Deus Ex GMDX: Deus Ex Advancement Mod v9 Released!

[Lord_Trashcan]

I'm going to polish existing vanilla GMDX content first, like fixing bugs and balance before I start working on new things I want to implement.

Careful with that, many a modder has lost their fedora simply by "balancing" things.

Don't worry, the changes are fairly small since GMDX was already very well balanced. The only major balance changes that you'll notice from the get-go are the new HW perks that makes them more powerful (at a cost)

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

Mantling > Stacking boxes

GMDX provided me the best Deus Ex experience I've ever had, bar none. Props to the chef.

 

[Ivan]

Yep. There's no going back for me either. Mantling improves game feel immensely

 

[Lord_Trashcan]

Hey guys! I couldn't work on the mod for a while, but I managed to finish the alternative master perks idea. Here are the reworked Rifle perks, along with the new master perk.

Spoiler

 

[grimace]

Is anyone actively developing new maps to explore?

 

[Ash]

Mantling > Stacking boxes

GMDX provided me the best Deus Ex experience I've ever had, bar none. Props to the chef.

You're welcome.

Is anyone actively developing new maps to explore?

Sadly no. It's an RPG and as such it isn't suited to a bustling mapping community. However with GMDX I'd argue the core gameplay is now absolutely good enough to support highly engaging self-contained small missions independent from a full game, but sadly there has never been much a community around modding the game, and even in 2012 when I started on GMDX it was near-dead. There is only one RPG series that has that privilege (TES) for whatever reason.

There is a map I made and scrapped. This add-on restores it to the main game and it is nice, but of course it was scrapped for a reason: https://www.moddb.com/mods/gmdx/addons/shipping-receiving-add-on

Maybe one day when I'm rich and free from the 9-5 I'll sit down again with GMDX for another version + some self-contained missions (maybe even transfer your save from the main game/after missions)

 

[raz3r]

I dream of the day someone will mod in all the cut content like the moon mission or a brand new story where you can stick with UNATCO much longer as originally planned. With today's technology it shouldn't even be that hard.

 

[Ash]

https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgam..._ex_it_took_me_three_playthroughs_to_like_it/

The headshot hit registeration is extremely inconsistent, making some weapons that rely on headshots for stealthy take downs like the crossbow save scum only stealth tools. The pepper spray is powerful when it works, but about half the time won't properly register enemies being hit. Laser trip wires sometimes can be fooled by putting boxes in the way of the lasers, and other times will explode. Quoting the wiki:

In general, there is no way of knowing in advance whether a laser tripwire is triggerable only by the player or by all objects.

Stealth is simiilarly janky, there is one mission where you're trying infiltrate a generator and conking one guard alerts half the base and triggers a conga line of guards. Yet other times, you can have 3 enemies standing feet from each other and systematically knock out each one and none of the others will notice.

And for the longest time that's what I thought Deus Ex was. A janky, poorly made RPG with terrible stealth, terrible gunplay and horribly unbalanced RPG elements (get pistol to master, get regeneration to level 4, congrats you now win all firefights forever).

Like one of the posters said, all the jank is fixed in GMDX. And there really was a lot. Not to shit on the game it's my favorite, but let's not shy away from reality. In hindsight it's amazing I could love a game so flawed, so deeply.
The poster doesn't even go into interactivity issues (lots and lots), dumb as fuck AI, severely underdeveloped weapon design and much more, but he has the monocle to see some of the core issues.

If you're trying to get someone into Deus Ex, it should absolutely be with GMDX, otherwise the fail-to-click rate will be high unfortunately. Especially for one only exposed to modern sensibilities.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I've been trying to play Deus Ex again a few times but it ran like a stuttering shithole everytime on my computer which made no sense and online there seems to be a lot of experts saying different things. Below is the only thing that works for me if anyone has the same issue:

There is a super easy way to fix this, not hard to find either.

