[Obsolete] SS2 Community Patch (SCP) Beta 4

[665acb5da66fcsarge945]

one way or another, mods breaking with a regular update would mean something is set up really shoddily (Fallout 4 experience maybe?), around this place it's "everything works unless stated otherwise".

Hehe not exactly Fallout 4, but I am used to.......less well written games.....having major issues with everything when they update.

I find it quite telling and quite ironic that a bunch of small, amateur developers working in their spare time can create a far more robust modification system than some of the biggest studios on the planet. I guess the SS2 engine is a lot simpler than a big modern AAA title, but surely many of the under-the-hood systems would be similar? I don't do my game programming course until next year so I wouldn't know

But yes, I guess it's just about "feeling smart" and has nothing to do with decades of negative experiences modding games and watching them fail on even the smallest update.

[665acb5da68edvoodoo47]

we did need NewDark and quite a few tries to get things working smoothly, to be fair.

[665acb5da69d8KillerBudgie]

Tick...tock... Tick...tock...

[665acb5da6b74Lightwave]

Wow, Almost four years passed and still no new version of SHTUP-ND. SS2 community is pretty dead now.

[665acb5da6c58voodoo47]

you cannot rush art.

be good and maybe Santa will bring you a xmas gift.

[665acb5da6d2eKillerBudgie]

So Xmas has come and gone. When will Beta 5 pop up this time?

[665acb5da6dfcvoodoo47]

this month is not very likely.

[665acb5da6f40ZylonBane]

Things are getting done, though. Cool things.

[665acb5da7038Tourist]

Can you at least pitch a couple of the biggest changes to us?

[665acb5da715cZylonBane]

Some new stuff sneak previewed in this thread: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9715.0

[665acb5da729bluigge]

Hello I have a suggestion.
1: so, you are bulding a new version of the community patch, right?

2:is there any way for you to put wormblend implant in the game because looks like it works and as it is not found in game maybe this can be a good imlpant.
It doesn't need to have a lot of this implant in the game just like 2 or 3 in random locations

I don't know if you can modify the game this much but this is my suggestion

[665acb5da7390voodoo47]

1. always.
2. no, it doesn't work, but we have a wip script that will make it work. it will be released as a standalone mod when complete.

[665acb5da783eMisaka Mikoto]

1: so, you are bulding a new version of the community patch, right?

1. always.

Seems every time another of my children is old enough to watch my yearly playthrough of System Shock 2 you guys have another patch in the offing. I’ll hang fire until this beta is ready.

Thank you all, and voodoo and Zylon in particular, for the incredible work you’ve put in over these many years, polishing my favorite game to utter perfection.

[665acb5da793evoodoo47]

and we are pretty sure we'll still be here once your first grandkid comes along.

[665acb5da7b6bDa9L]

Okay now  feel stupid for not noticing this in the first place. Just trying out Beta4 again and went to the secret area on earth.. Isn't this like a "copy" or inspiration from duke nukem 3d on the first level? 

[665acb5da7c7avoodoo47]

hail to the king, baby.

[665acb5da7d58ZylonBane]

Groovy.

[665acb5da8142RocketMan]

I feel like this may have been touched on before but I can't recall so forgive me if it has been discussed.

Is it possible to add physics to explosions so that they displace AIs slightly?  I always found it really annoying that a large explosion would go off 1 foot from a hybrid and he would simply crumple as though he'd been shot in the head.

[665acb5da825fvoodoo47]

not in a way that would look good, I'd reckon.

[665acb5da836bRocketMan]

How do you mean?  You mean the way the AI would be moved would be too rigid or something?

[665acb5da848avoodoo47]

it would just slide away a bit while doing its dying animation. wouldn't call that an improvement.

gibbing is also possible (see Secmod), but I don't think this is SCP territory.

[665acb5da8619RocketMan]

Actually I think gibbing is usually inappropriate.  Explosion blasts of the sort encountered in the game are not usually going to dismember a human being.  It's just a pressure wave.  It would scorch a person and throw them a bit but not much else at those power levels.

TBH, I know there's no ragdoll effects to make it look realistic but having the AIs (and other objects) not move at all is much worse than having them slide slightly and die.  They don't have to be thrown far enough to make it look like they're on a skating rink.  They can just be displaced slightly... like a foot or 2.  If it's at all noticeable that the blast shifted them, it will unconsciously satisfy our common-sense understanding of physics, without looking too horrible.  There needs to be more of a causal link to explosions than what is currently inferred by sound and graphics alone.

[665acb5da871eZylonBane]

Appropriate explosions already have a push force assigned to them that affects non-AI physics objects.

[665acb5da8847RocketMan]

I didn't know AIs were categorized differently in terms of how they respond to force. 

Is it as Voodoo said, that AIs were chosen to ignore force because of how it would look when they move?

Is it just a flag or property in ShockEd to enable AIs to respond to blast force also?