Insurrection+ Selection (IPS) for Multiverse v5.4
Aug 4, 2023 13:43:08 GMT -7
tobecalledj, Gabriel Cooper, and 2 more like this
Post by slowriderxcorps on Aug 4, 2023 13:43:08 GMT -7
Finally, a place to where I can actually post any relevant changes to the work I've made for this. I know it's nowhere near as much as other addons out there, but I made the decision to share my little piece of home with the MV community. And so here it is.
The Insurrection+ Selection mod (or IPS) is a compact ship/content expansion pack that adds renditions of the non-vanilla ships from FTL Insurrection+ to Multiverse, amongst other subtle changes. The mod was designed to avoid changing anything mechanical about baseline MV as much as possible.
As a major warning, this mod will require Hyperspace v1.9+ in order to be played.
In addition, IPS should be installed after all other expansion-class mods in order to work correctly.
In addition, IPS should be installed after all other expansion-class mods in order to work correctly.
Straight from the original Submissions post, here is the list of things that IPS will add to your MV experience.
- Adds 64 new cruisers to play as in three extra Pages, although they will require unlocking to be playable. Progression starts with scoring Victories using base-Multiverse Type B cruisers. The cruiser roster includes adaptations of all the ships from Insurrection+, including the author's original Capital Cruiser mod from June 2013, and the Ardea Cruiser from the final episode of Andrew Colunga's Kestrel Adventures. All these ships have customised Map Screen icons.
- Adds 48 Weapons, 5 Augments, 2 Drone Schematics and 1 Crew Species (with Lab Upgrades) from FTL Insurrection+ which are used by some of these playable ships, for scenarios where there is no equivalent Multiverse weapon. By default, these cannot be found outside of these ships and do not affect the Loot Pool, but they can be enabled via the IPS Weapons Enabler submod in the download. All weapons have had their stats adjusted to match the balance of baseline Multiverse as much as possible, so don't expect anything overly absurd.
- Increases the Scrap Value of all Hektar(tm) Modular Weapons when they are equipped with Modules in order to reflect the added value of those modifications. Intended as a QoL change that will allow the player to sell these weapons for maximum profit without requiring them to remove all the Modules first.
- Adds approximately 1,600 new names to the Crew List to significantly increase the variety of names that can be generated. A small number of these names are references to others in the FTL Community, although several names more personal to the author have been disabled. Names that overlap with MV's Unique Crew have also been disabled.
- Adds the Speed Controller from FTL Insurrection+ to the Game UI, enabling the user to toggle between 2.0x and 0.125x Game Speed without using the Console. It is advised to Unbind the Speedhack Toggle in the Options Menu to avoid confusion if the Controller stops functioning.
- Adds a very lost and out-of-place explorer. Take good care of them if your paths happen to cross.
There is also an optional Side Mod that alters the Names and Descriptions of equipment to allow them to emulate the writing form used in FTL Insurrection+, including the tech in IPS itself. The mod can be played without this sidemod, and in this event the IPS equipment will follow the Multiverse standard for names and descriptions. This sidemod also account for a varity of other Expansion Mods, currently including the following:
- The Renegade Collection 2.3 by Kix + co.
- Auxiliary Weapons Pack, Escort Duty, Tiberian Sun Pack, and CNC Weapons Renegade Edition by Chrono Vortex
- Rogue-AI Cruiser/Unknown Contacts by R4V3-ON
- The Hektar Collection™ by Pepson
- More Hektar Modules by Roadtrain
- Inferno Core by Kommandant Julk + co.
- Forgotten Races by Gabriel Cooper
- R&D by Arc
- Tradition N Experiment by Private JJ
- Dino's Hangar by The Dumb Dino
- Bio's Fleet by biohazard063
- Forgemaster by Kommandant Julk + co.
- Alder's Additions: First Strike by Alder
- Fishier Than Light by Arc
- Lizzard's Variety by Lizzard
- (Once Updated) Go Ballistic! 2 by R4V3-0N
The following list is of features that were present in the 5.3 version, but are now a part of Multiverse proper as of v5.4:
- Adds animated thruster graphics to all relevant Player and Enemy ships.
- Adds the ability to visualize the locations of Optional Ship Systems in the Hangar, and see what systems are outright unavailable to certain ships (lua code made by Chrono Vortex).
- Replaces the Shield graphics of all base-MV player and enemy ships with a single ultra-high resolution image for visual consistency. This change was made primarily to fix the glaringly ugly appearance of custom Super Shields when equipped by the player as a result of Defaulting to the shields image used by enemies, particularly the '------ Shielding' Internal Upgrade.
As the mod adds a Speed Controller of a custom design, it's advisable to not use other Speed-Control mods alongside this. Behaviour when multiple SC mods are installed has not been observed.
In order to add more resolution to the explanation of what IPS brings over to Multiverse, a brief overview of all the new equipment will be listed. As mentioned earlier, all of these items cannot be found in standard play unless you've installed the Enabler mod, and even if you do, they won't be wielded by your enemies. Without the Enabler, all of these will be restricted to use on IPS ships, and they won't populate the Item Lists for the Wrecked Bombers.
