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[Tartiflette]

   This thread is intended to be a faction and ship/weapon packs discovery database, both aimed at players looking for more substantial information before picking a mod, and at authors to give them another avenue to get more feedback about their work. The idea is to have anyone post reviews of whatever mods they play in this thread, those then get sorted and linked to in this post. Reviews made obsolete by a major update will be "archived" in a spoiler under the up-to-date ones at the request of the mod author.

   Please note that reviews MUST include which version of the mod is used. Additionally single issue reviews ("X ship/weapon is OP thus the whole mod is trash") or one liners will be ignored. While you can post any kind of review from narrated adventure to hard-number analysis, other players are usually interested in knowing if a mod fits the game visually, if it fits in lore, if it is balanced against vanilla or not, and how distinct it is in gameplay.

FACTIONS AND SHIP PACKS:

				Arma Armatura:
Helmut (link to full review)		version 1.4.8rc3		"It was still very fun to play, although i couldn't shake off that feeling of jankiness when using the mod. Strange AI behavior and some other oddity happening here and there. Nothing game breaking, aside perhaps from a recurring issue where the battle wouldn't finish without using the EndCombat command."
				Coherent Watermelon's Ship Pack:
MrFluffster (link to full review)		version 1.1		"It might be a bit rough around the edges but it's hard not to like it for trying to strongly themed and specialized ships that aren't seen much in the rest of the modiverse. All I can hope for that it'll be further updated and expanded upon."
				Idoneus Citadel Exiles:
Helmut (link to full review)		version 0.41		"Well, a [mod] originally made by Sundog is bound to be memorable. It's fun, it's pretty, it's original, it just works, i like it. However there are a few things that i think really needs adjustments. Some ships, some hullmods and the maintenance drones, especially the maintenance drones."
				Interstellar Imperium:
Helmut (link to full review)		version 2.2.2		"The Interstellar Imperium mod is a huge mod, i would need to replay it at least thrice to get a good feel of the faction in its entirety. From what i got with only one campaign, it's a really good mod."
				Legacy of Arkgneisis:
Helmut (link to full review)		version 1.7.0		"In the end, that was a pretty fun campaign. [...] Unlike vanilla or other mod factions, upgrading to destroyers as quickly as possible is a mistake here, as the bigger ships only begin to show their qualities when part of a large fleet. It's pretty counter-intuitive, and further add to the difficulty of playing the faction."
				Roider Union:
Helldiver (link to full review)		version 1.2.2		"If you want to play a space miner, this vanilla-friendly faction is just about perfect."
				Scy Nation:
LeStinke (link to full review)		version 1.64		"I came here looking for some aesthetically pleasing ships to blow up, stayed for the beautiful top tier cruisers and innovative design choices. "
				Seeker - Unidentified contact:
Helmut (link to full review)		version 0.407		"The Adze destroyer was my starter ship, and i have to admit it didn't took long to fall in love with it. Not only it makes for a pretty good destroyer, It is also very satisfying to fly. "
				Shadowyard Reconstruction Authority:
Tartiflette (link to full review)		version 0.9.1		"Overall Shadowyards offers an enjoyable experience and is a well deserved staple of the modiverse."
				The Star Federation:
Helmut (link to full review)		version 0.7.2a		"From what i experienced, Star Federation ships have a tendency to be overtuned, or at least those three. Despite this, i quite enjoyed having the faction in my game, and i think i'll keep the mod on for futures campaigns."
				Volkov Industrial Conglomerate:
Helmut (link to full review)		version 1.3.2		"Overall, i enjoyed this campaign, i played it longer than i usually do. It's a good mod, although one that still requires refining in some aspects. You can totally tell how its evolving by comparing the old from the new content, and it's going in a good direction i think."

OTHER MODS

				Ruthless Sector
Helmut (link to full review)		version 1.2.7		"Among the "Sundog modding compilation" mods, i think Ruthless Sector is probably the one i care about the most.  The mod does adds quite a few things, all pretty good. But one thing stands out from the rest : the addition of Remnants patrols in hyperspace."
				Secrets of the Frontier:
Helmut (link to full review)		Pre-release 7		"To summarise, it was fun, i enjoyed myself. I think SOTF is very important to Starsector in the same way that Combat Chatter, Nexerelin or Console command adds to the game."

[Tartiflette]

And let me start with something to get this thing going:

Shadowyard 0.9.1

Shadowyard Reconstruction Authority is a mature mod (one of the oldest still kicking around actually) with a wide breadth of content and polished integration.

Gameplay-wise they are high tech skirmishers, relying on their strong carriers to hit hard the enemy while a mix of "hammer-and-anvil" cruisers will keep them distracted. On the campaign side they control a large corner of space with content rich systems and a lot of lore to uncover. Special mention to all the custom illustrations and industries making them quite unique to visit.

Balance-wise, it is not surprising for a mod this well established to be in a good place. Few are the weapons and ships that can't find a use, and there is a lot of them. On the other hand there are a couple of wings and a carrier that do lean on the very strong side and can be frustrating to face. In term of variety, the mod is more at risk of being too rich with now more than 40 ships to choose from.

The art might be the one contentious point. I personally like the organic look and bold colors, but it certainly might not be anyone's cup of tea. It is however very consistent throughout the mod.

Overall Shadowyards offers an enjoyable experience and is a well deserved staple of the modiverse.

[HELMUT]

Tartiflette asked me to repost some of the reviews i did in the past, so here it is. Hopefully it'll be helpful.


---

Secrets of the Frontier 0.9.1

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=15820.0

In my recent campaign, i decided to include the SOTF mod. While i already knew of the bits and interesting parts the mod adds, it really require a full campaign to properly appreciate it. So, in this post i'll take about the tactical expansion provided by the new objectives types.

Long story short, i now consider Secrets of the Frontier to be part of my must have mods. The ones with a permanently checked box in the mod manager window.

Now, to understand why i think so, we have to look into vanilla first. The current objectives types in Starsector are the sensor jammer, the nav buoy and the comm relay. Sadly, both sensor jammer and nav buoy can be completely ignored if you have the proper skills and one or two ships with ECM package and Nav Relay. They tend to have no, or almost no impact whatsoever on the battle. Comm relay is more useful, as it increase the command point generation. Alas, asides of some Operation Center shenanigans, CPs aren't that useful either. Basically, a whole part of the base game doesn't even really work, and as a result, it's no fun.

The two new objectives added by the mod are much more interesting, and there are good reasons to interact with those. The defence emplacement adds either a turret, a launch bay or a mine layer that can be captured to fight by your side. Turrets do have targeting supercomputer, so they can assist from pretty far away. Getting a Gauss turret with increased range to back you up can be pretty useful up to mid-game if you can order your fleet around it. Same for the launch bay and mine layer. They unfortunately do not scale very well into late game though. Once i had capital ships, i usually ignored the points and steamrolled over those the enemy captured.

Fun fact, the defensive emplacements are not static like space stations, they can be bumped and moved around! So far i haven't tried tugging around a turret for anything else than fun, but it's possible. Unfortunately, it's also possible to "lose" it by accidentally pushing it too far from its original point.

The second combat objective, and the most useful, is the Hyperwave Transmitter. Once captured, it will call in reinforcement from either derelicts or remnants. Capturing several Hyperwave Transmitter will increase the number of ships coming to your aid.

In my campaign, i played a lot with those, but not too much that it became a "must capture at all cost". In my post in the Legacy of Arkgneisis thread , i wrote about how i took on a pirate fleet much bigger than mine, and managed to sink their flagship by capturing the appropriate objectives.

This didn't happened in just one battle. More often than not, Ludd forgive me, my battles were fought side by side with derelicts and remnants. The Hyperwave Transmitter isn't guarded? Capture it! The enemy fleet is sitting on it? Let's ignore it for now. An allied AI craft is engaging the enemy's flagship, do i help it? Or do i sacrifice it to give me time to kill that isolated carrier over there? That derelict is trying to engage an Onslaught upfront, do i get behind it and advance while using its hull as a cover?

On the other hand, there were some occasions where my fleet was on the receiving end of a constant stream of flying toasters, charging me without regard for their safety, while i'm busy trying to handle the rest of the fleet.

Paradoxically, by "improving" the other combat objectives, the vanilla Comm Relay that increase CP generation became more attractive as well. Gotta need those CPs to capture and re-capture those objectives!

To summarise, it was fun, i enjoyed myself. I think SOTF is very important to Starsector in the same way that Combat Chatter, Nexerelin or Console command adds to the game. Those mods fills a hole in the base game, they bring something that Starsector should, but do not (yet?) have. In this case, interactive and interesting combat objectives. Still, SOTF is a pre-release, work in progress and all that, and it shows. I feel it could be much more. I have said earlier than Defensive emplacements tends to fall off later in the game, Hyperwave Transmitter too, although to a lesser extent. So it might all require some tweaking to make it work from the beginning to the end.

Here's some of the things i would like to see eventually :

- Reworked vanilla objectives. Maybe Alex will do it in the next release, maybe not. In the meantime, they don't really work all that well, and SOTF could change that.
- Skills affecting the new objectives. After all, why not? Plus it could be a way to make them scale better during late game too.
- Objectives that scale depending on the overall fleet point from both fleet? That way, the effects of the objectives can be directly tweaked depending on the number of ships, as to stay relevant for late game, but not too strong for early game.
- More objectives obviously! A large shield generator to cover a wide area, an automated supply depot to slow down the peak performance/CR degradation, pilum spawn from the nearby's planet defensive platforms... There are many possibilities to spice things up.

Yeah, i'm really liking this mod, i'm looking forward for what's next.

---

Updated for 0.9.5 since then, got a few balance adjustments and bugfixes in the process.

[HELMUT]

Interstellar Imperium 0.9.1

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8007.0

Confinement being a thing these days, i do have plenty of time for playing Starsector. I thought it was the right moment to invest some time in trying the "new" version of Interstellar Imperium.

It's a pretty daunting mod now, there's a lot of content to try, even more so when considering the hullmods packages that pretty much turn the imperial fleet into three, or even four factions instead of one. It's easy to feel overwhelmed facing all the possibilities the mod offers. Feeling a bit rusty with my Starsector knowledge, i decided to stick to something i knew about II : good old death ball. Although instead of going with the classic "Great Wall of Dictators" fleet, i was in the mood for some carrier action. Let's see how it went.



I choose the Maximus as my starter ship. I never really gave it a proper chance before the great rework, so it was the occasion to try something a bit different. After fiddling for a bit, trying to understand how the damn thing worked, i settled for this build :

Spoiler

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I would be outnumbered by a bunch of rustbuckets for the duration of early game, being able to fight alone was the most important criteria. The armor package allowed me to get close to the target, face tank whatever it could threw at me while i charged the Celerity Drive, then slip around its shield to deliver damage. With some early game combat skills like Impact Mitigation and Advanced Countermeasures, the Maximus can be really difficult to take down. I ignored kinetic weapons since i found the Patella Breaker to be a good enough shield breaker against low-tech omni-shields.

It worked very well for the first few skirmishes. As my fleet grew, and my opponents also grew better armed. I switched for a targeting build with light phases lances in a typical glass cannon fashion. No need to tank hits when you have teammates to do it for you.

(By the way, i had no access to elite package for quite a while during this campaign, which explain why i won't write about it much in this post.)

