September MOTM Review: Salvagers Fleet

[ThePrivateer]

dbg Salvagers Fleet
September 2012 Mod of the Month Winner
Author: DOSbox-gamer
Version: 1.07a (Tested for 1.08b), review using 1.08l)
Required Mods: None

Until we find a better place for this, I've made my thread here - Ttech/RPC, feel free to do with my post as you want.

Salvagers Fleet is a ship-changing mod that alters those slow, ever-scavanging Salvagers, who more often than not, steal some good loot from wrecked ships.

The Playership
The new playership handles like you'd expect - big and slow, with next-to-no stopping power, poor acceleration and limited turning ability. What it lacks in grace, it makes up for in cargo capacity - a whopping 1500 tons of it. The playership also comes with an omni-directional laser, a mining laser (though no mining cargo hold), and several helpful ROMs, along with an uninstalled shield - it also has 12 segments of armor.

Playing as the Ocean Salvager requires you to use pretty much anything that tracks or thinks on it's own, as trying to fight anything like you would in a Sapphire will result in you taking a pummelling. Stillettos and omni-turbolasers will keep you out of trouble early on and an ICX or two will stop most of the incoming enemy damage.

The Fleet
The mod also changes other Salvagers, adding some new Salvagers in the early levels that the player can dock with and trade scrap with, providing an early level alternative to Tinkers. Also added are new red-coloured Rogue Salvagers - these brutal titans can shred apart even the best early-level ship, so approaching them requires an all-out war, particularly because most of the armor segments are optional, so destroying one of these behemoths will take all of your skill.

Later in the game, the Black Market salvagers will also be present, and they get tougher, providing an attractive, but dangerous, pirating career for the player -- and several bonus late-level weapons thrown into the mix spice things up.

The Verdict
A great, well-rounded addition to the first eight levels of the game that give Salvagers the love and attention they deserve.
The playership is more a novelty - or maybe a nightmarish challenge - but the actual changes to the other Salvagers, including the tradeable and enemy ships, really spices things up.

[Ttech]

good work! I think I might create a group for Reviews! But good work! I'll see about reviewing one of the mods as well!