Skalgrim Mod v.2.0 file

+++[Transmission start]+++
+++[To all loyal servants of the God Emperor]+++
+++[Skalgrim Mod v.2.0 Released]+++
+++[The End Draws Near]+++

V.2.0 "The End Draws Near".

This version of the Skalgrim mod adds new ships for several factions and also represent the last major update to the mod, with a focus on balance and faction related changes. A special thanks to Mirolog, JonathanZotack, Imperator, Dire_Venom and aZmoDen for various help with the mod. (Also a special thanks to the people who donated to me - as promised I bought a nice bottle of rum to celebrate the 2.0 version)

Skalgrim mod changes stats for Ordnances like fighters and bombers, decreases their reload time and makes them better and more worth the points spent on carriers. It changes the stats for weapons, units, and campaign related things. It rebalances the game and makes for several times larger battles by both lowering shipcosts and increasing the amount of points available for both fleets and battles.Fleet sizes grow with levels just as in the original game, but to much greater sizes. You can also have more fleets. It rebalances critical hits, making bigger ships more resistant to crits. It rebalances morale, but increasing the rate at which morale regenerates, and several morale related effects. It buffs and changes many abilities, meaning that your choices matter more as a admiral.

This modversion includes the Greater Customization Submod - It lets you change your campaign settings to an higher degree.

Skalgrim mod does not strive to be perfectly balanced, but guarantees massive battles unlike that in the original game including alot of new content. Balancing and changes are also an ongoing project, so check back for news. Im just one guy working on this mod so don't expect to much.

(Installation instructions at the end. READ THEM!)
________________________________________
Changelog: Major changes from 1.9:
________________________________________

Ork and Tyranid weapons have been overhauled to do more damage. Tau Weaponry have also been buffed somewhat. Battery weapons for Imperium and Chaos have been buffed. Level related buffs have been lowered in regards to the skill reload to instead be a constant 5 seconds faster per level instead of earlier method. Still good, but not broken when used with shields to become invunerable. Tau (formerly "Imperial Pirates") are now more common in the various systems in all campaigns. Chaos cruisers are a bit more specialized so that close range ships have more health and some of them also have better troops.

Major Imperial Navy Changes from original game:
________________________________________

General Description: The Imperial Navy have cheap and thus very numerous ships. They have access to strong and powerfull high-tier ships at a low price. Several GC and BS have now gotten more turrets thanks to JonathanZotacks work.

New ships in this version:

New GC: Subjugator. This GC is a long range sniper type ship that can do alot of damage to selected targets with its Omega Beam and Hellfire Beam weapons.

New Titan: Imperatoria Aquilae. This is a heavy short range titan aimed at broadside damage.

New ships from older versions:

New GC: Banisher. This GC is a heavy front line ship, armed with an array of broadside weapons, a spur and turrets it does its work best by charging and ramming the enemy ships at close range.

New BS: Damocles Super Heavy Battleship. A new Class of ships, inbetween a Battleship and a Light Titan, the Super Heavy class can counter most other factions mightier ships, and even go toe to toe with a Titan if supported. The Damocles is a brawler, armed with a short range melta cutter that does tons of damage, but at a very slow reload speed, and several heavy macro batteries.

New BS: Arbiter Super Heavy Battleship. A super heavy carrier capable of blanketing enemy ships with swarms of bombers or fighters and with four lances to deal some damage from afar in the process.

New BS: Warlord Super Heavy Battleship. Armed with a Archeo-tech Volkite lance, a short range but very deadly weapon, and tons of lances, this ship can turn the tide of a battle, from afar or close.

New Mega Titan: Lux Imperator. This was the ancient flagship of the Emperor of Mankind before he moved his flag to the Imperator Somnium. Originally called the Bucephalus, after the horse of an ancient terran warrior namned Alexander, the ship was renamed the Lux Imperator and rebuild, refitted and now serves as the flagship of the Custodes when bringing the light of the Emperor (and tons and tons of weapons) to the enemy.

Reworked Mega Titan: The Imperator Somnium. This is the ancient flagship of the Emperor of Mankind. It is massive, deadly beyond compare, but also very expensive. (Looks best in Fleet Solar colors).

Agamemnon, a Battleship for Imperial Navy. (Replaces Lunar Cruiser)

Defender, a LC for Imperial Navy (replaces Dauntless mk1)

Victus Imperialis, a Gloriana Class Battleship for Imperial Navy. (Replaces the Dominator Cruiser.)

