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Topics - Vayra

Pages: [1] 2 3
1
Got intercepted by a hostile CGR fleet, killed it, got intercepted by another one, crashed

apologies if this was fixed in RC10
EDIT: Updated to RC10 and the same fleet causes the same crash (i saved immediately after engaging the first one, before engaging the second that crashes, thankfully)

Code
{"enabledMods": [
  "$$$_lightshow",
  "banana",
  "commonwealth",
  "lw_console",
  "kadur_remnant",
  "lw_lazylib",
  "MagicLib",
  "TAR",
  "speedUp",
  "US",
  "URW",
  "vayrashippack",
  "lw_version_checker"
]}

Code
24750465 [Thread-3] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain  - java.lang.RuntimeException: org.json.JSONException: JSONObject["initialKnowsUniqueSide"] not found.
java.lang.RuntimeException: org.json.JSONException: JSONObject["initialKnowsUniqueSide"] not found.
at com.fs.starfarer.loading.StarfarerStrings.String(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.settings.StarfarerSettings$1.getString(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.FleetInteractionDialogPluginImpl.getString(FleetInteractionDialogPluginImpl.java:3153)
at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.FleetInteractionDialogPluginImpl.optionSelected(FleetInteractionDialogPluginImpl.java:987)
at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.FleetInteractionDialogPluginImpl.init(FleetInteractionDialogPluginImpl.java:395)
at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.Stringsuper.øõ0000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.Stringsuper.<init>(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.Stringsuper.<init>(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignState.startEncounterInvolvingPlayerFleet(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.BaseLocation.advance(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.Hyperspace.advance(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignEngine.advance(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignState.advance(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.BaseGameState.traverse(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: org.json.JSONException: JSONObject["initialKnowsUniqueSide"] not found.
at org.json.JSONObject.get(JSONObject.java:406)
at org.json.JSONObject.getString(JSONObject.java:577)
... 19 more

2
Bug Reports & Support / [0.95a-RC9] double raid mission
« on: March 28, 2021, 08:30:44 PM »


didn't grab a screenshot of the marine allocation screen with both targets, sadly - but here's the process
- get two missions for the same place that can be resolved with a raid (here: buying technology, and ransoming a scientist)
- go to the place
- open comms with the first mission target
- decide to raid them
- go through with raiding them, successfully
- open comms with the second target
- decide to raid them
- have the option to raid the first one again, from the same raid target marine allocation screen, even though you already raided them, as well as the new target
- raid them both
- receive this weird double message and, i think, suffer higher marine casualties than you would with the second raid alone

apologies if this is fixed in RC10, i didn't see it in the patch notes!

3
clicking the little box doesn't work for 0.91 mods, this seems intended
clicking 'enable all' does work, which of course crashes the game when it finishes loading

4
Modding / [0.95a, probably] Commonwealth of Incorporated Stars
« on: March 17, 2021, 04:55:26 PM »
ETA: when it's done

5
Suggestions / thumper buffs
« on: February 26, 2021, 02:22:18 AM »
the thumper is bad; everyone knows it's bad; it's especially bad since residual armor became a thing; it's arguably unusably bad and certainly less good than, say, putting an arbalest there and hoping for the best, which is itself still worse than downsizing to a railgun, and probably will continue to be so in 0.95 unless the arbalest's base damage increases to 200 and its RoF decreases commensurately, but that's okay because weapon rarity i think

it's okay for a gun to be bad but it'd be nice if it was at least cheap and bad, or if it's going to stay not-cheap it'd be nice if it was less bad at the things it is already sort of usable for - those being murdering frigates and slow-moving fighters

as such i propose the following buffs:

1) drop that OP cost, it'd be a mediocre choice at 7 right now and even with one of the buffs below it'd probably be okay at 7 or 8
and/or either
2a) bump base damage up (possibly combined with increasing chargedown between bursts), so it murders frigates more effectively
or
2b) give it a constant, fast RoF (possibly combined with lowering base damage) and raise projectile speed slightly, so it murders fighters more effectively

please sign my petition to save the humble thumper

6
If you scuttle a ship with weapons that have the SYSTEM hint and the no_drop and no_drop_salvage tags in normal weapon slots, the weapons still show up in your inventory, which seems like potentially unintended behavior.

I've heard reports that you can also get them from some form of salvage but I haven't confirmed those myself, might be worth checking if you do decide to change this though. I suppose this is technically a (modded) report since there aren't any ships that do this in vanilla. ;)

7
6 cycles ago all mentions of locust gibbons disappeared from the hyperwave networks and nobody is talking about it

8
Suggestions / DModManagers and the Women Who Love Them
« on: September 13, 2019, 06:49:07 PM »
Rather than having a static DModManager, which has to be overridden if we want to add more D-mod "type" tags and is therefore only modifiable by one mod at a time (unless I'm missing something), it would be awesome if this could be reworked to work something like the following:

  • new class: DModTagHandlerAPI or something, has methods that accept the same arguments as DModManager.addDMods() plus List<HullModSpecAPI> potentialMods (or I guess a params object containing them) and return the same
  • DModManager changed to be sector-specific and register DModTagHandlerAPIs, build a List<HullModSpecAPI> potentialMods as normal, then pass all arguments as well as the list in a params object to all registered DModTagHandlerAPIs before finally deduplicating the list and actually adding D-mods to the ship
  • Modders write DModTagHandlerAPIs to determine the conditions when their D-mods tagged with new tags (not in vanilla) would be added (or more likely: removed) from the list, then register their DModTagHandlerAPIs to Global.getSector().getDModManager() on game load or whatever

Cases where this might be useful would be, say I want to add a D-mod that only affects ships with missile-capable (missile, composite, synergy, universal) mounts, and reduces the cost of all missile weapons by 100 OP while making them regenerate ammo. I tag this with "hasMissile", but to make that do anything special I have to override DModManager (again, unless I'm way wrong about this) with all the same methods plus a bit in the middle of removeUnsuitedMods() that checks for the presence of a missile-capable mount and removes the mod from the list of potentials unless there is one... but wait! Someone else wants to add a D-mod that only affects ships from their particular faction, so they also override DModManager! So we're stuck, and now every missile costs 0 OP and regenerates ammo, just as planned...

If I've missed something obvious that makes this not necessary, on the other hand, please let me know because that'd be great news.  ;D

EDIT: dunno if there's actually any reason why that would mean the DModManager has to be sector-specific so maybe just ignore that part, the important part is the functionality

9
Suggestions / BACK TO THE EXPANSION ERA
« on: September 12, 2019, 10:38:42 AM »
like back to the future, get it


anyway all these new people keep going "wwwhy low tech suck" "loww tech suck" " why low tehc call low tech if it not suck"

and i mean they're wrong it's the best tech

that's why it should be called MASTER ERA
and then midline can be CORERA because tehy use core in pegasus maneuvering jets or kite or somethign and hi ghtecn can be EXPANSIONBERA ecause that's what they do when you shoot them with ballistics from your mastery era battleship; they expand rapidly in a cloud of debris and frozen atmosphere.

this is a completely original idea and has never been in starsector before

(also have you considered changing the name of hte game to "star farer" i think it has a nice ring to it)

thanks for listening bye

10
Modding / [HELP!] Ghost ship mysteries
« on: September 10, 2019, 08:14:09 PM »
Originally posted in misc. modding questions thread, updated following some adventures in rules.csv:

Spoiler
Is there a way to override the current dialogue and force it into a ship recovery from within that dialog script?

that probably didn't make sense, so here's what I'm trying to do specifically (trimmed slightly for length):

1) Manager EveryFrameScript is added by ModPlugin, and under certain conditions adds Event EveryFrameScript instance and serves it a system (this part works fine, and I'm pretty sure isn't breaking the rest of it)

2) Event EveryFrameScript spawns a derelict, and assigns it some custom special interaction dialogue. That (the spawning and assigning) looks like this:

Code: java
    protected void spawnWreck(StarSystemAPI system) {
       
        WeightedRandomPicker<String> factions = SalvageSpecialAssigner.getNearbyFactions(null, system.getLocation(), 15f, 5f, 5f);
        String faction = factions.pick();
        String variantId = DerelictShipEntityPlugin.pickLargeVariantId(faction, new Random());
        ShipCondition condition = Math.random() > 0.5f ? ShipCondition.PRISTINE : ShipCondition.GOOD;
        DerelictShipEntityPlugin.DerelictShipData params = new DerelictShipEntityPlugin.DerelictShipData(new ShipRecoverySpecial.PerShipData(variantId, condition), false);
       
        params.durationDays = duration;
        entity = (CustomCampaignEntityAPI) BaseThemeGenerator.addSalvageEntity(system, Entities.WRECK, Factions.NEUTRAL, params);
        entity.addTag(Tags.EXPIRES);
       
        DerelictShipEntityPlugin plugin = new DerelictShipEntityPlugin();
        plugin.init(entity, params);
       
        Misc.setSalvageSpecial(entity, (Object) new VayraGhostShipSpecial.VayraGhostShipSpecialData((CustomCampaignEntityAPI) entity));
                   
        entity.setName("Derelict Ship (" + Global.getSettings().getVariant(variantId).getFullDesignationWithHullName() + ")");
    }

3) Here's where it gets complicated. The special interaction dialogue script contains this specialData subclass:

Code
    public static class VayraGhostShipSpecialData implements SalvageSpecialInteraction.SalvageSpecialData {

        public Danger danger;
        public Type type;
        public CustomCampaignEntityAPI entity;
        public ShipVariantAPI variant;

        public VayraGhostShipSpecialData(CustomCampaignEntityAPI entity) {

            this.entity = entity;
            DerelictShipEntityPlugin plugin = (DerelictShipEntityPlugin) entity.getCustomPlugin();
            PerShipData shipData = plugin.getData().ship;
            this.variant = shipData.variant;
            if (this.variant == null) {
                this.variant = Global.getSettings().getVariant(shipData.variantId);
            }
            shipData.variantId = null;
            this.variant = this.variant.clone();

            this.danger = DANGERS.pick();
            log.info("picked danger level " + this.danger);

            if (this.danger.equals(Danger.NONE)) {
                this.type = null;
                log.info("not picking a danger type");
            } else {
                this.type = TYPES.pick();
                log.info("picked danger type " + this.type);
            }
        }

        @Override
        public SalvageSpecialInteraction.SalvageSpecialPlugin createSpecialPlugin() {
            return new VayraGhostShipSpecial();
        }
    }

And does all this:

Code
    @Override
    public void optionSelected(String optionText, Object optionData) {

        if (CONFIRM.equals(optionData)) {
            (a whole bunch of stuff/other options go here)

        } else if (NEVER_AGAIN.equals(optionData)) {
            setDone(true);
            setShowAgain(false);
            setEndWithContinue(false);
        }

        if (recoverable) {
            SalvageSpecialAssigner.ShipRecoverySpecialCreator creator = new SalvageSpecialAssigner.ShipRecoverySpecialCreator(null, 0, 0, false, null, null);
            ShipRecoverySpecialData specialData = (ShipRecoverySpecialData) creator.createSpecial(entity, null);
            Misc.setSalvageSpecial(entity, specialData);
            ShipRecoverySpecial special = new ShipRecoverySpecial();
            special.init(dialog, specialData);
            setDone(true);
            setShowAgain(false);
        }
        }

Problem is, even if recoverable == true, the ship isn't recoverable - like I can't attach a new salvageSpecial to it from inside another salvageSpecial, or while another one is attached or something. :P

Presumably I'm doing something real dumb here, but I can't quite figure out what the "right" way to do this is. Any help would be much appreciated.
[close]

@Vayra: this probably isn't the best thread for it because it's too involved, so might be better to have a separate thread for any follow-up. That said, the way you're creating the ship recovery special is missing some stuff. Here's an example creating one for a derelict:

ShipRecoverySpecialData data = new ShipRecoverySpecialData(null);
DerelictShipEntityPlugin plugin = (DerelictShipEntityPlugin) entity.getCustomPlugin();
data.addShip(plugin.getData().ship.clone());
Misc.setSalvageSpecial(entity, data);

The part you're missing is calling .addShip() for the ShipRecoverySpecialData.

The other issue is the flow of it - you're already in a "special" interaction, and when it ends, it'll unset the "special" data in the entity memory, since you've called setShowAgain(false). You want to call setShowAgain(true), so that it keeps the special data around (the code is assuming it's the old data, but it'll be the data you switched in using Misc.setSalvageSpecial.

However, even with that, I don't believe it'll chain to showing that special - it'll move on straight to salvage, per the sal_specialFinished rule. What you'll want to do is create another rule for the SalvageSpecialFinished trigger (and set a variable in entity memory from your "if (recoverable) {" block so you can tell when to use this rule), and have that rule "FireBest CheckSalvageSpecial" so that on finishing salvage, it loops back around to check for the special again, this time it being the newly-set ship recovery special.

Hope that makes sense!

