Who are the UAF, or, the United Aurora Federation? Where do they come from? What do they eat? Do they have cool ships? How about their weapons? Where does all this gorgeous art come from? Who is the queen really? You may have heard rumors of this faction,
or maybe this is your first time. Together, we'll be taking a closer look at
this Starsector faction mod, in what has become one of the most ambitious faction mods
ever made. Much like the UAF mod, this video has grown
quite vast in scale so I've sectioned out each topic for your viewing pleasure. Consider subscibring to the channel
and supporting the UAF mod development through the links posted below the video. Now strap yourself in, because here, we, GO! The UAF Mod is being produced by Ryxsen1421,
CY / MilkyDromeda, or simply Yukimaru, depending on where you look. We'll use Milkydromeda as that is his most
up to date name as an artist, and it's easier to remember. Other important individuals who have assisted
with development include: Vermy, Yimie, Naggy & the
extended core team. As well as
Selkie & Timid + company for support. While not listed on the main mod page, Narumi
was the composer for the UAF soundtrack that we see in the game today. More
on that later. There are probably more people involved with
this awesome project then I've listed thus far, so thank you in advance to everyone for
helping make this project a reality. The UAF modding development was first posted
on June 20th, 2017, in the modding section of the Fractal Softworks Forum. To establish our timeline, that's over 5
years ago. With the initial development of the mod dating
all the way back to 2014. While the mods development has gone through
quite a bit of turbulence over the years, it would officially be released to
the public on Febuary 22nd, 2022. If you are an avid Starsector modder, you
most likely prowl the Mod Index for new and updated mods to include in your next campaign. But no matter how enthusiastic
about Starsector mods you may be, you won't find the UAF faction mod on the official mod
index page. Why is this? You might ask. Much like how Starsector lead
game designer Alex refuses to put the game on Steam until he deems it 'ready', Milkydromeda
refuses to put the UAF onto the Mod Index page. Will he put the mod onto
the official index when it is done? Maybe, and maybe not. Originally, Milky thought he would never upload
the mod at all until it was 100% done and in a 1.0 stage
of release. A noble goal, but a very daunting one given
the scope of the porject. But with the mods official release this year,
you can now play the mod and provide feedback. But fair warning, the mod is playable, but
it is far 'done' in the artists eyes. Simply put, the United Aurora Federation mod
is a work in progress, and this point needs to be stressed. In the words of the creator: "-Everything
is subject to change and continuously being updated, nerfs
and buffs come and go - but artstyle will never change." While the mod is playable in the campaign,
it is by no means finished, and several mechanics are simply
not complete. There's much more to be done before achieving
the 1.0 goal. So while watching this video, keep in mind
that the UAF is a very ambitious project and may look quite different by the time you see
it. Seven years is a long time to be working on
a mod, and with the main Starsector game now being in development for over 11
years, this mod has developed in parallel with Starsector for quite some time. And speaking of parallels, it's best we talk
about the UAF lore. HAH, UAF LORE!? The UAF don't have a long history within the
Persean sector like other factions. Being pulled through an interdimensional gate,
the United Aurora Federation are outsiders, and are unfamiliar with the Persean
Sector and it's turbulent history. While they figure out a way to close the gate
and return home, they have established a solid foothold within the outer
reaches of the Persean Sector. In the meantime, the UAF have begun interactions
with the locals, including cultural and trade exchanges, visitation of their paradise world,
as well as selling baked goods from their homeworld. The UAF offer a glimpse into a world that
isn't ravaged by war or conflict. While the rest of the Persean
sector is sturggling to maintain order, the UAF by contrast appear to be thriving. But appearances, can be deceiving. The UAF is not ultimately lore friendly with
the rest of the persean sector, nor is it trying to be. It's a unique faction with plenty of it's
own lore to discover. And oh man does it goes deep. Deep like you wouldn't believe. So now that we've established that UAF lore
is something else entirely, lets talk about the faction and how it exists within the sector. The UAF are located far to the southwest of
the Persean Sector. As I said before they are not an integrated
faction, and that is by design. They comfortably live
