Upgrading the Repair skill (SS2 mod, higher repair skill = better condition)

[665c19ab92cb1Puchkov]

Hello everyone! I am very glad to see that this game is still alive.
I have long wanted, as the name implies, to somehow change the Repair, because frankly, the skill is in few places and how it can be useful.
Not so long ago I came across a wonderful modification: SS2 Repairman
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9327.0
Which allowed me to look at this skill from a completely different perspective.

What I want to do is - as you know, when using repair on any weapon, its condition will be 2 out of 10, which means almost instant damage to the weapon.
How do I see the Repair improvement? So that he can increase the quality of the condition of the weapon.
It is possible to make the Repair skill number correspond to how many condition points will be restored (i.e. Repair 1 restores 1 point, would be 2 out of 10, Repair 6 restores 6 points, making 7 out of 10).
Although I understand and anticipate your objections, they say, the balance can change dramatically, because there are Disposable Maintenance Tool,  which is great for servicing weapons, or, at worst, psionics Anti-Entropic Field.

But in the end, you can both increase the cost of repairs in nanites, and slightly reduce the effect of the repair so that it restores less condition points.

I need your help - can you tell me what files to edit for this, what programs might be needed for this? Don't be mad at me, I'm new to this business, I'm trying to find information myself, but now I'm at a dead end.

[665c19ab92ee1voodoo47]

there is one more - Droid Immortality Protocol.

what you have suggested has been considered, but rejected because of the obvious balance reasons. I have to admit I'm not quite sure whether the mod is even technically doable, if it is, then the only way would be by reimplementing the repair script entirely via the squirrel script. so, you have to have at least some basic coding skills to even attempt a shot at this (and, of course, mid-level SS2 editing skills). the squirrel documentation can be found in the NewDark docs, iirc (see the Docs folder after you patch your SS2 install with the SS2Tool).

[665c19ab93202Puchkov]

voodoo47
I would never have thought that such a seemingly simple thing (well, as I thought) is so difficult to implement. It’s a pity of course that you have to bother so much, but you can do it.

Before I start looking at the documentation, would it be foolish to ask where the skill files are? I think so, because you said that almost everything will have to be rewritten.

[665c19ab93370voodoo47]

there are things that can be modified fairly easily (like lets say, weapon damage), but whatever is controlled by scripts will be difficult.

"skill files" does not make too much sense - if you mean the skill requirements, then that is a property assigned to the item, if you mean the skill itself, then that is something assigned to the player.

@RoSoDude may be able to give you script advice.

[665c19ab93694RoSoDude]

My Rebalanced Skills and Disciplines mod has a bunch of expansions to the repair skill as well.

Anyway, I just made your mod for you. Contrary to what voodoo said, I didn't have to reimplement any skill functionality because it's all handled internally by the engine, I just scripted on top of it (with the help of NVScript).

This mod makes every point of Repair above a weapon's skill requirement add 10% to weapon condition during a repair. If you don't want it to subtract the skill req, you can remove this part from gamesys.dml:

Code: [Select]

////Subtracts Repair skill requirement from condition bump
+ObjProp -12 "DesignNoteSS" = "rsdBumpReq=1;" //Weapon
I don't recommend using this mod. Not compatible with SS2-RSD.

[665c19ab937c3voodoo47]

I guess I should have said "difficult to anyone not being familiar with the squirrel script".

[665c19ab93c3dZylonBane]

How do I see the Repair improvement? So that he can increase the quality of the condition of the weapon.
It is possible to make the Repair skill number correspond to how many condition points will be restored (i.e. Repair 1 restores 1 point, would be 2 out of 10, Repair 6 restores 6 points, making 7 out of 10).

This would be a bad, terrible, nogoodnik change. In SS2, you are supposed to maintain your weapons. Weapons breaking is your punishment for neglecting maintenance.

If leveled-up Repair also improved the condition of repaired weapons, that would have THREE negative effects. First, it would make the Maintenance skill redundant. Second, it would make weapons breaking a reward instead of a punishment, since the breakage would allow improving the weapon's condition. Third, it would make improving the condition of weapons much cheaper for the player, since Maintenance requires single-use tools (that also take inventory space), but Repair only requires a relatively small amount of nanites.

This awful idea keeps coming up again and again because people are only thinking about the Repair skill in isolation without considering the entire skill/resource ecosystem it exists in. Or they just like to cheat.

[665c19ab93d9aRoSoDude]

It is totally viable to repair weapons instead of maintaining them (especially by repairing weapons in the world that are jammed but in decent condition), but it's supposed to come with the ever-present risk of weapon jamming and the nanite cost that goes along with frequent repairs. But yeah, for all the reasons ZB stated this is a bad mod and no one should use it. At least you don't have to waste time making it yourself now.

[665c19ab93ebevoodoo47]

but technically, it does work. move to the mods subforum?

[665c19ab93f99ZylonBane]

I'd shuffle it off to Engineering.

[665c19ab94071voodoo47]

that ought to do it. done.

[665c19ab943dfPuchkov]

RoSoDude
Thank you very much for what you have done. Sorry for not answering earlier - there were problems with the computer, that's just returned. After a while, I'll test your mod, thanks again.

[665c19ab947a4Puchkov]

ZylonBane
With all due respect to you and your position, I have to point out something.

Firstly, I have already made a reservation myself - that yes, if the repair is done SUCH, there will be an imbalance before it - there will be no need for disposable support tools, for a psi-spell, and for the maintenance itself. I don't deny this in the slightest.
But. Second, I just wanted to do it and see how it goes. Forgive me, but I'm primarily interested in the technical part, and only then - some kind of morality about cheating, in the end - well, what difference does it make to you who plays how?
And thirdly, you yourself will agree that the Repair skill is extremely limited in use, while Maintenance is just an obligatory thing that gives a huge amount of bonuses. This is already a question for the developers why they balanced it so strangely, but this is a fact - in vanilla, Repair is actually not needed, and personally I am against such that there is something in the game, but it seems to not exist.

[665c19ab948a5voodoo47]

hence, mods that give you more stuff to repair. that is the proper way of making the skill more useful.