Deus Ex GMDX: Deus Ex Advancement Mod v9 Released!

[CyberP]

CyberP Umm, how thoroughly do you test your mod? I ran into an "interesting" issue on the "unknown location" map where you are trying to escape from Unatco/MJ12. You find a data cube on the guard desk near your cells which says use code 4089 on the detention block doors, BUT the keypad next to that door only has space for 3 digits, so it obviously fails to open the door. I haven't been able to find anything on this bug on google, so I am wondering if it's the mod.

A last minute cock-up. You'll find the true code (101) in the room though, and there are two other solutions to escape.

If I didn't thoroughly test the mod you'd know about it. You'd be posting extensive bug reports rather than this one-off coming on half way through the game.

Also, the mod isn't truly done yet. You are essentially a tester. When I am finally done there will be a relatively large scale testing session before release.
This isn't easy, it is extremely complex work taking on multiple development roles on a piece of software like DX, and your presumptuous sarcastic attitude in that post was a little grating. Be a little understanding please. I am not offering you a priced product, I am offering you a work of art, no catch.

Anyway, I am not the God from the machine. A mere human, sadly. Mistakes happen, and will always be rectified as long as I am still working on this.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

A last minute cock-up. You'll find the true code (101) in the room though, and there are two other solutions to escape.

If I didn't thoroughly test the mod you'd know about it. You'd be posting extensive bug reports rather than this one-off coming on half way through the game.

Also, the mod isn't truly done yet. You are essentially a tester. When I am finally done there will be a relatively large scale testing session before release.
This isn't easy, it is extremely complex work taking on multiple development roles on a piece of software like DX, and your presumptuous sarcastic attitude in that post was a little grating. Be a little understanding please. I am not offering you a priced product, I am offering you a work of art, no catch.

Anyway, I am not the God from the machine. A mere human, sadly. Mistakes happen, and will always be rectified as long as I am still working on this.

Haha, relax man, it wasn't presumptiously sarcastic. I was actually pretty frustrated at the time, because I thought my entire game was borked since I couldn't use the other ways of getting by there due to skill points/equipment shortage and spent some time searching google for the solution tot his bug. So given all that, I think my post was fairly polite.

We appreciate your work on this, and I gave you props before, but for something like this, since based on your previous comments you've known about this potential game-stopping bug for a while, you should really put some info regarding it on the front page of this thread and on ModDB until the next version is out. Something like "Known Bug: etc etc, solution: etc".

 

[CyberP]

Understood. And yeah, I probably should do that.

 

[Icewater]

Revision features an Arx Fatalis-inspired crypt horror section with magic swords and such.

wtf, really? where? that sounds pretty lame

 

[CyberP]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csEBzW1_DxA

It looks cool, I'd play it, but it and some other things is why it probably won't be compatible regardless. I have to make that decision as many are pretty much expecting me to make them compatible and these things take a lot of work. My final decision will be saved for when/if I play it.
Note the date though. The mod could be completely different at this stage.

It's like a Thief/Arx dual allusion. More in the case of Arx though.

Edit: basically, in their own words, "Revision is a re-imagining of the Deus Ex world.", meaning things will at times be very different. GMDX isn't a re-imagining, it is advancement of Ion Storm's intended design, so therefore they are incompatible from a design standpoint.

 

[CyberP]

Updated GMDX Options Menu:

Also comes with tips for new and old functionality alike.

Other minor things:

-Rebreathers now gradually restore breath over time as opposed to refilling your breath instantly and keeping it full, and do not last as long. Is more realistic and better in regards to gameplay too. Also placed a couple rebreathers back in the game world.
-During the UNATCO raid of the 'Ton Paul can now be killed and must be defended if you wish to save him. If you hide in his cupboard and leave him to fight alone he will die.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Couple of suggestions/ideas based on my playthrough so far (I am in Hong Kong now):

1) I would advise you to separate the AI from the save system. When you select the hardcore mode now, it states that it has the most advanced AI. I think you should place this advanced AI in both Hardcore and in the previous difficulty setting (Realistic?), because some people might want to experience the best AI but not necessarily the save-point system. I am playing on Hardcore now and enjoying the AI improvements quite a bit, but the save system is getting on my nerves sometimes, because you have to do so many things perfectly in between saves, you end up having to repeat certain tough sequences many MANY times, and while I can put up with it having played many mission based games like that before, I don't think this is what the typical RPG fan wants to do. So it would be great to be able to select the improved AI by itself.