away from the main factions in the sector and inhabit three systems. The first of the three and the main UAF system
is Aoi, where New Auroria and Lunamun are controlled by the UAF directly. Vermilion station controlled independently,
as well as a pirate world by the name of Entiaris. This is the capital system of the
UAF and the where their main military presence is located. New Auroria was the UAFs first colonized planet
within the sector and is where Charlotte, the Queen of
the UAf, resides. This is where many of the UAF delicacies and
bakery goods can be acquired. Lunamun, the nearby moon of Auroria, serves
as the primary naval staging point of the military, and is
a great place to purchase UAF ships and weapons. Vermilion station functions as a UAF government
approved trade-free zone, and where Nia can be found. LET THEM EAT CAKE. The Aoi system is colorful and easily recognizable. If you wish to raise your
relations with the UAF, you'll be spending plenty of time here. The 2nd star system is the Caeli Constellation,
where Favonius, the Auroran resort world, can be found. Favonius is a beautiful and relaxing water
planet. So
desirable is this planet that tourist groups from major factions will send large cruise
liner fleets to visit. What could possibly go wrong? OH GOD MAKE IT STOOOOO- The third system is the Stjarna System which
is home to the Hem Fayette military station, Nur Processing Planet, Himmel Refinery Plant
as well as Namnlos, a pirate base out on the fringes of the system. The Stjarna system is mostly industrial in
nature, but does have two valuable contacts to develop depending on your chosen
career path. Alright, I better address this before we go
any further. Let's talk about the art. First, the portraits. The United Auroran Federation mod uses an
anime inspired art style for its portraits. That much you probably already noticed. You might not be an aristocratic anime
enthusiast which is really your loss, but Milkydromeda's art is, objectively, really
fucking good. There are a few portraits which feature large
caliber ballistic weaponry, but all of the character designs
have a uniform and asthetic in accordance with their UAF role. Let's see what the wife thinks: Wife: I like the color choice, and, looking
at the portraits gives me a sense of what they are thinking. The eyes tell you what that person is feeling. So babe, you like the art? Wife: YEAH! There are currently 84 hand made portraits
in the UAF mod. 84, that's the most custom made portaits of
any mod for Starsector. And that's just currently! The absolute madlad wants to outdo vanilla
Starsector! Nothing can stop him! As for quality, Milkydromeda sets a very high
standard for himself, and has updated and replaced many portraits over the years. If you look at Nia for example, she's come
a long way since her original look. Even Milky thinks so. You might eveb recognize Scarlett from one
of the IBB quests. This
portrait is from many years ago. And you can clearly see the evolution of Milky's
talent over the years to what we have now. He's improved, a lot. I could talk for
a while about all the different portraits but we better get on with it. The ships. Shiiiiiiiiip. There's not only a lot of them, they look
really good too. Similar to the portraits, many of the ships
have gone through updates and redesigns over the years. Some of which I've had the pleasure of testing
early. The quality is top notch and actually fits
in very well next to the vanilla starsector asthetic. And if you
thought the ships looked cool, wait untill you see the fighters. The detail is truely impressive and reminds
me of the old Raiden games when I see them flying around. If you dig a little deeper, you'll find that
Milkydromeda actually draws a lot of artwork of the ships and characters, and most of it
isn't even in the mod (yet). These can be sketches
or they can be full art pieces that I'd happily put on my wall. A few Zepporia's chilling in orbit. Rillaru and Lillaru going through a nebulae. The Hyper Aria flying
through a canyon. Or even a highlight of the Exoscar, the UAF
torpedo bomber. I mean just LOOK at the detail. Hyacinth heavy bombers flying in formation
with Arias towards... I can't tell what that one is, but THAT is
Paragon. The way that his art gets brought alive in
the game is just, Mmm! And what is the perfect compliment to good
art? Good music. Many Starsector mods don't even bother with
creating a custom soundtrack for their faction, which is understandable, since it wouldn't
impact gameplay. This however,
is a another area in which the UAF mod distiguishes itself. Not only does the UAF have their own custom
soundtrack... But it's good. Composed by Narumi, who put together
several versions of the soundtrack depending on wether you are hostile, neutral, or friendly
with the UAF. Let's give it a quick listen. SEX. Given how many ships the UAF have access to,
