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JaeDL - Starborn Royalty Knights

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JaeDL

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About this mod

Revamps the Planet Akila so that Ashta can live up to their reputation.

Akila predators now spawns in two variants: the regular Ashta and a larger, more powerful variant based on the quest "Alpha Ashta". Also tweaks the 3 that show up in the main story quest.

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Changelogs
Royal Ashta - Akila Belongs to The Ashta 

*The screenshot and video Akila are only blue because that seems to happen in icy biomes when using Concept Art Akila. This does not change their skin.

Ashta were described by the game designers as "velociraptors combined with wolves". On other planets where they spawn, the generic name of the creature is "Lionbear".

The lore frequently and repeatedly refers to Ashta as a serious threat that keeps bandits moving to avoid them. Alpha Ashta are reported to have been seen as large as a house. Don't worry, I didn't make them that big.

Similar to Terrormorphs, the lore discrepancy between how the story and characters treat Ashta and the aliens we encounter bothered me a lot. I actually began Royal Aliens by attempting to fix Ashta, which was supposed to be my 2nd mod. But the default size for the Ashta is so small that simply scaling them up barely makes a difference.  They still looked small!

Akila fauna now spawns two variants of Ashta. The regular variant, and a larger, more powerful variant based on the quest "Alpha Ashta". Regular Ashta now give double XP (10 base) and Apex Ashta grant 4x (20 base). This makes the challenge of taming Akila somewhat worthwhile. 

Both Ashta have increased speed, very slightly increased damage, and level scaling based on Royal Aliens, but a little easier. (I noticed most players like level-scaling when it applies to a standalone faction like Terrormorphs, and the lore seems to support that Ashta should be very dangerous and Akila particularly threatening.)

This mod was not as easy as tweaking other aliens and required tweaking the entire Akila planet. Please let me know further suggestions to improve the planet.

The plugin is named *RoyalAkila.esm to help people remember that the whole planet is contained in this plugin, not just the Ashta records. Down the line, if I make Akila better, I might rename the mod Royal Akila.

Video of me dying
(Death requires Royal Aliens 2x damage Very Hard Add-On and using elemental blast instead of Moon Form)
Also shows some of my player dialogue rewrites WIP. :)
My Lawgiver had my new version of Exterminator with 30% damage to aliens and mild burn damage. I am overhauling the vanilla weapon legendary mods to be useful for an upcoming mod: Pirate's Plunder: Better Loot and Mission Rewards for Explorers. 


Compatibility/Load Order:
This is completely compatible with Concept Art Akila, which tweaks the planet in an entirely different way. Load order between the two does not matter.

After anything else that might tweak Ashta. Even Royal Aliens, as I might tweak this mod to offer specific Ashta values you prefer over the ones in Royal Aliens.

Load order with Royal Aliens - Very Hard shouldn't matter as it tweaks different values.

Nothing else that I know of tweaks the Akila record or the specific quest. Either way, record change mods (like 90% of what I make) aren't that risky, since any conflicts will just let whichever mod loads second win any fights.

Why isn't this a part of Royal Aliens?
The regular Ashta are absolutely tiny. Even scaling them to nearly max sizes possible, they do not live up to the lore.

This mod approached it from a different way. I changed the planet Akila so that one of its predator fauna is now the "Alpha Ashta" from the one quest. I gave it significant size variation scaling.

The large Ashta take the place of the original Ashta, and the original Ashta take the place of the large bug-creatures, which seemed to cause them to spawn in groups slightly more commonly. Don't worry, the bugs still spawn too. No aliens were removed. I also added gave Mossgnath's a chance to spawn in all Akila biomes.

Load Order:
Will completely work with wrong load order, you'll just get someone else's version of the Ashta. To make sure you get these Astha, load as late as possible, since any other mod that tweaks aliens or AI might overwrite the specific Ashta changes. Must be loaded after PEAK and anything like it (These Ashta are Aggressive and Foolhardy).

Must be after any leveled list mod, though next Royal Aliens update will put the Ashta exactly the same, and then it won't matter for that particular mod.

