System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition Update & Community Participation

[673f34951b47eeldrone]

Meh, modern games have a hundred times as many asset files as SS2.

Oh for sure, there's a ton of overhead right now, but my sanity starts slipping going through that obj folder, while other games nicely structure their files in neat subfolders.

But it would be nice to be able to tell the engine to tweq through index 0-24 of a .bin that could contain any number of meshes without having a massive amount of blah_0-100.bin taking up visual space in the obj folder.


But again, dark engines ways of animations keeps coming back and haunting me, so many things possible if everything wasn't so hardcoded and locked down with the database, rigs and use.

Random thought:

Theoretically with a hundred of bins it should be possible to sort of replicate an animated enemy right now, including virtual vhots for attachments and such, minus the nice blending and all that.

[673f34951b651voodoo47]

this reminded me - yeah, being able to modify fonts in some way that's not THAT wouldn't be bad.

[673f34951b89dXkilljoy98]

So I don't know when this was made, but on GOG there is a store page. Still nothing on Steam yet but this has some new info on it.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/system_shock_2_enhanced_edition

[673f34951b9a4voodoo47]

well, we can now be sure a Voodoo3 ain't gonna cut it no more if nothing else.

[673f34951bd44sarge945]

So I don't know when this was made, but on GOG there is a store page. Still nothing on Steam yet but this has some new info on it.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/system_shock_2_enhanced_edition

Discover how a haunting story, riveting gameplay, and a terrifying atmosphere have made System Shock™ 2 one of the greatest games of all time.

Does this mean they have officially added a rivet gun as a new weapon?

[673f34951c0d1Marvin]

this reminded me - yeah, being able to modify fonts in some way that's not THAT wouldn't be bad.

Oh yeah, Unicode support with Unicode fonts and .str files extending and overriding instead of only overriding other .str files lower down the hierarchy would be great.

[673f34951c334voodoo47]

Does this mean they have officially added a rivet gun as a new weapon?

a joke!

[673f34951c6afJDoran]

So I don't know when this was made, but on GOG there is a store page. Still nothing on Steam yet but this has some new info on it.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/system_shock_2_enhanced_edition

System Shock 2 will be a brilliant addition to console libraries. 

I am a little surprised that NightDive Studios aim to include multiplayer with SS2, though. I mean, they dropped the (pretty popular and quite good) multiplayer from their modern remake of the N64 game Turok 3, so why include multiplayer with SS2, when few people seem to even try it, let alone seem to like it (to judge from the lack of "System Shock 2 multiplayer is a lot of fun" in the SS2 related discussions and reviews that I've seen).

I'm not specifically complaining about SS2's multiplayer being included, as if even one person likes it then it's a plus for the game, but it seems strange to me that NDS would deem it worth keeping, but drop Turok 3's reasonably enjoyable multiplayer modes.

[673f34951c7a4voodoo47]

modern MP is pretty much the most requested feature, so they kind of have to.

[673f34951cb11JDoran]

Does this mean they have officially added a rivet gun as a new weapon?

They could add one, as a sort of call back (literally, if you go by the years that the respective stories are set in) to Bioshock 2, in which the first weapon you find is a rivet gun. That, when fully upgraded, can set organic enemies on fire, so would be good to have in System Shock 2.

modern MP is pretty much the most requested feature, so they kind of have to.

Good point. But then why include it in the SS2 remaster and not the Turok 3 remaster? As far as I know, the upcoming SS2 from NDS is just a remaster with mods and fan-missions, not an actual remake, just a remaster including existing and newly modified assets.

[673f34951ce95ZylonBane]

As far as I know, the upcoming SS2 from NDS is just a remaster with mods and fan-missions

FFS, it's not a remaster. Why do so many people keep calling it that?

Night Dive has republished games with both "Remastered" and "Enhanced" appended to the titles. They don't choose these words randomly. They're calling the upcoming System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition that name for a reason-- because it's NOT remastered. It is at best only partially remastered. They're redoing the cutscenes, AI models, and weapon models only.

And I've never heard anything about them packing in any fan missions.

[673f34951d18cXkilljoy98]

System Shock 2 will be a brilliant addition to console libraries. 

Oh is it coming to consoles? I had wondered that but I wasn't for sure. I think with some work they could make it playable with a controller. Same with SS1, though that would be a bit more of a challenge to get it feeling comfortably

[673f34951d2e3ZylonBane]

Console ports are pretty much the main reason why they're doing a Kex version of SS2, since NewDark SS2 already runs great on PCs.

[673f34951d460sarge945]

Saying NewDark SS2 runs great on PC's is an understatement. It runs fantastically well, way way better than some modern games.

This "Remas..." ahem enhanced edition really only seems to exist because of consoles and lazy/stupid PC gamers who don't know the basics of how to run a custom installer.

I don't expect it will offer much of value to anyone else.

