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[Dal]

Quality Captains v1.5.3

A gameplay-first, balance-friendly, fully-configurable skill overhaul.

^Click the banner, it's waiting for you. Supports LunaLib. Download mirror

Highlights:

• A thorough overhaul of every skill, based on hundreds of hours of gameplay in 0.91 and 0.95.
• Multiple skill trees to choose between, including all skills available at the start (examples from 0.95 version)
• The restoration of beloved skill effects, such 1%-flux speed boost
• Adjustments for major skill outliers, such as Damage Control and various raw damage bonuses
• Removed fleet size penalities and multiple new dynamic limits to chose from.
• A complete ECM and NAV overhaul
• Over 10 perks with significant QOL and other effects!
• Fully customizable, down to the individual effect!
• A growing number of easter eggs
  

Combat

The Combat Aptitude maximizes your performance in frontline battle. These skills are gratifying, punchy, and essential to anyone who enters the fray.
Helmsmanship: Speed, maneuver, and boosts. By default it restores Zero Flux Speed Boost when below X% flux.
Combat Endurance: We heard you like to fight. CE does exactly what it says, maximizing your longevity in combat.
Impact Mitigation: For true armor tankers, and you will notice it. Your armor lasts longer, mitigates more damage, and holds better when stripped.
Damage Control: Keeps you fighting when you're vulnerable. Your weapons and engines stay online longer and repair faster.
Field Modulation: The high tech pick. More efficient shields and phase coils keep you agile on the battlefield.
Point Defense: Tweaked to be good without being overwhelmingly good. Still a strong pick.
Target Analysis: The armor-cracking skill. Provides a hit strength boost when striking armor to take out the toughest opponents.
Fire Control: Adjusted to affect both Ballistic and Energy weapon types. Now a competitive choice for all combat builds.
Systems Expertise: Tweaked. Nerfed. Still really good.
Missile Specialization: No raw damage bonuses, a little less ammo, and still really good.

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Leadership

Leadership enhances your fleet as a whole. Ship performance baselines, fighter wings, and your officers all excel under a competent leader.
Tactical Drills: Enhances your fleet with a minimum of target leading and recoil control. On the ground your forces will act with discipline.
Coordinated Maneuvers: Very configurable, the Nav rating of your fleet simply makes it much easier to move in all combat conditions.
Wolfpack Tactics: Small ships maximize their potential with a focus on speed and harassment.
Crew Training: The performance of all ships in your fleet will improve once you disallow alcohol on duty.
Fighter Uplink: Invigorated carriers finally return to the stage with better fighter speed, target leading, and fewer crew losses.
Carrier Group: Tougher, more easily recovered fighters mean your wings will stay and return to the fight faster than ever.
Officer Training: Better officers.
Officer Management: More officers!
Best of the Best: Turn even the worst battle to your advantage.
Armada Doctrine: Make no compromises. Grants basic Helmsmanship, Damage Control, and Ordnance Expertise skills to your ships without officers and reduces deployment costs.

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Technology

Navigation: The classic. If you need burn speed, this is where you get it.
Sensors: Move faster and stealthier while going dark, detect from further away. If you need to hide or seek, this is the skill for you.
Gunnery Implants: Leading, range, recoil control; when your guns have a temper, you need Gunnery Implants.
Energy Mastery: Now also includes defenses against energy weapons. Strike harder up close, regenerate charges faster, hold on longer under EMP fire.
Electronic Warfare: Very, very configurable. Seriously, I could give it its own section. By default ECM impacts recoil, autoaim, and missile maneuvering for ships and fighters.
Flux Regulation: Your ships handle flux better, good before, still good.
Phase Coil Tuning: Your phase ships are less pathetic when they get cloak cooldown reductions and boosted speed while phased.
Cybernetic Augmentation: More elite skills for officers, but half basic Gunnery Implants and Systems Expertise for your ships without officers too.
Infomorphology: Neural linking on steroids... if you want. By default it's just the classic gimmick.
Automated Ships: Given significant configuration options including vanilla, battle, player level scaling, or simply without limits.