As a result of this, I've changed the final code block to this:

Code: java
        if (recoverable) {
            log.info("recovering ghost ship");
            SalvageSpecialAssigner.ShipRecoverySpecialCreator creator = new SalvageSpecialAssigner.ShipRecoverySpecialCreator(null, 0, 0, false, null, null);
            ShipRecoverySpecialData specialData = (ShipRecoverySpecialData) creator.createSpecial(entity, null);
            specialData.addShip(data.shipData);
            Misc.setSalvageSpecial(entity, specialData);
            ShipRecoverySpecial special = new ShipRecoverySpecial();
            special.init(dialog, specialData);
            entity.getMemory().set(CHECK_SPECIAL, true);
            setDone(true);
            setEndWithContinue(true);
            setShowAgain(true);
        } else if (destroy) {
            log.info("destroying ghost ship");
            entity.getMemory().set(DESTROY_SHIP, true);
            setDone(true);
            setEndWithContinue(true);
            setShowAgain(false);           
        }

(CHECK_SPECIAL is $vayra_checkSalvageSpecialAgain)

and added the following rules (was playing around with having or not having the continue option):



Now the demolish rule works perfectly, which is awesome! However, the other one appears to trigger, find the special but not do anything about it, clear the special, trigger again, and since there's no longer a special, proceed directly to salvaging (with or without a 'continue' in between):

Quote from: starsector.log
Rules  - Picked: vayra_ghostShipFinishedNoContinue

Rules  - Looking for best match
Rules  - Memory:
Rules  - Found 2 rules for trigger [CheckSalvageSpecial]
Rules  - Checking rule: sal_checkSpecialFound
Rules  - Conditions: $salvageSpecialData != null
Rules  - All conditions passed, score 1
Rules  - Checking rule: sal_checkSpecialNoneFound
Rules  - Conditions:
Rules  - All conditions passed, score 0
Rules  - Number of matches with same score: 1, picking one randomly.
Rules  - Picked: sal_checkSpecialFound

Rules  - Looking for best match
Rules  - Memory:
Rules  - Found 3 rules for trigger [SalvageSpecialFinishedNoContinue]
Rules  - Checking rule: sal_specialFinishedNoContinue
Rules  - Conditions:
Rules  - All conditions passed, score 0
Rules  - Checking rule: vayra_ghostShipFinishedNoContinue
Rules  - Conditions: $vayra_checkSalvageSpecialAgain score:1000
Rules  - All conditions passed, score 1000
Rules  - Checking rule: vayra_ghostShipFinishedNoContinueDestroyed
Rules  - Conditions: $vayra_destroyGhostShip score:1000
Rules  - Failed condition: $vayra_destroyGhostShip score:1000
Rules  - Number of matches with same score: 1, picking one randomly.
Rules  - Picked: vayra_ghostShipFinishedNoContinue

Rules  - Looking for best match
Rules  - Memory:
Rules  - Found 2 rules for trigger [CheckSalvageSpecial]
Rules  - Checking rule: sal_checkSpecialFound
Rules  - Conditions: $salvageSpecialData != null
Rules  - Failed condition: $salvageSpecialData != null
Rules  - Checking rule: sal_checkSpecialNoneFound
Rules  - Conditions:
Rules  - All conditions passed, score 0
Rules  - Number of matches with same score: 1, picking one randomly.
Rules  - Picked: sal_checkSpecialNoneFound

Rules  - Looking for best match
Rules  - Memory:
Rules  - Found 4 rules for trigger [BeginSalvage]
Rules  - Checking rule: sal_showRatingAndCost
Rules  - Conditions:
Rules  - All conditions passed, score 0
Rules  - Checking rule: saic_openDialog
Rules  - Conditions: $saic_eventRef != null score:1000
Rules  - Failed condition: $saic_eventRef != null score:1000
Rules  - Checking rule: cryo_infoText
Rules  - Conditions: $customType == derelict_cryosleeper score:1000
Rules  - Failed condition: $customType == derelict_cryosleeper score:1000
Rules  - Checking rule: psi_beatDefenders
Rules  - Conditions: $psi_planet score:1000
Rules  - Failed condition: $psi_planet score:1000
Rules  - Number of matches with same score: 1, picking one randomly.
Rules  - Picked: sal_showRatingAndCost

I'm stumped!  :'(

11
General Discussion / Tournament Musings
« on: September 04, 2019, 11:59:51 PM »
Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer on the Rules of the 7th Starsector Fleet Building Tournament and the Fleets Entered As Combatants Within.

Tournament Thread: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=15978.0
Thaago's YouTube channel, with the matches so far: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiQs0YeI6aStZS0MyXqOCdA

First, the rules:
- SWP and Vanilla only allowed. IBBs, stat-modifying skins other than (LP) and (P) skins, stations, Remnant equipment, or other non-player-available ships or equipment are not allowed.
- 150 DP upper limit
- 1 Capital upper limit
- 7 modular fighter wing upper limit (including CH, but not built-in wings)
- 15 ship upper limit
- there are also restrictions on variant count and submission timing (up to 20 variants may be submitted before the first round + 1 variant may be submitted during the tournament) but they aren’t relevant to this analysis, so I mention them only here and in passing.

These rules heavily favor combatants who fill all - or most - of the restrictions to their upper limits, which means bringing 15 ships with an average DP value of 10 with as many of those ships as possible above that value, assuming that their DP reflects their combat value, and as close to 7 modular fighter wings as possible.

They also heavily incentivize missiles and strike/fast attack builds, for a couple of reasons:
- Because forces are symmetrical and limited so severely in width, the ability to quickly eliminate a portion of your enemies can cause a snowball effect, where your now-numerically-superior force can collapse in on what remains of the enemy and kill them as well.
- Unlike campaign play where the player’s fleet is frequently fighting forces with several times their DP and ship count, missiles and other strike weapons with limited ammunition have an outsize effect on the battle; since your opponent can only bring 150 DP and 15 ships, their ammo limitation is unlikely to come into play. Say it with me, folks: Strike missiles short-circuit symmetrical battles.
- Due to the lack of persistent damage, repair costs, CR recovery or ship losses, the natural trade-offs of high-risk-high-reward builds are mostly irrelevant in the format.

A disclaimer: I am but one extremely strange young woman with a poor grasp on reality, and despite being pretty good at this game I am often wrong about things. I take no responsibility for any money lost in illicit Starsector tournament gambling rings or injuries suffered to anyone's pride as a result of the following information. Any criticisms are meant constructively, and any trashtalk, gloating, preening or boasting is meant purely in good fun and the context of the tournament.

Round 1

Johan
9x SO Hammerhead
- ACG, HMG, LDMGs, Atroposes. Atroposes over Harpoons or Sabots make it hit (very) slightly harder against capital armor, but I think are a sub-par choice overall. Full LDMGs is a very aggressive choice and makes up slightly for the lack of Sabots, as 4x LDMG + 1x HMG is a metric butt-ton (technical term) of kinetic firepower. This is a good thing.
- 11 caps 6 vents, flux-neutral with shields down and fairly tough. I like this.
- Safety Overrides, no Hardened Subsystems. This is an extremely solid, if slightly uninspired SO Hammerhead build. Lack of Hardened Subsystems mean this has a chance of “gassing out” vs anything that can reliably keep it at a distance, though that isn’t much. I think that gamble is probably worth it given the overall kill-power present in this fleet.

4x Sabot/Typhoon Falcon (P)
- Sabot Pods, Typhoon Reapers, Atroposes on the sides. Atroposes again! Why! Besides that, I think relying on Typhoons as the Falcon’s main kill-weapons is a mistake - they’re too inaccurate and too low on ammo, and work much better as a swingy strike weapon than a “main gun”.
- 16 caps, no vents. Wise choice on the (P).
- EMR, ECCM, Hardened Shields. Standard missile boosters, though ECCM is less useful on unguided weapons like the Typhoon. Leaning into the Falcon (P)s natural tankiness with hard shields and high caps was an excellent choice.

Overall this fleet is pretty solid in all respects. It maxes out the ship count, but leaves fighter cover entirely on the table and doesn’t bring a capital - though with Falcon (P)s to tank and every ship in the fleet bringing kill power, one isn’t strictly necessary. I think adding some fighter support either via Converted Hangars or swapping in some cheap carriers wouldn’t go amiss.

This fleet won its first two matches handily, and looks poised to do well against Surge in its upcoming third as well.

RandomnessInc
1x ITU Vent-Heavy Strike Doom
- 4x AMB, 2x Typhoon, 2x Heavy Blaster, 4x BPDL. This would be a solid Strike Doom loadout, but the rest of the build ruins it - and I believe 3 of these AMBs were set to linked in round 1, which I don’t know if it can even fire due to lack of caps. All 4 AMBs in an alternating group, or possibly 2-and-2 linked with more caps, would have been better. I’m not sure if this improved in its second round!
- 0 caps, 22 vents. Wait, what? Randomness doesn’t appear to have gotten the memo about the importance of caps on a phase ship -- or this was an attempt to optimize for long-range sustained mine spamming. Either way, I don’t like it.
- ITU, no RFC. Cruiser ITU on Antimatter blasters is pretty strong, or would be if they could fire at all (see above). No RFC is a silly move for a phase ship, given their lack of shields and the importance of active venting. Maybe it was thought that the high vent count would make up for it? Again, I don’t like this. For reference, the “standard” strike-phase loadout is RFC, max caps, and even Flux Coil Adjunct if you can afford it.

14x Harasser Tempest
- Pulse Laser, Ion beam, Single Reaper. Decent mid-range Tempest loadout, though you might wind up annoyed by them pressuring with Ion Beam without entering Pulse/Terminator range depending on AI. Given 14 of them, I think slightly more diverse loadouts would have been wise, and this loadout (sustained fire support tempest) would have benefited from a different forward weapon and missile IMO.
- 4 caps, 10 vents, dissipation about 3/5ths of flux generation. Solid.
- Flux Distributor, Stabilized Shields, Hardened Subsystems. With both FD and Stable Shields, this is optimized for maximum firepower... when not under attack. This fleet however has nothing to tank long-term and guarantee the Tempests’ ability to attack without being pressured, so they’re relying entirely on swarming and rotating in/out under fire to enable each other.

Overall, this is a doomed (pun very much intended) attempt at cheese - a cargo-cult fleet built around the folk knowledge that “Tempests and Dooms are overpowered” that falls short of the mark due to mediocre loadouts, flubbed weapon groupings (at least initially), and confused fleet composition. A more diverse ship mix would help it a lot: A sturdy front line or well-shielded harassers could take pressure off of the Tempests and Doom, and Carriers could give this fleet more teeth by adding Thunders or Falxes to its “swarm weight” and/or using bombers to strike targets disabled by the Ion Beams.

It did win its first match in the lower bracket, but quite frankly I think that was due more to the opposing fleet’s weakness than its own strength.

Surge (technically r2 but I’m doing this video-by-video)
1x Brawling Aurora
- 2x Pulse Laser, some IR Pulse, and Hornet Racks, 1x Heavy Blaster, 1x Sabot Rack all on the front, pd and a Heavy Burst PD on the back, no medium missiles. This is an Aurora built from the ground up to brawl with a lot of close-to-mid range hard flux firepower. Going for that over medium missiles is an interesting choice but not necessarily a bad one.
- 17 caps, max vents, 1,100 dissipation to 2,000 flux generation. While that sounds overfluxed, 17 caps on top of the Aurora’s good base flux capacity means it can actually sustain firepower for a surprisingly long time as long as it doesn’t begin a fight already at high flux.
- Hardened Shields, ITU. Hard Shields with the aforementioned 17 caps and Aurora’s speed means that this Aurora isn’t afraid of anything. With high-DPS hard flux energy weapons and max dissipation, it brings nearly the firepower and survivability of a battlecruiser and should be comfortable dueling enemy capitals if they are built poorly or it has support. Sneaky way of fitting two “capitals” into a capital-limited tournament. Nice.

4x Pressure Tempest (pretty sure Thaago accidentally duped one of Random’s tempests over yours for the fight, but I won’t hold it against you plus the ion beam backing up 3 hard flux tempests actually makes sense)
- Pulse laser, Lightning gun, Hammer rack. Nice, though again I don’t know how much I like the 600/1000 bracket build combo. Lightning guns are real good on fast frigates that can dance into-out of-back into range. It should be noted that these hammers are the ONLY strike missiles in the entire fleet, besides Trident bombers.
- max vents, 9 caps. Good, AI loves having good flux stats.
- ITU. Lack of Hardened Subsystems means these Tempests will start flagging after 180 seconds, which is a little worrying especially with this fleet’s general long-range kiting/poking/harassment focus.

1x Mixed Interceptor/Claw Heron
- Falx, Gladius, Claw wings... Listen, I like the Gladius, I think it has a place in earlygame Geminis when you haven’t found a good fighter yet, but I’d never bring one to a tournament. And Claws! Claws have half an ion cannon more than a Thunder wing, without the absurd range, speed, swarmer, or shield-pressuring LMG. Falx (Falxes? Falxii?) on the other hand are quite strong, if expensive.
- HVD, PD laser ring. Nothing special here, though we see the focus on long-term staying power over strike kill potential again in taking an HVD over a Harpoon pod.
- No caps, 14 vents, flux-neutral without shield flux. An aggressive and fragile Heron.
- Expanded deck crew, no ITU... An aggressive, short-ranged, and fragile Heron. EDC on an interceptor carrier is cool though - this is a Heron that desperately wants to win the fighter superiority battle, though it appears a little confused as to how exactly to go about doing that.

2x Trident/Broadsword Vortices
- Trident, Broadsword wings... Eh? Solid mixed loadout, and the Trident brings more oomph to a deck-limited fleet or carrier than a Dagger does I suppose. Also more survivable in a PD-and-Interceptor rich format. I don’t mind this, though I think it'd be better in campaign.
- 2 tacs for poking, 2 PD, and another lightning gun! Again, taking a 1000 range medium over a missile pod.
- 2 caps, 9 vents. better than flux-neutral with shields down and nearly flux-neutral with them up! The AI loves this - though on a 2-tac-1-lightning-gun Vortex I don’t know how much of a difference that’ll make.

1x Support Chronos
- Tach Lance, 3x Lightning Gun, 3x Pilum. Are these the only Pilums in the fleet? I believe they are, so they’re extremely unlikely to hit “critical mass” and connect with anything but might decoy some PD or catch the odd overloaded and overextended ship. Lightning gun’s low sustained DPS is a poor choice IMO on something with the staying power of a capital, even a “light” one like the Chronos.
- 31 caps, 30 vents, better than flux-neutral with shields down and nearly flux-neutral even with them up, very nice again.
- ITU, ECCM for Pilums. ECCM for Pilums? ECCM for Pilums. Alrighty. Guess that makes them marginally more likely to connect.

This is a very solid fleet composition, despite some individual ship loadouts that I would consider highly suspect. By filling out the DP, fighter count, and capital limits with fast, long-ranged, and generally well-shielded ships it promises to do well against any opponent that doesn’t at least do the same. The near-complete lack of strike missiles and slight lack of width (9/15 ships) are slightly worrying... unless it's a clever ploy to decoy future opponents out of bringing PD :o

This fleet won against Draa in its first match, and up against Johan for its next one it’s anyone’s game, I think. It might suffer against Johan’s fast strike ships for its lack of width, though, unless Surge can swap in some cheaper ships.

