This mod intends to expand the options for high-tech fleet doctrines. It includes over a dozen new hulls, over a dozen new weapons, under a dozen new fighters, and about a dozen reskins, including a new Domain Battlegroup.
It also includes one new low-tech light capital to give the Hegemony a fighting chance.
High Tech Expansion can be safely added to an existing save.
Please note that 1.4.X versions are not save-compatible with 1.3.X versions and earlier.
This mod requires LazyLib. Get it here.
This mod requires MagicLib. Get it here.
Detailed ship information:
Blaze
Role: Fighter
A drone phase fighter with a plasma streamer. Melts light targets, but isn't very effective against heavy armor or good shields.
Khanjali
Role: Strike Fighter
An expensive and powerful fighter designed to kill anything smaller than a heavy cruiser. Carries a high-damage plasma weapon, twin fighter-grade IR pulse lasers, and a miniaturized active flare system.
Kaskara
Role: Assault
Carries a close-range High Intensity Laser that fires in short bursts. It excels against isolated targets, but is quite fragile due to its small shield arc.
Kukri
Role: Bomber
A Dagger refit that carries Tawa Standoff Torpedoes. Reliable and effective against all types of defensive layers, but not quite as effective at specific roles as specialized bombers.
Frigates:
Scute
System: Flux Compressor
Two medium mounts and nothing else, so make the most of them. Gains a slight increase to range and projectile velocity as flux level increases, compensating somewhat for its low top speed.
Destroyers:
Iris
System: Fortress Shield
Specialized for PD support, the Iris gets a hefty bonus to PD weapon range and is nearly impossible to kill unless isolated. It’s tough enough to fill a spot in a battle line, and slow enough that it doesn’t have many other options.
Moray
System: Phase Skimmer
A cheaper (and more common) Medusa that trades PD and universal mounts for a medium missile.
Persephone
System: Fast Missile Racks
A fairly generic destroyer. Can put out a lot of firepower, but it’s not as pursuit-oriented as other high-tech options.
Cruisers:
Aphelion
System: Active Flares
If the Apogee is a van, this is a minivan. Trades out the large missile and large energy for excellent turret arcs, a fighter bay, and even more active flares.
Bombardier
System: Missile Autoforge
Six small missile mounts, for when you really want something to die. Stupendous alpha damage, but it’s not very effective once the ammo runs out.
Gila
System: Fortress Shield
Maximum forward firepower and the flux stats to fuel it. A fantastic duelist, but it relies heavily on escorts to prevent flanking in fleet combat.
Flamingo
System: Targeting Overclock
A large energy, a large synergy, and lots of support weapons. Has an oppressive range with its system on, at the cost of a relatively low top speed.
Peregrine
System: Flux Compressor
No missiles at all and very few weapon slots. Has a built-in hullmod that vastly improves weapon damage, and it’s remarkably slippery with its system.
Tigershark
System: Plasma Jets
An Aurora that trades good PD for a large universal hardpoint. Fills a similar role but with an emphasis on sustained firepower due to the different slot layout.
Shoebill
System: Microvent Actuators
A compact heavy cruiser with very high durability. Vulnerable to being outranged by capitals, but can thoroughly dominate most other cruisers.
Gloom
System: Active Flares
A heavy phase cruiser designed for a support role. It has a salvage rig and a Drive Field Compressor, which improves fleet maneuvering outside of combat.
It can hold its own in combat thanks to a powerful built-in beam weapon, but it has a relatively high supply cost for its combat power.
Capitals:
Incursion
System: Plasma Burn
As offensive as the Paragon is defensive. For both meanings of “offensive”.
Equality
System: Subsystem Realignment
An advanced adaptive battleship capable of switching between speed, offensive, and defensive modes.
Has an exotic Harmonic Energy Projector that improves weapon range and projectile velocity as flux level increases.
Spire
System: Reserve Deployment
Designed to exclusively carry fighters and interceptors, the Spire can keep its squadrons active even in heavy combat environments. Not quite as tough as a true combat capital, but it certainly has the armament of one.
Aggressor
System: Accelerated Ammo Feeder
A cut-down Onslaught designed to fill the battlecruiser role, the Aggressor has an excellent thrust-to-weight ratio for a low-tech capital.
Weapon information:
Arc Emitters
Role: Point Defense
Fires arcs at random hostile targets in a wide cone. Inefficient with fairly low DPS, but they deal unavoidable hard flux damage with a side of EMP.
The medium version has a chance to produce a chaining arc, and the large can produce multiple chaining arcs.
Because of their random nature, Improved Point Defense AI does not cause them to ignore flares, but it will still improve damage to missiles.
Despite their lackluster stats, they are still quite decent— they can disable most missiles with a single hit.
Toroidal Plasma Railguns
Role: General
An ancient weapon design, these fire tiny rings of plasma at significant fractions of lightspeed. They have mediocre DPS, but excellent range and good per-shot damage.
Plasma Streamers
Role: Assault
It’s a space flamethrower. Extremely short range, very good efficiency, extremely high burst DPS. Deals a portion of its damage as soft flux instead of hard flux. Not great against heavy armor due to its low per-hit damage.
An excellent choice for Safety Overrides builds.
Plasma Lens Projector
Role: Anti-Armor/Strike
Fires a homing projectile that produces an explosive lensing effect on contact with hull or armor, punching deep inside the target. Extremely powerful against unshielded targets.
Benefits from Expanded Magazines, and synergizes well with Autopulse Lasers.
Tawa Standoff Torpedoes
Role: Torpedo
Homing torpedo that explodes into an inaccurate burst of three plasma projectiles when it nears its target, avoiding the worst of enemy point defenses.
It’s more expensive than other missiles, but also a lot more general-purpose. Less effective against smaller targets due to the spread of the secondary projectiles.
Atropos-class Torpedoes
Role: Torpedo
Two additional launchers to round out the selection of torpedo weapons.
Their damage is fairly mediocre compared to Reapers, but they have above-average ammo reserves and a fire rate that’s fast enough to squeeze in a follow-up salvo.
