It appears that an Unofficial FAQ for Void Destroyer 2 is needed, since I have helped with answering some questions and see the same topics being asked. This will be an ongoing WIP. Any topics that are addressed by future updates to the game may be removed.

The ingame help guide can be accessed from the question mark button on the tactical map screen (spacebar in local space), the overworld map, or in the base interface. It looks like the icon assigned to this guide above.

I will include some spoiler tags when I think it is appropriate, but I consider the overall guide to expose you to the risk of spoilers. By reading onward, you accept the risk you might see something you consider to be a spoiler, even if I do not. Comments regarding the FAQ itself are welcome here, but please ask your questions at the Steam Forums or the VD2 Discord.

In addition to dealing with real life obligations and wanting to spend more time on my modding, I realized that I am going to have to limit the scope of some of the things I put my time towards for maintaining this FAQ.

As such, I cannot take the time to track down the provenance of who originally shared each and every answer.

Comments regarding additions/corrections to the FAQ will be evaluated. After they are addressed, they will be removed to avoid confusion due to no longer being actively relevant after the FAQ is updated. I appreciate your understanding of my need to try to keep things tidy to support my ability to my manage this.

I thank the developer, chaosavy, for his direct involvement and ongoing support of the community, and the community itself for keeping things positive and all pitching in to help each other out. Please continue to be excellent to each other, thank you.

This index only covers the frequently asked questions, and does not include some of the other general topics that follow after. Look at Steam's guide index to the right if you want to skim ahead to preview what those are.

General Mechanics Related Pt. 1:
- How do I recover from uncontrollable spin caused by ship collision?
- How do I dock with a base?
- I lost track of ships I parked in a hanger somewhere. How do I find them?
- How do I access the 'remote terminal' ?
- What are the quirks with how the 'Fleet Leader' function works? Critically: How does it function for carriers?
- How does auto combat resolution on the overworld map work?
- What is the difference between negative faction rep, Wanted level, and formal 'At War' status with a faction?
- Does raiding another faction's platforms and economic fleets really make a difference?
- How does 'Make Peace' work? I am at war with Faction X. I see there is a make peace button on the diplomacy screen but it doesn't seem to do anything.

General Mechanics Related Pt. 2:
- Do any upgrades apply to the overworld map for AI ships at all?
- Are ships for sale randomized at bases? Sometimes the store roster seems to change.
- My pilot avatar physically boarded one of my carriers. Now I want to leave the carrier and I can't figure it out. Help!

Economy Related:
- What is going on with the soft caps on economic ships?
- Why are my owned bases always losing credits?
- Can I own an asteroid field? What is the benefit?
- How does fleet upkeep work?

Capture Related:
- How do I ship capture?
- Where do I get ship capture boarding ships?
- What are the ratings of the different ship capture vessels?
- How do I deploy my boarding pods?
- How do I find out what the capture resistance of a ship is?
- Some ships have a really high capture rating? How do I capture those? What is crew killer ammo?
- My fleet is killing my capture target automatically! What do I do?
- How do I base capture?
- Where do I get base capture boarding ships?
- How do base capture ratings work?
- What are the ratings for the different base capture ships?

How Do I Obtain ___?:
- How do I get a destroyer?
- Where do I get the TSF ships? They only sell a few military surplus designs!
- Where / how do I get Outsider ships?

Combat Related:
- Does AI use secondary weapons or activated abilities?
- Do ship upgrades effect combat auto resolution on the Overworld map?
- How do I make my entire fleet show up all at once to a battle?
- How do I deal with space mines?
- How do I reload deployable combat drones or boarding pods?

Option Menu and Game Settings Related:
- I don't like the cell shading art style. Are there any options I can toggle for that?
- I don't like the quality of the sound effects. Will the developer replace them?
- I have high quality headphones and/or sensitive hearing, and some of these ambient engine noises and hums are a bit much. I can't find more direct control than turning down the master volume. What can I do?
- What other performance tweaks can I use?

Campaign Related (Answers are Spoiler Tagged):
- Sanctuary is in a far corner of the map and lacks resources. Can you give me tips on good trade routes?
- I built a Shipyard at Sanctuary, but I can't build anything with it!
- I am in the earlier campaign story missions where I am flying out to civilian cargo fleets to interrogate them about the Stubs. It is almost impossible to complete and keep the cargo ships alive.
- The Talon Destroyer mission is almost impossible!

• On colliding with an object, the player's ship goes into an uncontrollable spin. What do I do?
  -Hit space to drop out to local tactical map, then right click to order your ship to move in a direction away from the obstacle under crew control mode. Unless your ship is wedged into a niche in a base, it will immediately start to even itself out of the spin and move towards the indicated point.
  
  
• How / where do I dock with a base?
  - If you comm the base and ask for docking permission, a 3d green arrow projection will appear in space in front of the actual base entrance. You can use the same entrance, without comming the base first, if the base is selected when you fly into that base. If the base is not selected, or it is hostile, you will only collide with the back of the docking area. Autodock only works if you own the base, have faction mission rank at 5+, or have a frigate+ size ship that would not fit through the dock entrance. This includes the MU Marauder corvette.
  
  
• I left my ships parked in a hanger somewhere. How do I find them?
  - Go to the overworld map interface. Click the folder tab arrow on the left side of the screen to expand the Known Contacts window. Click the Base Icon to show bases in the window. Number of owned ships in a base's hanger will be displayed by the name of the base they are parked at.
  
  Note that your own bases will show up on this list, but only the ships in the hangar are counted - the defense fleet is not.
  
