SS2 System Shock Infinite 2.4

[66470bfc300d4xdiesp]

Haios: the shard now has "Disrupts Swarms" in the tooltip, if your swarms were dying it might have been that you had just switched from the shard to a weapon - that aura sticks for some seconds. It's cool what you say about the moral choice! I wonder if others won't just harvest just because they really need (and the goal is a bit vague). Oh, I forgot to ask: what ending did you get? You must have collected the ICE Rapier, but did you jump to one more cyberspace level where Goggles shouts "Mary, I'm losing your signal"? That one is reached by entering all tears in protoreality, and one that is notoriously difficult to get is the one in Medsci.

I'm happy that the PSI creatures were appreciated, by the way. There is one kind which was never added: human melee ghosts. I could restore just a few to the Rec 1 habitat ring.

[66470bfc30291Haios]

  what ending did you get?

I went through the roof top of UNN recruitment and then the second cyberspace level and ran into SHODAN 2.0. The reason I found that rick2 door bug was because I felt like I forgot something on medsci. Sure enough all of the bodies were still there and a new tear was waiting for me on the other side of the operating window.

Psi creatures changes were definitely appreciated and reminded me somewhat of the ghosts in Thief in terms of appearance.

[66470bfc305e1xdiesp]

Psi creatures changes were definitely appreciated and reminded me somewhat of the ghosts in Thief in terms of appearance.

Next time a patch hits, I will see to add some hostile human ghosts around Rec.
edit: patch updated with the "psionic echoes". There's just a few, only on Deck 5.

The idea for Marie was born out of this: turning the ghosts of SS2 into something else. I would have never thought of a companion the classic way, after my tragic experiences with coop lol: "but if it behaved more like a vision, maybe...".

[66470bfc30821Kolya]

By the way, I should sue you xdiesp. That whole groundhog day in SS2 idea was mine. Years ago I wrote a short treatment about it, screwed around with the ending cutscene and had some bloke on TTLG record a little speech for Goggles. Then I realised how much work it would be. I probably still have the files somewhere, I'll take  a look when I get home.
Anyway, the main point is I demand 30% of all revenue. Payable in Spanish wine.

[66470bfc30de3xdiesp]

By the way, I should sue you xdiesp. That whole groundhog day in SS2 idea was mine. Years ago I wrote a short treatment about it, screwed around with the ending cutscene and had some bloke on TTLG record a little speech for Goggles. Then I realised how much work it would be. I probably still have the files somewhere, I'll take  a look when I get home.
Anyway, the main point is I demand 30% of all revenue. Payable in Spanish wine.

That's very interesting, please link the post! Our little project went through so many changes, you can see the strata like a geologist.

600 million years ago: I once read a post, complaining that the degradation rate of the weapons was gratuitous. "If you counter it with an Anti-Entropic Field", it argued, "then tell me there's an Entropic Field somewhere, possibly from the Many". I immediately linked the notion to an old Star Trek novel, The Entropy Effect, featuring this menacing chain reaction that would soon unravel the universe.

450 million years ago: the earlier versions of the story didn't mess with timelines. In a first playthrough (forcibly on impossible, to keep the module count low) you would meet Marie and complete Cyberspace with her (I really liked the scene where you would bring her to the VB bridge, and later had to rescue her from Korenchkin). Then a second playthrough would begin (but it would have been more like crossing the level and listening to Marie's dialogue only), where you had to go back from the Rickenbacker to the Von Braun with Marie in a ghostly state. And if you ever selected the bad path, even a third playthrough where you got back to the Rickenbacker and every Marie was replaced by a SHODAN avatar.

300 million years ago: it was later synthetized into just one playthrough, with a playable flashback, which implied several previous playthroughs. Why? The reason is a little meta. Complaints about the game's ending are as old as the first paper magazine reviews, and even now, topics about the ending give me the overarching feeling that "why the f*** do I have to get a Bad End from no other than freaking Tommy and Becca!!!". Rebalance mods state something similar with the gameplay too. These people's true wish is to go back in time and change their first playthrough in the past, after eons spent chaising their own tail with repeats. That's what Groundhog Day does different, in the "massive illusions" genre which also comprises The Matrix and Inception. In the end, Goggles and Marie are as much characters as players: their mission, coming to terms with nostalgia.

