RELEASED Elithian Races Mod - A Starbound Expansion 2.3.10

Awesome.....But, I have a question. Have the Avikan ever tried to fuse Centen and Thelean tech together? That could be a gamechanger for them!

But they could use the self-destructing Avikan jumpweapons as WMDs though, couldn't they?

 

@Aegonian I need to ask does the Mysterious Merchant sell the Sun Drainer? I really want to get my hands on the weapon and he has never sold it.

 

The Avikan haven't ever attempted that, actually, though it could result in some powerful technologies if successful. Reverse-engineering either of the two types of technologies is very difficult on its own though, so trying to combine two poorly understood technologies could also result in disaster. Also, Thelean technology itself has also been influenced by Centensian technology to some degree, so in some cases there isn't much to combine at all.

As for using the failed jumpweapons as WMDs, that's certainly an option, although they are a few things to take into account. Avikan law forbids the use of jumpgate technology for such purposes, except when dealing with Theleans, and any weapon built in such a way has a few drawbacks. Obviously, the weapon itself will be a single-use thing, as it will not only destroy the surroundings but the device itself as well. Second, any weapon that utilises 'flawed' jumpgate technology is extremely unreliable: the biggest issue the Avikan have with these types of weapons is 'aiming' where the other side of the jumpgate will open. A Centensian jumprifle will always open a gate to the edge of a star, with pinpoint accuracy to ensure a reliable weapon, while the flawed Avikan jumpgates could either end up opening a gate too close to the star (making it a potential WMD), or making the weapon a complete bust because the gate wasn't opened close enough to the star. Last of all, and perhaps most importantly, is that opening a jumpgate becomes more difficult the more energy (or mass, as that's just energy as well) you are trying to transfer. You would never be able to open a jumpgate into the center of a star (or a planet, or a black hole) without feeding the jumpgate device absurd amounts of energy. This limits the potential power of a jumpgate WMD. There are also devices which can counteract jumpgates: many settlements and ships are equipped with such jumpgate distorters to prevent attacks through a jumpgate. Without such devices, you could open up a jumpgate into enemy territory and just drop a nuclear bomb right into their settlement. The distorters generally allow smaller jumpgates to be opened though, as jumpgates are also used for instant communication between distant planets in the Elithian Alliance universe. This generally also means that Centensian jumpweapons will remain functional despite the presence of a distorter, unless that distorter is set to completely block all jumpgates from being opened.

The Sun Drainer can currently only be obtained by spawning it in, unfortunately. I've got a quest (and a short mission) in mind for obtaining the weapon, but I've never taken the time to start building it...

 

Managed to get my only main story character to the Refuge to pick up the Ruin-killing quest thing. It's interesting, but I'm unlikely to get it on my Avikans because I use the main quest skip mod and generally ignore that the Protectorate stuff exists.

 

Well, in that point. Why not make a jumpgate device that is intentionally flawed to pop up anywhere, but with a gate that works in reverse, sucking in everything. The power cost would be absurd, but it'd be a mini black hole...to an extent....Wouldn't that be a viable use for flawed jumpgate tech, but used in reverse?

 

Since the latest update of the mod ( which tries to patch itself into the loot list if I recall correctly) I've been getting some PGIs in loots. Anyone else with the same coincidence as mine?

As for an suggestion, maybe some content from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds would suit well the mod, hopefully the glider will

 

While I like that anime, I don't see how it's particularly relevant to the Avikan.

Besides, everyone knows the Möwe is clearly Floran tech.

 

I want to be honest with ya. Yeah, first i thought that this mod would be some kind of Avali ripoff, due to the similarities in design but after doing some research and playing this mod for myself, i found big differences between the two races and in my opinion, the Elithian Races mod is much better than the Avali mod! (Yes i said it, shoot me for this if ya like)

The Avikan have interesting history, the gameplay is great (im not a fan of mining and stuff like that), the lore is great and i have yet to find more of the codex entries. The Avikan are a truly amazing race, their technology is interesting and dont get me started on the buildings and the blocks. Overall it is the only content mod that i will keep installed and for me, this is the best mod i ever installed.

Can't wait to find out more about the other races and seeing the next races being released! Keep up the good work!

 

Well, there is the desert-like culture in some parts.
But I meant more in something as a glider ( if it fits in the lore), a flying vehicle where you can jump out and still be in a platform. It would be simply great for multiplayer or hunting in high altitudes or even IN SPACE.

