SS1 Chronology Fix

[685721495c8d9SonOfKrampus]

Hey folks, pretty much brand new to modding here. The dates on the audio logs in SS1 were kind of driving me nuts, so I decided to make and post a mod which simply fixes the dates into a more sensible and coherent shape. At first I thought I'd follow the Remake's dates, but looking into it they made too many (good) content changes to be consistent with the original audio logs, so I basically started from scratch and put something new together, treating the timeline in the SS1 manual and a few dates in the audio logs with multiple references as anchor points.

So far, I have an English version primed and ready to be loaded to SS:EE. I want to also fix the French and German versions (ideally with sensitivity to any changes made in translation), as well as editions to be used with Classic System Shock rather than just SS:EE, as well as a version with SS1 Proper Logs for people who like SS1 Proper Logs. But before I do all that, I wanted to solicit feedback and see if anyone had thought of anything I might have missed.

Here's a list of errors I found with the fixes I dreamed up, roughly in order. (Note that this is in no way the only possible timeline reconstruction, but I do think it is one that works nicely without moving too much around):

Problem: Althea's timeline does not make sense, announcing the resistance working with Nathan D'Arcy in beta quadrant on Medical over a week after his death and long after she declares their position lost
Fix: Move Althea's call to action from Nov.2 to Oct.22, right in the middle of D'Arcy's logs during his investigation into stopping the laser.

Problem: The radiation suit recall is all over the place. Characters refer to it over a month apart, including weeks after SHODAN should have taken over the station entirely. MacLeod seems to be in dialogue with Sabo despite MacLeod seeming to be writing from a time when robots are behaving ambiguously naughty rather than going into full slaughter mode, and discovers Wong's body over a month after his assassination (which occurs before SHODAN reveals herself).
Fix: This one was by far the biggest pain in the neck to fix. I ended up just moving all of MacLeod's logs back precisely one month because that caused them to line up very nicely with Wong's assassination. Now, Wong is assassinated while investigating computers on Sept. 23rd, and Mac discovers his body on the 26th. Everyone else is based around this new timeline. Sabo is no longer in contact with Mac, but rather reaching out to him in vain half a month later (on Oct. 14th, for reasons explained below). The Suit Recall is now fixed at 23rd September (shortly after SHODAN begins experimenting with mutagens on research level), and all logs are moved accordingly.

Problem: The development of the mutagen and its movement to Beta grove is inconsistent and bizarre. All of the dates on executive level are incoherent (Execs hitting the eject button on Gamma Grove on 10/4, 3 days before the first mutant attacks and 5 days before the start of the resistance).
Fix: This required more edits to fix, but came out cleaner than the suit recall fix. For starters, I pinned down a few dates: Oct. 7th is the first mutant attack on Medical Level (per manual), and fearful researchers ransack the armory for defense (proto-resistance). Rioting and open resistance begins on research level on 10/9 (per the manual and text found on Executive). 10/10, security is sent to contain the riots and blown out of the sky by SHODAN (Manual, Diego's files, flight deck). Mutant attacks remain a rumor outside of medical and research, which are quarantined due to rioting, until SHODAN announces his intentions on 10/13. The resistance is thus split in two: The group headquartered in Medical which starts the rioting, and comes to be led by Althea, Nathan D'Arcy, and eventually Abe Ghiran, and a group centered on Executive, which is sold out by Diego on 10/16. All dates are shifted to fit this timeline.

The major shifts in this respect mostly relate to SHODAN's use of Beta Grove and activities on Executive level. SHODAN now begins his experiments on research level in early September, diverting power to research in beta quadrant (necessitating circuit breakers in alpha quadrant), culminating in the virus release on Sept. 26. On Oct. 9th, the rioting begins and SHODAN begins converting humans into cyborgs on lower levels. On 10th October, SHODAN transfers the virus to Beta Grove and blocks all entrance. On 19th October, the virus is perfected. This severely condenses the timeline on and around Executive level, but works out rather neatly, with Sabo being sent to retrieve a biosuit to breach beta grove unsuccessfully a few days before Diego sells out the executive level resistance.

Problem: SHODAN seems to order the fortress on executive level to be built out of order, and Abe Ghiran spots energy mines before SHODAN has requested them.
Fix: SHODAN now begins the construction of the fortress on Oct 24th and requests mines on Oct 30th, before Abe Ghiran reaches security. Her reference to "human infection crawling up the pipes" now coincides with Robin Kell's attempt to reach the escape pods, which has been moved to be a splinter party from Althea's group after her "End of the Line" audio log lament.

There are a few other miscellaneous fixes as well, mostly having to do with inconsistencies between text dates and audio log dates.

The only text I edited that wasn't a date was the paper discussing rioting found on executive level: I edited "residential level" to "research level," which is consistent with the timeline in the game manual and makes everything much, much easier to fix.

Attached is the mod in its current shape, as well as a .xlsx showing the new chronology. Let me know if you have any critiques, comments, questions, or knowledge of the French or German translations!