Deus Ex GMDX: Deus Ex Advancement Mod v9 Released!

[ironmask]

Maybe you can fix Thief: Deadly Shadows and Invisible War.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Maybe you can fix Thief: Deadly Shadows and Invisible War.

Does Deadly Shadows really need fixing? I thought someone did that already anyway.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

If your goal is money, don't pick up fucking with old games with an audience of like 500 active players.

If you need money, compile all your work into an online CV and start applying for game Dev jobs. You will have to earn your stripes by doing QA and 'menial' jobs until you pay your dues. Nobody will hire a designer based on mods, unless the mod points to new revenue potential, or your ability to deliver it.

I know game modders like to lie to themselves that all that hard work they did for free goes into their dev portfolio. But in actuality what they care about is short little original demos. The employer can't be arsed to look through the whole game mod. Doing all that work without pay just to get a low level design or programming position alongside the other thousand or so drones is not worth it.

 

[InSight]

Abrahamic God was created by man

That is wrong/incorrect/lie. Please familiarize yourself with the facts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9lMQlI32wE

images from:
https://www.arkdiscovery.com/red_sea_crossing.htm

How could man from around 1600 BC , create that?
Consider/factor the tools that were available.

also L M A O @ you jokers for not knowing the "abrahamic god" and "digital god" are in fact both material manifestations of the demented demiurge keeping us in bondage within this false meat and that the only Truth and Goodness exist in the Metaphysical Divine to which we must return by transmuting ourselves into immaculate forms through the horror and beauty of the soft doctrine of secret revelation

And what evidence one can provide to support this?
One can also claim that Demiurge is a lie spread by demons.
If the Demiurge is recent (result/creation/child of Shopia) and there are many older and thus wiser(more experienced) thus stronger beings and we tell of immortals thus not decaying mind and memory (demented means weaker), Than why these beings of only truth and goodness do not overthrow/overpower the Demiurge and save/free us from our suffering of what one deems as illusion/false?

 

[Multidirectional]

Would you like to see VTM:B get a gameplay-oriented overhaul fix-up and be made less shitty in that regard?

Man, if you would do that you'd be a fucking legend. As long as there no overbalancing to the point of removing all the fun OP shit. But you ain't really Sawyer type, right?

 

[Ash]

Balance is extremely important to game design. But I don't think everything needs to be perfectly balanced, no. Or well I kind of do, but my methods of achieving it may not be Sawyerist. e.g my mods feature Hardcore modes where all the challenge/balance/gameplay focus is optimal, and otherwise allow some imperfect balance on the other modes. Or there could be OP god gun that is a lot of fun, but I'd balance it by means of ammo consumption and rare placement of the weapon (e.g Doom BFG). In the context of RPGs I also much prefer underpowered/useless build choices to overpowered. Underpowered doesn't potentially break the game like OP does and still provides interesting gameplay in the form of being a trap choice that it is a game of smarts to avoid. As said though, I am still open to some OP stuff in the name of fun, if it can be made acceptable via alternate trade-offs or limitations (as with BFG example).

As for VTMB, it really would be a fuckton of work. Latelistener was on point.
The game has so much potential, as it is wonderful in damn near every way except gameplay, which is a bit of a mess sadly.
I would need significantly more support to really consider inclining VTMB. It's too bad, as it could be so much better.

 

[ironmask]

Maybe you can fix Thief: Deadly Shadows and Invisible War.

Does Deadly Shadows really need fixing? I thought someone did that already anyway.

Someone has but it could still use some tinkering. I also just want to see what ash could do with it.

 

[Ash]

yeah uh, can I put down 12 bucks a month patreon as evidence of financial support? I don't have much more than that. I did have quite a few k in savings a year ago, but this whole fucked up system that forces me to not work for 1.5 YEARS DURING COVID while I wait for my permanent residency to be approved has drained everything I had. I hate everything about this
They want to know everything about me, multiple times over, EXCEPT the size of my cock. Why the fuck not just make me put that down too, might as well. Had a nice job, had to give that up. I can't just leave as I have obligations here. Took my blood, fingerprints, urine, x-ray, personal text messages, tons of photos, and about a million other things, and make me pay for the pleasure of doing so. Truly dystopian shit. Deus Ex feels so on point these days. This is just a niche problem. Let alone all the other nonsense going on in the world today.

