(I'll be borrowing Grievous69's certified Starsector Ship Rating System™. The first score is for a flagship and the second is for an AI ship)
Frigates

• Cerberus/Gremlin/Hermes/Hound/Kite/Mercury/MudskippeMudskipper Mk.II/Vanguard: garbage that only exists so you have easy enemies to blow up.
• BrawleCenturion/LasheMercury/Vigilance/Wolf: random crap you put in your fleet because it's common, cheap and you're apparently too lazy to look for actually good ships. You'll likely get rid of them faster than it would take me to review them all.
• Shepherd: your all-in-one exploration ship that you can bring into combat in a pinch.
• Brawler LP(A/A): everyone's favourite Support Doctrine spam ship. All but requires fighter(interceptor) support to work properly. Can serve you well into the endgame - you just need to keep getting more of them and start investing into S-mods - but eventually you'll have to start accepting some losses against large fleets or stations.
• Monitor(S/A): dumb ship for cheesing the AI with so you can pretend you're good at the game. Works best as "flagship", AI will need more Monitors for equal results. In its actual intended role of stopping missiles and fighters it's D/D and completely outclassed by the Omen.
• Omen(A/A): great ship in a role that doesn't actually exist - if you have problems with fighters or missiles put some PD on the ships you already have(or get some Wasps) instead of bringing another ship and hoping it will be in the right place at the right time. Surprisingly capable in real combat - the EMP Emitter is almost a free Pulse Laser damage-wise - to the point you can consider Support Doctrine spam, although it kills very slowly.
• Scarab(A/A): fantastic in early/mid-game, in late-game it will run into serious PPT issues because it's kind of like a phase ship without the massive PPT boost from Phase Coil Tuning skill.
• Tempest(A/A): fastest non-SO frigate around, unfortunately you'll want to SO it anyways because its base flux stats absolutely cannot support two medium energy weapons. At which point it's basically like Scarab, good only as long as you can end the fight before you run out of CR.
• Shade(A/B): like a worse Afflictor. AI has trouble understanding that EMP Emitter and phase cloak are mutually exclusive.
• Afflictor(S/S): hands down the best frigate in the game, at least as long as you take the Phase Coil Tuning skill. Even in AI hands it outperforms everything else thanks to its inhuman reflexes(ever dodged a Tachyon Lance shot? AI can) and always trying to get behind enemy ships.
• Hyperion: Take Scarab/Tempest then double their power but also their PPT issues. Two pump chump with a huge dick.

Destroyers
NOTE: In general destroyers become almost completely useless by the endgame. While (good) frigates justify their existence by being able to cap objectives, kill stragglers and generally be a distraction that in most cases is almost impossible for the enemy to kill, destroyers lack the speed to do any of this while at the same time lacking range, damage and tank to duke it out with cruisers and capitals.
NOTE2: Carriers(of all sizes) become progressively less useful as fleets get bigger because there's just so much ordnance flying around that fighters evaporate quickly even without any dedicated PD. And bombers don't change targets mid-flight which often leads to them charging right into enemy lines trying to fire on ships that have already retreated.

• Buffalo Mk.II: truly one of the ships of all time.
• Condor(B/B): best carrier deck/DP ratio in the game but you get what you pay for. It barely even has enough OP to fit bombers much less everything else. It's also extremely slow which can be an issue if you actually want them to contest air(?)space at the start, since chances are good the Condor won't arrive until the battle is already well underway.
• Drover(A/A): like Condor but good.
• Enforcer(A/A): five medium slots but you'll only have flux to fire three of them. Combined with four small missile slots that's usually enough hovewer. An SO version is probably close to S tbh.
• Hammerhead(B/C): here's a ship which runs into an unusual problem: it doesn't have enough mounts. If you put kinetics in both, you do nothing to armor. If you put explosives in both, you do nothing to shields. If you split, you have firepower of a frigate with none of the advantages of one. If you try to solve the problem with missiles, you better have EMR and Missile Spec. Overrated.
• Hammerhead LG(A/B): this might be the only case where an LG ship is better than the base variant. With Pulse Lasers or Ion Pulsers you don't have to worry about damage types and you still get a damage boost shipsystem.
• Harbinger(A/C): extreme one trick pony: use shipsystem, unload, slither away and wait for shipsystem to be available again. AI is kind of bad at it. You're both better off with an Afflictor.
• Manticore(A/A): the large mount seems great but flux limitations mean that in practice you're looking at the Hellbore and something to break shields, i.e. a Railgun. Still, it's a combo that works well and you still have two medium missiles. Also works as a more generalist alternative to the Sunder for exploration.
• Manticore LP(S/A): imagine a Brawler LP with a Hammer Barrage/Cyclone Reaper Launcher. Less PPT issues but more ammo issues.
• Medusa(S/B): the first in line of high tech ships that work extremely well in player hands but are extremely disappointing in AI hands. Unlike other destroyers Medusa has the speed to remain useful even in late game, but only if you're the one piloting it.
• Shrike(A/B): baby Medusa. Less everything but more common and cheaper.
• Sunder(S/S): arguably the only destroyer which can remain useful in late game in AI hands. Large energy mount and extra 200 range with Advanced Optics means it can keep itself out of trouble while still packing a punch. It's also the best destroyer for exploration as it basically hard-counters the entire Derelict line with a High Intensity Laser. In player hands you can do silly things like put SO on it and then just Autopulse your problems away.

