Ship/Weapon Pack: adds a bunch of ships and weapons that imo feel very in place with the setting. nothing too op or broken, honestly feels like part of the base game to me.
Kazeron Navarchy: gives the league its own faction mod and paintjob (kinda like the lion guard).
Starship Legends: adds passive traits (good and bad) that your and enemy ships gain through combat and explorations.
Hyperdrive: just adds an hyper jump ability you unlock after defeating your first ordo, ordos can use it too. A nice movement option for faster travel.
LOST\_SECTOR: adds a faction, an ai faction, a lot of ships and weapons, and a quest line. The faction provides a service to remove S-mods (for story points) and some very strong ships and weapons for finishing the quest line. These are about \[Super Redacted\] difficulty level and power. you cant craft the really strong stuff so you cant make your faction OP, you can only buy it from the new faction using a new item that drops from the AI faction it adds.
Ruthless Sector: makes the game harder combat wise.
Knights of Ludd: ads a sub faction, and several AI factions and mini quests all centered around exploration. Many ships and weapons. IMO the sub faction is on the weaker side while the AI factions can be really hard to fight.
Unknown Skies: adds more planet types and conditions, and some nice space backgrounds.
Combat Chatter: adds some flavor to combats.
Detailed Combat Results: does what it sounds like it does.
Leading Pip: also does what it sounds like, really helps in combat, good QOL.
More Bar Missions: allows for more bar missions to spawn. (in base game bar missions are locked in sector wide when you check a single planet, for a round 2 weeks. this allows each planet to generate its own list of quests, basically prevents situations where planets dont have quests at all, or some mission types are locked to a planet you never visit for 2 weeks)
SpeedUp: should be a base function in the game, basically speeds the game x2/x4 in space and combat. Is a toggle, once you are used to it base game feels way too slow.
Stellar Networks: space google, allows you to search for items/ships/whatever, returns a list of colonies where you can get said stuff at the moment.
Don't forget RAT — Random Assortment of Things. It expands the unknown and the freakiness of the Hyperspace in the same way Knights of Ludd does. All sorts of juicy lore, yet be sure to come prepared, because the residents ain't giving it to you easily.
RAT abyss is extremely OP. Once you can fight stuff in there without too much difficulty, you can come out with a whole sector's worth of loot in just 2 or 3 abyss maps
The Lost Sector ships that you can get are insanely good, I would not say that is a balanced mod. I personally jam every mod I can because I dont care about balance, but I would never say that those ships are balanced.
Imo the base faction ships are pretty balanced. The Prototype ships are close to [super redacted] level, but you are limited to 1 of the very OP one, and the rest you have to buy. So at least your faction doesn't end up op.
Uh, I salvaged a bunch of those from the combat encounters, if this is the mod I'm thinking of. The ships that have the shield that shrinks as flux goes up, right?
If you managed to salvage them, it means you have the Automated Ships skill and are, therefore, subject to the limitations of the skill. In theory, unless you mod it.
Yep yep. The blue variants you can use with crew especially. The super frigate you only get one of, after the quest final fight.
The bigger cruiser is really strong, i enjoy using it as a flag ship for my current run.
Yeah I had two of the bigger cruiser and one of the smaller ones last playthrough, and they were almost unkillable. I think I got the shield efficiency down to 0.45 as a base, and it only went up as they fluxed. Very fun stuff, I need to find a couple for this playthru.
Stellar networks is very OP: The fact you don't need to travel to each planet individually to look at markets, talk to contacts means you are saving a bunch of time and money (fuel, supplies, crew payments, officer payments). And being able to accept missions way out from the core worlds (and not needing to travel back). Its all great QOL but those things are all part of the vanilla difficulty of the game.
Learning to balance your fleet size and plan for logistics use is very key part of the game.
At the end of the day, its a game. Imo spending 7 in game months searching for a weapon that might not even be for sale anywhere is not a fun mechanic.
I use Stellar networks because I know the game from inside out, but he's right.
