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Modding / [0.95a-RC15] The Dalcassian League of Associated Planets v0.02

« on: October 20, 2022, 10:29:03 PM »

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Dependencies

Nexerelin [Developed using 0.10.5b]**

^{**Indirectly dependent on LazyLib and MagicLib through Nexerelin - as far as I know if the dl_ModPlugin.java is edited to remove the check for Nex, this mod will work without them.}

The Lore

The Dalcassian League of Associated Planets, or simply the Dalcassian League, is a relatively isolated pocket fiefdom in the Persean Sector. Largely contained in the Binary Dalcass system, the League as been able to avoid being incorporated by one of the larger factions through a combination of guile, diplomatic maneuvering and a sturdy military industrial complex. While there does exist a distinct aristocratic class, the day-to-day lives of the standard Dalcassian citizen are not that much different from that of a late 21st century one. There are poets, scientists, artists and warriors throughout the League. While the League itself is a fairly isolated political entity, its citizens can be found from Hybrasil all the way to Kazeron as independent mercenaries or private citizens.

Dalcassian warships are often heavily armoured and have an emphasis on staying power rather than mobility or firepower. Their emphasis on long range beam weaponry coupled with short to mid range ballistic multi-purpose guns and missile systems mean that while they do struggle against enemy shields, they excel at pulverizing enemy armor and incoming missiles and strikecraft. Larger Dalcassian vessels are often retrofitted to support small numbers of strikecraft - indeed during the early days of the League after the great Collapse, early encounters with both Hegemony and pirate incursions revealed a glaringly obvious lack of carrier capacity.

Dalcassian fleets adhere to what is called the 'Pike Wall' doctrine - battlegroups are normally built around a number of key capital ships with heavy escorts and lighter destroyers filling in the gaps. Mighty Ajax-class flagships provide long ranged fire in a front arc that is heavily coordinated to both pick apart enemy capital shipping while also breaking apart large formations of enemy vessels. Smaller vessels contribute to this directed fire or provide protection to the vulnerable flanks and rear. The Pike Wall is largely suited to the League's defensive nature and is a result of the many defensive fleet actions in the Dalcass system against would be attackers. While there is much that can be said about the flexibility of the Pike Wall, it has none-the-less kept the League as a fully autonomous faction.

The backbone of the League's successes, however, would be their signature "Humaniform-emulating Reactive Combat Units with Link-Automated ordiNance" - HERCULANs or HERCs for short. These fully articulated battle units are often piloted by the most skilled - or insane - Captains in the League Armada. Capable of a stunning amount of firepower and staying power in such a small, frigate-sized package, the League touts a wide arsenal of HERCs to fill out a variety of roles in the Dalcassian fleets. These vessels are more than capable of operating independently of carriers unlike conventional strike craft.

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The HERCS

^{Considered the father of all HERCULANs, the Stouthawk is a prototype Commander suit that never reached mass production. With its sturdy construction - necessary to withstand its impressive top speed and acceleration, the Stouthawk is capable of shifting a battle almost all on its own.}

^{One of the earliest mass produced general purpose HERCs, the Felis is widely considered to be the staple model against which all subsequent designs are tested against. Dependable performance and a wide variety of available armaments ensures the Felis remains a potent threat despite its growing age.}

^{The Arise is a mass produced general purpose HERC, designed to improve upon the Felis model in both firepower and maneuverability. Its network of vernier thrusters and modular weapon hardpoint systems boast a marked improvement over its predecessor.}

^{A high-performance machine designed as a space superiority HERCULAN, the Torus is noted for fighting at high speeds and performing incredible maneuvers. Capable of destroying vessels much greater than its own size due to its superior blend of speed and firepower, this HERC is a nightmare on the battlefield - often relegated to Special taskgroups and black operations.}

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The Ships

^{A quintessential part of Dalcassian fleet formations, the Weekend class' incredible missile capacity is only beaten by its mission flexibility. Used to fend off smaller enemy vessels, HERC-sized combatants and even to strike hard against targets much larger than itself, this frigate is a common sight in Dalcassian systems.}

^{The Mandela was designed from the ground up to be a heavy escort Cruiser. Often situated alongside the larger Ajax Battleships or leading small inner system patrols, this vessel is equally at home lending long range fire support to Dalcassian pike walls or taking care of agile enemy flanking forces.}

^{Requiring a smaller HERC Carrier than the Ajax Refit, a similar project was started upon the Mandela class hull. Surprisingly, by removing the rear facing main gun and utilizing an internal hangar and dual external launch rail system the Mandela Refit is capable of fielding two Squadrons worth of HERCs with minimal reductions in its own combat effectiveness.}

