MAIN FEATURES

• Over 190 Player ships to choose from and over 170 NPC ships to hire and fight against
• Two main paths to choose from, each with their specific ships, bonuses and drawbacks. Choose between Military or Industrial Career (or ultimately both Careers) and fly their best ships
• New Weapons types, new weapon dynamics, full utilization of weapon firing arc, turn speed, range, projectile speed, energy and ammo consumption. There is no ultimate weapons anymore
• Meaningful ship Types, each with their specific stats bonuses and drawbacks, resulting in completely different approach of how to equip and play them. Ship Type is not just a flavor text now
• Better and more meaningful loot
• One additional Special Item Tier above Legendary Tier
• New Special Upgrade docs and more items to upgrade
• Mission rework - proper requirements, reasonable payment and additional item as reward for every finished mission (available as optional download)
• Profession rework - 9 new and reworked old professions for total of 21 different game starts (available as optional download)
• Completely reworked item database, with proper scaling, more reasonable size per price ratio
• Many additional changes in numbers and visuals to compliment the mod "total rework" concept
  

NOTES

• This mod requires clean vanilla /MOD folder. If you have made any changes to the game or if you are not sure about the state of that folder, use Steam/GOG "verify file structure" feature
  

• Currently eXperimental will work best with Sandbox and not so flawlessly with Campaign (it will, but not in a balance manner and not to its full extend. For example for extended period of time you will have access to only Vanilla ships until Event generator start to add new ships into the Shipyard). There is just too much work for not much of a benefit to balance it around Campaign too. I will, eventually, but its not on top of my "to-do" list
  

• Total size of the whole mod is almost 600MG. Most of the graphical changes i made mainly for my convenience, but i realized it will be pita to support two different mod instance - one for personal use and one for public use, so i decide to stick to only one instance - the way i play and test it. The pack includes several new ship textures to choose from, usually different for every ship type, new images for blueprints and upgrades, all of my minor mods from Nexus (Better Vanilla Ships Textures, Better Resources, Better Drones and such). I am tempted to say the changes that comes with the mod will make up for the size of the pack
  

• I play-tested eXperimental for almost an year already, constantly changing and adjusting existing gameplay and re-balancing existing features. I play-tested eXperimental from the very beginning up to 150+ lvl Pilot but i am far from thinking it offers perfect balance or equal opportunity for every gameplay activity. I just can't cover all aspects and that's where the community feedback can helps
  

• There are many aspect where i haven't being able to achieve what i was thinking is the best approach. The main reasons for that is mostly restrictions "behind the code wall" type
  

•  for example my idea for Rocket launcher was to fire dumb fire rocket ammo without any guidance, in order to fill the gap of launchers short range weapons similar to other short range weapons. Sadly, this was unachievable at current modding state. What i ended up with is the closest i can get based to what is available for modding
•  another example is the way i settled the ship class progression and naming. I had to stick to the current class names in order to use the existing icons in game. Again, not what i was thinking in the beginning, but closest i can get to my initial idea
•  many more "not that optimal" choices was made because of current mod restrictions, but in all fairness i would like to express my thanks to Momo for the fact he made Astrox Imperium so mod friendly even at this stage of development and so accessible for modding even for beginners like me
  

• eXperimental as an MOD project is subject to further changes, improvements and adjustments as the core game develops and evolves. The way MODS are currently implemented to the game is not perfect, but it will give modders some freedom not to freak out every time Momo release a patch. However, when a new feature requires a new game in order to take effect, so a modded game will require new start too
  

• Please, and i mean it, please don't report any bug in any of the official bug related channels in Discord, Steam or GOG if you play eXperimental. The last thing we want is to burden Momo with something that isn't core game related and thus hinders work on the main game. For any bug, suggestion or rant about eXperimental use Discord (or Steam) proper thread
  

• If you want to try eXperimental, please read thorough the text to get familiar what to expect
  

• And if you decide to try eXperimental, then please keep in mind it is a WIP Mod for game still in development
  

• Lastly, this mod assumes that you are familiar with the game and know how to take advantage of certain game mechanics. If you're new to Astrox Imperium, this mod will probably make your first playthrough a bit more difficult and your progress slower than in the original game. I consider this a bonus, not a drawback
  

Any feedback is welcomed and greatly appreciated. No matter how long eXperimental was under construction and testing phase, single person can't cover every aspect of the game and probably can't be equally objective everywhere

As you already noticed, my English grammar is in EA and under heavy development. As long as you stick around, you will suffer from constant bad grammar, typos and other disastrous side effects of this fact.





