SS2 Randomiser

[66eea3c670641sarge945]

Well I screwed up, I sat on this for ages making sure it was properly tested, and now here I am releasing a hotfix...

In my defense, this issue was very difficult to reproduce because it only happened sometimes, and was annoying to track down.

1.1 (Release Hotfix)
- Fixed race condition with Object.SetName and Object.Destroy, which was randomly preventing some AI's that were replaced from properly executing signal responses, leading to failed ambushes
- Changed the way Enemy randomisers work, now the ratio of enemies can be specified on the randomisers themselves, similar to other randomisers, rather than using a big table. This should allow proper support for FMs.
- Lite version is now much lighter, it no longer randomises weapons or eggs. There is now a lot more differentiation between Lite and Full, to hopefully give people more options.
- Audio Log randomisation is now an addon

@voodoo47 sorry to be a pain for the THIRD time, but could you set the new versions to never expire, transfer over the downloads, and murder the old ones? Also while you're there, I would appreciate if you could also make the screenshots not expire. God, I hate having to constantly bother the admins with this stuff....

[66eea3c6707a1ZylonBane]

You should update the first line of the first post then.

[66eea3c670879sarge945]

Yeah I updated it right as you were posting

[66eea3c6709cevoodoo47]

and you have earned your contributor badge! you can manage your attachments now.

the download counts will still have to be edited by the staff though - if this is still needed, let me know the counts.

[66eea3c670b08Pacmikey]

.

[66eea3c670dd9sarge945]

You know what to do now. Upload as many lossless 4K screenshots as you can and dump the heaviest files possible

This isn't the Colored Laser Rapiers thread

[66eea3c670ff0sarge945]

I have made a very minor update to the RSD Addon to fix an oversight. In more recent versions of RSD, the light armor available in the closet room in medsci2 was removed, and replaced with a swiftboost. I have made a small tweak to ensure the swiftboost doesn't get randomised, because that closet room is guarded by an ambush (and may be the first shotgun hybrids a player meets in the entire game), so it makes sense for a good unique reward item to remain there, and I respect RoSoDudes intention to reward players for going there.

If you're not using RSD there's no need to update. If you are using RSD, you shouldn't worry too much as this is a very minor change, but if you're interested, you should grab the latest version of the RSD addon.

This should now be quite stable and I am very happy with it at this point, I probably won't be uploading any new versions for a long time unless someone finds a significant bug, at least until the next big feature is ready (extra item placements for all the maps), but that's likely months away if not years away, I am very burned out on this project for now and don't really want to touch it for a while.

The only thing I need to do still is write documentation of how it works, so that FM authors can implement randomisation, and so that people can add extra item locations or support their own mods.

[66eea3c67117dJDoran]

Just to check, to play the randomizer with RoSoDude's Rebalanced Skills and Disciplines mod, I should set them up in the Blue Mod Manger in this order:

Randomiser 1.1 - RSD
RSD Rebalanced Skills 2.03
Randomiser 1.1 - Full
SCP

(albeit with other mods inbetween)?

[66eea3c671254sarge945]

Yes

[66eea3c67131dJDoran]

Thanks.

[66eea3c6713ecFyshako]

Will this mod work with SS2 DeSpawn mod?

[66eea3c6714c3sarge945]

I just had a look at the DML for the Despawn mod, it seems to only affect DirectMonsterGens from ecologies, which this mod doesn't touch.

So yes, they should be compatible.

[66eea3c67171cFyshako]

sarge945Thanks mate 

[66eea3c671881Deu sex]

Damn, you guys have been busy! So Randomizer + RSD is officially a thing i see... I've got to add an other playthrough in my schedule somehow  

[66eea3c671a0aDeu sex]

Still doing my playthrough, noticed a minor issue there:

https://clips.twitch.tv/SuperArtisticSpindleNerfBlueBlaster-jNUrowE0HcqmbE5T

Also that's a super nasty randomized location for the Basketball Courtyard access card location haha, I love it but I'm not sure if that was intentional?

https://www.youtube.com/live/Y4qi_S4TYLc?feature=share&t=8881

[66eea3c671f0asarge945]

Still doing my playthrough, noticed a minor issue there:

https://clips.twitch.tv/SuperArtisticSpindleNerfBlueBlaster-jNUrowE0HcqmbE5T

Technically not an issue, although I will revisit this.

