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[Electronik]

I've played a little and I don't like the flux system at all. I know there are a lot of mods for this game, so if anyone knows about some rebalance mod with removed flux, let me know please. Thank you.

[Zonk]

Hello,

I don't believe a mod exists to do that. I do not think it would be possible to remove the flux system from the game. Flux limits how much damage a ship's shields can take, for example, and removing it would make shields infinitely powerful. Flux stats also prevent small ships from infinitely firing very powerful weapons. Removing flux from the game entirely would fully break both shields and other fundamental aspects of game balance.

You can change how much flux dissipation is provided by vents, or capacity is given by capacitors, in the game settings file. Be warned that changing these figures will have a serious impact on game balance and note what the original values were if you ever want to revert to vanilla stats. If you're having trouble managing your ship's own flux, consider either fitting fewer guns and investing OP into flux stats, or letting the AI handle your ship and learning from how it manages flux.

Good luck and I hope you find what you're looking for.

[SCC]

I don't think anyone has stuck around long enough to make a rebalance mod for all the ships and weapons in the game, while disliking the core mechanic of Starsector's combat.

[Maethendias]

I don't think anyone has stuck around long enough to make a rebalance mod for all the ships and weapons in the game, while disliking the core mechanic of Starsector's combat.

i think its more of an issue that starsector is kind of inaccessable rn, which keeps its modding community too small and kind of stale, for people to tackle core mechanics like that directly

it also doesnt help that the game is still in beta

[Electronik]

Thanks to everyone for your answers. I thought as much after a light search in modding section. A bit of a shame, since core rebalances like these are applied the best when you just start with any given game.

To Zonk: There are plenty of ways to rebalance everything around the idea of not having flux. That's why I asked for a rebalance mod first that also happens to remove flux.

Flux as an idea isn't bad or good, I just don't like it personally. I'll continue playing the game as is, now that I have more reason to believe, that rebalance with flux removed is not present. Thanks to everyone once again.

[Igncom1]

I mean you could mod the weapons to all have a flux cost of 0, then flux only builds up when using the shields/phase or some abilities rather then shooting.

It might make it so that weapons never need to stop firing, but that might be fun in it's own way. 

[SCC]

I mean you could mod the weapons to all have a flux cost of 0, then flux only builds up when using the shields/phase or some abilities rather then shooting.

It might make it so that weapons never need to stop firing, but that might be fun in it's own way. 

Before Okim abandoned it, Ironclads' last update had ballistic weapons cost no flux to fire, while energy weapons still did. It wasn't fun, though that could be because of general balance issues with the mod. It's been a long time since I played it.

[rabbistern]

Hello,

I don't believe a mod exists to do that. I do not think it would be possible to remove the flux system from the game. Flux limits how much damage a ship's shields can take, for example, and removing it would make shields infinitely powerful. Flux stats also prevent small ships from infinitely firing very powerful weapons. Removing flux from the game entirely would fully break both shields and other fundamental aspects of game balance.

there is that excelsior-class from SWP (iirc) which uses flux, as in, you lose flux, so it absolutely is possible to have weapons, shields/phases and ship systems use negative flux values.
the flux system is alright the way it is now, but from the start it always felt off how flux is something thats generated, instead of used. if for example either a ship system or the defense system generated flux and weapons drained it, or perhaps the other way around, perhaps ship combat would be a bit more twitchy and high-paced-micro, rather than the macro gunship flux wars we have now. it would just take changing signs in all the systems/defenses and weapons and is definetly possible, but i think the issue is rather that the ai wouldnt be able to work around that

[Linnis]

OP has a point. Starsector is quite unique in space ship games because of its flux system instead of the simple RPG-like system that all other games use.

In theory the game work like that. But it would remove so much of the "skill" from the game that it becomes just another top down space shooter like all the others.

[Megas]

At least with no flux, warships can fully arm themselves rather than leave too many mounts empty.  Mounts are meant to be used, not sacked for OP or left empty because of poor flux stats (especially low tech).  Skimping weapons is one thing I do not like about Starsector ever since skills were whacked in 0.8.  (Skills before 0.8 were strong enough that it enabled the good ships to fill all mounts and kill fleets.)  Still does not help carriers that need to spend most of their OP on high-end fighters and deck crew much.

Flux as currently balanced prevents warships from going all-out on weapons - looks ugly.

[Sozzer]

I don't think anyone has stuck around long enough to make a rebalance mod for all the ships and weapons in the game, while disliking the core mechanic of Starsector's combat.

i think its more of an issue that starsector is kind of inaccessable rn, which keeps its modding community too small and kind of stale, for people to tackle core mechanics like that directly

it also doesnt help that the game is still in beta

IDK, the process would be as simple as setting all flux-relevant values to 0, except ship base capacity at 1 to make sure they don't accidentally an overload. i could probably make a shoddy meme mod that does it in ~20 minutes and declare that flux is boring and now all ships can shoot forever
there'd be a few hitches - would have to disable shields entirely and make all ships lock out shield-adding hullmods - but that wouldn't be too much of a complication

the problem is that it's such a core mechanic that if you're invested enough to be willing take the time to not only do this - or even turn it into a more basic shield-only system where it's just shield capacity and nothing else touches it - but rebalance the game entirely around making this still fair, you're probably fond enough that you'd realise ripping the flux system out would make it functionally an entirely different game because so much is tied into it in some way, and not want to do that

TLDR for the really lazy (it's like 2 half-size paragraphs, come on); it's not hard to do, but it's a lot of effort to do right, and at that point it isn't the same game, so why get invested enough in starsector to make it if your goal is to make it not starsector

[Sozzer]

At least with no flux, warships can fully arm themselves rather than leave too many mounts empty.  Mounts are meant to be used, not sacked for OP or left empty because of poor flux stats (especially low tech).  Skimping weapons is one thing I do not like about Starsector ever since skills were whacked in 0.8.  (Skills before 0.8 were strong enough that it enabled the good ships to fill all mounts and kill fleets.)  Still does not help carriers that need to spend most of their OP on high-end fighters and deck crew much.

