomplete mod, don't treat the spotlight video as a review. Presenting the work is fine but comments about what should have been included are obviously not since we may already have plans that we haven't stated. Once we are ready, we will let you all know that reviewing is in order.

- Before making the video, download and install the mod again from google drive so that you are featuring the latest version.

- Check that the file count is correct. Current numbers are: With Google Drive Sync: 7151 files, 11 folders
Without Sync: 7163 files, 11 folders.

Thanks for sticking to the above! Now for our change-log:

Abilities & Research

Here are some ideas we have discussed for Artifacts:

Goa'uld Data Device (proposed Artifact) - Asurans find a Goa'uld data device and from it discover how the Goa'uld once overloaded a ZPM to use as a weapon. Something the Asurans would never think of but having realized the potential for destruction and the danger the expanding organic beings pose they decide to implement it. A new ship class becomes available, small and fast only carrying a hyperdrive, shields and the rigged ZPM. Once at the target location it detonates to incredible destructive power. Knowing far more about ZPM technology, the Asurans are able to tailor the explosive power ensuring that only Orbital structures and organic beings on the planet are destroyed leaving the planet and its resources largely intact.
The above are not final and they may change as we move forward.

New Abilities:

Asuran ZPM Research was created that is dependent on the ZPM Artifact being discovered. It provides access to the Asuran ZPM Resupply ability (also new), this ability has a global effect on all Asuran ships providing a permanent 50% (currently, needs more balancing) ability cooldown. It is said that the discovery of the Lantean ZPM helped the Asurans redesign their versions of the Zero Point Modules to match the efficiency and power of the late Lantean ZPM technology;).
Created and added the following abilities to Asuran Orion class ships
-Asuran_AbilityCapital_AdvancedTargetingSensors

-Asuran_AbilityCapital_LightSpeed

Created and added the following abilities to Asuran Alastor class ships
Asuran_AbilityCapital_SpecialistsNanites
Asuran_AbilityCapital_AcceleratedNanites
Created and added the following abilities to Asuran Origin class ships
Asuran_AbilityCapital_CloakFleet
Asuran_AbilityCapital_AdaptedImmunity


We welcome suggestions for possible Artifacts or research based on Artifacts both for currently available and potential new ones. Post your ideas in the comments section of this progress report and we will see if they can be incorporated into the new Exploration research sections.

Strings

- Fixed the ZPM Artifact Description.

- Some Asuran ship ability strings were changed slightly to reduce their length. All Asuran ship ability strings and descriptions should now be within the InfoCard boundaries .

- Changed Wave weapon string to Laser.

- Changes Phase Missile weapon string to Drone.

- New unique strings were added for the Upkeep abilities, names and descriptions were written.

- Updated descriptions for Tau’ri military research

- Updated descriptions on Tau’ri heroes

Balancing

For All available Factions:

Upkeep Reworked:
The upkeep ability will no longer be placed on each ship but will be on the Capital and Frigate factories (the exception are Titans which have unique Upkeep. These have also been updated to fit in with the new cost structure).
The above means that all Frigates and Cruisers will have the same per ship costs and all capitals will also have the same costs amongst each other but will have different cost values than Frigates and Cruisers.
Upkeep costs were lowered and a hybrid upkeep was introduced. Upkeep is now both present as a percentage of total income (ship slot research - lower values than vanilla) and as per ship upkeep drain (lower values than previously).
Multiple issues with the reworked general ship upkeep were solved (constrained the upkeep to exclude supporting Outlaw Sector Ships as well as Module Constructors, Envoys and Star Base Constructors; Corvettes will now be affected by the Frigate upkeep ability).
Updated Normal Start and Quick start game options.
ships

For the Asuran Faction:

Changed default AutoCast state for the Asuran Observation ability to FALSE (available on CapitalColony Destiny)
Lowered build time of the Asuran Destiny class from 5 minutes to 50 seconds
Lowered Antimatter drain rate of Lightspeed ability from 30 to 4
Lightspeed Ability Auto Cast On By Default changed from True to False
Polus Scout damage was lowered from 100 down to 20.
Increased max number of levels for Capital cloak ability from 1 to 3.