Basically, by default the randomiser removes all loot from an enemy if it's of a different type to the one it replaced to prevent any wackiness, but I have a special flag I can set via a metaprop that will transfer the existing inventory of the replaced enemy to the new one when it's created. This is used for the batteries you can find in the Rickenbacker, because they were placed there deliberately as guaranteed loot by the original developers to make up for the lack of a recharging station.

I have a few possible things I can do here:

1. Remove the batteries (I don't like this solution)
2. Keep it how it currently is, where the replaced enemy always gets a battery
3. Force those few encounters to only have "humanoid" enemies (protocol droids, hybrids, midwives etc)
4. Randomise the batteries in the level loot and remove them from the enemies
5. Something else.

I am open to suggestions for this. Thanks for pointing out that it can seem a bit weird finding a battery on a spider.

Also that's a super nasty randomized location for the Basketball Courtyard access card location haha, I love it but I'm not sure if that was intentional?

https://www.youtube.com/live/Y4qi_S4TYLc?feature=share&t=8881

Yeah that seems nasty. I will set that location to "Secret", which will prevent plot items from appearing there.

Also, I didn't realise you were streaming. I will subscribe and hopefully catch you playing some more of it, even if I don't speak your language.

[66eea3c67203cDeu sex]

Finished the rando, loved it, great way to revisit the game, the way it is calibrated is great as a "safe basis" I think, but you should definitely explore more brutal and absurd variants I guess it was the point? Making a first release that's pretty safe and then go crazy?

[66eea3c67224fsarge945]

I did have hardcore versions in mind at some point, but I may or may not implement them, I'm leaning towards not because I like the original gameplay too much.

I generally find with other randomisers for other games, designed around "wacky" and "hardcore" gameplay, it often results in extreme weirdness and either lots of bugs, or extremely unbalanced and uninteresting gameplay. Usually players either find something overpowered early on and steamroll for a while (boring), or they get unlucky, find nothing and get ballbusting difficulty (also boring).

It's clear from looking at the maps that the developers of SS2 had some very clear goals in mind. Certain enemies were supposed to be introduced in certain ways, various ambushes and encounters work in specific ways because of enemy types, etc, and I want to maintain that consistency. I prefer the game to "feel right" vs giving crazy and absurd outcomes.

But with some DML anyone can make this mod much harder by just editing the monster spawners to allow everything from the start of the game. Rumblers in medsci? It's more likely than you think! By adding some replacer randomisers, the weapons could also be swapped out for random ones, rather than swapping with each other, which could introduce a lot of wackiness too. Unfortunately this mod isn't really set up to properly offer anything other than the original experience because it would mean I would have to switch from swapping the existing items to instead using loot tables. This probably isn't that hard, I already roll on the monster table for enemies, but it would mean a lot of DML work, which I'm not prepared to do.

I could probably throw together a "enemies everywhere" addon, but it's not worth the effort to do much else, in my opinion.

[66eea3c6724e7Deu sex]

Yeah for sure, it wouldn't make any sense to throw rumblers at med sci, I feel like the way enemies work right now is good enough, pushing the cursors a little bit more may be possible but not really necessary.

However on the objects, that's where it can definitely go wild, randomized everything! Of course with weights that makes sense, but randomized replicators content, randomized status (broken/not broken), randomized objects. The idea is that even though it would be very unlikely, it should be possible to have a recycler or a fusion canon at med sci, but mostly cofee mugs in the body of the many. Something truly exciting because you really don't know what to expect.

