Black Ghost Knifefish

The Knifefish is an all-electric submarine built to be driven by a single pilot. Its battery life, coupled to energy efficient systems, is big enough to perform any operation a reactor-powered submarine would. The very small (albeit unconventional and very cramped) design allows it to travel through most of the caves of Europa’s waters, making it well suited for clearing out nests. Although primarily a scout, the Knifefish can accomplish many other tasks, provided the danger is not too high.

I was out of Barotrauma for a moment and what do I find when I come back? Caverns! Therefore, I went with this project right away in order to have an all-in-one (mostly) answer for all the new game content, clearing caverns nests while staying in the sub first in mind. Admittedly, I cheated quite a bit when building it, but I do not give it too many thoughts since the main goal was to finish the campaign with only one lonesome captain.

Because it was an obvious choice to make for such a project, the Knifefish uses the excellent seated operators mod ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2234671530 ) from the talented Dolorosus Ira. It also uses a mod of mine which removes shadow projection from a custom hatch ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2257584119 ).

Some features:

• A 10 GWm battery that lasts quite a while
• An all-glass hull allowing panoramic view (very useful in caves)
• A coil field covering the entire hull
• A pair of turrets covering every angles
• A tiny workshop already prepped for crafting/recycling ammo boxes
• A 2-in-1 ballast/airlock for EVA (that’s where the cheating happens)

Some automations:

• Battery’s charge rate management
• Also, battery’s replenishing whenever the Knifefish is docked
• Oxygen level (starts producing only when below 55% air quality)
• Turrets and coil field can be automated via the navigation console.
• An integrated searchlight which (tries to) points where the submarine is heading

About the weapons:

• You can still control the turrets even when automation is on, useful if you need to quickly fire manually at breakable reef/ice barriers.
• The coil field cannot be triggered manually; it works only when automation is on.
• When controlled manually, the turrets will try to zero in on a focal point located at a constant distance from the submarine, making them somehow firing at the same target (but this is far from being perfect).
• When automated, the turrets are flashing a red light. That is a reminder: DO NOT EXIT.

The engine has been enlarged to a big ass size because it was not easily reachable otherwise. Despite that enlargement, its power input has actually been drastically reduced in order to stay silent at all time, so you can go hauling stuff ninja style through a whole map if you want. Yet the engine is powerful enough as is, considering the ridiculously small size of the submarine.

Go on and try your luck. Fire your engineer and your mechanic right off the bat (or toss them through the airlock, works too) and watch as your lonely captain descends into madness by wishing luck to a non-existent crew, asks questions to imaginary friends, and tells jokes nobody hears.

See you around.