Few questions.

[illyTheKid]

Is it possible to have the general game in English and text quests in Russian somehow?
I've played this game before pirates were introduced in this kind of scale. Do they change the game a lot?
What is the most balanced difficulty for the game? Could anyone provide a good configuration?

[Purmurtail]

It's possible but it's gonna be quite a headache. Keep in mind it may cause game crashes and certainly will block achievements and etc. Any quest briefings will also be in Russian. So you're warned about this.
Nevertheless, today I used this way and launched rus quest "Pilot" from main menu:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1922208809

1) Set game language to english.
2) Download ResEditor 1.3.2[snk-games.net]
3) Open it. Choose "PkgUnpacker" tab. Press 3 dots at "PKG архив". Look for "questsEng.pkg" at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Space Rangers HD A War Apart\DATA (the path may vary). Create any random folder and extract the archive there. "Папка распаковки" means "extract to". You'll get something like "Myfolder/Data/Quests/Eng" and many .qmm files inside.
4) Set game language to russian.
5) Same as 3) but with "questsRus.pkg". You'll get something as "Myfolder/Data/Quests/Rus"
6) Then the fun begins. Open the folder with russian quests. You'll need to rename everything by names you got from "questsEng.pkg". As example, rename "Amnesia.qmm" to "Amnesia_eng.qmm".
7) Then done, rename "Myfolder\Data\Quest\Rus" to "MyfolderEng_but_Rus\Data\Quest\Eng".
8) Open ResEditor one more time. Choose "PkgPacker" tab. "Папка запаковки" means directory you want to compress. "PKG архив" here means "archive will be named as". Find and choose the folder "MyfolderEng_but_Rus" (not "MyfolderEng_but_Rus\Data"). Set the name "questsEng.pkg" and press "запаковать".
9) Set game language back to english.
10) Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Space Rangers HD A War Apart\DATA. And replace original "questsEng.pkg" with one you compressed.

At least it's worth to try. In case of crashes you could just restore everything back. Delete "questsEng.pkg". From the Steam library section, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu. Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game files... button. Steam will verify the game's files - this process may take several minutes.

---

Yup, the pirates change game a lot. Their spawn rate is mad. They're destroying everything except Medical Centres. It'll be a good idea to get rid of them ASAP. They capture Coalition systems with ease but dominators just kick them out. So keep in mind to do something. On 200% they're nothing if you don't allow them to expand.

---

The most balanced configuration depends on your style and how many years you want to play.

50% - Coalition mostly kill everything except bosses even without player. Game is pretty fast.
100% - Not so fast and easy as before, mostly balanced. It's a case something depends on you.
200% - Coalition won't do anything without you. Bosses are pretty tough. Game is interesting and long but it's recommended to play 150-175% before.
500% - Coalition is doomed without you. Bosses are very tough. You'll almost never research anti-boss programs so look for other ways to win. It's recommended to those who play 200% with ease.

[illyTheKid]

Thank you very much. It worked, this is exactly what I wanted. I haven't played much yet(planning to in few days) to see if it crashes a lot or not during the gameplay but I've played for a bit and it seems fine.
Also did one quest for the government and achievements seem to track.
And another thing, planet names and character names(other pilots) are in Russian for some reason. It's ok but it makes it a bit more difficult to use in game search engine to search by name.


btw I used this batch to rename the files quickly

rem @echo off
setlocal
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for %%a in ("<YOUR PATH>\questsRus\Data\Quest\Rus\*.qmm") do (
copy "%%a" "%%~dpna_eng%%~xa"
del "%%a"
)
endlocal

[Purmurtail]

Then it seems I was wrong about the achievements. You see, as I know, modification of game's resources usually block it. It's good to know that this way is not considered as a modification.

About the names, possibly some sort of glitch with variables since we changed the language of quests. Still, it's quite strange. Game reads list of names from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Space Rangers HD A War Apart\CFG\Eng\Lang.dat" (for English version). Or from "Rus\Lang.dat" (Russian version). If you'll find "Rus\Lang.dat" try to delete it. Usually, Steam deletes this file when you change the language. But who knows, maybe it's still there. Maybe game reads names from it somehow.

Also, many thanks for the batch!