This thread is only for providing a more detailed insight into the changes of Aesthetic Cinematic Graphics. For posting suggestions or comments about those features please use the mod's comment section or user suggestion thread


Everything was downscaled. Ships are much smaller now compared to stations. Weapons are rescaled as well and visually balanced for visibility and scale. Strike Craft is more visible now.

Important: First i rescaled everything myself. But then i realized it's silly to provide yet another rescaling mod with only narrow differences (speaking of Downscaled Ships mod by Chondrite) since this would make potential future compatibility more difficult. So i decided to implement almost all his rescaling but with some minor changes here and there.

I wished i could just make downscaled ships mod mandatory instead of taking almost all his rescaling and implementing it into my mod. Unfortunately that's not possible since i made some adjustments (like different scale of strike craft, no ship trails, different fleet spacing and more) which makes a compatibility patch very difficult for me. But i want everybody to know that the ship rescaling is basically now all Chondrite's work and he deserves all credit for it. Please give him and his mod a "sub" and "thumbs up" if you like the scaling of this mod.


System scaling has been increased in order to make them look and feel bigger and more immersive while at the same time i try to keep a good balanced gameplay.


Implemented a lot of the great work of Chickenhunt with his awesome mods Alternative Laser Graphics and Improved Projectile Graphics, but also made some additions and adjustments to it in order to make it better fit into a cinematic experience.


There are a lot (!) more camera zoom steps now in order to provide a smoother graphical battle experience. You will be able to zoom nearer ships from farer away than before even though everything got downscaled.


I didn't like so many long laser beams flying around during battles (and uuugh was it ugly if they missed). That destroyed the immersive feeling for me. Therefore i completely replaced the following Long Laser Beam Graphics: red, blue, uv, gamma and xray Laser with my own interpretation of Laser Weapons (thanks @ the Star Wars Mod Team who let me use and rework some of their Laser Projectile Graphics!)


I completely replaced and renamed the Long Laser Beam Graphics with my own interpretation of weapons. Those four X Slot Weapons have their own animations and graphics (thanks @Chirumiru ShiRoz for providing some assets i was allowed to use and rework).
Energy Lance will now be Energy Cannon (blue projectile like weapon with trail effect)
Tachyon Lance will now be Tachyon Cannon (blue projectile like weapon with trail effect)
Arc Emitter I & II will now be Arc Artillery and Focused Arc Artillery

They will have the same name but new weapon graphics (red projectile like weapon with trail effect)


I never liked that Strike Craft fired long laser beams. I therefore completely replaced the Long Laser Beam Graphics with my own interpretation of immersive Strike Craft Weapons. Strike Craft 0 is equipped with an auto cannon look alike graphical weapon type. Strike Craft IV is equipped with a stormfire auto cannon look alike graphical weapon type (like auto cannon but with blue lasers). Strike Craft II and Strike Craft III got new recolored weapon types of Strike Craft IV. Hence you start with "normal" auto cannon projectiles with your strike craft and upgrade them to better and better "Laser" Auto Cannons.


I liked to keep those, since they fit into my imagination of an immersive graphical experience. If you watch a Space Battle and you see a Titan firing a laser beam it feels like a really special and powerful weapon now. I added the travel effect of Alternative Laser Graphics for a better visual experience.


I recolored a lot of weapons to provide a more immersive look and this is a constant work in progress (future recoloring will follow). A lot of weapons got a brighter and in my opinion more realistic look but kept their intentional color. Some colors were even completely replaced to better fit into an immersive space battle experience.


I didn't like the hexagons of shields that are shown up once a ship got hit. Therefore i removed the hexagons to provide a better looking shield hit effect. I also increased the amount of shield hit effects that you are going to see during battles by making some weapons able to cause a shield hit effect. I recolored all shields to make them more immersive and i also added new shield animations (thanks @G-Man from ST: New Horizons for providing assets i was allowed to use and rework)


I never liked the vanilla ship trails which look awkward in my opinion. Hence i removed them completely.


Ever felt like its weird that some ships visually don't fire on other ships once you see huge space battles? Not anymore. I increased the amount of visible projectiles, hit effects etc. to basically unlimited. Now you will see ALL ships firing and all the visual effects that are caused by them.

Important: i did not artificially add more projectiles. I just made those projectiles visible again that vanilla intended to hide from us!


I reworked the stats of ships in order to provide a longer lasting, smoother and visually way more satisfying space battle without making it imbalanced by deviating too much from vanilla values or causing the upgrades/technologies etc. to break the game or cause inconsistencies. I really tried to make this mod as balanced as possible but this is a constant work in progress as well.

I can't promise that you will never find any possible exploits or imbalances but i will try my best and i doubt that you will feel like this mod makes the game more imbalanced than vanilla or other mods.


I decreased the speed of ships a little bit to provide a more realistic feeling during battles without adjusting it too much so it would make fleets moving too slow when they are not in battle.

Additionally i highly recommend using Kaityo's Slow Speed Battles mod together with this mod. After subscribing to Kaiyo's Slow Battle mod you can adjust the speed of ships during battles by going to edicts and choosing your preferred speed reduction: i am playing with 0,3


I reduced jump drive cooldown to 90 days in order to compensate for lower fleet movement in late game which is also caused by rescaling the systems. I consequently changed the negative effects and reduced the duration of them once you are using jump drive in order to make it more reasonable and useable in late game. I slightly increased the range of jump drive by about 20 %.


Ships are now way sooner and from farer away initiating a battle with enemy fleets if they are in the same system. Weapons range was reworked to fit into the rescaled experience created by all the other changes. Strike craft range was also adjusted to have a visually more appealing range and also improve balancing. Strike craft will also launch way sooner now and will be a real threat in battles.


Mainly regarding range adjustments that are required to complement the other range and scaling adjustments but also regarding the way ships move. Combat and ship behavior will be more cinematic and immersive, while i also kept an eye on balance. I also completely reworked transport ship behavior (no stupid small circles anymore) and much much more.


I adjusted the spacing and height of ships in order to provide an immersive graphical space combat experience.


I adjusted several other combat mechanisms in order to provide a better space combat experience. Ships will focus more random targets for example. Ships disengagement chance was adjusted to provide a more realistic space battle experience and more.


I implemented some of the great changes made by kelstr, Avelium, ButtJunkie and/or Blackthorn, adjusted some of them and added some of my own in order to make galaxies and systems look better and provide a better immersive feeling. Among those changes was what you will see in a system and what not.


If you don't like the cleaner system view or other changes i made, you will be able to add back things like system orbit lines or arrows etc. by using addon mods i created. You can find them here


no more subtle pink colors for some projectiles like in vanilla but instead i gave them yellowish/orangeish/blueish subtle and bright colors. Hit effects and other effects have also been reworked to be more immersive


colors and trails have been adjusted i.e. replaced/improved/reworked to better fit into immersion of ACG.

Every replaced Laser weapon graphic was renamed. I also added language support for every language but chinese (if somebody wants to help with translation into chinese let me know)


added/reworked/replaced/recolored icons to better fit into ACG.

... and more