2) I know you are a fan of simulation as am I, so one thing that might be great to improve (although I have no idea how feasible it is practically speaking) is information usage. What I mean is, by exploring the level, you find information, in data cubes, from conversations, etc. You can then use this information to make progress. However, once you do this once, you can then use this info from meta sources (your previous knowledge) and progress without actually having to "discover" it in-game. For example, say the pass code to a door you need to get through is in a room with 4 heavily armed guards. The first time, you manage to defeat them and get the code. But if you fail to complete that level on that playthrough, you can then use that code from memory/your notes and use it without actually having to find it in that room. This is sort of like cheating. Personally, I make myself "discover" it again in those cases, but it would be nice if the game actually enforced this, if that's possible.

 

[CyberP]

Suggestion 1: I don't want to have to do the same thing over and over.

Suggestion 2: I want to be forced to do the same thing over.



"you end up having to repeat certain tough sequences many MANY times"

It creates a scenario where you are actually presented with a real, intelligence and skill-based challenge, and all those many, many game systems and options have far greater relevance. All you must do is use your intelligence (primarily) to overcome the challenge. And that isn't an insult, I've been there, getting my ass whooped by my own mod. The best thing you can do when getting your ass kicked is try a different approach. Actually use those resources you have been hording and such. You get stubborn and want to keep trying the same approach which may not be optimal for the type of build you have, or your skillz & mental traits as a player may just fail you on that specific challenge. So I always say if one approach isn't working for you, try another or change tactics and make use of all tools at your disposal. It makes DX's diverse range of options and deep gameplay shine in a new light.
You did say that you hadn't played DX in many years, so hardcore mode may not have been right for you until you had played GMDX on a lower difficulty.

Anyway, I agree with your suggestions. Best AI being a feature of both realistic and hardcore would be nice (though I still would prefer players conform; many hardcore haters have), and using pre-acquired information probably shouldn't be an option.

Suggestion 1 will likely be done at some point. Suggestion 2 I'm not certain. The way it is done in vanilla DX, well you know the keypad to the Luminous Path compound in HK? Code is 1997 (pre-production starting year of DX I'm guessing), but you cannot use it until after you receive the code. What the developers did is when you get the code a flag is set. Then the flag is checked and if the conditions are met then the keypad (which is a dummy) is deleted and a new one that actually accepts the code is set in the same place.
As you can guess, using this method for every piece of usable information in the game is something I will decline. Maybe a better method could be cooked up, but I don't consider it of notable importance unfortunately and GMDX has been designed with this in mind when balancing options anyway...within reason.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Suggestion 1: I don't want to have to do the same thing over and over.

Suggestion 2: I want to be forced to do the same thing over.

Well, the 2nd part WAS based on my current hardcore save-point playthrough, so my suggestion mostly had to do with that difficulty. On other difficulties, it wouldn't matter, as you would just save after discovering any important info. I could've made that clearer.

"you end up having to repeat certain tough sequences many MANY times"

It creates a scenario where you are actually presented with a real, intelligence and skill-based challenge, and all those many, many game systems and options have far greater relevance. All you must do is use your intelligence (primarily) to overcome the challenge. And that isn't an insult, I've been there, getting my ass whooped by my own mod. The best thing you can do when getting your ass kicked is try a different approach. Actually use those resources you have been hording and such. You get stubborn and want to keep trying the same approach which may not be optimal for the type of build you have, or your skillz & mental traits as a player may just fail you on that specific challenge. So I always say if one approach isn't working for you, try another or change tactics and make use of all tools at your disposal. It makes DX's diverse range of options and deep gameplay shine in a new light.
You did say that you hadn't played DX in many years, so hardcore mode may not have been right for you until you had played GMDX on a lower difficulty.

It's not so much about difficulty per se, but achieving perfection. There are certain aspects of the game which you can't control completely (like real life). For example if there is a gunfight, since you are fragile and AI has great aim on harder difficulty settings and powerful weapons, it's pretty easy to die no matter how well you play. Similarly, if you use stealth, with all the cameras, NPCs, bots, etc around, there is a chance you will get discovered even if you play it very well. And then as you play, you put together the series of steps you need to perform, but since there are many of them, it's easy to forget the exact thing you are supposed to do and make some small mistake. And that's before you even get to stuff like computer crashing to desktop (happened to me a few times), or the AI becoming aware of you when it had no reason to. So when you have a lot of these steps to perform between save points, even if you have good mastery of each step, the chances of one of them failing are very high, and then you have to keep doing it, and the more you do it, the more frustrated you get, and then commit more mistakes because of that.

That's not to knock your hardcore mode, I kinda enjoy it in a masochistic way, it really makes me feel good when I complete an objective, but I do think it should be separate from other stuff.

 

[CyberP]

"For example if there is a gunfight, since you are fragile and AI has great aim on harder difficulty settings and powerful weapons, it's pretty easy to die no matter how well you play."

