Hive Soldiers Expanded
Did you know that hammerhead shark eyes are mounted on the sides because it allows 360° of vision in the vertical plane, meaning the animals can see above and below them at all times?
Well then why do Hive Soldier Drones have NEGATIVE Perception??!?
Hive Soldiers are arguably the weakest race in the game, having 9 negative skills and only 2 positive skills. They also cannot wear helms making them vulnerable to Duststorms and Gas.
This mod aims to fix all of these problems, first with some stat tweaks and then with an added item available in Hive Villages. These changes apply to both Western and Southern Hive Soldiers.
Stat Tweaks:
0% Perception changed from -20% Perception
+20% Polearm changed from 0% Polearm
100% Duststorm Immunity changed from 0% Duststorm Immunity
1.4 Vision Range Multiplier changed from 1.0 Vision Range Multiplier
New Item:
Hive Soldier Gas Mask which can be equipped in the belt slot. Specifically designed for Hive Soldiers, it can only be worn by them. It provides 100% Weather Protection against Gas and it also has 5% head coverage, so you may get lucky and it can save your life! The resistance stats are identical to the Swamp Ninja Mask; details located in this wiki link: https://kenshi.fandom.com/wiki/Swamp_Ninja_Mask
The Hive Soldier Gas Mask and blueprint are sold in Hive Villages. In case you are roleplaying an exiled Hiver that cannot return to the villages, the blueprint is also rarely sold at The Great Library in Black Scratch.
Because of their hammerhead like features, it made no sense to me that they’d have lesser Perception and I even contemplated buffing it, but since Hive Princes already get a bonus to Perception, I wanted Hive Soldiers to feel more unique. After much consideration a Polearm bonus made sense because that is literally what every Hive Soldier spawns equipped with.
I decided that their unique head shape contributes to their ability to see in Duststorms (hence the 100% Immunity) and I also gave them a large vision range. This only effects NPCs and makes it much harder to run through Hiver territory unseen. This is especially noticeable when running through Southern Hiver territory as Soldier patrols will become aggressive from much further away.
This mod can be kept fairly high in load order as long as you don’t have any other mods directly buffing Hive Soldiers. Even if you’re using mods that heavily edit Western Hive Villages, you can always rely on buying the Gas Mask blueprint at The Great Library in Black Scratch, but since this mod adds the item to the vendor list, it should still show up in most cases.
This mod should be 100% compatible with Hives Expanded since the only edits to Hive Soldiers from Hives Expanded are the gear they spawn with. Hives Expanded is a great mod and I highly suggest giving it a try: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1688546539
P.S. There are many mods that buff Hive Soldiers, but I’ve found the other mods do not do this in a lore friendly way. Why would Hivers suddenly become immune to Gas? I believe it is more lore friendly that Hivers would have invented a custom gas mask rather than suddenly become immune to Gas.
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