As for the rest of my fleet, the RNG didn't blessed me with much variety for this early game period. I did found a Decurion and an Invictus, only one of each, both performed reasonably well against low-level pirates. Nothing groundbreaking with the builds either, a reasonable mix of low-flux kinetic and HE with the armor package. I was more concerned about keeping them alive than killing the enemy the standard way. Because every time i visited Byzantium, Minerva insisted that i would kill my enemies with missiles, and missiles only.

Spoiler

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Those plump little fellas were the only things on sale for an unexpectedly long amount of time, and they weren't exactly what i was looking for. But as they said, lemon, lemonade, etc. I had to make do with a bunch of Basileus. During skirmishes, keeping them alive proved tricky, so as shown in the picture above, i went for the "You can't kill me if i kill you first" doctrine. With a little fiddling with the weapons groups to ensure they have as little trigger discipline as possible, i managed to turn those chubby, harmless-looking guys into proper killing machines. Few things are as terrifying during early game as something that only cost 5 FP turn an Enforcer into scrap metal in less than 5 seconds.

So yeah, i was pretty satisfied with the Basileus.


I rapidly transitioned to destroyers, the first addition to my fleet was the Princeps battlecarrier. I wanted to play a carrier fleet after all! I was... Not very impressed. I mean, it's a much better combattant than the Condor, Gemini or Drover, but it's also noticeably more expensive to field. Very early on, it's not a bad idea to outfit the Princeps as a high impact missile boat like i did with the Basileus. But i rapidly got to a point where i wasn't too keen on seeing my precious and vulnerable carrier get too close to the front line. I did lost many of those during this campaign.

Throughout the game, all my Princeps were eventually fitted with LRMs and long range interceptors. Even then, i deemed their performance only acceptable but wouldn't go out of my way to salvage them if they got disabled in battle. I feel early game is the best moment for the Princeps to shine, it's sufficiently well armed to brawl with low-tier frigates, and perform as a decent fighter platform. Later on though, they felt dangerously vulnerable, and i eventually found something better to replace them with.

After a time, i changed my aging Maximus for something a bit bigger. I got myself an Interrex, bypassing the imperial packages, i outfitted it with a safety override build.

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While not an exceptional SO ship, this did a very acceptable job at intercepting key targets, breaking their shields, shutting down their engines, and killing them. I tried to experiment a bit with Pulsar weaponry on it, but remained unconvinced. When i later upgraded to a bigger ship, my Interrex got refitted with less flamboyant loadout as to survive better. It never disappointed, although it didn't really impressed me either.


From that point, i felt i fooled around enough for early game and decided to pick proper carriers. The Imperials don't have many dedicated carriers, the Ardea i bought isn't as good as the Heron when it comes to fielding fighters. It is however a pretty awesome battlecarrier that can hold its own on the frontline. My Ardea flagship was outfitted with a quad HVD, with a pair of Vicarius to do the actual killing. The AI versions that would follow me into battle had a more reasonable mix of HVD/Mauler/Ballista, also with Vicarius.

Speaking of the Vicarius, i wasn't really convinced at first by the heavy fighter. Low engagement range, extremely expensive, it was ill-fitting on my support Princeps. On the front-line Ardea however, it's low range was much less of an issue, and i could fit both wings without scarifying too much firepower from the actual ship. The Vic is over-gunned, and can overpower even cruisers with support from my carriers. Capital ships however, were something i struggled against, i needed some serious armor cracker if i wanted to keep doing my bounty hunting gig.

I traded my Ardea flagship for an Adamas, because of course i would try the Imperial's shiniest toy for this campaign, carrier fleet or not. It's a really fun ship, hit like a truck too, just what i needed.

Nothing outlandish when it comes to the builds. I fiddled a bit with Elite package, but found it too risky given my fleet doctrine. Targeting package fitted neatly though, i could blast apart my targets from a safe distance, either with the Light Spear or HVDs. Still, being a phase ship that requires to regularly face a target without blinking, i took quite a few hits, even at long range. I often finished my battles with a completely mangled flagship. A good enough outcome when i fought a few cruisers and maybe one or two battleships, but the hostile fleets i encountered fielded more and more ships. It was clear this was going to devolve into an endurance battle very soon, a kind of battle the Adamas is uncomfortable with.


Which is why i decided to pick the king of endurance battles, or rather, the queen. The Matriarch is a strange ship to build and to play. Huge, lumbering, with a weird weapon layout, it doesn't like direct action, yet can (and should) be on the frontline. Unlike the Astral that constantly require input from the player, the Matriarch is content just being around on autopilot, with occasional orders being given. And that's how i used it.

But before fielding the beast, i needed a proper loadout to take on capital ships.

Spoiler

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Weapon-wise, it's a fairly mindless build, the kind of guns you keep on autofire and forget about it. As for the bombers, i went for Piranhas, which might raise some eyebrows given how unreliable Piranhas are. Thanks to the Command Center system that can buff fighter mobility, this does help my bombers to reach their target more rapidly. With a little help from Broadswords to distract point defense, and from Thunders to make sure those engines are flamed-out, this does greatly improve the reliability of my Piranhas. And when they hit, they hit hard, occasionaly disabling an enemy capital ship in a single bombing run.

I did try a loadout with Imperial Inferna bombers too. While it technically worked, i judged the damage output insufficient when it comes to capital ship killing. The Inferna is a weird one. As its description suggest, it works better in larger number. Unfortunately the Imperials are pretty limited in fighter bays until they can field a Matriarch, so they didn't felt very impactful during early and mid game. Later on, the Inferna's efficiency against relatively unarmored ships was no longer relevant against the bigger targets i faced. I mean, they do work, but in comparison to the Piranha, it couldn't compete.

My comparison is probably a bit unfair though. The Piranha is an overspecialized bomber that requires an inordinate amount of baby sitting to get the job done, and only against specific, low mobility targets, while the Inferna is less demanding and a bit more reliable against most opponents, while still being cheap.

To get back on the Matriarch, this loadout worked really well. Railguns could soften the target's shield, Ion beams would shut down weapons and engines, and the bombing run would begin. Come back to rearm, repeat the process against another target. My whole fleet survivability was also directly improved, thanks to the built-in operation center. My Ardeas, while pretty good front-liners, cannot hope to contain the advance of an Onslaught or something equivalent, and sometimes got overwhelmed in an attempt to hold the line. Thanks to OP center, i have unlimited order points that can be liberally used to shape the positioning of my fleet, forcing them to disengage, or take on a specific threat.

Not a flawless tactic mind you, interceptor heavy fleets, or anything with powerful AOE weapons (devastator, mine strike) could completely shut down my offensive capabilities. One reason i avoided ScalarTech fleets and those mine-layer cruisers like the plague. Moreover, my Matriarch was good at killing, but pretty terrible when it came to defend itself. A failed bombing run left me extremely vulnerable to a frontal assault. I also took many torpedoes to the flank because of a daring frigate i couldn't shake off. My Ardeas were too busy fighting the enemy to come to my aid, so i had to get myself a dedicated escort.


The Libritor Siege destroyer isn't what one would immediately think of when it comes to escorting duty. Probably for a good reason. Still, i was determined to get a pair of those to accompany me in battle, for better or worse. In my mind, two Libritors with the ability to push back a target, thanks to the targeting package upgrade, would protect me from an unexpected enemy charge. A pair of Flamen interceptors would serve for point defense duty against fighters. It worked in the sense that two destroyers to protect me is better than no destroyers, but this was not the right ship for the job. On top of that, their Magna Fulmen didn't fired as much as i would have liked, and when they did, they weren't the sharpshooters i hoped for. I rapidly took the decision to mothball those two.

My newest addition for an escort ship was probably not the most judicious one either. I think i got sidetracked with my objective of "protecting the flagship" at this point.

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You bet those missiles are all linked with that tactical laser. This Ixon proved to be a pretty terrible escort that would require my protection rather than the other way around. Still, i now had an incredible fire-support ship at my side, and while it didn't fixed my vulnerability issues, my offense had been further improved.
Combining the HE Apocalypse and Ballistas missiles with the KE versions from its Magnum Salvo system, the Ixon can hit hard and far, and because of my fiddling with weapon groups, fired pretty much non-stop. A brutal glass cannon that i deeply regret not trying sooner. So long as the enemy didn't, or couldn't focus on it, it would unleash a ceaseless barrage of missiles at anything around it.


It did nothing to alleviate the growing collection of scars my Matriarch was accumulating in battle though. I had to stop fooling around and actually try to find a solution to my problems. The escort problem wasn't the only one i had, my Ardeas were getting less and less capable of holding the line against the increasingly bigger ships i encountered. I needed a battleship.

The imperials don't have much choice in that role besides the Caesar battleship, fortunately for me it's a good choice. I wouldn't pilot it, so the AI required a simple yet efficient loadout, i went for a mix of HVD, Sledges and Ballistas. The Caesar would act as the anchor for the rest of the fleet but also as a sort of "concert master". Whatever it focus, everyone else was ordered to follows suit. Sledges and Hypervelocity drivers do not destroy targets as quickly as bombers, but they're reliable, more so than Piranhas at least.  This allowed my fleet to quickly burst down bothersome targets. Thanks to this new development, i decided to change my strategy a little bit.

I bought a second Matriarch with a slightly different loadout, something that would hopefully turn my fleet into an impregnable fortress.

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This Matriarch have a very different function from my flagship. Instead of bursting down targets, it will assist and protect allies. A purely support ship, and probably one of the most powerful i managed to build in all of my Starsector playtime. The mobility buff provided by the Command Center is percentage based, making it extremely powerful on an already fast fighter like the Thunder. Coupled with its massive engagement range, my Thunder squadron could intervene pretty much anywhere on the battlefield in a blink of an eye.

With a few "fighter strike" order, i could intercept and disable any target almost instantly with their ion cannons. Onslaught charging in? No more guns and engines for you. Frigate harassing my flank? Now it's molten slag. Freighter trying to run away? Not any more. Heavy point defense on your ship? Good luck getting a hit on something flying that fast. This build provided the ultimate crowd control for my fleet. Sure, it didn't dealt as much damage as my bomber variant, but every clashes between ships happened on my terms and that's worth more than all the bombers in the sector. If any ship could get the MVP aware for this campaign, it would be this Matriarch.

This did come with an inconvenient though. Two Matriarch, a Caesar, and (ideally) four Ardeas on the field was more deployment points that i could afford. I decided to mothball my older Matriarch, given its obsolescence. I could take control of the new one, but it worked well enough on its own with a few fighter strike orders. So, what flagship should i fly then? The Caesar? I didn't had the proper combat skills to use it to its full potential, and my flagship would require OPcenter so i could remote-control the Matriarch. A lone OPcenter Hound parked on the bottom of the map is what i used for a while, but eventually i reached the end game, and faced an opponent that happened to be tougher than i expected.

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Was this boss that hard in the past? Or is it just me getting rusty? Regardless, Gabriel Mosolov proved to be an unexpected and impassable roadblock for my fleet. Stopping a capital ship, even an extremely strong one, i can do that. Stopping the Zeus, Ares and Nike at the same time is much trickier since the three of them reach my fleet at the same time. The overwhelming alpha strike of the Zeus, the nearly indestructible Ares and the sudden missile barrage of the Nike were too much to handle for my Caesar. Once it is gone, my fleet formation shatter and it's game over. My Matriarch can immobilise one, maybe two by regularly switching target, but there's not much i can do about the third flagship. If only i had a way to prevent them from charging straight in my fleet, maybe i could force this into an endurance battle. That i could win, it's a shame the old Jupiter isn't a thing anym- Oh wait.
 