Draa (technically r2 but I’m doing this video-by-video)
1x Symmetrical All-Rounder Conquest
- Hellbores, Hurricanes, Heavy Needlers and HVDs. Burst PD and Heavy Burst lasers, but 3 smalls per side left open. Sabot pods on the mediums. This is a fairly standard Conquest loadout, IMO. I’m a big fan of Hellbores in general, and it has both long-range poke (HVDs) and mid-range high-DPS kinetic (heavy needlers) to open up targets for them.
- No caps, 24 vents, 1440/2070(2550) dissipation - which for a Conquest, means it’s better than flux-neutral unless surrounded. Nice.
- ECCM, EMR, Gunnery Control AI, and ITU. Standard capital artillery build, with lots of ammo for the Hurricanes. Overall, this is a solid Conquest which should be effective at any range, if a bit light on kinetic.

1x Support Venture
- Harpoon pods, Sabot racks, Heavy Burst PD, and flak. This Venture is dramatically undergunned for its DP value, but will bring kill power via the Harpoon pods if anything gets overloaded and has lots of PD.
- No caps or vents, but still better than flux-neutral because it doesn’t have any guns - which barely matters, since it doesn’t have any guns, but oh well. Will have very fragile shields, which isn’t great for a defensive brick but is kiiind of ok on the Venture due to high armor.
- ECCM, EMR, and Heavy Armor. Heavy Armor is a good pick for this basically-shieldless Venture, though it’ll fall very easily to torpedo strikes since it has no EMP minimization. Overall, I think this is a waste of DP, as its missile power could be contributed (bested, actually) by a destroyer at two-thirds the cost, and the only other thing it does is be a big brick of hull and armor to chew through.

2x Gun Line Hammerheads
- HVD Mauler combo, Sabots, Vulcans on the front and Light Mortars on the rear. I’m a fan of Light Mortars as cheap anti-fighter, so this is a solid loadout, but I’m really not sure on the value of Vulcans on the front. They are better PD than LMGs and this is a Hammerhead that doesn’t particularly want to get close enough to LMG things, so I’ll deem it acceptable.
- 4 caps, 16 vents, 410/465(565) dissipation. Should be able to sustain fire for quite a long time provided it’s not being pressed, which is good for a gunline destroyer.
- Hardened Subsystems, ITU, and Hardened Shields. Hard Shields is an interesting addition to this build - everything else says “I want to sit back and shoot while not being shot”, but Hard Shields means it should be able to withstand considerably more pressure than other long-range Hammerheads. Overall, I think this is a very nice close support destroyer and I think Draa should have brought more of them.

2x Longbow Drovers
- Longbow wings, which to my knowledge do not benefit from Reserve Deployment, seem like a bit of a waste on a Drover. That said, the Drover is also quite probably the best Destroyer-sized carrier body, so it’s somewhat understandable.
- Salamanders, Harpoon racks, no guns. Interesting choice, as it sacrifices some of the Drover’s toughness and forces it to rely on good positioning in order to survive combat.
- 2 caps, no vents, flux negative due to no guns
- Hardened Subsystems, EDC, ECCM. Really not sure of the value of HS/EDC over EMR in this build. Overall I think it would be better if it played to the Drover’s strengths.

2x Harpoon Archers
- 3x Harpoon Pod, rest is PD. These archers can’t do anything by themselves, and just want to sit back and wait for enemies to overload. Unfortunately, with most of the fleet’s kinetic damage coming from a pair of Longbow Drovers and some scattered HVDs and Sabot racks, I’m not certain that will happen enough to justify them. Might have been better with a Sabot pod and an HVD of their own.
- 3 caps, 9 vents, better than flux-neutral even with shields up and all PD firing - not that that’s particularly important on a ship with no real guns. I think I would have gone for max caps here.
- ECCM, EMR, and... Aux Thrusters? That last is very questionable, IMO. I think the goal was to have them able to quickly reverse and back out of dangerous situations, but they’re ultimately too slow to really do that even with high maneuverability - I think more caps would have been the right choice here as well.

3x CH Broadsword Missile Mules
- Harpoon pod, 2x Sabot rack, light mortars for anti-fighter. A good Missile Mule loadout.
- no caps, 16 vents... why? Its only guns are two defensive mortars. Did Draa mean to add caps and just misclick, or is the idea that it’ll have no staying power but reset very quickly? Because that’s not a very good idea.
- Converted Hangar with Broadswords, ECCM, and EMR. Broadswords are a dubious choice for CH IMO, as they really need their base speed to reach their target and their HP to survive in combat, though they do provide kinetic pressure to help out the fleet’s Harpoons. Overall these are very nice Mules, though - a Mule costs only 7 DP, which is cheaper than many frigates and nearly every other Destroyer, and they bring a ton of survivability if built correctly. If these had caps instead of vents and a different fighter, I think I’d like these a lot - and bringing two more of them rather than the Venture would have been smart.

3x Salamander Nav Relay Shepherds
- A salamander, no gun
- 3 caps, no vents. Probably the right choice.
- Hardened Subsystems, Nav Relay. This is something we’ve seen a lot this tournament, cheap fodder with Nav Relay on it. I don’t think it’s worth it at all - these three Shepherds could have been another mule and a Mercury -- it’d have the same number of Salamanders, even! Put the Nav Relay on a bigger ship with some extra OP, if you must have it at all.

Overall, this fleet doesn’t know what it wants to do. It has a well-built Conquest, but no real battle line for it to support besides a lone Venture and a handful of Mules, neither of which are built quite tanky enough to fill that role. It has a pile of harpoons, but not much kinetic strike power to force overloads besides a scattering of sabots and HVDs and longbow drovers. It has fighters mismatched to carrier types (Longbows on Drovers, Broadswords on CH Mules). It fills out every maximum (14/15 ships, but whatever), but it does it with mostly trash. Hell, it’s even confused about its theme - what is a Conquest doing in a Convoy? Hmm.

This fleet paid for its crimes with a quick loss to Surge in Round 1 (well, technically 2), and will go up against another relatively well-balanced fleet by HGScout next. I’m not sure if Draa can rally and pull back a win, but with some well-considered swaps I think it could do alright.

isyourmojofly
4x SO no-PD Vultures
- 2x ACG, 2x Sabot Pods, Heavy Blaster. No other guns. God this is a mean loadout. It relies solely on Sabot Pods to crack shields, but in this format they’re very reliable due to the fleet limitations, and 2x ACG + 1 Heavy Blaster provides enough sheer DPS to pressure shields up for them to work anyway.
- 4 caps, 19 vents. Dissipation about 2/3rd of flux generated, with 8k capacity, which should provide plenty of time to kill anything it catches.
- Safety Overrides, no other hullmods. This is a gamble, but less of one with Cruiser-level base PPT. This is a mean, mean Vulture, and I really like it. Notably, they have built-in PD drones so lack of PD on these isn’t as much of a weakness as it seems.

3x SO no-PD Punishers
- 2x ACG, 1x Heavy Needler. 1x Sabot pod. No other guns. I love this meme. Heavy Needler is an inspired choice here - an HMG would provide more sustained damage, but the Needler will spike flux very quickly and notably, outrange many frigate weapons to keep it relatively safe from being kited. Combined with this ship’s mobility from SO plus its ship system, this is a lot of damage that can be delivered very quickly to anything within a substantial range.
- 25 vents, no caps nor mercy. This ship actually has a surplus of dissipation, which is a mistake I think should have been corrected as more capacity would let it take a few shots on its shield as it closes, or some light PD could have been added to cover for its narrow shield arc.
- Safety Overrides, Heavy Armor. Heavy Armor is a good pick on the Punisher, as its shield is very narrow and this one in particular has no PD, plus its system lets it sidestep most of Heavy Armor’s maneuverability penalty.

2x Claw Drovers
- Claw wings. EMP Drovers are very, very strong, though I would have gone for Thunders.
- 2 Ion Torpedo racks, no guns, 2 empty small missile slots. W...what. Fill your missile slots, you joker.
- EDC, Hardened Subsystems, and Solar Shielding. HS on these is a complete waste of OP, since everything else has SO and no HS - if these things ever run out of PPT, you’ve already lost. Should have filled your small missile slots!

This fleet is called TEN ANGRY & UNFRIENDLY SPACESHIPS but there are only nine of them! The whole fleet is incredibly bold and I love it, but really I would have gone for three Drovers full of Thunders and swapped out some expensive cruisers for destroyers or even frigates to round out the fleet. A Punisher is a whole 18 DP, which is really a lot to pay for what it brings to the table. Good concept for an SO fleet overall, just implemented more for the meme than a victory IMO.

I destroyed this fleet with my frankly unfair missile-strike squadron in Round 2, but it’s done well in the lower bracket so far. Up against LightningJC’s Luddic Church fleet next, which should be an interesting matchup, especially if isyourmojofly has a slightly more well-balanced composition up their sleeve.

EternalSoldat
4x HIL/Graviton Sunders
- HIL, 2x Grav, Atropos racks, Vulcans on front and back. This is a decent beam sunder build, though I would have gone for Harpoons or Sabots as always (Atropos are for fighters, you fools) and put kinetic on the front, even LMGs/LDMGs.
- 3 caps, max vents, flux-neutral with shields down and only 110 flux/sec over with them up (and less if the Vulcans aren’t firing!) - very nice on a beam sunder since it can sustain firepower more or less forever when it’s not being shot.
- AO, ITU, Stabilized Shields. Stabilized Shields means it can sustain fire for quite a while even with shields up as long as it’s not actively being shot. I’m not convinced of the utility of beam sunders in this fleet at all, however - beam ships in a format like this really do best when they have the toughness to stand in a line of battle (Apogees, Eagles), the range and speed to kite (Circes), or both (Falcons).

4x SO dual ACG Hammerheads
- 2 ACGs, hammer racks, LDMGs on the front, empty rear mounts. This is a silly hammerhead, lacking quite heavily in kinetic damage. I really think these would have played better with an HMG, Sabots, or both, and filled rear mounts - which on a Hammerhead, can even converge forwards!
- 1 cap, max(!) vents, dissipation better than neutral with shields down and only 50 points shy of it with it up. The issue is, these were built specifically to sustain fire at very close range - but with only 1 cap and dual ACGs, anything they can’t kill by the time that would become an issue is going to be something capable of putting out some serious hurt on them thanks to their low shield EHP, which will force them to back off anyway.
- SO, Hardened Subsystems. Again, this Hammerhead build thinks it has more longevity than it does.

1x Midrange Chronos
- Plasma cannon (right choice on a Chronos IMO), Ion beam + 2 gravs, sabot pods, PD on the rear. This is a solid loadout, but it’s just about the only EMP damage in the fleet, which is a mistake I think though not on the part of this Chronos itself.
- 12 caps, max vents. Almost flux-neutral with shields down, not too far off it with them up. which should give it quite a bit of staying power.
- ITU, Front Shield. Front shield on a Chronos is such a bad idea - yes it makes it faster and gives it 360 shields IF (and it’s a big if) it keeps them up long enough for them to reach its rear. It also means if the Chronos charges into trouble, it has no way out aside from backing up or exposing its rear and sides to the enemy. And the Chronos is fragile enough that it really doesn’t want to do that.

1x Cobra/Fighter Heron
- Cobra, Thunder, Broadsword wings. Confused Heron doesn’t know what it wants to do, and forgot to bring enough of any fighter role. A lone Cobra is going to have a really rough time of it, as will a lone Thunder wing and a lone Broadsword wing.
- Heavy Needler, poking tac, rest PD. No surprises here, bit of a short range for a Heron but the burst damage would be nice - if it had more bombers to take advantage of it.
- No caps, 15 vents. Almost flux-neutral with shields down, but really, really fragile.
EDC, no ITU. Real short range on that Heavy Needler, there, which is a nasty combo with this Heron’s capless fragility.

1x General-Purpose Alastor
- Harpoon rack, 2 railguns, ion cannon, pd, EMR for the harpoons, max vents and half caps. This is a real simple all-rounder frigate that I would happily field in campaign, but it has no idea what it’s doing here. This 5 DP could have been an Omen, or turned a Hammerhead into a Falcon or a Vulture, or really could have done a lot of things.

This is another slightly confused fleet. It has a good combo of beam sunders, SO hammerheads, and a Chronos, but what is that Heron doing there with 3 mixed-up fighter wings, besides soaking up 20 DP? What is that Alastor doing there? Where are the rest of this fleet’s fighter wings? Swapping out that poor lost Heron and Alastor for some cheaper carriers with Thunders, for example, could have given it some more disabling/kinetic pressure to open up targets for its HILs.

This fleet lost out to isyourmojofly’s ANGRY squad in its first match, but took a win from Dauntless in the lower bracket due to a couple of composition swap missteps on that fleet’s part allowing EternalSoldat’s solid fleet core of Sunders, Hammerheads, and Chronos to kite and flank its Conquest to death and shine unopposed. If EternalSoldat can swap in some variants to cover its weaknesses, this fleet could put up a very strong showing in the future - if not, nllptrxc’s new and improved Apogee-backed Astral-and-Omen fleet might take it apart.

Paul_Kauphart
1x Victory
- 2 Hellbores, 4 HVDs, 2 Heavy Needlers, ring of burst PD, Aegis flak on the rear, 4 Harpoon pods, plus the builtin front cannons. Very solid Victory loadout.
- Max vents, 36 caps, very overfluxed but that was going to happen no matter what and it’s minimized about as much as it can be.
- ITU, no other hullmods. This is basically the platonic ideal of a Victory, to be honest.

1x Falx Heron
- 3x Falx wings. I wish people would stop putting interceptors on Herons, but if you’re gonna do it, this is one of the better ways to do it.
Medium MIRV for fire support, unorthodox 2x Burst PD layout with a frontal LRPD for poking and extra help. Solid.
- 8 vents, no caps. Why? It doesn’t have any guns and would be flux-neutral with no vents at all, even with shields up.
- EDC for faster falx replacements. Solid Falx carrier, though 2 Drovers would have been much more efficient at carrying Falxes for only a handful more DP, which could probably have been scraped together somewhere else.

