Aroph on 3/1/2016 at 14:21
Hello, I'm new to System Shock 2. I found out about this game a very long time ago but I only started playing it recently.
I think I have a pretty good grasp on how to play the game and I find it really fun to play, from what I've gathered from an hour and a half of gameplay. I'm at Engineering so far, or whatever that place you get to by climbing down the stairs in the code-locked room is called.
I have a lot of questions, though. I'm not sure if this is the place to ask them but here goes nothing.
1. Is there any reliable and consistent way to hit monkeys with the wrench? I take the most damage from them because I always miss when I try to take a swing at them. Are monkeys common encounters or do they stop spawning after the beginning of the game?
2. Will melee Hybrids eventually stop spawning and be overridden by Shotgun Hybrid spawns? I'm starting to see only Shotgun Hybrids so far. Also, do Shotgun Hybrids have higher hitpoints?
3. Is it okay for me to shoot Security Cameras with my pistol? It's the only thing I really use my bullets on because I heard they're rare because I am very afraid of setting off another security alarm.
4. If I come face to face with another one of those big yellow robots and I don't have Armor Penetrating bullets, am I fucked? I met one in the hall as I was coming back from meeting Watt, and I used Armor Penetrating Bullets but it took 4 shots. I fear I will run out of these bullets, especially if these big yellow robots become a regular spawn.
5. How long do enemies chase you? From what I can see, they chase you for a long while and always know where you are once they get their sights on you, but is it possible for me to shake them off?
6. How do enemies detect you? I feel like it's really inconsistent from my short experience, because sometimes they see you from a mile away and sometimes they don't even notice when I'm right behind them.
7. Are Potted Plants important? I see so many of them and I feel like they might have something to do with Research but I really am not sure if they're worth keeping in my inventory.
8. Does my BrawnBooster Implant only run out if I start attacking or as time passes by?
9. Do Nanites eventually run out or can I obtain them through infinitely through enemy spawns?
10. Is there an easier way to climb ladders? I feel really vulnerable when I climb up or down ladders as I feel like an enemy will hit me while I'm facing the other way.
11. How do enemy respawns work? Is it based on time? Is it based on whether you left the area or not?
12. Should I put points in Research this early in the game?
13. Is it possible to kill Shotgun Hybrids without taking damage from them?
14. Am I supposed to be avoiding enemies or killing every single one I meet? I'm not sure if I'm playing the game right because I prefer to clear out all enemies from an area before looking around.
These are all I can think of for now, and I'm sorry again for the amount of questions. I just like to have a firm idea of a game's mechanics when I play it. And again, this is a really fun and engaging game. Very scary. I am not good at playing scary games.
Nameless Voice on 3/1/2016 at 14:46
1. Try crouching while swinging at monkeys.
2. Shotgun hybrids have double the hit points of pipe ones. You will usually continue to see both through most of the game.
3. It's a survival horror game, so ammunition and supplies are somewhat rare, but not excessively so. You can use bullets when necessary. If you waste too many, you'll instead be forced to rely on your wrench until you find more.
4. Normal bullets and weapons will still damage droids, but are much less effective (you'll need far more bullets.)
5. Enemies can lose you if they lose sight of you for a while, especially in darker areas.
6. They have fully working senses of sight and hearing, exactly the same as in the Thief games. They can see you (better in well-lit areas, though SS2 isn't usually that dark), they can hear you or your weapons, or they can inform each other about your location or become alerted by finding bodies.
7. No, potted plants are merely decorative. Later on, you can recycle them for one nanite each, if you wish.
8. All implants drain energy over time when they are equipped.
9. You can always obtain a small amount of nanites by farming spawning enemies.
10. That's how ladders work in real life?
11. Respawning is complicated, but the main factors are how many enemies are left in the area, and time.
12. That's up to you. You generally only want to put points into Research to meet skill requirements to research something. There's an implant that gives you +1 Research that you can also make use of.
13. Of course.
14. Depends on your play style.
ZylonBane on 3/1/2016 at 15:53
Speaking of killing monkeys, the upper collision sphere on monkeys actually is too low-- it doesn't enclose most of the monkey's head. Shock Community Patch as of beta 2 fixes this.
D'Arcy on 3/1/2016 at 16:03
Unless playing on Impossible, I usually kill maintenance (yellow) bots with the wrench. They don't have a melee attack and they have a tendency to try to move backwards in order to shoot at you, so if you're able to keep close to them and move around so that they don't back up against a wall, you take almost no damage (until they explode, of course). Heck, I kill almost everything with the wrench or the rapier in the earlier levels (protocol droids are an obvious exception, but I do like to try to smash them with the lifts in the Cargo Bays).
zoog on 3/1/2016 at 16:20
Quote:
protocol droids are an obvious exception
You can detonate them and sneak around the near corner before they actually burst.
zoog on 3/1/2016 at 16:23
9. Also possible to play save-and-load with a slot machine%)
Nameless Voice on 3/1/2016 at 18:50
Quote Posted by zoog
You can detonate them and sneak around the near corner before they actually burst.
That's the cowards way. Real men/women do it without the corner.
Aroph on 4/1/2016 at 07:16
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
1. Try crouching while swinging at monkeys.
2. Shotgun hybrids have double the hit points of pipe ones. You will usually continue to see both through most of the game.
3. It's a survival horror game, so ammunition and supplies are somewhat rare, but not excessively so. You can use bullets when necessary. If you waste too many, you'll instead be forced to rely on your wrench until you find more.
4. Normal bullets and weapons will still damage droids, but are much less effective (you'll need far more bullets.)
5. Enemies can lose you if they lose sight of you for a while, especially in darker areas.
6. They have fully working senses of sight and hearing, exactly the same as in the Thief games. They can see you (better in well-lit areas, though SS2 isn't usually that dark), they can hear you or your weapons, or they can inform each other about your location or become alerted by finding bodies.
7. No, potted plants are merely decorative. Later on, you can recycle them for one nanite each, if you wish.
8. All implants drain energy over time when they are equipped.
9. You can always obtain a small amount of nanites by farming spawning enemies.
10. That's how ladders work in real life?
11. Respawning is complicated, but the main factors are how many enemies are left in the area, and time.
12. That's up to you. You generally only want to put points into Research to meet skill requirements to research something. There's an implant that gives you +1 Research that you can also make use of.
13. Of course.
14. Depends on your play style.
Thanks for the many answers, friend. I looked up some gameplay and saw a guy just circling around Shotgun Hybrids while hitting them and taking almost no damage, so I guess that's the way to do it.
Aroph on 4/1/2016 at 07:28
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Speaking of killing monkeys, the upper collision sphere on monkeys actually is too low-- it doesn't enclose most of the monkey's head. Shock Community Patch as of beta 2 fixes this.
Thanks for the suggestion. I never really like mods on my games but some of the gameplay videos on YouTube make the game look a LOT better with some graphics mods.
Although I think for my first playthrough I'll stick with the original experience and keep the files untouched.
voodoo47 on 4/1/2016 at 14:34
SCP is not a graphics update.. ok, it sort of is, because of its 32bit lighting, but the main focus is always bugfixing, bugfixing, and even more bugfixing. anyway, this is basically System Shock2 Gold, recommended for everyone, even first time players - actually, the description I tend to use when asked about what SCP is is "bugfix patch/mod that can be recommended to a first time player with a straight face".
so unless you really, and absolutely want to experience the game with all the issues that were not resolved by the last official update, and want to see all the original really awful lowres (object) textures, your default mod loadout should be SCP+SHTUP-ND. no one should be playing SS2 without those two nowadays.
