Welcome to the Dark Nova Mod.  This is a compilation work done by several individuals.
The Dark Nova 4 Project is now complete. Version 4.25 is the final version. 
For questions, feedback or general comments please either email me at pelldom@primus.ca or feel free to drop by the Dark Nova forum on http://www.spaceempires.net 

(The Original Dark Nova Team)
Dominic Pelletier - bearclaw (pelldom@primus.ca)
Michael Mahoney - Dead Meat (DeadMeat_war@hotmail.com)
Justin Bunnel - Flatline (jbunnell@yahoo.com)
Ken Cobblers - The General (cobblers@midohio.net)
Bryan Dirkson - BeeDee10  (bryan.derksen@ualberta.ca)

Intro Pic credit - John Buurman.  His and many other amazing works of art can be found at www.elfwood.com

After finishing the First Dark Nova game, we decided that we wanted to do another but with some changes.  Those first few changes turned into an entire new mod!  One that should be quite interesting to play.  While those of us listed above originally created this mod, credit must be given to other sources that were inspirational to the creation of this mod.

Credits:
Andreas Lescano - UltimateVehicle Mod. which was heavily drawn upon, and in some cases down right cannabalized.
DeathStalker 	- Deathstalker's Mount Mod was another source of matierial, few slight alterations to work with the shipsizes we employed.
Aikin 		- AI files.
Draco 		- Events from EyeCandy mod, and EventsMod
Dead Meat 	- LNAW shipset compliation.  Actual pics are from various sources.  He put them into a format that works with this mod.
Admiral 	- Giant and Titanic sized planets from Admiral System Mod. (since replaced with FQM but we still want to provide credit where credit is due)
Imperator Fyron - Ultimate Stratagies Mod. FQM Deluxe v2.10.
The General	- Re-organized Intel Research tech.
Journe		- Balanced Cultures.txt from Highliner Mod.

This mod requires the ImageMod to run a game.  It is NOT included. Available here: 
http://imagemod.spaceempires.net/

This mod also requires the FQM Deluxe images. Available here:
http://fqm.spaceempires.net/

The list of alterations is as follows:

increased shipsizes - 35 levels of ship construction.
		- more troops, sats, bases, colony ships, etc.
Modified Intel - We belive this intel modification will provide a better game balance.  Instead of getting just sabotage projects from the start, each level has a mix of espionage and sabotage projects.  Puppet Political Parties and Crew Insurrections have been greatly increased in cost.
More Mounts - Mounts to cover the increased ship sizes as well as a variety of others to encourage more diversity in ship designs.
New Facilty - We have included a new Planetary Shield Base facility that is not just a unique tech. Plus many many others.
Altered Settings.txt - the settings have been adjusted to match the changes we made throughout the mod.
Diversified Ship Size research.  Each ship type (carrier, standard, colony, transport) has their own tech tree.
Many many more unique techs.  Plus boosted chances for Uniques to appear on the map.
Multi-colony Modules.
Different warhead damage types.

In addition to these changes, the most adventurous change we have made is to have planet populations MUCH harder to kill.  The goal of this change is simply to increase the Role Playing of the game and to make planet populations more than just cannon fodder.

For those of you reading this, I hope you enjoy the mod.  Feel free to make any alterations to fit with your games.  