Arkane PREY - Arkane's immersive coffee cup transformation sim - now with Mooncrash roguelike mode DLC

[Israfael]

I think a lot of people (like moi) just hate time limits of any sort. For me they make me feel rushed and anxious when in my heart of hearts I'm an explorefag, so it's kind of incompatible. Not saying I'd mod it out without trying it first, but it's definitely off-putting.

Why even play it, then? Timer is the crux of this game, by removing it you just turn it into a shallow sandboxy-sort-of simulator with no story, quests and so on. If you get the recipe to make the hourglass item, you basically can do your "eksplorashun" without any hassle for hours, if not days.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Mooncrash is far too easy by the mid game as is; modding out the timer will only cause the early game to be far too easy as well.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Mooncrash is far too easy by the mid game as is; modding out the timer will only cause the early game to be far too easy as well.

Between frustrating and easy I will choose the latter. Not because that's the right way, but because that is my preference.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I’m not trying to show off my internet dick here, but frustrating? Really? I think I got to Corruption Level 5 around 3 times in the course of my entire play through, and I never even bothered manufacturing the time loop delays. The timer is really very lenient, and just serves to put some mild pressure on the player.

 

[Multidirectional]

RoSoDude, is the current version of your "Core Balance Mod" final or are you planning to release another update in near future? Thinking of giving a base game another playthrough sometime soon, before trying "Mooncrash".

 

[RoSoDude]

RoSoDude, is the current version of your "Core Balance Mod" final or are you planning to release another update in near future? Thinking of giving a base game another playthrough sometime soon, before trying "Mooncrash".

I had a 1.3 update planned with some minor changes, but I've been too busy to work on it (just getting all of the different modules together for a release is more time-consuming than making and testing at this point). It wouldn't make a huge difference -- I'd just go through with version 1.2.

 

[DalekFlay]

Why even play it, then?

Because it was $4 and I like Arkane's work. This isn't rocket science. One massive upside to PC gaming is tailoring the experience to your preferences. You guys don't mind timers, good for you. Here's a golf-clap.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Why even play it, then?

Because it was $4 and I like Arkane's work. This isn't rocket science. One massive upside to PC gaming is tailoring the experience to your preferences. You guys don't mind timers, good for you. Here's a golf-clap.

On the one hand I get where you're coming from about having certain mechanical gaming triggers, and I know you to be a true bro, but on the other hand your position seems to basically boil down to "I like Element X and dislike Element Y so if Product Z contains both elements X and Y then I will strip out element Y". The flaw here being that by doing so you are fundamentally changing Product Z into something else entirely and curtailing your own ability to critically evaluate it. I know you said you will try it with the timer, which I applaud (it turns out that I love chocolate dipped in peanut butter, and I think peanut butter on its lonesome is pretty vile) and encourage you to stick with at least until you've unlocked a few characters; it really does change the way you play through the dlc.

Also, incidentally how do you feel about timers in non-reflex-reliant games (say the doomsday timers in Fallout 1/2)?

 

[DeepOcean]

In SS1 and SS2 the audio logs are very snappy and to the point.

Without mentioning that "Oh mah God, monsters are trying to kill us!" type of audiolog will always beat the crap of "I'm a purple hair lesbo in love that likes to play DnD, I bet you never get to know this type of ultra special person like that on Earth did you?"

 

[RaptorRex888]

Citation: My own eyes; the highest AA's method to fixing jaggies seems to be smearing Vaseline all over your screen, combine this with next to hardly any noticeable difference between the settings that affect texture quality and shadow - I'm choosing to play with everything on low to give my now-rapidly aging rig a break and have a stable 60fps all the way without dipping to low 50's for what I can see is no noticeable gain in visual quality.

Or maybe I'm just a jelly peasant coming up with excuses for having a toaster. I wouldn't rule it out.

Now on to the actual game. Which initial Neuromod choice did you guys choose? I went engineer but so far it seems like being Hercules and moving big boxes would have been handier as I see hidden things behind fuckhueg boxes everywhere. I always never pick this skill when its present from all the way back to the original Deus Ex for some reason - always to my detriment.

 

[Wunderbar]

Doublejump is the best traversal upgrade in human branch.

 

[RaptorRex888]

I thought I could use the sticky cum shooting gun to make platforms so I could go everywhere?

 

[Wunderbar]

Almost every obstacle can be circumvented via equipment. For example, you can just use recycling grenades instead of heavylifting.

 

[RaptorRex888]

Alright thanks, I'll play it a bit more.

 

[Tweed]

If you're just playing on default the mobility neuromods are a huge step towards godliness. At no point will you ever actually need the heavy lifting neuromods because all heavy lifting puzzles can all be circumvented with recyclers and yes, the GLOO gun can get you just about anywhere and it gets turn up to eleven when you can double jump. Combat Focus is insanely OP and pretty much takes the game apart, especially when you have a fully upgraded shotgun.

 

[Jasede]

Watched my roommate play (and beat) the game on the highest difficulty without neuromods... while he was on acid. Freaking Chemistry majors...

 

[DalekFlay]

On the one hand I get where you're coming from about having certain mechanical gaming triggers, and I know you to be a true bro, but on the other hand your position seems to basically boil down to "I like Element X and dislike Element Y so if Product Z contains both elements X and Y then I will strip out element Y". The flaw here being that by doing so you are fundamentally changing Product Z into something else entirely and curtailing your own ability to critically evaluate it. I know you said you will try it with the timer, which I applaud (it turns out that I love chocolate dipped in peanut butter, and I think peanut butter on its lonesome is pretty vile) and encourage you to stick with at least until you've unlocked a few characters; it really does change the way you play through the dlc.