  If you have a pretty good idea that you left your ships at one of two or three bases in one part of the map, it might be quicker to mouse over each base directly - the number of your owned ships in the hanger will be part of the mouse popup at the base.
  
  For ships scattered between bases that you own, when you own more than one base an extra menu window appears in the center-left of the Base Hanger screen that lets you toggle between Hanger management at your different owned bases without having to physically go to the other bases.
  
  
• I have heard of a 'remote terminal' for accessing the overworld map at a full RTS level of control. Where do I find it?
  -You need to own a base, or at least a carrier. Personally dock with the base or carrier. If you are in the gunship/corvette bay, head through the doors to the fighter bay. Head through the red doors in the fighter bay to see a semi-circle computer desk on a holosuite platform. Walk right up to the center of the computer desk and a 'Remote Terminal' button will pop up on your HUD that you can click with the mouse. While in this mode, you can remotely control any ship deployed on the overworld map. To leave it, drop out to overworld map or tactical mode, then click the ship mode button to leave ship mode. This will drop you back to the overworld map in the remote terminal. If you want to leave the remote terminal, click the terminate button at the top right of the overworld map to disconnect.
  
  
• - What are the quirks with how the 'Fleet Leader' function works? Critically: How does it function for carriers?
  The Fleet Leader will always be the designated leader of the fleet formation it leads on the overworld map. There are some rules for what can and cannot be a fleet leader:
  
  1) If you have a ship that functions as a capital class carrier and want it to be in a fleet, it can only be the leader of that fleet, with all other ships forming up around it. This also means that you can only have one carrier in a fleet. You can somewhat get around this by positioning your other carriers or carrier fleets close by enough on the Overworld map to effectively be at the edge of 'local space' where they can join in. The developer's intent is that you would personally dock with and board the carrier using a fighter class ship, then use the remote terminal inside to pilot the carrier as well as manage the rest of your fleet with the carrier as your fleet flagship. This is known to handle a bit clunky due to the coding work-arounds and limits he had to implement to make carriers work.
  
  2) If you have a taxi shuttle on a taxi route, it must be the leader of its fleet and cannot have a second taxi shuttle in the same fleet.
  
  3) If you have a cargo ship in a fleet on trade or transport runs, it must be the leader of its fleet and cannot have a second cargo ship in the same fleet.
  
  4) If you have a mining ship in a fleet for mining, it must be the leader of its fleet and cannot have a second mining ship in the same fleet.
  
  
• How does auto combat resolution on the overworld map work?
  - The developer has stated that he has set up a series of randomized, turn based attacks. The 'active' ships on a giving turn of auto combat are limited by the ship class combat caps that would be in place with Ship Reserves, even if you have turned that off. Secondaries and ship upgrades are not a factor for auto combat calculation. Any fleet of ships that will only be involved in auto combat on the world map should not be upgraded, as that is a complete waste of resources.
  
  
• What is the difference between negative faction rep, Wanted level, and formal 'At War' status with a faction?
  1) If you have negative faction rep, ships and patrols from that faction will be hostile and attack you and your ships when they see you. However, they will not actively send war fleets to conquer your bases or destroy your remote platforms.
  
  2) As your Wanted level increases, you first lose access to TSF and Pride bases, then bases from other 'lawful' factions. Initially, only the TSF and Pride will become hostile, but as your Wanted level gets higher, other faction's ships may become hostile as well. Only the unlawful factions do not care about your Wanted level. The thing to be careful with on Wanted level is that it easily snowballs- if you have a little Wanted level from buying a black market ship or a single act of piracy, and hostile lawful ships attack you, your Wanted level will increase as you damage and destroy them to defend yourself. The best way to manage it is to quickly do the unlawful action that you want to do, then go lie low while the Wanted level falls off over time.
  
  3) You can do a lot to a faction without reaching formal 'At War' status and triggering War Fleet invasions. That includes destroying their remote platforms, as well as attacking or stealing their ships and economic fleets. They will be hostile, but not formally 'At War'. The only ways you can cross that line are to either a) invade a faction's base with base capture ships and dock them or b) voluntarily declare a state of war with that faction through the Faction Diplomacy Screen.
  
  
• Does raiding another faction's platforms and economic fleets really make a difference?
  - Yes. You cannot completely break a faction without taking all their bases from them. That being said, if you destroy their remote platforms and economic fleets it does impact their strength and ability to rebuild. If you destroy their shipyards, most factions will be unable to construct destroyer+ ships until they get one back online. If you blockade the base, it can't send platform constructors out. You may not have line of sight on them to see it, but most of their ships and platforms are directly tied to their economic activity and are being built - in most circumstances they do not magically spawn in reinforcements from thin air without regard to their economic condition.
  
  
• How does 'Make Peace' work? I am at war with Faction X. I see there is a make peace button on the diplomacy screen but it doesn't seem to do anything.
  -To force a faction to accept a 'Make Peace' offer, you have to completely suppress them. This means you must destroy every single war fleet and remote platform they have, then suppress and completely blockade their surviving bases so they cannot make new platforms or war fleets. Only then will a faction accept 'Make Peace' and reset its relations with you.

• Do any upgrades apply to the overworld map for AI ships at all?
  -Per the developer, only 3:
  1) Engine optimization (boosts overworld travel speed)
  2) Fuel capacity (self explanatory - this is a overworld only upgrade)
  3) Gate travel refuel (again - overworld upgrade)
  
  Need to ask chaosavy the about newer passive upgrade that reduces sensor detection radius, as it would make sense for that to also work with overworld. That is a possible 4th.
  
