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Twinge's FTL Balance Mod v6.0

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

v6.0 Mod Files: GMM file | raw data.dat file

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Forum Thread: http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=14766. Feel free to post here with any concerns, comments, bugs, or suggestions related to the Balance Mod.

Installation: to install this mod, you have 2 options. You can download Grognak's Mod Manager and install the GMM file linked above with the manager. Alternatively you can install the mod directly - download the data.dat file and place it into your Steam/steamapps/common/FTL/resources folder (I suggest backing up the original data.dat file).

Also, be sure to check out my stream on Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/darktwinge. I stream FTL relatively often and a variety of other games as well.

Overview of Important Changes

• Fixed numerous game bugs, such as broken randomization or inaccurate/missing costs.
• 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 - including Alien Spiders, Quarantine, Madman, Weapons Trader, Buying Slaves, and more.
• System pricing - Oxygen 3, Pilot 3, Doors 3, Sensors 3, Engines 6-8, and Drones 7-8 are now cheaper. Doors 2, Tier 3 Shields, and Engines 3-5 are more expensive.
• Strong weapons nerfed or made more expensive, such as Burst Laser II and Ion Bomb. Weak weapons buffed or made cheaper, such as Heavy Ion and most missile weapons.
• Weak augments buffed significantly and/or made cheaper, including Repair Arm, Recharge Booster, and Reverse Ion Field. Re-loader and Scrap Arm now cost more.
• Ship-specific augments sell for less to encourage their use; effect increased for weaker racial augments.
• Defense Drone II power requirement reduced to 3. Player Beam Drone slightly buffed. Weaker drone costs reduced.
• Stealth B, Engi B, and Fed B buffed. Rock A and Slug B slightly buffed. Mantis B and Crystal B slightly nerfed.
• Nebula exit beacons can actually have events now.
• Globally reduced the odds of free crew from events slightly.
• Reduced scrap rewards in a few places, including the average reward from killing the enemy crew.
• Enabled 2 new events and custom text for destroying Rock ships.
• Mid and late game Auto-Scouts that don't have Shields will now have System Casing.
• Various quality of life tweaks such as more consistent event option ordering, notification when receiving crew, swapping weapon position on Stealth A, etc.
• Visual fixes to several ships so doors no longer go through equipment, etc.
• Missiles and Drone Parts cost 1 less. Mantis cost 5 more, Rock and Zoltan cost 5 less.

Stores

Missile Base Cost 6->5
Drone Part Base Cost 8->7
(These are sometimes worth buying at current price, buy rarely - and primarily when you're in a tough spot already because you've only found missile weapons for example. This also helps curb bad lack in some ships where you can't find a good weapon early on and have to use lots of missiles.)

Mantis Crew Cost 45->50 (Comparable to Engi, which have reverse attributes. Boarding is very strong and strongest with Mantis.)
Rockmen Crew Cost 65->60 (Jack of all trades and excellent fighters, but incredibly slow.)
Zoltan Crew Cost 65->60

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

Ships

The Nesasio (Stealth A)

Starting weapon order switched.
Starting Pilot level 1->2. (This partially offsets the general ship nerf from the System Casing sell price drop.)

DA-SR 12 (Stealth B)

Now starts with Titanium System Casing. (Helps offset early bad luck somewhat; note that the selling price of System Casing has been reduced significantly as well.)
Starting available power increased from 7 to 8. (This lets you fully power everything but the medbay to start, like on most ships.)
Starting Sensors decreased to 1. (Reducing Sensors and increasing power is technically a cost nerf, but is much more useful early on.)

The Basilisk (Mantis B)

Starting available power reduced from 11 to 10. (This gives it a standard power setup compared to other ships.)

The Vortex (Engi B)

Starting Pilot increased from 1 to 3. (Slightly helps the huge drawback of only having 1 crew member and makes perfect sense for the ship.)
(The Vortex is also improved significantly with the Heavy Ion buffs, allowing for ion chaining - meaning it can surpass tier 2 shields with a manned weapon system.)