Disable in-game frame rate limit. Use "0" for "FPSLimit" setting.
Add deusex.exe to Program Settings in Manage 3D settings in NVIDIA Control Panel and
change the following settings.
Low Latency Mode: Ultra.
Max Frame Rate: 120 FPS. (I chose 60)
Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance.
Click Apply.

Also fixes the menu lag problems.

Source : https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Deus_Ex

 

[Snufkin]

Does GMDX mod increase system requirements of OG Deus Ex?

 

[Ash]

Yeah, but only the most rotten potato would not be able to handle it, in which case you can disable New Vision.

 

[Jazz_]

Can this mod be installed in a way that I only get the graphical upgrades without all the modifications to the systems/gameplay?

 

[Ol' Willy]

How to softlock yourself in La Guardia

Stack some boxes

Climb up. Once you get through you can't go out

Or not. Bring a couple of boxes with you - bigger one for transformer

Smaller one for coils

Voila - I'm in and out

 

[ghostdog]

How to softlock yourself in La Guardia

Stack some boxes

Climb up. Once you get through you can't go out

Or not. Bring a couple of boxes with you - bigger one for transformer

Smaller one for coils

Voila - I'm in and out

Doesn't the "explosives on walls" climbing trick also work there?

 

[Ol' Willy]

I decided to start a pure assaulter build with minimal or no investment in stealth, hacking, lockpicking, etc skills - which is fairly rare choice for a Deus Ex run. It looks fairly legit as the game has lots of weapons, weapon related skills and combat related augs. And while it works fine, the one problem is the quite sensible lack of ammo for all types of weapons. I don't remember if this was the case in vanilla because I never played a pure assaulter in vanilla...

On the one hand, it spices up the gameplay as I had to use everything I have to prevail in combat. Explosive boxes, barrels, all types of weapons, I even use those one-use plasma pistols...

On the other hand, it just shows how inferior the pure assaulter build is. Stealth based pistol, melee or pistol + melee build has no such problems; even pure melee tank will go along far smoother (especially after getting Dragon sword). This reminds me of System Shock 2 where the melee build with rapier was the easiest to go around too.

I understand the logic behind such balancing. If the ammo was abundant, even characters who don't invest in weapon skills would be able to use them effectively, compensating terrible accuracy with bullet spam... But in return, it punishes the characters who invest in firearms as well. And it simply doesn't work - for example, I have pistols at untrained, carry Glock with zero upgrades and yet, giving the tanky nature of the build and Targeting aug I can just bumrush weaker enemies and headshot them; all the while assault rifle with lots of upgrades and well trained skill is massively worse than Dragon sword.

I think instead of limiting the ammo supply, the better choice would be to make weapon skills to affect the damage output. Yes, this is extremely unrealistic, but if will balance the things better. And after all, Demolitions skill already affects the damage output

 

[RoSoDude]

All of the weapon skills do affect damage output. It's +20% at Trained, +30% at Advanced, +50% at Master level, i.e. damage is doubled at Master level.

A big problem with investing in zero technical skills of any kind is that you will be functionally locked out of acquiring many weapon mods and ammo caches which aid a gun-focused build. It is more or less expected that you will invest a bit in those. I think this is fine as the most engaging part of Deus Ex in my view is the intersection of character building, resource management, and strategic routing/exploration.

 

[antimeridian]

It can be a fun way to play though. Most immersive sims are designed around spreading out your skills somewhat, and definitively leveling some infiltration/exploration skills for resources. But it can also be a fun challenge to ignore all that and just blast your way through while dealing with less resources and upgrades.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Dropped the assaulter build because it turned out quite unfun to play.

Instead, restarted and now finished with [almost] pure melee character. Not strictly stealth based too, if alarm goes on that means only more fun. I try to pick some guys from stealth, but it always turns into a proper brawl and a natural massacre.