[673f34951d60fvoodoo47]

I'll just add that under certain conditions, ND actually has lower requirements than oldDark. so for example, if you have a Pentium3/Voodoo3 retro computer, SS2 may run better under ND (assuming you dual boot xpsp3 and throw enough ram at it).

take that, people who port old games and make them require 64bit win18, three petabytes of memory and geforce 680000 in the process.

[673f34951d94eeldrone]

FFS, it's not a remaster. Why do so many people keep calling it that?

Night Dive has republished games with both "Remastered" and "Enhanced" appended to the titles. They don't choose these words randomly. They're calling the upcoming System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition that name for a reason-- because it's NOT remastered. It is at best only partially remastered. They're redoing the cutscenes, AI models, and weapon models only.

And I've never heard anything about them packing in any fan missions.

Yep, but there's no real definitions of remaster or enhanced or just update, but ss2ee will include a bit more than what has been previously listed.

[673f34951da53Xkilljoy98]

I just at least want to know when this is aimed to be released. I don't know how long it would take but the models and stuff seem to be done from what they've shown.

[673f34951dbe7voodoo47]

pretty sure they (NDS employees) are not allowed to talk about release dates.

so I'll put it this way - the KEX build needs to be able to carry all the mods and fan missions with some 98% accuracy (as mentioned before, if the hardware heat disks won't work, sure, whatever, but the rest of the gears need to mesh properly). that is not an easy task, no matter what source code they might have available (we still don't know).

but at a certain moment, the KEX build will have to be mature enough for some serious testing to begin - I would assume that's when NDS will ask us to share wip mods and other non-yet-public resources, possibly even letting us test the entire package early.

once that happens, I'd say a release in 6 months would not be impossible, if things go well. *Dark laughs villainously in the background*


you do the math.

[673f34951dcedZylonBane]

Not sure why they'd need WIP mods to test, since the publicly released mods do a pretty good job of pushing NewDark's limits.

[673f34951df9fsarge945]

Yep, but there's no real definitions of remaster or enhanced or just update, but ss2ee will include a bit more than what has been previously listed.

If Dark Souls Remastered is anything to go by, sometimes "remastered" means "literally the original version again with a community fix applied"

[673f34951e20avoodoo47]

Not sure why they'd need WIP mods to test, since the publicly released mods do a pretty good job of pushing NewDark's limits.

there probably will be some internal beta of SCP going on.. at any point really.

[673f34951e5a8eldrone]

pretty sure they (NDS employees) are not allowed to talk about release dates.

so I'll put it this way - the KEX build needs to be able to carry all the mods and fan missions with some 98% accuracy (as mentioned before, if the hardware heat disks won't work, sure, whatever, but the rest of the gears need to mesh properly). that is not an easy task, no matter what source code they might have available (we still don't know).

but at a certain moment, the KEX build will have to be mature enough for some serious testing to begin - I would assume that's when NDS will ask us to share wip mods and other non-yet-public resources, possibly even letting us test the entire package early.

once that happens, I'd say a release in 6 months would not be impossible, if things go well. *Dark laughs villainously in the background*


you do the math.

Yeah, release dates, what's that?

But yes, full compatibility is the basis for everything to work, has to be a 100%, and yeah, it's a ton of work involved.

But a bunch of it also has to do with extended functionality and getting that into the community hands.

[673f34951e9d1JDoran]

FFS, it's not a remaster. Why do so many people keep calling it that?

Night Dive has republished games with both "Remastered" and "Enhanced" appended to the titles. They don't choose these words randomly. They're calling the upcoming System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition that name for a reason-- because it's NOT remastered. It is at best only partially remastered. They're redoing the cutscenes, AI models, and weapon models only.

OK, System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition, then. But a port of a game from one system (the PC in this case) to a different system (modern consoles) doesn't seem to me to be accurately described by "Enhanced Edition", somehow.

And I've never heard anything about them packing in any fan missions.

According to the GOG page that Xkilljoy98 linked to (https://www.gog.com/en/game/system_shock_2_enhanced_edition)

"System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition Key Features


An enhanced version of the 1999 classic, complete with updated co-op multiplayer

Up to 4K 120FPS performance with ultra-widescreen support and an adjustable FOV (Field of View), along with updated cutscenes

Trophies and Achievements

New enhanced character and weapon models, adjustable FOV (field of view), and widescreen support

Official support for fan missions and fan-made content, including many of modder NewDark’s mod-related improvements"

I can't find any information on if the fan missions are intended to be contained with the game itself, or if the game will have a way of downloading the missions at the user's choice of time and date, in the form of DLC, or what, though.

[673f34951eb50JDoran]

Do NightDive Studios have the source code for System Shock 2? If so, then aside from the effort of upping the quality quality and texture size of New Dark + the System Shock 2 source code, couldn't they just port the existing code as is, and give us System Shock 2 as it now is on the PC (with SCP and the other great mods, patches, etc). I would be really happy with that, and I'm sure many other people would be too.

I know they would have to upgrade the graphics, because of the many morons gamers would wouldn't buy a game that looks old, but aside from graphical changes, I can't think of anything else that NDS want to do that couldn't be done with the New Dark engine.