Nameless_Voice on 15/6/2005 at 23:28

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It superimposes a grey 'plane' in front of the player's field of view. What this achieves is 1) increases the brightness of dark areas. 2) Decreases the contrast of everything. 3) Kills your eyes.
It's actually fairly easy to set up even if you can't handle ShockEd.
Just load ShockEd, load a map (I usually use MedSci1.mis), hit Alt+G to go into game mode, immediately hit Alt+E to switch back to the editor, press semicolon to get to the console, type in 'find_obj player' (without the quotes), type 'cam_to_brush' into the console, too. Then, click on the object that is inside and slightly larger than the selected one. That should be the Compass HUD. Then, just open it's properties and set them as I said earlier.


...Are there any plans for multiplayer support? I can see that, at the very least, my idea for Skate won't work properly in multiplayer (it would probably be applied to ALL players...).

I've managed to find out most of that information I asked for myself:

Player's battery size: 250 assumed.
Lantern: Version 1: 10. Version 2: 10/25. Version 3: 10/25/30
Sensaround: Version 1: 9. Version 2: 9. Version 3: ?
Shield: Version 1: ?. Version 2: 24/60. Version 3: 24/60/105. Version 4: 30
Infrared: Version 1: 50
Skate: Free
Booster: Version 1: ?. Version 2: 40
BioMonitor: Version 1: 1. Version 2: Free

Regarding the weapon energy usage, it just occured to me that you can adjust the power of each weapon via a slider, drasticly altering the power usage. (Hey, even the Plasma Gun uses nearly no power at the lowest setting!) I don't see how that will be possible in SS2. Maybe a few different settings, but I think you can only have 2-3 per weapon. So... which power usage is right? I'll just get them to use whatever is specified in the Setting # Ammo Usage property. ;)

Laser Rapier: I spent quite some time trying to count how many hits I could get before depleting the battery. I got varying amounts between 55 and 64, but maybe I miss-counted. And I was cheating a little by destroying corpses (which uses energy too) as well as foes. I think it's around 4 energy per strike = 62.5 strikes.

JumpJets: I can easily allow the player to 'fly' (free three-dimensional movement, as in water, gravshafts, etc.), but I don't see any easy way to only use power when the player is in the air/holding down the Jump key.
Unless I make the JumpJets shoot the player upwards while activated... but then they definitely need some kind of keyboard shortcut.
Version 3 JumpJets eat up the entire battery in about seven and a half seconds. That's around 33.3334 energy/sec and 2000 JPM.

Charge given by normal (non I-Cad) battery: 80. (Because it's enough for 46 seconds of 100 JPM. 60 / 46 = 1.25. 100 / 1.25 = 80.)

Security %: Cameras are worth 1 point; Nodes are worth 10. (Based on an analysis of security values from Decks 1 through 4.)
The messages displayed in System Shock round the Security % down to the nearest integer.

I just had another idea; since System Shock 1 doesn't have Cyber Modules, maybe they could be replaced with a Security % by modifying the stack count as the security level changes.
Nanites could be replaced with something else from the System Analyser, too.?

BioMonitor: I don't see much point, nor any easy way to set it up, so I think this is out.

Hardware Settings: I'm not sure to how to set up the different settings on those piece of hardware which should have them. For example, the multiple levels of brightness for the Lantern. One idea is to hack the 'Weapon Settings' overlay, which should work but has two problems: 1) It only supports two settings. (Lantern and Shield should both have 3.) 2) I can remove either the 'Modify' plug or the 'Unload' button, but can't seem to disable both. I wouldn't mind being able to remove the Modify plug altogether, since weapons cannot be modified in SS1.

Nameless_Voice on 18/6/2005 at 02:36

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Working on things some more, I've managed:

Security Systems: Working. Each security device adds a certain number of points to the map's security level when the map starts. The number of points is specifiable for each object. When an object is slain, the security level drops by the same amount, and the percent is calculated and displayed. The stack count of the player's Cyber Modules is updated to display the current security level.

Energy usage: I have the player's battery mostly working. The player starts with 250 energy (Psi points). Energy weapons draw from this battery. Batteries refill it by a specifiable amount (So one script can be used for both Battery Packs and I-Cad Batteries). I also have the basic hardware energy usage framework set up (eg., slowly drawing energy at a specified rate per minute), but at the moment there's nothing that uses it.

I'm still trying to think up an interface for the hardware.
One idea is to simply have each piece of hardware as an inventory item. Right-clicking on it would toggle that device on/off.
Another idea is to use the Renderer->Camera Attach property to attach buttons along one side of the player's screen. These would be visible at all times, but obviously you could only use them in Use Mode (since you don't have a cursor in Shoot Mode). Again, right-clicking on them would toggle the associated device on/off.

That's not really so important, as it wouldn't take long to swap between the two. The harder question is how to allow the player to choose the settings for each hardware piece. I've managed to get the Weapon Settings overlay to appear with neither the 'Unload' button or the 'Modify' plug (still only two settings, though); the question is how to trigger it? Right-clicking would already be used for the on/off toggle.
One idea (that would only work with the inventory hardware method) might be to trigger the Settings overlay by left-clicking on the item. This would normally pick it up out of your inventory for rearrangement or dropping. If I use this method (actually a hack to force the item out of the player's 'hand' and back into the inventory), you obviously wouldn't be able to move the hardware around in your inventory or drop it anymore. Also, as the hardware would be unsortable, each piece would have to have a predifined slot in the inventory so that all the hardware would be together. Unfortunately, I can't seem to load things into 'blocked' inventory slots (ones that would open if the player had more Strength), and there's only space for two implants.

Other ideas:
Using another object on the hardware to modify its settings. (In a similar fashion to Disposable Maintance Tools, for example.)
Move the hardware to a specific inventory location (an implant slot for example) to change its settings (this seems rather unintuitive).
Disable hardware settings altogether, and just give each piece one setting. :(


Anyone know why Skate, which uses no power, cannot be activated in SS1 when you have no power?

la0s on 20/6/2005 at 12:13

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how about having the icons displayed onscreen, and having three buttons mapped, two for browsing up/down and the last for activate/deactivate. You could the have the selected icon illuminated.

ZylonBane on 23/6/2005 at 01:39

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It's sort of a shame SS1 didn't implement the lantern as an item that had to be held to work, since I assume it'd be super-easy to implement a custom weapon in SS2 that casts light. But after all the hate Doom 3 got for that very setup, I assume this is a non-option.

Would it be possible to have the lantern continuously shoot an invisible light-casting projectile, to simulate a flashlight beam effect? Or would that just lag too much, in all senses of the word?

Pudding! on 24/6/2005 at 01:11

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Hey, I just remembered something... In SS1, you could go prone and lean at ridiculous angles.
(I still remember feeling like I was doing crazy bullet time stunts whenever I got hopped up on reflex patches after watching "The Matrix" and ran around with the Flechette screaming like a maniac. Good times. :D)

So anyway, is this going to be put in (the three "stances" and the uberlean) or is it even possible? The ability to lean that much did help at some times... at least for me. :)