Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

A refuge for those migrating from the fallen DXEditing.com and a place for general discussion relating to Deus Ex editing (coding, mapping, etc).
Post Reply
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

Sorry if this is an inappropriate place to post this, just figured I'd share what I'm working on.

I have done a few mods/TCs in the past, but this would be my first serious project with me leading the charge. The idea is all based on a running near-future sci-fi story I've been writing for a while. In a nutshell, the idea is basically an updated kind of cyberpunk that takes into account more of our Interesting Times. Think "The Windup Girl" meets "Neuromancer" in a pinch, but digging deeper into the specific issues affecting us at present. These include austerity measures a la Greece & Spain, financial/economic unraveling, job automation by robots/AI, the copyright wars, and ubiquitous surveillance. I'm also going for a more "down to Earth" feel, in that the player is one of the destitute have-nots living in an austerity-ghetto, rather than the System's troubleshooter agent in the polished marble office. The first mission, for example, is to successfully beg for food before you starve to death.

Features to include:
-Facial, vocal biometric capture devices (point and shoot at target face)
-"Nohface" electronic face projector for thwarting surveillance/drones which cover almost every inch of city
-Wireless internet (and wireless internet hacking)
-Darknets - all web activity is fully surveilled, you need stealth not only in meatspace but in cyberspace as well by using ad-hoc mesh networks.
-More types of hacking - cryptography, DDoS, spoofing
-Hunger: experience real economic destitution as you slowly die of starvation and are forced to beg, steal, or even kill for a piece of bread.
-DIY: Upgrade your hemp trenchcoat with solar trim, syphon electricity from the private power grid, take apart old phones and radios to hack together an EMP gun, set up a hydroponic garden in your squatted flat so you don't have to kill for every meal.

I know people are busy so I'm not going to ask for a team or anything but if you can spare a moment for a voice or models or something let me know.

A little promo video of ingame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... wHD58PLrlU

Pics:
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6112/6849 ... 1b24_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7250/6849 ... 067f_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7233/6996 ... 8d7a_b.jpg
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6050/6849 ... af22_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7051/6849 ... 631e_b.jpg

Website:
http://terminusmachina.tumblr.com/about

Backstory:
http://postfutures.blogspot.com/
Overview

Take on the role of an operative in the Hex Gen network, a decentralized movement of hacktivists resisting the economic pillaging visited by the unholy alliances of Big Tech, Big Military, and Big Finance. These "megaglomerates" who have their fingers in every pie on the planet from government to corporation, and are happy to watch it burn in an inferno of austerity measures and drone-conducted tele-massacres if it means they can keep their sociopathic games going another fiscal quarter.

The Enemy is Much More Powerful Than You – You are a tiny, budgetless micro-organism against a billion+ aircraft and humanoid drone private "security" force that would make the Pentagon piss its pants. Your only option, therefore, is to think your way out. Combat is counterproductive and can only be used in an emergency situation. But even the smallest lifeform, the virus, is capable of taking out the purported apex of the evolutionary ladder. (hint)

Nowhere to Hide Omnipresent surveillance changes everything, including the rules of engagement. With spycams covering almost every inch of the city and drones patrolling every block, there is no escaping the all-seeing eye of the power(s) that be. The only way out is to manipulate the system to your benefit. And why not? It’s the American Way.

You will have to finesse your way through the Big Brother guantlet by stealing, forging, and hacking Facial, vocal, subdermal RFID, and even DNA datacoding systems to have any hope of making it through. And if you get caught? Say hello to the rest of your life in a private prison-Gulag, making iPads 20 hours a day or as a slave-prostitute for the inhumanly wealthy.

It's not just hacking ATMs and cubicle desktops anymore. Run a distributed denial of service on a racketeering credit card company, social engineer your way through the ranks of a leading Enclave security subcontractor, forge a cloud-based botnet of viraly infected smartphones, then use it to engage in cyber-financial warfare as you crash a major investment bank through high frequency and algorithmic trading of credit default swaps and other monetary WMDs.

Welcome Your New Robot Overl… I Mean Replacements – Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics have reshaped society at every level. Cheaper, always compliant, and more efficient robots and AIs now do almost all the jobs, from serving coffee to cleaning bathrooms to defending you in court to performing surgeries to fighting the wars for the rich. 70% global unemployment leads to civilization-rocking upheavals with massive strikes, riots, and literal class warfare skirmishes as capitalism, markets, even the concept of the job itself finally starts really coming apart at the seams in an ugly Marxian endgame. Keep your head down.

