Sarge's Gameplay Experiments - A collection of Mini Mods
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15. March 2023, 15:33:59
°DML#0
Sarge's Gameplay Experiments
Recently, while playing around in the editor and working on the Randomiser, I have also thought of some interesting gameplay twists (or mutators, of sorts), as a way to experiment with game design and see how various changes could positively or negatively affect the game.
After trying out some things, I thought a few of them were interesting concepts, so I decided to release them here for commentary, to see if anyone finds them interesting. I don't consider any of these complete or substantive enough to warrant being a full mod. These are here to pique interest and gather feedback for potentially larger-scale modifications.
I don't really recommend these for a serious playthrough, especially not all at once. I believe there is some potential in these ideas, however I have not really adequately done the work necessary to ensure they don't break balance or upset the game too much. If you want an interesting twist on SS2, maybe give these a try, but for super-serious playthroughs, I don't think you'll have a good time.
The Experiments are as follows:
Standard Ammo As Standard
This replaces ALL special bullet types found in the game world with standard bullets. So AP rounds become regular rounds, etc. You can still buy special ammo at replicators. This was done because I feel that Standard weapons are far too ubiquitous and generally useful overall, compared to the other weapon classes. They have the largest overall advantage in that they can attack every enemy type and have no weaknesses thanks to special ammo, but I felt that it's too readily available in-game to really give Standard any real downsides. Now, you can still get the same utility from Standard weapons, but it will cost you. The other weapon classes get their utility for free - Energy vs bots, Annelid vs organics etc - but don't have the same level of utility.
Currently, Shotgun ammo is NOT affected, only bullets.
I am actually quite happy with this and I feel it's a rather good nerf to standard weapons, however I feel this approach is a little heavy-handed. I am very interested in feedback.
Potential Ideas/Improvements:
- Also affect Shotgun ammo
- Replace bullets by a dice roll, rather than simply replacing all of them.
Software Requires CYB
In the vanilla game, Software essentially exists to provide some level of progression to all players - as they progress in the game, their ability to perform tech skills increases as they find software. However, the implementation is very poor. Hacking tends to get harder as the game progresses, so the progression from the sofware cancels out. All of the software can be found pretty easily by all players, and while it is available in some replicators, there's no point in buying it since it's expensive and an equivalent version will usually turn up pretty quickly for free.
At the same time, CYB is a particularly boring statistic. While it's generally useful, there's very little tradeoff or intelligence around picking it. It's the skill you take when Hacking/Repairing/Modify gets too hard/tedious, there's no other real strategy or decision making around it. It's also quite opaque - players will usually not see an immediate, tangible benefit to choosing CYB compared to, say, Strength, since they will immediately see their inventory expand and instantly do more damage. A comparable percentage bonus in a minigame doesn't really seem like much in comparison.
As a way to mitigate this, I decided to make CYB more useful by tying Software usage to it. All V1 software now requires 2 CYB, all V2 requires 4 CYB and V3 requires 6 CYB.
I am not sure how I feel about this solution overall. It sort of seems like CYB is now "double dipping" - for example, you will get the hacking bonus from CYB directly, plus the hacking bonus from being able to actually install the hacking software.
Implants Require CYB
I am MUCH more happy with this one than the previous one. I very much like making CYB more useful by making it a more active choice - your ability to use implants depends heavily on your Cyber investment, which means taking it over other stats (especially early game!) is super important. Want to use that BrawnBoost? Might have to take a point of CYB over Agi.
With this mod, BrawnBoost requires 2 CYB, SwiftBoost requires 3, EndurBoost requires 3, LabAssistant requires 4, ExperTech requires 4, PsiBooster requires 4. In case someone decides to add RunFast into the game, it also requires 3.
I am quite happy with how this minimod has turned out. I like that CYB is a far more active skill now, and actual important build decisions can now rely heavily on CYB investment, whereas previously it was a very underwhelming skill that usually didn't affect builds all that much.
Potential Ideas/Improvements:
- Add an implant that requires only 2 CYB but temporarily raises CYB by 2 while equipped. This would make the Cybernetically Enhanced upgrade more interesting, essentially allowing you to use implants you normally couldn't use without investing into CYB, at the cost of your second implant slot.
Security Overhaul
I don't like the way you can simply destroy cameras in order to bypass the threat they pose, so I made this module to encourage players to avoid them instead. For each camera you destroy, more enemies will patrol the area and hunt you down - if you wish to keep Xerxes in the dark, you will need to remain sneaky and avoid detection as much as possible.
I am VERY interested in hearing people's thoughts on these once they have had a chance to play them. I feel there is a lot of potential in some of these ideas, and would very much like to develop them further.
You can discuss this mod, provide feedback, and talk about my other mods here
17. March 2023, 20:28:28
#1
Quote by sarge945:
Software Requires CYB
This is genious idea, software always bothered me, it always seemed like redundant gameplay element to me - now it will all tie much more nicely together, brilliant idea.
