Greetings, I am Dr. Fosstus, no doubt you've never heard of me, And I am working on a mod. the problem is I have no idea what I am doing, how to balance it, or how to use any modeling software. In short, I will need shitons of help.

My past experience includes Tiberain Sun, Transcendence, and Ufo2000. Currently, I am just finishing with the planning stage. Now you may wonder why I would post here if I have nothing to show for my current work. The reason is that I need motivation.

Here is the mission statement:

The purpose of this mod is to create a total conversion for the game Sins of a Solar Empire into hard science fiction(1). wapons reaserch will be done by reaserching spicific compaines who may give a variety of bonuses based on that companies wares. this reaserch will be expensive. also availible is government sponsered reaserch, which is cheaper, but does less.
hard science fiction, to be refered to as hardsci from now on. hardsci is science fiction categorized by using only known entitys. most technology is based on extrapolations  of current designs. gameplay wise, no plasma, beams, shields, or other magic. expect railguns, lasers, missiles, cannons, gauss guns, and other modren stuff. the basic rule is, "if you can't explain how it works, you can't use it."

1. scout
2. basic frigate
3. range frigate
3. colony firgate
4. antiplanet frigate
5. advanced combat frigate/ability frigate
6. antifighter frigate
7. basic combat cruiser
8.  ability cruiser
9. basic carrier cruiser
10. advanced combat cruiser
11. noncapship battleship
12. specialized cruiser (unique concept for each faction)

In total there will be 6 playable factions:

Pirate: yes, it's been done to death. Only capships will be able to colonize. weak economicly and culture-wise, they will rely strongly on missions and alternate sources of income. able to trade through black markets, which add to culture. many levels of weapons reaserch, but very expensive. their ships are generally painted black with or hace the look of stealth figthers to them. low ore and crystal costs, but higher than normal credit cost, as they use mecnaries.

"The Culture" Economic Giant, they get a lot of economic and culture research, few weapons research and expensive ships. their basic frigate is stronger, but most of their other ships are weaker. their ships tend to have longer ranges. most of their ships are armed civilian ships, and as such have weak hulls. their stuff is more expensive, but they can aford it because their economic reaserch is cheaper. in order to gain acess to more powerful weapons reaserch, they must reacherch wartime economy, which takes a great deal of time but can be started early. must do reaserch for some capships. they are a very prosperous nation who had not fought or many generations. lots of diplomacy reaserch.

 "confedration of free states": a supremecist nation who has been at war constantly for the past 4 generations. They view it as their duty to eliminate anyone they can, as the weak shall die. in their eyes this is the natural order. they are strong when it comes to bombing planets and damaging structures, and have no mercy about using any kind of weapon. a branch of their tech tree is devoted to unconventional weapons(nukes, bioweapons, chemical weapons, etc). while they share a common hatred of outsiders, they also, when lacking a better enemy, host vast interfaction wars over things like weather slavery or genocide is better. their ships are more accurate due to the large number of veterans crewing them, but tend to lack fighters and antifighter weapons.

The Monarchys: a series of small monarches afiliated only in name, they have been at war with the CFS for a generation. the kings and queen range from selfless to corrupt. their economy is average. there is a warrior tradition dating back thousands of years to the origional colonies of the late earth era. they are strong at fighters, and are outfitted with many gunports on their ships. they tend to cost more, as thir ships are gaudy and regal. their cap ships are more expensive. capships have high culture repel rates.

Earth Colonial Authority: the remains of the origional colonial authority before the Seporate Peace. when the colonies declaired independence, this organization fought valiantly to keep humanity under one banner. functioning like a mix of marine core and navy, they were not spared the splintering that befel the colonies. the loose alliance that lasted since the fall has fianlly cracked under the strain of too many competeing charismatic commanders. they are rediscovering their origional mandate of "one race, one banner". noable for stock ships, which are a little cheaper, of average firpower, but have fewer abilites. noted for a refusal to use WMDs, their planet attack shows troopships departing, which are less eficient. after all, it is about uniting, not killing, right guys? they look like the tec whose newer designs resembel modren aircraft. their older ones are blocky.

Freemen: the usual targets for the CFS, they are the remains of the rebellions of hundreds of rebellions by oppressed ethnic groups. usually losing the battles for their freedom, they escape to fight against tyrany another day. they use weaker ships that move faster through phase space. usually have small caliber guns, large guns, no lasers and few railguns . their fleets are described as a flotilla of scrap. They fight all other factions on the grounds that they are exploiting the underclass. communist, so lower amount of money from taxes. their ships are asymmetrical and obviouslty scavenged. early reaserch into scavengeing feilds allows them to build ships for 25% cheaper. they use some of the same black market techs as the pirates. have high costs for ore and crystal, but lowered credits, as the pilost are willing to work for nearly nothing.

I apologize about the spelling in the later paragraphs, for they were taken directly from my notes.