SS2 Zygoptera 'Ultimate' Spawn Mod

[673fb38d1216dZygo]

This is a modification for SS2 which alters the respawn levels in the original levels by altering the levels themselves (as discussed on TTLG). This should eliminate problems people have been having with using no_spawn in user.cfg and finding little effect. Four settings are provided, including an enhanced respawn mode which doubles the rate of spawn.


===========================
Zygo's 'Ultimate' Spawn Mod
===========================

for System Shock 2.

This mod allows a choice of different spawn levels for SS2- normal, enhanced (doubled), no spawn and no spawn including cameras. The no spawn setting is designed specifically for those who use no_spawn in user.cfg per the patch readme instructions but find that spawning continues. Since the mod deletes the active ecologies spawning should be totally eliminated.

NOTE: This does not effect 'plot' spawning in any way, shape or form- only the random, ecology based spawning.

Important: This mod should be considered incompatible with previous save games. It is very highly advised that you start a new game when using this mod for the first time.

Instructions
============

0) Ensure that you have backups of the original mission files available.

1) Unzip mis files from the included MOD-folder into your SS2 installation folder, with overwriting.

OR

2) Use zombe's mod manager. Note: The MM recognises the extension .ss2mod rather than zip, but will load the archive fine in any case.

3) Upon arriving at medsci1 there will be four cubes attached to the player. Each selects a different respawn level, described on the command line (top center of the screen). Go into interface mode (TAB) and click your selection.

MP note: Whichever spawn level is selected is selected for all players. All players *must* use the same version of the levels (at the least odd results may occur, at worse the game will crash).

Disclaimer/ Legal Stuff
=======================

This mod has had only basic testing- I obviously haven't played through the game 4+ times to test it, especially as I will almost certainly not use it myself. Should there be any bugs let me know and I will (probably) fix it.

Provided as is, no warranty or guarantee of any kind implied. Use at your own risk.

Mirroring or other distribution of this mod is permitted, so long as distribution is free.

While this mod is based on the original levels for SS2, it was not made nor is it supported by Irrational Games, Looking Glass Systems, EA games or Eidos Interactive. If things go wrong do not look to them for help.

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24/09/07 For anyone trying to get MP working, I have had confirmation that it is possible to play MP using this mod. Unfortunately, others have had trouble. To give yourself the best chance of it working, ensure that each person in the game has, at minimum, the same gamesys and the same mission files.




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[673fb38d12345Zeebok]

Thank you!!  I've been waiting for someone to figure out how to make a higher respawn rate    I think I'll have to test this with your randomizer mod to see how much more intense things get  I really wish I had the coding knowledge to figure out how to do these things...all in due time I guess....like when I get to college... 

[673fb38d12463Zygo]

Unfortunately the spawn mod and random are incompatible as they both have to replace the original mission files. I do have plans to add the spawner functionality to random though, which ought to accomplish much the same thing.

[673fb38d125feError040]

Great mod, Hardcore spawn rate keeps me busy indeed!  But I have a little issue on Deck 3 only, I have noticed that the spawn rate, at least with me, keeps fairly the same, then I tried the No Spawning, and hey, they keep spawning normally, like if nothing was changed. I checked size and date of your edited .mis files, to check I installed it properly, and I did, besides the rest of decks and sectors work just as fine. Reinstalled and it's still there.

I don't know if anyone else have this same issue, yet would like to know how to help it out. Thanks.

[673fb38d12800Kolya]

There are certain zones in SS2 that have a "hardwired" spawn rate that won't be affected by modifications to the general spawn-rate. It shouldn't be a complete deck though... but merely rooms or corridors.

Maybe you might want to PM Zygo about this. He's known as Zygoptera over at TTLG.

[673fb38d12921Zeebok]

I am finally going to give this mod a go, but is there a reason why it is incompatible with Straylight's ADaoB? 

[673fb38d12a05Kolya]

That's because they both replace all the level-files (*.mis). You can't combine these mods.

[673fb38d12b0cZeebok]

Ah, that makes sense, thanks for clearing that up. 

[673fb38d12c45Cimlite]

I'm trying to get this fix working for a little multiplayer SS2 action.

Using the SS2 mod manager, all other mods work just fine. When using the Ultimate Spawn mod only though (with the MP fix) the host crashes as soon as MedSci1 comes up. The client does not crash however. When someone else hosts that computer gets the crash, so it's not local to one install or anything like that. Starting a multiplayer game without anyone joined in works just fine also.

I have no idea what causes this, but I'd appricate any suggestions on what to do.

[673fb38d12d4eKolya]

I never played MP with this mod. Only thing I can come up with: Make sure to activate the MP fix AFTER the mod.

[673fb38d12eb2Cimlite]

Thanks a lot Kolya! It worked.

I just added the MP fix to the original archive. It did seem to work since it layed out the red select boxes in a line instead of locked to the cam. Anyway, for what ever reason it worked perfectly when I did as you suggested. Just adding the MPfix to the SS2 Mod Manger and activating after the mod itself.

