To mod or not to mod?

[CrispSellar]

So, I'm doing my first ever playthough of the original Deus Ex. My question is, should I go with any gameplay mods (already going with visual mods like New Vision) or should I go "vanilla"? And if I should install some gameplay mods, which should I go with?

[YeomanTheCastle]

Definitely play with vanilla first. I'd try out Shifter or something on my second playthrough,

[fantsu]

Vanilla all the way.
There is nothing wrong with vanilla, it is actually really good that way.
There is no bugs in Deus EX that prevent you from seeing all and trying everything, the patches are 99,9% perfect.

New Vision and HDTP are pretty nice, but aren't needed if you don't care bad graphics.

[bjorn98009_91]

Well some bugs like the one about Paul's fate, can be problematic or a bit confusing. Nothing that won't allow you to continue but a minor annoyance. A new renderer should also be used along with a fixed .exe to solve speed issues.

[G-Flex]

Vanilla all the way.
There is nothing wrong with vanilla, it is actually really good that way.
There is no bugs in Deus EX that prevent you from seeing all and trying everything, the patches are 99,9% perfect.

Unless you want little, minor things, like actual support for higher resolutions and widescreen.

[DDentonas]

Vanilla maybe. But if you are not a sworn purist, i would recommend the "Biomod" mod. Deus ex is simply better and more balanced with it.


In the original, you could stand in front of robots and out-tank the damage they do. In biomod, by making augmentations burn energy when they are used, you will run out of energy if you sustain heavy fire. Also it makes most augmentations passive, so you wont have to micromanage your augs at the start of every fight.

Also if you are experienced gamer, and you want some extra thrills, don't get the health regeneration mod. It sucks the suspense out of the game.

[G-Flex]

At the very least, I recommend using Deus Ex 2.0. There are plenty of bugs that it doesn't fix, but on the other hand, fixing bugs is all it does, so there's very little reason not to use it.

[bjorn98009_91]

At the very least, I recommend using Deus Ex 2.0. There are plenty of bugs that it doesn't fix, but on the other hand, fixing bugs is all it does, so there's very little reason not to use it.

Yup, I agree. And once I'll get working on my own patches I'll recommend them as well as they will only be of a bug fix nature.

[G-Flex]

At the very least, I recommend using Deus Ex 2.0. There are plenty of bugs that it doesn't fix, but on the other hand, fixing bugs is all it does, so there's very little reason not to use it.

Yup, I agree. And once I'll get working on my own patches I'll recommend them as well as they will only be of a bug fix nature.

You're working on bugfixes? If you spot any bugs I haven't fixed yet, I'd be glad to hear about them so I can incorporate fixes into my own patch as well.

[bjorn98009_91]

Well I'm going to fix conversation bugs, since that can't be done in code. Also I'm working on that engine patch where I basically just compare the oldunreal patch .uc files to the .uc files and copy any fixes they have incorporated that doesn't require altering of native code.

[CrispSellar]

Vanilla maybe. But if you are not a sworn purist, i would recommend the "Biomod" mod. Deus ex is simply better and more balanced with it.

What are some ways Biomod makes Deus Ex "better", sans the more balance in terms of damage? (Serious question, new to everything Deus Ex)

[nerdenstein]

BioMod changes quite a few things. You're better off grabbing the v2.0 patch simply because it doesn't change anything, just fixes a bunch of stuff.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/biomod

http://www.offtopicproductions.com/foru ... 36&t=10132

[DDentonas]

Vanilla maybe. But if you are not a sworn purist, i would recommend the "Biomod" mod. Deus ex is simply better and more balanced with it.

What are some ways Biomod makes Deus Ex "better", sans the more balance in terms of damage? (Serious question, new to everything Deus Ex)

It makes most of your augmented powers passively active. Instead of pressing one of the F keys to activate the one you want before every battle (you will end up not using them most of the time), you activate them once and they don't burn up bioelectric energy untill it is used. This does not make the game any easier though. In vanilla (or 2.0 for that matter) you could activate your augmentations and stand in front of 10 guys shooting at you until you run out of energy. Of course that never happened because the augmentations in the original burn energy per minute. In biomod, augmentations burn energy per damage saved, so if you are under heavy fire, your energy will go down quickly and then your health will start going down faster too. You will really have to watch your energy levels, while in the original you will generaly know how much time you have until your energy runs out (and that is if you remember to activate your augs at all!) It really adds another element of strategy to the game.

After that there are small fixes. Making most skills more useful, you can ledge grab if you upgrade your (useless in the original) athletics skll (what sort of augmented badass can't pull up his own weight? also to put it in the game, after the mod, you have to remap the space bar from jump to jump/ledge grab.) , making the proximity mines more dangerous if you are not trained in demolitions (making them a true area denial weapon against you), it let's you pickpocket unaware enemies and with that allows you to look for keys on enemies without attacking them (making the one mandatory kill in the game optional), adds autosaving (very important. I can't remember how many times i forgot to save, died and ended up loosing 1 hour of gameplay.), has more interesting augmentations (removed boring ones, added new cool ones)... Hmm, i can't think of anything else right now. There are so many things it does and i take for granted.

IMHO biomod>>>>Vanilla, for new and old players alike.

[G-Flex]

In my opinion, even Shifter's changes are pretty heavy for someone unfamiliar with the game, and Biomod changes plenty on top of that. I recommend using only minimal mods until you've played the game at least once all the way through.

[Epifols]

Chances are you will do more than one playthrough, and the first one is the best chance to experience the game as it was created.

(Just don't invest in swimming skills)