Totally wiped out, no chance of hidden caches or fleets? I have a fondness for the Coalition and Lyseti factions.
They will both have some ships left in existence, however, they are very few in number, provided Thiiei didn't co-opt their designs for itself. Some Coalition ships will be returning, like the Niathus, the Carrier, and perhaps another frigate or two. Not sure about the K.T.A. stuff yet--I might leave a few ships laying around for lulz, or I might not. Really, it depends on whether or not there are gaps to fill in between the modern ships. Lore wise, yeah, most of these ships are still going to be around in some capacity or another, it's only been a few decades.
Are 'Ascendency' and 'Dominion' separate mods?
Yes. I just haven't made a new thread for Dominion because there isn't much content to show, and it certainly won't be playable any time soon. Once I finish the intro video, I'll post the thread for it, but that might not be until next year.
Ascendency is pretty much done, though--it'll be updated with relevant stuff as Starfarer progresses, but content-wise, it's got all that I wanted originally. Once multiple systems are introduced, I'll open up the rest of the Eskel system to the player.
- If Starfarer develops in a manner where you can set up events to occur(Dominion invasion and takeover in this case) at certain points in time, would you consider making a Ascendency mod that shifts into Dominion?
That's actually a pretty interesting idea, but lore-wise, it wouldn't really work out--there's a ~25 year period of peace after the war, and the player really wouldn't have anything to do during the transition from conflict to conflict. However, this is just my observation at the moment--if modding capabilities eventually make this possible in an acceptable way, I'll definitely consider doing it.