Ω Merchant Raiders – Expansion for SirCampalots Extended Tech Tree Mod.
This mod adds Merchant Raiders and a Merchant Raider Base to every star system. The merchant raiders and their base will be stronger and harder to defeat in higher tier star systems.
Merchant raiders use captured civilian ships (which they usually slap extra weapons onto) to raid nearby trade routes to loot money, resources and more ships for them to convert. They will often use older ships and equipment (deemed obsolete by the main factions) which they upgraded or modified with whatever weapons they happen to have on hand as they lack dedicated ship yards and technological knowhow to build military grade ships. They will usually avoid direct conflict with any of the established factions as they know they are not strong enough to defeat them head on. So they stay on the sideline, preying on (barely armed) unsuspecting civilian ships.
Usually pirated ships are repainted to resemble the main faction military units so they look more intimidating to the civilian ships they attack, but also to impress their fellow pirates and stray cosmoteers. More than once, their paint scheme may not yet be quite like the real thing (they are pirates after all and not professional ship painting artists).
They operate from a base located somewhere outside the main asteroid belt. Once its location has been discovered, it will be marked by a pirate icon (a skull with 2 bones) until you get a visual on it. Once you close in on it, you will probably be attacked by merchant raiders on guard duty, as well as a whole range of possible assortments from small fighters to outright entire secondary bases protecting a huge armed pirate citadel.
In the starter system the main merchant raider base is usually a large disabled transport ship (level 1), guarded by a couple of the merchant raiders and some fighters (and maybe a recently captured ship that hasn’t gone through merchant raider conversion yet). As you move up in difficulty, the base + its guards will also get more and more difficult to defeat. Soon after the starter system the main base will be a modified trade station which will grow larger and more powerful the higher the difficulty level of the local star system is. The station guards will also become stronger and more numerous. Eventually the main base will be guarded by defense points and even by smaller defense stations, so watch out what you’re about to run into.
In the higher tier star systems you may encounter pirate flagships. These largest of pirate ships are their attempt at ‘building’ the largest ships in their merchant raider fleets by welding multiple ships together and equipping them with weapons more powerful than what they would usually mount. These ships are build to serve as mobile HQ and as objects of prestige to impress fellow merchant raiders to show them they are the boss. Flagships are quite uncommon (not every high tier base will have one) and will typically be located near their main base. They will tend to store a good amount of precious on their flagships because none of the pirates will dare to take on a pirate flagship.
Some of the merchant raiders may have put some of their stolen loot into pirate lootboxes, which they will usually stay closeby to. The pirate lootboxes will get larger and contain more cargo the higher the star system tier is.
The merchant raiders have also constructed smaller spying bases. Depending on the tier, these may be a spy platform, a listening post or a full radar base and they are accompanied by a number of defensive ships.
The many sensors these smaller bases are equipped with are used to collect and interpret data used to track and predict merchant shipping movement. Thus these smaller bases are often used as staging areas from which raids are coordinated.
Not only has this method proven very effective for the merchant raiders, this is also done in an attempt to help conceil the locations of their more important main bases.
Merchant raiders will typically move straight to their main bases after a succesful raid, so spying bases are usually devoid of good loot.
The regular trade stations will provide you with the missions to locate and destroy these merchant raiders. The reward for killing the main station will also be significant because of all the extra targets you’ll have to kill.
Keep in mind that these are usually former transport vessels and killing one will usually also reward you with more building materials than what a military ship would usually carry. Keep in mind that they may be civilian ships with some extra weapons slapped onto their hull (which is the case more than once), but some may still pack quite the punch.
I made this mod with the main purpose to add some extra flavor and diversity to the base game and to make all star systems less empty outside of the main asteroid belt. I’ve always wanted to battle the existing civilian ships and stations, but without loosing out on my reputation and recruiting and trade options. With this mod, I can attack them to my hearts content and be rewarded for it. And many of the civilian ships look really good and I just wanted a way to fight them in a more uhm…legal way :).
Many of the ships (and some of the stations) used in this mod are based on older designs of existing ships that are no longer available in the game. Some of the ships in this mod I designed myself.
As of writing, one addon exists for this mod which will significantly increase the area where the merchant raiders will spawn, as well as increase the number of merchant raider bases from 1 to 6 (one of those new bases will be a cluster of several bases which will be defended by more static defenses and more ships (including more flagships).
You can get it here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3111437872
I considered creating a version that uses only defaul ship parts, but this would mean some designs wouldn’t work as well as they do now and some ships would simply not be possible (like for instance all the fighters).
This mod is primarily meant to make career mode more diverse and to give a little bit more to do, it won’t necessarily make career mode harder, except that there will be more ships to kill (and more ships that want to kill you). The ships added by this mod are generally speaking larger and somewhat weaker than their military grade counterparts and will feature all kinds of weapons. Some will even try to attack you with mining lasers! If you want stronger enemy ships, there are other mod for this. I wanted the outside to still be relatively safe (except for the pirate station but that’s just a single base), but not completely empty.
This mod is compatible with all mods listed in the Extended Tech Tree Mod collection https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2946607362 and my other mods.
This is the first time I’ve made a mod like this. I’ve been working on this project on and off since last summer and the last month or so I spend more time on it because it was raining so much here that I didn’t really have anything better to do.
If you are not sure whether or not you will like this mod, try it out in a new playthrough first.
Legal stuff: I do not give permission to anyone to reupload or modify my mods without asking for permission from me first.
