BioSecmod for Bioshock

[66453f1989143ThiefsieFool]

Well, here it is, I won't make a big deal out of this yet because it's just a test release and running the mod is still kind of a pain.
I wish it was easier to install and use this mod, but it's been roughly in this state since 2016 so I'll just release it the way it is now, just for fun.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dr6c0aw3o2zmsqf/BioSecmod.zip/file

I'll paste the features here for your pleasure:

enhanced movement speed for less "scenic" plodding around

new plasmids:
- Ionizing Blast (powerful, EVE-hungry, single target, direct-damage plasmid)

new reimplemented tonics
- Gunslinger (Two Round Burst)
- Photosensitive Secretions
- Eve Up v.3
- Heat Sink (Asbestos Body)
- Extended Shutdown

new hacking system:
- character-based (only characters with engineering tonic slots can hack properly)
- resource-based (hacking is done through 'hack tools' which are the old autohacks but cheaper and easier to find and buy)
- no tedious minigames (hacking "normally" is impossible and buyouts are disabled, only autohacking is possible)

more hackable objects
- Gatherer's Garden (reduce costs and unlock more plasmids and tonics)
- Gene Bank (remove use cost)
- Power to the People (reduce costs)
- Bot Shutdown Panel (shut down security temporarily)

rebalanced resurrection mechanics:
- spawn with minimal health
- do not gain extra EVE
- lose 40 dollars per resurrection

new weapon upgrade mechanics
- weapon upgrade stations now offer upgrades for money
- stations do not shut down after one use
- price increases slightly after each upgrade, so finding new stations is still important

rebalanced crafting costs, new crafting formulas
- First Aid Kit (very high component requirements but makes enzyme samples and empty hypos remain useful in the late game)
- Electric Buckshot
- Machinegun Antipersonnel Bullets
- Chemical Thrower (it cannot be found in the world anymore and must be crafted)
- Crossbow (you can now craft it and use it as early as Arcadia if you want)




rebalanced plasmid EVE costs, below are uses per full EVE bar, normally vs. with one EVE upgrade
- ElectroBolt: 2/3 (old: 3)
- Telekinesis 3/4 (old: 14)
- Incinerate: 3/4 (old: 5)
- Sonic Boom: 2/3 (old: 3)
- Enrage: 2/2 (old: 7)
- Security Beacon: 2/3 (old: 7)

rebalanced weapons
- pistol is a slower and more accurate shooter that can fire blazingly fast only if you carry the new Gunslinger tonic
- shotgun does anti-personnel damage with its basic shells, which is very ineffective against machines and protectors
- machinegun fires very accurately and very quickly but has more limited ammo
- chemical thrower fires more quickly and expends its ammo much more quickly, solving the issues of it having excessive ammo but mediocre damage output
- crossbow does armor-piercing damage with its normal bolts, contrasting with the anti-personnel effect of its incendiary bolts

general features
- all item and ammunition stack limits removed, game balance is done in more complex ways
- not just loot but also the placement of some items in the world has been rebalanced
- improved RPG elements, the player is weaker and powerful tonics appear earlier to help develop your character, new tonics add to this effect
- health gained from medkits and bandages rebalanced (massively reduced)
- updated in-game manual (map menu) so you don't always have to switch to a readme to get info on what's new
- more character-based and RPG-like game flow, for instance your character doesn't start off with the ability to hack in the Medical Pavilion, but is able to buy an Engineering Slot from a vending machine early on for 60 dollars and immediately become able to hack if they wish to play a hacker character
- security bots shoot less often with higher damage, like in the 2006 videos, causing fewer sound channel issues and physics issues
- if you use the savegame, the first level has altered items/enemies and you start with only 1 tonic slot unlocked in each track for more choice-based gameplay
- many more

[66453f19893c2voodoo47]

oh hell yes. also, what's up with the incomplete spoiler tag?

[66453f19894dcThiefsieFool]

Let me know your impressions if you get around to trying it, the spoiler tag is from posting in another forum first where I needed to compress the features.

[66453f1989687Joe]

This looks pretty cool. Could scarcer loot and tougher enemies be a thing, and have you thought about doing this for BioShock 2?

[66453f1989782ThiefsieFool]

Loot is definitely scarcer, and enemies are tougher as well, especially protectors, just check it out. No plans for Bio 2.

[66453f198985eGrossViche]

Does this work with Bioshock: Remastered?

[66453f1989956ThiefsieFool]

I don't have that so I dunno, it should work unless they changed a lot of stuff in the engine.

[66453f1989b29JDoran]

Why have I just noticed this now?