Kneecapper MRR
Role: Disabler, Suppression
A pre-aimed rocket that splits into a cluster of ion bomblets. Deals a small amount of energy damage and a crippling amount of EMP, with a chance for multiple arcs from each bomblet. A reloading system keeps the launcher topped up during long fights.
Ahab Harpoon Repeater
Role: Finisher
Holds a whole lot of harpoon missiles. Fires them in bursts of three, with a short reload time. Excellent support weapon, but its smaller salvos are easier to intercept.
Fissure LRM Launcher
Role: Long Range Support
Combines an oversized Breach warhead with a two-stage LRM motor. Deals a whole lot of unreduced armor damage over a large area, but it’s generally pretty sluggish, even with the sprint stage.
Around 202 post-collapse, a secret Tri-Tachyon vault holding blueprints for the elite Fourth Domain Battlegroup was broken into, and various blueprints quickly made their way into the hands of independent shipbuilders.
In response, Tri-Tachyon began open production of IV Battlegroup hulls, though only in very limited numbers.
Vayra's Sector Content:
This mod includes support for Industrial Evolution and Version Checker. Everything can be reverse-engineered and printed, aside from the unique bounty flagships.
Credits:
Helmut- Bombardier, Incursion, base for Plasma Streamer sprites
AxleMC131- Moray
Vinya- Aphelion
DrakonST- Invader, Invader XIV
Anonymous- Kingfisher, Tigershark, Peregrine, Gila, Iris
Nicke535- homing projectile script
Vayra- fixing my egg sprites
Unofficial Starsector Discord- help with descriptions, balance, and spriting
Version history (warning: long)
New:
– Shoebill Heavy Cruiser: Big, slow, expensive, and tanky, this is more of a lowtech ship than some lowtech ships. System is Microvent Actuators, which causes the ship to vent with a 50% dissipation bonus for a very brief period.
Changes:
– Bombardier: Sprite rework, courtesy of Demto. Everyone say “thanks, Demto”.
– Blaze Phase Fighter: moved from rare blueprint pool to hightech package, actually added auto_fighter tag this time around.
– Equality: Minor sprite improvements (I forgot who did this but it wasn’t me)
– Fissure LRM: Reduced kinetic spike damage to 500; with the 0.95.1 buff to breaches this should push it further into a long-range armor stripping role. Reduced ammo regen.
10DEC2021: 1.4.8
Compatibility update- just changed the version number and made sure things didn’t crash.
18SEP2021: 1.4.7
Changes:
– Tawa Standoff Torpedoes: Reduced OP cost of small and large launchers slightly (5->4 and 28->25).
– Fissure LRM Launcher: Increased OP cost (20->24).
– Kneecapper MRR: Shield pierce chance reduced (25% at max flux -> 15% at max flux).
– Equality: Decreased shield efficiency (0.6->0.7). Reduced the Bastion Mode armor/shield damage taken bonus (-30% -> -25%) and increased weapon damage penalty (-15% -> -20%).
– Reduced value of XIV/IV packages so that they don’t give you infinity points if you trade them in at Prism.
– Fixed an extremely rare bug with Kneecapper MRRs that would occur if you were getting less than 1 FPS.
– Reduced HVB fleet sizes and spawning requirements because of 0.95 skill/level changes.
17JUL2021: 1.4.6
New:
– Weapon: Fissure LRM Launcher. Large missile, 20 OP. Fires a pair of long-range MIRVs that split into five Breach SRMs and a high-velocity kinetic spike when nearing their target. Smaller and faster targets can usually dodge the spikes, but larger targets will need good PD to avoid damage.
Changes:
– Heavy Arc Emitter: Reduced fire rate by 12.5%. Increased flux per shot accordingly, making flux/sec 625. Still very good, but exactly 12.5% less good.
17JUN2021: 1.4.5
New:
– Weapons: Plasma Streamer (medium energy, 11 OP) and Twin Plasma Streamer (large energy, 22 OP). It’s a space flamethrower. Extremely short range, but has great efficiency and very high burst DPS. Deals part of its damage as soft flux when hitting shields. Very good against light targets, especially ones with poor flux stats, but ineffective against heavy armor.
– Fighters: Blaze Wing (13 OP). 3 per wing. Phase drone with a miniaturized plasma streamer. Their light defenses become a problem if confronted with cruiser or capital PD grids, but they’re excellent at hunting smaller ships.
Changes:
– Kneecapper MRRs: Reduced spawn rate (they should show up less on enemy fleets now) and reduced energy damage (80->50). Same EMP strength, less useful against shields in large numbers.
– Scute: increased OP (40->45), speed (100->110), and armor (200->325).
– Plasma Lens Projector: Changed initial hit damage type (HE->Energy) and improved efficiency (2.5->1.
. Punch-through damage is unchanged. Should be more useable now, and less of an extreme niche gun for weird phase ships.
– Added some variants that use the new stuff.
– Added a low graphics mode option to the config file, for those of you playing on your Samsung Smart Fridge. Turning it on disables the plasma streamer particle effects, since they have a pretty nasty FPS hit if you don’t have a dedicated GPU.
27MAY2021: 1.4.4
Changes:
– Equality:
– Adjusted arcs yet again. Broadside AI was too wonky; it now has 4 forward-converging larges.
– Increased DP (50->55) and dissipation (1100->1150) to compensate for improved weapon convergence.
– Adaptive Subsystems has had its bonuses slightly modified:
– Siege:
– Now gives a bonus to effective damage for armor calculation (+30%)
– Now reduces zero-flux boost by 80% (instead of removing it entirely)
– Damage and flux cost increase reduced (66%->30%)
– RoF penalty reduced (-40%->-20%)
– Bastion:
– Damage and flux cost reduction increased (-10%->-15%)
– Now gives a bonus to damage vs missiles and fighters (+33%)
– Fixed a bug that caused Siege Mode’s penalty to zero-flux boost to stick around when swapping modes.
– Aggressor:
– DP increased (38->40) and flux capacity increased (13500->14500).
