Unofficial: Suggestions, Gameplay Help, and Questions topic.

[Jonas]

Well the environmental protection aug is a bit pants in TNM because we don't have that many environmental hazards, but it's about 3 years too late to fix that now, and it wasn't all that great in DX to begin with.

[Chris Rosenkreutz]

Enviromental Protection useless? I've done most of the last level only using the golden spork. I wouldn't call it useless.

Microfibrial muscles are as useful as you make them. Like shifting normal barrels around for exploration, or explosive barrels around for shits and giggles? Then have we got the aug for you...

There's very few places in TNM that I've found stacking useful where there isn't an adequate supply of light things. From the screenshot thread:

Behold ... modern art!!!

http://i44.tinypic.com/2luar1t.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/11aeiv6.jpg

Of course, I could have just lockpicked the door or grenade climbed to get up there, but who'd want to do something as uninteresting as that? This way's far more entertaining!

I haven't found anything hidden behind a heavy and indestructible object. The new light explosive barrels in TNM seem to have mostly replaced the Deus Ex ones. And the poison barrels all seem to be leaking.

Likewise, combat strength is useless if you're using rifles. It's down to preference and usage, basically.

I can accept that maybe I'm the one of few who could be bothered to to take out most of the cameras in the Worldcorp HQ before rescuing Sliver Dragon. But are there really many people who don't use melee weapons, fists or grenades? Of those, how many would use Microfibial Muscles?

[DDL]

I dunno about grenades (I've never felt the need to fling them further than you can by default), but hey: the entire DX ethos is about choice and consequence, and that's largely a personal thing. I quite like rearranging the world to my own demented tune, so feel quite frustrated when I'm playing augcombat-styled and suddenly remember that "medium crates" are now out of my grasp. Of course, when I play augcombat-styled I usually do my best to use melee weapons to the exclusion of all others, just to get my money's worth.

(actually, the first time I've ever actually played as the full-on "augcombat, augspeed, augballistic, aughealing running-gunning-smashing indestructable death machine" was in TNM, and it was hilarious)

[Hassat Hunter]

Many enemies use flamestuff, not too many sniperrifles. No one-shot insta-death for the player in high-quality? [/sarcasm]

I usually pick ballistic armor, but forget to turn it on for firefights. Oh well, we have Regen anyway, not?
Actually, pretty much the only augs I use in TNM are regen and muscles (oh, and speed enhancement of course, it's awesome, very helpful since most hidden locations require it!). Bash turret, heal... very handy.

ADS I pick, never use. Resistance similar. I use targeting a lot more since I learned here it would increase damage (scope, F8, death, F8, proceed). Cloak I pick, but also never use (I am SO violent )

[Chris Rosenkreutz]

Cloak can be violent. Sneaking past large numbers of enemies with cloak uses too much bioelectricity. Going up to them and whacking them before they can locate you by ear doesn't.

Choice of playing style is always good. But lack of balance doesn't help it. The speed aug is arguably better than run silent even for stealth. It speeds you up even when you crouch. Moving crouched is perfectly silent even when the aug isn't maxed out. Even with speed, it's apparently still slower than running, but you can make up for that by running fast when you're outside of anyone's hearing range. And speed helps that vital stealth skill: legging it when you're spotted. Run silent does combine well with cloak but you really need power recirculator and all 3 augs at a high level for that to be good. Maybe I try and sneak up on people without run silent too much to get anything out of the aug.

You could decide to play stealth and force yourself to use run silent. It just wouldn't be better.

I prefered the run silent biomod in invisible war to the speed one so it could have been balanced in Deus Ex. Of course, I respect that TNM not only doesn't aim to fix Deus Ex's many flaws, but tries to recreate them for flavour whenever possible.

There's 5 or 6 places I find microfibial muscles very useful in Deus Ex and I often pick them. I've just not found them useful in TNM. It's too easy to get combat strength and the DTS to the magic camera killing and door opening threshold iearly. I'd go as far as to argue that you'd be better nerfing the DTS to 3/4 damage to make it harder. 75 damage is enough to kill most mooks so you'd hardly notice. It'd make the unique melee weapons much more attractive.

(I've never felt the need to fling them further than you can by default)

It must be style. I find that range is always good. Only today, I got the guards at the front of the ABI tunnel with a vortex grenade without them seeing me, by bouncing it off the far wall. Thanks to the usual creative deus ex coding, combat strength also makes grenades do more damage. It's especially nice with scramble grenades.

