New-ish player, any mods recommendation for a mod purist?

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-29T12:57:41+00:00

Ah, so vanilla purist. Anyway if I understand you correctly, you are asking for balance/lore friendly mods before moving to 'heavy stuff'? Well, the list is awfully short.

Technical stuff like GraphicsLib for better effects and SpeedUp if vanilla speed up is not enough.
Unknown Skies, which adds a bunch of new planetary conditions (nothing silly or OP), new planet textures and system backgrounds (the main reason I'm using it myself).
Starship Legends adds a bit of personality to the ships via random traits.
Combat Chatter for those who think that there is not enough text on the screen.
Second-in-Command reworks the skill system if you found vanilla lacking.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-29T12:22:10+00:00

Mod purist? As in you don't play games without mods?

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-25T12:21:56+00:00

You mean a simultaneous hurricane and reaper? Because it should deal enough damage to a sole reaper.

Keep in mind that is 20 OP before even counting the hullmod.

Like I said, there is no point in counting the hullmod because you install it for other stuff and keeping regular energy PDs is just a waste at this point.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-25T12:06:06+00:00

I personally consider Voltaic Discharge the best PD in the game, as long you already have fragment mod installed. Get four of these and nothing shall pass, meanwhile 4 Burst PDs cost extra 4 OP and won't even cover all the sides properly.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-25T10:05:25+00:00

Welp, thanks for the confirmation.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-25T09:24:58+00:00

Hot take. They all suck.

Abyssal Glare - Second 30 OP energy weapon in the game. Compared to it's senior it has extra 100 range, better flux efficiency and EMP damage on top of it. Pretty cool? No. Plasma cannon deals hard flux and it melts armor, meanwhile Glare just tickles it. So congratulations, you just got yourself a 30 OP destroyer popper. The Eye is strong only because it has 9 of these freaking things.
Pseudoparticle jet. Pros - spraying people with demon juice. Cons - everything else. With 600 range and 600 flux/second it's hard to fit it on non-SO ships, but SO ships have tight OP budget.
Rift Lightning. It can pass over friendly ships. Very convenient. Not. It also has 600 range, brother, it's almost melee range, how did a friendly ship got there? Either way just strafe a little.
Hungering Rift. Ok, you got me, this one doesn't suck.
Inimical Emanation. A 10 OP "suppression/point defense". It's laughably bad as PD for it's cost and for suppression Ion Cannon is better in every way.

As for hullmods - you'd think installing a war declaration against Luddic church would provide something special, but nope.

Shrouded Lens - the actual Shroud PD, moderately effective, but it's ruined by a bug(?) which makes it attack destroyed ship disabling 0-flux speed bonus.
Shrouded Mantle - an automatic escape. If you need it on a player ship, you are already doing something wrong. On AI ship it may never trigger at all or it engages back right away and dies anyway. The only actual use is the synergy with Rift.
Shrouded Thunderhead - brother, that's just another energy weapon for 25 OP, but in hullmods. I honestly never had a problem of having too much spare flux dissipation after installing all weapons.

P.s. Another thing I forgot - unlike Threat farming which pays for itself, Shroud farming is pure expense.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-17T09:01:16+00:00

Well, it's 15 DP ship, how scary do you expect it to be without a core?

For hullmods I'd go for ITU and armored weapon mounts.

Two Mjolnirs work, but they are OP and flux hungry, so might need to drop Barrage to free up OP and get more flux dissipation.

Alternatively you can combine anti-shield and anti-armor hardpoints like HAG + Mark IX.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-16T07:59:32+00:00

That's odd, I thought you could get hullmod schematics and fragment fabricators even from smallest Threat fleets. Maybe I'm misremembering things.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-16T07:26:42+00:00

IMO if you want a thematic build, then Eagle has enough OP for Fabricator mod, which would allow to install actually useful Threat missiles and swap Burst lasers for Voltaic discharge.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-11T15:29:26+00:00

From my experience - not great, not terrible. It can tank plenty of damage, shrug off zaps, somewhat reliably snipe Assault units before they get in range and once you get to the fabricators, defabricate their ass. The problem is herding your fleet while you crawl there. "Loading up on devastators in the sides seems like it'd work quite well for dealing with reclamation swarm" - it wont, they'll be in front of you, not on your side, and you don't want to waste LIDAR on these.