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INSTALLATION

1. Inside .../Astrox Imperium/Astrox Imperium_Data folder make copy of clean, vanilla, unmodded /MOD folder next to it
- /MOD folder > Right Click > Copy (img 1), then inside the same folder on empty space > Right Click > Paste (img 2)
- make sure you paste the copied folder inside .../Astrox Imperium_Data folder and not inside any other folders

2. Rename that new /MOD - Copy folder to /eXperimental (img 3)
- make sure the name is precisely eXperimental (img 4).

3. Download the Mod

4. Copy the main content from the archive inside .../Astrox Imperium/Astrox Imperium_Data folder. Say YES to override.
- the main content of the mod includes the /eXperimental folder and mod_config.txt file; any additional folders and files are optional

5. Download and install all available updates concerning the mod itself (listed under Main File Category in download section).

6. Download and install any fix that is listed under Update Files category (only if you have to)

7. Download and install all Optional Files as they will greatly enchance your experience.

8. (Optional) Check Miscellaneous File section and pick file that you think best fits your play stile and preference. This is optional and you can skip that part. You can revisit this step multiple times at any moment and change dificulty in an any ongoing save.

9. Do not add any other mods, even my other mods for the base game. Most of them are already properly integrated here, you will not miss anything and any other mods will almost certainly cause errors. If you want to add additional ships, read the "Ship Changes" part.

7. Start new Sandbox game

- saves from vanilla game are not compatible with eXperimental, importing Pilots from vanilla game will cause multiple errors.
-saves from eXperimental are not compatible with vanilla game





Also, I highly recommend checking out @ArquebusX's excellent series, 'Let's Play Poorly', where he starts by explaining the mod installation
process and then dives into the eXperimental playthrough.




UNINSTALL

1. Deletel mod_config.txt file inside .../Astrox Imperium/Astrox Imperium_Data folder
2. Rename the provided mod_config.bkp to mod_config.txt
3. Delete the /eXperimental folder



SWITCH BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL MOD AND VANILLA GAME

1. Open the mod_config.txt file which is located in the same folder where /eXperimental and /MOD folders are (img 4) and change the line  MOD_folder;eXperimental to MOD_folder;MOD to switch from eXperimental to vanilla game.







=====================================================================================

GENERAL OVERVIEW

• The core idea of eXperimental is to introduce two general paths of development for players to choose from, to compliment one of two different playstyle through the game - Military or Industrial Career
  

• There is no more "One Ship To Rule Them All" choice from every class, no matter if you prefer peaceful mining or raw combat. There is no more single Ultimate ship, now there are just "best ships for certain jobs"
  

• First couple of ship classes (Shuttle > Escort > Frigate) are considered as part of the General or Universal Career and those classes do not have the bonuses and drawbacks of any of the other major Careers
  

• Upon reaching Frigate class ships, the Player will have to choose either Military or Industrial Career
  

•  this initial choice will determine the set of ships he will have access to
•  this will give him access to best ships available for the type of gameplay he prefer to play - Military path offers best combat ships, Industrial path offers best mining and transport ships
•  this choice will also somehow limit his access to the best ships for the opposite Career
•  Opposite Career ships are not fully excluded from use. As long as the Player is willing to unlock them in University and can afford to buy them from Shipyard he can use them too. It will just take him longer to reach to the best ships in the game from every Career and Type
  

MILITARY CAREER OVERVIEW

• Currently Military Career class ships are Destroyers, Battlecruisers and Dreadnoughts
  

• In general, Military class ships offer bonuses in areas related to their combat effectiveness. They have better overall Shield capacity, improve Shield and Energy Regeneration and better Target Scan Speed. They usually have less Cargo Storage and not that good Life Support Systems, below optimal Armor and their Engines Burn Rate is higher than the baseline
  

• Military Career offers several type of ships, each of them with distinguished role and purpose, application and play style:
  