– Toroidal Plasma Railguns: Halved charge time, total fire rate remains unchanged
– Ahab Harpoon Stream: Adjusted AI usage to be more conservative.
– Tawa Standoff Torpedoes: Adjusted AI usage slightly.
– Kneecapper MRR:
– Adjusted arc chance to pierce shields. Now 20% * target’s flux percentage, and can pierce at all flux levels.
– Adjusted AI usage to be more conservative.
– Fixed a typo and slightly changed some descriptions.
24APR2021: 1.4.3
– Nerfed Svarog. I kinda forgot that faction fleet quality is a thing.
– Made version number more biggerer.
11APR2021: 1.4.2
Someday the Arc Emitters will be balanced. Probably not today, but some day. Eventually.
– Light Arc Emitter:
– Flux/shot reduced (180->170)
– Chargeup time reduced (1.25s->0.8s), chargedown adjusted to keep rate of fire the same.
– Arc Emitter:
– Flux/shot reduced (180->170)
– Chargeup time reduced (1.25s->0.8s), chargedown adjusted to keep rate of fire the same.
– Zarmazd System:
– Adjusted orbit specs to keep NPC fleets away from the black hole.
– Improved accretion disk visuals
– Reduced default number of ships for sale from Svarog special shipyards market, and added random fluctuation in the number of ships for sale.
– Spawn Rates: General adjustments. I think 0.95 changed something in here, so this should bring it back to the old levels.
– Fixed Tritachyon not having any Fourth Battlegroup ships.
– Fixed Independent Fourth Battlegroup ship spawn rate.
8APR2021: 1.4.1 release
Just some minor tweaks and fixes.
Changes:
– Fixed a typo.
– Equality: Burn speed reduced (8->7) to match other high-tech capitals.
– Tawa Standoff Torpedo Launcher (medium): Increased reload time (12s->15s) to match Typhoon Reapers.
– Spire: Unique hullmod effects increased, since the Reserve Deployment nerf hit kinda hard and Recovery Shuttles was buffed.
– Refit time reduction improved (-15%->-20%)
– Crew loss reduction improved (-25%->-50%)
– Medusa (CO): Fixed OP, it was (incorrectly) 85 and not 100.
– Shrike (CO): Fixed OP, it was (incorrectly) 85 and not 90.
– Nexerelin starts: Fixed start variants for Medusa (CO) and Shrike (CO), as they both used the overloaded HVB loadouts.
– Increased rarity of XIV/IV blueprint packages again.
30MAR2021: 1.4.0 patch
Not save compatible. Primarily fixes a bug that would cause saves to break across starsector versions.
Changes:
– modified settings; you can now add any number of tags to Svarog’s specialty market.
– made the version number bigger
– Scarab (IV): Since the base stats were buffed, the slot layout has been slightly changed, and the sprite has been updated to match the vanilla one. It now only has one universal instead of 2.
30MAR2021: 1.3.3 release
Mostly balance changes and bugfixes. Should be the last major update for a while, at least until I have something new to add.
Save compatible. (Though updating Starsector itself might break your save.)
Changes:
– General Changes:
– Numerous variants have been replaced with tournament loadouts.
– OP has been slightly increased for a number of ships. Many were too tight on OP compared to vanilla equivalents.
– Sorry for balance whiplash. This should be the last one for a while.
– Equality:
– Fixed a math error in the siege mode code that was giving beams +98% damage while in siege mode, instead of +33%.
– Iris:
– OP increased (75->80).
– Flamingo:
– OP increased (170->180).
– Gloom:
– OP increased (80->90).
– DP and base supply cost reduced (30->26) to more closely match actual combat power.
– Peregrine:
– Shield efficiency improved (0.8->0.7).
– Flux capacity decreased (11000->10000).
– OP increased (103->105). I like round numbers.
– Persephone:
– OP increased (86->90).
– Moray:
– OP increased (79->80). Did I mention that I like round numbers?
– Kukri:
– OP cost decreased (19->18).
– Heavy Arc Emitter:
– Removed ramp-up mechanic, rebalanced base chain chance.
– Fixed a bug that would occasionally prevent chaining.
– Tawa Standoff Torpedoes:
– Hit too hard with the nerf bat.
– Damage increased to 425, a bit of a compromise between the previous nerf and the initial value.
– Missile acceleration improved.
– Ahab Harpoon Stream:
– Decreased firing delay (2s->1.75s).
– OP cost decreased (27->25).
– Plasma Lens Projector:
– Improved projectile guidance slightly. If fired with no target, it will target the closest enemy.
– Flux Compressor (Peregrine, Scute):
– Duration of full buff increased by 1 second. (1s full, 4s decay -> 2s full, 4s decay)
27MAR2021: 1.3.2 release (0.95a update)
Skipped a version number for some discord-only testing.
Fully compatible with Starsector 0.95a-RC9.
Will probably need another balance pass once the 0.95 meta has fleshed out a bit.
Changes:
– Equality: System now makes a sound when you switch modes.
– Flamingo: Flux capacity reduced (14000->12500), system flux generation greatly reduced.
– Khanjali Strike Fighter: Main weapon damage reduced (350->250), and is no longer mag-fed. Fire rate increased, so sustained DPS is still the same.
– Kneecapper MRRs: Ammo capacity reduced (5/10->3/6) and reload time reduced (35->25). Firing delay reduced (10s->3s). Bomblet spread is now more random, but it will still cover the same arc as before. Now has some fancy graphical effects.
– Toroidal Plasma Railguns: EMP damage increased (125->150), and added some graphical effects for impacts. Bonus damage now applies to the base projectile, instead of as a second hit. This should significantly improve anti-armor performance.
– Tawa Standoff Torpedoes: Submunition damage reduced (500->325). Submunitions and torpedoes now fade more quickly after reaching maximum range. Added some trail effects for submunitions.
– Tawa Standoff Torpedo Barrage (large launcher): Firing delay reduced (12s->10s) and launch velocity increased significantly.
– Arc Emitters and Plasma Lens Projector: Vastly improved script performance.