Cruisers

• Apogee(A/A): technically an exploration ship, you will never use it for the role because you will see only two in the entire campaign. Large missile mount for 20 DP is nothing to sneeze at, sadly it has very little to follow up on it. The OP is tight. No, not the good kind of tight.
• Aurora(S/B): the final in line of high tech ships that only work as long as you're the one piloting them, Aurora is a strong contender for the best flagship in the game as it is basically a prefect ship for the hit-and-run playstyle the player excels at.
• Champion(A/A): essentially a fixed Apogee: two ballistic mounts for extra HVD oomph, 25 more OP and a ship system that actually does something. 25 DP though.
• Colossus Mk.II: "Who appointed me? Ludd did. Who appointed you?"
• Dominator(A/C): one of the best examples of how AI cannot handle ships with hardpoints because it changes targets so often it ends up not firing at anything half the time. Shame too, as Dominator has a lot of potential - two large ballistic mounts is solid on its own and you also get two mediums and a generous compliment of missiles.
• Doom(A/C): another one trick pony, you will spend most of the time just spamming the shipsystem key. Sadly, this actually works. Note that while Systems Expertise obviously helps a lot with mine spam, you can theoretically fly the Doom without any combat skills whatseover and still meaningfully contribute - a rarity among flagships. You don't need the Phase Coil Tuning for it either.
• Falcon/Eagle(B/C): I am lumping them together because they have exactly same issue as the Hammerhead: not enough mounts. Eagle was recently buffed but it didn't get any more mounts so the changes were irrelevant. Player can fall back on SO nonsense, the AI cannot.
• Falcon P(A/C): the Aurora-before-Aurora, zoom in, delete something with torpedoes then zoom out. Obviously AI can't hope to replicate this.
• Eradicator(A/A): now here's a good lad, a bit on the glass cannon side but the best defense is a good offense as they say. For a flagship you should also strongly consider Eradicator P.
• Fury(A/B): baby Aurora. Less everything but more common and cheaper.
• Gryphon(A/A): strong but strictly a support ship as it lacks speed or tank to serve on the front line. Please note that linking Squalls with Harpoons/Breachers is banned by the Geneva Convention. Whatever that is.
• Heron(A/A): a quintessential carrier, it carries things, it's fast and it has a ship system that makes the things it carries better.
• Mora(B/B): remember that one time when your carrier ended up on the frontline and you had it tank? Me neither.
• Venture(B/B): a dedicated exploration ship hugely let down by the civilian-grade hull which gives it a sensor profile larger than a capital and which means none of the combat ship only skills apply to it. And if you militarize it, you're stuck with the awkward(for exploration) base Burn of 8.

