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I'm proud to present the development and testing release of my Cosmoteer Plus mod.

The Basics
- Extended combat engagement range (roughly a 3x increase)
- 12 new weapons (new laser types, new missiles, railguns, and more)
- 15 new components (command bridges, engineering bays, many more planned!)

More Info
My goal with this mod is to create a mod that extends the combat engagement range and adds some interesting new weapons and ship components; but which are balanced with the "feel" of vanilla. (Sorry folks, no Death Star lasers here.) The only adjustments I've made to any base game assets are to increase the weapon ranges and particle speeds of vanilla weapons. The AI is also adjusted to engage targets at longer ranges beyond their sight radius. Most of the assets are new. I tried to avoid simple recolors of existing sprites as much as possible.

There's no "tech tree" in Cosmoteer, but I wanted to create a feeling of progression. As such, there are some ship components which are required before the higher tier weapons can be added to a ship. Here's a look at the (admittedly rather simple) tech tree: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qxgpdfgwxjwfhib/Cosmoteer_Plus.jpg

I've been working on this mod for a while now. All the art assets are done, and I'm looking for people willing to test it out and give me feedback. Does anything feel overpowered, underpowered, way outside the feel of vanilla, etc. This mod is currently in active development. That means I'll be uploading new versions quite regularly. Keep an eye on this thread for updates.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their thoughts and opinions! I appreciate it. Beyond that, I hope you enjoy yourself!

Latest version - 0.27.5
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h000mqr1w5wjpwd/jfjohnny5.cosmeteer_plus_0.27.5.zip

Credits and Shout-outs
HUGE thanks to @Meranera; whose Additional Weapons Mod was a great help in learning how Cosmoteer is put together, and what's possible in a mod; being no small inspiration for Cosmoteer Plus. Thanks so much!!
Thanks to all the folks in Discord who are always willing to help!

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Warp Core Engineering

Lorentz Force Cannon (railgun)

Battleship Bridge

edit: updated to v0.27.5

I salute your goal. Hopefully you can also add enough new ships to make bounty hunter mode interesting.

Based on the displayed numbers I suspect that component damage is deprecated and structure damage is used instead. The plasma projectors and iridium lasers feel very weak against unshielded targets compared to what their stats suggest.

The range increases need to include an increase to base detection range. If any weapons that do not require an advanced detection part have ranges exceeding the base cockpit detection range NPCs with those weapons will not use them at their full range even if being shot at. This is a problem at least with missiles.

The cruiser bridge has asymmetrical doors, which makes it work poorly with mirror mode. It really needs a second door at the back. The Warp Core Engineering has the same issue. It really needs another door at the back since it's really too big to build around without a decent door distribution. The Weapons Control has the same problem and would actually work better with the door arrangement of the Tactical Center.

The bridges in general work poorly. The crew AI has a hard time keeping any component that requires as many crew as even the frigate bridge crewed consistently, meaning that a basic command center is practically required anyways. I'd suggest using rooms that only control weapons as your tech buildings.

Ion and standard missile launchers are indistinguishable in blueprint mode. I also suspect the Ion Missile will be too powerful against shield builds. Missile explosions already pass through shields, but a shield build that accounts for that can do will until it closes to electrobolt range. I expect that a mixed ion/explosive missile armament will be even more overpowered than missiles are in stock.

The two capital turrets have angle problems. So, to a lesser degree, does the iridium laser. A weapon must offer more than 90 degrees of arc to be viable on diagonal builds, preferably significantly more. Stock cannons with different facings have 50 degrees of overlap. The Iridium has only 20. The Vulcan and Assault Battery have 16 degree gaps. They also seem to have more power draw than can be fed through their limited doors.

The Iridum laser passes through shields. Passing through shields is a very powerful ability and there's a reason only the shortest range weapon in the stock game has it. It can be used to snipe surface components through shields. Especially if the damage to structure is raised it should lose shield passthrough. Also, Iridium lasers have explosion GFX but the Plasma Projectors do not. This contradicts the descriptions.

LFC shells need particle effects. They're currently nearly invisible. They also feel a bit anemic compared to stock large cannons. I suspect it's the lack of firestarting. Without firestarting damaged internal components have no effect on the ship without multiple hits on the same path.

If you're going to have engineering rooms unlock stuff, you should probably have larger engines tied to them. And possibly a space warping drive based on the warp room that can be placed internally.