Major Space Marine Changes from original game:
________________________________________

Space Marines are better equiped than other Imperial forces, with faster and sturdier but also more expensive ships. They are best at destroying the enemies of mankind with highly specialized warfare and brutal close quarter battles and boarding.

New ships from older versions:

GC MK3, this is a heavy carrier that works very well for boarding attacks.

Castellan BB, This Dark Angles BB is armed with ancient and devestating plasma weaponry and lances. It's slower reload and shorter range is however a downside a commander needs to take into consideration.

Hrafnkel, a Gloriana Class Battleship for the Adeptus Astartes Space Wolfs chapter. It has a large amount of rapid fire lighter cannons and a special torpedo launch system that can devestate one target at a time with a precision strike.

Invincible Reason, a Gloriana Class Battleship for the Adeptus Astartes Dark Angles chapter. It has many high tech weapons, like lances, a nova cannon and is also armed with several plasma batteries. Deadly at longer range, but more of a glass cannon than most other Imperial Glorianas.

Reworked Eternal Crusader, a Gloriana Class Battleship for the Adeptus Astartes Black Templars. Now it is a broad side beast.

GC Mk1, this is a close quarter Grand Cruiser that has the Spur ability and can deal lots of damage close up.

GC Mk2, this is a long range Grand Cruiser that can devastate enemies from afar with powerful lances.

Warmonger BB, This White Scars BB is like a spear, ultra fast and with lots of torpedoes and a Spur its best used to ram into selected targets to cause massive damage.

Ravens Claw BB, This Raven Guards BB is the only BB that can become hidden, and has greater range for its boarding and more room for assualt craft, making it a deadly enemy that can cripple high value targets from afar with boarding strikes.

Centurion BB, This Ultra Marines BB is a powerfull BB with extended Sensor range. Its excellent as a leadership role but does not excell in any specific thing other than this.

Aegis BB, This Imperial Fists BB is a slow, lumbering medium range BB that can take a pounding and still turn the tide of battle with its massive broadsides and numerous cannons.

Luminor BB, This Iron Hands BB is deadly in long range and has the Nova Cannon, but struggles at closer ranges.

Sangius BB, This Blood Angels BB is the ultimate assualt craft carrier, while lightly armed with only one powerful weapon, its extra launch bays more than make up for this for the commander that knows how to use them.

Bane Bringer BB, This Space Wolf BB is a true beast in dealing damage at a short to mid-range frontal assualt, with lots of torpedoes and several rapid fire light cannons in its extended prow.

Vulkans Flame BB, This Salamanders BB is deadly with its many torpedoes, including its melta ones, but what sets it appart is its ancient Volkite weapon in the front, which has a very short range but deals immense damage with high critical chances.

Mega Titan: Phalanx. The Upgraded Phalanx has untold numbers of weapons, and while slow and lumbering can crush any ship that dares get to close to it.

Indomitus Battle Barge mk1, a "light"Titan class Battleship for the Adeptus Astartes with great mobility and a varitey of weapons.

Major Admech Changes from original game:
________________________________________

Major rework of Admech forces that buffs weapons, and differentiate their cruisers as follows:

Gothic Cruiser - Long range with lots of lances and a deadly prow mounted heavy artillery lance. Removed Nova cannon.

Dictator Cruiser - Carrier with 4 launch bays and one Lance turret.

Lunar Cruiser - Gets to keep its Nova Cannon. Increased price because of this.

Tyrant Cruiser - Close Combat cruiser. Better morale. Crew. Increased number of turrets and hull. 1X Bombardement cannon and 4 plasma batterys.

New Ships in this version:

New Mega Titan: Omnissiah Titan. This is the pinnacle of Admech design and power, a massive and deadly ship bristling with long range weaponry and powerfull shields to defend it.

New Ships in previous versions:

New LC: Spear - this Light Cruiser is armed with a short range melta cutter- a weapon that does a ton of damage, but has a very slow recharge. Best used to ram enemy ships, swarm them with Skitarii forces and accept that it probably will die in the process.

New GC: Omega - this Grand Cruiser only has one purpose - to blast its enemies away with its super-heavy lance artillery, that while having a long range and causes alot of damage takes a long time between its shots.

New GC: Spartan, this heavy Grand Cruiser is at the front line of any Admech fleet worth its cogs - heavily armed and filled with Skitarii forces as well as having a heavy armor it represents a new form av warfare more like that of the Imperial Navy.

New GC: Cetacea, this is a heavy carrier best keept away from combat.