2x Heavy Needler Hammerhead
- Heavy Needlers, Harpoon racks, LAGs on the front and LDMGs on the back. 17 caps, max vents, 450/770(870) flux but it’s so bursty that doesn’t really matter. No hullmods! I love this hammerhead, and it ALMOST being the vanilla loadout (swapped small ballistics in the for the base LRPD) makes it even better. Very solid bursty hammerhead, with the harpoons to follow up on its own overloads.

2x HIL/Grav Sunder
- These ITU/AO HIL sunders have Reapers and Railguns, giving them a little more ability to fight back if pressed. Max vents and 7 caps mean they still have sustain. This is pretty much the platonic ideal of HIL sunder, IMO, and fairly self-sufficient just like the Hammerheads above.

2x Ion Omen
- 2 Ion Cannons, Sabot rack, UI, RFC, Hardened Subsystems, and 7 caps/4 vents - over dissipation even with shields up. I would have gone for Hardened Shields, max caps, and dropped an Ion Cannon but these are pretty solid Omens.
2x PD Omen
- These Omens, by contrast, are not nearly as good. Trading the ion cannons for Burst PD is a little silly when the Omen already has tiny, fast 360 degree shields and an EMP system, and the Swarmer... Why the Swarmer? The Omen already deletes any fighter within its EMP radius.

2x Monitor
- I can’t fathom the mindset that brings Omens and still thinks “hey, you know what this fleet needs? another tanky frigate that costs more DP and has half the speed and none of the kill power or utility”. It has Extended Shields for the 360, and it does absolutely nothing other than not die.

This is a solid fleet comp with some messy loadouts, and was handed its first two victories on a silver, well, Victory, but with a few slight tweaks it could carry forward with a lot of strength. Swapping out the two sub-par Omens for the better loadout and those Monitors for a Drover (and a reaper kite or something) to fill out the fleet's fighters could go a long way, for instance.

TrueNuts
1x Flex Mudskipper Mk.II
- Okay I know it’s a meme but why put Extreme Mods on it, come on. And GCAI? Do Gauss Cannons even spread? (I checked - they do not, and the increased projectile speed isn't exactly worth it on something that isn't an ITU'd cruiser or capital)

1x Flak/Mining Laser Victory
- This is the worst Victory loadout I’ve ever seen. The only way this Victory could be worse is if it had Shield Bypass, Extreme mods, and another pair of Aegises instead of those Mjolnirs. It really needs some long-range kinetic firepower to supplement those Klutokhenes and Mjolnirs.

2x HVD/Harpoon Vulture
- This Vulture has a mining laser eating 2 OP for approximately zero value, GCAI for a pair of HVDs and beam PD (neither of which spreads), 0 caps and vents, and Hardened Subsystems for some reason. It could be drastically improved by cutting HS and GCAI for ITU and some flux infrastructure.

2x Hornet/Sabot Archers
- These are decent. Hornets and EMR for sustained HE fire, Sabot on the front for overloads, rest is PD. I don’t think they needed Hardened Subsystems, Advanced Gyros, or IPDAI - more caps would have been better than the first two for sure, these have zero.

4x ACG Albatross
- Interesting ship. Double ACG with ITU and GCAI is very accurate HE firepower with surprising range. And it has Reapers. This is another one that really didn’t need Hardened Subsystems.

1x Railgun Alastor
- Single reaper, double railgun, 3 PD lasers. GCAI on a rail weapon with no spread, for the third time in this fleet. Zero caps and a single reaper with no EMR, but it has Hardened Subsystems. Why?! By the time it’s low on PPT, it’ll have fired its reaper or died.

The repeated use of Mining Lasers, GCAI on non-spreading rail weapons, lack of flux infra on most ships, and the Flak Victory are all standouts in this fleet. With all of those corrected and some fighter cover, I think it could have been decent - it’s an interesting mix of ships.

nllptrxc
4x Plasma Cannon Apogee
- Flux neutral with a plasma cannon! Also a Sabot rack for shield popping and a Locust to take care of fighter swarms, and the rest of the turrets filled with PD lasers. This might be a meme fleet, but this is an entirely solid Apogee loadout. Has ITU, Stabilized Shields, and EMR for the sabots and locust. I would have probably cut Stabilized for Hardened, but this is pretty damn good all around.

4x HIL/Squall Apogee
- More conventional loadout, with a HIL and two tacs on the front, a Squall on the side, and the rest identical to the above - including the PD lasers, sabot, and hullmods. This one’s actually got excess flux dissipation while the shields are down, meaning it can passively vent if it can get a good surround on something without having to raise its shields. This is pretty much the platonic ideal of a HIL apogee.

I love this fleet, it brings the memes and smart loadouts both. Notably, it’s only at 144 DP - 6 shy of the limit. A “tryhard” version, IMO, would have brought only 5 Apogees, a pile of Drovers, and filled whatever DP was left with Omens. This fleet shines in its fight here - watching the Apogees rotate out of the fight to vent while another one rotates in is pure joy, as they’re basically invincible so long as the enemy doesn’t bring anything capable of outranging or completely swarming them.

The fleet later loses to Kissa Mies’ less meme-y fleet after the simple addition of a single Omen, but then refits to bring an Astral-based Omen swarm with only a trio of Apogees for support and wins its first match in the lower bracket, going up against EternalSoldat’s slightly confused Midline-and-Chronos blob next round which should be interesting.

Hrothgar Heavenlight
1x Battleship Prometheus Mk.II
- This is an all-round good combat capital loadout, just applied to a makeshift capital. It has a Squall, a Mk.IX, and a Hellbore for cheap long-range firepower, a brace of flak cannons and a vulcan ring for PD, and Khopeshes and Warthogs for followup HE DPS once the Hellbore has cracked armor. ITU is a necessity, it’s flux-neutral with shields down, and the remaining points are spent in caps. The only thing I’d question is the front shield - yes, it makes it 360, but it also means it can’t reposition to block flankers. This can be a good thing if it’s being surrounded by HILs, mind, but even in that case I think I’d prefer extended, and in every other case I’d rather have Hardened or simply more caps.

4x Sabot/Mauler/Ion Blaster Vultures
- Fairly standard gunline cruisers, with ITU, 2 Heavy maulers backed up by 2 Sabot pods, some PD, better than flux-neutral with shields down, and notably: a Heavy Ion Blaster in the central medium. This is just a generally solid build.

1x HE Archer
- 3 Harpoon pods, a Heavy Mauler, ECCM and EMR, and light PD. Maxed vents and only 2 caps, which is interesting as it means it’s nearly flux-neutral even with shields up - this is an Archer that might want to camp very near the front line so it can sustain fire with its Heavy Mauler. It lacks any Kinetic, but an Archer is already not particularly self-sufficient even at best, so I’m not sure that’s a large weakness. I can’t help but feel it might do better with ITU for the Mauler at the cost of some vents, and/or an HVD swap to pressure shields better, but I could be wrong. 3 Harpoons on this seems wise, as it’s the only real Harpoon finisher in the fleet.

2x Mixed Drovers
- Dagger Broadsword drovers, with 2 harpoons, 2 atroposes, EMR and vulcans. These have 6 vents for some reason, which I really think should have gone to caps since their base dissipation outpaces 2 vulcans and their shields substantially even by itself. All harpoons also would have been better than Atroposes, since these really want to sit in the backline.

4x Harasser Hecates
- Tac lasers for poke, Hornets with EMR for sustained HE fire at targets of opportunity. A solid close support light frigate, and flux-neutral even with shields up. These things are only 3 DP, so they’re a good filler to round out ship numbers - though they are very fragile if pressed.

This is an all-around solid fleet that I’d be happy with in campaign, but it’s lacking a little meat with so much DP tied up in those Vultures and doesn’t have quite enough fighter cover with bombers on the Drovers. All that considered, I’m still actually somewhat surprised that it lost this one - and then lost again to Lightning in the lower bracket. It looks like its ultimate downfall was that it didn’t bring enough concentrated firepower to down any of the Apogees in Round 1 as its “heavy” ships were outnumbered and its light ships were too light for their targets to be threatened by them, and then was simply outclassed by LightningJC’s fleet post-refit to a non-Cathedral-based Low Tech battle line in its second showing.

Symbols
AH YES, HERE WE GO. CRACK SHIPPING, THE PEOPLE’S HEROES AND STARS OF THE SHOW!

3x Fast Attack Nautilus
- Very unorthodox Nautilus, but hey - if it works, it works. Two AO mini phase lances and a hammer rack on a 130 speed platform with Phase Skimmer, and efficient (and extended) omni shields makes for a very good darting attacker. And it’s only 3 DP!

5x Beam Circe
- Very smart beam kiting loadout, though I think the choice of 2 Gravs over Grav + Ion is debatable - maybe mixing some of each in would have been wise. AO, ITU, and the Circe’s speed and plasma jets make these very, very effective at forcing destroyers and lighter craft back as they’re permanently outranged and kited, especially with the ability of 5 of them (thanks to the Circe’s cheap DP cost) to concentrate firepower. EMR Harpoon racks round it out with some kill power on high-flux targets. These things have great synergy with the Atlas Mk.II as they can protect it from missiles with their AO, ITU LRPD lasers, push back light attackers, and rely on its Gauss Cannons to cause overloads on their Grav-pressured targets for them to exploit with their Harpoons.

5x Extreme Mods Gemini (3 Falx, 2 Thunder + ECCM)
- Falx/Thunder on an EDC’d RD carrier was an excellent choice. These also have Pilums, and with 5 of them stand a good chance of scoring some hits especially with the heavy kinetic pressure of the Atlas and Circes. Extreme Mods is actually a decent choice here, since if these are ever under enough threat to have to use their PD LMGs, they’re probably already dead, and it lets them comfortably fit their heavy interceptors along with ECM and a Nav Relay for fleetwide buffs. Take note - this is how to use ECM/Nav Relay in a tournament fleet - you put it on something that you would have brought anyway, and would have consigned to the back line anyway. Thunder Geminis also spend the extra OP saved on Thunders on ECCM for their pilums. I don’t really have any criticism of these - the Thunder Geminis drop one LMG for... 3 vents, which I don’t really understand, but I’m willing to chalk that one up to “weird flex”.

1x Dagger Condor
- Yep, that’s how you put Daggers on a Condor. This one also has Extreme Mods and EDC, and pilums to add to the weight of those from the Geminis.

1x Artillery Atlas Mk.II
- Oh yes. Oh hell yes. If Crack Shipping is the star of this tournament, this Atlas is the star of Crack Shipping. I’m going back to the long form ship review for this one.
- 2x Gauss Cannon, 2x Hurricane MIRV, no PD, no side guns, no mercy. This Atlas is an artillery ship, and it’s entirely focused on being an artillery ship. It knows what it does and it does what it does well.
- No caps, 30 vents, which gets it to 825 dissipation out of 1200 flux from the Gauss - and it’s shield bypassed, so that’s all the flux it’ll ever need to store/dissipate. With 8000 capacity, it can fire steadily for more than long enough to overload or kill something.
- ITU, check, GCAI, weird on Gauss but with capital + ITU range the projectile speed might actually help, shield bypass, probably the only good use of it we’ll see this entire tournament - instrumental in helping this thing cover the flux of its Gauss, and maintain its 0-flux bonus to get into range. Also has Armored Mounts, sure, and ATG - which is a bit weird, I think, though it will help it take down faster targets along with the faster projectiles from GCAI. I might have cut ATG and/or GCAI for more vents.
This thing is just incredible in general though.

Crack Shipping is overall a very exceptionally well-designed fleet. It fills every limit, with the Atlas as a capital, 5 Geminis and a Condor for fighters, and a full 15 ships - and while every ship may be less than optimal in general except possibly the Circes, they each have a role to fill which they do very, very well with the loadout they’ve been given. This is one to watch, and I think it’ll go very far - especially if Symbols has any tricks up their sleeve, which I wouldn’t doubt.

Crack Shipping’s next battle will be against Kissa Mies, and the current composition might not fare so well against a Paragon and Omens as it can’t rely on its strategy so far of outranging and out-kiting.

PB
1x Shield Bypass Onslaught
- Decent Shield Bypass Onslaught! Yes, it has PD, yes, it has ARU and RFC and Solar Shielding and Heavy Armor and Armored Mounts and RFB and Blast Doors. I think this thing’s main downfall, if I’m honest though, is its lack of support - it eats 40 DP by itself and then PD brought a pile of cruisers with it, 8 ships in total including this one, when you need to go pretty damn wide to make up for the cost of a combat cap like this, no matter how many torpedoes it can just... eat. It’s also sort of lacking in offensive firepower, besides the TPCs and a single Hephaestus.

2x Cyclone Vindicator
- Cyclone’s a weird pick on these, with its limited range. The rest of the ship is Ion Torpedo racks, PD, EMR, a pile of caps, and a handful of vents - enough to sustain Gungnir fire, mind, so it’s not really overfluxed despite appearing to be.

1x Broadsword Mora
- Broadswords are a weird thing to spam, though it does make a bit of sense with two Gungnirs in the fleet. This also has two ECCM’d Salamanders, RFB, and Heavy Armor for more efficient Damper Field tanking, and 5 caps with no vents, which is an interesting choice on something that often tanks by damping and passive venting its shield flux.

1x Shield Bypass SO Mjolnir Vanguard
- Name says it all. That’s one dangerous destroyer, but one that really lacks staying power.

2x Broadsword Condor
- It has Broadswords, it has Pilums, it has no hullmods, it has 7 vents for some reason. Again, Broadswords are a weird thing to have 7 of with no bombers, but also again, the Gungnirs are presumably sort of supposed to stand in for strike power to take advantage of them.

1x Artillery Brawler
- Pretty standard HVD/Mauler/ITU combo, this one has RFC for active venting despite being almost flux-neutral and... single harpoons? Hm. I would probably have dropped both of those, were it mine.

