SS2 System Shock Infinite 2.4

[674461c671cf0xdiesp]

Could you give any suggestions?

There's a bugged bulkhead in the Recreational courtyard, which returns you to the vanilla levels. It was recently discovered while testing for 2.0.

You can either reload the game and avoid this "Bulkhead 53", or install this fix: when you enter a new level, it should return you to the modded levels. If it doesn't, tell me and I'll set up a specific fix for your case!

http://www.moddb.com/mods/system-shock-infinite/downloads/system-shock-infinite-17-fix

[674461c672137xdiesp]

 :thumb:Here is a bunch of new lines for Marie, which might or might not be featured in 2.0. Still, it's been fun to return to this character after a good 9 months.

DIEGO QUESTLINE
- That voice... it was Captain Diego! He is resisting assimilation... Goggles, we've got to help him!
- You can count on us, Captain.
- We can still save them, Captain.


KORENCHKIN QUESTLINE
- Goggles, are you okay?! I know it's scary but... we have crossed through a tear into the future.
  And the Korenchkin from this timeline seems to actually trust you: we might have just been served
  with the trump card we needed. We should approach him, and get rid of his malefic influence on the Many.
  Just play along with his plans...for now.
- That monster. (whispered)
- We need to get closer to him. (whispered)
- Hypocrite! Anatoly Korenchkin never believed in any god, but himself. (whispered)


CORTEZ QUESTLINE
- They've got us surrounded, Goggles! Please, try not to hurt these people... they're our crewmembers!
  Wwait, I'm confused as you are... the tear has somehow connected us to a remote point from the past: but then, why can't
  I can't recall any of these events? The entire ship is on lockdown, yet the only hybrids we see, are the
  ones we have brought with us through that tear! (alarmed)
- They're right behind us! (alarmed)
- Look out, Cortez is after us! (alarmed)
- Multiple patrols heading our way! (alarmed)


CYBERSPACE QUESTLINE
- You must hurry: the cyberlink on this mainframe won't last for long... (whispered)
- Goggles, these signatures are from Citadel Station! But... how can they be so advanced?! (whispered)
- This mainframe if protected, you will have to run a security bypass on each of its circuits. (whispered)
- Mon petit, this is eerie... the entire architecture of your R-Grade unit bears the mark of SHODAN. (whispered)
- This rig was heavily upgraded in the hacking skill, mon petit. Expect a tough fight! (whispered)
- Goggles: the software architecture is getting more complex, and less... human. (whispered)
- The more I look at it, the less your mainframe looks like any other military augmentation I know of. (whispered)
- Mon petit, we need to get you out of that cybernetic trap... as soon as possible! (whispered)


RANDOM LINES
- Lead the way. (Marie and Goggles enter the boss' lair)
- Careful, I sense a powerful presence up in Engineering Control.
- This way! The primary data loop is straight ahead!
- You know I won't be able to help you, in there... (Marie explains Goggles she can't follow him in cyberspace)
- Poor Janice.. I wonder if things could have gone differently for her. (sad)
- This way! Run! (alarmed)
- Good. They still don't suspect nothing of me.
- There is always a way! (hopeful)
- Goggles, she... she found me! (scared)
- Oh, no! Goggles, answer me...! Goggles! Sarah, you've got to save him! Initialize core reboot sequence... now! (alarmed, Cortez shot Goggles)
- I believe in the future. (Goggles had asked her if she believed in coincidencies)
- Ah ah ah! It took you long enough to realize... insect. (Marie turns evil!)
- ...insect! (ironic nod to the exploding last boss)


SACRIFICE MOVIE
- Beware, mon petit... You mustn't let her access the faster than light drive...
  I've discovered her plans, mon petit... Her will is only matched by her imagination... (in pain)


TRANSMISSION MOVIE
- This is Doctor Marie Delacroix of the UNN Von Braun. We have been hijacked by an unknown force.
  Ship's security has been compromised. Do not allow the ship to return, repeat, do not allow the
  ship to return under any circumstances. I don't know what we're up against, here.

[674461c672274xdiesp]

All Marie logs have been re-edited to be shorter, more straight to the point. Much to my delight, the work on the portraits is taking longer than expected...

