SSR: System Shock Kickstarter

[665c145295c50sarge945]

>1999
>Irrational's textures are so low res that we need a texture mod to make the game look good
>2023
>NightDive's textures are so low res that we need a texture mod to make the game look good.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Gaming is basically a meme at this point.

[665c145295fdclgs]

It looks like they seriously tagged. Every. Single. Texture asset as "texture filtering: nearest neighbour."

The prospect of editing every single texture file (which includes BaseColour, Normal, AO/Roughness/Metal, and Emmisive maps) in the entire game to change that setting is a bit daunting.

If it's just some file property, cant it be automated with a batch console command?

[665c145296385Xkilljoy98]

I beat the Remake and I was supposed to get my name in the credits, well it was there in the Beta but it was wrong and I was told they would fix it but they just took it out and it didn't but it back in

I'm a little mad ngl

[665c145296621sarge945]

I beat the Remake and I was supposed to get my name in the credits, well it was there in the Beta but it was wrong and I was told they would fix it but they just took it out and it didn't but it back in

I'm a little mad ngl

Lodge a formal complaint with kickstarter

[665c145296974icemann]

I love that already we have a mod for the game to improve stuff. Good work . If someone would make a mod to increase items to stack to 99 instead of 10 (like SS2 does it) that would be great. 10 is just stupid. I would recommend making a separate thread for it, though where to put it I dunno, as we don't have a separate forum section for SS1 remake mods.

Played through Maintenance:

Pretty much identical layout to original. No music (beyond ambience). Laser rapier is excellent, though you now hold it a few centimetres away from the fingers of your left hand (weapon held in right hand) which is just plain odd. Why would anyone hold a weapon that way? You'd be fingerless in no time. You can now slice up bodies with it, which is admittedly quite cool, though you can only chop up certain bodies and not others (those others just flop about when you hit them with it).

The invisible mutants are now floating fish-like creatures that have gained the ability to explode on contact. Got me killed once, as was not expecting that. I am fine with this change, as they looked like stingrays in the original. More new audio logs on this level than the levels, quite a few were pretty good. Loved one where the person complained that if they'd just been able to blow Shodan out of the ship, then she'd have gotten several days of missed sleep. Amusing.

Also encountered this hilarious bug:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8GuFNLKuqk

(if the link does not jump to the correct timestamp, jump to 31:02)

[665c145296c32Xkilljoy98]

sarge945Would that even do anything?, I would just talk to NDS but I can't get in their discord to tell them, tho idk i they would even fix it

[665c145296f59Berathraben]

Xkilljoy98
Just DM me your email used for backerkit along with the name you want in the credits and I will update the entry for you at Backerkit and then forward it to the rewards manager to make sure they see it.

[665c1452974ffThiefsieFool]

It looks like they seriously tagged. Every. Single. Texture asset as "texture filtering: nearest neighbour."

The prospect of editing every single texture file (which includes BaseColour, Normal, AO/Roughness/Metal, and Emmisive maps) in the entire game to change that setting is a bit daunting.

Perhaps a smaller-scale test on some of the Medical textures?

All unreal assets can be exported to JSON and back, so it should be possible to automate the process somehow.

[665c1452977dcvoodoo47]

Most of the textures are so low-res that with filtering enabled they'd still look bad, just in a different way.

I'd take filtered bad over unfiltered bad any day.

[665c145297c87sverXRazum]

Also encountered this hilarious bug:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8GuFNLKuqk

(if the link does not jump to the correct timestamp, jump to 31:02)

I also had the same bug with this robot, just on flight deck. Although mine stuck before dying, so I guess they like walls.

By the way, if NDS will make controller setup for consoles the way I think they do (with buttons for quick use explosives and consumables) I would like to use this system on PC as well. But make enemy AI better first, please?

[665c145298373Nameless Voice]

How moddable is this game exactly? I would like to make some pretty major changes to it to really make it work well.

It's Unreal Engine, so you can modify its assets, so things like object properties or animation speeds, or changing models/textures/animations.
However, we don't have access to the game's source code.

Most of the textures are so low-res that with filtering enabled they'd still look bad, just in a different way.

There're not quite as low-res as I'd feared.  Yes, most characters are a single 512x512 map, but larger surfaces like walls and floors are in the 512-2048 range.

[665c14529884eThiefsieFool]

However, we don't have access to the game's source code.

It should be noted that the recent trend for Unreal Engine development is to lean heavily on blueprints and script bytecode when implementing game logic, probably due to the awkwardness in working with Unreal's huge C++ codebase. You can make tweaks to a game that get very close to having the source code available.

You can see the script bytecode contains some low-level stuff like displaying UI elements, handling inputs..
It is pretty difficult and awkward to deal with code in a JSON format, but you can definitely make tweaks, and the door is open for someone making a more user friendly bytecode editor in the future.

[665c145298d07Nameless Voice]

If someone would make a mod to increase items to stack to 99 instead of 10 (like SS2 does it) that would be great. 10 is just stupid.