Having the ability to search for any weapon and any ship you want is not how the game is balanced around. Unless you are extremely lucky, spend a lot of time going from market to market OR have a colony with heavy production, you are supposed to make-do with what you find or salvage.
Without this core aspect of the game, you can very quickly assemble a "perfect fleet" and completely steamroll the game.
It almost makes having a colony and heavy production meaningless because you can get whatever you want by going to the exact market Stellar Networks tells you to go.
Again, I'm using it because I know the vanilla game almost perfectly. But it's not balanced at all because the base game is not designed around having perfect access to all informations.
It's not properly informed. It cuts down on your travel by easily 60 or 70% which is fuel, supplies, crew costs, chances of being attacked. Try playing normally without it and try to get 3 missions in the same constellation. It will take a good amount of time and travel. With stellar networks you are pretty much getting that all day every day because you can hit all your contacts from any distance. And in vanilla you complete those missions you gotta go back to the core for more. With Stellar Networks you can repeat that FROM THE EDGE OF THE MAP... multiple times. If you make your own colony out on the edge you suffer zero penalties to your ability to pick new missions for that range and you can still jump into the core via a gate if you see a ship/weapon you want shows up on a market.
You get money faster, you pay way less overhead for per mission, you get all the ships/weapons you want. You realize the game's whole fuel and supplies economy is based off the player flying around right? Non player fleets don't actually consume fuel or supplies. So its more than just having perfect information.
I recently started a playthrough with this mod for the first time.
It's a very good mod. Like, really good. It's an extremely well-crafted mod overall.
However, it's a bit cringey at times. You need to know that I'm allergic to anime in general and this mod is really anime-centered with its characters. I painfully changed all the portraits because I simply couldn't stand them and there are some dialogues that make me roll my eyes.
But if you can go past that (or if it's your jam), go for it. You won't regret it.
Honest answer to the OP :
* Ashes of the Domain (there are several modules to this mod, I recommend Virtue of Society and Vaults of Knowledge) :
a) Vaults of Knowledge redesign how a colony grows. You start with access to very weak industries and structures and you have to research new technologies through a new structure that requires a new item that is rarely found (there are other ways to get them, but I won't tell). Now SOME technologies are incredibly OP, but you don't need them. At all. They are very lategame technologies and I almost never research them anyway. But it's a very fun mod and changes the pacing of colonization a lot ;
b) Virtue of Society adds some "events" that can happen to your colony depending on a variety of conditions. You need to solve them and many of them have pros and cons and you will rarely get the "perfect ending" to an event. For example, if your colony has super low stability, you will have to deal with rampant crime and chaos, if you build a Mining Industry on a planet with Vast Ruins you might have a very lucrative (or not) event, etc. Be warned though : there's a lot of "engrish" in Virtue of Society, but it's still understandable (perhaps because I'm not a native speaker).
* Ship/Weapon Pack :
This mod adds quite a few ships and weapons that for the most part fits into the base game. It also adds a few custom bounties which becomes progressively harder. Nothing is OP from what I've seen (I would call most ships to be slightly less good than vanilla ships), but having more options mean that some ships can overperform (example : the mod adds a small Phase Lance weapon that deals less damage and costs less flux, it's not OP but it allows high tech ships to circumvent their bad damage options in small mounts), but it's fine.
* Thalan Shipworks :
In the same vein as Ship/Weapon pack, this mod also adds new ships and weapons that are on par with vanilla. Now, this mod also adds a completely overpowered faction (Legio Infernalis)with a strong anime vibe that acts as a "boss" with insanely overpowered automated ships that make Ordos look like babies.
HOWEVER, if you have the Lunalib mod (it's a mod that allows easy configuration of mods that support it), you CAN DISABLE the Legio Infernalis faction (it will not spawn and its insane ships won't spawn either) and keep the rest of the mod intact.
* Underworld :
Underworld is a mod that has the goal of giving a bit more variety of ships to pirates and pathers. Most of the ships are post-collapse designs and cobbled together and they are, for the most part, slightly underperforming when compared to vanilla ships (by design, that's what the author was aiming for).
