Modding difficulty

[674378cac78edSokolov]

Good day everyone ^_^

I was playing shock the other day and I had a thought about how difficulty settings work in this game...

You see. Shock to me, even on hard is extremely easy. But at the same time, I just don't like playing on hard, because there is just no stuff. But at the same time the enemies are very easy to kill, it's just no fun. The only major difference between the difficulty settings is that there is much less stuff on the levels, and much less cybermodules.

I finished shock a hundred times in all imaginable ways and I want something different
I was trying to find any info on how to mod difficulty settings but couldn't find anything. I also looked through the game files, but again no luck.

My question: anyone here knows how I can mod difficulty settings and monster stats?

What I want to do is to make a game mode that's about the same as "normal", but make monsters about 5 times more difficult to kill, and increase their damage about to 1.5x. Just to make really harder, but at the same time not limit myself with stuff and cyber modules. I think that would be an interesting way to play the game again.

[674378cac7b16voodoo47]

yes.

[674378cac7c10Sokolov]

I appreciate your briefness but could you actually be more specific? Because no matter how much I search I can't get the exact info.

[674378cac7d17voodoo47]

there is no exact info. if you want to make the enemies tougher, you will have to edit their stats. if you want to add more ammo to the levels, you will have to do so. there are no "magic" switches that would do exactly what you want with one flip.

[674378cac7e6bSokolov]

You are right. It appears that with the DromEd it is possible to edit items/monsters. I just thought that it can be done by editing game resources directly, but anyway.
So, I found prototype editor where there are all items and monsters listed. But to be honest I have no idea how to actually edit any of that stuff Is there a tutorial somewhere thtat I can follow to implement the changes I mentioned in my initial post?

[674378cac7f92voodoo47]

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php/topic,817.0.html#post_edit
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?board=38.0

[674378cac80d6ZylonBane]

This might actually be easy to do, by using DML files to modify the monster archetypes.

[674378cac81cfvoodoo47]

I don't think that will be applied to the monsters already pre-placed in the levels though - those would need their own dml fix. but yes, this could be done via dmls, without actually editing the maps (still, the editor will be necessary to get all the values and obj ids).

[674378cac832bJDoran]

Wouldn't the easiest way be to simply alter the damage your attacks do, say reduce them to 20% (which would make enemies five times tougher, as you want)? I know nothing about SS2 modding, but I'd have thought there was a master lists of damage-dealt-by-the-player type values, and if so, and if this were editable, then it would probably be much simpler than altering each type of enemy's statistics?

[674378cac8452xdiesp]

Let's recap briefly:

- Monsters with 500% health
- Monster damage +50%

Is that all?

edit
Backup and replace your shock2.gam with this one. As my installation has mods and patches, however, this file might be incompatible with your setup: in which case, PM me and I'll guide you to mod the changes in by yourself (it takes 10 mins tops, while reinstalling takes an effing lot lol).

https://www.mediafire.com/?ctcdzygm0mwbdrt

[674378cac85a7Sokolov]

xdiesp, continuing our conversation from PM, here is a list of things I think would actually make sense in this kind of mod.

* Monsters hp: 200% (+100%) - 500% is good for a super hardcore play, but realistically I think it is too much.
* Monsters damage: 125% (i.e. +25%) - 25% in itself is not much, but with additional HP above it is much more significant.
* Prices of ammo and batteries in replication units: 50% (-50%) - the above changes would break the balance originally present in the game since much more ammo will be needed to kill enemies, and to somewhat offset it the player must be able to buy ammo and other stuff for cheaper.

And that's it. I don't think much need to be changed. To just make the game generally a bit harder these changes would be enough.

[674378cac8732xdiesp]

All right: for starters, I suggest we both reinstall the vanilla game and add the editor on top. http://www.mediafire.com/download/4geel2tyrcb4a07/ShockEd_Basic_1.10.zip This way you won't get that crash and I can guide you to mod things yourself. I also needed a clean installation to test my own mod, actually.

Instructions: extract the zip into the root of SS2 (overwrite things if necessary), then look for a folder Tools\Shocked2.12 and also move its contents to the root. Then, try opening the "medsci1" map. Hit F5, go to "Physical -> Monsters" and browse the monsters settings for health.

[674378cac881dSokolov]

Yup. It works. I was able to change their hit points value.

[674378cac897fxdiesp]

Well done! When you are done with the changes, you save with "File -> Save Gamesys" and overwrite Shock2.gam. Remember to backup it regularly.

The enemy weapons are split between melee, projectiles, and explosions. The values of the melees are in: Physical -> Weapon -> Monster Melee Weapons. You will find "sources" based on contact inside, that is the damage (weaponstim, shakestim are just special effects you don't need to change instead).

Enemy projectiles are instead found in Projectiles -> Monster Projectiles: there you will find things like the Hybrid's shot, or the Midwife's fireball.

Some have zero damage and also a "corpse type" link to some kind of explosion. That means the projectile itself doesn't do any damage, but when it dies it releases a damaging explosion. Leave those be for the moment, as they are more complicated.

[674378cac8a4dSokolov]

Yup, found and changed that too. Both mele and ranged attacks.

[674378cac8be2xdiesp]

Nice! Let's take a look into the replicators then.

The bad news is that there is no easy menu with all the replicators in game: you have to 1) open a map (i.e. Medsci1), 2) find and edit the replicators inside, 3) then do "save mission" (save as Medsci1).

The good news is that you can speed up the process greatly, by doing this:

1) Open the map;

2) In Shocked, select Highlights -> Hide Nonhighlighted: this will make everything that's not highlighted, disappear, don't worry as you haven't really deleted the whole level. You can also save in this mode, and it will be perfectly ok.

3) Highlight only the replicators by selecting Highlights -> Higlight objects by archetype -> input "repbase". Blue objects will pop up in the blackness of the map. You can zoom in and out with the buttons plus and minus, the ones on the left, not on the numeric keypad.

4) Left click one of these blue objects, then select "Properties" from the little tabs below. It will list everything the replicator has. It's important that you don't select the thing, then press F5: that in F5 is the code for all replicators, not that specific one.

[674378cac8cf4Sokolov]

Thanks for the explanation. All that really helped me understand how to modd different game properties.
Modding the levels though is a bit too mich for this kind of mod, but I have another idea how to change the balanse of items.
Anyway, after exploring other properties and stuff I have some interesting ideas to try.
I think I will create a proper mod and upload to the forum

[674378cac8e3axdiesp]

Nice! It is true, that working on a level-by-level basis is more time consuming. However, it isn't as much as one would believe. Let's say you want to change the kickback of all assault rifles in the game, one gun at a time: opening all maps, finding each gun and modding it, takes really just 5 mins.

The real danger, editing the replicators, comes from A) not keeping track of what you have done, so you have to write down your additions, B) changing your mind and having to redo stuff again, which is the bane of modding, and C) if you change the functionality or stack size of an item at a later time, you would probably feel compelled to change its price too.