Feedback after playing around a day with a new mandatory mod, was very surprised to find out every single skill was changed!
I love that DP limits have been more or less removed across the board, way too complicated and poorly implemented in the base game. Auxiliary support would never give you the full bonus and it was impossible to work out the bonus without just looking at the skill once you had gotten it. Glad that mess has been done away with.
Makes sense to keep the DP limit on automated ships because it has to be otherwise one can break the game in half by running a fleet of Radiants. The cargo limit on bulk transfer is still there and considering how it was nerfed by 20%, lost the burn bonus and competes with every other perk now I'm not sure that it still warrants having that limit. Adding something fun onto it like a reduction in tariff prices similar to
Dynamic Tariffs would add something new and make it a nice skill for building faction relationships through trade without getting hit in the wallet as bad as you normally would.
Special modifications having the story point rebate is fantastic, I thought it was strange that not even the most directly related skill to story points did anything about them. An entire new aspect of the game that the skill system does not interact with at all seemed like a big missed opportunity. Great addition.
Skill numbers are static and don't change with settings, this is fine considering anyone making any changes is going to know what they did but derelict contingent's 20% flux dissipation bonus on shield-shunted ships is actually 15% in the files by default.
Field repairs would be nice with a toggle but locking it behind elite does more or less the same thing so thank you for fixing that synergy issue with DC.
Colony management is still a scam skill that exists to trick people who don't know about alpha cores, every other colony skill at least does something that a core can't do except for this one.
It does basically the same thing as officer training but its not a permanent skill like officer training is because it sucks.
By the time you have 4 fully running colonys the game is already won or money is no longer a concern, its not even a hard cap and its possible to live with a light stability penalty especially now that 5 stability is the cut-off for extra income.
If I may make a suggestion,
Spoiler
I'd make it a permanent skill and
change what it does entirely add a bonus to the maximum number of contacts (3?), increases the number of missions (1-2?) and increase the payouts (50% at high relations?) you receive from your contacts. Its still someone thematic to have better business sense and ability to keep in touch with people in high places when you level your planetary management skill, and its way more interesting than a skill that gets obsoleted by a farm-able item. I'm surprised there is not already a skill that impacts contacts, seems like another missed opportunity.
If a skill is just going to open settings.json and change things in it, it would be better to have it change something fun that can't be done elsewhere.
I think adding that would make for a really cool perk that makes a noticeable difference on how the game is played. Sort of like how ground operations let you play a different game of never paying for supplies and just raiding for them easily instead. By making it permanent and only boosting income at higher relations its not a skill that can be cheese'd for a faster start and then reassigned away after pocketing the extra money.
I can't thank you enough for bringing back the d-mod skills, what a wonderful mod! Thank you again for making and sharing it!