Oh you know, a little of this, a little of that.
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Dawn of Victory is a modification currently in development for the RTS/4X game; Sins of a Solar Empire. It is a “total conversion” replacing the games original models, textures, UI elements, and gameplay to create an entirely new and original experience.

It is our goal with Dawn of Victory to “maintain depth, but shift focus”, taking the things that made Sins of a Solar Empire a truly enjoyable game, and apply them to a different set of rules.

Above all, the team behind Dawn of Victory is committed to only releasing a product we can be proud of. While we pride ourselves on the quality of our art assets and aesthetics changes, we hope the true value of our mod is the unique and engaging gameplay.

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The storyline behind Dawn of Victory was originally little more than an excuse to create what we thought would be a unique and fantastic backdrop for the game. Loosely based on the “WorldWar” series of books by Harry Turtledove, we wanted to take the atmosphere that made World War II games so compelling, and transport it into a space opera setting.

Over time however, our backstory has grown into an expansive universe, spanning over 300 years of alternate history. Our community driven wiki, dedicated to the story behind the mod has grown to over 500 pages, with hundreds of individual contributors.

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  • New Ship Classes: Corvettes, interceptors, and more.
  • Redesigned Combat Model: Small caliber weapons may be effective against strike craft and frigates, but against heavy armor they won't make a dent.
  • Original Art Assets: Different factions have unique architectural styles and approaches to ship design. All assets have been created expressly for the mod.
  • Enhanced Ship Customization: Mount different equipment on your ships to achieve greater tactical flexibility.
  • New Doctrine Trees: Specialize your faction's approach to combat and more through purchasing unique abilities and bonuses.
  • Redesigned User Interface: The game's interface has been reimagined to fit both the style and gameplay changes inherent to Dawn of Victory.
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The Soviet Union relies on overwhelming firepower rather than subtlety to achieve victory. Soviet frigates and cruisers are well rounded and cost effective, but the true strength of the Red Fleet lies in its capital ships. The Soviet economy is vulnerable however, and must be protected until it is in a position to dominate.
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Kriegsmarine corvettes and frigates are the mainstay of German strategy. When properly deployed they can harass and intercept enemy units before escaping serious retribution. By denying their opponents the room to expand, the Greater German Reich can force their enemies into a vulnerable position before delivering the final blow with cruisers and capital ships.
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The Democratic Federation combines the best elements of the American, Andrean, British and French fleets. Large numbers of specialized ships are available, and when properly coordinated, become effective against nearly every threat.

 

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Applicants would ideally be familiar with UV mapping, and be proficient at recognizing existing unit styles and applying them faithfully either from a concept or working with a group to come up with a design. Models typically range from 1k to 6k polies. Each unit mesh will have only only one UV channel, as the engine limits us to one texture per mesh.
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Applicants should be familiar with normal and specular maps and have a commitment to detail. The art direction of the mod calls for mostly realistic texturing with some room for stylistic exaggerations; experience with generating "greeble" and weathering are a must. Texture resolutions range from 1024 square to 4096 square.

If interested, please send an email to staff@dawnofvictory.com. Please include either some samples of your work or a link to your portfolio.


Comments (Page 2)
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on May 07, 2010

Swiss Knight

On a side note, though, Hitler was killed in 1945.

Were you just stating the obvious or did you miss all those paragraphs of text explaining how the mod takes place in an alternate history.

Its WWII in space guys, this isn't rocket appliances.

 

 

 

 

No, I didn't miss all those paragraphs, but evidently you missed the part I quoted in my post.