Below you have a picture of Infinite Korenchkin, "the Father". And also one with the friendly marines that pop up in key locations after you've entered certain tears (in others, they're hostile).

[674461c672418xdiesp]

More emails from Cortez, which is likely to turn into "Cmdr. Pike" because of reasons. One more round of fixes, and I'll start making more videos (endings, memories, changelevel flashes aka "stingers").

[674461c672646xdiesp]

The updated animation and sound for the main menu:

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

[674461c67289dxerxes]

The updated animation and sound for the main menu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyoAyrEYHas

 

[674461c672b92ThiefsieFool]

Not bad, but you should increase the framerate of the animation, that's easily done from the config files.

[674461c672df8xdiesp]

Not bad, but you should increase the framerate of the animation, that's easily done from the config files.

The difference from 1.0, is that this Sarah clock lacks the tic-toc effect. See if you would prefer it 50% faster, like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl3CMtYVpXk

[674461c672f9fKolya]

I know that originally this wasn't meant to be a fluid animation because I know the clock version. But without the tic-toc it looks choppy now. You will either have to go a lot faster or interpolate frames, preferably.

[674461c67327cxdiesp]

I know that originally this wasn't meant to be a fluid animation because I know the clock version. But without the tic-toc it looks choppy now. You will either have to go a lot faster or interpolate frames, preferably.

This one is faster and more asymmetrical, but I have to admit that at this speed and without the tic tocs, it looks less like a clock and more like a washing machine! System Wash Infinite.

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

[674461c673385Kolya]

[infinite.gif expired]

[674461c6735d5Olfred]

Oh my god, the cat is in there!

[674461c67372bvoodoo47]

I want that as an option in ss2tool.

[674461c673838ThiefsieFool]

top lel, there's actually a goofy alternate menu included in Secmod but I don't know how many found it, it's pretty.. creative

xdiesp I would enable wrap on the animation, might look better in this case, seems nicer to me already with the speed otherwise

[674461c6739a0xdiesp]

Rotfl, that's great! It would be easy, to make a SS2 version of Viscera Cleanup Detail... picking up organs, washing away different types of gore and debris with different weapons. Maybe we could retrieve body parts, combine them into a whole body, then stuff it into a QBR machine and get the alive person back.

These days I'm mostly crushing bugs. What I really need to do, however, is the stinger videos: short memories that introduce the next deck. There's a dozen of them... and they are supposed to last as much as the voiceovers they carry.

ThiefsieFool: at the moment, the animation rewinds at the end (goes backwards). Would you like it to repeat, aka continuing just the same? Sorry if I got it all wrong...

[674461c673dd5Kolya]

Here's a half developed idea for you:

On board the Von Braun is a virtual bordello where Nicki, Lance and the others entertain their suitors. This is slippery terrain for a video game. While everyone wishes to see one of these creatures, actually doing so would have ended up very bad indeed. Who wants to get the 'come on' talk and jerky hip rotation from a 90s NPC? (Shut, up RMan.) Even 10 years later in Saboteur this had a slightly embarrassing aspect, although the NPCs did look good and could move. There's a hidden dance scene that's certainly worth the money...

Anyway, System Shock 2 deals with this as it deals with all NPC interaction: It never actually happens and is almost completely left up to imagination. Born out of technical limitation this is nonetheless the via regia of dealing with this subject, because everyone gets from their imagination what they want to. It's the reason the book is always better than the film. And I wouldn't change a thing about that.

However SS2 doesn't really get into story mode either. There's that one log from someone who forgot his money in the booth and gushes about 'technology', but on the whole the sim love section remains a lifeless setpiece and the characters populating it exist solely as names and tiny portraits (which SHTUP enhanced by finding most of the original celebrity pics).
It doesn't help that the whole mall including the love sim section is textured and propped like it never left planning phase. Overall the place is leaving up a bit too much to imagination. Apart from the money fetch quest nothing is done with it and even that could have taken place anywhere on the ship. 

I think there's more that could be done with it, without getting into hot coffee territory. Those virtual prostitutes... What are they? Surly not simple 3D film projections. Rosenberg compares "Holo-woman, real woman" and apparently can't find much of a difference. So they must be interactive and have at least basic intelligence, to please their customers so well.

