I didn't have any intention to release this for public use when I was making this job mod. Seeing all the interest in the mod and in the concept is just the coolest thing ever. Whether that is through suggesting your own ideas and critiques, or offering to translate into another language, I love seeing the interaction. It still baffles me that so many people are using the mod.

I personally love discussions, so I thought I would talk about my thought process and what was the vision I had for this job mod. I'm sure a lot of you won't particularity care, but for those who are interested this is for you.

Play style & Role

When I play multiplayer it is usually with a small friend group consisting of 3 people and I would play Medical Doctor. I have played a lot of MMOs and have spent a good amount of time playing MOBAs as well. My favorite way to play games with a team is to play the support, so when I was thinking of ideas for this job mod I leaned into a more supportive role that could fill into other areas when needed. When I play I spend the majority of my time fixing leaks and devices on the sub, or being the backup on diving expeditions.

Feel

At the start of creating this mod I knew that there was a mod where you could play as a Mudraptor, which was very cool, but I didn't want this job to feel like you were playing a husk. I wanted it to feel like you were a human being who just happened to be a member of this religious group. I drew a lot of inspiration from movies/games/real life for talents, some of them didn't work for xml so I had to scrap those ideas. When I thought about religious groups and the husk taking you over in game I used what stood out to me in my mind.

Symbiosis

This talent tree was inspired from Venom, the villain/anti-hero from the Spider-Man line of villains. It was also inspired by, you guessed it, symbiosis from the real world. Mainly, mutualism, where both parties get benefits. Then there was, parasitism, where only one party gets a benefit and the other is hurt. The parasitism concept was modified of course because who would use talents that only hurt you? The husk gets to live in you and thrive and in exchange you get abilities. I slowed the rate of infection down, so you would feel safer being infected without the need of the husk gene, though that is an option as well. I did have an idea where you would have to balance your husk infection, but I got rid of it. I came to the conclusion that it didn't feel good to have a member of your crew going through your medical supply for a few buffs.

Missionary

In sci-fi and fantasy religious groups and cults are abundant. The original idea for the talent tree was actually structured more like the Symbiosis talent tree, where half of the talents had some sort of drawback. There was a more caring/pure side the the faith, that believed that the church's teaching are correct and just want to show others the light they have seen. Then there was the more extreme cult side of things where they were right and if you didn't think that way you were wrong. They would force it on you, or cut you out of the picture. I wanted the Symbiosis talent tree to be more unique from this tree, so I got rid of it. Forced Conversions is actually what was left over from that idea and I left it in.

Hivemind

When I thought about things taking over one of the things I immediately thought of was a hivemind. Something far reaching, something that effected the entire group. This was the talent tree that gave me the most trouble. Originally, the talent tree was supposed the give the entire crew a weak buff and a larger buff for those who had husk infection. The entire talent tree was scrapped and had to be changed because it did not seem possible to do that in xml in the current state of the game. For those of you who got the mod after I made a reworked the tree, you won't know about this. I decided on doing an order based talent tree like the captain's instead. I tried to make it different from the captain's tree, making the repair/combat talents a choice instead of you being able to get them both. I had more resistance types and maximum health as a choice. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were really similar despite my attempts to make them different and I immediately got to redesigning the tree, which is the current version you see now.

Overall I am quite happy with the mod, even though it doesn't have it's own crafting recipes and talent icons. I may revisit concepts and do a rework at some point, especially with the vanilla talent rework coming, but I think my vision is here and is done to the best of my ability. I was going to go over talent as well, but I didn't want this to be too long.