 

[ironmask]

Man why the fuck did Deus Ex have to be so accurate. Why couldn't it just be the funny game about aliens and the Illuminati, and we didn't have to live in a shit world that isn't falling apart.

 

[TripJack]

real life tracer tong ending when

 

[agris]

Why Canada Ash?

edit: just now seeing the “temporary residents” header; is that the issue, you’re using a pipeline intended for visitors rather than those seeking permanent residence?

 

[Ash]

I don't want to divulge too much personal info. Sorry.

I'll say that it seemed to be the best compromise among primarily English-speaking "first world" nations. I think I still believe that, despite its flaws. Can't say for certain without having lived everywhere though.

Why Canada Ash?

edit: just now seeing the “temporary residents” header; is that the issue, you’re using a pipeline intended for visitors rather than those seeking permanent residence?

I am forced into said pipeline for bullshit reasons while I wait for PR to be processed.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I haven't been reading this thread all the way through, thought you were looking for methods to make money making games. Hope it works out for you. Despite the flaws, there is really no better place to live on earth.

 

[gerey]

Ash has the talent and autism necessary to see a project through - but if he wants to make money from his modding he needs to figure out a project, or projects, that would warrant rebalancing, but that are also popular enough to generate the desire volume of shekels via Patreon.

While people on the Codex have already given a few recommendations, I fear we are not the best advisors if the main goal of this endeavor is to make money - since our tastes tend to fairly niche, or focused on games that have long since fallen into obscurity among the mainstream.

Issue is, I can't really think of a popular enough game for which a mod addressing rebalance would generate enough revenue. Most of the currently popular games are either far too difficult to mod - or nearly impossible, or multiplayer only.

Games like VTMB or Arcanum could certainly use some tinkering, but people interested in such projects, and more importantly, willing to pay for such projects, are far too few in number.

His best bet, far as I can figure out, would be to try and tackle one of the Bethesda games, ideally Skyrim or Fallout 4. Alternatively he could go for whatever BioWare game is still popular enough to generate interest.

Basically, he needs to pander to normalfags and redditors, and shill his mods on their sites as well.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Here's an idea. Get into making lewd visual novels. People are cleaning up with Patreon and Subscribestar. There aren't many decent ones, most are shite and still people support VN creators.

 

[Ash]

Shoulda gone with OnlyFans. Or making Reaction and Unboxing videos on youtube. Or modding GTAV and Skyrim. There is only room for decline in today's world. Oh well.
I'd rather shovel literal shit for a living than do any of that figurative shit. I'll be back in the future with incline. It's time to try my hand at indie dev.

 

[Wesp5]

As for VTMB, it really would be a fuckton of work. Latelistener was on point.

Also there is already a rebalancing mod called Bloodlines Extreme and interest is really low compared to my patch, so most people seem to like playing an overpowered vampire .

I would suggest to go with Cyberpunk 2077. It has tons of issues and I don't see CDPR fixing many of them soon! If you release it on Nexus Mods you can make some money there too.

 

[Ash]

If you think my mods are mere rebalancing mods then you don't know my mods. If working on VTMB and it is technically possible to do so, melee and gun combat would be vastly updated and polished to not be total trite, level design would be overhauled (subtly) to make things actually engaging, RPG systems expanded and refined, AI would be smarter, interactivity would be deeper. Mechanics would be added to contribute to the core gameplay in meaningful ways. The inventory would encroach some form of strategic demands upon the player...the gameplay would be made actually good (currently it's like 6/10 at best - highly mediocre , only genuinely good in the eyes of lame LARP fags) and improving it's just a pipe dream, because that would demand likely another 5 years dev time.

 

[Wesp5]

If working on VTMB and it is technically possible to do so, melee and gun combat would be vastly updated and polished to not be total trite...

I would guess this isn't technically possible in the first place. In all the years I work on the game nobody has ever managed to edit model animations which make such improvements difficult. Most weapons seem to be hard-coded with their effects and although there are weapon files where you can easily edit damage and such, the possibilities are severely limited. Of course there is no way to add new weapons as well as the number of items the game recognizes is fixed too!

... level design would be overhauled (subtly) to make things actually engaging...