  
• Are ships for sale randomized at bases? Sometimes the store roster seems to change.
  - There are two Black Market bases run by the Shadow Traders. The stock of available ships will change every few minutes. While not all ships are available from the Black Market in vanilla VD2, you can usually reset the stores by flying back and forth between them until you see what you want.
  
  Other factions will offer their Frigate on a limited basis, if you have sufficient rep that they are willing to sell it to you. The Limited tag in the store means that it only has one unit of that ship per entry. If you purchase a Frigate from a faction once, afterwards you will have the option to commission more Frigates, which will be constructed about 60 seconds from a shipyard associated with the base you ordered it at, then sent to either your designated primary hangar base, or directly to your fleet.
  
  
• My pilot avatar physically boarded one of my carriers. Now I want to leave the carrier and I can't figure it out. Help!
  1) While piloting the carrier, hold down (capslock) to activate the mouse arrow while in cockpit mode. On the left of the central hud is a wheel with several buttons, one of these looks like the sillouette of a person standing in a doorway, on top of a downward arrow. Click that with the mouse to drop back to first person mode inside the carrier.
  
  2) You can then use the base undock button to leave in the ship you originally used to board the carrier.
  
  Alternatively, if you are 'remote piloting' the carrier through the remote terminal inside the carrier, select ship mode in tactical or overworld view to drop back to remote terminal overworld, then select 'Remote Interface - Terminate' in the upper right corner to drop back to first person mode in the carrier.
  

• What is with the ship caps on cargo transport/traders, miners, and taxi shuttles?
  -Those ship caps are a soft cap for buying these economic ships from the other factions. Past the cap, they see you as direct competition instead of a freelancer and refuse to sell you more. If you have conquered a base that allows you to build economic ships from any of those categories, you are not blocked from directly building more beyond that soft cap.
  
  
• Why is my base always losing credits? I have a trade fleet set up to sell the resource I produce, and buy the resources it needs, but I have to frequently drop cash off at the base directly.
  1) All economic trade fleets deposit / withdraw their credits directly to you, the player, instead of their base. This is partly because economic fleets are not bound to any particular base that you own, and you can also own more than one base. Bases only earn credits directly when independent or AI faction trade ships stop by at the base itself, and purchase anything that you are allowing the base to sell directly. Currently, direct incoming trade for a base in this form is rare enough to be almost negligible. Your bases will need you to occasionally drop off a credit infusion, especially if you are focusing on one base as a 'primary' base with most of your fleet construction taking place there.
  
  2) If you enable ore use in the base, it gives a large credit discount to building ships, but it does not completely remove credit costs. If you allow the base to maintain its defense fleet, it will automatically build ships up to a soft cap. Those ships cost credits, or ore and credits, from the base's personal reserves.
  
  3) All economic ships slowly level up on efficiency the longer they are alive and actively working. If they are destroyed, all that experience is lost and must be regained by any replacement ships. Raids on economic ships are spawned directly by the game, but they can also be targeted by the patrols of another faction if you are formally At War with that faction. Assign escorts. The more cargo pods a cargo ship carries, the more raiding heat it inherently carries with it. Taxi shuttles inherently have a more modest raid heat cap than vessels with cargo, so you can get away with giving them a smaller complement of escorts. Note that Tugs are not immune to raid heat, even though they are only carrying an asteroid.
  
  
• Can I own an asteroid field? What is the benefit?
  -Yes, you can own an asteroid field and turn it 'green' on the map. Clear all hostile units, and keep a patrol fleet posted to the asteroid field itself. The only benefits are that you have an immediate local reaction force to oppose any attempts by other factions to reclaim the asteroid field from you, and you occasionally receive small credit stipends for 'patrolling' the field when miners from neutral/friendly factions use your asteroid field.
  
  
• How does fleet upkeep work?
  -Please see Riph's separate guide on this topic.
  https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1660773963
  

• How do I ship capture?
  -Drop back to tactical map (spacebar). If you have a ship that carries boarding pods, launch them and select the boarding pods. If you have one of the smaller direct boarding ships, select them. Click on the boarding target and they will attempt to grapple with it.
  
  
• Where are the ship capture ships?
  -Only a few factions have ship capture ships. Hint: "Yar, matey! Prepare to be boarded!"
  
  If you are aligned with them, they will sell them to you directly if you have high enough faction rank. You can also occasionally find ship capture ships at the black market stations.
  
  
• What are the ratings of the different ship capture vessels?
  
  Boarding Pods: All boarding pods are restocked when the carrier ship docks with a friendly base.
  
  -Mite: Gunship class boarding pod. Capture rating: 10. Slightly slower and slightly more fragile.
  
  -Bolt: Gunship class boarding pod. Capture rating: 12. Slightly faster and slightly more durable.
  
  Ship capture related ships:
  
  -Lust: Single use capture corvette that latches onto the target directly. Unarmed. Capture rating: 30. Expensive compared to the other options and probably needs to be rebalanced. Sometimes available at the Black Market.
  
  -Crossbow: Capture corvette carrying 2 Bolt boarding pods (Capture Rating of 24 total). Armed with 4 medium turrets and 2 light turrets. Sometimes available at the Black Market.
  
  -LittleJoy: Capture corvette carrying 2 Mite boarding pods (Capture Rating of 20 total). Armed with 1 medium turret and 1 chaingun turret. Sometimes available at the Black Market.
  
  -Boltor: Capture frigate carrying 5 Bolt boarding pods (Capture Rating of 60 total). Armed with 5 medium turrets.
  
  -Stealjoy: Capture frigate carrying 6 Mite boarding pods (Capture Rating of 60 total). Armed with 3 medium turrets and 1 chaingun turret.
  