^{Often considered one of the main reasons for the Dalcassian League remaining an independent fiefdom in the face of much larger opponents in the Persean sector, the Ajax-class is the largest warship in Dalcassian fleets. Sturdily built with fearsome frontal firepower, the Ajax perfectly encompasses the Dalcassian fleet strategy of forming a pike wall facing the enemy with vulnerable rears protected by friendly escorts and HERC units.}

^{With the advent of the Dalcassian HERCULAN, it soon became apparent that the League Fleets did not have a dedicated carrier equipped to house the necessary equipment to field them. Standard designs throughout the Sector often did not have enough clearance for the larger HERC units to emerge. While early experiments with externally mounted hardpoints for HERCs failed spectacularly, League shipbuilders soon turned to the venerable Ajax hull. Losing a significant amount of armour and removing spinal storage for one each of its main and secondary guns, the Ajax Refit soon proved to be a successful Battlecarrier in its own right.}

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The Weapons

^{The "Gilbert Mk.71" 225cm Dual High-energy Beam Cannon is the heaviest general purpose capital-grade weapon in the League's arsenal. It is around this fundamental cornerstone that the famed Dalcassian pike wall is built. The Gilbert is used in conjunction with the other members of the wall to both pick apart enemy capital ships as well as break apart large enemy formations.}

^{The "Schlag" is the 180cm younger sibling of the "Gilbert Mk.71". Originally designed to be used in Dalcassian pike wall formations alongside the heavier Gilbert, the Schlag is a strong choice for a general purpose beam weapon.}

^{The "Lanze" 155mm Close-In Weapon System is a heavy shell-firing cannon designed as both a point defense gun as well as a close-ranged anti-armor weapon. Lanze batteries are often found tearing apart smaller vessels just as much as missiles and strikecraft in the most perilous of fleet engagements.}

^{The "Zupfen" is a dependable 75mm Dual-barrelled shell-firing gun system. Despite its role as a point defense unit, the Zupfen's semi-armour piercing high explosive shells can also shred enemy ship armor in the brutal knife fights Dalcassian fleet engagements often devolve into.}

^{Designed to project immense explosive power into enemy shipping in an anti-armour role, the "Saracusa" is a frighteningly nimble heavy anti-ship missile. Often times as single salvo of Saracusas impacting an unshielded target is enough to destroy outright, if not cripple even the largest enemy capital ships.}

^{With technology derived from an ancient "colony purification weapon", the Plasma Driver Missile uses an exotic cocktail of irreplicable techniques to form a directed plasma field on impact. Originally intended to burn out cellular tissue with ultra high frequency waves, this weapon after being scaled to starship size is now capable of equally smashing shields, armour and hull.}

^{Suitable for intercepting both incoming ordinance and strikecraft, the "Heavenbolt" is a small, short-ranged and high speed missile. It is designed to weave in and out of Dalcassian fleet formations to protect against nimble threats that the pike wall would otherwise have trouble keeping up with.}

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This mod is my first entry into Starsector Modding. From what I can tell this mod really only has a dependency with Nexrelin - I havent really dabbled too much into scripting just yet so the dependency on LazyLib and MagicLib are purely for Nex.

*NOTE* This mod is not exactly balanced (the Stouthawk is effectively a hero unit) although I tried to stick to vanilla values as best as possible. There is missing content and a couple placeholders, there will be bugs. I am definitely 100% open to suggestions from the community. Let em' loose.

This is totally not a Gundam-related faction, pinky promise.

Special Thanks to:
- The Spriter's Resource for the many sprites used for the (poorly) kitbashed graphics

- Lukas04, Harmful Mechanic and others on the forums and discord for putting up with my stupid questions - special thanks to Vayra and Wadestar for the tutorials that helped me stumble blindly into creating something useable.

Future Intended Content

• Make Commander types for the frigate-sized HERCULANs
• Skins (gonna be tough, im using paint3D, but its on the list)
• Making the Stouthawk and Felis have actual destructible shields (unsure if I want to make all body parts destructible or not) a la SHIP_WITH_MODULES logic. Same for the Mandela armour panels
• Custom Hullmods - gotta learn that stuff
• Custom ship systems (anti-beam depth charges are something I want to shoot for first)
• additional ships and weapons for adversarial factions (pretty much only have Fed-equivalent ships here at the moment)
• a line of logistics ships
• an integrated way to allow for HERCs to swap hand-held weapons in the refit screen instead of having to have a separate ship_id (for Felis w/Chainrifle vs Felis w/Weilergun)
• additional handheld weapons for existing HERCs
• additional integration with the many popular mods out here
• Custom art, background music for the Dalcass (or future) systems
• other stuff I haven't thought of yet

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Known Issues

• Any HERC hit with its shields down light up like a Christmas tree. It's probably something silly but I haven't figured it out.
• There is a weird duplication/overlap issue on the blue print graphic, not too sure what the deal is.
• HERC Wing LPCs are very powerful, still looking to see what is the best way to balance them, especially when used enmass.

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