[DDL]

Just checked: holy shit you're right, it does increase damage. God, DX was programmed by people who just didn't take the time to THINK...

[Skilgannon]

So here's a question: Where can I find the little surprise from Ion Storm in 1.0.2? Because I've played through the game twice now with that patch, and I've failed to see it on both occasions. Maybe it's just too subtle for the likes of me.....

[Hassat Hunter]

I am pretty sure Targeting also increases Grenade damage... for no good reason.

As for Skilgannon: There is a whole thread about that, but if you don't want to seek it;
Corporate District, Easter Egg

[Made in China]

Well, the human body isn't homogenic - there're some areas that are harder, as well soft and weak spots. For example, a blow to the temple has more damage potential than just a a hit in the jaw, even though both of them are located in the head.
So I guess that that's what they thought of when they gave the targeting aug the damage bonus - because targeting allows you to be more accurate, you're more probable to hit those weak spots, assuming that you know where they are.

And even though I can't justify the bonus for grenades, I assume they just gave the bonus to all the weapons - so it may be just an error of over generalization.

[Skilgannon]

I am pretty sure Targeting also increases Grenade damage... for no good reason.

As for Skilgannon: There is a whole thread about that, but if you don't want to seek it;
Corporate District, Easter Egg

K thanks, haven't found all the easter eggs yet. They're damn difficult to find, and I could swear I've been everywhere in the game now. But, clearly not.

[JC_Helios]

Targeting increases damage for like everything... I'm pretty sure it was fixed in Shifter though, not sure about the combat strength thing though.

[Scotch]

Jonas, a little quirk: Opening the case that holds the regeneration aug in the llama temple will for no good reason cause the adjacent TNT barrels to explode. This scared the shit out of me when it happened. The TNT barrels are not on top of the case so they could not have been moved, and there is no warning that you were walking into a trap of that kind. Perhaps fixing that or giving proper warning (like a TNT barrel on top of the case) will help players avoid needless and frustrating deaths.

[Hassat Hunter]

I've already mentioned that in the 1.0.2 thread. It's because the mover is set to "crush on encroach" and the TNT barrel is in it's path, so it crushes it (detonating it). Same reason why sometimes chairs splinter when drawers open, but ofcourse chairs don't detonate.

More annoying deaths are found on the HTTP; when you feel superawesome powerful and a FUCKIN' door kills you, just before you thought about saving...

[Jonas]

I've already mentioned that in the 1.0.2 thread. It's because the mover is set to "crush on encroach" and the TNT barrel is in it's path, so it crushes it (detonating it). Same reason why sometimes chairs splinter when drawers open, but ofcourse chairs don't detonate.

No, you know it always annoys me a little when people come up with their own erroneous explanations for why bugs happen and then state them as though they were fact. I know you're trying to help by identifying the issue, but usually it's a lot less logical than you think. For example, the container has always been set to ignore on encroach, the problem is that when it reaches its "open" position and solidifies, its BSP fucks up and extends its collision way over to the wall, intersecting with the collision of the explosive barrels and detonating them. This is the same thing that happens when drawers destroy chairs, since no drawers are set to crush on encroach (that would be stupid, it's not even the default). All I had to do was move the barrels a little, and it went away. This is already done for 1.0.3

[Hassat Hunter]

Ah. My bad. But as most people; I think I am right (based on own observations) until proven otherwise by someone with more knowledge (read: you). And since you didn't denounce my explenation in the 1.0.2 thread... well...
Okay, now I know better, even if it sounds... whacky indeed.

It's pretty strange with lockers and chairs, because sometimes they crush, sometimes they push, and other times you can put a chair on a locker in midair, and it keeps hanging there when you close it 0_0. There are also several lockers whose goodies insiside move independantly, making them inaccessable (rare), forcing you to open the locker twice to get the stuff (Goat city's garage has that, amongst others) or closing it causes them to float in midair (especially fondness of ABI).

Now; what about those bloody spaceship doors? I have noticed once a security bot got inside a door just fine (wtf?), by being disabled and the door then closing, which looked a little hilarious, but sometimes I am just being awesome, and careful (think a certain bot in Narcissus room) and die because of a door. From now on I always storm that room, EMP Pistol in the hand, because carefully trying to approach the robot without taking damage inevitable leads to sudden death .