  
• How do I deploy my boarding pods?
  -Drop back to tactical view (spacebar), select the ship(s) carrying the boarding pods, and then click the 'drop' command on the lower right panel - it has an icon that looks like a box sitting on top of a down arrow. You can select multiple ships of the same type (including all the boarding pod carriers of one type, or all the boarding pods of one type) by double clicking on one unit of that type in tactical view.
  
  
• How do I find out what the capture resistance for a ship is?
  -Broadly, you can preview the default stat in the ship purchase menu within a base, on the right panel after you toggle the stats button. For a specific ship you are in the process of engaging: if you drop out to tactical view and mouse over a particular ship, the capture resistance will be included in the ship's mouse over popup.
  
  
• Some ships have a really high capture rating? How am I supposed to capture those? What is crew killer ammo?
  -Fighters and gunships with rapid fire machine guns can purchase a passive addon called 'crew killer ammo'. While using this reduces overall DPS from the ship that mounts it, in return it adds a special effect that attacks the crew stat of the target ship making it easier to capture. A wing of Bulldogs with crew killer ammo is very good for this.
  
  Also, ship capture only works on corvettes and up. There are a few ships that by design have an impossibly high capture resistance, which are intended to not be capturable in the vanilla unmodded game.
  
  
• My fleet is killing my capture target automatically! What do I do?
  -Drop back to tactical view (spacebar), select the ship you want to capture, and toggle it to 'Do Not Target'.
  
  
• How do I base capture?
  -Drop back to tactical map (spacebar), select the base invasion ships, then click on the base. They will queue up in a line then move to dock one by one. They are very vulnerable while they do this, so make sure the base defenses are cleared or distracted away from their approach path.
  
  
• Where are the base capture ships?
  -In story mode, base capture ships are unlocked by a campaign story step. AI factions are generally set to not sell base invasion ships to the public, even if you have a high rep with them, but you may be able to occasionally find individual units of base capture ships from specific factions at the black market bases. If you take a base from a faction, that faction's version of the base invasion ship will be buildable at the base.
  
  
• How do base capture ratings work?
  -Every base has a population portion that is specifically designated as defense crew. If the base has high morale, these defense crew points get a bonus in their favor. As the base is besieged, the active presence of hostiles will deplete morale. If the base runs out of food, that will also penalize morale and defense crew effectiveness. Each invading base capture ship has a rating representing the boarding troops carried on board. Each time one successfully docks, the hostile invaders face off against the defenders in a simple autoresolve combat until one side or the other is depleted. Invaders have to add enough troops to wipe out the defenders. After defenders are zero, the base flips control to the invader and then starts to rebuild its defense force for the new owner.
  
  
• What are the ratings for the different base capture ships?
  - MU Claimjumper: 40
  - Reborn Glutton: 45 (sometimes at Black Market)
  - Kind Liquidator: 50
  - Beggar NoJoy: 60 (sometimes at Black Market)
  - TSF Phalanx: 100
  - Pride Spartan: 40
  - Civ Wildcat: 40

• How do I get a destroyer?
  - Progression to ownership of a destroyer is the biggest player progression step in the game, signaling entry into the mid-late game which is much more heavily focused on RTS control, total war with factions, and the conquest / management of multiple bases with an extended economy. Even the worst destroyers are a significant power jump over frigates and smaller ships. Accordingly, it is not easy, and doing it early is very challenging. Normally, the main way to obtain a destroyer is to conquer a base from a faction that has destroyer class ships, building a shipyard linked to that base locally or remotely, then building the destroyer yourself.
  
  It is possible to ship capture a destroyer early, but most of the time they are only found as part of a base's defense fleet or as a war fleet flotilla leader. It is rare to see them patrolling away from a base. To take it from a base directly, you have to have enough firepower to suppress a base's defenses while keeping the destroyer alive for capture. This is only one step short of a full base conquest and declaration of total war status with the target faction, and if you are built up to that point you probably have the capability of taking the base directly to build as many as your economy can support anyway. The alternative is having enough skill and understanding of how to manipulate the AI's quirks as a player to sneak in, distract the defenses, rush capturing the destroyer, then escaping alive with it intact. While this is very satisfying, it is also high risk, high reward. Alternatives are to wait patiently until you finally find the destroyer you want in a patrol fleet somewhere on the overworld map, then attack it there with relative ease; or to accept a repair mission that features a destroyer, then betray the faction that hired you to steal it instead.
  
  
• Where do I get TSF ships? They only sell a handful of light military surplus ships at their base despite increasing my rep with them!
  - You will either have to steal them with ship capture, or take a base from the TSF to be able to build them. Some of their lighter ship classes are sometimes available at the black market bases.
  
  
• How do I obtain Outsider ships? Can I buy or capture them?
  - In the vanilla game, the answer is, you don't. You can't buy them or capture them. If that bothers you enough that you want to change that, see the Menagerie mod to increase your options:
  https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/app/369530/discussions/8/1744518601282185742/

• Can the AI use activated secondary weapons or active abilities?
  -No. The AI does not use them. They are intended to be special, overpowered abilities used directly by the player. It is possible to turn on time dialation, and rapidly jump between each ship in your fleet to activate the abilities. This allows your fleet to do a burst that punches exponentially above its normal weight, but requires considerable micromanagement and credit investment on your part as the player. If you do not want to do that level of micromanagement, it is a waste of resources to upgrade active abilities across the entire fleet. Most passive abilities will benefit them, so they usually are not a waste.
  
