SS2 System Shock Infinite 2.4

[6743b7d2ee7c9xdiesp]

From left to right:

- Doctor Polito
- Marie Delacroix
- Captain Diego
- Lieutenant Shephard
- Sargeant Bronson
- SHODAN
- The Wrench
- And several armed marines

[6743b7d2eeb61Hikari]

The Local Node's Church of the High Goddess SHODAN will commense. Please provide your login credentials at the prompt insect.

Screenshots from the 2 stinger movies I'm upgrading, before they turn black and white.

[6743b7d2eed15xdiesp]

I was upgrading a stinger video, when I realized it could replace the Hacker ending... which needed to be upgraded as well. So here is the new Hacker ending, the one you get by beating the extra Shodan boss on Deck 4. The former one will be reshoot as a stinger, with a horror vibe.

The video is a classic Goggles vs Shodan faceoff, just like the "nah!" ending from vanilla SS2 and Kolya's ending. It escalates pretty fast, with the warped electronic screams and all!  I wonder if I could use it as a trailer, because of the many little scenes. It's too bad that the audio tricks are impossible to replicate in-game, because otherwise the level itself is fully working.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psYKieVwnnc

[6743b7d2eee09Hikari]

Very nicely done.

Pity that isn't playable as a segment, but as you said, the audio would be off and the shattered glass effects wouldn't be there.

[6743b7d2eeee6xdiesp]

I'll see to change the map, so it plays differently and then the same movie plays anyway.

[6743b7d2ef246unn_atropos]

AIEEE! AIIEEE! ARRGH! AWK! AWKKKKKK! BAM! BANG! BANG-ETH! BIFF! BLOOP! BLURP! BOFF! BONK! CLANK! CLANK-EST! CLASH! CLUNK! CLUNK-ETH! CRRAACK! CRASH! CRRAACK! CRUNCH! CRUNCH-ETH! EEE-YOW! FLRBBBBB! GLIPP! GLURPP! KAPOW! KAYO! KER-SPLOOSH! KERPLOP!KLONK! KLUNK! KRUNCH! OOOFF! OOOOFF! OUCH! OUCH-ETH! OWWW! OW-ETH PAM! PLOP! POW! POWIE! QUNCKKK! RAKKK! RIP! SLOSH! SOCK! SPLATS! SPLATT! SPLOOSH! SWAAP! SWISH! SWOOSH! THUNK! THWACK! THWACKE! THWAPE! THWAPP! UGGH! URKKK! VRONK! WHACK! WHACK-ETH! WHAM-ETH! WHAMM! WHAMMM! WHAP! Z-ZWAP! ZAM! ZAMM! ZAMMM! ZAP! ZAP-ETH ZGRUPPP! ZLONK! ZLOPP! ZLOTT! ZOK! ZOWIE! ZWAPP! ZZWAP! ZZZZWAP! ZZZZZWAP!

Amazing cutscene! And Shodan pulling off a Zoppo Trump big style.*
You really get the feeling that Shodan is hit where it hurts. I've had to nitpick I would note that the Star Trek 6 explosion** sticks out a bit too much.


*If you know what I'm talking about, you are a nerd.
** Damn! I'm a nerd!

[6743b7d2ef393Kolya]

Yes you are, Tiberius. 

[6743b7d2ef6e6xdiesp]

Amazing cutscene! And Shodan pulling off a Zoppo Trump big style.*

Thank you, but I'm not nerd enough for Zoppo...! It's a brutal cutscene, also a revenge fantasy against Shocked. Notice that the original plan didn't include the escape with the shuttle: at the end, Goggles was supposed to pick up that shrunk Shodan and recycle it!

Also, here's the updated stinger with the "Church of Shodan". The original one featured rehashed assets from Kolya's Ending, with Shodan narrating the SS1 log about the electrified interrogation room. Now it's a little story between Lt. Shephard and Marie. Due to the fact that Cyberspace sucks in the memories's black and white, I pretended those were flashforwards! And the fighting npcs are those normally featured in the mod (marines and Marie).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQMvfjvj6Aw

[6743b7d2ef81bxdiesp]

I've turned the ancient Good Ending into a stinger: that thing was a dinosaur. Last of its kind to reuse assets from Kolya's Ending! I've replaced the cheesy dialogue with random babble, to build up a little WTF moment. Poor Goggles never left the village.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJBf68HRHI
(starts midway)

[6743b7d2ef90bHikari]

*starts watching*

Oh hey nice. Update to-

-shodan ded*

Wut the?