 My two Libritors were still sleeping in storage somewhere. Now is the occasion to shine gentlemen ! My new flagship role would be simple and very similar to the Matriarch in some way : control the enemy's positioning in battle. Thanks to the Magna Fulmen knockback effect, i could push away an overly daring opponent from my fleet. I did experiment with this tactic on random bounties, which worked pretty well. Let's try that against Mosolov.

Spoiler

Oh.

[close]

It turns out that the Zeus have Advanced Targeting Core, which outrange me. Welp, time to find another solution.

I did try a similar tactic with the Lynx, which can use the shock buster while phased, hopefully protecting me from harm while doing so. Alas, the knockback effect proved insufficient to stop a capital ship, so i had to find another way to win this fight.

While the Lynx isn't an ideal candidate for that kind of scenario, i did find it pretty fun to fly nonetheless. I think it would a very interesting ship during mid-game battles, where the shock buster can break apart an enemy deathball. If i had to play another Imperial campaign, i'd get one of those much earlier. Also, it can do fun stuff like this :

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I wasn't really sure how to tackle on the final IBB bounty. Fighting through conventional ways wasn't working, so i had to think differently, although i was unwilling to change my overall fleet doctrine. I guess i could have assembled a squad of Dictator cruisers, outfitted them with Armor Package and Safety Override, sending them on a suicide mission to burst down the enemy's flagships, leaving the rest of the fleet vulnerable to my carriers. It would have worked, although i felt that method lacked tact and subtlety, so instead i tried something else.

Spoiler

Tact and Subtlety

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You never know what expect in life, so it's never a bad idea to have a few planetkillers within arm's reach. I did try to use the Olympus a few time beforehand , with pretty terrible results. The Titan is maddeningly unreliable, exploding too early, or too late. Even with a heavy interceptor escort, it rarely reached a target, and when it did, it usually was the wrong one. Nailing a titan shot, no matter satisfying as it can be, tends to be a waste of effort, a battleship would have done the same, although not as quickly.

Except against this target. Trying to burst down the three flagships from afar was a doomed endeavor, even four Titans fired simultaneously would get intercepted before detonating. So i had to play dirty. I deployed a few "dummy" ships at the start of battle, hastily built ships without officers, a bait to attract the enemy's flagship closer to my deployment zone.  Of course, there would be causalities, but that was a sacrifice i was willing to make. Once the target reached the "bottom" of the battlefield, i would order a general retreat, freeing precious deployment points to unleash my Olympus.

At such close range, protected by the debris of the ships that couldn't retreat in time, the enemy had no hope of stopping the Titan. First explosion, the Nike explode. Second Olympus deployed, second Titan fired, both the Zeus and Ares manage to weather the storm, but not without damage. Third Olympus deployed, third Titan, direct hit on the Zeus that disable it. Fourth Olympus deploys and fire its Titan, the badly damaged Ares don't stand a chance against it. With the three flagships down, i deploy the rest of my ships. The enemy still have many capital ships in store, but nothing like the three monsters i took down. Still a brutal grind, i'm even forced to deploy my Barrus freighters in battle to fight the last few capital ships. Slowly but surely, i whittle down the enemy's fleet to a few retreating crafts.  Victory !


And with that, i concluded this Imperial campaign. I haven't had the chance to try every ships, and certainly not all the build possibilities with the Imperial packages. The Interstellar Imperium mod is a huge mod, i would need to replay it at least thrice to get a good feel of the faction in its entirety. From what i got with only one campaign, it's a really good mod (was anyone expecting something else?), the ships are fun to fly, it looks flashy without being gaudy. It just works.

As for balance, it's really hard to tell, there's so many possible combinations of ships, weapons and hullmods to tell for sure. I don't feel some of the stuff i played felt over the top. Sure, the Matriarch when properly built is incredible, although it's probably more of an issue with Thunder than the ship itself. There's also the weird outlier like the Olympus that is pretty much impossible to perfectly balance due to its weird nature. Overall, it felt balanced, but it would require an inordinate amount of testing to say for sure, so... Good enough i suppose. Would play again.

Also, i tried a little bit the Royco. Not much to say about this one, i guess it's okay.

Not yet updated for 0.9.5 .The mod got various balance adjustments since then, mainly buffs. Also two new fighters and a battle station.

[HELMUT]

The Star Federation 0.9.1

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=19115.0

I have been writing some feedback in the Seeker thread after my campaign. Since i also used some Federation ships, it's natural that i write about those as well. I haven't tried as many ships as in my other post, however i do have quite a bit to say about those i used.


During this campaign, i had a few Centa carriers to back me up. They did their jobs very well, for a good reason, they are clearly too strong right now. Cheap, tiny skeleton crew, large cargo and fuel capacity. Logistic wise, the Centa is noticeably superior to its vanilla competitors. Combat wise, it got two flight decks plus a third one with a built-in pulse laser drone. Also good flux stats, top of the line shield efficiency and a very comfortable amount of OPs to fit expensive fighters, plus the required hullmods. Add on top of that some cruiser-level peak-performance time and very decent speed, the Centa is overpowered.

It's also quite heavily armed. While a Centa doesn't want to brawl, it's three missiles hardpoints allows it to support the rest of the fleet at a safe distance. The front energy turret makes for a good range-finder, while the two side ones tends to be fitted with point defense. There's only the rear turret with a strangely narrow arc that i can't really make good use of, so i always leave it empty.

While we're still talking about armament, i used the Leto SRM for my Centas. The Leto is a dirt cheap, ammoless weapon launching two missiles dealing 700 frag and EMP each. Slightly higher reload time than the Salamander (30 seconds vs 25), which isn't a problem given the Leto's Fast missile racks system. The tracking isn't that great, but again, the Centa have enough OPs for ECCM package to compensate this issue. This is not a weapon designed to take on large opponents, not enough damage to crack open shields and armor. Frigates and destroyer however, have much to fear from those. Hell, even bigger ships aren't completely immune due to the noticeable EMP effect.

The built-in Omnidrone is also pretty nasty. It's overall stats are fairly good without being outrageous, but it does have a very low base replacement time, as much as a Broadsword. A single drone with a pulse laser almost feels irrelevant in the late game. But early on, it's a terrifying fighter to face against. 300 DPS (not quite because of its limited flux) is no joke for a frigate or even a destroyer.

I expect the nerf bat to fall hard on this one. It's too good in every possible aspects. One suggestion : change the rear energy turret into a synergy, and one or two missiles into energy. That would somewhat nerf its overall missile spam capacity, as well as giving purpose to that weird rear turret. Although it would need more than that to fall in line with its vanilla counterparts.


Later on, i used a Kestral as my flagship. Comparatively, it seems fairly close to the Eagle both in stats and combat role. However, the Kestral is cheaper, faster, tougher, more endurant, and arguably better armed thanks to its built-in wing of two omnidrones. It's not completely better though, its shield arc is narrow, and can shrink further with hard flux. Its flux stats are also a bit weaker, and it requires a lot more CR to deploy. Regardless, i still think the Kestral is overtuned.

For some reason, it also got a built-in advanced turret gyro. Does it really needs it? It got more than enough OPs to afford it the normal way.

For my flagship, i went for a safety override build, with great results. With SO, Unstable injector and using the Divert Weapon Power system, the Kestral can do short dash around the map at ludcrious speed (faster than a Hound !). On top of that, the increased shield durability gained from using the system makes this ship extremely hard to pin down. The narrow shield emitter is one important thing to keep in mind when dealing with EMP though. As getting your engines flamed out in the middle of a brawl can get ugly really fast.


The last fed ship i got was the Nesasio phase cruiser. And oh boy. It was the flashiest and most efficient thing in my fleet. Its Starship legends rating after battle was always above 200%, and it would tear apart the majority of the enemy's fleet by itself. I remember during one battle, it was cornered against the side of the map by two VIC cruisers and three destroyers. Those got trounced, hard. No, i was not piloting it when it did so, the AI was. It is by far the most capable AI phase ship i used in Starsector. By the end of the campaign, i had assembled a squad of 4 Nesasios, and the game was pretty much done at this point. With a loadout of high-burst damage, it could drill through the heaviest armor and shielding in two or three volleys.

I had the feeling the Nesasio was a bit too strong. After looking more closely at the stats, it's for a good reason. The Nesasio is probably the fastest cruiser in the game, even more so with the Antimatter Injector that can be charged before cloaking. There's not much that cannot be flanked by a Nesasio, or chase it when it's disengaging. Mobility wise, it's on a whole new level compared to normal phase ships.

Not just its speed. It's also blessed with gigantic flux capacity, 17.000, as much as an Onslaught ! No wonder my Nesasios could wreck things so quickly, they had the capacity to sustain fire with even the most flux expensive weapons. Of course, a massive amount of ordnance points to mount these guns, max out flux capacity and vent, as well as an entire array of hullmods does help.

And it's a relatively cheap cruiser as well at 24 DPs only, a tiny bit less than a Dominator, yet vastly more deadly. Burn 9 too, because why not. The Nesasio is really in need of a severe nerf in my opinion. Another thing i noted : the description makes mention of a quicker cycling phase cloak. From my testing however, the cloak cooldown seems slower than vanilla ships. Around 4 seconds cooldown for the Nesasio, and 3 for standard phase ships. Is that a bug? Or am i interpreting "quick cycling cloak" wrong?



That's all for now. From what i experienced, Star Federation ships have a tendency to be overtuned, or at least those three. Despite this, i quite enjoyed having the faction in my game, and i think i'll keep the mod on for futures campaigns. I'm also eager to see what you have in store for us with the next update.

Updated for 0.9.5. Got a new battleship since then, plus some balance tweaks, mainly nerfs.

[HELMUT]

Legacy of Arkgneisis 0.9.1

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=13667.0

I was curious what those cool blue ships could do, so i went for an ARS campaign and see for myself. My first attempt went pretty bad, the large fleet size start with Nexerelin put me in charge of a King cruiser and a few escort frigates. The king isn't a very good starter ship, and from my experience with this campaign, not a very good ship at all. I didn't knew what to expect from ARS ships, but i got unceremoniously trounced right off the bat.

Let's start again, from the beginning this time.

Nexerelin start with a single ship, a Reid this time. Now things went muuuuch better. The Reid is a fast skirmisher very similar to the Lasher. Its system "Electromagnetic Overload" give a speed boost as well as spawning some nearby EMP electric arcs, targeting missiles, fighters and other ships. A very powerful system coupled with a strong frigate make the Reid an ideal starter for this campaign.

And just like the Lasher, Safety Override turn it into a little devil of death and destruction. It doesn't quite have the damage potential of the Lasher, but EO (Electromagnetic Overload) adds much needed EMP and mobility to compensate for that. For a very long while, i kept the Reid as my flagship, it was perfect to hunt down other frigates and even some destroyers. One thing i liked to do with the Reid : ramming opponents. Not much for damage, but to isolate them from the rest of the fleet. Jump in, machines guns blazing to force the target to lower its shield, Electro Overload disabling its engine, it can then be pushed away from its allies to be safely finished.

It's strong, very strong, but at the same time, with nearly the same cost a Tempest, i expect something pretty damn good. For a good part of early game, my fleet was mainly build around a pack of Reid, roaming around the battlefield, hunting for anything left alone.

