Vanilla Gravships Expanded - Chapter 2: The Battle - Orbital Combat, Space Artillery and Gravship Defense for RimWorld

Vanilla Gravships Expanded - Chapter 2: The Battle is a major RimWorld modification that introduces orbital warfare, advanced spacecraft defenses, and dangerous new threats to gravships. Building upon the systems introduced in the first chapter, this expansion transforms your mobile colony into a potential target for enemy vessels, automated bombardment platforms, and powerful mechanoid formations.

Your gravship is no longer an untouchable late-game base. To survive in orbit, players must develop military technologies, strengthen their spacecraft, and prepare for battles that can unfold across different locations on the world map.

Orbital Warfare and New Space Threats

The main feature of Vanilla Gravships Expanded - Chapter 2 is a comprehensive combat system designed specifically for gravships.

Space travel becomes more dangerous as players encounter hostile forces capable of threatening their vessels from orbit.

New threats include:

• Enemy gravships: Exceptionally rare encounters with hostile spacecraft.
• Orbital bombardment platforms: Automated installations capable of shelling your gravship.
• Mechanoid orbital clusters: Powerful mechanical formations that challenge your spacecraft's defenses.
• Pirate-controlled stations: Heavily fortified orbital facilities that can be attacked.
• Long-range artillery attacks: Enemy weapons capable of bombarding your ship from another world map location.

These encounters introduce additional challenges for colonies that rely on their gravships as permanent homes.

Gravship Threat Detection

Vanilla Gravships Expanded - Chapter 2 introduces a dynamic gravship threat detection system.

Your actions can attract the attention of hostile forces operating in orbit, making encounters with enemy spacecraft and other threats part of the colony's continued development.

This system connects player activity with the dangers encountered during space travel.

Instead of remaining completely safe once a gravship is established, players must consider the possibility of hostile attention and prepare appropriate defenses.

Advanced Weapons and Armored Hulls

Surviving orbital warfare requires more than ordinary defensive structures.

The modification expands military progression with technologies intended specifically for spacecraft combat.

Important defensive and offensive systems include:

• Advanced weaponry: Research more powerful weapons for orbital encounters.
• Armored hulls: Strengthen your gravship against incoming attacks.
• Signal jammers: Develop electronic countermeasures as part of your defensive strategy.
• Heavy artillery: Use powerful weapons capable of engaging distant targets.
• Linked artillery systems: Connect massive artillery pieces for spacecraft combat.

Traditional colony defenses may be insufficient when an enemy can attack from an entirely different world map location.

Players must therefore adapt their military infrastructure to the challenges of orbital combat.

Long-Range Artillery and Ship-to-Ship Battles

The mod places particular emphasis on large-scale artillery exchanges between spacecraft and orbital installations.

Unlike conventional RimWorld battles, these encounters can involve enemies located far away from your own gravship.

Orbital combat features include:

• Long-range bombardment between distant locations.
• Heavy artillery engagements against hostile installations.
• Rare battles involving enemy gravships.
• Defense against automated orbital weapons.
• Military preparation for encounters that cannot be resolved through ordinary ground-based defenses.

Ship-to-ship engagements are described as exceptionally rare, large-scale events rather than constant battles.

Much of the combat revolves around powerful stationary artillery exchanges, where preparation and defensive capabilities become crucial.

Boarding Operations and Pirate Stations

Vanilla Gravships Expanded - Chapter 2 also introduces opportunities for offensive operations against hostile orbital targets.

Players can launch hellpods for boarding actions, allowing colonists to participate in attacks beyond their own spacecraft.

Additional activities include:

• Boarding operations against hostile targets.
• Assaults on fortified pirate stations.
• Recovering valuable materials from ancient spacecraft wrecks.
• Exploring the consequences of encounters with hostile orbital forces.

These mechanics expand the role of gravships beyond transportation and defense, allowing players to actively engage with dangerous locations throughout the world.

Research and Military Progression

The Battle places greater importance on technological development.

Players must research new military equipment and defensive systems to improve their chances of surviving increasingly dangerous encounters.

Military progression focuses on improving spacecraft weaponry, protection, and electronic countermeasures.

As a result, developing a gravship into a powerful orbital fortress becomes an important long-term objective.

Compatibility and Requirements

Vanilla Gravships Expanded - Chapter 2 builds directly upon the gravship overhaul introduced in Chapter 1.

Because both chapters make extensive changes to gravship mechanics, compatibility with other modifications that alter spacecraft systems is highly limited.

Important compatibility information:

• Chapter 1: Chapter 2 is designed as a continuation of the original gravship overhaul.
• Other gravship mods: Potentially incompatible due to extensive overlapping changes.
• Compatibility patches: Use only combinations that have been confirmed to work together.
• Troubleshooting: If problems occur, test the mod without other gravship-changing modifications before reporting a bug.

The mod introduces extensive changes to spacecraft combat and related systems, so conflicts with unrelated gravship overhauls should be expected unless compatibility has been established.

Authors

• Oskar Potocki - Artwork and mod design.
• Taranchuk - Programming.
• Sokyran - Programming.
• Sarg Bjornson - Programming.
• Erdelf, Steve and Igor - Shader development assistance.
• Helixien - Asset bundle assistance.
• Asunib - Bug fixing assistance.
• Vitalii - Storyteller artwork.