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[Sundog]

Perilous Expanse
(A more challenging alternative to Nomadic Survival)



Change Log and Old Versions (shared with NS)

Compatible with all mods except for Fuel Siphoning and Nomadic Survival (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.


In the base game, all you need to easily access the entire map is a single, cheap fuel tanker.
This mod changes that by making resource management and survival an integral part of exploration.

Perilous Expanse makes the sector seem much larger.
Not by increasing distances and travel times, but by making it necessary to find ways to refuel during long expeditions.
It drastically limits how far you can travel without refueling, but it also provides several new ways to obtain fuel.
This makes expeditions to distant stars a matter of careful planning or clever improvisation rather than just bringing more fuel tankers.
Several parts of the map may even seem unreachable until you unlock new abilities, learn new tricks, discover helpful artifacts, or figure out new ways to craft fuel.

Features:

Everything from Nomadic Survival

This mod is essentially an alternate version of Nomadic Survival with different default settings and a few additions.

• Survey planets to discover sites where operations can be conducted to exploit or exchange resources.
• Siphon fuel from nebulae.
• Embark on extended expeditions to collect valuable Anomaly Data.

For a gentler experience that adds to exploration without overhauling it, go with Nomadic Survival instead of this.

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Overhauled Fuel Economy

• Maximum travel range is drastically reduced. Not only does traveling through hyperspace require twice as much fuel, but the drive field anomaly cannot be prevented (unlike Nomadic Survival). This means tankers will gradually lose their usefulness the further you travel without interacting with a colony (or stabilizing your drive field in some other way).
• While fuel capacity is limited, it is easier to come by. The base-price of fuel is reduced from 25 credits to 10. This makes it cheaper to buy, but also means fewer resources are required to siphon or craft it.
• Fuel siphoning is less efficient outside of nebula systems (40% vs 75%). With the default settings you get 10 fuel per unit of supplies in nebula systems, but only 4 fuel in normal systems.
• The Auxiliary Fuel Tanks hullmod has been changed. Some ships have extremely poor fuel capacity, making them undesirable for exploration with this mod. The new effect alleviates that by benefiting those ships far more than ships with high fuel capacity. It also costs very few ordnance points, making it an obvious choice for ships with low fuel capacity that you want to bring on expeditions.
• The Bulk Transport skill has been changed to only increase fuel capacity up to 25% instead of 50%. This change does not apply if Quality Captains or any other mod that overrides Bulk Transport is used.

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A Few Other Changes

• Survey and analyze missions with objectives further than 10 LY from the center of the map now offer additional payment to compensate for increased difficulty and danger.
• The "spacer start" is enabled as an option for new games. It's a challenging vanilla feature that is normally hidden.
• The accessibility penalty for distance from other colonies has been halved in order to avoid discouraging exploration of distant worlds. To compensate for this, base upkeep costs are increased by 20%.

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Tips:

For Profiting from Long 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.

• 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:

General

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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Does this mod conflict with any other mods?

This mod already includes Fuel Siphoning, and they can't be used together.

Nomadic Survival is an alternative version of this mod, so only one should be used at a time. It's safe to switch between them.

This mod offers a setting (Enable Skill Requirements) to make some operations require certain vanilla skills to be performed. If you're using Second in Command I recommend leaving this setting false.

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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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More answers about Nomadic Survival features can be found on its forum page.

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About Perilous Expanse Changes

Why make an alternative version of Nomadic Survival?

I've wanted to turn Starsector's exploration into a more challenging and dynamic experience for a long time. While Nomadic Survival provides most of the features necessary to do that, I stopped short of limiting fuel range because I knew most players would want the new features without the increased difficulty. But that meant it didn't provide the experience I wanted to create, except with a great deal of tweaking. Without limited travel range, the "crafting system" of Nomadic Survival is merely a novelty, instead of being a necessary part of travelling great distances, as it was always intended to be.

Perilous Expanse could have been some sort of settings preset or mod pack, but I thought it would be best to make it a separate mod for several reasons:

• While providing many of the same features, both mods have completely different goals and audiences.
• Being able to add features and change settings that wouldn't make sense for Nomadic Survival.
• Saving settings independently for each mod with LunaLib, preventing saved Nomadic Survival settings from overwriting the Perilous Expanse defaults.

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Can I switch between Perilous Expanse and Nomadic Survival?

Yes. The number of ordnance points used by any ship with Auxiliary Fuel Tanks installed will change, but that should be the only issue.

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Do settings for Nomadic Survival affect this mod?