Plus, it'd be, IMO, lore-friendly to add more items that have sandcrawler/sandspitter items in their recipes.

And so far I only found those big ones as quest targets, do they inhabit more the underground part of the desert wetlands?

 

Aegonian I have another question to ask. How rare are the Trinkian Mining Laser and Avikan Mining Laser from caches?

 

Also i wonder: Is there a discord for this mod yet? O:
Or at least a steamgroup? If yes, can i enter too? My name is zyrenosuzuki on steam ^-^

Oh also! Are we going to be able to drive an Avikan mech or a skoff in the future? Since i saw them i was like "damn, thats neat! i wanna drive that!"

 

Opening a jumpgate into empty space would probably function as a pretty effective weapon, albeit very risky to use as the vortex you'll create is obviously indiscriminating and will suck in anything (and it won't work if your target is in empty space too, only when they are within a pressurized atmosphere). The jumpgate device itself will probably be destroyed in the process due to the massive forces induced by that sudden decompression, which will close the jumpgate in turn, so it'll probably be a relatively short-lived (and extremely expensive) weapon. Not the most efficient, but certainly effective.

I you find any more Perfectly Generic Items, I'd be happy to take a look at your starbound.log: it'll list which item(s) the game was (erroneously) trying to spawn. If I know which items are erroneously being spawned, I can easily fix the issue! I haven't ever seen that anime, actually, but I'll have a look at it soon. More flying vehicles would definitely be welcome!

The Avikan Mining Laser is supposed to be a purchasable blueprint from the gunsmith in the Refuge, but it seems the shop inventory used an outdated item name so it isn't available right now... I'll fix this in the next update. The Trinkian mining laser should have a small chance of dropping in any Trinkian container, but that one also uses an outdated item name... I'll fix that one in the next update too.

There is a discord server for the Elithian Alliance, although it isn't used very often. I'll send you a friend request on Steam so I can add you to the Steam group! You might have to remind me to send you an invite to the group once you've accepted the friend request, I tend to forget who's been invited yet and who has yet to receive an invitation...

As for the mech and skoff, you can actually ride the mech already! It can only be obtained using admin commands (the quest for legitimately obtaining it isn't finished yet), but the vehicle is fully functional when you spawn one in. The item ID for the mech controller is avikanmechcontroller. The skoff is on my TO-DO list, although I'll have to find a way to fix some camera issues before it can be implemented as a driveable vehicle.

 

Thanks for letting me know .

 

From first glance, your mod looks to be quite interesting. I'm loving the art and effort you are putting into this, and it even appears you have a custom story line going for you. Do you have a team or do you do all this yourself? I'm currently preparing to do something similar in my mod.

 

I've done (almost) all of the work myself. There's a few items and objects in the mod which were provided by guest artists (although I made some minor changes to most of them to make them better fit the art style), and there's plenty of things in the mod which were suggested by the community, but other than that it's all been my own work. Which also explains why it's taken so ridiculously long to develop it all

Also, good luck on your own modding project! Creating Starbound mods can be quite a daunting task at times, but in the end it's definitely worth the time and effort!

 

Thanks, my mod has been around for a fairly long time, I just had to start from scratch after 1.0. Do you have any secrets for your art or are you just naturally gifted? I can do weapon sprites, but I struggle with armor lol.

 

No secrets really, just a lot of practise. When I started working on Elithian Races, I had never done spriteart before, and my first few attempts at drawing races, weapons and armour were really quite poor... Best advice I can give is to spend a lot of time looking at the vanilla sprites, especially the way the sprites are shaded. Armour is, in my opinion, probably the hardest thing to draw, as you need to be able to 'morph' your sprites according to the character's stance. You'll find that a lot of armour in my mod uses sturdy materials so the sprites don't have too change much during the animation (like pauldrons which only rotate on a few frames), and in cases where the armour does have to move naturally, like in the Avikan skirts, I reuse my sprites extensively to cut down on the workload. The Avikan don't wear pants, nor do they have sleeves, which makes armour a lot easier to draw.

 

I got this going for one of my story characters lol, what do you think?

 

That is good spriting of someone wearing a rusty skull with a top hat right there. Looks like an intriguing person to have in a storyline.

 

Thanks! haha, I need to figure out how to introduce him... Right now he's at the beak easy and he gives a quest to get access to black-market wares.