High Level Ships

High Level Ships, a so small collection mod (see collection details at the end) [works with Free Lanes update]

While in the vanilla game you have unlocked all ship components at player level 60 already, with High Level Ships (HLS) you continue to unlock better ship weapons, reactors and shields at vendors, all the way up to player level 300. 3 new tiers for each of 260 vanilla ship components, resulting in 780 new improved components for your ship (using vanilla graphic models).

Every 80 player levels - starting 80 levels after the level the specific vanilla component unlocked - a new revision/tier of a component becomes available for buying (with increased damage, hull and shields), creating a spiral of new ship components up to player level 300. Former weak vanilla ship components benefit from a catch up mechanism to provide more competitive choices. But beware: enemy ships also upscale and the credit cost of the new components is only manageable for those with pockets as deep as Walter´s (generally extending vanilla credit cost progression on a per level basis and then multiplying it by 3).

For a level playing field enemy ships also get significant boni to damage and hull/shields, mirroring the new progression for ship components. At player level 300 a fully kitted player ship will do about 3x the damage than in vanilla and will have 3x more hull/shields. The same is true for enemy ships: WIth every player level above 60 they get stronger and stronger. Fail to keep your ship components updated and you will be in serious trouble in no time.

High Level Ships comes with several new gameplay options: adjusting damage of particle weapons (by HLS default tuned down to 70%), increasing recharge time for auto weapons (HLS default: only 70% of vanilla recharge speed) and several options for adjusting the scaling of enemy ships beyond level 60 (in case you find default HLS too difficult or - which I dont really deem likely - too easy).

You will find the new tier ship components at vendors all over the Settled Systems - generally at those ship technicians/vendors/landing platforms where you can find the vanilla versions of the specific component.

While in no way required, HLS ideally pairs with my creations Dynamic Universe, High Level Weapons (HLW), High Level Armors (HLA), High Level Enemies (HLE) and Counterfire. All of them scale different aspects of the gameworld for the full distance of about 300 challenging levels, ie until you have acquired enough levels to learn all available skills/perk.

And now have great fun out there - on a Blackest Sea that was never as dangerous and at the same time as rewarding to sail for full 300 levels ever before.

-- so small collection -- This mod is part of the "so small collection" of mods. These mods dont require each other and can be played stand alone, even balancewise. They form a greater whole though - the more of them you combine, the more you see this final shape. The overarching idea is to create a gameworld that feels immensely vast, begs for thorough exploration, is full of mysteries, plays truely challenging and lasts very, very long. In other words the goal of the mods is to make the player feel: so small.

Here's the so small collection's homepage for further info: https://youngneil1.github.io/so-small-collection/

And an overview video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKrZ3oP20aA

Finally a list of some Creations in the so small collection in case this idea resonates with you:

Dynamic Universe: A universe that dynamically scales up with your character level - be it star systems or individual enemies. No more outleveling of content, no more overleveled starts of NG+.

Gear Progression: Gear Progression adds levels to all weapons, suits, helmets and backpacks. Your character level must match these in order to equip the gear. Each NG+ these levels raise further.

Economy: Economy shifts income generation away from tiresome loot hauling. Ship building becomes the long term goal it's meant to be. As credits get more scarce, rewards remain meaningful.

Explorer: An immersive overhaul of the resources - crafting - exploration loop. Get out there into the Starfield and explore - the rewards are much bigger now, but so is the need to do it.

Linearity (alternatively have a look for "Death" or "Ruin" mods): A new gameplay mode where reloading is your last resort. Live and embrace your adventure as it unfolds, imperfect as it may be. You can always save to quit and continue later.

Slow Travel: Slow Travel makes your journey through Starfield much more tactile and immersive by grav jump costs, less map markers, no move on overencumberance and restricted fast travel.

Star Powers: Live as a Spellblade in the Settled Systems. Powers are rebalanced so that eg crowd control, slowed time and near invisibiilty become interesting instead of game balance breaking.

The Isotopes: A compelling reason to explore POI in all Star Systems. Loot the 75 new Isotopes, each specific to a singular Star System. They are needed for rank 4 skills and gear mod crafting.

