Deus Ex GMDX: Deus Ex Advancement Mod v9 Released!

[Master]

This shit is painful. Wtf are those comments on the right? That "streaming" shit they do now?

 

[RoSoDude]

Newb streams like these are very helpful to assess things like player communication, as you're dealing with a fresh user who doesn't know the game's mechanics, systems, levels, or missions and certainly hadn't read your changelog. Moreover, new players tend to be great at running into bugs, for whatever reason. Had some hilarious French civilian AI behavior there.

Speaking of errors, it looks like I didn't save when I swapped out Energy Transference for Ammo Capacity in the Versalife UC Aug canister, so you can use these console commands if you want to install it (console enabled even on Hardcore right now):

• set human bCheatsEnabled true
• augadd AugAmmoCap

Man I rushed this beta out. Still no game breaking bugs reported at least.

 

[Ash]

This shit is painful. Wtf are those comments on the right? That "streaming" shit they do now?

I agree. Some people stream fortnite/pubg , have a huge following of beta orbiters, and receive thousands of dollars a month in donations from these oddballs just for playing video games and acting like a clown.

 

[Master]

That is some dystopic shit.

 

[Ninjerk]

First comment has M'lady in it

 

[Tito Anic]

Bros, instaled DX after long break - picture is too dark. Ingame settings do not let me tune it. I have NVIDIA. What to do?

 

[RoSoDude]

Tito Anic , how are you launching the game? If not using GMDX (and why not?), are you at least using Kentie's launcher? If so, try switching to the Direct3D 10 Renderer. You also may have issues if you're running the game in Borderless Windowed instead of Fullscreen (though the former works fine for me).

 

[Tito Anic]

Tito Anic , how are you launching the game? If not using GMDX (and why not?), are you at least using Kentie's launcher? If so, try switching to the Direct3D 10 Renderer. You also may have issues if you're running the game in Borderless Windowed instead of Fullscreen (though the former works fine for me).

I am using GMDX. Tried D3D10 as well.

 

[RoSoDude]

Tito Anic , how are you launching the game? If not using GMDX (and why not?), are you at least using Kentie's launcher? If so, try switching to the Direct3D 10 Renderer. You also may have issues if you're running the game in Borderless Windowed instead of Fullscreen (though the former works fine for me).

I am using GMDX. Tried D3D10 as well.

Hmm, and did you launch the game once prior to installing GMDX? If not, you might try a fresh install. This has something to do with the renderers, if fiddling with the launcher options isn't helping.

 

[Tito Anic]

Tried d3d10 again - it worked. It is time for DX once more.

 

[Tito Anic]

Cool stuff about ION STORM's Deus Ex 3

Deus Ex is a highly popular sci-fi first person action RPG set in a dystopian future on Earth. There are currently four games in the series: the first two were developed by Ion Storm, while the third and fourth games were developed by Eidos Montreal. However, it was Ion Storm who worked on two ultimately scrapped, alternative versions of the third installment, which were called Deus Ex: Insurrection and Deus Ex 3 respectively.

Art Min was a programmer on the second game in the series Deus Ex: Invisible War, as soon as development was finished on this he became project lead on Insurrection. There were at least four different story lines set out for this iteration of the game and many of the core concepts, were thought out.



In a initial design document submitted in February 2004 many of these concepts can be seen with the team vision for the game being to create an accessible and believable Deus Ex game with emotional depth and epic choices. It was slated to be released on both the Xbox and PC platform but what is interesting is, it is noted that a PS2 version would be made if an external team could be found to make it, and the “Xbox 2” for launch if green lighting was approved as soon as possible.

At the time of writing this document the team were in pre-production and were ready to go to full production by July 1st, 2004, it was written that they would have the game finished by January 2005. There is a very high concept for the game that is described, the game was to be based in 2027 and that there were five superpowers in the world who would either rise or fall depending on the intelligence that you would give to them.

The game setting was that America was falling into bankcruptcy and the other rising superpowers like China and Russia were trying to utilise this and bankrolling insurgents on U.S. soil. The EU was also trying to bring the U.S. under the jurisdiction of international bodies like the UN. The U.S. is also split in two with patriots who want to keep the U.S. as is and the globalists who want the EU control.

Insurrection was to take place twenty years before the events of the original Deus Ex and you would play Blake Denton the father of JC Denton who was the protagonist of the first Deus Ex game. It seemed that there would be many avenues that you could take during the game, and that the fate of the world would be made by your choices, the game would be open-ended and may have multiple outcomes depending on what you decide in-game.