*speaking*

WHAAAAAAAAAA?!?!

[6743b7d2efa15unn_atropos]

What a twist!
And wouldn't you know it, I have the perfect video for the credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzUCCl9YaBQ

[6743b7d2efbc5xdiesp]

unn atropos: that's seriously awesome, I remember the portmerion mailing list on the internet 1.0 when Patrick McGoohan was still alive... 

hikari: the stupid twist is from Twin Peaks, but I'll pretend it's a callout to those flinging shit at the mod's amateur voice acting. Honestly, that Marie speech is so cringeworthy that the facepalm moment is merciful in comparison. The original scene had the crew overhappily congratulate Goggles, who turns and finds Shodan where Marie was (I moved that scene to the OSA End). What I find hilarious, is Marie leaving Goggles there alone in the end... that's cold.

What do you prefer: keep the oddball twist, or restore the normal dialogue (distorted but intelligible) and find out Marie was Shodan? Since I'm done for today, here's another video: but it's just a short update to a previous, nothing exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpwABEHMXAI

[6743b7d2efcfcHikari]

Sent PM about alt idea you shot at me.

The idea you came up with is promising.

[6743b7d2efe43xdiesp]

I've rearranged Captain Diego's dialogue to better fit with Korenchkin's. In example, this line by Yandros is now part of his introduction. I might have said so already a couple weeks ago, but ShephardReborn's dialogue from the previous video was actually improvised!  I'm going to make the joke video more elaborate, let's see if it's crazy enough to work. I've also got to put together all the bugfixes I've been requested, and update the patch.

[6743b7d2eff68xdiesp]

I've remade the video, see if you like it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Q9phR4FJc

[6743b7d2f0068unn_atropos]

What.The.Hell. ....
I really like the scene. It's way better than the other version.
After 02:00 you could cut some black screen.
How did you get the robots to sit?

[6743b7d2f01a7Hikari]

Much better.

Much much better. I mean holy cow. That makes an even bigger '...what in the hell' impact. It is a damned shame we cannot properly make new lines for SHODAN.

One question though. Why morph into a bot instead of assassin? Easier to animate? Still great especially since you see goggles's flail/struggle.

That seriously had to have been a pain in the ass to make.

And because it must be said:

...It seems you have met a terrible fate...

[6743b7d2f036fxdiesp]

unn_atropos: good, I'll keep it! You can force any enemy to perform an animation, but usually I work with humans which different models.

hikari: it took me a few hours, what I really wasted time on was actually to try and make it fast with the previous one. But I didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle yet, good thing we had that talk! Yes, I had to change Goggles because with that animation it wasn't clear it was a different model: they were both dark and the robot is white.

I still have one movie to extend with recycled stuff, then I'll montage the final big movie (I keep getting sidetracked). I'm also updating the main file of the mod, with all the current bugfixes and a difficulty decrease.

[6743b7d2f04d6Hikari]

Personal dislike of lenses flare to one side (this isn't a 'your picture sucks' it's 'I dislike lense flare effects') that is now saved to device.

Thank you for all your hard work man.

[6743b7d2f076cxdiesp]

Personal dislike of lenses flare to one side (this isn't a 'your picture sucks' it's 'I dislike lense flare effects') that is now saved to device.

Thank you for all your hard work man.

It's from this short animation by a swiss director, I plan to use it in the big new video. The 2 sets of lights alternate, white ones and red ones. It may be the best video of the ship available. I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one, to believe that the end with the fins was really the head of the ship.

