1) Brand new locomotive modules - 60 items;
2) Obtainable lodgings at large cities - 3 houses;
3) Parties for factions which may be hosted at lodgings;
4) Faction shops - 5 new shops;
5) New trade goods - 3 new trading goods;
6) Barrels of Hours and Crates of Munitions are now consumable items which boost speed and armament damage, respectively.
Abstract
First fan-made content mod for Sunless Skies which development took me almost 6 months to (mostly due to the Parabolian-like constantly changing code of the game).
The mod was developed for Steam version of the game, I don't know, if it will work with GoG version.
Brief Summary
1) Brand new locomotive modules - 60 items;
2) Obtainable lodgings at large cities - 3 houses;
3) Parties for factions which may be hosted at lodgings;
4) Faction shops - 5 new shops;
5) New trade goods - 3 new trading goods;
6) Barrels of Hours and Crates of Munitions are now consumable items which boost speed and armament damage, respectively.
New control keys:
‘K’ - openbridge storylet, a menu which allows to equip/unequip new modules and use certain active modules and items;
‘T’ - consume Barrel of Hours to temporarily boost your locomotive speed with Hour Loom;
‘Y’ - toggle the Hour Loom off;
‘G’ - consume Crates of Munitions to boost your armaments damage for fixed amount of firings.
Installation:
1) Download the archive and unzip it into some handy location.
2) Copy-paste “BepInEx”, “mono”, “Sunless Skies_Data” folders and "winhttp.dll", “doorstop_config.ini” files into core folder of Sunless Skies game accepting replacements. You may find the folder under the path “Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sunless Skies”, you may open that folder by following “Steam Library -> Rightclick mouse -> Properties -> Browse local files”;
3) Check if file “resources.assets” in “Sunless Skies\Sunless Skies_Data” is correctly replaced with a new one;
4) Obligatory: make a backup of your save files from “Username\AppData\LocalLow\Failbetter Games\Sunless Skies\storage\characterrepository” folder;
5) Launch the game from Steam Library (somehow the game sometimes fails to launch the mod if Sunless Skies is launched via desktop shortcut). You will see a BepInEx console launching the mod (red text after phrase "Mod Loaded" is not a problem). If console doesn’t appear there is a chance something went wrong and the mod won’t work;
6) Load up your save, the mod will work regardless if you load an older save or start a new game;
7) Is the number. After the save loads and you see a port you are docked at press ‘K’. You should see “Your Locomotive” event; If you see it - congrats! The mod is successfully installed!
8) If Steam updates the game you will need to copy paste modded file “resources.assets” into “Sunless Skies\Sunless Skies_Data” again.
9) I recommend to turn off auto-updates in the settings of the game in Steam. This is needed because, if Sunless Skies decides to spontaneously update and you load a save file after updating you will lose all the modded items! Thus I also recommend you to make backups of your saves every now then;
10) If mod works, skip this step. If console doesn’t appear (and button 'K' doesn't work while flying), you most likely don't have a proper version of Microsoft Net Framework. The mod is based on BepInEx injection, which requires Microsoft Net Framework Developer Pack v 4.6 or newer. You will need to download it from official Microsoft site Dotnet.microsoft.com and install it. That's the most final manipulation you will need.
Detailed explanation
New modules:
Each locomotive now has 4 more slots for new equipment. New modules don’t take up regular slots. Equipment menu is accessed from “Your Locomotive” storylet which can be opened by pressing ‘K’. Active modules functions are accessed from bridge in the same manner. New module types:
Weaponry Enhancements:
Multi-shot - causes your armaments to shoot additional shells and produce more heat;
Armament Damage - presents percentile increase of all damage your weapons do, stacks additively with bonus damage from using Crates of
Munitions;
Cooling Array - increases speed at which your locomotive cools down after shooting or dodging, 10 points of Cooling Rate quality
improves heat dissipation by 1 per second.
Locomotion:
Thruster Booster - increases your speed, stacks additively with other speed boosters, e.g. engine Hour Loom or Full Steam mode;
Maneuvering - improves lateral and side-thrusters making your locomotive easier to steer and better for dodging;
Fuel efficiency - travelling will consume less fuel.
Active:
Repairs Station - active module, can be used to issue repairs on the fly, given you have materials;
Garden - active module, can be used to grow seeds for supplies;
Soul Oven - active module, can be used to convert souls into fuel.
