The pet project of a disgruntled FTL veteran, the Polish Kit represents the results of over four years of learning to both play, modify and observe a dearly-admired game. With an eye for the most intricate details, his efforts (hopefully) managed to bring the game into a state that ambitiously seeks perfection. With the visual fidelity of the game fine-tuned and several glaring balance issues with the original game fixed to the best of the author's ability, the Kit aims to be the most complete form of the original FTL Advanced Edition.
Once this was achieved however, the disgruntled veteran seeked to go beyond the limits of vanilla FTL. So over the course of a year, the content expansion FTL Insurrection slowly took form. Its purpose was more of a proving ground for ideas about adding additional, lore-friendly content into the game, but as time went on, it resembled something more than that. Thus, Insurrection was released alongside the Polish Kit in the same download as its official expansion pack, promising a more entertaining experience without compromising on the game balance that the Kit was designed around. It also provided a real challenge for true veterans of the game in its new Final Boss.
Before Insurrection, the Polish Kit was also known for its take on altering the most popular FTL mod in existence, Captain's Edition. While marked as a listed contributor on the Title Screen, the author would eventually move back into the realm of adjusting CE once the work on Insurrection had mostly concluded. In the end, he realized that he could do a lot more to the mod with a rewrite rather than a patch that would be installed on top of the original mod.
This resulted in Captain's Remix, which polishes over the base mod in practically every area the author was able to. With the overall text mass of the mod reduced by over 40% compared to the source material, Captain's Remix does its best to mitigate the potential performance issues that could arise on weaker machines. At the same time, it doesn't compromise on content, retaining the vast majority of Captain's Edition's equipment while further expanding upon it with the weapons native to FTL Insurrection. It aims to be the most refined form of Captain's Edition around.
Truth be told, it's been a tough ride from start to finish. Modifying FTL might be a lot easier than other games, but it's still far from trivial. Adjusting to the changes made in Advanced Edition was especially tough, and not only because the solid balance of the original game was completely knocked off kilter by the presence of weapons like the Flak Guns, not to mention the overwhelming dominant cheat code that was the addition of the Hacking system. Being able to play a form of Advanced Edition where even such god-like equipment could be brought right back in line with everything else is a grand relief to the author, but being able to play with an expansion pack of almost completely my own creation has been nothing short of a magical experience.
With the Polish Kit and all of its content, I hope to share that sense of enjoyment with you all.
-slow
Oh, how times have changed since the good old days. Not the Polish Kit or Insurrection, those have pretty much remained the same as they always did. And that's because I was forced into a retirement from everything FTL-related by computer problems that wiped out all the progress that was being made into a prospective 'final' update to Insurrection. With a whole wall of progress deleted by hard drive problems (caused by a faulty PSU of all things...), the update never happened, and so I vanished into the void, devoid of motivation so long as the problems persisted (which they did for two years).
A lot has changed in the FTL modding community in my absence, most notably the Hyperspace project coming into its own and finally getting off its feet, as opposed to being tripped over every single time Subset Games updated FTL. I remember back when it was just a thing that could make hull numbers appear for the player and enemy ships. Now, it enables the most ludicrous of feats that were previously thought impossible. The most extreme example of what can be achieved with Hyperspace is the Multiverse mod, which is continuing to expand even to this day.
I didn't have anywhere near enough curiosity to look and see what had been going on in the interim, until a certain Cass invited me to do guest comms for an FTL tournament (that is still ongoing as of the time of writing this post). This effectively pulled me out of retirement, and I started paying attention to things again. And this is when I learned that BurningCookies/FearTheBlaziken had left a present in my forum inbox... a mod for Insurrection that adapts it for Hyperspace. Not only that, but a mod that implemented everything I was hoping to do from before. Because of this contribution, and all of the work he's done for Insurrection in the past, I have gifted him the honorary label of Co-Creator.
With this in hand, I steeled my mind and went to work for one last time. There was a whole new framework to get used to, and a long road ahead of me. Although BC had made the mod, there was more that I wanted to do with it, to take full advantage of Hyperspace's possibilities (or at least, as much advantage without going overboard). It's taken over a month, but in the end, I hope to have assembled something that will bring veteran FTL players back into the world of Insurrection.
