RoSoDudeThats really great to hear! Thank you very much! 🤗

Any news on the mod's progress? Hopefully its soon done, can't wait to use it.

Thank you.

Having to hack security after tripping the alarm can be implemented fairly easily, but I'm not really interested in the feature as I think it makes alarms too much of a fail state, tempting players to reload a save...

I considered it only in combination with the change to hack failure which starts an alarm instead of breaking the computer, which i think makes hacking more interesting, and could maybe even lead to less reloads. The psi skill with the original feature of shortening alarm (perhaps made stronger) would then become very useful for the OSA path (if it could do both - prevent alarm if cast in advance, and lower duration if cast after it started).

But you are right, for marines it would make reload even more tempting.

Yes, but that is only temporary. And i am not comparing this mod to SCP, but specifically to the Hard Security Mode minimod.

In the minimod "Destroying a security camera, whether or not security is hacked, will trip the alarm." Hence the need to hack cameras individually, which makes hacking clunky (yet absolutely necessary, since there is no alternative, until stasis).

In this mod, hacking security prevents alarm on camera destruction. So, after hacking a security terminal, you can simply destroy cameras with no negative consequences, just like with turrets. This is the big difference that makes hacking in this mod practical, and more consistent too.

It is a different design philosophy. In the Hard Security Mode minimod, shooting cameras is undesired in all circumstances.
In Alarming Cameras mod, you can still shoot them, but have to use a skill before that, which costs cybermodules. And there are multiple viable paths, which are well balanced, each of them having a downside.

In this mod (SS2 Alarming Cameras) you don't actually hack cameras. Hacking itself is practical - you hack a security terminal, and can then destroy cameras (and turrets) with impunity.

Hacking cameras in the Hard Security Mode minimod is clunky and dangerous since you have to do it from up close, which means you first need to get there (hacking a security terminal or sneaking), and then stay in place for enemies to see, and spend extra credits of course. And without hacking, you can only sneak (until stasis field generator at least).

This mod is a 'medium security mode' compared to the minimod. Although the minimod has ideas i like too, as i written before.

Followed in the next paragraph by "This mod on the other hand...".
In other words, the text you quoted refers to the Hard Security Mode minimod, since i am comparing it to this mod.

Hopefully my comments makes more sense now.

On the contrary, in this mod both psi and hacking are practical, only the stasis field generator is the inferior one, and only due to how late you find one. If it (and some ammo) could be added to an earlier location, it would be perfectly balanced.

But this actually makes sense when looking at the game balance as a whole. There are 2 kinds of obstacles in the game - enemies, and technology. In the original game, cameras specifically might as well not exist, since you can just shoot them with no downside. This meant hacking skill 1 was only useful for the turrets, and those can be shot as well, making marine strictly better start early on.

But with this mod, both present similar level of danger, and all 3 of the main specializations are now balanced around them in a very logical way:
- Marine is better at killing normal enemies and turrets, and not so good at dealing with security cameras
- Hacker is now best at dealing with technology, since after hacking a security terminal, you can destroy cameras without triggering alarm, and turrets without getting fired on
- OSA agent is somewhere in between, he can deal with cameras easily, but not that well with enemies and especially turrets.

The minimod on the other hand makes the cameras much harder to deal with, to the point where hacking is practically mandatory (unless you want to force marines and OSA to rely on sneaking), and even then you need to hack cameras up close. So, the added difficulty is good, but imbalance between the different paths is not.

Oh, thanks ZylonBane for the info on the stasis option in SCP. However, it is the least useful option, given how late you get the stasis field generator.
But since you commented, is this compatible with the other minimod allowing to lay the stasis traps? It actually makes the weapon useful, which is definitely a good change.

Yes, you can hack cameras individually. But that is much more clunky and dangerous compared to shooting them, since you need to be close. And is more expensive, as the poster in that thread noted.

This mod on the other hand gives multiple ways to deal with them at range, and very realistically too, but all require cybermodule investment. And the more practical options are given to the paths generally considered harder at the beginning, which actually improves game balance in the beginning levels between specializations. That is why this mod is so good.