I cannot disagree more. The number of deaths I attribute to the game rather than my own failings as a player is next to none. It is designed to be that way. I am not masochistic. Trial and error should be kept to a minimum. If I die and it wasn't my fault, I couldn't have avoided it by just being better, then you can bet I will fix that shit. Instances of repeated failure should be few and far between.
I just don't think hardcore was right for you, having completed DX only once many years ago.
Extensive knowledge of how the many game systems work is required for hardcore mode ideally, otherwise it could become trail and error, yet a player lacking in knowledge shouldn't even be on hardcore. You don't jump into any new game you get on the hardest difficulty (or at least you wouldn't in the 90's)...but yes, I was the one who recommended it to you.

Maybe I should make it have to be unlocked by beating the game first.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

"For example if there is a gunfight, since you are fragile and AI has great aim on harder difficulty settings and powerful weapons, it's pretty easy to die no matter how well you play."

I cannot disagree more. The number of deaths I attribute to the game rather than my own failings as a player is next to none. It is designed to be that way. I am not masochistic. Trial and error should be kept to a minimum. If I die and it wasn't my fault, I couldn't have avoided it by just being better, then you can bet I will fix that shit. Instances of repeated failure should be few and far between.
I just don't think hardcore was right for you, having completed DX only once many years ago.
Extensive knowledge of how the many game systems work is required for hardcore mode ideally, otherwise it could become trail and error, yet a player lacking in knowledge shouldn't even be on hardcore. You don't jump into any new game you get on the hardest difficulty (or at least you wouldn't in the 90's)...but yes, I was the one who recommended it to you.

Maybe I should make it have to be unlocked by beating the game first.

It's all good, I am making good progress. But I still think lots of repetition is unavoidable in save-point mode. It's not something exclusive to Deus Ex or your mod, all games that have limited saves are that way, like the Hitman series for example. It is extremely hard to nail everything down exactly right on a single playthrough, which results in the need for multiple ones.

Take the combat example above. Enemies hit really hard, you have low health, they strafe in really herky-jerky ways common to older shooters that makes it really hard to hit them with say a pistol, and after a certain point, most of them can take at least 2 shots to the head, and usually there is a whole bunch of them and one of you. On top of that, their behavior is somewhat unpredictable, sometimes some guys from the next room will join in, others they will stay there and ignore, and so on. So really, things can go either way. But the problem starts when that fight comes after 10 minutes of tense gameplay where you overcame lots of other obstacles, and if you fail this particular fight, you will have to play through those 10 minutes again.

Of course you can do various things to cheese your way through, exploiting the AI or pathfinding or some OP ability, but personally, I don't like doing that, so I am just talking about regular play.

 

[CyberP]

Sure, some repetition is unavoidable unless you're truly amazing. But in Deus Ex it never really is truly repetitive due to the way things play out differently pretty much every attempt. And it is also part of the point: adequate consequence for death. All games should have it. Being a gamer that got to experience the '90s in all its glory, more than half of the games had these rules. Not a vita chamber respawning you around the corner without any adverse effects. Also endurance; you have to pass the whole section with a continuous display of skill and good decision making. Not just one challenge, but multiple in succession without too many fuckups (as Deus Ex is lenient on fuck ups).

By the way if you're having trouble just press the magic inventory awesome button. Pauses time. That's when you spam medkits, activate ballistic armor, Aggressive Defense if necessary, ballistic protection aug, regeneration, speed enhancement (to fight or just run away), targeting or vision or so on. I've considered making inventory/UI use real time, exclusive to hardcore. THAT would truly live up to the hardcore moniker.
For refusing to ever get caught in the first place intelligent use of cloaking (activate when an enemy catches sight of you but hasn't confirmed a visual) can ensure you stay hidden too, providing you have the energy. Speed enhancement + cloak combo is open to limited exploitation too. Just activate and run.
There is nothing more OP than the player. The AI are just a bunch of fucktards that sometimes get the one up over the player's poor decision making and/or skill.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Some more feedback (I am enjoying the mod a lot overall, but a little constructive criticism, don't get pissed now ):

Money - I've been playing with the Hardcore+ option enabled, and I am always broke. The 100 credits you have to pay for every save (other than auto-saves) is putting a dent into my already thin wallet. But it's more than that. Most credit chits I find are like 25 credits. You can't sell anything you don't need, so the only income are the credit chits you find in the game. I'm sure I've missed some hidden/optional areas with credits, but overall, I've been doing a decent job of exploring and following up on side quests involving money:

Spoiler

e.g. cleaned out the safe in the Hong Kong store next to the Red Arrow restaurant, cleaned out the safe in the Parisian night club, stolen credits from several atm accounts, etc

And yet I am still always broke, almost never able to buy anything from NPCs that offer goods for money. Part of it is the save cost in credits, part low amount of money you find, and also, some side quests just screw you over:

Spoiler

the above mentioned Parisian night club safe job, the girl in the club asks for 200 credits to tell you safe code, and assures you there is a lot more money in there, but I only found 100 credits in it (and a few other things, but money-wise it was a loss)

So I think the financial balance might need to be adjusted a bit for more enjoyable gameplay, although you don't wanna go too far the other way and be swimming in money like in most RPGs. Just a little bit.