Blake Denton the protagonist you would play was described to be “The six million dollar man meets 2020’s Tom Clancy” a biomodified secret agent who was ahead of his time. Blake was to have a superhuman set of abilities such as enhanced speed, nightvision, invisibility and tissue regeneration.

As a player you would be able to decide on where your alliance would lie either the U.S. patriots or the EU globalists and this would dictate what would happen and the fate of the five superpowers ruling the world, these were China, the EU, Russia, Africa and America.

The developers also wanted to bring the hard science of nanotechnology and its social implications, having the game set in a near-future so that it would be more relatable to the player. By bringing the game closer to modern times and having large conspiracies in the game they were hoping to appeal to a broader market than just science fiction fans.

Gameplay dynamics are of huge importance to games and the developers wanted to make use of improved technologies to make this a new but recognizable experience for players, there were small tweaks that they wanted to make such as better AI, new combat tools and improved pacing of the combat. This would also be the first time that enemies would be able to use biomods which would increase the challenge of combat.

There were also larger concepts that they wanted to implement into the game and make huge improvements on the previous series. Factions were used in the previous game and they would allow you to ally yourself with a specific one, in Invisible War it was easy for the player to change factions and the developers wanted to change this. Once the player had joined a particular faction in Insurrection it would become extremely hard to convince other factions to let you work with them and was described as a significant decision.



There was also going to be a home base for the player this would be a hub world where the player would go in between missions and could store extra gear, equip new gear and heal. There would also be support characters that could be recruited throughout the game that would allow you to get special upgrades.

They also wanted to vastly improve the dynamic lighting used in the previous game and better physics simulation, there is not much information on how they were going to do this but they obviously wanted to make their game more beautiful than the previous, an obvious choice.

The concept document also goes into what the Insurrection team thought were the failings of the previous title Invisible War and why Insurrection would surpass it.

They stated that they had analysed why the Invisible War would not meet its projected sales these were as following:-

1. The action shooter elements of the game did not live up to the mainstream shooter games.
2. There was too much dialogue interrupting the game and resulting in slower pace gameplay.
3. The story was not clear enough for players to get a clear direction.
4. The game wasn’t accessible enough to the mass market player. The user interface weapon/biomod inventory selection was too cluttered.

This allowed the team to pitch what improvements they were going to make and why Insurrection would be a much larger success than Invisible war. They wanted to alter the gameplay so that the combat would be more like Halo 1+2and Splinter Cell, the roleplaying elements would be similar to Knights of the Old Republic, stealth more like Metal Gear Solid 3 and the AI from Farcry. Streamlining the interface was also of importance to them so that it would be more accessible and simpler for players to use.



Epic choices and emotional depth were a large part of what they wanted to concentrate on with less dialogue that was more concise and gave players clear objectives and an emotional connection, and creating binding factional alliances that would clarify the player position in the game.

Insurrection was not only to be target at previous Deus Ex players but to the GTA3, Halo, Knights of the old republic, Metal Gear Solid and the Splinter Cell audience. Min has said that Insurrection came to an end when Warren Spector left Ion Storm in 2004. Art Min left shortly after and they founded Junction Point Studios together in 2005.

This was the end of the development of Deus Ex: Insurrection but it was not the end of development on a Deus Ex game. Jordan Thomas (Lead Designer at Ion Storm for such games as Thief: Deadly Shadows) was already working on Deus Ex 3 while Insurrection was being developed and this is the game that they carried on developing after the departure of Warren Spector.

Thomas’s vision for Deus Ex 3 was a different one to any of the previous games and was to be an open world game set in New Orleans. It was still set to be a sequel but the player would be a failed biotech experiment and were forced to becoming a mercenary. The player would then perform missions for companies to become the mercenary of choice.

Unfortunately most of this game was only ever conceptualised on paper and very little to none was ever put in to an actual playable product. Eidos then closed the studio in 2005 due to financial difficulties and more staff leaving the company.

If you would like to ask any questions please send them to me and for a more in-depth look, interviews with Art Min and Jordan Thomas, also the design documents and outlined storylines, please head over to Joe Martins article. I would also like to thank Joe Martin for all of his help on this article.

Images:

https://www.unseen64.net/2015/04/16/deus-ex-3-insurrection-cancelled-concepts/

 

[RoSoDude]

Just now saw and replied to a bug report comment I missed from an anonymous beta tester on my ModDB profile from over 20 days ago. If that was you and you're reading this (unlikely), know that the issue has been resolved and your help is appreciated.