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Industry

Bulk Transport: Carry MORE, burn BRIGHTER. Really benefits from no fleet limits.
Salvage Operations: Salvage for quantity, salvage for quality. By default restores a modest bonus to rare loot recovery.
Field Repairs: Get your ships back on the field faster with modest auto-repair after combat and much better repair rate. 
Ordnance Expertise: Tuned toward gunboats, but mostly vanilla. (In fact there's a toggle for the stock effect)
Polarized Armor: Good before, good now. Tweaked a little so it's less ARMORWALL.
Containment Procedures: When you're out in the fringes every leak counts. Save more fuel, take less terrain damage, save more crew.
Jury Rigging: You'll need supplies too. Surveying is cheaper, transverse jumping costs less CR, and dmod deployment cost reduction partially applies to maintenance again.
Industrial Planning: Invest in your colonies. Better accessibility, production, and you've directed your patrols to fit more of stuff without the rust.
Hull Restoration: The automatic d-mod removal effect has been made an elite add-on. Woo! You can take the skill without having your fleet automatically changed.
Derelict Operations: The junker's dream. D-modded can be deployed in greater numbers and you've found ways to make d-mods themselves penalize less.

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Milestones

Pursue the pursuit of knowledge.
Defeat a haunted ship.
Make a leap of faith.
Become a puppet or usurp the strings yourself.
Explore your spirituality.
Sell your soul to protect your home.
Demonstrate your character in personal combat.
Attain a weapon of awesome destruction.
Triumph over the strongest foe.
Reach your full potential.
Fulfill every opportunity.

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Did I mention it's fully configurable?

Changelog

1.1.0 First 0.95.1a version
- Refreshed Quality Captains to Starsector's 0.95.1 skills.
- Requires MagicLib now! Yay!
- Incidentally, the mod's tweakable settings are now in modSettings.json rather than settings.json.
- The default skill tree is now partially leveled; 3 tiers total and reaching each tier unlocks all skills on that tier without further restriction.
- The optional skill trees have also been updated.

1.1.1
- Changed the behavior of the ECM skill to count each electronic warfare skill toward ECM score rather than just checking that you had at least 1.
- Corrected an error in the description of Point Defense that was displaying half the configured value for anti-fighter damage.
- Various fixes to the Automated Ships skill. It should now display and act exactly as configured.
- Added an optional minimod that stores QC config settings between versions. Should make overwriting old versions a breeze.
- Restored Bulk Transport's civilian ship burn bonus and added its config setting.
1.1.1h
- Corrected an oversight resulting in duplicated Hypercognition skills. Will probably require no AI governors or a new game to update.
- Tweaked the EWar skill description.

1.2.0 - The Dynamic Settings Update!
- Lunalib support, allowing values to be changed and tested ingame.
- Fixed Armada Doctrine deployment point calculations not being treated as floats.
- Reformatted backcompatibility settings and added them to modSettings.json. These will are only relevant to modified QC installations.

1.5.0
- Full Starsector 0.96a upgrade!
- Added milestones! These are perks that are unlocked as you progress through vanilla storylines. They provide subtle but substantial effects for different play styles.
   * Milestones have their own configuration settings
   * Milestones take up to week to appear (or disappear)
   * Milestones must be toggled off to reassign skills. Vanilla bug! The LunaLib setting makes this really easy.
   * The last milestone is awarded if you achieve all other 10 milestones for your character.
- Streamlined some skills and descriptions
   * Removed the Overload Reduction and Instat Repair effects from Damage Control and added the Weapon and Engine damage resistance effect previously on Combat Endurance
   * Added CR degradation rate reduction to Combat Endurance
   * Moved the Systems Expertise for uncaptained ships from Infomorphology to Cybernetic Implants
   * Consolidated the Containment Procedures effect description
   * Reduced default values for armor-tanking and armor-breaking a little
- Technical: moved code classes to dal.impl.campaign.skills and dal.plugins
- Fixed an issue where custom settings for Phase Cloak Cooldowns were loading
- Corrected a cosmetic issue that listed the default Automated Ship limit even when it was set unused. This did not impact stats.
- Can be added to ongoing games, but skill additions may mean QC can not be removed from ongoing games. Poke me if you're desperate for a vanilla-only toggle.
- Unified QC settings and Lunalib settings. You will only ever need to change them in one place. Wow!
   * Configuration files have changed from all previous versions, including betas
   * For automatically loaded settings, edit the CSV, otherwise load in dynamic settings each startup by opening LunaLib at the main menu and hitting "Save All"
1.5.1
- Reverted a change to Navigation that was flipping the reduction to a penalty.
- Rearranged a code check for better performance

1.5.2
- Reintroduced carriers with officers having enhanced fighter skills.
- Fixed an issue where the non-default Second Wind effect had a 100x too powerful multiplier.
- Fixed an issue where toggling milestones off would not remove the final milestone.
- Adjusted the trigger for the [REDACTED] perk. Now you have to win the duel.