This is a generally well-constructed fleet with some serious flaws - that Onslaught needs enough fast attack support to pin down targets so it can engage them, that Vanguard needs backup, those Vindis and Condors need a wider frontline, the Broadswords need strike power to follow up on their decoy flares and kinetic pressure, and the whole fleet needs more ships as it only fills up half of its allotment.

Silver
3x Beam Aurora
- ITU, AO, lots of beams, burst and heavy burst PD on the back, flux-neutral, Hardened Subsystems, and absolutely zero killing power. This would be fun (if still sub-optimal) in campaign but it’s.. just not good for 30 DP in a DP-costed tournament.

5x Beam Medusa (2 with an ion beam/grav beam combo, 3 with double gravs)
- ITU, AO, Hardened Subsystems, and again - absolutely zero strike or kill power. These could, and should, have been Circes - and desperately need some hard flux to back up the Ion Beams in the fleet.

Overall, this fleet sets out to do one thing - beams - and does it with mediocre-at-best results. The “tryhard” version would have had more DP-efficient beam boats, a couple of HILs for armor-cracking, fighter cover, and some form of long-ranged hard flux to let the Ion Beams arc through shields.

SouP
1x Extreme Mods Flamer Onslaught
- Ah yes, the 40 DP throwaway fleet mascot. This thing really didn’t need Extreme Mods -- as it is it’s a gigantic liability against any fleet that doesn’t fold immediately to the fleet’s flamer enforcers, and the Onslaught has more than enough OP for a solid loadout without it. I actually think this could have been an interesting build otherwise, as it does bring some much-needed anti-capital and staying power to the all-SO-no-Hardened-Subsystems rest of the fleet, or would if it could ever make it to the battle.

6x Tri-Flamer Enforcer (LP)s
- 2x Sabots, 2x Swarmers(???), 3 Plasma Flamers, 2 LDMGs which I almost missed, builtin SO and Ill-Advised, UI, big mags, EMR, and ECCM. These are brutal close-range wrecking balls with a ton of speed - 110 base plus the always-on flux boost - but I just don’t understand the Swarmers. Also, they’ve got max vents giving them 800 dissipation with only 500 flux generated, 580 with shields up. I think these could have benefited more from caps, an extra hullmod, or some extra weapons once they were flux neutral.

7x SO Tempests
- SO frigates with no Hardened Subsystems, Aux Thrusters to stunt on incoming hellbore fire, dual Pulse Lasers, and a swarmer again. Why, SouP! Why the swarmers. These things even have Terminators to cover them against hostile fighters! Even so, these are also very fast and brutal attack ships, delivering a pile of close-to-mid range hard flux energy DPS, and at 570/660(705) dissipation vs flux generation, they’ve got some staying power in a fight too - at least until they run out of PPT.

This is a big gamble, a fleet that wants to win fast and hard or not at all. I think it could be made better by adding some fighter cover or bomber support to take advantage of its inevitably-swarmed enemies, and of course knocking Extreme Mods off of that Onslaught and bringing more useful missiles in place of the swarmers, but... It’s won all its matches so far! This is one to watch.

In its second match, this fleet DOES actually knock Extreme Mods off the onslaught in favor of a slightly more typical Shield Bypass Onslaught build with a pile of GCAI’d Heavy Needlers, a Mjolnir, a brace of rear-facing Contender Cannons to shred fighters and flanking frigates, and a pair of Burst Flare Launchers which I am prepared to forgive due to its lack of shields AND PD. I think this thing’s extreme shield-busting burst power - even the TPCs and Mjolnir deal effective damage to shields, being Energy - will be instrumental in future rounds if SouP keeps it around. Especially in the next round, against SafariJohn’s Paragon... A target it'll most likely actually get to engage for once, hah. All this assuming Safari returns to a more traditional composition - instead of sticking with the phase gimmick they pulled out for round 2 or swapping to a third, entirely different again fleet composition!

SafariJohn
1x Paragon
- This is a pretty standard Paragon build in my eyes, with Autopulses on the front, Tachs on the sides, Heavy Needlers in the universals, Ion Beams in the front mediums, and Hornets on the small missiles. It has a pile of shield hullmods (Stabilized, Hardened, and Accelerated), 50 vents to 30 caps, big mags for the autopulses, and flux distributor to round it out. I don’t really have anything to say about it - if you said “here’s a paragon build” and posted this in #dry_dock, my response would be “yep, that’s a paragon build.” Simple, and should be effective.

10x Support Tempest
- ITU, AO, Ion beam and Phase Lance with it looks like a mix of Sabots and Salamanders on the small missiles across the 10. Very long-ranged tempest build, and I like the synergy of putting a Phase Lance on the front instead of a Pulse Laser to take advantage of the AO beam range. Notably though, this fleet doesn’t have much hard flux to enable those Ion Beams or the Tachyons on the Paragon, and these don’t have Hardened Subsystems so their kiting utility is somewhat diminished in a long, drawn-out fight - which is what they otherwise encourage, being max-range Ion Beam kiting frigates.

2x Support Wolf
- Ion beam, AO and EMR (no ITU), 3 Tacs and 2 Sabots. Simple but effective close support Wolf build, with EMR’d Sabot racks to provide some light shield spiking to enable shield-piercing arcs. I don’t think there are enough of them, and Wolves are somewhat inefficient in this tournament format, but this is a solid loadout if you’re going to bring one. These things do lack PD, but with so many Terminators swarming around I don’t think that’ll be much of an issue.

This is a compilation of solid Ion Beam support frigates and a simple but good Paragon build. I do like that it brings lots of Terminators to make up for lack of fighter cover and nearly fills out its ship allotment, but I think the Paragon does want some slightly bulkier support in place of the extremely DP-expensive Tempest swarm and a little more hard flux mixed in. That said, with 1300 range those Tempests will be effective at kiting both frigates and destroyers, which helps them a lot, and with nothing but Tempests they’re wide enough to outnumber, kite, and eventually collapse on smaller fleets... which is exactly what happened in round 1. I think bringing some solid shield-tanking Omens in place of its Wolves and maybe some Drover support in exchange for a couple Tempests could take this fleet from Good to Great.

In Round 2, SafariJohn switches to an all-phase gimmick with 2 quite solid but mysteriously salamander-armed Blaster Dooms, some Shades with Sabots, Swarmers, and IR Pulses - of which I only really understand the first weapon choice - and a pile of very nice Ion/AMB and Hammer/Contender/Nav/ECM Afflictors. A generally well-built all-phase fleet, that brings 12/15 ships (and obviously no fighters, but carriers would have a hard time without a solid front line).

Up against SouP’s SO circus next round, which should be a fun match to watch. I’m curious how the more conservative - but more numerous - Tempests will fare against Safety Overridden ones and Enforcers built for quick kills, and how the heavily-shielded Paragon will fare against the shield-busting and shieldless Onslaught. IF those appear at all!

HGScout
1x Quad-Tachyon Paragon
- Another fairly standard Paragon, though this one has a few more quirks - Grav beams over Ion on the front, which makes sense as 4 tachs brings more than enough EMP damage and shield arcing. It also has IPDAI/ATG and tac lasers ringing it instead of more typical PD, and Phase Lances in the back! I like the rear-facing phase lances, with ATC they clock in at 1200 range and should be a very spicy surprise for any frigate that thinks about flanking this fleet anchor.

1x Longbow/Trident Heron
- 2x Longbow, 1x Trident wings, and a Proximity Charge Launcher on the medium which is an interesting choice I think. I like the heavier focus on kinetic with 2 Longbows, since the Paragon ought to be near this thing and provides plenty of kill power with 4 Tachyons that really need kinetic pressure to shine. Taking a Trident for the last slot makes up for the damage and PD saturation it would otherwise lack, as they carry an extra torpedo and have more survivability than the standard Dagger.

2x Thunder Drover
- 2 Thunders, EDC for more thunders, IPDAI’d Vulcans, and flare guns all over the front. Come on people, flare guns just... aren’t good. Those could have been Harpoons. Besides that, I like it - RD’d Thunders are just excellent, and always a good choice.

5x Attack Tempest
- These are weird tempests. EDC for faster Terminator replacement, and an ITU’d combo of Pulse Laser on the front, and... Mini-Blaster Array on the back? Along with Hardened Subsystems, to keep them harassing for longer, and a Salamander. This is an interesting loadout, and quite innovative IMO, but I’m not sure the Mini-Blaster Array was a good idea and keeping close-to-mid-range Tempests alive long enough for Hardened Subsystems to come into play is fairly ambitious. I think I would have gone for a slightly more standard loadout on these, with strike missiles (Sabots, likely) and a more aggressive weapon in place of the Mini-Blaster Array.

1x Monitor
- It’s a Monitor, it has mini-blasters instead of tacs so it won’t waste as much flux poking, and it’s got stabilized shields over front or extended, which is slightly dubious IMO since it leaves a hole in the back.

This is a more well-balanced fleet than the opposing Paragon-and-Tempest swarm in Round 1, but I think the individual loadouts are a little weaker and despite shooting for a more balanced fleet comp, it still lacked any substantial backup for its Paragon - which has little hard flux of its own - and doesn’t quite have the width to stand against a big, kitey swarm like the one it had to face.

The fleet did take a win from SCC’s lost campaign cohort in the lower bracket, and will go up against Draa’s Convoy in the next battle - a match I expect it to win barring refits on either side, though I’ve been wrong before.

Round 2

SCC
2x Ion Beam Support Doom
- Interesting choice, SCC! 4 Light Needlers to spike flux, 2 Ion Beams to take advantage of it, and 2 Salamander pods for more long-range disabling support. This is a confused Doom! I like this loadout, but I don’t think it’s very competitive - the Doom’s lack of shields means that one that spends too much time out of phase is going to get chipped down and eventually killed by anything with the range, speed, or presence to harass it. Ultimately, this thing just lacks strike power, which is a rough position for a phase ship to be in - especially one that costs nearly as much as a capital ship in this tournament format.

2x Missile Support Gryphon
- These are very solid Gryphons; Extreme Mods which is mitigated by them being dedicated backline ships, CH Thunders for interceptor cover, swarming EMP, and light kinetic pressure, Trebuchets for disabling, a pile of Harpoons for kill power, ARU to counter Extreme Mods, and the rest of their points in caps since their only flux-generating weapons are PD.

3x Brawling Tempest
- Heavy Blaster, Sabot rack, and an undersized Ion Cannon in the rear slot! It also has Hardened, Extended shields and Hardened Subsystems along with a decent mix of caps and vents to stay in the fight longer. Ultimately I think these are too expensive for what they’ll do, but I like that Hardened Shields/brawling weapons combo a lot. The undersized Ion Cannon is a stroke of genius, since the Heavy Blaster is more than enough firepower (and more than enough flux generation) for a frigate - the Ion Cannon is just there to provide some flux-cheap disabling arcs.

3x Support Wolves
- AO’d Ion Beam, Salamanders, PD, and... ECM. ECM is a novel choice here, and the only really weird thing about these Wolves. I don’t think Wolves are DP-efficient or worth bringing in this format, but these are solid support Wolves.

This is a weird fleet. It’s got some really good variants (the Gryphons), but the rest of it is solid variants that just... probably shouldn’t be here. It’s also quite low on ships with only 10 out of 15, doesn’t have fighter cover or quite enough Terminators to make up for it, lacks a capital of any sort, and most notably is entirely lacking a frontline, which really hurts it - those Gryphons, Wolves, and Dooms are just so vulnerable to being flanked and swarmed, especially since they’ll likely be outnumbered.

The fleet lost to Johan’s Hammerhead and Falcon blob in Round 2 (where it was seeded), then again to HGScouts fairly solid Paragon, Carriers, and Tempests in the lower bracket. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Vayra
Okay, okay, it’s my turn. I talked about everyone else’s fleet, so now I get to talk about mine too! Let’s get into it. :D

7x CH Wasp Sabot/Harpoon Falcon (P)s
- This Falcon (P) loadout is considered a war crime by every participating planetary government in the Persean League, condemned as a violent and cruel misapplication of ordnance by highly placed spokespeople from Tri-Tachyon Corporation, and prompted a public address on the nature of excess from High Hegemon Baikal Daud himself.
- 2 Sabot pods, 2 Harpoon pods, 2 reapers on the side smalls, and PD lasers on the front. Notably, every weapon class is in its own linked group - this forces the Falcon to fire its sabots and harpoons in volleys of 8, which are extremely destructive and help it to overwhelm point defense while not posing an overlarge risk of ammo running out due to there being 8 of them in the fleet with EMR on every one. The linked reapers are especially mean due to the widely spaced hardpoints - they dramatically cut down on incidence of missing reaper shots, and will both make contact against large targets where they’re most useful.
- 15 caps, no vents. Since these Falcons rely entirely on missiles for their killing power, they have no real need for passive dissipation and can lean into their cruiser-scale (and 0.8 efficiency) flux capacity, AKA shield HP.
- ECCM, EMR, and Converted Hangar to hold a wing of Wasps. I tried a couple different fighters here, and ultimately decided Wasps were the one to go with as they’re relatively light on OP and cover for the Falcon’s only real weakness - a lack of point defense. Thunders were my second choice, but ultimately this fleet has so much EMP damage and kinetic pressure through Sabots that it just doesn’t need them.

1x Tank Sabot/Harpoon Falcon (P)
- Since my fighter complement was already filled out with CH Wasps, this Falcon had the OP left over to lean hard into its survivability with Hardened Shields and 20 capacitors rather than the 15 on the other ships. With 18,300 shield EHP, which of course regenerates if it has a chance to vent, this Falcon leads the charge and just doesn’t go down.