Also, hey again everybody. I released the beta over a month ago because I had some stuff to take care of over in the analog world, and it took even longer than I had expected. But I'm finally back to working on my addon, and I've prepared a small hotfix for a handful of issues that have cropped up in testing.

https://mega.nz/#!6GxAVaxJ!52g-J5WEo14VaDbEyrI9lty-61Gcgv9n2GkutW827k0

9/26/18 HOTFIX:

• Changed cigarettes max copies from 20 -> 10 to reflect new usefulness
• Fixed the perks buttons not updating if you were viewing the perks menu and upgraded a skill
• Fixed grenade max counts not scaling to 5/7/10/15 with the Demolitions skill as intended (was 10/14/20/30)
• Fixed not being able to pick up wearables from carcasses when at max copies but below max charge (now charges them to full, as with picking up from the world)
• Drastically reduced the degree to which items (weapons, pickups, and ammo) are knocked around by explosive damage so you have a chance of finding scattered loot
• Fixed the player being unable to actually obtain Misfeature Exploit, despite repeatedly paying for the perk

Copy this file over [Install]\Deus Ex\GMDXv9\System\DeusEx.u to apply the changes. Should not require a restart of your playthrough.

MORE KNOWN ISSUES/TODO:

• Elites reverted to MJ12 Troops from Vandenberg onwards turn back into Elites when they die. Oops.
• Addiction system details missing from (patched) drug descriptions.
• Mysterious bug related to drug timers and level loads remains at large.
• Bug that prevents you from installing weapon mods in the inventory screen in some circumstances (?)
• Ammo capacities need another pass, will be removing the "Halve Ammo Capacity" option so I only have to balance one set of numbers
• Turret turn speed or firing algorithm still a little too easy to be cheesed, needs another tune-up
• New "Controlled Burn" perk makes the flamethrower faster at igniting MJ12 Troops and MIBs, as I had suspected it might.
• Much dismay over the Assault Shotgun loading a magazine at a time, so likely will be reverted
• Fix reticle sizing once and for all
• Make sure damages listed in the inventory are correct for e.g. rubber bullets, sabot rounds, etc

There also a few wishlist features that I might still try to cram in, but hopefully I'll have it all ready to go soon and I can work on merging the fixes and minor improvements down to the version 9.0.4 patch. Give it another month or so. Thanks for your patience and interest.

EDIT: Turns out I was recommending the wrong installation folder for the hotfix. Apologies for any confusion.

 

[RoSoDude]

Update: I've decided I'm not going to delay release much longer with the more ambitious features I had in mind (like Hardcore+ keycode anti-scum), since I simply don't have the time for it these days. Instead I'm going to use what time I do have to fix the issues reported during beta, tie up some loose ends, and work on version merges. I can always come back to my fork later and pick up where I left off; I'd rather have it in players' hands for testing and feedback ASAP.

Some progress for today:

Using the "Change Ammo" button or ammo icons to swap ammo types now equips the weapon and performs and active reload if Real-Time UI is enabled (forced on in Hardcore). Otherwise, the original background reload remains.

The near-instant reload speed of per-shell loading weapons (Sawed-off Shotgun, Mini-crossbow, GEP Gun) when using the ammo icons has also been fixed

 

[Parabalus]

 

[RoSoDude]

Wow, time's really flying by -- I didn't anticipate being quite as busy as I have been this season. If there are people still waiting for my work (addon or 9.0.4 patch), I must apologize for the delays and thank you for the continued interest. Things are still coming along though, and I've addressed most of the issues that cropped up in beta and otherwise, plus implemented a few new features (nothing too exciting though). My hope is that next time I post changelists, it'll coincide with a brief testing period, then full release. Just the highlights since the beta release, then:

Post-Beta Confirmed Changes for 9.0.4 (highlights)

• Fixed UI bugs related to the new perks/info button, inventory overlapping exploit, and inventory ammo loading buttons
• Fixed triggers in the Paris Chateau map so you still get goal completed/Everett's datalink message/Nicolette staying behind if you hop over the maze wall instead of taking the entrance
• Added a button to the locked and keypadded aug canister room in Hell's Kitchen so the player can get out if they close the door while locked
  
• Turret "Allies" targeting setting renamed to "Default", because people often wrongly assume it means the turret's allies
  