While it is possible to create and edit maps, there are severe limitations here too, like we can't yet create translucent water and thus recompilation of all hub maps is out of the question.

... RPG systems expanded and refined...

This should be possible, the patch and many mods have changed clan features, disciplines and other stats, but again, the game reacts in stupid ways that are hard to imagine.

... AI would be smarter...

I would really like to know how you would like to pull that off ! Is Deus Ex so much more moddable the VTMB or can you retro engineer the code itself?

... interactivity would be deeper. Mechanics would be added to contribute to the core gameplay in meaningful ways. The inventory would encroach some form of strategic demands upon the player...the gameplay would be made actually good (currently it's like 6/10 at best - highly mediocre , only genuinely good in the eyes of lame LARP fags) and improving it's just a pipe dream, because that would demand likely another 5 years dev time.

Exactly. Also probably nobody would care enough so you would not get any profit from it. On the other hand Cyberpunk is pretty new and I don't see CDPR reworking their RPG and loot system anytime soon. I mean at the end of the game I was a millionaire although I pretty much bought everything I needed except for all the stupid cars! The only time I ever had not all types of ammo maxed out was at the start of the game. Although the recent changes to Nexus Mods annoy me, they are the only site I know off where you actually get something for your work.

 

[Jaedar]

Is Deus Ex so much more moddable the VTMB or can you retro engineer the code itself?

He managed to get the AI to throw flares into dark areas when looking for the player. It's actually really impressive.

On the other hand Cyberpunk is pretty new and I don't see CDPR reworking their RPG and loot system anytime soon.

Witcher3 could also use a complete rebalance to remove all the shitty level scaling and level requirements.

 

[Ol' Willy]

I would guess this isn't technically possible in the first place. In all the years I work on the game nobody has ever managed to edit model animations which make such improvements difficult. Most weapons seem to be hard-coded with their effects and although there are weapon files where you can easily edit damage and such, the possibilities are severely limited. Of course there is no way to add new weapons as well as the number of items the game recognizes is fixed too!

Interesting. I always thought that because Bloodlines is Source you can do anything with it.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Source only lets you do anything if you have the source (lol). On the other hand, Unreal Engine 1 games are easily editable because they come with the source embedded within the compiled game (or something, I don't know how it works. I think some games can choose to remove this, also).

 

[Ash]

On the other hand Cyberpunk is pretty new and I don't see CDPR reworking their RPG and loot system anytime soon. I mean at the end of the game I was a millionaire although I pretty much bought everything I needed except for all the stupid cars!

You managed to sit through the whole thing? The game's a lost cause entirely.

Thanks for the VTMB info. I hadn't looked into the possibilities of each and every game of course. Was just spitballing.
Seems like VTMB is a lost cause also...but a much sadder one than Cyberpunk. I knew there was limitations of some kind but that for sure rules bloodlines out.

 

[Ash]

Quake 1.5 Combat+ Add-on

Intro (Revised):

The focus of Combat+ is in deepening the combat of Quake primarily by updating the *weaker* half of the arsenal by giving them unique use-cases and strengths, in addressing AI flaws and shortcomings: some changes make them harder, some easier (context matters), as well as fixing general bugs or design flaws, vanilla and Q1.5 both.
After now having played through Q1.5 twice in a row on hard and nightmare and had more time to analyze the design and code, my vision has come full circle. This update should probably be the final optimization of the already great Quake/Quake 1.5 combat. Go enjoy one hell of an FPS experience.

Download: Combat+ Add-on v3.0 addon - Quake 1.5 mod for Quake - Mod DB

Spoiler

Changelog

Bold start to a sentence = New in version 3.0.
Most features in v3.0 are AI improvements.

ARSENAL:

<<<Super Shotgun (SSG)>>>

-The SSG can be fired *twice* between each reload animation (increased DPS but not damage).
-However the reload animation/delay is slightly longer (+0.25 seconds).
-Knockback for enemies and the player both is reduced by 40% since you'll often be firing twice in succession.
-Horizontal accuracy slightly increased (still not sensible to use at medium-long ranges, but improves range ever so slightly).
-Increased recoil slightly.
-Additionally, kick attack is now enabled during weapon reload animations (see below) -- it is extra proficient to combo kicking with the SSG now.
-v3: increased horizontal accuracy slightly more.

