Okay, to alleviate these concerns -
No, The AI core drop rates are not affected by this mod. They have their own group which is not touched. If you get less than before, that is probably just bad luck, unless another mod changes the numbers!
Yes, this mod affects the special item drop pools, BUT the total chance to get an item, vanilla or modded, stays the exact same.
To explain:
The game has 2 relevant special Item drop groups:
These have the following drop chances
purely for vanilla items:
Without IndEvo:
- rare_tech_low: 1,1%
- rare_tech: 4,3%
With IndEvo:
- rare_tech_low: 0,9%
- rare_tech: 3,3%
However, these are the drop chances to get an IndEvo item from either of these rolls (Added)
- rare_tech_low: 0,2%
- rare_tech: 1%
Notice something? Yup, if you add them up, you get the same numbers as before - thus, you receive the exact same amount of items. (math is heavily rounded to keep it readable)
That's not all though. With IndEvo, you have 30% more discoverable stations in the sector - Arsenal Stations and Orbital Labs generate in those numbers without removing any vanilla stations. Since they also roll on these pools, the drop chances for vanilla items over the global sector stay the same, even if the chance to get one from any single roll is a bit lower.
Additionally, this mod adds salvage events which can give you a specific special item if you are willing to take a risk, and these are
added to the total loot pools.
In total, you should get more special items, rather than less.
I do test this extensively and do the math every time, to avoid having a negative impact on your game experience.
Please be aware that loot generation in starsector is heavily RNG. You are not guaranteed a certain amount of items, and I had runs where I did not find even a single pristine forge. If you get a lot in one run, but little in another, there is absolutely nothing I can do to change that.
Now for questions:
Oh, I haven't gotten to the stage of fiddling with the ruins yet, but can you demolish them for slots? I'll find out myself soon enough but making the knowledge public would be great.
Yeah! They can be demolished, but not re-built!
will you ever add special items for the industries this mod adds ?
Yes! But this will take some time. I have to commission art, code the effects, make events/quests to get them without murdering the drop tables (because if I straight up added 20 new items, you would
never get a vanilla item again.)
So far, most of my time goes into fixing the numerous bugs this burning pile of code currently still has due to the game update.