GMDX: Deus Ex Mod.

[66677423055f0voodoo47]

just a few quickies;

-(rescued) Ford Schick does not give the player anything when visited at Smuggler's - was an aug upgrade canister with BioShift (which supposedly just restores a vanilla quest that was broken by accident, but no idea whether the canister was already there or added by the mod).
-the lift to Smuggler's screwing up sometimes, isn't there and need to call it even though it was supposed to be there, one time even disappearing and spawning me in mid air once I entered the Smuggler map.
-would be really cool if you could actually escape Gunther, and fly away with Jock from battery park. unfortunately, that means either skipping the escape mj12 base mission, or an extra mini mission constructed from scratch that would explain how you got there. probably never going to happen as the first option is just dumb, and the second is not doable without extra voiceovers, but still.
-invisible walls in that area quite obvious should the player try to escape, maybe add some barricades or something.

continuing to the mj12 base escape.
-would be nice if you could arm Miguel somehow. or maybe just give him a pistol - he managed to smuggle in a medkit and a big ass knife (in ways we probably don't want to know about), so a pistol would be plausible as well (or do something creative, like making him reach into the guards desk supposedly grabbing a gun from a hidden compartment after getting him out of his cell). he also should be low priority target in case of a firefight, extending his lifespan a bit. he also is a bit fragile, some extra hp would do him good. also, does he give the player something as reward should he actually make it out? need to check.
-caged greasels (and karkians, most likely) going nuts when they see the player. they should be docile unless/until released. same goes for any type of caged creature found later in the game.
-some locked drawers that are unbreakable. as mentioned earlier, would be nice to have container/door breakability more consistent and realistic (meaning, a gep rocket should make short work of a drawer).

[6667742305af3Join2]

-(rescued) Ford Schick does not give the player anything when visited at Smuggler's - was an aug upgrade canister with BioShift (which supposedly just restores a vanilla quest that was broken by accident, but no idea whether the canister was already there or added by the mod).

You get an aug cannister on the third visit, and a discount with Smuggler on each once having talked to him.

Thanks for your other notes, very helpful. Going over where appropriate.

[6667742305cc3voodoo47]

-AI plasma death produces gore, bones, and neon green potatoes. pretty sure UE is capable of rendering green goo if that was the intention.
-bones sometimes ending up in very unrealistic positions.
-if picking a full stack of items while already having a few of those items, an appropriate number of items will be looted from the stack, but if already assigned to the belt, the item count will not update until removed from the belt and reassigned to the belt again.
-big armory bots replaced with small bots. if you say so.
-pistol/crossbow fire should not explode human heads.
-AIs dying around chairs can sometimes put the corpse on the chair in an undesirable way. no AI collision on chairs, maybe?
-Miguel indeed, gives player nothing after being saved. he also should shut up once the chopper lifts off.
-again, not satisfied with Manderley turning hostile. the conversation does not suggest things should go this way, and an email from Carter much later in the game says Manderley has been removed from command (or something along those lines). pretty sure he would notice/know if JC would leave him in his office with a bullet in the head.
-JC's office very empty.

[666774230615eJoin2]

-big armory bots replaced with small bots. if you say so.

Well don't you want to know the reasoning? Like how in the hell did those giant bots got in there in the first place? Only method would be them being assembled in the hallway. Not that that was the prime reason I made the change, the reason was because the small bots are faster and more suited to close quarters patrolling, thus making their defense of the armory adequate and reasonably challenging. The big bots didn't belong there at all.

-pistol/crossbow fire should not explode human heads.

See the changelog I posted on the previous page. Head gibbing is outright removed.

-AIs dying around chairs can sometimes put the corpse on the chair in an undesirable way. no AI collision on chairs, maybe?

I'll see what I can do.

-Miguel indeed, gives player nothing after being saved. he also should shut up once the chopper lifts off.

You get an additional skill bonus if you rescue him.

-again, not satisfied with Manderley turning hostile. the conversation does not suggest things should go this way, and an email from Carter much later in the game says Manderley has been removed from command (or something along those lines). pretty sure he would notice/know if JC would leave him in his office with a bullet in the head.
-JC's office very empty.