To that pack of predator was added a few Welsh class frigates. Their medium hybrid and built-in siege cannons made them a good choice for long-range fire support. It's not like they could do anything else, the Walsh (and pretty much any other ARS ship for that matter) is made of paper. Weak hull, weak armor, weak shield, weak flux stats, an ARS ship caught with its pants down is a dead ARS ship. And at 130 speed, it isn't even that fast either. The Walsh's system Omni Loader drastically increase its firepower, but also build hard-flux over time, and with its tiny flux capacity... Yeah, the Walsh is as safe to fly as a Talon, and my Walshes died in drove despite their long range loadouts.

My early game fleet also included a few Foxes frigates. Tiny, cheap, harmless, fragile (more so than a Kite!), the Fox was not very... Useful? With EO, it could increase its speed sufficiently to run away from nearly anything, but that's all. A slight frown of an enemy ship could instantly destroy it, and its reduced weapon package limited its use. For a wingman, the kite is cheaper and more useful thanks to its pair of missile mounts. Still, i managed to somewhat find a use for the Fox a bit later on in my campaign. I'm also playing the  Secrets of the Frontier mod that add new combat objectives to capture during battle (it's also a pretty good mod, you should try it), this is where the Fox can shine. At only 3 DP, the Fox is an ideal candidate to quickly capture those new useful strategic points, i would then order then to sit on the edges of the map, ready to re-capture the objective if needed.

With my Reid pack doing a good job for early bounty hunting, i earned enough money to afford a few destroyers. My first one was a Thatcher, it didn't last long. The Thatcher is a light-destroyer, cheap, exceedingly fragile. On its own, even frigates will rip it apart, so don't even think about sending it against a Hammerhead. In theory, its Omni Loader give it decent firepower, in practice, it will overload itself in no time because of its inadequate flux stats. Okay, alright, i need something else.

My next destroyer addition was the Victoria. More expensive to field, but better in nearly every aspects compared to the Thatcher. Sadly, it share the same fragility common to most ARS ship, that made the Victoria a recurring causality during engagements. At least, it doesn't choke on its own flux so i got that going for me. The Victoria feels like an upsized Walsh, and as such feels more at home being a long range fire-support. Its weapon package is not very impressive, but its Structural Analyzer, identical to the Afflictor Entropy Amplifier, allow the rest of the fleet to deal 50% more damage, cementing further its status of support ship. Still, the Structural Analyser require the Victoria to get dangerously close to its target, and an ARS ship that gets into weapon range of the enemy rarely live long enough to tell the tale.

This is when i decided to get myself a bunch of Sherman frigates to keep my destroyers in one piece. Long story short, the Sherman is a blue Centurion and perform identically. It tanks hits with Damper Field and annoy the enemy by refusing to die. There's not much more to say about it, its doing its job.

At this point, i was entering mid-game and the pirates i was encountering started to field big guys. My Reids were still doing the heavy lifting, but their small mounts started to struggle against armoured destroyers and cruisers. Proper amount of dakka was required, and the Burke class destroyer eyed me with its large turret mount. I expected an ARS Sunder, i got a Mudskipper MK.III.

Spoiler

[close]

Alright, i'm exaggerating a bit, but only a little bit. Granted, the Burke is a cheaper weapon platform than the Sunder, and its built-in Gravimetric Targeting Mast increase range by 40% compared to 20% for destroyers with ITU, and it got actually pretty good armor for an ARS ship. But it is slow, and its pitiful flux stats ensure it will overload at the slightest nudge on its shield. My Shermans were trying really hard to protect it, but slow as it is, it couldn't keep up with the rest of my fleet. ARS being a kitting faction, not being able to keep up with the rest of the pack is a death sentence. Still, i sorta managed to make the Burke work, armed with a Gauss cannon and a Converted Hangar, the Burke could sit sufficiently far from the frontline and do its work. Still, many Burkes were harmed in the making of this campaign.

One thing i did to help increase the survival rate of my Burke and the rest of the fleet was the addition of an Edith AWACS frigate. The sole purpose of the Edith is to boost the range of the fleet with its AWACS system, any ships in range can now shoot farther, and an ARS ship with a range advantage is one that survive. My Edith was outfitted with reinforced bulkhead, heavy armor, blastdoors... Anything to make it survive the engagement. Weapons? Nah, here's your AWACS thing, that's the only gun i'll allow you to have, and stay away from the frontline. There's no reason not to have at least one Edith, a fleet without one of those will fight on the same terms as the enemy, and the ARS can't do that. The built-in ECM Package and Nav Relay? Cool bonus too. It is a very expensive frigate to field though, 10 DP, as much as a Hammerhead, but the power multiplier is vastly greater than just one more destroyer in my opinion. I don't know by how much the AWACS does boost range though, is it a flat range bonus? Or a percentage?

One thing i was lacking so far was a proper carrier. The illusive Caswell was still out of stock, so i went for a Hawke drone carrier, a cruiser. I wasn't overly impressed by the Hawke, it did lack the firepower i desperately needed and its built-in drones weren't all that impressive either, although i haven't tested it for very long, so perhaps i missed something. Still, for 15 DP, i can't complain much, the Hawke is dirt cheap, surprisingly mobile, and its stats, while still inferiors to vanilla ships had to offer, weren't that inferiors. I mean, that thing, as unremarkable as it is, somehow managed to survive the entire campaign without exploding and i'm not sure why. Maybe it got an experimental stealth field that hide from both its enemies and its commander? Go figure. Still, the quest for more dakka continue.

Not much later, i finally got my hands on a Caswell carrier. I already had an idea of what it could do, and i was pretty happy to find one. The Caswell by itself is a fairly unremarkable destroyer sized carrier. What makes it interesting? Its mine launcher. Just like the Doom can spawn mines, the Caswell can deploy Flak mines on the battlefield. The flak mines aren't as powerful, but their large radius still make them a threat to anything with stripped armour. With my Reid, i loved to ram my enemy and push them into mines. A very good support addition to my fleet, one that i carefully guarded with Shermans as it appeared to be quite a rare ship in this campaign. I had hoped to find some much needed bombers to got with it, alas, there's no such a thing in the ARS roster. The Earl strike fighter somewhat fits the bill, but it wasn't even close to what i needed to breach heavy armour.

At this point i pushed my luck a bit too far, and committed the risky endeavour of engaging a pirate bounty with a capital ship. The enemy flagship was a Renegade battlecruiser from SWP. Not that much of a threat by itself, but given my cruel lack of firepower, engaging that thing was a reckless move. After a long and gruesome battle, i managed to bring the beast down and retreat the rest of my CR starved fleet. Assassinating the enemy's flagship then retreating became a recurring thing in my mid-game campaign, since i had no way of taking on several heavily armoured vessels. In the case of the Renegade, i was lucky to have a few Hyperwave Transmitter objectives on the battlefield thanks to Secrets of the Frontier. Hyperwave Transmitter, when captured, can call in allied derelicts or remnant ships to help. A derelict craft isn't much, but when everything is suffering from low CR malfunctions, a triple chaingun Berseker suddenly become much more terrifying. That battlecruiser, EMP'd by my Reids, didn't saw it coming.

After this long and exhausting battle, i Hyperwarp jumped straight into an Hegemony invasion fleet. Oops.

Alright, back to (almost) scratch.

Fortunately for me, the RNG blessed me with plenty good ships. One of the those is the Osmond. An expensive, but powerful heavy destroyer, one with a large turret, i needed that. The Osmond is not only a pretty decent frontliner, it's also a formidable support ship. What really distinguish the Osmond is that it's also a minelayer, it can deploy EMP mines to spread chaos. Because the RNG was very generous this time around, i got several Osmonds available, meaning a lot of mines, meaning a lot of chaos.

Spoiler

No engine is safe.

[close]

Sadly, it also mean a lot of friendly fire, especially for my Reids that were operating behind the enemy. Still, with the Osmond, my campaign strategy for ARS started to form. I'm going to make a deathball. A compact formation of destroyers shielding my carriers and my Edith, shelling the enemy from afar, and punishing any aggression with a barrage of mines. In some aspect, ARS is very similar to old school Interstellar Imperium, but without the armour. Stay in formation, punish anything that comes too close, and slowly grind the enemy to pulp. I was also playing with the commissioned crew mod. It does adds bonus depending on the faction the player is affiliated to, in this case, Society Riggers for ARS ships, which reduce the amount of low CR malfunction, and repair them faster. Given the endurance, defensive playstyle i'm planning to do, CR is going to be an issue, and this will thankfully reduce the effect.

With those new ships, i also got myself a King cruiser. I saw the large turret and thought "yeah, that's gonna be useful". Unfortunately for me, it also got Omni Loader, which is very good to increase the firepower, but very bad for survival. Every time i looked at it in battle, the King was perpetually overflowing with flux, unable to do anything. I though that maybe the weapons i gave it were too flux intensive for it? Nope, Hellbore, autocannons, point defenses... And just like every ships cursed with Omni Loader, it died, a lot. Perhaps with further testing i could have made it work, but at this point i didn't bothered, and did set my sights on something new and shinier.

No long after forming my new fleet, i had the chance to get myself a Macnamara heavy cruiser. My quest for dakka is finally being rewarded! Take a Reid, give it enough sun, water it regularly, and one day, it will grow into a Macnamara, the highlight of the ARS fleet. Its little cousin, the Reid, eat frigates for breakfast. The Mac prefer instead a cruiser and destroyer based diet, and sometimes an occasional capital ship with some proper flanking manoeuvres. Its large array of medium turrets allows it many potential builds, but really, the Macnamara shines when its build as a Skirmisher just like the Reid. Chainguns and Safety Override turns it into a fast brute that can rampage through the enemy's rear line, or frontline, or anywhere really. Well, maybe not in front of that Onslaught then. Also, be careful of those Salamanders, as the Mac's engines are extremely vulnerable to flameout. Every times i got caught, it was because of a sudden flameout.

I haven't tested the Lyon a lot. Its unimpressive weapon package and Magnetized Plating (damper field) didn't quite fit in my new combat doctrine. Still, i got one of those out of curiosity. It is certainly pretty difficult to take down, but at this point, if the enemy was on me, it meant i was doing something very wrong. Perhaps i'm judging wrongly the Lyon, and probably should see it primarily as a carrier than can somewhat fight rather than a proper combat cruiser. Unfortunately, it eventually died, and i didn't bothered to replace it and test it further.

Finally, as i was now well into late game, i got my hands on the big boy, the Alastair battlecruiser. The Alastair isn't a bruiser like the Onslaught, nor an artillery powerhouse like the Conquest, neither an oversized skirmisher like the Odyssey, it's not quite like the Legion as well. Let's call it a souped up Osmond, a decent frontliner and a very good support ship. Like the Osmond, it can spawn EMP mines, disrupting the enemy's fleet. Its weapon package is also notably upgraded, and it got some fighters too. All in all, the Alastaire would become the ideal anchor for my deathball. By the way, did i mentioned i fell in love the Heavy Plasma Driver? It fits so well on the Alastair, on the Osmond too. Its armor penetration isn't all that great, but the long range, hitscan rapid ROF with pinpoint accuracy make it perfect for taking potshots at anything that lower its shield. A single Plasma driver won't do much, but a whole fleet with those? The punishment for getting in range is immediate and merciless. Perfect for a deathball.

