SS2 TF's Secmod 3

[6741405214abbJoe]

Hey guys! I love Secmod, haven't played SS2 in a LONG time (probably since Secmod came out in, what, 2008?).

With that said, this is a great reason to play again, but the OP concerns me: "easy difficulty is easier."

Is Secmod 3 easier than the previous version? Also, what are the full changes from the previous to Secmod 3?

Thanks!

[6741405214e0aThiefsieFool]

Hey, only Easy has been made easier because people said they couldn't really find a difficulty that felt easy for them, the rest starting with Normal is just as brutal as ever.
Changes are pretty much what you see on the first page, there is nothing major beyond that.

[6741405214f44Joe]

Whoops, meant to say I haven't played SS2 in a long time WITHOUT Secmod 2.8.

Reason I say that is because, since I've been playing this game since 2007, I've basically mastered Secmod. Impossible definitely isn't.

Anyway, thanks for the clarification. Also, do I need to download the Tacticool replacements or are those integrated?

[67414052150b2Kolya]

@TF: Is it intentional that the release-now image in the first post has a width and height of 3px now?

[6741405215561ThiefsieFool]

Whoops, meant to say I haven't played SS2 in a long time WITHOUT Secmod 2.8.

Reason I say that is because, since I've been playing this game since 2007, I've basically mastered Secmod. Impossible definitely isn't.

Anyway, thanks for the clarification. Also, do I need to download the Tacticool replacements or are those integrated?

No problem, only a few Tacticool guns are integrated so you should download it and make sure Secmod has higher  mod priority than Tacticool.

@TF: Is it intentional that the release-now image in the first post has a width and height of 3px now?

Yep, looks less confusing and it's still clickable.

[67414052158f0ThiefsieFool]

3.12 posted, mostly fixes some things that bothered me for a long time now

1. The cutscene with the Many in Engineering that didn't run has been restored, you can now rightclick during it to skip it, still hearing the voices in your head but able to move around freely through the normal level.

2. Localized Pyro makes you immune to Protocol Droids and all incendiary attacks like in the original, instead the power is balanced with a higher psi cost (3), much shorter duration that requires timing, and smaller radius, plus I guess the very slight vision obscuring from the new flame particles.
This power was always absurdly powerful tbh, normally it lasts a huge amount of time, costs just 2 psi points and can kill many enemies without even requiring you to aim like Cryokinesis does. It's probably still a little overpowered but I don't want to hulk out and change its tier to 3 so this will have to do.
I thought about making it cancel out all other "shield" powers, the way Minor Psi Shield, Major Psi Shield and Energy Shield always remove each other in Secmod so you can't stack the resistances, but decided against it for now since it doesn't really feel like a pure defensive power like the other shields, maybe if it was redesigned that way to be more like a Fire Shield.

-
3. Unpacked and edited some old weirdnesses within the toxin system:

Original toxin balance
Small spider bite: 1 level
Big spider bite: 3 levels
Egg gas: 4 levels

Old secmod balance
Small spider: 1
Big spider: 3
Egg gas: 2
-
Explanation: the Strong Metabolism trait (OS upgrade) was changed to block completely toxins of level 2 or lower, so egg gas was changed to fit into its jurisdiction, but this is a large change that feels unwarranted, even if it's strange that bumping into an egg is the worst poison you can encounter

New secmod system:
Big spider: 4
Egg gas: 3

Explanation: the toxin resistance trait now blocks toxins of level 3 or lower, so it still stops egg gas and still doesn't stop big spider bites, egg gas toxin levels are closer to the original (you can't get rid of egg poison with just 1 detox hypo, like in the original game) and while big spider bites are now slightly more poisonous you also have better tools to deal with toxins, like the difficult Goo Egg organ research from earlier Secmod versions that makes detox hypos nullify 4 toxin levels (the whole bar) instead of 2.

[6741405215b9avoodoo47]

one thing I always forget to post here - a bunch of Secmod objects (some banners for example) have some sort of weird bug that makes them incompatible with SHTUP-ND (they will show as transparent bluish slabs).