23MAR2021: 1.3.0a patch
Tournament patch. Resolves an issue with the Equality’s AI and autofit logic by slightly adjusting its broadside arcs forwards.
22MAR2021: 1.3.0 release
Not save compatible. I was going to hold off on this until 0.95. And yet, here we are.
New:
– Equality-class adaptive battleship: Triple large energy broadsides and an system that toggles betweeen Supercruise, Siege, and Bastion modes, each of which provides a buff/debuff combo.
Removed:
– Inequality-class battlecruiser. I really wasn’t satisfied with the sprite or the way the AI handled the turret layout, so it’s been ~~taken out back and shot~~ sent away to live on a farm, where it will be much happier. It’ll probably return eventually in a modified form. The HVB that had the Inequality (CO) now has a Equality (CO) instead.
Changes:
– Blueprint packages: The Bombardier and Flamingo are no longer in the hightech package, and are now rare drops. Increased rarity of IV and XIV packages.
– Variants: Added a few pirate and Remnant variants that use Kneecapper MRRs and Toroidal Plasma Railguns.
– Small sprite improvements for most reskins.
– Spire: Advanced Fighter Bays now blocks bombers entirely. It’ll hide them in 0.95, and have its effects increased slightly to compensate for the upcoming Reserve Deployment nerf.
– Twin Toroidal Plasma Railgun: Fire rate reduced to match medium (2.45->2.75) and flux cost decreased (600/shot -> 560/shot).
– Arc Emitter (medium): Damage increased (100->115).
– Heavy Arc Emitter (large): Damage increased (100->115), EMP damage increased (50->75), flux cost decreased (270->200), fire rate increased (0.55->0.33), and base chain chance increased (10%->15%). Should now be as effective as its flux cost implies.
– Added Kneecappers to Vesperon whitelist. I forget to do this every time I add something.
– Some internal code changes (some things are in Kotlin now! neat!)
25FEB2021: 1.2.4 release
Save compatible.
New:
– Kneecapper MRR: A medium-range rocket that delivers a spread of 5 high-energy ion bomblets at extended ranges. Deals a very small amount of energy damage, and a very nasty amount of EMP, with a chance for multiple arcs. It’s pre-aimed, so the rocket will rotate to face the target before igniting its engine. An autoloader provides a bit of ammo regeneration for longer fights. Comes in small (5 OP) and medium (10 OP); both are included in the missile blueprint package.
Changes:
– Ahab Harpoon Barrage: Renamed to Ahab Harpoon Stream. Sprite and mechanics reworked; no longer fires a fixed burst of missiles. Instead, it fires a single missile at a time with an extreme bonus to fire rate that decreases with each consecutive shot. This bonus regenerates while the weapon isn’t firing. It’s roughly the same in terms of sustained DPS, but has less burst damage. OP remains the same; ammo reduced (56->50).
– Aggressor: DP and maintenance cost increased (36->38). Had a bit too much firepower for the cost, and I’d rather increase cost than reduce firepower.
– Bombardier: DP and maintenance cost increased (22->25). Shield efficiency decreased (0.8->0.9). Too good for the cost, given how much alpha damage it can put out.
– Flamingo: One small synergy hardpoint was a cleverly-disguised turret. Now it’s a hardpoint.
– Gloom: Front hardpoint synergy slots changed to universals.
– Peregrine: DP and maintenance cost decreased (22->20).
– HVB scaling adjusted, and added an FP cap to both bounties so they can’t get too big.
– HVB boss loadouts adjusted. They are no longer remotely fair.
– Sprite improvements for:
– Inequality (all variants)
– Scute (all variants)
– Sprite rework for:
– Tawa Standoff Torpedo Launcher
– Tawa Standoff Torpedo Barrage
– Removed meme bugzapper variants of Paragon and Radiant from spawn tables. RIP in peace.
– Blueprint packs now properly display icons. (I think I fixed this earlier but it sneaked out of the patch notes.)
13FEB2021: 1.2.3a patch
– Fixed a crash that occurred when Metelson Industries was installed. Not sure exactly what caused it, but I fixed it anyway.
13FEB2021: 1.2.3 release
– Save compatible. Probably.
– Use “generateHTE” from the console (requires Console Commands) to add the Zarmazd system to an existing save.
New:
– System: Zarmazd. A black hole with a single planet, Svarog, terraformed into (mediocre) habitability before the collapse. The independent planetary government managed to keep critical parts of the pre-collapse industry intact, and now performs contract shipbuilding for major polities across the sector. In addition to their standard markets, they have a special market that sells high-grade weapons and ship hulls, including IV and XIV battlegroup hulls. You’ll need excellent rep with independents to access it, and “spare” domain-spec hulls don’t come cheap.
– Added config file. This is mostly for market config at the moment- there are a bunch of options in there if you want to change the proportions of what Svarog sells. Right now it can only be set to sell various proportions of XIV, IV, Hightech, Midline, and rare blueprints; eventually I’ll figure out how to allow an arbitrary number of tags.
– Gloom-class utility phase cruiser. Phase cloak and a salvage rig. It’s capable in combat, though inefficient for its supply cost. The main attraction is its Drive Field Compressor, which improves fleet acceleration, and also reduces sensor profile while you’re not using sustained/emergency burn. Each one you have in your fleet will provide a 50% bonus to acceleration and a 7.5% reduction to sensor profile, up to a maximum of +200% acceleration/-30% profile. Note that more acceleration also means better turning. Big Tritachyon fleets can probably catch you a bit more easily, so be careful. Glooms are fairly rare; even large Tritach fleets shouldn’t have more than one or two.
Changes:
– Smaller ships have had their credit costs adjusted to bring them in line with vanilla.
– Scute: PPT increased (180->240).
– Persephone/Moray: Significant stat/system reworks; the two ships have had their roles and ship systems swapped. The Persephone now offers greater firepower (and better CR/PPT stats) at the cost of speed, and the Moray now offers speed at the cost of firepower.