Animals aren't monsters. Why are you/Bethesda treating them as such?

Animals generally only ever become a crisis due to overpopulation and lack of food. During various colonial periods, people overhunted prey to feed themselves, leaving predators particularly desperate and dangerous.

Akila has been feeding human colonists for centuries. The food shortages of the Colony War led to the extinction of the Aceles for the UC. Presumably, under-siege Akila was equally desperate. if not moreso.

The food shortage caused the Ashta to become brutal hunters. They might even turn on one another in a rage if one accidentally damages another.

I can tweak population density and spawns theoretically if anyone feels that is really needed.

What Else Does it Do?
Changes the Ashta that spawn during the Empty Nest Main Quest to the larger variant. Buffs a few of Shaw's guards (toggling their difficulty from medium to hard) to compensate.

Added Mossgnauth's to all biomes so that there was more prey for the Ashta.

Tweaks the planet record for Akila, which contains reflection data. 

Could you do a version that ONLY has the big Ashta? Can you add MORE varieties of Ashta?
Yeah. And I might end up preferring that for personal use. I'll try very hard to make both varieties unique, interesting, and useful. 

Theoretically, if I add new records, I could add many more varieties of Ashta with different stats and combat styles. Let me know how much demand there is. 

I'd like to experiment with seeing exactly how the Ashta change color based on Biome and seeing if I can make that happen without changing the whole planet at once.

Anything you want to ramble about?
(If you saw my Artifact Cave Mod yesterday, then you probably can see how slowly I am playing through the game now. While stopping to explore every planet cave tweaked by Venpi's mod and to check on how loot is progressing for my Economy Overhaul and Royal Rare Loot add-on.

I've subconsciously decided to fix things up in the order they appear in the main story so you can probably guess my next few mods. I'm considering swapping the Red Mile to imported Ashta since its part of the Freestar storyline and they turn blue in cold biomes).

But this is an early game planet!!!!

Yup, and I suspect that's why Bethesda released such puny Ashta. Technically, you can complete all early main story content without having to kill a single one.

I can make a weaker or vanilla Ashta version on request. I try to default to releasing the version I think is best and then releasing other versions based on need, rather than trying to guess what people might want.

Can you make further improvements to the Shaw Encounter / Main Quests / Akila?
Yes, the more feedback I get on what people actually want from mods in the future, the better. ljorder66 did amazing with more enemy spawns, maybe now people want this for story and other areas he didn't touch?

Bigger Doesn't Mean Harder, they can't chase you indoors!
That's actually how I would fight a bear in real life.
They aren't all big.
Ashta spit rocks if you're out of range. 

Can you make an Ashta Follower?
If there is high demand for something, I can try it, but I'm mostly focused on the mods that I, personally, feel the game needs, which hopefully will make life more fun for everyone else too.

Can you redesign Akila so that it has more biomes? Can you do so while maintaining compatibility with Concept Art Akila?
That is theoretically within the scope of this mod as I tweak the Akila planet record.

Can you make it easier?
Of course! 

There are SO many different ways to play this game. I really don't think there's a single answer to difficulty other than extensive self-customization.

Can you make a tiny version?
Yeah, on request with specific values that you want.

Why Not Create a New Record rather than using the Alpha Ashta?
That would have been completely doable. New NPC records sometimes make it so that a mod cannot be uninstalled, so I avoid them whenever possible in my mods. I'm still learning the rules of when a new NPC record is no big deal and when it is. Any advice appreciated as my mods start to get more elaborate.

Can I have optional files?
On request I can provide:

Vanilla Ashta (non level-scaled)
Harder Ashta. (faster, higher level, more damage, etc).
Easier Ashta.
I probably can't: tweak the planet.
Probably not tonight though unless you comment right away.

Installation:
Plugins.txt
Starborn Royalty Mod List for Beginner Vortex Directions
Starlit Mod List for Beginner Mod Organizer II Directions

Created because I want every detail flawless to go with my main list-making hobby:
💫Starborn Royalty - A Starfield Modlist


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Royal Works In Progress: Early Access to Upcoming Combat, Encounter, Loot, etc. =)