System Shock Demo

[6647e562e3937Mocart]

Hi everyone! The other day, in Steam, they gave me a chance to play the new version of the Unreal engine demo with a full first level. Access was given for 48 hours. During this time, 1 update was released. I copied both versions in advance to a nook from where I didn’t even try to run to avoid .....
After 48 hours, both versions stopped running. Question: Are there any people able to “correct” this misunderstanding or are familiar with those? And, if YES, then somewhere to throw (about 5 Gig each)?

Всем КУ! На днях ,в стиме , давали поиграть в новую версию демо на Unreal engine с полным первым уровнем. Доступ давали на 48 часов .За это время вышло  1 обновление. Обе версии я заблаговременно скопировал в укромный уголок от куда даже не пытался запускать во избежанее.....
По прошествии 48 часов обе версии, есесенна, перестали запускаться. Вопрос : Есть-ли тута человеки способные "исправить" данное недоразумение или знакомые с таковыми?  И, ежели ДА, то куда-бы кинуть  (порядка 5 Гиг каждая)?

[6647e562e3b56Nameless Voice]

It was a time-limited demo that was only playable for two days.

[6647e562e3c36Mocart]

Yep, Capt. !

[6647e562e3db7voodoo47]

the latest demo has steam integration, so if it gets removed/disabled by steam, you won't be able to play. you would have to remove the steam checks from the game files you have backed up, and while this is probably doable, it would also be legally questionable, to put it mildly.

[6647e562e3ed9littlecarnage]

However, the wording in my last backer email is a little confusing:

This demo will be going live on the 12th at 10 am PST and will be up for 48 hours (longer for you backers!).

This would mean backers should be able to continue playing this demo, right? Am I missing something here?

[6647e562e3fb8voodoo47]

that's how I understand it, yes.

[6647e562e40b8voodoo47]

confirmed on Discord, ALL backers will regain access to the demo (no eta though).

[6647e562e4359icemann]

So the System Shock (2019) demo is back up on Steam, but only for backers (I think).

According to the KS update:

* There is no time limit, you will have access to this demo until launch
* It is still in an alpha state, there are bugs, missing features, etc.
* The demo will be periodically updated with new features and fixes until the Medical level is 100% complete

So will be worth checking on it every now and then, to see new features added, things fixed up etc.

Demo Build 4 (28/12/19) changes:

* Keyboard number keys can now be used to enter keypad codes

Demo Build 3 (23/12/19) changes:

* Improved lighting in several areas
* Orange available as a HUD colour (selectable via the options menu)
* New bug introduced, with electric beam shocks in the central hub area
* Usable under Windows 7 via the dll renaming method.

Demo Build 2 changes:

* Cameras now show on the map / mini-map (as yellow squares)
* Improved framerate
* Does not work with Windows 7

I'll have a play of the new version of the demo later tonight, and put up a video. I put this in it's own thread, since the demo will be updated over time. So be good to discuss the new features added, what's better / worse etc etc.

[6647e562e4466icemann]

So if your running Windows 7 64 Bit (like me), then the new demo will not work for you, as they forgot to include a few files in the current build.

Hopefully be a fix shortly.

[6647e562e47f1JDoran]

It will be interesting if they occasionally update the demo with their latest work/fixes/additions to the medical level.

I didn't play the demo (I couldn't - if I liked it then it would have made me impatient for the full game), but I did watch a couple of videos of people playing it, and read various posts about it, and it doesn't seem like a good teaser/advert for the game, I have to say. Parts of the level being so dark without either an attainable (at that part of the game) portable light source/visor gadgety thing, the demo seeming so inferior to the earlier demo in so many ways (and not my memory playing tricks, I watched a video comparing the two), even something as basic as the wrench attack lacking the realism and effects of the earlier demo's version.

Maybe I'm just too eager for the final release (especially since there's been so few new games that have interested me in the past few months and for the months to come) but I was expecting the demo to be really good and to scream out "Play me". If I'd thought it was going to be as underwhelming as it seems to be then I'd maybe have downloaded and played it. Or maybe just ignored it altogether, I don't know.

The videos of the new demo did make me think, again, of how the original must have been considered graphically really good when it was released. I mean, it still looks OK-ishly pretty for such an old game even today, good enough to not at all hamper the atmosphere or playability. So I'd imagine that back in 1994, the graphics must have really wowed some people.

System Shock was so far ahead of it's peers in so many ways. I wish I'd played it back then, but I doubt I ever even heard of the game. Back then PC gaming and PC magazines were predominantly pushing Doom, racing games, Doom, flight sims, Doom, early strategy games, some first person shooter from id Software that rhymed with Zoom and had you shotgunning imps, etc. I don't know when I first got to play System Shock, but I'm pretty certain it was from the excellent System Shock Portable from this site (thanks to everyone involved in that, BTW), so at the absolute earliest it was at least a decade or a decade and a half after the game's initial release.