  A consequence of this is that some ship designs handle better in the AI's control than others, because sometimes a significant portion of a particular ship's power is behind the secondary weapon if it is combat related. It is possible to easily mod the ship for secondary weapons to function automatically as primary or tertiary weapon systems, but if that is done they probably need to be rebalanced. At the moment there is no known good or easy way to mod ships to automatically use Active abilities, and it will probably require figuring out some way to force reclassification and mounting of each active ability as a weapon on the ship somewhere - even then the AI will fire it automatically instead of using it intelligently.
  
  
• Do ship upgrades effect combat auto resolution on the Overworld map?
  - A bit of a repeat from the General Mechanics section, but covering my bases in case someone is only looking for this specific question: No. If you are controlling purely from the RTS perspective on the Overworld map without personally joining that instance of combat, ship upgrades will have no impact on the auto combat. Any fleet of ships that will only be involved in auto combat on the world map should not be upgraded, as that is a complete waste of resources.
  
  
• How do I make all my ships show up at once at a battle?
  - For some reason this option is not available at the main menu. If you have a strong enough system to back it up, after loading into an active game, hit escape to bring up the game menu there. There will be a Difficulty/Balance selection that isn't available anywhere else. Go there and turn off the 'Ship Reserves' button. From that point onward, everything physically present at the encounter will join all at once. The developer has stated that he did his balance with the reserve system on by default, since that gives him some control over what to expect the player to bring.
  
  
• How do I deal with mines? I can't target them!
  1) Don't approach the mines at all.
  
  2) Use a larger ship to slowly approach them, tank some of the mines, then back away to repair it.
  
  3) Use small ships that will not trigger the mines, with rapid fire weapons, to manually clear the mines by shooting at them. Combat drones with guns, light fighters with rapid fire weapons, and the MU Arsonist with its plasma 'flame thrower' are great at this.
  
  
• How do I reload the combat drones on my Dropper, or the boarding pods on my ship capture vessel?
  - The developer has clarified that any surviving pods/drones will go back to their hanger ship when you leave the local battle site and return to the overmap. Otherwise, you have to return to a friendly base in order to completely restock these deployable assets. Only a few ships have 'internal factories' that allow them to actively restock themselves in the field.

• I don't like the cell shading art style. What can I do about it?
  - At the graphics options, there are buttons to select toon shader + cell outline, only cell outline, or neither. Pick your preference. I always run with neither but that is what I like.
  
  
• I don't like the quality of the sound effects. Will the developer upgrade them?
  -The developer has stated that his biggest limitations are sound and art budget. The sound files are open to being replaced by modders, but someone will have to make that.
  
  
• I have high quality headphones and/or sensitive hearing, and some of these ambient engine noises and hums are a bit much. I can't find more direct control than turning down the master volume. What can I do?
  -The volume of some of the individual ambient sounds can be tweaked directly in sound setting files at /Data/Sounds. You will need to contact the developer, chaosavy, and describe the source of the sound so he can direct you to the specific file that you need to edit, but he is quite happy to help you with that.
  
  
• What other performance tweaks can I use?
  -Please see Sayonara's separate guide on this topic.
  https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1960247836

• Sanctuary is in a far corner of the map and lacks resources. Can you give me tips on good trade routes?
  -If you are not hostile with Civs, I'd suggest buying ore from MB01, Food from Demeter, and Energy from Sulis. Sulis and Demeter are the cheapest locations for food and energy. MB01 is comparable to buying ore from the MU but it is a lot closer to Sanctuary. This cuts down transit time, pirate exposure, and distance to reinforce if its attacked. 1 trade ship each, weapons and narcotics going out, the station's specialized good coming back in. Set A to B and back routes with no roaming to anywhere else. In my opinion that is among the best early trade setups that you can arrange.
  
  
• I built a Shipyard at Sanctuary, but I can't build anything with it!
  -A few additional ships for Sanctuary are unlocked by the campaign story as you progress through it.
  
  
• I am in the earlier campaign story missions where I am flying out to civilian cargo fleets to interrogate them about the Stubs. It is almost impossible to complete and keep the cargo ships alive.
  -Use your comms to speak with the cargo ships. There are scripts that trigger once you talk to the correct one in each mission.
  
  
• The Talon Destroyer mission is almost impossible!
  - It is one of the more difficult missions in the game. The developer's intention is that you carefully consider your selections for the limited number of ships you can bring, like chess pieces. It is possible to do. The two most discussed tactics are to use a Pride Drake and fly backwards at the edge of the Talon's range while bombarding it for 10-20 minutes (which works, but everyone that has done that agrees it isn't fun), or spamming Droppers for teardrop drones and managing the fight so enemies are targeting other ships until the teardrop drones can engage. You may be able to manage it with a different method. General advice for any attempt is to always clear out all of the Talon's escorts first.

Indie -
Independents. The real civilians, unaffiliated with any faction, just trying to get by. Being the grimdark setting this is, they are basically anyone else's meat. Indie traders are easy pickings if you want to be a pirate. They are the only 3rd party source of incoming economic trade, and will generally trade with you regardless of your relations with the major factions as long as they, personally, are still friendly. While this is random and borders on negligible compared to organized player managed trade, if you are hostile with most major factions it is better than nothing. No bases or organized action as a 'faction'.