Battle Ships
Often seen as the backbone of any military operation, Battle ships fill the gap between Recon and Assault ships by adopting a more balanced Battle doctrine.
To improve their capabilities, Battle ships typically rely on a balanced mix of Active, Passive Modules and Drones to enhance their defensive ability and adequately respond to any Battle situation. Overall, they are considered the most resilient type of any other ships in their class and this is due to a number of improvements on almost all basic Hull Frame parameters and ship Damage Resistances. This makes Battle ships particularly suitable for front line engagements as they can sustain heavy punishment. Their specific Module load out allows them to use a wide range of Active and Passive Modules and different Drone type to enhance their combat effectiveness.
The main disadvantages of Battle ships are their weakened Sensor Systems and especially their reduced maneuverability, which are a direct result of the ship's base hull frame improvements.

Assault Ships
Many Commanders consider Assault Ships a major threat on the battlefield, and for good reason. Their ability to deliver considerable firepower on battlefield is a factor that cannot be ignored.
Assault ships sacrifice all of their Drone support and do not rely much on Passive Modules, but their damage potential increases significantly as a result of installing more Active Modules. Certain improvements in Engine Systems significantly increase their Top Speed and improved Turn Rate make them arguably the most maneuverable type of ships in their class. These improvements allow the Assault ships to keep the optimal engagement range and orientation toward its target ensuring their weapon arsenal operate at maximum effectiveness when in the same time their Improved Targeting Scan Systems allows them to quickly respond on any new threat.
However, these improvements come at the cost of reduced Armor and Life support, making them not that suited to take heavy enemy fire.

Recon Ships
Recon ships may not have the resilience of Battle ships and the raw firepower of Assault Ships, but their unique configuration makes them the most adaptive and unique type from all military type of ships.
They sacrifice all Drone support, converting all additional slots into Passive modules. This greatly improves their flexibility, allowing them to install significantly more Passive Module, thus improving almost all ship systems
to level, not easily achieved by other types. Due to some improvements to the hull frame Recon ships gain noticeable reduction to its mass and this result in significant improvements in their Top Speed. In addition, Recon ships have the most advanced Sensor Systems in their class. Their Passive Sensor Range is unsurpassed, which combined with their improved speed makes them great Explorers.
All these hull and systems improvements, however, have a significant negative impact on their Shield systems and Regeneration, as well as their base Damage Resistances, making them more suited for second line of engagement.

INDUSTRIAL CAREER OVERVIEW

• Currently Industrial Career class ships are Utility, Cruisers and Carriers
  

• In general, Industrial ships offer better Armor Capacity, Cargo and Life Support, as well as noticeably better Passive Scanner Range and Speed
  

• They usually use engines with better top Speed and very low Burn Rate, but at the same time suffer from very low Turn Rate
  

• Industrial Career offers several type of ships, each of them with distinguished role and purpose, application and play style:
  

Excavation Ships
As the name suggests, Excavation ships are designed to be the main driving force in any Мining and Salvaging operation and are built to be as effective as possible for this purpose.
By converting some of their existing Drone Systems into more Active Modules, they add additional power output for more efficient Mining and Salvaging. In addition, their Energy Systems have been significantly improved to provide them with the Energy they need because of the increased energy requirements for all Mining and Salvaging equipment. This will ensure prolonged activity in outer space, without the need to recover between tasks. Properly equipped, these ships can perform, with varying degrees of success, even minor transport or reconnaissance missions, and brave enough (or reckless enough) Pilots can use them even in small scale Battle engagements.
These additional changes affect their total Cargo volume and have noticeable negative effect over the Propulsion efficiency and total number of Targets they can track simultaneously.

Transport Ships
Without a doubt, Transport Ships are one of the most recognizable of all ship types. Few ships can be so specialized and at the same time so effective in the purpose for which they are designed.
The whole concept behind Transport ships can be reduced to three main requirements - maximum load, maximum speed, maximum protection. Transport Ships generally have a very good top speed, which reduces the time to complete their transport tasks. All Transport ships further increase their base Cargo Capacity over the Industrial base hull frame standards and have their Damage Resistances reinforced on pair with most of the Military ships, thus making them capable to operate in low security sectors. In return, they loose much of their Energy Systems, reducing them to a level sufficient to ensure basic functionality during travels.
The almost complete lack of Active Modules and Drones limits their versatility to perform successfully other tasks. In a sense, what makes them so special at the same time limits their practical application to one main activity - trade and transportation.