Nisos (Fed. Cruiser B)

Starting Artillery level 2->3.
Starting Engines level 2->1. (These changes are aimed at making the Nisos feel a bit more like its own ship, rather than just a worse version of The Osprey.)

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.)
Starting missiles 25->28.

Bulwark (Rock A)

Starting missiles 28->32.

Carnelian (Crystal B)

Starting available power reduced from 8 to 7. (This gives it a standard power setup compared to other ships.)

Visual Tweaks

Adjusted Weapons room graphic to better fit the room layout on The Basilisk.
Changed the graphic for The Osprey's Engine room so doors don't go through equipment.
Flipped the Sensors visual on the Nisos to the top side for better visual symmetry.
Sensors visual on the Shivan flipped to the right so that the doors no longer go through the equipment.
Fixed the graphic for the doors on the Noether (it was set for a vertical room).
Removed a door on the Bravais that went through a console.
Moved a door on The Stormwalker so it no longer goes through equipment.
Shifted two doors on The Gila Monster so they no longer go through equipment.

Systems

Oxygen Level_3 Cost 50->35

Pilot Level_3 Cost 50->35

Medbay Level_2 Cost 35->30
Medbay Level_3 Cost 60->40

Engines Level_3 Cost 15->20
Engines Level_4 Cost 30->35
Engines Level_5 Cost 40->45
Engines Level_6 Cost 60->55
Engines Level_7 Cost 80->65
Engines Level_8 Cost 120->100 (Levels 6-8 of engines cost substantially more scrap for the relative dodge provided than previous levels do. This makes the cost more balanced for the result gained. See Engine Efficiency for more details.)

Doors Rarity 1->2 (Only applies to Shivan (Rock B). 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.)
Doors Level_1 Cost 60->40 (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_2 Cost 20->30
Doors Level_3 Cost 50->35

Shields Level_3 Cost 20->15
Shields Level_4 Cost 30->35
Shields Level_6 Cost 60->70
Shields Level_7 Cost 80->75 (These changes make the upgrade to Tier 3 slightly more expensive, and they make shield buffer points cheaper while otherwise keeping costs similar.)

Drones Level_7 Cost 80->75
Drones Level_8 Cost 100->90

Sensors Rarity 1->2
Sensors Level_3 Cost 60->35

Teleporter Level_1 Cost 75->80
Teleporter Level_3 Cost 60->55

Weapons

Updated several tooltips to indicate exact fire/breach chance.
Re-worded several descriptions to be more consistent and clear.

Burst Laser II Cost 80->95
Burst Laser II Cooldown 12->13 (One of the strongest weapons in the game. Nerfing it further is complicated by the fact that multiple ships - including the starting ship - rely on its strength to be good.)

Heavy Laser Mark I Cost 55->50

Heavy Laser Mark II Cost 75->65
Heavy Laser Mark II Rarity 4->3

Hull Smasher Laser 65->55
Hull Smasher Laser Breach Chance 20%->30%

Hull Smasher Laser Mark II Cost 100->85

Player Mini Beam Beam Length 45->50 (Quality of life tweak - this makes it easier to aim, but it can't hit anything it couldn't before.)
Player Mini Beam Speed 3->4 (Make speed flow more smoothly for the increased length.)

Pike Beam Cost 60->50

Fire Beam Cost 70->60
Fire Beam Cooldown 20->18
Fire Beam Speed 5->9

Hull Beam Cost 70->65
Hull Beam Breach Chance 0%->10%
Hull Beam Speed 5->7

Hull Missiles Cost 75->60
Hull Missiles Cooldown 17->15
Hull Missiles Breach Chance 30%->40%

Breach Missiles Cost 70->65
Breach Missiles Cooldown 22->21
Breach Missiles Breach Chance 80%->100%
Breach Missiles Fire Chance 30%->20%

Pegasus Missiles Cost 80->70
Pegasus Missiles Cooldown 20->19

Hermes Missiles Cost 50->40
Hermes Missiles Cooldown 14->13

Heavy Ion Cost 45->55
Heavy Ion Cooldown 13->11 (This means the Heavy Ion can chain with itself as long as the weapons system is manned.)

