To play up the fragile speedster role the F5 filled, I have changed the system blueprints of shields to max out at 6 instead of 8 and reduced the price of engines (380 scrap to fully upgrade, now only takes 255). The two weapons bays will provide a unique challenge as your conventional weapons don't really scale that much as you progress. So don't neglect your artillery since that's where a lot of your firepower comes from. The fact you can't just slap any piece of junk in your third weapons slot to be useful, and anything you do find has to compete for your current slots, your starting weapons will be a bit better than average to make up for the lack of scalability. And before someone says it, I know it looks a ton like the Swordfish II from Cowboy Bebop. Given the sheer amount of sci references and nods Ring Runner makes, I wouldn't be surprised if this was intentional.
Important Notes:
-The Mercury replaces the Kestrel Types A,B, and C
-The two weapon slots means there is no autofire button. This can be resolved by left ctrl+ targeting with a desired weapon.
-The layout A has a issue where the oxygen is de-powered when the zoltan is returning to his station from the medbay.
-The Layout B does not support mind control due to room constraints.
-The layout C has no shields at all, but you still get the prompt to but them at stores! Do not buy them, you'll just waste your scrap!
To do list:
-All clear (For now)
Would you like to have all of the fantastic weapons this mod has included (bar artillery) without overriding the kestrel or upgrade changes? Check out it's sister mod here! (Never run both at once.)

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F5 Mercury
Crew: Human, Engi, Zoltan.
Augments: Shield Charge Booster, FTL Recharge Booster.
Weapons: Repeating photocaster MK II - fires more shots than an equivalent power burst laser, but it's very inaccurate. And a longbow missile launcher. The missile itself is weak with only one damage, but has a decent chance of inflicting side effects with it's 3/10 chance of fire/breach/stun and sports a short cooldown and will pack a decent punch until you find an upgrade.
Artillery: The Titan beam is your bread and butter, the beam ignores shields like the fed cruiser, but it's beam twice as strong, in addition to having a decent breach chance. The beams downside is that it travels slower than the fed beam and is not even half as long (still longer than a pike beam though). This will more often than not be your killing blow when things get hairy.

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F5RA Prototype
Crew: Slug, Engi, Zoltan.
Augments: Adv. Scanners, Drone Recovery Arm
Weapons: Gemini Seeker Missiles - Advanced missiles that bypass MK I defense drones and inflict 2 normal and 2 system damage, (4 damage total a hit system) and will stun any crew inside. Essential for picking off weapons when you are vulnerable and shields for when you go on the offensive. Stun Beam II - A shield bypassing beam that stuns enemy crew. No damage, but it's far from harmless and not to be underestimated. It's shorter cooldown than the regular (obtainable versions) make it really good at stunlocking crew in fires/vacuums, halting repairs from your system disablers, or keeping the enemy FTL from charging if you target the helm.
Drones: This ship has the unique 4 slot drone bay to make up for the lack of direct killing power of the Gemini Artillery beam. Shield Overcharger MK II - A one power variant because the three power version is useless. Combat Drone MK I - This is your main source of damage as your other weapons are primarily disablers. Thanks to your recovery arm, you can use drones liberally.
Artillery: Gemini Artillery Beam - A short laser beam that does 3 system damage and stuns enemy crew inside. However it is NOT shield-piercing! This Artillery's cooldown is only 20 seconds. So it's "weak" effect offset by it being a much more spammy artillery.

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The Spray & Pray
Crew: Lanius, 2 Engi
Augments: Weapon Pre-Igniter, Adv. Scanners- This ship was sorta of a joke of mine. What if I made the Simo-H but with the weapon Pre-igniter instead of that stupid shield drone as it's gimmick? I think starting with the best augment in the game is a much more interesting trade off for the weaknesses it has.
Weapons: Longbow Salvo missiles - Fires four 1 damage missiles across an area, good since it is not stopped by shields. Repeating Photocaster MK I - Three projectiles in an area, but is hard to target specific rooms with.
Artillery: This ship really needs to hit hard and fast, so starts with a whopping level 3 Titan Beam!
-Authors note: This ship has no shields AT ALL. Have fun against the rebel flagship.
Get the mod here! Currently at version 1.4.1
Changelog
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1.0
-Release
1.1
-Added miniship sprites
-Made Bio Beam II obtainable
-Fixed minor spelling errors
1.3
-Made weapons available to enemy ships
-Minor Sprite Tweaks
1.3.5
-Removed shields entirely from the Layout C, Now supports mind control
-Added variance to the Titan Beam SFX
-Increased targeting area and cooldown of Photo Vulcan (final RoF is still the same)
-Rephrased Photocaster text to be more clear with how many (true) projectiles they fire
1.4
-Added Resonant Beam
1.4.1
-Changed Resonant beam to resonant beam II
-Made Resonant beam II more rare (was too common)
-Added Resonant beam I
-Made Scalpel Beam sprite more distinct
-Changed Bio Beam II Tooltip
Video Runs:
Biohazard063 (layout B): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp7Z4B_8BtI
Ben Tenkage (layout A): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCptdGzdqvg