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[Inventor Raccoon]

Secrets of the Frontier a work-in-progress mod that aims to contain both campaign-level content and campaign-level features,
along with connected combat-level features. When fully released, it will contain a significant number of handmade quests.

A prerelease intended for testing is available to download. It doesn't have any quests, but does contain some of the
more general features. It's spoiler-free, in case you're wondering about that sort of thing. It's effectively a mini-mod
that won't have too much of an impact on your campaign.

Click the big banner to download. Requires LazyLib.

If you find any bugs, do mention them to me!

All campaign content in my other mod, Arsenal Expansion, will be removed in a companion update along with this mod's full
release, and much of it will appear in Secrets of the Frontier.

Secrets of the Frontier is currently my main modding focus but despite that, a release is most likely very far off. Teasers
may end up posted here.


Modules
Secrets of the Frontier will, on release, be split into several modules that will come as one package and be individually turned on and off. Here's the current list:
Prerelease:
Tactical Expansion: Enhances the combat layer of the game.
-Adds two new objective types, the Defensive Emplacement (a stationary emplacement that attacks the enemies of the objective holder)
and the Hyperwave Transmitter (which reinforces its owner with an endless but weak supply of droneships), alongside their Remnant versions.

-Visual enhancements to battlefield backgrounds, including visible jump-points and multiple planets.

-Context-based battle generation. Some aspects of combat such as objectives change depending on where you're fighting.

Frontier Development: Adds a constructable orbital habitat to stable locations that grants a hazard reduction to in-system colonies.
-Can be upgraded into an outpost, which acts as a low-hazard colony but loses the hazard reduction and has a soft-cap on its growth.

Full release:
Watcher Beyond The Walls: A series of quests in the frontier. Make an unusual ally.

False Signals: Acts of trickery such as sensor ghosts.

Ko Combine: Establishes the Ko Combine as a one-planet faction and adds a one-off quest.

Screenshots - Spoiler Free
(the first three images are featured in the prerelease, the last two are not)

Spoiler

[close]

Screenshots - Spoilers
(however, they are VERY heavily censored, so chances are you won't get much out of them. Just to show that yes, there's stuff in the works)
(also some of these are old, and also subject to change. Nothing here is in the prerelease)

Spoiler

... and that's about enough. For more, wait until the mod releases... eventually.

[close]

Credits
- Alex, David and Stian, duh
- Inventor Racccoon (me), for everything not done by someone else mentioned here
- Dark.Revenant for some bits of the battle creation plugin for cosmetics and battlefield sizes
- Gwyvern for sprite work currently not featured in the prerelease.

[SCC]

Space stations are a nice stopgap between nothing and full fledged colonies. I wish the base game also did something like that.
The battle objectives are, in my opinion, the best part about this mod, mainly because they make passable and boring part of combat into meaningful and fun one! You can't really ignore objectives when they are shooting gauss slugs at you.

[Thaago]

This looks extremely nice!

How much of a pain was it to write the quests btw? I think there is a huge opportunity for them this version, but not many modders have released them yet.

[Inventor Raccoon]

This looks extremely nice!

How much of a pain was it to write the quests btw? I think there is a huge opportunity for them this version, but not many modders have released them yet.

All the potential is there, it's just that it's a bit tedious to do, which I think is what puts people off. Lots of rules.csv, java code and rigorous testing. It's getting a bit easier with experience, and I'm experimenting with more complicated quest design as I go (a good reason why this mod will not be released half-finished, excluding prereleases for general features)

[Sarissofoi]

Sounds promising.

[ActuallyUlysses]

Eagerly waiting for full release. Looks like something that will end up on my default mod list!

[Nostra]

This looks extremely nice!

How much of a pain was it to write the quests btw? I think there is a huge opportunity for them this version, but not many modders have released them yet.

All the potential is there, it's just that it's a bit tedious to do, which I think is what puts people off. Lots of rules.csv, java code and rigorous testing. It's getting a bit easier with experience, and I'm experimenting with more complicated quest design as I go (a good reason why this mod will not be released half-finished, excluding prereleases for general features)

I saw that there is a mission editor on the forums, does that not make it easy to add new quests?

I noticed the lack of missions in the mod section and thought that that might be something I could contribute, would you be up for a collaboration? I got the impression that you intend to add more than a few missions with this mod and I'd love to help with that.

[Hrothgar]

I have question about Frontier missions. We know one "Promise", but 3 others are new or were incorporated in other mods?

[SCC]

These quests aren't publicly released yet, as Secrets of the Frontier is just a test of mechanics. Promise is included in current version of Arsenal Expansion and it will be changed only after Secrets of the Frontier's proper content gets released.

[Inventor Raccoon]

I saw that there is a mission editor on the forums, does that not make it easy to add new quests?

The mission editor is for the missions you access via the main menu (the one-off battles). There was talk of a tool to help quest creation but as far as I'm aware nothing has been done on that, so everything is just made "by hand", so to speak.

I noticed the lack of missions in the mod section and thought that that might be something I could contribute, would you be up for a collaboration? I got the impression that you intend to add more than a few missions with this mod and I'd love to help with that.

I appreciate the sentiment but at the moment I'm not looking to collaborate on this mod except for small bits of code and for art.

[Inventor Raccoon]

Hi, everyone. Wow, it's been four months since I started this post. Progress on Secrets of the Frontier has been... well, slow. But here are some updates for people who don't see my dev progress on the Discord server:

• Secrets of the Frontier's second quest has been overhauled. Several regular fights have become one do-or-die moment - and importantly, it is a semi-scripted combat encounter that is unique to anything Starsector (or any other mod I've seen) offers - using a different set of rules and making use of once-off battle objectives to deliver a once-in-a-campaign fight. It's also incredibly punishing. I'm, uh, working on the balance. The current version has completely wiped most of my test fleets.
• I've updated the prerelease with improvements to battle objectives. Emplacement control points now disappear when the emplacement is destroyed, and reinforcement objectives now tell you if the timer is ticking, or if it's waiting for some fodder to die before starting again. You can download the new version through the banner in the main post. I also stripped out Forwardbase Phoenix, since I think it might be a bit obstructive, and it's been adequately tested.
• Changes in scope: Boarding actions against random derelicts will probably not be a general campaign feature. Scripted boarding sequences will absolutely still be a thing.
• Story. I added a "conversation" function to the intel menu, to talk with a certain character you can travel with. I have plans to include extra dialogue options based on what you've seen and done during your campaign - I should probably get on that next.
• When Is It Releasing? Most likely some time after the next Starsector update (so, uh, quite a while off) - there's stuff in there that I would really like to make use of (like the new raid systems, or Story Points) or see pan out (like all the wacky stuff on Alex's twitter), and I would much rather not release Secrets of the Frontier in a state that has to be overhauled within the year. Sorry for the wait.

I'm sure I've bored you to tears with that, so here's some images patched together from the new(ish) quest.
Spoilers. Kinda.

Spoiler

[close]

[Agalyon]

Just wanted to drop in and say everything looks really cool so far. I really enjoy the feeling and atmosphere of promise, and im happy to see some more scripted and handmade quests that really feel unique, like your description of the second one is shaping it up to be.

[ActuallyUlysses]

Will all features of this mod work when added to existing save?

[Inventor Raccoon]

The prerelease is savegame-compatible.

[Chewzie]

Is this\would this be compatible with Nexerelin?