Kumbaya, muther fucker. With welfare states hollowed out by big banks and financial cartels, the general population struggles to take care of itself without even the most basic of public services. There are no hospitals, no police stations, no power grid, no running water, no foodstamps, and a two-tiered, prohibitively expensive internet. In the San Francisco Ashlands, solar-powered rooftop agriculture, self-healing remedies, and intentional communities are on the rise. In this world, it’s DIY or die, literally, so get your sustainable energy, food, and mesh-internets worked out ASAP.
Image
nerdenstein
Illuminati
Posts: 1591
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:40 pm
Location: Leicester, England, UK.

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by nerdenstein »

I really like the look of this.
Interesting ideas too.

Have you got a Moddb page so I can track it?
If not, I'll follow your progress on here. :smile:
The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

Thanks!

I don't yet have a Moddb site but I'll look into getting one.
Image
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

Image
User avatar
Neveos
X-51
Posts: 875
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:29 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by Neveos »

omg kick ass. i really like where that is heading. and major awesome song.
What I do in my other free time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3FfPUKuGsQ
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

Here's some teasers for the solar-modified trenchcoat. The "Skorched Urth" mod allows constant recharge of your energy stores while in sunlight. I've reprogrammed the augmentation system to allow some augs to be uninstallable, such as this solar mod, but at a cost (panels may break, require additional "repair" skills).

Image

Image

Image
Image
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

Trying to go through a more serious examination of the gameplay, and in particular skills as they affect gameplay. I'm planning on revamping much of the skill list to bring in new game dynamics and also to give things an image makeover more in theme with the TM mod. Many of these skills will be similar to existing skills but with additional modifiers -- Hotwiring is basically electronics except rather than just multitooling keypads you can also siphon electricity and wire up your own portable solar systems and other useful things.

If anyone has any ideas/suggestions, I'm open. I'm still very much in a nebulous brainstorming phase with this.

Computer Hacking
The deciphering of codes, breaking of passwords, intrusion into and manipulation of secure systems.

Hot Wiring
Increases energy siphoning speed and decreases likelihood of dangerous accidents. Reduces the number of Multitool required for any non-computer-skill-aided hack.

Bio Hacking
Ability to physiologically modify oneself and others using gene-splicing, genetic modification, and surgical insertions

Improvised Explosive Devices
Building IEDs from household chemicals and undetonated munitions. Increases effectiveness as well.

Weapons: Projectile
Increases weapon damage, accuracy, and reduces reloading time. Also affects proficiency with cameras (i.e. Sousveiller).

Weapons: Hand-2-Hand
Increases weapon damage, accuracy, and reduces reloading time.

Social Engineering
Your ability to convince others that you are right, to lie, and to impersonate others. Affects facial/vocal identity masking, social engineering hacks.

Mechanical Tinkering
Your ability to build, repair, and manipulate mechanical devices. Affects (Considering merging this one with lockpicking -- locks are mechanical devices) Description: "Dissecting, inventing, repairing and reverse-engineering mechanical devices.
UNTRAINED: A hacktivist breaks any mechanism they attempt to fix.
TRAINED: A hacktivist can take apart and repair radios and simple weapons such as handguns.
ADVANCED: A hacktivist can fix cars and build moderately advanced devices (such as EMP rifles) using schematics
MASTER: A hacktivist invents flying, cold-fusion powered cars in his/her sleep.

Lock Picking
Reduces the number of lockpicks required when Lockpicking.

Nature Punk
Your knowledge and expertise with plants and animals. Natural remedies, growing of food, and ability to lull animals.

Medicine
Increases the amount of damage healed by your Medkit.

The "weapons" categories have also been simplified as straight-up combat will be even less central in Terminus Machina seeing as your character is much more underpowered compared to your foes. The "projectile weapon" skill will also affect your ability with cameras (needed for capturing digital face-overlay disguises). Your melee skill will have a much bigger impact than in DX. If you invest nothing in "hand-2-hand" your knives will often break, you will tend to drop your baseball bats mid-swing, and damage will be greatly reduced.

There will be very few "complete" useful items just laying around the game -- you *are* living in a crumbling necropolis, after all. No AK47 in the mailbox and shotgun shells in random boxes lying around. The DIY "Finding new uses for things" will be essential here, and I'm currently working on getting a diverse crafting system up and running. If you want a crossbow you'd better go find some old tire rubber and metal parts and invest in that Mechanical Tinkering skill. No energy? Grab some solar panels off of that old broken down street-cleaner bot, some copper wire from that junked Audi and sew up your solar coat. Need a lam to take care of that goddamned Nazi counterinsurgency android? Nab some liquid detergent and fertilizer from 711, read your Anarchist Cookbook and cook up some IEDs. Jerryrig a discarded smartphone to your bomb and use it as a remote detonator. Nails and wood pieces can be whittled into wicked crossbow bolts. If you've got your "Naturepunk" skill up you might even be able to sort out a poison to make those bolts even deadlier (or incapacitatier).

