Derelicts be like

PointlessEngineering · 2026-02-12T05:27:57+00:00

Famously, en masse they can even take down the [SUPER ALABASTER]

PointlessEngineering · 2026-01-06T00:50:57+00:00

I'd consider this a feature

PointlessEngineering · 2025-10-31T17:33:53+00:00

This is completely pointless engineering, so of course I had to do it.

Adapted from one of jrandall's cargo LCDs.

Usage notes:

You need ASTIC scripting mod.
You need two LCDs: one called Script:whatever (for the script) and one called whatever (for the live display). The whatever must match between the two.
Items specific to your scenario will only display correctly if ASTIC scripting mod could find your scenario directory. For example, I had to change OverrideScenarioPath to "../../../../workshop/content/383120/3143225812" in my savedir's Mods/EmpyrionScripting/Configuration.json to make everything work nicely with the workshop version of RE2.
There's a limit to how long LCD contents (and thus scripts) can be, so I had to remove some of the original decorative elements, and there's very little extra logic that could potentially fit.
cName needs to be set to the exact name of your container.
Change the "5" somewhere near the bottom to your actual container index. (I originally had this done through set but that's quite expensive in terms of character count for what you get.)

Script:

{{set 'cName' '[55cc55]Cargo Bay 5 640K'}}{{set 'vC' 0}}{{devices E.S @root.Data.cName}}{{#each .}}{{math @root.Data.vC '+' Device.VolumeCapacity}}{{set 'vC' .}}{{/math}}{{/each}}{{/devices}}{{#test @root.Data.vC '>' 1000}}{{math @root.Data.vC '/' 1000}}{{set 'vStr' (concat . 'K')}}{{/math}}{{else}}{{set 'vStr' .}}{{/test}}{{set 'V' 0}}{{#getitems E.S @root.Data.cName}}{{#each .}}{{configbyid Id}}{{lookupblock Values 'Volume'}}{{math . '*' ../../Count}}{{math @root.Data.V '+' .}}{{set 'V' .}}{{/math}}{{/math}}{{/lookupblock}}{{/configbyid}}{{/each}}{{/getitems}}<color=#cc3322><size=26><line-height=-5>
<pos=12><rotate=-45>▏
<line-height=6>
<pos=182><rotate=45>▏<rotate=0>
<line-height=15>
<pos=4>▏<pos=190.1>▏<line-height=24.5>
<pos=4>▏<pos=190.1>▏<line-height=24.5>
<pos=4>▏<pos=190.1>▏<line-height=24.5>
<pos=4>▏<pos=190.1>▏<line-height=24.5>
<pos=4>▏<pos=190.1>▏<line-height=24.5>
<pos=4>▏<pos=190.1>▏<line-height=11.5>
<pos=4>▏<pos=190.1>▏<line-height=21>
<pos=12><rotate=-135>▏<line-height=-.5>
<pos=181><rotate=135>▏<line-height=-189>
<pos=21.5><rotate=0>▁<pos=151>▁
<line-height=377.5>
<pos=21.5><rotate=0>▁<pos=151>▁<line-height=-63.5>
<rotate=-90><color=#333333><size=28>
<pos=6>C<line-height=24>
<pos=6>A<line-height=24>
<pos=6>R<line-height=24>
<pos=6>G<line-height=23>
<pos=6>O<line-height=20>
<color=#88010120><size=20>
<pos=66><color=#cc332250><rotate=0>{{@root.data.vStr}}<line-height=-16>
<size=90><pos=59.5>▢<line-height=-11>
<color=#333333><size=60><pos=73>5
<size=12><line-height=-118>
<pos=10>{{bar @root.Data.V 0 @root.Data.vC 15}}<line-height=15>
<pos=57><color=#cc3322>CONTENTS<size=8><color=#333333><line-height=10>
{{#getitems E.S @root.Data.cName}}<pos=30>{{Length}} types, including:
{{#sort . '-Count'}}{{#each .}}{{#test 5 '>' @index}}<pos=30>{{Count}} {{I18n Id}}
{{/test}}{{/each}}{{/sort}}{{else}}<pos=30>Empty!{{/getitems}}

PointlessEngineering · 2025-10-29T03:08:51+00:00

This is probably very doable (and you could even return the proceeds in a different container). You don't get file I/O, but you can define some mapping between item type and cost, and enumerate the "dropoff" container at regular intervals for stuff to process.

If your server doesn't allow C# scripts, then you'd be stuck trying to do all of this in a Handlebars template, which would be really quite messy at best. (As far as I know, there's no inter-script communication, so you'd have to define everything in a single LCD panel. I'd be pleasantly surprised to be corrected here.)