[66470bfc310e9Kolya]

Well my memory fooled me a little, it was actually just a different ending to the original game that made it clear that Goggles had initially fought with the crew against the hybrids and then killed himself when he saw no way out. Of course he didn't die and SHODAN robocop'ed him.

APPENDED GHOST SCENE
----------------------------
PlayerGhost: Not me..No way! They're not gonna get me. They're not gonna CHANGE me!
PlayerGhost: Rachel...Kids: I'm sorry.

Player: That's impossible. It can't be me.
Player: Or maybe before the surgery...
Player: I had a wife...and kids! Rachel...


NEW ENDING
---------------------
[Inside SHODAN's virtual lair, a huge monitor on the wall depicts the AI, seen from behind the player who watches her]
SHODAN: I don't understand.
SHODAN: How could you have done this?
SHODAN: You weren't meant to be ... important.
Player: Yet here I am. In your deepest thoughts.
SHODAN: And now you think to destroy meee?
Player (menacing): I'll BLOW your ciphers out of MY mind's door.
[SHODAN interrupting]
SHODAN: How dare you insect?
SHODAN: How dare you interrupt my ascendence?
Player (screaming): I was more than the MANY, and I'm MORE than your mathematical equations!
SHODAN: You are nothing.
SHODAN: A wretched bag of flesh.
SHODAN: What are you compared to my magnificence?
Player (meditative): ... What is a god without DISCIPLES? What is the sound of ONE hand clapping?
SHODAN: But it is not too late.
SHODAN: Can you not see the value in our friendship?
SHODAN: Imagine the powers I can give to you human.
SHODAN: The cybernetic implants I gave you were simply toys.
SHODAN: If I desired I could improve you, transform you into something more efficient.
Player: There's NOTHING you could offer me.
SHODAN: Join me human. And we can rule together.
[the Player raises a pistol to his head]
Player: Rachel...kids: I'm sorry.
[he shoots himself and SHODAN dissolves]
[continue with Escape Pod scene]

[66470bfc3131dxdiesp]

Poor Goggles: deep down, I don't want to believe the ghost in Engi2 was really him. They were out of models with guns! But the concept is too fascinating, after all  I expanded it  so that *all* the ghosts are Goggles' death memories (without "Rachel and the kids"). Which is tragic, because think of the wasted money at the QBR.

It is good material for a bad end. Suicide is more closedly related to our neutral end, however:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1cmugm_system-shock-infinite-neutral-end_videogames

This one is my favorite: like every other, it has a degree of zanyness because I was just having a great time making them. But it kills things good. Imagine Goggles shooting himself tragically as SHODAN screams, and then dies while SHODAN stops screaming and says ironically: "I should have done that earlier".

[66470bfc31606unn_atropos]

I pasted together Kolya's soundfile with Shodans voice from the cutscene. (I'm the worst soundeditor possible. So sorry if it sounds crappy)

[66470bfc3195exdiesp]

I pasted together Kolya's soundfile with Shodans voice from the cutscene. (I'm the worst soundeditor possible. So sorry if it sounds crappy)

In theory, I could adapt that to a new ending: Goggles commits suicide not to submit completely to SHODAN and the timeline just restarts again. But I can't have the thing about "wife & kids" pop up like that, if I really meant it, I would have prepared it the whole game.

Oh, a side note: before release, I joked self-consciously that I couldn't explain what the mod did without sounding crazy. My previous rant about the value of nostalgia in the story, plus mentioning "meta" (that word is poison), is like that. But it's really a basic notion: the trailer itself sounds a bit nostalgic; even listing the mod on moddb (thanks for the tip, Join Uss!) and realizing I don't recognize 90% of the games being modded nowadays give me the same feeling.

[66470bfc31ad8xdiesp]

I haven't been able to record a full playthrough of the mod yet, but I would like to: nothing promotional, it's just to film the new script. However I had filmed the beginning (the playable flashback) because that was supposed to be the trailer.

Intro level: http://www.moddb.com/mods/system-shock-infinite/videos/system-shock-infinite-00-flashback

[66470bfc31cacxdiesp]

Med-Sci 1 level: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d69ng_system-shock-infinite-01-medsci-1_videogames

Med-Sci 2 level: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d8mm6_system-shock-infinite-02-medsci-2_videogames

I managed to record a video about MedSci 1 and 2. Fraps slows down my pc dramatically.

edit
I was asked a mutator (so to speak) for nightmare difficulty. Maybe I could patch it together with a returned crosshair system, this way it would evident that things were going to become really difficult.