Various Fixes

Asuran StarbaseConstructor Rhea Research now requires only 1 research station and not 2.
Asuran Beam Research was connected, all ships and stations with the Gate Satellite Beam weapon will now be improved.
Some Asuran frigates/cruisers that were using the lasers had their weapons set to the wrong weapon type and were not benefiting from the research.
Asuran Scout and GateSatellite haphazard movement issues have been resolved. Both Human and Asuran Scouts also had their Explore ability set to automatically execute so the scouts will immediately go off in search of new worlds upon creation;)
Asuran Orion Class Lasers can no longer attack Fighters
Asuran Orion Class Drones can now attack Fighters
Asuran Nemesis class is now designated as a Corvette
Removed old upkeep abilities and buffs
All Human Ship Shields were fixed (model clipping and other issues should now be resolved).
Volcanic and Ice Planet textures were fixed for the most part, we will eventually be making our own planet textures for some of these, possibly with additional planet types.
Increased the chance for Artifacts to be found. Artifacts will be a key part of SGI so we have upped the values by about 20%. The chance to find an Artifact is now 20% - 40% depending on the map, with a few at 45%. These values will likely be revisited if they are too high.

UI / Skin


Improved the race skins for window mode and other tweaks.
Added backdrop to the Main Screen Menu, changed Title from “Sins of a Solar Empire” to “Stargate Invasion”, and removed Sins DLC advertisements
Improved quality slightly of the Loading SGI screen
New icons for various research items
Cleaner icons for Asuran ships/structures that better match the style we used on the Tau’ri.
Updated race selection icons for Tau’ri
Added new images and improved the quality of the ship pictures displayed when a ship is selected.
Fixed incorrect ship pictures being displayed for various Tau’ri ships
More authentic graphic for Tau’ri Military weapon research
Military Research for Tau'ri reworked and set up tidier
research rework

Shieldimpact FX

The new ShieldImpactFX file was updated to recognize Faction shield colors

Shields for Tau'ri ships have also now been re-aligned to fix the clipping issues that were present on some ships

Intro
Continuing our updates, below is a change-log covering our progress since we last posted. Most of the changes are already on the public GD, or will be arriving in the next few hours. Audio files have been uploaded but will be linked tomorrow.

Spotlight Videos

For anyone that wishes to post spotlight videos featuring SGI:
- please mention that this is an early access build and that not everything is as we intend it to be
- since this is an incomplete mod, don't treat the spotlight video as a review. Presenting the work is fine but comments about what should have been included are obviously not since we may already have plans that we haven't stated. Once we are ready, we will let you all know that reviewing is in order.
- before making the video, download and install the mod again from google drive so that you are featuring the latest version.
- check that the file count is correct. Current numbers are: With Google Drive Sync: 7154 files, 11 folders
Without Sync: 7166 files, 11 folders.
Thanks for sticking to the above! Now for our change-log:

Abilities & Research
We have decided to implement a system of exploration and research through Artifacts. Each faction will have its own Research Section specifically unlocked by finding Artifacts (currently located in the Defense tab). These are the changes that have been made so far:

- the Project Arcturus Artifact has been replaced by ZPM Artifact (5% research boost and relevant Research Unlock)
- for the Humans, the ZPM Artifact is required in order to have ZPM Research (in Combat Research) available.
- a new research was added for the Humans that is the same as the Project Arcturus Artefact and is dependent on having first gone through ZPM Research.
- all abilities (ZPM, ZPM Cloaking) for the Human faction that require a ZPM will now also require a ZPM Artifact and the ZPM Research to be enabled.

The idea is to have this ZPM Artifact also affect other factions by providing access to specific research and structures if discovered.

