SS2 TF's Secmod 2.8 [obsolete]

[664a55197985eNdrake]

I think quoting trolls is kind of a bummer in itself. But OK I didn't get the joke. I'm sorry about that. In my defense: If you look closely the smiley you used is actually a frowny face-ish one. 

[664a551979ac8Join2]

One more thing, TF: the magnitude of the screen shake when shot by robot zapper (or whatever) needs lowering in my opinion. Also the transferred force too. You can be sent flying across the room and the screen is shaking all over the place...seems almost cartoony. I recommend keeping it subtle.

Additionally, I recommend very subtle screen shake when firing guns. Quite a lot of shooters do it and it makes shooting more visceral.
Deus Ex had it too but it wasn't noticeable on most guns, so I cranked it up a touch.

Here's an example of screen shake when shooting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PjvbTlwghc

[664a55197a0fcThiefsieFool]

I think quoting trolls is kind of a bummer in itself. But OK I didn't get the joke. I'm sorry about that. In my defense: If you look closely the smiley you used is actually a frowny face-ish one. 

Yeah it's kind of a joking smiley even though it looks serious.

One more thing, TF: the magnitude of the screen shake when shot by robot zapper (or whatever) needs lowering in my opinion. Also the transferred force too. You can be sent flying across the room and the screen is shaking all over the place...seems almost cartoony. I recommend keeping it subtle.

Additionally, I recommend very subtle screen shake when firing guns. Quite a lot of shooters do it and it makes shooting more visceral.
Deus Ex had it too but it wasn't noticeable on most guns, so I cranked it up a touch.

The shaking from Maintenance bots is probably too big, but all guns should have recoil that moves your view around, think that's enough shaking already, maybe should be a bit stronger by default and when not reduced by agility.

[664a55197a40fJoin2]

but all guns should have recoil that moves your view around, think that's enough shaking already, maybe should be a bit stronger by default and when not reduced by agility.

The shake is usually independent from recoil and should be purely cosmetic, not moving your crosshair. See the vid. The guns have both recoil and screen shake independant from each other.

Compare the vid to Original Doom's pistol action and it looks so dull and stiff in comparison.

[664a55197a6e4Ndrake]

Yeah it's kind of a joking smiley even though it looks serious.

Hmm yeah. I absolutely get what you mean but does that really work? - Like "usually"?
It's interesting because the smiley face was introduced to the internet precisely to mark jokes. Is it then also possible to use frowny face jokingly?

[664a55197ab1bThiefsieFool]

The shake is usually independent from recoil and should be purely cosmetic, not moving your crosshair. See the vid. The guns have both recoil and screen shake independant from each other.

Compare the vid to Original Doom's pistol action and it looks so dull and stiff in comparison.

I'll have a look at it and see if you can shake the screen without moving the crosshair, even if it doesn't work guns still have come a long way with dynamic lights for muzzle flashes and bullet holes.

Hmm yeah. I absolutely get what you mean but does that really work? - Like "usually"?

It depends on the who and where, everyone's pretty laid back here and especially me, so the unusual behavior hints at funny business of some kind

[664a55197aebaJoin2]

even if it doesn't work guns still have come a long way with dynamic lights for muzzle flashes and bullet holes.

Agreed. You improved weaponry behavior nicely.

The easiest way to add cosmetic "shake" is to modify FOV by 1 or 2 past the default for 0.13 seconds or so, then set it back. I don't think this is the commonly used method though, bit of a hack really, but I did it for a FPS mini game I made for the Xbox and it worked very nicely. Couldn't be happier with the result.

[664a55197b1dbKolya]

It's interesting because the smiley face was introduced to the internet precisely to mark jokes. Is it then also possible to use frowny face jokingly?

Never seen Leslie Nielsen? Telling a joke extremely straight faced can make it a lot funnier than it should be.
 
A little story of small faces

[664a55197b2d8Join2]

Another suggestion: can you stop the player movement-triggered weapon sway animation when on lifts and standing still?

[664a55197b5c0Ndrake]

Never seen Leslie Nielsen? Telling a joke extremely straight faced can make it a lot funnier than it should be.
 

Oh I love a good deadpan. I just doubt it works on the internet. Serious statement - serious smiley - used jokingly seems like a layer too much. Most deadpans are outright absurd anyway which in turn contrasts with the serious delivery.

  <-- this one has been bugging me from the start. It's called "Oldman" but to me it looks like a frowny face Buddha. Which is confusing on a whole different level. And once you have to explain the smileys the cause is lost either way,

[664a55197b6c3Kolya]

Nonsense! A Buddha would wear orange! Arrgh now, I need to make a Buddha smiley.

[664a55197b964Olfred]

That smiley  always looked like the Sphinx to me, not like an old man.

[664a55197bbbaJoin2]

More stuff:

Can you make value rep machines only thank you once you exit the shop menu after buying stuff? It gets irritating when buying multiple items.
"ThThThThTh-Thank you for using Value Rep!!
Even if it were just from exiting the menu, items bought or not, it'd be an improvement.

Heavy armor, I cannot pick it up and I don't know why. No stat requirement is displayed. I pick it up and it just throws it right back down despite having no armor equipped.

About the fire: it only looks bad when hybrids and such are on fire. Lingering fire from incendiary grenades looks good.

I'm very upset I cannot have R&R&R's EMP rifle skin either. Have I made a mistake during installation or are the wrench, laser pistol and EMP rifle skins & models not compatible with Secmod? The third person model of the wrench appears to have the tacticool skin, not 1st person.

