GMDX: Deus Ex Mod.

[6634c29d5baddvoodoo47]

it is time - about 30 minutes into the first level, this is what I've got;

the bad:
-needs to be run as admin, does nothing if not ran as one. probably not something that can be fixed from your side.
-aaargh the custom UI themes popping onto me after first run. I know, two clicks to disable, but being greeted by the classic would be preferable.
-mantling, while very welcome as a mechanic, is just awkward, especially for someone used to the smoothness of the NewDark mantle.
-some hires assets feel slightly too hires for their own good, but I acknowledge that this is probably just a matter of adjusting my eyes a bit. they also make the remaining unupgraded vanilla assets stick out like a sore thumb (the bushes vs trees).
-woah, running around crouched is fast (no augs, no skills). was it that fast in vanilla? would tone it down one way or another. //looks like I have some sort of fps limit problem, the entire game is running too fast. //yep, and the game just ignores all my attempts to limit the fps, forcing me to run in win9x compatibility mode, which does fix the problem (not liking that too much, but I've little choice. I'm on win7, btw). one would expect that this would be the first thing the updated renderer would fix, but guess not.
-ran into (what I believe is) a bug, the crossbow received from Paul has 4 trq darts loaded, and after acquiring more trq darts, the weapon wouldn't see the extra rounds (and refuse to reload) until I changed to a different ammo and back to trq.

the good:
-generally, the upgraded visuals fell nice and smooth.
-more stuff around/less emptiness/slight expansions of some areas have done the game good (so far).
-combat feels less awkward.
-I don't mind the extra weapons so far.
-it's good to have mantle.
-enjoying the bugfixes and fixed exploits.

more to come.

[6634c29d5c394Join2]

-mantling, while very welcome as a mechanic, is just awkward, especially for someone used to the smoothness of the NewDark mantle.

Really? But Shock mantling is too smooth and unnatural. You just interpolate straight up and then straight forward in a robotic linear motion, no camera interpolation effects, no animation, no audio effects...
I've recently improved the mantling further too, which you can see here (note the OP Blink augmentation in that video will not officially be in the mod, it was just an experiment).

-some hires assets feel slightly too hires for their own good, but I acknowledge that this is probably just a matter of adjusting my eyes a bit. they also make the unupgraded vanilla assets stick out like a sore thumb (the bushes vs trees).

Yeah...visually speaking Deus Ex will never be modded as uniformly-focused and consistently as this community has for Shock, but I've tried to make things a bit more consistent.

-woah, running around crouched is fast (no augs, no skills). was it that fast in vanilla? would tone it down one way or another.

I'll check the relevant code.

-ran into (what I believe is) a bug, the crossbow received from Paul has 4 trq darts loaded, and after acquiring more trq darts, the weapon wouldn't see the extra rounds (and refuse to reload) until I changed to a different ammo and back to trq.

Yeah, just fixed this the other day.

the good:
-generally, the upgraded visuals fell nice and smooth.
-more stuff around/less emptiness/slight expansions of some areas have done the game good (so far).
-combat feels less awkward.
-I don't mind the extra weapons so far.
-it's good to have mantle.
-enjoying the bugfixes and fixed exploits.

The weapons in hindsight I think were out of place (regarding art style only) and I removed them in the latest unreleased build. I want it to be perfect, nothing should feel out of place, as if this were the work of the developers themselves had they continued building, much the same as things generally go around here although with perhaps a slightly less purist approach, more a progressive one, like say Secmod. Most people feel I've already succeeded in that, but there's some inconsistencies and I think this was one of them. Saying that the additional weapons in Secmod feel a bit out of place visually too, but of course they improve the gameplay on a basic level.

Anyway, refer to this for info on how to use the new player-controlled mechanics that are not explained in-game, like new inventory shortcuts that make things a lot less tedious, and zooming in/out with scopes. Also check out the rest of the stuff on the site if you want a refresher on the stuff the mod does. Not everything is listed, but that's the majority of it.

[6634c29d5c508Join2]

How do you have the new weapons though? 30 minutes into the game you shouldn't have encountered any. Got one of the user-made addons for the mod I presume?

Edit: well, there's console commands too, but you need to know the file path for that.

[6634c29d5c6cbvoodoo47]

the pistol is new - or is this just a reskin of the orig 10mm? but won't protest if you remove them.

anyway;
-unconscious npcs don't die when shot.
-blood splatter through the player's screen after gibbing something - please no.
-maybe it's time to retire the shoot/stab a body until gibbed mechanic (blowing it up with explosives is ok though).

