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ZRemnantX

Zitchas' plugin for Endless Sky, focused on creating missions and content for the Remnant.

Endless Sky has many interesting factions, and I particularly like both the Wanderers and the Remnant. That being said, there appears to be a fair bit of content (and interest) already for the Wanderers, and not much for the Remnant. So I want to change that. Also, I think their ships are the coolest and most interesting looking ships in the game. In my view probably tied with Pug and Quarg ships.

So, here's what I'm basing my content on:

What is the focus of the Remnant?

• They are survivors: Their whole point is to hide from and outlast the Alphas, which they perceive to be an existential threat to humanity.

• The Remnants main "shtick" is reverse engineering alien tech. (cloaking devices, construction techniques, anti-missile tech, etc) - In general terms, the Remnant far exceed Republic, Syndicate, and Free World factions. They are theoretically on about the same level as the Hai, but with random bits that are on par with or better than the Korath, and are on course to quickly outpace the Hai. (Hai are stagnant, Remnant are enthusiastically pushing forward)

• In more specific terms, they are notable for having faster ships with built in features, such as cloaking devices, gas giant pressurehulls, shield & hull regeneration, etc.

• Their ships generally excel at harassment, sniping, and hit & run tactics. Noteably, however, they have only a single ammunition based weapon (EMP torpedo)

• Their default canon is extremely long range and has a slowing effect, which is great for running away from things or stopping things from chasing them.

• Their default turret, on the other hand, is pretty good at pounding stuff in the shorter to medium range.

• They are built around the idea of keeping themselves safe, escaping when necessary, and being able to run.

• Tactically speaking, Remnant shouldn't get into pitched battles unless:

  a) they're confident of winning, or

  b) they are covering the escape of ship(s) with a greater number of people onboard.

  There's no "swarming things under with numbers" tactics possible with the Remnant, because they don't have numbers. This applies to both population and manufacturing. They've only got three worlds. They're not going to be producing flotillas of ships, except possibly in the most dire of "we're evacuating everyone" type situations. This is the sort of faction that puts massive amounts of training, resources, and responsibility on a small number of people. Good or not, they don't have enough population to depend on getting talented recruits. That means they need to compensate for talent by ensuring that their people have the best possible training, equipment, and support structures.

• All this probably means that Remnant in general have very broad educations since everyone is expected to be able to fill multiple roles, but probably not as many pure specialists. (there will still be lots of specialists, but they aren't exclusive. ex. Just because some engineer is a specialist in reverse engineering isn't going to exempt them from fixing ships in the shipyard like any other engineer)

• Ships should be correspondingly few in number but comparatively high power. Having a big fleet should only happen for really major events.

• On the flip side, this is a race poised for flight. They disappeared into the night to get this far, it should be expected that they are prepared to do it again. So having a large number of ships prepped for evacuation wouldn't be out of character.

• Likewise, ships probably have lower required crew than would be normal for their size because everyone is expected to fill more roles.

Tier Comparison (Info provided from people on the Discord:)

Humans - tier 1

Hai - tier 1.25

Unfettered - tier 1.3 (basically same as Hai, but they develop a new HW and collect JD)

Coalition - tier 1.5

Korath automata - tier 2

Heliarchs - tier 2.5 (with tier 1.5 civilian outfits aka Coalition)

Quarg - tier 3 (nominally)

Drak - tier 4 (nominally)

Pug - depends on opponent tier(edited)

Remnant are the oddballs, since they have reverse engineered alien tech:

• Their ships are about on par with Hai ships.
• Their engines are slightly worse than atomic engines.
• Their generators are tier 1.8ish radioisotropic reactors.
• The point defense turret is tier 2.5.
• The cooler is barely better than a human cooling duct.
• The battery is probably between tiers 1 and 1.5.
• Their weapons are tier 1.5.

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