Capitals

• Astral(C/C): in most cases you're better off with two Herons(or even Moras) simply to have two sets of fighters which can be in two different places - assuming you need that many fighters in the first place. Like Doom, Astral can work well as a flagship even without any combat skills - not that there are any carrier combat skills anyways - you just shoot things with Squalls then send Daggers at them.
• Atlas Mk.II(B/C): proof that sometimes offense is not in fact the best defense. Forget glass cannon, this thing is a wet toilet paper roll howitzer. The player can keep it safe behind the front line and not fire the main guns most of the time because AI ships will keep getting in the way.
• Conquest(A/S): the best capital in AI hands - no hardpoints, maximum range, mobile in every direcion, omnishield, decent PD all around. On top of that it features a staggering array of weapons for only 40 DP. The shield efficiency is terrible but that is partially compensated for by its monstrous base flux stats. I am actually giving it lower flagship score because almost everyone uses turn-to-cursor which doesn't work with broadside ships.
• Executor(B/B): a great ship let down by its abysmal flux dissipation which forces you to put some of the lowest flux/second weapons in every mount. Which is a shame because other than that it has a good mix of missiles and large energy mounts, it's the fastest battleship by a quite large margin, has strong shields and a useful ship system.
• Invictus(B/C): the flying brick meme ship, Invictus basically has the same problem as the Paragon in that its extreme range doesn't mesh with its extreme tank at all. The fact that you will have to vent after every LIDAR use also drastically decreases its effective DPS. At least unlike the Paragon it gets ballistics and large missiles. The logistics footprint of it is hilarious.
• Legion(A/A): Onslaught's other half, it performs worse as a flagship because Sarissas/Xyphos necessitate getting closer to enemies to blow them up. On the other hand AI does better with it because it's all turreted(I assume you will do a long range/regular fighter build for the AI) I won't make distinction between regular and XIV, the latter is slightly better but they both work in their own ways.
• Odyssey(A/A): your second best pick after Conquest for AI use, largely because it costs 5 DP more but it's hard to justify why. Plasma Cannons cut the range and AI does weird things with Plasma Burn sometimes. Also, since all Odysseys are inherently left-sided, this will cause all of them to drift towards right side of the map as the battle goes on. Score deduction for broadside still applies.
• Onslaught(S/B): everyone's favourite battleship modeled after the hairline of a certain famous Twitch streamer. Extremely effective in player hands, the AI as usual has problems focusing on a single thing to shoot. Although in case of the Onslaught it's less of a problem because the downtime at least lets the ammo in TPCs regenerate. XIV is a straight upgrade.
• Paragon(B/C): possibly the most overrated ship in the game, Paragon brings measly four large energy mounts for a whooping 60 DP while its flux can barely support four Tachyon Lances. It also brings Fortress Shield which it will never use because it outranges everything in the first place. And if caught - which usually only happens to enemy Paragons - the AI is bad with Fortress Shield, often interrupting its own guns.
• Pegasus(S/B): two Squalls and two Hurricanes, as well as a generous array of medium ballistic mounts make Pegasus a "gentleman's choice" compared to the caveman Onslaught. I wouldn't call it better though, especially at 50 DP. Funnily enough AI is about as bad with Pegasus as it is with the Onslaught as it will gleefully waste all of the Hurricane shots with Fast Missile Racks long before Squalls run out, leaving you with a ship that can't finish anything off.
• Prometheus Mk.II(C/C): while Atlas MK.II sucks in a radical way, Prometheus Mk.II sucks in a boring way. It actually has some tank, and more sensible weapon layout, and even some fighter bays, all in a crappy civilian package with not enough flux.
• Retribution(B/D): and to think that for 5 DP less you could have an Aurora. Retribution is a battlecruiser cosplaying as a cruiser, which takes all the battle out of it. Damn that was good. Basically what I'm saying is that it has weaknesses of both and strengths of neither.
• Ziggurat(B/D): the mosquito broccoli is simply not worth 75 DP, not even when used by the player. Maybe give it one rank up if you fit it with omega weapons or something.

AI Ships:

• DefendePicket/Sentry/Warden/Bastillon/Berserker: trash.
• Rampart(B): green brick with a lot of gun for 15 DP.
• Guardian: overpowered with a lot of cheats built-in, you can't get them.
• Fulgent/Scintilla/Apex/Brilliant/Nova/Radiant: whether or not these ships are good is irrelevant as they're all let down by Reckless core AI limitations...
• Lumen(B): ...unless you fit a ship with all 1000 range beams and slap Advanced Optics on top of that which all but negates said AI limitations. Lumens are cheap and flimsy but fast and slippery. You can bring more of them into the fight than Glimmers but they're still less effective per DP.
• Glimmer(A): speaking of, here's arguably the second best AI frigate in the game after Afflictor. And yes, I am talking about Graviton Beam/2-4 Tactical Laser Glimmer, not the SO version. While they're usually not the first to reach the third objective they can reliably push enemy ships off of it and then hold it until it's capped. They do not count towards your officer limit, do not require Phase Coil Tuning to work, provide decent amount of ECM from elite Gunnery Implants and unlike most other premium frigates have amazing PPT. Sure, one or two may blow up occassionally(especially against Persean League and their Hydras) but they're machines, not people, so who really cares?

