SSR: System Shock Kickstarter

[6740b742d9e11JDoran]

I like my irrational bias, leave me alone.

Given that we're on a System Shock 2 fansite, I'd say we all have an Irrational Games bias.

[6740b742da260icemann]

You can hardly blame the delay on the existence of consoles, the delay is down to whoever made the decision to delay the release of the PC version of the patch. The existence of game consoles places no legal or otherwise absolutely impassable wall to NDS or whoever releasing a PC version first and later releasing the same/similar patch for consoles.

From what I've been reading on the Night Dive discord, is that it's totally due to the publisher stopping them from releasing the patch, due to the console port.

Makes no sense to me, as if they had released the patch back when it was first announced (back in August I think, possibly September), they would already have fixed a heap of issues + a huge amount more and possibly added better functionality to the game. Compared to what's going to happen, where what we're getting is just the fixes to what was reported back then.

[6740b742da4baXkilljoy98]

I've never heard of a patch being delayed due to a publisher wanting it on the console port. I mean they can easily port it to pc and then have it on console day 1. It makes no sense

[6740b742da631voodoo47]

if you are under the impression that things have to make sense, then I've got bad news for you.

[6740b742da807JDoran]

Part of growing old is realizing more and more that the world around you doesn't make sense.

When you're a kid you think that adults have all the answers. Then when you become a teenager you get angry because for the first time you see many of the world's problems and you believe (very naively) that the answers are obvious (give up smoking, don't hate people because of their religion/skin colour/country of birth/political leanings/sexuality/etc) but you can't understand why people everywhere don't pull together and fix these problems, than when you get older you realise that humans have a streak of insanity or stupidity that means that our emotions over-rule our intelligence, and that we find it easier to justify acting badly to ourselves, rather than thinking out and then carrying out the actions that we want to see others doing in relation to ourselves.

The human brain is a very flawed mixture of intelligence, instincts (instincts that are now mostly obsolete, though they still hold a lot of power over us), emotions, and desires. We should be ruled by our intelligence, but far too often we let the latter three aspects effect our judgement.

[6740b742daa84sarge945]

The game industry is pretty much nothing but nonesense these days

[6740b742dab8cicemann]

Part of growing old is also about realizing that the majority of people care only about themselves, and to the detriment of others. The pandemic years and the utter lack of care for others by the anti-vaxers was quite educational.

[6740b742dad57sarge945]

There was plenty of bad behavior going on from everyone during the pandemic, from anti-vaxxers to snitch hotlines to people alienating their friends and fighting over groceries to governments "accidentally" using check in data as evidence in criminal cases after promising not to.

The two lessons I took from the pandemic are that nobody is innocent and that politics is just an excuse for most people to bludgeon and oppress their fellow man guilt-free.

[6740b742daef0fox]

"Civilization is a very thin veneer."

I find that to be true and and confirmed after pretty much every major crisis event although I am not a proponent of the veneer theory as such. As far as the recent pandemic goes, I have to agree that we saw horrible behaviour from all sides.

I also think that this is the key to geopolitics.

[6740b742db191ZylonBane]

I have to agree that we saw horrible behaviour from all sides.

No, pretty much just the morons and grifters.

[6740b742db2cfXkilljoy98]

Not related to System Shock but since we are on the topic; seeing this be how things are is often frustrated given most have no say in how it works. Doesn't help that I gotta participate in a system I'm not quite found of in a less than ideal situation just to get by. Though that is also why I like to distract myself with stuff best I can.

[6740b742db4e4fox]

No, pretty much just the morons and grifters.

No, that also included "normal people" who I would usually not call morons or grifters. That was the scary / sad part.

[6740b742db612ZylonBane]

I'd agree it's scary to realize how many people are actually morons. Or so gullible that there's no functional difference.

[6740b742db729sarge945]

Yeah I was shocked how many regular everyday people resorted to all sorts of awful behaviour because they felt they were able to get away with it.

[6740b742db85dXkilljoy98]

"Early 2024" is vague. Well it doesn't mean January. I am going to guess that it might come in the next few months. Could also be delayed knowing their track record, but who knows.

System Shock news is very slow rn.

[6740b742dbc21JDoran]

I e-mailed Nightdive Studios, and they didn't bother to answer it, of course. To be fair, they were probably too busy not updating their web site with further information about their upcoming releases.

To me, we are in the most boring era of video gaming that I have ever known (and I've been playing video games since just before 1980, with the earliest arcade machines). There are very few upcoming games that I am looking forward to, and I hate the largely formulaic frame-work of first person shooters that we see nowadays. Whereas I've loved most of NDS' releases of classic FPSs (plus of course their fantastic System Shock: Enhanced Edition). So NDS should be my current favourite game developers (at least since Arkane decided to stop making amazing games like Prey (2017) and the Dishonored series), they really don't have much competition, to me.

