About

This No Man's Sky mod attempts to do two things with space combat:

1. NPC Ships Behavior Rework

The mod changes behavior of NPC ships (pirates, sentinels, and traders) by giving them AI that would match player's combat potential. It aims to simulate how actual players would engage in ship combat. If you've ever noticed how NPC ships would get really close before they start shooting, or how they would shoot very slowly , and so on, this mod fixes that.

The changes are as follows:

General notes and changes

• NPCs will no longer stop their shooting session as long as the target is still under their aim
• NPCs will be able to shoot while doing maneuver - their shooting angle is as wide as player
• NPCs will start aiming and shooting at target (you) as soon as you're able to see them
• NPCs remains inaccurate if they are too far from target - they get better as they get closer
• NPCs' health is slightly boosted (1.5x) (per v0.9)
• Projectiles travel around 1.5x-3x faster (per v0.8 no longer the case)
  

Hard Difficulty NPCs (dangerous-level pirates and sentinels)

• Fire rate is 3x faster
• Flees and rolls 1.25x faster
  

Medium Difficulty NPCs (Mid-level pirates)

• Fire rate is 2x faster
• Flees and rolls 1.5x faster
  

Easy Difficulty NPCs (Harmless-level pirates, traders, and other not hostiles)

• Fire rate remains the same
• Flees and rolls 2x faster
  

2. Larger Space Battles/Increased Ship Spawns

The mod increases the number of spawned ships during space battles. By space battles, I mean both: a) "Rescue Freighter" event from distress calls you get once in a while; b) space encounters with pirates (pirate bounties or when pirates attempt to rob you) and sentinels (if you had warning levels). 

The number of spawns are in range, means at one time you can get only 1 ship, at another you can get 6 or whatever the limit.

The changes are as follows:

Non-hostile flyers

• 2-6 ships can spawn at once
  

Pirate encounters

• Small groups: 1-6 ships can spawn at once
• Large squads: 9-18 ships can spawn at once
  

Bounties

• Easy: 1-6 ships can spawn at once
• Medium: 3-12 ships can spawn at once
• Hard: 3-9 ships can spawn at once
  

Sentinels

• 1 wanted level: 1-2 ships per spawn
• 2 wanted level: 2-3 ships per spawn
• 3 wanted level: 3-4 ships per spawn
• 4 wanted level: 3-5 ships per spawn
• 5 wanted level: 3-6 ships per spawn and 1-2 frigates
  

"Rescue Freighter" space battles:

• Total 40-50 pirate ships spawn
• Total 10-30 friendly ships spawn
• Total 2-4 attack frigates
  

Why?

Space combat in No Man's Sky feels okay in its first few tries, but after a while I feel there are much room for improvements. Especially after you've got better ships and upgraded your weapons - there is just no longer a risk when a pirate hails your hauler or when you're getting chased by sentinels. Not to mention that NMS has five different ship classes (six with living ships) but combat feels largely the same.

This mod encourages you to maneuver more and/or utilize your surroundings (asteroids or nearby frigates) to outwit NPCs aggressive attacks. Sodium will be put to much use - you'd need that to recharge your shields.

Freighter rescue feels more like a rescue now. It is more than likely the fleet will suffer several cargo loss, one frigate loss, and a heavily damaged freighter. Fighters and exotics get the place they deserve as ships with most combat and maneuvering capabilities; haulers get to actually use their better-built shield.

At least, that's the idea. This is my very first No Man's Sky mod - it will be very rough on the edges. Please give feedback - especially from more seasoned modders!


Modified files

METADATA\PROJECTILES\PROJECTILETABLE.MBIN (per v0.8 no longer affected)
METADATA\SIMULATION\SCENE\EXPERIENCESPAWNTABLE.MBIN
METADATA\SIMULATION\SPACE\AISPACESHIPATTACKDATATABLE.MBIN



Installation

Read installation instruction on the No Man's Sky wiki.
Basically just extract the files in .zip and put in the \GAMEDATA\PCBANKS\MODS\ folder.



Related mods

• Exosolar's Space Battles... More or Less
• Exosolar's Savage Sentinels
• Asteroid Hits
• Asteroid Fields (less asteroids)
  

Thanks to

korlag1 for the original Giant Space Battles (now outdated) that inspired this mod in the first place. Those who directly and indirectly helped me in figuring out how to create this mod: redmas, AnotherDeadBard, monkeyman192, and Lo2k.

Estel1 for the v0.8 tweaks.
DeathWrench, Babscoole, and Xen0nex for making this mod AMUMSS-compatible (.Lua version).