[REALSPACE MODS] "STARS" - "XRSGE" - "REM" - various

[Realspace]

The southern quadrant holds quite a unique atmosphere, as it was in my X3FL mod. What lacks at the end is a true meaning for gameplay. Because the idea is of a region of space for renegades and pirates. All factions are the same, in a friend-to-all gameplay. I am at the point in the game where I can print capital ships, conquer sectors. It gets boring. So am thinking about how to make the gameplay more similar to the previous titles where the progression was slow. A mod for a true pirate life, enemy to everybody. Or a trader of a faction that has to make its own routes. I really don't like the empire management when it gets to the point of only watching the map. I am thinking about a "scarcity" mod (in Skyrim there was one) where drops are not so high or on contrary, to revolve around the player, doing the npc trader very costly (high stars for autotrade). I still don't get the reason why this game, despite so detailed, does not catch me as X3 did where your first M6 seemed a goal. Here after the first hours you start doing so much money that only the costly split and paranid missions slow you down. And those parts of the missions seem more a chore than a gameplay. Also my idea is to make certain missions only available in certain starts. What's the point of doing toa plots when you already have an empire? They are good for a pirate's life at the beginning. Or a small trader. Then there is the problem of the hq needed for everything..

[Arsaneus]

I share your view. I'm always trying to figure out the best way to play. So far, I simply had to set my own rules/boundaries as the default game is far too easy/quick.
XRSGE is one way to extend the time while making space feel like.. space. As it was in the X3 games.

The other issue is combat balance. Destroyers damage output (due to the main guns) is far too high while their armor and shield is too low. I wish time-to-kill for fleet battles was much longer.
In one playthrough I used the recycle mod with reverse engineering. This allows me to get ship-building materials without having to buy them from the factions and also limit the amount I get. Setting up a production chain with factories is far too easy.

But I have still not yet found the "sweet spot" for a challenge without making it a bother

[Realspace]

Yes, destroyers go down as flies. I addressed this in REM where they have better/more shields and hull, also adding the XL battleships. Still, despite the hull 3x, they are too weak. I think I will increase the hull even more...and the prices. Destroyers and battleships have to be a final stage and factions that have those patrols should be powerful. As is now an equipped battleship is in the range of 50/60.000.000 cr as it was in X3 for the M2 (the true equivalent) and L destroyers in the 20.000.000, which is higher than vanilla. I will double price and hull.
Station building is another aspect. I find myself wishing for the old X3's method with prebuilt modules. Now you can build infinite megafactories and defence stations with so many turrets to be invincibile. This makes no sense and spoils the late game. I could maybe reduce the plot's size. In XRSGE I even increased it in order to allow the megafactories but this also allows the mega fortresses by the player. Vanilla defence stations are stronger in xrsge (they are too weak in vanilla) but not huge fortress, a good balance to resist a single battleship aka xenon I

[Realspace]

I've made a new mod.
It is a total PHQ replacement, for both custom starts and story starts.

New PHQ mod v.1.0

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1365

Replaces the PHQ with a new one that is lore friendly.
New HQ consists of a Terran trade pier and a terran dock.
Two models to chose:
New PHQ1 has and additional terran habitat
New PHQ2 has only docks

THIS PHQ WORKS NORMALLY IN EVERY GAME'S START.
TERRAN DLC is required, of course.



........................

This is also the first step into doing a NOT PHQ play.
I will use this model (or even different ones) to be used for different starts, where researches are unlocked at the beginning and can not be researched in the lab.

So each start will have specific unlocked researches, but not all. A pirate will be able to steal blueprints (while having none to start with and very low relation with every faction), an Argon fighter start will have only the first 2 tiers of teleportation and no module hack, a trader start will have no teleportation nor blueprint hacks but maybe the protectyon (?), so on...

I am open to suggestions about what start scenarios and what benefits/cons each can have. I was also thinking of removing some plots from certain starts, any suggestion about is appreciated.

