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[Sundog]

Nomadic Survival



Change Log and Old Versions

Compatible with all mods except for Fuel Siphoning and Perilous Expanse (due to overlapping functionality)
Can be added to existing games.
All updates are save-compatible unless stated otherwise.
Integrated with Version Checker
Can NOT be removed from games in which it was already used.
Configurable by editing the OPTIONS.ini file in the mod folder or using LunaLib to edit settings in-game.


Nomadic Survival makes exploration more interesting by adding sites to planets that allow you to perform various operations.
It's a mod about crafting the resources you need instead of returning home to restock.

It also adds a (completely optional) challenge that dramatically limits the usefulness of fuel tankers.
This makes it necessary to scavenge, steal, and craft fuel as you go.




For an extra challenge that overhauls exploration to make it more dangerous and dynamic, I recommend using Perilous Expanse instead!

Features:

Planetary Operations

Planetary operation sites are revealed once planets are surveyed, and give you the option to acquire one type of commodity by sacrificing other commodities. Typically this is most useful for converting vendor trash like metals and organics into things you need, like supplies and fuel. Sometimes you'll find opportunities to free up cargo space by converting low-value resources into high-value ones. Every once in a while you'll even discover ways to turn a profit, especially if you consider how operations that are near each other might be used together. Currently, there are over 50 planetary operation types to discover.



Planetary type and conditions determine the operations available on each planet. If a planet has plentiful volatiles, there's a good chance you can extract them. Habitable planets are likely sources of food. Decivilized worlds are often home to communities that will trade with you. Some of the abandoned factories and smelters found within ruins can be made operational. Operations of the same type can also be different, having variations in cost, yield, and skill requirements.

Rare sites: Most of the sites you'll find will be the kinds of things you'd expect; exposed outcrops of ore, remnants of civilization, or waypoint stations where you can refuel or resupply. But some of them will be unusual, sometimes granting valuable data. Discovering one-of-a-kind sites will even grant a story point.

Surveyors found at dockside bars can often be persuaded to divulge information about the planets they've explored, revealing the locations of several useful sites.

Want more planetary operation types? Check out Wonders from Beyond by Akii

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Intel Logging

Under the "Planet Ops" tag in the intel screen, you can find a list of each of the planetary operation sites you've discovered. Each entry provides details about how the operation works. The list is sorted by distance from your fleet and can be filtered by commodity type.

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Fuel Siphoning

The "Siphon Fuel" fleet ability gives you the option to convert supplies into fuel at nebulae. It works in any nebula, but it works best in the few nebula type systems scattered across the sector. With the default settings you get 4 fuel per unit of supplies in nebula systems, but only 3 fuel in normal systems. This makes nebula systems great places to refuel, but also allows you to get fuel at a higher price in an emergency.

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The Drive Field Anomaly

This mod is about living off the land of the various planets found throughout the Persean Sector. You can always stock up on enough fuel and supplies to circumnavigate the sector three times, but I find that it is much more enjoyable to acquire the resources I need as I explore. The drive field anomaly is a (completely optional!) game mechanic that provides an incentive for that playstyle. To dramatically oversimplify it, the anomaly causes certain conditions to convert your fuel into Anomaly Data, a new commodity that takes up no cargo space (making it as good as credits as long as you live long enough to sell it).

Anomaly data can be acquired by performing certain planetary operations, but the best way to get it is by studying the drive field anomaly. Unfortunately, this means allowing the anomaly to interfere with your drive field, and therefore your fuel supply. As you travel further through hyperspace, the anomaly will advance to increasingly dangerous stages and drain your fuel at a higher and higher pace. This will continue until you dock at any market, which will reset the anomaly to its initial, harmless stage. Thankfully, fuel stored in military-grade ships is protected from the increased fuel consumption caused by the anomaly. Ships with militarized subsystems suffer half the effect. This means tankers become less useful the further you travel.

