SS2 Straylight ADaOB v0.3.0

[674157efa6209ravingham]

cheers

thanks for your help again. im sure it wont bother me that much and im positive that the improvements will outweigh the bugs

cant wait to fire up all these great mods

[674157efa63dcmiracle.flame]

Silently I'm always watching, Kolya

[674157efa65aeravingham]

hay

i am using rebirth shtup adaob and shmup. i followed all instructions (copied shock to c: ran ss2tool istalled mod manager) when i was reading instructions for adaob i found that alot of the things it wanted me to do had already been done (create res folder alter resname_base) so i simply extracted to my shock folder. a "theres already a file named that do you want to replace" message came up so i clicked yess to all (cant remember exactly what it said)

now the mod seems to be working because the pistol casings stayed on the ground for ever in training but the value rep is all white besides the front that says value rep and it looks strange. have i done something wrong or is it meant to be like that?

thanks for your help.

[674157efa66acravingham]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

sorry for double post

disreguard that last post as it was only the one in training

must say with all the current mods the game is awsome. can hardly notice its 11 years old!

[674157efa6828Nameless Voice]

You can't uninstall mods if you install them like that.  Using the Mod Manager is strongly recommended.

[674157efa6ad9Kolya]

We need someone who can (hopefully consistently) reproduce the crash bug when moving items in the inventory with this mod. We got two possible fixes but it's nigh impossible to test for me.

Estimated work load: 1h
Reward: fame & honour (no reward)

Here's the first testing procedure:
1. create a clean SS2 install with SS2Tool patched
2. extract shtup, rebirth, adaob into "DataPermanentMods"
3. test for crashbug

second test:
1. move the content of the previous test's "DataPermanentMods" folder into the game's main dir
2. test for crashbug
3. download the attached patchx archive
4. extract the files into the main dir and copy lg.ini to C:\Windows
5. test for crashbug

EDIT: canceled as work is going on for a binary fix that would be a lot easier to deliver to the public

[attachment removed]

[674157efa6c2fZylonBane]

If we could figure out how to make DDFix perform texture replacement on SS2, that would provide a path to avoiding the bug entirely.

[674157efa6e31Kolya]

related thread over on SF: https://sourceforge.net/projects/opde/forums/forum/517377/topic/3571326/index/page/1

@ZB Yeh but no one ever got it to work it seems. I'd ask Timeslip about it but that's like trying to catch a blur on the far side of your view.

[674157efa6f5cLarkSS]

Just out of curiosity, but wasn't texture replacement figured out in this thread?

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=22.msg7077#msg7077

With a few lingering discrepancies of course, but texture replacement none-the-less.

[674157efa7022Nameless Voice]

Well, I can't get it to work.  If you manage, let me know what you did.

[674157efa71f2LarkSS]

Now those screenshots seem deceiving. =/

Followed the instructions, whipped up a quick modded texture of the trashcan (saved as an 8bit bmp), generated an override file using the original trash.pcx I extracted, and then proceeded to move either the override file alone or both in as many different locations as I could possibly think of (making sure that I got the shtup replacements moved out first) with no luck at all. Most I could do was to either cause the trashcan to not load its texture what-so-ever, or to cause all obj/txt16 textures to become invisible. I thought maybe the unloaded trash texture was a start, but apparently it happens by simply moving the trash.gif file out of datapermanentmods, while moving the entire obj folder out causes default textures to load up as normal.

Hmm, the texture replacements in the screenshots do somewhat seem like they're a bit too high-res to have been done another way though. If only his exact process was given. -_-

Edit: Has anyone tried repackaging the generated override texture back into the .crf file to see if ddfix would handle it correctly? I used Dragon UnPACKer to extract textures to mess with, but I don't think it can import files back in so I didn't test this out myself.

[674157efa72e9Nameless Voice]

CRF files are just ZIP files with a changed extension.  But I seriously doubt that would work, and it's certainly not necessary for using the texture replacement options in Thief 2.

[674157efa73c5Kolya]

I've updated the first post with an explanation of how to avoid the inventory crash issue.

