New S^3 Mod "All Uniforms" in development (feedback is welcome)

[BlunterII]

...moving along.

 

btw, here is what the place where we found Compton looks like.

I modified it a bit...

 

 

...

_____________________________________________

 

...and now we are upstairs, talking to the doctor.

I've modified the base scripts quite a bit to fit this new chain of events.

 

 

The doctor changed his looks too.

 

Compton variable changes to 2 after that dialog

__________________________________________________

 

 

'Nothing at the moment' is equivalent to pressing 'Esc' - it ends the Dialog Mode.

 

'I need medical assistance' - heals your entire party (VPs and criticals) - currently for free. The nurse does the same thing. I am thinking about involving the nurse in the "Opium for Hospitals" subquest. There we'd need to bring 2 or 3 opium packages to her to get them to treat us for free... (ideas??? suggestions???)

________________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

ComptonStillUnconscious

 

Professor Compton is still unconscious. Please, come back later.

 

______________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

ComptonReadyToTalk

 

Professor Compton is awake and ready to talk.

________________________________________________

 

...after that pop-up the dialog with Prf. Compton starts automatically

________________________________________________

 

 

...the rest of the dialog is a copy of what Ecthel suggested. Thanks.

 

Compton variable changes to 3 here

________________________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

ComptonEquipment

 

Compton's List,

 

Apparently, Professor Compton has a theory about the 'sphere' and how it operates. You agreed to procure some equipment for him, so that he can falsify his hypothesis.

 

The list of items:

 

1. High energy capacitor.

2. Cathode-ray oscillograph.

3. Increased capacity electrical cable.

 

___________________________________________________

 

Now, the three items we need to find for Compton to move this story forward:

(the already familiar cable...)

 

 

...and two others:

 

 

ready for editing:

 

High Energy Capacitor

 

A rare capacitor that can withstand very high voltages.

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

Oscillograph

 

An advanced cathode-ray oscillograph capable of measuring and observing very high voltage electrical signals.

 

__________________________________________

 

 

 

ready for editing:

 

ComptonDoingMuchbetter

 

Professor Compton is doing much better. He'll be able to resume his duties very soon.

__________________________________________

 

 

 

 

ready for editing:

 

ComptonWentDownstairs

 

Compton? He's gone downstairs.

___________________________________________

 

...by leaving the base I meant:

 

- pressing the 'leave' button

- exiting through the front or the PK bay 'exit'

- taking the elevator to the basement (ATP)

 

...it sets Compton variable to 4.

_______________________________________________

(to be continued)

 

~Blunter~

[BlunterII]

...it's time to go and visit Professor Compton in the basement.

 

 

I added a few objects to the ATP part of it...

_________________________________________

 

Compton is happy to see us.

 

 

 

 

ready for editing:

 

Training_Dlg5

 

Compton: Well, Lieutenant, thanks to you I've been able to return to my work.

You: I am glad I could help. Do you still require those parts you mentioned?

Compton: Yes, I believe they are the only things that stand between me and the 'sphere'.

You: All right, I'll keep an eye out.

__________________________________________

 

After the dialog the 'compton' variable changes to 5 >> the medic interactions upstairs won't mention Compton any more, and Compton won't be thanking you in a never ending loop either...

 

Yes, during my testing there were some really silly 'bugs' that needed to be addressed...like Boris and Compton sharing the same bed, Ozwell refusing to unlock doors or a copy of my hero walking out of the ATP when the doors were unlocked for the first time... that last one was hillarious.

 

BTW, I tested this routine in the game - no hiccups so far.

 

 

I find Dialog Mode to be much more convenient than the regular dialogs for these types of situations (FedEx deliveries included)

______________________________________

 

...let's fast-forward again:

 

 

ready for editing:

 

CableGiven

 

Compton appears satisfied with the high capacity cable you procured for him.

__________________________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

CapacitorGiven

 

Compton appears satisfied with the capacitor you gave him.

_______________________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

OscillographGiven

 

Compton appears satisfied with the advanced cathode-ray oscillograph you brought him.

___________________________________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

StillNeedSome

 

There are still some items Compton needs for his experiment.

_____________________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

AllPartsGiven

 

Now, you've delivered all the parts Prf. Compton asked for. You might want to visit him later after he tests his theory.

_______________________________________________

 

At this point the 'compton' variable is set to 6.

___________________

 

 

 

ready for editing:

 

TestNotYet

 

Prf. Compton is not ready to demonstrate his theory yet. Please, come back later.

_________________________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

Test

 

Lieutenant, we are ready to begin. I didn't want to start without you.