To compensate for this effect, fuel lost due to the increased consumption rate is replaced by anomaly data of equal value. If you make it far enough you will also begin to accrue data simply for traveling through hyperspace. More data can be collected in this way by increasing the sensor strength of your fleet. With the right fleet, it can be very profitable to mount prolonged scientific exploration expeditions.

It's worth paying close attention to the "Drive Field Anomaly" intel item if you want to learn to take advantage of the anomaly. The anomaly is rather complicated, but I've done my best to explain things clearly and provide relevant info. In the screenshot below, my fleet has a total of 553 fuel, but only 283 of it is stored in militarized civilian ships. Once I have only 270 fuel my fleet's fuel consumption will return to normal, regardless of the anomaly stage.

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Tips:

For Extending Your Expeditions

• It's important to keep your fleet's supply/fuel consumption as low as possible while still bringing the ships you'll need to accomplish your goals.
• Industry is your "survival" skill tree, but don't neglect the others because...
• Combat is a great way to replenish resources, especially if your fleet can efficiently dispatch pirates.
• You can find out about new bounties by claiming or building comm relays.
• To get analyze/survey mission postings from relays you own you'll need to have a comm sniffer installed in a relay of the posting faction.
• Take note of survey/analyze mission postings that have useful or valuable targets.
• The best reason to investigate distress calls is to loot the pirates who will probably ambush you.
• If your cargo holds are nearly full it is sometimes best to wait until later to explore those ruins or salvage that mining station. I recommend using Captain's Log to keep track of where such things are.
• Stabilizing cargo pods is a cheap way to invest in your future, but don't fixate on always retrieving them. That stack of 1k metal is only worth about $30k.
• Effective use of slipstreams can significantly improve your gas mileage.
• Gas giants often have operation sites for getting volatiles and fuel. It's often worth it to survey them for this reason alone, as long as your fleet can do so without spending too many supplies.
• This mod pairs well with the mining feature from Nexerelin, enabling you to refine ore instead of selling it.
• If you're running out of storage space, consider performing operations that give you anomaly data, which takes up no space.
• Fuel that exceeds your storage capacity can automatically be converted into data at any time by clicking the toggle found in the fuel tab of the Drive Field Anomaly intel.

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For Dealing with the Anomaly

• Remember that fuel lost to the anomaly is compensated for. The anomaly reduces your travel range, but shouldn't increase the cost of travel too much.
• The fuel cost of leaving a system via jump-point, transverse jump, or gate is not affected by the anomaly.
• The various fuel sources you'll discover can be thought of as "stepping stones" to extend your range.
• The surveyors you'll meet at dockside bars will often reveal the location of fuel sources in areas you haven't explored yet.
• If the primary purpose of your expedition is to gain data, you'll want to have a high ratio of sensor strength to fuel consumption.
• Unsurprisingly, exploration themed ships like the Apogee and Odyssey are great for exploration.
• It might be worth installing auxiliary fuel tanks on combat ships to increase your reserve of protected fuel.
• Militarized tankers still have excellent travel range, but it's not worth bringing too many.
• Sometimes it can be useful to scuttle a rundown tanker once its fuel is depleted, using it as a one-way ticket.
• Your fuel range indicator is adjusted to compensate for the anomaly, but the additional variables make it even less precise than before.

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For Stabilizing Your Drive Field

"Stabilizing your drive field" refers to resetting the drive field anomaly to its harmless "inert" stage. By default, you can do this at any time by toggling the "Prevent the Anomaly" button in the "Drive Field Anomaly" intel item. These tips are for the masochists who choose to disable that option.

• In addition to markets, you can stabilize your drive field by interacting with a black hole in dire (or carefully planned) situations.
• It is useful to know the location of Pirate and Pather bases so they can be used to extend your range.
• Distributing your colonies throughout the outer reaches has disadvantages, but it will make exploration much easier.
• If you're using Nexerelin, you can construct outposts that stabilize drive fields, in addition to stocking fuel and supplies.
• Otherwise, it might be worthwhile to establish temporary way-station colonies sometimes.
• In addition to costing much less fuel, using a gate doesn't advance the stage of the anomaly.
• If you have a topographic data chip, you can right-click it to instantly stabilize your drive field.