• Drastically reduced the degree to which items (weapons, pickups, and ammo) are knocked around by explosive damage so you have a chance of finding scattered loot
  
• Fixed not being able to pick up wearables from carcasses when at max copies but below max charge (now charges them to full, as with picking up from the world)
  
• If an ammo box/weapon (copy) contains more ammo than the player can carry, the spillover amount is left in the world (and the log now display the amount picked up)

Post-Beta Changes for RoSoDude's GMDX Addon (highlights)

• Fixed most of the silly beta bugs (reverted MJ12 Troops turning back into Elites when killed, can't actually buy Misfeature Exploit perk, accidentally doubled grenade capacity, Controlled Burn perk hitting enemies multiple times, hitscan shots deviating slightly from the laser dot, zyme not buffing melee speed, and many minor but potentially game-crashing errors)
• Changed cigarettes max copies from 20 -> 10 to reflect new usefulness, will be adjusting map distribution as well
• Clip mod now increases AR clip size by 5 rather than 3 to match 5-round burst (this will be reverted if I get 3-round burst working, which is a major goal)
• Assault Shotgun loads a shell at a time again (per-clip reload reverted), and now the GEP gun does as well
• Further reduced ammo capacities (~33%), removed Halve Ammo Capacity option, and doubled effect of skill/aug capacity increases (20/50/100% increase from weapon skills, 25/50/75/100% increase from Ammo Capacity aug)
• Increased default rubber bullet pickup count from 5->8 to match Sabot/Shell ratio
• Using the "Change Ammo" button or ammo icons to swap ammo types now equips the weapon and performs an active reload if Real-Time UI is enabled (forced on in Hardcore). Otherwise, the original background reload remains
• Overhauled shotgun and plasma rifle firing routines. Was variable spread around a fixed center, which had strange implications for the meaning of character skill and weapon spread. Replaced with more consistent (but slightly variable) spread with a variable center depending on current accuracy
• Replaced Master-level "Cracked" perk (one multitool to hack any device) with the "Easy Crack" perk, which allows the player to hack any device at 5% or below for free, with all alarms and some security panels lowered to this value.

GMDX 9.0.4 Confirmed Changelist:
https://pastebin.com/ZNUZKW6C
Full RSD Addon Changelist:
https://pastebin.com/aKE1Jbh5

 

[Puukko]

Started a playthrough with GMDX and I'm having a blast. Been some years since I last played the game so my memory of the vanilla game is a bit hazy, but the balance has certainly been improved. I just left Hong Kong and I am not sure how much the mod changes the amount of resources you get beyond ammo, but early on I had to use every gun I had at my disposal because of ammo scarcity. Now I find myself conserving biocells instead, since augs become more prominent after the trips to VersaLife. I'm also paying attention to what I spend my skill points on, and making sure I explore and complete side objectives, since the base difficulty still offers a good challenge and I want to advance my character as much as I can. I'll just have to make sure I dont take to solving all my problems with Dragons tooth.

 

[Fenix]

Play non-lethal way - you will get a lot of interesting situations. )

 

[Puukko]

Also, does the mod add any unused songs or something? Because I swear I've heard a few that were completely new to me.

 

[Puukko]

I make it to Paris and suddenly all the soldiers drop soy food.

 

[Black]

I make it to Paris and suddenly all the soldiers drop soy food.

Art imitates life.

 

[Fenix]

I make it to Paris and suddenly all the soldiers drop soy food.

Art imitates life.

Explain this joke. )

 

[Tito Anic]

Explain this joke. )

Bonjour, soy boy!

 

[Puukko]

Finished the game. Very happy with the mod - balance was solid on the base difficulty and I didn't run into bugs beyond one - choosing the ending with Tracer Tong, the 3 switches at the end were locked and I had to use cheats to unlock them.

Some musings:
- I wish the game had some late-game vendors, because I don't think there's a single one during the last fifth of the game. That's quite a few hours where credits are straight up useless.
- The greys are pretty damn tough. I think I dumped 4 sniper headshots into one, when a single shot shout be an instakill with the x8 headshot bonus, so I guess they don't take bonus damage?
- I like how some enemies, especially mechs, stayed dangerous all throughout. I didn't invest in explosives or heavy weapons so my means of taking out heavy mechs were quite risky. They took a dozen DTS hits with master low-tech skill and maxed out melee damage aug active. Granted, I did completely forget about the AR's alternative ammo, but having it handy for Area 51 was probably better anyway. MIBs exploded violently so I had to be really careful when engaging in melee... or just snipe them lol
- Combat difficulty in general took a hike towards the end so despite being all auged up with pockets full of ammo, I did run low on medkits and bio cells sometimes. I don't want to know what the game is like on the hardest difficulty, thought these unlocked options sound pretty interesting.

