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Twinge's Balance & Bugfix Mod v2.3.0

Goal: To improve the overall game experience by fixing balance issues throughout the game and by adding more interesting decisions to the game.

Note: This mod assumes you are using Advanced Edition content and won't work properly otherwise.

Download: v2.3.0 Mod Files: Slipstream file

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Official Forum Thread. Feel free to post here with any concerns, comments, bugs, or suggestions related to the Balance Mod.

Installation: Download Slipstream Mod Manager and install the Slipstream file linked above with the manager.

Also, be sure to check out my stream on Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/darktwinge.

Overview of Important Changes

• Fixed multiple game bugs.
• Large number of punctuation and grammar fixes. Event phrasing tweaked to be more consistent and clear. Tooltips give exact breach/fire chance.
• Many events tweaked to make them actually worth considering.
• Stealth C's Shield+ Drone now requires 1 power; Engi B starts with Level 3 Piloting; Rock A starts with Explosive Replicator.
• Flak I is rarer and slightly more expensive. Many weaker weapons improved or made cheaper.
• Weaker augments improved or made cheaper. Adv. FTL Navigation removed from game. Racial augments generally improved but sell for less.
• Shield Drones now require 2 power. Fire Drone, Beam II, and Anti-Combat Drones have been buffed slightly.
• System Pricing: Hacking more expensive, Teleporters cheaper. Many systems cheaper at the highest levels (including Engines). Doors cheaper (for Rock B), cheaper to switch Medbay and Clone Bay.
• Reduced the odds of free crew from events slightly and tweaked many event scrap gains up or down appropriately.
• Various quality of life tweaks: easier beam aiming, more consistent event option ordering, better default weapon/crew positions, etc.
• Fixed visuals on all ships, including shield positioning/size, cloaking lines, and system graphics.

Ships

Red-tail (Kestrel B)

The Zoltan now starts manning the Engines by default.

The Vortex (Engi B)

Starting Pilot increased from 1 to 3.
Star Drone Parts 6->8
(Heavy Ion buffed.)

The Fregatidae (Fed. C)

Flak Artillery projectiles 7->8
Flak Artillery radius 35->34 (~6% more accurate)
Starting Drone Parts 0->3

The Nesasio (Stealth A)

Starting weapon order switched.

Simo-H (Stealth C)

(Shield+ Drone now requires only 1 power. Anti-Combat Drone recovers faster.)

Bulwark (Rock A)

Now starts with Explosive Replicator.
Starting missiles 28->12.
(Hull Missiles buffed.)

Man of War (Slug A)

Starting weapon order switched.

The Stormwalker (Slug B)

Swapped the location of the Medbay and the Cloaking system. (Makes using the Medbay + Teleporting or flushing boarders work a bit more smoothly.)

Visual Tweaks

Flipped the Sensors visual on the Nisos to the top side for better visual symmetry.
Removed a door on the Bravais that went through a console.
Moved a door on The Stormwalker so it no longer goes through equipment.
Changed the image used for the engine room on the Tektite so doors weren't going through equipment.

Fixed the cloaking image for the Simo-H so it lines up properly with the ship.

Changed the shield image for the Mantis Cruisers to be larger so it encloses the ship properly.

Adjusted the positioning of the shield images on several ships so they better enclose the ship: Lanius A, Crystal A & B, Kestrel B, Slug B, Rock A & C, Stealth B.

Systems

Oxygen Level_3 Cost 50->40

Pilot Level_2 Cost 20->25
Pilot Level_3 Cost 50->45

Medbay Level_1 Cost 50->40
Medbay Level_3 Cost 45->40
Medbay Rarity 1->2

Clone Bay Level_1 Cost 50->40
Clone Bay Rarity 1->2

Engines Level_5 Cost 40->45
Engines Level_7 Cost 80->70
Engines Level_8 Cost 120->100 (Levels 6-8 of engines cost substantially more scrap for the relative dodge provided than previous levels do. See Engine Efficiency for more details.)