Doom was and is still brilliant, but if some of the fans and medias' considerable time and attention had been focused on System Shock instead, then imagine how much farther immersive sims might be now, in a similar way to how first person shooters have advanced since then. Then again, considering how first person shooters have regressed in the past decade or more, maybe System Shock style games would now be in the same dumbed down, stale, non-innovative state that most modern FPS games are.

[6647e562e4920icemann]

The sad fact, is that immersive sims have a real niche audience. Where as Doom-like games, bring in a far larger amount.

[6647e562e4a58Kolya]

Did you other backers get a key for the demo yet?

[6647e562e4b28voodoo47]

no key here for now.

[6647e562e4ceaedx]

Got it last night, check your mail for an e-mail titled: New Digital Content for System Shock on BackerKit, from
Nightdive Studios <no-reply@s.backerkit.com>.

If not, try to log in into https://system-shock.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards

[6647e562e4dd5voodoo47]

done that, nothing and nothing. I'll give it some time, maybe it will correct itself.

[6647e562e4f4dvoodoo47]

ok, so you need to edit your offer (https://system-shock.backerkit.com/backer/share), and choose steam as your platform, as soon as you do that, you'll get a key (https://system-shock.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards).

then you just go games->activate product on steam, put the key in, and you should be good to go. as long as you have win10, as the win7 fix is not deployed yet.

//after receiving the key, you can switch the platform back to GOG.

[6647e562e507bKolya]

You mean, in the survey that  asks "What platform would you like to play the Digital Collector's Edition of System Shock on?" I now have to change my answer to Steam? 
Oh well, I guess I can change it back later.

EDIT: Actually seems to be working, thanks for the instructions, v.

[6647e562e549ficemann]

you should be good to go. as long as you have win10, as the win7 fix is not deployed yet.

According to Stephen, the only difference file wise between this and demo 1 is that they upgraded to the latest version of Unreal. From what I witnessed from trying to run the .exe file directly, was that it's just missing a dll file. If they popped in the file, then in theory that should fix it.

[6647e562e59233RDplayer]

ok, so you need to edit your offer (https://system-shock.backerkit.com/backer/share), and choose steam as your platform, as soon as you do that, you'll get a key (https://system-shock.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards).

This seems just a limited solution. If you preordered the game back then and chose steam you got a steam-key. If you preordered the game and chose NOT steam and change it now you will receive a key from an additional pool of steam-keys. And this one seems to be limited and will run out. So if anyone changes the platform to steam and doesn't receive a key. Well someone else before them got the last available one. So I guess, first come, first served until they restocked on steam-keys.

[6647e562e5beevoodoo47]

win7 fix;

1. go to your Windows/System32 folder and look for xinput1_3.dll, right-click, "copy"
2. go to the System Shock folder (e.g. F:\Steam\steamapps\common\System Shock), paste the xinput1_3.dll into that folder
3. rename the xinput1_3.dll to xinput1_4.dll
4. start the demo

also, I was wondering why some things look so pixelated and bad, and that's actually not the case, EVERYTHING is unfiltered, it's just more apparent at some places, while barely visible at other ones. really hoping there will be a toggle for this, as it's just.. yuck, no.


//seems like changing your pledge platform back to GOG is not a problem, the demo activation code is still available when you click digital rewards.

[6647e562e5da4icemann]

New build is up. Still doesn't work in Windows 7 unless you do the renaming method.

Has improved lighting in several areas:

Before:

After:

New bug introduced with electric shock damage now occurring in the central hub area.

I had been planning on streaming a play of build 2 today, but my PC is off for repairs and now build 3's out, so tomorrow when I get my PC back will stream that.

[6647e562e5e8fJDoran]

Just in that one screenshot alone, the increased lighting makes the room look much more atmospheric.

[6647e562e6007JosiahJack]

Whoa, didn't realize that was a before and after at first.  I mean seriously why would they do the first one like that, 2nd is much better.

[6647e562e655dRocketMan]

Does ND have a problem with nudity or something?  I don't remember the original system shock having a problem with fully naked corpses for example.  This scene reminds me of all the ID games where they did the same thing (quake 4, prey).  Normally I wouldn't care about not seeing Peter's schlong or Rebecca's coochie (ok maybe that'd be nice) but it becomes irksome to see a body on a medical table being worked on by cyborgs who have no regard for decency and every regard for enhancing function but they left the underwear on cuz reasons.  Same goes for corpses with clothes that just happens to be shredded in all the right places and none of the wrong ones.  I guess I could compare this to seeing a bunch of promotional advertising on the wall and every single one of them has to have 2 men and 2 women, a white, a black, an asian and a hispanic.  Then again maybe I'm the only one whose gameplay experience would be perturbed by such trivialities.

There are 4 bodies on the table.  Do me a solid.  At least take the clothes off 1 of them so they don't look like they all bought the same Jockey Winter Collection!

EDIT:  IIRC system shock had "heap of clothes" prop too so you'd be killing 2 birds with 1 stone by nudifying some of the NPCs in the game.