This happens because BINTOE likes to reconstruct E files with the U/V mapping running in some awkward flipped and backwards mode. Clamped textures only render once, left-to-right, top-to-bottom. So BINTOE "breaks" clamped texture mapping on most models run through it.

I'm not sure why SecMod would be including custom models for these signs at all.

[6741405215c90ThiefsieFool]

Weird, give me some examples or some map areas to look at and I'll try to remove unnecessary models.

[6741405215dcbvoodoo47]

any concrete of these archetypes, for example (there may be more, did not check this thoroughly):
-1129 hydro icon is completely invisible (hydsign.bin)
-1318 upper cargo bay signs shows as a disappearing bluish slab (upper.bin)

basically, if the model is not Secmod exclusive (meaning the same model already exists in the orig obj.crf), it would probably be a good idea to kick it out of Secmod.

[6741405215ec5Joe]

Hey TF, so I'm using Secmod 3 and I'm on Impossible... but I don't remember the Hybrids EVER going down with two hits of a wrench. What gives?

[6741405215fb5Joe]

Tested on Easy difficulty as well: Hybrids die in two hits on Impossible AND Easy. Something doesn't seem right.

[6741405216096Kolya]

Maybe you have another gamesys mod installed that overwrites Secmod?

[6741405216165Joe]

if that's the case, how do I fix it?

[6741405216293Joe]

Reinstalled everything, no other mod I'm using has another gamesys file (that I know of) and enemies still die in two hits on Impossible.

Doesn't make sense. At the beginning of Secmod 2.8, it was a struggle with the Hybrids - lots of dancing around swinging the wrench but now they go down in two hits.

Very disappointing, unless, again, something is wrong.

[674140521637cThiefsieFool]

I don't remember changing the Impossible difficulty but I'll have a look just in case, if there is something i can make a quick patch.

[6741405216487Joe]

Thank you!

I mean, it makes no sense, really. Enemies take the same amount of damage on Impossible AND Easy? What?

Also, my Gamesys.dml is in my DMM folder, is that correct?

[6741405216577voodoo47]

nope. it needs to either be in the game root, or in the modfolder (so DMM\SecMod). DMM itself is not a valid modfolder.

[6741405216673Joe]

Whoops, I lied, it was in the misdml folder. :? Why it was there I don't know, but I moved it to secmod folder (dunno if I should have) ad the result is still the same. Hybrids go down really easily.

[6741405216782ThiefsieFool]

Finally got around to it, you're right the HP increase was changed from *1.6 to *1.3 for Impossible, just add this file to have it work like in the older versions.
I'll keep the tougher value for future versions since it's for Impossible after all.

[6741405216870Joe]

Thank you very much!

[67414052169cdJoe]

Hey TF, did some testing on Secmod 2.8 and 3.

With 3, and your new shock2.gam file, on Impossible, Hybrids go down with 3 wrench smacks, and grubs go down with 1.

On 2.8, 2 hits with wrench and the gurb is dead; Hybrids take 4. This is all on new games.

I don't suppose you could change the damage values for Secmod 3 to reflect that of 2.8? Or at least tell me how to do it? I LOVE Secmod 3 but I cannot stand easy games, and since this is easier than Secmod 2.8 (which I mastered) I feel it won't be as enjoyable.

Please help! I appreciate your assistance, by the way!

[6741405216abeThiefsieFool]

Should be fixed now

[6741405216c1eJoe]

Okay, either that didn't work, I'm placing the shock2.gam file in the wrong place, or both. Where does it go?

Also, the grubs go down in one hit, Hybrids 3. On Impossible. New games to test it out.

I appreciate you doing this, TF. If I may ask, what are you changing in the shock2.gam file? Is it just the HP of the enemies?

[6741405216d31ThiefsieFool]

It should be in the main folder where you have the game's executable, the kills work properly for me.
What's being changed is the script parameters for a metaproperty on the Monsters archetype, it's not that complicated but you'll have to get acquainted with DromEd to do it.