[6634c29d5cc98Join2]

Ah, the 10mm model is HDTP, and yeah it's nice. GMDX is a fork of HDTP as they both modify the Deus Ex gamesys equivalent.

-unconscious npcs don't die when shot.

One of few vanila inconsistencies I've put off resolving for some reason. I'll do that now.

-blood splatter through the player's screen after gibbing something - please no.

Heh. I'm surprised you're the first to have complained about this. It's intended to spoof-simulate the act of blood spraying in your face/on your shades from the gibbed body. "bloody screen" effects has a negative association with just about anything these days by default though thanks to all the regen shooters. Give me a good reason to remove it, and I will. 

What I could do is actually simulate it, and only make it appear on the screen if blood drops fly off and hit that particular part of your head, but I don't think that extent of simulation (and resources + effort) is necessary when you're almost guaranteed to get a load of blood in your face when you blow up someone right in front of you. Still something to consider for the sake of perfectionism though.

-maybe it's time to retire the shoot/stab the body until gibbed mechanic (blowing it up with explosives is ok though).

Already in there, an option called "realistic corpses" that is force-enabled on Hardcore mode (because it relates to difficulty too as AI in GMDX go for alarms if they spot a corpse), or available as a toggle once you beat the game. I may move it to an option that is available right off the bat though.

[6634c29d5d133voodoo47]

I see no reason why it (realistic corpses) shouldn't be the default - the overgibability is an obvious remnant of the times where "in FPS, everything must be gibable because everything must be gibable" (gawd, Daikatana was so bad in this regard. also hated HL1 crowbar/wrench gibbing, especially because they got it right otherwise with bullets not able to gib corpses).

It's intended to spoof-simulate the act of blood spraying in your face/on your shades from the gibbed body. "bloody screen" effects has a negative association with just about anything these days by default though thanks to all the regen shooters. Give me a good reason to remove it, and I will.

here are a few - it looks just bad, and normally, such an effect would be associated with the player taking damage. I went wtf, did the corpse just explode and hurt me when I first saw it. get rid of it, never look back.

[6634c29d5d676Join2]

I see no reason why it (realistic corpses) shouldn't be the default - the overgibability is an obvious remnant of the times where "in FPS, everything must be gibable because everything must be gibable" (gawd, Daikatana was so bad in this regard. also hated HL1 wrench gibbing, especially because they got it right otherwise with bullets not able to gib corpses).

I agree. I think it was the wrong choice to not make it available off the bat, or just not even an option at all and force it realistic.

here are a few - it looks just bad, and normally, such an effect would be associated with the player taking damage. I went wtf, did the corpse just explode and hurt me when I first saw it. get rid of it, never look back.

Disagree that it looks bad, and what it is normally associated with is the "wrong" method: getting shot in the arm, blood appears on screen to represent lost health vs spoof-simulated blood droplets hitting your shades as it is here...but I won't deny that simply not taking either action  may have been for the best since the negative association with bloody screen effects is so strong. I feel to remove it would be compromising something that is actually good outside of any preconceived  (and understandable) stigma though. Why wouldn't this effect happen in a simulation where blood sprays in your face, even if technically it's faked? It doesn't have any other notable downsides either, whether gameplay or whatever.

[6634c29d5d839voodoo47]

even if sprayed onto glasses, it wouldn't look like that - to see something similar, you would need to be wearing one of those hazard suits with really big heads.

on glasses, you would just see a reddish smudge, as your eyes wouldn't be able to focus, not a gigantic sharp blood splat. it's your call of course, but I would at least make it configurable, and probably default off. I know it's just my opinion, but I think if something makes me go wtf nope, it probably requires attention.

[6634c29d5d960Join2]

That's true, the effect isn't totally true to life. You may have convinced me. Moving on to the next criticism...

[6634c29d5dba4voodoo47]

much enjoying the trq dart to the head equals instant sleep mechanic. also thinking about something as sacrilegious as the sawn off shotgun's weapon category being better off a pistol than a rifle (both JC and the npcs wield it as a pistol, and it would give a pistol build much needed AP capability). as GMDX is well in the enhancement area, such a change wouldn't be out of the question.