what is their fleet doctrine? That, my friend, depends on what sub-faction
of the UAF your are refering to. The United
Auroran Federation is split into three distinct sub-factions. The Auroran base fleet, the Royal November
Military fleet, and the Expeditionary Automata fleet. Each fleet
can be indentified by a distinct visual style. While many ship hulls are shared between subfactions,
they are produced in varients with special characteristics. The Auroran fleet is the base fleet of the
faction, mostly widely produced and available in Auroran markets. Their ships have a light blue / grey color
scheme and are pretty well rounded. All Auroran ships share the "Auroran Engineering"
built in hullmod, whichs repairs a small amount of hitpoints overtime, depending on hull size. The tech level for base Auroran ships borders
low tech and midline, often equipped with simple ship systems like flare launchers. A good choice for any captain starting
out in the sector, as they can be adapted to almost any profession. The Royal November Military fleet is comprised
of hearty, slow, heavy hitting ships made for direct combat, and are easily identified
with their patterned dark blue and grey color scheme. They have upgraded flux capacity and vent
rate, as well as increased armor. These upgrades come at the cost of maneuverability
and increased maintenence. November Fleet Tech is solidly in the midline
category, with a wide variety of ship systems designed for direct combat. Therefor, November ships are best suited for
bounty hunting and direct military operations. And finally, the Expeditionary Automata sub-faction. Expensive, High Tech and with AI cores integrated
into the ship systems, these ships can really move. Automata ships
are fast, have great flux stats, and are loaded with weapon slots. In addition, all Automata ships have their
sensor profile reduced by 20%, making them ideal for a
captain who prefers a stealthy approach. While Automata ships are easy to spot with
your eye balls given their dark grey color scheme, they
may be quite difficult to find on UAF markets. Their power, strong as it may be, comes with
cost, GREAT COST. Besides being double the price of regular
Auroran ships, all Automata faction ships have significantly
reduced armor, making them closer to a glass cannon playstyle. A dedicated Automata fleet can be very powerful,
but only with a competent captain. And if you look closely at the ship stats,
the Automata faction has a painfully slow CR recovery rate, and a high deployment cost. If you wish
to field Automata ships, you must do so wisely. And what are gorgeous looking ships without,
WEAPONS? UAF weapons follow a very simple doctrine:
We need more DAKKA! Beams BAD, projectiles GOOD! While not particularly flashy or complicated,
UAF weapons are satisfying to use. Their ballistics include a variety of ship
cannons, railguns as well as point defense options. And the latter is something the UAF are very
fond of. Their point defense doctrine is tough to beat,
with both high volume direct fire, flak rounds, and even point defense missiles,
the UAF are able to maintain space superiority. While only recently put into production, the
limited UAF energy weapon lineup has a few standout features. For example, If you like living life on the
edge, or you run with your arms flailing behind
your back... You might enjoy the
edge series of energy cannons, which gain boosted damage and EMP ability while the ship
maintains over 50% flux. Adhering to the Dakka doctrine, all UAF energy
weapons are still projectile based. I think this reinforces the fact that the
UAF are by nature not a high tech faction. So while they do have access to some energy
weapons, they are not esspecially exotic. Some of these energy weapons are a little
strange, and I believe that development is still ongoing as to what their effects will
be. I've
had the pleasure of testing these protptype energy weapons weeks before their official
release, and I'm confident they be be quite special given enough time. Where things get a little more interesting,
is in the UAF missiles. There's the usual assortment of missiles you
might expect from a faction. Some fast, some slow. Some
long range, some that disable. Some that flank the enemy. You know how it is. But what's interesting, is the Dakka doctrine
still applies to missiles. All UAF missiles
come with an autoloader, allowing missiles to reload in extended combat. These autoloaders come at a flux cost for
firing missiles however, so it's not overpowered like you might assume. Now, when it comes to ah *ahem* overpowered
weapons, there is one, notable exception... SEMIBREVE. Semibreve. semibreve. *THERMO-NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS INTENSIFY* So anyways the Semibreve. There's this funny line: "Usually used as