The value of laser PD over stock PD is dubious. The damage to non-projectiles is not realized because they only fire at projectiles and if they did fire at ships they wouldn't have full charge when needed to fire at missiles.

Those sprites are amezing!! Well done!

    Atarlost All that feedback is fantastic! Keep it coming. I appreciate it!

      I have a few ideas for this mod if you are up for it.

      • Additions:
        micro reactors (1x1[provides 2 power], 2x1[provides 4 power])
        note: I find it annoying when I'm building a point defense and i have to slap down a WHOPPING reactor for something with so little draw as pd or weapons, even factories.

        Ion engines: 4x2 engines that provide quite alot of kick, takes 6 power cells though.

      I think Ive seen a mod for this before but a block you can place in a corridor wider than 2x2 that acts like a 360 degree turret, or a block you can place off to the side.

      smaller everything for fighters. Just like engines shields should come in different sizes, as should control rooms(like a (2x1).

      more variable shields and as a final suggestion (if it Isn't already, laser pd could be beams lancing and arcing against projectiles

      other than that I'm REALLY excited for this mod

      Edit(after thinking about it) Barracks and garrison upgrades for crew, just like you did for engineering and warp core for the power section

        Atris Thanks for the suggestions! Pretty much everything is on my "to do" list for future versions. I decided I wanted to at least get the weapons out there. I've had a ton of fun making them, and I want people to start playing with them.

        Rest assured though, I'm planning to add parts to pretty much every category (why I decided to call the mod "Cosmoteer Plus"). I'm also hoping as Walt continues development and adds new features and surfaces new variables, that I can make the new parts feel more and more "unique."

        In the meantime, play around with these weapons and let me know your thoughts. Any feedback is good feedback!

            jfjohnny5 changed the title to Cosmoteer Plus v0.20.1.

              I was testing the lfc and I'm thinking it could stand a bit (or alot) more power. Its thwarted by shields and armor pretty good. and for its size (and bad ass look) i was expecting something that shears through armor and heavily damages shields, to be fair I haven't tried it against components in my test bay, but I'm thinking about featuring this mod on my yt channel once I get my cosmoteer section up (and replace my computers graphics card).

              oh boy, but the sound.... if you can hear it across the map i think the intimidation factor alone makes the gun worth it XD

              im noticing some crew scripting issues with the laser assault battery, the crew doesnt seem to work in the same way as heavy cannons, maybe the reason is that heavy cannons use ammo reserves and auto load. where as the LAB requires the crew to load it and only has 5 charges. the crew are too slow on the upkeep I can kinda increase fire rate by putting power storage right next to it, but it still feels sticky. XD

              im gonna keep going through the weapons and finding faults. BUT! dont let it discourage you these weapons are THE BOMB I love them and honestly, i think you should talk with the guy who makes the game, your art and programming are AWESOME.

                Sprites looks awsome! And cosmoteer like.... Not the railgun, but dont change it! Its awsome looking! 😉

                  Found a mistake in the way I was calculating damage on my balancing spreadsheet. Greatly increased railgun damage as a result of fixing that and seeing just how underpowered it was. Still not very effective against shields, but component damage is incredibly high, as is the penetration value. I don't want them to be an "I Win" button, but let me know if the lack of effectiveness against shields seems like a good balancing factor.

                  Some other misc. changes and some new sound FX as well. See the changelog in the folder if you're curious.

                  https://www.dropbox.com/s/63yh5r9l8xzpul4/jfjohnny5.cosmeteer_plus_v0.20.2.zip

                  jfjohnny5 changed the title to Cosmoteer Plus v0.20.2.

                    jfjohnny5 You should probably just edit the original post if you want to add updates, since people might think the one in the original is the latest update.

                      how 'bout a Kyūkyoku (that's ultimate translated to Japanese) cannon.
                      a mega railgun meant for only the largest of ships.
                      would take 30 power.
                      a possible sizes:
                      12x6
                      18x6
                      20x8

                      then again it would probably be hard to make.

                        jfjohnny5 whats so special bout it

                            FireShredder24 The original post is updated. That's what I've been doing. I'm confused by your comment.

                                jfjohnny5 changed the title to Cosmoteer Plus v0.22.0.

                                  great mod, here's a ship I made with it
                                  image https://i.imgur.com/uKWmNU3.png

                                    TheSillyFox Awesome!! Thanks! I forgot to mention that I'm looking for community submissions for the Bounty section of the mod. Permission to use your ship?