STARSECTOR - Best $15 you'll ever spend

[M3xus]

So, I'm seeing a little confusion in mod names and I'd like to clear it up.

Interstellar Imperium is a fan-favorite mod adding a faction explicitly based on the Roman Empire. Their yellow-orange ships are weaker at base than vanilla ships, but make up for it with more Ordnance Points to spend, as well as unique packages that can completely alter how a ship plays, allowing you to specialize to whichever role you need.

The Neo-Nazi one is New Galactic Order, which was made by an unironic "Hitler really did nothing wrong" Neo-Nazi. Initial versions of it had their markets be named after various concentration camps, and the guy would often sperg unprompted on the forums about the positives of Nazi-ism. The game's developers didn't appreciate this, since the lead's grandpa literally fought the Nazis in WW2. While he did tone down the Nazi sperging in the mod, it was eventually removed, not for hurting fee-fees, but because he'd stolen spritework. The drama surrounding the mod is why no mods based on Nazis, explicitly or not, are allowed to be hosted on the forums.

 

[The I Scream Man]

So, I'm seeing a little confusion in mod names and I'd like to clear it up.

Interstellar Imperium is a fan-favorite mod adding a faction explicitly based on the Roman Empire. Their yellow-orange ships are weaker at base than vanilla ships, but make up for it with more Ordnance Points to spend, as well as unique packages that can completely alter how a ship plays, allowing you to specialize to whichever role you need.

The Neo-Nazi one is New Galactic Order, which was made by an unironic "Hitler really did nothing wrong" Neo-Nazi. Initial versions of it had their markets be named after various concentration camps, and the guy would often sperg unprompted on the forums about the positives of Nazi-ism. The game's developers didn't appreciate this, since the lead's grandpa literally fought the Nazis in WW2. While he did tone down the Nazi sperging in the mod, it was eventually removed, not for hurting fee-fees, but because he'd stolen spritework. The drama surrounding the mod is why no mods based on Nazis, explicitly or not, are allowed to be hosted on the forums.

Yeah I was confused by that, I admit I had no idea what the actual deal was but I'm currently playing with the Imperium active right now and they don't seem especially fascist to me (no more so than other polities in the sector), thanks for the clarification!

 

[Fuck Taxes]

What's a good list of Mods?

It's got a mod nexus page and a forum at https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/ . Nexerelin, Leading Pip, Combat Chatter, Common Radar, Autosave, Combat Alarm Sounds, QoL Pack, and Version Checker are all mandatory if you ask me. For ship/faction mods, I recommend Tyrador Safeguard, Torchships, Underworld, and Scy Nation. The majority of all the other ship mods like Shadowyards and Blackrock are too lore unfriendly(the ships can do things that is impossible for the technology available) imo. Also if you don't get the Unknown skies mod, you're missing out.

The lightly lore unfriendly mods I full heartedly recommend are Hazard Mining Incorporated, ED Shipyard, Terraforming and Station Construction, and Ship/Weapon Pack.

I've also heard good things about Dynasector but I haven't tried it myaelf.

 

[Least Concern]

It's got a mod nexus page and a forum at https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/ . Nexerelin, Leading Pip, Combat Chatter, Common Radar, Autosave, Combat Alarm Sounds, QoL Pack, and Version Checker are all mandatory if you ask me. `

I generally play games as vanilla as possible, but I thought Combat Chatter looked interesting, so I installed it… or at least I think I did because it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Do I need to go in and enable it somewhere in the UI or something? I don't see a list of mods to enable anywhere under the main menu.

 

[The I Scream Man]

I generally play games as vanilla as possible, but I thought Combat Chatter looked interesting, so I installed it… or at least I think I did because it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Do I need to go in and enable it somewhere in the UI or something? I don't see a list of mods to enable anywhere under the main menu.

First ensure that you enabled it in the launcher, what you'll want to do is start the launcher and when it displays the pre-game options and stuff you'll click on the mods, here's what I'm talking about:

Click on "Mods..." down there in the lower area and it'll open this:

Make sure to enable what you want to use

What it does is increase the number and type of messages you receive during fights, you'll want to look in the box in the upper left of the screen where it goes "ISS KIWI FARMS IS AT 90% HULL" or whatever, what'll end up happening is now with Combat Chatter installed and enabled in the launcher as shown the messages will say things like

ISS Kiwi Farms (Cyberbooly-class): "COMMIT 41%"

Its mostly flavor text

 

[Least Concern]

First ensure that you enabled it in the launcher, what you'll want to do is start the launcher and when it displays the pre-game options and stuff you'll click on the mods, here's what I'm talking about:

Oh, it's in the launcher. Thank you. I'm so used to just clicking the big blue button in that window that I've become blind to everything else.

 

[Spud]

I'm disappointed that that patched out the ability to use your warp drive in the tutorial area if you chose the skill, I'd just warp to the next system over to buy food low and sell to them at a markup it even had the deterrent that if you took too long to re open the gate the colony would die out effectively leaving you soft locked in the tutorial, It was a fantastic introduction into the games' economy system and let me play as a trader who's willing to exploit tragedy for profit. Also I never got good at the combat so I'd just up my ship limit to 60 and set it to full force engagement, worked everytime.