a last-resort weapon". Meanwhile, the reality is. As soon as you acquire your first Semibreve,
you'll be slinging them without any regards for the
woman or children. You get a nuke, your friend gets a nuke. Your brother,
your sister, mommy and daddy. We've got nukes for the whole family. *slaps desk*
Have you looked at the sector forecast? It's cloudy, with a chance of Defcon 1. And we're not holding back, especially this
guy, look at 'em go! We are bathing in the chunks of our neighbors. Which wouldn't actually be possible without
a certain UAF ship, the Purcellyra. I'm not going to review every UAF ship, but
there are some special ones which I do want to cover just to give you a taste
of what the UAF has to offer. The Purcellyra is a missile based Battlecruiser. And when I say missile based, I mean missile
BASED. It even gets its own department, RADICAL. This thing has hardly any normal weapons to
speak of, it's really just missiles, with the main feature being
4 large missile mounts. Combined with the fast missile racks ship
system, letting it instantly reload all missile launchers
in exchange for flux, this thing absolutely dumps missiles, or semibreves. We already know what that looks like. CY has informed me that this thing is scheduled
for a redesign at some point, but until then,
I encourage everyone to enjoy it how it is. You'll need a small loan to obtain one, so,
good luck. The next ship we're going to talk about is,
no, not yet- The "Eyeseau". Classified as an Auxillary Command Vessel,
the Eyeseau is a massive radar ship, or an oversized record player, depending on who
you ask. A Capital class
support ship, it provides a massive sensor boost to your fleet, if you are willing to
drag it around. In combat, its disruptive pulse can scramble
enemy fighters and missiles in a wide radius. Even bending torpedo trajectory, with mixed
results. It's a cool ship, and the deployment animation
for its ability is fun. While not very strong in direct combat, it's
a great counter to enemy fleets relying on fighters and missiles. Though that doesn't stop me from using it
to broadside dirty pirates. Nope nope nope, NOT YET. A quick example from the Prototype category. The Fusoreina recently reached peak performance
and received its long awaited unique hullmod. The Reflecta Armor Plating
significantly reduces incoming ballistic weapon damage. It also mitigates some energy damage, at the
cost of absorbing soft flux. That isn't all that special, you might
think, and well, it isn't. The special part of this prototype armor package
is that it actually has a chance to bounce incoming projectiles. It looks awesome,
and it works. This is the first mod, that I'm aware of,
that has been able to pull this effect off in a practical way. The downside to the ship being that it takes
almost the entire flux core to make the armor actually work, so, no shields. I think the Fusoreina is a perfect example
of a unique prototype ship that's fun to fly, and creates a new way for the player to engage
in combat. It's awesome. Okay, it's time. *OH THESE? My*
Yeah. *MY MASSIVE FUCKING*
YEAH. *YOU MEAN THESE SUPER-DUPER ULTRA-HYPER GODDAMN
MOTHER FUCKING* SUPERCAPITALS. Absolutely massive, multi-sectional super
ships, these are the ultimate forms of their respective tech tree lines. The Novaeria is the Command Carrier Dreadnought. The Solvernia is the Battleship Dreadnought. And the Cherry Vanguard is classified as the
XXL-Hyper Freighter. The holy trinity of UAF ships. Each of these ships is considered a prototype,
as within UAF lore, there's only one of each within the entire faction. So you won't see a Cherry Vanguard in a
normal shipping fleet. In fact, there's a good bit of lore tied to
each one of these ships. Let's start with the Cherry Vanguard. It's a massive frieghter, but why did the
UAF even design such a vessel? Without going too deep into the UAF lore,
because GOOD LORD, the Cherry Vanguard was the main
vessel to actually bring the UAF to the Persean sector through the interdimensional gate,
along with the two other Supercaps as escorts. The Cherry then traveled around
for many cycles within the outer reaches of the Persean sector looking for a suitable
homeworld. It would finally find a suitable planet to
colonize after an arduous journey, and settle the UAF on what is now
New Auroria. Neat. As for the Cherry in the sector, you will
never see it flying around, as under the command of the Queen, its main purpose of settling
the Auroran people has been complete. It does however, still exist. This thicc girl has 35,000 cargo space and
is an absolute beast of a hauler. It's rather lightly armed considering how
wide those hips are, but she can fend off smaller
vessels by herself without escorts. I was flying her around to see how she handled,
when I discovered something... What's this, "Melody Burn Drive"? *CHERRY RAMMING INTENSIFIES* Pretty cool ship. As for acquiring the Cherry Vanguard, and
