Just got back into StarSector after a long hiatus when somebody told me Blackrock had been resurrected. On impulse, I grabbed some random faction mod I'd never seen before because that same somebody told me this mod had a boss fight in it that would "make the vanilla bosses look like Barney the Dinosaur's Happy Story Fun Time" if I recall correctly. Now that I've actually beaten that fight (and it took four tries in-game years apart before I managed it) I'd say I get more of a Spongebob teamed up with the Muppets vibe than a Barney thing, but different strokes I guess.
This isn't an issue with your mod, specifically. "VANILLA BALANCE" is something that has changed significantly since StarFarer took place in Corvus only. What even is "vanilla balanced" these days? Vanilla used to have three distinct tech levels, now besides Low, Mid, and High, it has Tech Level Zero and Tech Level 4+. Vanilla isn't vanilla balanced no more, now that you can get a handful of Redactoid tech at level 3 from the secret location that's not secret after your first campaign playthrough. It's just a question of which exact imbalanced modtech weapons am I going to outfit my starter Wolf with before I even find a ship without D-Mods I can afford. So my point is, I don't sweat vanilla balance as much as I used to. Blackrock used to be barely vanilla balanced if you considered it the fourth tech level, the Zero Hour to vanilla's Generals. The "Dart SRM" used to be controversial, an 8 OP small missile with regenerating ammo that could do (slight) actual damage, but in an era where you can get those regenerating antimatter warheads for the same price, why would it matter?
For that matter, why is this weirdo blathering on about Blackrock in the Xhan topic? I'll get to that. I mean something nice by it, honest. My idea of vanilla balance was forged in an era when it was decided vanilla ballistics wouldn't be overpowered with unlimited ammo. So when I see something like the Velhoun or the Pharrek (both of which I got free as salvage from watching random battles between Xhan and another faction) it raises my eyebrows a little. Here, have something that's kind of like a Hyperion and kind of like an Imaginos but better than either, for free. Okay, if I must. Here, have this momma ship that has babies every month for 300 Organics and the babies are phase frigates that come with a frickin' Kobraz blaster for free. All right, if you insist.
The special bounties were neat, but I have a couple of notes. Insofar as I have ANYTHING negative to say about this mod, it's right here. The one with the big battleship (which turned out to later be instrumental in beating the final final boss) was a great fight, but I think the bounty could make it clear that completing this bounty will turn you hostile to the entire Xhan faction. It warned me once I was about to fight the guy, but that was after I had trekked 30 light years across the galaxy with a fleet of capitals.
Also, this isn't a huge issue either, but the other bounty, with the missile destroyer, the Vukan(S) I think it was, the actual boss ship itself had basically no influence on the battle. I don't know if it matters at what level I take the bounty, but when I did the fight, that bounty had a couple of capitals along, so that bounty fight was a capital fight. I think it would be way more fun as a 80 grand bounty I could reasonably expect to encounter at level 5 thinking I'm hot stuff because I just got a Medusa with a Kobraz in one mount and a Disintegrator in the other and I finally upgraded out of the tutorial Hammerhead(D).
Other than those two minor quirks with the bounties, I like everything about this mod. Xhan is fun to battle against, I like the sense of history their fleet has (three tech levels, but slightly different than vanilla's tech levels), and their look is distinctive but fits well into the existing universe. Pamed are so... friendly compared to most of the vanilla factions, I'm uncomfortable with there being nicer guys in the sector than me because they make my faction look bad. Lookit these guys, all caring about the value of human life and stuff. I just want to give them a hug, except they're so rewarding to have as enemies. My favorite of the Pamed ships, whether to fight against or alongside, is that fat cruiser. Learning how to actually hurt that thing was a crucial step in the process of figuring how to fight the final final boss.
And finally, that final final final boss. Man, that thing is awesome. There are some crucial moments of critical ownage that resonate forever through the life of any gamer. You remember your great victories, but great defeats are part of an epic story too. Back in the pre-internet era when Mortal Kombat 4 just came out at the local pool hall, and it looked for a few minutes like Network Pesci might be the first guy in the county to get all the way to Shinnok and win the game but NOPE QUAN CHI JUST RIPPED HIS LEG OFF AND BEAT HIM WITH IT HOLY **** DID YOU SEE THAT GUYS!?! Dude I still had three quarters in my pocket but after that the one and only course of action, it's like calling Keanu Reeves Bill, the only thing to do is walk away with your head hung in shame. Or that last time ever I tried playin Subnautica in hardcore mode back in early access and the damn Reaper glitched through my base and ate me while I was cooking dinner, or when you open the puzzle box in Door In The Woods and the guy that comes out of it not only isn't playing a turn based game but also doesn't care if you start a new game he's not done playing. Well, now there's the first and second times I fought Thousand Eyes, not only is this thing the ringmaster of the Itano Circus he's Deebo out of Friday all like, THAT'S MY QUAD TACHLANCE PARAGON PUNK! And I'm like, uh, yessir, I didn't mean nothin by it, it was like it was both of ours but we was just keepin it in my hangar, but also on the other hand I AM DOCTOR STRANGE PUNK AND DORMAMMU I HAVE COME TO BARGAIN! Whatever crazy unbalanced BS you can pull off, I can save and load my game. And yes, unbelievably, when you salvage it it comes with its crazy unfair mod powers intact. This thing is the best overpowered post-game chain-soloing Ordos machine ever. I'm going to name it Star-Spawn of SHODAN and make the Luddic Path write another entire holy book about how I'm the Devil himself perched on Cthulhu's shoulders to make Mecha-Shiva and plus I'm suspected of selling lobsters on the black market.
So anyway the reason I keep bringing up Blackrock is that like Blackrock, every campaign I ever play with mods from now on is going to include Xhan.