The Maelstrom mod is available in two series, the Standard Series and the Expansion Series
Expansion Series
The Expansion Mod includes a new Capitalship known as a Dreadnought. A Dreadnought is a very large and powerful Capitalship that once at level six or beyond can be upgraded into a Super-Dreadnought. All six races have Dreadnought Capitalships. Dreadnought's are automatically and repeatedly built by a special Dreadnought factory ... only one unique factory is made available for each player at the start of the game.
Also included are more aggressive Pirates with Capitalships, capable of colonizing, and a pirate carrier cruiser.
Finally beware of dangerous asteroids which fill the gravity well of various planets, they can severely damage fleets through collisions.
Standard Series (Non-Expansion) Series
The Standard series is identical with the Expansion series but does not include Dreadnoughts, expanded pirates and dangerous asteroids.
Release 4 of Maelstrom
The new release sees further optimization in both memory footprint and speed. Attention was focused in three areas
1. Particle effects for explosions and weapons (new races)
2. Expanded Pirates
3. Reworking planets and adding new planets and stars
For contributions in testing and concepts I would like to thank ...
ICEman, Quiet_Man, Malanthor, Univeraakh-HG7 and many others
The major changes in Release 4 are as follows ...
Graphics and Particle Effects
- Orbital Cannons muzzle and charge effects unique for new races
- Replicators 'Planet Production' ability for Cybernetics factory
- Norlamins Frigate and Capitalship factories build effects
- Bailknights explosions and weapons effects integrated for new races
Gameplay
- TA Anitmodule uses autocannon not plasma
- Norlamins Anitmodule uses laser not plasma
Balance
- AntiMatterRestoreRate for Norlamins Carrier increased x5 (0.375)
- AntiMatterRestoreRate for Replicator Carrier changed from 0 to 0.025000
- Tec Dreadnought no longer restores Hull points to itself via 'Resupply' ability, also extended range but longer expiry times
Research
- Mass reduction for Norlamins now correctly reduces mass of ship not increased mass.
- Replicators Cybernetics factory improvements now works
Bugfix
- Extractor on Dyson sphere no longer 0 rate
- TargetCountPerBank settings match weapon points for all capitalships for all races
- Norlamins 'Cosmicray Collector' module ability is stackable
Models
- added a number of 'mangled' body types to ship explosions (see Bailknights mod)
- reworked Ancient Planet mesh and textures
- reworked Legendary Planet mesh and textures
- reworked Fortified Planet mesh (see Hyperion planet)
- added Planet Mining mesh
- added Ring World mesh
- added a large number of moon meshes
- added 'mangled body' meshes to various explosions
Optimization
- New particle effects textures are all .dds (as per TSOP)
- New particle files correctly reference mesh and textures files (as per TSOP)
- Planet textures
Planets
- reworked 'old' planet textures, removed pole pinch distortions
- new planets with unique bonuses, textures, abilities, effects, etc
- added 1-3 moons to most planets
- added Planet Aurora, Chthonian, Diasporian, Dyson Sphere, Enigma, Frigian, Hyperion, Mining Planet
- added Planet Neo Luna, Terra Nova, Paradise, Ring World, Tempest, Toxic, Utopian
- added Planet Ice Giant, Rock Giant, Terran Giant
- added over 30 moons to various planets
Stars
- reworked Dark star and White Star effects
- new stars added with unique abilities and particle effects.
- added star Magnetar, Neutron, Pulsar, Volatile
Pirates
- 'Colonize and build' structures
- send out small scouting/raiding party's
Other
- Replicators 'Antimatter Charge' module has sound on select
- Orbital Cannon rotate and muzzle sounds unique for races
- new audio for explosions and weapon effects
Great stuff looking forward to release..
Thanks for the thumbs up!
I completely ignored MODs until a few weeks ago and what a fresh breath of air they have instilled into this game (and also now that 1.21 seems to have fixed the weird de-sync with my LAN games).
This is the best mod out there. Sure DS is excellent, but having 3 new races has really added to the fun of the game. Great work!
Glad you like it. I'm looking forward to Rebellion.
Just wondering will you be fixing up the ships that aren't fully rendered in the near future or will that come a bit later?
other than that i love this mod. its incredible! dreadnauts are neat. haven't found any of those awesome looking planets yet though..
Hi gundamotaku,
I'm currently working on the ships for R5 (83), they will all be updated or replaced.
Glad your having fun!
Hey, its great to see this mod is strong enough to keep it up too date with the game. May i suggest that one change to make would be replace the auto cannons on the front of the TEC dreadnaught with gauss weapons the same as that used on the TEC gauss defense platform.
BTW what program do you use to edit the in-game meshes?
Hi Grizzly256,
"May i suggest that one change to make would be replace the auto cannons on the front of the TEC dreadnaught with gauss weapons"
Its a good thought, I'll see how I go time-wise as I'm working on 83 models.
I use XSI softimage for model work ... if that is what you mean by 'edit' (in-game meshes).