BetterBuddy

DESCRIPTION

Buddy works well alone. With crew aboard, he stops most of his jobs.

That is his design. The game switches off most of his tasks above one or two crew. He leaves a hull repair as soon as the ship passes half health. At the combat station he aims away from the target for half of each cycle.

Better Buddy lifts those limits. It also gives Buddy the shipboard work a crew member does on foot: hazards, fires, critical parts and shield plates.

The mod adds a menu on Buddy himself. You can turn each change on or off during a mission. Every change is one switch, and the stock behaviour is always one toggle away.

WHAT BUDDY DOES

Help at any crew size The game puts a hidden crew limit on every Buddy job. Revive, scan, materia filter and follow are solo only. Hull repair, core repair, ammo resupply and gun duty stop at two players. This mod lifts every limit. The new limit is 99, so it also works with a mod that raises the lobby size.

Repair until the hull is whole The game starts a hull repair below 50% hull and ends it at 50% hull, because one value serves both tests. Buddy still waits for real damage. Once he starts, he continues until the hull is whole or the repair kits run out. He also picks a job every second instead of every five seconds.

Aim at the target At the combat station the game aims Buddy at the target for 1.5 seconds. It then aims him away from the target for 1.5 seconds. About half of his shots miss. This mod holds his aim on the target.

Clear hazards Buddy repairs gas leaks, fuel lines, radiators, radiation leaks and materia leaks. He also mends a failed ship part at the timing pod, the same way a crew member does.

Put out fires Buddy sends the message your own client sends when you stand in a fire with an extinguisher. The fire dies at the speed the game sets, with the game sound and effects.

Refit shield plates Buddy fits a shield plate that lies aboard. With no plate aboard, he builds one at the assembler, the same way he builds a hull repair kit.

Pay for every repair Each fix costs the crew materia from the ship pool. A fire costs one fire extinguisher. A leak or a failed part costs one ship repair, at three times the extinguisher price. The extinguisher price comes from the assembler, so a discount or a run modifier moves both numbers. The mod builds nothing and spawns nothing for a repair. With too little materia in the pool, Buddy leaves the job and takes another.

Obey the assembler order Turn crafting off on his wheel. Buddy then stops every job that needs an item from the assembler: fires, leaks and failed parts. He still fits a shield plate that lies aboard. That is the rule his own ammo and repair kit jobs follow.

Say what he does Buddy names the job, the price, and the reason he leaves a job. He uses the same label the game gives his own lines. This shows on the host screen.

Better job order Buddy picks a job by priority. Core repair and ammo resupply rank as high as an idle in the canteen. The materia filter ranks below it, which is why Buddy says he clears the filters and then does not. This mod sets a clear order:

Revive crewmate  >  Repair hull  >  Man a gun  >  Core repair
  >  Resupply ammo  >  Scan  >  Clear materia filter  >  Follow  >  Idle

Hazard work outranks the gun. A crew that has a gunner does not want Buddy at a combat station while a fire spreads.

The menu Look at Buddy and hold the third prompt, Buddy Enhancements. Point at an option and release to toggle it. A green tick means on. A red cross means off. The menu uses the radial menu of the game, so it works like the task wheel. Your settings persist.

INSTALLATION

1. Install MelonLoader 0.7.3 or newer into your Jump Space folder.
2. Extract this archive into the same folder. The file must land at Jump Space\Mods\BetterBuddy.dll
3. Start the game once. The first start takes a few minutes while MelonLoader builds its support files. Later starts take the usual time.

To remove the mod, delete Jump Space\Mods\BetterBuddy.dll. No other file changes.

The settings are in Jump Space\UserData\MelonPreferences.cfg under [BetterBuddy]. You can also edit them by hand.

REQUIREMENTS

• Jump Space
• MelonLoader 0.7.3 or newer. This archive does not include it. Get it from the official release page.

Only the host needs this mod. The host runs Buddy, so the host copy is the one that counts. A crew member can install the mod and open the menu. Their switches do not change Buddy, and the labels say so.

The mod changes no game file. MelonLoader and this mod only add files.

SHOUT OUTS

Keepsake Games, for a co-op game worth this much time. Buddy is a good design. He only needed the handbrake off.

LavaGang, for MelonLoader, which runs managed code inside an IL2CPP game.

And the Jump Space community on the Steam forums. Their threads about Buddy and the materia filter sent me to the right place. That one was a real priority bug, and this mod fixes it.