Logistic Ships:
Valkyrie/Phantom/Colossus Mk.III: not much to say, Phantom is best. Although it should be pointed out that for getting undercover agents out of Pirate/Pather space stations all you need is Valkyrie and 100 Marines, anything above that does nothing.
Nebula/Starliner: you will literally only use these for creating colonies. Why am I writing this. Nebulas are rather common as wrecks during exploration so you can save yourself some money just by keeping any you find for later. Wow.
WayfareGemini/Mule/Tarsus: the "combat freighters", well except for Tarsus but I didn't have anywhere else to put it. Needless to say you should never bring a freighter into combat so only two ships here stand out. The first is Wayfarer which somehow packs 150 cargo space into a frigate hull with no civilian sensor profile penalty and which has OP to spare for Insulated Engine Assembly making it an early game smuggler's best friend. The other is Gemini which is wise enough to stay the hell away from combat, as a freighter should.
Dram/Phaeton/Revenant/Prometheus: unless you really really need sensor profile below 30 without S-modding then Phaeton completely obsoletes the Dram. Revenant exists as a more fancy Phaeton which also doubles as a cargo ship and makes it easier to keep your fleet's sensor profile low which means you can bring larger ships on your smuggling trips. Prometheus is completely pointless, you will never need this much fuel.
Buffalo/Colossus/Atlas: which ship to use will vary depending on your skills(Bulk Transport), desired base Burn, desired sensor profile and how much SP are you willing to spend. From endgame perspective Atlas is a clear winner, being most efficient by just about every metric. With S-modded Insulated Engine Assembly you can get its sensor profile down to that of a frigate(!), hovewer it will have base Burn of 8 - either with Bulk Transport or Augmented Drive Field - which is usually not enough for early game or exploration. Colossus gets to Burn 9, Buffalo gets Militarized Subsystems instead to lower its sensor profile without S-modding, etc.
Salvage Rig: put three of these in your fleet and stop whining about supplies/fuel.
Ox: with the massive bonuses logistics hullmods got when S-modded in this patch there is even less reasons to not use the Ox. Or two.

Welcome to the /starsector Weekly Discussion Thread! Use this space to discuss anything you feel doesn't warrant a dedicated thread, whether that be subreddit suggestions, newbie questions, showing off, or just random chat about Starsector and its community.

Useful links:

• The official forums - the best place to find mods, report bugs, and get in contact with Alex, the game's developer.
• The Unofficial Community Discord - the most active Starsector community. The Discord is also where most of the game's currently active modding community hangs out.
• The Starsector Wiki - a repository of useful information on vanilla content as well as home to many modding tutorials.

And don't forget to buy the game if you haven't already!

Am I the only one who having this problem or have Pirates become less and less of a real threat and more of just an annoyance in recent updates? I started playing Starsector in 9.1 and one thing I've noticed was how much of a problem pirates could truly be, but as time has gone on and the game has been updated I haven't seen the mass pirate armadas I use to see back then in 9.1 when a pirate raids could include massive fleets that could number in the double digits in one system. Now I only see one or two fleets every now and again even when I sell them blueprints and nanoforges they never seem to amass in huge numbers any more. Even in 9.1 when I didn't sell them blueprints and nanoforges they would still hit systems with huge numbers of fleets enough to overwhelm defenders. But now when I see them raid a system there are only 1-3 small fleets with only frigate, destroyer, and now pirate "armadas" will often at best only have one cruiser. No more mass amounts Atlas Mk.IIs just a single eradicator and a handful of frigate. Is this just me am I losing my mind or is it the mods because I didn't start moding tell 9.5. I ask all this because of the new hostile activity event that tells us how dangerous the pirates are even as the system wide raids they launch barley have ships enough in them to equal a single fleet of 20 ships.

I have been playing Starsector for a while now.
And making my own mod is something I have always wanted to do but I don't know where to start.
I am confused with the Starsector guide to modding in the wiki.
Any help?

Welcome to the /starsector Weekly Discussion Thread! Use this space to discuss anything you feel doesn't warrant a dedicated thread, whether that be subreddit suggestions, newbie questions, showing off, or just random chat about Starsector and its community.

Useful links:

• The official forums - the best place to find mods, report bugs, and get in contact with Alex, the game's developer.
• The Unofficial Community Discord - the most active Starsector community. The Discord is also where most of the game's currently active modding community hangs out.
• The Starsector Wiki - a repository of useful information on vanilla content as well as home to many modding tutorials.

And don't forget to buy the game if you haven't already!

I'm dying to get back into starsector but a lot of the mods I want to play with haven't been updated yet.
I've been hesitant to manually update them for fear that I'll discover my game is cooked halfway through a playthrough because the mods need more than an updated version to be compatible.
For those of you that have done this, has it generally been fine for you?

I'm back into Starsector after a few years and obviously i've got right into modding the crap out of it, but unfortunately, it seems many mods are not working anymore. Out of 9, just 3 are working. Thus my question - what are some of the best mods that will work with the current game version? Bonus question, is there some mod updateloader like KSP or DSP have? Would be super useful. And to all the modders - you make a great game even better. Thank you for your work!