Doors Level_1 Cost 60->35 (Shivan only. Does practically nothing by itself - you then need to pay more to upgrade for any real effect, AND you still don't have any doors to vent outside the ship.)
Doors Level_3 Cost 50->45
Doors Rarity 1->2 (Makes finding door systems to buy slightly less common in case you don't want to buy doors at all, but still common enough to generally find if desired.)

Drones Level_8 Cost 100->90

Sensors Level_1 Cost 40->35
Sensors Level_3 Cost 40->30
Sensors Rarity 1->2

Teleporter Level_1 Cost 90->80
Teleporter Level_3 Cost 60->55

Hacking Level_1 Cost 80->100
Hacking Level_2 Cost 35->45
Hacking Level_3 Cost 60->55

Mind Control Level_3 Cost 60->50

Backup Battery Level_2 Cost 50->45

Federation Cruiser Artillery Beam/Flak Level 4 Cost 80->75

Weapons

Burst Laser II Cost 80->85

Burst Laser III Cost 95->65
Burst Laser III Cooldown 19s->18s

Heavy Laser Mark I Cost 50->45

Heavy Laser Mark II Cost 65->55
Heavy Laser Mark II Rarity 4->3

Hull Smasher Laser Cooldown 14->13

Hull Smasher Laser Mark II Cost 75->65
Hull Smasher Laser Mark II Breach Chance 30%->40%
Hull Smasher Laser Mark II Speed 90->75 (Standard lasers are 60; being extra fast makes it harder to land last as you generally want to.)

Chain Vulcan Cost 95->90

Chain Burst Laser Cost 65->55

Laser Charger II correctly named.
Laser Charger II Cost 70->60

Flak Gun Mark I Cost 65->70
Flak Gun Mark I Rarity 1->3

Mini-Beam Length 45->47 (This makes the player's beam easier to aim without letting it hit anything new; very slight AI buff.)

Halberd Beam Cost 65->75
Halberd Beam Length 80->82 (This makes the player's beam easier to aim without letting it hit anything new; very slight AI buff.)

Glaive Beam Cost 95->90
Glaive Beam Length 80->82 (This makes the player's beam easier to aim without letting it hit anything new; very slight AI buff.)

Fire Beam Cost 70->60
Fire Beam Cooldown 20->19
Fire Beam Beam Speed 5->7

Hull Beam Cost 70->65

Hull Missiles Cost 65->45
Hull Missiles Cooldown 17->14
Hull Missiles Breach Chance 30%->40%
Hull Missiles Stun Chance 10%->30%

Breach Missiles Cost 65->55
Breach Missiles Cooldown 22->21
Breach Missiles Breach Chance 80%->100%
Breach Missiles Fire Chance 30%->20%
Breach Missiles Stun Chance 10%->0%

Pegasus Missiles Cooldown 20s->18s

Hermes Missiles Cost 45->40

Swarm Missiles Cost 65->55
Swarm Missiles given a new launch sound effect.

Heavy Ion renamed Heavy Ion Stunner.
Heavy Ion Cooldown 13->12
Heavy Ion Stun Chance 20% for 3 seconds -> 100% for 7 seconds

Ion Stunner Projectile Speed 30->40 (Lines up with Heavy Ion Stunner.)

Ion Charger Cost 50->55

Chain Ion Cooldown 14s->13s
Chain Ion Stun Chance 0%->20% (for 3 seconds)

Breach Bomb Mark II Cost 60->65

Stun Bomb Cost 45->40

Healing Burst Cooldown 18s->16s
Healing Burst Rarity 3->4 (There are several events that specifically reward this item; making it less common in stores makes those events and the Stormwalker feel more unique.)