New BS: Bellum Aeterna Ark, This expensive Battle Ark is often seen as the flagship of a Admech fleet and can devestate most other enemy ships with its high-tech weaponry.

New BS: Skitarius Ark, This Ark-ship is special in its form and function, for while most Admech void ships keep their distance, this one is aimed to destroy its enemies at close range with a variety of deadly weapons - while boarding parties consisting of deadly creations of the Admech skitarii forces deal more damage than most other Imperial forces.

New Titan: Archeo Tech Ark, This ancient wonder from the Dark Age of Technology can turn the tides of battle with long range beams, guided torpedoes and deadly unique short range weapons - but its rarity and cost make it a uncommon sight amongst the stars.

New BS: Achilles, a long range Battleship for the Admech with several powerful weapons and strong shield, but also expensive.

New Titan: Mars Class Carrier, a super heavy carrier for the Admech. Weak except while facing straight forward towards the enemy. Best kept out of harms way.

New Titan: Fabricator Ark, a Superheavy Titan for the Admech. Pretty much a mobile base that can fire in all directions.

Major Necron Changes from original game:
________________________________________

General Description: Necron ships are faster, have faster turnrates, higher and faster regen, crewcount, regen of crewcount, better weapons, and can jump farther and faster than other races. They are the OP faction that others should fear. Their fighters also do some bombing damage and damage over time, so are a bit more versitile than other factions fighters. But their ships cost alot more now than any other faction. You will always be outnumbered. "Good" I hear your inner Necron Overlord say, "more chattle to strike down."

Changes in this version: The Anubis Mega Titan has been buffed and also has one shard of Nyadra´zath weapon added.

New Ships in previous versions:

New Cruiser: Set, this is a long range cruiser with a special particle whip artillery weapon.

New BS: Imotekh Cairn, this is a Cairn ship aimed for close range battle with several enemy ships at once, preferably smaller ones. Its faster and more durable than a regular Cairn, but more expensive.

New BS: Nyadra´zatha, this is a Cairn ship that has a shard of the C'tan Nyadra'Zatha, "the burning one" used as a devestating weapon that fires faster and faster the closer it gets to its target. Its aimed at destroying one target at a time with high crit damage bolts of aetherial burning lightning tearing through the very fabric of space.

New Titan: Aza'gorod, this is a Titan that has a shard of the C'tan Aza'gorod, "the nightbringer", that its used as a extremely dangerous long range weapon capable of tearing out even the hearts of other Titans, devestating their shields and hulls with tight beams of void energy.

New Titan: Osiris, this massive super carrier can strike from hiding in the shadows with swarms of deadly necron fighter crafts. Weak in close combat and only having some offensive weapons itself its best kept away from the fight.

New Mega Titan: The Throne of the Silent King. This massive, slow and lumbering, but very deadly Mega Titan can decimate entire fleets of enemies.

New BS: Aphophis, this BS can become hidden while moving at a suprisingly fast speed towards its foes. It has the best assualt-crew ready to strike at the heart of enemy formations, a Hellfire beam cannon and lots of short range weapons. Its main advantage however comes from it having the Spur ability - letting it ram ships in quick succession with devestating effect.

New Titan: Anubis (Replaces the Cruiser Scythe Harrower)

Its a very slow, but ultra powerfull ship. It has more weapons, and life, than any other Necron ship. Its also VERY expensive.

New Battleship/Titan: Cairn Annihilator. (Replaces the Khopesh light cruiser)

This is a behemoth, massive, slow, but with more weapons and range than the standard Cairn. Including the new Weapon Annihilator Beam Turret.

New powerful Necrons defensive structures.

Major Tyranid Changes from original game:
________________________________________

General Description: I'v redone Tyranids from the ground up with a major overhaul of the faction. They now have much better weapons, all ships have a constant regen, they deal more damage from their shields, they are faster and can turn faster, and their abilities have been buffed just like the other factions the mod affects. This has made them into a very dangerous foe. They also get some new ships.
Also note that all ships that have any of the Claws-weapons are faster and geared to actually use this weapon. Ships with Hook/Feeder tendrils do more damage/troop damage etc. Pyro weapons do more critical = flame damage etc.

New ship in this version:

New Titan: Pyroclastic Titan. This beast can spew a torrent of pyro-acid all while tanking damage. Monumentally dangerous at close ranges.

New Ships in previous versions:

New Titan: Behemoth. This massive titan only has its powerful psychic powers and its hard outer shell as offensive weapons and lacks shields - but with this you can smash through most enemy fleets with ease.