Spoiler

Pew pew

[close]

Plasma drivers won't go through some of the heavily protected brutes i was encountering though. But for those, i had an answer too. Those two flight decks on the Alastair i didn't knew how to use? Let's put some Cobras in those, and unleash them when the enemy is helplessly paralysed by the EMP mine spam. I could get surprisingly far into the game with this tactic. Only the super long range monsters (Siegfrieds, Paragons...) were giving me trouble, the deathball does not work when the enemy can shoot farther than me!

In the end, that was a pretty fun campaign. Early game is extremely rough without a Reid, and from my experience, it's better to stick with a bunch of fast frigates (Only Reids, really) for early game with the ARS. Unlike vanilla or other mod factions, upgrading to destroyers as quickly as possible is a mistake here, as the bigger ships only begin to show their qualities when part of a large fleet. It's pretty contre-intuitive, and further add to the difficulty of playing the faction. Yeah, it's a difficult faction to play with, a bit like ORA or SCY, where early game is extremely unforgiving. Perhaps the thread's OP should have written in big red letters "Glass cannons, handle with care".

There's just a few outliers like the Thatcher and Burke that feels off, i couldn't make them work properly. Also Omni Loader that felt like a death trap in battle. Haven't looked in depth into the fighters. The Jack drones were what i used the most, since they were plentiful and i liked their ability to spam rockets. The Duke gunboats too were pretty good as long range fire support. Others like the Monodrone however, could have been deprived of weapons and they would still be as useful as they currently are. I guess they do cost 0 OPs to mount though.

Oh also, i "accidentally" scrapped the Champion. I feel i shouldn't have done that.

Updated for 0.9.5. Many balance changes happened. Mainly buff i think?

[HELMUT]

Idoneus Citadel Exiles 0.9.1

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=18598.0

6 Years since my last ICE playthrough, how quickly time passes... I always have a soft spot for ICE, and i'm very glad you decided to update and release this mod once again ! I thought this was a good occasion to start a campaign with them. I'll write a bit about how things went, what i liked, what i disliked, some suggestion for the future too.

I still have some memories left of the how the faction worked, so i didn't went in completely blind, which did help me quite a bit during early game. I knew the Citadel ships were glass cannons, with decent armor but terrible hull, leaving them extremely vulnerable to high HE damage. Fortunately, being phase ships, they could dance around the battlefield without being caught, but when they get caught, there rarely is a second chance for them.


---


I began this campaign with a Nexerelin as part of the Idoneus garrison with a "small combat fleet" start, at the command of a Flashghast, a Seraph and a Shiekwraith. The Flashgast looked like a promising flagship to start with, so it's with this one that i did lead in battle.

The Flashghast is an extremely mobile missile boat. Arguably a better, more agressive, phase version of the Vigilance. Its heavy missile loadout makes it pretty deadly during early game, although the limited ammo limits its usefulness during prolonged engagements. Or at least, that's the theory when you look at the Flashghast just by itself. In practice, i was accompanied in battle by a Seraph tug, and that changed everything.


The Seraph is a fairly expensive, harmless little frigate with no defense system whatsoever. It's also the most important part of any Idoneus fleet thanks to its maintenance drone system. The drones have long (unlimited?) range, can phase, will repair armor, will reload ammo (missiles included) and prevent peak performance/CR degradation.

And they stacks.

But even with just one Seraph on the battlefield, the maintenance drones turned my Flashghast, a pretty good frigate by itself, into an unstoppable war demon. When a fast, missile boat, severely limited by its low peak performance suddenly no longer have to worry about ammo and CR, things get a bit ridiculous. Loaded with Sabots and Harpoons, it could kill fast, and the resupplying drones ensured it kept killing. Yes, the missile regeneration took time, but eh, no CR degradation, i had all eternity to defeat my enemies. With my Seraph chilling in the safety of the battlefield's corner, my lone Flashghast could take on a theoretically infinite amount of opponents. It wasn't rare for me to take on overwhelmingly larger fleets with just those two ships.

Later on, i experimented a bit further with stacking several Seraphs on the battlefield, vastly increasing the missile regeneration. At this point i could keep them on autofire and they would dump missiles all the time. The maintenance drone effect is lessened on non Idoneus ships, but still good enough to be overpowered.

So yeah, if there's one nerf that need to be taken on the whole faction, it's on the maintenance drones. Repairing armor is fine, especially for Idoneus ships that really needs it during mid/late game. Ammo regeneration however, is way too strong, and preventing CR degradation even more so. Moreover, i noticed later that with missile boats like the Eidolon and Apocrypha would monopolise the drones to regen their ammo, depriving the frontline ships from the much needed armor repair bonus. Removing the ammo regen effect would at least negate this issue.

Another thing i would like to see is a nerfed range for the drones, as to prevent cheesing tactics like stacking Seraphs on the bottom of the map. With less range, they would need to be closer to the frontline and put themselves in danger. Yes, they're extremely vulnerable, but such massive buff like armor regeneration deserves a high risk that goes with it.

Also, i think something needs to be done to prevent drone stacking. While Idoneus ships are by nature quite fragile, drones stacking can still make some ships like the Abraxas obnoxiously hard to take down, and it's probably possible to cheese it even further with a non Idoneus ship. Maybe this would require a rework of the drone system itself to work though.


Beyond the broken Flashghaste/Seraph combo, i also had a Shiekwraith in my fleet. I won't tip toe around it, i found the Shiekwraith wanting. I really tried to make it work in one way or another but never could get anything worthwhile out of it. It's definitely supposed to be a support destroyer, unfortunately it's FoF Inverter ECM isn't the most reliable missile defense system, it doesn't work for very long and needs quite a while to recharge. Its falx beam array have too little range to be safely used, and when it used, it's with debatable usefulness in most fights. It felt out of place during most early/mid game battles, too fragile, not enough impact on the fight. Later on i used those as PD platforms with converted hangar to escort my larger ships, but even then i wasn't very convinced.

During my campaign, i had quite a few scuffle with the Idoneus Citadel Exiles, and the Shiekwraith was a common sight in their fleets. While relatively harmless, this ship is however very tedious to fight. Its Shallow Phase is more or less the same as the old Starsector phase cloak that could be turned on and off without cooldown. While Starsector evolved with time and got rid of its frustrating old cloak system, the Shiekwraith version is still present, and still as obnoxious as ever. It's not just for the Shiekwraith by the way, the Kelpie, Eidolon, Palantir and Apocrypha shares the same phase system. I really wish Shallow phase would either be reworked in something similar to the current Starsector phase cloak (something with a cooldown between phasing) or replaced with the infinitely more satisfying Phase warp that cloak in short bursts.

I hope the Shiek will get some love in some future update, to make it more useful to use, both during early and late game, and less frustrating as an opponent.


The Specter was among the few first ships i bought. An unassuming, but competent mainstay frigate that i used throughout the game. It's pretty mobile, decently armed, and cheap. They are easy to catch in between two phase warp, and their fragility rarely gave them a second chance in battle. Still, when i needed something to capture an objective or support a ship, the Specter wasn't a bad choice, at least for early/mid game, later on they just wouldn't survive. Not incredible, but it works.
I also noted some kind of bug with variants. When you choose a variant, say Assault variant with the heavy machine gun in the hidden medium hardpoint, then switch to a strike variant with the Flamebolt cannon, it will change all weapons except the hidden one. The player have to manually remove the hidden gun first. This bug seems to happens with the Soulbane as well. Maybe it's linked to hidden weapons?


The Palantir sensor ship don't have much going for it. It's not even armed! But it is as cheap as it's possible to get, and fast. Perfect for capturing objectives at the start of battle. The enhanced sensor system is a nice gimmick that allows the player to know where the enemy is going a bit earlier than usual.

The Pentagram(S) is more of a joke than a proper combat ship, but at least it's a funny joke. It will die a lot, and sadly doesn't kill all that much. Even as cheap as it is, i didn't found it worth keeping it in my fleet. Despite this, everyone should at least try once the space shuriken.

The standard variant of the Pentagram however... It's not quite as fun. Unfortunately, it's not very good as well. Its strange weapon layout indicate a point defense ship, however its ability to cloak itself, as well as the Enthropic Inversion Matrix interrupting its weapons makes the Pentagram pretty bad at its job. On top of that, the narrow weapon arcs on the energy turrets and ability to turn very fast means the PD weapons will struggle to keep track of their targets. I somehow managed to make it decent with a burst PD build, but then, it was merely decent compared to something cheaper and reliable like the Centurion. For some reason, it's also incredibly fast, 200 top speed, faster than a Hound !

The Athame drill frigate is almost in the same category as the Pentagram(S). It's a joke ship, but an extremely deadly one. Its fission drill allows it fly through the target, dealing horrific damage. Unfortunately the Athame will also damage itself in the process. In between the enemy's ordnance and the self-damage, Athames rarely survive their first assault. Even at 2 DP to deploy, they felt far too unreliable for my taste. Extremely terrifying when the AI is fielding them though.

I feel it's the kind of ship that would work better as a fighter instead of a frigate. With adjusted stats and sprite size, it could be an interesting, and actually usable, alternative take for a bomber.


I got the Nightseer quite late during my campaign. The Citadel super frigate proved a bit tricky to use at first, but overall quite useful, if very fragile. The large hybrid hardpoint allows for incredible firepower for a frigate, and the mobility offered by the light phase jaunt ensure it can bring that firepower right where it's needed. One powerful trick i learned while flying this ship is the ability to fire while "jaunting" despite being intangible. This allows the ship to jaunt over the target and unload right when it's on top of it. It requires a bit of practice, but it works wonderfully when combined with high burst weapons.

But even without that fancy piloting trick, the Nightseer can still be useful. The Ether Warp cloak creates a mini black-hole when used, swallowing and removing nearby ordnance, in a somewhat similar way to the Blackrock Imaginos. The main drawback of the Ether Warp is that it eats all projectiles, including yours and your allies, so it requires some trigger discipline with the cloak not to screw up.


The Soulbane is how i remember it. Reliable, powerful, surprisingly resilient, always useful. From the beginning to the end of the campaign, it made the backbone of my fleet. It's a curious mix of a Sunder and a Medusa, all blended together with a phase cloak. It's mobile enough to catch most targets, its large energy hardpoint can drill through most opponents, and the good armor coupled with the Phase Warp makes it a tricky ship to pin down.


Early to mid-game with just a pack of Soulbanes is doable, but i eventually reached a point where i needed fighter support. I was very reticent about buying an Eidolon carrier. Not that it is a bad ship, but it got maintenance drones as its system, and i wanted to avoid using those as much as i could, as not to be tempted to cheese my way through this campaign. Resisting the urge to turn it into a sabot/harpoon monstrosity, i did outfit my Eidolon as a long range fire-support. I was very lucky to get my hand on the Gandiva large missile launcher, which is basically a reaper LRM. For some reason, i struggled to find Idoneusian (is that the word?) weapons during my game. Most of the time, i was forced to salvage them from the wreckage of the Exiles fleets i preyed upon.