– All Arc Emitters: Efficiency and fire rate increased by ~10%. Previous nerf was perhaps a bit heavy-handed.
– Some small sprite improvements to Arc Emitters, Incursion, and Flamingo.
– Some internal code changes. Mostly more robust error handling, and some other internal tweaks.
6FEB2021: 1.2.2 release
Save compatible.
New:
– High-Value Bounty, including a unique cruiser reskin as flagship. Requires Vayra’s Sector to spawn.
– Several extremely heretical Ashen Keeper refits. Scute (AK), Tigershark (AK), and Spire (AK). Requires Vayra’s Sector to spawn.
– “Grand Fleet” start scenario for Ashen Keepers. Requires Nexerelin and Vayra’s Sector. A bit pricey in supply costs, but the Luddics will happily throw themselves into your guns.
Changes:
– Covert Ops Refit: Supply cost penalty increased (50%->100%). Sorry, but it had to be done.
– Kukri: Changed from Trident reskin to Dagger reskin. Wing size is still 2. OP cost reduced to 19. 4 torpedoes per wing was simply too good in comparison to other bombers. (I think I did the math wrong when originally making these.)
– All Tawa torpedoes: Projectile maximum speed reduced (350->300), acceleration reduced (100->80), split range variation removed, and spread increased (30->35). Flight time increased (4->4.5) to compensate for reduced speed. They shouldn’t feel quite as bad to get shot by now, but you’ll still need more than vulcans or PD lasers to intercept them. This also makes them a bit worse (but not unusable) in off-bore mounts.
– Plasma Lens Projector: Decreased reload time (10s->6s) and firing cycle duration (1.5s->1s). Should now be much more competitive with other high-end energy weapons.
1FEB2021: 1.2.1 release
New:
– Scute-class Frigate. 1x Medium Energy, 1x Medium Synergy. Has a built-in Harmonic Energy Projector hullmod that increases weapon range and projectile velocity as flux level increases. Its system is Flux Compressor, same as the Peregrine.
– Five custom starts for Nexerelin if you’re starting as Tritachyon. Three are normal (1x Combat Small, 2x Combat Large), and two (Super Ship) start you off in a solo destroyer with a Covert Ops refit.
Changes:
– Adjusted some values and text on the HVB ship hullmods. Compact Missile Autoforge: Cycle time increased (20s->50s) and reload percent increased (5%->10%). Covert Ops Refit: Zero-flux boost threshold increased (1.0%->1.5%), which makes a few weapons usable without disabling the zero-flux boost.
– HVB has been made a bit more difficult. Total fleet size remains the same, but ships and loadouts have been adjusted.
– Flux Compressor: Now changes engine and contrail color while active.
– Aggressor: Armor reduced (1500->1350), flux capacity reduced (15000->13500), max speed reduced (50->40), and turn speed reduced (15->10). Its narrow profile makes it surprisingly tanky, so this should bring it down to a more reasonable level of toughness.
– Inequality: DP and supply cost increased slightly (45->48). It was a little too strong for its cost.
– Kingfisher: Renamed to the Flamingo because Vayra bullied me. Added some engines to match up with the sprite.
– Khanjali: Slight HP buffs across the board. Increased hull (300->350), armor (25->75), shield HP (500->550), and shield arc (180->220). This should put it closer to other superheavy fighter wings in terms of toughness.
25JAN2021: 1.2.0 release (not save compatible)
New:
– High-Value Bounty, including a unique flagship. Requires Vayra’s Sector to spawn.
– Two new variants of existing ships. They only show up as flagships for random bounties, so they’re quite rare (and quite powerful). Requires Vayra’s Sector to spawn.
– Kaskara Assault Fighter Wing. Carries a close-range High Intensity Laser that fires in short bursts. It excels against isolated targets, but is quite fragile due to its small shield arc. Two per wing, at a price of 17 OP. Included in the high-tech blueprint package.
Changes:
– All Arc Emitters: General nerfs, mostly to fire rate. No longer arc to phased ships. No longer reset chargedown or refund flux if they don’t produce an arc when firing (this was a ‘hidden’ stat due to some AI shenanigans, which have been resolved.) Secondary chain range scaling adjusted. Formula is now (((total_range_after_modifiers / base_range) – 1) * 0.5) + 1) * base_chain_range. Basically, weapon range adjustments apply at half effectiveness to chain range.
– Light Arc Emitter: Firing speed decreased (1.75->2.5) and charge time increased substantially. Flux ratio increased (1.5->2.0).
– Arc Emitter: Firing speed decreased (1->1.75) and charge time increased substantially. EMP damage reduced (100->50). Flux ratio increased (1.5->2.0). Base secondary chain range reduced (250->200).
– Heavy Arc Emitter: Firing speed decreased (0.4->0.6), damage reduced (125->100), EMP damage reduced (100->50), and flux ratio increased (1.8->3.0). Now starts ramping down if it didn’t produce an arc the last time it fired. Base secondary chain range reduced (300->250).
– Spire: Deployment and supply cost increased (50->55), and maximum burn reduced (8->7).
17JAN2021: 1.1.5 release
New:
– Scarab (IV). Two energy mounts replaced with universals, in addition to the IV hullmod. It’s *very* good, but good luck finding one.
– Fourth Battlegroup Blueprint Package. Much rarer than other blueprint packages; you have about a 50% chance of finding one in a vanilla game with no other mods if you visit every blueprint drop source.
– Fourteenth Battlegroup Blueprint Package. Same rarity as the Fourth Battlegroup package.
Changes:
– Fixed some descriptions being too long in certain contexts.
– Aphelion: Added a rear turret slot to match up with the sprite. Adjusted turret arcs. Reduced OP by 5. Omni shield converted to front shield. Variants adjusted.
– Gila: Shield arc increased (110->120). Previous nerf was a little bit heavy-handed; now you can reasonably choose between stabilized and extended shields.
– Kingfisher: Sprite adjusted to match turret arcs and directions.
– Peregrine: Adjusted turret arcs. This is a buff.
– Khanjali: Shield HP increased (425->500). Plasma Catapult damage increased (250->350), mag size decreased (4->3), and it now reloads one projectile every 3 seconds, instead of the entire mag every 10 seconds.
– Heavy Arc Emitter: Decreased ramp time (10s->6s) and increased the time needed for the ramp to fully decay (3.3s->4s).
– Plasma Lens Projector: Improved visual effects a little bit.
– Toroidal Plasma Railguns: Now create a small secondary explosion when hitting armor, and have improved visual effects on impact. Sprites adjusted so that the barrels don’t look quite as flat.
– Tawa torpedoes: Removed friendly-fire on secondary projectiles. The AI would occasionally try to fire them through allied ships, which would die when the torpedoes split inside of them.
– Reduced the rarity of several weapons. They’re still in the same blueprint categories, but some of the rarer ones should show up more often in markets.
– Added 10 simulation opponents.
– Added two variants for [REDACTED]. I hope you haven’t been relying on swarms of unshielded fighters.
– Reduced cost multiplier for IV variants (1.75->1.6). Lorewise, IV hulls are in active (though extremely limited) production around the sector, so they shouldn’t be quite as expensive as XIV stuff.
– Adjusted some weapon descriptions to account for numerical reality.
– Actually remembered to update the version number this time.
– Added one new loading tip. Do you like focaccia bread?
11JAN2021: 1.1.4 release
– New weapon: Light Arc Emitter (small energy), Arc Emitter (medium energy), and Heavy Arc Emitter (large energy). They fire arcs at random hostile targets within a 120 degree cone, dealing decent energy and EMP damage with a relatively low firerate. The medium emitter has a chance to create a secondary chain, and the large has a chance to create multiple chains that increases as long as it’s firing. The small and medium are in the hightech blueprint package, the large is rare and known by Tritachyon and Remnants.
– Remnant fleets will now occasionally use the Plasma Lens Projector, Nyx Atropos Salvo, and Tawa Standoff Torpedo Battery.
8JAN2021: 1.1.3 release
– Added some variants of vanilla ships that use the new weapons.
– Actually added the Ahab to the vanilla missile blueprint package this time. For sure.
– New sprite for the Khanjali Strike Fighter.
– New weapon: Toroidal Plasma Railgun (medium energy, 12 OP) and Twin Toroidal Plasma Railgun (large energy, 26 OP). One of the oldest types of energy weapon, they use electric fields to accelerate a tiny ring of plasma to extreme velocities. It has great range (for an energy weapon, anyway) and good per-shot damage with a side of EMP, but poor DPS and efficiency. It has relatively low flux usage when compared to other energy guns, so it’s a good choice for ships that have energy slots but not high-tech flux stats. The medium is in the base blueprint package, and the large is in the hightech package.
Buffs:
– Tawa Standoff Torpedoes: Second-stage spread reduced (35->30) and EMP damage increased (50->75). Ammo on medium and large launchers increased (8->10 and 30->36). Large launcher OP reduced (30->28). Large launcher reload time increased (12->13).
– Plasma Lens Projector: Homing improved (23 deg/sec -> 28 deg/sec).
– Kukri Bomber Wing: OP cost reduced (28->27).
Changes:
– Plasma Lens Projector: Now deals 1000 damage on initial hit and 3x 500 damage in a line. (Combining the first hit of the original 4x 500 line with the initial projectile). This is numerically a buff, but in reality it makes the AI catch the projectile on its shields much more often, so it’s more of a nerf (and intended as such).
– Persean League now knows the blueprints for the large Tawa and large Atropos, though they won’t use them very often.
– Tigershark sprite lightened up a bit
Nerfs:
– Gila shield efficiency reduced 0.6->0.8, changed omni shield to front shield, arc reduced (180->110), armor reduced (950->800), and turn speed reduced (22->12). Still very tanky from the front, but much more vulnerable to flanking, and you can’t catch shots on armor quite as much.
2JAN2021: 1.1.2 release
Now requires MagicLib.
New:
– Weapon: Plasma Lens Projector. Large energy. Fires a slow, weakly-guided projectile that deals significant HE damage in a line if it connects with the target’s hull. Holds two charges, and reloads one every 10 seconds. Nearly unusable against small, fast targets. Synergizes extremely well with autopulses. Known by Tritachyon.
Changes:
– Name changes to deconflict with other mods and adhere better to vanilla naming patterns.
– Invader -> Aggressor
– Wyvern -> Khanjali
– Name changes are display-name only, hull and weapon IDs won’t change until a future patch. No sense in breaking saves if I don’t have to.
– Wyvern (now Khanjali): Weapons no longer generate flux. Its Plasma Catapult now has a slow-reloading four-shot magazine and a fast rate of fire. Active flares are now shot forwards instead of to the sides, but the total number of flares has been reduced. Added two IR Pulse Lasers (high-delay). Speed reduced slightly. Shield is now frontal instead of omni, and arc has been reduced.
– Variants modified to account for changes and additions.
– New ships and items added to whitelists for Industrial Evolution and Vesperon Combine.
Nerfs:
– Incursion: Synergy slots converted to missile slots and turret arcs adjusted to reduce forward convergence. Maximum convergence is now 3 large energies, 3 medium energies, and 5 small energies. No more 9 graviton beams on a single target. System changed to Plasma Burn instead of Plasma Thrusters to reduce its ability to escape sticky situations. Maneuverability and flux capacity increased to compensate somewhat. It should now be significantly more dangerous to over-commit. Cleaned up the sprite a bit.
Buffs:
– Persephone: OP increased by 12.
– Moray: DP decreased to 9 (from 10).
– Iris: Has now been released from the PD jail. PD specialization no longer penalizes non-PD weapons and is compatible with DTC/ITU, but caps maximum weapon range at 1200 units. OP increased by 10.
– Kingfisher: Improved the AI’s usage of Targeting Overclock. Arc of the large energy turret slightly reduced (this is a buff, it helps the AI)
27DEC2020: 1.1.1 release
Fixed an error that made the Ahab, Nyx, and Tawa Battery rare exploration drops only. Now the Ahab is part of the missile blueprint package, and the Nyx and Tawa Battery are known by Tritachyon.
