[Obsolete] SS2 Community Patch (SCP) Beta 1

[67402e8893051plasma discharge]

Thanks for the tiny status updates guys. I shall keep my fingers crossed beta 2 hits as soon as possible.

[67402e88932aaZylonBane]

[67402e8893549Marvin]

Are there any interesting changes from the new ND update SCP can profit from?

[67402e889372fvoodoo47]

a lot of neat little things that make our lives easier, like the script param edit dialog window, but no game changer as far as I can tell - the next SCP release will probably be finished up in 2.43. at the moment, ZB is hammering on the gamesys (tweaking the shotgun muzzle flash and explosions), and I need to go through all the maps fixing up all monkey concretes (should fix the problem with players missing them because of their physics collision spheres), and that's pretty much it.

[67402e8893825VanZant]

I kept hearing about Beta 2, thought I'd find out how it's going? Any big fixes coming up or just little things?

[67402e889391dvoodoo47]

it's mostly bugfixing (duh), but there is some new stuff as well, like the hybrid shotgun flash (the prototype version is already working happily in the RttUNN fan mission). some more small details that I'm not going to reveal as I want to see how fast will people discover them.

[67402e8893a03ZylonBane]

Undecided whether this would be a good or bad idea.

[67402e8893ad0voodoo47]

can't say I'm too fond of it.

[67402e8893d33Olfred]

Space toilets?
The room doesnt look bathroom like enough. For me it gives off some other vibes. Like... a futuristic mop cleaning station build into a locker.

[67402e8893e45ZylonBane]

It's deliberately modeled after the toilets (or "heads") in submarines. Try an image search for them. They're super compact and have exposed pipes everywhere. That's what I was trying to reproduce. Super compact is good if we decide to cram a couple of these in to the existing Rickenbacker maps.

[67402e8893f19voodoo47]

ah, so a Rick toilet overhaul? thought that we are leaving that for beta3.

[67402e8893fe1ZylonBane]

Probably are, if ever.

[67402e8894120Hikari]

I like it. The rick doesn't really have many facilities we see and unlike the von braun they're going to cram as much into as little space as humanly possible.

[67402e889424bvoodoo47]

Rick is actually missing any kind of facilities that are required for normal humans to function, though we can argue that they were located in those parts of the ship that are not accessible (reading the logs and looking at the map in editor, my estimate is that you only get to explore about 50-60% of what would make the full, undamaged ship).

[67402e88944e3Olfred]

It's deliberately modeled after the toilets (or "heads") in submarines.

I don't think a submarine is the right template to use. But well, you know the game better than I do.

[67402e88945e4voodoo47]

actually it's a pretty good template - a military vessel where everything needs to be as efficient as possible, just functionality, no luxury.

[67402e88946deOlfred]

I've been on quite the number of ships and the Rickenbacker doesn't feel like a submarine. More like a small military ship or working vessel.

[67402e88947cfvoodoo47]

been on an early nuclear submarine once, and Rick definitely sends off a similar vibe.

[67402e8894ab0ZylonBane]

I don't think a submarine is the right template to use. But well, you know the game better than I do.

It's true that the Rickenbacker's shape and scale is like a battleship, but from a mechanical design perspective spaceships and submarines have a lot more in common than surface ships. You can't just vent stuff to atmosphere-- it's a completely sealed environment.

Anyway, looking up pictures of even surface military ship bathrooms, the exposed pipe aesthetic seems to be a common theme. Makes sense, since you don't want to be tearing down the walls of the ship to fix a leak.

But mainly, the small size is to make it easier to fit bathrooms into a map that was never designed with them in mind.

[67402e8894bc5Olfred]

That's been more in the old days. At least the ones I've seen you have some metal plating covering it up.
It's still far from pretty and you may still see some piping.

Maybe it's just due to the low poly nature of everything that it does look so unpleasent to me.

[67402e8894d67Join2]

One must even stress about the location and aesthetic of toilets in this type of game.

The reasoning seems logical enough, and the rick already has a lot of exposed pipes everywhere anyhow. There does seem to be a visual clash of the low poly toilet to the smooth pipe to the low-res grating textures and such behind, but that cannot really be helped as not every art asset has been given an overhaul yet (if ever, sadly). 

Edit: also, the shotgun muzzle flash shown above: no light seems to be emitted to accompany the flash texture. It's pretty obvious though so I guess gamesys editing doesn't allow it.

[67402e8894e4fSystem Shocked]

Pipes behind grates are fine, but not so much if in front of. Being a toilet, floor texture should be smooth, for easy mop ups.

[67402e8894f35VanZant]

Toilets, nah. I'm not an SS2 oldie, so maybe you guys have a fascination with toilets that need to be in the game.

[67402e8895162ZylonBane]

Toilets, nah. I'm not an SS2 oldie, so maybe you guys have a fascination with toilets that need to be in the game.

If you were on the Rickenbacker and had to pee, you'd be fascinated with toilets too.