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For Surviving Desperate Situations

• Suspend repairs if you're low on supplies, unless you're planning a last-ditch battle to get more.
• It's important to always have a plan for getting home, and to recognize when you need a new plan as soon as possible.
• The sooner you decide to scuttle ships, the fewer ships you'll need to scuttle.
• Don't forget about distress calls. They're a great way to lure-in hapless victims or greedy pirates.
• Respeccing your character costs one story point. Sometimes that's a small price to pay for the skills you'll need to get back to civilization.

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Questions and Answers:

For Mod Users

Can I add this mod to an existing game?

Yes, and the planets you've already surveyed will have operation sites added to them.

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What options does this mod provide?

You can use LunaLib or edit NOMADIC_SURVIVAL_OPTIONS.ini in the mod folder to change a few miscellaneous things. You can also change how specific planetary operations and anomaly tiers work by editing the files found in mods/Nomadic Survival/data/config/nomadic_survival/

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Does this mod conflict with any other mods?

This mod already includes Fuel Siphoning, and they can't be used together.
Perilous Expanse is an alternative version of this mod, so only one should be used at a time. It's safe to switch between them.
I'm not aware of any other incompatibilities.

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Can I remove this mod from my game?

No. Future versions may have the option to do so.

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How is it determined if a ship has protected, militarized, or vulnerable fuel storage?

• If a ship has the Militarized Subsystems hullmod then it will have Militarized fuel storage
• If a ship has Civilian Grade Hull but NOT Militarized Subsystem then it will have Vulnerable fuel storage
• Any ship without Civgrade will have Protected fuel storage UNLESS it has a higher base fuel range than an Apogee (100 light years, the highest non-tanker travel range in the base-game). In that case, it will have Militarized fuel storage.

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Does marine experience affect how many are lost during operations?

No. The same number will be lost regardless of their experience level, but they do earn experience from operations. It would be neat if experience made a difference, but it would require a great deal of extra code to make it work well.

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Why are organics required to produce fuel instead of just volatiles?

Because I think it's a more interesting recipe, basically. If the only input was volatiles then it would be too easy to carry the ingredients for fuel in cargo. As for a lore reason, it's because industrial-scale fuel production can efficiently reuse the organics that would typically be consumed. Or something.

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Does this mod have any known issues?

Nothing major, but the intel screen isn't meant to filter and sort large lists, so the operation list may be a bit slow sometimes if you've discovered many operations.

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For Mod Authors

I'm happy to help with integration in any way I can, so feel free to ask for clarification/help/etc.

How does integration work with this mod?

By merging data from any of the csv files found in /data/config/nomadic_survival/.
No code required. See this post to learn how file merging works.

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How can I add new planetary operations?

By adding a planetary_operations.csv file to your mod and adding an entry to it.
Here's an example mod: https://github.com/NateNBJ/NomadicSurvival/releases/download/v1.0.0/Nomadic.Survival.-.Example.Operation.zip
Note that operation site locations are determined the first time a game is run with Nomadic Survival, so newly added operation types will NOT be added to planets in existing games.

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Can I override content from this mod?

Yes, entries with identical IDs will be overwritten. For your mod to overwrite Nomadic Survival instead of the other way around, your mod will need to be listed after this one in the launcher's mod list.

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How can I test to make sure something is working the way I expect?

Start a new game with your mod, this mod, and Console Commands running and use the "survey all" command to reveal all planetary operation sites. To quickly travel to a site, activate dev mode, select it in the intel list, and click the "Go to Planet" button.

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How can I prevent surveyor bar events from appearing at markets owned by my faction?

By adding a surveyor_event_blacklist.csv file to your mod and adding your faction's ID to it.
Note that surveyors never appear at markets that are not shown in the faction intel list.

