[Starsector Mods][0.95a] Shadowyards Reconstruction Authority 0.9.5-rc4(4/12/21)

Shadowyards 0.9.5-rc4 is available for download!
Please note that updates have a high likelihood of breaking saves
=download=

Shadowyards Requires

LazyLib,

MagicLib

and

GraphicsLib

to function.

Since 0.6.1 the graphics style of the faction has been changed; for those of you prefer the old look, you can download an optional style pack!
=the classic pack=

Features:

• A fleet of odd looking vessels for you to fly around/blow up!
• A general focus on mobility, compromised by weak hulls.
• Middling to strong shields.
• Steady and reliable weapons systems
• Strong and versatile fighters.
• 16 missions.
• Integration with

  Dynasector and support for the

  Knights Templar boss faction.

Ships:

Spoiler: click to expand

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Screenshots:

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Gifs! Yay gifs!

Spoiler: click to expand

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Shadowyards vessels are vulnerable to being overwhelmed; if you can corner them and force them to flux or overload you’ll put them in critical danger.

These vessels are typically designed to a general assault profile, and are often vulnerable to the rear.

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Note, older change log data has been removed from this post; it is available here if you want to look it over.

Changelog:

Changelog 0.9.5-rc4

• The Carmine (Redwings) should show up in SRA military and black markets and in Redwings fleets, as in retrospect there wasn’t much reason to keep it from showing up while the mission string that would put it in game isn’t even implemented yet
• Finally seem to have resolved the ongoing Mimir vector crash bug, with thanks to President Matt Damon on the discord
• Redwings Command no longer makes Euripides a military market, and as such its uh… military market has been removed
  • Please note that this will not effect existing saves
• Some adjustments to Modular Fabricators and their sub industries in order to prevent possible issues with industry ids getting confused
• Went over the Elysium (P)’s description to make it less clunky
• Replaced the Potnia-bis’ flare launcher with a damper system
• Fixed an issue with the Tartarus’ colission radius being smaller than its shield
• Shikomes should no longer kill themselves with their mini-lances, and re-added the trails for the shot
• Gave Theramin a custom planet class, Irradiated Terran, and a matching planet graphic
• Theramin once again has its Radiation Absorbers, to help deal with it’s newly gained Irradiated condition

The mod, as noted, requires the LazyLib package to function: it can be downloaded from it’s forum thread

here.
Additionally requires

MagicLib and

GraphicsLib.

Over all the ships look like they play nicely and i kinda like them. Do Not Make Them too op that is what everyone does.

EDIT: The ships remind me of the tau in wh40k, just please change the colour.

EDIT2: Wow they are seriously underpowered…
1 Ramp up the flux capacity on every ship they all get overloaded quickly then die.
2 Put some better weapons on the Morningstar, it has no punch at all
3 Put some small PD weapons on the carrier and get rid of the heavy blasters, they just get the flux high and miss everything.

unfortunately i think they look ugly…. though the style is fine its just the colour scheme.

Over all the ships look like they play nicely and i kinda like them. Do Not Make Them too op that is what everyone does.

EDIT: The ships remind me of the tau in wh40k, just please change the colour.

Well, can’t please everyone.  I like them, but I guess I could try out some alternate color schemes; it shouldn’t be too hard.

EDIT2: Wow they are seriously underpowered…
1 Ramp up the flux capacity on every ship they all get overloaded quickly then die.
2 Put some better weapons on the Morningstar, it has no punch at all
3 Put some small PD weapons on the carrier and get rid of the heavy blasters, they just get the flux high and miss everything.

I feel that, in instances of modding (particularly when balancing against preexisting content) its better to low-ball your estimates and work up.  On to your specific points:

1:  When you say “ramp up” by how much are you talking?  My probable upper limit would be: Morningstar: 5500 -> 6500 flux, 350 -> 400 vents; Charybdis 10,000 -> 12,000 flux, 550 -> 700 vents.  I feel that more might make them a bit overpowered.

2:  The standard fitting for the Morningstar is basically an anti-flux ship, which I personally find very useful — but adding a more Balanced standard variant with a bit more oomph to it (while keeping the current one as a specialist AF Destroyer) would probably be a good idea.

3:  Aheh, yeah, the Attack variant of the Charybdis is kind of a joke.  It hadn’t occurred to me that it might be a good idea to redo my jerkass troll-fit for that mission; that being said I probably won’t remove the Heavy Blasters (I personally leave them under manual control), though I will enhance the ships PD.  Also, there’s a “refit” button in the mission selector now, so you can fiddle with fittings or try the other, rather more balanced set ups while waiting for me to fix issues.

Edit:

The colours might not be to everyone’s liking (I kind of like the colouring), but the ships are definitely well done. I like how the hull casing looks like it covers a large part of the ship, with inner parts sticking out from under. Great job MShadowy.

that’s some cool looking ships you have made.i like the color but the back part might be a bit dark,  Lovely looking ships and i am exited for how this mod is gonna turn out 

i LOVE these ships and want to play with them immediatly! (begins DL)

Thanks, all three of you.  Glad you like the work so far.

unfortunately i think they look ugly…. though the style is fine its just the colour scheme.

