SSaW: Settled Systems at War

SETTLED SYSTEMS AT WAR
Created by X-2357

An ongoing faction war across Starfield’s Settled Systems. Fight on the ground and in space, accept operations, negotiate peace or help systems regain independence. The campaign continues while you explore, complete quests and play the rest of the game.

You decide when the war begins.

GETTING STARTED

Find the reusable SSaW Campaign Command Link in your Aid inventory. Then select Campaign Overview → Begin Settled Systems War.

Choose your allegiance, read the campaign digest and explore the built-in Help & FAQ. Take an operation or continue exploring and playing the game.

Turns normally advance every 24 hours of Universal Time, including time spent sleeping, waiting and traveling. You can change the interval or advance turns manually.

A GALAXY THAT CHANGES

The United Colonies, Freestar Collective, House Va’ruun and Crimson Fleet compete across 120 base-game star systems, with Kavnyk added when Shattered Space is installed.

Factions expand, invest, launch offensives, declare war, negotiate peace and form alliances. Resources, strength, exhaustion and existing wars influence their choices.

Systems track control, garrison, stability, security, supply and prosperity. Battles and other contributions build control toward decisive claims that can change ownership.

Neglected systems can rebel, overstretched empires become harder to maintain, and exhausted factions struggle to keep fighting. Sieges and blockades damage systems and interrupt recovery.

Losing a capital weakens its faction. Defeated factions can attempt a return, while coalitions can challenge a dominant power.

CHOOSE YOUR PLACE IN THE WAR

Join a major faction and help it expand, defend its territory or recover from defeat. You can change allegiance later.

Begin without joining a faction and you play as Independent resistance. Your campaign contributions can build Independent control and help liberate systems. Independents do not receive faction ranks, salaries or faction support squads.

Establish your own Starborn faction, with its own capital and ranks, at war with the four major powers. Founding it is a substantial investment; artifacts you carry reduce the cost without being consumed.

SSaW allegiance is separate from Starfield’s faction questlines. Faction Hostility extends campaign hostility to vanilla factions and is off by default. Leave it off to avoid adding that hostility to ordinary faction quests.

THE WAR MEETS YOU AS YOU TRAVEL

Arrive during a siege, encounter an incursion, discover rival patrols fighting, defend an outpost or intercept a convoy raid.

There are 29 battle types, including ambushes, pitched battles, three-way clashes, withdrawals, last stands, relief columns, fleet actions and interceptions. Some fights are deliberately uneven.

Other encounters include dropship assaults, bounty hunters, boarding parties and convoy hails. The 22 convoy types include merchants, military supplies, refugees, medical ships, prisoners, research cargo and troop transports.

Most deployed ground forces arrive aboard faction dropships. Troops muster before the battle begins, and ships depart afterward. Deployment takes time, especially with larger forces.

OPERATIONS, BATTLE BUILDER AND SUPPORT

Operations are paid assault, defence and decisive-battle assignments. Accept an offer and use Plot Course to reach its system. Results affect the campaign and can earn credits and service points.

Launch ground operations in the target system. Accept space operations before taking off, then travel to the target system in your ship.

You can prepare and auto-resolve operations, with a chance of success or failure.

Battle Builder lets you choose factions and force sizes for battles you stage yourself, including fights involving up to five factions.

• Campaign battles affect territory and faction standing.
• Deathmatches are separate contests with a credit purse and no change to system ownership.
• Selecting the opposing sides does not change your allegiance.
• Campaign battles respect peace and alliances; deathmatches can ignore those diplomatic restrictions.
• A custom Battle Builder fight does not complete a separate operation contract.

The Command Link provides ground battle setup. Space encounters and operations work in the core mod; custom space deployment requires the optional PC War Room.

Support Beacon: join a faction to receive this reusable Aid item. Call a friendly squad onto suitable open ground, or request one through Operations. Calls cost credits, have a cooldown and bring larger squads at higher ranks. Support is temporary and does not create enemies. Call before starting an SSaW battle.