Civilian Conglomerate -
A mutual defense alliance / cartel of multiple mega-corporations. They publicly present a united front, but there are hints implying that many subgroups are willing to engage in illegal behavior. While generally using current generation tech, their combat ships are a step down from the military in terms of effectiveness. They tend to be under-gunned for their size and emphasize cost or defense over firepower, but a few designs are above average. In particular, the HadesB can be absolutely deadly when player piloted. The Civilian Conglomerate is the largest faction overall, and in some sense is in itself most of the sector's economy. It is the only non-military source of taxi transports, the only faction that has access to multi-pod cargo transports, and is arguably the most easily accessible of only three factions with access to mining and repair ships. The cheapest trading stations for food and energy are found with this faction, while ore is competitive with the MU. Offending them is not to be done lightly, as their hostility blocking direct trade and the map coverage of their patrols can seriously hinder your economy. However, they are very prolific at emplacing multiple remote economic platforms, and you may find yourself forced to destroy some of them to be able to relocate a mobile base you just captured to where you need it to go. As long as you don't actually go to 'At War' with them, you can rapidly recover positive reputation by raiding one of the pirate factions afterwards. Buys everything overall, sells legal commodities. Specialized factory stations do not buy the good they specialize in producing (food at the food station, etc). Due to this faction's size, it is not really feasible to steal one base and then force peace. Be prepared for an extended fight if they actually mobilize against you. 8 bases, Faction Mobile Base: Civilian Outpost 01.

TSF -
Territory Security Force. They combine the function of both military and law enforcement in the local sector, and are generally allied with the Civilian Conglomerate. They are flush with recruitment and funding after the events that occurred in Void Destroyer 1. While they enforce order and claim to be humanity's shield, they are not necessarily good. Their combat ships are top of the line current and next gen tech, with even the less useful designs being durable and well armed. They also have access to a taxi shuttle, a repair ship, and a carrier. They are the second largest faction on the sector map, and the most powerful, militarily. While they offer a series of mercenary missions, their primary reward is pay in credits. Current service ship classes are not publicly for sale, even to favored private contractors. Many would argue that the three military surplus designs are not worth the effort to earn access to them. If you want one of their mainline ships, you will have to find it on the black market, or take it from them - a daring proposition that requires careful preparation. Buys food, ore, energy, sells weapons. Despite appearances, Palm does not produce ore. Will hunt you if you have an active Wanted bounty. Due to this faction's size, it is not really feasible to steal one base and then force peace. Be prepared for an extended fight if they actually mobilize against you. 5 bases. Faction Mobile Base: Campus.

MU -
Miner's United. They generally represent the rights of the second wave of mining colonists to the sector, taking the form of a union. They previously suppressed and pushed out the first wave of mining colonists from their claims, then lead a Civil War against the TSF, partly because they expected the TSF would do the same to them on behalf of the Civilian Conglomerate. Not only did they lose over the course of Void Destroyer 1, but the consequences of their actions are what set the stage for the events in Void Destroyer 2. The remaining MU in the sector is their surviving 'rump' territory, composed of the MU population that surrendered peacefully at the end of their war. Their ships generally are based on prior generation tech, mounted on hulls built into asteroids. Their smallest ships are short ranged but durable for their class, their midsized ships are jack of all trades with multiple onboard weapon systems, and their largest classes are designed as artillery. One of three factions with mining ships. Sells ore, buys everything else. 2 bases. No mobile bases.

The Pride -
A bounty hunter guild. The rise in criminal activity from the sector's economic boom has attracted their services. They require that anyone doing their missions be piloting their faction's ships while undertaking them. Their corvettes, gunships, and fighters are well designed, heavily upgradable, and suited to player piloting. However, their frigates and destroyers are oriented towards base defense and have average performance. Pride missions are normally combat heavy, and a good source of early credits for a player. Has access to a carrier. Sells weapons, buys everything else. Will hunt you if you have an active Wanted Bounty.

2 bases. Both Pride bases are mobile, however they are located towards the core of the map - if you conquer them, the paths wide enough to move them are very limited and may be blocked by other faction's remote platforms. The Lion is easier to move to the relatively empty outskirts of the map on the yellow side, at the expense of having to take the long way around to go almost anywhere else. The Shark is probably going to be sealed in by remote platforms, and usually can only be moved at the expense of provoking the platform owners by destroying them to clear a path.

Hazard Inc -
This gambling megacorp runs the race courses out of its mobile luxury liner base, Olympia. Their station can only build the super hornet fighter, and the racing function is disabled if you invade them. As result, more recent patches have locked them out to block declaring war or making invasion attempts against them. Traders can be sent to them to sell any goods for credits.

Pirates -
Independent pirates. Indies that have fallen into desperation. Awakened Stubs that remain independent from the Kind. Bandits and smugglers from both the MU and Civilian Conglomerate that are too new, too independent, or too crazy for the major outlaw factions. Uses a randomized mix of smaller early Kind ships, Civilian ships, and MU ships. No bases or organized action as a 'faction'. An early threat for merchants and miners, and the first bounties or competition for everyone else. The general source of hostile forces in several missions that are otherwise unaffiliated with Diggers, Reborn, or Beggars.

Reborn -
The bulk of the remaining militant MU that continue to resist the TSF, with their numbers bolstered by a large part of the surviving Diggers and even some TSF deserters. Their goal is to overthrow the TSF and by extension the Civilian Conglomerate in the local sector. To that end they have redesigned a military oriented fleet from scratch using elements from all three groups that joined together. If you play through the Void Destroyer 1 campaign, you may witness an indirect explanation for why such an unlikely group would form an alliance. Due to lack of supplies and continued recruitment from outlaws, in most ways they have devolved into pirates. As a pirate faction, they are not only hostile to the lawful factions, but also their primary competition, the Beggars. This ironically means that fighting one pirate faction will inherent improve relations with the other. They have ship capture units. Sells weapons and narcotics, buys everything else. Their territory is the green outskirts of the map, relative to the Sun Gate. 2 bases. No mobile bases.