 

[Moths]

First ensure that you enabled it in the launcher, what you'll want to do is start the launcher and when it displays the pre-game options and stuff you'll click on the mods, here's what I'm talking about:

View attachment 3529988

Click on "Mods..." down there in the lower area and it'll open this:

View attachment 3529993

Make sure to enable what you want to use

What it does is increase the number and type of messages you receive during fights, you'll want to look in the box in the upper left of the screen where it goes "ISS KIWI FARMS IS AT 90% HULL" or whatever, what'll end up happening is now with Combat Chatter installed and enabled in the launcher as shown the messages will say things like

ISS Kiwi Farms (Cyberbooly-class): "COMMIT 41%"

Its mostly flavor text

Actually thats an idea I wonder if I could fill it with a bunch of random.txt phrases

 

[Blackhole]

Actually thats an idea I wonder if I could fill it with a bunch of random.txt phrases

You can add hundreds of main menu tips so go for it. just make sure to post the mod here too...

 

[The I Scream Man]

You can add hundreds of main menu tips so go for it. just make sure to post the mod here too...

Absolutely, one of the things I like about this game is that its coded in Java in a relatively straightforward manner, Java isn't perfect and it definitely doesn't like being active for long periods of time (its memory handling is, eh, not so good) but if you have any understanding of it then it makes tons of sense

The mods are coded the same way, references and stuff and they draw from simple file structures so yeah, if you add a bunch of awesome Kiwi-isms to the Combat Chatter files I for one would love to get my hands on them

 

[Moths]

@Blackhole
ye have asked and ye have recieved, luckily I was feeling autistic today so I went through the random.txt post and made up a personality file

just extract this bad boy to \Starsector\mods\Combat Chatter\data\config\chatter\characters I am replacing the pirate personality because I tried adding one and it seemed a lot of pain in the ass work for the game to actually recognise it existing (I modified some other files and it didn't work) so this is a quick fix till brains less smooth than mine figure that shit out

this personality at current will only trigger on aggressive or reckless officers (ie. the only real useful ones and most likely pirates) however so do most of the other character files so if you want to force the personality being picked could use console commands and use setchatterchar "officer name" pirate to force them to use our lines. Hopefully pirates also have some amusing lines when you fight them now too

I havent tested properly to see whether the longer phrases will render properly (I basically set the personality and attacked the first patrol I saw and saw a line rendered and called it a day) and/or well and avoided quotes that were overly long or feel didnt make enough sense but compared to the original pirate personality I made the template from this has a lot of fucking lines (excluding calling for help which only has 1 line currently and out of missiles which has about 3) However luckily I did test it since the original version crashed the game due to one of the random.txt lines using double quotes.

also some other notes some quotes were edited to make sense (ie. most of the quotes the word 'site' has been replaced with 'ship')

feel free to edit and improve and reupload it (I just used notepad++) or make your own from your favourite cows (I feel like deagle nation probably has a lot of good quotes for this).

 

[Honored guest]

I'd kill for an update or mod that allowed for a more mobile option in end game. Give me a big mothership that I can park in a system and use as a staging ground for exploration in farther off systems. I just want semimobile storage, and small scale production of supplies and fuel. Having to maintain large fleets late game as you explore sucks since to game scales over time, and smaller fleets will get wiped by random groups of pirates rocking multiple capital ships.

 

[Kane Lives]

I'd kill for an update or mod that allowed for a more mobile option in end game. Give me a big mothership that I can park in a system and use as a staging ground for exploration in farther off systems. I just want semimobile storage, and small scale production of supplies and fuel. Having to maintain large fleets late game as you explore sucks since to game scales over time, and smaller fleets will get wiped by random groups of pirates rocking multiple capital ships.

Shouldn't colonies fulfill this? They serve as outposts for your fleet and lets you stockpile shit for free.

And if you played the main quest you even get a fast travel thing as a reward.

 

[Moths]

unfortunately no mobile outposts but I think nex gives you the option to invest resources into an asteroid or something and it will automatically stockpile and supplies over time as a resupply point

 

[Honored guest]

Shouldn't colonies fulfill this? They serve as outposts for your fleet and lets you stockpile shit for free.

Kind of, I like the theme and idea of a mobile base. I also want a base that isn't going to have to deal with expedition fleets looking to genocide everyone.

 

[GhaeicSD]

I'd kill for an update or mod that allowed for a more mobile option in end game. Give me a big mothership that I can park in a system and use as a staging ground for exploration in farther off systems. I just want semimobile storage, and small scale production of supplies and fuel. Having to maintain large fleets late game as you explore sucks since to game scales over time, and smaller fleets will get wiped by random groups of pirates rocking multiple capital ships.

One thing I'd love to see personally is a massive fuckoff ship like the Juggernaut from Stellaris that can be used as a mobile orbital base with it's own hangar and defenses. Obviously it should be ludicrously expensive to maintain and have a large time and resource sink into getting it at all, but it would still be completely worth it in my eyes to see something like that slowly make it's way across a battlefield obliterating anything in it's path.