Glock/Stealth Pistol/Crossbow:

I read that your mod allows a silencer for the Glock pistol. I have yet to see it and I am already well into Paris. Does it become available later or did I miss it? The reason I ask is I believe RPGs should allow the player their choice of weapon, i.e. the weapon they like. Of course in a game like Deus Ex at times you have to use other weapons too for various reasons and thats ok, but without a silencer, the regular pistol is a much worse option than stealth pistol and crossbow, and yet it's by far the coolest looking and conceptually coolest weapon among those 3. In all action movies pretty much, people run around with pistols, not crossbows or that hideously ugly thing that the stealth pistol is. So anyways, if I did miss the pistol silencer, and I am a fairly thorough player, maybe it would be better if it was available in a harder to miss area, unless it's lying on your desk at unatco and I just missed that.

 

[CyberP]

You've missed two silencers at the point you are at.. There are three in the mod overall (enough to silence a pistol, machine guns an rifle - all gun classes that accept them).

Hardcore+, like I said I hadn't tested it (beyond making it sure it works, of course) but I have had others playthrough with it. But the point is adding extra risk vs reward dynamic - if you want money to buy stuff you have to actually choose to pass a save point here and there...a major intense risk as you can screw yourself over. You're p.hardcore for choosing it, but remember you can choose to disable it at any time. It is service for the extra insane players. I will remember your complaint of the balancing of it though, and if it comes up again in the future by other players I'll have to play through with it myself and polish it up.

also, some side quests just screw you over:

Hide Spoiler
the above mentioned Parisian night club safe job, the girl in the club asks for 200 credits to tell you safe code, and assures you there is a lot more money in there, but I only found 100 credits in it (and a few other things, but money-wise it was a loss)

Well there's a few times you can buy information in the game - passcodes and and such, and there's never any guarantee that you'd get monetary returns in full. You're almost always guaranteed to be adequately rewarded, but it is usually a case of ammo and other resources. Why would you expect otherwise unless the lady specifically said there would be money in there? Edit: oh that's right, she does. Well that's just hilarious that she scams the player. But yes, there's plenty other stuff in there anyway.

 

[Icewater]

I'm really bored and love Deus Ex, think I'm going to give this a try. Hope it doesn't rape my buttholio. Will report back!

Edit: While I'm at it, what other mods are good? Specifically graphics. I think there's a texture pack and an updated renderer.

 

[CyberP]

If you don't want a hard time, just pick normal difficulty or something.

GMDX comes with all the graphics mods. Just follow the installation guide to the latter: http://www.moddb.com/mods/gmdx/tutorials/gmdx-v6-installation-guide

Also consider asking for v8. It is relatively polished as it is always getting tested by players.

Here's the v8 changelog:

Spoiler

AI:

-When killing the enemy with high-powered weaponry they are knocked back by the force. AI also sometimes drop their weapon when killed this way.
-If chasing the player, dogs (Doberman only) bark a ton and alert enemies. Doberman also have a new sighting sound, new variation of attack sound and run & attack faster.
-If an alarm is sounded enemy backup is called in (in high security areas only).
-All AI that use projectile weapons (rockets, Greasel spit, grenades etc) have an element of randomization to whether or not they will use target leading to predict your future position when moving. In short, when you are moving sometimes they will fire straight at your position, other times they will attempt to predict where you will be when firing their projectiles. This change makes thier attacks a little less predictable & abusable (before you could strafe left/right repeatedly to abuse the AI calculations).
-When using ranged attacks, Grays alternate between focused attacks and wide spread attacks. Gray also always fire directly at your postion, no target leading.
-Turrets rotate a little faster.
-Blowing up NPCs doesn't destroy their inventories (Credit: Yuki of Shifter).
-Increased the range at which AI can use the flamethrower.
-If a military bot stomps over a corpse the corpse will gib.
-Gave some types of MiB 2052's answer to the Typhoon aug.
-Whilst AI death animation is playing there is no longer invisible collision that blocks bullets and enemy decision-making algorithms.
-A focus on making AI/the game a little easier on lower difficulty levels.
-Improved various Karkian stats but lowered health.
-EMP damage causes an augmented MIB's augmentations to malfunction.
-Yet more appropriate variation in pain, death and knockout sounds.
-Gave Simons a number of performance-related buffs.
-AI burn faster/dont run around on fire for too long.
-AI no longer set off their own blue beam triggers (in addition to laser alarm triggers implemented in an earlier version).
-Slowed down the augmented mibs movement speed by 11%
-Grays are no longer immune to the plasma rifle.