I do have one question, though; would it be possible to add the Drill Specialist tonic (https://bioshock.fandom.com/wiki/Drill_Specialist) from Bioshock 2. I'd love to see this in Bioshock 1, as it's a great tonic, aside from the fact that in Bioshock 2 you only get it in the last third of the game, whereas I'd love to get it much earlier so you can play through more of the game with it.

[66453f1989fa8ThiefsieFool]

Why have I just noticed this now?

I do have one question, though; would it be possible to add the Drill Specialist tonic (https://bioshock.fandom.com/wiki/Drill_Specialist) from Bioshock 2. I'd love to see this in Bioshock 1, as it's a great tonic, aside from the fact that in Bioshock 2 you only get it in the last third of the game, whereas I'd love to get it much earlier so you can play through more of the game with it.

Yeah it is a good tonic, it actually makes you feel as if you are being mutated, to lose control of your arms but gaining more plasmid expression potential, unfortunately I can't add it, all I can do is add unused tonics, and I've already added all the reasonably useful ones.
There's another unused tonic called Rechargeable which lets you regenerate EVE when you're standing still, but that one's just stupid.

[66453f198a3e5JDoran]

Yeah it is a good tonic, it actually makes you feel as if you are being mutated, to lose control of your arms but gaining more plasmid expression potential, unfortunately I can't add it, all I can do is add unused tonics, and I've already added all the reasonably useful ones.
There's another unused tonic called Rechargeable which lets you regenerate EVE when you're standing still, but that one's just stupid.

Understood. And the Rechargeable tonic does sound pretty lame, plus it would be redundant in Bioshock 2 where you have the Fountain of Youth tonic, which not only gives you EVE but also heals you. Alright, with the FoY you have to find water to stand in or under, but that's not exactly difficult in late 1960's Rapture.

I suppose Drill Specialist could be simulated by changing Bioshock 1 so that the EVE usage is severely reduced per Plasmid shot, and trusting the player to not use the weapons (otherwise you'd have to remove the weapons from their spawn points, and somehow stop the Splicers from leaving their weapons to be picked up by the player when the Splicers die). I think that might be good, it it's possible. You'd have to rely on the player's honour to stop them using any weapon other than the wrench, or more probably to let them use weapons until they have enough plasmids to potentially beat the game even if they stop using weapons at that point in the game.

Would that be possible? Say to reduce the usage costs of plamids to maybe one sixth (around 16%) of what it is in the normal game? Not the purchase costs at the Gatherer's Garden, of course, just the amount of EVE used when you fire a plasmid? It would be an interesting way to play through the game I think, with the player having to decide when (if!) to stop using weapons in that game run.

[66453f198a59dThiefsieFool]

I'm pretty sure it's possible to forcibly make all weapons except the wrench impossible to pick up and use. And of course it's possible to change plasmid costs, I already changed them. Too bad you still need to be careful or the mod deactivates between level changes..

Notes for myself and others:
This console command makes machine gun bullet items impossible to pick up: set ShockDesignerClasses.MachineGunBulletPickup bShowHudElements false
This command changes the cost of telekinesis: set TelekinesisAbility BioAmmoCost 12

[66453f198a720aurocell]

I'm a bit iffy about certain mechanics, but the fact that vita-chambers now cost money is fucking sweet, dude.

[66453f198aa31sarge945]

I found the biggest problem with Bioshock was it's story and presentation.

As someone once described it, Bioshock is a game that mocks linearity and lack of choice in video games, only to be completely linear and almost completely lacking in meaningful choices.

But having better gameplay is definitely a plus. Now I just wish you could replace the hacking minigame (Microsoft Pipes) with a realtime system so that hacking actually involves some actual risk and gameplay.

I'm not sure that good gameplay would be enough to get me to play it again, though.

[66453f198b12eJDoran]

Lots of people, including forum regulars on here, *really* were disappointed with Bioshock, which isn't at all surprising, since it was pushed as a spiritual successor to the System Shock games, but when it finally came out it turned out to be at best a very shallow imitation of the two System Shock games. I love Bioshock 1 and 2, but they are basically very linear first person shooters, which in itself isn't a bad thing, but it's very bad if you wanted a game that's more open, requires more thought and player planning, and doesn't hold your hand (the Bioshock games *really* want you to complete them, they do almost everything they can to keep you living and well stocked with ammunition).

For someone new to the games, playing Bioshock, and then playing System Shock 2 (especially if you go down the SS2's Psi route) must feel like the games are from two different genres. System Shock 2 is survival horror, because you have to weight up combat encounters to decide your chances, especially at the beginning of the game. And if you want to play the game properly, you ideally should study SS2's mechanics, such as what weapons work best against what enemies, the best weapon upgrades for your character build, what strengths and abilities you want for your character, etc.