Quote by sarge945:
Standard Ammo As Standard
Sceptical about this at very first glimpse when just focusing about thinking how it would take away a beloved gameplay element & a bit of diversity (being able to chose ammo-types always seemed to me pretty unique & immersive), wheras in reality gameplay-wise this seems to turn out to be actually brilliant.
Standard weapons are really really extremely overpowerd. Now enemy-type specific weapons (emp, prolifirator, worm launcher, laser, etc.) will shine & stand out much more & finally fill out their niches/roles nicely.
i would say do the same for shotgun & also replicators as well, to be consequential. Or better: just enable the red anti-personnel ammo for shotguns (but slightly nerf it down) to still emulate enough man-stopping power of shotguns irl (no more standard shotgun ammo).
Alas those mods (cyb & software) don't seem to work for me despite i've deactivated all the other ones + started new game.
'Offtopic: there is security alert for this site for a few days already
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18. March 2023, 14:00:55
#2
Quote by tiphares4:
This is genious idea, software always bothered me, it always seemed like redundant gameplay element to me - now it will all tie much more nicely together, brilliant idea.
Thanks
Quote by tiphares4:
Sceptical about this at very first glimpse when just focusing about thinking how it would take away a beloved gameplay element & a bit of diversity (being able to chose ammo-types always seemed to me pretty unique & immersive), wheras in reality gameplay-wise this seems to turn out to be actually brilliant.
Standard weapons are really really extremely overpowerd. Now enemy-type specific weapons (emp, prolifirator, worm launcher, laser, etc.) will shine & stand out much more & finally fill out their niches/roles nicely.
i would say do the same for shotgun & also replicators as well, to be consequential.
While I agree that it's a pretty nice way to handle Standard being overpowered, I fundamentally disagree about replicators - being able to spend nanites (sometimes up to 90 nanites per clip!) is important for allowing Standard to maintain it's utility and versatility. Being able to use the same weapon against all different types of enemies is absolutely great, and it's definitely Standard's big stand-out feature, I really don't want to remove it. I feel like the cost of special ammo already does a good job to offset it's utility and essentially make you pay for the privilege of having the most versatile weapon class.
Quote by tiphares4:
Or better: just enable the red anti-personnel ammo for shotguns (but slightly nerf it down) to still emulate enough man-stopping power of shotguns irl (no more standard shotgun ammo). So you have still both options and diversity (standard & anti-personnel) in early game.
Shotgun anti-pers ammo is unchanged. It should still appear as it did before. The main reason I left it unchanged is because the Shotgun already has limited versatility (only having 2 ammo types instead of 3), and does comparatively very low damage with a low fire rate, which IMO makes it the worst Standard weapon (even worse than the pistol). While it's a decent workhorse weapon, it's utility comes from it's reliability and consistent damage dealing rather than it's versatility, so I have left it unchanged since I don't think it's anywhere near as problematic as the rest of Standard.
Interestingly, I was also originally extremely skeptical of this idea. While implementing it, I was very sure it would be way too much and would absolutely nerf Standard weapons into the ground, and reduce/remove the strategy around it. To my (very pleasant) surprise, it turned out to be really amazing in terms of both depth and balance, and I am quite proud of how it ended up.
I will likely still tweak it a bit. I feel like maybe I should replace 90% of special ammo, rather than all of it, so there's still some available early but in very rare quantities. But I am definitely happy with the current result already.
Quote by tiphares4:
Alas those mods (cyb & software) don't seem to work for me despite i've deactivated all the other ones + started new game.
Judging by your screenshot, you haven't installed the mod properly. The 7zip archive only contains gamesys.dml. Did you open the 7z file and extract it to a folder?
To install it, go into your DMM folder inside your System Shock 2 folder, create a new folder called "CYB for implants" (or any other name really, the name doesn't matter as long as it's a folder), and copy gamesys.dml into there. It should show up in the mod manager as "DML" rather than "Unrecognised" and shouldn't have the yellow triangle. "Software Cyb" also has the same problem.
18. March 2023, 16:02:58
This is great, it's nice having software module in inventory for the first time; and it gives us more to fumble around with :3 #3
looks like giant usb-stick, it even has description text... this should be part of scp for example imo (i know, no gameplay-altering mechanics in scp, but anyways..)
It feels absolutely like it was always meant to be this way & the original developers would have done if they had more time at their hands. I even consider it as bug fixing or feature update.
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Acknowledged by: sarge945
15. April 2023, 03:54:53
#4
Quote by tiphares4:
Agreed as to the softwares going into inventory -- I'm stealing that for SS2-RSD. Also contributes to strategy with skipping software levels so you can convert the redundant softwares to nanites with CYB.This is great, it's nice having software module in inventory for the first time; and it gives us more to fumble around with :3
looks like giant usb-stick, it even has description text... this should be part of scp for example imo (i know, no gameplay-altering mechanics in scp, but anyways..)
It feels absolutely like it was always meant to be this way & the original developers would have done if they had more time at their hands. I even consider it as bug fixing or feature update.
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