the other supercapitals for that matter, there are, ways. However, I've been informed these methods
are highly subject to change and I'd rather not date this video
with old info. I will tell you for your own sanity, that
Supercapitals cannot be recovered through combat, nor after combat. I did this for science. If you are extremely lucky, and a barbarian,
you might be able to acquire a blueprint, you savage fuc- Flagship of the Royal November Military Fleet,
the Solvernia is the Battleship and bodyguard of the other two UAF Supercaps. While primarily used as a defensive bulwark,
detering any fleets poised on attacking New Auroria and the Queen, the Solvernia is also
equipped to accompany the other supercapitals in long range operations, albeit
at a much lower velocity. What she lacks in speed, she makes up for
by possessing incredibly thick armor and guns, very large guns. 608mm in fact. These allow the
Solvernia to engage in long range ballistic warfare, like a true Dreadnought. Her main battery 608 guns fire high damage
armor piercing rounds, and her special ship system allows her to load a salvo of semibreve
nuclear shells. These don't have the same payload as the torpedo
version, but a full salvo consists of 12 rounds, pretty
great for clearing away small ships, anything really. If you want to see her for yourself, you can
easily find the Solvernia orbiting New Auroria, as the flagship of the New Auroran Defense
Armada. You can even talk to
her. Oh yeah, I did mention that Solvernia is a
real person right? Let me tell you. You still it all started
on Yria, but then when the interdimensional gate opened- Okay see the Interdimensional
gate- Sister of the Solvernia, the Novaeria is the
ultimate force projection ship of the UAF navy. Flagship of the Automata Expeditionary sub-faction,
her lack of direct firepower is made up for by her impressive
12 figher bays housed in her twin forward hulls. While she may appear as mearly an imposing
carrier, the Novaeria was designed to be a deep space mobile exploration base,
and is equipped for long excursions into fringe sector territory. While an excellent support vessel, the Novaeria
should not be deployed alone, as she is significantly
more fragile than her sister ship. The perfect compliment to any fleet, the Novaeria
is a lot of fun to fly and can effectively deploy the best fighters
the UAF has to offer. Pride and joy of the UAF navy, these wings
have received a lot of love over the years. This isn't even close to all of them either. Even this "new" picture is old. UAF fighters range from simple interceptors
all the way up to Tactical Strike Fighters. Oh yeah, you thought we were done with the
tactical nukes? Oh nonono my friend. *ANGRY TAUFAN NOISES*
We're just getting started. The UAF mod really pushes the boundries of
what is acceptable in terms of Starsector fighter wings. I mean some of these are actually the size
of frigates. We've got huge flying wing heavy bombers and
then the Starsector equivalent of the AC-130 Gunship. You know what, we've got two flavors of gunship,
because one just wasn't enough. You want to know what I think about that? That's uh, pretty cool actually. Takes me back. Recently, the UAF also implemented their Commissioned
Crew mod crossover bonus, the Auroran Aircraft Modification, boosting fighter health by 5%
and reducing fighter damage taken by 5%. A nice boost to keep their fighters in the
air. While UAF fighters are quite powerful and
well built, actually acquiring the wings may prove difficult. UAF fighters are expensive, both in the market
and to mount on your ships. The rarest of which, like the Taufan tactical
nuclear fighter, will never be found on UAF markets, and have to be custom ordered. Best of luck
getting a good deal on them. As a man of culture I enjoy variety, and usually
employ a mixed lineup of UAF fighters, bombers, and gunships. But sometimes you have to give in to your
gulity pleasures and equip a carrier with entirely one type of
wing. I tried a full gunship lineup and that's pretty
cool, but one of most fun loadouts I tried was actually equipping a carrier with entirely
light bombers. You see,
the light UAF bomber, the hibiscus, is really something. Maybe not very strong on it's own, but there's
four bombers to a wing, and each bomber drops 12 bombs. I put
three wings on the Isenoria Battlecarrier. That's a lot of bombs. These bombers are by no means accurate, but
it's amazing how when you drop enough bombs, in the general direction of your enemy, space
doesn't seem so big after all. And if we're dealing with something like a
space station that can't move, well, these things just have a way of sorting themselves
out. Once you manage to acquire a full UAF fighter
lineup, and outfit a couple UAF carriers, there's nothing quite like it. I mean I don't know about you but this is