[Aadeyrn]

Loving the mod! Distances are so much better now. Quick question, will you adding a new no highways addon? Can say that i've never been fond of highways. The odd blue lane always looks abit wonky but that's personal preference to be fair

[Realspace]

Yes, will prepare a minimod (not a patch) that removes them from any version. I don't like them either, expecially now that superhw can bring you close to areas of interest...but I was busy preparing another mod, that is ready btw, a tweak collection+custom start to play as a true pirate: no hq (in a sense), hacking and modding available from beginning (no research), no long teleportation, many tweaks to sell things at the beginning, enemy to everybody except scaleplate, the sector you start in and the hq's leftover is, particularly curated and immersive...
Btw there is a mod in the nexus by someone that removes hws from xrsge 6. If it contains only two empty highway.xml and xrsge_highway.xml files, that should work with Seven too.

......

I want to prepare other starts with the same tweaks but different scenarios:
One is terran cadet where you can do the old plot (not boron) and are enemy to everyone except Pioneer and teladi.
Another would be an argon explorer/fighter so no boron plot either. I am open to suggestions on where put the hq and the role playing backstory about this. This would be enemy to paranid and split and their stories would be set as finished with both stronger (united paranid and zyarth victory). Maybe removing Dal from hq too.
A third could be a teladi trader, any hint on this and his/her backstory?
A paranid or split start should also benefit of the tweaks so no boron hq story, boron plot completed, split plot at the stage after finding the split space (i never did a split start, i suppose it discards this part too). No pirate stories. Enemy to all except zyarth and paranid or holyorder (?). Dal would be better if replaced with a paranid character

[Aadeyrn]

I'll definitely be trying out that pirate start. Gives some new life to X4. I think these new starts you're planning sound fantastic.

[Aadeyrn]

Looks like that no highway mod was deleted off nexus sadly.

[ziplock815]

Realspace, could you please remove the fog from Perpetual Sin 4?

Really, such a nice scenery, a magnificent view from the beneath of the enormous gas giant and it's completely obscured

[Realspace]

Realspace, could you please remove the fog from Perpetual Sin 4?

Really, such a nice scenery, a magnificent view from the beneath of the enormous gas giant and it's completely obscured

Nope, that's the sector close to orbit where fog is the planet's gas. The view is clear in perpetual sin 3
I could move the fog to start a few hundreds kms towards the planet, as I did for others so starting only if you fly to it

[Realspace]

Found a bug: Black hole sun Akeela's Dream - East superhighway doesn't work, pilots and autopilot ignore it too. Btw windfall with new shw looks very nice. Aren't there any plans to expand sectors like Olmanketslat's Treaty with superhighways like that? I know these sectors are intended to be without she's, but still...

Shws work all perfectly fine in akeela's dream sector.
I have plan to do a lot of such changes but it requires time. Btw I've redone bala ji joy that is the phq location of the new pirate start. I could do other such sectors too, lore wise they have been abandoned but some shw resists (shw have no sense fo physics, what would they orbit? So f...k realism )

[ziplock815]

Yes, moving the fog is definitely a good idea. Honestly, I like foggy areas, they are really fine...only when don't cover a whole sector
As for shws bug in Black hole sun - maybe that's because I play with 7.0 beta

[Realspace]

Fogs work following this ratio:
1) sun coronas (the idea is that gates/shw only arrive at the border of the sun corona, you travel some hundreds or thousands kms to enter it, the foggy area with resources)
2) gas giant's low orbit, here similarly, to improve immersion, it is required to cross some distance to enter the very low orbit, the gas here is supposed to be planet's gas.
3) in sectors very close to the sun, here the gas is subtle and you can see it when looking at the sun. It is supposed to be the external part of the sun corona that goes far beyond the corona itself
4) small spots of gas, vanilla style.
5) rare, regions of space big as a system (one or more sectors) that are inside a subtle fog (nebula). As in X3.

So anything that is not in one of these has been either already changed or will be. If seeing one case that does not match please report

[Realspace]

New Mod feedbacks and ideas

I am doing a new mod to be used for a fresh new start in X4 7.00 (I've updated XRSGE to 7.00 beta btw, but will be released when beta is ended).

The idea is what we talked about and what XRSGE already partially does (and REM by increasing the prices of big ships), i.e. making the early part of the game last longer and increasing the sense of accomplishment and exploration. Increasing the lone pilot experience and delaying the late empire management watching a map

The mod revolves now around a PIRATE START I made but I'd like to adapt it to other starts.