The fascinating nature of SS2's game design makes that even though you could find high end gear early, it doesn't mean you can use it yet. And it will influence and shape the way you will evolve your character, instead of deciding what's best for you, it would be about deciding what's best for the current seed, which is imo the most exciting part of a randomizer.

What I really like to do for example, is play Deus Ex with randomized augmentation canisters, because maybe I will find the regeneration aug, maybe not, and if I don't, then I have to reshape my character progression to put points in the Medecine skill, which I usually don't do in my locked metas.

The way SS2 works right now for example (rando off or on) is that I know I can precisely take or not take the modify skill at a given point in the game, but what if I found not a single french epstein at all for ages? Or what if I found 8 of them because I was really lucky somehow? Then it would make me take the skill, or not take it at all, or even change the way I would decide my next OS upgrade just based on that. Now imagine that but for absolutely every aspect of the game, imagine the crazy meta gameplay!

It should, of course, be a variant and not replace the original randomizer which perfectly does it's job, Ideally I'd love for both to exist, not for one to replace the other. I can happily be a trusty playtester for weights if you wish, doing multiple runs per version just in case my seeds were terrible the first time haha.

[66eea3c672656Deu sex]

As far as "pushing the cursors a little bit more" for enemies, I was thinking about the weighted possibility of spawns from enemies you encountered at earlier levels, for example maintenance bots or even robots at the hydroptonics main area, something like that.

[66eea3c672ad5sarge945]

Deu sex
You make a good point, but at the same time, skills should really be balanced around their utility vs other skills, rather than what the seed gives you.

If picking random augs makes you take medicine which you otherwise wouldn't take, then the issue is that regeneration is too powerful, medicine is not good enough, or both.

I can understand how it can be fun to open new possibilities due to luck/rolls, however the approach I am taking here is to make it inherently fair every time, while leaving the balance between skills/weapons to other mods. This is the specific reason why I added support for RSD (and, hopefully soon, Secmod), because I consider using at least one of them mandatory for returning players with how bad Vanilla's gameplay balance is.

I agree that with both RSD and Secmod, having high modify still isn't that great, despite the tinker changes, and it's still a "get it to it's max that you need, then don't bother getting any more" type skill. Having FE devices randomly appear early on vs late isn't going to make the skill any more interesting or useful. Instead, the correct approach is to incentivise players to get higher levels of modify somehow.

I suggested to RoSoDude to make Modify allow instant, free modifications of a given slot if the player has 2+ levels of modify higher than what that slot requires. This would allow players to specifically get higher modify to enable a playstyle of "hot swapping" in combat. It's not a particularly good reason to get high levels of modify, but it's something. There are probably much better changes.

[66eea3c672c48Deu sex]

I guess what I can do, is maybe create a variant based on your randomizer at some point if you're open to that? I really can't promise anything though as my life can be quite unstable.
The idea of doing this is that for example, right now with the randomizer, except personal experimentation, I have 0 incentives to take an other upgrade path than my personal ideal one, so while items will be shuffled around, ultimately my character and the game will be mostly the same.
It is definitely an improvement over vanilla as it is now though, I'll always keep it on, makes things a bit more fresh every time

[66eea3c672dcasarge945]

If you only ever take the same build, it could be due to being used to doing that before RSD came out?

I would try different builds with RSD, you might be pleasantly surprised. Repair and Heavy are especially viable and cool. Exotic still mostly sucks though.

But, it's true that items do make some things a bit easier, it's part of the reason why I made a mod to get rid of all special ammo outside of replicators, because I felt Standard was still overpowered even with the changes.

[66eea3c672f51Deu sex]

Oh no I'm talking after playing with RSD, I have a couple of builds already mapped in my mind for different classes of weapons etc... but let's say for example I decide to play Heavy, I have an ideal progression of Heavy in mind, I will take the exact same abilites at the exact same moment, rando on or off.
The idea would be to not be able to decide, the game's RNG influences your build and your stats choices and you have to constantly adapt, it would definitely be more unfair and stressful, on purpose. Or you could be very lucky. You mostly don't know what to expect, kind of like a Roguelite experience.