On another brief playthrough of Deus Ex, I realize the genius is in the plethora of possible solutions to any given challenge -- and the ability for the player to decide what does and does not constitute a challenge worth solving. I'm presently attempting to sort out how this can be further expanded upon. Ideally, in this game, not only will you feel as though you're solving the challenges your own way, you'll feel as though you're *inventing* the solutions right out of everyday pieces of trash on the street. I also want the game to be more difficult and sparse -- at no point should you be running around like an invisible two-legged F-16 blowing the crap out of everything in your way. This is one problem I had with DX, especially later in the game. You will always be underpowered as a underclass freedom fighter, but with enough ingenuity and endurance, you might just make it through.


Image

No bullets in them thar lockers, but maybe a pair of scissors!


Also put up the songs from the demo video on <a href=http://www.moddb.com/mods/terminus-machina/videos>the Moddb site</a>
Image
Vexus
Mole Person
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 7:51 pm

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by Vexus »

Sounds brilliant, check your pms!
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

Anyone know how to change the order in which things appear in your "video" section of your Moddb site? I'd like to stick a certain demo video in the front of the list.
Image
~DJ~
UNATCO
Posts: 277
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:15 pm

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by ~DJ~ »

don't think that can be done.. I wanted to arrange the pics on the mod I'm working on once.. deleted all and uploaded them on the order I wanted. :/

You could try PMing INtense! however.
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

I've been layering and vivid-lighting and brightness/contrasting away in Photoshop for days but I've been having trouble coming up with the right logo for the fictional hacktivist group "Hex Gen" in my game. Thusly, I've decided to launch a design competition for the Hex Gen logo. If anyone wants to participate, just post/send me a pic of your logo design.

Think of Hex Gen as an Anonymous + Masters of Deception on steroids and with a significant "ground-troop" presence globally. Not in terms of conventional or even conventional-assymetric warfare, (they don't charge the Red Zone, Kalashnikov AKMN in hand) although they do coordinate operations with armed insurgent groups by providing disruption of and espionage into enemy communications, as well as manipulation of enemy robot soldiers and drones. They have recently been assisting underclass resistance and revolutionary movements against "The Plutos" (global power elite), however their exact motives remain uncertain as their operations range from pranks to outright criminal enterprises. From the mod description:

"You are an operative in the Hex Gen network, a decentralized movement of hacktivists resisting the economic pillaging conducted by the unholy alliances of Big Tech, Big Military, and Big Finance. United over a loose constellation of ad-hoc mesh-internets, Hex Gen (AKA Generation Hex) are a new class of freedom fighter. Though necessarily shrouded in secrecy, Hex Gen thus far is the only group to have carried out successful attacks against the Plutos. They've dealt crippling DDoS attacks to crooked corporations, tanked corrupt investment banks with electronic financial manipulation and successfully taken control of drones and androids in the armies of CyberSec -- the leading "counter-insurgency" military/law enforcement contractor. Still, some believe they're just a gang of criminals and thieves in it for their own profit. Perhaps time will tell."

Here's an example of a prototype I've been working on:

Image
Image
User avatar
Jonas
Off Topic Productions
Off Topic Productions
Posts: 14224
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:21 pm
Location: Hafnia

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by Jonas »

So the logo for Hex Gen shows the world made up of a grid of squares? Come on, dude ;)
Jonas Wæver
Chief Poking Manager of TNM

I've made some videogames:
Expeditions: Rome
Expeditions: Viking
Expeditions: Conquistador
Clandestine
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

Heh... and that was like the *best* of the bunch.

The ones where I actually used hexagons kind of look like b-list 70's disco albums or non-profit organization emblems to me.

x.O"
Image
User avatar
SilverSpook
MJ12
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by SilverSpook »

Need voice actors, message plz! Trying to make another gameplay vid.
Image
User avatar
Neveos
X-51
Posts: 875
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:29 am

Re: Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

Post by Neveos »

SilverSpook wrote:Need voice actors, message plz! Trying to make another gameplay vid.
Sure, I'll read some lines, and send you the files.

Is there a free program for recording the game? I would like to make a playthrough video or something, myself.
What I do in my other free time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3FfPUKuGsQ
Post Reply