 

[RoSoDude]

Finished the game. Very happy with the mod - balance was solid on the base difficulty and I didn't run into bugs beyond one - choosing the ending with Tracer Tong, the 3 switches at the end were locked and I had to use cheats to unlock them.

Some musings:
- I wish the game had some late-game vendors, because I don't think there's a single one during the last fifth of the game. That's quite a few hours where credits are straight up useless.
- The greys are pretty damn tough. I think I dumped 4 sniper headshots into one, when a single shot shout be an instakill with the x8 headshot bonus, so I guess they don't take bonus damage?
- I like how some enemies, especially mechs, stayed dangerous all throughout. I didn't invest in explosives or heavy weapons so my means of taking out heavy mechs were quite risky. They took a dozen DTS hits with master low-tech skill and maxed out melee damage aug active. Granted, I did completely forget about the AR's alternative ammo, but having it handy for Area 51 was probably better anyway. MIBs exploded violently so I had to be really careful when engaging in melee... or just snipe them lol
- Combat difficulty in general took a hike towards the end so despite being all auged up with pockets full of ammo, I did run low on medkits and bio cells sometimes. I don't want to know what the game is like on the hardest difficulty, thought these unlocked options sound pretty interesting.

Heard of the Dark Age ending bug, think that's been there since vanilla. Guess it's worth looking into.

I very much want to implement an extra static shop (like the Quick Stop in Hong Kong and the convenience store in the Paris Metro) into the Gas Station map to give credits some use in the lategame, but it might be above my skill level in UnrealEd (even just copying and pasting assets from another map... yeah). It would be a little out of place in the lore, as you'd think that the shop cases would have been raided during the gas station's vacancy, but the gameplay positives outweigh that IMO. You could also imagine some kind of vending system somewhere in Area 51 in the crew quarters, but that might be a bit much.

I'm happy you appreciated the balance and difficulty curve -- I do too. I'm still open to making a few tweaks in my addon (or even the 9.0.4 patch, pending further discussion) if there are any outstanding issues -- for example, I turned one lategame enemy health value down a couple points because the numbers were such that two Master-level sniper headshots would leave it with <0.5% health, which was a pretty pathological case.

What was your build like, by the way? Anything else about your playthrough that was noteworthy? For my part I find there's much more build freedom in GMDX, since so many more options are viable and useful, and I try to replay the game in a different way every time.

 

[Puukko]

What was your build like, by the way? Anything else about your playthrough that was noteworthy? For my part I find there's much more build freedom in GMDX, since so many more options are viable and useful, and I try to replay the game in a different way every time.

I went with a pretty basic build, mastering low-tech, rifles and hacking. Mastered hacking early on because it allowed me to pass those skill checks and do fun stuff like turning turrets on the enemies. DTS with strength augmentation + rank 3 cloak allowed me to cheese through a lot of enemies before they could react and I found the recirculator very useful since it allowed me to make the most out of my bio energy, but I never found myself with pockets full of cells despite the efficiency. Having at least 1 point in the hazard defense aug was vital to survive some areas, I put more points into it and the health regen aug towards the end. I didn't feel much need to advance lockpicking beyond advanced since my DTS would break everything with less than 80 damage threshold, but mastering electronics might have been useful had I had more skill points left. I neglected pistols towards the end but both the stealth pistol and crossbow were vital during the first half. I did find the AR to be a bit weak despite dumping a decent amount of upgrades into it and only really used it in Area 51 because I was low on sniper ammo. I also only used the assault shotgun for the alternate ammo which was my way of handling spider bots and the like, because in every other case the DTS was better in close range. So I mostly just leveled rifles during the second half because I knew the sniper rifle would become very useful.

I didn't invest in environmental training but with hazards being so deadly, I certainly sometimes wished I had.

One aug I found a bit unbalanced was the one that allows you to pass through lasers and fool cameras. It gives the full effect at level 1, but for lasers that's all you need since you don't need to have the aug active for even a second at a time, so dumping upgrade canisters into it would only be useful for long treks in range of cameras. I mostly just used a rank 2 spy drone for tricky cameras anyway.