SS2 TF's Secmod 3

[673faf67493eaJoin2]

perhaps my issue with the rec codes was that I was expecting black text on white background like vanilla, whereas that sneak thief may have hidden the digits more subtly?

[673faf6749731voodoo47]

confirming, this bit of code managed to slip out of shocksec.gam.dml somehow (//yes, it's a regression);

Code: [Select]

+ObjProp -4646 "PhysDims"
{
"Size" 2, 2, 3
"Offset 1" -1, 0, 0
}has to be applied before entering Rick for the first time though to actually fix the problem - I'll probably just get rid of the dml code entirely and fix the concretes on the map, because why not. will check whether there is some more stuff I could throw in quickly and repack as SECMOD3.2.4c tomorrow. the codes may be slightly more subtle, but that shouldn't make you miss them, unless you have a serious eye problem going - no matter how you look at it, it's still a green number the size of a child's head stuck in a middle of a screen.
[dont_see_evil.jpg expired]

[673faf674991bDoomGaze]

I absolutely adore this mod.  I'm going through the readme to see what all is in there.  Do I understand correctly that you need the Tinker upgrade to create things using empty hypos and such? 

Again fantastic job on this.  The extra Hydro area is a very different, almost calm refrain.  A moment of musing. 

[673faf6749aadvoodoo47]

it's only needed for advanced recipes, not quite sure whether that's considered advanced - why not just try.

anyway, SECMOD3.2.4c.7z is up, those annoying rick1 turrets finally fixed for good, also threw in the latest NVscript and a handful of small fixes as well.

[673faf6749ef7Dark-Star88]

Turns out that college and a new job make it very hard to finish your SecModded SS2. It's more than a bit bittersweet that this will probably be my last playthrough of SS2 unless I decide to do something like a pure OSI run, because this breathes new life into a classic by...well...adding a TON of NEW stuff! So here's an old hacker's feedback:

*Managed to properly solve the feedback loop and get access to the secret goodies, but this appears to be the lucky exception rather than the rule, whatever bugs are bedeviling the process. 

*SS1-style wire puzzles - BRAVO. Beats doing the same hacking puzzle for every single thing. Two big thumbs up. 

*New Hydro level is a nice change of pace, but a bit 'boxy' and amateurish, though the clever work put into it ends up making the overall experience positive.

*Bit disappointed with the opened-up area on the Rickenbacker having pretty much squat to find or do. There's not even any frigging loot. 

*The "virtual assassins"  in the "Where Am I" level wiped the floor with me - are they supposed to be so deadly even to a player with powered Power Armor??

*The final SHODAN room is a complete nightmare especially with the new 'bombardment' you made. Literally cannot succeed without ICE-picking the three terminals because my lifespan is measured in single-digit seconds. 

*Rick turrets are absolute "game over" machines if you don't have the cyber-mesh armor or splash weapons, minus the ONE location you can remote-hack one on the Rick's bridge. Maybe stick up a few more hackable security terminals??

*It's probably a bit much to ask but I do wish the community could come up with a better ending video than the abomination it shipped with, which was a letdown in vanilla and moreso with all the extra effort put into SecMod.

[673faf674a598Chandlermaki]

*The "virtual assassins"  in the "Where Am I" level wiped the floor with me - are they supposed to be so deadly even to a player with powered Power Armor??

*The final SHODAN room is a complete nightmare especially with the new 'bombardment' you made. Literally cannot succeed without ICE-picking the three terminals because my lifespan is measured in single-digit seconds. 

*Rick turrets are absolute "game over" machines if you don't have the cyber-mesh armor or splash weapons, minus the ONE location you can remote-hack one on the Rick's bridge. Maybe stick up a few more hackable security terminals??

*It's probably a bit much to ask but I do wish the community could come up with a better ending video than the abomination it shipped with, which was a letdown in vanilla and moreso with all the extra effort put into SecMod.

Nooooooooob.

[673faf674aab0Dark-Star88]

Nooooooooob.

On Normal difficulty, with powered Power Armor??? When not 5 minutes before I had taken down three Rumblers in quick succession with the proper weapon and carefully-hoarded ammo? More like you're a dooooooofus.

Getting two-shotted by one enemy after succeeding in the Many's 'brain room' with around a dozen enemies including Rumblers aplenty seems just a tad OP.

And the final room...about the only way to win is  literally have the inventory open and run around ice-picking the terminals in one go-round. Even with maxed Hack skill and boosted Cyber affinity from 1st-tier Psi, you  get wiped like toilet paper while trying to hack the 'regular' way. God help the OSI operative trying to psi-hack or the Marine who can barely get into a regular security crate.

To be entirely fair: this is not entirely Secmod's fault. By this point in development, Looking Glass completely ran out of time so the very simplistic 'cage fight' where you died if you couldn't hack was the result for the boss level. I remember going "wait, that's IT?!" in my first encounter. Fixing it properly would require a complete redesign, not just a simple re-balance.

[673faf674adb3RoSoDude]

You could always destroy the shields by just shooting them in vanilla, hacking isn't required. It was just poorly communicated, as the shields didn't smoothly rotate nor clearly indicate their damage state (I think they might have transluced by damage, but they don't change color or have health bars).

[673faf674aeb8voodoo47]

eeh I think the shields are almost indestructible in vanilla.