AI camping system improvements:

-Some campers no longer camp & instead advance on the player under certain conditions.
-All campers do not immediately forget about the player.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weapons:

-Added weapon sway animation when running.
-Added new ammo type: gamma-ionized plasma ammo for the plasma rifle. Reduced default plasma ammo pickup counts to compensate.
-When aiming through a scope the view is twice as big.
-Recoil system further improved: recoil is no longer bound by firing animation and the view interpolation is much faster.
-Weapons that fire multiple projectiles no longer display the damage value of all projectiles multiplied, but rather the value of a single projectile.
-The Sawed-off shotgun now ejects shell casings when you cock the pump, not immediately upon firing.
-Hipfiring with the sniper is now unreliable unless you mod it and/or are skilled in rifles.
-Lowered Assault gun range and restored its compatibility with range mods now that they are worthwhile.
-Adjusted the viewoffset & fireoffset for various weapons (their positioning when held by JC and the location the projectile is spawned from
respectively). Also rotated the held assault gun, sawed-off & the flamethrower models so they aim at a more realistic angle.
-The PS20 has color-coded ammo based on mode (if setting is enabled).
-Increased the base firing rate of numerous weapons.
-Refined the GEP gun remote controlled rockets behaviour.
-The UMP no longer has a sight rail & red dot sight.
-Reduced Taser dart ammo pickup count per pickup by 1.
-Reduced the radius of AI-alerting sound produced by the darts & throwing knifes.
-Sped up LAW rocket a little.

Further Weapon modding system expansions:

-New weapon mods: damage.
-Added a "Installed Modifications" display to weapon inventory descriptions. This shows all the weapon mods you have installed with clarity.
-Installing weapon mods produces various different sounds based on type.
-GEP can have rate of fire mods and rifle can have range mods.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Effects:

-Thermoptic camo provides a visual cloaking effect when active.
-Altered drug/poison effects (such as when hit by a tranquilizer dart): FOV isn't lowered and held weapons do not disappear.
-Various new effects when shooting Bots with different ammo types.
-Improved enemy cloak activation effect.
-Crossbow Dart effect can be seen when fired by enemies too, making them easier to dodge.
-Added glass crack decal when attacking glass with melee weapons or guns.
-More explosion effect refinements.
-Improved the muzzle flash effects of both shotguns.
-Added new effects for when landing into water from height.
-Made some minor tweaks to flamethrower effects.
-New electro-shock effect when zapped by spiderbots. Only happens if shocked in the head.
-Improved EMP grenade explosion effects.
-Refined simulated camera effects (when shooting, flinching, landing from height etc).

Further expanded gore (all can be disabled via in-game options):

-Added head decapitation to high-damaging weapons.
-Improved the blood spurt effect when player and enemies are shot.
-Added new blood splat effect if a pint of blood goes in your face.
-Improved effects when attacking & destroying carcasses.
-Visual improvements to plasma gibs.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audio:

-Audio design has recieved considerable focus this release, adding as many new sounds
as those added over all the previous versions of GMDX combined. Examples:
-The HUD alerts you when bioenergy is low.
-New ambient sounds added to maps.
-Added various new sounds when landing onto surfaces from height, based on surface texture (wood, metal etc).
-New sounds when in and floating on the surface of water.
-Many new weapon sounds.
-More new interaction sounds.
-Added new sound for eating candy bars and drinking alcohol.
-New "break legs" sound when falling from great height.
-various new sounds for installing weapon mods.
-New sounds for installing & upgrading augmentations.
-More new pain and death sounds for NPCs.
-Spiderbots have a unique sound when damaged.
-Added gore splat sounds for when the gore falls off the wall/ceiling and hits the ground.
-New Grenade launcher fire sound added (and also increased g.launcher rate of fire).
-Added a new death sound exclusive to headshots by bullets.
-Gave the sword a more suitable drop sound.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Miscellaneous:

