EFSC Valiant Exploration XDS

LORE

The Europa Free Science Coalition: Valiant Exploration eXperimental Design Submersible - or simply the EFSC Valiant Exploration XDS, was requisioned by the Europan concil of scientists, with the purpose of creating a mobile base of operations for scientific endeavours in Europas deep oceans. The vessel, which is more like stations fused together, is designed with longevity in mind: with on-board manufacturing close to that of a small factory, facilities supporting more than 24 passengers, a rudimentary defence array, a fully immersed administration wing, a hospital and ofcourse the mainstay of the scientific endeavors: a botanical biodome with a connecting lab.

Thus what you buy is what you get: a behemoth of unprecedented proportions, large enough to be self sustainable, but not so large that its impossible to navigate. For the smaller crevaces of the untersee, you have the attached shuttle. For the relativley fair price of 45000 Europan marks, you too can now buy your own Valiant Exploration, and set out into the depths in the name of science!

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

The Valiant is roughly 120 meters long and about 40-ish meters tall, with two interconnected parts making up the entire vessel. Connected via a glass walkway and supported by metal beams, the ship consists of administration, living quarters, command/security and medical facilities in the fore, with manufacturing, engineering and stowage in the rear. A large central staircase connects the docking port to the lowest part of the ship.

The ship comes as standard with a rudementary autoreactor, to save on fuel and make life easier for engineering. Armed with two topside machineguns, and a bottomside railgun and autocannon, the ship has a fair amount of defences, however it does have blind spots that the crew needs to look out for.

One thing to keep in mind however, is that this ship is NOT a dedicated submarine, its simply retrofitted to act as such. Because of this, the wiring can be seen by some as chaotic and unorganized, with makeshift junction boxes seen here and there to support the massive amount of electrical systems on the sub. Its also difficult to maneuver, barely staying afloat as is with three massive ballast tanks in place. The ship however offers a fair amount of comfort compared to the cramped indoors of a Dugong. With a large common room, a luxurious captains quarters, an assistant run shop and three private quarters for deserving staff, With the help of the biodome and the manufacturing area, the ship also rarely needs to enter port (not that docking is easy either way) and as such, the crew can spend valuable time exploring and researching.

AUTHORS NOTES

Thank you for taking a look at my very first published Barotrauma ship!

Its been a passion project for me for mutiple weeks, and about 35-30 hours have been spent designing the ship as I imagined it. Its not perfect, by far, and due to my limited knowledge in wiring i had get some technical help from the Barotrauma discord (massive thanks to those who helped, you know who you are!) and some good friends of mine. But, after alot of sweat, tears and alcohol, im now ready to post it, and i eagerly await feedback from those of you who download it and test it!

SO... what exactly are you looking at? Well, the Valiant Exploration is heavily inspired by Prometheus Station, and also SS13, hence why i wanted the ship to have more distinction between the different "departments". With upper class management on the right side of the ship, and lower class workers on the left. The ship features a Human Resources desk in vincinity to the administration area, a medical reception area to prevent everyone from simply walking in to the hospital and taking what they want, and card locked doors to prevent everyone from roming free (unless you revolt ofcourse). It features a clown room (supported by mods) and a traitor room for mechanics in the far right that only they have access to (for uhm... safety reasons). The hospital also features a test chamber with a drowning mechanism, and the botany area is fully supported by the thalassophobia mod.

Common issues are brownouts during heavy maneuvering (this is due to the automatic reactors values, and can be changed in the editor. I however like it, it gives a bit of feeling to the massive size of the ship), difficulty to maneuver the ship because of the ballasts being precisly inbetween 0.33 and 0.5 in balance. It lacks fancy controls of some other ships designed by players who understand wiring, and it can be difficult to move around the outside of the sub due to it continously moving slightly up and down.

The ship is not perfect, and to some extent its not supposed to be. Im still working on the kinks of the ship, trying to perfect it and to make it as comfortable as possible for players. But, it has room for in game improvements, such as adding alarms and so on. I am still learning, and a second draft is coming soon (hopefully with an elevator instead of the massive staircase).

So, to awnser your question with what exactly this ship is: Its a roleplay ship, designed to be played by many players, while trying to incorporate a new unique design that i havent seen so far.

Again, big thanks to the discord for helping me out with wiring and so on. If you have feedback please post it in the comments and ill try to fix the issues that you might happen upon. If you have any questions regarding the ship, feel free to ask.