-the twinkling bioenergy bar is slightly less subtle than I'd like it to be, but I'm guessing it won't register after a while.
-just attacked an alerted guy with a prod, and he was able to snap out of the stun, if intentional, I'm not liking it too much.
-not a fan of the mech sounds on Gunther. I mean, extra sounds sure, but not recycled mech sounds.
-scopes show on the weapon, and even on the mirror reflection's weapon. nice.
-laser pointer effects are nice as well.
-microfibral muscle/combat strength is passive, meaning always on and no energy drain. dunno about that, sounds like too easy without the drain. not sold on the aug reworks for now, but we'll see.
-the boat that takes you to the second mission could really use spinning propellers, and some sort of water particle effect around them (or just the effect rich enough to mask that the propellers aren't actually spinning).
-the description on the damage weapon upgrade (increased muzzle velocity) would suggest this could/should only work on weapons with an actual barrel, that means no crossbow.

that's it for the first mission+first visit to unatco.

[6634c29d5e2c2Join2]

also thinking about something as sacrilegious as the sawn off shotgun's weapon category being better off a pistol than a rifle (both JC and the npcs wield it as a pistol, and it would give a pistol build much needed AP capability). as GMDX is well in the enhancement area, such a change wouldn't be out of the question.

I'm unsure about that, though it would perhaps aid in balancing between the skills. Pistols have AP ammo now anyway, though it isn't as effective as sabot or explosives are.

-the twinkling bioenergy bar is slightly less subtle than I'd like it to be, but I'm guessing it won't register after a while.

Can be disabled in the new options menu to revert back to the vanilla bar if desired.

-just attacked an alerted guy with a prod, and he was able to snap out of the stun, if intentional, I'm not liking it too much.

Intentional as per vanilla design. Subsequent damage that is not stun type snaps them out of it.

-not a fan of the mecha sounds on Gunther.

May be a bit over the top, you're the first to complain though.

-scopes show on the weapon, and even on the mirror reflection's weapon. nice.

HDTP.

-laser pointer effect are nice as well.

Yeah done a few things for the laser.

-microfibral muscle/combat strength is passive, meaning always on and no energy drain. dunno about that, sounds like too easy without the drain. not sold on the aug reworks for now, but we'll see.

Worked in Invisible War *cough*. I could add drain, yet them being passive in addition to all the enhancements they provide they get used all the time impacting the gameplay greatly with positive results. They'd be constantly draining your energy. You get slightly less energy from Biocells (though a perk reverts that) to counteract it, plus repair bots are no longer infinite use on the higher difficulty levels, so I've had energy balancing firmly in mind.

-the boat that takes you to the second mission could really use spinning propellers, and some sort of water particle effect around them (or just the effect rich enough to mask that the propellers aren't actually spinning).

Agree, though getting it to look good is another matter.

-the description on the damage weapon upgrade (increased muzzle velocity) would suggest this could/should only work on weapons with an actual barrel, that means no crossbow.

May tweak, though the "universal" weapon mod system does have a number of logic inconsistencies throughout. Makes for great gameplay though that's for sure.

[6634c29d5e88evoodoo47]

They'd be constantly draining your energy

that's kind of the point - you can emulate a skill via aug, but there is a price. these (muscle/combat) feel like they should be passive, but draining when used (dragging heavy stuff, slashing with knife etc). as mentioned before, big fan of how Biomod's augs worked, and it will take serious effort to convince me otherwise. but I have an open mind, we'll see how things will go once I have an actual bunch of augs to work with.


//also looks like the fps issues I have are caused by the game really hating my dualcore cpu (old Athlon64 X2) - running on just one core solves the problem (so I don't need to enable the potentially problematic win9x compatibility on the exe). added " /affinity 1" at the end of the GMDX shortcut and all is good.

[6634c29d5eab1Join2]

that's kind of the point - you can emulate a skill via aug, but there is a price. these (muscle/combat) feel like they should be passive, but draining when used (dragging heavy stuff, slashing with knife etc).

There's no harm in having a couple of non-draining augs as in Invisible War and Human Revolution. One of the augs increases weapon swap speed. We can't have energy drain every time you swap weapons, or every time you want to swing a melee weapon to break open a box.

as mentioned before, big fan of how Biomod's augs worked

The system's dumb, hand-holding and imbalanced. I'd say the same for a Shock 2 mod that adds a power that makes swimming in circles restore psi power. Or automatically activates Metacreative Barrier for every projectile shot at you and then automatically deactivates it when the projectiles are dealt with.

In GMDX, the type (active, passive, automatic) of augmentation is specifically chosen to match its function for optimal results. Standard design, but for good reason. It works.

[6634c29d5ee28Olfred]

When it comes to augmentations like increased strength, I wouldn't say that they need to drain energy from some kind of battery or whatever. Done well they are deeply enough incorporated into the organic body so they would use your "organic energy" just like a bigger muscle mass would need more than a small untrained one.
So you could say you would just get a tad more hungry by using them.