Greetings! I am just writing this post as I am coming back to starsector from an extended vacation from it, after losing a long time save file of 1 year. As I went through the mods to update them, I came across a dear mod that I enjoyed playing as for a number of other runs, Dassault Mikoyan Engineering. However, as I went to update this, I came across that the normal page was unavailable to me. Has something happened while I was away? and if it was just migrated to another area, may I receive some guidance on where that place may be?

One of my favorite play styles in EVE was to fly around in a cloaky salvage fitted T3 and hover around large fleet battles until a capital was destroyed. I’d swoop in and loot/salvage for those sweet officer mods.
Now, in Starsector I know salvage is profitable. But, is there a reliable way to know when and where large fleet actions are happening?

TLDR: Let's get together to create an "Immersive Supercapital" mod. Vanilla friendly supercapitals for hegemony, tri-tach, maysuran and sindria (maybe luddic church+path). I cant sprite or create artwork for the life of it, but really want to create this mod and looking for community members willing to come together.
So I have been playing starsector for quite some time and of course used a lot of mods while doing so. The quality and sheer count of mods surprised me and I wanted to contribute to that. Unfortunately, I have no modding experience whatsoever but am eager to learn. I was thinking it would be more fun to work on such a project together and I hope to learn something from more experienced modders.
Anyway, heres the idea: As stated in TLDR I want to create unique supercapitals for the vanilla factions that guard their homeworld or their nanoforge if they have any. So that it functions as some kind of bossfight and makes it a bit harder to obtain the nanoforges. These one of a kind supercaps should only be available after you defeat them in combat to create another endgame challenge. I would want to keep the mod clean and not add in any smaller ships or new weapons, as I've found that these go mostly unused and just clutter the game.
The supercaps should of course represent each factions main features. I was also thinking of utilizing the new duel minigame. Perhaps after youve beaten the fleet in combat you storm the bridge and fight the captain of the supercap...
Anyway let me know what you are thinking.

"His power is to rally those around him. Of all the people seeking to conquer the sea, he may possess the greatest talent of all" — Dracule Mihawk, 'One Piece'

​

"While I was with you guys, I became more human. I didn’t like that. I even have a family and started to like living on earth." - Vegeta, 'Dragon Ball Z'.

​
In Shōnen manga, it is a common trope for the protagonist to beat up a rival, only to later inspire and recruit her to the protagonist's cause. Since we are all weeb degens here, I thought it would be amusing if there was a mod that gives you a chance of recruiting the commander of a randomly generated bounty officer as befitting of a anime Shōnen protagonist.
Does it make sense? No. Does it fit with Starsector? No. Do I want to install degen portrait mods and create a space-harem of furry waifus? Who wouldn't? uwu