But it's difficult to like NDS when they treat their customers so badly. My understanding is that they were supposed to be a small company made up of gamers who loved games and who wanted to bring great games to the masses, and who would be friendly and open with their customers. You know, like they weren't for most of System Shock Remake's production time.

And why do they take so long to fix the bugs in their games? When they do finally get around to fixing them, I mean. And what sort of gaming company ANNOUCES that they have fixes for a game's bugs, then waits months before actually releasing the fixes? And their reason for not yet releasing the bug-fixes for the PC version of System Shock Remake? Because they want to wait for the release of the console versions of the game first, for no logical reason. Or at least, if there is a good reason, then NDS aren't going to spend the necessary five minutes to post an update explaining it to their paying customers. I mean, that would be nice and open, so no chance. And of course they've not answered the console gamers question of "Does the buyout with Atari mean that Blood: Fresh Supply will be ported to consoles?"

And the Dark Forces remake is due out soon. Why don't they release/fix their existing games first, instead of putting the existing games on hold whilst they bring out new games? It's not a good look, leaving your older games in a bugged state, whilst bringing out new games.

And going back to System Shock Remake, NDS haven't even announced an actual release date for the release of the console versions and the PC version's bug fixes. Just a very vague 'Early 2024'. Prior to this, the console versions were going to be released "Sometime in 2023", then "Late 2023". And prior to that, the console versions were going to be released at the same time as the PC version.

It's such a pity, especially since at this point the gaming industry feels so impersonal and indifferent to the wishes of it's customers.

[6740b742dbd41sarge945]

Is that the same fantastic System Shock: Enhanced Edition that they broke in a patch?

NDS at least used to have their heart in the right place, even if they had plenty of issues. Now they just seem too lazy to care.

[6740b742dbfe1Baal]

Is that the same fantastic System Shock: Enhanced Edition that they broke in a patch?

I keep reading that SS Enhanced Edition is broken. I was going to play that some time. What are the issues with it?

[6740b742dc0e0voodoo47]

they tried to fix an issue with physics/timings, and introduced stuttering as result, iirc.

the "I must run everything at 144 fps without a single hitch" people were not pleased.

[6740b742dc1e5sarge945]

I can understand being locked to 60. It's bad practice because we fixed that problem once and for all decades ago, but at least being locked to 60 is common enough I can grit my teeth and bear it.

But being locked to 30 is just unforgivable. What is this, 2002? (Or the Xbox One in 2021)

[6740b742dc2e2Baal]

If that is the only issue I doubt that it will bother me that much. I will have to try it out.

[6740b742dc680JDoran]

I keep reading that SS Enhanced Edition is broken. I was going to play that some time. What are the issues with it?

The complete list of existing bugs (that I know of) in System Shock: Enhanced Edition is:

* In original version [meaning the original 1993 version of System Shock] if you throw items into elevator they are moved outside of the elevator door when you change the level.

In EE the items disappear.


* Also the random number generator from the computer nodes is broken, and it results in the same code every time.

* The screens in the lobby of deck 6 are stuck with the same picture, not showing the codes.

* And of course the bug detailed earlier in this thread:

          "They updated EE to fix an issue where enemies were getting stuck on terrain, but in the process they also made the players
            movement jerky and stuttery. They are "working on it" but they have been saying that for years with no patch in sight.
            I don't expect this to ever be fixed."

[Copied from an older post at https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=12409.msg151131#msg151131]


To bypass the stuttering bug, if you use the latest GOG version of SS1, which is version 1.2.16 (or presumably the latest Steam release), and use the fix at:

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=12409.msg150968#msg150968

then you can play SS:EE without the stuttering bug, albeit it with the frame-rate now locked at 30 FPS.

I don't know of any fixes for the other bugs in SS:EE.

[6740b742dc94bicemann]

Is that the same fantastic System Shock: Enhanced Edition that they broke in a patch?

NDS at least used to have their heart in the right place, even if they had plenty of issues. Now they just seem too lazy to care.

It's due to the age old games industry problem. They got bought out by another company (in this case Atari), sometime last year. So whoever runs things now (certainly not Kick anymore) doesn't give a rats ass about the series. Don't mind the fact that Night Dive was started in the very first place due to wanting to sort out the System Shock rights.

If the patch isn't out in 4 months time, it will be exactly 1 year since the patch was good to go, but was held back by the publisher. 8 months and counting so far.

[6740b742dcadcXkilljoy98]

It seems a System Shock DLC was announced for Pinball M/Pinball FX

https://youtu.be/MkWUQlC4TkY?si=e9DTPg0fA1pqiiN-

Here are a few notable screenshots