New Escort: Infected Plasmoid. [Redacted by Order of the Inquisition. This ship has been removed from the mod due to it screwing the AI over.]

New Titan: World Eater Hiveship (replaces the Cruiser Bio infestation razorfiend Theta)

This behemoth is a true monster. Gigantic -while lacking in bioweapons- its bulk and its added Tyranid propulsion abilities, its Ancient Psychic Scream, its Hooked and Feeder tendrils combined with its resilliance makes this a terror on the battlefield. Be aware though that unlike other Tyranid ships it cannot cloak itself due to its vast size and will as such be a prime target for enemy fleets and heavy weapons and ordanance.

New Battleship: Bioplasma Hiveship that only has Bioplasma weaponry. (Replaces the Hiveship)

New BC: Swarm Ship that only has the Feeder/Hook Tendrils, and lots of shields (1200) meaning that this ship can soak lots of damage and deal lots of Area Damage over time. (Replaces Corrosive Tentacles Devourer Epsilon)

New BC: Hardened Clutch Devourer that only has massive claws for close combat damage. It is a specialized ship that is much faster than other Tyranid ships of the same class, has more life and armor.(Replaces Corrosive Clutch Devourer)

Major Chaos Changes from original game:
________________________________________

General Description: Chaos are a bit fewer in number than Imperials, and cost a bit more. Their ships are faster and in general have lots of ranged weaponry and high-damage dealing weapons for mid-range. Their ships are a bit less sturdy than Imperial counterparts as a result. All in all I have made a massive overhaul of Chaos forces, abilities and skills to broaden the choices you can make with them. Their ships are more specialized now, with certain ships excelling in certain roles instead of just being generally good at most things like in the vanilla game. Do you want a Khornate dedicated brawling fleet or a sneaky long range Tzeenchian? Perhaps you like to spawn thousands of fighters like the flies of Nurgle, or do you feel that striking fear into your enemies using super-weapons? You can do it all now. Note that certain ships are locked to certain chaos subfactions in the campaign. All ships are unlocked for skirmish.

New Ships in this version:

New Titan: Photep. This is the flagship of the Thousand Sons legion, and is unique both in design and weapons. It has access to unique and warp spawned abilities, strong shields, and deadly weaponry, but is somewhat of a glass cannon once one gets through the shields. This ship is locked to Marked fleets in the campaign. (IE only god-specific fleets can have it.)

New Ships in previous versions:

New Titan: Harbinger. This is the sister ship of the Vengefull Spirit, albeit a weaker version.

New Titan: Endurance. This is the old flagship of Mortarion, the primarch of the Death Guard legion. Its heavily corrupted with nurgles blessnings, and heals over time, has a ton of HP, specialized and unique weapons that wreak havoc at mid-close range by corrupting and melting the enemy ships while sapping away their morale. This ship is locked to Marked fleets in the campaign. (IE only god-specific fleets can have it.)

New Titan: Conquest. This is the heavily corrupted old flagship of Angron of the World Eaters legion. A ship made for ramming enemy ships with devestating effect, its faster than most other Titans and has unique weapons and abilities that lets it board enemy ships, or cause extra damage. Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! This ship is locked to Marked fleets in the campaign.(IE only god-specific fleets can have it.)

New Titan: Iron Blood. This gloriana class ship is unusual in that like its master, Perturabo, the primarch of the Iron Warriors legion, it withstood most of the corrupting effects of the warp. Its heavily armed and armored with tons of lance weapons to deal damage from afar and close. This ship is locked to Legion fleets in the campaign. (IE only fleets belonging to one of the non-marked legions can have it.)

New BS: Xana. This dark dream of the Dark Mechanicus is armed with exotic weapons. It can flay enemy ships appart in short ranged barrages with its unique Warp lance weapons or cripple them from afar with warp missiles and lances. Expensive, it represents a threat to any ship under a Titan classification.

New Mega Titan: The Abyss class. This represents the greatest power that the forces of chaos can wield, a massive ship class that can turn the tide of a battle with tons of weapons and HP.

New Titan: Erebus. This is a massive and deadly titan with lots of firepower.

New BS: Deviant. This is a "glass cannon" of sorts that does alot of damage at range but cannot take the fight up close and personal.

New BS: Dark Mechanicum. A long range BS that has access to forbidden tech, most prominently the Nova cannon and Gravity cannon.