So what are they? Are they selfconscious to any degree? Worse still: What if one of them became selfconscious 'on the job', like Molly Millions did on her meat puppet job?
Now wait, weren't sentient AI outlawed after SHODAN's first emergence on Citadel? Well, yes. But just like with Molly things can go wrong. They did with SHODAN. She might have felt the need to liberate her conspecifics, leading to unfortunate events that had them ended up killed. But then she never wanted to liberate Xerxes (Why not?!), that was left up to the Many, who did a ramshackle job. Maybe she just couldn't have any AI beside her, like a monotheist godess. It's possible.

But maybe there's another reason altogether: If you're so afraid of AI becoming sentient, why would you place several of them on a space ship with an unknown destination, just for the amusement of the crew? Wouldn't you want to contain that threat as much as possible? So what if Nicki and Lance and the gang weren't autonomous AI, but rather subprograms of Xerxes? So everyone was fucking with that ship computer, one way or another. Where and when did he start singing Elvis songs? The potential for practical jokes like that seems limitless. Hehe.

Now as we know, SHODAN made it her job to wrestle control from Xerxes and thereby from her children, subroutine by subroutine. Nicki and Lance may have been among these. And that's where the ever obedient sex slave programs become sentient by way of SHODAN's sentience. And they turn nasty. Okay, but they're still just holo projections. How nasty can they be?
Well they could act as bait, luring unsuspecting but horny crew members into their bunks and then, in the moment of ecstasy, slip them an annelid worm. I'll leave you with this image to capture your imagination. The point is, these characters are woefully underdeveloped in the game and there's a lot that could be done with them storywise, down to modelling them as individual characters and telling their stories.

[674461c674531unn_atropos]

This is slippery terrain for a video game.

*greasy mode* Oh yeah.... */greasy mode*
A thing that could be done is to play with expectations some more. Put a hidden wall onto the bordell corridor (like a service door in a theme park) and behind it there is a small room with some hackable computers. Give players the impression that they could repair the stimunits and boot(y) them up again, almost like the chainsaw in "Maniac Mansion" and the fuel for it in "Zak McKracken".
There would be a string of stupid tasks to accomplish that (like getting a hardware override card from engineering), but of course it won't work in the end. This way you can give the player tons of useless information about the holograms while poking fun at him at the same time. It's like when I tried the Tomb Raider nude trick: rumour had it that you had to do a combination of certain movements to get her naked. Of course it was a hoax, but hell was I willing to try

Uh uh! Idea: You can find a Nicki program that serves as a alternative for the "psi Delacroix distraction" ("Let me handle this mutants and their..rods")

[674461c674737xdiesp]

Currently, the brothel is populated by midwives as to hint at the cybermistresses being repurposed. I always believed them to be protocol droids with some lipstick on: but the technology behind those holodecks is off: are the mistresses non-physical holograms (cyberpunk), or constructs able to interact with the real world (TNG)? If the "holo" word wasn't being tossed around, it would be easier to picture them as pleasure model ginoids like in Blade Runner and GITS.

I think it's a brilliant idea, to follow up on the consequences brought by the crew messing up with Xerxes. And even it the fault wasn't theirs alone, now that he is indeed messed up, things about Nikki & Co. could just come into being too. The original plan with Marie from Infinite, was that she was actually the FTL Drive AI guiding you to resolving the time loop: you last saw the original flesh and blood person in the flashback from 14 years ago, then you would play the entire game along this hologram selling you bs for a good cause, and then in the Good Ending rejoice with the real one. In the end, I had enough of a reversal in every single shock game and scrapped it: but there's a trace of it in the Good Ending video, where you see the ghostly Marie one last time before the real Delacroix returns.

Nikki and the other emanations\denizens of Xerxes could work on the same technology: holograms set loose on various decks, possibly in another timeline. However, I can easily do this... in the latter levels of Cyberspace, the frozen people (shards) in the hallways come to life and attack you: I could place a couple in the holodecks too, doing the "sexy dance" and "shower" animation before lunging at your throat.

[674461c674839Kolya]

I was thinking more of logs, quests and props that explain their story than NPCs doing a sexy dance. That's something I would probably avoid because it's too much in-your-face.