Ion Bomb Cost 65->70
Ion Bomb Cooldown 18->17 (This cooldown allows the bomb to chain with itself as long as you have a level 1 crewman manning weapons or a Reloader.)
Ion Bomb Ion Amount 4->3

Breach Bomb Mark II Cost 70->75

Fire Bomb Cost 55->50
Fire Bomb Cooldown 15->14
Fire Bomb Crew Damage 30->45

Healing Burst 18->17
Healing Burst Rarity 3->5 (There are several events that specifically reward this item; making it less common in stores makes those events and the Stormwalker feel more unique.)

Crystal Lockdown Bomb Cost 60->50

Heavy Pierce Laser Mark I Breach/Fire Chance 30%->20%

Breach Bomb Mark I Sell Price 35->25

Dual Laser Sell Price 12->15

Drones

Renamed 'Anti-Ship Beam Drone I' to 'Beam Drone'. (Was easily confused with Anti-Ship Mark I in text.)
Player Beam Drone Movement Speed 15->16
Player Beam Drone Beam Length 20->25
(These changes only affect the player's beam drones, not the AI's. While the AI Beam Drones are also often weak, making them stronger can really increase the early luck factor for some ships such as the Stealth Cruiser.)

Anti-Ship Drone Mark II Cost 100->85
Anti-Ship Drone Mark II Movement Speed 28->29 (This means two AS Is still fire about 25% faster than one AS II.)
Anti-Ship Drone Mark II Rarity 5->4

Defense Drone Mark II Power Cost 4->3 (The ability to shoot down lasers often hurts rather than helps. This change makes it more of an interesting alternative to Defense Drone Mark I with pros and cons to both.)

Anti-Personnel Drone Cost 60->50

Boarding Drone Cost 70->60

Hull Repair Drone Cost 100->90

Augments

Crystal Vengeance Sell Price 40->15 (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%->20%
Crystal Vengeance Shard Launch Sound changed from standard missile to crystal lockdown.

Titanium System Casing Sell Price 50->20
Titanium System Casing Effect 15%->20%

Drone Reactor Booster Sell Price 25->20
Drone Reactor Booster Effect 25%->100% (Game says 50% but is actually 25%. 100% is the same speed as normal crew.)

Zoltan Shield Sell Price 40->35

Rock Plating Sell Price 40->30

Slug Repair Gel Sell Price 30->25

Mantis Pheromones Sell Price 25->20 (These changes are aimed at encouraging players to keep the racial augments more often rather than selling them off most of the time.)
Mantis Pheromones Effect 25%->30%

Repair Arm Cost 50->35
Repair Arm Scrap Loss 15%->5% (Scrap amount rounds against you and also costs scrap even when at full health.)
Repair Arm Rarity 3->2

Automated Re-loader Cost 40->65 (Getting cooldowns low enough to get the first volley off is very strong - there's a reason the Pre-igniter costs so much, and in many fights this can serve a similar purpose while also being great in extended fights.)

Shield Charge Booster Effect 15%->20%

FTL Recharge Booster Cost 50->35
FTL Recharge Booster Effect 25%->35% (Upgrading Engines instead is still going to be better in most cases, but this might be cheap & powerful enough to be worth considering sometimes. Potentially useful for hitting an extra beacon and then fleeing rebels.)
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.)

Adv. FTL Navigation Cost 60->40

Reverse Ion Field Cost 60->40
Reverse Ion Field Effect 15%->60% (Game says 20% but is actually 15%.)
Reverse Ion Field no longer stacks. (Necessary to prevent invulnerability from ion effects.)

Scrap Recovery Arm Cost 50->65

Stealth Weapons Cost 50->40

Damaged Stasis Pod Sell Value 15->18 (Reduces the sting of not activating the pod ever so slightly.)