[6743b7d2f0a0eMirrorman95]

I've been playing Beta 7, and I really like the Fan Mission and can appreciate all the original scripting and voice work that was put into it. I've gotten half-way through Deck 4, and I haven't run into any game-breaking problems, but so far I noticed a few bugs/errors/confusions (SPOILERS):

1. If you kill your alternate self on Deck 4, there's a SS2 avi dubbed with some SS1 dialogue, but after that you continue the game as usual. Is that supposed to happen?
2. There is a laser pistol that is stuck at 110 energy, doesn't fire and only clicks like it's jammed or out of ammo if you try, and can be upgraded at lower than usual levels like a standard pistol. It's like the first or second laser pistol you can pick up in the game.
3. If you shoot Polito with a Positron Sniper instead of meeting SHODAN on Deck 4, you go into this big battle against several SHOheads. After I killed two and I got a third one down to 4 health before it killed me, the game displays a Trophy progress bar that says Hacker's End 8/9. Then you're shown an edit of the SS2 ending with custom Goggles and Delacroix audio mixed in. The vid somehow ends on the bridge with a full bridge crew, with Marie welcoming you. I don't understand what happened in that ending, and why I didn't get a 9/9.
4. All the new videos look about as low-res as the originals were in 1999. Was it that difficult to render and play the videos in NewDark in HD? Or did the developers just want to keep with the classic turn-of-the-century graphics retro feel of System Shock 2?
5. The overall plot of the game is confusing. Is there anyway someone who's played them all make a flowchart like the one out there for the Stanley Parable, so I know what actions cause or negate which endings and when and how many of them stack? Even just a generic list of the current number of different endings and their names would be helpful.

[6743b7d2f0d81xdiesp]

Thanks for the report! I'm uploading beta 8 as we speak, which fixes several bugs and lowers difficulty. You make valid points:

Killing your past self on Deck 4

Fixed to generate a big bad explosion in beta 8, also that movie has been moved and upgraded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxj88kKsVaY&x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688

2. There is a laser pistol that is stuck at 110 energy

Good find! It may be a random bug, but I'll replace all early laser pistols to stay on the  safe side.

Shoot Polito with a Positron Sniper

That's the Hacker end, which is upgraded in beta 8:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421914688&v=psYKieVwnnc&x-yt-cl=84503534
That number means it's the 8th ending, nothing more. Should it be changed?

All the new videos look about as low-res

The videos are in 1024x768, the most I can manage to record. Unfortunately, some versions of the game crop them with black bars and looking more pixelated. It used to be the opposite, videos were in 16:9 and some versions of the game would stretch them thinner. It's not an ideal situation.

The story is confusing

You can check the requirements for all ends here:
http://media.moddb.com/images/downloads/1/80/79915/Endings.jpg

I don't have the story written in flowchart format yet, but that's an idea! Anyway, you're supposed to be an amnesiac hallucinating about memories he doesn't completely get. Get the vibe of it, trust your gut feeling and do what you must.

But to sum up the lore: the Von Braun receives a deep space transmission originating from the Solar System, sent 30 years before; it was Shodan escaping Citadel Station; humans lost, and the protoreality generator started rebooting history, adding little changes to it so they would finally win (creating the Many); Delacroix and the player are the only ones aware of what's going on, but even them are being modified and they don't know (Marie used to be physical); they have gone through hundreds of "playthroughs", where all kind of different shit happened, but the key to stop it all was to recover Goggles memory.

[6743b7d2f0f01voodoo47]

as far as I know, max video res Dark supports is 640*480. anything larger gets scaled back (hopefully not causing problems while doing so). also, if you want proper letterboxed videos, you will have to record them in some widescreen res (640*360 for example), then reprocess them to 640*480 adding the horizontal black stripes along the way.

[6743b7d2f10e8xdiesp]

I've updated the main installation file on Moddb to include:

- 2 weeks worth of bugfixes: special thanks to UNN Atropos, Gendo Ikari, Omar, Captain LKL and others
- Improved videos
- Lower difficulty
- 2015 Mode, cutting down enemy health (making the combat system less important)

The main file is over 1 gigabyte, so I'm also uploading a slightly smaller patch on my dropbox, fox playtesters.

voodoo47: I didn't know about the scaling! It might be the fault of my slow machine, but I've noticed stuttering in movies with a bite rate higher than 3000.