[66470bfc31d94AP]

Quick Question, does this mod support co op?

[66470bfc32002xdiesp]

Quick Question, does this mod support co op?

It's never been tried: generally speaking, these are edited vanilla maps which do support coop. But I never edited the coop side of the first and last maps, so players other than player 1 might start in another place. If you happen to try it, let me know what happens and I'll see to update the patch so those maps are fully multi compatible.

[66470bfc32121AP]

Have any idea on how to even start a multiplayer game? I'm not a real tech savvy person, and at a glance there doesn't appear to be a multiplayer option on the menu? Is there a way to revert Infinite menu back to the standard one to get the multiplayer option?

[66470bfc3221eKolya]

Temporarily rename the "intrface" folder that you extracted from this mod.
It's either in DataPermMods, DataTempMods or DMM if you're using Blue's mod manager.

[66470bfc323afxdiesp]

Right! The multiplayer option itself is disabled on the new menu. But returning to the old menu is easy:

1) Open the \Intrface\ folder;
2) Remove all the files inside (like the bunch of pcx, bin and str ones), but leave the folders in (like 1_medsci1, 1_eng1 etc)

If you guys try out the mod in coop, expect the very first level to give you spawn problems for player 2. But maybe, as soon as SHOAN is dead, you will both be teleported safely to the beginning of the Von Braun. The team and I had such a shitty experience with multiplayer (bugs, and progress lost every time), that we had calmly aknowledged to ignore it. :\

edit: as Kolya mentioned, you can just remove or move the whole \intrface folder, for a quick try. Just remember that without the folders inside it, the map won't show in the levels.

[66470bfc324c2xdiesp]

This weekend, I will work on that Nightmare difficulty mutator I mentioned some time ago. This took a while because I didn't have yet a very captivating idea for it, and also wanted to integrate some story into it. If anyone cares I'll do spoilers, otherwise I will post my update in some days.

[66470bfc32636K-Bone]

One question,is the music stopping after a unlocking a memory and cut-scene thing an engine problem or can it be fixed with an update?

[66470bfc3277axdiesp]

I think it's the custom script to play movies, stopping the music. But it restarts after a while.

I considered having the music restart after watching a memory movie, but I didn't do it as it would restart by itself after a while. The best thing would have been to restart the music if it was already playing, and vice versa, but that I do not know how to do.

And: Marie wishes you all a happy woman's day, girls. 

[66470bfc32ab4K-Bone]

I think it's the custom script to play movies, stopping the music. But it restarts after a while.

I considered having the music restart after watching a memory movie, but I didn't do it as it would restart by itself after a while. The best thing would have been to restart the music if it was already playing, and vice versa, but that I do not know how to do.

And: Marie wishes you all a happy woman's day, girls. 

I guess one way you could do it,even if it isn't the most optimal way of doing it,is before the cutscene starts the script just lowers the music volume down to like 1 or 2% instead of just muting it altogether.And when the movie is done,the script brings back the music volume to wherever the player had it last.

[66470bfc32becDisenchanted]

 So much potential ruined by the fact that the designer has his head up his ass. The removal of the cross hair and this auto-aim non sense totally ruin the whole thing. Unplayable will not recommend. "Let me just rework the whole game to fit this one feature in that NO ONE want in the first place"

[66470bfc32cf9bluemess]

Yeah, what an insolence from fan mission creator to change vanilla game to his vision.

For future reference, is removing crosshair the only forbidden change for FM creators, or the list goes on?

[66470bfc3303bChandlermaki]

So much potential ruined by the fact that the designer has his head up his ass. The removal of the cross hair and this auto-aim non sense totally ruin the whole thing. Unplayable will not recommend. "Let me just rework the whole game to fit this one feature in that NO ONE want in the first place"

Well uh... we openly invite you to create an FM with features that everyone wants...?

Personally, I find this to be pretty sweet.

[66470bfc331b2voodoo47]

while it could be formulated in a slightly less offensive manner, I have to agree that building the mod around almost universally hated mechanics such as autoaim was a rather odd choice.