SS2 Anisotropic shock2.gam

[664af40bedf02Kolya]

Tags: °gamesys °SS2

The mod was part of the Gamesys_Archive_v1.1. It's a balancing mod that does wide changes to weapons and items and changes the descriptions accordingly. (This is the full version including Anisotropic's changes to the strings.)
(as discussed on TTLG)

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Anisotropic's GameSys: list of changes
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1) Global changes

The French-Epstein and Auto-Repair devices have been removed.  With Auto-Repair units in the game, whatever utility the Repair skill might have had went right out the window.  Removing the French-Epstein devices helped to finish with balancing out the skills.

Some alien organs now require a higher Research skill.
In general, the requirements ramp up as you encounter tougher enemies, culminating in a required Research skill of 4 to research Rumbler and Psi-Reaver organs.  With the LabAssistant implant, the requirements aren't excessive.

The HP bonuses for Endurance have been increased a bit on the easier difficulties, in the hope that this will make an investment in END a little more handy.

Smasher overhand strikes now do 2x damage instead of 1.5x.  This upgrade can definitely be useful, although I'd still recommend Lethal Weapon first.

And finally, Strength/PSI boosters now boost 2 points instead of 1, making these rare items at least more useful than implants. 

2) Weapon changes

- The Wrench no longer benefits from Standard skill, or any other weapon skill.  If you're playing Pure Psi, you shouldn't notice any difference, but a standard-weapons guy may notice a decrease in damage.  STR still effects damage, as do O/S upgrades.

STANDARD WEAPONS:
- The Assault Rifle and Pistol are mostly unchanged, but certain high-level enemies have been toughened against specialized damage.  In the AR's automatic setting, recoil has been decreased and ROF has been increased.
 
- The Shotgun is more powerful in general, and the spread of pellets has been narrowed a bit.  The slugs, with powerful Standard damage provide a low-budget alternative to specialized bullets.

ENERGY WEAPONS:
- The Laser pistol degrades at a slower rate, and does a bit more damage.  That's it!

- The Laser Rapier is now fairly good all-around, and utterly devastating against robotic targets.  If you need a powerful melee weapon against robots and cyborgs, this is it.  It now requires only an Energy skill of 3.

- The EMP Rifle is devastating against mechanical targets, and now has a small electrical surpressive effect.  Unchallenged against mechanical targets, but still worthless on flesh (obviously)

HEAVY WEAPONS:
- The Grenade Launcher now requires a STR of 4 to use (BrawnBoost helps).  Rate of fire has been decreased, as well as projectile speed; damage is unchanged however, so this remains the most powerful skill-1 weapon.  On the plus side, Disruption and Proximity grenades have been improved, and the blast radius of the grenades has been increased slightly. 

- The Fusion Cannon has been almost completely overhauled.  It now requires a STR of 6 in addition to a heavy of 6, but easily holds the title of Most Powerful Weapon.  Normal shots use 2 prisms, while Death shots use 3 prisms and do twice the damage of Normal shots. 
Downsides?  High module costs, easy accidental suicide.
Upsides?  This will utterly annihilate anything you fire it at.  The assault rifle may be more practical in general, but who cares?

EXOTIC WEAPONS:

- The Crystal Shard is now almost exclusively an anti-organic weapon, and that it does very well.  It's more effective than the Rapier against organics, and requires fewer modules to use, so it's usually the better choice -- but if you want armor-piercing capability, you'll need the Rapier.

- The Viral Proliferator is now a deadly "indirect" weapon against organics.  The large effective radius of its explosions makes it a very effective weapon around corners and against groups, and it is quite powerful against all organic targets.  However, against all but pure annelids you will find that indirect attack is your only option -- the projectile moves slowly and it's easy to get caught in the large blast radius.

- The Worm Launcher is extremely powerful against organic targets.  Unlike the Proliferator, it does no splash damage and does not differentiate between human and annelid tissue.  It can either fire single-cluster worms, which are powerful enough to kill smaller creatures such as spiders, or double-cluster worms for that extra power against Rumblers and Psi-Reavers.  It's accurate and fires relatively quickly, and so is very effective in all forms of combat.  However, unlike the Proliferator, you'll actually need to have a line-of-sight to your enemy (the horror!).

All in all, a very good choice for those poor souls heading into the BOTM.

3) Psionics changes

- Projected disciplines such as Hypnosis, Surpression, Cryo/Pyro are now instant-effect.  Cryo/Pyro also now does limited splash damage, which can be either good or bad depending on how close you are to your enemy.   

- Localized Pyro does more damage at a faster rate, but doesn't last nearly as long as it used to.  Very nice against swarms, spiders, and groups of hybrids.  It will no longer protect against droid explosions, however.
 
- The Molecular Duplication discipline can now duplicate virtually anything, with the exception of Psi hypos.  Need another med-bed key or ICE pick?  Want another Pistol in perfect condition?  Hell, you can even duplicate that arachnid organ or GamePig if you want to.  However, the more complex or massive items require a _lot_ of nanites to duplicate, so you really won't be able to use do 'special' duplications until you get Transmutation.

- The Molecular Transmutation discipline can now transmute virtually anything, with the exception of quest items.  Every jammed pistol and redundant suit of armor becomes a source of nanites.  VERY useful, particularly for funding the more decadent duplications (see previous entry).  The Psi-guy's newfound control over matter serves as a very nice perk, and makes him loved in multi.

- Soma Transference will no longer damage the Many brain, unless you've killed the stars first.  Yes, the final bit will actually be a bit harder -- still easy, though.

[664af40bee098piotrr]

I am a fan of this mod.