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About Nomadic Survival

Source Code

Thanks
Alex and the rest of the Fractal Softworks team, for this excellent game and its outstanding modding API.
LazyWizard, for making this mod much easier to test using Console Commands.
kazi, for the guide on setting up Intelij IDE

Permissions
All assets from this project may be used without obtaining explicit permission as long as...
No laws are broken and Fractal Softworks' terms of service are not violated
The original authors of any code or assets used are credited
Nothing taken from this mod is used for nefarious purposes

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[Bribe Guntails]

I haven't posted in years, but I want to say this mod sounds like great fun to me. The Event mechanic coming in the next update would do well to represent the strength of the Drive Field Anomaly, I can imagine Alex taking down notes after seeing this.

[LexLind]

I apologize for the machine translation into English 

I was interested and concerned about the Planetary Operations feature.
I haven't played the mod, just guessing from the description.
Wouldn't it turn out that in order to get something, just fly from point A to point B. And get rich. Free essentially. That doesn't seem balanced to me.

Getting this or that resource in the game implies that it was created somewhere, the resources of the colonies, time and money were spent on it. The entire economy of the game world created the resource. It has value to the economy. But you want the player to simply trade a less complex resource for a more complex and economically valuable resource. This can lead to inflation of the resource.

You need to adjust the balance of values in the game so that it is less profitable to mine a resource from a planet than to buy it on the market or create it in a colony. Much less profitable. But you need to take into account the conditions under which the resource is obtained. This is a complex and complicated process.


I can suggest adding a special module on a cargo ship that requires a medium or large hangar and has different efficiencies. Let the efficiency of extraction and exchange be fixed, so that the bonuses from several modules in the fleet do not give an overwhelming advantage. Have these blows also have penalties to the ship's speed and cargo capacity. After all, the opportunity it gives is very strong for the economy of the game.
 

 The idea is that your ship has a special crew in this module that is trained to extract resources. The ship has equipment that quickly creates the resource you need, but in small quantities. And because of this to produce planetary operations. It would also be good to spend for this time expressed in supplies. You spent 2 days, spent 50 supplies, but all you got was 70 supplies and 10 heavy machines from the 500 ores found on the planet and something else.

That's it for now. Thank you. 

[Madbadger2]

Dang, this looks really cool and well thought through. Thanks for creating it, going to try it out next run 8-)

[Sundog]

I haven't posted in years, but I want to say this mod sounds like great fun to me. The Event mechanic coming in the next update would do well to represent the strength of the Drive Field Anomaly, I can imagine Alex taking down notes after seeing this.

Thanks for making an appearance to say so! 
That's a great point about the Event mechanic. It seems like a perfect fit. I'll check that out once the update drops.

I apologize for the machine translation into English 

It's nothing to worry about. It seems like a good translation. Thanks for spending the extra time to overcome the language barrier 

I was interested and concerned about the Planetary Operations feature.
I haven't played the mod, just guessing from the description.
Wouldn't it turn out that in order to get something, just fly from point A to point B. And get rich. Free essentially. That doesn't seem balanced to me.

That is something I was very careful to prevent. In fact, all exchanges are calculated by comparing the cost of each resource. The opportunities for profit this mod gives you are always limited in some way. The vast majority of money you can make from exploring still comes from things that are in the base game, like exploring ruins, salvaging stations, and doing missions. The main way this mod helps with making money is by letting you condense cheap resources into more valuable ones so you don't have to leave as much stuff behind. For example, it typically takes at least 3 ore (worth about 10 each) to create 1 metal (worth about 30).

Dang, this looks really cool and well thought through. Thanks for creating it, going to try it out next run 8-)

glhf

[Sundog]

Nomadic Survival 1.0.1
Compatible with previous versions

Fixed some unnecessary data being saved that was almost certainly causing occasional save file corruption

If you're using version 1.0.0 you should update to this version to prevent save corruption!

Edit: If you can't load a save you can revert the previous one by restoring the backup file.

Here's how

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[Harpuea]

Nice. Will test. Thanks for all the amazing mods.