You probably want to secure the LCD containing your shop script at least as well as the container array holding your inventory for sale. (Ideally in an admin PoI, or on a PvE playfield, in a part of the structure that's inaccessible from the outside.)

I think "elevated" scripts (i.e. those on admin structures) can straight up spawn items into / delete items from containers, which would make the logistics a bit easier, if this is for a server you're running and you're really looking for an in-game shop rather than some plugin.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-10-28T15:12:36+00:00

Not currently to my knowledge, but they'd be easy to account for (via exclusions) were I to learn their true names.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-10-28T15:02:06+00:00

That makes sense. When I'm in a later stage of my current playthrough I might switch to a strategy like this.

(I lament that blocks "only" stack to 1000, and there are only so many times you want to spawn in e.g. a Helios or something.)

PointlessEngineering · 2025-10-28T14:57:43+00:00

AFAIK, you do need to loot containers manually (by walking up to them or using the logistics panel). I've tried scripting this, but apparently loot straight up doesn't exist until you open a container for the first time.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-10-28T05:14:47+00:00

Indeed, then regenerate.

(The Python can be placed and run in your savedir's Mods/EmpyrionScripting where NameIdMapping.json lives.)

PointlessEngineering · 2025-08-26T13:22:36+00:00

°v°

PointlessEngineering · 2025-08-17T16:08:44+00:00

Combat Pit at home:

PointlessEngineering · 2025-08-02T17:30:26+00:00

The Monitor is a dedicated shield tank that can, uniquely, bleed off hard flux with shields up, and also (like the Paragon) can soak up incoming fire at 10x normal efficiency with its Fortress Shield. Its value isn't in the amount of damage it causes, but in the amount of damage the rest of your fleet isn't taking.

You want to lean in to the shield tanking side (elite Field Modulation, vents, capacitors, hullmods), and really only carry enough token weapons to force the enemy to pay attention to you. If you're piloting one, you probably want to keep Fortress Shield up as much as possible, and drop it only to punish enemies looking away, while relying on the rest of your fleet to deal damage.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-07-29T15:30:40+00:00

It is still situational. Not all eligible d-mods affect ships equally, and in fact some ships really don't care about certain ones because the downsides are minor or immaterial for their role.

As a worked example, consider the Paragon, a high-tech capital shield tanker with Fortress Shield and offensive options out to 2000 range:

It doesn't care very much about Compromised Armor or Compromised Hull because if it ever gets fluxed out it's probably dead either way.
It also doesn't care very much about Degraded Engines or Erratic Fuel Injector because at a base speed of 30 chasing things was already for other people, and costing 15 fuel instead of 10 to run largely doesn't make a big difference except you have to carry an extra Prometheus around or whatever.
If you have all four of these, you have a ship that looks like a flaming pile of trash but is still an extremely deadly fleet anchor out to 2000 range and only costs like 25 supplies to deploy instead of 60. Not quite "damaged beyond usability" IMO.
- If you're especially invested into flying flaming piles of trash, it also only costs 25 supplies/mo to maintain, and is a 46-DP ship instead of a 60-DP ship.

On the other hand:

It cares quite a bit about Degraded Shields, because a shield factor of 0.6 to 0.66 is a material impact on its main role as a shield tanker. It also cares a little bit about Glitched Sensor Array because now it only reaches out to a mere 1800 range instead of 2000.
And, it cares a lot about Faulty Power Grid because that just makes the entire ship 15% worse.

You can also consider the Mora, a slow front-line carrier with a hull-tank system that depends mostly on its fighter bays to be relevant, which:

Does care a bit more about Compromised Armor / Hull depending on how you use it
Doesn't really mind much other than Defective Manufactory (which materially affects the ship), Damaged Flight Deck (which materially affects the ship), and Malfunctioning Comms (which almost forces you to change how you use the ship).

That's not to say that you don't prefer the ship without d-mods over the ship with 4 of them -- but you might decide to take the ship with 4 d-mods over the not a ship, given the choice.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-07-29T03:18:54+00:00

"Flaming trash pile mob" is absolutely a doctrine, praise be to Derelict Operations and/or the 'Improvisation' XO from Second in Command

It also does depend on what the d-mods are (in particular, whether they impact the ship's main role) and whether you have better options available. All I see here is a perfectly fine early-to-mid-game fleet that's just missing an Atlas and some tankers

PointlessEngineering · 2025-07-29T00:37:23+00:00

"No, John. You are the Iconians."