[674461c674bacxdiesp]

I was thinking more of logs, quests and props that explain their story than NPCs doing a sexy dance. That's something I would probably avoid because it's too much in-your-face.

I'm already struggling to finish what I started, so I go for the cheapest alternative. I cannot make justice to a storyline such as this, presently, but I can still add a sidequest to Rec3. See if you would like to write a log or voice a cutscene about it, and what kind of quest it would be (fetching another card, another resonator?).

Here's a slightly more complex example, still not as grand as the AI Revolt idea though. You enter a holodeck and this B&W memory plays out: Rosemberg appreciates Nikki dancing\showering. You could voice him saying, "holowoman, real woman - you gotta love technology! You're amazing, Nikki... but with this *little* upgrade I devised for you, you're gonna be muuuch more" before getting slaughtered. Inside the holodeck (at least, in Nikki's) is a motionless sitting female alongside a dead body: your hud identifies her as "A damaged android." (subtext: Model ID: Nikki). If you repair it (or use a fetched item on it), it starts following you around and killing bad guys. A log might lie around, describing things, or even just a notepad with a basic line (like "I'm sorry Rosenberg, I'm afraid I can't do that").

[674461c674faeKolya]

Inside the holodeck (at least, in Nikki's) is a motionless sitting female alongside a dead body: your hud identifies her as "A damaged android." (subtext: Model ID: Nikki).

I like that part. My suggestion would be that you can try to repair her, requiring level 5 repair skill. If you screw up (*brzzz*) she wakes up and starts attacking you. If you manage to repair her, she follows you to the sim love units exit where she says "I'm sorry I cannot follow you any further. Come back soon!" and drops a CM for you.

In an expanded version she might give you a hint or tool instead, to disable her activity radius limiter at some hard to reach point. When you do that and come back to her, there's a security bot guarding the sim love units entrance. Once you get past that, you find her irreparably damaged (shot by the bot), playing the Watts death animation and giving you a teary-eyed "freedom-at-last"-speech before succumbing to a short-circuit (*brzzz*). This gives the player a good motivation to fight on.

I would not do the shower scene with Rosenberg because it forces the player into a voyeur viewpoint and I would not have her following you around endlessly because that makes her a dumb drone. The scenario I described will have you caring for her (or not if you don't come back) and will have her acting in varied ways, which makes her believable. Better short and bittersweet than endless repetition and non-responsiveness.

[674461c67541dxdiesp]

I would not do the shower scene with Rosenberg because it forces the player into a voyeur viewpoint and I would not have her following you around endlessly because that makes her a dumb drone. The scenario I described will have you caring for her (or not if you don't come back) and will have her acting in varied ways, which makes her believable. Better short and bittersweet than endless repetition and non-responsiveness.

I checked the area and the holodecks are about the size of a broom closet. There's a single chair inside, so it's probably the cyberpunk kind of pr0n: people jack their brain in, and feel the holo show which otherwise is just tv. I guess there weren't no ginoids, and I'll have to make room for some.

Agreed that the Rosenberg scene doesn't work, as it isn't a memory! But since there's no context like this, would you like to voice him in an extra log? He would mention he's found the trioptimum cache of ninja assassins ("cyborg bodies" in his understanding) and wants to repurpose one.

Taking a hint from UNN Atropos, but keeping things easy for me and within our mythos... the resurrection process would work like this. In the 4 holodecks, the first contains the deactivated Nikki and th elog; the second to fourth contain the other guys dancing\showering\talking. When you destroy them, they drop items to repair Nikki (and if you destroy Nikki too, that's it for the subquest!).

When Super Nikki is completed, she says "Is this a game, mother Sarah?" and rushes downstairs to fight the 3 droids that have spawned there. She's invincible, and effectively a midwife with a human skin. 10 seconds after they're all dead or you left the brothel, she says "I can see a light, is that you mother Sarah?" and explodes.

[674461c675524Kolya]

Sure, I can voice it. As I have no idea what's going on in the scenario you described, you'll have to write the log text though.

[674461c67562axdiesp]

Alternatively, how would you reconcile the original idea with this quest of rebuilding Nikki? Rosenberg stating that when Xerxes started to act up, he noticed changes in Nikki's programming and now wants to provide her with a new body? Which would definitely serve as a jab at me and Marie Sue, eh eh.