-Decoration & pickups have spoofed physics when taking damage as well as bumping into each other. Also improved pool ball physics.
-Improved & polished the mantling system.
-The conditions for dropping & throwing inventory items are far more lenient. You'll see a "you cannot drop this here" message much less often.
-Added configuration option that if enabled automatically holsters weapons when attempting to pick up carryable decoration.
-You can now destroy control panels as an alternative to hacking them. However, they have a very high damage threshold.
-Walking & running speed is faster, and less noise is produced when walking.
-Hardcore expansion: in Hardcore mode you are forced to walking and must use the sprint key (default shift) to run. Stamina also drains faster
when running in hardcore mode.
-Changed some font styles to be less ugly.
-Candy Bars heal 3 points of health & bioenergy, and Soy Food restores 7 health. This is to create deeper choice over what food to eat now
that there is a drink/eat appetite limit.
-Improvements to the fragility of fragile objects such as being broken when stepped on or having another object dropped on top.
-Cigarette & vending machines display how many credits are required.
-Lowered biocell recharge amount to 20 and lowered max carry amount to 20.
-Added more new interactive decorations.
-Reduced the additional damage the player recieves based on difficulty level by 25% on all difficulty modes to counteract the lethality boosts of weapons.
-Decoration in flight damages the player if heavy & fast enough.
-Throwing reasonably heavy objects at NPCs damages them (regardless of microfibral muscle use) and altered a number of object mass values for realism.
-Lowered the sound radius of alarms a little.
-added randomized tips that appear in the GMDX options menu.
-Pickups break when thrown against walls.

New Stamina system:

-Aqualung reduces stamina drain & increases stamina regeneration.
-Swimming skill now named "Athletics" & increases total stamina in addition to the vanilla perks.
-Low-Tech reduces stamina drain from swinging melee weapons.
-Stealth skill enables stamina regeneration when crouch-walking.
-The oxygen meter text is now blue and always visible (as it doubles as stamina/breath & stamina bar are one and the same).

The stamina system has great impact on a number of systems and results in more tactical and in-depth gameplay.

---------------------------------------------------------

Augmentations:

-Radar Transparency now has a resonating visual effect when active (unique to the visual effect cloak provides). Also has toggle sfx, again
like cloaking does.
-Reduced speed gained by speed enhancement since base running speed is now faster. Jumping remains untouched. This also further helps balance
the speed enhance vs silent running choice.
-Lvl 4 of the Microfibral muscle aug makes you immune to dropping held decorative objects when shot.
-Updated various aug descriptions for clarity.

Spy drone:

-The Spy Drone now has cloaking (AI never reacted to the spy drone, so this gives good reasoning as to why).
-Use mouse right click to emit noise from the drone and distract enemies from their patrols.

----------------------------------------------------------

Skills:

-Hacking into ATMs now requires advanced hacking skill. Re-balanced the skill costs.
-Increased the sound radius of the demolition skill advanced proximity mine beeping.
-Environmental Resistance skill makes you immune to movement penalties when taking explosive & electrical damage.
-Rebreathers now gradually restore breath over time as opposed to refilling your breath instantly and keeping it full, and do not last as long.
Also placed a couple rebreathers back in the game world.
-Updated various skill descriptions for clarity and minor balancing tweaks to skill costs.

New Armor System:

-Ballistic Vests and Hazmat suits only degrade with sustained damage. Tech Goggles, Rebreathers and Thermoptic Camos remain time-based.
-At low Environmental Training skill levels hazmats and bal. vests do not last long. At high levels they will last longer, but not so much so
to be detrimental to game balance.
-Hazmat protects against 60% hazard damage and ballistic vest protects against 30% bullet damage. (constant values regardless of skill level).
-Ballistic vest no longer protects you against explosive damage; bullets and melee only.
-Increased skill point costs of environmental training skill back closer to vanilla levels now that the skill is worth it.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Bugs:

-You cannot shoot when dying. (vanilla bugfix).
-Fixed the flamethrower fire sound not playing under certain conditions (Vanilla bugfix).
-Old vanilla bugfix not listed in previous versions: Turret Rotation is optimal (turrets would not always aim at the player correctly).
-Fixed new game inventory bug for good (vanilla bugfix).
-Fixed MJ12 Lab inventory exploit for good (vanilla bugfix).
-Flares no longer ignite when thrown at NPCs. (GMDX bugfix)
-Fixed Heavy weapon inventory size reduction quirk where the weapon's size was not reduced until they were in your inventory first. (GMDX bugfix)
-Fixed the spy drone malfunctioning if used in combination with synthetic heart. (GMDX)
-Fixed a bug where you could mantle onto thrown weapons. (GMDX)
-AI no longer get angered if they witness you kill a rat (GMDX).
-In v7 death sounds were prevented from playing when an NPC is blown up. Instead pain sounds decided to play in place of them, and this is now fixed.
-Fixed a bug where radar Transparency only let you pass through laser beams at lvl 1. (GMDX).
-Fixed stealth pistol rate of fire issues. (GMDX)
-Fixed a bug that prevented the new lvl 4 energy shield visual effect from displayingwhen taking energy damage (GMDX).
-The Synthetic heart aug doesn't conflict with the Targeting, Ballistic Protection and Vision augs when upgraded to max level (GMDX).
-Fixed an issue where rubber bullets would sometimes go into a bouncing fit. (GMDX)
-Made some additional performance optimizations.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Maps/Level Design:


All the maps have recieved attention as usual, but the below are the major recievers this time around.