Repair Burst Cost 40->35
Repair Burst Cooldown 14s->12s

Crystal Lockdown Bomb Cost 45->40

Crystal Burst Mark I Cost 20->30

Crystal Burst Mark II Cost 20->40
Crystal Burst Mark II Cooldown 17s->14s

Heavy Crystal Mark I Cost 20->30
Heavy Crystal Mark I Breach Chance 10%->20%

Heavy Crystal Mark II Cost 20->50

Anti-Bio Beam Color Red->Green (Visual tweak only.)

Drones

Anti-Ship Beam Drone Mark II Movement Speed 11->12 (This makes it about 40% higher DPS than Beam I instead of 30%.)

Anti-Ship Fire Drone Cost 50->45
Anti-Ship Fire Drone Beam Length 10->12
Anti-Ship Fire Drone Beam Speed 2->3

Boarding Drone Cost 70->60

Ion Intruder Drone Cost 65->55

Hull Repair Drone Cost 85->105
Hull Repair Rarity 4->5

Combat Drone Mark II Cost 75->70
Combat Drone Mark II Rarity 5->4

Anti-Combat Drone Cost 35->30
Anti-Combat Drone Firing Cooldown 7s->6s
Anti-Combat Drone Rarity 1->2

Shield Overcharger Drone Cost 60->45
Shield Overcharger Drone Player Power Requirement 3->2 (AI Shield Drones still require 3 power.)
Shield Overcharger Drone Movement Speed 5->4 (Visual change only, so drones don't overlap.)

Shield Overcharger+ Drone Power Requirement 2->1
Shield Overcharger+ Drone Movement Speed 5->4

Defense Drone I Movement Speed 5->6 (Visual change only, so drones don't overlap.)

Defense Drone II Cost 70->60
Defense Drone II Cooldown 0.88s->0.85s

Augments

Crystal Vengeance Sell Value 40->20 (The Crystal ships are already on the strong end - they don't need 40 free scrap to start with.)
Crystal Vengeance Effect 10%->15% (Meanwhile, the effect is really lackluster; this provides at least a little incentive to keep the augment around rather than selling it at the first opportunity.)
Crystal Vengeance Shard Breach Chance 10%->40%

Rock Plating Sell Value 40->35

Slug Repair Gel Sell Value 30->25

Titanium System Casing Effect 15%->20%

Drone Reactor Booster Effect 25%->100%

Mantis Pheromones Effect 25%->30%

Adv. FTL Navigation has been removed from the game.

Repair Arm Cost 50->40
Repair Arm Scrap Loss 15%->10% (Scrap amount rounds against you.)
Repair Arm Rarity 3->2

FTL Recharge Booster Cost 50->35
FTL Recharge Booster Effect 25%->30% (Upgrading Engines instead is still going to be better in most cases; this does help when avoiding ASB from fighting Rebel Elites though.)
FTL Recharge Booster Rarity 2->3

FTL Jammer Effect 100%->200% (Still on the weak side, but now solidly slows an escape. Potentially useful on defense-heavy builds that can't kill ships as quickly.)

Explosive Replicator Cost 60->50
Explosive Replicator Rarity 3->2

Long-Ranged Scanners Cost 30->40

Stealth Weapons Cost 50->35

Fire Suppression Cost 65->55
Fire Suppression Effect 1.0->1.2 (Now 20% faster than a Mantis.)

Distraction Buoys Cost 55->50

Battery Charger Cost 40->35

Defense Scrambler Cost 80->65

Hacking Stun Cost 60->45

Lifeform Scanner Cost 40->30

Reconstructive Teleport Cost 70->55

Emergency Respirators Cost 50->40

Zoltan Shield Bypass Cost 55->45

Stores & Crew

Missile Base Cost 6->5

Human Cost 45->40

Events

Fixed hundreds of cases of typos, missing punctuation, incorrect capitalization, etc.
Tweaked the phrasing of many events and items to be more consistent or clear.
Made blue option text consistent: 'Improved' refers to a Level 2 System or Level 4-5 Weapons/Engines; 'Advanced' refers to a Level 3 System or Level 6-8 Weapons/Engines.
Removed some excessive text prompts.
Reorganized various events in the files and renamed some event lists for easier readability (for other modders).