1.5.3
- Crossmod compatibility for the Field Repairs effect when also using the Experimental Hull Modifications mod by Lyravega.
- Tweaked some default values:
   * Reduced the accessibility bonus from Industrial Planning from 25% to 15%.
   * Extended the default range of the [REDACTED] perk to 12500.
   * Swapped Automated Ships to use level scaling by default from battlesize scaling.
- Completed LunaLib integration. !* Custom LunaLib settings will now load automatically. *!
   * Added some new handling for loading certain settings while on the main menu.

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FAQ

Q: Can I install this in an ongoing game?
A: Yes! Quality Captains can be installed in previous save, though it may be a good idea to head to your storage before making the switch.
Q: Can the mod be uninstalled from a save?
A: As of 1.5.0 the answer is "untested but probably not." There is an uninstallation-mode toggle available in the mod's settings that removes scripts but player perks may need manual editing.
Q: Is the mod awesome?
A: Yes I think it's pretty awesome and I hope you enjoy it.
Q: Does the AI benefit?
A: The AI will receive full access to the same skills you do and you'll have reason to note which. AI officers don't receive milestones.
Q: Is it compatible with other mods?
A: It should be compatible with any mod that doesn't change the same skills.
Q: How do I select a different skill tree arrangement to use?
A: Open the mod's folder, select the "Optional" folder that sounds good to you, copy the data folder from inside over the mod's data directory, overwriting skill_data.csv.
Q: How do I adjust the values and options?
A: Open the mod's folder, then open data/config/LunaSettings.csv in your favorite text editor. You do not need LunaLib to load from this file, and in fact editing the file skips having to open LL on startup!
Q: Does Quality Captains change leveling in any way?
A: Not at all! It should be fully compatible with any mod that modifies character or officer levels.
Q: Does this work with the newest game version?
A: Quality Captains is up to date with the 0.96a-RC10.

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[Tartiflette]

Congrats, looks awesome!

[blackcatvn]

Love it, awesome mod. Time to be a god-like admiral.

[Donko]

Congrats on finishing this, looks great! Having the Weapon Drills skill help counter the new ECM is really nice. I like the philosophy of "A given skill should have a counter-skill."

[Cyan Leader]

• Fully customizable, down to the individual effect!

Incredible, I've been wanting something like this for ages. Thanks you!

[Chairman Suryasari]

This look awesome! Make the game less painful in a way. I prefer 0.91a sandbox skill than current skill any day now.

Also, do you think it's possible to increase the monthly cost every time I level up? I like to imagine myself recruiting resourceful individuals to acquire these skills Mount and Blade style. Thanks! Have a good one!

[Nia Tahl]

Makes the vanilla officer spam more bearable in lategame. Still a pain, but a lesser one. Think I'll nerf damagecon.

[MagicKarpson]

Very nice, I love having the ability to customize all the skills effects.

[SCC]

Targeting Analysis: it's a bit weird the bonus is just to capital ships now.
Impact Mitigation: it now protects from small strength hits more than bigger hits, which I'm not sure is a good idea.
Standoff Tactics: it's better than Ranged Spec, since it works for more than two ships in the game.
Phase Mastery, Phase Corps: I suspect they will still be problematic.
Systems Expertise: it's a real shame you nerfed it, because it was pretty fun for most ships that aren't Doom.
Missile Specialisation: it stacks with ECCM, missiles are so fast now.
Officer Training: spend story points to spend story points... Come on.
Energy Weapon Mastery: what's up with that EMP resistance? It's not much, but it's weird it's there.
Special Modifications: again, spend story points to spend story points.
Automated Ships: it's hilariously OP now. Getting a Radiant for a single skill point is incredible value.
Colony skills: they presumably are the best moneymaker skills, making other (mostly industry) skills obsolete. It's in a similar position as Automated Ships, in that it isn't immediately strong, only after you can get what makes it strong, but then it blows other skills out of the water.

