GMDXv9.0 Release

[Shadowdancerxxl]

Greasels are a product of the MJ12 - and therefore indicate MJ12 presence. I don't think they belong in a secretive hideout of their rival faction's leader.

The graveyard is a weird map to balance. You'd expect a graveyard to be far more expansive than it is currently, with 1 or 2 more mausoleums and many more rows of graves. However, since you're ambushed there at the end, a bigger maps means more opportunities to be blindsided by the MJ12 troopers, while also reducing their density - I'm guessing it wasn't by coincidence that Dowd's mausoleum was backed against the edge of the map, as it balances out the combat.

If I were to create it from scratch, I'd have it stretched out to include another mausoleum before Dowd's, and have far more graves to aid in bottlenecking the MJ12 troopers in that area. The area near Dowd's would be almost as it is - pretty open and allow for combat, which can be solved by either stealth or an all-out combat, which will make the remaining troopers from the previous area trickle down to it (due to their pathing being bottlenecked). This would retain the same feeling of the original, while also making it truer to life, with the added bonus of juxtaposing Dowd's crypt with a regular, barren mausoleum.

This is a pretty radical redesign, though. I don't think it could be implemented in GMDX with Cybernetic Pig's goals in mind.

Yeah, I agree that the graveryard should've been at least twice as big with a 1 or 2 more crypts to give some sense to the gatekeepers speech (because he gives directions like it would be a lot bigger graveyard with more than one crypt). Also because I personally think it would be awesome for stealth builds to figure out a path how to get passed the mj12 troops by hiding behind gravestones and stuff with some cloaking involved.


"Tracer Tong: A Greasel. Either MJ12 has been releasing transgenics into the sewers, or they had an escape at one of their laboratories."

Tong says this on the first map in Paris if you take the alternate path through a vent shaft in the building and find a dead Greasel. This would be enough justification for me to find Greasels in a Crypt in a Cemetary. But again, this is only me thinking out loud.

[Cybernetic pig]

You got a point there, although I wasn't asking for zombies and shit xd It's just I really hate levels with no music whatsoever, but yeah maybe I chose a too horrific music where the player would expect something to happen, but it won't. Although Greasels in one of the additional crypts eating bodies and shit would be sufficiently scary without going supernatural.

I get where you are coming from, and I do agree. Something subtle may do the job nicely, but it's a short map and the abrupt silence kind of adds a very subtle creepy tone all on its own, if you look at it that way, considering the rest of the game is accompanied by music throughout in every respect (vanilla, at least). Ultimately I don't think we have any suitable subtle music to add to the map to hand.

You got rid of the music in the catacombs, but replaced it with some creepy ambient sounds and I like that. I was aiming for a similar approach with what I posted, but I guess it was a bit too much. Maybe you can think of (or already thought of) some kind of background music/sounds that would give me that graveyard feeling?

I didn't actually add any sounds on this map that I recall, just removed the music and let the existing vanilla audio design come to the forefront. But I did tweak it some: increased volume of some effects, added reverb/echoing, maybe moved/duplicated/deleted a sound here or there. I think I deleted a bunch of "water drips" sounds as they covered a large area with a very large radius and hearing the same short water drip effect throughout the whole map would drive anyone crazy without the music masking it.

[Shadowdancerxxl]

I don't think we have any suitable subtle music to add to the map to hand.

Hmm.. How about this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBUtBrk7yzo

Not really music so you aren't messing around with the vanilla soundtrack, but it still breaks the silence a bit. And this howling wind adds sufficient creepiness to the graveyard, but still nothing over-the-top supernatural level creepiness. At least in my mind.

Edit: Although the map might need a few more trees to justify this howling sound effect.

[Cybernetic pig]

Maybe a "cityscape background noise" (cars humming, occasional soft wind etc). Although the cars humming should be kept to a minimum as NYC is in a state of turmoil and we see a big lack of operational vehicles in DX.

Howling wind would create the very real expectation of animated trees swaying in the wind.
I hope I'm not coming across as being too "navel-gazing" (a douchebag's method of sniping good game design practices) about it. I accepted your suggestion to restore a51 music, but I like to execute things without flaw/potential downside if I can help it. Preexisting versions of the mod shows that much is true.