Events

Fixed several misc. typos and missing punctuation.
Tweaked the phrasing of a many events to be more consistent or clear.
Reorganized various events in the files and renamed some event lists for easier readability (for other modders).

Swapped the option order for a handful of events to put the more aggressive option first, for consistency.

Added a text prompt when you gain a new crew member from events such as a non-destroyed enemy ship. (This makes it obvious you gained a crew member; it was easy to miss previously.)

Globally reduced the odds of free crew from events slightly.

Adjusted the text for an event to display properly when there are multiple blue options available.

Prices & Trades

Tweaked several resource trading event to increase the number of resources traded.

Adjusted the price of hiring a mercenary to scout the sector or delay the rebels to cost less scrap on average. (This event means you're not only paying scrap but also not gaining scrap from killing the mercenary; a lower price makes it more reasonable to consider.)

Reduced the cost of buying from slavers to make it a more reasonable option if you desperately need crew.

Nebula - Black Market Weapons Trader only charges 45 instead of 65, and you have a 3/4 chance of getting the weapon instead of 1/2.

Slightly reduced the cost of the 'rescue Engi from rebel' event reward options.

Very slightly reduced the cost of fuel in one 'out of fuel' event.

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

Blue Options

Added Fire Beam as a possible weapon for the stolen cargo event.

Tweaked stranded madman event so that using the Slug Crew Member blue option gave you a random crew member named Charlie instead of a human crew member, to align with the rest of the event results.

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

Significantly improved blue anti-personnel drone option outcome for the alien neurotoxin event; improved the blue teleporter option outcome for one sub-event.

Added a blue option (requiring level 6 shields) that allows you to obtain the Stasis Pod more easily.

Removed a bad result from a Rebel radar station blue option.

Slightly reduced the reward for a Teleporter blue option when saving Federation crew in a nebula.

Slightly improved a Slug blue option in a Rock event.

Slightly improved a piloting nebula blue option.

Added Level 3 doors blue option for the slug door hacking event.

Adjusted a blue Teleporter option in a staton sickness sub-event so that it's usually good instead of almost the same as no blue option.

Tweaked a Weapons System blue option fir the Pirate Smuggler Nebula event to increase the fuel bribe offered and reduce the System Level requirement from 6 to 5.

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

Reduced the chance of a slaver surrendering and offering crew from 80% to 60%; reduced scrap reward from killing a slaver's crew when you also receive a crew member.

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

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

Added a middle-ground result to the Giant Alien Spider event where you lose a crew member but successfully fight off the spiders, and decreased the overall chance of losing any crew at all.

Added a good result to the mining colony quarantine event and reduced the chance of losing crew.

Made the cost of legitimate repairs from the dodgy slug mechanic less ridiculous - they (somewhat) respect a business-minded person.

Fixed a Slug no-fuel event that gave you more fuel than stated.

Fixed a Crystal sector event that was supposed to cost a crew member but didn't.

Reduced the odds of the Uniformed Mantis escapee being a traitor (on either result).

Reduced the odds of losing crew from 'Send in your crew to help put out the fire'.
Slightly increased risk/reduced reward for 'Dock and try to rescue the survivors'.

Increased the odds of gaining crew from the 'Stranded Madman' event from 25% to 40%; decreased the odds of losing crew from 25% to 20%.
Added a rare special result for the Madman.
Increased the Slug blue event success rate from 50% to 60% for the Madman being friendly.

Slightly reduced average reward for giving fuel at a distress beacon.

Fixed a result for saving a Federation transport which wasn't randomizing properly.

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

Added an option to the Rock mine layer event where you just take hull damage instead of risking your crew.

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

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

Killing the Mantis ship for the Stealth Cruiser unlock now gives less scrap for killing the crew and more than zero scrap for destroying the ship.

Improved one sub-event reward for the ghost ship event. (**This event is currently unused; I may fix it and add later.)

Reduced the scrap reward from the insane Zoltan Wiseman event.

Sectors

Boarding events less common in Zoltan sectors. (They were as common as in Mantis/Rock sectors.)