Misc:
Lamps - increase your Mirrors at the expense of Veils;
Assaying, Canning, Mining modules - self explanatory;
Quarters, Hold, Hull modules - self explanatory.
Decoration - stat increasing modules that can not bebought, but can be crafted at your lodgings.
Faction shops
All new modules can be obtained from faction shops.
- Five faction shops which you will find at faction-related cities: Lustrum, Port Prosper, London, Pan and Eagle's Empyrean;
- The assortment depends on your reputation with the owning faction;
- Some factions are not interested in your sovereigns.
New trade goods
Three new highly valuable goods, each one can be bought at its-own region and sold at a
different one. Note: they can be sold at Hub ports, but this will earn slim
profits.
- Steam Core - obtained at Royal Society,this bleeding edge contraption is mostly valued by the military. Alternatively at “Your Locomotive” (button ‘K’) a Steam Core can be used for emergency repairs on the fly.
- Ostentatious Jewelry - obtained at Caduceus, this rather expensive decoration is mostly valued by bohemians and high-society members.
- Compressed Decade - obtained at theCircus, this high-end product of Hour-processing is praised by the engineers. Alternatively at “Your Locomotive” menu (button ‘K’) a Compressed Decade can be decompressed into Barrels of Hours.
Lodgings & Parties
Tired of sleeping on a floaty bed? You can obtain lodgings in large cities: London, New Winchester and Eagle's Empyrean.
- Lodgings provide access to the Study, there you can craft Decoration modules.
- Lodgings are possessed across the lineage.
- Lodgings at London and New Winchester can be used to host a party for different factions.
- Each faction has unique set of events and different rewards.
Barrels of Hours
Your locomotive is now equipped with an Hour Loom which can be fed with Hours to boost your speed for some time. Once you turn the Hour Loom on it will automatically prolong the duration as long as you have Barrels of Hours to fed it with. Stacks additively with other speed boosters, e.g. engine Thruster Booster modules or Full Steam mode;
- +25% Speed;
- ‘T’ - toggles the Loom on;
- ‘Y’ - toggles the Loon off.
Crates of Munitions
Munitionscan now be loaded into your armaments to increase damage they deal. Amount of
firings with increased damage depends on the weapon you loaded heavy shells
into. Stacks additively with bonus damage from using Armament Damage modules.
- +25% Damage;
- ‘G’ - load Munitions.
Honorable mentions
Many thanks and my best regards go to:
The Nameless Poet - coauthor, wrote a vast variety of stories and gave me much inspiration and ideas across the development;
May - taught me how to work with code injection, which is crucial to the most functions of the mod;
Saltlord - offered a writing advice and gave moral support when things were grim;
Exotico - explained some deep and obscure code-related things;
Mein - helped with proofreading most of the things the mod offers;
Res - helped with proofreading new modules the mod offers;
Nodus Cursorius - gave important intel on how locomotive physics works;
Failbetter Games Community - chilliest community out there, you folk are fantastic.
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Brought to you by Desblat aka the Overzelous Modmaker
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Afterthoughts on future updates and a humble call to arms:
I cut more content than added with the mod due to the fact that I don’t have to time to flesh out everything with the writing. So I will leave a list of possible future updates here to sparkle your imagination, there is a chance I will add some of those in the future. This is too much for me and the Nameless Poet to coup with, I hope there will be more people who want to join us in making Sunless Skies better.
Shelved ideas (Clear concept, requires doable amount of writing and coding):
1) Honk to interact with friendly Locomotives in the sky;
2) Board enemy locomotives and fend off boarding parties;
3) Bosses: the Timeless Dreadnought, the King Cantankery, the Dawn Fluke;
4) Ramming weapon (easiest one);
5) Unclear cloaking device to hide from enemies (not sure about that one);
6) Pan Lodgings.
Shelved ideas (Obscure concept, requires much writing):
1) Eagle’s Empyrean Power-level tracker “Sky Colored Neon” and earning of it;
2) Liberation of the Night Power-level tracker “The Darkness is Looming” and earning of it;
3) Quick travel item;
4) More parties;
5) Treasure maps;
6) Liberation of the Night favors;
7) Devils’ favors;
8) Wounds system from Sunless Sea (requires much rewriting of default events);
9) Tattoo Parlor at London - very much to write;
10) Capture and deliver locomotives to marauders or to certain factions or transport damaged vehicle back to safety to help;
You may find me on Failbetter Games Discord or by this name Desblat_17#2099