[Shadowdancerxxl]

I hope I'm not coming across as being too "navel-gazing" (a douchebag's method of sniping good game design practices) about it.

Nope, we're cool I'm just throwing stuff at you that comes to my mind in hopes of either giving you a good idea or at least an inspiration for a good idea. I really want v9 to be a success, but since I'm not good at modding I'm trying to at least contribute with brainstorming and spamming ideas. So I hope I don't come across as someone who's trying to force his opinion onto others cuz it's really not the case xd

Edit: A "cityscape background noise" would be good enough. As long as there's something in the background, I'd be happy with the map.

[Shadowdancerxxl]

I'm just throwing stuff at you that comes to my mind in hopes of either giving you a good idea or at least an inspiration for a good idea.

Which reminds me: Did you look into my previous suggestion of making the npc conversations continue where they left off after getting interrupted by the player? Because I've been playing some Deus Ex again and noticed a similar feature already exists. Well it doesn't continue where it has been interrupted, but rather restarts the conversation altogether. Maybe not ideal, but this one is already there. For example that conversation in the Free Clinic between the doctor and that angry bum. No matter how many times you interrupt them they will always restart that conversation until they don't finish. Deus Ex has some awesome npc conversation which the player can overhear which really adds to the story telling and world building (at least in my mind) of the game and it's really a shame that the player being maybe a bit clumsy and causing noise or with allied npcs simply by clicking on them interrupts and totally cancels out some of these conversations.

[Cybernetic pig]

Good idea. I'll take a look.

[Cybernetic pig]

Bogie: tested your music in the map (most recent upload), set the flag MS_ShipBreeched = true, flew up to the helicopter, and it had that strange tempo problem from before where the track is slowed down to awful levels, ruining your track. I'm assuming it's something internal to the UMX file, care to take a look?

I also tested the a51 music restoration/alteration. No problem here, and it is an amazing change.

[Cybernetic pig]

Vanilla w/New Vision & HDTP: https://i.imgur.com/T70ek1S.jpg

After GMDX optimizing: https://i.imgur.com/HrlsvCB.jpg

[Shadowdancerxxl]

Vanilla w/New Vision & HDTP: https://i.imgur.com/T70ek1S.jpg

After GMDX optimizing: https://i.imgur.com/HrlsvCB.jpg

Looks pretty good

I'm curious what changes did you make on the Area 51 maps in v9, because I always hated that stage. What annoyed me that most in the vanilla version, that aside from that small nanolab with the clones there were no labs whatsoever. I mean if I hear "Area 51" the first thing that comes to my mind is "secret laboratory". I mean if Versalife had such a big lab, then you'd expect Area 51 having one that's at least as big as the Versalife one.

[RoSoDude]

A long while back I noted that this nanokey in Vandenberg is missing from the GOTY version as well as GMDX v8.0. Any thoughts on whether restoring it would be a good idea? It might have been removed because it was too easy to find, and thus worth keeping out.

[Cybernetic pig]

Area 51: just polishing and beautification.

Vandenberg Key: is now restored.

[RoSoDude]

Hey, one more thing while it's on my mind. There's been a bug since vanilla where interacting with ATMs causes whatever key you have bound for interaction to be inputted into the "Account #" field. Most players might not know this because the default interact keybinding is RMB, so it doesn't input anything. I use "f" for interact, so whenever I touch an ATM there's already an f there, which is mildly annoying.

Don't know if this is something you can even fix, but I thought I'd bring it up.

[Made in China]

I can think of a stupid fix by introducing a 1-frame (or the smallest amount of time possible in UE1.5) of lag between the interaction and the ATM menu opening up. It should be unnoticeable for the most part, but I'm pretty sure there's a more elegant solution out there*.

*Or that it doesn't solve the issue at all and I'm off by a mile.

[Shadowdancerxxl]

Hey, one more thing while it's on my mind. There's been a bug since vanilla where interacting with ATMs causes whatever key you have bound for interaction to be inputted into the "Account #" field. Most players might not know this because the default interact keybinding is RMB, so it doesn't input anything. I use "f" for interact, so whenever I touch an ATM there's already an f there, which is mildly annoying.

Don't know if this is something you can even fix, but I thought I'd bring it up.

I just have to ask: If you're using "F" for interaction, then for what are you using the right mouse button?