6x Tank/Strike Omens
- The Falcon (P)s are truly ridiculous and stole the spotlight a bit here, but I think these Omens deserve special attention. I truly believe this is the best Omen build it’s possible to come up with, at least in this format. Some backstory first: In the last fleet-building tournament, Thaago and I were paired up for round 1 and we made a very strong showing, being the only team to make it to the final wave of that round. I was playing Junk Pirates with a Kraken anchor and Langoustine attack/strike destroyers, and Thaago brought an all-vanilla destroyer fleet of Hammerheads and Sunders backed up with an Omen build very similar to this one. I remembered that Omen fondly and credit it heavily with our performance, so I went back to take a look at it... and then I improved on it, by rebuilding it for maximum survivability. But yes, I owe the original single-reaper-and-AMB Unstable Injected Omen concept to Thaago.
- One small reaper (with no EMR) and an Antimatter Blaster on the front gives this Omen some incredibly deadly strike power. Not only does it disable anything foolish enough to drop shields around it - or that it flanks, which is quite likely due to its high speed and survivability - but it has the AMB to spike hard flux or deliver armor-cracking blows, and the Reaper which poses a deadly threat to anything including capitals and can quickly swing the tide of a battle if one finds itself in the right place to use it.
- Maxed caps, no vents. With Hardened Shields, this Omen sits at an extremely comfortable 10,000 Shield EHP, and has more than enough speed to back out and vent to reset it over and over and over again. I think in context, this thing is actually tankier than a Monitor - and certainly provides more combat utility as well as being 5 DP to a Monitor’s 7.
- Hardened Subsystems to keep it in the fight, Unstable Injector for maximum flanking and EMP delivery, Hardened Shields for the aforementioned extreme survivability, and Resistant Flux Conduits to let it reset even faster if it gets a moment to breathe - and keep it alive longer if it’s being pressured with ion weaponry. You might think Unstable Injector would limit its Antimatter Blaster fire due to its shortened (and already short) range, but in my experience these Omens are more than happy to ram themselves directly into the enemy for a chance to fire... I’m not sure whether to chalk that up to their Reckless AI or their EMP system, but either way, it works.

Due to the Falcon being a relatively cheap cruiser and the Omen being a very cheap frigate, this fleet actually clocks in at 14 out of 15 ships, a full fighter complement albeit a Converted Hangar one - which is mitigated by it being all Wasps, which will even the fight against even a non-CH Interceptor fleet for long enough for the Falcons to eliminate a carrier and swing the battle - and no capitals, which is likewise mitigated by the Falcon (P)s and Omens all being both fast and extremely tanky due to lack of weapon flux and high capacitors, allowing every ship in the fleet to serve as a front line and take punishment before it rotates out to vent. The Omens also serve to cover the Falcons against hostile fighters and missiles with their EMP systems, further mitigating their weaknesses, while the tournament rules neatly outlaw any hard counters (which would normally be: swarming them with lots of frigates and/or even more fighters, or outlasting them with extremely tanky and strike-resistant ships like Paragons)

It should be noted that while this is a very strong fleet in this format, it won’t perform nearly as well in campaign where the player fleet is routinely outnumbered. What I did, really, was take advantage of the tournament rules emphasizing strike power and the ability to quickly kill a symmetrical-DP and size-and-fighter-limited enemy fleet. After all, the perfect amount of ammunition is enough to kill every enemy on the field - and no more.

I’m very proud of this fleet, though I feel sort of bad about it now - watching my first fight, I got the distinct impression that I had brought a handgun to a waterfight. I have received several tips that people have found counters or at least alternate fleets that pose a significant challenge to it, so the tournament isn’t over yet - especially since contestants still have the ability to submit one additional variant. This is definitely the one to beat.

LightningJC
1x Cathedral
- Ah yes, Cathedral meme. This is a bad idea in the tournament as it eats a full two-thirds of your DP by itself, though to LightningJC’s credit they did fill it with fighters, bombers, and back it up with a large, cheap frigate complement and a pair of destroyers. I’m not going to review the entire loadout since I’m getting real tired of doing this, but quickly: the weapons are solid, and Makeshift Shields on most modules gives it double-layer shielding which is a good idea to protect that huge DP investment.

2x Reaper Kite
- It’s fast, it’s mean, and it’s only 2 DP. EMR was the right choice for those reapers. One of these stars in LightningJC’s later lower bracket match, and has been officially canonized as a saint by the Church of Galactic Redemption.

1x SO Enforcer
- Just an all-around solid SO Enforcer build. Not much to say about this one, to be honest. The juxtaposition of a non-Hardened Subsystems SO ship in a fleet with a Cathedral that otherwise wants to outlast the enemy is a weird one.

1x Artillery Enforcer
- Another generally solid Enforcer, this one with 2x HVD and 1x Mauler for long-range fire with ITU. This one notably lacks missiles, however - with just 2 Annihilator pods. I would have given it Harpoons, since it wants to sit behind the Cathedral and punish attackers.

3x Green SO Lasher
- Standard SO Lasher build, with 3x LMG, 2x LAG, 2x Hammer racks, SO (of course), and Hardened Subsystems - along with the obligatory Luddic green paintjob. This is almost literally how I build every Lasher I get my hands on, to be honest. I would have liked to see LP Lashers here with ARU for the theme to be honest, but ah well. Mine would have Sabots but the combat lashers have Sabots so Hammers is a good pick too.

4x Green Combat Lasher
- General-purpose combat lasher build, with a nice coat of green paint. LAGs on the sides, dual AC on the front, Sabots for overloads and Vulcans for PD. It has RFB, which is a weird choice in the tournament IMO, but what do I know - it saves it from a near-death experience in a later round. This is a perfectly acceptable Lasher build for campaign if you’re a coward and don’t SO them all. Generally solid.

This fleet goes for the Cathedral meme and the Luddic Church theme and sticks to both, then tries to build a solid composition around it - which, well, if you were going to bring a Cathedral for style points like this, round 1 was the place to do it, and that was the right way to load it out. I actually think this could have pulled out a victory if it was facing a capital-less fleet instead of, well, a Victory.

In the lower bracket’s first round after this loss, LightningJC swaps out to a much more well-balanced fleet (while still within theme!) with a generally well-built Artillery Legion, Brawling Mora, Vindicator which is pretty good except for having a Locust instead of a Squall, and an SO Punisher with unorthodox but effective weapons in place of that DP-hogging Cathedral, and takes home a very well-deserved win for it.

Kissa Mies
1x Surprise Strike Paragon
- Standard Paragon loadout here, except for the addition of 2 AMBs on the front, which I kind of like - that’s a lot of spike damage, at a surprising 900 range, and backed up by 4 Hammer racks in the small missiles.

6x Tank Albatrosses
- These are simple, tanky destroyers with a Heavy Autocannon/Heavy Mortar combo, ITU, and defensive hullmods to lean into their turtle-like strengths. Not much to say about these, though I’m not convinced Albatrosses are particularly competitive in the tournament. I’m also not sure about putting Annihilator Pods on ships like these and might have gone for more backline-friendly missiles, since despite these things’ survivability you probably still want them to be behind the Paragon rather than in front of it. That said, still a solid build I think.

8x "Slow" Tank/Strike Omens
- Listen, I like Omens, but this... This just might be too many Omens? It might not, though! This build is generally solid, with an IR Pulse for pressure, Burst PD for... PD, and an EMR’d Hammer Rack for strike power, along with maxed caps. These Omens want Hardened Shields, are just a little slow without UI, and the Burst PD is somewhat wasted due to the Omen’s 360 shield and EMP system, but overall these are pretty damn good Omens.

This is a good take on the lone-Paragon-with-light-support fleet “genre”, with enough Omens and Albatross flak drones to make up for not bringing any fighters of its own. I do like that Kissa went this way rather Tempests, as Omens are a lot more DP-efficient and allowed it to completely (15/15) fill out its ship count, and the Albatrosses are slightly tankier than Tempests for the same DP while still bringing a built-in PD wing.

This points to Kissa being a very competent fleet-builder who isn’t afraid to think a little outside the box where it’s appropriate, and I’m excited to see what they’ll bring next - especially against Crack Shipping.

Dauntless
1x Close-Range Conquest
- Interesting asymmetric Conquest build, with Aegis/Devastator/Pulse Laser on the PD side, and Phase Lance/Storm Needler/Hellbore on the attacking side, with flaks in the mediums. Sabots and Locusts for missiles, and maxed vents plus Flux Distributor for sustained firepower - I’m pretty sure it’s flux-neutral or better without the PD firing. Ultimately I don’t think this has the range, even with ITU, that a Conquest really wants! It’s built to maneuvering jets into range and brawl with another capital or shoot down a cruiser, which is a risky position for a Conquest to be in.

2x Mixed Interceptor Heron
- Wasps, Gladiiiiii, and Falxes. Interesting and slightly dubious picks on a Heron, which has a great system for bombers - though this is what Gladiuses are allegedly designed for, bulking up a Wasp group with some hard flux and a pair of decoy flares, and the Falxes should do well in that role as well. Besides that it has a Heavy Burst Laser, a ring of LRPD, and a regular burst PD opposite the heavy burst for 360 degree torpedo protection, along with ITU.

2x LR Beam Sunder
- Standard beam Sunder loadout here, with a HIL, 2 Gravs, Harpoons for long-range kill power, ITU, AO, LMGs on the front for PD and in case something gets close, and a Vulcan on the back for pure defense. Maxed vents makes it flux-neutral with shields down, which is nice for a beam Sunder provided it has a solid frontline to hide behind, and it has room for 11 caps as well for a little more survivability or firing time with shields up.

4x Arbalest Ion Cannonhead
- I really like this Hammerhead loadout! Arbalests are great midrange all-purpose guns, with 150 kinetic damage per shot making them effective against light armor as well as shields. It has Dual Light ACs on the front turrets, Ion Cannons on the rear for fighter spinout and arc EMP support once shields are down, a pair of reapers - again, for once shields are down, ITU to get those midrange guns up a bit, maxed vents, and... Gunnery Control AI? Not sure about that last one, as Arbalests and Dual ACs are fairly accurate, it seems like a bit of a holdover from a build with Heavy Mortars. Still, this is an interesting and innovative Hammerhead IMO. No PD, but with two Targeting Feed interceptor carriers in the fleet that’ll be alright as long as they win fighter superiority.

1x Ion Beam Wolf
- Standard AO/EMR Ion Beam and Harpoon Wolf here, with a missing middle small energy and Advanced Turret Gyros for... just a pair of PD lasers. Hmm. I’d swap that hullmod for a tac laser or LRPD, but besides that this is just, yeah, how you build an Ion Beam Wolf.

1x Mascot Hound
- Dauntless loves hounds, which is why this one is here and named after them. It’s pretty good, too, with UI for extreme speed, survivability hullmods to minimize its lack of a shield, and a Contender and Arbalest combo to crack light armor and harass shields. It’s still not a good buy at 3 whole DP for a shieldless frigate, but Dauntless had to bring one and this was an alright one to bring.

This is an alright fleet, with one glaring weakness - its maximum range is about 1100-1200 across the fleet, and its only fast attackers are the interceptor squadrons aboard its two Herons, leaving it extremely vulnerable to long-range kiting fleets that can win the fighter war.

Unfortunately for Dauntless, that’s exactly what Crack Shipping had, in a full complement of RD interceptors and a wing of beam kiting Circes. Effectively, Dauntless’s first match was decided before it could start. The fleet’s second showing in the lower bracket saw it give up even more range by trading its beam Sunders for an inexplicably underarmed bracket build of 1x Autopulse and 2x Ion Pulser, with no SO to even out the ranges or give it the speed it needed, and its interceptor Herons for mixed-bag Cobra/Khopesh/Broadsword loadouts which only emphasized its lack of ability to pin down targets and let EternalSoldat’s fleet steal a win out from under it.

Dizzy
1x Bracket Build Odyssey
- HIL/Tachyon combo on the left hook, Locust on the right, Sabot pods, PD, some IR Pulses on the left side to backup the long-range beams in close combat, and a lone Ion Cannon on the nose. A single Wasp for extra PD rounds it out, with the other 6 fighters in the fleet’s complement living on Vortices further down the list. It also has EMR, RFC, and ITU - notably lacking AO for those beams, since it wants to live closer to midrange than permanently out of reach - and only 22 vents, which should be better than flux-neutral when only firing its beams but sits at 1200/1800 with everything going and allows it to take 30 caps for some more staying power when it closes. This is a pretty cool build, honestly - one of the only bracket builds I’ve ever seen and liked. This is an Odyssey that wants to sit back and pressure with its beams, then jet in for a Sabot launch and an IR-pulse-aided kill or back out again to finish them with the Tach and HIL before venting quickly and doing it again. The only thing I’m not sure of is the nose Ion - the Tach Lance provides more than enough arcing EMP, in my opinion, but whatever.

5x Arachnes, with different but similar loadouts
- Alright, we’ve got a pentuple helping of extreme-range destroyers here to back up that Odyssey - all with Ion Beams in the turret, but one has a Lightning Gun for extra max-range hard flux and EMP support, and the last 4 are split 2/2 with Heavy Blasters and Heavy Ion Blasters on the front hardpoints for 1100/1200 range strike power, big hard flux, and on the Ion Blaster ones, extreme arcing EMP potential.

3x Khopesh Vortices
- EDC, 2 Khopesh wings, and an ECCM’d Harpoon Pod. Tac laser, 2 LRPD, and a single IR Pulse that looks a bit lost but can provide some hard flux against light targets, I suppose. This is a solid light strike carrier, though I think Vortices are a little overcosted when compared to a Drover at 2 more DP and thus less competitive. Fits the theme better though, as this fleet is all High Tech.

3x Fast Support Tank Omens
- A very solid Omen build, with Hardened Shields and Subsystems, maxed caps, and UI for speed. This one trades the Reaper/AMB combo on mine for a Tac Laser, Salamander, and rear-facing PD laser which is a little surplus to requirements. Overall still a very, very good Omen, though I would have cut the PD laser for... something, probably RFC.

Dizzy talked a big game before the tournament, and looking at this it was warranted. This is a very solid fleet, that should perform well against most enemies. Unfortunately, it does lack a little in anti-fighter - and anti-swarm in general - power, as the Arachnes are slow and only 3 Omens isn’t quite enough to split and kite an opponent who fully committed to swarming. It also lacks heavy armor-cracking ability, with Khopesh rockets its only real HE and no Plasma or Harpoons, though it does have Heavy/Heavy Ion Blasters on the Arachnes.