 

Sorry, mate, I must have misinterpreted "I believe in our timeline Hitler and much of the German leadership was killed in 1944" to mean pretty much what it said.

on May 10, 2010

Can't wait for this. The books got me even more excited.

on May 10, 2010

Swiss Knight

That said I know we have tried to tone down the German side from the ideology of the Nazi party to a more Prussian-esque faction. I believe in our timeline Hitler and much of the German leadership was killed in 1944.
Yeah thats a good point to raise, doing anything related to WWII does bring up a bunch of questions as to how you want to portray Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union so we're tried to go as neutral as possible. We've even had some great folks from Germany work with us as to make sure the mod dosn't feature anything offensive. Basically, if your familiar with the tone of Company of Heroes or Men of War your familiar with the tone of DoV.

 

Thanks for your reply, sir. I do enjoy Company of Heroes, actually. But they avoid the whole sketchy area of Nazism by using the Iron Cross and using things like Knights Cross Winners (who look kinda like Waffen-SS and since they get the MP44, a new weapon at the time of CoH's time frame, I always think of them as SS). The thing that irks me after peeking at your wiki page for the GDR (my abbreviation of the GGR; again for anyone reading this and not read my previous post, I know GDR is the English abbreviation for the former East Germany) is that Waffen-SS and other "Nazi" items are mentioned specifically. I think it also listed the Waffen-SS as a part of the Wehrmacht (which it was not; SS were not military, but party military. If you were Waffen-SS, you were a Nazi. If you were Wehrmacht, you were not necessarily a Nazi, might just have been a soldier).

I've not read the works which have inspired you, nor do I think it would be reasonable to completely rewrite much of your work, but if it were reasonable, I'd say you've missed quite of bit of that good ol'fashioned Prussian Conservatism and Militarism Paint all the ships Prussian Blue and slap a Hohenzollern Eagle on the side of everything! Go for superior discipline and not numbers. While Voltaire did say that "some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state" and this might imply a large army, it was only such in the sense of proportions: compared to similar sized states, their Army was fricken HUGE. Bear in mind I am thinking of the time of Friedrich II der Große, when Prussia was quite small.

Regardless, I'll look forward to using the Germans if I stumble upon your release, as I said earlier (I don't visit these forums often). By chance will the Russians and Germans speak Russian/German? I assume that you have German speakers on your team, based on "We've even had some great folks from Germany work with us as to make sure the mod dosn't feature anything offensive". It'd be fricken sweet if they spoke German and Russian The cheesey accents in CoH get tiresome, you see. German CoH sounds infinitely better (at least for the Germans; never heard their Allied voices).

 

Anyway, happy modding!

~Tyndaria

on May 10, 2010

We are still debating whether or not the Russian and German units will be spekaing accented English, or full Russian/English. Its all a matter of how easily the user is able to figure out which units are which and if having them speak a foreign language would complicate matters.

on May 11, 2010

Maybe if it's easily possible (I'm no modder) you could have optional files for either, similar to the optional dynamic movement used in other mods. Swap out a couple of files and bam! The Germans are saying "Jawohl Herr Kapitän!" and so forth *insert Silent Hunter III German dialogue here*. But I don't know if that would be simple. Regardless of how you go, I just hope they don't sound like stereotypical angry "Nazis". I'm glad that CoH didn't go that route for most units. Grenadiers sound like soldiers, similar to the American or British units.

The Eastern Front modders (CoH mod) have gone an interesting route: they use the Russian sound files for the regular American and British units in their mod. Unless you understand Russian, it sounds awesome. Actually, it sounds awesome either way, even if the T-34s are claiming to be M4 Shermans!

 

If you go the English route, you should sneak in a little bit of "I know NOTHING!" and "Schultz! You dummkopf!" ..... Okay, perhaps not. It would be silly in space. But hilarious nevertheless.

 

~Tyndaria

on May 20, 2010

Could you link the wiki page? Thanks in advance.

on May 20, 2010

which one? Theres a direct link to the main page in the OP.

on Jun 03, 2010

Tyndaria

 

If you go the English route, you should sneak in a little bit of "I know NOTHING!" and "Schultz! You dummkopf!" ..... Okay, perhaps not. It would be silly in space. But hilarious nevertheless.