New Events

Enabled a new neutral Rock event involving a Zoltan emissary.

Enabled a new distress Slug event involving allegiance to the slug empire.

Enemy Ships

The Automated Assault ship class will no longer appear in sector 1. (This is aimed as being a very minor buff for beam-based ships like the Stealth B, because one can only hit 3 rooms on this ship instead of 4.)

Auto-Scouts that don't have Shields beyond Sector 2 now have System Casing. Higher level Auto-Scouts (mostly in sector 6-8) can have both Shields and System Casing.

Increased the odds of doors on the Engi Bomber ship.

Made the Assault ship guarding the Slug Cruiser construction platform stronger; made the victory text hint at how to unlock the ship.

Made KazaaakplethKilik's ship stronger.

Made the automated refueling drone match the description and actually be weaker in combat.

The Rock Assault you fight to unlock the Rock Cruiser is now more resistant to fire damage, so it will die to fire much less often.

Other

Nebula exit beacons now have a 60% chance to have an event, up from 0%.

Added a missing drone part cost to a Blue option using a System Repair drone.

Implemented unique text for destroying rock ships.

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

Fixed a Rebel event so that it informs you of gained scrap properly.

Increased the volume of the low health warning sound; slightly decreased the volume of the drone launch sound.

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

Fixed XML errors in several spots.

Considering

Possibly tweak Flagship health? (Currently 20/22/20) - maybe change to 20/20/22?

Make some alternate missile weapons - this lets the AI use the current versions while allowing the generally weak player versions to be buffed more readily.
^Hull Missile 15s cooldown?

Aim to reduce scrap accumulation a bit (esp. in Civilian sectors)?

Slightly increase occurrence of medbays in enemy ships to nerf teleporters somewhat? -- or additionally/instead, increase occurrence of doors 2.

Evaluate hostile sectors - how does scrap compare to civ sectors? reduce their occurrence of 'nothing' events? offer some boarding events with rewards? change some rarities, e.g. teleporters most common in mantis?

slightly tweak ion blast particle speed or AI heavy laser 1 cooldown +1s to time them together better? (possibly make it so heavy laser + basic laser, HL hits later by slightly slowing speed?) - also check timing with mini beam

modify visuals for identical-looking weaponry? (esp. Hermes)

Buff AI Ion Bomb fire rate? (15s?)

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

Enemy Defense Drone II rarity and/or power req back up?

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

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

Consider making Ion Bomb 19s, 4ion, 2 power.

Give Medbay 2 to Nisos to start?

Things to Test

Test & Fix Rock Nursery event

Anything else need traitor tag?

bio beam counts for cutting out asteroid and shouldn't? -- this shouldn't be the case

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

Test refueling drone to see if it should escape faster, and verify it's trying to escape from start; test modified escape that can alert rebel fleet

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

bl2 + heavy laser 2 timing worse for ai with bl2 cd nerf? also bl2 + glaive. Anything better?

Verify Slaver surrender 0.4 = 60%

Test autoReward for weapons/drones etc. - improved item value, or just more scrap? (Possibly adjust some results based on this info.)

Possible Content to Add

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 rare outcome for declining the toll price where they flee?

add more pirate sector hostile events

add additional mantis sector intro messages

enemy ship event that has a pre-igniter? -- part of a trap event. [Been told AI ships do not use igniter; unfortunate]

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.

possibly 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

enable MANTIS_CAPTURE_COMMANDO event?

add 1-2 more mantis-specific events? Possibly make the general odds of getting a weapon as a reward from a matis sector higher than others, while maybe dropping the store count to exactly 1?

Add another 1-2 slug store text blurbs?

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

Fix remaining XML errors (engi events onwards - http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11144)

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 'fleeing enemy ship' slightly more common, as a minor nerf to boarders and minor buff to ftl jammer.

make variant ships (esp. engi, some zoltan/pirate) that have increased door chance and/or medbay chance, similar to the new auto-scouts.

add another blue option to the zoltan warship quest

Remove chance for 'shield disabling drone' event form sector 1?