Looking for recommendations on the best overhaul mod (CE, smpk-i, etc)

[Microrhythms]

I've played vanilla advanced edition for a few hundred hours already and am looking for some new experiences in this glorious game engine. The two overhaul mods that seem to come up a lot are Captain's Edition and smpk Insurrection.

Any opinions comparing the two?

I've read complaints of balance about both and it's hard to figure out which ones are valid. I would just try both out, but it seems that the depth and complexity only make themselves known after many playthroughs, and what may seem unfair at first may in fact be fine once you understand it. Don't mind a more difficult experience (win about half my games on hard vanilla) as long as it also feels fair and rewarding.

[mr_easy_money]

The two overhaul mods that seem to come up a lot are Captain's Edition and smpk Insurrection.

Any opinions comparing the two?

I've read complaints of balance about both and it's hard to figure out which ones are valid.

let's also throw in smpk Captain's Remix.

so first things first, Captain's Edition. yes, the main problem with this balance-wise is the loot pool. in many eyes, there's simply too much crap filling it making good weapons hard to find. but hey, there's a sort of "successor" to this, Captain's Remix, a remix of CE by slow, author of the smpk. the loot pool is no longer bs, but some things are definitely different, like light lasers being able to do system damage, removal of combat fluff (non-flavor), no more hyper-space, and from what I've felt, not as many chances for pds (and other stuff).

so while Captain's Remix has fixed the evident balance problem, I can't help feel that I'm missing something I liked from original CE.

now smpk Insurrection. the focus here feels more about new weapons and trying to figure out how to deal with that new influx. in my opinion, the lack of events compared to CE/CR is the main thing that draws me away from it and more towards Captain's Remix. also, I used to be good at it, but now I can't get anything going. so maybe I need more experience with it, but I don't really enjoy it as much as I do CR and I'd rather play that.

the best advice I'd say is to try them all for yourself. some people love CE, some people hate it. I've heard Insurrection recommended but like I said I don't particularly enjoy it. guess it depends on what you're looking for.

-- discussion on optional weapon modifier addons --

so smpk has an optional add-on called the augmented weapons module. this adds several different modifiers to weapons like incendiary, hardened, overclocked, elite, and more. for balance reasons, you can't find all of them in every sector (except maybe events that offer the weapons specifically), but the enemies'll have access to all of them. a good deal of work has been done in balance, well, in this mod as a whole, so I wouldn't worry about that.

then in CE you got Endless Loot (which doesn't work for some people, as in, it refuses to work with FTL). intended for use with CE Infinite, but can be used with standard CE; adds a whole slew of different weapon modifiers, all thrown into the loot pool. modifiers like hull ripper, breaching, obsolete, blunt, and many more. currently, there's a problem with EL that makes better stuff in the same range harder to find. for example, advanced does cooldown x0.85 and obselete does cooldown x1.25, but advanced is in a higher rarity level.

the main difference between Endless Loot in CE vs the augmented weapons module is that in Endless Loot there's a range of good and bad prefixes (evidently leaning towards the bad ones more common) but many of these prefixes are just one-sided. in augmented weapons on the other hand, it's more of a if one thing is better, then another stat is decreased, even if just by a bit, and there's only one purely bad prefix.

(I'm currently trying to rewrite EL, to re-balance it, and a balanced thing might make its way into smpk)

//so... this became longer than I expected. I recommend using the augmented weapons module with smpk. I like Endless Loot just because of the possibility of getting interesting weapons. also, though not recommended, I don't enable the non-EL enemy weaponry addon. this makes ship fights vary into a whole range of possibilities, from easy to terrifying. I just imagine that if I have access to these weapons then the enemies should too. unfortunately, since these weapons weren't made for balance, giving them to the enemy is a bad idea, but I like it