How dare you!    Personaly I like the color scheme, would like to see a full faction in this theme. Sure, i can imagine it would be more “mainstream” if they were made form the red/dark red + gray, black combo or blue color, but they fit perfectly in the game visualy. I would personly add more of the brighter green/cyan on several spots on the ship, but by no means I would call this ugly.  

So yeah I will use the most generic response there is – moar of this! Then will see how it develops + more ships of this design will make you love it eventually

Edit – just to make sure, if it wasnt clear – everyone can express their oppions, right ? I think its both constructive and usefull(given that theres a reason why added to it, which it was), the way i reacted.. is just the way i am, nothing offensive 

Charybdis: Flux increased from 10,000 to 12,000, and vents from 550 to 700.  Ordnance Points increased from 125 to 135.

Morningstar: Flux increased from 5,500 to 6,000, and vents from 350 to 400.  New Standard variant added: Heavy Blaster, 3x Tac Laser, 2x PD Laser, 2x Harpoon.  Old standard is now Anti-Flux variant.

On the subject of the two missions:

Out of Your Depth seems largely fine, particularly with the new changes to the Morningstar.  The only planned changed is increasing available Fleet Points; it is important to remember that this is an escape mission, and defeating the enemy conventionally is not the plan.  Bloodying their nose, however…

The Bender’s problems could not be resolved by buffing the Charybdis, rather it’s a legacy (and laziness) problem – balance changes 0.50a (when the mission was first authored) and 0.52.1a (now) have changed the Balanced variant of the Eagle from a difficult but still defeatable opponent to an absurd Charybdis wrecking machine, capable of completely overwhelming its flux capacitors and punching through it’s thin armor from completely outside the Carrier’s range.  The laziness comes in from my pre-release testing; I played through the mission and managed to tweak the AI and get it to retreat… without seeing what the Eagle was capable of.  Switching the Eagle over to the Assault variant made things easier… to the point of being genuinely easy, rather than the difficult but passable challenge I was going for.  More thought is required.

Other possible changes:

The Skinwalker is perhaps underpowered, due largely to not shooting enough.  Considering replacing Burst PD with an I.R. Pulse Laser or (to be ridiculous) medium Pulse Laser.

The Morningstar likely has too many Ordnance Points.  A reduction may be called for, from 80 to 70, considering I’m able to fit two to three hull mods consistently and 15 to 20 points in capacitors and vents.

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How dare you!    Personaly I like the color scheme, would like to see a full faction in this theme. Sure, i can imagine it would be more “mainstream” if they were made form the red/dark red + gray, black combo or blue color, but they fit perfectly in the game visualy. I would personly add more of the brighter green/cyan on several spots on the ship, but by no means I would call this ugly.  

Hehe, no need for vindiction.  More of the brighter green/cyan?  Not quite sure where I would put it, but I’ll keep it in mind.  In any case, I’m glad you like my work, and…

So yeah I will use the most generic response there is – moar of this! Then will see how it develops + more ships of this design will make you love it eventually

I shall do my best, Mon Capitan!

Edit – just to make sure, if it wasnt clear – everyone can express their oppions, right ? I think its both constructive and usefull(given that theres a reason why added to it, which it was), the way i reacted.. is just the way i am, nothing offensive  

Aye, and frankly it’s expected that some people won’t like it for whatever reasons.  It’s fine, those are their reasons, and they are welcome to them.

Also the proposed changes sound very good, and btw i forgot about the refit screen and do whatever you want man/woman/creature from the dark recess of my mind.

If i don’t like the colour scheme i can always ignore it or just recolour them, mrdavidoff u r rude

i didn’t say i hated the ships…

I know, thus why I added the edit to my post

mrdavidoff u r rude

I gave it a thought – I really cannot argue with that statement 

Hehe, no need for vindiction.  More of the brighter green/cyan?  Not quite sure where I would put it, but I’ll keep it in mind. 

I dont wanna spoil your artistic vision by pointing, thus – let more come 

Beautifully designed and very vanilla friendly ( i like that a lot).

I especially dig your piece of lore you came up with.

Keep up the good work and hopefully we will see another mod coming up from your direction

Update has been posted; new version is 0.3.0b.

Also, added a changelog to the first post.

dont change the colours thats one of the things i love about them! and the shape hmmm… Dat shape 

Glad you like ’em. =D  I’ll be sure to keep adding more.

Wow!!

Beautifully designed and very vanilla friendly ( i like that a lot).

I especially dig your piece of lore you came up with.

Keep up the good work and hopefully we will see another mod coming up from your direction

Thank you.  And yeah, keeping ’em vanilla friendly was a major design goal for me.

And preview stuffs:

The Enlil as it currently stands.  Somethings a bit off about it, but I’m not quite sure what… or what to do about it.

Also, bonusy thing:

The Enlil with completely useless space camouflage, lol

Amazing artwork MShadowy. If you give me your permission, this is just the right kind of stuff I want to put in U’sC (eventually, when more systems are avaiable).

Feel free.  Don’t really stand too much on withholding my stuff from those who’re interested in using it.