SS2 Rebalanced Skills and Disciplines

[6647c55c6f159SecurityDroid002]

voodoo47
I like the sound of this too. Dumb question, but why do I have to enable file extensions if I want to do this?

[6647c55c6f39avoodoo47]

widows usually hides extensions of known files (one of the many failed attempts of ms to protect a windows user from himself). if the txt extension of a txt file is hidden, and you rename the file to mis, it will look like a mis, but it will, in fact, become mis.txt, and that will not work.

[6647c55c6f64cSecurityDroid002]

voodoo47
Alright, thanks. I'll try it and get back to you.

[6647c55c6f733voodoo47]

what have I done.

[6647c55c6f969SecurityDroid002]

voodoo47
Hey, no worries, haha. I know we all have our own lives to lead, but you're so helpful on this website, and I just want to make sure I do it properly. 

[6647c55c6fa5cJamie]

I encountered the power-cell-barred doorway in Engineering. Have you hidden a cell nearby?

[6647c55c6ff00RoSoDude]

I encountered the power-cell-barred doorway in Engineering. Have you hidden a cell nearby?

Sounds like you didn't fully explore Med/Sci 

The power cell mechanics have been expanded across the game, it's up to you to find them and decide when you want to use them to open paths, clear hazards, or access loot caches. On Normal difficulty there's one power cell per auxiliary power unit, but on Hard/Impossible difficulty you won't have enough to power everything.

[6647c55c7007dJamie]

That's really cool. Yes, I always play on Impossible, ha. I did try to retract the power cell I inserted into the Med Sci bulkhead, but I guess I'll just have to look harder.

[6647c55c70190Jacky]

Is this and your 'Scary Monsters AI' mod compatible with the 'No Spiders' mod that replaces all spiders with worms? If so, what load order do you recommend? Thanks.

[6647c55c70289voodoo47]

I see no script overwrites upon quick glance so yes, and priority shouldn't matter, but go with NoSpiders higher than RSD just to be sure.

also, just realized, RSD mod by RSD, how amusing.

[6647c55c704f4Jacky]

voodoo47
Thanks. I'm not even that arachnophobic - I just think they look goofy in the game, even if it's justified by the lore, ha.

[6647c55c705f8Dan161]

Sorry for the dumb question, but is this compatible with your Scary Monster AI and Assassin Rapier mods? I've put RSD above them in the load order.

[6647c55c706ceRoSoDude]

Yes, they are all compatible.

[6647c55c70898CyberneticGeneral]

Regarding the modifications you made to the boss fight with SHODAN: I made a small music mod if you're interested. 

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=12301.0

[6647c55c70a16ZylonBane]

RSD is a gameplay mod, not an audio/visual mod. A/V enhancements (that can't be standalone mods) are more in SCP's domain.

[6647c55c70e57sarge945]

RSD is a gameplay mod, not an audio/visual mod. A/V enhancements (that can't be standalone mods) are more in SCP's domain.

This isn't entirely true.

RSD adds the rapier hum back, plus it adds some fancy new bullet effects. It also changes gun angles when reloading (purely visual) and does some other non-gameplay QOL stuff, like showing icons for upgraded weapons and letting you put items into containers. I'm sure RoSoDude can list off more A/V stuff in the mod.

Honestly, the mod does a bit of everything. It's definitely a gameplay-focused mod, but A/V stuff isn't exactly unwelcome.

But I agree that linking to other, unrelated mods is not really appropriate in mod threads.

[6647c55c73683mousetrapreplica]

RoSoDude
im about halfway through my first playthrough, great mod,really enjoying it so far. My only complaint currently is changing the assault rifles semi automatic mode to a 2 round burst. i totally get the desire to distinguish it from the pistol so they both have a utility, but id argue the fact they share an ammunition type pretty much guarantees most people will want one or the other and you should probably balance them around that fact. its also just immersion breaking as pretty much any rifle is going to have a semi automatic option, even in a sci fi setting. if you really want to make the pistol more appealing maybe cut its inventory size to 2 spaces instead of 3 or something. I don't think nerfing the endgame standard weapon is the solution

[6647c55c73a76mousetrapreplica]

mousetrapreplica
also is it just me or is the power armors drain rate insanely high? i was considering using it for my soldier build since i really have no other use for batteries, but even with a healthy stockpile of them i can't imagine ill be able to keep the thing powered when it seems to lose roughly 10% charge a minute, it wouldn't bother me if it had a flat damage protection when unpowered but since you removed that it seems kind of lackluster

[6647c55c73d45RoSoDude]

Regarding the assault rifle: the burst fire has been in since version 1.00 and is unlikely to change as it's generally gotten positive reception. The rifle is still better than the pistol in almost every respect. The rifle does 8 damage per shot vs the pistol's 7 damage per shot at Standard 6; the rifle has nearly twice the pistol's DPS due to having nearly double the fire rate; it has more than double the mag size for less than double the reload time. The pistol is easier to mod and maintain and you can do single shots to finish off enemies, but the assault rifle is the real powerhouse. I don't want to make the pistol any better (it's already the premier early game firearm), and the engine won't abide weapons taking up a different number of inventory slots besides. I understand your objection from a realism standpoint, but minimum burst fire for automatic weapons is common in video games, even in the same series (see System Shock's flechette and skorpion).