27DEC2020: 1.1.0 release
New:
– Forums: Download tracker added. Nifty!
– Ship: Inequality-class battlecruiser, and its Battlegroup IV variant. It has a funky diagonal broadside and a built-in unique hullmod.
– Weapon: Alecto Atropos Launcher. Medium missile. Holds 6 shots of 2 torpedoes. Good choice when reliability is more important than sheer damage. Reload time is just barely fast enough to hit a target with a follow-up salvo if your first overloads it.
– Weapon: Nyx Atropos Salvo. Large missile. Has a very good fire rate, though not quite as good as the Hammer Barrage. Holds 8 shots of 4 torpedoes. Good choice if you’re willing to sacrifice the damage and speed of a Hammer Barrage for homing projectiles and more ammo.
– Weapon: Ahab Harpoon Barrage. Large missile. Has a slow fire rate. Holds 6 shots of 9 missiles. It’s 9 harpoons every 18 seconds. What more do you want?
– Weapon: Tawa Standoff Torpedoes. These torpedoes detonate into a trio of unstable plasma spheroids at the edge of point defense range, making them extremely difficult to intercept. Comes in a dual rack (small), dual launcher (medium, 4 shots of 2 torpedos), and triple launcher (large, 10 shots of 3 torpedos) variant. A good general-purpose weapon, but inefficient compared to anti-shield or anti-armor missiles. Struggles against small, fast, or narrow targets. Costs 5/12/30 OP.
– Fighter: Kukri Bomber Wing. A Trident bomber wing rebuilt to carry Tawa torpedoes. Generally better than Tridents by themselves, but not better than a Trident/Longbow combo, especially against heavily armored targets. Costs 28 OP.
– Fighter: Wyvern Strike Fighter. Carries a Plasma Catapult (a short-range, low-damage version of the Plasma Cannon) and two active flares. Great armor penetration (for a fighter) and a decent shield, but it will quickly stress its flux when firing. Costs 20 OP.
Nerfs:
– Overall: Most ships had their shield upkeep slightly increased to match vanilla values.
– Tigershark: Now has practically identical stats to the Aurora, instead of being better in most regards, and got a builtin hullmod that gives it a penalty to ballistic range, rof, and efficiency. Large ballistics should remain a good choice, but shouldn’t be the optimal choice in all scenarios. Shield radius has been increased to prevent clipping with the forward large hardpoint.
– Kingfisher: Lost its two medium missile hardpoints, lost 20 OP, had its flux stats reduced, and has been given a new ship system, Targeting Overclock. This system is a toggle (though it cannot be immediately reactivated), and doubles the range of all energy weapons while active (up to a cap), but generates significant amounts of hard flux and reduces speed by two-thirds. DP reduced to 30. Turn speed increased, though it’s still the slowest-turning cruiser in the mod.
– Aphelion: Fuel capacity and fuel/ly reduced; range is the same. Shield ratio increased to 0.7 to match the Apogee.
– Incursion: Max turn speed, top speed, and turn acceleration reduced. OP reduced by 20.
– Iris: Speed and flux stats reduced. DP increased to 12. Removed prior builtin hullmods. OP reduced by 5. Now has a builtin hullmod that increases PD range significantly, but blocks ITU/DTC and has a hefty penalty for mounting non-missile and non-PD weapons. PPT reduced to 300 seconds, but now has Hardened Subsystems built in. Shield radius increased slightly. You can still use it for things other than point defense, but it won’t be nearly as good at it.
– Invader: Apparently only cost 30 DP to deploy. This was a mistake, and it has been increased to the intended 36 DP. Speed slightly reduced. The XIV variant got 5 extra OP.
– Spire: DP increased to 50, flux stats reduced, turn speed reduced, OP reduced, builtin hullmods removed and replaced with a weaker custom builtin hullmod.
– Gila: OP reduced by 12, flux capacity and shield radius increased slightly, speed reduced slightly.
– Bombardier: Shield arc increased a smidge, since it’s such a wide boy. Reduced OP by 10 and adjusted turret arcs. This is a buff. (It’s not)
Changes:
– Overall: Fleet point changes to balance AI usage. Cargo, crew, and fuel capacity have been adjusted on most ships.
– Overall: Changes to PPT and CR recovery. “Line” ships (Kingfisher, Gila) get an extra minute of PPT to make up for their slow speed, and lose less CR from deployment (and thus recover faster). Other ships have been normalized to standard values for their size and tech level.
– Sprites: Lightened up the Battlegroup IV sprites a bit to improve contrast against dark backgrounds.
– Spawning: The Tigershark has been removed from the high-tech BP pool and made a rare BP; independents will still use it, but very rarely. The chance of Battlegroup IV ships spawning in independent fleets has been reduced, and they will no longer use Spires. Tri-Tachyon will use Spires and Incursions less frequently, and has a better chance of spawning IV variants of all ships. (though they don’t use direct-fire warships much so they’ll still be fairly rare)
– Moray: Mild flux nerfs, 2 more OP. Has slightly less shield upkeep than the Persephone, and loses less CR from deployment. Increased rear small turret arc by a lot.
– Persephone: Mild flux nerfs, 2 more OP. Costs 11 DP (from 10).
– Peregrine: Has been given a new ship system, Flux Compressor. When activated, it instantly vents a sizeable fraction of your soft flux and a small fraction of your hard flux, and gives you a brief movement bonus that decays over time. Disposing of more flux with the system increases the bonus significantly, but not the duration. Dissipation has been slightly reduced to make it more reliant on its system. Integrated Supercapacitors has had its damage bonus reduced slightly to 66%, and now has a significantly weaker effect on beams. Base speed, acceleration, and shield arc slightly increased.
– Many updates to variants.
– Added some loading tips. Only one of them is threatening.
Buffs:
– Spire sprite redone a bit. It’s still a flat wide boy, but the shading isn’t as horrific. This is a buff.