the sort of thing I could watch all day. Sometimes I just pick out one fighter and
follow it with my eyes. See if I can confirm any of it's kills, if
it makes it back to the carrier or not, wonder what they had for
breakfast. Like are we talking Choco Lava, donuts, pretezel
and croissant? Because that's what we eat around here. UAF Bakery goods are still under development,
and currently their only purpose is to give to contacts to boost relations,
which we'll talk about in just a minute. New Auroria is the only place in which you
can acquire these treats so- *BAKERY NOISES*
This is going to get me in trouble. Wife: "Baaaabe... What are you doing?" NOTHING HONEY! Speaking of magnets and other unexplainable
technology, the UAF mod adds a few special items such as the deminsional nanofabricator,
modular purifier, and servosnyc pump. These are special colony improvement items
and can be found on some of the UAF planets as well as fringe sector territory. And the keycards. These can randomely drop when defeating enemy
fleets and in other rare cases. They are worth a good chunk of credits on
their own, and can be turned in to a UAF contact of your choice for even
greater rewards and a reputation boost. They come in 5 different rarities and despite
each cards unique description, their function is currently limited to the
credit exchange, although this may change in the future. As for the ladies you'll be feeding sweets
and giving your credit cards to, the UAF currently has the following contacts to develop: The
Queen, Aeria Charlotte, Inari "Masoko" LaFayette, AER-1A, the robo
Queen, Alexandra Yamato, and Nia Auroria. That's not however, the order you unlock them
in. It all starts with Nia on
Vermillion Station. You have to give her choco lava cakes to get
everything going. YOU HAVE TO EAT ALL THE CAKES NIA! "W-why are you doing this to me?" EAT THE CAKES!! Once you feed Nia enough cakes, she'll grant
you access to the Stjarna system, where you can begin your talks with Inari and Alexandra. Inari "Masoko", is part of Stjarna
nobility and therefor has far more disposable income then she knows what to do with, so
naturally she wears a custom made uniform and funds a team of scientists to perform
genetic experimentation, and THAT, is exactly where we're going to stop. Inari is the lead administrator of the Stjarna
system and is a high importance Military contact. Give her enough cakes and she'll offer you
a Supercapital, maybe. Alexandra on the other hand is the staunch
administrator of Nur Station. She'll put you to work right away mining rocks. She also doesn't enjoy choco lava cake so
pleasing her is going to be a little more difficult. She's in charge of making sure the UAF gets
the resources it needs, so she's pretty busy, and can't afford the same luxuries
as Inari. She is however, a fiesty one. A high importance Trade contact, Alex also
has ties to the UAF underworld. Yeah, I assume this is because she hates her
job, but, she'll actually help you steal UAF ships. Probably not something a UAF administrator
should be doing but, if you are down with some underworld shenanigans, she's
pretty cool. Niether Inari nor Alexandra will help you
get access to the Queens however. Time to go see how Nia is doing. *NOT REALLY FINE* Once you have given Nia enough cakes and maybe
done some honest work on the side, you'll be able to request an audience with the Monarch. This is a big request so you'll
have to have pretty good relations with Nia. When in doubt, give her more choco lava, and
you might learn more about her. Meeting with the queen isn't as easy as a
regular contact, and you'll most likely have to wait several days before she'll see you. This can by bypassed by using a story
point, but for the rest of us peasents, groveling is the best we can do. The Queen is a Very High importantace Military
and Trade contact, and developing a relationship with the queen- IF ONLY IT WAS THIS EASY- and building relations with her can evenutally
grant you access to the special Royal November market. But like any relationship, it requires a bribe. The queen's favorite flavor is vanilla. You'd think the vanilla would be on New Auroria,
but no, the vanilla is on Favonius. If you can survive waiting in line,
you can get the Favonius Ice Cream for Free! Now I don't always put anti-freeze in the
icecream, but when I do, I do it for love. So here's what we do. We go back to New Auroria. We try to contact the queen. When they tell us to wait, we say that nukes
are in the air and we need to move quickly. This will get her attention. Tell her we need access to the Semibreve arsenal. She might be confused at first, but this is
when we unzip our superweapon, The Queen's Gambit. She'll be so busy shoveling anti-freeze cream
that she'll have no choice by to forfeit the November market permit. And that my friends, is speed dating. AER-1A, the robo queen, on the other hand