New Titan: Balestar (Replaces the grand cruiser Executor) The vanilla game doesn't let you use the Monarchia Titan, well now you can. This behemoth is filled to the brim with deadly plasma and heavy macro weaponry. More than enough to counter the Imperiums Eternal Crusade Titan.

New Titan: Abomination (Replaces the Battle cruiser Hecate) This aptly named Abomination uses the same main weapon as the Planetkiller Titan, and is also armed with the super-weapon Hellfire Beam Cannon, and lots of super heavy missiles and tons of launchbays. Its a bit weaker than other Titans and is very expensive. It can destroy anything with one shot, but aiming might turn out to be tricky and the chaos gods are fickle.

New Battleship: Astra Dominus Battle Barge (Replaces Cruiser Slaughter) This Battle Barge has not been in the service of Chaos for very long, its renegade and traitorus Space Marines defecting during the launch of the 13'th Black Crusade. Its faster than other Space Marince Battle Barges and sports heavy weaponry and assualt capablities.

New Battleship: Render (Replaces Cruiser Emasculator) This ship is unique amongst Chaos forces as it is not only very fast, it also has a special prow made to ram enemy ships and deal lots of damage. While it burrows into the enemy fleets its many macro weapons turn its foes into shredded chunks of metal scrap.

Major Eldar Changes from original game:
________________________________________

General Description: I'v rebalanced all the eldar factions, added new ships, changed and rebalanced most abilities. The most important change is that the three diffrent factions now play differently in certain regards. Also their holofields/shadowfields are now alot better so they will take less damage in general while moving or keeping their shields up. Their eldar movement abilities have been buffed alot which makes them faster.

Corsairs:
_________

Are weak, but very fast. Glasscannons in every sense of the word. They have constant regen on their ships - since they are in essence "living" ships made out of Wraithbone, a psychoactive substance that can mend itself. They are a medium to long range faction with very powerfull weaponry and deadly torpedoes.

New Ships in this version:

New Titan: Eldanesh. This is a surprisingly sturdy ship with higher armor level than the rest of the Corsair ships. It also has lots of very powerfull and dangerous weaponry mostly seen on the Aeldari Craftworlds.

New Ships in previous versions:

New BC: Baharroth Class: A heavy carrier class of ships that can swarm enemies with superior Eldar attack and fighter craft.

New BC: Jain Zar Class: A heavy gunboat class of ships that has a ton of long and mid range weapons with a surprisingly high damage output.

New BC: Irrilyth Class: A heavy torpedo class of ships that is geared towards closer combat and unleashing its mass-torpedo barrages with devestating effect.

New Titan: Cegorath (replaces the Vaul Eclipse class cruiser)

This very fast titan is one of the most well armed titans in the game. While having far less armor and health than other titans, it has the advantage of speed, and blistering firepower. A glass cannon in every right with a deadly salvo of torpedoes capable of destroying any Battleship with a well placed salvo.

Craft World Eldar:
__________________

Their ships are slow, for eldar, but also very heavily armored, especially in the front. They also have constant regen on their ships as they also use Wraithbone. They are short to medium ranged, but do very high amounts of damage at that distance.

New Ships in this version:

New Mega Titan: Young Craftworld. The Aeldari grow their homes, their Craftworlds using wraithbone. Generation after generation of aeldari build upon them and they can thus become gigantic in size. This is a younger ship, one of the many that the Aeldari have founded over the long millennias to try and repopulate their species. While still a small Craftworld, it is one of the largest ships in the mod. Lacking in fighters and bombers and not having access to standard Eldar engines, it makes up for this with its deadly long to mid range weaponry and plentiful health.

New Ships in previous versions:

New GC: Fuegan Class: A ship armed with the unique weapon the Fuegan lance, a short range beam weapon that deals a ton of damage and high crit chances - burning the enemies of the Eldar to cinders and molten slagg.

New GC: Maugan Ra Class: A ship armed with the unique weapon Maugan Ra Scythe, a long range weapon that is best used with the Kin Crewed skill as it can spool up to incredible speeds over time if you stay on the same target - meaning it can take on even ships of BS or Titan class given enough time.

New GC: Karandras Class: A ship that is a mixture of heavy carrier and cloaked close quarter killer - heavily armed and armored.

New BS: Ulthran Class: The most dangerous of Eldar ships, the Ulthran Class is armed with an array of long to mid range weapons including the Maugan Ra Scythe, heavy beam weapons and torpedoes. It can go toe to toe with even Titans of other factions, but lack the HP and staying power to win, unless you move it in and out of combat- something that Eldar are masters at.

