SS2 System Shock Infinite 2.4

[6740bebe57876xdiesp]

How hard is it to change the save system so it allows you to save your progress on each QBRM?

I actually looked into that, about 6 months ago. I don't think it's possible, I could at most disable QBR machines (or the save feature, ahem). Imho you should focus on never dying ever, saving normally to avoid deaths and bugs.

[6740bebe57a55OneofTheMany]

Could you nerf "my" -50% mod to -25% instead? If that isn't a problem, of course.
And oh, I'd love to have the crosshair back so I won't fire all over the place. :p

[6740bebe57cf0Hikari]

Ahh didn't realize there were unrecorded loops going on from the included text. Been a bit busy elsewhere so haven't been going in game much sorry.

If that missing time isn't already clear before ending or even if it is ight want to make it clear, even with a throwaway line "wait... We've had years worth of missing time, plus how long it will take us to get back to earth.... Fourteen years. *laugh* do you believe in coincidences Mon petite?'

Also 'life support won't cut it'? Wait what? That seems kind of a big deal. Maybe clarifiy "unless we go into cryo we won't survive the trip home without fixing the jumpspace drive.'

I dunno though there is a lot in game I haven't seen so don't want to complain too loud if its already been addressed.

Just trying to help since this mod fixes and addresses a lot of story holes for me.

[6740bebe57f11xdiesp]

OneoftheMany: ah, I knew you would scale the difficulty back up soon! Wait a bit more, because the enemies grow up in difficulty as you move to the next deck. And did you know that if you modified your pistol once, and researched the hybrid organ, you would get a +40% damage bonus? About the crosshair, there's a mutator which restores the old one... but it's got a time limit, less ammo and zero hit points bonus: I can take out the time limit for you, but the rest I won't be able to change for a while.

Hikari: life support being repaired is just a trope from Star Trek, it's like the air conditioning of starships. They just need to mop around for a day or two! As for the time loop extending to a time before the characters were aware of it, that is a common theme of the mod: in the intro that's set 14 years ago, there's already a dead Goggles on the ground; Marie mentions the shuttles from Tau Ceti suffering from accelerated decay; the Many sport the same energy signature as the Von Braun's hyperdrive etc. It's a little mystery that I think is best left open to speculation.

[6740bebe5801cHikari]

I am incredibly happ- wait you can research AGAIN after modding a weapon?

Hold the phone.

[6740bebe58302This_is_Xerxes]

you can research AGAIN after modding a weapon?

I think you misunderstood: xdiesp just mentioned two ways of increasing damage, i.e. modifying and researching, which yield the combined 40% damage bonus.


When the v1.5 is ready, would you kindly update the "6 Hours" as well?

[6740bebe585cfxdiesp]

When the v1.5 is ready, would you kindly update the "6 Hours" as well?

Thanks for reminding me, updating the moddb file.

[6740bebe586dbOneofTheMany]

Awesome, thanks.

[6740bebe58826xdiesp]

Two new endings are in the works: one is the remade True Ending (discussed above) and the other is the former Time Over message from the 6 hours mutator. This one is my personal take on Kolya's ending: wherein the real Kolya's ending (sans a specific audio bit) has already been implemented, as the game over when you kill your past self. This new take is intended to expand on the dialogue between Goggles and Shodan.

(video updated below)

[6740bebe58a59xdiesp]

Here's the beta video of the new Origins ending, with no audio and a couple more cuts to make. It is intended to show the very first of the reboots from the mod's storyline, and the appearance of ghost-Marie.

I realized that the two endings I'm working on, are actually "the alpha and the omega", the real beginning and the real finale of the storyline. The mod already had a beginning and a finale, but they had this degree of mystery to them: i.e. when you played the flashback "from 14 years ago", there was already a dead Goggles on the ground (the same one from this Origins end!); or like with the Good Ending, which has the same dialogue of the faux end from the memory set on Earth... that smells fishy.

Notice that this ending is my own reinterpretation of Kolya's Ending, which is very dark and wouldn't fit the "never give up" theme of this story. So that one was slightly altered and submitted for the game over video when you killed yourself on Deck 4. While this one was given a makeover so that Shodan would talk more, and Goggles\Tonamel less. As a final note, Goggles reaching to Marie is the mod's take on the iconic "catch her in freefall" scene from Infinite (nope, I'm joking lol).

(this video has been updated below)

[6740bebe58da3unn_atropos]

I have to say that this is a awesome cutscene. I'm hyped for the talkie version.
Looking back at your first cutscenes, it is nice to see how they have evolved from "filming while running down the corridor" to "new stages with scripts and effects and lots of stuff happening"
Did you ever think about making a System Shock machinima?

[6740bebe58fd1xdiesp]

I never watched machinimas save for Freeman's Mind, but I love cinema. Hence the references and the theatre scene in this one. I think machinimas in SS2 would have much potential: given an unlimited amount of time and resources, I would probably turn all of Marie's speeches in short movies like this one. But anyone else could spar with Shocked for a few months and come up with an entirely different story, like an immediate prequel to SS2.

Shooting these movies requires setting up the stage and then memorizing the part. You set up rooms and triggers, then you become the camera that shows them happening... it can take up to 50 tries (like the remade Chase scene). Recently I remade several videos, but it wasn't really because I had hotter technique to show (I don't think I could ever top the old trailer, 78 scenes compared to this one's 18!) but more like not feeling they were enough anymore. It's the way I work, getting to a working condition and then upgrading to the next: that's why in december, Maries disappeared after 1 second and left behind a sad log with no audio; later they started talking, then animating, then disappearing with the summoned ones.