*Edit*
This is getting even more weird... it seems it only worked that once. On restarting it just does the exact same thing as before.

[673fb38d12ffeKolya]

Try de-activating all mods. Then search your SS2 game folder for files of the form *.ss2mmbak Delete them all. Then activate the mods again in the correct order. Use no other mods for now.

[673fb38d131a7Cimlite]

Actually I did a complete reinstall of the game, mod manager, then just runnin the spawn mod. Still the same.

Weird thing is that we sort of fixed the problem. I say "sort of" because the solution we came up with is that it's completely random if the mod works or not. Out of about 20 or so restarts of the game, it actually worked 2 times for no reason what so ever. So basically we just started the game, ran through to the start of MedSci1 and if it crashed we did it again changing nothing. No idea why but eventually it works.

Once the game is up and saved it seems to work just fine, it's just a hassle to get past that first spawn on MedSci1.

Thanks for the help, excellent suggestions.

[673fb38d1334aDominik]

I don't really know, where the cubes should appear. Here's what I did:

installed game
installed patch 2.3
overwrote mis files
started a new game

I've played until I reach the first station where you can boost your stats with cyber modules, don't remember what they are called, but no cubes showed up... After that point the first monsters appear, so I assume the cubes should have appeared before that, right? Did I miss something? I don't use any other mod or any mod manager.

Where exactly do the cubes appear? I run the game on Windows XP, might this be the reason?

[673fb38d13492Kolya]

After you installed the patch and before you use any mods you need to make your game mod ready.
The cubes should appear once you are on the Von Braun.

[673fb38d13688Dominik]

Thanks for the fast response. Now it works. Just a word on how I did it:

First I downloaded the ss2tool and let it do all the work for me. Then I used the mod manager by Zombe and had it activate the ultimate spawn mod. I did all this by following the instructions in the "get your game mod ready"-thread. Then I started a new game. It suddenly was in english (I'm from Germany and therefor have the german version^^) and had no german speech, in fact it had no speech at all... And the cubes didn't show up.

Then I uninstalled the game and made a full reinstall. After that I patched it to 2.3 and then I followed the instructions to manually make the game mod ready. It took me longer, but was worth the time, because now it works, the cubes were there and the game is still german. I wouldn't mind, if the game was in english, but I have no english speechfiles, so I'm glad it's working again. Because speech definately adds to the atmosphere and the german localization was very well done.

So thanks again, you have a very nice site here, keep up the good work :-)

Beware Xerxes, for here I come and you won't be able to stop me without unlimited respawn!

[673fb38d13814Kolya]

Okay, ich weiß jetzt was passiert ist. Das SS2Tool hat eine install.cfg Datei in deinen SS2 Ordner kopiert, die einen englischen Spracheintrag hat. ("language english") Du hättest den nur in "language german" ändern müssen. Naja, zu spät.

Ich habe einen Deutsch Patch zusammengestellt, der dieses und einen Reihe weitere Probleme der deutschen Version behebt.

[673fb38d13da8Zygo]

Great mod, Hardcore spawn rate keeps me busy indeed!  But I have a little issue on Deck 3 only, I have noticed that the spawn rate, at least with me, keeps fairly the same, then I tried the No Spawning, and hey, they keep spawning normally, like if nothing was changed.

OK, so I'm replying to a year+ old message, but since I do know why I might as well provide the reason, and why it cannot be changed. Basically, the patch patched some of the mission files using .dif files. If the ecology information is in the .dif file there is no way to change them as they effectively overwrite any mis file which is present. The only way to get rid of all spawns would be to play unpatched, which is inadvisable.

On the subject of Multiplayer, I've had confirmation that some have played it successfully (or at least as successfully as SS2 MP ever is), while others seem to have a lot of problems. I can only stress that in order for MP to work all files which are going to be shared across computers must be identical. At the very least this means the same gamesys and same mission files must be used.

[673fb38d13f42miracle.flame]

to disable patch only for this particular mission while keeping everything else patched just rename file hydro2.dif in your Shock2 game folder to e.g. hydro2.dif.bak and the ultimate spawn should work for deck3 as well.

[673fb38d14022Cap. John Matrix]

Is it compatible with the FM Ponterbee Station?

[673fb38d14102Kolya]

No, it's only for the original campaign.

[673fb38d14202Kolya]

I integrated the patch with the mod, moved the MIS files out of the MOD folder (MOD folders aren't necessary anymore), made some minor changes to the mod.ini (Gave it the mod-icon and linked the Readme in) and recompressed the whole thing as 7z (22->15MB).

[673fb38d145caThe Brain]

You should add note of renaming hydro2.dif-file since this mod cointains full version of second Hydroponics level.

I wonder if there is way to make some sort of template hydro2.dif-file which doesn't contain any level data. And its size can't be zero, otherwise game will crash.

[673fb38d146faKolya]

I added a note. Thanks for the heads up.