No. Both mods provide the same options, but your settings are saved separately for each mod.

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How do I undo the changes to accessibility and upkeep?

Open "Perilous Expanse/data/config/settings.json" and remove the lines for the settings you don't want this mod to change.

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How do I get rid of the changes to Auxiliary Fuel Tanks?

Delete "Perilous Expanse/data/hullmods/hull_mods.csv"

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Can I undo the Bulk Transport nerf?

No. You'd have to switch to Nomadic Survival to get rid of that.

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Will mods that are integrated with Nomadic Survival also work with Perilous Expanse?

Mostly.
Any additions to the files in "/data/config/nomadic_survival" (such as new operations) will work for both.
Both mods use the exact same code, but they have different IDs, so if a mod checks for one ID it should generally check for both.

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[Helldiver]

Interesting. I was already using components of Nomadic Survival along with my own changes to fuel capacity, burn speed and so on, and this offers yet more levers to achieve a solid experience, something difficult as it should be - else everyone in the Sector would be plundering the fringes all the time, if it was so easy as it is in vanilla.
Thank you for posting this.

[Sundog]

Thanks! When You mentioned parts of nomadic survival in its thread it made me curious about how close your changes were to the ones in perilous expanse. What changes did you make to burn speed? I've been sitting on an unreleased mod called "strict burn level limits" for almost two years because I figured no one would want it (all it does is tone down some of the BL bonuses)

everyone in the Sector would be plundering the fringes all the time, if it was so easy as it is in vanilla.

Right? 

[Hashmander]

I'm using both this and ruthless sector to make hyperspace a lot more dangerous and it does make a world of difference! I would say fuel economy is still too forgiving with all the ways you can get fuel now + slipstreams being available. You really need to make very wrong decisions to end up without fuel. Have you thought about adding a bit of randomness to slipstreams (e.g risk of consuming extra fuel) or something similar?

[Sundog]

I'm using both this and ruthless sector to make hyperspace a lot more dangerous

Spoiler

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I would say fuel economy is still too forgiving with all the ways you can get fuel now + slipstreams being available. You really need to make very wrong decisions to end up without fuel.

Thanks for the feedback! I agree. I almost removed the fuel price reduction before releasing this, but I didn't want to make such a big change without a lot of playtesting. And I don't think that would be enough anyway, since salvage provides so much fuel and the new nav abilities make it possible to travel so efficiently. I'll remove some of the leeway at some point, but it might take a while to get right. I'm probably a bit paranoid about making it too difficult to explore during the early game...

Have you thought about adding a bit of randomness to slipstreams (e.g risk of consuming extra fuel) or something similar?

I haven't considered modifying slipstreams, specifically. I'm pretty happy with how they work now. They might be a bit *too* reliable for how much fuel they save, but at least they're temporary and randomized...
If I were to change them somehow (and the more I think about it the more it seems like a good idea), it would be by making them randomize more often than twice per year. That would make them less reliable without removing their usefulness, and wouldn't seem unfair.
Something else that might be good is to prevent the slipstream fuel consumption reduction from applying while Reverse Polarity is used.
Did you have something specific in mind for how a risk of consuming extra fuel might work?

[Matheld]

I am liking the look of this mod. I'll have to try it out someday!

Always on the lookout for more mods to make the game harder and more interesting to play

(now I just need a mod that makes your colonies start at size 1 or 2 instead of 3..)

[Hashmander]

Thanks for the feedback! I agree. I almost removed the fuel price reduction before releasing this, but I didn't want to make such a big change without a lot of playtesting. And I don't think that would be enough anyway, since salvage provides so much fuel and the new nav abilities make it possible to travel so efficiently. I'll remove some of the leeway at some point, but it might take a while to get right. I'm probably a bit paranoid about making it too difficult to explore during the early game...

I might have given feedback a bit too soon. It is a lot harder to go out there once you start getting a bigger fleet and I did end up running out of fuel a couple of times because I didn't account for the anomaly lol. Now I do really have to buy disposable tankers to make it to the farthest systems. If anything, for an even more hardcore config I would halve the price reduction on fuel.

As for slipstreams, I love the idea for reverse polarity and more randomized streams, otherwise I agree, it's too easy to get around once you get some topography going.

[Sundog]

I am liking the look of this mod. I'll have to try it out someday!

Thanks! Hope you like it when/if you do!

I might have given feedback a bit too soon. It is a lot harder to go out there once you start getting a bigger fleet and I did end up running out of fuel a couple of times because I didn't account for the anomaly lol.