is actually quite chill. She's also a very high importance military
and trade contact, and can grant you access to the very
secretive Automata Market. Being a robot, she surprisingly doesn't have
the same cravings for anti-freeze and instead just wants to confirm you are a decent human
being, which is rather subjective at this point. Unlocking UAF contacts may seem convoluted
and that is being refined. There are small hints that will be added to
help you along the UAF progression path, as well as
integration into the UAF campaign which is planned for a later date. Did I say UAF campaign? Bet your pretzel I did. There is a full UAF campaign planned for the
mod, with special missions and unique campaign rewards such as the supercapitals. The campaign will however, be one of the
final updates to the UAF mod, once the rest of the core material is polished and finalized. That is certainly something to look forward
to, but I do have some good news for you now. There is currently one special mission you
can play through as a "proof of concept" piece for the campaign. This mission is called "Tilted Dagger, Part
1". And will have you helping out Yimie, one of
the special UAF officers. Since these missions are part of an ongoing
storyline, there's a lot of text. There are several responses to choose from,
some which are actually traps. This example mission will actually only ever
show up once, so if you decline the mission, it'll never show up again. Much to my disappointment as it took another
playthrough to get this footage. Yimie is in trouble. She used to be the leader of an elite Hyper
Aria Squadron, until her ships captain decided to defect while in combat with a pirate fleet. This
resulted in her squadron being left to fend for itself, and ultimately, she was the only
fighter pilot to make it home. Being a pilot aboard a defected vessel,
Yimie is under official investigation and can't leave Lunamun. And that's where you come in. Her Zepporia battlecarrier went down near
Namnlos in the Stjarna system. You'll need to gather up a significant amount
of marines and meet with an informant who will lead you to the
Zepporia's crash site. The area is controlled by pirates so the operation
can go a number of ways. You'll need to either defeat
or stealthily slip past the pirate fleet in orbit before commencing the ground operation. I'm not sure how many
possible outcomes for the ground operation there are at this point, but consider yourself
lucky if you manage to pull it off your first try. By completing this operation, you'll be able
to find some evidence that can help Yimie with the investigation. Once you have the evidence, make sure to return
to Yimie on Lunamun within the time limit to complete
the Tilted Dagger, Part 1. The rewards for completing this mission are
two unique Officers, Yimie and Mizuki. Both are very strong carrier commanders and
have special skills that enhance the wings stationed on their ships. You will also receive Yimie's Hyper Aria Squadron,
a prototype fighter group that cannot be acquired anywhere else in the sector. I think
it's a great reward as I feel unique ships are often the expected rewards from various
Starsector mod missions, and it's really nice to see the UAF doing something
different and providing a unique fighter wing. And that's the Tilted Dagger Part 1, a cool
example mission that bodes well for the future UAF campaign and storyline. Since this is technically a review video and
definitely not a starsector mod documentary, let's touch on some of the negatives. The writing in the UAF mod is, dare I say
dubious? I mean I can understand what's going on, but
it's a little rough. Now obviously
the mod is a work in progress and the fluidity of the writing is much lower priority than,
pretty much everything else. Because everything else in the mod is pretty
damn good, but fair warning that currently the
writing... Well it made me feel uncomfortable a few times
and the last game that did that was Silent Hill 2. I've spoken with CY about this and he freely
admits that the writing is currently the weakest part of the mod, and doesn't claim to be a
particularly good writer on account of his english being somewhat limited. Totally understandable. I'm a native Enflish speaker and I have no
idea what I'm doing. I'm guessing most of the writing and text
prompts will be updated and, re-written with the storyline and campaign updates. It's just text so I'm really not too worried
about it in the long run. One thing I do actually worry about is feature
creep, or the constant addition of new material unrelated to the original development plan. New portraits are one thing,
like the new UAF light marines. I like those, *ahem* I like those a lot actually. That's all fine. I'm talking about when Milkydromeda just,