Prev: https://www.reddit.com/starsectocomments/13dos3e/story\_office\_lady\_in\_space\_the\_domain\_froze\_me\_to/
ooo
The world has ended.
The vastness and might of the Domain of Man is no more, and the pretenders are fighting over its carcass, sending humanity even further into the abyss. Throughout the sector people are scrambling to survive on half terraformed planets, on farming worlds with great soil and no atmosphere, on planet-cracked lava worlds, and on toxic biospheres filled with dangerous mutated livestocks. What little dreams one can hope to achieve in this hell can quickly vanish under the merciless idiocy of war, piracy, and religious fanaticism.
Will you call me a bad person if I say I don't care about any of these? At least not at the moment?
No, my biggest concern after I was made aware that my entire world had gone down the chute was that I did not exist.
The day when I stepped into that cryopod feels like it was just yesterday. Yesterday, when there were still people that knew my name, when I knew where I should go to work and where I should go to sleep. I was not rich, but I never had to worry about food.
Now I have no house, no money, no ID, and basically no support system whatsoever. I feel like a war refugee, and perhaps I technically am depending on which theory is right about why the gate network collapsed.
I remember that I was starting to panic, trying to figure out how I would live. Begging? Can you even panhandle with digital credits?
Fortunately, before my mind could wander and think of nonsense about the world's oldest profession, I was told that I was not, in fact, special.
The two giant cryo sleepers that the Domain had sent to jumpstart the colonization of the Persean arm apparently have survived and were recently discovered. Steiner is currently in control of both of them and is actively reviving people. Individual or small clusters of cryopods are apparently always edge cases, and can be quite troublesome since they tend to have different freezing methods than the Domain-funded mass sleepers. Fortunately Iron Shell and Eridani used similar cryotech, and the doctor onboard has read the case paper on Iron Shell cryorevival protocol. ("I know they're trying to be cheap, but industrial preservatives are kinda pushing it, mate.")
Still, the fleet that I was in did not have the proper facilities to fully bring me to full recovery, so I'm currently in a Kite shuttle heading to Lyran, the capital planet of Steiner Exploration Company.
At first I was flattered that they'd send out an entire shuttle just for me, but then I learned that they had just salvaged a derelict shuttle from a black hole system, refurbished it in half a day (seriously how did they do that?), And then put their spare crew in (apparently they just carry around a few hundreds more guys than they actually need, all the time).
They said that after I recover in their surface cryorevival facility they're going to put me through some sort of a special job assignment system, making me an employee of Steiner. That is awfully generous of them. I still remember my job-seeking days, it was not a good place.
Of course, this is assuming they're not just going to throw me into the mines.
Just in case it matters, I'm currently sitting on my bed typing away at my CV on my TriPad. Though my degrees and certificates are obviously goner, so I'm not sure how legitimate I can make it. Will there be an interview? I hope my anxiety won't kick in.
"Icey, dear, is everything alright? Can I come in?" Calls someone from outside the door.
Icey. Funny story, I actually tried to tell people my actual name, but apparently that certain dialect has died out and no one in the sector can actually pronounce it properly anymore, so I guess I'm Icey now. I honestly don't mind it, besides the implication that my entire ethnic background is apparently extinct.
“I’m alright Emma, come in.”
The door opens, revealing a lithe, brown-haired woman in a standard pressure undersuit, carrying 2 packs of space food.
She also has cat ears, because of course those Volkov weirdoes survived. Not even the apocalypse can curb mankind’s universal desire to become catgirls. Probably.
“So what are you up to this fine day?”
“Just filling up my resume. Not sure if it’ll matter though.”
“Sheesh, you're supposed to rest, you know?"
Emma is my designated nurse, responsible for overseeing my recovery and my integration into modern society. She has said that she’s uniquely qualified for this job since she used to work in a nursing home. I’m not sure what to think about that. I guess I technically am a senior citizen.
"I'm about done, but just sleeping around bores me." I say with a small smile as Emma hands me a pack of food. I quickly untangle the straw from its mounting. This part of space life hasn't changed much at least.
"Well, you're still required to limit moving as much as possible so…how about eating in the cockpit?"
Now that's an interesting preposition. Back in my days (now I'm really feeling old) passengers generally were not allowed access to the cockpit due to fear of hijacking. I guess rules got relaxed after the apocalypse.
"Sure." I give a simple nod. "That sounds good."
"Great! We still have some hours before your physiotherapy session, so we can grab some snacks on the way.”
Apparently they use a planet called ‘Chicomoztoc’ as a standard clock nowadays, and the day of the gates collapsing as year zero. Not everyone can say they’ve lived through a calendar reset.
“Let’s go then.” I say, removing the strap around my thighs keeping me on the bed and start floating towards the door…
“Wait!”
…and smash right into the doorframe.
You know how you often feel sluggish after a long nap? Get that and multiply that by a millennium. Also the preservatives replacing the oxygen in my blood probably doesn’t help my motor function.
Also I still don’t have my glasses.
“Are you okay?! Did you break something?!” Emma comes to me panicking. My bone density is also apparently affected, so it’s natural that she’s worried.