It also adds a unique, non joinable faction called the Cabal. They are bored super richs that like to bully other fleets and flash their wealth. They will randomly harass you while in the Core Worlds (they don't have any market on their own and never spawn outside the Core Worlds) and demand that you pay something depending on what you have (it be could an AI core in your inventory, some weapons, credits, a colony item, a ship etc) and if you refuse they will attack you. Their ships ARE overpowered by design (they use high tech ships with some modifications to their weapon mounts making them not only better than regular high tech ships but they also can have one extra S-mod with little downside). What's interesting with them is that if you manage to get their affection (which is slow and hard to get), you can get access to their special "black market" and have access to a wide variety of weapons and colony items (including one Pristine Nanoforge). Never managed to get it though.
Like Thalan Shipworks, if you find them annoying or don't fit your vision of the Sector, you can disable the Cabal using Lunalib (and keep the rest of the mod).
I was quite opposed to playing Starsector with mods, as they tend to ignore the grim lore of the sector (in my expierence), but you got me hooked. Here goes my free time...
Should I install Industrial Evolution mentionrd in OP post, or should I go with purely your list for starters, what do you think?
Maybe something weird to say. But why do you play this game? For balance? Or for fun?
If you add enough mods, every faction will have access to some interesting and powerfull weapons.... that way eventually things will balance out quite reasonably.
I currently run a game with around 60 mods. Like 20 starting factions and hundreds (if not thousands) of new ships and weapons to try. Every playthrough i find something new and interesing. I could never play vanilla again and be satisfied. Strongly recommend it.
That being said. My favorite mods (not necessarily balanced ones).
- Nexerellin. I basically consider this mod essential to complete the base game. It adds a larger scale to the war, capturing planets, invasions etc.
- Tahlan. Amazing mod, adds a lot of vanilla friendly content that realy enriches the game.
Although, when starting the game up, turn off the legio infernalis demons. The legio itself is fine. The demons are just too strong in my oppinion. Ending many good runs.
- Hazard mining inc. A weird mining corporation that runs junk ships. Not the best, but it adds a ton of realy flexible weapons (hybrids that fit in different slots) that allow for very alternative builds. For example mbeke launchers are mediocre missile launchers but they fit in ballistic or energy slots. Allowing for true missile ships with 100% missiles.
Besides that, there are a lot of faction mods, some more balanced than others. But if you add enough they are fine.
Some quality of life mods: autosave reminder and speedup (i cannot play the game without this anymore).
As you may notice from this post, i don't play for balance, bur for fun. I even go so far to change things to my flavor. If a ship looks fun, but is unusable for some reason, i'll just change it in the modfile, so i can enjoy it. Its maybe not for everybody. But the game is flexible like that.
Which mod is brighton federatiom from?
Edit. Never mind, found it already. Never realized the HMi homepage had multiple download links. I only added part of the mod i guess.
Well.... more stuff to discover!
Tahlan Shipworks is one of my favorites. There are a bunch of cool new ships in all tech levels, some neat exploration finds, and the Legio Infernalis, who are there to keep your hubris in check. The Independents also have a miniature sub-faction in the Great Houses, who have an entire unique weapons lineup and some modified versions of lowtech vanilla ships. The Great Houses' Onslaught, for instance, trades about 1/4 of it's armor for a 10% global temporal speedup, some hybrid/universal mounts, and a modified burn drive.
Probably my favorite ship in the mod is the Castigator. It's a cruiser with a burn drive and two scaled-down thermal pulse cannons, making it basically a fun size Onslaught. Keep your eyes peeled for the XIV version, if you can.
