SCP Beta 4 Issue Reporting

[6742aeb9093c6sarge945]

New station stuff looks good!

I would love that zap effect as a minimod, especially with effectiveness based on CYB. It's too much of a gameplay change for regular SCP tho, in my opinion.

The small extra items like TP and plates etc would be fantastic. I could also see a few more potplants etc being used, especially in living quarters and other places like that. My only concern is it will overinflate the amount of nanites the player can get. This can be mitigated by reducing a few nanites elsewhere, but then that tips the balance/value of the recycler. I guess it's not really a big deal since I always tend to end the game massively flush with a huge overabundance of nanites anyway.

Would it be possible to maybe change up some of the textures or look in ops a little? I know you guys aren't trying to change the game too much, and new geo or gameplay changes are right out of the question, but ops just looks like grey corridoor after grey corridoor, endlessly copy-pasted. I get that it's the core of a work environment, so it should be somewhat professional and bland, but it really just looks like the first art-pass on the maps was done without any real lighting changes or anything to make it very interesting, so it all just becomes a big boring gray mess.

I think just a couple of extra plants or windows could go a very long way to making it a less boring deck. I dunno. Or some posters on some walls in a few offices. Lots of stuff could be done that has no effect on gameplay whatsoever. Even more subtley, some light changes (the occasional flickering light etc) could help even out the endless sea of grey.

Command suffers from the same thing as well, but to a much lesser extent.

[6742aeb9095b8ZylonBane]

Y'know how the Command deck tram flings you forward when it stops?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH_IYo9heMw

This is a huge hack and may not survive testing, but it seems to work well so far.

[6742aeb909969ZylonBane]

I think just a couple of extra plants or windows could go a very long way to making it a less boring deck. I dunno. Or some posters on some walls in a few offices. Lots of stuff could be done that has no effect on gameplay whatsoever. Even more subtley, some light changes (the occasional flickering light etc) could help even out the endless sea of grey.

Go compare the vanilla ops4 map with the SCP ops4 map. You may be surprised.

[6742aeb909d4bOlfred]

Y'know how the Command deck tram flings you forward when it stops?

I always thought it was very humorous and I would be kind of sad of it being gone.
But yeah, it's a bug.

[6742aeb909edbJDoran]

More variety in the 'virtual' paintings (the switchable pictures on the walls) would be great too. How about making them all unique for every place/cabin/etc? There must be all sorts of copyright-free photos and drawn images that can be used to give each location in the game [where there is a switchable picture device] a more unique and lived in feel.

[6742aeb90a1e9JML]

I always thought it was very humorous and I would be kind of sad of it being gone.
But yeah, it's a bug.

Just feels like the real deal. Hold on to those poles when entering the station, or faceplant into the next seat. 

[6742aeb90a314ZylonBane]

More of a design flaw than a bug. A real life tram wouldn't brake to a dead stop like that.

[6742aeb90a5e7RocketMan]

But could it be made to decelerate?

[6742aeb90a6bcZylonBane]

Ummmmm......

[6742aeb90a82avoodoo47]

aand beta5 is now postponed until the tram works just right.

[6742aeb90a928ZylonBane]

That's not what I meant. That was more of a "Umm... did you not watch or ever read the title of the above video?"

[6742aeb90aa12JML]

Still the decel starts like 1m before the stop. a real subway decels a hunded metres before. i see that the whole way is only about a hundred metres but still it decels too fast.

[6742aeb90aaf5ZylonBane]

A real subway train also has about a thousand times the mass of the Von Braun's little tin-can trams. This is more like an elevator coming to a stop.

[6742aeb90abcdOlfred]

Looking at the video. The tram doesn't really go that fast. So the deceleration is perfectly fine.

[6742aeb90adeeRocketMan]

That's not what I meant. That was more of a "Umm... did you not watch or ever read the title of the above video?"

Oh fuck I need to get more sleep. 

[6742aeb90af60ZylonBane]

Part of SCP has been dressing up some of the more obviously rushed areas of the game that just look like big empty boxes. But it's tricky avoiding going too far and ending up in the Deus Ex Revision zone, which is why I'd like some second opinions on what I'm currently doing with the Command deck shuttle bays. Here's the before and after.

Vanilla:

SCP Beta 5:

The intent here is to visually bring the Command shuttle bays in line with the training station and Engineering shuttle bays. Too much? Not enough?

[6742aeb90b20cGrosnus]

I just realized how ridiculous that hanging lamp was.

Big improvement over vanilla, definitely more like the station, less like a tomb. Only those drain covers in corners are bugging me a bit.
Seems a little too crowded there with all the texture details, or perhaps it's just the floor texture alignment - maybe add a buffer zone in between:

Also I prefer original scale of the floor texture - was there any particular reason to make it bigger?

[6742aeb90b303ZylonBane]

The floor texture scale was doubled a version or two ago in both the shuttle bays and attached cargo bays. The intent was to make those areas feel bigger by making the player feel smaller.

[6742aeb90b634RoSoDude]

New decals and details are a welcome addition, but I disagree (or at least strongly recommend caution) with the explosive tanks off to the side. Though they make sense for a shuttle bay to have, they also invite confusion when the player cannot actually interact with them in any way. I think it is generally a bad practice to include gameplay-relevant objects as pure decoration in inaccessible areas, especially in LGS-style games where the visual language around interactivity is so critical. The intro to SS2 is of course the exception, but it's not a problem there because you're stripped of all methods of interaction other than movement anyway, so explosive tanks don't register as an opportunity. For what it's worth, this issue was in fact one of my major problems with Revision, though it's obviously not like you're dangling weapon mods in front of the player.

Also, I assume the shield generator was moved so it would be symmetrical with the one in the other shield bay, right? Good thing to move it in Shuttle Bay B so the player still has the same amount of time to reach the ladder after using the sympathetic resonator in A.

I also like Grosnus' buffer zone between the vents and the floor texture proper.

[6742aeb90b747ZylonBane]

Yeah, I wasn't sure about those fuel barrels. I wanted to include them, but didn't want to modify the game space.

On the other hand it would just be adding a very small niche so maybe it doesn't matter.

[6742aeb90b8b7datiswous]

Maybe tone the use of yellow/black stripes down a bit (for example on the pillars). I don't see the point of the caution signs. I kind of like the hanging lamp, you could also make it hang closer to the ceiling (although this should realistically also make the lower section of the room darker). Drain covers are a bit over used I think, maybe use 4 smaller sections on the floor. For the rest very nice improvements.

[6742aeb90bb2bMarvin]

Remove barrels and window, rest is fine. Barrles and anything similar should/would be stored in the shuttle storage. Also, exploding stuff and shuttles don't mix (well, except for the resonator, I guess, but I don't know if that counts).

[6742aeb90bd99ZylonBane]

Also, exploding stuff and shuttles don't mix

And yet, every other shuttle bay in the game has those barrels in them.

[6742aeb90beb2voodoo47]

I don't lean in a particular way, but if added, the ones near the exploding shuttle should blow up as well once the resonator does its work.