SCP Beta 4 Issue Reporting

[6688ed3a55d08JDoran]

Here's another question for the collective. In vanilla SS2 the fourth and final OS Upgrade station is located on the Rickenbacker bridge. This means any upgrade you get here will mostly only be used in the Body of the Many. It also means a very long delay between OS upgrades, since the third station is located on Recreation. I'd like to move this upgrade station to near the beginning of the Rickenbacker. What do you think? Too much of a gameplay change?

I think that's a good idea. I also think I should have thought of it myself (I often have good ideas that I lack even the remotest skill to implement), d'oh!

[6688ed3a55f4fvoodoo47]

it's a noticeable change that might not be received too well, even though it makes a lot of sense. not against it though.

[6688ed3a560a8ZylonBane]

Yes, I'm not moving it without a strong community consensus.

[6688ed3a5624dJML]

What about another SCP minimod? That way people can choose for themselves. Personally I don't have a strong opinion on either leaving it as it is or changing it. Maybe a bit more for changing it to Rickenbacker start somewhere.

[6688ed3a56374voodoo47]

while minimods are good for things like patching in a new mechanic that allows the player to repair all turrets, a flood of tiny ones that move or add one object hardly sounds like something that would be helpful in the long run.

and yeah, start of the Rickenbacker sounds good - one weapon upgrade unit is already placed there, so it wouldn't feel out of place, I think.

[6688ed3a56494Join2]

I vote for moving it.

[6688ed3a565f5Stingm]

I'm sorry but I vote for leaving it where it is. I like it because I can load up before heading for the many and shodan. I usually have a lot of modules when I get there  to spend.

[6688ed3a566f2Join2]

They're not talking about rig upgrade stations, but the one OS upgrade station which doesn't cost modules to use.

[6688ed3a56829voodoo47]

yeah, we are talking about the last OS upgrade unit, which is pretty useless, as it's placed right before the Body of the Many level, meaning you'll be using the last OS ability for such a short time it's almost irrelevant. moving it to the beginning of Rick would solve this nicely.

that reminds me, I plan to place a very sneaky early wormheart somewhere on Command for the very same reason - feel free to speak up.

[6688ed3a569abZylonBane]

Thinking about maybe integrating the New Quest Notifier mod into SCP. That's the one that displays "Note added to PDA." whenever a new quest note is added. The vanilla game already spews notifications for incoming email messages, receiving cybermods, log added to PDA, etc., so I figure it would fit in pretty well with the original design.

[6688ed3a56aa0voodoo47]

I wouldn't mind.

[6688ed3a56b96JML]

Shooting the laser pistol at the worm in the water in Deck 4 will hit it. Not really a bug or anything, just saying. Not that I want to be electrocuted when entering the water with the Laser Rapier drawn.

[6688ed3a56c77voodoo47]

well yes, that is what will generally happen if you shoot things in SS2.

[6688ed3a56d9fJML]

In the attached save, the swarm flies away from you. I think it's bad tracking, but what do I know. Have fun.

[6688ed3a56f1fvoodoo47]

AI paths have not been generated properly in the low head tunnels - log it, it's rec2 near obj 564. no need to link the save.

//it's that thing with a room needing to be at least 6.5 DU high, else AI paths will not be generated. the rec2 tunnels are 6, so no wonder.

[6688ed3a57277JML]

[...]
//it's that thing with a room needing to be at least 6.5 DU high, else AI paths will not be generated. the rec2 tunnels are 6, so no wonder.

So increasing the tunnel height by 0.5 DU would fix it? Doesn't sound too bad to increase the tunnel by less than 10% to fix AI paths. No idea how much work it is though.

[6688ed3a573f1JML]

If a dude shows up late for the movie, the light in the antechamber will flood inside the cinema and annoy a lot of people. That's one reason to place the light over the other door, or have a light line on the ground-edge on the wall to the cinema. Also if you want to  sneak out for a quick piss, the light should be over the exit door so you find it faster (emergency exit, y'know?).
Also small light borders on the edge of the steps for safety do make sense in my opinion.

[SS2_CinemaExit.png expired]

[6688ed3a574f8ZylonBane]

I agree it would make sense to have lights over those doors, but we've tried to avoid significantly changing the placement of any lights. In the Dark engine lighting is gameplay.

I guess some burned-out lights could be placed there for cosmetic/verisimilitude effect.

[6688ed3a575ebZylonBane]

There, that's better.

[6688ed3a5781dZylonBane]

Oh this is a fun one. You know the animated 101010110101 pattern on the main menu? Ever noticed how it's not a seamless loop? How the digits scroll down a few lines them jump back up to the top? Well take a look at the filenames for that animation:

ANIM_1.PCX
ANIM_2.PCX
ANIM_3.PCX
ANIM_4.PCX
ANIM_5.PCX
ANIM_6.PCX
ANIM_7.PCX
ANIM_08.PCX <-- oye what's this now?
ANIM_09.PCX
ANIM_10.PCX
ANIM_11.PCX
ANIM_12.PCX

Yeah, animated bitmaps in Dark don't use leading zeros, so the resource loader just gets up to 7 and stops, thinking there's no more frames. For almost 20 years now we've only been seeing 7 frames of what was supposed to be a 12-frame animation. If you rename those 08 and 09 frames properly, the animation loops seamlessly.

Also, whoever composed the main menu when networking was patched into SS2 screwed up and permanently added that binary pattern to the base main menu image. You can see it flash for a frame when you go into an option menu and then return to the main menu. To see the original main menu, go into cam.cfg and add a semicolon before the line "netplay_ui". Note how the Quit button moves from the lower left to the bottom right button, which was changed to the "Multiplayer" button.

And notice how when you're in-game and go to the sim menu, it says "SYSTEMSHOCK2" at the bottom, while it's properly spaced on the main menu.

[6688ed3a57979voodoo47]

that's a really nice find - that menu animation twitch always bothered me. who would have thought the fix was so simple - submitted into the tool, should go live soon.

[6688ed3a57aa5ZylonBane]

There's other stuff too, like I'd never noticed before that on the sim menu versions of the buttons they didn't finish drawing parts of the lines on the right side. And the button regions are off so all the button text is shifted left of center.
[simbutton.png expired]

[6688ed3a57babZylonBane]

I may have asked this before, but I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are on adding new props to the base game (in moderation). I'm talking about things that make no damn sense to be missing-- plates in the dining halls, glasses in the bars, pots and pans in the kitchens, toilet paper in the bathrooms, etc.

[6688ed3a57febJDoran]

That 'wrong filename causes parts of the animation not to show" problem is a great catch, ZB! It seems a little strange that it wasn't noticed and patched after release though - how soon after the game's release did Looking Glass shut down? Didn't they have time to patch the most obvious bugs?

I may have asked this before, but I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are on adding new props to the base game (in moderation). I'm talking about things that make no damn sense to be missing-- plates in the dining halls, glasses in the bars, pots and pans in the kitchens, toilet paper in the bathrooms, etc.

I'd say definitely add them. To me, it harms SS2's immersion that the areas don't feel 'lived in', as it does seem too sterile and unmodified for somewhere that supposedly houses people on a day to day basis. I'd say add things like unique (in the game) pictures/posters on the walls of people's cabins, plus book shelves, and other things you'd expect to see in random peoples' (very small) apartments. And yes, glasses, plates, even the odd bit of litter here and there.