System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition Update & Community Participation

[6741ddc40f234pripyatbeast]

Hello everyone, this is Stephen from Nightdive with a bit of an update.

We are currently nearing the end of reverse engineering Shock 2 and wanted to reach out to the various authors and content creators that have worked diligently for so many years on some of our favorite mods to see if there was interest in including your work with the official release.

So far we will be including:

Vurt's Space Textures, Flora, Hi-res Water, Organics/Goo
ACC's Four Hundred (400) Hi-res Terrain Textures
Eldron's Psi Amp
Olfred's Fixed Objects
Grosnus' Hi-Res Spinning Marine/Navy/OSA logos
SCP
SHTUP
ZylonBane's New Quest Notifier
Vaxquis Vintage Song Remake v1.0 Mod
Mercurius' Tacticool Weapon Replacements


11/03 Update:
Eldron has joined the team to create new enemy models and finish any remaining weapons.

We're looking to include both SHTUP and SCP and are in the process of getting permission from the contributors. Here is the current progress...

SHTUP:
ZylonBane - Permission Granted
IceNine - No Contact Info
Black Boe - No Contact Info
Eldron - Permission Granted
Eshaktaar - Permission Granted
Hires - No Contact Info
Rattkin - Email Bounce Back
Darksharp - No Contact Info
SNAFU - Email Sent
Garcie - No Contact Info
Ichu - No Contact Info
Nameless Voice  - Permission Granted
Pride Assassin - No Contact Info
Thunderpeel - Email Bounce Back
Shadowspawn  - Permission Granted
Telliamed  - Permission Granted

SCP:
ZylonBane  - Permission Granted
Antimatter_16
Nameless Voice - Permission Granted
Nemyax
Olfred - Permission Granted
Straylight
Thiefsiefool
unn_atropos - Permission Granted
voodoo47 - Permission Granted
Zygo

Other mods we'd like to include are:

Fan Translations

Ultimately our goal is to have the visual mods selectable in the options menu with the ability to play the vanilla game if so desired. With all this said we need to get permission from everyone involved to include it, and in the advent of not being able to reach someone or if someone doesn't want to include their work we need to know what it is so that we can replace it. I've started sending PM's to those listed above, but if you have not heard from me yet, please feel free to reach out.

We've already hired a few members of the systemshock.org community and we're always looking for other talented individuals to join our team and contribute to the Shock franchise, so again, please don't hesitate to reach out if you think you'd be a good addition to our team!

Anyone who grants Nightdive permission to use their work will be credited in the game and given keys to the Remake and SS2:EE as a thank you. We will also be giving beta access to those who want to try it out and provide feedback.

When the project is complete we will release the source code on our github

What am I missing? Is there a mod that I haven't included that should be? Is there a feature or something you'd like to see in the release? Please let us know!

We've created a new section in our public discord server for SS2:EE discussion. If you are one of the mod contributors feel free to message me or our community manager for a special user role. https://discord.gg/fNJ7zaE

[6741ddc40f4c4voodoo47]

Olfred's fixed objects. while technically not an enhancement mod, it fixes a lot of object issues (flickering, z-fighting, missing polygons, texture warping etc), and certainly is one of the top recommended mods.

would be great to get SCP going, it really brings all the enhancement mods together.


also, a suggestion - maybe consider hiring an artist to produce proper, true to vanilla higher res AI models. that is the only thing we don't have available here - Rebirth, while popular, has its issues, and may not be the best choice for an officially distributed AI model enhancement mod. just giving the vanilla models more polygons and cleaning up the textures a bit (and getting rid of mirroring) would do wonders - this guy had a pretty good idea, too bad he disappeared without a trace at one point..

[6741ddc40f629icemann]

Rebirth while good certainly is not one I ever use. Some of the model replacements I don't like. Vanilla ftw.

[6741ddc40f729pripyatbeast]

I'm going to explore having some of the enemy character models remade to be more faithful to the original. Thanks for the feedback.

[6741ddc40f87aicemann]

Best of luck to you guys. Anything that = more people playing SS2 I'm happy about.

Funny thing, back when I first joined TTLG (round the year 2000) up till about 5 years ago, I heard FAR more about Thief than System Shock. Now I almost never hear Thief mentioned at all, but hear about System Shock often.

Big question is - Will SS2R come with a new level editor, or will Dromed still be the order of the way to go. As it's made to work with existing mods, I'd assume that Dromed would still be THE editor for it.

[6741ddc40fa0evrubayka]

Hello, Stephen! What are the enhancements that you're bringing into the game aside from improved Co-op?

One of the must-have improvements would be Subtitles and specific settings to enable captions for FMVs, dialogue, audiologs, enemy barks, etc. as already done by ZylonBane. Another good feature would be adding the option to change the FOV without external programs like SS2Tool.

This might be a little too specific but are you going to make the EAX effects work out of the box?

Best of luck

[6741ddc40fcd3Olfred]

I have no objection to use anything I've made to be included in the release. You should also include nemyax in the credits as he made the tools I used extensively, which even made things possible you couldn't do before.

If there are still things that I could help out with don't shy away from sending me a message.

[6741ddc40fe8dWalterREQUiEM]

Hi again, Stephen

Sorry if I'm hassling you on the discord, but I feel like the Distinguishable Implants mod by Beauapropos would be a really good mod to include in SS2EE, considering it helps differentiate different implants at a glance, which just makes inventory management more convenient. Maybe the alternate rad Hypo by RoSoDude might be worth looking at, too.