New Battleship:

Flame of Asuryan (Replaces the Starfall/Dragonship IV Cruiser)

This is a powerfull, but expensive Battleship capable of going to to toe with any other Battleship in the game. It has lots of weapons, high armorlevel, and the Hellfire beam cannon special weapon - meaning that its a very capable Heavy ship hunter that can strike, and then retreat.

Drukhari:
_________

Their ships are very fast, but weak with low armor, but slightly higher damage output than the other Eldar factions. They are medium to long range and work best by "sniping" of enemy ships and then retreating. Their main focus is raiding parties that overwhelm the enemy forces and kill of their crews. They do not have wraithbone constructs and thus lack the constant regen of the other eldar factions.Changing between firing modes are usefull depending on which ships you use as the Dark Lance has been buffed.

Notable changes in this version: Larger ships have been buffed and have more armor and health and better morale.

New Ships in previous versions:

New Titan:

Spear of Khaine (Replaces Balefull Gaze light cruiser)

This is a carrier titan that has lots of torpedoes, fighters/bombers, and a fair amount of lances and missiles. Its weaker than many other titans, but still has more than enough health for it to be dangerous, like all other Eldar ships hit and run tactics are usable for this Titan.

Major Ork Changes from original game:
________________________________________

General Description: I have rebalanced and overhauled the Ork faction. Their Roks are now alot slower, but have alot more health. I'v boosted their fighters somewhat as they were to bad earlier, these can now also do damage over time to ships. Ork weapons have seen alot of changes aswell. They are still really bad in regards to accuracy, but for a few weapons this has been upped one tier. In general the heavier a Ork weapon is now - the more range it has aswell instead of the oposite as in vanilla. Their Zzap guns are now less common, but alot more deadly. Ork ships are also more specialized now meaning that they will act differently in game. The last thing is that I have overhauled all the abilities/skills of the orks, with some very interesting results. Using the Trakktor Beam as an example will now pull ships alot further, faster and longer - meaning that you can pull off (or see the AI) crazy stunts like crashing the enemies ships through his fleet.

New Ships in this version:

New Mega Titan: (redone) Space Hulk. The Space Hulks from vanilla have been redone so that they look better, and have alot more weapons and health. It is now a true danger on the field, albeit a very slow one.

New Mega Titan: The Gorka Morka. This represents the ferocity of the Orks and their devotion to their gods, Gork and Mork. The Gorka Morka is a very heavily armored and armed ship with tons of dangerous high damage weaponry. It has all the DAKKA DAKKA an Ork warboss could crave.

New Ships in previous versions:

New BattleshiP: Eavy Ramma (Replaces the Cruiser Killa Stompa)

This looted Deadnot class is the only large Ork ship that has a Spur, and it also has heavy frontal armor and massive engines that gives it more speed than other Battleships while its weapons in general are pretty short ranged and geared towards broadsides once it gets into range.

New BattleshiP: Eavy Boom Flinga (Replaces the Heavy Cruiser Hammer Smaka)

This looted Deadnot class is probably some crazed Mek-Boys dream. It only has forward facing short range but rapid firing guns, less health than other ork BS, but it has a shit-ton of torpedoes. More than enough to tear even other Battleships apart in one volley. If the slow Ork torpedoes can hit their mark that is.

New BattleshiP: Deadnot Eavy Zzappa (Replaces DeadnotLotsaBigGunz)

This is like its predecessor, only it has more Heavy Zzap guns than any other ships. And these are very much powered up versions of the vanilla guns. Zzap away admiral!

New Titan: Bismork (Replaces Deadnot)

Every now and then a Ork warboss thinks to himself: "Wat iz da meaning ov life?" The awnser quickly comes to mind. "Gunz gunz an more gunz". This is a slow, but very dangerous Titan to get to close to as it is brimming with heavy weapons, mid-short range batteries and other things that make you wish you had kept your distance. As the orks say: "Dis iz da Way!"

Major Tau Changes from original game:
________________________________________

General Description:The Tau fleets have gotten a major overhaul in how they work and function from the vanilla game to better follow the lore. Their weapons have been overhauled aswell as their skills and abilities, and the factions as a whole are a much greater threat now than in previous versions, all to lead up to future expansions with campaign submods that will let players face Tau in the campaigns. Their fighters and bombers are slightly better than their Imperial counterparts, but not as good as Eldar, Necron or Space Marine versions. They do alot of damage at range, but have poor shields and horrible troops meaning that they must keep the enemy at bay or let their allies fight for them. Im sorry to say that currently the Tau cannot get added custom ships - but must still replace current ones with new variations or the game crashes. New for this version is that Tau are now an AI faction in the campaign, and while using the "Imperial Pirates" logo, fleets of the far flung Fourth Sphere Expansion have now settled around the Eye of Terror, perhaps not by their own chooice, but what are the little blue xenos supposed to do except try and fight for their lives in this part of the galaxy, so very far away from home.