However, it was up against SouP’s SO Enforcer Death Circus in its first round, and the Arachnes were rushed down while the Odyssey was circled and eaten alive by Plasma Flamers and Pulse Lasers once its shields were down. An unlucky matchup, but I expect it to do well in the lower bracket.

TheWikiFish
1x Longbow Only Astral
- 6 Longbows! 2 EMR’d Locusts! One Ion Beam and no other weapons! ECM, not ECCM! Maxed vents and 5 caps for Recall spam! Wiki, I love you, but I have no idea what this Astral is doing - it makes sense if you were flying a ship yourself to protect it, but this is entirely helpless if something gets close to it. 6 Longbows is a bold move, to be honest, as they have their own PD and Sabots can be devastating in quantity, but I would still have gone for 3 and 3 conventional bombers. This Astral makes me think, but it doesn’t make me think very long or hard.

2x Typhoon/Sabot Strike Buffalo Mk.II
- Another novel but decidedly confusing and confused variant. This Buffalo has weapons like it wants to be in close range, but it’s a Buffalo, so it decidedly... does NOT want to be in close range. It also has ECM instead of ECCM, and I’m still not sure that wasn’t a mistake.

3x Spinny Monitor
- Monitors with a hole in the back! Accelerated Shields, Aux Thrusters to let them turn, and a single Contender to punish overeager strike frigates is pretty cool though.

4x Brawling Reaper Lasher
- Hardened Shields, max caps, and Flux Coil Adjunct on a Lasher is clever, as is the LMGs-on-hardpoints-Vulcan-on-the-front-1-LDMG-on-the-back-with-a-Contender layout. This is a silly Lasher but I think it could actually work, unlike some of the other variants in this fleet. I would probably have put EMR and SO on it, but I put SO on everything. It’s also flux-neutral with shields up. Huh.

2x Punisher
- I just don’t know what to make of these Punishers. Aux Thrusters to spin their narrow shield and frontal firepower which is smart, Heavy Mauler/Heavy AC combo with the reverse of the range difference you usually want (it has HE longer than Kinetic, rather than shorter), a ring of Reliants, and a Proximity Charge launcher on the central composite rather than something offensive. I honestly don’t know what this Punisher was built to do, nor do I think it does anything particularly well.

1x Sabot/Hammer Barrage Gryphon
- Ah! Finally a loadout I understand. This Gryphon has an HVD for sustained kinetic/EMP pressure, two Sabot pods AND two racks, a single rack of Ion Torpedoes for extra EMP strike, a Hammer Barrage for frontal strike power, maxed caps, and more than enough vents to cover its flux buildup even with shields up. This is a solid strike Gryphon, though I would have cut those vents in favor of ITU for the HVD or even some small PD on the back. It also has actual ECCM, not ECM, which only confuses me more - since it means the other ships having ECM instead wasn’t just a typo or misclick.

1x Annoying Vigilance
- Grav beam, Salamander pod, max caps - all good so far - and ECM instead of ECCM on a missile ship again. A good annoying Vigilance.

1x Reaper Kite
- A Reaper Kite left wanting, for lack of EMR. Maxed caps and Aux Thrusters to stunt on artillery ships, though!

I’m going to be blunt: I don’t understand this fleet, and I don’t like things I don’t understand. It’s like we all built fleets for the tournament, and Wiki built a fleet to fight off the alien invasion of c.266 that plays by entirely different rules! Or more likely I suppose, it’s a showcase for some weird and interesting builds that just don’t... quite... work.

12
Mods / [0.9.1a] thgualsnO bounty for Vayra's Sector
« on: August 29, 2019, 10:25:00 PM »

Download now!

DOES NOTHING WITHOUT VAYRA'S SECTOR. GET IT HERE


So what's in the mod?
  • A working example of how to implement a custom ship as a unique bounty minimod for use with Vayra's Sector
  • A ridiculous meme reverse onslaught

Why did you make this incredibly stupid thing?
maybe you have a great idea for a unique bounty but your work would never live up to the standard required for integration into a certain well-known content pack. well now's your chance my friend. your infinite missile phase teleporting paragon can have its own special bounty with custom text and Vayra's Sector will make it happen. the world is your oyster. this mod will show you how.

This mod is considered "public domain" as far as Starsector mods go, and you can use it or its parts for whatever you want within the bounds of Starsector modding.

Changelog: (note: changelog is updated "live", thus the topmost entry will usually be WIP/unreleased. The latest release will always be the one linked to from the OP.)
Spoiler
?.?.? what ever version i put in the mod_info
- make'd the thing
[close]

13
Mods / [0.95a] Vayra's Ship Pack 1.2.3 - less ruined ruin 2021-03-26
« on: August 14, 2019, 09:08:21 PM »

Download now!

Or click here for the last 0.9.1a version.
REQUIRES LAZYLIB. GET IT HERE
WARNING: This mod contains foul language, cuss words, anarcho-communist propaganda, dubious game design choices, amateur-at-best art, incoherent java scripts, and updating it WILL break your saves!


User Testimonials

So what's in the mod?
  • New starting options when used with Vayra's Sector, including a starting option aligned with the independents/Persean League
  • A number of new ships and weapons, mostly focused on Low Tech and "Mining Tech" as well as several for the Luddic factions

Show Me the Ships
Spoiler
Frigates

Hail-class Light Pinnace - A high tech light combat craft with incredible speed but only very light armament. Sometimes also seen in pirate hands with the more advanced systems replaced by cheaper alternatives.
Rock Hound class Utility Frigate - A refit of the ubiquitous Hound for mining and salvage duty, with a salvage gantry, energy weapon-capable mounts, and improved flux handling at the cost of some speed and armor.
Greyhound-class Frigate - Another Hound refit, this time for combat duty. Trades cargo space for a little more punch in a fight, but no more survivability.
Razorback-class Heavy Gunship - A jury-rigged fire support ship, with big guns, weak engines, and no shield.
Bruiser-class Heavy Frigate - A Mastery-era predecessor to the Brawler-class gunship, slow and menacing for a frigate. Also seen in CGR - and terrifyingly, Luddic Path - livery.
Hatchetman-class Cutter - A fast attack frigate design long since fallen out of favor, but still threatening enough on the battlefield. Occasionally found, heavily modified, in the hands of Pather militants.

Destroyers

Badger-class Heavy Tender - A deep-space miner's best friend, the Badger has capacious holds, heavy armor, a respectable complement of special-purpose mining drones, and a built-in salvage gantry. Not intended for heavy combat use, but more than capable of giving the odd pirate or two a bloody nose - a reason why the odd Badger can also be found in the hands of pirates, often modified to act as a fire support vessel.
Intimidator-class Destroyer - Built during the Mastery epoch to provide interceptor cover for Enforcers, the Intimidator mounts a single full-scale fighter bay as well as a centrally located medium gun or missile pod. Also found in the fleets - and telltale green paint - of the Church of Galactic Redemption.
Persecutor-class Destroyer - A powerful - and quick - combat destroyer later replaced in Domain Armada formations by the Hammerhead, the Persecutor is still a credible threat to most other ships it might face. A rare few examples of the class have also found their way into Pather hands, a terrifying notion for freighter and patrol captains across the sector.
Dire Wolf class Destroyer - Marrying a relatively heavy weapons loadout with phase skimming agility and a distinctly underpowered flux core, the Dire Wolf is in every way a Wolf-class frigate writ large.
Tarsus Ultra class Destroyer - A hasty combat conversion of the venerable Tarsus-class freighter into a slow but well-armed destroyer with potent broadsides.
Henchman-class Troopship - Trading raw troop capacity for heavier armor and PD-capable radial weapon mounts, the Henchman offers a safer alternative to the standard Valkyrie for admirals seeking an infantry carrier that can also hold its own on the battlefield.

Cruisers

Subjugator-class Fast Cruiser - Designed in the late Mastery era with lessons learned from the Onslaught, the Subjugator packs moderate weapons capacity into a hull capable of short-term bursts of forward speed. Also found, thankfully infrequently, in the "crusade" fleets of the Luddic Path.
Oppressor-class Cruiser - A line and support cruiser originally meant to back up heavier Dominators and more agile Subjugators with fighter cover and defensively focused armament. Well-liked by the Luddic Church, who often field these craft in their trademark verdant green.
Typhon-class Heavy Cruiser - A lumbering High Tech behemoth designed by the same school that created the Paragon, the Typhon is capable of focusing a deadly quantity of directed energy weapons on a given target. Sensor drones give it additional reach to make up for its ponderous combat speed.

Capitals

Tyrant-class Fast Battleship - A terrifyingly fast capital, which never reached quite the same popularity as the heavier Onslaught and Legion-class staples of the early Domain Armada thanks to its somewhat lighter armament and fighter complement. Nonetheless, there are not many ships that captains across the sector would less like to see rushing toward them on the back of an all-engines micro burn. Rumors that some of these vessels have fallen into the hands of the extremist Luddic Path are surely exaggerated - or so one would hope.
[close]

This mod is compatible with utilities, faction mods, ship/weapon packs, Nexerelin, and other non-Total Conversion content mods, and does not require Vayra's Sector, though it does integrate with Vayra's Sector to add additional content when enabled alongside it.

Comments and constructive criticism encouraged.

If you enjoy my content, please consider supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon!


Changelog: (note: changelog is updated "live", thus the topmost entry will usually be WIP/unreleased. The latest release will always be the one linked to from the OP.)
Spoiler
1.3.0 - UNRELEASED
- Most sprites updated (thanks Gwen!)
- fixed Typhon glow persisting through death FOR REAL THIS TIME I TESTED IT
- updated starsector version number (twice!)
- buffed Hardwired Mining Laser weapons (flux efficiency)
- switched Battlement missile autoforge to the reduced-effectiveness version from the Bear
- added auto_rec tags to derelicts
- Badger (P) OP budget 60 -> 70
- added descriptions to fighter weapons
- added Arrow-class Light Multirole Bomber
- increased Tyrant HP and Armor to 16000/1400
- added Rugged Construction to Hound variants, Spade, Groundhog, Badger, and Domain droneships
- added Ballistic Rangefinders to Bruiser and Persecutor

1.2.3
- fixed crash from Ruin terminator core tooltip

1.2.2
- 0.95a compatibility
- i think i snuck a razorback nerf in there too, sorry

1.2.1
- ship nerfs (sorry)  :'(
- lowered Groundhog and Rock Hound spawn weight
- lowered Pathfinder and Bear OP by 15 each, worsened shield upkeep by 0.1 each, removed 1 fighter bay from each, lowered flux capacity by 1000 each, lowered Pathfinder dissipation by 200
- swapped Pioneer built-in wing to Mining Platforms
- lowered Seer speed to 60
- increased Clairvoyant speed to 70
- resprited Huntress-class light destroyer
- added Castellum-class Explorarium drone bomber and Ditch-class Explorarium drone interceptor

1.2.0
- added Bear-class heavy platform (mining tech)
- added Pioneer-class salvage cruiser (mining tech)
- added Clairvoyant-class combat carrier (high tech)
- added Exemplar-class heavy destroyer (high tech)
- added Seer-class support carrier (high tech)
- lowered Short-Circuit Driver OP cost to 10 (was 11)
- fixed Typhon glow still appearing after death
- Replaced Pathfinder's built-in Guardian PD with LR Mining Lance Array - more flux-efficient and longer range, otherwise identical except for aesthetics
- set all .variant files to goalVariant: true, without looking at them
- added maximumFleetFP to all HVBs
- fixed .version file hosting (moved to github)

1.1.4
- added Pathfinder expedition battlecruiser

1.1.3
- added Spade Mk.II and Mk.II (LP)
- added two and a half new derelicts
- added Swordsman midline heavy frigate and Huntress midline light destroyer
- added Pinnacle high tech heavy frigate
- fixed bug where LR Mining Pods would not fire mining lances

1.1.2
- added spade-class light rig
- hammer pod cut from 10 -> 8 ammo (sorry)
- Subjugator DP 16 -> 17 (sorry)
- added two new derelicts (sorry)
- BLOOD DOG
- fortress DP up
(a) - fixed bug where mod would crash without Vayra's Sector
(b) - fixed bug where above fix broke saves
(c) - fixed bug where above fix undid fix (a)

1.1.1
- Hail DP 4 -> 3
- Subjugator DP and supply costs 18 -> 16, armor 1k -> 850, dissipation 350 -> 300, flux cap 7000 -> 7500
- Dire Wolf flux capacity 4500 -> 5500, speed 100 -> 115
- Oppressor dissipation 400 -> 425
- Razorback DP and supply costs 4 -> 5
- Ion Scatterer arc chance 75% -> 25%

1.1.0
- Colossus Mk.XIV OP 65 -> 75, variant adjusted to compensate
- Hatchetman DP/supplies to recover increased from 4 to 5
- Subjugator DP/supplies to recover increased from 15 to 18
- Typhon DP/supplies to recover decreased from 35 to 32, flux capacity increased from 13000 to 14000
- Badger and Badger Mk.II fuel capacity increased by 10
- Pirate Defense Pods given an additional weapon
- Hammer Carrier Kamikaze Wing reloads both drones at once now - no additional reload time added
- added Groundhog-class Heavy Frigate
- added Prairie Dog class Prospector
- added Survey Drone Auxiliary wing
- added Battleaxe Escort Gunship wing
- buffed Independent Miner start for Vayra's Sector
- new Henchman sprite (thanks, J0hn Shm0)
- new Azores sprite (thanks, J0hn Shm0)
- Solon Blaster reworked
- fixed recalcitrant memory leak bug (thanks Alex!)
- broadside TPC turret graphic sent home to Vayra's Sector
- Kingfisher added to default_ship_roles
- Warlord boosted to 50 DP (TOURNAMENT BALANCE PATCH 2K19)

1.0.5
- Mining Lance buffed
- Tarsus Ultra buffed/tweaked (base stats closer to Tarsus, supply and credit costs reduced, now has built-in Heavy Armor)
- fixed Short-Circuit Driver

1.0.4
- added Kingfisher-class Combat Shuttle
- added Warlord-class Battleship unique bounty (spawns c.210 or later for high level players with large fleets who are neutral at worst with the Sindrian Diktat)
- fixed bug with Looted TPC hullmod crashing entire game (for real this time)
- broke Short-Circuit Driver

1.0.3
- fixed bug with Looted TPC hullmod crashing market-related console commands (hopefully)
- added Short-Circuit Driver and Precision Mortar ballistic weapons

1.0.2
- fixed Very Converted Cargo Bays description params
- nerfed Bruiser (LP) into an early grave, where it belongs (it's still scary)
- removed the reference to "vayra_mining_house", which does not exist and has never existed, from cabal faction file, replacing it with "vayra_mining_hound" to prevent them from spawning Rock Hounds as intended

1.0.1
- split the damn mod into three separate mods god DAMN it
[close]

14
Mods / [0.9.1a] Vayra's Sector 3.2.1 - D&DSECTOR 2021-03-25
« on: August 14, 2019, 09:05:30 PM »

Download now!