Seems a bit like cheating to me, but it should be easily done.

I can't test if it works right now bit you're welcome to try it if you want to be a guinea pig.

Changed max stack count of batteries, patches, explosives, first aid kits, and rare ammo types to 100.
Changed max stack count of plentiful ammo types to 1,000.

Edit: To use, go to "System Shock Remake\SystemShock\Content\Paks\", create a subdirectory named "~mods", and drop the pak in there.
[NVHigherMaxStackCounts_P.pak expired]

[665c1452990e1sarge945]

It should be noted that the recent trend for Unreal Engine development is to lean heavily on blueprints and script bytecode when implementing game logic, probably due to the awkwardness in working with Unreal's huge C++ codebase. You can make tweaks to a game that get very close to having the source code available.

You can see the script bytecode contains some low-level stuff like displaying UI elements, handling inputs..
It is pretty difficult and awkward to deal with code in a JSON format, but you can definitely make tweaks, and the door is open for someone making a more user friendly bytecode editor in the future.

I'm interested. Tell me more.

Do you know of any guides for this stuff?

[665c14529948ficemann]

Seems a bit like cheating to me, but it should be easily done.

I can't test if it works right now bit you're welcome to try it if you want to be a guinea pig.

Changed max stack count of batteries, patches, explosives, first aid kits, and rare ammo types to 100.
Changed max stack count of plentiful ammo types to 1,000.

Edit: To use, go to "System Shock Remake\SystemShock\Content\Paks\", create a subdirectory named "~mods", and drop the pak in there.

Was that "~mods" or "mods" for folder name? I put it in ~mods. Will give it a test a bit later tonight when I go onto the Storage level.

[665c1452995caNameless Voice]

It was "~mods", but I don't think the name of the folder actually matters at all.  Just them being in a subfolder forces them to be loaded after the paks in the main directory, which you want.

[665c14529977bNameless Voice]

Also, looks like someone else has already made a "stack everything" mod, and they went crazier than me, as they apparently let you stack junk too?

https://www.nexusmods.com/systemshock2023/mods/14


Also, yes, there are already 13 other mods for the game on nexusmods.

[665c145299b64ThiefsieFool]

I'm interested. Tell me more.

Do you know of any guides for this stuff?

Nah, I just experiment with this stuff. Far as I can tell you are on your own when going deep into bytecode while modding, all you can do is piece together knowledge from Unreal's documentation and whatever you can find. For instance Unreal's docs allowed me to replace one function call with another, without breaking things or having to guess at function names.

[665c145299e88icemann]

Also, looks like someone else has already made a "stack everything" mod, and they went crazier than me, as they apparently let you stack junk too?

https://www.nexusmods.com/systemshock2023/mods/14


Also, yes, there are already 13 other mods for the game on nexusmods.

Now that's crazy lol. I just wanted things in line with how SS2 handled stacks of items.

[665c14529a0b6Nameless Voice]

For anyone interested in modding the game, I've been using three tools:

1) FModel lets you browse Unreal pak files and view or export the data inside.
2) UAssetGUI lets you edit packaged Unreal asset files.
3) A tool helpfully named "Asset Editor", which has a handy option for create patch pak files without having to do it on the command line.  While the other two are their top search results, I have no idea where you'd find this for download (I got it off @ThiefsieFool)

[665c14529a4bcXkilljoy98]

Nameless Voice
How would I edit the music and add custom if I wanted to?

Berathraben
Will do thanks

[665c14529a8f6Nameless Voice]

Nameless Voice
How would I edit the music and add custom if I wanted to?

It's a lot of hassle.  I gave a very brief summary of it here.

[665c14529ab31icemann]

Tested the item stack mod you put together Nameless. Worked like a charm, and had zero negative effect on the game. Brought the game more in line with the original if anything. Especially as this remake is super stingy on health packs, which makes holding onto every 1 you can find essential.

Just cleared Storage. Zero music in this one. Not even ambience. Mostly new audio logs, with a couple of original ones thrown in here and there, but mostly new ones. Overall layout is the same, but many of the areas felt completely new. Very challenging level. I died A LOT. 2 weapon upgrade machines present (1 for the shotgun and 1 for the magnum), as well as 1 very easy to miss item pack upgrade that adds a couple of extra slots to it. The pack upgrade could have been more generous, as a few extra makes only a small difference. But I'll take any extra.

Still finding the spark gun on max setting as the best weapon against most of the enemies. Compare that to when I play SS1 standard, and be Magnum all the way at this point. 1 new enemy, with the power loader cyborg. Very difficult enemy, up there with the Cortex Reaver. Boots upgrade, and later the level 2 of that present in the level, which you will need to get to a particular easter egg in the Reactor level.

[665c14529ad3fJosiahJack]

That's odd as the youtube with the full soundtrack I listened to earlier today had only one single enjoyable track and it was Storage Combat.