I always try a game as intended first. I don't even like most graphics overhaul mods because I want to see the game "as intended." However if I really hate something about it after experiencing it... a depth of field implementation, a saving mechanic, a timer... but otherwise like the game, then I'll mod it if I can. For example the saving mechanic in Dark Souls ruins the game for me, if I could mod in quicksave I could play it and be happy (but unfortunately you can't). In Alien: Isolation though I battled through the saving mechanic and found it tolerable, and enjoyed the game enough to deal with it. I have no idea where Mooncrash will lie on that spectrum but I'm glad I have the option to do something about it if I hate the timer mechanic.

It never bothered me in Fallout though because the timer is so loose and forgiving. I'm hoping I can say the same of Pathfinder soon.

Citation: My own eyes; the highest AA's method to fixing jaggies seems to be smearing Vaseline all over your screen

This is the norm nowadays, it baffles me people like it. Spending tons on 4k equipment and then blurring the image to shit so it might as well be 1080p anyway. I've gotten more used to jaggies because I always turn TAA/FXAA off. SMAA is alright, but rarely used for some reason.

 

[ultimanecat]

I'm digging RoSoDude's mod but it bugs me that epic speedrun strats (clipping out through the bathroom ceiling) that let you skip the tutorial seem to leave you without a wrench. Or is it the chance that the corpse next to the rooftop simulation control computer has a backup wrench random with the mod?

In any case, I hate the tutorial but I hate avoiding enemies with no real offensive options at the start even more, so c'est la vie.

 

[RoSoDude]

I'm digging RoSoDude's mod but it bugs me that epic speedrun strats (clipping out through the bathroom ceiling) that let you skip the tutorial seem to leave you without a wrench. Or is it the chance that the corpse next to the rooftop simulation control computer has a backup wrench random with the mod?

In any case, I hate the tutorial but I hate avoiding enemies with no real offensive options at the start even more, so c'est la vie.

That first corpse has a chance to have a wrench and and a chance to have... an apple. It's a specifically scripted corpse loot so it's not in the loot tables, and thus I don't know the chances. From my test runs, seems 70:30 wrench:apple.

 

[ultimanecat]

Yeah, I was messing around and got the wrench on my third try, so I decided to stick with it from there.

Played for a bit up until about meeting December and now I have a weird bug where my 1st person player model totally disappeared. Held guns and throwables are perfectly visible but just float in front of me with no hands attached. Not game-breaking but it’s been persistent across saves/reloads and deaths.

 

[RoSoDude]

Yeah, I was messing around and got the wrench on my third try, so I decided to stick with it from there.

Played for a bit up until about meeting December and now I have a weird bug where my 1st person player model totally disappeared. Held guns and throwables are perfectly visible but just float in front of me with no hands attached. Not game-breaking but it’s been persistent across saves/reloads and deaths.

That one is because you didn't put on Morgan's suit in the Neuromod Division map before skipping out of your apartment. When the map is loaded again, some things are shuffled around and the model for Morgan in his/her PJs is absent, even though the map still remembers you as having that model (later maps all assume you are wearing the suit). Thus your player model is completely invisible in the Neuromod Division map, unless you go back to your apartment and put on your suit.

 

[V_K]

The radial selection menu only slows time down by 50% rather than stopping it entirely

Is there anyway to turn this off in your mod? The rest of the changes sound very appealing, but I really don't need fighting with the UI to be on a timer.

 

[ultimanecat]

Yeah, I was messing around and got the wrench on my third try, so I decided to stick with it from there.

Played for a bit up until about meeting December and now I have a weird bug where my 1st person player model totally disappeared. Held guns and throwables are perfectly visible but just float in front of me with no hands attached. Not game-breaking but it’s been persistent across saves/reloads and deaths.

That one is because you didn't put on Morgan's suit in the Neuromod Division map before skipping out of your apartment. When the map is loaded again, some things are shuffled around and the model for Morgan in his/her PJs is absent, even though the map still remembers you as having that model (later maps all assume you are wearing the suit). Thus your player model is completely invisible in the Neuromod Division map, unless you go back to your apartment and put on your suit.

Yup, that’d explain it.

Thanks again for the mod, I’m enjoying it thoroughly.

 

[RoSoDude]

The radial selection menu only slows time down by 50% rather than stopping it entirely

Is there anyway to turn this off in your mod? The rest of the changes sound very appealing, but I really don't need fighting with the UI to be on a timer.

Yes, it's quite simple. Take the patch_COREBALANCE_1-2.pak file (or if you're using one of them, the patch_COREBALANCE_1-2_HALFMAT.pak or patch_COREBALANCE_1-2_MOREMAT.pak file), rename the extension to .zip, extract it, and then go to Ark\Player\PlayerConfig.xml and change the line

<Stat name="focusMenuModeTimeScale" value="0.5"/>

to

<Stat name="focusMenuModeTimeScale" value="0.0"/>

Then you just need to rezip the edited contents, rename the extension to .pak, and put it in your Prey\GameSDK\Precache folder.

Thanks again for the mod, I’m enjoying it thoroughly.

Glad to hear it!

EDIT: Mistakenly said 1.0, should be changed to 0.0

 

[Morgoth]