The intent is to make the SSG a true successor to Doom's SSG in terms of fun factor and shred potential. Given that Q1.5 and this add-on both increase difficulty via new enemies and smarter overall AI it permits this buff.

<<<Shotgun>>>

Pellets fired per shot increased from 6 to 7. This results in an approximate +17% damage increase per shot and yields exactly half the number of pellets per shot of the SSG. The intent is to make the Shotgun slightly more viable overall and also not left behind by the new SSG.

<<<Kick Attack>>>

Kicking is vastly improved with the following changes:

-Faster melee kick/transitioning to being able to shoot or kick again.
-You can kick during weapon animations, such as while the SSG is reloading. The kick is more viable to combo with other attacks.
-BUGFIX: No input buffering with kicking -- you won't accidentally be kicking twice in a row all the time if spamming.
-Reduced kick enemy knockback by 20%. It was too much (would send grunts flying). This nerf attempts to tone that down while still making kicking enemies into traps etc viable, and also make follow-up kicks or other close-range attacks easier by not sending enemies too far.
-(v3) refined kick combo input timing with the super shotgun
-OPTIONAL: Kick damage increased by 25% (see below)

<<<Nailgun>>>

-BUGFIX: tapping fire/shoot with the nailgun will no longer cause the weapon to muzzleflash and vibrate (animation), but not fire a nail. Now you can single-fire/burst fire the nail gun effectively with a single mouse press or short hold.
-OPTIONAL buffs to projectile speed, damage and ammo capacity (See below).

<<<Grenade Launcher>>>

-Grenade Velocity increased by 20%. Makes the GL more enjoyable and versatile to use; viable at medium ranges or vs enemies with moderate elevation advantage on you, is more effective at bouncing off walls, and hopefully not almost entirely outclassed the moment a rocket launcher is found.

<<<Lightning Gun>>>

-Cell consumption rate reduced by 35%.
-Picking up a lightning gun gives you 30 cells as opposed to 15.

The intent is to fix an obvious vanilla design flaw: to actually let you enjoy the lightning gun rather than it eating all your ammo in seconds (also alongside cell ammo being very rare outside of the final level of episode 4).

<<<Rocket Launcher>>>

-Removed bonus damage on direct impact. Deals the same damage as GL, as per vanilla.
-Very minor increase of base damage in the absence of the large direct impact bonus (Optional. see below).

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:

<<<Ogre & Death Knight>>>

(v3) Split in half behavior:
-Ogres & D Knights won't split in half to the first rocket or grenade. Low health required.
-Super shotgun is now included. Again low health is required. At least 10 of the 14 pellets fired have to hit to split, assuming default SSG damage values.
-Chance of a split after these conditions are met is reduced from 30% to 25% (Ogre) and 25% to 20% (Death Knight).

<<<Scrag>>>

-Reduced Scrag's chance of teleporting while simply moving by 75%. Chance of teleporting while taking damage remains. This will make them LESS predictable. You could trigger a room of enemies and back off, the scrags would teleport into your hiding spot for easy thinning of the crowd. This makes that less abusable, and they teleported too much anyways (especially on nightmare).

<<<Fiend>>>

-(v3) Will jump at you when has a slight elevation advantage over you. Prevents them being helpless when on a ledge a little bit higher than you, and makes them scarier in general. Player having the high ground is still an easy kill.
-Increased the distance/speed of the fiend's jump attack by a random range of 0-25% per jump.
-Added further Z offset/displacement when initiating a jump in an attempt to reduce fiends getting stuck on geometry.
-Made fiend jump "motion blur" visual effect stand out slightly more.
Fiend Teleportation:
-Darkplaces engine bug workaround: if a fiend gets stuck on geometry it will teleport to a new nearby location.
-There is also a very low chance a demon will teleport to a new location upon taking damage.

<<<Enforcer>>>

-(v3) Will not throw sticky proximity grenades at close range (Less than 200 units).
-(v3) Will not throw multiple sticky proximity grenades in a row on Nightmare mode (these things are a little overkill).

<<<Warlord>>>

-(v3) Increased spike projectile speed by 20%.

<<<Bosses>>>

-(v3) Increased Episode 2 Boss Health on Hard and Nightmare.
-(v3) Increased Episode 3 Boss Health on all difficulty modes.