I rarely change story events, and don't see the need to change this either.

the conversation does not suggest things should go this way,

That's the whole point. Bullshits you to your face, draws on you when your back is turned. I always thought that was a nice touch of the devs.

-JC's office very empty.

Excellent vanilla exposition/environmental storytelling. On the final visit your office door is locked and the place is cleaned out. Even you are expendable.

[66677423064c5voodoo47]

allright.

Well don't you want to know the reasoning?

nope, was fully aware. anyway, what's up with the nuclear potatoes?

[66677423065f7Join2]

Plasma-coated flesh fragments. It is scientifically inaccurate, yes. Superheated plasma should melt people, but that'd be tricky. It'd require a goo-ification death animation and a goo mesh remains. Can I not get away with movie/game logic too from time to time? A lot of people have took well to it, but generally I do like to be flawless so if you think I should remove it outright and just have people flop on their backs like vanilla then I'll consider it.

[66677423066e0Djant]

I would prefer the plasma rifle just leaving charred corpses. The gibbing was too much and rather over the top for something that doesn't even fire explosive rounds.

[6667742306801Join2]

Yeah...I guess. I'll miss it, but it wasn't one of my better changes. If people complain I'm blaming you two

[6667742306927Djant]

I would wager that not many people complained about it only because the gibbing gave it a sense of power. In all honesty gibbing and gore effects are rather limited in Deus Ex, so best to keep it reserved for a few situations like blowing up someone with high power explosives. Making the Plasma Rifle leave charred corpses along with some expanded visual effects would give the same sense of power without being ridiculous.

[6667742306bf4Join2]

Making the Plasma Rifle leave charred corpses along with some expanded visual effects would give the same sense of power without being ridiculous.

What expanded visual effects? The plasma blast itself already has the new heat wave & light effects. I can't feasibly draw anything on the NPC dynamically because of the engine and swapping out skins would not be a good idea, so all that can be done is remove the gibbing unless I can get those with the required skills to turn them to goo.

The sense of power won't be the same by setting it back to vanilla, but it's probably for the best.

As for people not complaining, a number of people have said they outright like it, but it's fully understandable that some also don't. I fall in both camps, as in it is a bit OTT and should probably be removed, but it's also beneficial in some ways and I enjoy it.

anyhow, don't worry, I'll make the right choice - it's going to the trash.

[6667742306d54Djant]

That's kinda the point: I think people liked it more because it gave the illusion of the plasma rifle being more powerful than it really is rather than for it being appropriate. I would want it to feel appropriately powerful. It's not a gun that shoots explosives, it just shoots overheated particles that are good against human beings, bad against machinery or thick armor.

Yeah I was thinking of having enemies show signs of taking heavy heat if somehow they didn't go down in one shot and were human enemies without thick armor, i.e not the MJ12 commandos. Since enemies already show changes in skin if you burn them I assumed it would be possible to do something when they're shot with the rifle but are still standing.

[6667742306ee5Join2]

What do you mean "that's kinda the point"? I quite obviously got the point, and knew from the start.

Yeah I was thinking of having enemies show signs of taking heavy heat if somehow they didn't go down in one shot and were human enemies without thick armor, i.e not the MJ12 commandos. Since enemies already show changes in skin if you burn them I assumed it would be possible to do something when they're shot with the rifle but are still standing.

That just changes scaleglow (lighting modifier), which uniformly affects a mesh. It wouldn't be appropriate to have living uniformly blacked-out people running around talking and shooting. It's not exactly great vanilla, it's just a bit more subtle when applied to the corpse. 

[666774230704cvoodoo47]

managed to grab a bit of DE time today.

-knife (possibly other melee weapons) leaving bullet hole decals when striking certain surfaces (locker door)
-not able to shoot through grates even though one should very obviously be able to
-random girlfriend images inherited from new vision. doesn't fit, unprofessional (I don't add random pics of my hands to SCP, now do I)
-the gas effects could use a bit of modernization, the current sprite looks quite bad especially in tight spaces
-camera in the room with sword and gep trooper turned off by default?
-completely blocking player movement (looking around included) when spy drone is active would be nice

will add some more stuff this evening.
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[666774230738bJML]

-random girlfriend images inherited from new vision. doesn't fit, unprofessional (I don't add random pics of my hands to SCP, now do I)

"nofap.jpg".... My god, this made my great day even greater. 

