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[Morrokain]

^ Should be fine. Let me know if otherwise.

[JenkoRun]

Hi, new here. Can you completely destroy other factions with Archean like in other mods? Thanks.

[Morrokain]

Hi and welcome! 

Unfortunately no. Though I do have an endgame planned, I'm not sure if completely eradicating factions will be a part of that or not. I am planning a size-able narrative and having such a dynamic sector completely driven by the player would severely complicate that process. That doesn't mean that decisions made by the player within the framework of the narrative wouldn't have similar consequences to colonies or maybe even factions, but I want it to be through that medium rather than simply giving the player the freedom to blow up whomever they choose whenever they choose.

After the story is finished there might be more things along those lines, but even then if I went that route I would have to code around it in the future, so it is a decision I am making with care.

It seems to be an in-demand feature, however, since you are not the first to bring it up lol. That may eventually force my hand so to speak. We will see.

[Salv]

Hey. I really dig the changes you made to fighters. Smaller size makes them blend into the background of the battle more, which i like for smallcraft. A question though. Did the changes to weapon size also affect the particle effects? They seem kind of smaller.

Also, I know there is a separate section for questions regarding modding, but pardon me if I ask how you go about resizing weapon sprites? I just started modding and I haven't started dealing with the sprites yet. If i were to start it would be with this. I know how to do that for ships, but not for weapons.

Thanks.

[Morrokain]

^ Hi glad you are enjoying the mod. No worries on the modding questions I don't mind.

The particles are indeed typically resized for fighter weapons, though not in all cases. Mostly in the ones that would be more noticeable. On the technical side: they are separate weapon files from the ship-based ones so they can have separate projectile files as well, or in the case of beams I can just make the particles smaller in the weapon file itself.

As a side note, I think they may be slightly reduced in size by default as well. It at least certainly seems that way for missiles and torpedoes.

As far as the weapon sprites getting shrunk down.. I wish there was an easy answer here- such as simply putting the weapon sprite components in paint and reducing image size by 50% or something - but they are actually all custom drawn (I use paint.net) and kitbashed from existing weapons. Reducing size often makes the image quite blurry.

What I do:

I spend some time looking at the weapon I want to shrink to see what detail would be impossible to reproduce in a smaller form (so I know to ignore it when kitbashing or paint over it) then try and get a good idea of the weapon sprite's "shell" and basic features. At that point if I can use bits of the original weapon for kitbashing I do. Sometimes I take 15 or more tiny pieces to create the form and then blend/erase them using colors taken from the original until it looks right. Sometimes it just takes 2 or 3 pieces.

There are also instances where I had a small version of the weapon that fits the medium weapon size well enough to use that sprite. Its different case by case.

[Salv]

I see. So I assume that after you had made the sprites you had to readjust the all weapon files, muzzle flashes and all. Darn, that's a lot of work. Anyway, thank you for the answer and the mod  .

[Morrokain]

No problem, the interest is appreciated. Good luck on your future modding and if you have other questions feel free to ask.

[Rutaki]

Hi, sorry if this question has already been asked previously, I would like to know if you intend to do a non-Total Conversion separate version of the mod? Having compatibility with faction mods, Nexerelin and all that

[Morrokain]

^ Hi there. I've actually thought about it a lot. Its not something I would never do, but it would be a substantial amount of work to balance for vanilla and the other faction mods. Months if not years. I would have to completely rework the sprites, ship stats, weapons and fighters and then support both. The names of many ships and weapons would also have to change to prevent inter-mod naming conflicts.

What would be more likely in the future would be to separate out certain easier-to-manage features (such as fleet dialogue) in stand-alone utility mods, and for the Archean Order mod I will either merge in Nex features to the standard download or create similar ones of my own design.

[Rutaki]

Sad, but thanks for the clarification, anyway you really did a excellent mod, keep it up

[Moose]

Hi, having trouble with trade missions as whenever i accept one i can no longer buy anything other than weapons at planets and stations, and no one hails me to receive the goods. Any thoughts?

Strange I'll try and reproduce this. What happens to the other commodities such as fuel? Do they disappear or just are no longer purchase-able?

it doesn't disappear in my inventory, just in the store.

[Morrokain]

Sad, but thanks for the clarification, anyway you really did a excellent mod, keep it up

Thanks will do!

it doesn't disappear in my inventory, just in the store.

Hmm gotcha. Very strange. Well, I haven't been able to reproduce that issue yet, I'm sorry. It seems to work fine for me.

Sorry for the string of additional questions, but without being able to reproduce it I need to narrow it down further.

So, this only occurs after you have selected a trade mission in particular? It doesn't occur on bounties or other kinds of bar missions? Do the items disappear after the mission is accepted the next time you visit the market? Or is it just never replenished after it is bought?

Couple other things to help troubleshoot:

1) Any other mods installed?

2) What operating system are you using?

3) Are you on the latest version of Starsector: 0.9.1a?

[Morrokain]

So the next minor update (which should be fairly soon) will mostly involve a lot of clean up and polishing/expanding/finishing existing features to catch up on some accumulated tech debt. It shouldn't break saves.

It may also include a test campaign mission or two, but it will mostly just be setting the stage for all of that for the next major update- 1.3.4. Though I will certainly squeeze in a bit of new content, 1.3.4 will be mostly a lore and campaign feature update. I just finished up a new rule command which allows me to manipulate all factions' reputation with each other using rules. This has a lot of impact on the campaign for 1.3.3a:
---
1) I have already included some situations that use this to lock away some of the higher quality ships and weapons by heavily punishing the player's reputation with that faction.

2) This also means accepting a commission to get brief access to military markets and then canceling the commission won't just give you a reputation hit. In some causes it will completely eradicate the good relationship with that faction or even make them hostile.

3) Rescuing an Adamantine Consortium officer instead of buying off the barons will have more severe and permanent impact to the player's reputation (in other words, it will reset all the gains they may have had by bribing dreadlord commanders.)

[marcelin23cm]

So hey I completely loved the mod but I have one question do you have plans to make a similar mod to the "console command mod" anytime soon? I kinda wished I had some of the resources I have on my main save and skip foward the boring things I have to do at the start of the game, namely all the small exploration quests to earn a living. Thanks man, waiting.

[Morrokain]

If you go to the mod_info file located in the mod directory root and set:   "totalConversion":"true",     to:     "totalConversion":"false"

- you can install Console Commands and that mod works with Archean Order (unless something has changed recently). I used it to test blueprints and make sure they actually contained the correct hulls and weapons.

When I release the next update I am going to spend some time updating the main page too. One of the things I am going to try and add is a "Recommended and Verified Utility Mods" section that will list some mods that don't have issues with the TC but can enrich the experience with Archean Order. There are actually quite a few utility/feature mods that are compatible.