Right from the start, the classic Laser Blaster makes an appearance as a very fast-firing twin laser. It lacks the power-efficiency of other two-shot lasers, but it tries to make up for this with a cooldown that gives it greater sustained damage than the Burst Laser II. From classic to chaotic, the Rotary Assault Laser was built to fire off a huge burst in the shortest timeframe as possible. Its handling is a little clumsy, but the payoff is worth the wait. Think of it as a Burst Laser IV that's available outside of the Militia quest. Then we have a weapon renamed to fit MV's archetypes: the Adaptive Heavy Laser. It starts off somewhat anaemic, but after three shots it'll gain the ability to hit enemies for 4 points. For a 1 power weapon, that's a lotta damage. And then to round them out, a long-overdue respriting of INS' tried-and-tested Anti-Personnel Laser, a simple but effective tool for breaking systems and crew, but only systems and crew.
Next, a whole line of standard laser weapons that operate just a little bit differently to the norm. Not to be confused with the ones in Forgemaster, IPS' Burst Pulse Lasers fire off two standard laser bolts with every burst, and the Mark III lets off three of them for a useful degree of suppressing fire. They lie right in the middle between Burst Lasers and Flak Cannons, where they release all their shots faser than the former, but are more accurate than the latter (but do still have some spread to contend with). On the other hand, the Heavy Pulse Laser unleashes three shots in one go and is more than capable of obliterating a single system, but its targeting radius is much less forgiving than the regular Pulse Lasers.
For those who prefer to keep the trigger pinned, a trio of fully-automatic lasers make their appearance too. The Laser Repater and Automatic Laser's similar appearance is explained in INS' lore as the former being a development prototype of what would eventually become the latter. And both weapons take the form of fast-firing lasers that lack the accuracy bonuses of Light Lasers, but are capable of inflicting system damage. And for anyone who laments the Vulcan's massive loss of accurate targeting in MV, IPS brings over a classic vanilla Vulcan with a faster warmup time, and a fancier rotary laser called the Avenger that fires three shots per attack, making for a weapon that even the most green of Captains can use effectively.
There are a few other alternative forms of shield-suppression, too. Although similar to the Adaptive Ion, IPS' Chain Ion Blast goes the alternate route and improves its cooldown with every shot fired. It makes for an ionic option that's a lot more consistent, even if its output at max windup does fall behind. The Automatic Ion Stunner is best described as an Ion Stunner Mark III, with an even faster firing speed that enables it to stunlock both crew members and shields in one fell swoop. And then there's the Variable Flak Cannon: unlike the Flak Charger, this thing can charge up to five times, granting it greater versatility.
There's a number of beam weapons to go around as well, although most of them have conflicting names with other beams in Multiverse. IPS' Lance Beam is a no-frills, one-damage beam that relies on its excellent agility to gain the upper hand, while the Voulge and Fauchard are variations of the Pike II and Lucerne II beams respectively. Both of them are a little slower to charge, but gain a minor shield-piercing power that makes them much easier to use when supporting equipment is lacking or outright unavailable. And then there's the Electron Beam, a strange fusion of ion and beam tech that can shred through Super Shields and disrupt multiple systems on a defenseless enemy.
Then we get to the explosive options, of which there are several. First off, we have the Orcus, Gryphon and Valkyrie Rocket Launchers. Unlike missiles, these weapons were built for much closer combat against softer targets, and as such their ability to penetrate powerful Shields is severely constricted. They compensate for this by being compact enough to evade Guardian drones, and by having fantastic charge times for how much damage they can do. Launch them alongside a dense volley of lasers for optimal results.
For something more familiar, there's three Bomb Teleporters on offer. The Power Bomb is a no-nonsense, three-damage standard bomb with no fancy tricks up its sleeve other than being very good at its job. The IPS Stun Bomb is a lot less powerful than MV's incarnation or even the MV Ion Bomb, but it's significantly faster and still has a useful degree of both ionic output and stunning ability. And then for something truly exotic, there's the A.C.I.D. Bomb, straight out of the playbook of Detritus Disposal. This dirty weapon will heavily corrode a stricken system and deal up to three damage to it if the enemy cannot respond to it properly.
Back to more unconventional explosives, we have a trio of Torpedo Launchers. These have extremely high firepower for their stats, but unlike Rockets, they have no shield-piercing power at all and must be treated like lasers. The Atlantis and Poseidon both specialise in dealing maximum damage to a single target. Meanwhile, the fan-favourite Piranha acts as a more power-efficient Flak Cannon Mark III that will effectively shred open holes in enemy Shields.