The mod is a collection of various tweaks, some already present in other mods (as single feature), adapted from my other mods (f.i. reputation mod), or are developed from scratch. The idea is always to balance things so that the difficulty at start is not boredom but only stimulates a different gaming approach, so there are many limits but also many facilitations. Here the list:

- (Pirate Start) you start as enemy to ALL! Rank is very low, only Scaleplate rank is positive. Minor rebel factions (Curbs, Duke, etc) have better tolerance towards you. Major factions will shot at sight.
- you start with HQ and Boso (Argon Pirate Start), HQ is stripped down to a Terran dock (my PHQ2 mod is required). If you make other starts the HQ will be the one from PHQ2 mod.
- teleportation is limited to sector within (mass teleportation can be researched thereafter)
- ship upgrades can not be searched, you start with knowledge of basic Mk1 blueprints. To unlock other Mk1 and Mk2 blueprints you can buy the data from any trader. To unlock Mk3 blueprints you have to buy the data from Pirate traders. Mk3 data tool is illegal among all factions.
- traders need higher rank for advanced and expert trader (this latter introduced by XRSGE mod)
- (to compensate) firstly hired pilots start with higher stars in piloting and morale.
- you can sell all the illegal stuff to the shady guys or pirate traders.
- you can sell/buy SETA (700.000cr)
- you can sell/buy all crystals
- you can buy 3 and 4 stars seminars
- you can buy (vanilla hidden) trade station's docking module
- rewards for missions are higher
- police license can be bought also with negative rank (better way to increase rep than shooting civilians).
- trade subscriptions have different cost, those of small factions are much cheaper

In addition to this, there are oc the features introduced by XRSGE. Some of these are patched by the mod, f.i. the expert trader that in XRSGE requires only 3 stars, here requires well 5 stars (but hired pilots are better at start).
Then there is REM that increases the prices of capital ships. In latest version to release I've even doubled the XL battleship's prices (so f.i. the Titan costs around 90.000.000 cr).

The idea of the tweaks is (1) to make a feature-ready package that should work as it is, no need for multiple mods to install and (2) avoid single-feature mods that could un-balance the whole experience (for instance if you add LearnAllThings mod, it will compensate the introduced limitations making the whole package not effective or unbalanced).

Other mods will be added as required to be part of the experience, for instance the super-necessary mod Chill Headhunter. It allows to kill foes (no mission needed) and have rewards and rank.
I'd like to have some other of such features but for a trader playthrough so f.i. an extra reward if you make the trade in person by piloting the ship (don't know how to implement such a feature thou).

So, what do you think I should still add/remove/revise to make this kind of playthrough fun and balanced?

[ziplock815]

I'd really like to try a pirate start, but wouldn't like to be enemy to all races. I think maybe enemy/bad relations with some factions and neutral (0 to -15) with others, 0 to +5 with teladi. X3 style pirate start. Have a temptation to start a new game (again ) because of your new HQ model. It's awesome, but I don't want to play boron story again

Btw, seems like Wesley has released X-Rebirth sector's mod on Steam. Maybe you could look if it may be compatible with XRSGE?

P.S. Small issue found - Holy Order III - Holy Vision Alpha - Superhighway from Holy Vision Beta leads through planet

[Realspace]

For that there is the new start introduced in beta5. I've tweaked it too to be a semi-pirate wannabe start, but much more forgiving. I wish instead for a (lacking) true pirate start that is not only enemy to all (which in vanilla game would result in impossible play) but having various new ways to make your game through levels. XRSGE already adds Scaleplate shipyards. All the above mentioned tweaks + some bailing mod adds another layer of true pirate experience

[Realspace]

I've updated both REM and REM Inertia addon to be compatible with 7.00 Beta5

REM https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/848
REM Inertia https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1328

Mods made on top of X4 7.00 Beta5

All new ships have been rem-ized, i.e. not only engines and speeds/accelerations. I've reworked the new models to be on paar with REM XL and L ships, having much more hull and shields, mounting more turrets overall.