[6634c29d5f069voodoo47]

looking for a full description of how GMDX augs work, but didn't find it, so used cheats to give myself all augs, and as far as I can tell, it's either passive or active. anyway, lets see that Bio readme again;

Active: Uses energy constantly while turned on.  This is what all of the augmentations in the original game were like.
Automatic: When turned on, goes into an "idle" state which uses no energy.  When idle, will automatically activate when needed and drain energy while it works.
Passive: Uses no energy.

yes, this is exactly what I want - if I want to be invisible, I switch an aug when I want (active, no change vs vanilla). if I want to have a ballistic shield, I turn it on, and get protected (and energy drained) when shot at, so automatic. if I have regen on, I expect it to regenerate me when damaged, so ditto. when I have power recirculator, I expect it to save power, not drain it, so passive. etc etc. and this just works so smoothly, that I simply don't see anyone coming with anything that would work better. it spares me the annoyance of reaching hotkeys in a situation (and not making it most of the time).

from my point of view, muscle/combat is now unbalanced, because if there is no drawback, why would I invest into the lowtech skill? I just grab combat, done deal. but with the aug draining my power, I have more things to think about.

to make it short, no aug that emulates a skill should be passive.

[6634c29d5f7b1Join2]

looking for a full description of how GMDX augs work, but didn't find it, so used cheats to give myself all augs, and as far as I can tell, it's either passive or active.

Only two automatic augs: Power Recirculator & Synthetic Heart. Technically a third too but it is a borderline passive/automatic hybrid. Making more augs automated could be worthwhile, but certainly not the likes of the Aggressive Defense Drone.

anyway, lets see that Bio readme again;yes, this is exactly what I want - if I want to be invisible, I switch an aug when I want (active, no change vs vanilla). if I want to have a ballistic shield, I turn it on, and get protected (and energy drained) when shot at, so automatic. if I have regen on, I expect it to regenerate me when damaged, so ditto. when I have power recirculator, I expect it to save power, not drain it, so passive. etc etc. and this just works so smoothly, that I simply don't see anyone coming with anything that would work better.

it spares me the annoyance of reaching hotkeys in a situation (and not making it most of the time).

You can rebind augmentation activation keys, and could vanilla.

from my point of view, muscle/combat is now unbalanced, because if there is no drawback, why would I invest into the lowtech skill?

Multiple reasons:

-Combat strength and low-tech stack, giving a total of +200% damage.
-Low Tech increases accuracy of throwing knives, reload speed of the prod and pepper gun, combat strength does no such thing.
-Low Tech skill has perks unique to it. 
-You may also want to get low-tech if you chose microfibral muscle aug instead, to still have effective melee attacks.
-Resource differences influencing choices: upgrading low-tech costs skill points, combat strength requires you install it over microfibral muscle and then takes subsequent aug upgrade canisters. All very different resources to decide how to allocate, and if you are going for a melee build investing in both is very desirable, but not mandatory.

You could also say the reverse for vanilla: I invested in low-tech at the start of the game so why would I get combat strength, especially when combat strength has this notable drawback draining energy while low-tech does not?

Shock 2 has similar systems: weapon skills increase damage, among other things. Sharpshooter is a free passive augment that boost weapon damage further, also stacks with other weapon damage boosts. Saying that though sharpshooter arguably is a balancing issue. That's not the case here though.

but with the aug draining my power, I have more things to think about.

Yet you desire Biomod's automated system...

Biomod's system as it stands is too overpowered and overly automated. You get it in sensible moderation and with consideration for balance here.

anyway, unconscious NPCs can now be killed and the blood effect is gone.

[6634c29d5f925callum13117]

Sorry to interrupt the conversation (please continue it after my post) - I just wanted to say that I'm very impressed from the videos I've seen of this mod. Unfortunately, I finished a DX playthrough fairly recently, so I'm not itching to try it at the moment. However, when the itch returns - as it inevitably will - this mod will be the first one I install. So thank you to Join Us!!! and the whole GMDX team!

...And with that, you may go back to fine-tuning.

[6634c29d5fa4bvoodoo47]

I'll see, but still don't like the no drain on muscle/combat.

anyway, weren't trowing knives supposed to be retrievable from whoever they hit? doesn't seem that way. they also get swallowed by bots and some furniture.

[6634c29d5fe6eJoin2]

Throwing Knives are swallowed by NPCs including bots, and bounce off of everything else. Better than them being swallowed by every actor as in vanilla. The point is in that there is no potential for infinite ammo, especially as they are rather powerful with max low tech and combat strength investment.

