SSR: System Shock Kickstarter

[6744e356c2302edx]

A new article about the status of the reboot.

https://www.pcgamer.com/nightdive-talks-system-shock-remakes-change-in-direction-expects-release-probably-q1-of-2020/

"Our intention is to ship exactly the game that was promised, with as much of the features that were promised as we can, in a timeframe that will get it out as fast as we can. Our expectation is probably Q1 of 2020."

[6744e356c244dXKILLJOY98]

https://www.pcgamer.com/nightdive-talks-system-shock-remakes-change-in-direction-expects-release-probably-q1-of-2020/

[6744e356c25a7icemann]

It's now 2020. Bloody hell.

At least it's moving back towards a remake rather than reboot. Or that's how it reads.

[6744e356c272dvoodoo47]

oh come on, anyone who has just a vague idea how game development looks like had to know that xmas 2018 was the soonest possible time of release assuming nothing will go wrong. and it went, so yeah, one extra year give or take, not at all surprising.

plenty of time to get the most out of the SS1 source.

[6744e356c286aKolya]

In the year 2525, if Jumper's still alive, if Goretiger can survive, they may find...

[6744e356c298fJosiahJack]

Jumper?  I think you mean hopper.

[6744e356c2a6bKolya]

You're right, Springer.

[6744e356c2d5cdertseha]

Your friendly Discord report here:

In response to people asking about the release date of the update, Stephen Kick said:

April 6th, next Friday - it's a huge update
Lots to show & tell & hear
I'm as anxious as everyone else is, we're still pulling in the final pieces.

[6744e356c3477icemann]

From what I've been told over on the otherside forums, it's going to tell much of the new change in direction (which my bets on it more being a 1 to 1 remake with no major gameplay mechanic changes, rather than the SS2 direction they were going in).

Myagi pretty much nailed it in his post 2 years back:

While it might be interesting to see Citadel remade with realistic modern AAA standards, I see two issues. One is that the amount of work seems out of scope. If there were budget and manpower to do that, they might as well have done SS3 themselves. The other is that there just is something about original SS1 look that is unparallelled. The mood it invokes. Redoing it realistically would probably result in something feeling a lot different. Which also would make it questionable doing SS1 in the first place, rather than SS3.

Based on that I actually liked the approach of those released remake screenshots/mockups. Keeping the abstract and original mood, with some touchup. I'm not sure how much of those shots are actual shots and how much of them is photoshopped. To keep abstract feel I'd like to see the game look exactly (to the pixel) like those screenshots (DOF and bloom effects aside, I expect those to be configurable so I'm not talking about that). What I mean is what I like to call the interactive concept art look. Dishonored really nailed that for me. It was like playing concept art. A lot of times I could take a screenshot of that game, and looking at the shot it was like "wait a minute, is that concept art or an actual shot".

That may not be everyones cup of tea, but personally I've always enjoyed concept art, and find it mostly looks better (or more mood invoking and wanting to be in the world) than the actual games. I'm guessing due to a certain abstractness they often have, that lets the mind fill in stuff. In the case of SS1 I think triggering those mental buttons is a good match. The pixelated (from no texture filtering and sprites) look and the more abstract world did that back then, and the "concept art look" from the mockup shots could be the ticket to achieve the same awe inspiring mood and immersion again, while using higher quality texturing and 3D detail.

And that was this incarnation of the project's downfall, with it's major deviations from the original game. Let's hope that we get a more faithful remake rather than reboot this time round. For the record, I want this project to succeed. A successful game likely means more System Shock games later on down the line. At the same time though, we all have the right to voice our concerns.

I just think that Night Dive tried to do far too much, with no prior experience (in such things) to know what they were doing. So we got major score creep, which eventually led to a game that bore almost no resemblance in the end to it's source material. As a company you want to get several successfully completed + financially successful games under your belt before you go down the risk taking route. I hope that lessons have been learned from this whole experience. I hold out hope that we get a great game to play at the end of all of this.

[6744e356c3729unn_atropos]

And I read somewhere that the release of the sourcecode is imminent. I hope it's for real and we won't get marketing blahblah.

[6744e356c3a3bJDoran]

And I read somewhere that the release of the sourcecode is imminent. I hope it's for real and we won't get marketing blahblah.

