Oh you know, a little of this, a little of that.

Dawn of Victory (DoV) is a modification currently under development by Slipstream Productions for the RTS Sins of a Solar Empire. Dawn of Victory is a total conversion, replacing the game's original assets with completely new and diverse ships, structures, and gameplay elements. Dawn of Victory pits players as one of 3 intergalactic superpowers: the Democratic Federation, Greater German Reich, and the Soviet Union. These three factions wage war amongst themselves even as a greater threat, the Scinfaxi, threaten them all.

Story

While Dawn of Victory started out loosely based on Harry Turtledove’s “Worldwar” and “Colonization” book series, since then, the backstory has expanded to the point where it has taken on a life of its own.

For centuries an alien race known as the Scinfaxi had been the dominant power in the Orion region of space, their slow but steady expansion brought them into contact with dozens of other races, each one conquered and exterminated to provide the resources and material necessary to support the continually expanding empire.

 

In the 14th century, the first Scinfaxi probes reached Earth: it was surveyed, catalogued, and the plans were meticulously laid for its capture and assimilation. However, the Scinfaxi concept of time was very different from humanity's, and so when the first ships of the conquest fleet arrived in 1943, they were stunned to see Terran society had progressed to an industrial state in an unimaginable sliver of time. The initial landings took humanity by surprise, as the Scinfaxi advanced upon every continent.

It was in this darkest hour that what once divided humanity now brought it together, as the old prejudices were put aside and every free nation on Earth united against the alien aggressors. The tide turned in 1945 when the Soviet Union detonated an atomic bomb on its own soil, destroying a Scinfaxi landing site.

 

With the total conquest of Earth impossible without destroying everything of value, the Scinfaxi retreated to the Southern hemisphere, content with half the planet. Decades went by with no contact from the Scinfaxi, but as humanity grew bolder, the aliens' plans accelerated. As spacecraft from the last free nations made landfall, and eventually colonized new worlds, the Scinfaxi slowly began to advance. City after city was lost until, in a final act of desperation, the various Terran factions agreed to pursue a literal "scorched earth" policy, sacrificing their remaining positions to nuclear bombardment and quarantining the planet.

 

Humanity has expanded to the stars, and dozens of planets and moons now belong to the remaining Terran nations. There has been almost no contact with the Scinfaxi, and the former nations of Earth have become so complacent with their apparent safety that the old prejudices have returned and they once again war amongst themselves. The Scinfaxi are still expanding however, and it is only a matter of time before they decide to stamp out the potential usurpers; if humanity is allowed to advance another hundred years, it may be human soldiers landing on Scinfaxi worlds. The dawn of victory is approaching: the only question is which side will claim it.


Features

 

  • 3 unique sides: The Soviet Union, Greater German Reich, and Democratic Federation.
  • Completely reworked combat model, with each ship possessing dozens of weapons and defenses.
  • Military Based Expansion, with research and economic aspects reshaped to support combat.
  • New particle effects, skyboxes, and planets.
  • Diverse environments ranging from open space to clouded nebulae.
  • Several unique ship classes like corvettes and interceptors
  • New planetary defenses like minefields, missile arrays, and defense bases
  • Nine new levels, ranging from two player deathmatch to heated ten player battles
  • New invasion mechanics, with troopships that can invade and colonize planets simultaneously
  • Customizable cruisers and capital ships

Past Updates



 

 


Comments (Page 15)
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on Apr 14, 2008
this mod looks amazing, PLEASE RELEASE IT SOON!!!
on Apr 14, 2008
Just a question: how different are ship roles (spacecraft defense, anti-spaceship) and ship classifications (frigate, cruiser, destroyer) going to be between each faction ?


They'll be relatively similar across race lines in the mod. Corvettes are specialized smaller craft, frigates are workhorses, cruisers are larger warships with some fighter defenses, destroyers are still anti-frigate, and caps are caps. However, the different types of weapons and armor configurations of the ships do give them different roles. A race such as the Germans that rely on corvette screens are going to have much heavier corvettes bordering on frigate-level weapons, and so forth.

Another example: the DF don't even use corvettes, they use smaller gunships, but that isn't going to end up hurting them. If a race is specialized in a certain type of ship, the others aren't going to be nerfed: in fact, there may be more counters specially designed to beat that sort of thing. Soviet flak is able to damage corvettes as well as fighters, as a consequence of the heavy German usage of corvettes. There's a lot of this, so the game is on paper quite well-balanced. In theory, it'll take a lot of testing, but we've given it our best shot so far.