As part of their ship line, both Careers offer

Drone Support Ships
All Drone Support Ships, whether for Military or Industrial purposes, share one thing in common - their main means of achieving their goals are Drones.
Main distinctive feature of this type of ships is that they adhere to the standard specification of their respective Career and Class, with no modifications over the class base hull frame or systems. Thus, they do not have any special improvements or disadvantages build in.
Drone Support ships rarely rely on modules, directly related to their main activity (such as more weapons for Combat Drone Support or more Excavation Modules for Industrial Drone Support Ships). Instead, they usually prefer active and passive modules with different utility applications, to complement and increase the efficiency of their Drones.
Many Pilots consider specializing in Drone management to be both the most difficult to achieve maximum efficiency at and at the same time the most flexible and versatile specialization.






Titans are not included yet, but i am working on that.
=====================================================================================

• Over 190 ships to choose from
  

•  eXperimental includes all Vanilla ships, all ships from my ATC Ship Pack (with several new ships and many small changes) and Void Vanguard Ship Pack from Nexus (used with permission)
•  Void Vanguard Ships current Nexus version 0.95 from 07 Oct 2020 is heavily outdated and will not work with the Vanilla current build (0.140+) if used directly. However, if you like how they look in eXperimental, head over to Nexus here Void Vanguard Ships and endorse this great work
•  because of the changes i made to ship classes, if you want to add your own ships to eXperimental, my advise is to follow existing ships as baseline and edit the Class, Type and Stats of your ships to match the eXperimental Class, Type and Stat progression and logic (if you care for the balance, that is. If not, just add your ships the way you like it, but be ready for some serious inconsistency concerning ship Class progression, ship Type, stats and more.)
  

• All ships have their Class, Type, Stats and Bonuses heavily edited. If you are used to a certain ship among these 190+ ships, now there is a good chance that you will be surprised when you meet it in eXperimental. His stats and bonuses will probably be quite different, even his old role and general class will likely be different. The almighty Titanus from Vanilla here is a Mid Tier Battlecruiser 
  

•  one of the reasons for this is not just the new way the stat scales and all the changes i made. The main reason is the difference in the scale those three ship packs comes with. In order to make most of the ships feel in their proper class according to their scale, some big changes has to be made
  

• All ships use one of the several new textures made from me, with specific main and secondary textures variants and color tones for each ship Type
  

•  vanilla ships use my "Better Vanilla Ship Textures" mod from Nexus
  

• Over 170+ NPC ships from those three ship packs to use as Mercenaries and to fight against
  

•  on paper, you should be able to face any of those 170+ new NPC ships throughout the course of the game. In fact, because of the way game generate some of its content, you will more often fight against ATC NPC Ships and only with some specific mission types you will face more random NPC ships
•  all ATC and VVS NPC ship equipment was hand placed to reflect their class and type. You can expect adequate NPC equipment based on ship Tier and ship Type (Recon usually use additional ECM modules, Assault prefer additional defense measures)
•  all Vanilla NPC ship equipment is still managed by the game. This is suboptimal, unbalanced and part of my "to-do" list, but for now its what it is.
•  Mercs are quite good once they start to gain some level and start to increase their ship stats, especially when their energy level can support prolong combat - this is true for Raiders too, as they use the same ships as your Mercs. This means you will face some really nasty Assault Raiders out there. Just saying...
  

• Merc ships performs better, no matter if they fight, mine or offer cargo storage, but:
  

•  their cost/salary scales progressively the better their are at the time you hire them
•  lower tier ships gain level faster, higher tier ships gain level slower
•  Faction requirement for hiring Merc is significantly higher for higher tier ships
•  University skills like Merc Prospector and Mission Loyalty (you know, the one we all ignored all those years) may come in handy now
  

• When you start new Sandbox, you will have limited choice - you will start with Shuttle, not with Escort. You are not special, they saved you from that flying coffin, but that's it. You will have to climb your way up from the very bottom of the food chain
  

•  but now at least you can pick the ship that will compliment your preferred play style. If you want to start doing some drone combat/mining from the very beginning, pick the correct ship, it will comes with proper bonuses, modules and even with some drones. If you prefer mining, combat, exploration or just peaceful transport missions, pick the correct ship, it will come with proper bonuses and equipment preloaded
•  I am working of several new (and editing the existing starting Professions) to make that initial Profession choice matter more (done) 
  