- Abilities for Destiny Class Colony Ship added:

Observation
Heavy Turret
Onboard Stargate

Here are some ideas we have discussed for Artifacts:
- Project Arcturus becomes an Artifact again and unlocks a Starbase version of the Arcturus cannon for every Faction. Cannot be controlled directly. Once dropped into a gravity well, it'll begin firing at any ships nearby effectively making the gravity well into a death trap for all. This could be it's own Artifact again, once found it'll unlock the Starbase which is basically the weapon taken from the planet into orbit and slightly adjusted so it can be used in space. Every Faction could have a slightly different looking support structure around the weapon itself for the model. Additional related research could include research for increased energy weapon damage, rate of fire
- Wraith can unlock a Superweapon or possibly Starbase (temporary name: Orbital Hive Gestation) by finding the ZPM Artifact. This factory grows hives (and possibly other capitals) periodically without the need for any intervention, greatly increasing the capital count without expending resources.
- Asgard Hyperdrives Artifact – unlocks a Wraith passive ability where Hives become phase stabilizers allowing the faction to freely travel between stars where ships are present, also provides research for improving hyperspace speed considerably thereby reducing damage taken during jumps (the Wraith would have the unique disadvantage of slow hyperspace speeds and damage per second taken while in hyperspace, for all ships. However, their ships will not have the per ship upkeep common to all other factions, only a general vanilla infrastructure upkeep but with lower percentages.)
The above is not final and they may change as we move forward.

We welcome suggestions for possible Artifacts or research based on Artifacts both for currently available and potential new ones. Post your ideas in the comments section of this progress report and we will see if they can be incorporated into the new Exploration research sections.

Strings
- missing string for Asuran AbilityFrigate Cloak Deactivate was fixed
- Asuran TODO strings were replaced with proper names and descriptions
- fixed the Human Maneuvering Thrusters research strings as they were using the wrong set for Name and Description.
- fixed Name and Description string spillover for the Asgard Hyperdrives Artifact.

AI
- increased the AI queue weight of research and research structures
- the AI has been modified to reduce the likelihood of retreat

Balancing
For the Human Faction:

For the Asuran Faction
- Asuran Lagrangian Satellite:
turning rate increased from 0.75 to 1
tactical slot cost reduced to 4, credit cost reduced to 2000
now needs one less combat lab to be researched
a new ability (Lagrangian Sat. ZPM) was created and added. It requires both the base satellite research and its own research in order to be activated. Enables the use of a ZPM, giving an almost instant charge to the capacitor and increasing the firing rate substantially.
base anti matter recharge rate was lowered from 0.5 to 0.3
entity type is now a WeaponDefense instead of ModuleStandard which should help the AI with recognition
- Asuran Hangar Defense was buffed (see Various Fixes further down)


Various Fixes
Can no longer select disabled races!
- Asuran Orbital Hangar Defense:
now fires the same drone weapon as the Orbital Drone Platform instead of a vanilla missile weapon.
weapon points added (3 drone weapons in 360 coverage), 1 target in each direction
hangar point added so that fighter/bomber squads will no longer appear out of the system that they are meant to be in.
created and connected a new shield mesh.
- Fixed use fighter attack set to TRUE for 15 frigates, cruisers, and capitals. Most of these were Asuran, also some Human ships like BC304 (which may be changed back if there's no alternative way to add combat movement). It is now set to FALSE and these ships will no longer move back and forth during a fight
- All Lagrangian Beam abilities will now fire as soon as a target is in range, previously it was necessary to take some damage before it would activate. This change should make the weapon do what it was supposed to, target large ships at range.
- replaced Asuran Typhoan cruiser gravity mine ability with Hyperdimensional Explosive Mines that use our model instead of the previous vanilla version.

- Asurans now have a working starbase however it isn't the Asuran model it is the Phase model as a place holder until the Asurans model is finished however they at least have a starbase now.

UI Skin
- New Tau'ri Military research Icons
- Tau'ri Defense Tab new Research Tree background (Exploration) added ready for research tree implementation
- Asuran Defense tab new Research Tree background (Discovery) added ready for new research tree

Exploration

Shieldimpact FX
We have been given permission to use the ShieldFX file that RC-1290 created. It will be replacing our current setup and will be used as a base for adjustments going forward. Many thanks to RC for sharing the FX file!

Texturing
Further work on the Traveler Greebles was done. A total of 51 were made so far with an estimated final count of about 150.


Sound
For Asurans

Sound Files that are linked:

Destiny Colony Ship
Ceres Light Frigate
Atropos Heavy Cruiser
Atlantis Class Titan
Epheus Class Titan
Mercury Class Envoy
Kreios Class Cruiser
Ogen Antifighter Frigate
Erinyes Long Range Frigate
Colony Seed Ship
Gate Satellite
Romulus Capital Ship

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stargate-invasion