-Liberty Island (All visits).
-UNATCO (All visits).
-Battery Park (All visits).
-Hotel (All visits).
-NYC Streets (All visits).
-Smugglers (All visits).
-Airfield Helibase
-747
-Hangar
-Tongs base
-Hong Kong MJ12 Lab
-Paris Metro
-Paris Everett
-Oceanlab_lab

-During the UNATCO raid of the 'Ton Paul can now be killed and must be defended if you wish to save him. If you hide in his cupboard and leave
him to fight alone he will die.
-Improved the scripting of the MJ12 ambush and UNATCO Troop events on NYC Streets 08
-Fixed an error with the prison cell door code during the UNATCO escape.
-Restored friendly status of troops in the Hong Kong Versalife lvl 1 labs, but made them far more reactive to bad behavior they observe in the player.

 

[Icewater]

Is v8 going to be out soon?

 

[CyberP]

No. I recommend you take what I have now. Don't consider it a beta build, because you won't feel like it is. I'm always on top of things despite the complexity of the game. I only have 1 known minor bug to commit to currently, for example.

I want you to experience it in it's updated state, because it has loads of cool new stuff: the physics improvements, new damage weapon mods and UI screen, new stamina system, yet more improved AI, the new considerable level & audio design improvements...big stuff. I'm really proud of it.

But it is your choice, of course. Either way you'll have to download v7 first anyway for the .exe

 

[Icewater]

I've been playing v8 and so far it's very good. I only have one issue—not actually with the mod, but with the DX10 render: if I'm in the dark and using the flashlight, some surfaces will either flicker or be solid black. I've had the same issue using this renderer with other Unreal engine games too. If I save and then reload it'll temporarily fix it there but it always quickly shows up somewhere else. I tried messing with the settings and searching the internet for possible solutions but haven't turned up anything, which is unfortunate because DX10 is otherwise beautiful. Any ideas?

 

[CyberP]

I use DX9, the one that ENB Series uses, but I don't enable the effects (brute force bump mapping and bloom) as they don't look good. The ENB version of the DX9 renderer is just as good as DX10 but without the glitchyness and longer loading times. Here's my configuration, feel free to copy/paste to your DeusEx.ini found in DeusEx\GMDX\System:

[D3D9Drv.D3D9RenderDevice]
ZRangeHack=True
NoAATiles=False
NumAASamples=4
UseAA=True
RequestHighResolutionZ=True
UseSoftwareVertexProcessing=False
UsePureDevice=False
UseTripleBuffering=True
MaskedTextureHack=True
SmoothMaskedTextures=True
SceneNodeHack=True
FrameRateLimit=30
SwapInterval=-1
UseFragmentProgram=False
UseVertexProgram=False
TexDXT1ToDXT3=True
DynamicTexIdRecycleLevel=100
CacheStaticMaps=True
UseTexPool=True
UseTexIdPool=True
UseSSE2=False
UseSSE=False
BufferTileQuads=True
BufferClippedActorTris=True
SinglePassDetail=False
SinglePassFog=False
ColorizeDetailTextures=False
DetailClipping=True
UseDetailAlpha=True
DetailMax=0
RefreshRate=0
MaxTMUnits=0
NoFiltering=False
MaxAnisotropy=8
Use565Textures=False
Use16BitTextures=False
UseS3TC=True
UseAlphaPalette=True
UseTrilinear=True
UsePrecache=False
UsePalette=False
UseMultiTexture=True
MaxLogTextureSize=16
MinLogTextureSize=0
MaxLogVOverU=8
MaxLogUOverV=8
OneXBlending=True
GammaCorrectScreenshots=False
GammaOffsetBlue=0.000000
GammaOffsetGreen=0.000000
GammaOffsetRed=0.000000
GammaOffset=0.000000
LODBias=0.000000
DetailTextures=True
DescFlags=0
Description=
HighDetailActors=True
Coronas=True
ShinySurfaces=True
VolumetricLighting=False

 

[Jaedar]

How's the appetite system work?