=====================================================================================

WEAPON CHANGES

• In fact it all started about an year and a half ago with some small eXperiments to certain vanilla weapon stats because i wasn't happy with the way they acted. Then there was another number changed... and here we are. Combat was my main concern and focus back then, but all other changes came ss inevitable consequence of those initial changes
  

• All weapons in eXperimental in their core idea are similar to Vanilla weapons simply because the most defining features are hidden behind the code wall
  

•  however, my main goal was to introduce as much diversity as possible with what i have in disposal
•  all current changes are product of many months of play testing in different stages of the game. This doesn't means all weapons are equally useful, it mostly means they may need adjustments, but not likely any drastic changes
•  it is clear that you can't make all weapons equally useful in every stage of the game. The very idea of usefulness constantly changes throughout the course of the game - in early game you may choose certain weapons because of their energy consumption, mobility, range or ammo dependency, but later on those restrictions or preferences may change
•  combat at 5 lvl, 60 lvl and 150+ lvl is quite different. What may seems not quite useful weapon now may be your proffered weapon when you change ship, learn Web, unlock Cloak or because something else
  

• Weapon tiers was reduced from 10 to 6
  

•  instead of old 1 < 2 < , .....9 < 10 Tiers, now the Tiers scales this way 1 < 2 < 4 < 6 < 8 < 10
•  less tiers, but every next tier almost doubles the damage of the previous tier, now upgrade feels meaningful
•  with exception of 1 to 2 tier, all other tiers also require two levels of upgrade to unlock the next tier
  

• Weapon naming drops the cool, but hard to follow, understand and remember old naming
  

•  Weapon names now reflect their Tier, mirroring the same (or similar) concept of most of the passive modules
•  All tiers are as fallows:
  

  1 lvl = Generic
  2 lvl = Basic
  4 lvl = Improved
  6 lvl = Advanced
  8 lvl = Premium
10 lvl = Prototype

• All weapons can easily be classified in one of those three range category:
  

Close Range Weapons
Weapons, designed for close range combat, have almost full firing arc coverage and fastest turn speed. They can track almost every target within their firing range (still, you will learn to hate those pesky high tier Recon and Assault ships, i guarantee to you). Close Range Weapons usually have the best (or noticeably better) damage than other weapons.
Their main drawback is their limited firing range.

Middle Range Weapons
They usually offer some benefits and lack something in return, but not to the point of extreme. Those weapons are mostly known either for their consistent, but not that great damage or are less reliable, but more energy efficient.

Long Range Weapons
Long Range Weapons main advantages are their projectile speed and engagement range, making them quite reliable at long range, capable of delivering damage long before the other weapons comes into play.
Long range weapons suffer from almost no mobility (exceptionally small Weapon Firing Arc and minimal Turn Rate) and are unreliable at close range.

WEAPON TYPES

Projectile Weapon

Light Turret
    Short range turret with very high RoF and exceptional damage potential, best mobility and energy efficiency from all weapons, perfect for close range combat and fast moving targets. Very ammo inefficient weapon and restricted  to close range. Uses 1x20mm ammo per cycle.
Heavy Cannon
    Middle range heavy cannon with moderate RoF, mobility and good damage potential. Can be dodged or miss fast targets because of its moderate projectile speed, but also not that ammo dependent like Light Turret. Uses 2x60mm ammo per cycle.
Railgun
    Slow firing, long range weapon with very good projectile velocity. Extremely low modality and turn rate, inefficient at close range, but hard to miss or be dodged at long range. Most energy inefficient from all ammo based weapons. Uses 1x60mm ammo per cycle.

Laser Weapons

Pulse Laser
    Excellent mobility and turn rate,  offers high damage, excellent for fast moving targets. Hard to miss or be dodged due to its high projectile speed, but its close range limits its use. Uses ships energy reserves.
Heavy Laser
    Moderate to long range weapon with good projectile velocity. Very reliable and efficient because of its fast projectile speed and good overall mobility, better energy efficiency than Plasma Canon, but with low overall damage output. Uses ships energy reserves.