Beggars -
An organized crime syndicate, focused on racketeering, smuggling, extortion, and piracy. The economic boom in the local sector attracted their attention. As a pirate faction, they are not only hostile to the lawful factions, but also their primary competition, the Reborn. This ironically means that fighting one pirate faction will inherent improve relations with the other. They have ship capture units. Sells weapons and narcotics, buys everything else. Their territory is the green outskirts of the map, relative to the Sun Gate. 2 bases. Faction Mobile Base: Cove.

The Shadow Traders -
This faction runs the black market out of two abandoned bases. They have no personal ships, no fleet, and do not actively defend themselves. Their stations cannot build any ships, and the black market function is disabled if you invade them. As result, more recent patches have locked them out to block declaring war or making invasion attempts against them. Traders can be sent to them to buy or sell illegal commodities.

The Diggers (DLC) -
The first generation mining colonists that settled the local sector, pushed out to the fringes and forced to survive off piracy by the MU. Historically, their territory overlaps with the area that the Reborn now occupy. Their ships are based on tech that is at least two generations out of date and is mostly refitted miner equipment. Their ships are durable and fast, but most of their lineup emphasizes short ranged weaponry. Several of their designs primarily rely on melee ramming and they lack coverage for the destroyer and cruiser weight classes. That being said, their melee ships can be deadly and punch above their weight if they connect.

The DLC is a player-only alternate start that gives the player their last light dreadnought-carrier, which can be heavily upgraded at great expense. This includes unlocking the ability to build new ship designs via upgrade module. As the player is not a Digger, their reputation does not transfer to you. This is a hard mode start due to the upkeep credit drain from the dreadnought - however to compensate, it can construct ships internally using only ore. Has access to repair and mining ships. The DLC adds Digger ships into the enemy table for some of the randomly generated mercenary missions, but it does not add a full AI faction or bases for the Diggers at this time. 'Official public knowledge' in the presented lore states that most of the surviving Diggers joined the Reborn - as the Reborn have superior tech, the same territory zone, and less desperate circumstances, this makes a bit of sense.

Scarabs (VD1) -
A shady private military corporation, willing to opportunistically engage in salvage and piracy. They were also hired by the MU as mercenaries to oppose the TSF during Void Destroyer 1, and were the only organization that did not have any subgroup willingly volunteer to assist in a crisis that developed out of that civil war. They only had a few ship designs, favoring heavy machine guns and missiles, with an aesthetic that had some details in common with the Beggars. They are not present in Void Destroyer 2 and their fate is unknown, though it could be assumed that they were punished and driven out of the local sector.

Stubs (VD1) -
Disposable combat cyborg drones, recruited from people that sell themselves into slavery to make their problems and debts disappear. The final result has been mind wiped and is normally incapable of fear. The organization that makes Stubs sells them as disposable mercenary troops equipped with cheaply mass produced ships based on outdated military designs, modified to move fast and hit hard at the expense of all other considerations for pilot safety, comfort, or survivability. The organization that makes Stubs appears to be a mega corp hidden within the Civilian Conglomerate, instead of an overt criminal syndicate. The MU hired a contingent of them during Void Destroyer 1, which ultimately played a significant role in the events that ensued. They do not have a direct presence on the sector map in Void Destroyer 2.

The Kind -
A faction of disposable combat cyborg slaves, Stubs, that were released and awakened following the events of Void Destroyer 1. Slowly relearning survival instincts and innovation, they are feared, shunned, and discriminated against by many normal humans. In response, most of them have banded together. Despite no longer being completely unconcerned about personal survival, they are willing to coldly accept levels of risk that would cause even the most deranged pirates to have second thoughts. They initially resorted to a mix of piracy and mercenary work to survive, and were considered to be pirates immediately prior to the beginning of Void Destroyer 2.

The Kind are inherently tied to the vanilla story campaign, which revolves around them. Despite their presented background, they have been reset from outlaws to neutrals both for playability and as an artifact of how their faction and the 'player' faction interact on the back end. Several of the utility classes and piracy related ship roles covered in other factions that you would expect them to be able to build are also missing, as a design choice to encourage the player to obtain those elsewhere. They eventually unlock a corvette, a frigate, and a destroyer through campaign story progression. All of their ships are immediately available in a sandbox campaign. Their older, smaller ship classes hit hard, but tend to still be designed towards being spammed in numbers without regard for losses. Their newer ships alternate between powerful tanks and glass cannons. Sells ore, weapons, and narcotics, buys everything else. In story campaign, you will probably be using the ore directly instead of selling it. No mobile base.

The Ashen (DLC) -
The Ashen fleet from the Ashes DLC is a player-only alternate start that gives a mobile factory station loaded with plans for experimental ship prototypes called 'The Forge' to the player. This includes a few ships to help get it off the ground with instructions to test the designs - this gives the owner plausible deniability and minimizes their operating expenses. The Forge is staffed by Stubs, and has unexplained ties to the group that creates and sells Stubs. Ashen ships tend to be powerful and durable with quirky weapon systems that border on niche uses, but are very expensive relative to other faction lineups. This is a hard mode start because the station cannot build economic platforms, any piracy related ships, any utility ships, or a base invasion ship. It starts out in a very out of the way location, requiring significant time and Energy resources to move closer in-system for faster mining and trade. In terms of the campaign story, easy possession of a second base accelerates the progression significantly. The larger Ashen ship classes are unlocked at three different thresholds for number of conquered bases owned by the player.

The Outsiders -
An alien force that was provoked into offensive action against humanity after debris from the TSF-MU Civil War fell on their planet. Their advanced technology allowed them to almost purge humanity from the local sector in the outer reaches of the solar system, before they were driven back. The wreckage of these invaders has fueled a technological and economic boom in the local sector, not the least of which is improving engines to the point that jump gates are no longer essential for long distance travel. A few of their remnants linger in the outskirts of the sector, and the TSF stands watch over the possibility of their return in force. This sets the stage for Void Destroyer 2.