SERVICE, EXPLORATION AND REWARDS

Major factions and the Starborn each have ten service ranks, with promotions and weekly pay. Earn 24 commendations for achievements including battles, liberation, convoy protection, exploration and diplomacy.

Choose a service path for bonuses: Military, Commerce, Privateer or Explorer. You can change paths and still contribute in other ways.

Survey planets, scan discoveries, clear hostile points of interest, perform reconnaissance, deliver requested resources or rebuild damaged systems.

Reconnaissance and procurement assignments can run alongside an operation. Battle aftermath can create opportunities for salvage, relief or negotiation.

DIPLOMACY AND STRATEGY

Negotiate a truce, make peace, form an alliance or declare war. Settlement packages can involve credits, resources, territory or a combination, with terms shown before you commit.

Mediate between exhausted rivals. Relationships affect who fights, who cooperates and which operations are available.

The Strategy Council offers six temporary orders: General Mobilization, Entrenchment Directive, Fleet Supremacy, Ground Offensive, Hearts and Minds and Letters of Marque. Focus on offence, defence, stability or privateering.

Choose war aims: Conquest, Liberation, Containment, Plunder or Crusade. Faction doctrines further distinguish each side.

INVESTMENTS, MONEY AND COVERT WORK

Build up systems through seven investment types: Fortifications, Orbital Defences, Shipyards, Logistics, Security, Infrastructure and Intelligence.

Improve defence, recovery, supply and prosperity, reduce rebellion risk and gain better intelligence. Specialise systems in Military, Economic or Research development.

War can damage investments. Automatic territory management is optional.

Contribute to the treasury, release reserves or buy war bonds. Repayments depend on your faction’s finances.

Use espionage, strategic blockades and decoy operations to influence the war. Letters of Marque reward privateering against a designated enemy.

Raiding factions can also build heat, bringing bounty hunters into the picture. Safe Conduct offers temporary protection from SSaW hunters; it does not erase a vanilla bounty.

EVENTS, DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES

The campaign includes 63 background events, 18 decision types with four responses each, and eight galaxy-wide crises.

Respond to refugees, officer defections, ceasefire violations, famine, mutinies, prisoner camps, shipyard strikes, intelligence leaks and other situations. Choices can cost money, affect faction relations, alter system conditions and produce later consequences.

Decisions wait for a suitable moment. Unanswered decisions eventually take their default response. Prompts can be disabled.

Crises include the Pirate Confederation, Grav-Drive Instability, Plague, Artifact Race, Starborn Incursion, Solar Storm Cascade, Financial Collapse and The Exodus.

104 quest reactions across 81 quests cover the main story, faction questlines, side missions, repeatable work and optional Shattered Space content. Vanilla mission-board jobs contribute too.

FOLLOW THE CAMPAIGN YOUR WAY

Corner notifications report battles, captures, promotions and developments while you play. War News, battle records, weekly reports and your personal chronicle provide more detail.

Unification and coalition milestones recognize major achievements without ending the campaign.

Use Settings → Gameplay → Settled Systems at War to adjust campaign speed, encounter frequency, decisions, notifications and other features. You can reduce encounters while keeping the strategic campaign running.

Start with small battles on open, fairly level ground with room for dropships. Larger forces need more performance and deployment time.

To stop a battle or clear a deployment, use Command Link → Operations → Battle Builder → Abandon Active Battle. Travelling away, or leaving a ground battlefield far behind, triggers resolution and cleanup.

Each character has its own campaign. Loading another save restores that save’s war. Entering Unity starts a fresh campaign with Independent allegiance; your gameplay preferences remain.

REQUIREMENTS AND OPTIONAL PC EXTRAS

The core mod requires only Starfield. Shattered Space is optional. No SFSE or other mod is required for the core campaign.

The separate War Room adds interactive 2D/3D maps, searchable systems, diplomacy displays, campaign controls and animated battle reconstructions. Open it with its Aid watch or F8. This PC add-on requires OSF UI and its dependencies. It available for download on the nexus.

Optional Settled Systems Stock Exchange integration connects the war to market activity. AISS lets supported AI companions discuss your faction, operations and war news. These PC integrations require their respective mods and setup.

All PC extras are optional.

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