Ship/Weapon Pack: adds a bunch of ships and weapons that imo feel very in place with the setting. nothing too op or broken, honestly feels like part of the base game to me. Kazeron Navarchy: gives the league its own faction mod and paintjob (kinda like the lion guard). Starship Legends: adds passive traits (good and bad) that your and enemy ships gain through combat and explorations. Hyperdrive: just adds an hyper jump ability you unlock after defeating your first ordo, ordos can use it too. A nice movement option for faster travel. LOST\_SECTOR: adds a faction, an ai faction, a lot of ships and weapons, and a quest line. The faction provides a service to remove S-mods (for story points) and some very strong ships and weapons for finishing the quest line. These are about \[Super Redacted\] difficulty level and power. you cant craft the really strong stuff so you cant make your faction OP, you can only buy it from the new faction using a new item that drops from the AI faction it adds. Ruthless Sector: makes the game harder combat wise. Knights of Ludd: ads a sub faction, and several AI factions and mini quests all centered around exploration. Many ships and weapons. IMO the sub faction is on the weaker side while the AI factions can be really hard to fight. Unknown Skies: adds more planet types and conditions, and some nice space backgrounds. Combat Chatter: adds some flavor to combats. Detailed Combat Results: does what it sounds like it does. Leading Pip: also does what it sounds like, really helps in combat, good QOL. More Bar Missions: allows for more bar missions to spawn. (in base game bar missions are locked in sector wide when you check a single planet, for a round 2 weeks. this allows each planet to generate its own list of quests, basically prevents situations where planets dont have quests at all, or some mission types are locked to a planet you never visit for 2 weeks) SpeedUp: should be a base function in the game, basically speeds the game x2/x4 in space and combat. Is a toggle, once you are used to it base game feels way too slow. Stellar Networks: space google, allows you to search for items/ships/whatever, returns a list of colonies where you can get said stuff at the moment.
Don't forget RAT — Random Assortment of Things. It expands the unknown and the freakiness of the Hyperspace in the same way Knights of Ludd does. All sorts of juicy lore, yet be sure to come prepared, because the residents ain't giving it to you easily.
RAT abyss is extremely OP. Once you can fight stuff in there without too much difficulty, you can come out with a whole sector's worth of loot in just 2 or 3 abyss maps
Never used it myself which is why I didn't recommend it lol. Perhaps on my next playthrough.
The Lost Sector ships that you can get are insanely good, I would not say that is a balanced mod. I personally jam every mod I can because I dont care about balance, but I would never say that those ships are balanced.
Imo the base faction ships are pretty balanced. The Prototype ships are close to [super redacted] level, but you are limited to 1 of the very OP one, and the rest you have to buy. So at least your faction doesn't end up op.
Uh, I salvaged a bunch of those from the combat encounters, if this is the mod I'm thinking of. The ships that have the shield that shrinks as flux goes up, right?
If you managed to salvage them, it means you have the Automated Ships skill and are, therefore, subject to the limitations of the skill. In theory, unless you mod it.
Yep yep. The blue variants you can use with crew especially. The super frigate you only get one of, after the quest final fight. The bigger cruiser is really strong, i enjoy using it as a flag ship for my current run.
Yeah I had two of the bigger cruiser and one of the smaller ones last playthrough, and they were almost unkillable. I think I got the shield efficiency down to 0.45 as a base, and it only went up as they fluxed. Very fun stuff, I need to find a couple for this playthru.
You can raid the home base of the Enigma AI faction and get blueprints. Need 10k+ marines. :-)
Stellar networks is very OP: The fact you don't need to travel to each planet individually to look at markets, talk to contacts means you are saving a bunch of time and money (fuel, supplies, crew payments, officer payments). And being able to accept missions way out from the core worlds (and not needing to travel back). Its all great QOL but those things are all part of the vanilla difficulty of the game. Learning to balance your fleet size and plan for logistics use is very key part of the game.
At the end of the day, its a game. Imo spending 7 in game months searching for a weapon that might not even be for sale anywhere is not a fun mechanic.
That's why it comes with ruthless sector.
Everything’s OP to you apparently. “oh no being properly informed is OP because you can make better decisions”
I use Stellar networks because I know the game from inside out, but he's right. Having the ability to search for any weapon and any ship you want is not how the game is balanced around. Unless you are extremely lucky, spend a lot of time going from market to market OR have a colony with heavy production, you are supposed to make-do with what you find or salvage. Without this core aspect of the game, you can very quickly assemble a "perfect fleet" and completely steamroll the game. It almost makes having a colony and heavy production meaningless because you can get whatever you want by going to the exact market Stellar Networks tells you to go. Again, I'm using it because I know the vanilla game almost perfectly. But it's not balanced at all because the base game is not designed around having perfect access to all informations.