Beam Weapons

Plasma Cannon
    Middle range energy weapon with moderate mobility and projectile speed, good at delivering constant damage to slow moving targets. Better damage potential and more energy efficient than Ion Beam, but can be dodged or miss fast targets and its usefulness falls off with distance. Uses ships energy reserves.
Ion Beam
    Exceptional weapon range and almost instant hit make this weapon impossible to miss or be dodged at long range, but almost useless at close range due to its terrible mobility and turn rate. Very energy inefficient and the damage potential is not that great. Uses ships energy reserves.




Launcher Weapons

Rocket Launcher
    Short range weapon with high RoF and exceptional damage potential, good mobility and turn rate. Can't be dodge or miss due to its guidance and hard to countered with active defense systems due to its high RoF, but very ammo inefficient and short range restricted. Uses 1 Missile ammo per cycle.    
Missile Launcher
    Excellent overall weapon with moderate RoF, range and mobility. Very reliable weapon with almost guarantee hit unless actively countered with active defense systems. Even Less ammo efficient than Rocket Launcher and its damage potential isn't that good. Uses 5 Missile ammo per cycle.



Torpedo Weapons

Torpedo Launcher
    Long range, slow firing weapon with almost no mobility, ineffective at close range, but very potent at middle to long range, capable of delivering splash damage to nearest targets. Very energy inefficient, almost on pair with some energy weapons. Uses 1 Torpedo ammo per cycle.

AMMUNITION

• Ammo was reworked in a similar fashion, dropping all 10 of hard to follow, remember and manage tiers and names.
  

• There are three Tiers of ammo now:
  

•  Basic
•  Advanced
•  Prototype
  

• Different ammo gives different modifiers to specific damage types
  

•  projectile ammo boost only Impact damage
•  missiles boosts only Explosive damage
•  torpedoes boost both Impact and Explosive damage
  

• Ammo modifiers affect weapon damage and are tied to ammo tier
  

•  Basic ammo modifier to weapon damage is x1
•  Advanced ammo modifier to weapon damage is x1,25
•  Prototype ammo modifier to weapon damage is x1,5
  

=====================================================================================

ADDITIONAL CHANGES

ECONOMY

• It is of no secret that there is not much of incline to take fabricator path currently. There is just not that many opportunities
  

• I tried to address that by editing existing market (editing station demand/supply). This is basically my "Modified Station Economy File" from Steam forum and Discord
  

• Every station now have two TYPE of products in demand and supply. Now every single item is presented somewhere in the sector as both demand and supply.
  

•  I did not insist this is the best solution. I am not much into trading myself and every game is different, but i do play my games with this changes for more than a half year and it seems ok to me
•  The worst that may happens in your game is for you to find some stations with "exploitable" supply and demand that happens to appear close to each other. But at least now you can have a chance to find someone that is willing to buy your manufactured stuff for more than several dimes if you really insist to play as Manufacturer
  

LOOT

• Loot table was changed. No more resources as drop, now you can get some emergency items like shield/armor/energy consumable, some ammo from time to time, maybe even some drones; you have a small chance to get Upgrade docs and even Skill Books
  

SPECIAL ITEMS

• Current Special Items system was slightly reworked and one additional Special Tier was added above Legendary
  

•  while the general chance to drop was kept, the number and percentage of bonuses was reworked
  

• The naming was changed from current somehow "fantasy" vibe to more "technology" feel, which imo is more appropriate for Astrox space/sci-fi setting
  

•  eXperimental Special Item naming is all about the quality of the produced and further improved item rather than some magical properties within
•  current Special tier naming: Default < Excellent < Exceptional < Flawless < Perfect
  

ITEMS DATABASE

• Literally all the items are changed to some degree. One of my main goals was to address the scaling, size to price ratio and some other stuff within item database.
  