_________________________________________________________

 

...I remember trying to script this level increase check and constantly running into 'can't compare number to string' error in the console. Apparently, UnitGetSkillMaxValue(unit,ST_SKILL) - returns a number whereas GetGlobalGameVar("Name") - returns a string, even though controlled and manipulated with numerical values.

so when I set a global to 'remember' a value

 

local z=UnitGetSkillMaxValue(GetHero(),ST_LEVEL)

SetGlobalGameVar("XPPartsCompton",z)

 

later, when checking it wouldn't want to compare x and y:

 

local x = UnitGetSkillMaxValue(GetHero(),ST_LEVEL)

local y = GetGlobalGameVar("XPPartsCompton","0")

 

if x > y

would give incompatibility error

 

I had to read lua, again to find out that

 

tonumber

conversion recommended by everyone doesn't seem to work in S^3

 

but a simple

 

y = y + 0

successfully coverts that string to a number...

 

Go figure...

______________________________________

______________________________________

 

Ecthel,

 

Is that close to what you envisioned? (I know I changed a few things...)

 

I have a question: What is Compton going to discover?

(I really hope it is a 'time machine'. I thought going back in time to change/tackle certain things would be interesting... We could even try to 'bridge' S^2, S^3 and H&S. Going to some locations from S^2 could help us achieve that. Just a thought...)

------------------------

[EDIT] I've entered all the corrections, except the one that mentioned Compton (when getting that cable from the alarm switch in Bredow) - the thing is - we won't know about his list at that point, since to get the list we'd need to activate all the modules and save him first... but the only red tape is currently located at Kommandant's house in Zepernick, which is right after Bredow.

 

[EDIT 2] What do you think we should do with Compton's notes?

------------------------

______________________________________

 

Okim,

 

First, some questions:

 

- Have you successfully opened and entered a ScenarioZone created by you?

- Did you create scenario zones (starting from Scenario>Blocks>Missions>ScenarioZones)? Did you enter AddOn\Main in the "Scenario" field.

- Did you attach your Templates to those ScenarioZones?

- Did you place those ScenarioZones on your ChapterMap and filled the necessary fields in that sector's properties: "Scenario Zone", "Description", checkmarked "zone"?

- Did you place your chapter on the global map you created? Did you set the coordinates correctly?

- Does your global have a BaseZoneID (not necessary), StartZoneID and Scenario (I believe it should be AddOn\Main)

- Did you delete anything (Scenario AddOn\Main? I hope not...)?

______________________________________

(to be continued)

 

~Blunter~

[Argent]

I´m trying on this mod for the first time, playing the Steam version of Sentinels... and now I can´t proceed from the second mission ("Test of Loyalty"). The "Leave" button is red, even after I´ve slaughtered every opponent and snuck off to a secure place and gone out of combat time. IIRC after my other short stint of Sentinels (before I came across this mod and wanted to restart), you are supposed to have a quest item (EDIT: The documents that you get from the agent in the starting cut scene)?

 

In any case, no quest item in my inventory and no way to proceed. I´ve managed to get past this mission easily in the no-modded game.

[BlunterII]

I´m trying on this mod for the first time, playing the Steam version of Sentinels... and now I can´t proceed from the second mission ("Test of Loyalty"). The "Leave" button is red, even after I´ve slaughtered every opponent and snuck off to a secure place and gone out of combat time. IIRC after my other short stint of Sentinels (before I came across this mod and wanted to restart), you are supposed to have a quest item (EDIT: The documents that you get from the agent in the starting cut scene)?

 

In any case, no quest item in my inventory and no way to proceed. I´ve managed to get past this mission easily in the no-modded game.

 

Argent,

 

Assuming you are playing the vanilla Steam version of "Sentinels" (Steam, GOG, CD versions on Win XP, Win 7 and Win 8 are all compatible),

- you started a new game (AddMod is not my mod, so I can't vouch for it),

- you are using only BlunterMod v 2.3 (I can only assist with my creation...),

- you didn't type any commands and didn't add any external scripts... (those can mess things up, naturally. Unless one knows what they are doing)

 

The item is a large envelope (3x3 inventory cells). It is given to your character during the first cutscene.

You should have it in your inventory before the cut scene is over.

 

The specific line of code is:

 

UnitCreateItem( GetHero(), 579, false )

 

I didn't modify a single line of script in "Test of Loyalty".

 

The only reason (that I can think of) why your character doesn't have item 579 in their inventory is because they didn't have enough space in it and the item was dropped on the ground. And that has nothing to do with my mod. Look for that envelope on the floor in the bar.