For the most part we aren't trying to differentiate ships by class across factions. That's a pain for the end-user who has to constantly go "well, corvettes worked really well against X when I was playing Y race, but will they work here?". Our differentiation stems from the roles the specific ships play, how they work together (supply, mines), and their custom weapons/abilities. There is a ton of things that work together in this mod as far as micro goes. You know the Radiance Battleship thing where you load up that one other cap with the Vengeance or whatever ability and cast animosity on it, ending up trashing the other guy's fleet as he fires at it? It's similar to that, and we have more capability to do so due to DoV being more micro overall.
on Apr 14, 2008
Hey Carbo016, just a suggestion:
You guys should really consider on setting a preliminary release date (or simply when you guys expect it to be almost done), and I can dare to speak for all of us who are madly interested in this mod.
on Apr 14, 2008
Hey Carbo016, just a suggestion:You guys should really consider on setting a preliminary release date (or simply when you guys expect it to be almost done), and I can dare to speak for all of us who are madly interested in this mod.


There will be no release date until the mod is finished and we're going into internal testing of a final build. Remember, we have had only a little more than two months to formally work on this thing.
on Apr 15, 2008
i give it a year until we get a beta, complete mods almost take as long as the game itself take to be made
on Apr 15, 2008
We really can’t provide any sort of estimated release time on a mod like this. Our team is made entirely of volunteers and things like work and school tend to get in the way of modding. The best way to help DoV get released sooner is to just spread the word.
on Apr 15, 2008
What are you guys doing besides making spacecraft look like aircraft?
on Apr 15, 2008
apknullare it is a TC(total conversion). Also the spacecraft dont look like aircraft! They look like realistic assumptions of future space combat craft!
on Apr 15, 2008
What are you guys doing besides making spacecraft look like aircraft?


Oh, lots of things. Sometimes we play checkers.
on Apr 16, 2008
apknullare it is a TC(total conversion). Also the spacecraft dont look like aircraft! They look like realistic assumptions of future space combat craft!


I'm sorry, but that's just not true. First, they are not matt black (stealth approach) so you could see them coming from a couple million kilometres away and just pick them off with a laser. Nor are they mirror-polished (defense approach) so the aforementioned lasers would have no trouble in making them look like a melted swiss cheese in a couple of shots. Then there is the fact that they have forward mounted weapons which would be a daft design decision considering fuel consumption required just for maneuvering required for aiming. And I hope all they use are lasers because other stuff is just not practical, especially on such small craft And so on.

What they *look* like is like stuff which is very fun to watch blow other stuff up. Star Wars looks and sounds great even though most physics laws are blatantly ignored there... but then again, who cares. Look at the size of that thing!



Personally I love the design of those ships... can't wait to see what they did with the larger ships.

on Apr 16, 2008
FYI: There are no lasers in the mod, and the smaller craft were designed for atmospheric usage as well. Hence the sleeker corvettes and fighters while the larger ships are much less aerodynamically sound.
on Apr 16, 2008
This looks like a very interesting mod, my main question is also WHEN? I'm keen to try it.

I thought you were the 'Senate' my Great Emperor? "At an end your rule is, and not short enough it was!" Just kidding!

Keep well.

on Apr 16, 2008
Ok nevermind...i just saw what u said above about the release...my mistake
on Apr 16, 2008
apknullare it is a TC(total conversion). Also the spacecraft dont look like aircraft! They look like realistic assumptions of future space combat craft!I'm sorry, but that's just not true. First, they are not matt black (stealth approach) so you could see them coming from a couple million kilometres away and just pick them off with a laser. Nor are they mirror-polished (defense approach) so the aforementioned lasers would have no trouble in making them look like a melted swiss cheese in a couple of shots. Then there is the fact that they have forward mounted weapons which would be a daft design decision considering fuel consumption required just for maneuvering required for aiming. And I hope all they use are lasers because other stuff is just not practical, especially on such small craft And so on.What they *look* like is like stuff which is very fun to watch blow other stuff up. Star Wars looks and sounds great even though most physics laws are blatantly ignored there... but then again, who cares. Look at the size of that thing! Personally I love the design of those ships... can't wait to see what they did with the larger ships.