[6741ddc41019apripyatbeast]

Big question is - Will SS2R come with a new level editor, or will Dromed still be the order of the way to go. As it's made to work with existing mods, I'd assume that Dromed would still be THE editor for it.

We're going to continue use of ShockED. We're working on a list of other improvements we'd like to implement, but subtitles, captions, etc is something we want to officially support. Adjustable FOV should be standard.

Also, thank you Olfred! Really appreciate your willingness to contribute your efforts to the project!

[6741ddc41030evoodoo47]

I don't think manually adjustable FOV was ever a thing in the tool, he most likely means the tool's ability to automatically grab the current desktop resolution, and set the game to use it before the first launch (should the process fail, 800*600 will be set).

and yes, checking what the desktop resolution is and trying to set that before starting would be a nice feature to have in any game, remember, people who play the GOG/steam build in the default 800*600 resolution because they are not aware it can be changed still exist.

[6741ddc410421Olfred]

Currently I'm just wondering if there will be a new model format or if the game will stick to the old one. Or if there will be a new model format from the new engine that can be used alternatively.

[6741ddc410e2eicemann]

I don't think manually adjustable FOV was ever a thing in the tool, he most likely means the tool's ability to automatically grab the current desktop resolution, and set the game to use it before the first launch (should the process fail, 800*600 will be set).

I think he means like how Unreal (the game) does it, where you set the FOV on the fly via the options menu. So not so much setting the screen resolution, but just setting how much the screen stretches and how much of the field of view that you can see.

[6741ddc411040Nameless Voice]

Is it so difficult to set it in the config file?

[6741ddc4114d7voodoo47]

not really, and that's why I think he actually meant something else, as leaving FOV on auto is ok for 99.99% of users. so not that useful.

[6741ddc412514Alexander]

Hello. The developers of minimods are "System" -  and "Cheburator900"

Upgrade:
- New, high detailed Security door (original door is English only, alternative is English / Russian)
- Exclusive Door Vanil
- New, high detailed Trash Barrel Green color.
- Plastic trash
- Crate mod
- Xerxes mod (epilepsy / low quality warning!)

Rec1 and Rec3 levels with opened shutters and blast doors
REQUIRES SCP_ beta4+

You can watch them demonstration at the link (in the screenshots and download)
 and you can also use (download). You can use them
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=7334.0

[6741ddc4126afvoodoo47]

I'll be blunt here - the author in question is well known for producing low quality, incompatible, and sometimes even game breaking content. I can think of no quicker way to destroy the reputation of the upcoming KEX build than to include one of his crass mods.

I'm not quite sure why we still tolerate him here.

[6741ddc4167c8vrubayka]

not really, and that's why I think he actually meant something else, as leaving FOV on auto is ok for 99.99% of users. so not that useful.

Actually that's exactly what I meant. It is not hard at all to edit the Config file, but having it in the game's settings menu would be a nice QoL improvement. I just imagine a newcomer who would buy the game and the absence of an FoV slider might be disappointing.

[6741ddc4169cevoodoo47]

ok. still think most people don't even know something like FOV exists - but if we are talking about menu options, then windowed, FSAA and Aniso would be much more useful.

[6741ddc41775aKolya]

I'll be blunt here - the author in question is well known for producing low quality, incompatible, and sometimes even game breaking content. I can think of no quicker way to destroy the reputation of the upcoming KEX build than to include one of his crass mods.

I'm not quite sure why we still tolerate him here.

Because we're a community and we're not trying to make money with these mods. That is why we can afford to give a chance to beginners and even people whose mods make little sense to us.

[6741ddc417906voodoo47]

and even people who are not exactly polite, or so it would seem.

fair enough.

[6741ddc417cd4Alexander]

... to change the FOV ...

I made a mistake? the FOV parameter refers to the game file - cam.cfg, which is manually edited using txt Notepad ? (I set myself "fov 80",  but the default is larger, so the fisheye screen might be (if get carried away with enlarging it))... (however, it all depends on the" monitor " and its resolution, square monitor or not)

[6741ddc417ed3JDoran]

It is true that a lot of people who mainly game on consoles won't be too aware of what a FOV setting is, since console games don't often have such a setting, or it's just one universal setting in the console's option menu and many people never discover the setting at all. Having SS2 automatically detect and select the best setting, but having the option to change it in the options screen, would, I think, be the best thing all round.

[6741ddc41803fpripyatbeast]

I've updated the first post with the list of users I've been able to contact and those who I have not been able to reach or find contact info for. If anyone knows any of these users please let me know how I can get in touch with them.

[6741ddc41826dZylonBane]

I have no problem with SHTUP being included. I assume that SS2EE will include some kind of mod manager, and that these will all just be packed in as essentially "recommended" mods.

A few things...

I'd recommend the New Quest Notifier over the Quest Note Notifier. The former just prints "Note added to PDA." at the top of the screen when a quest note is added, which fits in pretty seamlessly with the existing messages. The latter prints the full text of the quest note and gives a notification when quests are completed, which is pretty cool, but a significant deviation from vanilla behavior. Also I need to update both of these, because I barely knew what I was doing back then and implemented them both in a horribly inefficient manner.

Note that SHTUP includes its own replacement space skybox, by Grosnus. His skybox is fairly realistic-looking, while Vurt's is more... synthetic. I personally prefer the more realistic look.

I also grant permission to use the English subtitles mod, if even as just a resource.