 

If for whatever reason you can't find it, use the above mentioned code (in the game console) to obtain that item. Not having it in your inventory - prevents you from leaving the encounter.

_________________________________________

(to be continued)

 

~Blunter~

[Argent]

Wow, that was a quick answer! Thank you for that, and serious kudos for the mod - ambitious work.

 

I started with a clean copy without any mods whatsoever, and should have inventory space. I have no idea what has happened, but I´ll try for the code above right now.

 

EDIT: And the code in the console worked perfectly. Thank you very much, BlunterII. Swell work.

[gijon999]

Very, very nice mod. A question, will I run into any trouble if I use it with Cookie's S3 no-PK mod?

[BlunterII]

Wow, that was a quick answer! Thank you for that, and serious kudos for the mod - ambitious work.

 

I started with a clean copy without any mods whatsoever, and should have inventory space. I have no idea what has happened, but I´ll try for the code above right now.

 

EDIT: And the code in the console worked perfectly. Thank you very much, BlunterII. Swell work.

 

Thanks Argent.

I'm glad you made it work. Sounds like a very strange glitch. Sometimes pressing ESC causes parts of the sequence to skip...

 

Very, very nice mod. A question, will I run into any trouble if I use it with Cookie's S3 no-PK mod?

 

Thanks gijon999.

 

Again, I am not familiar with that mod. My recommendation is not to use it.

 

BlunterMod adds armor piercing, explosive and incendiary ammos for all major rifle/mg (7.62 Tokarev, 7.5 MAS, 7.92 Mauser, 7.62x54 R, .303 British, .30 Springfield, etc.) and intermediate rounds (Kurz, 7.62x39 R). These new ammos have high penetrating values allowing to damage panzerkleins and their pilots.

 

PKs are just a nuisance now, nothing more.

______________________________________

(to be continued)

 

~Blunter~

[tofudog]

Hello World, hello Blunter,

 

and what a wonderful world it is, that you are creating in these pages.

Slackjawed awe doesn´t begin to describe my sentiment.

 

As there is nothing in this world, that can not be made (even) better, here is my presumptuous attempt to do so:

 

You have been the victim of a typo - it must be "Arzt für Allgemeinmedizin" on the plaque of Dr. Whatshisname. Artz is an interesting word too, though sadly it currently does not exist in the german language.

 

In spite of the obviousity of the thought and the near certainty of its inimplementability I just have to ask, to be absolutely sure:

Did you think of adding bayonet or butt attacks to rifles?

 

An idea that might yield anything from an interesting note, to a random encounter, to a side mission, to a new twist in a storyline that you already do your level best to make beyond byzantine -

 

Meanwhile in Lebanon -

 

On May 15th 1948 the State of Israel was founded. One year later the Mossad, infamous for its abduction and execution of Eichmann in the 60s was founded.

The people who crewed this Institute were around already. For example there was Palmach, a british trained commando unit some 2000 strong.

As they were on extremely bad terms with the british, by whom they (felt they) had been betrayed during the war, they would conceivably set up their own operations in germany, to track down and save survivors, to punish nazis and to make sure the Werwölfe never, never, never got off ground (and to occasionally throw a few full metal jacketed wrenches into the gears of the other inteligence-communities.

Depending on your view of this angle they could not appear at all, except maybe as a red herring.

They could form a limited "partnership " with the soviet, maybe information in exchange for freeing jews from the Gulag.

They could be a random encounter in the form of an extremely vicious group of unidentified combatants a) slaughtering civilians later revealed to be ex-KZ-guards, b) in a gun battle with either a Werwölfe section or a british SIS-squad, c) ambushing the player´s squad in a case of mistaken identity (if you want to be really cruel, that is).

They could be contacts of your bankman, who did smuggle a few jews out of germany and into switzerland, thus earning recognition as one of the just among the peoples.

The mission gotten through them can be anything from a pickup like "Test of Loyalty" to theft, kidnapping or assassination. Maybe there is a village in a forgotten corner of the Spreewald, where a Sorbian clan has hidden a few jews who need to be sprung from their hiding place, because the officials are still the same as in 44 and the arian locals don´t feel liberated at all.

 

That was that.

Now castle Linden - very nice map, very enjoyable to play, though at times I rather felt like a bystander, so well did the mercenaries deal with the "zombies". There was not really a chance to fail this, was there?

So what could you do - add more zombies to the waves. Make more waves. Make the zombies really charge the castle. Give the zombies stones to throw.

Make the mercenaries killable.

I would not bombard you with those random suggestions if I had access to the editor and could burn myself trying to do those things, but alas I came late and through GOG (Shit happens). So no editor for me.