 

BEST SHOW EVER!

on Jun 04, 2010

Regarding the Germans,

 

I've spent a fair bit of time working on the Wiki myself, and I would hazard to say that the Germans have received less attention than most of the other factions present in the game universe.

Unlike the Soviet Union, the Democratic Federation, or even the Empire of Japan and the Tawhid (Islamic state), their "origin story," as to why things are the way they are is largely lacking. For whatever reason, the popular focus has been, at least with the regulars, on the USSR or numerous minor factions which won't actually appear in the Sins mod.

In the future, this will likely change, but with only 5 or so regular contributors, it may be some time before the Reich is "up to snuff."

I would encourage anyone with an interest to take a look at the German wiki pages and offer some suggestions. We could always use more slave labour, err, I mean productive volunteers.

on Jul 07, 2010
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Five months to the day after the Greater German Reich first launched their invasion of Vega, the Soviet Union announced that 45,000 German troops had “found their graves within the Vega System”. Since their latest counter-offensive, state officials said, Soviet troops had seized - and continued to hold - the initiative. However, the released casualty figures include only German forces operating in orbit and throughout the Vega System, with the total loss of life in the planetary campaigns is as of yet unknown to the media.


The Vega System is no stranger to conflict, having been the battleground between the New Weimar Republic and the Imperium of Deutschland for over five years before the Weimar Victory in 2267. That victory seems to have been in vain, however, with the Reich announcing the reformation of the Imperium as part of their latest effort to “bring order and stability to a planet that has long suffered under the storm of communist aggression”.

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Particularly violent fighting continued throughout the Argentine Moons, a collection of seven major planetary bodies, as well as hundreds of thousands of asteroids in orbit of Argell. The moons have been the traditional center of the Vega economy, with a network of refineries and outposts processing the vast amounts of precious metals scattered across the system.

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The Argentine moons are also notorious as a pirate haven, with numerous hidden anchorages and bases built during the Vega Civil War. Since then, they've been occupied: first by Imperium Remnant forces, and later by traditional piracy groups such as Black Mask and various private military corporations from Luktopia.

While such groups have traditionally stayed clear of German and Soviet vessels, with supply lines so thinly patrolled the Red Fleet has not been taking any chances. The Union has reportedly deployed roughly a dozen defense stations behind the lines recently to manage fleet logistics and provide local security, ostensibly in the form of corvette patrols.

For the BBC, this is Thomas Kensley reporting from the Oured Orbital Districts, New Geneva.

on Jul 07, 2010

Very cool reading.

This one is something im really looking forward too.

on Jul 29, 2010

Hi,

I speak German, French, a little Spanish, and have a good Russian accent, so if you need anyone to record any bits of dialogue for your mod, I'd be more than happy to help out. Your mod and all the background you've created for it look amazing and I can hardly way to play it!

--jozmar 

on Jul 30, 2010

Thanks for the offer, we're getting to the point now where we could use some dialog and whatnot, but we're still a little ways off. Best bet is to register on our forums at www.dawnofvictory.com/forums so we don't forget to contact you.

on Jul 30, 2010

I think I might pop over to your forums. One of my majors at uni is German and next year I will spend five months in, *ahem* the Fatherland. I'd be pleased to record German phrases, if you guys ever need them. I am also starting to learn some Russian, though I'd only want to record for you guys if you have no better options (German is my specialty).

I also will maybe register so as to confer with any of you fine folks that are the main story writers for the Germans. Being an occasional story writer (Warhammer and 40k and some independent stuff) and a German enthusiast, I would like to work with the writers if the Germans are indeed receiving less attention. It's all up to you guys if you want some outside help in their back story, but should the need arise, I'd love to help.

Maybe I'll register later, if nothing else, to go over to your site to see pretty pictures

 

Cheers,

 

~Tyndaria

on Aug 07, 2010

is this mod ever gonna be released?

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