REQUIRES LAZYLIB. GET IT HERE
Note: Edit "VAYRA_SETTINGS.ini" in the mod directory to toggle options.
WARNING: This mod contains foul language, cuss words, anarcho-communist propaganda, dubious game design choices, amateur-at-best art, incoherent java scripts, and updating it WILL break your saves!


User Testimonials

So what's in the mod?
Vayra's Sector is a "megamod" which changes, adds, or replaces several core campaign-level gameplay mechanics, most of which are easily extensible by other mods for additional content.
  • More D-mods to ruin the lives of degenerate scavengers like you
  • New starting options when used without Nexerelin, including Pirate and Luddic Path starts, plus more when combined with Kadur Remnant and/or Vayra's Ship Pack
  • Minor changes to vanilla faction doctrine: The Luddic Church will prefer an equal proportion of carriers to warships, and the Hegemony will prefer low-tech standbys like Enforcers, Dominators, and Onslaughts
  • Optionally: A new and improved bounty manager with faction-aligned bounty targets, rare flagships, more background information, and other features
  • Optionally: A separate manager for unique, story-driven bounties that don't expire
  • Optionally: A system for established factions to put out bounties on the player's head when their crimes become truly egregious
  • Optionally: Competing upstart colonial factions out for their slice of the galaxy
  • Optionally: A fix to prevent Pirate, Luddic Path, and Kadur raider bases from spawning once their parent faction is entirely destroyed
  • Optionally: A system to implement semi-procgen implementation of factions and hidden entities
  • Optionally: New and exciting outcomes for distress call events in deep hyperspace
Note: The above options will be 'ON' by default -- you can turn them off or adjust them in VAYRA_SETTINGS.ini

The mod also adds several mod frameworks -- easily extensible by other mods for simple addition of features:
  • A framework for mods to add their own easy campaign implementation, for a faction, mini-faction, or exploration content
  • A framework for mods to add their own unique, non-expiring bounties with narrative descriptions
  • A framework for mods to add more bounty backgrounds and rare bounty flagships
  • A framework for mods to add their own colonial mini-factions
  • A framework for mods to add their own raider bases with special options
  • A framework for mods to add their own distress call events with a common manager to prevent spam and overlap
  • A framework for mods to add their own exploration content "listening post" objects with simple loredumps
  • A whitelist for mods to enable their factions for posting player-targeted bounties

Integration Details for Modders
Spoiler
Bounties
- All bounty config files are located in <moddirectory>/data/config/vayraBounties/ and will merge if you include the same directory and filename in your mod.
- Description strings for regular bounties are read from bounty_strings.json. Bounty strings are selected entirely randomly, and are a good way to add some color to the sector as well as give possible reasons for why, exactly, a faction might want this specific bounty target dead.
- Rare flagships for regular bounties are read from rare_flagships.csv. Rare Flagships are an excellent way to implement a ship that should only be available rarely but is not quite unique, or give a particular faction rare access to a ship they would not normally have (e.g., the Medusa as a rare flagship for pirate and independent bounties).
- Factions are whitelisted as capable of posting (and hunting) player-targeted bounties in player_bounty_factions.csv. This is required if you want your mod factions to be capable of posting bounties on the player and spawning bounty hunters to hunt them.
- High-Value Bounties are defined in unique_bounty_data.csv. High-Value Bounties are a good way to implement unique ships available once only, and inject a little extra story into the campaign as they support entirely custom intel text.
- If you want an example of a High-Value Bounty minimod, I have created the thgualsnO bounty mod as a template for the 'minimum viable implementation'. Note that this does not use some newer features, so also check out the "core" .csv file in Vayra's Sector if you're interested in more elaborate things such as prerequisite bounties, special item rewards, et cetera!
- You can test your HVBs with the list HVBs and ForceHVB <bounty_id> Console Commands, assuming you have the Console Commands mod enabled

Colony Factions
- All colony faction config files are located in <moddirectory>/data/config/vayraBounties/ and will merge if you include the same directory and filename in your mod.
- Colony factions are loaded in colony_factions.csv and defined in a .json file with the same filename as their faction id and line id in colony_factions.csv. Colony factions are a good way to implement a faction in a limited context, without having to devise an entire campaign implementation and handmade star system(s) and/or market(s).
Ships/skins can be added to colony factions and auto-assigned faction hullmods using the following tags:
- Rimward Venture Trading Company - faction tag: mercantile - hullmod tag: vayra_merchant_marine
- Ashen Keepers - faction tags: ashen and ashen_rare - hullmod tag: vayra_ashen_bulwark
- Persean Democratic People's Revolutionary Concil - faction tag: revolutionary - hullmod tag: vayra_red_army
- Independent AI Research Mandate - faction tags: science or science_post_ai - hullmod tag: vayra_science_hull
- Stormhawk Republic - faction tag: warhawk - hullmod tag: vayra_warhawk_modular

Procgen Entities
- All procgen entity config files are located in <moddirectory>/data/config/vayraProcgenEntities/ and will merge if you include the same directory and filename in your mod.
- Listening posts are defined in lore_objects.csv. Listening posts are a super-simple, extremely easy way to add some additional flavor and background to your mod.
- Procgen entities are loaded in entities.csv and defined in a .json file with the same filename as their line id in entities.csv. Procgen entities are a great way to implement exploration content, factions or mini-factions, without having to devise an entire campaign implementation and handmade star system(s) and/or market(s).

Raider Bases
- All raider base config files are located in <moddirectory>/data/config/vayraRaiders/ and will merge if you include the same directory and filename in your mod.
- Factions to spawn raider bases are loaded in raider_factions.csv and defined in a .json file with the same filename as their faction id and line id in in raider_factions.csv. Raider bases are a good way to bother and annoy players while adding a little extra flavor to a faction or mini-faction.
[close]

This mod is compatible with utilities, faction mods, ship/weapon packs, Nexerelin, and other non-Total Conversion content mods.
It does, however, make one notable modification to vanilla which may cause incompatibilities with other mods in the future:
  • Replaces (removes from Sector and adds its own new classes) PersonBountyManager and PersonBountyIntel

Comments and constructive criticism encouraged.

If you enjoy my content, please consider supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon!


Changelog: (note: changelog is updated "live", thus the topmost entry will usually be WIP/unreleased. The latest release will always be the one linked to from the OP.)
Spoiler
3.2.1
- HVBs now have more robust logging for data errors - check your logs if your HVB isn't working
- added the new colony factions skins to their nexerelin starts
- Venture (MM) no longer has a universal slot
- buffed Kashtan Scattergun range to 300, from 200
- science_fuckers will now use AI cores sold on their markets. they haven't figured out how to use ones you donate... yet
- you can play a procedurally generated tabletop RPG in bars now
- improved bounty hideout location picking - less likely to 'stack up' in the same system/around the same planet
- improved bounty target picking - now more likely to pick eligible bounty target factions it hasn't picked in a while
- stars with no planets will now have one barren planet (this assists with reducing bounty stacking)

3.2.0
- deleted RaiderNonEventFleets entirely 8)
- added even more error handling to HVB system - malformed rows (THANKS SOZZER :argh:) will no longer crash the system and cause bounties after them to not load
- added Manifesto Nexerelin start
- notable Persean League subfactions will now spawn diverse fleets to defend their homes, including two new skins
- finally fixed bug where HVBs don't actually autorecover (thanks nicke)
- finally fixed bug where player-targeted bounties scaled unintentionally way above what they were supposed to
- also set the default FP scaling to 1.1 from 1.2
- also fixed the bug where they cared more about war deaths than war crimes
- tweaked some other settings
- set Blessed Reach spawn to default to FALSE
- L'Interstellaire will spawn in a random system instead of hyperspace now
- added a number of skins for the Rimward Venture Trading Company and Stormhawk Republic (thanks Alfonzo)
- fixed bug where sometimes Stormhawk ships would cause all fighters of a given spec to refit instantly, forever, which somehow nobody told me about until right now
- the new behavior for Stormhawk Modular Engineering is a flat 20% buff to fighter replacement rate
- fixed bug where the Ascendancy would sell [REDACTED] materiel if they Ascended before having any colonies (possible in Nexerelin)
- added really good music - no, actually, it's really good, this isn't a meme - to PDPRC as neutral/friendly theme, by Samuel Choi (https://www.hanawub.com/)
- added ForceHVB <bounty_id> Console Command
- added list HVBs Console Command
- added getBountyFaction(), getPostingFaction(), getPerson(), getFleet(), and getFlagship() methods to VayraPersonBountyIntel and VayraUniqueBountyIntel
- added maximumFleetFP field to unique_bounty_data.csv - optional field, defaults to Integer.MAX_INT
- fixed Galleon variant (assigned unspent OP, fixed weapon groups)
- set all .variant files to goalVariant: true, without looking at them. you may notice a slight itching sensation
- fixed .version file hosting (moved to github)

3.1.5
- added loredump "Listening Post" object framework
- increased colonial expedition pick weight for low-hazard worlds
- fixed Flying Dutchman haunting your fps counter, cpu cycles, and starsector.log
- i can feel the communism overtaking me

3.1.4
- actually fixed crash bug in nonevent fleet thingy for real this time

3.1.3
- fixed thingy where new old portraits overrode some vanilla portraits
- added some logging and a null check to nonevent fleet handler

3.1.2
- buncha new portraits
- toned down nonevent raid fleets from raider bases
- finally fixed double bounty advance bug (thanks histidine)
- added nex diplomacy traits to colony factions
- raider factions will no longer target markets they are not hostile with
- further improvements to unique bounty error handling (check the log if yours aren't working!)
- player is no longer forced to fight unique bounties after talking to them, if nonhostile with bounty faction
- added nanite bug spray, out on the fringes (check research stations)
- new pirate HVB and custom non-Nexerelin start

3.1.1
- some cleanup on ghost ship effects

3.1.0
- fixed issue where colony faction colonies would never be removed from the "to remove" list, and ran the "colony changing owner to noncolony faction" script... every frame
- added IBB-style forced recovery of High-Value Bounties
- added chanceToAutoRecover value for High-Value Bounties
- added some more error handling to Unique Bounty system - check the log if your bounties aren't spawning!
- added null variant handling for non-flag variants to Unique Bounty system - will log a WARN line and skip variants if not found, for preset non-flag variants
- - YES this means you can use other mods' variants in the preset fleet section now :pandaDevil:
- upped perLevel bounty reward scaling to 1.5x (was 1.2x)
- added hook to player-targeted bounties to display bounties posted on you by delivery mission givers and tri-tachyon loan sharks
- added ghost ships
- added some excellent artwork courtesy of Chloe Kesshoo (https://chloe-kesshoo.jimdo.com/) and JamieSue Heise (https://inkypuppy.wordpress.com/)
- added more D-mods
- replaced Corvid Crow portrait (thanks Mendonca)
- fixed issue where [REDACTED] faction icon would disappear sometimes when loading save
- set [REDACTED] to check colonies that it did not create itself (i.e. starting, gifted, or conquered colonies in Nexerelin) for... things
- fixed tricksy treasure memory leak bug (thanks Alex!)
- halved player-targeted bounty fleet scaling

3.0.4
- moved colony faction blueprints over from Kadur Remnant, where they definitely did not belong
- fixed PDPRC faction hullmod, for real this time
- reduced colony "special" chance from 25% to 10%
- set Blessed Reach back to hidden, which should prevent constant delivery missions
- hardcoded unique bounty spawn chance per month to 10%, which should fix error where rolls would always fail after updating mods on an existing save
- dropped Pegasus OP cost to 20, tweaked Galleon and Gemini (MM) variants to compensate
- fixed bounty spawner ignoring non-planet-attached stations when picking bounty hideouts
- fixed crash with Rimward Venture treasure fleets missing intel icon FOR REAL THIS TIME
- fixed several issues with variables not being saved/reloaded properly due to 'static' mismatch

3.0.3
- L'Interstellaire will now properly decivilize when saturation bombed
- fixed bug where personal bounties would not pick valid hideouts
- added setting for bounty duration

3.0.2
- adjusted colony faction hullmod fixer script to recognize tags
- added mod integration help to forum OP
- set colony factions to noHomeworld and !enabledByDefault in Nexerelin random sector
- fixed several little bugs with colony system, especially Independent AI Research Mandate
- added wreck functionality to procgenEntity framework
- fixed crash with Rimward Venture treasure fleets missing intel icon (wasn't defined in settings.json, d'oh)

3.0.1
- split the damn mod into three separate mods god DAMN it
[close]

15
Lore, Fan Media & Fiction / n/t
« on: July 31, 2019, 06:30:48 PM »
"I have no particular love for the idealized “Omega” as she appears in the bourgeois Corporatist’s mind, but when I see an actual positrons-and-quantum-particles Alpha Core in conflict with her natural enemy, the Hegemony Inspection Fleet, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on." - Orwell Dickerson, c.206

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