– Fourth Battlegroup had its hullmod values adjusted. Now provides 7% reduced shield damage taken (from 5%) and -5% hull and armor (from -7%).
19DEC2020: 1.0.0 release
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Any derivative work must also comply with Starsector's EULA. Sprites that were not made by theDragn belong to their original creators.
Suggestion : since Beam weapons are getting a buff in .95 in the form of increased damage at close ranges, why not try to show some love to non-beam energy types? something like faster missile speed or lower flux per shot?
Suggestion : since Beam weapons are getting a buff in .95 in the form of increased damage at close ranges, why not try to show some love to non-beam energy types? something like faster missile speed or lower flux per shot?
That buff you're referring to is a player & officer exclusive skill, and it applies to energy projectiles too, not just beams.
Suggestion : since Beam weapons are getting a buff in .95 in the form of increased damage at close ranges, why not try to show some love to non-beam energy types? something like faster missile speed or lower flux per shot?
I really don't have any intention of trying to fiddle with vanilla weapon balance. I might reduce the Peregrine's built-in hullmod bonus slightly in anticipation of 0.95 (or if enough people tell me that it's too strong), but otherwise I'll leave weapon balance up to better modders than me.
Also given a quick patch to 1.1.1, to make the large missile weapons less rare. Tritach now knows the Nyx and Tawa Battery, and the Ahab is now part of the missile blueprint package.
My only concern is probably the Onslaught-lite, does she have a TPC? since you know, the entire arm of vanilla Onslaught is the TPC itself, a relic from old technology as siege weapon, it better change it to something else, many mod that have similar weapon like TPC exist, like Underworld and HMi, maybe give the little Onslaught modified TPC instead normal TPC.
@theDragn The mission that you created has loadouts that still have unused OP.
The spriteworks look great, and the little detail on these ship make them really look like a plausable high-tech ship especially the Onslaught.
My only concern is probably the Onslaught-lite, does she have a TPC? since you know, the entire arm of vanilla Onslaught is the TPC itself, a relic from old technology as siege weapon, it better change it to something else, many mod that have similar weapon like TPC exist, like Underworld and HMi, maybe give the little Onslaught modified TPC instead normal TPC.
Underworld has 2 TPC variants, one on the Dragon and one on the Infernus. IIRC they're both fluffed as salvage from Onslaughts.
Neither the description of the TPC nor the Onslaught itself suggests that weapon is taking up the entire arm of the Onslaught.
A bulky energy weapon from the early epoch, the TPC is built directly into the Onslaught's hull and provides overwhelming firepower.
Designed before modular energy weapons were a reality, this weapon was coded into the Onslaught's blueprint because no other ship was large enough or had reactors capable of generating the requisite power.
Even though it's outperformed by some of the later epoch modular designs, the Thermal Pulse Cannon remains an integral part of the Onslaught's arsenal.
A venerable design the Onslaught-class battleships were first created to serve the Domain of Man eons ago, before the development of advanced strike weapons, fighter craft, modern energy weapons, and shield systems.
When first launched from orbital dock, they must have surely dwarfed any other ship in existence and intimidated entire systems. Some even say that they were built to combat non-humans in a long forgotten war, in which the Domain was triumphant. Much later, Domain engineers made modifications to the blueprints to include a shield system, upgrade the FTL drives and reduce the necessary crew complement....
Edit: Oops. Thought you meant the Incursion, not the Invader.
@theDragn The mission that you created has loadouts that still have unused OP.
This mod doesn't add any missions.
Edit: Oops. Thought you meant the Incursion, not the Invader.
@theDragn The mission that you created has loadouts that still have unused OP.
This mod doesn't add any missions.
Really? wow. I loaded vanilla, the three libraries, audio plus and your mod. No other mods. The 2nd to last Mission in the list basically showcases many of your ships but its probably a bug of mine.
I went through all my mods to check for name conflicts, here's what I found:
- Vayra Ship Pack 1.1.4 has a frigate called Kingfisher
- The Star Federation 0.7.1 (FTL) has a destroyer called Invader
- Kingdom of Terra 0.11 has a cruiser called Wyvern
- Arsenal Expansion 1.5.3i has a fighter called Bombardier
- The Nomads 1.4.11-rc2 has a battleship called Gila Monster, which is close
- Roider Union 1.1.0 has a destroyer called Bombard, which is close
Underworld has 2 TPC variants, one on the Dragon and one on the Infernus. IIRC they're both fluffed as salvage from Onslaughts.
Neither the description of the TPC nor the Onslaught itself suggests that weapon is taking up the entire arm of the Onslaught.
https://www.reddit.com/r/starsector/comments/jfe6nl/a_lore_based_examination_of_the_onslaught_that/
There is an old thread about Onslaught lore, i believe that the entire arm of Onslaught is TPC because how old Onslaught are, how Onslaught and TPC was designed, and why there is no such thing as mountable TPC for other ship to use.
TPC was designed long before modular energy weapons were a reality so they use bulky, unoptimized and specialized blueprint to make it. TPC is a part of Onslaught itself, they're design for each other hence :
"Designed before modular energy weapons were a reality, this weapon was coded into the Onslaught's blueprint because no other ship was large enough or had reactors capable of generating the requisite power. Even though it's outperformed by some of the later epoch modular designs, the Thermal Pulse Cannon remains an integral part of the Onslaught's arsenal.."
I know there is no statement that said the arm of Onslaught is the TPC itself, unless Alex release some sort lore book, but for now i firmly believe that TPC is unique to the Onslaught because of reason above.
And for other TPC-like weapon, they're more or less a jury-rigged or hack-job so i have no problem with it unless it's original un-modified TPC. Hellfire Cannon is Huge, like insanely huge and of course unmountable, for Light TPC, i think most of it component is inside of the hull itself, thus why it's also unmountable, both are non-modular weaponary.
But then again, it's your mod, i put no effort in it, and please don't take it the wrong way, i love this mod for adding such high quality ship into the game, i just give my feedback, no hard feeling okay? It's just a game with .PNG and Javascript in the end of the day 