“No, I don’t think so.” I give Emma a thumb up, reassuring her that my head is, in fact, still in one piece. “I guess I overestimated myself.”
“Sheesh, stop worrying me like that.” Emma floats beside me, grabbing me by the waist. “It’s okay to want to feel independent, but I’m here for a reason, you know.”
Slowly, We make it outside the door and into the corridor, Emma gently guiding us both through a series of handholds and conveyor belts bolted to the walls and floor. The corridor feels eerily quiet. The Kite is one of the smallest vessels capable of interstellar travel, but it’s still a massive shuttle built to carry a maximum of 30 passengers. Currently there are a total of 4 people onboard including the two pilots currently steering the ship. It kinda feels like the beginning of a horror movie at times, with an unknown monster slithering through unpopulated paths.
“So, uh, how much for the ears?” I say partly in an effort to break the silence. Say what you want about Volkov’s taste but their body mods are definitely conversation starters.
“Oh, they’re free actually, I even got paid for it. They’re experimental, you see, integrate better than the previous models.”
To make a point, Emma moves her fuzzy cat ears around. The movements are very smooth and natural, and since they’re the same color as her hair I almost believe that she was born with them, if not for the obvious pair of very human ears still attached to the side of her head. I wonder how it feels to have four ears.
“Let’s grab some snacks for the guys too.” says Emma. “They've been working pretty hard.”
I nod in agreement, and Emma leads us towards the food storage.
Space foods are still familiar even after so long. They’ve been very carefully engineered to not leave any crumbs or dust flying around and compromising the ventilation system. Freeze-dried and prepackaged are the way to go in the warpstorms infested void, since you can’t exactly cook in space. You don’t usually appreciate how humanity’s millenia of culinary history is utterly reliant on gravity until some idiot decides to try to saute in zero-G.
We grab a pack of space tortillas (planetbounds will probably just call them ‘soggy tortillas’) and thaw some meat, veggies, and other fillings, and take out a few packs of juices of different flavors from the fridge before heading towards the cockpit. I also grab a pack of ramen as a treat for myself (after some debate with my nurse about what constitutes a healthy diet, of course), using the rehydration machine to add 50cc of hot water into the freeze-dried pack before leaving the food storage room.
“Hey guys, we’ve brought food!” Emma exclaims loudly as we enter the command room, brightly lit and very clean for something that just got picked up from a black hole. There are two people seated in front of the command console, one of them, old and bearded, mirthfully answers back.
“Oh, nice!” he says, looking at the food we carry. “Space burrito is always classic!”
As I understand it, burrito, although an unromantic menu, has been a staple of space cuisine ever since the beginning of space exploration, when humanity was still mostly stuck to low Earth orbit.
I notice that the other pilot hasn’t said anything, only silently watching us. Or maybe watching me. I can’t be sure since the moment I look at him he immediately averts his gaze. Kinda weird.
“Rudolf, set the cruise control to burn 2. We’re having an early lunch.” says the bearded pilot, who’s probably the more senior one.
“R-roger.” stutters the other pilot. His submissive tone makes him seem even younger than he already is.
The Kite is running on a skeleton crew, meaning there are plenty of chairs to be shared, but most of us choose to float freely while we eat. Only Rudolf is still strapped to his seat, so we all end up eating around him.
As the others begin assembling their burrito in accordance to their own tastes, I finish up the slurry food that Emma had brought to my room, and then start cutting away at the packaging of my already rehydrated noodle.
Space ramen is a little bit different than the stuff people usually eat at the surface, and honestly I prefer the space variation since the taste is a lot stronger due to the thickened broth. Well, I say broth, but they are more like sauce, sticking to the noodle in a stable, non-messy compound. The noodles themselves, instead of being free to float individually, are tangled tightly like a wheat crochet into a number of mechanically solid, bite-sized pieces, making the experience akin to eating chips.
It has always been my comfort food, and I’m glad it actually still exists. Of course due to various considerations I probably shouldn’t eat it very often, but considering the circumstances I think I deserve a pack. Sure, my muscles are sore and my brain is cloudy like a permanent early morning haze, but I have my ramen and my stomach is warm, and for the moment I feel surprisingly content.
Until the muscle lock acts up again and I smack a forkful to the side of my face.
I manage to recover well enough, but still get a bit of sauce on my cheek. I look around and see Emma is talking with the captain. It seems that no one saw my little mishap…except for Rudolf, who has his eyes locked to my face.
Embarrassed, I look away and try to covertly clean my face, which probably makes me look somewhat awkward. When I turn my face back Rudolf is already back at his food.
Trying to forget that small unpleasant memory, I let go of the pack of noodle, letting it float in space while I fiddle with the container of strawberry milk I’ve brought.
“I’m done.” says Rudolf, his hands empty.
“Oh, you’re done already?” I ask. The others barely began eating.
“My mouth’s bigger than it looks.” he shrugs, smiling noncommittally.
“Can you help finish up mine then?”
“W-what?”
“Help me finish up my food.” I point at my floating noodle before sipping on my strawberry milk.
Although I enjoy ramen, I’ve never been a big eater, and I technically already ate since Emma already gave me a pack of nutrient juice.