Cause I remember when I played I ate like one chocolate bar and a few sodas, then the game said I was full, and kept claiming that for several maps and a decent amount of time.

 

[CyberP]

It is very primitive. You can eat 10 food or drink items maximum per every few levels. The counter is reset back to 0 usually following a helicopter ride, but not always. I aimed for a duration that suits both gameplay and assumed time passed/realism.
A new feature in v8 is candy bars restore a tiny little bit of bioenergy too (3 points), so there's a bit of meaningful choice over which food to prioritize: candy bars or soy food.

I could go deeper and more refined, such as some food types satiate your appetite more than others, and appetite is something that is continually changing in real time. The reason I did not is because there are very few food items in DX and I implemented this system primarily to stop players stuffing their faces with the new left click interactivity. I think it is adequate as is and it won't be a great investment of my time to expand but of course you can always go deeper. If more food types can be added to the game it may be worthwhile, however. And I do want more food types even if only for realism and decorative purposes.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I finally found a silencer!

Spoiler

in that fuel tank at the abandoned gas station. Funny shit, was just exploring it after finishing the mission itself, jumped down into the tank, landed on the greasel's head, he starts spitting at me, i squeezed off 3 shotgun blasts in sheer panic, he dies. Then I am thinking, yessss finally got a silencer, put it on my glock, realize there is no ladder where you jump down. So i go to the other end of the tank, there is a ladder there, but the grate at the top needs 2 lockpicks, i only have one. I start thinking, what kind of a fucking mouse trap did CyberP make here, before a sigh of relief as I remember looting a LAM off a dead MJ12 soldier near there. Blew the grate off, got the fuck out of there with my new toy. Good stuff.

That mission though, I couldn't save Tiffany. My build is more of a violent one, didn't really level stealth much, and that level seems like it needs good stealth to save her. They shoot her down at slightest provocation. Oh well. Once they killed her, I wiped them all out like a Liam Neeson character.

 

[CyberP]

That grate doesn't actually need a LAM. The damage threshold is only 30. A lot of weapons you have should deal with that, even the mini-crossbow (and you should have a mini-xbow even as a combat player as it is only one slot inventory size and much more powerful and versatile than vanilla).

Combat players should switch to stealth on that mission, use silenced weapons aggressively or just bum rush the holding cell.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

The damage threshold thing doesn't work like that for me. That's how I thought it worked when i started playing, but when I used most weapons (sniper rifle, crossbow, shotgun, etc) that have a higher damage than the threshold, nothing happens. It only seems to work with explosive type weapons (lams, rockets, the grenades for the submachine gun), so I figured that was by design. Strange...

The Sea Lab level almost killed me. Playing through it was like being beat like a pinata during open heart surgery. Insane turrets everywhere, blasting your brains out while you try to figure out which door is open, spider bots and men in black that can survive a direct LAM explosion and seem to have more augmentations than I do. I somehow managed to find the damn schematic by literally using up every item I had, so then of course it's time to fight Walter Simmons. The augmentations I picked are mostly useless against him (if I had known about this bitch, I would've picked the anti-plasma one just for that one fight), and that whole fight is retardo mode. He shoots plasma shit that kills me in 1-2 hits with computer accuracy managing to hit me while I strafe using the speed augmentation while himself running around like Speedy Gonzalez. While he kills me in 1-2 hits, he can take like 10 head shots. Holy fuck. Also, for the save-point mode, you should put the save-points right before boss fights, since people are going to die a lot, they shouldn't have to run through the same tunnels dodging turret fire before dying in the boss fight over and over again.

That Simmons fight was so frustrating, I actually went to look up suggestions online, but 99% of them had people specced to use weapons like the GEP gun or loaded with LAMs, and like I said I had nothing left after spending my entire inventory and ammo on the level itself. The best one I saw that applied to me was to just run away from him, so I tried that, but that was even worse than fighting, because if you try to run away from him instead of strafing, his computer aim is even deadlier. That got me so pissed, I countered that retardo fight by going into retardo mode myself. Went into adrenaline fueled side strafe-fest with enough feints to fuck with his beedy little AI and shooting the sniper rifle from the hip in between. I must've been really angry that particular run, because I dodged every single plasma shot while tapping him on the head with sniper shots, and my reflexes arent that good. To my fucking surprise, the son of a bitch died. I ran over to his corpse and wished there was an option to teabag it.

There is no save after that either, and I almost died 2-3 more times before somehow getting off that lab. Had to kill one diver in the water with flame darts since I had no other ammo left, and another surprised me on land, but I was just a little quicker. I am so glad to be out of there, but now I am in the next level with 10 torso hitpoints and out of everything. This will be fun...