And so I present FTL Insurrection+, the hopefully final-final version of my expansion mod that makes use of Hyperspace to complete the experience as much as one man (and his pen-pal) can. Everything you might remember from OG Insurrection is still present and correct, and for clarity's sake, the list of additions is as follows (although far from complete):
* All the graphical/balance changes from the sM Polish Kit, far too many to even count
* 54 New Weapons, bringing the overall count to 100+
* Innumerable Weapon Variants, courtesy of the Augmented Weapons Module
* Exotic variations of every standard Weapon, courtesy of the Named Weapons Module
* 6+ New Drones
* Drone Variants, courtesy of the Augmented Weapons Module
* Many New Augments
* 33+ New Enemy Ship Variants
* 31+ New Events (and many, many others changed)
* 1 New, Challenging Late-Game Sector
* A Fearsome New Rebel Flagship Fight
But if I had just left it there, it wouldn't be the whole story, not by a long shot. So in addition to this, here are some additions for Insurrection+:
MUCH SIMPLER INSTALL
By far the most painful running theme with the Polish Kit was that the modular nature of the modification was very frequently an issue for many players, causing a whole host of issues with incorrect Mod Order, attempted installation with other Total Conversion mods, and lots more besides. Now, there's only three files to worry about, and it's a lot harder to mess up. This does mean that Insurrection+ is completely separate from the Polish Kit, however it's a worthy trade-off. Because of this, please note that you should not try to use Insurrection+'s mod files with anything from the old Polish Kit.
50+ NEW UNLOCKABLE SHIPS
With Hyperspace enabling the expansion of the Hangar Screen, it's possible to add a whole host of ships without touching the original 28 at all. Thanks to this, the Insurrection Player Ships mod has been made redundant, and all of its ships are available by default... kind of. You will need to unlock them via event quests like the others, but it's nowhere near as convoluted as the existing ones. In addition, some of the IPS ships have new loadouts, so that they are no longer upgraded clones of the OG cruisers. There's even a couple of guest appearances from some of my other work...
ENHANCED HANGAR SCREEN
With the advent of Lua scripting, more things than ever have been made possible in FTL Modding. This feature enables the player to visualize the location of all Optional Systems on a cruiser without having to launch into a mission first. This can be useful for many reasons, particularly if the player installs external Ship Mods that might not have access to some of the extra Power Systems available in Insurrection.
WEAPONS, AUGMENTED
Not only does the whole cast of Insurrection weapons return (as well as all of their variants with the Augmented and Named modules making a comeback), but their presentation has been given a fresh coat of polish. The biggest addition, by some margin, is the custom-made Weapon Descriptions. A Hyperspace feature, this allows for the old method of relaying weapon stats to the player to be swapped out, in favor of bespoke, hand-typed descriptions that point out every single detail of importance. This extends to modified weapons, which now directly display what their original stats were, and what they currently are as an Augmented weapon. In addition, the player now has the ability to upgrade stock weapons at any time (for a price), removing the need to locate Items to do so for the most part (the Elite Prefix still requires a Toolkit).
ADVANCED ARMAMENTS
This all-new sidemod acts as a separate canvas for me to experiment with weapon concepts that are a little too out there for the standard balance of the mod, or for making weapons that are reliant on Lua in order to function as intended. But in addition, AA acts as a means for me to (with author permission) integrate the weapons of other mods within the community into Insurrection in an official capacity. Currently a selection of Toggle Weapons that can change forms, a trio of Mine throwers and an AoE missile make up my more outlandish weapons, while the majority of R4V3-0N's Go Ballistic! weapons series is also present and ready to shoot the Rebels full of holes.
CREW REIMAGINED
Of course, Hyperspace allowing for the alterations of crew stats means that a whole new avenue of modding has been made available. It would be foolish of me to neglect this, and so some changes to the species have been added. Some were done to reduce the Flanderization of the Engi and the Mantis, while others make species like the Rockmen less annoying to work with. And this also means that Slugs are no longer just superior clones of Humans... But in addition, the requirements for levelling up crew skills has been streamlined, generally lowering the requirements for most of them. Max Repair skill is no longer a meme. Not only this, but all-new status effects have been implemented that can tamper with the various crew species to various degrees. Currently the range of effects is a little constricted, but the scope is there to expand on it further with future updates.
