sM Polish Kit: Insurrection v1.6 [CE Support + Modules]

[Mr. Mister]

Well yeah, the Hasta Beam is to the Mini Beam as the Defense Laser MkI is to the Defense Laser MkII: It's a completely inferior version, the very lowest tier on its weapon category, but the game currently lacks variety on the lower tier beams. And if you find it in a random drop/event, you might still use it. Also, it balances a bit the Zoltan B's alternate equipment, as two minibeams is quite OP, with 8 damage per round, insted of the maximum of 6 from two Hastas.

A middle ground would be to, apart from random drops and shops, make civilian ships from quests and piracy events the only other ships that use it, since it really is an outdated beam that conflict-centered ships wouldn't use. Bu

[slowriderxcorps]

Keeping up with the times. According to the changelog for 1.08, not too much needed to be messed with to keep this up-to-date with the newest iteration of CE. I should also possibly do something in terms of taking suggestions for more flavour texts for the destruction of the various ship factions (Pirate, Rebel, etc.), but I'm not too sure how much help could be gathered on that front.

[Mr. Mister]

Thanks for the update, man! Much appreciated!

Also, you should get rid of the MediaFire link on the OP if it's not up to date (I remember it not being before, haven't checked it out now).

[slowriderxcorps]

Noticing that, and that there was some kind of bandwidth hiccup with Dropbox recently, the Mediafire link has been up-to-date'd.

Also now included is what I would call an 'experimental but hopefully correct the first time' compatibility patch for the current iteration of Infinite Space! I don't really play that particular mod at all, but outside of Captain's Edition it's the most popular TC mod out there. So after seeing Vanguard struggle with making his own graphics kit work with IS in his latest video, I thought I would take a crack at it. As mentioned, it's not been tested so something might be clearly off. Also there isn't much to do with the balance in Infinite Space, because it's really bizarre in that regard, even moreso than Captains Edition.

EDIT: After seeing the current discussion on the balance intent on CE as well as a few runs of it on Vanguard's stream, the patch was updated for the current iteration. While nothing has really changed in the base mod between 1.08 and 1.084, a few weapon alterations were made.Scatter Lasers were tweaked, Light weapons were buffed and drones were poked with a stick a few times. I ought to make an alteration to the main post that lists all the weapon changes now, even I'm starting to lose track of what's been done..

[slowriderxcorps]

It's interesting what an entire scan-through can do to your understanding of a mod. In particular, in creating the list of all the changes made within the CE patch, I had discovered many little things that had been changed almost discreetly within CE itself. Regardless, the list is now on the main post for those curious to know.

And just in time for the view count on this mod to breach the five-digit mark. I'm happy to have made something of this caliber for the FTL community, I really am.

[Sleeper Service]

Code: Select all

# Nano Repair Blast: renamed to Nano Repair Rush, hull repairs reduced from 2 to 1, system repairs increased from 0 to 2, power requirement increased from 1 to 2.
# Nano Repair Burst: hull repairs reduced from 3 to 2, system repairs increased from 0 to 3, cooldown increased from 3 to 10, power requirement increased from 1 to 2.

The system repairs where deliberately removed due to glitchy behaviour and the possibility to temporary upgrade systems with it.

I don't really understand the changes of the missile batteries. They actually make this weapons less dangerous later in the game, where the player is more likely to evade them or intercept them with lvl2 drones anyway.

[slowriderxcorps]

Glitchy behaviour on the repair weapons? I'm curious as to how that works now.

As for the batteries, it's almost impossible to work out how these things can be properly balanced out, because in the early-game they cause damage sufficient to put the player in a disadvantageous monetary stance early on, but as you say, later on their effectiveness does seem to peter out. The problem I find with the Defense Drone tier stance is that, while I've not played CE in a while to know of their commonality, I've gone about half my games in Normal FTL without ever being able to use Defense I at all, so the only really reliable way to nullify their threat is to get a cloaking device.

I'm curious as to when the changes to those were made though, as when I made the initial comparison, the cooldowns on them in sMPK for CE were a lot shorter.

[Mr. Mister]

I actually approve of swarm missiles getting only 2 shields piercing power. It's an incentive to upgrade to 3-layer shields (while in vanilla FTL you would go get engines first), and it further characterises the cloaked missiles/mines, now being the only full-piercing weapons not intercepted by tier 1 defense drones. It's another trade-off for the swarmies' short cooldown, as the lesser system damage wasn't enough.