•  scaling now is strictly progressive almost everywhere - starting from all weapon stats down to all the mats and components
  

MISSIONS

• The flat credit reward scaling was reworked
  

•  Initial payment for most of the missions now is a bit lower, but now they scale better credits wise
•  The Hardest missions pays really well
•  Scan, Harvest and Escort mission credit reward was reduced - those are usually low effort task and shouldn't be paid as well as, say... Collect mission.
•  Kill, Kill & Recovery and Kill Raider missions pays really well because of the same reason - high risk tasks should be paid better
•  Just as a reminder - it is totally OK to get your ass kicked if you don't have good understanding of how the combat works, or how to use orbit feature to your advantage, or how the target ship strength relate to your own ship strength. And even in those cases you still can get wrecked because some Kill missions have random parameters by design. Always be ready to reload because of several precise Ion Beam hits, maybe several well placed Heavy Lasers or nice bullseye from a Railgun. Combat in eXperimental is a bit more challenging that Vanilla combat
  



• The Skill reward from missions is slightly increased, usually not across the board, but mostly for the hardest of missions
  

• All cargo requirements was tweaked based of the mission type
  

•  Transport missions are now noticeably more cargo size dependent, followed by Delivery missions, Mining missions and so on
•  on paper this was supposed to make Transport missions accessible only (or mostly) by specialized Transport ships, but in game, due to the way the game picks the mission cargo, this is not always the case. Still, from time to time the game still manage to support that idea. :)
  

• Time window for completing missions was reduced
  

•  Simple Transport, Scan, Delivery or Escort missions require some attention. The time for completion is still enough, but not that unreasonably generous as in Vanilla
•  Scan Pilot, Recovery and Harvest gives you a bit more time to complete
•  Kill mission givers usually are not that picky when it comes to time, as long as you finish the job, but the time is still less than Vanilla
  

• Faction standing reward was boosted a bit to compensate for mercs increased Faction requirement for higher level ships
  

PROFESSIONS

• 9 new professions was added for total of 21 different game starts (see the picture for reference)
• All old professions was also heavily edited to make every profession choice feels different
• All professions was rebalanced and now have the same initial skill point investment
  

• All professions use the same initial Skill Points pool from 250 SP (+/- 3%) with one exception
• This means that whatever profession you initially pick and then immediately respect in University, you will get back in return around 250 SP (+/- 5, 6 SP, its hard to balance this and it is actually not that important
• The point is - every profession starts with the same SP spend, just quite different
  

• Read the Profession description and make informed choice - some professions are quite specialized and while they may give you quite an advantage in some areas, they may completely lack even basic skills
• Combine your proffered starting profession with proper starting ship and you will have enough tools at your disposal to support every gameplay even at start
  

SKILLS

• Most changes here relate to those skills that are tied to Weapons and Ships Classes
  

• For weapon skills the changes was made to reflect the new weapons
  

•  The most expensive skills are those of Projectile, because you can take advantage of three types of projectile weapons when you level up those skills
•  The middle ground are Missile, Beam and Laser based weapons, because every one of those weapon types offer at least two different weapons
•  Less expensive skill is Torpedo one, because the player is restricted to just one type of Torpedo weapon
  

• The changes related to Ship classes was made to reflect the both Career paths
  

•  still, here are no locked ships, based on player's career choice. If you want to drop your Combat career and get the best Industrial ships so you can effectively mine in Worm Hole, you can. You just have to invest extra money, time and skills to unlock the class you want
  

VISUALS

• Aside from my reworked ATC and ATC NPC Ship packs, eXperimental also includes updated versions of my Better Vanilla Textures, Better Resources, Better Drones and custom variant of Rarity mods from Nexus
  

• All additional ship texture variants are accessible from Main Menu > Mod Tools > Editor > Ship > Textures
  

•  if you want to change main or secondary texture, change the number in front of atc_main.png and atc_detail.png to anything from 1 to 5 (example: 5atc_main.png and 3atc_detail.png)
•  this will change the textures to that specific ship in Shipyard when you return to game, but will not affect ships already in your possession. You have to change them manually within their ship file
•  Texture_c will change the look and intensity of the ship internal (glowing) lightning
•  if you want to try less or more intense lightning, change the prefix to anything from:
•  low < med < high < max (example: min_glow.png for minimum internal lightning or max_glow.png for Christmas tree effect)
  

• Many new pilot images was added for total of 120+ pilot portraits
  

•  I removed all accessories. No exceptions! Probably as some point I will get back and edit them to make them bearable (or will pray someone to do it instead)
•  If you are one of those people who is strong minded and can stand the look of any of the accessories and want them back in the game, get them from the original .../Astrox Imperium/Astrox Imperium_Data/MOD/scripting/npcs/faces
  

• All other visual changes like the new crafting doc images or the new Warp Gate icon are there because I enjoy creating silly stuff for the game when I don't play it. I made them exclusively for personal use but if they aren't good enough for you or are somehow too immersion breaking for you, or you prefer vanilla images, you can revert the original images from /MOD folder or make your own changes wherever you want
  

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GAMEPLAY SPECIFICS

Cloak

• For a long time I considered the Cloak one of the best and the worst item in the game because of the way it breaks the game once you obtain it
  

• I made several changes to how Cloak act and feel and at some point i was very confident with the result, but then Momo made some general changes that i had to take into consideration (namely, the fact that the energy regeneration stops when the Cloak is active and the effect didn't "linger" anymore based on the effects power.
  

