SSR: System Shock Kickstarter

[674531686ff34fox]

They attempted to contact him. He hasn't replied, last I heard.

Hm, that's surprisingly unprofessional behaviour for someone with that kind of job title.

[67453168700deedx]

July Update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/2237646

[67453168703c8Join2]

Hm, that's surprisingly unprofessional behaviour for someone with that kind of job title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn45M-jbOWw

...who are we even talking about? Who is "the library guy"? I'm definitely out of the loop here.

[67453168705cafox]

You can catch up on this here: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=10112.0

Or to summarize: guy (working as a curator for some kind of toy museum) found a CD-R that appears to contain the prototype and editor of System Shock 1 but wouldn't share it with the public (so far). He declined such a request on his Twitter-account and seems to ignore any subsequent requests. The general consensus around here seems to be that these files actually belong to Nightdive now and apparently they tried to contact the museum guy. That's about it, afaik.

[67453168706e9edx]

August Update at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/2262497

[674531687082fZylonBane]

That elevator door animation looks ridiculous.

[6745316870967JosiahJack]

They overdid the pneumatic slow-down for sure on the air cylinder driven elevator doors

[6745316870a68edx]

October Update:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/2307846

[6745316870befZylonBane]

That exec door looks nice, but once again the animator has fallen into the trap of including a "cool" animation that must complete before the damn thing opens. It's a door. Its #1 purpose in life is to get out of the way when someone wants through it. Not to make someone stand there while it does a cool thing before finally opening.

Not only is this the sort of thing that will rapidly become very irritating in actual gameplay (as it would be in real life dealing with doors like that), it's concerning because apparently nobody at Night Dive had a problem with it. This bodes very poorly for all the other design decisions they'll be making.

And Jesus, the bloom in those screenshots. There had better be a way to turn that down.

[67453168710bfdertseha]

That exec door looks nice, but once again the animator has fallen into the trap of including a "cool" animation that must complete before the damn thing opens. It's a door. Its #1 purpose in life is to get out of the way when someone wants through it. Not to make someone stand there while it does a cool thing before finally opening.

I'm fine with that, because I got used to these long opening sequences from the Dead Space games. From a technical engine standpoint, I suspect because the DeadSpace engine has to load the next room/assets before opening the door. From a gameplay perspective I like these seconds of suspense, because I can't rush through rooms and try to avoid potential ambushes by outrunning them.

[67453168711e5JosiahJack]

I need sunglasses to play this don't I.   I agree with you ZB.  And what is with that hideous pink?? 

[674531687156blgs]

I'm fine with that, because I got used to these long opening sequences from the Dead Space games. From a technical engine standpoint, I suspect because the DeadSpace engine has to load the next room/assets before opening the door. From a gameplay perspective I like these seconds of suspense, because I can't rush through rooms and try to avoid potential ambushes by outrunning them.

Agreed, it's ok when it hides the load times. I think dead space treatment could have worked great for System Shock 2 if engine allowed that, in-game door animations and elevator rides are better for immersion than looking at loading screens.

[6745316871689ZylonBane]

I just watched a longplay of the first Dead Space, and the doors actually open quite quickly.

And of course, the SSR door animations are not hiding load delays.

[674531687180cicemann]

Anyone else notice how dark everything is? Overall it all looks good but just so dark. Dont recall it looking like that in the original.

[6745316871bebMarvin]

The door animations feel mostly the same length as the original ones, only I don't expect them to disable collision on them as early as it would feel much weirder in a modern game than it did in the original.

However, these are still animation showcases, everything can be sped up with a click of a button.

I just watched a longplay of the first Dead Space, and the doors actually open quite quickly.

And of course, the SSR door animations are not hiding load delays.

Depends on the room and where you've been before. If you rush between rooms in ways the game doesn't expect you to and then open a door to a larger/complex part of the level, it can take the engine several seconds to load and then open the door even on modern PCs. Tried it last year on my high-end rig.

[6745316871fd1ZylonBane]

The door animations feel mostly the same length as the original ones...

The exec door animation in particular is easily twice as long.

Original exec door: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gBTgrcC-3Y&t=4565

New exec door:

If they got rid of the "charging up" animation at the beginning it would be fine. It should start opening immediately when triggered, like any well-designed door.

Depends on the room and where you've been before.

You're muddying the waters by mixing up design and necessity. When the engine has to load level data, the door delay is by necessity. When the level content is already loaded, doors open almost instantly, because the developers understood that making the player wait for no reason is bad design.

[674531687219bsgupta]

Icemann, agreed it looks pretty dark in spots; lighting isn't done yet per the Discord, so they do know about this and the lighting is far from final.

I really like the exec door.  Tastes vary; like I'd mentioned before, I like the delay because it allows for anticipation of what's going to be behind that door, and I'm not a super fast player generally.  But I understand mileage varies.

[67453168724aaGawain]

it allows for anticipation of what's going to be behind that door

It will wear out quickly when you are backtracking through that door sixth time and the whole level is cleared long time ago.

If your favourite thing is to wait for elevators to arrive in IRL then you might enjoy this too.

[67453168726f1JosiahJack]

If your favourite thing is to wait for elevators to arrive in IRL then you might enjoy this too.

  This.  So much this.  using analogy.this;

[67453168728c8ZylonBane]

Exactly. I don't know how so many people can't grasp that what seems cool when you're just looking at it on a web page will be utterly maddening when you're actually in the game and have passed through doors exactly like this a hundred times already.

This animation really reminds me of the silly phaser firing animation on the ST:TNG Enterprise. You know they just added it so the Enterprise could look cool CHARGIN' ITS LAZORS, and it was fine in the episodes where the Enterprise only fired one or two shots. But in episodes where they got into serious fights and had to fire repeatedly, they shortened the animation or dropped it entirely... because a phaser that can only fire once a second is completely impractical. Call it the Rule of Uncool. Stuff like that is fine until it gets in the way of business.

[6745316872a1eGawain]

Same thing with those stupidly long item pickup animations in the original alpha. I remember there were lazy doors in that too...

[6745316872b07ZylonBane]

At least they got rid of the player electrocuting himself when using the charging stations.

[6745316872fa2unn_atropos]

If your favourite thing is to wait for elevators to arrive in IRL then you might enjoy this too.

I Europe we don't have to wait. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZCYTHhBX3c

[6745316873090Gawain]

Yep! We indeed do not! I have used one of those