High Level Weapons: Continue to find better weapons, all the way up to level 300. 7+ new revisions/tiers for each of 50 weapon types. Uniquely named, legendary, each hidden in a specific star system.

High Level Armors: Continue to find better armors up to lvl 255. All HLA share about the same power level - mix and match for the looks you like. Starborn armors improve in quality and variety, too.

Counterfire: Starting with level 85 the player gets 1% more ground combat damage for each level. Idealy used in combination with the "High Level Weapons" mod.

Terra Incognita: All ground surface maps disabled. No markers, no topography, no top down small buildings, no white dots - nothing. Welcome to Terra Incognita - the universe is yours to discover.

Helium-4: Gravjumping requires a pilot to inhale new Helium-4. Not storable and non-tradable - lasts 2 jumps. Explore those moons to get it. Can you chart a course across the Blackest Sea?

Dusty: The new stat Suit Energy depletes rapidly on airless worlds. Mine minerals or take shelter to survive. Five very hidden grains of Elder Dust reward the true Dusties out there.

Less XP: Extra XP for more difficult vanilla gameplay options removed. New options to turn off crafting XP, lower XP for killing fauna and adjust XP gain rate to 75/50/25/10 percent.

The Waiting Game: Whenever you wait or sleep you will sell loot for zero profit for the next 60 real time minutes. Go visit vendors at different places, adventure naturally, quit the waiting game.

Enter Unity: With Enter Unity your origin universe has a max level of 60, raised by 30 with each NG+. If you enter Unity more than 50 levels below max though, you are in for big trouble.

POI Rotation: A new realtime timer and a new list of discovered POI (Points of Interest) effectively prevent repetition. It will now take many hours before you can discover the same POI twice.

Rarity: Increase your chances of finding Legendary and Epic loot by fully surveying Star Systems. The more you explore , the better. the loot. But beware, all beginnings are hard.

Health: Health regeneration from the start, but only up to a limit. Increase it by killing enemies, but beware: if you die or reload midsession you have to rebuild your kill streak.

Journey: Skill ranks 3 and 4 only unlock after crossing Unity many times and having 1000 Units of varying minerals. Broaden your play style, rebuild outpost networks, embrace the journey.

Waylayer: Open field random encounter system. For adventures inbetween the POI. You never know what lurks out there.

Time: Touching the Artifact caused rapid cellular decay. Only 24 wait/sleep cycles then it's time to let the white dove go. Reach the next Universe to reset the counter. Use time wisely.

PPOI Desert UC Listening Post: Procedural Points of Interest (PPOI) aims to make the contents of each POI procedural - no repeat visit should ever feel identical. This time upgraded: Deserted UC Listening Post.

GunFu: Headshots to human enemies cause slow motion for a short time. Use melee attacks during bullet time. Re-enter by shooting other limbs. Configurable. Everybody is GunFu fighting!

Difficulty Buildup: The modifiers from the gameplay options (ground and ship combat) gradually build up instead of being applied fully at level 1. Make the higher difficulties playable from the start.

Level Scaled Quest XP: LSQXP makes XP rewards for almost all quests (campaign, faction, mission boards, other radiants...) scale with the player level. Questing stays relevant mid and endgame this way.

Perkout - Locational Gameplay: Every universe plays differently. Each star system and planet have a unique selection of deactivated player skills. Rerolled and optionally increased each NG+. Adapt to survive.

Costly Gear Upgrades: Simple creation that greatly increases the credit and X-Tech cost of upgrading ranks (by 3x) and tiers (by 6x) for all weapons and armors.

Tabula Rasa: No gear can be taken into NG+ as the Quantum Entanglement Device has a malfunction with this creation. Enter Unity for a tabula rasa, freed from your material shackles.

Jump from the Edge: Gravjumps only work near the outermost planet in each star system. No fast travelling in the whole game, no short videos for intrasystem flight. Cruise and explore every inch.

High Level Enemies: A new tier of extra lethal enemies (drawing from 12 new traits) and a new damage reduction system that requires choosing the correct weapons for each enemy type, changing each NG+.