Made it more clear that the reward for the Merchant_Investigate event was from scrapping the ship and the cargo reward is additional.

Improved the chances of finding fuel in an asteroid field when out of fuel.

Increased the odds of the Rebel fleet being delayed if you're out of fuel and don't turn your distress beacon on.

Bugfixes

Fixed a bug where doors remained hacked even after you defeated the enemy ship.

Fixed a bug where Fire Drones were not considered Combat Drones for events.
Fixed a bug where Hull Missiles weren't counted as missile weapons for events.

Fixed several no-fuel events where the fight was not guaranteed to give you fuel.
Fixed a bug where you could (rarely) delay the fleet multiple times in a row by waiting when out of fuel.

Fixed a bug where a distress beacon event was not showing a distress signal on the map.

Added a missing drone part cost to a blue option using a Hull Repair drone for a Lanius event.

Fixed the Crystal Hunter event so the ship no longer remains hostile after you accept their surrender.

Fixed a bug where multiple Hacking blue options would appear in a single event.

Fixed a bug where the pirate smuggler gave no text when it escaped the fight.

Fixed numerous XML errors.

Prices & Trades

Tweaked several resource trading event to increase the number of resources traded. (This makes these events feel a little less boring and unimportant.)

Reduced the cost of Lanius Research Craft event: 45/50/40 for augment/weapon/drone -> 35/40/30; with Lanius 35/40/30 -> 25/30/20

Nebula Black Market Weapons Trader only charges 30 instead of 45, and you have an 80% chance of getting the weapon instead of 50%.

Reduced the cost of mercenary scouting and delaying Rebels.

Reduced the cost of buying from slavers to make it occasionally worth considering if you desperately need crew. (This is alongside the fact slavers are less likely to surrender and offer free crew.)

Lowered the cost of legitimate repairs from the dodgy slug mechanic.

Reduced the cost of the 'rescue Engi from Rebel' event reward options.

Reduced the fee the pirate charges to not attack you slightly.

Tweaked the costs of discount system upgrades: Oxygen, Piloting, Sensors, and Reactor cheaper; Doors more expensive.

Reduced the cost of buying crew from a tavern event.

Blue Options

When rescuing the Stranded Madman after assessing him with a Slug, he will now be a random race (instead of Human only) and have a random skill.

Using an Anti-Personnel Drone to explore the diseased station now has a 67% chance of a reward instead of 33%.
A Teleporter sub-option for the diseased station is now usually helpful instead of almost the same as no blue option.

Increased the reward value for the blue 'warning shot' option in the distress civilian-attacked-by-pirate event. (Previously it was worse to use the blue option.)

Added some better results for higher level Mind Control compared to lower level Mind Control.

Added additional blue options for the 'secure the cargo' event for Fire Beam, Fire Drone, and Boarding Drone.

Removed bad results from a Rebel radar station blue option using combat drones.

Nearly all Hacking blue options now cost a drone part to use.

Increased the reward for Level 3 Sensors analyzing a deactivated drone.

Enabled a Lanius blue option for the haywire satellite defense.

Improved a Slug blue option in a Rock event. (Previously it was worse to use the blue option.)

Removed the Long-Range Scanners blue option from the Floating Cargo event.

Reduced the weapons level requirement from 6 to 5 for a blue option for the pirate smuggler.

Made a Crystal Sector blue option require only Level 6 Engines instead of Level 7 so that it might be seen more often than never.

Result Tweaks

Reduced the chance of a slaver surrendering and offering crew from 80% to 60%.

Reduced the odds of losing crew to the quarantine event to 1 in 4 and increased the reward chance to 3 in 4.