feels like making a new ship for example. Not one that was ever part of the already
massive tech tree, just a brand new ship. He just starts drawing, making an outline,
and boom. I wake up the next day and
there's a new UAF ship. Now it looks amazing, it's beautiful, I love
it. However, as a 2013 backer of Star Citizen,
these sort of things, terrify me. Balance is another issue which is always a
tricky one. I mean we're talking about balance, of a modification,
in development, for a single player game. There are some bits
of the UAF that seem rather overpowered and there are other bits that I'd say are underpowered. Now Milky loves talking about balance. It's one of his favorite topics
when it comes to mod development- Ha-ha! Just kidding, he HATES it! He understandably doesn't want the think too
much about balance while he's designing his mod. And I agree, I think balance can, and should,
happen AFTER the design process. In fact, every time I've brought up a balance
suggestion, I, on the other side of the planet, have this feeling I'm frustating the
development team in some way. Feedback is important, so I just want to say
to please be mindful when providing said feedback, as this dev team is working very hard
already. And by working hard, let's take a look at
what has been added to the UAF mod simply since I began making this video. Portrait updates, new portraits, new ships,
ship redesigns, the gunships and new fighters,
the entire UAF energy weapon lineup, you know, little things. Except there is one thing that's not so little. Remember when I said the UAF mod really pushes
what's acceptable? Meet this monstrosity. The madlad draws an outline just
to taunt us. Just when yu thought it couldn't get any crazier
with the giant flying wing bomber the size of a frigate. This thing, the Rafflesya, hopefully I'm saying
that right, is the SIZE, of a CRUISER! *CY / Milkydromeda comparing size with other
ships* And to fit this "Strategic Super-Heavy Orbital
Bomber", as he's calling it, he's remaking the Isenoria Battlecarrier. That's right, he is redesigning a capital
ship to simply fit a massive bomber on its back. In fact we're too late, he's already gone
and done it. Now this thing isn't ready for playtestinging
just yet, otherwise I would 100% include a clip of it, and hopefully
we'll see it in the next major release. The point I'm trying to make here is, the
UAF mod is under active development, and the team is putting together some pretty cool
stuff. There's still plenty of work to
be done of course, but I like the direction they are going and am super happy they are
willing to take risks, and try things that have never been done before. Considering just how massive this project
is, I'm inspired by the amount of passion that the development team has, and their continued
dedication for seven years and counting. Despite what challenges they may face in the
future, I hope that the mod continues surging forward, as it's certainly one of my favorite
mods for Starsector. I've played the game for a long time, and
tried out a lot of different mods over the years. Some of which I may cover in future videos,
but... It's the UAF mod that has made me fall in
love with Starsector all over again. Not just for what the game is, an open galaxy
space RPG warcrime simulator, but for what it could be. Will it become the fabled VN sector mod, I
don't know. The UAF mod could become a lot of things. From what I've experienced in the few months
I've been playing the mod and producing this documentary- I mean review. I already know that just about everything
is subject to change. I know the supercapitals are going to receive
some significant changes as they are currently under development. Now unfinished or not, they are a ton of fun
to use. I think it's really cool to see an artist
being the lead designer of a Starsector mod. Despite CY hardly knowing how to code, this
project has continued to grow, which really is a testament to Vermy who has done
an amazing job bringing CY's art to life with her coding ability. And really, the whole UAF team has done a
fantastic job. The United Aurora Federation is one hell of
a faction mod, with an extremely passionate team behind it. I love it, it's amazing, I can't recommend
it enough. Go download it in the modding section of the
Fractal Softworks Forum. Over two months in the making, over 100 Gigabytes
of UAF footage, and 40 minutes long. It's ah, kind of a big one. Links to all featured artists channels are
posted in the description. Check out Milkydromeda and Narumi, they are
both amazing people. Now for you talented few people who are watching
all the way to the end of the video, I've got something for you. I'm assuming you already know how to push
buttons on the screen. So if I can hit both of these semis, do me
a favor, subscribe to the channel, and have a great day. I'm IroncladLion, and thanks for watching.