<<<Misc>>>

-(v3) Removed slow-mo on player death, since it was causing quickload slow-mo bug.
-(v3) Reduced the frequency in which dogs howl (was too often to an unbelievable extent).


[ALL OF THE BELOW IS OPTIONAL]

These features are optional, but required to complete the design vision for combat+ and I strongly advise you grab them. Nonetheless, if you do not want the following changes or don't want them to overwrite your q15_config.cfg, simply don't copy over the respective file from the download.

<<<Nailgun>>>

-Increased projectile speed by 80%! The intent is to make this remain a useful weapon once the SNG is found. SNG is still far better as it deals much more damage (higher DPS and better ammo conservation), however the nailgun will be appealing for longer ranges, as well as good against fast or small enemies since it is harder to dodge. This also works well in tandem with the bugfix that enables single shot/burst fire marksmanship.
-(v3) increased projectile speed in bullet time also.
-Increased damage by 2. Nailgun = 11. SNG = 18.


<<<Axe & Kick>>>

-(v3) Axe and kick damage increased by 5 (+25%).

<<<OP Ogre>>>

Reduced Ogre grenade damage by 12.5%, since ogres are deadly accurate in Q1.5 (good) and are everywhere on higher difficulty modes.

<<<Rocket & Grenade Launcher>>>

-Increased damage of both by 17%. Since the direct impact damage bonus and split in half behaviour of the RL was removed (it was killing ogres and Death Knights in one shot!) and damage between the weapons has been normalized, I gave them both a minor boost since Q1.5 is regardless notably harder than vanilla.

<<<Misc>>>

-Increased the animation speed of ALL monster's ranged attacks by +10%.
-Removed screenshake when shamblers corpse hits the floor (it wasn't smooth)
-Reduced chance of enemies setting on fire to explosive weapons to 15% (was 40%). This is cool but it is merely a cosmetic death animation, and they get in the way while running around. 40% was too much.

<<<Ammo>>>

An attempt to address vanilla design, the following ammo capacity changes encourage smart pickup management, resolve balancing issues, and increase trigger happy time with the overly-limiting weapons (e.g Lighting gun, nail gun).

-Nails max ammo capacity increased by 50 (200 -> 250). Picking up a nailgun grants 50 nails (was 30). Nailbox pickups unchanged.
-Cells max ammo capacity increased by 20. (100 -> 120). Increased all cell pickup counts slightly (except backpacks of any kind).
-Shell counts and capacities remain unchanged.
-Rockets/Grenade ammo capacity reduced by 40. (100 -> 60). In this mod you'll rarely reach max regardless, since ammo is quite tight.

-(v3) New Enemy Type Tweaks (most notably adds slightly more to the game):

<<<Warlord>>>

-Warlords have a 2% chance of replacing Ogres (was 1%).
-Increased Warlord health by 30 (250 -> 280).
-Reduced Warlord grenade damage by 12.5%.

<<<Afrit>>>

-Has a 4% chance to spawn alongside a shalrath (previously 0%).

<<<Spider>>>

-Removed spider's 25% resistance to shotguns and nailguns.
-Removed chance of replacing spawns/tarbabies.
-Has a 6% chance to replace a zombie (was 5%).
-Has a 2% chance to replace a knight (was 1%).

<<<Reiver>>>

-Has a 2% chance to replace an ogre (was 1%).
-Has a 1% chance to spawn alongside an ogre (was 0%).
-Has a 2% chance to spawn alongside a fiend (was 1%).
-Has a 10% chance to spawn alongside a Shalrath (was 0%). Note: Shalraths are a rare enemy.
-Has a 1% chance to spawn alongside a Tarbaby/Spawn (was 0%).
-Increased Reiver health by 50 (=200, same as Ogre).

Note: this add-on is designed with default Q1.5 CVAR config in mind. I do not recommend modifying this file.

Support me on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/gmdx

This mini-project is now likely complete. No more mods after this sadly.

 

[curds]

Witcher3 could also use a complete rebalance to remove all the shitty level scaling and level requirements.

Totally, I've been playing Witcher 3 and finding it decent in terms of presentation and story but the gameplay would benefit so much from Ash's touch and a mod of GMDX scope.