I also have more fundamental issues with what you're doing with those skills, but you have heard about them already.

[Dal]

Thanks for the kind words and feedback! I'll look into individual skills later today, for now I've released a quick hotfix to resolve the customization lock. 1.0.1 is available from the banner; if you already have a copy of the mod you just need the .jar file from the update.

[PeepingPeacock]

"The restoration of beloved 0.91 skill effects, such as D-mod hull maintenance reductions"

"Fully customizable, down to the individual effect!"

I love you

Can't wait to start a new campaign with this and see how it plays!

[IonDragonX]

Targeting Analysis: it's a bit weird the bonus is just to capital ships now.

Agree, It was already weird by ignoring the frigates in vanilla.

Systems Expertise: it's a real shame you nerfed it, because it was pretty fun for most ships that aren't Doom.

Agree, I'd revert that and nerf the doom system to balance the numbers back.

[Nia Tahl]

Targeting Analysis: it's a bit weird the bonus is just to capital ships now.
Impact Mitigation: it now protects from small strength hits more than bigger hits, which I'm not sure is a good idea.
Standoff Tactics: it's better than Ranged Spec, since it works for more than two ships in the game.
Phase Mastery, Phase Corps: I suspect they will still be problematic.
Systems Expertise: it's a real shame you nerfed it, because it was pretty fun for most ships that aren't Doom.
Missile Specialisation: it stacks with ECCM, missiles are so fast now.
Officer Training: spend story points to spend story points... Come on.
Energy Weapon Mastery: what's up with that EMP resistance? It's not much, but it's weird it's there.
Special Modifications: again, spend story points to spend story points.
Automated Ships: it's hilariously OP now. Getting a Radiant for a single skill point is incredible value.
Colony skills: they presumably are the best moneymaker skills, making other (mostly industry) skills obsolete. It's in a similar position as Automated Ships, in that it isn't immediately strong, only after you can get what makes it strong, but then it blows other skills out of the water.

I also have more fundamental issues with what you're doing with those skills, but you have heard about them already.

Using one of the alternate skilltree layouts (I like the skill lanes the most) helps with the Automated ships and colony skill issues at last.
Fully agree on Special Modifications and Officer Training (changed those to not have elite effects on my end)

[Nia Tahl]

Targeting Analysis: it's a bit weird the bonus is just to capital ships now.

Agree, It was already weird by ignoring the frigates in vanilla.

Systems Expertise: it's a real shame you nerfed it, because it was pretty fun for most ships that aren't Doom.

Agree, I'd revert that and nerf the doom system to balance the numbers back.

TA being tiered makes somewhat sense since the smaller ships are squishier. Those tiered bonuses basically just offset the innately higher armor and hp values of larger ships a bit. Imho TA should definitely have bonuses against cruisers and destroyers again.

[Radicaljack]

Targeting Analysis: it's a bit weird the bonus is just to capital ships now.
Impact Mitigation: it now protects from small strength hits more than bigger hits, which I'm not sure is a good idea.
Standoff Tactics: it's better than Ranged Spec, since it works for more than two ships in the game.
Phase Mastery, Phase Corps: I suspect they will still be problematic.
Systems Expertise: it's a real shame you nerfed it, because it was pretty fun for most ships that aren't Doom.
Missile Specialisation: it stacks with ECCM, missiles are so fast now.
Officer Training: spend story points to spend story points... Come on.
Energy Weapon Mastery: what's up with that EMP resistance? It's not much, but it's weird it's there.
Special Modifications: again, spend story points to spend story points.
Automated Ships: it's hilariously OP now. Getting a Radiant for a single skill point is incredible value.
Colony skills: they presumably are the best moneymaker skills, making other (mostly industry) skills obsolete. It's in a similar position as Automated Ships, in that it isn't immediately strong, only after you can get what makes it strong, but then it blows other skills out of the water.

I also have more fundamental issues with what you're doing with those skills, but you have heard about them already.

Tis a mod, and a customisable one at that, the base game skill tree is hilariously out of balance as it is, why the intense scrutiny for this?

Big fan of this OP, will let you know if any issues come up!