[666774230765aJoin2]

-not able to shoot through grates even though one should very obviously be able to

Can't really do anything about that short of remaking the hundreds of frob-able grates in the game.

-random girlfriend images inherited from new vision. doesn't fit, unprofessional (I don't add random pics of my hands to SCP, now do I)

Yeah, maybe I should just use a different texture. I'm fine with an artist leaving their mark with that one thing, but it is a potential inconsistency.

[66677423078e6voodoo47]

Can't really do anything about that short of remaking the hundreds of frob-able grates in the game.

ouch. odd, as this is very easy in ND Shocked (set pore size on the archetype+one click apply to all child objects. could even be dml deployed on level start). ah well, not terribly important I suppose.

[66677423079f6Join2]

Hmm, well there may be another solution. On this one I should look it over before coming to any conclusions. It would undoubtedly be functionality I have to code myself, if it is possible. There's nothing like that supported by the engine by default as far as I am aware.

[6667742307b4cvoodoo47]

-when hit by emp, the hud goes away which is nice, but it won't come back until you open the inventory and exit it.
-when listening to AIs randomly chatting, frobbing another AI will cut their dialogue.
-when picking two weapons of the same type which have different mods, the mods are combined automatically. not sure whether GMDX addition, but yeah, this is good.

note to self - go back and double check Ford Schick (don't think I've ever got that upg canister), and also ATMs in that area, pretty sure I had the correct codes and they didn't allow me to withdraw money. speaking of ATMs, I think the current setup will not allow the player to withdraw from any ATM even though he has valid credentials - this is quite nonsensical, and should be fixed if possible, as that is pretty much the point of ATMs.

[6667742307e9bJoin2]

-when hit by emp, the hud goes away which is nice, but it won't come back until you open the inventory and exit it.

Intentional. Requires manual reboot. Only happens when hit by heavy EMP (direct EMP 'nade hit).

-when picking two weapons of the same type which have different mods, the mods are combined automatically. not sure whether GMDX addition, but yeah, this is good.

Vanilla.

speaking of ATMs, I think the current setup will not allow the player to withdraw from any ATM even though he has valid credentials - this is quite nonsensical, and should be fixed if possible, as that is pretty much the point of ATMs.

It's possible, but game logic serves well here. Having a persistent database of all acc. info throughout the game is a lot of data needing to be managed and saved, and a new approach to hacking ATMs would be needed too.  It's not really a problem to implement, but it's a lot of effort for such a minor thing imo.

[66677423080c5voodoo47]

what isn't - I once had a great idea of importing the Secmod laspistol mode switching into SCP.. *people scream in the background*

anyway, not a fan of the hud manual reboot. gives out the "hey, it bugged out, lets try to do random stuff to make it go away" vibe.

also, as mentioned before, not a fan of DE invisible ammo pouch and merge same weapons system, but I'm guessing changing this would not be trivial.

[6667742308f44Join2]

anyway, not a fan of the hud manual reboot. gives out the "hey, it bugged out, lets try to do random stuff to make it go away" vibe.

Calling the UI through any method reboots it. I quite like it. It's fun to involve the player.

also, as mentioned before, not a fan of DE invisible ammo pouch and merge same weapons system, but I'm guessing changing this would not be trivial.

Indeed not trivial. Doable though. I'm not a fan either but it is functional at least.

Word of warning: do not get the Synthetic Heart aug when the option arises. It's a massive energy hog. I guess I wasn't paying attention that day, though it should have been picked up in testing really. It is resolved in the latest build anyhow.
Also you may be happy to hear that Microfibral Muscle now drains energy when power throwing. I did some big rearrangements there and it fit in from a balance POV after the fact. I also improved the throwing physics, which is very nice.

[666774230908dDjant]

What did you think up for the Microfibial Muscle? I guess you made it drain no power for lifting things, but it drains power for throws.

[6667742309205fox]

Is v8 found on ModDB the latest "official" release so far?

[66677423092efJoin2]

Yes to both above posts.