[673faf674b110ZylonBane]

SHODAN shields in vanilla have a starting HP of 115 and a max of 140. They regenerate at a rate of 1 HP per second. They're vulnerable to energy, EMP, armor piercing, incendiary, fusion, high explosive, standard impact, cold, electricity, psi, and melee bash.

Since the shields begin regenerating the moment the level loads, they're always going to be at 140 by the time you reach SHODAN. I wonder if the original intent was that the boss battle would start with SHODAN's shields "idling" at 115 HP, then start charging up when Goggles arrives. I suppose this could encourage the player to attack aggressively as quickly as possible, but you pretty much already do that anyway.

[673faf674b1f7voodoo47]

wasn't the regeneration way too fast? maybe I'm remembering this wrong.

[673faf674b2cbZylonBane]

You could always enable their HP bars to visualize it.

[673faf674b60bThiefsieFool]

Man, this Shodan fight comes up a lot. I thought I put some hints in the readme but maybe not.

Here's how you dodge the barrage, including the rebounding projectile.

https://imgur.com/r8JLWGd

Here's the fastest way to kill Shodan. You don't need it, but it's there.

https://imgur.com/ejau3iE

[673faf674b876sarge945]

Now RoSoDude and TF need to fight over who has the best Shodan mechanics in their mod.

I'll get the honey.

[673faf674bb40chuckles n chestnuts]

I beat SECMOD a few months back, phenominal mod by the way!    But I noticed theres an extreme amount of spawn points, espeically towards the end (I had to load/save like crazy).  I did play on 'hard' mode so maybe that was why?   Not sure if difficulty affects spawn rate times (never tested it myself).  But I also know SECMOD is a high-quality mod.  Any feedback on this?

[673faf674bc4fZylonBane]

Explain what you think makes a number of spawn points extreme.

[673faf674be0bJoin2]

The spawns are fine, if you pick a high difficulty you want high difficulty, lots of enemies to engage and drain your hoard of resources. Except MAYBE in the Rickenbacker bridge start prior to botm. The particular encounter right at the start. Because it is quite ugly fighting x2 rumblers x2 transparent Spiders and others in a tiny cramped space, both enemies of which feature bugged AI behavior and aren't very fun to fight (vanilla). It isn't pretty. Perhaps look into swarming the player with different enemy types in this particular location. Though the entrance to botm does need that spider nest. Maybe the start encounter should be x1 trans spider, x1 rumbler, and a few hybrids. At least one shotgun hybrid to demand target prioritization decision-making between toxic fast spiders and a ranged hitscanner, based on your build.

Suggestion: add a text log to the game summarizing the mechanics of crafting in a non-fourth wall breaking manner.
Maybe in med-sci area 2, where the game immediately relaxes from introducing new mechanics (e.g QBR, Researching, rig upgrades, gamepig, battery recharging and a ton more is all introduced in med-sci 1. med-sci 2 introduces...radiation and one instance of platforming?) .

[673faf674bf55ThiefsieFool]

I believe the ecologies, aka enemy respawners, should be very close if not identical to vanilla, especially towards the end of the game.
There's a couple extra pre-placed monsters, but nothing too extreme, BOTM was always a pretty intense place.

[673faf674c13fnotaavatar]

Did anyone have any luck using the advanced crafting recipes playing SECMOD? Since my game crashed and I almost beat it anyway, I thought that maybe I would try to replay the game as PSI/Exotic, with a little energy, trying to ignore standard and heavy. .. I am wondering if anyone tried a play through with the tinker trait to find out the utility of exotic weapon changes. I did like the osmium heavy armor, and the irirdium enhanced implants.. but this time I think I would try for a power armor since STR won't be that high.

Other thoughts:
I was a little disappointed by the flame thrower, I had no idea what I was getting into and to be honest.. it made more sense to turn the napalm into incendiary grenades  with all those templates, even though I did get the flame thrower, I had no idea when to use it Maybe it should be possible to turn incendiary grenades into napalm some how (mix it with alcohol? to make a napalm fuel bottle.. maybe not as good as the normal fuel). I felt like it was VERY hard to find a use for the flamethrower, and actually going stasis+incendiary + fusion is really effective on the worst organic enemies., if there are no disruption grenades around. I saved up all the napalm I can find in the elevator and it was enough for a few seconds of fun by the time I got to rec-deck but from a inventory and effect point of view, it made sense to

[673faf674c27dThiefsieFool]

The flamer's balance is a little obscure, there should be a note about it in the readme or the item description already, but it's most effective when fired at terrain, because it always creates flames that last a long time and do constant damage in a radius. Firing directly at organic enemies will set them on fire, but only after repeated shots.
This makes the flamer feel very different from all the other weapons.

Even setting the ground on fire with just 2 napalm can be useful, weak enemies should die with minimal cost, though obviously Heavy skill is a factor too.

[673faf674c3b1Timereaver]

Love this mod, thank you - however I seem to be completely stuck with no way out of Med/Sci - the power station in the 2 turrets area is broken, I don't have repair skill high enough to fix it, and there seems to be no way else of charging the battery otherwise.  Am I just missing something or is this a bug where I'll need to start over and get repair skill 3 as a minimum?  Thank you.

[673faf674c489voodoo47]

you can select the broken console and play the wire minigame to fix it.

[673faf674c7a9Timereaver]

Ah that's what I missed then thanks so much

voodoo47

[673faf674c919remyabel]

The hydro level is a little cheap. The part where the pipe falls and you instantly die on the electricity..unless I'm missing something. But not a huge fan of instadeath with no way of knowing in advance it will happen.