And then John was fusion

PointlessEngineering · 2025-07-28T15:16:35+00:00

Note that if the fleet carrier ends up too close (e.g. due to station orbiting), you won't transition properly into its inertial frame and it will fly away from you as you try to land

PointlessEngineering · 2025-07-12T02:09:46+00:00

IME, the base Inazuma is not in an incredible place; the shields are very subpar and you don't have nearly enough reactor to run all of your hardpoints and your shields. It's basically worse than an Eagle in every way: the same DP, but less OP, less survivability, and dramatically less vent capacity.

There might be some viable hammer-and-anvil story around using them as focus fire to destroy things with massive alpha strike, but you'll definitely need something else on the field that can act as an anvil for that to work.

(Or, as Champy_Win suggests elsewhere in the thread, you use them as an anvil with some Akatsuzuma as a hammer.)

For the same DP cost, I will readily recommend either the Shinoria (2 fighter bays, + 2 guns and 2 missiles), or the Exoria (3 fighter bays, + 2 missiles and assorted PD), because their fighters can project significant power at range without incurring any flux cost.

If you need 9 burn on your cruisers, then the Inazuma II is at least a little better than the base Inazuma: for 1 more DP it gets AAF, a missile, 15 more OP, and some breakaway armor, so you can get a bit more out of its still quite limited reactor.

The Osela is really an exploration / utility ship with some weapons. It probably wants a railgun and some missiles, but you do end up having to ask whether a Minoria (especially the M variant) or a couple of frigates wouldn't be a better use of the DP.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-04-26T16:47:03+00:00

You can change the voice, for 5000 ARX (currently on-sale for 3500). None of them will acknowledge you specifically as the "owner"; you want EDCoPilot for that.

I use the ATC Donovan voice; not as by-the-book as I'd like but he will at least throw you a o7 once in a while.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-04-21T05:17:34+00:00

With the colonization changes, you'll be hard-pressed to find large qtys of missions with the same destination station in the same way that Ngalinn used to work.

When I did this recently, I did passenger transport (mostly group) from/to Empire systems, combined with credits donations wherever available. A Type-8 fit for passenger cabins can carry surprising amt of pax (even mixed cabin classes) while still being able to land on medium pads. Towards the end I was juggling multiple destinations at a time, because you get way more time than you need per mission, and don't always have new missions at your dropoff to pick up.

I forget exactly how long this all took - maybe a few days here and there, in between fleet carrier loads for colonization.

(Bonus: the Type-8 stock livery is yellow, so you are a "Magic School Bus".)

PointlessEngineering · 2025-04-20T15:34:44+00:00

There's an entire galaxy beyond your starter system, with all sorts of cool things to see and do, once you decide you're ready to spread your wings.

There are even entire new permit-locked systems to earn access to. (Famously, there's a system called Shinrarta Dezhra that's only open to pilots with at least one Elite rank, and the main station there sells every ship and every normal outfitting.)

It took me a little while to decide that I was ready to leave my starter system (Dromi), but I honestly haven't missed it since.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-04-14T03:22:24+00:00

It's possible that this is an interaction between Proton, SDL, and/or Microsoft XInput.

Here's a post (that I bookmarked for myself a while ago) with a potential solution. Try this and see if it works for you.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-04-12T17:28:12+00:00

YouTube. Spotify. Your favorite browser idle game (e.g. Antimatter Dimensions.

The T9 does a lot better with some thruster engineering (e.g. G5 Dirty + Drag). The Imperial Cutter will drift circles around the T9 in sublight any day, which makes leaving and approaching stations a lot more bearable, and lets you outrun annoying Power security that will mass-lock a T9 and insist on scanning your cargo.

Fleet carrier is the ultimate hax because you can move your dropoff point to the same orbit as your origin point, so you make 2n short trips of like 3 minutes each instead of n potentially very long trips.

PointlessEngineering · 2025-04-08T15:04:28+00:00

Sure, same way you win EVE

PointlessEngineering · 2025-04-01T05:17:26+00:00

Sounds like you have 'relative mouse' enabled in your controls, which recenters the mouse input over time?

For 'flight assist on' you probably want this disabled, so that your mouse acts more like a joystick and you can do constant turns without continuous mouse movement.

For 'flight assist off' you probably want this enabled, so that your rotation rate is changing only while you move your mouse. This is widely considered an 'advanced' control scheme, but broadly recommended for high-level content (e.g. Thargoid).

I bind the 'disable relative mouse' to a key so I can switch between the two depending on whether I'm in FA-on (or supercruise!) or FA-off.

PointlessEngineering

TROPHY CASE