Flux as currently balanced prevents warships from going all-out on weapons - looks ugly.

also idk about this one
leaving mounts empty is something you really don't need to do on 99% of ships, and you can save a ton of op by just using S-mods on the most important ships in your fleet
i'm probably one of the few people who actively choose to leave mounts empty on regular occasion (aside from those who straight up don't know how to use S-mods), and it's usually to fudge the AI into behaving a really specific way on certain ships - i don't think i've ever found a ship where i've NEEDED to leave mounts empty because of flux reasons, and if you do, consider the following:
- reallocate OP into flux performance (esp. vents on most ships). you should be doing this on nearly every ship to fine-tune a balance between flux throughput when firing, and flux venting ability
- use guns smart, instead of just firing every gun nonstop forever
- use S-mods for the most expensive mods you'd fit on a ship as part of the actual outfitting in question, not to build in things you feel are "obligatory for every ship" or as "bonus mods" on top of the existing stuff
- remember that using the most expensive and/or powerful gun for every slot is not at all a good idea, and be willing to use weaker, cheaper guns mixed in with the stronger ones

you'll get vastly more performance and dps out of a well-balanced fit than out of a ship that's fitted with the strongest flux-iest guns you can get your hands on, and that's kind of what makes outfitting more interesting than just "i slapped the biggest gun on, now i win"


i considered putting this in the other message but it was already getting pretty long, i can merge if someone's bothered though

[Megas]

leaving mounts empty is something you really don't need to do on 99% of ships, and you can save a ton of op by just using S-mods on the most important ships in your fleet

Not really.  S-mods replaced Loadout Design 3 from the previous release.  Multiple s-mods (of most expensive hullmods) end up saving more OP than LD3, but not that much more with only two s-mods.

- use guns smart, instead of just firing every gun nonstop forever

Tell that to your AI-controlled ships that are incapable of doing this.  AI will happily flux themselves out and let the enemy kill them, unless the loadout is lean enough to prevent the AI from doing just that.

Loadouts are mostly for your AI wingmen, not the playership, unless player wants to solo fleets with a Doom.

- remember that using the most expensive and/or powerful gun for every slot is not at all a good idea, and be willing to use weaker, cheaper guns mixed in with the stronger ones

One of the advantages of no flux is to eliminate this bottleneck.  Undergunning mounts also does not feel good either, not as much as leaving the mount empty, but still leaves a bad taste.

Maxing flux stats for most ships and s-modding most expensive hullmods are already no-brainers.

you'll get vastly more performance and dps out of a well-balanced fit than out of a ship that's fitted with the strongest flux-iest guns you can get your hands on...

And the point of no-flux (that I see) is to enable "the strongest flux-iest guns", which is more fun (or at least look better) than undergunning your ships for optimal performance with the current game balance.

[pairedeciseaux]

the flux system is alright the way it is now, but from the start it always felt off how flux is something thats generated, instead of used. if for example either a ship system or the defense system generated flux and weapons drained it, or perhaps the other way around

OP has a point. Starsector is quite unique in space ship games because of its flux system instead of the simple RPG-like system that all other games use.

In theory the game work like that. But it would remove so much of the "skill" from the game that it becomes just another top down space shooter like all the others.

A old classic video game worth mentioning is Tyrian. I don't know of any other shoot 'em ups that comes with such a system. An energy pool, an upgradable generator that provides a certain amount of power to refill energy pool, an upgradable shield that also consume some energy to replenish, upgradable weapons that use power when fired, ...

A much more recent video game that also comes to mind is Delta V Rings of Saturn. Upgradable capacitors providing energy pool, upgradable mining tools (weapons) that use power when fired, upgradable thrusters that consume power and generate heat, upgradable reactors that produce power, ...

Indeed I too I find interesting about Starsector the fact that a spaceship flux pool is kind of an inverted energy pool. Having said that,

I've played a little and I don't like the flux system at all. I know there are a lot of mods for this game, so if anyone knows about some rebalance mod with removed flux, let me know please. Thank you.

Welcome!

What do you mean "played a little"?    A few minutes or a few hours? One should get used to Starsector flux system rather quickly by playing tutorials and using the simulator - highly recommended to anyone new to the game. So many things are built and balanced on the assumption that spaceships have a limited flux capacity (also shield and weapons having a flux cost, damage on shield generating flux), that you basically break the game if you remove some of those core constrains.

I'm not saying simplifying/removing flux is a bad idea, I say: it breaks the game in its current state.

Something to keep in mind: a major benefit of the flux system is it keeps player actively engaged in gameplay. Rephrasing something Alex often repeats: the game is designed to be played by a player, it is not designed to play by itself.

[DancingMonkey]

You could make only shields use flux and give all other weapons ammo and even ammo regeneration or something like that. I remember one of the earlier versions of the game had a lot more weapons with ammo.