Europa Ember（BETA）

Europa Ember/木卫2余烬

A large-scale story and weapon mod for Barotrauma.

Inspired by: 1984, the Metro series, Hyperion, and assorted other games.

Load order: place this mod at the very top of all mods. This mod overrides a large number of vanilla NPCs; a wrong load order may cause key resources or content to become unobtainable.

Compatibility: if you have Dynamic Europa installed, the Coalition and Separatist story checkpoints will disappear.

Compatible with most visual mods.

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Foreword

After the Collapse, Europa was completely cut off from the United Earth Government. On this frozen moon there remain only two factions pointing guns at each other — the Coalition and the Separatists — along with ordinary people and independent stations caught in between who just want to survive. The story of Europa Embers takes place upon these very embers.

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Worldbuilding

• Coalition: claims to be the sole legitimate government of Europa. Heavy taxes, bureaucracy, corruption — but tolerable public order.
• Separatists: a faction rife with internal splinter groups, more chaotic than Europa itself. From anarchists to slave-holding outposts. But they have guns.
• United Earth: the most brilliant legend of the past.
• Independent Stations: neutrals struggling to survive in the cracks between the two great powers.

Your ship is parked in the middle of it all.

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What's Changed From Vanilla

A Brand-New Weapon System

A full set of fictional weapons, from pistols to ultra-heavy exoskeletons.

• Coalition: centered on caseless ammunition; reliable underwater, but sustained fire on land causes overheating and jams.
• Separatists: the old-school route — traditional cased ammunition; no jams on land, but possible cycling failures underwater.
• Civilian weapons: self-defense weapons circulated in independent stations — just as lethal.

Covers: the AR-15, the G781 shotgun, the Coalition M457B / M520A, the Separatist SA580 / SA723, all the way up to the "Clickbait", "Magical Girl", and "Free Hand" exoskeletons, and on to the C12 electrothermal-chemical gun, the M263 autocannon, and the AAWS-M "Aria" anti-tank missile.

Armor System Overhaul

Emphasizes the "armor vs. round" logic of penetration versus protection. Soft vests stop pistols, plates stop rifles, heavy armor stops autocannons, and anti-armor ammunition exists precisely to punch through all of it. If it can't penetrate, there's no damage.

Reputation Finally Matters

• Reputation lets you cross the blockade line. The East and West Berlin checkpoints work by reputation: high enough, and they let you through and even throw in benefits; not enough, and you pay the toll or take a rifle butt.
• Reaching certain reputation levels unlocks each faction's military weapons. Military weapons are sold only at military outposts; blueprints are bought at research stations.

Main Story: Choose Who You Become

No meaningless megastructures, no cryptic riddler plots. The main story is a tale of choices: an animal-rights activist, a monk who counts all the merit as his own, a fox-eared doctor who was fired, a SWAT officer keeping silent in the blockade zone... different choices lead to different plots, characters, and endings.

The main story currently covers the first sea (the Cold Depths); subsequent seas are in development.

Fragmented Narrative

The worldbuilding is broken up into the description of every item. Every gun, every round has its own story.

Language Support

Chinese fully supported; English supported, with some story content not yet translated.

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Europa Embers Disclaimer

I. Fiction Statement

This work (including the Europa Embers mod and all its accompanying text, images, audio, and setting materials) is a completely fictional creation. The nations, regimes, organizations, corporations, militaries, characters, events, and place names appearing in the work are all fictional constructs.

Special note: the "Europa" depicted in this work is a fictional world in a parallel universe. Any content appearing herein that shares a name or resemblance with real history or reality (including but not limited to historical events, political organizations, religious figures, terrorist organizations, place names, brands, and military equipment names) does not refer to, map to, or allude to any real organization, event, or individual. Any resemblance is purely a coincidence within a fictional context, or an explicit act of parody.

II. Content Warning

This work contains the following content that may cause discomfort; please judge for yourself whether to continue:

• Violence and gore: depictions of war, shootings, explosions, purge operations, and the deaths of the infected.
• Corpses and death: depictions of corpses, remains, and scenes such as fortifications built from the bodies of the fallen.
• Suicide: contains an interactive suicide scene (the player may choose to intervene).
• Drugs and addictive substances: depictions of opium-derived substances (the fictional "Western Leaf") and their use, addiction, and withdrawal.
• Tobacco and alcohol: depictions of smoking and drinking.
• Terrorism and extreme violence: depictions of terrorist organizations and terrorist attacks.
• Extreme ideologies: depictions of slavery, national socialism, anarcho-capitalism, anarchism, and other extreme ideas.
• Religious elements: parodic use of Buddhist and other religious concepts (karma, karmic debt, etc.).
• Political satire: satirical depictions of bureaucracy, the military-industrial complex, authoritarian rule, and factional infighting.
• War crimes and casualties: background depictions of the use of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

The above content all serves the work's narrative, worldbuilding, and thematic expression, and does not constitute an endorsement, incitement, or glorification of any such behavior.

QA

Q: Does it need Lua? A: No.

Q: Does it override vanilla weapons? A: It doesn't override weapons, but it overrides all NPCs — the NPCs basically all use this mod's weapons.

Q: Magazines made at the fabricator come out empty — how do I load them? A: Craft the matching-caliber ammo box, then put the magazine into it.

Q: How do I get military weapons? A: Grind reputation. Military weapons are sold only at military outposts, and blueprints are bought at research stations. If your reputation isn't high enough, they won't even open the door.

Q: What else is reputation for? A: Crossing the blockade line. High reputation lets you through; otherwise, pay up, take a rifle butt, or get flagged as a "high-value hostile target" and freely fired upon.

Q: What did the armor system change? A: Overhauled armor-vs-round combat — no penetration, no damage. The days of pistol-scratching a heavy exoskeleton to death are gone.

Q: Is the main story finished? A: Only the first sea (the Cold Depths) is done so far. More will be released over time.

Q: Is the story a riddler? A: No. What you face are concrete people, dilemmas, and choices.

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Welcome aboard, Captain. Beneath the ice, no one will decide where you're going for you.