I do also think that mobility in the late game is very slow depending on the ships you use (I almost exclusively use capitals so it's very slow for me to travel anywhere), so I hope they add some sort of stellar catapult (also from Stellaris) that can fling you in the general area of where you want to be, at the cost of ship hull, combat readiness, and inaccuracy that can be very dangerous if you get launched, say, near a blue supergiant or black hole.

If you couldn't tell, I fucking love a lot of the things they've added to Stellaris and want to see them expanded on in other games. Starsector just so happens to be the best candidate for doing that.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

EDIT: some time ago someone posted this to the Sseth thread, its a repository of some older mods (and some banned ones like Interstellar Imperium, the "Nazi" mod) that got somewhat polished up for one of the previous versions, so your milage may vary with the newest ones

Interstellar Imperium are the Space Romans with the fuck off huge missile ship, I forget what the "Nazi" mod was but the author of that one was a /pol/-tard that also did an anime lesbian cat girl faction or something. I'm not a fan of II, or most mods that fuck with sector generation too much, but they're well regarded.

Now DME and the Magellans on the other hand are right up my ally.

Edit: Ninja'd, my bad.

I'll also say I'm sad at how Tiandong and Shadowyards haven't been updated officially yet. They're both pretty good.

 

[Blitzsneed]

Shouldn't colonies fulfill this? They serve as outposts for your fleet and lets you stockpile shit for free.

And if you played the main quest you even get a fast travel thing as a reward.

Is it about getting rid of a [REDACTED] base at the end of the galaxy/world map?

Otherwise, Starsektur is a really good one and you'll spend a lot of time in it, if it's your type of game. You'll sink in at least 80->100 hours. Without mods.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

I'm trying to work out fleet compositions for hunting down ordo fleets at 400 battlesize.

The only one I've discovered that can reliably kill double/triple radiant ordo fleets with 0 losses is using best of the best with 2 paragons equiped with plasma cannons, a 6 AMblaster doom (piloted by the player) and 8 monitors with maximized shield stats and ion canons.

The only issue with this composition is that it got really boring really fast. Monitors and paragons just act as meatshields while I go around with the doom cleaning up fulgents until there's enough breathing room to focus down the brilliants and radiants.

I tried to spice it up by swapping out one of the paragons and the doom for a radiant piloted by a neural integrator and that's where it all went to shit because it costs too much meaning I can bring less monitors than before and I had to give up best of the best which means my deployment cost is also fucked meaning I can bring even less monitors.

Any time I try to use any AI piloted cruiser it just gets isolated and killed, destroyers are meme tier trash anyway and I doubt regular frigates would fare any better, anyone here figure out any other lossless ordo strat?

 

[Backpack Knight]

Lossless ordo fleets?
Never really happened to me, I just spam LP Brawlers with linked Assault Chainguns and linked Sabots with Expanded Missile Racks and a splattering of ECM Packages. Cheap, easy and fast. Add some Omens/Harbringers and a Doom you can do pretty well.

For mods:
I highly recommend Arma Armatura if you want to have lore friendly playable fighters and easily promotable Officers. Add it with Combat Chatter and you can have a great time with your Starsector!Top Gun. This mod integrates well with other mods also so a lot of modded fighters can be used. Especially these mods below.

Diable Avionic is not lore friendly but has great systems ready for corporate takeovers. The ships are fun but fragile, they also produce more food than Hegs some games.

Gundam UC Mod is definitely not lore friendly at all. The ships are extremely expensive and a bit weak but the mods inserted system Prime is the best spot to buy fuel and supplies for cheap. It is attacked by pirates all the time so you can easily make more money here than others. With Arma Armatura above, you can use some of the Gundams as playable fighters. It good. Playable Gundam fleet mod with resource rich system.

Iron Shell is schrodinger's cat lore friendly. This mod adds a subfraction for the Hegemony of the same name. They are tax collectors, I hate them. They do make finding was to make money a bit more difficult. Instead of the usual Hybrasil to Epiphany drug lane; you have to find ways to avoid using too much black market dealing at one time so you will not have your money snatched away from the IRS er IS. The IS ships are great fun and very strong. Expect them and the Hegs to dominate Nexerelin when left alone for too long. They are tax collectors with wafius in super ships, I love them.

United Aurora Federation (UAF)is probably my favorite after Nexerelin, at the best it is lore unfriendly though. It has great systems to gain commodities like drugs and fuel for cheap. Although, their systems are very isolated compared to the Core Space- so get ready for some trucking to get there. Getting in with the fraction is a lot more difficult than just asking for a commission- which I really like for lore and gameplay reasons. The ships are broken as fuck, rare, and expensive and I love the art for them. The same artist for Iron Shell did the art for UAF. It is personal pet project I think. The art does not fit Starsector at all but whatever, I like it. Pretty good mod with great art design and fraction.

A lot of these fraction mods do have nanoforges so it is a wonder how they were able to build ships so well compared to Hegemony and Tri-Tachyon.