SS2 Purchasable Cyber Modules

[665aedc642a51voodoo47]

Tags: °SS2 °DML

This mod will allow the player to buy Cyber Modules from the Medsci replicator near Xerxes (after hacking, replaces small and large standard bullet clips). One CM costs 110 nanites, ten are 1000 (on normal difficulty). Must be activated before entering MedSci for the first time.

[665aedc642df6Join2]

Going to repost this for those of you that like me, frowned upon first reaction to this idea:

I was going to bitch and moan, but I suppose those prices are good in that you'll only be able to buy up to something like 20-40 modules in any given playthrough, which isn't a huge amount and wont utterly destroy balance, and may even add some meaningful choice in the process (desire to buy nanites conflicting with desire to buy ammo, maint. tools, and whatever else).
Doesn't have to be a bad thing and I may even be interested in the dml myself. Currently I find myself just spamming ammo and maint tools from value reps, which also is a bit balance-destroying.

Personally, I think it possibly may be better with slightly higher prices, and just doing away with the bundle pack option too. But I've not given the whole thing a great deal of thought just yet.  Especially in how the recycler relates to this (never even used it myself, but now with CMs on offer one *may* be inspired to tediously recycle half the ship for them).

[665aedc642fb1voodoo47]

shouldn't be too balance destroying in its current state - I think max nanites I've ever had was about three thousand, and I'm quite the hoarding type. so my guess is that with this, about 50 extra modules would be possible if you go nuts, and that's not enough to throw things off - just enough to get one more level of that one skill of your dreams if you end up being just a few modules shy.

also you can't screw around with this too early as you need hack 3 to get into the replicator first, so all should be good.

[665aedc643123Join2]

Sounds good. And what of the recycler? How many nanites can you get from that, roughly?

[665aedc643248voodoo47]

not many, junk items are 1-2 nanites, the most valuable stuff maybe 10 something? not a great way to farm money in this game.

[665aedc643649Djant]

shouldn't be too balance destroying in its current state - I think max nanites I've ever had was about three thousand, and I'm quite the hoarding type. so my guess is that with this, about 50 extra modules would be possible if you go nuts, and that's not enough to throw things off - just enough to get one more level of that one skill of your dreams if you end up being just a few modules shy.

Also in Impossible that's legitimately a bad deal, 50 modules is barely worth anything even by mid game with the jacked up costs.

[665aedc6437cbvoodoo47]

well yeah, as I've said, this is pretty much only useful in a situation where something costs 30 modules and you have 28-29. this isn't supposed to be a good deal - if you want a good one, you can always type the add modules cheat into the console.

also fixed the quote for you.

[665aedc64399fJML]

Can you please tell me what the hacked replicator offered before the modules?

[665aedc643ab0voodoo47]

standard pistol bullets, small and large package. pretty sure those can be purchased/acquired elsewhere.

[665aedc643c1cJML]

I don't know if the bundle option makes a lot of sense. Since this is a highly illegal hack of a replicator (I think cyber modules are illegal) I don't think they would have implemented a "buy nine, get one free" option. More likely is that a skilled hacker made it possible to make the replicator produce cyber modules, and the exact ammount of nanites to transform into one cyber module is e.g. 110.

(also you could change the price to 111 for eye candy!)

[665aedc643d67voodoo47]

maybe the hacker just wanted to screw with people.

but seriously, monkeys, zombies and ninjas are running around, you have a giant tumor talking to your head, two AIs that want to push your reset button, and all that bothers you is whether the hacked replicator prices are making sense?

also, the prices are trivial to change, just edit the dml with any notepadesque editor (and start a new game).

[665aedc643eceJML]

Well it is definitely not "all that bothers me", but as you are one of the authors of the SCP I know that you are also interested in continuity and keeping it realistic. Don't give me the baby argument excuse like "that's your only problem, with kids dying in africa?!". I've had enough of that for a lifetime with this sister of mine.
Irrational strifed to make System Shock as realistic as possible in the given universe and setting.

[665aedc6443fbvoodoo47]

well yes, that's why this is a standalone mod - mods are completely optional, so people can choose whether to use them or not. I personally wouldn't use this one, I still think it's a bit too cheaty, but other people may think otherwise (see the peanut butter and cinder block sandwich). one way or another,

I don't really care, made the mod for mireazma, JU! wanted it to be public, so it is, whoever thinks loading this is a good idea can go ahead and do so, it doesn't have to make sense, or have a point.

[665aedc6447e0JML]

[...]
also, the prices are trivial to change, just edit the dml with any notepadesque editor (and start a new game).

Running into problems already: I changed the medsci1.mis.dml to

DML1

ObjProp 300 "RepHacked"
{
   "Obj 3 Name" 1 EXP
   "Obj 3 Cost" 111
}

started a new game, hacked the replicator and it now of offers a cyber module in slot 3, but for 222 nanites. Any ideas why this happens?

[665aedc644973voodoo47]

the code is fine, and does what it should both in the editor and the game itself, just tried. try to start a new game again, but before that, maybe back up the entire install, if this is some sort of edge case thing, I may want to have a look and dissect it completely.

[665aedc644ab7JML]

I restarted the game real quick in easy instead of impossible, and rushed to the replicator after increasing hacking to 3 and now 1 cyber module costs 94 nanites. Could it be that the replicator prizes are connected to difficulty? Because that would be -15%, and on impossible it was +100% in costs.

[665aedc644bc0voodoo47]

that is the case, completely forgot that difficulty indeed affects replicator prices.

[665aedc644ceeJML]

Alright. Just tested: It's possible to change difficulty mid-game. So when standing right in front of the replicator and changing to normal, then buying a CM for 111, and then resuming to impossible for 222 works.

Still this mod get's fucked up by the difficulty price changes, but who cares about cheaters, right?

[665aedc644ea0voodoo47]

yes, that (changing difficulty before purchasing something to get lower prices and then changing it back) has been possible since day one, we are still not sure whether this was an unintended side effect of an intended functionality or not, but we are pretty sure it's not possible to block it in any way.

so yeah, all that can be said is that if you don't like cheating, then simply don't. and just for the record, if you punch the add modules code into the console it's cheating, if you set up a dml that will make replicators spit thousands of modules for 1 nanite it's also cheating, if you lower the prices through difficulty before buying it's, you guessed it, cheating. sorry all the but exploits and stuff is ok people, you are still cheaters, no matter how you park it in your brains.

[665aedc6450e6ZylonBane]

I believe it's possible to determine the current difficulty level by accessing the qvar "difficulty".

[665aedc64520bvoodoo47]

yes, but I don't think it's possible to tell the replicator to ignore it, and have hard set prices no matter the difficulty.

[665aedc645343ZylonBane]

I just verified that not only can you get the current difficulty, you can change it too. So a sufficiently evil script could continually force the difficulty back to whatever its original value was.

[665aedc645445voodoo47]

that would indeed, be quite evil.

[665aedc645608Kolya]

I think the idea of allowing to change difficulty mid-game (as is possible in many modern games as well) is to give people who are having a tough time a way to scale the game to their skills without having to restart. I have no idea why one would regard this as an "unintended side effect".