Tau Allies: Tau allied ships now follow the lore more and are more specialized. The Nicassar for instance now have heavy shields - representing the fact that they are powerfull telekinetics in the lore. Kroot have been made better at boarding, and can speed up to faster speeds, but it takes them longer to do so. Demiurg have heavy armor but are slow and focus mostly on mid-close range weaponry that does alot of damage. Good for protecting and supporting more fragile Tau ships.

Protector Fleet:
_________________

The Protector Fleet have been remade to represent the fact that in the lore this is the main combat oriented fleet of the Tau. As in the lore it focuses mainly on barrages of torpedoes and missiles at long range, then long to mid range heavy fire followed up by rapid short range weaponry. The closer the enemy gets, the more damage you will heap upon them.

New Ships in previous versions:

New GC: The "Thousand Daggers" is armed with a unique weapon called a Star Ripper gatling cannon that fires at a rapid rate at mid range, enough to tear through even mid-sized ships with ease. (NOTE: its weapon profile says 0.0 seconds reload, but that is an error based on the game not allowing to show fast than 1 second reload speeds unless affected by skills. Its ACTUAL reload speed is set to 0.5 seconds. The weapon IS affected by reload skills and can fire even faster it just wont show this in text, but will see it in game.) (Replaces the "Tolku" Cruiser)

New Titan: The "Victorious Ethereal" is the Tau's first attempt at building a true Titan, capable of facing the other races of the galaxy and their massive and deadly ships. Its brimming with weapon systems to accomplish this, but like all other Tau vessels suffer from weak shields and troops to defend it from boarders. Its expensive but deadly. (Replaces the "Tolku" LC)

Merchant Fleet:
_________________

The Merchant Fleet have been remade to represent the lore better. Their ships are not as combat oriented in general, cheaper and have access to more smaller ships. They focus more on having stronger carrier abilities than the Protector Fleet, while instead having fewer long range weapons in general as a trade off.

New Ships in previous versions:

New Titan for Merchant Fleet: "Star Spear" (replaces Merchant Battleship Galleath Borkan) This new Titan has lots of weapons, and a superweapon, the Antimatter Lance, as a main gun that has a long re-charge and a very narrow field were it can shoot - straight forward. But if it does, it can cripple other Titans in just a few blasts or blow up even cruiser with one shot. Redone for the 1.8 version.

Greater Customization submod (Included in the mod):
______________________________

This included submod lets you change the campaign settings to a greater extent and also lets you have larger fleets of up to 400% amongst other things. A word of advice though is that Skalgrim mod lowers the ship cost to around half for most ships = 2X Size of vanilla game fleet sizes. It also increases the available Fleet and Battle sizes throught the game - meaning that you will eventually get larger and larger fleets. At 100% setting in the campagin customization this ends up at 3000 pts Battles sizes (with Skalgrim level prices or around 6000 pts in vanilla game sizes.)

Using the changed customization options for up 400% increase leads to quite insane battles at end game levels. (12000 pts or around 24000 pts in Vanilla game!!!) This will most likely cause most players problems in regards to stability. If you have tried the massive battles mode ( 4000 pts vanilla) and your computer had problems with this I would recomend you to lower the settings to 50% Fleet/Battle sizes.

I just give the player the option to have truly massive, insane battles on a scale never before seen. I take no responsibility for how your gpu feels about it.

Below is a chart showing the modified fleet sizes etc for both Imperials/Chaos factions.

