Hi, Gwyvern.
Very cool and atmospheric mod, but I have a couple of minor questions.
First, in game files there are two different sets of faction music, tho in the game I heard only one set of music. Where can I hear the second music set while in game and to which faction it belongs?
Second, and most important, in the game files there are four very cool station sprites, but I`ve never seen them while playing, only default star fortress/station sprite. Why so? I play with Nexerelin, may be this is the case....
...By the way, there are a lot of faction icons in your files, and again, I`ve never seen them. Especially interesting is the fact that the second music set called "colonial" and there is colonial pirates faction icon.
I saw these too, after taking an afternoon to examine the mod's contents after completing a mostly fulfilled Nexerelin run as an ARS fleet. There's even more faction flags and banners without corrosponding music, but the existence of a Colonial banner as well as two very familiar and similar looking banners to the ARS sparked some conversation between myself and a friend, one "Dark Ambition" (he's chill, cool dude) about the origins of the ARS.
I'll spare you the copy-paste headcanon we wrote over a few hours, but I suspect that the "protestor" origin of the ARS is as much fiction as it is fact. I think whatever organisation they once were was wiped out or taken over by the Domain with their heavy-handed practices, and forced what remained to flee or seek settlement elsewhere until the Domain caught up with them.
Hence a big part of the ARS's ambivalence and general apathy to the political climate of the Sector at large is because they just don't care. They're not from here, and they don't have any stake in what they consider to be Domain remnant polities do with their space and their resources, as long as they take or buy what they need to get as far away from them as possible to start over somewhere else, or possibly go to what remains of their home (if anything remains at all by this point).
The only one they take any stance against without question is the Hegemony, a direct successor to the Domain. They would, with the possible exception of Tri-Tachyon, be the only faction who knows of the ARS's origins. But the Domain wouldn't disseminate that information publicly because it would give the ARS legitimacy and recognition as an external polity, and possibly sympathy from other minor polities or internal factions within its borders. And if the Domain wouldn't do it, why would the Hegemony? They've only given other polities in the Sector this much legitimacy as they didn't arrive on the Persean Sector stage for a few decades, and weren't able to take full control before other powers rose and lines were drawn.
The Hegemony just perpetuates the "common knowledge" of the ARS's origins, and the ARS doesn't dispute it as it means they're less likely to be followed when they eventually attempt to leave the Sector.
All of this is conjecture at best, and a hypothesis at least, but given the amount of stuff in the mod's files as it stands, it is an interesting possibility.
However, Ambi did point out to me that we do not know how much of this is scrapped content, unimplemented content, or incomplete. Unless and/or until we get an answer from the man himself, we won't know what is truth, and what is fiction.
But my little idea that the ARS are a "Periphery" nation compared to the Sector's Core Worlds' "Inner Sphere" is a similarity I and Ambition have a hard time disputing regardless, considering the ARS's behavior up until this point.
Wish I could do more digging. If only the ARS had more unique quests...
It also of a note that manufacturer of 
-class ships Spoiler
which are very rare and not so great derelict ships
Yeah. We found all of those, and even got to mess with them. There's three variations on a single hull, and four hulls that we identified. I distinctly remember there being a fifth with phase technology, but this seems to have been removed in the last patch or so.
The first version is the "ancient derelict" version, found floating in space, and ruined almost beyond use. It will have every D-mod possible for the class, and it will sport a uniquely asymmetrical hull shape on account of the damage, in addition to the damage texture overlayed because of D-mods. It will have an unknown class name (
??), and its role designation will be "derelict".
The second version is the "restored" version, which restores the hull to symmetry and removes all D-mods. This has to be accomplished via the restoration function at dock, and cannot be done over time with a perk. It will be better than the damaged version, but due to the hull's likely age, it will have been superceded in capacity by vanilla or other modded ships. It will also still bear the unknown class name, and while intact, will only have a bare factory setting paint scheme of grey.
The third version is the "peak" version, and to my knowledge is unaccessible in-game without admin mode. It is intact like the "restored" version, but some features of its design will bear more similarity to its origin than before, such as the [REDACTED]-class destroyer hull that you can find and restore. They will also have a paint scheme matching the colors of the Colonial Initiative make, and Colonial flag and banner, and while not much better than their restored equivalents are still an upgrade.
They also have their class names returned to them. I am now able to identify by name that which is supposed to be unknown. But I won't spoil it for anyone else. Needless to say the naming conventions of the CI (or ARSCI, if you please) are different from all factions and ships with the exception of the Alistair, and Gaillard, in that they were named most likely after people, probably figures of note to the ARS's culture.
If myth is to be believed, The Alistair-class was originally known as "Battlecruiser One" in hull-classification until a Domain fleet appeared in ARS (or their precursor) space, and attempted to annex them. And likely failed. The Battlecruiser One was then coloquially known as the Alistair, after the admiral who thought the ARS were pushovers.
But I was already aware of the ARSCI, and the ARSSI, which I believe to be signs of their culture before their present existence in the Sector at large (though I did state I was sparing you the copy-paste head-canon we wrote up). They were once possibly a rival or competing power to the Domain, and were annexed or destroyed by them at some point in the past.
They were then scattered and attempted to seed new colonies away from the Domain, but were caught up to time and again, and despite an organisation that wanted to demand reparations or protest the Domain's actions within their own space to its citizens to drum up support, they were largely ignored or branded as "anti-war protestors", a descriptor so apt and flat that the ARS adopted it out of spite for the perceived and somewhat actual war against their culture by assimilation and conquest.
The reason the ARS hates Sector politics and just acts as pirates is they just don't give a sh*t. This place is not their home, and these people are descendants of the ones that drove them to the Sector, forcing them to pillage and steal what they cannot make themselves to get home.
They are so jaded that they could care less what happens. They look at the Sector with skepticism and suspicion, as they rightly should. These bastards did burn them out of their homes once before.
They are true space vikings. And with a name like Colonials at one point in their history, I can hear the drums of war.
But what I really want to know, is will we see the ARSCI anywhere? They have all the makings of a faction, protected by the ARSEI. Their music suggests that you weren't supposed to find them, they were supposed to remain a secret, hidden far from prying eyes. If they like you, the music reflects their toleration of you and your antics as long as you say nothing to no one. If they are neutral, they are cautious in every way towards you as an unknown. And if they are hostile, they will exterminate you to the last to make sure they are never found, to protect their safety and continued existence.
Or at least that's the vibe we get from the music for the Colonial Initiative.
I always want to know more, and Dark and I love the mod, and what lore we've dug up in one way or another, and have made ourselves as a result of the few pieces we found, fitting together on their own in a logical and thematically interesting way. Hit us up anytime, we're always hungry for more.
