Whisper's Techmining Alteration

~~~UPDATE 4. 1~~~

Updated and tested against StarSector 0. 98a-RC8

Testing included:

Multiple colonies (from size 3-7)

Multiple TechMining buildings

Using Story Points

Removing a TechMining building

Removing a TechMining building which had been improved with Story Points

Shifting the destination of TechMining finds

And a whole bunch of testing the various options. I hammered it pretty thoroughly, to the point of having way more stuff (including Special Items) than I know what to do with.

Some of the code was simplified, more settings made available, the settings toned down considerably by default. See the User Configurable section for details, the earlier version is kept as a reference for those who want to ramp it up to eleven.

~~~UPDATE 3~~~

Updated and tested against StarSector 0. 97a-RC11

Fixed an issue where the mod would occasionally give the player a Special colony item, after the player had decivilized a planet and re-colonized it for his own use. This was not meant to happen.

~~~UPDATE 2. 0~~~

There are several changes with this version, I suggest that you complete your game before upgrading.

If you really want to upgrade then I suggest the following process:

i/ Save a new copy of your game

ii/ Deconstruct all TechMining on all of your planets

iii/ Upgrade (keep a copy of the old version of WTA)

iv/ Play the new copy and reconstruct TechMining on your planets

v/ If there are issues, revert to an earlier save and the older version of WTA

~~~CHANGES IN 2. 0~~~

i/ The value of the drops has been reduced in the "settings.json" file below:

# the base credit value of ordinary drops (multiplied by ruins size and colony size)

"wta_ruinsvalue_basic" : 4000, <<< was 5000

"wta_ruinsvalue_goods" : 3000, <<< was 4000

"wta_ruinsvalue_other" : 2000, <<< was 3000

ii/ Blueprints and modspecs can be found even if the character already knows them. I realized that just because a character knows a blueprint or modspec, doesn't mean that it cannot be found again when doing a deep-dive into the ruins - the concept of there being only one ever in the entire sector makes no sense. Now you can find duplicates - happy selling!

iii/ Sometimes you just don't have an Alpha AI core to throw onto your techmining structure. Never fear, Beta and Gamma AI cores will work also - though not as well as an Alpha AI core, of course:

Alpha AI Core - 25% bonus

Beta AI Core - 15% bonus

Gamma AI Core - 5% bonus

iv/ The bonuses given by an Alpha/Beta/Gamma AI core can be configured in the "settings.json" file below:

# the Tech-mining finds bonuses for Alpha, Beta and Gamma cores

"wta_alphacore_finds_bonus": 0. 25f,

"wta_betacore_finds_bonus": 0. 15f,

"wta_gammacore_finds_bonus": 0. 05f,

v/ The finds increase bonuses given by Beta/Gamma AI cores will be displayed correctly in the TechMining structure's tooltip.

~~~Overview~~~

The base tech-mining in Starsector 0. 95. 1a-RC6 is sad - totally not worth the effort for something that:

1/ takes a full colony industry slot

2/ costs upkeep credits

3/ provides no benefit to the colony

4/ has no "dramatically" higher chance of finding things on the first mining

5/ has miniscule returns (you can literally get more from the combats in the tutorial area)

6/ doesn't scale to the size of the colony or ruins

7/ goes down at the same rate despite the size of the ruins and the colony mining them

This mod makes several changes (the returns are high, I'm thinking of toning it back):

a/ Techmining now counts as a structure, freeing an industry slot for something that is actually directly valuable to the colonies

b/ The first mining actually provides a very large amount of stuff (10x) plus has a good chance of returning a special item

c/ A progression-system allows "leads" to be followed to find special items in the ruins (runs out eventually)

d/ All returns are dependent upon both the Colony size and the Ruins size (size 6 Colony + Vast Ruins = wahoo!)

e/ Use of an Alpha AI Core and/or investing Story Points provide:

e1/ +25% returns each

e2/ +25% progress towards finding a special item in the ruins each*

f/ Each ruin-size decays at a different rate (adds 0. 1% of the colony size towards stripping the ruins down faster)

g/ Each ruin-size has a cuto