But in Bioshock if you have good reflexes, and remember to search every corpse (which involves pressing the same key twice) then you end up with more money then you'll ever need, and ammunition is lying about everywhere, even if you don't bother buying ammunition from the ever-present vending machines. And whilst certain weapons are better against certain enemies, the difference doesn't matter mugh, you can still take down any enemy short of a big Daddy or the end boss with whatever weapon you happen to be using.

I don't mind the linear gameplay and story of Bioshock, that's common with some of the best games of all time. But I really do understand the feelings of  those who thought the whole game was so oversimplified to appeal to less hardcore gamers that it wasn't even remotely worthy of being mentioned in the same breath of the much more imaginative and demanding System Shock games. But my problems with Bioshock 1 are things like the *massive* drop in atmosphere and enjoyment after the mid-game revelation, the fact that if the base game was any easier then it would complete itself with no input from you, the fact that when replaying it it feels so much like you're just walking to the next set piece, the 286,097,323,545,102 times you have to play Pipemania to hack something (and oh yes, the Bioshock 2 real-time hacking needle would me monumentally better), the fact that sometimes the randomly generated Pipemania board might actually be impossible to complete, the awful final boss battle, the inverse difficulty curve whereby the game gets easier as you get farther along, and the fact that Rapture doesn't actually feel lived in. You rarely get the feeling that people have actually made their lives down there.

Bioshock 2 fixed some of these problems (much better hacking, for example, no loss of game quality at any point, the flying turrets have much better path finding, the plasmids are more varied, etc), but it's still far from perfect. But it's the one Bioshock game that I love to reply from time to time.

And yes, the morality of the Bioshock games doesn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny. Yes, killing the little sisters is (very rightly) regarded as bad, but killing the equally innocent Big Daddies is absolutely encouraged.  No one even mutters a word in the defence of the Big Daddies. And the game gives you no option to try to reason with any splicers. Fair enough, this is a game, so no real person gets hurtm just a bunch of pixels on a screen, but in the game's universe, you are going around killing countless humans on sight, often without them being shown to be hostile to you. Yes, that is good game-play, and the game doesn't even offer you a way to try to reason with the splicers, but in reality surely some of the splicers would be non-hostile to you, or at least wouldn't attack you if you didn't attack them.

It would have made the game better if say in the first few encounters with splicers, you came upon some who were unaware of you (such as the woman with the pram), and you tried to speak with her, to show that you were not a threat, and then they still try to kill you, and you quickly realise that they can't be reasoned with and accept that you can either kill them or let them kill you, and that there is no third option. Instead, Jack (your player character) seems to just go full Terminator on them with no questions or regrets.

Bioshock 2 did improve on the morality system a little, as now you are also judged on how you deal with three other individuals who could be regarded as your enemies, but you can still slaughter hundreds of people on sight, and still get the good ending.

And in Bioshock 2, the storyline does make an even bigger mess of the perceived morality at one  point. Minor spoilers:

In Bioshock 2, the surviving splicers are collectively, to one degree or another, part of a society calling itself the family. Supposedly to allow the splicers to live safely and (as much as possible) happily in what remains of Rapture. Now, your player character is identified by the family's leader, Sophia Lamb, as being an enemy of the people, and a murderer, and so the splicers want to kill you, and all attack you on sight.

But amongst the splicers is a sane, none splicer, called Grace Holloway, who is a good person, and who unknowingly was part of the group who really hurt you ten years before. So when you meet up with her, you can take your revenge and kill her, or show mercy/understanding, and let her live. But the thing is, if you let her live, then she realises that you mustn't be the monster everyone has been told that you are, and she tried to help you. She does this by giving you ammunition and support bots, basically allowing you to kill more splicers. The same splicers who are part of the family, just like Grace is. Instead of her trying to help you by telling the splicers that you aren't a danger to them, or somehow otherwise helping you in a way that doesn't involve helping you to kill members of Grace's community, she decides to give you more killing power to ramp up the number of splicers you're obliterating. That doesn't sound like a good, thoughtful person like Grace is supposed to be. It would be more convincing it Grace could have just broadcast through the hotel (where you encounter Grace) that you are not the monster you were said to be, and so then, at least in the hotel, the splicers wouldn't attack you unless you attacked them. In the rest of the level (where Grace has no authority) and every subsequent level then the splicers could still attack you, but not the ones who lived in the same building as Grace.