[674157efa74e0LarkSS]

@NV: Eh, I should have tried renaming to .zip, but I guess I predicted it not working like when I attempted the same with an older game, but different engines = different results. I only suggested that however as, unless I'm mistaken, it seems to be what TimeSlip was describing that could/should be done? =/ I might try it out later just to clear any lingering thoughts.

@Kolya: Is there any reason the ini file must be in C:\Windows rather than the SS2 install directory?

[674157efa761cKolya]

No other than that it won't work in the game dir unfortunately. shock2.exe expects it to be there. You can read a bit more about it here.
By the way, we're just testing to deploy the same fix via a new version of the SS2Tool. If you're on Vista or Win7 I'd appreciate if you could check it out.

[674157efa7711LarkSS]

Gave a quick try and as it could be expected, repackaging the override files named as the original file does absolutely nothing except load a white texture. Maybe the memory addresses used were retrieved from the unpatched version of shock2.exe?

[674157efa78c5Drew]

So forgive me if I'm asking a stupid question that's been answered before 69105 times:

Can you use this and rebirth? Or are they different? If you can, would you even want to? I see in the changelog that patrol routs of certain hybrids and the like are changed, would using both these mods cause the changes in one to be canceled out by the other?

And what, exactly, is the purpose--I'm all for fixing bugs but a lot of the changes listed seem to be somewhat arbitrary, IE "I think that this part of the game is too hard, so I'll make it easier." The psi and energy weapons probably do need rebalancing, hacking is probably too uber (developers have said as much in interviews which is good enough for me as an authoritative word on this kind of thing) and it makes sense to, for example, not drown while wearing a suit with a rebreather. I like a lot of the changes but am iffy on others, like the spawn points in the BOTM being changed--I thought the reason for that was because there aren't any reconstruction devices there? I'm wanting to show a few new people the game and want to make it as smooth and natural a play as possible, but not at the expense of changing the desperate you-against-the-universe-and-the-universe-is-winning feel of the original game.

[674157efa7d90Enchantermon]

Yes, you can use Rebirth and ADaoB together.
If you're going to introduce the game to new players, I would advise against them installing ADaoB as well, since it does change a lot of the game elements. Some good mods to use would be Rebirth, SHTUP, SHMUP and the Tacticool weapons.
Also, don't introduce it to them through multiplayer. The experience is much better if you play through it alone for the first time.

[674157efa7ed7Drew]

Er, yeah, a little bit more reading leads me to understand that rebirth is like shtmup in that it's a graphics mod, unlike the behavior mod I thought it was. So never mind.

I guess "keeping true to the developer's intentions" is somewhat open to interpretation, in a similar way to the TF Secmod makes changes that seem logical to the person who makes the mod and, if you agree, you get it. That would make it rather not a tech question, though.

[674157efa8073Kolya]

I'd rather say that, especially compared to mods like SecMod which shows what's possible in SS2, ADaoB is extremely close to the original and its intentions. And even though it contains some weapon rebalancing, this wasn't done by Straylight to make the game easier. The you-against-the-universe-and-the-universe-is-winning-feel is still all there.

[674157efa81a6Drew]

Yeah fair enough. I actually like a lot of the stuff secmod does, like Xerxes sending in patrols to investigate smashed cameras, as it strikes me as what any thinking being would do in that situation (though once they don't report back you'd think he'd send more). As you say, though, clearly not how the developers want the game to be played, as if it was, they'd have made it happen.

[674157efa8789Marvin]

but am iffy on others, like the spawn points in the BOTM being changed--I thought the reason for that was because there aren't any reconstruction devices there?

Only in multiplayer, to reduce tedious backtracking and reloading. If you are worried about not getting in the right mood or about the game being too easy, BOTM spawn points are the least of your concern because multiplayer as such will ruin your experience if you or your friends haven't played the game before.

I'd agree about playing vanilla SS2 (and no multiplayer!) for the very first time but after that, ADaoB is a must have.

[674157efa88a4Drew]

OH! Did not know that that was only for multiplayer. Yeah, screw all that plot and atmosphere stuff in multiplayer, just having more than one person throws that out the window anyway. That's all about gameplay, for sure.

[674157efa8993Not Drew]

Are there any older versions of ADaoB available? Ones that fix the oddities/bugs but do not change the core gameplay?