Reduced to nagging a brilliant modder.

 

Now the weapons, they are so damn beautiful, btw.

But... The Solothurn really takes the cake. In real life this beauty was 300 lbs of anti-material awesomeness, served by a 10-man team.

Pretty please - drop it. It is really not needed. With the nerfing of the PK I have seen numerous occasions of Zinaida one-shotting them with Pobeda and API-rounds.

Gone are the days of S2, when Fritz hosed a PK pointblank with his MG 42 and all he did was ruin the paint-job, When you had to scavenge Bazookas off Hammer-soldiers,because you did not bring your own.

I am rambling. PKs were great as opponents, but they ruined the fun when you had them yourself.

Now they are just meat that has not realized it is dead already. Sometimes I think that the same infantryman on foot, with his better perception and greater mobility would have been more difficult to tackle.

The Solothurn is just the extreme example that is totally out of the box, but the other weapons too are slightly on the powerful side. I think Piggy was the only gun you introduced that did not make it into the end-game (but only because of the silenced 98k).

But are they beautiful. Sigh.

 

You might think of greater numbers of opponents in the missions to counterbalance the efficiency of those tools.

 

As you can see I have been lurking for quite a while now.

 

A belated merry christmas and a happy new year.

 

Good night.

 

 

PS.

Do you know the skill watchdog script, by Chuck Chargin Jr.? It has level-up checks, so it might be useful in case you haven´t finished your own research.

 

PPS.

(Detail to use or ignore as you see fit)

High capacity cable would use thicker veins. You can improvise by splicing multiple standard cables together or you can scavenge from places that already have thicker cables. Places like shipboard electricity, the railway or a relay station depending on the level of sophistication you want. It would not change the functionality at all. Do you have a target wattage in mind?

In a pinch you could cheat by using a higher voltage, which would allow more power on a standard cable, at a cost in risk, since the insulation may or may not hold up. It would also require either a specialized machine (like 230V household vs. 380V industrial) or a transformer to mold the current to a value you can actually use.

As Compton asks for that high-voltage capacitor too, this seems to be the way he is going, so a nighttime visit at the local relay station seems to be just what the doctor ordered.

You also seem to use high-voltage and high-capacity interchangeably. This is not the case.

Basically the same capacitor stores more energy if it is used at a higher voltage. Until it blows up, because the internal insulation fails, which is related to voltage. If you were using a standard voltage you could just use more standard capacitors to satisfy your needs, so I think you really mean high voltage AND high capacity (or high-voltage and a lot of hem).

 

 

PPPS.

Another detail.

When my father served as a medic in the Bundeswehr, which was in the early 60s, equipment still was notoriously scarce. So much so, that medical units were fiercely guarded places, because the expedient solution was lifting things you did not have - but felt a need for - from other units.

Rolling down 20 years into the aftermath of a major war, scarcity of most anything might be a pervasive theme and the hospital staff could come up with ANYTHING at ANY TIME to ensure free treatment.

Be easy on the player and it is Aspirin (chewing willow-bark can be substituted, actually salicylic acid is named for its origin in the Salix-tree) they want. But now they want an X-ray machine... "hey, remember when you were hit by that M24? Now what if we have no more way to find all the shrapnel? Thought so."

[tofudog]

Hi, me again.

I am going to roll down through this thread, commenting things as they hit me (aka making a nuisance of myself).

 

Last thing I noticed was the origin of the hi-cap cable, used in the wiring of Bredows House.

That struck me as odd, because I could find no real purpose to suit such a thing there.

The first thing I thought of was for a signal, but that only requires a very thin cable - thin like barely visible.

The other thing was for transmitting a detonating pulse. And this too does not require unusual equipment. An ex-coworkerof mine who had served in the engineers used to build a bomb for newyear´s eve every year and the cable he used was a common household 3x1.5 attached to the car battery,. running about 30 meters.

 

Now there are 3 possibilities:

1) You had something completely else in mind.

2) Low-power trigger is post WW2

3) Somebody had to make do when installing the device and as bigger is almost always better, when it comes to cables he used what he had.

 

Good night

[Fishmachine]

Great mod BlunterII! The best one out there I might add. But SERIOUSLY unbalanced as for now.

High power unique sniper rifle AND a mid-game SMG that can easily rip to pieces any unarmored enemy in one burst from an introduction mission? Seriously?

 

The castle RE is great and all, but I got unique endgame-like weapons for my whole team and a f*****g PK. I got a PK before the UN bomb mission. How is that not-gamebreaking, when I can simply walk between enemies and mow them down with virtually no risk of being killed?

