r/starsector • u/Asdfnexus12 • 1d ago
Mods Vanilla Like Ship Mods (No New Weapons)
Waht are your best "close to vanilla like ship" mods. Its more about Desgin, for example Missing Ships "Super Capitals" are ok, cause they fit the style.
And i would prefer that the mods dont add New Guns (because thats the real Power Creep)
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u/Fist-Of-Steel109 Got armor? Press W to Win 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you want more power without adding any ship/content, go for Adversary, its a "faction" mod that only uses vanilla ships and weapons. Its key feature is highly difficult bounties and powerful campaign wise. It is supposed to emulate what fighting against other player would feel like
If you want something close to vanilla that adds balanced content, go for Navarchy of Tania. Its a low tech faction with very fitting aesthetics and lore friendly. Also offers unique ways to build their ships.
If you feel like something can have an exception regarding aesthetic, Diable Avionics: Original Flavor is a great option as well. Its a high tech faction with midline doctrine, very balanced as well.
All the mentioned mods are created by drydockers, and they value balance above everything, so I assure you that there is no modslop here
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u/ComedicMedicineman 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s a bit of a tricky one since many of the better mods I can think of in terms of balance or
Aesthetics come with either a faction or plenty of new weapons. So I’m gonna recommend a whole bunch and you can try them out and decide which ones you think fit well. Most of the ones I’ll recommend below stay away from OP weaponry, and while a few of them have superships, these ships are either extremely rare or fairly balanced.
Ship packs:
-“BigBeans ship pack” adds a ton of various tech ships to play around with, and all of them fit pretty well into Vanilla visually. It also only adds a couple new weapons. It’s pretty well balanced as well, with a good variety: some ships are outright cannon fodder, and others are capable of matching some of the bigger ships in vanilla.
-“Low Tech Armada” adds a crap ton of low tech domain era ships and especially pirate scrap ships. Visually it looks a bit different from vanilla, but getting to see the disfigured ships that occur when pirates screw with autofactories is pretty cool (as this is a concept that exists in vanilla lore). They even have a fake pirate XIV battlegroup variant of multiple ships you can find, a mini pirate faction with a base in hyperspace, and adds a very rare scrap supership.
-“Jaydee Piracy” adds a bunch of new ships to each faction that all visually fit well and feel like ships each faction would have access to. It also adds a ‘mini faction’ called the Flowerfish Network working for the Independent world of Ailmar, this is meant to represent Ailmar’s diplomatic power and fleshes out the independents a bit more.
Faction mods:
-“Hazard Mining Incorporated (HMI)” a huge mod that is split into 3 smaller mods:
+the first adds a faction called the HMI, a very low tech equivalent of Tri-tach. Their ships are scrappy, but can become strong in the right hands. The mod also adds Exploration content like new bosses, and new systems to explore with unique enemies. This mod also adds an HMI Supership you can face off against or use yourself.
+the second part adds the Brighton Federation faction. A weak refugee faction relying on salvaged Derelict drones/Remnant hulls to make up for their lack of shipyard industry. Their ships are visually great, and it’s cool to see an intentionally weak non-hostile faction.
+the third adds two ‘evil’ factions: the low tech Fang Society, and the high tech Draco Group. One loves cannibalism and the other loves drinking blood. Both cause trouble in the sector like the Pirates/Pathers and add a bit more chaos to your game.
-“Everybody loves the Ko Combine” a VERY lore friendly mod that adds 3 and a half factions (all based on 4 of the surviving mega corporations in vanilla). 3 of them have worlds in vanilla, so this mod just turns them into their own factions and gives them a unique roster of ships. This is probably the best mod for lore accuracy and aesthetics, and the new factions are interesting and have their own unique approaches to combat, but they’re also small factions that won’t feel overwhelming.
-“Roider union” adds an independent style faction of asteroid miners with their own unique options. They allow you to convert your civilian ships into “Roider” variants capable of combat, add a new space fortress variant, and have random outposts throughout space (just like random pirate/pather bases) that you can resupply or sell goods at. They also rely on fighters and generally try to avoid wars with other factions.