Heh, I'm glad to hear you ran out of fuel! (sorry)
Did you manage to save any of your ships? Mind telling me the story of what happened?

I *almost* got stranded recently. I had just enough fuel to get back to my home in Askonia, but I was in a rush to prepare for a colony crisis, so I used hyperdrive without considering its extra 50% fuel consumption. After that I didn't have enough to reach any of the core worlds without finding more fuel, but I was still in a hurry. Thankfully a black hole was nearby, so I used it (and the last of my fuel) to create a slipsurge. That got me close enough to Yma to drift to the star. Both colonies in Yma were hostile toward me, so I had to raid them to get enough fuel to make it to Askonia. It was pretty tense!

As for slipstreams, I love the idea for reverse polarity and more randomized streams, otherwise I agree, it's too easy to get around once you get some topography going.

Yeah, the topography abilities are crazy strong, which I think is great. It makes hyperspace travel more varied and helps balance out the increase in fuel consumption as the player's fleet grows.

[Hashmander]

Heh, I'm glad to hear you ran out of fuel! (sorry)
Did you manage to save any of your ships? Mind telling me the story of what happened?

I had to scuttle all my tankers, and a cruiser, and siphon all through my supplies to get just enough fuel to dock at a system next door. 10/10 would do it again. Mind this is a save where I didn't have hyperdrive or max topography yet.

On another save, I found out that the topography item is extremely useful to get to far systems so I end up not selling it now. My only problem right now with this + nexerelin is that other factions end up colonizing the systems I want since it takes so much longer to figure out the logistics and scout systems for colonization. My scout-to-fuel ratio is like 4 systems before I have to go back to the core worlds. Before this mod, I would have been able to scout 15+ systems instead.

Perhaps another suggestion is to give more bonuses to exploration ships like the Apogee so they can survive out there for longer. Maybe the hullmod adds another protected fuel tier where it halves the drive anomaly rate? I find that there's still not enough incentive to use pure exploration ships like those.

[Gilgamesh]

On another save, I found out that the topography item is extremely useful to get to far systems so I end up not selling it now. My only problem right now with this + nexerelin is that other factions end up colonizing the systems I want since it takes so much longer to figure out the logistics and scout systems for colonization. My scout-to-fuel ratio is like 4 systems before I have to go back to the core worlds. Before this mod, I would have been able to scout 15+ systems instead.

You might already know about this, but if you go into the mod settings for nexerelin(with LunaLib), within the "Fleets and battles" tab, there are two settings you may find useful.
"Colony expedition interval" and "Colony expedition only after player colony"
This helped me balance nexerelin fraction colonization for my playstyle, since I like to explore and do allot of other things before I establish my first colony.

[Sundog]

I had to scuttle all my tankers, and a cruiser, and siphon all through my supplies to get just enough fuel to dock at a system next door. 10/10 would do it again. Mind this is a save where I didn't have hyperdrive or max topography yet.

On another save, I found out that the topography item is extremely useful to get to far systems so I end up not selling it now.

Ok, cool. Glad you didn't lose your whole fleet!

My only problem right now with this + nexerelin is that other factions end up colonizing the systems I want since it takes so much longer to figure out the logistics and scout systems for colonization. My scout-to-fuel ratio is like 4 systems before I have to go back to the core worlds. Before this mod, I would have been able to scout 15+ systems instead.

Pretty sure Nex provides a few LunaLib options to slow down NPC colonization rate (Gilgamesh beat me to it ). Maybe I should mention that in the mod description, but I think the real problem is that you keep needing to return to the core worlds to refuel. This mod is supposed to make that *less* frequent by providing new ways to get fuel. Sometimes you just get unlucky and don't find enough sources of fuel to keep exploring, but I've tried to make that fairly uncommon. Hmm... One thing that tends to help out a lot later in the game is the ability to cheaply survey gas giants (due to the Surveying Equipment hullmod). Gas giants often have operation sites for getting volatiles and fuel, but I suspect a lot of people skip surveying them. I should probably add something to the tips section about that...

Perhaps another suggestion is to give more bonuses to exploration ships like the Apogee so they can survive out there for longer. Maybe the hullmod adds another protected fuel tier where it halves the drive anomaly rate? I find that there's still not enough incentive to use pure exploration ships like those.

I think you might be underestimating the Apogee. If anything, I feel like it's *too* useful. Apogees already have by far the best fuel capacity/consumption ratio of any non-civilian ship, not to mention good combat effectiveness and two built-in hullmods that are great for exploration. I want people to be able to use the ships they want/have to explore, so I think it's important for them to be somewhat normalized (hence the changes to Auxiliary Fuel Tanks)

[Matheld]

New save so decided to give it a shot and.. well.. I'm not sure what broke.