To get back on the Eidolon, it makes for a decent carrier and also a very good missile boat. Sadly, it can't do both at the same time, or at least not very well. It's OP starved, and while it can mount both missiles and fighters, it doesn't leaves much place for hullmods, and the Eidolon really wants hullmods. Building that ships require compromise. Do i really want those expensive bombers? Or should i get ECCM package instead? I ended up favoring fighters over missiles on my Eidolons. One reason is because ICE do have some pretty good fighters, the other reason is as said earlier in this post, as a missile boat, the Eidolon tends to hoard all the fleet maintenance drones to resupply its missiles, something i wanted to avoid. Just like the Shiekwraith, it got shallow phase, making it impossible for the enemy to quickly burst it down. Unfortunately, it also applies when it's on the enemy's side which can be a headache. Unlike the Shiekwraith however, you can't really ignore an Eidolon loaded with missiles.


I also got myself a pair of Kelpie cruisers. A normal version, and the (S) version. The Kelpie(S), just like the Pentagram(S), is a "blade" ship that fight in melee. Unlike the Pentagram however, this cruiser is extremely powerful in the hands of the player. The tractor beam can easily disrupt enemy formations, bringing the hapless target to the Kelpie's maw, letting the fission blades grinding it to dust. Those blades bites hard, hard enough that even the biggest capital ships learn to fear the Kelpie(S). Thanks to its Enthropic Inversion Matrix, the damage it receives from a struggling prey turns into armor regeneration. That system is also what prevent the Kelpie from being disabled by the target's death explosion.

The AI is extremely bad at using it, but as flagship it's arguably overpowered. Even more so when you consider that it only cost 15 DP to deploy. Nerfing the beast combat abilities would be a shame, that's what makes it fun to use. On the other hand, a more severe logistic cost could be a good first step to bring the ship to a more balanced level.

Compared to the (S) variant, the bladeless Kelpie is much less impressive, yet noticeably more expensive to field. Its fission blades have been replaced with 12 small energy hardpoints, and the tractor beam by a medium universal turret. It's... Very awkward to use. Vanilla and ICE lacks the small energy weapons to turns the Kelpie into something worth fielding. Maybe some other mods do, and with some safety override build it could work. Probably not, at least not for the AI. Because of its shallow phase (again) and the EIM system, the Kelpie is extremely AI unfriendly. I did try something easy like a tactical laser boat, but alas, without much success. The only way i managed to make it work was as a flagship, with a very unsubtle loadout.

Spoiler

0.7.2 Aurora flashback

[close]

It's as stupid as it looks, but 14.000 energy alpha strike plus 4000 HE will still get results in battle. However, it's not because it works with some weird cheesy build means it's a good overall ship. There's just too many issues. I feel the Kelpie needs an entire rework to justify its existence.


Much more reliable than those two, the Voidreaver is the elite Idoneus cruiser. At 35 DP, it's in the same weight category as the other "super" cruisers like the Doom. It's equipped with a unique Ether Warp cloak that spawn weak EMP arcs when phased. Not strong enough to shake off frigates but good enough to deal with missiles and unshielded fighters. On top of it, the Graviton Deflector hullmod can deflect incoming projectiles, making it extremely potent in a slugging match as long as it stays at low flux.

On top of that, the Voidreaver is quite overgunned. It's hard to miss the huge and powerful built-in Hypermass driver, although i used it less and less as i played the campaign. Extremely high-flux cost, forced overload on firing, and knockback effect on the target, usually accidentally saving it from a follow up. I wasn't very fan of the Hypermass driver. It works, but feels very clunky to use.
Just like the Eidolon, the Void feels constantly starved for OPs. It wants many guns, many hullmods and many vents points but lacks the OPs for everything. It's the kind of ship that works extremely well when all goes according to plan, but rapidly fall apart when caught in a tricky situation. Fortunately for me, i eventually found a foolproof safety net for my Voidreavers, or any other ships in my fleet for that matter.


The Apocrypha command ship is that safety net. Stat wise, it's a very unimpressive ship. Slow, fragile, limited armament, only 3 flight decks, as expensive as a Paragon... Its one big advantage over other ships (beyond the overpowered maintenance drones that is) is its Recall Teleporter hullmod. This hullmod will teleport any allied ship to its destination at the condition that it brings the targeted ship closer to the Apocrypha. Demonstration :

Spoiler

[close]

Ship being stranded on the edge of the map, surrounding by enemies? Recall teleport. Reinforcements can't cross the map fast enough to reach the front line? Recall teleport. Apocrypha being harassed by enemy frigates? Recall teleport a combat ship to deal with those. There are quite a few tricks possible with this system. It also works with the player flagship, although you must engage auto-pilot to "allow" the teleportation to happen. That's why the Apocrypha is extremely powerful, it can reliably save allies wherever they are in an instant. This is also the main reason an opposing Apocrypha is a priority target in battle, as it will deny any coup de grâce you were about to deal to an enemy target.

But that's not all! Built-in in the ship is the Tactical Ansible hullmod, the predecessor to Operation Center. Unlike its vanilla counterpart, the tactical ansible doesn't require the player to directly helm the ship for it to work. The regenerating command points make sure you can exploit the Recall Teleporter whenever you need it.

Speaking of the tactical ansible, i feel it's too strong. As a built-in hullmod in the Apocrypha, it's absolutely fine. Unfortunately, it's modular, and can easily be strapped on a Dram chilling on the bottom of the map with the Seraphs and still bring the command point regen bonus. I think it shouldn't be a modulable hullmod, only the Apocrypha should have it.


And finally, we got the faction's big boy, the Abraxas battlecruiser. Just like the Apocrypha, it doesn't look very impressive at first glance. Not very fast, low armor, even lower hull, and it's the only non-phase Idoneus ships with the Seraph. On the other hand, it does have pretty good firepower with its converging turrets, and very good flux stats to back those guns. But beyond that, the Abraxas got two main strengths that makes the difference.
First : its ship system, heavy flash jaunt. Yes, like the Nightseer's, although with a cooldown between uses. It can do the same "fire while jaunting" trick as its smaller cousin, but it's harder to pull of due to its limited mobility. Not like it needs it though, the Abraxas can jaunt to the target flank and unload its firepower in all impunity, with enough firepower to rip through shield and armor. When retribution is coming from the enemy or flux is too high, it can reset the jaunt to its original position. In practical terms, it can reach a target much farther than what should normally be possible. No ship is safe from an Abraxas even when it appears out of range. The jaunt is also an extremely good tool to juke dangerous projectiles like torpedoes.

On top of its incredible mobility, the second Abraxas strength is its Nova reactor. It's a hullmod with the ability to auto-repair the ship's armor, except for the core. Combined with the appropriate combat skills, hullmods and maintenance drones support, an Abraxas can be one of the hardest thing to destroy in the entire sector. It still fears very high HE damage like reapers, but will shrug off anything else like it's nothing. Both of those advantages allows for the battlecruiser to jaunt into the most dangerous situation and get out relatively unscathed. And in the eventually it get surrounded, i still got an Apocrypha to save its butt.

By the way, extending shield is incompatible with the Abraxas. There's no hullmod conflict message, it just refuse to install itself. It's fair that this hullmod is incompatible on this ship, but it should be signaled in one way or another.


Lastly, by the end of this campaign, i managed the capture the Exiles colony ship, the Shalom. I admit i half-expected capturing that ship would give me a mobile colony at disposition just like the Exiles. But eh, i guess it would require some advanced scripting wizardry to pull off. That would still be a cool feature, as the current Shalom doesn't do a whole lot.


Beyond the ships, i have a few observations to make regarding the ICE hullmods. For exemple : Munition AutoFac works... Very randomly? I can't get it to work reliably in the simulator, sometimes it does reload things, sometimes it does partially, sometimes it doesn't. Either i'm missing something about this hullmod or it's bugged.

Reverberation Dampener is a no brainer. It's a cheap way to reduce HE damage, the biggest threat to Idoneus ships. As a built-in hullmod on blade ships it makes sense, but as a modular hullmod it's just too good.

Shunt coating is very niche. Given Citadel ships never have enough OPs for everything they want, i'm not sure i would ever spend 12 OPs on something so unreliable. Perhaps this one could get a buff.

Tactical Ansible, as i already said it, don't think should be modular. Mounting it on some cheap frigate, letting it sleep on the edge of the map and still getting the bonus is just too easy.

Phase bypass. Decent hullmod for forcing a missile boat to stay out of phase so it can keep firing all the time. It's currently good thanks to maintenance drones resupplying missiles. With nerfed drones however... I'm not sure.


---


Finally, the end of this post ! So, my opinion on this mod... Well, a originally made by Sundog is bound to be memorable. It's fun, it's pretty, it's original, it just works, i like it. However there are a few things that i think really needs adjustments. Some ships, some hullmods and the maintenance drones, especially the maintenance drones.

While i did enjoy this campaign, i'm not sure i would keep the mod activated for future playthrough. It's good, but needs polishing in my opinion. Quality-wise, it's not quite up there with the other "big faction mods". At least, not yet. I really hope this mod will keep being updated and improved in the future. It's just too unique and cool to be left abandoned. For those that are curious but skeptical, i think it definitely deserves a try.

Oh, and one last thing. Shouldn't this thread moved to the mods section of the forum? It's largely functional enough to deserve a place there.

Not yet updated for 0.9.5. Last update supposedly addressed balance issues among other things. The last changelog was not translated though, so i have no idea how much it really changed.

[HELMUT]

Seeker - Unidentified contact 0.9.1

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=19414.0

I recently did a free start campaign. I think it was a good way to try a little bit of everything and have fun in the process. I was especially eager to try some of the Seeker stuff in this game. Unrelated to the mod, i went for a "semi iron-man" playstyle, with the rule that i could only save my game at a friendly dock. It made the game quite a bit tense and forced me to play safer than usual, although not as cowardly as a normal iron-man would. It stopped worked toward the end though, since everyone was friendly to me through regular bounty-hunting/contract/trading. If i do something of that style again, i would set the rule as only saving at a singular homebase to keep things interesting.

Anyway, i had the chance to try a few ships during this campaign, and i decided to write a bit about those.



The Adze destroyer was my starter ship, and i have to admit it didn't took long to fall in love with it. Not only it makes for a pretty good destroyer, It is also very satisfying to fly.

Stat wise, it looks very akin to a Hammerhead at first glance. Similar weapon layout, similar stats. Although the Adze is more expensive and better armored than its mid-tech cousin. With that in mind, one could think it would flies in a more brutish and straightforward fashion. But it doesn't. The low-tech Adze is noticeably more subtle, almost like a high-tech destroyer. Even a safety overide build feels different to what i expected.

The heavier emphasize on missiles might have a hand in that. One medium composite, two small missiles and built-in expanded missile racks nudges the player to make use of those. The relatively limited OPs also makes an all gun loadout a bit too constrained for my liking, but still possible.

My starter Adze was outfitted from the standard variant with the newly added miniguns at the prow. Fairly competent against the early pirates rustbuckets in my testing, although i quickly swapped the typhoon for a much more reliable harpoon pod. The Adze prefers to soften the target at range with its dual miniguns before pouncing in with its burst jets to land the killing blow. Few things can handle a ship that can swap from long range pressure to close range missile burst early in the game. Later on, the loadout doesn't even need to change even for a more support oriented role.

For a Safety Override build, i went for something a bit more unconventional. Again, the Adze low amount of OPs limites the viability of a "traditional" SO build. Instead, i used a Sabot heavy loadout with dual chainguns. Short lived on the battlefield, even with expanded missile racks. But by the time it's out of ammo, the battle is usually won.