There was a branching story with several endings in Void Destroyer 1. There were limited human survivors of the invasion. Politics and propaganda afterwards have further muddied accounts of what actually occurred. The lore blurbs in faction, ship, and base descriptions reflect common public knowledge of the 'official' public story. Specific points in these lore entries and in the campaign story drop multiple indirect hints on what really happened, while being vague enough to leave the final details up to reader interpretation.

Direct Miners:

All direct miners can be serviced by a cargo ship taking their pods, so they can keep mining instead of returning to base. However, this ties up a cargo ship that counts against the soft cap for buying them from other factions and that cargo ship will need its own escorts.

• Tytus - outdated budget miner. Moves up to the asteroid and drills. Can ram with the drill in emergencies. 2 point defense guns. 1 pod.
  
  
• Tytus2P - more fragile, but can support 2 pods. 2 point defense guns.
  
  
• Geb - modern light/medium Civ miner. Pew pews off small chunks then vacuums them up. 1 pod. 1 point defense gun.
  
  
• Pluto - modern medium/heavy Civ miner. Zaps small chunks off with a beam array, then vacuums them up. 4 pods. 2 point defense guns.

Transport Miners:

• Tug - MU medium/heavy miner. Grabs a whole large class asteroid and brings it straight back to a base. Doesn't have to hang around in the asteroid field, can steal asteroids from occupied hostile fields. Cannot be serviced by a cargo ship, but that's arguably a bonus instead of a negative. I'd argue this is the best one. No point defenses at all.

Disabled in Vanilla VD2:

• Harnden - a gunship sized miner with a grabber claw and a small mining blaster turret. Pew pews off a single chunk, grabs it, then delivers it. In VD1, Tugs would drop off asteroids in a safe spot near your base, then you'd send a handful of Harndens over to work on it like harvesting peons from older games. Due to the different map mechanics in VD2, these are so sub-optimal compared to other options that a lot of players were rightly complaining it was a newbie trap, so chaosavy disabled it. If you mess with any mods, its quite possible you will see this re-enabled, so I am still explaining what it is and how it rates. Definitely worse than all the other options above.

Void Destroyer 2 has been designed to support modding. Compared to some other games, it is relatively easy to work with. By my current awareness, the only part of the game that is hardcoded are core mechanics and the randomized mercenary missions available to the existing factions. It is possible to add new factions, bases, story campaign missions, and ships, or to tweak original assets by overriding their files.

Mods are loaded into the game's Steam Folder, at "Steam\steamapps\common\Void Destroyer 2\Mod". The file structure mirrors the root set up for "Steam\steamapps\common\Void Destroyer 2\" with data files under "Mod\Data" and art assets under "Mod\Textures". If the filenames are identical, files in the Mod folder will override and supercede anything in the base game folder.

It is possible to stack multiple mods on top of each other in the Mods folder and have them all work, provided none of the individual mods you are combining edit the same files.

All data files are in XML format. Aside from art assets, almost all the files can be edited directly with a text editor such as Notepad or Notepad++.

Texture assets are in .PNG and model assets are in .mesh, a model format that is usable by the XML based engine. Models are edited and textured in Blender, then converted via plugins to .mesh format.

Chaosavy has an example of the UV map texturing process for VD2's style in one of his kickstarter videos here, from about 12 minutes in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayLlJ9kk6p8&start=722
Stratos wrote up a guide for "How to import/export ships for Void Destroyer 2 using Blender". As a complete beginner, I learned the hard way that Blender's UI and shortcut keys can change significantly across different Blender versions. The current edition of Blender 2.8+ is very different and breaks compatibility with a lot of plugin tools that work with 2.79 and prior. Use 2.79, or even 2.76, which is what Stratos was using when he wrote up his guide.

VD2 is surprisingly stable for adding new mods and reloading saves from an existing game. New content will 'pop in', bases will automatically start adding new ships to their defense fleets, etc. I have seen more unstable behavior from loading a modded save after removing a mod I used, but that may have been due to not cleanly doing the removal, resulting in a dirty mod folder with broken asset references (like call model X when model X is no longer available in the folder).

There are no known cheats that have been released to the public.

That being said, you can easily mod stats and costs to cheat. The save file itself can also be manually edited with a text editor. You can achieve several different effects by doing so, though the simplest one is editing the amount of credits you have.

- How to defend against teardrop drones (and how to abuse using them)

- Tentative: addition of updated summary guide for primary/active upgrades

- Non cheat Tactics (ship positioning, rule of engagement status, focus/ignore target, formations), Tips, Tricks section.

-doing mass fleet upgrades in hangar

-brief upgrade clarification - active ability good for if the player pilots, or micromanages activating the abilities for rest of the fleet through time dialation and the tactical interface. most primary / passives are good for AI if the player is directly present at the fleet combat. only 3-4 passive abilities are good on the overworld map, and none of them give any bonus to how overworld auto combat resolution works. Actives can be activated through the tactical interface without actually switching to remote pilot on an invidual ship, but secondaries can only be activated while piloting.

-a general ship review guide is a bit beyond the scope of this FAQ and should probably be its own separate guide. I'm not sure if I will be the one that does that, but right now I definately don't have any time or energy.

Sayanora's Ship comparison guide focuses only on raw movement and weapon related stats, which he extracted from the game data files using a little script he personally created. While it isn't a full review guide, it does give more information than having no guide at all, including ship names, classes, and utility functions (like repair / cargo) where they exist.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1989143512