BTW ever since the release of the "6 hours" mutator, I've wanted to make a new shorter trailer with the music from Groundhog Day... after both new endings are ready, I'll see to make it.

[6740bebe5913aHikari]

.....even without the talking that was a more satisfying ending to what we got in 99. Seriously.

Bang up Awesome so far. You have me very excited for the future.

[6740bebe59398xdiesp]

I've been given the idea for a new ending by a player, which truly I have to scale down a bit to fit in my current timetable, but is nonetheless 1) all around easy to make and 2) convenient, given I could implement a specific achievement run I was planning.

Something like this:
(check the video below!)

[6740bebe595a7xdiesp]

A new ending is ready, packed with its own short finale just like the True Ending. You can check the entire sequence below.

"Twist Ending"
- Defeat SHODAN without ever using Weapon Upgrade Units.

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

It's an OSA achievement run: one is supposed to use weapons which don't require upgrades, namely the PSI Amp, Wrench and Pistol. The latter two are spurious... but lessen the difficulty in the first levels. This feature will be included in the next patch.

A player suggested me to do this ending, which changed around quite a bit during development (due to time constraints). Eventually it became one of those very evil endings, which actually require more work than the goody-two-shoes ones in order to unlock. Final notes: that shady guy is Diego from SS1; after defeating SHODAN, you have 1 minute to backtrack to Marie before Cyberspace collapses; this is intended to show both what happens regularly when Cyberspace collapses & reboots, and what would happen if the pocket of protoreality reached Earth.

[6740bebe596adPrimitive Primeape]

Wow, I almost thought you could play in third person mode and holster your weapons. It actually looks like the guy in the thumbnail carrying his laser rapier on his back.

[6740bebe597eeThis_is_Xerxes]

Do you plan on changing the enemy/weapon class system, or is this going to be similar to a speedrun due to lack of firepower?

Also, I've always had trouble accessing my full OSA potential because I have to press F1 trough F5 to change Tiers. Is it possible to add a keybind for "Previous/Next PSI Tier"? I've got exactly 2 keys to spare and I'd like to see this happen for an OSA run.

Clarification: I'm aware of the "Change Firing Mode" keybind. That only cycles through the Powers of the current Tier. Also, the "Change Ammo Type" keybind brings me to inventory mode to click-change Tiers. It's impractical and unnecessary.

[6740bebe598c9unn_atropos]

Man, you are fast. Cool sequence again

[6740bebe59e31xdiesp]

Do you plan on changing the enemy/weapon class system, or is this going to be similar to a speedrun due to lack of firepower?

The idea is to use PSI attacks, which run on a parallel system. It's what the PSI trainer hints at, when it jingles "brought a knife to a gunfight? Use PSI!". But yes, it's going to require more stealth and I'm still testing how difficulty scales up. Hopefully, the modules you save on weapons, can be used on PSI and Stats you would otherwise ignore until much later.

- All psionic targets can be destroyed (monkeys, spiders, ghosts).
- Eggs are general targets, can be destroyed by PSI (but worms and swarms cannot).
- The wrench and pistol are good with standard targets up to Hydroponics (later, the diminishing returns kick in).
- Tier 2 "Marie: Distract Target" makes short work of protocol droids, generally useful with others.
- Tier 3 "Hypnogenesis" (now: Dominion over the Human Mind) lasts longer, can be used on anything from hybrids to midwifes, rumblers.
- Tier 4 "Electron Suppression" works on robots (energy targets).
- Tier 5 "Neural Restructuring" (now: Sovereignty over the Human Mind) is an upgraded Hypnogenesis.
- Tier 5 "Marie: Attack Target" is like a PSI attack which works on everybody.

Also, I've always had trouble accessing my full OSA potential because I have to press F1 trough F5 to change Tiers. Is it possible to add a keybind for "Previous/Next PSI Tier"? I've got exactly 2 keys to spare and I'd like to see this happen for an OSA run.

I think it's possible by keybinding (shift+FX) the number of the tier, check the screenshot.

[6740bebe59fd1This_is_Xerxes]

xdiesp: Forgive me for insensibly rambling on without first commenting on your work.

Once again my creation is one step ahead of y - Ahem.

Once again you found a cool "what if" scenario for us to explore, and this time it's the thing every player is thinking. It looks great and I can't wait to play through this whole new mess one more time.
This is the beauty of timeless gems like SS2: You can always play it "one more time".

[6740bebe5a0b0Primitive Primeape]

Why isn't this mod in the "SS2 Fan Missions" thread?

[6740bebe5a22avoodoo47]

while the modifications are really extensive, the missions are still the original ones, hence this is a mod(ification of the original content), not a FM (fanmade mission, new, built from scratch).

[6740bebe5a2f9Primitive Primeape]

Makes sense then.

[6740bebe5a4eaxdiesp]

This_is_Xerxes: glad that you like the new ending! It was K-Bone's idea, to feature the return of Citadel Station; and UNN Atropos found out the dojo map, which also comes equipped with a very useful version of the final SS2 level. The 200 explosion relays in the new finale are to be credited to Michael Bay, instead.

And here is the talkie version of the Prequel Ending. Goggles and Marie's teammates are Sgt Bronson and her men! The original script didn't have Marie turning into her ghostly self, it was Captain LKL's idea to do that: my first take, was having Marie giving you her PSI Amp for you to teleport away and blow the generator yourself. Voicework by Tonamel. Song "The Ghost of Citadel" by Mad Hammer.

"Prequel Ending"
- Defeat SHODAN on Deck 4. Requires a level 6 energy weapon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNWcV9kvvRc