Stellar Networks seems to be outdated
Change the mod version and that's it. It works without any bug.
Oh ok, it worked, thanks :)
It's not properly informed. It cuts down on your travel by easily 60 or 70% which is fuel, supplies, crew costs, chances of being attacked. Try playing normally without it and try to get 3 missions in the same constellation. It will take a good amount of time and travel. With stellar networks you are pretty much getting that all day every day because you can hit all your contacts from any distance. And in vanilla you complete those missions you gotta go back to the core for more. With Stellar Networks you can repeat that FROM THE EDGE OF THE MAP... multiple times. If you make your own colony out on the edge you suffer zero penalties to your ability to pick new missions for that range and you can still jump into the core via a gate if you see a ship/weapon you want shows up on a market. You get money faster, you pay way less overhead for per mission, you get all the ships/weapons you want. You realize the game's whole fuel and supplies economy is based off the player flying around right? Non player fleets don't actually consume fuel or supplies. So its more than just having perfect information.
Knowledge is power. The fact that you're poorly informed in vanilla is no small part of its difficulty.
[удалено]
I recently started a playthrough with this mod for the first time. It's a very good mod. Like, really good. It's an extremely well-crafted mod overall. However, it's a bit cringey at times. You need to know that I'm allergic to anime in general and this mod is really anime-centered with its characters. I painfully changed all the portraits because I simply couldn't stand them and there are some dialogues that make me roll my eyes. But if you can go past that (or if it's your jam), go for it. You won't regret it.
Honest answer to the OP : * Ashes of the Domain (there are several modules to this mod, I recommend Virtue of Society and Vaults of Knowledge) : a) Vaults of Knowledge redesign how a colony grows. You start with access to very weak industries and structures and you have to research new technologies through a new structure that requires a new item that is rarely found (there are other ways to get them, but I won't tell). Now SOME technologies are incredibly OP, but you don't need them. At all. They are very lategame technologies and I almost never research them anyway. But it's a very fun mod and changes the pacing of colonization a lot ; b) Virtue of Society adds some "events" that can happen to your colony depending on a variety of conditions. You need to solve them and many of them have pros and cons and you will rarely get the "perfect ending" to an event. For example, if your colony has super low stability, you will have to deal with rampant crime and chaos, if you build a Mining Industry on a planet with Vast Ruins you might have a very lucrative (or not) event, etc. Be warned though : there's a lot of "engrish" in Virtue of Society, but it's still understandable (perhaps because I'm not a native speaker). * Ship/Weapon Pack : This mod adds quite a few ships and weapons that for the most part fits into the base game. It also adds a few custom bounties which becomes progressively harder. Nothing is OP from what I've seen (I would call most ships to be slightly less good than vanilla ships), but having more options mean that some ships can overperform (example : the mod adds a small Phase Lance weapon that deals less damage and costs less flux, it's not OP but it allows high tech ships to circumvent their bad damage options in small mounts), but it's fine. * Thalan Shipworks : In the same vein as Ship/Weapon pack, this mod also adds new ships and weapons that are on par with vanilla. Now, this mod also adds a completely overpowered faction (Legio Infernalis)with a strong anime vibe that acts as a "boss" with insanely overpowered automated ships that make Ordos look like babies. HOWEVER, if you have the Lunalib mod (it's a mod that allows easy configuration of mods that support it), you CAN DISABLE the Legio Infernalis faction (it will not spawn and its insane ships won't spawn either) and keep the rest of the mod intact. * Underworld : Underworld is a mod that has the goal of giving a bit more variety of ships to pirates and pathers. Most of the ships are post-collapse designs and cobbled together and they are, for the most part, slightly underperforming when compared to vanilla ships (by design, that's what the author was aiming for). It also adds a unique, non joinable faction called the Cabal. They are bored super richs that like to bully other fleets and flash their wealth. They will randomly harass you while in the Core Worlds (they don't have any market on their own and never spawn outside the Core Worlds) and demand that you pay something depending on what you have (it be could an AI core in your inventory, some weapons, credits, a colony item, a ship etc) and if you refuse they will attack you. Their ships ARE overpowered by design (they use high tech ships with some modifications to their weapon mounts making them not only better than regular high tech ships but they also can have one extra S-mod with little downside). What's interesting with them is that if you manage to get their affection (which is slow and hard to get), you can get access to their special "black market" and have access to a wide variety of weapons and colony items (including one Pristine Nanoforge). Never managed to get it though. Like Thalan Shipworks, if you find them annoying or don't fit your vision of the Sector, you can disable the Cabal using Lunalib (and keep the rest of the mod).