With some of the extremes reined in, the addition of being able to create whole-new Abilities for crew members granted me a blank canvas to further add to the personalities of the various species. The powers are subtle ones, but they aim to make crew members more dynamic and fun to command, as opposed to just dragging them around the ship and waiting for them to do things.
TRADE SYSTEM REWORK
This is actually a change that should have happened long before Hyperspace existed. The old Insurrection trade system was created long before Subset Games added the code to allow for the removal of Items from your inventory. This upgraded trading system now mirrors what was assembled in Captain's Remix back in the day, allowing for an alternate means of earning your keep during the mission. Additionally, Trade Goods now count as non-Augment items, enabling the player to carry them in the more generous Cargo Bay and making trade logistics a lot less taxing. What's more, the new Ship Computer system allows the player to keep a permanent track of where goods are sold best, even across runs.
SHIPCOM: THE ETERNAL ASSISTANT
As just mentioned, the ShipCom is an all-new feature in Insurrection that acts as a means to host a whole wealth of information. From details about the current cruiser being flown, to data on crew members, systems and equipment, and even a fully-fledged Help Desk for players looking to improve their game, the Ship Computer has most everything a Captain could need in one place. And in the future, it will continue to be exapnded upon with more accurate info and more info in general.
EVENT HELPER
In the Ship Computer is the ability to toggle this new feature, which will bring up Warnings in events where there is the risk of the player taking hull damage, loss of crew or an increase of the Rebel Fleet's pursuit. For those wanting to keep everything pure, the Feature is Disabled by default, but can be enabled at any time. The setting will also be saved between runs.
MASTER OF TIME
And in more ways than one. Not only is the Temporal system added in Hyperspace present in Insurrection and completely integrated into every playable cruiser, another feature has been added to allow the player to control the game's running speed at will. The ability to toggle between 0.125x and 2.0x Game Speed without requiring any use of the Hyperspace Console is available at all times. Just remember to use it responsibly, and to not leave it on Slow when making an FTL jump...
YOUR OWN JUKEBOX
First added in Multiverse, the Jukebox feature is also present in Insurrection and lets the player choose what song they want to hear at any given time. In addition, the Jukebox also has the ability to outright disable Music without needing to turn the slider down in the Escape Menu.
Unfortunately, I have made the decision to remove Remastered HUD from Insurrection's download in order to try and conserve Dropbox space. For those who wish to use ReHUD (as well as the newly-released Into The Breach themed HUD), they can follow this link.
With some degree of luck, that should be everything of critical importance regarding Insurrection+'s feature list. It might not be anywhere near as expansive as other mods out there, but that was never my intention when making it in the first place. This was a personal vision: subtle yet prominent and powerful. Aside from any more additions to Hyperspace in the future, I don't see myself adding to this mod too much more. It's got all the content that it needs to make it what it is. It doesn't really need anything else. Just remember: just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
When I first made Insurrection for Hyperspace official, I aired my intentions to try to retire from modding after updating my work for what I foolishly thought would be the last time. But here at the tail end of 2023, it's clear as day that my work is far from done. I will continue to try my best to append to the Insurrection experience for as long as my body and mind are able to. And I hope that you can take joy in this journey together.
REQUIRED: DOWNLOAD HYPERSPACE HERE AND FOLLOW INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS FIRST
DOWNLOAD FTL INSURRECTION+ HERE
Last Critical Update: 23/FEB/24
Alternate Download Link via Mediafire (try Dropbox Link First)
Final Credits Section
Credits for various aspects across the development of the sM Polish Kit go to:
liakad for art assets from diversityMod
Sleeper Service for art assets from Captains Edition
Tweevle for Type B Enemy art assets
splette for Highres Shields Classic art assets
DarkTwinge for research into FTL game mechanics
Mr. Mister and Russian Rockman for mod feedback and ideas
ClockSpin for beta testing of Insurrection and mod feedback
RecursiveBlaze for mod feedback
Gencool for Flagship Construction art assets
TheSwiftTiger, Winderps, ih8ih8sn0w, Admiral Billy, laszlogasd and mathchamp93 for creating Hyperspace
BurningCookies for adapting Insurrection for Hyperspace
R4V3-0N for Go Ballistic weapon assets and several enemy ship graphics