Efficient New Game Plus (NG+) Artifact Hunting

If you wish the new game plus (NG+) artifact hunt was less of a slog, this mod is for you.

I've found when entering the NG+ loop with a new character, it took me entirely too long to get to my target NG+ universe. A big part of that was going through the same POIs requiring extensive combat and navigation again and again. I also found console commands and cheat mods accelerating or skipping around the quest could sometimes lead to unintended consequences down the road.

So, I created this mod keep the player within the NG+ quest parameters of fetching artifacts from the caves while making the process more efficient by only allowing the "quick and easy" artifact POIs to spawn.

Who This Mod Is For:

• People tired of having to fight enemies in repetitive POIs just to grab a hunk of metal from a rock.
• People who don't want to (or can't) use console commands to teleport themselves straight to the Unity, spawn the artifacts in their inventory, or adjust their Unity jump count.
• People who want the experience of legitimately fetching the artifacts from the caves but don't feel like taking forever to navigate through large, enemy-heavy POIs.
• People looking for a NG+ artifact speed-run approach that works within the game's normal quest tracking to avoid possible issues with loop-count manipulation.

What This Mod Does:

• Specifically designates a small set of convenient, mostly combat-free* vanilla POIs where your NG+ artifacts can spawn.
• Allows you to get from arrival in your new universe to Unity jumping to the next one in less than an hour while staying within the confines of the legitimate NG+ loop. (It took me about 55 minutes from jump to jump, but I stopped to loot and sell everything, too)

*I say mostly combat free, as enemies do still have a chance to spawn outside the POIs (but you can easily walk around them if so). Inside the POIs you won't encounter any human enemies. In one POI, some turrets remain but are easily avoided. Starborn still have a chance to spawn in front of the artifacts for all your Quantum Essence fans.

What This Mod Does Not Do:

• Touch anything related to the full vanilla main quest. If you do not choose "Skip Main Quest" when you're talking to Sarah in The Lodge, this mod will do nothing.
• Touch anything related to gathering Starborn powers. There are other fine mods that tweak how Starborn powers are acquired.
• Touch anything in the NG+ loop other than artifact POI eligibility.
• Delete any POIs from the rest of the game's spawn pools or alter vanilla spawn pools in any way outside of NG+ artifacts.
• Alter the POIs remaining in the NG+ spawn pool.

Adding and Removing:

• This mod changes how the NG+ artifact hunt generates locations. You must install this mod in the Unity before you jump through to start your next universe.
• Once you get to your desired NG+ level and you're ready to return to the normal NG+ loop, simply remove or deactivate this mod in the Unity before you jump through to the universe you want returned to the vanilla experience.

Known Immersion Impacts:

• The NG+ main quest POI pool has been significantly reduced in order to narrow it down to POIs you can essentially just walk into, maybe shoot a Starborn, grab the artifact, and walk back out. As such, you will see basically many repeats of the same two caves. This will be immersion-breaking for some. But the goal here was efficiency while staying within the quest parameters, not immersion.
• You may see the same planets containing the POIs jump over jump, as there are vanilla restrictions on where specific POIs can spawn and a vanilla distance restriction on how far from The Eye the NG+ artifacts can spawn. In the interest of keeping the changes as lightweight as possible, I did not alter these vanilla conditions.
• You may end up seeing more than one artifact on the same planet. This is expected behavior.

Compatibility Warning:

• This mod hasn't been tested alongside POI cooldown mods or other mods impacting POI generation. If you use one, load this mod after it. As this mod works by adding its own spawn pool onto the abbreviated main quest, that load order gives the best chance of both working.
• This mod replaces the vanilla keyword on the six NG+ artifact location aliases rather than adding to it. If you use another mod that also modifies these aliases, expect a conflict.

Find me in the DarkStar Discord channel #grapeheart-mods for any issues or questions.