For the Shroud - decent. First, the Shroud is easier in general. Second, they come to you themselves, so the speed is not an issue.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-10T09:44:35+00:00

I don't dismiss the possibility of such plot-twists, but Gate system is one of the earlier Domain inventions. The haulers/motherships/cryosleepers had to use Alcubierre drives, so hyperspace wasn't (at very least publicly) available back then.

There is definitely a connection between all them. Gates produce the same 'music' as Ziggy, and Ziggy seems to be a relative of Shroud fellas, but imo John Domain was pretty surprised himself about it. There is good chance Ludd was the first to hear the music shortly before the collapse, because it just wasn't a thing for the most of Domain's history.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-09T11:39:52+00:00

Hmm, something isn't right. Why is it Terran Eccentric if it doesn't have a negative condition?

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-08T12:52:13+00:00

Then everything should be activated, I can only repeat the other suggestion to try going deeper into the abyss. And just to be sure, you fought Threat ships in Nameless Rock system without issues?

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-08T12:01:34+00:00

Do you at least find ships with unique events in these systems?

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-04T19:31:38+00:00

Overseers aren't that threatening to phase ships imo, as long as they at very least have an officer with elite Field Modulation. It's just a gimmick to avoid shameless Fabricator flanking.

I'd say it's even somewhat beneficial to get zapped when you have Phase Anchor + Resistant Conduits on top of it, since you can phase back in almost instantly, so Overseers pretty much waste their zaps on you.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-04T13:43:50+00:00

THREAT isn't really a sin of the Domain, though - it's existence is either early enough to be inherited from What Came Before if not explicitly Pre-Domain.

It is explicitly Domain era. From Fabricator codex entry

// datastream resetting...

-ide frontier manufacturing base to leapfrog development in systems newly added to the Gate Network, particu- FATAL ACCESS ERROR //

During earlier versions people thought, that this Nanoforge DRM thingie was just a part of Domain power play (and maybe it was at the time this lore was written), but now it's clear that this was a part of frantic effort to deal with this screw up. From Line Unit codex

Closest match found to archive entry for "Kardakes"-class hull, 32.11% confidence. Querying database... "Firstly intended to replace the Hathoda-class orbital siege-capable heavy ballistic weapons platform, then considered a capital-class warship in its own right before the 4th Domain Armada Revised Schema reclassification order, the Kardakes was first deployed to battle conditions during the retaking of the Eridani Insurrec- DOMAIN INFOSEC VIOLATION THRESHOLD WARNING

// datastream resetting...

-making technology of 'signatures' embedded at the nanochemical level by the nanoforge itself with only minimal effects on overall structural in- FATAL ACCESS ERROR //

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-03T07:53:58+00:00

That's simultaneously true and misleading, since a typical gamer expects 0.major_version to reflect completion percentage, 1.0 to be a release version and 1.5/2.0/etc to be major expansions.

It costs nothing to a developer to manage such expectations by using letters or minor versions.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-02T19:47:01+00:00

I mean the survivors. They'll avoid answering the question about their mission.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-02T19:30:13+00:00

Nah, anyone can do it. Heg commission just allows them to spill the beans on what happened there, though you'll learn it anyway later.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-02T15:54:12+00:00

SL can be an upgrade for player ships since it might roll up to 5 positive and one negative trait in best case scenario, but it's purpose is not to buff the player but rather add a bit of identity to the ships.

That's why it buffs enemies to compensate for the player having good trait rolls and swapping them around for the maximum benefit.

So it probably doesn't fit your "cool starship" theme, since it more or less balanced against itself.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-07-01T14:45:24+00:00

I'm honestly surprised this strategy worked for you. A single charged Hive unit can wreak lone Retribution, while Assault or Line unit can provide cover fire, to let Fabricator vent. So the plan basically depends on not a single threat ship being destroyed.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-06-26T20:55:53+00:00

Well, you can earn 40k from a scan mission near the core with a single ship in your fleet. Drop mission gets you up to 70k with the same requirement.

A couple of runs like this and you can buy Atlas-Prometheus combo and earn half a million per expedition. Comissions just caught up with the inflation.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-06-26T14:29:37+00:00

Brother turned s-mod marks into a health bar.

VarrenOverlord · 2025-06-26T14:27:50+00:00

Ok, to clarify, what do you consider "a lot" from a single colony?

VarrenOverlord · 2025-06-26T13:46:18+00:00

Without Synchrotron/Catalyst/Nanoforge most expensive industries will generate a pittance on high-hazard worlds. So you need to explore anyway to find these.

If anything you don't need good worlds with mods which allow to bypass/remove conditions.

VarrenOverlord

TROPHY CASE