Starborn’s Bounty
This mod allows Starborn enemies to have different effects (or bounties) when the player defeats them, making them more interesting to dispatch.
Upon killing a Starborn, one of 3 things can happen:
Empowered – (grants Power) – You absorb their energy, causing them to disentigrate into astral stuff, granting you 1 starborn power or ranking up one of your existing ones. This might be a nice alternative if you’d prefer to not to NG+ over and over or you have a NG+ you’ve settled on and don’t want to forfeit what you’ve built up. This has a 30% chance to occur.
Lootable – (can Loot) – They die normally (no disentigration) and you are able to loot them like other enemies. This usually provides you with a weapon and ammo and on death they may also contain a small cache of credits, a med kit and an assortment of scientific items (all random) and they can also drop a rare/epic/legendary piece of equipment. This has a 60% chance to occur.
Absorption – (Grants Essence) – They disentigrate into astral stuff, providing you with 2 to 4 bonus Quantum Essence. This is an addition to the normal 1 Quantum Essence you always receive when killing one. This has a 10% chance to occur.
The different bounties don’t (normally) stack but you always receive one of the three, based on it’s chances.
I initially created this mod to give you an alternative means to have to sink into NG+ runs to raise or add new powers but I felt why not give it random outcomes to make it more interesting.
I felt at the same time, why do the Starborn just disentigrate and drop… Nothing? Except a quantum essence which, to me, is like receiving a food item (or Charlie Brown getting a rock as a gift). So on death, there’s a chance some leveled list items are added to their inventory.
For lore-like purposes and this mod, you think of them disentigrating due to you greatly absorbing their energy and at other times, you didn’t absorb enough of it to vaporize them, allowing you to loot them.
Installation:
Simply download the version of the mod you wish to use and install into your Starfield folder (files are pathed from Data). You should be able to use either the core Starfield folder or the one in My Games. If using a Mod Manager, follow the guidance for that in terms of installation.
This mod replaces the script, MagicEffectStarbornScript, which causes things to happen on death, so it is incompatible with any mod that replaces the same script.
It can be installed mid-game or removed mid-game. Try not to install or remove in the middle of combat with a Starborn, should be easy to avoid.
You can test the mod by spawning a Starborn to the player, if you wish. If you are in a new game, I’d wait until you’ve received your first ability.
In console you can type:
player.placeatme 270262
(this will be a bit higher level spawn)
Caveats:
There’s no loss in installing this mod. You still always get 1 quantum essence per kill, minimally. It just enhances the outcomes.
The game does track how many universes you’ve been in (unities you’ve entered) but it doesn’t exactly track the player’s power rank in regards to if you have rank 1 in a power versus rank 10. So, when this mod gives you a power, you can get one you’ve never had before or it can rank up an existing one you do have. It is very possible that if you are high ranked in your powers, you just won’t get any upgrades any longer but there’s no way for the mod to check that and balance towards giving you something different.
Currently, I don’t see a way to also give a chance for them to drop their armor (SF scripting is limited without SFSE methods). I was going to have it occur at a very low rate as an optional download. However, there are a few mods for just having enemies drop armor out there and if the Starborn enemies roll as lootable, you should be able to loot that.
Quest Starborn, such as named ones (Guardian and so on), won’t fall under the purview of this mod as they use a different system.
If an enemy Starborn uses a power where they summon in another Starborn (or duplicate themself) you can get an additional loot roll on that enemy (Empowered, Lootable or Absorption). Maybe it’s a “feature”.
I’m not completely interested in them having them grant you a power on death 100% of the time. Once you make the Armillary or are in NG+, you run into them pretty frequently and even in groups where it shouldn’t be that hard to farm them. I feel the percent should be small to give a bit slower progression.
Versions:
I don’t see myself creating a hundred different variations of this mod, based on different chances or omitting this or that but I created a few variations that people might enjoy:
Standard – Defeated Starborn have one of the following: Power (30%), Loot (60%), Essence (10%).
Standard Xtra – Defeated Starborn have one of the following: Power (50%), Loot (40%), Essence (10%).
Bountiful – Defeated Starborn have a chance for each of the following: Power (30%), Loot (50%), Essence (10%).
Bountiful Extra – Defeated Starborn have a chance for each of the following: Power (50%), Loot (70%), Essence (10%).
Lavish – Defeated Starborn have a chance for each of the following: Power (70%), Loot (100%), Essence (15%).
Always Power – Defeated Starborn always grant Power, no Loot or Essence.
Always Loot – Defeated Starborn always grant Loot, no Power or Essence.
Script source is provided if you don’t like these variations and just want to do your own.
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