The only thing that could improve it would be to change the hacking 'minigame', to one where choices actually matter. But i guess that would be way out of scope of a simple small mod.

Any news on this?

This mod is much better balanced in my opinion than the equivalent Hard Security Mode minimod, since it makes the game harder but still leaves several ways to bypass the alarm (hacking, psi, and stasis). Since trying it, i can't even imagine playing the game without it, it would be too easy to just shoot the cameras.

The only changes from the minimod that i would like is the requirement to hack the security console to disable alarm (at reduced difficulty) and triggering alarms on failed hack. If that was integrated into this mod, keeping the alarm reduction on the psi power would actually become useful for non-hackers.

The new flashing camera effect (which looks really super super cool & which i love - such qol-improvement, awesome! and fits so well graphically/atmospherically) of SCP Beta 5 gets overridden by Alarming Cameras - even when placing down under SCP Beta 5 priority-wise in Blue Mod Manager list. 

It would be cool if it would work together with alarming cameras - especially because that hard security mini mod is way too hard for me as it is now / for most people i think.


edit: And it seems that Alarming Cameras is not working with SCP Beta 5 at all. Destroyed some cams & no alarm. Which is pity - it is the only way to play SS2 imo so far.     :l 

Version 1.02 - Fixed Remote Electron Tampering disabling standard alarms and causing cameras to become stuck in the red alert state. Cameras under the effect of stasis will no longer activate destruction alarms.

After many failed attempts, I finally managed to find a fix -- I rearranged the scripts so I can intercept the Alertness message and deactivate Remote Electron Tempering before the message reaches the vanilla cameraalert script. The situation where the player casts the power, deactivates the alarm, and then tries to destroy the camera again within the duration is so niche that I think it's a fair tradeoff for everything working properly. I'd appreciate if someone could check over the other scripts to make sure they're moved correctly. I wasn't sure if I had to move the NVMetaTrap script params to the Security Camera Scripts object, but I did it anyway. It seems like the Stasis Field Generator still blinds cameras and they stop being HUD selectable once destroyed, so I think it's all okay.

I'll look into fixing voice lines another time, getting this critical fix out was the top priority.

Thanks for making remote electron tampering actually somewhat worthwhile as a skill now!

I can do audio editing if you wanted a version of that email without the line about the cameras. New lines are technically possible with a sound alike (not happening) or splicing in lines from other emails to say the right thing (possible but down to luck). Removing a sentence about killing the cameras would be easy though

ah, you'll also probably want to modify that email (and its audio) from Polito where she tells you to destroy cameras, as that is not such a great idea with this mod loaded.

déjà vu - didn't someone already make (a cruder version of) this?

Hmm. Is there any data I could check on the ecologies for active alarms?

ShockGame.IsAlarmActive() will just tell you if there's an active alarm.

Serves me right for not even testing that despite it being a motivating example for gameplay strategy. Hmm. Is there any data I could check on the ecologies for active alarms? This would be so easy with Unreal's AllActors() function...

aha, right, I've been testing this with b5 wip. maybe we could share the latest scpCameraHelper script?

they are connected to different ecologies, most likely - if that's the case, this is "correct", and not sure whether something can be done about it.

//hmm, not possible to trigger multiple alerts the vanilla way - so the mod's script file may need a tweak, "do not sound an additional alert if one is already in progress".

°DML°string

System Shock 2 - Alarming Cameras (SCP Minimod) v1.02
by RoSoDude https://rosodudemods.wordpress.com/

This mod adds a new feature to the camera alarm dynamics in SCP:
-Unless the security grid is hacked, cameras activate the alarm when they are destroyed
-Remote Electron Tampering allows the player to circumvent destruction alarms for 5 seconds + 5 seconds per PSI
-The old alarm-shortening effect for Remote Electron Tampering has been removed
-Cameras under the effect of stasis will not activate destruction alarms

Requires SCP Beta 4 (and hopefully supports future versions), install above it in Blue Mod Manager. Overwrites psi power descriptions, so will minorly conflict with other mods that change those.