Don't worry though sleepy, once AoE comes in AE the whole swarm and scatter families will be able to be developed even further!

On the system reapir bombs: I do indeed recall somehow getting lv2 doors after firing a bomb in my door control, while the UI showed only one bar on the system. I don't recall teh exact circumstances for this to happen; I believe this one instance was when the momb detonated while I was jumping?

EDIT: Upon reading the changes you listed, I had some thoughts.
Are you sure the Laser Defense MkIII will be worth the extra power and price though? Considering the (player) Laser Defense MkII now has a cooldown of 0.5s, then it's not worth it for 0.4s. Try taking it down to 0.3s or 0.35s. The Laser Defense MkIII is meant to be OP in its own way, it's meant o be satisfying- or infuriating if you ever find an enemy with one (I've never had to though).
Upping the light laser's shield-piercing to 2 shields: I don't think you should do it with the burst lasers: instead, do it only with the scatter ones, increasing a tiny bit their cooldown if needed. That oughta make the Man o' War player consider swapping their light burst for a light scatter. Though you could also do the opposite instead, seeing how in the enemy's hands light bursts are almost harmless, and you only gotta worry about light scatter menacing your Zoltan or Hologram.

EDITED EDIT: Oh, and I haven't checked if you've changed it now, but sMPK uses the vanilla model for the Heavy Laser MkI, instead of the one from Diversity Mod that CE also uses. I haven't commented on this before because I thought that maybe it was intentional, seeing how it might be a bit difficult to tell the MkI and MkII apart withn the new model. You could try tampering with it to make it a bit more simple-looking, or eliminating one of the two green light bars on the shooty end.

And if that's what you've done, you should mention in the OP list that you simple made the Hasta Beam a duplicate of the Mini Beam, instead of listing its individual changes.

[slowriderxcorps]

Are you sure the Laser Defense MkIII will be worth the extra power and price though?

I played one game way back when the Defense III was first introduced with its current cooldown of 250ms, and I faced off against the flagship. It literally couldn't attack my ship at all, because at that cooldown, it can reliably shoot down every projectile of a single weapon, laser, burst-fire missile, ion or otherwise. I get that it was meant to be powerful, but even so, with just that drone active, I would almost be confident in taking on the flagship SHIELDLESS.

Also the Sod's Law of FTL Modding strikes again: I was just about to update the post with the update to 1.086 when 1.087 happens! I always find this hilarious when it happens. Also the shortening of the title so that I can keep the version number in there, but you know.

EDIT:

sMPK uses the vanilla model for the Heavy Laser MkI, instead of the one from Diversity Mod that CE also uses.

That's deliberate, as the graphic from diversityMod is used exclusively for the Heavy Pierce Laser on the Shivan.

EDIT 2: Looking at the graphic for that Heavy Pierce Laser got me a little confused with its recoil animation. With the vanilla Heavy Lasers, the back of them and a small part of the exterior experiences recoil but the main barrel does not, whereas with the diversityMod Pierce Laser, the barrel and exterior part recoils but the back part stays put.. maybe I'm just over-analysing things like I tend to. Regardless, after looking at the way the CE Artillery Lasers fire and a stint of boredom, I went ahead and did some aesthetic alterations to the Heavy Lasers in sMPK, but that haven't been added just yet, as I guess I'm asking for an opinion on whether these look any good. (my GIF editor is ancient, original/diversityMod is on the left, modified is on the right)

[Mr. Mister]

Yeah, your version looks better, go for that.

Two more things I've noticed:

1- The enemy version of the System Disruptor (at least the MkI) has a noticeably shorter cooldown that the player's. Not sure if deliberate to compensate for the fact that it will randomly target empty rooms instead of getting stopped by shields like projectyle-based ions (don't know if enemy ion bombs have shorter cooldown too), but I remember seeng this since many versions back. Not sure either if it happens in vanilla CE as well.

2- The Heavy Scatter Laser (I believe MkI, but check both) is missing the impact sound (at least the enemy version of the weapon is).

Also, have another reason to add the Hasta beam back in: with the stealth cruiser and while I still have no shields, an enemy with a Hasta is less of a nightmare than one with a Mini Beam. Also appliable to the zoltan B.