• Because of the way Cloak was made to works in Vanilla i had to made some changes again, to put the Cloak in their rightful place as the most powerful all the modules, for which you have to pay heavy price both literally and figuratively
  

• Current changes to the Cloak in eXperimental are as follows:
  

•  it is a long and costly path (money and SP wise) to unlock Cloak
•  the cycle rate goes up to 35 sec, Module Power is set to 1 and energy consumption per cycle is doubled and beyond
  

• This makes all Cloak related Skills relevant (those that works, anyway) - every Cloak Power or Cloak Energy skill level counts
  

•  The result is - if you entirely rely on Cloak, you should take some things into consideration:
  

• You will have vulnerability window from the start of the combat until the initial effects take place, plan accordingly what is more important to you - to save quite a bit of energy or to stay on a safe side in a dangerous engagement
  

•  without upgrades you will have a very limited invisibility effect - literally a seconds
•  If you upgrade Cloak Power skill all the way up to 10 level you will have almost full "stealth" effect as long as you keep Cloak up and running
•  or you may save those Skill points and sacrifice a lots of passive modules for Cloak Power Boosters instead of skill this will give you similar effect
•  or you can use combination of those two to achieve full "stealth" effect
  

• In any cases it will take you a lots of skills, money, time and/or hard decisions to make the Cloak really OP module
  

•  still, 750 energy per cycle and no energy regeneration during the module effect is something that only end game players can be comfortable with.
•  this means either huge energy pool, and/or turning off the Cloak when not needed, and/or proper weapon choices and modules (for example, less energy consuming type)
  

• Because it really IS costly to get the Cloak "up and running" to full extend, i added Cloak Special upgrade doc available for purchase. Now you can buy Cloak upgrade doc from Market and can try to make Special Cloak item, following the same crafting steps and rules as when you upgrade other weapons. Similar to the other Upgrade docs, this one can be Excellent, Exceptional, Flawless or Perfect and based of how lucky you are, you may get nice module power and/or energy consumption bonuses. I am tempted to say the Perfect Cloak Field Generator is the most sexiest, overpowered and cool item you can ever get
  

Shield Tanking

• Shield tanking is possible to a reasonable extend because of several reasons:
  

•  Military ships have more Shield capacity, better Shield regeneration (and less Armor as result. Industrial ships have those reversed - more Armor, less Shield and so on)
•  some ship types such as Assault are especially well suited for Shield tanking
  

• On top of their inherit better Shields, they usually have a huge number of active modules, which allows them to equip enough weapons and enough Shield Rechargers
  

•  lastly the Shield Recharger was reworked too. Where Vanilla Recharge effect scales with flat 90 points, eXperimental scales the effect with 4 time over the previous tier item
•  Shield Rechargers can drop as Special item drop. Such item with properly rolled stat bonuses can make you fights a bit easier
  

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Known Problems 

•  Sometime upon loading, just within the first couple of seconds, the game may (or may not, but in my observation, it will in 8/10 cases) display an error, something along the line FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format. This doesn't have any affect on the gameplay as far as i can tell (aside the initial bad feelings seeing the red icon). That Error message will be displayed one time only  and should not appear until the next load. Haven't being able to find any reason for that no matter how precise my investigation was and the whole text of the error leads me to think the problem may not be entirely on my end.
  

*edit ^ this error was fixed thanks to report from @Geek from Steam forum and there is not known mod related errors at this point.  

•  Sometime using Cloak (just when the module finish its cycle) may result in error. This also was reported in clean vanilla game, so nothing i can do about it, i guess.
  

ATC Ship Pack
ATC NPC Ship Pack
Better Vanilla Ship Textures
Better Resources
Better Salvage
Better Drones
Editor Plus
Rarity