[Sundog]

Nice. Will test. Thanks for all the amazing mods.

[Sundog]

Nomadic Survival 1.1.0
Compatible with previous versions

Added a new planetary operation site that allows you to refit for free and install/uninstall logistical hullmods
Added: New operation types are now automatically added to games that didn't have them before
Added: XP is now awarded for traveling far enough with the drive field anomaly active
Added "xpPerDataEarnedFromTravel" setting to support above
Fixed some bloat being added to save files
Improved the appearance of operation site lists

[Sundog]

Nomadic Survival 1.1.1
Compatible with previous versions

Fixed respawning of the player fleet sometimes resulting in absurdly rapid anomaly data accumulation
Fixed LunaSetting "XP Per Data Earned from Travel" not being displayed correctly

[Dazs]

Well you did it again, yet another must have Sundog mod for my scavenging playstyle.

[TheHZDev]

Sir, could you allow me to translate this mod into Chinese and upload it to the Chinese Starsector Forum(https://fossic.org)?
Thank you very much.

[Sundog]

Well you did it again, yet another must have Sundog mod for my scavenging playstyle.

Sir, could you allow me to translate this mod into Chinese and upload it to the Chinese Starsector Forum(https://fossic.org)?
Thank you very much.

Please do! Thank you!

[mkire]

just like you have a toggle that just lets people stabilize the field, would you add one that prevents it from doing so even if you visit a market? i'm loving being very nomadic and turning scavenged/produced fuel into data, but eventually i have to make a pit stop for something, generally crew, and there goes my cool fuel guzzling money machine.

lore-wise it could be someone who wants to keep studying it, and takes care to not have it stabilize by using shuttles instead of getting close enough for it to do so.

on a different note, if i'm flying PAGSM ships will they count as militarized or as warships, given the whole 'every warship is a tanker'?

[Sundog]

just like you have a toggle that just lets people stabilize the field, would you add one that prevents it from doing so even if you visit a market? i'm loving being very nomadic and turning scavenged/produced fuel into data, but eventually i have to make a pit stop for something, generally crew, and there goes my cool fuel guzzling money machine.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you're enjoying the anomaly data stuff 

I'm not sure it's a good idea to add a toggle like that. I think it's very important for the anomaly to be reset any time players visit any storage or trade hub. The point of the anomaly isn't just to limit fuel range, but to encourage people to challenge themselves not to rely on trade (e.g. making a pitstop for crew) for as long as they can. If the anomaly didn't reset after visiting markets then the best way to collect data would be to just fly in circles around Askonia and pop in to refuel every once in a while.

If you really want to try it, the best way to approximate a setting like that would be to change all of the anomaly stages to have the same effects as the one you prefer, which you can do by editing "mods/Nomadic Survival/data/config/nomadic_survival/anomaly_stages.csv" with any spreadsheet software like Excel.

The next release will have a few things to make pit stops less necessary:

• Based on your feedback and my own experience, more crew will be available from the existing operations that allow you to get them.
• There will be several new operations that allow you to exchange commodities for data (essentially "selling" them). This will provide more alternatives for going to markets to sell loot.

on a different note, if i'm flying PAGSM ships will they count as militarized or as warships, given the whole 'every warship is a tanker'?

Good question! The way fuel vulnerability level is determined is something I should add to the Q&A section. It works like this:

• If a ship has the Militarized Subsystems hullmod then it will have Militarized fuel storage
• If a ship has Civilian Grade Hull but NOT Militarized Subsystem then it will have Vulnerable fuel storage
• Any ship without Civgrade will have Protected fuel storage UNLESS it has a higher base fuel range than an Apogee (100 light years, the highest non-tanker travel range in the base-game). In that case, it will have Militarized fuel storage.

So in the case of PAGSM ships it depends on how OP their fuel ranges are 
*Most* PAGSM ships are below the threshold for getting downgraded from protected to militarized. Many have a range of exactly 100, making them excellent for exploration and collecting anomaly data.