The powered armor drain rate is the same as vanilla, 10% charge every 50 seconds (this is double the drain rate of most implants). Despite the fact that I removed SCP's flat protection, increased the Strength requirement to 4 and gave it a higher movement speed penalty than other armors, it is still far and away the most potent and stat-efficient armor as it was in vanilla (in SCP it's the only valid choice due to the flat 20% protection), as long as you keep the charge up. Risk and reward. It's the best for Energy builds that invest in Maintenance and spend a lot of time running to and from the recharging stations, but there's now a sliver of an argument for other builds to use medium armor, heavy armor, or WormSkin armor, which I view as a win for balance. For reference, at base the powered armor will last 8m20s, while at Maintenance 6 and modded for drain rate reduction it'll last 14m49s.

I appreciate the feedback nonetheless, hopefully my reply is not too discouraging. I keep in mind what people tell me and sometimes I am led to reconsider things later. I also want you to be aware that it is pretty easy to tweak the mod to your own liking; the gamesys.dml file is pretty well documented and I am happy to offer any technical advice towards that aim regardless of my personal design vision for the mod.

[6647c55c74135sarge945]

mousetrapreplica
In a way, I agree with you. I also don't like burst fires in general as I have always found burst fire modes clunky to use in every game that has them. I don't entirely like the idea of making ammo wastage the balancing factor for the AR and would rather nerf Standard in other ways, but Ro has good reasons for doing it this way.

If you want to use single shot like vanilla and still maintain Standard balance, you'd probably need to find another way to nerf Standard, as it's already very good. Kyu and I have both made Standard-altering mods. If you're going to use single shot again, I suggest installing one of them.

But I have gotten used to the burst fire (even if I still think Standard is a little OP in RSD, but that's just my opinion). I understand it might be frustrating, but it's probably worth getting used to, if only for balance reasons.

[6647c55c7434aRoSoDude]

Small update for some basic fixes, more worthwhile Recreation A power cell use, and reworked melee bonuses.

#### 2.03 ####
-Fixed compatibility issues when with Pistol Hybrid (load SS2-RSD above)
-Fixed bug allowing 1 portable battery to charge a stack of empty batteries instead of one at a time
-Fixed softwares not being able to be put into containers
-Fixed chemicals not being able to be put into containers
-Fixed destroyed proximity grenades dealing 30 damage instead of intended 20 damage
-Fixed psi pull items not being able to be picked up when very close
-Repaired turrets start at 29%->50% HP [SS2 Repairman mod only, now compatible with Sarge's Randomizer]
-Refined Med/Sci 1 maintenance tool psi pull placement
-Removed debug logspam from Engineering
-Removed debug file logspam from egg loot
-Changed Strength 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8 melee damage bonus from 0/1/2/3/4/6/10/15 to -1/0/1/3/6/10/15/21
-Increased Adrenaline Overproduction melee damage bonus from +1 base damage to +2 base damage per PSI
-Increased Cerebro-Energetic Extension duration from 10s per PSI to 10s + 10s per PSI
-Grenade Hybrids 15% chance to drop 4 grenades is now 30% chance to drop 1 grenade (loot table rolled twice)
-Recreation A power cell now powers the nearby recharging station

[6647c55c74575JDoran]

I've meant to try this for a while, but never gotten around to it, so now's the perfect time!

This is my SS2 mod setup:

Is there anything there that won't run with your mod? What position should I put your mod in, in the list?

Sarge's Randomiser (another mod I've yet to play) has just been updated, would that work with your mod too?

And on the subject of mods, are there any more mods I should add?

[6647c55c74a3asarge945]

I've meant to try this for a while, but never gotten around to it, so now's the perfect time!

This is my SS2 mod setup:

I think you're the first person I've seen so far still using one of the individual coloured laser rapier versions.

Also your installation of Scary Monsters is outdated (but it's disabled anyway)

You need to put the rebirth version of RealSG (Rebirth GFX Shotgun in your case) above Rebirth itself.

Sarge's Randomiser (another mod I've yet to play) has just been updated, would that work with your mod too?

Yes, use the compatibility addon on the randomiser page.

[6647c55c74e10RoSoDude]

JDoran
RSD goes on the very top, unless you use Sarge's Randomizer in which case you want to use the RSD compatibility addon over it. Note that RSD requires SCP, whereas the note you wrote seems to imply that you think it's incompatible?

Repairman is highly recommended, Rickenbacker Automaps is nice, Alarming Cameras is good if you want the security systems to pose an actual threat, and you will probably want Scary Monsters as an SS2 veteran.

Depending on your tastes you may also be interested in Alternate Start, Cutscene Skipper, and Inventory Fumbler.