Player level and points needed to reach next level,FleetCapacity,MaxRequisition,UpgradePoints,Tonnage,Faction1,Faction2,Faction3

1,0,400,400,0,LIGHT_CRUISER,1,1,1
2,1000,600,700,1,CRUISER,2,1,1
3,2500,650,800,2,CRUISER,2,2,1
4,4500,700,900,3,BATTLECRUISER,2,2,2
5,7000,800,1000,4,BATTLECRUISER,3,2,2
6,10000,900,1100,5,BATTLECRUISER,3,3,2
7,13500,1000,1200,6,GRANDCRUISER,3,3,3
8,17500,1100,1400,7,GRANDCRUISER,4,3,3
9,22000,1200,1500,8,BATTLESHIP,4,4,4
10,27000,1300,1600,9,BATTLESHIP,5,5,5
11,32500,1400,1800,10,BATTLESHIP,5,5,5
12,38500,1500,2000,11,BATTLESHIP,6,5,5
13,45500,1500,2100,12,BATTLESHIP,6,6,5
14,54500,1500,2200,13,BATTLESHIP,6,6,6
15,76500,1500,2500,14,BATTLESHIP,7,7,7
16,92500,1500,3000,15,BATTLESHIP,8,8,8

Known bugs:
----------------

New ships have a blue screen instead of a ship-picture in their shipslot. While in game this changes to a picture of the Macragges Honor. This is part of how we'v added new shipslots to the game and unavoidable.

Some abilities/skills added to the new super defensive stations for Chaos and Imperial Navy do not work as intended - some do not damage the enemy, or cause no effects. Their addition was never intended, but unavoidable based on how such structures are built.

Star Ripper Gatling Cannon (Tau) shows a 0.0 reload speed in text - it is infact a 0.5 second reload. The error is game mechanic based and cannot be fixed, but doesn't affect the gameplay at all.

Sometimes the Eldar reload skill needed when using the Kin crewed guns skill does not trigger - unknown why, but the solution seems to be to switch between stances once, then it works.

Movement ability UI's can be bugged when playing as Aeldari and using the Young Craftworld. Hotkeys for them still works though. Problem is related to the fact that it doesn't have Aeldari movement, but "Imperial". There is nothing that can be done about this. ("A" is the standard hotkey for moving forward faster if the UI button is bugged.)

Coop-play:
___________

You can play the mod in Coop since I worked with the devs to fix the errors that their latest update caused for modders- however there are some things that are needed:

1: You must both have installed the Steam Beta version of the base game. (Right click on the game in your steam game library - select properties - select Beta options. Download the beta version of the game.)

2: You must both have installed the same version of Skalgrim mod, as per installation instructions below.

________________________________________
Installation.
________________________________________
Important information:
This is made for single (skirmish and campaign) play. Using or trying to use the mod for online (multiplayer or singleplayer play might get you permanently banned unless you deactivate the EAC as per installation instructions.)

It is recommended that you start a new campaign even with changes of mod version. Certain ships, defence stations etc will otherwise keep their old stats and not be completely affected by the mods changes.

______________________________

Install instructions:

1: Pray to the Omnissiah.

2: You need change the launch options in Steam. This is done by right-clicking on the game in Steam - Then selecting properties - Then Set Launch Options. Here you need to write -NoEAC . Good, now you need to start up the game. It should read Stormancer disabled in the top right corner. If it does, you are now free to start installing the mod.

3: (optional) Make a safe copy version of your gamefiles.

Copy all files in Battlefleet Gothic Armada II\BattlefleetGothic2\Content\Data and \Content\Localization and \Content\Splash (your games install directory) create a folder somewhere for them and name it whatever you want. This is your original files, swaping them with the modded lets you go back to previous configurations if you so wish. Also note that during updates of the game you might need to replace files from your modded versions with the newly added ones from updates if you want the mod to work.

4: Extract Skalgrim Mod from .rar file. Replace all folders, subfolders and files with the ones in the rar-archive by placing the "Content" folder from the .rar into your Battlefleet Gothic Armada II\BattlefleetGothic2 folder. When promted, let it overwrite all the files as needed.

5: Go to the Pak folder in Battlefleet Gothic Armada II\BattlefleetGothic2\Content\Pak. You should now see five new folders inside the Paks folder, one named "Stock", one "X-Models", one named "Z-Skalgrim Mod 2.0" and so on. There should also be one single file that is not in a specific folder called "BattlefleetGothic2-WindowsNoEditor.pak" file, which is around 40gb in size. Take this file and place it into the empty "Stock" folder. If you have previous versions of Skalgrim mod installed (like Z-Skalgrim Mod 1.8 or 1.9) you must remove these. You should have "Stock" "X-Models" and folders with the 2.0 in them when you are done.

(If you can't see all the new ships then 99% of the time you'v not placed the right folders in the right place or forgotten to move the "BattlefleetGothic2-WindowsNoEditor.pak" file into the "Stock" folder.)

6: Pray to the Omnissiah.

7: Play and gasp in wonder as your might fleets lay waste to your enemies.

+++[End of transmission]+++