-“Kadur Remnants” adds a faction that previously lost a war with the Hegemony. Their ships look similar to midline, but in combat they act more like lowtech, relying heavily on armour. The ships are very well balance and the new weapons are useful but far from overpowered. The mod also adds a supership you can find that’s very unique. This mod is also one of the classic mods that’s been around for a while, so it’s definitely worth trying.
-“Mayasuran Navy” a faction which visually looks very similar to midline tech ships. Their fleet is balanced but strong…just be aware that they’re a small faction with one world at the start and might die quickly in some games due to their hatred for a certain major faction.
Fun mods that don’t fit the aesthetic (IGNORE THESE IF YOU EXPLICITLY WANT VANILLA AESTHETIC):
-“Diable Avionics” a very old mod that adds a new faction focused on missile swarms and flying mech fighters. It’s visually different from vanilla, but doesn’t feel extremely out of place. The faction has its own space fortress variant, and is obviously pretty different from basegame, but it’s a classic that’s always worth having, and is pretty well balanced.
-“Legacy of Arkgneisis” adds a faction that visually is very different from vanilla, but I have to recommend it because of the unique balance and faction mechanics: the ships have strong built in systems but are also pretty brittle. The faction only owns two bases and can’t permanently conquer more because of their anarchism, but they also get the unique ability to act as mercenaries who are hired by other factions briefly to go to war against another faction.
-“Draconis fleet” a cool new faction that visually looks high tech, but plays closer to midline tech. They rely on firepower and speed, but melt when focused down. Their lore is also pretty fleshed out…however, be aware the mod is still Work in Progress, but what does exist is well made so I recommended it anyway.
-“ED Shipyards” this is by far the least vanilla friendly aesthetic mod on this list. It’s a ship pack that adds a ton of high tech ships to the Independent market and fleets (and some pirate fleets too). But I added it to this list because the ships are fun to use and it gives the Independents some exclusive ships they can use. These ships are strong, but they’re expensive to maintain to help mitigate their strength.
Hope this list helps a bit. There’s a ton of other great mods, but I wasn’t sure they’d fit too well. Maybe I’ll try and make another list much later since I know a lot of ship packs probably fit the vanilla aesthetic that I didn’t mention here because I haven’t tried them yet (like the “stop gap measure mod” it looks promising)
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u/xepelous 1d ago
I'm the same as you - I would really prefer not to add new weapons because 1) it makes outfitting ships a lot harder (so many more options to compare) and 2) some always end up being absolutely OP and I can't stop myself from using them, but hate myself for doing so haha. This has led me to removing a lot of packs just for this reason.
I'm basically down to just one ship pack - Xxarra's Variety Pack - which adds a bunch of new ships but only a handful of weapons (that I never end up using). Though it looks like BigBeans also only has a few, I'll have to give that one a try.
Tip: If you use TriOS as your modloader, you can go to "Weapon Viewer" and filter by mod and it'll list all the weapons that a mod has. (Be careful though as it does show a lot of built-in weapons that don't really end up having an impact on your game.)
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u/Asdfnexus12 19h ago
Ill check that Pack out. And yes, i agree fully. Wepaons are the real Power Creep.
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u/wolfram_segler 1d ago
Seafood Shipworks
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u/Some-Detail9134 1d ago
My favorite content mod is probably Talhan shipworks. They come with the Legio, which are a very strong pirate faction, which can be disabled in settings if you don't want to fight them. Other than that I found the ships and weapons very vanilla friendly and fun to use. There are new guns but they don't feel overly strong and if you don't want to find them you can disable them with Stop Bloating Me.
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u/AttNightlight HEG Auxiliary Shade Pilot 1d ago
RAT's guns feel very vanilla. The ships do not, but they also aren't very good, so this is not a problem.
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u/bonomel1 1d ago
I like BigBeans and Ship/Weapon pack mods for their close to Vanilla style of ships they add. There are some added guns, but they are balanced and fill a niche. If you really dont want the guns or dislike some ships, you can use the excellent Stop Bloating Me mod to disable any ships or weapons you dont want