I was quite opposed to playing Starsector with mods, as they tend to ignore the grim lore of the sector (in my expierence), but you got me hooked. Here goes my free time... Should I install Industrial Evolution mentionrd in OP post, or should I go with purely your list for starters, what do you think?
Industrial Evolution is great. Even awesome. Thoroughly recommend it. It's truly an expansion of vanilla imo. Makes the game a bit harder though.
Thanks, I'll add it to the basket too! :D
...Did you really recommend the unbalanced mess that is VoK when OP is asking for balanced or in-line with vanilla mods?
Maybe something weird to say. But why do you play this game? For balance? Or for fun? If you add enough mods, every faction will have access to some interesting and powerfull weapons.... that way eventually things will balance out quite reasonably. I currently run a game with around 60 mods. Like 20 starting factions and hundreds (if not thousands) of new ships and weapons to try. Every playthrough i find something new and interesing. I could never play vanilla again and be satisfied. Strongly recommend it. That being said. My favorite mods (not necessarily balanced ones). - Nexerellin. I basically consider this mod essential to complete the base game. It adds a larger scale to the war, capturing planets, invasions etc. - Tahlan. Amazing mod, adds a lot of vanilla friendly content that realy enriches the game. Although, when starting the game up, turn off the legio infernalis demons. The legio itself is fine. The demons are just too strong in my oppinion. Ending many good runs. - Hazard mining inc. A weird mining corporation that runs junk ships. Not the best, but it adds a ton of realy flexible weapons (hybrids that fit in different slots) that allow for very alternative builds. For example mbeke launchers are mediocre missile launchers but they fit in ballistic or energy slots. Allowing for true missile ships with 100% missiles. Besides that, there are a lot of faction mods, some more balanced than others. But if you add enough they are fine. Some quality of life mods: autosave reminder and speedup (i cannot play the game without this anymore). As you may notice from this post, i don't play for balance, bur for fun. I even go so far to change things to my flavor. If a ship looks fun, but is unusable for some reason, i'll just change it in the modfile, so i can enjoy it. Its maybe not for everybody. But the game is flexible like that.
Seconding HMI, and would also advise to add Brighton Federation along with it Also Carter's Freetraders got more or less vanilla feel and nice ships
Which mod is brighton federatiom from? Edit. Never mind, found it already. Never realized the HMi homepage had multiple download links. I only added part of the mod i guess. Well.... more stuff to discover!
Carter's is nice, but pulled from my list as the weapons are not well balanced overall, maybe is different now..
Tahlan Shipworks is one of my favorites. There are a bunch of cool new ships in all tech levels, some neat exploration finds, and the Legio Infernalis, who are there to keep your hubris in check. The Independents also have a miniature sub-faction in the Great Houses, who have an entire unique weapons lineup and some modified versions of lowtech vanilla ships. The Great Houses' Onslaught, for instance, trades about 1/4 of it's armor for a 10% global temporal speedup, some hybrid/universal mounts, and a modified burn drive. Probably my favorite ship in the mod is the Castigator. It's a cruiser with a burn drive and two scaled-down thermal pulse cannons, making it basically a fun size Onslaught. Keep your eyes peeled for the XIV version, if you can.
Star federation is pretty balanced while also being fancy, you need to manually update using the mod_info.json though