And for the last of the explosive weapons, we have some Mines, but not as you know them. Added as a part of the Advanced Armaments side-mod for INS, these behave differently to the mines native to Multiverse. The Loki, Frigg and Magni Mines have much weaker shield-piercing powers, even lower than Rockets. However they still have a high potential for inflicting secondary damage, and they benefit from having much better handling characteristics, requiring only 1/2/3 Power to use respectively. While slower, the Magni also releases seven mines in one go, which can allow it to bulldoze through most of a powerful enemy's Shields, inflict some damage to their hull, and then leave them semi-exposed to attack from other weapons momentarily.
There's a few other oddities that lack their own category. The Magnetic Rail Driver (or Mag-Rail or M.R.D.S.) was known for having a chaotic evolution of its stats during INS' development. It currently exists as a single-shot weapon with moderate shield-piercing power and very high accuracy for MV standards, although its per-shot damage is a little mediocre. The Flare Cannon wasn't built for direct combat, but give it an exposed enemy ship and it'll happily light several rooms on fire in one volley. The Subspace Wave Cannon wasn't built for combat either, it was designed for use in surface-level demolition operations. But point it at the enemy and it'll do a decent job at demolishing enemy systems and knocking crew members off their feet at the same time.
For those who can't decide what they want their weapons to do at any given point in battle, there's the three Toggle Weapons from Advanced Armaments. The Protean Burst Laser, Chimera missiles and Full-Spectrum Beam have a vast variety of different firing modes to switch between, even in the middile of a firefight. If you need to take out the enemy crew, bathe them in flames, perforate the hull with breaches, or simply deal more damage, these weapons have got your needs covered.
And for things that aren't weapons, we have the two drone schematics added to IPS' roster: the Pulse Laser combat drone and the Ship Manager crew drone. The Pulse Laser drone is straightforward and fires off twice the number of shots as regular laser drones, and with a negligable reduction to both accuracy and agility. Meanwhile, the Ship Manager will perform anything you ask of them, and unlike System Manners, they are capable of effecting repairs and defending themselves from enemy intruders. Their stats aren't particularly high, but that's an acceptable trade-off for something as expendable as a drone. Plus, it'll control systems just as well as a Manner, and even provide enough power to them to make it energy-neutral. How efficient.
At the very end, there are also weapons that I am planning on adding to my personal work in the future. In order to facilitate my pursuit of correctly dialing in their stats, I'm electing to use IPS as my canvas with which to observe how they behave and to adjust things accordingly. Currently, three Into The Breach-themed weapons originating from unused concept artwork from R4 are in the process of being finalized and are present in IPS. The Zenith Pinpoint is based on the Zenith Guard's Burst Beam, and behaves like an intermediate between the Misericorde and Stiletto Pinpoints. And for the more ballistic weapons, the Janus and Taurus Cannons wielded by both the Rift Walkers and Frozen Titans have very low shield-piercing power (on par with the IPS Mines), but have the agility and accuracy of Rockets, the seconday damage potential of Torpedoes, and will reliably stun crew members on impact. In addition, the Janus won't try shooting backwards at something undesirable like it would in Into The Breach. How thoughtful of it.
At the very end, there are also weapons that I am planning on adding to my personal work in the future. In order to facilitate my pursuit of correctly dialing in their stats, I'm electing to use IPS as my canvas with which to observe how they behave and to adjust things accordingly. Currently, three Into The Breach-themed weapons originating from unused concept artwork from R4 are in the process of being finalized and are present in IPS. The Zenith Pinpoint is based on the Zenith Guard's Burst Beam, and behaves like an intermediate between the Misericorde and Stiletto Pinpoints. And for the more ballistic weapons, the Janus and Taurus Cannons wielded by both the Rift Walkers and Frozen Titans have very low shield-piercing power (on par with the IPS Mines), but have the agility and accuracy of Rockets, the seconday damage potential of Torpedoes, and will reliably stun crew members on impact. In addition, the Janus won't try shooting backwards at something undesirable like it would in Into The Breach. How thoughtful of it.
Download the Insurrection+ Selection from Dropbox here
Alternative Download Link via Mediafire (try Dropbox Link first)
Last Critical Update (for v5.4): 15/MAY/2024
Legacy Download for v5.3 can be downloaded here.
Legacy Download for v5.3 can be downloaded here.
As of the time of posting, the mod has just been updated for compatability with The Renegade Collection v2.2. It is heavily advised to update your version of The Renegade Collection to this spec, as thruster graphic alignments for the Collector's Kestrel changed with the v2.2 update.
Example Mod Order
- Latest Multiverse Assets
- Latest Multiverse Data
- The Renegade Collection 2 (optional)
- Inferno Core and Vertex Utilites (optional)
- Go Ballistic! 2/Auxiliary Weapons/Forgemaster/Forgotten Races/Other Expansion Mods (optional)
- Generated Gibs (optional)
- Insurrection+ Selection - Part 1 (Main Mod)
- Insurrection+ Selection - Part 2 (Equipment Enabler) (optional)
- Insurrection+ Selection - Part 3 (Description Changer) (optional)
- Remastered HUD/Into The Breach HUD/Vanilla HUD for Hyperspace (optional)
Thank you for taking interest in my work, even if only slightly.