Reduced income from killing enemy crew to the same as destroying their ship in a few situations where time would be limited.

Reduced the odds of getting free crew from the Rebel vs Federation distress event when you don't have a blue option.

Added a black market store quest result as an uncommon outcome of freeing the trapped miner.

Giant alien spiders now gives a reward most of the time but still kill a crewmember half the time.

Reduced the odds of losing crew from 'Send in your crew to help put out the fire'. (Average reward is roughly the same for Clone Bays but better without.)
Slightly increased risk/reduced reward for 'Dock and try to rescue the survivors'.

Increased the reward for securing ammo/fuel supply in the ion storm from low to medium.

Reduced the scrap reward from the insane Zoltan Wiseman event.

Reduced the odds of nothing happening in the battlefield investigation event.

Increased the reward for the secret word quest.

Tweaked the Engi surrender event to make explaining you're friendly less bad.

Reduced the reward in the Zoltan Study event when they're being held hostage.

Reduced the reward from scrapping debris from the dilapidated space station, and improved the rewards for investigating.

Sectors

The Shield-hacking event can no longer appear in Sector 1.

Engi are now slightly rarer in Slug sectors and slightly more common in Zoltan sectors. (Engi are supposed to be friends of the Zoltan.)

Enemy Ships

Rock ships can now be equipped with Swarm Missiles.

Auto-Assaults will no longer appear in Sector 1. (Helps Stealth B and C's early game.)

Slug & Pirate Light-Cruisers now have a maximum Shield level of 9 instead of 10.
Slug & Pirate Assaults now have a maximum Shield level of 9 instead of 10.

The Flagship Construction fight is now a little harder and no longer rewards 5 free drone parts.

Anti-Personnel Drones can now appear on Engi Bombers, and their max crew has been reduced from 6 to 5.

Increased the odds of doors on the Engi Bomber ship and the Energy Fighter.

Made the text after you fight the Slug assault ship guarding the construction platform hint towards the requirement for unlocking the Slug Cruiser.

Other

'Ion storms' renamed to 'plasma storms' to reduce confusion with pulsars.

Removed the 'giant alien spider' event from Mantis Sectors. (Will still appear in Civilian, Engi, or Rock sectors.)

Considering & Planned

Short List - Next Major Update?

EASY Flagship --> MC and Hacking down to Level 2

Swap Fed C. weapon mounting points

Lifeform Scanner blue option for Mantis Pod

Fix Lanius B Oxygen visual (change image and delete left door).

Fed B Slug Pilot?

Fire Beam speed down to 7. (Keep some skill in the aiming)

trade events boosted a bit more on the low end; 2 fuel for 3 missiles/etc. is lame

add shield hack to rebel sectors

Backup Batter Level 2 Cost 50->45?

Other

Make Abandoned Sectors slightly less threatening + moderately more rewarding

Reduce cost of Level 3 Sensors, possibly Reactor from the buy an upgrade events.

enable rebel pds event - weaker ship and/or higher reward

Bump up cost of Hacking and Teleporter more.

Black Market Weapons trader - surrender offers scrap back?

detail mind control boost amount

Make waiting for fuel with beacon off worth considering more? What advantages should this have?

Possibly add an Ion (not level 1)->asphyxiate option to the CREWDEAD quest, where they accept half the time from desperation.

Make Fed B and Kestrel C more distinct. Possibly Sensors 3 for Kestrel C.

Add more Lifeform Scanner blue options

add another blue option to the mantis warship quest

Activate the ROCK_ZOLTAN_HELP event. (Zoltan should be trying to flee)
Activate special text for destroying Rock ships.
Add option to not risk crew for the mine event.
Revert ROCK_SHIP_NO_SURRENDER change

Scour newEvents and Lanius events for changes to be made.

Add Mind Control blue option for Rock ransom no fuel sub-event -- coinflip if it doesn't work because he's mad and you pay a ransom for fuel+save crew unless lvl3.