I unfortunately lost my Adze relatively early in my campaign and couldn't find a replacement. So i don't really knows how well it would perform in larger battles.


My second flasgship was the Marksman, if only for a short time. A cheap, fast gun platform with serviceable armor and a precariously narrow front-shield. Not a frontliner by any mean, it feels like an oversized Vigilance in some way. Often i got bumrushed by some overzealous pirate and i rarely could shake it off by myself. It really needs allied support to hide behind when things gets too hot.

At longer range, the built-in Executioner have decent range and punch, although it needs to be manually reloaded with the ship system. The "Blazing flamingo" special reload is a really nice touch, it turns a fairly boring ship into something much funnier to fly. Although it makes it easier to screw up the reload and miss an opportunity. Enemy ship is disengaging just out of range? Blazing flamingo ! Now you're in range ! Aaaand i missed.

Despite this, i don't feel the Marksman sufficiently pulls its weight as a flagship compared to other destroyers. It's a bit of a shame to see that cool reload system idea being wasted on something that isn't quite good enough to fly by the player. I quickly discarded it as some cheap missile boat for the AI to use, a role it did perform pretty well. A flying pair of Sabot/Harpoon pods is never a bad thing to have throughout the game.


I replaced the Marksman with a Butterfly. Now we're talking! While the Marksman doesn't entirely rely on its built-in gun, the Butterfly absolutely does. The twin Revolver pulse beams can unload quite a lot of damage during early game.

It shines brighter when used as a flanker to assist an ally or to catch a careless frigate, a bit like the Shrike. Although it will eventually overwhelm opponents of its size in duel through sheer DPS. It's the ideal tool for mid-game, when the player have more than few ships to distract the enemy, letting the Butterfly swoop in to unleash its huge burst damage. It does struggle a bit against heavier armor though, so it only get limited use later in the game.

I think expanded magazines should be a built-in hullmod for that ship. As the Butterfly relies entirely on the revolver pulses. Unfortunately for me, i found the expanded magazines hullmod fairly late in my campaign. I felt quite limited without it. Sure, the ship worked, but it couldn't quite reach its full potential without that hullmod.


Later on, i got my hands on a Trailblazer, which i promptly used as a flagship. Despite its sleek and agressive appearance, the Trailblazer is pure support ship. A mobile artillery, but not the usual kind. For those that don't know about the built-in reality drill, it's a slow "phased" projectile that projected an area of effect damage wherever it passes through. Because its is "phased", it cannot collide, and will fly "over" the target.

This is what makes the reality drill be an incredible weapon. Enemies with a elongated shape will stays longer in the projectile's AOE. Ships with a limited shield arc won't be able to cover the whole damage field. Ships that can retreat backward quickly (hello phase shifting bastards) will accidentally back into the projectile's field. And the reality drill does a LOT of damage. It sounds quite good for the player, although i expect it to become a prime target when the enemy is fielding one. Fortunately, it seems extremely rare, i never encountered one in the wild.

But as said above, it's a support ship, it needs backup. Even with its attitude jets, the Trailblazer will get surrounded, and punished. I fortunately had a fleet quite capable of covering my mistakes, and i made many mistakes. The flux cost of the main weapon is high, and spamming the attitude jets is an enticing though, it's a perfect recipe for overextending.

Alas, the joy of firing a large exotic distortion bullet wears off fairly quickly.  While the Trailblazer makes for a really good, if expensive, AI support, it doesn't make for the most interesting flagship. Its limited armament beyond the reality drill doesn't allow for much customisation : point defense, long range guns. It doesn't want to fight close, and it wants all the capacity and dissipation to fuel its main weapon.


The Halligan was one of my next mid/late game flagship. Sadly, i got a pirate version, with a noticeably shrunken OP pool and burn drive instead of burst jets. It lies somewhere between the Dominator and the Eagle in term of firepower and endurance. With a touch of Gryphon for the non pirate version with its numerous missiles.

Because of its fewer OPs, the pirate Halligan never feels quite comfortable with most builds. You usually have to choose between hullmods and additional dissipation. I personally made a basic Safety Overide build to make use of the numerous medium turrets. But even with letting the missiles hardpoints empty, i could only make it okay-ish. Not much in-combat experience to talk about though, since i lost it in my first battle.

Also, i am extremely sadened that a broadside build is even't remotely viable. Composite side hardpoints pls.



I also had some scuffle with the plagueships. Rampage and Safeguard. Although it was at a point in the game where i could handle those two quite easily. Rampage will rip apart anything that stays in front of it, but i managed to distract it from the rest of my fleet with a phase ship. Safeguard's mass driver is hard countered by interceptors, and i had plenty of those at the time. I don't think i ever seen the bomb explode once in that battle. No encounters with the other two plagueships so far.

By the way, i think a non corrupted (and nerfed) Safeguard would make for a pretty cool derelict ship. On the other hand, i guess that would cheapen the "unique boss" thing it currently have.

Updated for 0.9.5. No change otherwise.

[HELMUT]

Ruthless Sector 0.9.1

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=15279.0

Among the "Sundog modding compilation" mods, i think Ruthless Sector is probably the one i care about the most.  The mod does adds quite a few things, all pretty good. But one thing stands out from the rest : the addition of Remnants patrols in hyperspace.

Vanilla's hyperspace is boring. Once i reach a solid enough fleet capable of warding off the wandering pirates and pathers, i always lay course to my destination and alt-tab away, ignoring storms and whatnot. Basically, i'm waiting for time to pass. I always considered that waiting because you have to wait is not good game mechanic. On the other hand, waiting because the player wants to wait is brilliant. But maybe that's for another topic. My point is, vanilla hyperspace lacks interesting interaction, it's boring.

Adding remnants in that big emptiness is a brilliant move. First of all, alt-tabbing away is no longer possible because no matter how big your fleet is, you can't ignore the potential AI gank squad. The outer rim is now a risky place, but not just a risky place, it also became a place of opportunity.

The thing is, it wouldn't have been as interesting if it was just some pirates or pathers lurking in the darkness. In fact, those would just have been an annoyance to avoid. Unless there is a bounty on their heads, pirates tends to waste the player's time. Fighting them will cost supplies, they are rarely exiting encounters and earn very little reward. Remnants on the other hand, are much more dangerous, but the reward is also much greater. High-end weapons and those sweet, sweet AI cores. One exemple : Pirates hit-list fleets from Nexerelin offers very little reward in fighting them. Running is often the most judicious option. They're an annoyance. Fortunately they do not occur with sufficient frequency to become aggravating.

That's why i really like this mod. Hyperspace is now a place of risk AND opportunity. There's an Ordo trailing me. Do i square against that Radiant for potential good loot? But i may lose some ships in the process... It offers the player a choice in a place where not much usually happens, and that's amazing. Add on top of that the hyperwarp jump mod (that is also in my must-have modding list), things can get even more heated by allowing them to "jump" next to you. It's dangerous but not just punishing, it's fun.

That's why i consider Ruthless Sector to be part of the indispensable overhaul mods like Combat Chatter or Secrets of the Frontier. It takes something that vanilla is lacking, or not great, and refine it into something worth my time. It's something i hope Alex will take inspiration from in the development of Starsector.

I wish others mods would add their own content into hyperspace for variety. But again, just adding enemies isn't enough, there must be a good reason/reward to fight theses enemies. Encountering Blade Breaker raiders or some Seeker anomalous ship in the middle of nowhere would keep things interesting throughout a campaign.

One thing i noticed, not related to this feature. I think the danger rating from ruthless sector favors D mods too much. Sometimes i purposely wrecked my own ships to gain D mods just to get better ratings and perks from Starship legends. Factions like the HMI Junkers that cumulate an excessive amount of D mods tends to get favorable ratings at the end of the battle, even with 90% fleet loss. Although the Junkers are a special case, i still feel one or two D mods is very beneficial to "grind" those good traits even for a normal ship.

In the same vein, danger rating for boss fleets (looking at you Seeker) tends to be very low, despite being some of the most dangerous encounters in the game. Perhaps because it contains fewer ships that a normal fleet? Even if i win such battle, i can end up with negative traits on most of my ships.

Not yet updated for 0.9.5. No change either.

[Tartiflette]

I finally got time to add those to the OP, thanks a lot Helmut!

[Helldiver]

Roider Union 1.2.2

A highly polished faction mod that adds a small, Independent-like faction of united asteroid miners.
Every aspect of the faction (lore, visuals, gameplay) integrates perfectly into the vanilla setting.

All of the faction's ships are conversions of vanilla designs (including armored and weaponized civilian ships) which can be bought directly or converted for you by Roiders if certain conditions are met.
Visually, most are not simply recolors or kitbashes however and every ship sprite is high quality.

Ship gameplay-wise, they come with their own passive gameplay additions (fighter clamps, MIDAS armor, additional armor blocks). Most ships are well-armored (unlike pirate/ pather conversions) and simple to play (including for AI) and have basic ship systems (no crazy game-changing effects).
The mod also adds a few thematic weapons and fighters that synergize with Nexerelin's mining and fulfill some gameplay niches.
The current mod balance is good versus vanilla ships/weapons.

Campaign gameplay-wise, Roiders are multi-faceted and exist not only in two settled worlds but also in randomized, temporary bases in fringe systems while some rogue Roiders can also go pirate (though regular Roiders hate pirates). In Nexerelin they are fairly passive (not sector conquerors) but will ally to factions with whom they have common traits/enemies.
Even if you don't visit their worlds, you will often see small groups of them around thanks to their nomadic nature.
The player can attract Roiders by building Roider Dives at their colonies, which can upgrade to Roider union HQs to gain local access to conversion services.

Final words:
If you want to play a space miner, this vanilla-friendly faction is just about perfect.
If you don't want to play a space miner, this faction is still a great plus to any campaign as a non-intrusive variant to Independents with its own identity and gameplay additions.

[MrFluffster]

0.9.1 mod: Coherent Watermelon's Ship Pack(CWSP) 1.1

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=18574.0

A medium-sized ship pack mostly focused on niche, unique, specialized ships and weapons.


While there's two capital ships in this pack, far more interesting are all the smaller sized ships. Of particular note are ships such as the phase mules, which fill a much needed niche of phase-capable freighters while still maintaining a reasonable degree of combat viability - particulary thanks to their offense-focused ship systems, or the October that goes all in on the idea of phase ships as submarines, with a sleek look and built-in "strategic missiles". Content strong in flavour is a major part of the pack.

Perhaps the most interesting are the most specialized of elements of the mod. The anti-phase cruiser and destroyer provide a particulary welcome way to counter some of the more annoying hostile elements while the Swordbreaker line of weapons is a cute bunch of very strong anti-fighter armaments - though they do suffer from perhaps being a bit too common and OP hungry, being a bane of any autofit ships in the wild.


Spritework is not exceptional but mostly good enough with some weaker sprites or slightly awkward mounts. The October and Swordbreakers are definitely the nicest parts, while Phorcys and its brother could use another pass.


It might be a bit rough around the edges but it's hard not to like it for trying to strongly themed and specialized ships that aren't seen much in the rest of the modiverse. All I can hope for that it'll be further updated and expanded upon.

[MrFluffster]

0.95 mod: Autosave version 1.1b

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=9748.0

By default Autosave gives you an occassional reminder to save your game, showing you how much time and how many battles and transactions you have done since the last save. It's a bit smarter than just a reminder timer - it'll remind you after a big battle and such. You can also enable it to just do the autosaves itself(f.e. after a battle) but I prefer to just do that myself when I feel like it. It's generally pretty configurable but you don't really need to fiddle with them, it's good out of the box.