mansh00ter sir, you fail multiple times. Hard. Never mention SCIENCE! in a game thread, especially if you don't have a firm grasp on it.
Let me write up some more words so you understand just how hard you failed.
Matt black stealth coating? The color of the ship is irrelevant. You can detect both Pioneer and Voyager space probes from Earth only by their engine exhaust. Even when their engines are off and they're simply surfing gravity waves or riding their own intertia, their mere existence in the vast nothingness is like a huge lighthouse in the open sea. And yes, even in an asteroid field such as the Oort cloud, the probes' radiation signatures stand out like a nude pedophile in a Children's Spring Clothing Fashion Convention.
Your second fail was the mention of LASERs. They are pretty far from the most effective space weapon. A 10MW steady photon stream LASER needs a while to penetrate an inch of steel platng, roughly three seconds. Mind you, for those whole three secons it has to focus on the same spot, or the heat dissipation makes the weapon pretty ineffective. Railguns, autocannons, missiles, all these are far more effective and easier to mount on a fighter than any LASER design.
Forward mounted weapons make sense if you're using autocannons with closed shells(complete mixture to fire the projectile in the shell, no atmo needed) or railguns, which have considerable recoil. Believe it or not, in space, recoil exists. Mounting such a large(in comparison to the fighter) weapon in any other way would produce torque while the weapon fires, resulting in structural damage to the fighter.
Fuel consumption of ion-based maneuvering thrusters(current technology) is laughably small. It's about to get a whole lot smaller once plasma thruster technology comes into active use. So yes, you could have a fighter zipping around, turning, maneuvering and doing stunts without worrying about fuel.

If you wanted to have a valid reason for complaining about games in general, you should have complained about the mere existence of manned fighter craft. But that's when you turn on your Suspension of Disbelief Engines and cruise on...
on Apr 16, 2008

apknullare it is a TC(total conversion). Also the spacecraft dont look like aircraft! They look like realistic assumptions of future space combat craft!


I'm sorry, but that's just not true. First, they are not matt black (stealth approach) so you could see them coming from a couple million kilometres away and just pick them off with a laser. Nor are they mirror-polished (defense approach) so the aforementioned lasers would have no trouble in making them look like a melted swiss cheese in a couple of shots. Then there is the fact that they have forward mounted weapons which would be a daft design decision considering fuel consumption required just for maneuvering required for aiming. And I hope all they use are lasers because other stuff is just not practical, especially on such small craft And so on.What they *look* like is like stuff which is very fun to watch blow other stuff up. Star Wars looks and sounds great even though most physics laws are blatantly ignored there... but then again, who cares. Look at the size of that thing! Personally I love the design of those ships... can't wait to see what they did with the larger ships.



mansh00ter sir, you fail multiple times. Hard. Never mention SCIENCE! in a game thread, especially if you don't have a firm grasp on it.Let me write up some more words so you understand just how hard you failed.Matt black stealth coating? The color of the ship is irrelevant. You can detect both Pioneer and Voyager space probes from Earth only by their engine exhaust. Even when their engines are off and they're simply surfing gravity waves or riding their own intertia, their mere existence in the vast nothingness is like a huge lighthouse in the open sea. And yes, even in an asteroid field such as the Oort cloud, the probes' radiation signatures stand out like a nude pedophile in a Children's Spring Clothing Fashion Convention.Your second fail was the mention of LASERs. They are pretty far from the most effective space weapon. A 10MW steady photon stream LASER needs a while to penetrate an inch of steel platng, roughly three seconds. Mind you, for those whole three secons it has to focus on the same spot, or the heat dissipation makes the weapon pretty ineffective. Railguns, autocannons, missiles, all these are far more effective and easier to mount on a fighter than any LASER design.Forward mounted weapons make sense if you're using autocannons with closed shells(complete mixture to fire the projectile in the shell, no atmo needed) or railguns, which have considerable recoil. Believe it or not, in space, recoil exists. Mounting such a large(in comparison to the fighter) weapon in any other way would produce torque while the weapon fires, resulting in structural damage to the fighter.Fuel consumption of ion-based maneuvering thrusters(current technology) is laughably small. It's about to get a whole lot smaller once plasma thruster technology comes into active use. So yes, you could have a fighter zipping around, turning, maneuvering and doing stunts without worrying about fuel.If you wanted to have a valid reason for complaining about games in general, you should have complained about the mere existence of manned fighter craft. But that's when you turn on your Suspension of Disbelief Engines and cruise on...




PWND!


mansh00ter =
YOU FAIL!
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