Make Battlefield event less stupid (add other ways to improve your odds/reduce time/improved rewards)

Virus event - always bad to submit?

Tweak color of Fire Beam to be more orange?

'Zoltan merchant' flavor no event in Rock Sectors -- make a store with Mind Control?

An option for Mantis Fugitive where you don't risk losing 5 hull?

Make escape timer of cloaking auto-scout longer, so you have more than 1 chance to really shoot at it?

Remove Hull Repair Drone blue option?

Burst I's cost up to 55? Could all be 55, though it seems like 50/55/60 is better, hmm.

Things to Test

Zoltan C clone->O2 placement repair timing. Don't think a Zoltan can; can a Human? Move O2 system closer?

Did changing the xml error fix Stun Bombs being treated as ion weapons or were they already?

How enemy weaponry is determined; test rarity/bp/etc.

Stun & Stun chance effects (how much difference does it make for heavy laser II?); add stun chances to tooltips.

Test & Fix Rock Nursery event

Try out System rarity=5 to see if increasing the rarity actually has the desired effect

Test distress beacon off fuel wait fleet delay - can it hit itself again? (Possibly fix message claiming fleet is delayed and then is coming)

merchant_deliver mind control 1/2/3 correct

Does Bio Beam still damage drones?

test weapon naming text overflow, e.g. 'Breach B. I'

Possible to make Crystal weapons do extra crew damage?

Check Text-overflow for CREWDEAD

Zoltan_Distress_Mantis - asteroid speed

Test CRYSTAL_FED - random crew work and not giving Crystal?

Test Event results to verify are even distribution, e.g. Great Eye

Early Mantis Fighter ships - often have de-powered weapon?

Fleet delayed events (buoys) text display missing space?

Test stun stacking

Possibilities

Add new general distress beacon event to compete with charlie & spider; possibly reduce odds of Charlie event

+1 Zoltan Crew Blue Option

maybe add new event to NEUTRAL_ZOLTAN

add more pirate sector hostile events

add additional mantis sector intro messages

possibly use BG_NEBULA somewhere other than free weapon events

maybe a blue option with high level drone system (level 5) that can disable an automated scout or prevent them from fleeing, etc.

combine drone booster with anti personnel blue options once for an extra bonus

level 3 doors vs boarders event where you can ransom them off

add 1-2 more mantis-specific events? Possibly make the general odds of getting a weapon as a reward from a mantis sector higher than others, while maybe dropping the store count to exactly 1?
lower number of dead beacons in Mantis sectors since there's already plenty of boarders+nothing events?

Add another 1-2 slug store text blurbs?

Make a ship type appropriate for 'refitted for transport' - more shields, less weapons, etc.

Re-enable Pilot blue option for PIRATE_ASTEROID event? (Test changing environment types, etc.)

Add possibility for Crystal fight from Zoltan Wiseman Rifts (1/4 chance of it being an option)

Make Pirate_Smuggler a bit stronger as was originally planned.

Possibly use weaponOverride to give specifics ships more dangerous/fitting weapons.

Make some of the text for unlocking the Mantis ship hint at the requirements a little better.

make variant ships (esp. engi, some zoltan/pirate) that have increased door chance and/or medbay chance

Boarders-Hacking-Doors event

'arm the tubes' text --> force rock ship with missiles?

Glaive Beam color tweaked to be more menacing in some way?

Possibly re-order Flagship Drones so Defense Drone goes down first, Boarding second?

Rarely 'surrender your good' rebel - sometimes they actually surrender goods? Maybe some of those times they warn the fleet?

Possible give chance to recover the pirate's cache (in the 'work with slugs to fight pirate' event).

Make the automated refueling drone match the description and actually be weaker in combat; reduced the time before it escapes from 80 seconds to 40.

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Original FTL Balance Mod v6.3.1 can be found here: Old Balance Mod