Yes, I'm really hoping for it's release too. It might lead to an almost mini-revival amongst gamers who'd like a little more thought in their games, and we might also see it fan-ported to other machines, plus rebuilt with both simple and more ambitious additons to the gameplay and game-engine.

I wish every game was open source.

[6744e356c3b50JosiahJack]

Open source plus 20+ years = thousands of custom levels and mods to enjoy.  I can only hope that the System Shock "scene" becomes as lively and large as the likes of Quake or Doom, through whatever means possible.

[6744e356c3e18ZylonBane]

I can only hope that the System Shock "scene" becomes as lively and large as the likes of Quake or Doom, through whatever means possible.

You're pants-on-head delusional if you think there's even the tiniest chance of that happening.  FPS games like Doom/Quake are built around combat and small, self-contained maps. System Shock is neither of those things. System Shock is Citadel Station. There will be no mapping scene for SS for the same reason there's been no mapping scene for SS2, despite it being much more modern and with full mapping/modding support-- the games simply don't lend themselves to it.

[6744e356c4193icemann]

FPS games like Doom/Quake are built around combat and small, self-contained maps.

Most of the time - Yes
Always - No

Some of the Doom mods that were aimed at the sourceports feature hub-type levels. Much of that's due to the Hexen and Strife functionality that was added in. There was RTC-3057. That was VERY System Shock-like. It had hub levels, text logs and an inventory system.

Quake though - Singular levels only. No hub stuff.

I agree on the scene never coming close to the Doom or Quake communities though. Even with a source code release, the System Shock scene is very niche.

[6744e356c4298voodoo47]

and that may not be a bad thing, one might add.

[6744e356c43d2ZylonBane]

Eh, Thief is niche and it still has hundreds of FMs. But again, that's because Thief is designed around the self-contained mission.

The usual way to shoehorn new content into an open-world game (especially RPGs) is to add new areas. But SS and SS2 are set in closed environments, floating in outer space, thousands of miles from anything. So that also really limits the potential for small-to-medium sized projects.

[6744e356c457cJoin2]

It's true. With FPS you can just make single missions or five map episodes and have a fulfilling-enough experience. With these games there's RPG progression which single maps do not lend themselves to, expected story elements, generally a lot more to do.

Still, I am interested in modding one of these System Shock remake projects. I pray I don't be foolish when the time comes by actually going ahead with it.

[6744e356c46e2icemann]

There was a Deus Ex 1 mod (I forget the name) which added onto the base game and went onto new maps. These new ones linked back to the main game later. It allowed you to stay with UNATCO for a bit longer.

Here we go found it.

So it can be done, but it's hard with immersive sims. In System Shock's case, you'd need to do a Dead Space 2 and have an extra ship that you could access.

[6744e356c47fdvoodoo47]

I think I've played that one many years ago - was a mixed bag, if memory serves. the problem with these addons is that they never seem to fit into the original game smoothly, and always feel like something that has been just tacked on (as that's what they essentially are). having no voiceovers is not helping much either.

[6744e356c4ae6fox]

I think I've played that one many years ago - was a mixed bag, if memory serves. the problem with these addons is that they never seem to fit into the original game smoothly, and always feel like something that has been just tacked on (as that's what they essentially are). having no voiceovers is not helping much either.

Same here. I can barely remember it but I think it was ok-ish.

[6744e356c4bd2icemann]

Yeah it was pretty average.

[6744e356c4ccdZylonBane]

For some reason, even though I've never played Hotel Carone nor ever done any Deus Ex modding, I remember that the most important thing to come out of it was a new elevator script.

[6744e356c4e33JosiahJack]

System Shock Mod/Mapping Potential:  The best bet is to assume a future where multiple orbital installations around Saturn have been built to mine H3 and that the player can take shuttles from one installation (self contained level) to another.  How this sort of thing would work with a story...well any number of things:

Intercorporation espionage mission (triop vs tetracorp)
Hostile corporational takeover of a facility (no mutants, robots only).
Experimental facility gone wrong
Sabatoge mining operations mission (more corporate devious activity)
Investigate terminated communications problem
etc etc.

[6744e356c4f18ZylonBane]

Don't forget that the defense system is shooting down shuttles.