Since EGO introduced the Colossus E, the previous distinction between Colossus Vanguard and Sentinel (one was a carrier, the other had been changed into a battleship) is no more. They are still both available at both Argon and Antigone. The two, despite being both carriers, are quite different. Vanguard is lighter, has less hull but carries more ships. Sentinel is bulkier (more hull) but carries less ships. Both mount less L turrets now, but yet many M turrets and shields.

Sentinel is set for a defensive role, can resist more but has less ships. Vanguard is an incursion carrier, less resistant but can lunch up to 64 S ships and several S fighter drones (that in REM are capable as a S scout).

Finally, the Colossus E is no more a carrier (can carry some S and M), is instead a battleship (what the Vanguard used to be). The ship has a formidable hull, 4 shields, a lot of L turrets. As the Titan, this model has some L shields protecting the more exposed turrets. While the Titan is a lighter hybrid between a destroyer and a battleship, mounting frontal weapons but not many turrets, the Colossus E is a true massive battleship with lot of L turrets, slow but deadly also against Xenon I (npc piloting).

Phenix E and Herron E have been both changed (hull, cargo etc.). Phoenix E mounts 5 shields (vanilla: 3), 3 frontal weapons (vanilla: 2) and several additional M turrets.

Prices and resources needed for ALL L and XL capital ships have been doubled. Capital ships are very powerful, more hull, more shields, more turrets and guns.

V.7.0.1

I've added a custom Teladi XL Condor E. Don't know if EGO will release one too, the name was there, for the meantime I did a copy of the other Condors having a lot more turrets and better suited as battleship. Vanguard and Sentinel are both back to be carrier with different role as defence or incursion.
I've REM-ized all new M and S ships too, all guns and engines.
I've turned the old XR Khaak destroyer into an heavy M frigate (EGO added a new Khaak L destroyer) and added it to the various patrols, etc. The ship is very deadly for smaller ships and can be seen in encounters too.

V.7.0.2

I've added a custom SHIPICONS PACK
I appreciate that EGO added more icon types but I don't like their actual icons, maybe they'll be changed. Up to then, here is an update that has new icons.
(Orca icon is wrong, vanilla bug, I did not change it).

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I've released a minimod that removes ALL local highways, vanilla and XRSGE highways (superhighways are not touched).
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1371

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I've updated XRSGE Seven to version 7.2.8.

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1140

This version is compatible with X4 7.00 Beta5

Various fixes to scripts
New sectors added by ego have been partially redone and moved accordig to XRSGE universe, identical names have been changed.
Many small changes by XRSGE (as for instance colors of factions etc.) have been removed, because colors are dynamic in X4 7.00
There are quite newly redone sectors, the whole Brenna Triumph system redone, a sector in Farnham's Legacy system.
Totally new Bala Ji Joy sector, having superhighways and various. This sector is the starting sector for the Pirate Start that is provided in another mod to be released.
Prism mod is no more included, you can download the Prism mod from the Nexus

This update requires latest STARS mod (v.7.0.1) to show the new moons and the backgrounds used in new ego's sectors, please update:

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/507

................

[ziplock815]

Nice job as always
I like new planet in Gunn's Crusade a lot. There's a small issue though - accelerator is a little bit too close tho superhighway.
I see you haven't changed new vanilla sectors a lot, but I feel some planets (in Freedom's Reach for example) definitely need some editing. Besides, you could make Loomanckstrat's Legacy even darker, with no stars in the background as in X3, that would fit good to the sector description

[Realspace]

Nice job as always
I like new planet in Gunn's Crusade a lot. There's a small issue though - accelerator is a little bit too close tho superhighway.
I see you haven't changed new vanilla sectors a lot, but I feel some planets (in Freedom's Reach for example) definitely need some editing. Besides, you could make Loomanckstrat's Legacy even darker, with no stars in the background as in X3, that would fit good to the sector description

Did you update STARS? New sectors are edited there, it's all in the materials, in STARS.

BTW, to a better immersion, here it is, I am uploading my new mod:
XRSGE Tweaks (with Pirate start)

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1372

Enjoy..

EDIT: I've patched the accelerator in Gunne's Crusade, indeed it was in the same position of the shw
download in update tab of xrsge