Obviously, the build came online only after I obtained Dragon Sword. Until I did, I had to use knife and sneak around more as going in open combat with a knife is a questionable endeavor. Although the tactic of tazing people and then stabbing them works, the charges for tazer are quite scarce. (screenshots made at Vanderberg base)

Later, I kept tazer exclusively for Men in Black due their obvious quirk; grenade launcher for robots and for opening doors if I didn't want to waste a lockpick or multitool. Throwing knives turned out to be extremely good (accurate and good damage), and I didn't know as I never used them before.

All upgrades that I found went into tazer and grenade launcher. They turned out to be fully upgraded except for damage upgrade which was very rare (I found like three in total)

Technical skills all mastered up, and afterwards, I mastered medicine too - for more tanking. In retrospect, I think that investing in stealth was not the best decision and I should have invested in medicine from the start

Combat speed obviously for melee
Combat strength mostly for convenience
Ballistic and Regen for tanking
Running speed is a good aug for melee character, but it becomes good only with proper investment, and early on, I felt that I should invest in other augs

Now, speaking about Combat Strength and what RoSoDude is saying, with melee at Master, the damage output of Dragon Sword is 52. With Combat Strength on, it goes over 60. This means that I could destroy cameras, turrets and many doors without wasting any instruments on them. For example, I would run straight to the nearest turret and crush it with the sword instead of wasting any resource - be it multitool or explosive. Similarly, it saved me dozens of lockpicks crushing various chest and storage doors and allowing me to obtain the sweet gifts inside.

As I said before, very similar to System Shock 2 where melee build was similarly owning

 

[Butter]

DTS breaks the game so hard. I'm pretty sure I threw it away last playthrough because it spoils all the challenge. I was surprised by how good some skills are in GMDX, like Medicine and Explosives. There was one LAM in the Paris catacombs that I just wasn't fast enough to disarm, so I put the point in Explosives and from then on it felt like I had a superpower.

 

[Ol' Willy]

All of the weapon skills do affect damage output. It's +20% at Trained, +30% at Advanced, +50% at Master level, i.e. damage is doubled at Master level.

I thought it doesn't apply to guns for some reason

RE: ahh, of course. Base damage is so small that even 30% upgrade doesn't really feel much

A big problem with investing in zero technical skills of any kind is that you will be functionally locked out of acquiring many weapon mods and ammo caches which aid a gun-focused build. It is more or less expected that you will invest a bit in those. I think this is fine as the most engaging part of Deus Ex in my view is the intersection of character building, resource management, and strategic routing/exploration.

You see, I still got many caches with that build. Some lockpicked even without skill, some blasted away, some looked the code online. I had enough upgrades.

This is by the end of Hong Kong where I dropped the build:

But the ammo - still the biggest problem. I even had to pick up the sword which defeats the whole idea of build - thus I lost interest

To clarify, I do not advocate for any changes or something - just sharing my observations. I think the game was originally designed for only sporadic episodes of open combat in mind and thus such ammo balance

 

[Ol' Willy]

DTS breaks the game so hard. I'm pretty sure I threw it away last playthrough because it spoils all the challenge.

If you rely mostly on stealth and don't try to kill everyone on the map, then yes.

But if you do, then it is the only weapon that makes melee character a viable and powerful choice.

 

[Ash]

Yet another fork in development for this. No involvement from me. Really cool the mod is outliving me after all this time with multiple branches. Stay tuned for news I guess.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I'm kinda shocked this is still going on. Good for everyone involved.

 

[Tweed]

I recently did a melee build too. Everything before the DTS is pain, suffering, and clever usage of prods and grenades. Everything after is CHOP CHOP CHOP. You can break into almost everything too without picks or tools just by hulk smashing.

 

[Ash]

To clarify, I do not advocate for any changes or something - just sharing my observations. I think the game was originally designed for only sporadic episodes of open combat in mind and thus such ammo balance

Nope. My personal playstyle preference is combat. But it is balanced around thoroughness, skill and good knowledge of the game on hardcore. With more lenience on all lower difficulties.

The original game was absurdly generous with ammo, I toned it down a bit but still kept it pretty abundant.