Spoiler

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Maybe there is some kind of mod conflict or otherwise.. But I've tried 2 different planets and the results have all been the same. Doesn't matter if I have the resources required or not.

[Sundog]

Thanks for the report and sorry about the trouble! I think you're probably right about a mod conflict. Would you mind giving me your mod list? You can just copy the contents of Starsector/mods/enabled_mods.json, or attach the file itself.

I should get a chance to investigate this in detail soon. In the meantime, could you find the error details by following this guide? The guide is for crashes, but the steps for finding the error details will be the same in this case. The error will appear at the bottom of the log immediately after your get that "NullPointerException: null" message in-game.

Again, thanks for letting me know about this! Hopefully I'll be able to get a patch out tonight!

[Matheld]

Thanks for the report and sorry about the trouble! I think you're probably right about a mod conflict. Would you mind giving me your mod list? You can just copy the contents of Starsector/mods/enabled_mods.json, or attach the file itself.

I should get a chance to investigate this in detail soon. In the meantime, could you find the error details by following this guide? The guide is for crashes, but the steps for finding the error details will be the same in this case. The error will appear at the bottom of the log immediately after your get that "NullPointerException: null" message in-game.

Again, thanks for letting me know about this! Hopefully I'll be able to get a patch out tonight!

No trouble really! Everything else seems to work just fine!

As for the error report (didn't know you could actually get whilst the game was running! Good to know!)

Spoiler

121259 [Thread-3] WARN  com.fs.starfarer.campaign.rules.oOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  - Problem with command of class data.scripts.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.rulemd.crewReplacer_normadicSurvivalC: null
java.lang.NullPointerException
   at data.scripts.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.rulemd.crewReplacer_normadicSurvivalC. execute(crewReplacer_normadicSurvivalC.java:18)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.rules.oOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.execute(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.rules.Object.runScript(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.rulecmd.FireBest.applyRule(FireBest.java:106)
   at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.rulecmd.FireBest.execute(FireBest.java:51)
   at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.rulecmd.FireBest.fire(FireBest.java:57)
   at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.RuleBasedInteractionDialogPluginImpl.fireBes t(RuleBasedInteractionDialogPluginImpl.java:177)
   at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.RuleBasedInteractionDialogPluginImpl.optionS elected(RuleBasedInteractionDialogPluginImpl.java:210)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.o0Oo$1.super(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.OoOO.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.o0O0.buttonPressed(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.int.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.int.processInput(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.W.o00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.BaseGameState.traverse(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher.super(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$1.run(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

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Seems to be the CrewReplacer mod interfering?

In either case, and in case it's not, here is the whole enabled_mods.json content.

Spoiler

"pantera_ANewLevel25",
  "A_S-F",
  "Cryo_but_better",
  "aod_vos",
  "aotd_vok",
  "armaa",
  "lw_autosave",
  "BSC",
  "combatactivators",
  "chatter",
  "aaacrew_replacer",
  "customizablestarsystems",
  "fleet_journal",
  "fleetsizebydp",
  "GrandColonies",
  "IndEvo",
  "JYD",
  "lw_lazylib",
  "lunalib",
  "MagicLib",
  "MoreBarMissions",
  "niko_moreCombatTerrainEffects",
  "nexerelin",
  "JYDR",
  "sun_perilous_expanse",
  "pay",
  "progressiveSMods",
  "assortment_of_things",
  "RealisticCombat",
  "sun_ruthless_sector",
  "swp",
  "sun_starship_legends",
  "supportships",
  "tahlan",
  "Terraforming & Station Construction",
  "uaf",
  "US",
  "ungp",
  "shaderLib"

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[Sundog]

Ah, thanks! Ok, so you're right. It's an issue with Crew Replacer, but it's interfering in a way that it's kinda supposed to. Alaricdragon and I worked together so that Crew Replacer could override some parts of nomadic survival (and perilous expanse) in order to replace crew when they're involved in planet operations. Crew Replacer seems to be overriding the code for this mod correctly, but failing for some other reason. Possibly due to changes in 0.97, my changes to the nomadic/perilous code, or (most likely imo) because this mod has a different ID from nomadic survival (which I failed to coordinate with alaric about...)

Still not sure what's going wrong, specifically, but I'll reach out to alaricdragon and we'll get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately it's not something I can fix on my end, so my hopes of getting this fixed tonight are pretty unlikely