I'll see, but still don't like the no drain on muscle/combat.

Neither do I, but there isn't really anything that can be done about it beyond setting both the augs back to active which is a big no. There's a number of reasons for all that too.

At most I can make them selectively drain power, such as combat strength only draining energy when a melee attack connects with an enemy, but that's just odd and inconsistent. Honestly, it's fine as it is, I'm meticulous about balance. Bioenergy was an expendable resource vanilla anyway what with all the infinite use repair bots, that's no longer the case here on higher difficulty levels. Even more expendable in biomod when you can just jump in water and swim in circles in order to restore Bioenergy.

However, when the itch returns - as it inevitably will - this mod will be the first one I install.  So thank you to Join Us!!! and the whole GMDX team!

Indeed the itch always returns. Thanks for the thanks.

[6634c29d5fff2voodoo47]

was under the impression that with throwing knives, considering the amount available (12 entire game?), making them fully retrievable = infinite if careful was the point. same with bouncing off bots and dealing next to no damage to them. was really, really looking forward to that, but too bad I guess. anyway, pretty sure the table on the pic ate my knife (and got destroyed).
[evil_table.jpg expired]

[6634c29d60221Join2]

 "(12 entire game?)"

Nope, there's more knives found throughout the game from time to time, despite the arguable inconsistency of them being found anywhere but Hong Kong as in vanilla. I will readily throw away such a minor logical detail if it results in meaningful gameplay, similar to how a skill system was added to the game that makes your shots not hit where you are actually pointing your gun, because meaningful gameplay. I've tried to put them in sensible places but it cannot always be avoided, yet any small object of this world can end up anywhere in reality so it doesn't have to affect suspension of disbelief. They're most common in Hong Kong, and very rare everywhere else anyhow, so it's not really an issue.

As for the devoured knife, is it that particular object?

Anyhow, please consider to play more extensively, and then start the breakdown, because you're missing a lot of context in this big complex game with its big complex systems, all of which have been polished or expanded upon in some form or other and relate to each other in many ways.

As for why I went for more knives throughout the game rather than only 12 or whatever in Hong Kong but making them realistically retrievable: so they they are a viable addition to the melee build that can be partook in earlier. So that you can actually lose knives from time to time and not have to worry about hunting each and every one down in a dark corner across the map, though that is of course still an option. So that they are more expendable, but still not infinite.
...As you probably wanted to know, since you've always been interested in the knives.

[6634c29d60390voodoo47]

yeah, will play more, don't worry - it may not look it, but I mostly like what I see so far.

I'm sure I've already analyzed the tknife situation earlier - to make it short, it's either making them really plentiful (AI drops?) or fully retrievable. anything in between makes them completely worthless. I would go for the latter - rare, but unless you manage to throw them somewhere unreachable, fully retrievable. the entire reason for this weapon's existence should be its full retrievability - if not retrievable, they are just worse regular crossbow darts.

also yeah, that's the object.

[6634c29d607a8Join2]

yeah, will play more, don't worry - it may not look it, but I mostly like what I see so far.

Acknowledged.

I'm sure I've already analyzed the tknife situation earlier - to make it short, it's either making them really plentiful (AI drops?) or fully retrievable. anything in between makes them completely worthless.

They are currently in-between your scale rather nicely I'd say, and I think that's where they should be: moderately rare (not too common, but more so than vanilla), and semi-retrievable (now bounces off the majority of actors and thus can be retrieved, but no retrieval from NPCs). Too plentiful would be highly questionable from a realism and consistency standpoint, the player can accept one or two sets of throwing knives found in New York, but if they are everywhere...and on the opposite end too rare would be too un-fun in having to hunt down every damn knife you ever throw if you have a ninja build as in vanilla.

[6634c29d609c5voodoo47]

the tknife situation is one of those cases where my mind is pretty much set I'm afraid (almost sure my final conclusion after finishing this run will be situation is improved, but would take rare retrievable tknives over it any day). anyway;

-dogs are killed, rather than pacified, by trq darts (probably electrostun as well), blood and all.
-npcs freak out a bit too much if I just go around armed or carrying explosives.
-had a case of npc running into steel crates and breaking them (by running).
-the slight smoke effect on eject casings looks a bit off.
-the shaking generator under castle Clinton looks a bit ridiculous.
-fluorescent lights in the MJ12 water treatment base (the room with tknives and other goodies) selectable, but do nothing?
-faucet near Ford Schick interactive, but lacking the water effect.
-7 shotgun sabot rounds point blank to destroy a camera? something is off there.