Despite your efforts, hacking skill/cyber attribute combo doesn't need investment past 3 or 4 in both (at least so far- rickenbacker), not to mention there are more ice picks than vanilla. Less ice picks, more objects requiring hack level 6 is the solution in my opinion.

Hmm, rumblers still seem a little broken. I beat one down in close combat with the laser rapier and it didn't get me once. though I was strafing it with upgraded movement speed.

Btw, nice job in increasing the frequency it which pretty much all AI attack.

[664a55197bcd1ThiefsieFool]

Will look into the stuff.

Randomized left/right melee motions:

[664a55197bdebKolya]

CLONK CLONK CLONK

Nice! Does this work with all melee weapons? Also modded weapons?

[664a55197c258Join2]

Nice wrench swinging action. Since goggles is right handed the right to left swing should have greater odds of playing. if < 0.2 then swing left to right, else right to left, if you get me. That's if you haven't already done so anyway and agree with what I'm saying.

Just finished. I must have died to Shodan equal to the amount of times I died across the whole game up 'till then. I'd spawn in the room and she'd spray me down with the homing projectiles before I had a chance to move. Full health (42) to instant death. I have no idea how I'd have won without the build I had, especially the EMP rifle, and I was pretty much forced to save scum.
Anyhow, my playthrough was a great one, it was rather challenging (hard difficulty). I feel the challenge conflicted with the sim design and story though, for example there's enemies in places there was not before, in places where Shodan or the Many are speaking to you, so I cannot hear what they are saying over all the blasting and yells of pain. Another example is that you buffed enemy hitpoints. Fine for most enemy types, except the glitchy rumblers. Longer spent dancing with glitchy Rumblers (and there was a LOT of Rumblers) the more I was taken out of the game.
Cortex reavers, all the new ones are not connected to a brain, again fine from a gameplay standpoint, especially for someone who has played the game before, but it conflicts with the characterization/backstory of that monster type.
But hey, I value gameplay most and I'm assuming on easy/normal there is less hitpoints and less enemies, so all is well if so.
Almost certainly my go-to Shock 2 gamesys mod, and if I want a more immersive but less interesting (gameplay-wise) Shock 2 I'll grab SCP.

Bugs & suggestions:

NV's script logs were showing up in-game for some reason.
I couldn't use the arachnid serum even after bitten by arachnids, which I assume is when it was meant to be used, and it's in-game description was not exactly descriptive.
I believe the Plasma Uzi runs out of ammo way too fast, even on the spray setting and modified to have a larger battery capacity, in addition to maintenance of 6 which gives extra capacity of course.
In rick pod 2 you had to repair/rewire the lift/med table. I didn't have repair, so I couldn't proceed. I managed to mantle onto the lift, but this was almost certainly not intended as it took much trying  and I could only mantle from one very specific angle. Another thing is the lift nor the med table had any visible pneumatics/mechanics/whatever, they were just floating in the air.

I encountered more stuff but logged to the brain only. will add more if I remember them.

Great mod.

[664a55197c455ThiefsieFool]

Yep, the same motion schema is used for all melee weapons so they should work for everything.

Ah, always nice to hear someone finished the mod, played on Hard I assume which is a very good achievement, nobody, even me, has cleared it on Impossible yet.
I'll be looking into this stuff too, here's some of my replies:
- enemy hitpoints are lower in easy and normal thankfully, enemies will also be slower in easy/normal with the new update
- plasma uzi running out is kind of a balance thing, the weapon is relatively strong and because of recharge stations it can't be balanced like the other new weapons - by having rare ammo that you mostly get from replicators for money
- rick pod 2 lifts and med table don't have pneumatics because there are already some floating lifts in the game.
- arachnid serum needs to be combined with something, a chemical I think, to make a detox hypo, readme has the inventory combinations somewhere at the bottom

[664a55197c565Join2]

I recommend adding a visual or audible cue that is unique to the brainless reavers. This way players will know for sure whether they are brainless or not.

[664a55197cb17Nameless Voice]

Nice wrench swinging action. Since goggles is right handed the right to left swing should have greater odds of playing.

Surely you mean the left-to-right swing?

[664a55197cc35Join2]

Nope, right to left. To be honest there was no research behind the suggestion, I based it on my directional swinging proficiency.

[664a55197cd40Nameless Voice]

Elbows bend inwards, though.  You can't put your elbow out sideways to the right for a flat swing, so most of the strength from a right-to-left swing has to come from your wrist, not from your shoulder.

[664a55197ce6cThiefsieFool]

Anyone know more about motion editing? The right swing has a problem in that its collision activates much earlier than the left swing, so it tends to get snagged on random walls a lot more often, it should be easy to move the Trigger 2 flag to a later frame in the motion but I've had no luck so far. (DromEd crashes, Weyoun's motion editor doesn't seem to show frame flags for melee motions)

[664a55197cf80Olfred]

Inside the model one of the joints is used for collision detection.
So when you add another animation for the swings you should make sure it goes about the same arc than the other swing does. In your case just coming from the other side.

How did you create the new animation?

[664a55197d0a4ThiefsieFool]

I didn't make it, it's a sword swinging animation from Thief 2, since SS2 has a right swinging animation of its own but it's broken and unusable.
The animation behaves just like in Thief without bugs but Thief automatically checks for clearance before deciding on which way to swing, SS2 does not have this functionality so I play the motions randomly, this still wouldn't be a bad thing if the right swing didn't activate its collision (Trigger 2) so early.