There isn't too much to say - it's one of those mods you always want enabled even if you're not doing a modded run. Absolute must have in my opinion.

[Tartiflette]

I updated the OP for a much improved readability. I think QoL mods fall outside the scope of this thread and will cause more clutter than they are worth: most of them are very self explanatory and do a good job at explaining their effects in their threads. I 'd rather concentrate the reviews on stuff that is harder to gauge from a few screenshots and a mod thread blurb.

[HELMUT]

Arma Armatura 1.4.8RC3

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=18751.0

After playing a (tiny) bit of 0.95a. I rapidly felt like spicing things up a little bit with mods, but not too much so i could still try the newest vanilla additions. On top of the standard QOL mods, i wanted to add ArmaA on top of it. Because big robots.

I didn't played very far into the campaign, but still enough for me to get a feel of the faction. My fleet started off as a mix of vanilla/ArmaA ships, until i translated into a full mecha warband. That's when i realized ArmaA isn't meant to be played as faction like Diable or Shadowyard. They have too many holes in their roster to fullfill every required roles. ArmaA offers a mix of support and striker mechs, but they have to rely on ships from other factions to perform optimally. Early and mid game proved easy enough, but late game was painful.


During this campaign, the Garegga was the first ArmaA craft i used. It proved to be a top of the line frigate/mech. A close range brawler that can even go toe to toe against destroyers.

By itself, it would be a pretty decent frigate, but what makes the Garegga really good is its SILVERSWORD system that further boost it's rate of fire, mobility and accuracy. It's a Safety Override switch an command. And just like SO, it comes at the cost of ripping through its peak performance when used. Hardened subsystems is pretty much mandatory for the Garegga once there's more than a few enemy ships to deal with.

Still, it was my fleet workhorse for the whole campaign. The built-in Mutilators's monstrous DPS allows the Garegga to be a threat to nearly anything, even during late game. The SILVERSWORD's speed buff also makes it to easily engage and disengage a specific target, making it very difficult to pin down. On top of it, the build-in SILVERSWORD hullmod (yes, it's named like the ship system) is pretty much an Integrated Point Defense AI, as such the Garegga is more than capable of defending itself against fighters and missile swarms.

On the other hand, it's as expensive to deploy as most destroyers, and like any ArmaA craft, it have virtually no cargo space whatsoever. It's made purely for fighting. And while it's an impressive combat tool, it won't win the battle by itself and will need support to crack open the strongest shields and armors.

There's also the Tri-Tachyon high-tech variant, the Trihänder. It does come with built-in Flux Coil Adjunct and custom, more efficient pulse lasers. I don't like it as much as its original version though. The pulser lasers have worse tracking and rate of fire than the mutilators, making them less useful at shooting down fighters and missiles. And i prefer the composite turrets over the synergy ones. Still, it works, but not as well in my opinion.


I also got my hands on an Aleste. The frigate mech, not the fighter one (yeah, ArmaA tends to call multiple things with the same name). It's a small glass cannon of a ship. It can dish out quite a lot of damage, but is absolutely not qualified for a frontal assault, even on a frigate. The tiny flux capacity means the Aleste can easily overload under pressure, and because of its low hull and flimsy armor, it rarely gets a second chance in battle.

Instead of rushing in, the Aleste prefers to flank or go for an already pressured targets. I like the use my Alestes as quick objectives cappers, then ordering them to escort frontliners like Gareggas. When they're not the focused by an enemy, the Aleste can make use of its variety of built-in weapons to do its job. Flamers, grenade launcher, laser blades... It got quite a few options. The loadout won't change its role much, but it adds some variety at how it'll poke holes through the enemy's hull. While it can be used by the AI with respectable results, it's clearly intended to be used as a flagship, where the player can push the craft in a way the AI wouldn't. It's no Hyperion, it won't win the battle by itself, far from it. But it's fun, it's really fun to fly. One annoying thing i spotted when used by the AI, it tends to waste its Heavy Rifle shots on fighters. Come on, that's a 700 energy shot! Keep that for the big ships! It should have the "strike" tag to avoid that.

One thing to note, the Aleste appears as a frigate but is technically a strike craft. It needs carriers on the battlefield to repair and resupply. Having an aggressive carrier, or a ship with converted hangar close to the frontline is an easy way for a quick pit stop in the middle of the battle.


Similar to the Aleste is the Einhänder strike craft/frigate. Faster, tougher but also much more expensive. Unlike the Aleste, the Einhänder can survive a direct confrontation with bigger opponents. Not really with tanking, but more with dodging. Thanks to its time dilatation enhanced maneuverability, it can juke through projectiles with surprising ease. I used my Einhänders as oversized Thunders interceptors. Their incredible mobility allows them to even circumvent omni-shields, and deliver massive EMP damage with their Juno MK.I.

Add some homing lasers to handle fighters, the Glaive cannon to punch through armor and the dreaded Pilas drones, the Einhänder can do a little bit of everything. Juggling through all the guns can get confusing in battle, so i prefer to let the AI use this ship instead, especially since it can pilot it reliably. The Pilas drone can also be customized with their synergy hardpoint. Ion cannons seemed to be the safe loadout in my experience, everything that can hamper the enemy's ability to fight back is extremely useful for ArmaA crafts. But for more aggressive variants, a Needler or a Rift Lance are very strong options, especially since the Pilas do share the same time-dilatation effect as their parent ship.

Unfortunately, its small size and limited weaponry limits its influence on the battlefield. Just like the Aleste, it's here to help, but it won't win the battle for you.


In the heavyweight category comes the Altagrave. A very expensive destroyer mech with decent stats for its price. But you don't get one of those for its raw stats, you get it for the utility it provides to your fleet. The Altagrave shine in a support role, covering allied ships with its K.A.R.M.A system that can redirect missiles and absorb projectiles only to spit them back as its own missiles. It's an extremely powerful defensive system particularly useful against the hardest hitters. The missile blowback effect can be quite impressive against swarms of Piranhas bombers.

Alas, the Altagrave is a capricious beast in battle. Making it behave the way you want often require extensive testing in the simulator before being combat ready. The few weapon mounts limit the customisation possibilities, even more so if you take in account range-matching with the built-in Vajra cannon. From my experience, it tends to behave with extreme aggressiveness, with little regard for its own safety. Which works very well when your fleet is steamrolling the enemy, but not so much against opponents that can hold their own.

I found that tethering my Altagraves to other ships with an escort order, like the Garegga, rein in their aggressivity to more manageable levels. On the other hand, their limited weaponry hampers their capabilities at medium to long range. Finding the right balance between longer range survivability and close range efficiency can be a difficult thing. Altagraves tends to either overperform for a short period of time before prematurely exploding, or survive with little contribution to the battle. I was ready to retire my unreliable big mechs until i got my hands on a command variant that changed everything.


That variant, the the Altagrave(C) is a bit different from the standard version in that it's a purely support build. It trades the direct fire Vajra for the Syrinx MRM launcher. Its K.A.R.M.A variant still do absorbs projectiles, but instead of spitting back missiles, it instead create a time dilation AOE for friendlies around it. It's only a 1000 range bubble though, so it doesn't want to sit too far from the frontline so its allies can benefit from it. What really changed the (C) variant for me though is the built-in Operation Center.

ArmaA crafts tends to be offensive based with very little in the way of defense, and often need to be closely managed. With OPcenter, you can now micro your fleet to vastly improve their effectiveness. ArmaA mechs are fairly limited in peak performance, and don't want to be mired in an endurance battle. With regenerating command points, timing eliminate/avoid/rally orders to quickly take down specific targets becomes a huge advantage. Those reckless Altagraves you carefully set to escort duty? You can now remove the leash and let them go wild just long enough to burst down that capital ship. Frigate capturing your objective? Ask that Einhänder to quickly take care of it. Altagrave trying to suplex an Onslaught in the middle of the enemy's fleet? Come back here buddy. The back and forth ordering ensue your mechs are performing to their best capacities while limiting the risks. In that way, the Altragave(C) was the biggest game changer in my campaign. My fleet could now properly take on end-game fleets without catastrophic losses. This new way of playing also allowed me to build my standard Altagraves the way they are supposed to be (at least to me) by focusing on close range builds with high flux capacity and dissipation.

The (C) variant isn't just a mobile command center though. The Syrinx launcher is a nasty weapon, and downright brutal with missile specialization. Because most of the weapons i used on it didn't generated flux, i used my mech as a front line shield tank/torpedo boat. To keep the enemy busy and finishing off those in difficulty.


The third variant is the Altagrave(G), (G) standing for grenadier. Unlike the other two, this one lacks the K.A.R.M.A system, instead relying on plasma jets and a slightly upsized weapon layout.  It's fast, and better armed. Its role is clearly being a hunter killer, the one you give an eliminate order to and watch the firework. The Exceliza grenade launcher is unfortunately quite unreliable, my ship will often flail around with its gun, relying on spray and pray rather than proper aiming. Properly setting the launcher to be linked with a more reliable gun in the weapon groups makes it a bit better. Still, a lot of grenades bouncing around, fired in inexplicably wide arcs, is a common sight with the Altagrave(G). It's probably the least useful of its siblings. It works, but at 18 deployment points, i expected a bit more from it. I wish it had customizable Pila drones instead of its standard hunter-killer ones.


There's also a fourth variant, the (EX) version, but it's a boss ship and i haven't tried it in this campaign.


I also did use the fighters, although i didn't looked into them as deeply as i did with the ships. From my experience they were... Okay. I guess? I think it's because ArmaA fighters do not work very well as part of an ArmaA exclusive fleet. Most couldn't fill the roles i needed at the moment, and those that could, could only in theory but not really in practice. The R9 Gallant is a prime exemple. A long range kinetic beam bomber. Pretty useful in theory. On the battlefield however, they tend to miss a lot. By comparison, its immediate competitor, the Longbow, is cheaper, more reliable, deal hard flux and is even armed with PD.

It's possible that my brain haven't yet moved on from Starsector 0.8.1 when the carriers were all powerful. So take my opinion on the fighters with a grain of salt. It's possible i expected more of them than i should have.


My campaign ended relatively early. A pure ArmaA fleet only got me so far. I struggled against Remnants, and got thoroughly trounced by Omega. A mixed fleet would have worked much better i think. Their limited roster prevent them from filling every roles they need. In this version, it's easy to make them work, but difficult to make them excel.  ArmaA mechs require to be carefully managed if they want to win a battle in late game.

It was still very fun to play, although i couldn't shake off that feeling of jankiness when using the mod. Strange AI behavior and some other oddity happening here and there. Nothing game breaking, aside perhaps from a recurring issue where the battle wouldn't finish without using the EndCombat command. I did played with Secrets of the Frontier though, so maybe it comes from there?

There's also some little things to iron out. A few missing descriptions here and there : the Syrinx launcher, the AMWS-G. The sword slash particles looks weird, and can glitch pretty hard when there's numerous Valken-X on the battlefield. The overload sound also do repeat itself on the Aleste and Einhänder, which can get pretty grating.

One thing i really wish to see in a future version is the fighter's weapon stats being shown in the stats card. Diable Avionics did that if i remember correctly, and it would greatly benefit ArmaA too since their fighters mostly use custom weapons.