Also, having a full stomach in space is kind of a bad idea in general, mainly relating to gas build up. Can you believe people used to romanticize space travel?
“What, don’t like noodles?” I ask when Rudolf keeps on being quiet.
“N-no, I’ll eat.” he says, grabbing my leftover and starts eating, his face reddening.
Is it really that spicy? Oh, well, whatever.
I recline back and relax, making use of the fact that the absence of gravity does a better job than any beanbags. I look towards the command room windows, more symbolically than anything since they're all sealed up on warp travel. I imagine what could be out there, and where life is going to take me.
I usually don't get this philosophical when drinking strawberry milk.
My relaxed philosophizing suddenly gets interrupted when a chime comes out of the command console. Rudolf immediately scrambles to it.
"Captain, there's a slipstream in front of us." He says, typing into the console. "Got it charted, might be able to get to Lyran within the day."
"Might get shaky though, and we've got a patient with us. What does the nurse think?" Says the captain.
"Well, at least you're not storm-surfing. As long as she stays harnessed…"
"What's a slipstream?" I ask, obviously being the only one in the room unfamiliar with the term.
"They're ghosts." Rudolf answers with glee on his face. "The souls of the sector's dead, running aimlessly unable to pass, creating warp anomalies as they try to breach the afterlife."
"Can it, boy!" The captain barks, looking irritated before switching his attention to me.
"We're not sure what they are, but they're harmless. Basically just weird spots in the warp that makes you go fast."
"I've never heard of it."
"Well, they're a post-collapse thing." Says Emma.
"Right, and they're going to make our trip much faster." Says the captain, finishing the last of his food. "Now if nobody minds, I have a course to navigate.”
"Well, I guess we're skipping the physiotherapy today. Come on Icey, we should get you strapped in."
We exchange some pleasantries with the pilots before leaving the command room, taking the leftover food for ourselves to eat later.
On the way back to my room, Emma suddenly smirks at me.
"I think Rudolf likes you."
"What? Nah."
"Come on. A waifish bedridden girl like you? Boys go all over that. Get their protective instinct going."
Personally I think that guy is the one that needs protecting. But it was a little adorable, I guess, a bit, in a 'weird exotic pet' kind of way.
The rest of our journey is somewhat uneventful. The ship shakes a lot, but it's tolerable enough considering it's an ex-derelict shuttle. Still, I can't get Rudolf's ghost story out of my head. I'm sure that I'm just imagining things, but I think I can hear something singing just outside the hull.
A nap and a snack later, we finally reach Lyran, third planet of the blue giant Remina and the capital of Steiner. I decide to go to the cockpit to get a good look at my first planet in this sector.
It looks…weird. It's supposed to be a water planet, but…
"Why is it glowing red like that?"
"Planetary shield. Some secret Domain tech the boss found, I've heard." The captain answers.
I guess it's natural that the Domain would have kept some secrets in the most remote sector of the empire.
"Lots of passenger ships today." Quips Rudolf, looking at his sensor.
"The refugee situation is getting a bit tight nowadays." Explains the captain, mostly for my benefit. "The Legio really does a number on the core systems."
"Ma'am, we're going to the station first, right?" Rudolf asks Emma.
"Yes, Icey needs a few days of gravity acclimation before going planetside."
She has already told me this, of course. I guess my feet's reunion with the dirt will have to be postponed.
They've said 'station', but apparently it's actually a Tri-Tachyon style star fortress. The docking procedure goes a bit longer than I'm used to because of the security and all the refugee ships, so I decide to take a nap on the wheelchair Emma has strapped me to.
As the Kite begins to match the station's rotation, I can feel my body getting heavier.
"You won't mind 0.7 G, won't you?" Teases Emma.
The docking process ends, and Emma pushes me through the pressure chamber and into the station itself. The station looks clean, both hygienically and aesthetically as expected of a Tri-Tach derivative design. The walls are lined with the usual space station warnings, like 'pressurized room', 'no smoking', and my favorite, 'gravity generated by rotation, dropped objects will fall sideways'.
All the expected sights. What unexpected though, is the woman standing right in the middle of the corridor in front of us.
The most interesting and despicable woman I will ever meet in my life.
"Huh, now this is an interesting unique event. I wonder which mod added this?"

Is there any way to extend the early game frigate phase? If so how? I feel like As soon as I get to 4 frigates and there's a destroyer or maybe I have a certain amount of officers. The game ramps up the difficulty and my small wolfpack fleet is facing much larger fleets with fighters and etc. Making my frigates easy to overwhelm and kill.
Are there any mods that can change this or is this simply the way the game is played?
Additionally, sort of a sub question. What are interesting ways to play Starsector without commissioning for the Hegemony and farming commissions?

Is there a way to play my RC8 save in the new RC9 version of Starsector? Game is modded but that should not really make a difference since mods usually stay compatible until major releases.

I've spent some times making some custom ships that add to the main game while I try to keep them balanced and feel like vanilla. But I was wondering if Starsector players tend to download extension mods to add custom hulls/weapons. I discovered it was possible to mod like that but wonder if that's what people running mods tend to install.
​
Do Starsector players install these custom ship expansion mods or should I make it more of a functional faction/ custom content to get people interested. My main strong point is just the art of the hull