 

The HE/IP ammo? While I understand the thought of creating better anti-PK weaponry, it's plainly OP against unarmored enemies and that's why I think it should be removed. My sniper can easily damage multiple enemies with a MISSED shot. And it only gets worse with a full burst from a Levis MG against tight-packed group of terrorists next to a wall. AP ammo is not that bad, but it should have a tradeoff of damage vs penetration, not just be a better ammo overall.

 

And the PKs should not be "just a nuissance". They are the damned state of the art weapons - what's the sense of the enemy throwing them at me, when my sniper can easily pick them off with a common rifle? They were never gamebreaking mosters in vanilla S3 as they were in S2 - one or two hits from PIAT or Panzerfaust was everything they could take. If you want to give better anti-PK weaponry to foot soldiers, just give them man-portable versions of the PK-mounted AT rifles that are already in the game. I doubt anyone would complain if you'd just reuse HMG models for that

[Vympel]

I wholeheartedly agree with the post above . I wish this mod came in separate modular parts that separated uniforms from other game chnages or possibly uniforms + plus longer granade range separate from the game breaking changes tha the make the game too easy . Even on hardest difficulty the game seems a breeze . The game is overlaoded with cash money and gold makes late game too easy as well .

 

On a separate note I was wondering if theres a mod that made more powerfull weapons available early so the player can purchase them if he has the money .

[Ecthel013]

Sisters were staying longer than I thought. I also caught the flu on New Year's Day, not a good way to start 2014. I'll reserve comments on the mod's balance until I actually have time to playtest it.

 

Editing

Pop-up message - WantToRewireSwitch?

The alarm uses a specialized cable that might be useful later. Try to rewire the circuitry to get it?

 

WARNING: Failure will trigger the alarm. A high Engineering skill is recommended.

 

ComptonEquipment

Compton's List,

 

Professor Compton has a theory about the 'sphere' and how it operates, but he needs specialized equipment before he can test it.

 

The required items are:

1. A high-energy capacitor.

2. A cathode-ray oscillograph.

3. A high-capacity electrical cable.

 

Training_Dlg5

Compton: Thanks to you, Lieutenant, I've been able to return to my work.

You: I'm glad I could help. Do you still need those parts you mentioned?

Compton: Yes, I believe they are the only things that stand between me and the 'sphere's' secrets.

You: All right, I'll keep an eye out.

 

Compton's Discovery

I don't time travel is a good idea. Too much potential for things going wrong (time paradoxes, butterfly effect, etc.) even if there's no combat involved, not to mention the fact that this universe seems rather different from the original S2/S3/H&S universe (Die Wolfe's existence, for one). If you really want to include this, then perhaps have it be a very limited form. You can view what happened back then, but you can't influence it in any way.

 

I think the lightning gun (or just a supercharged energy weapon if the directed lightning bolt effect can't be made) is the way to go here. It's simpler and fits in with the fact Compton was investigating the power relays.

 

As for the test itself, probably would be on the firing range, perhaps an emplaced energy cannon (they were set up in some of the later missions of S2 and S3) that's blue (if lightning, can be whatever color you want if otherwise) instead of green, with monitoring equipment set up around it. Compton fires it at a thick reinforced concrete wall, then SCIENCE! (and probably explosions) happens.

 

Compton's Notes

The ones that were supposed to be found near his body? Perhaps have a modified version be left in the ATP room so the player has a hint that electrical components might be useful in the future.

[xboi107th]

Hi Blunter,

 

I was wondering if there's a way to reverse the way female hairs change with the outfit. I understand that they'll not have headgear any more, and I don't expect you to change the mod or anything. But if it's convenient could you provide an optional file, or just tell me how to do it?

 

But other than that I really love this mod! Now the game picks up so much faster. No more of that grinding random missions to build up a squad.

[Lt.Havoc]

For those who say the game is unbalanced: keep in mind that we are using this mod as a testbed at the moment and that we work on a total new campaign with its own maps and bad guys and whatnot. If you checked the previous pages, you would know that Blunter has been working on some very powerful enemies you can encounter not to mention that the bad guys will use the new types of ammo as well and that there will be new types of PKs and stuff like that. Whole it is true that the original campaign of the game is unbalanced right now, I dont think this will be the case once we introduce the whole new campaign.

[Fireman]

I think you're a good nuisance tofu, nice eye for details as well.

 

As for the game currently being unbalanced, that has been discussed before and as Havoc said, it's for testing purposes and thus you can do the mission at the start of the game (imagine if you wanted to test something at the end of the game and having to start a new game all the time). Missions will probably be shuffled around and get a new order.

 

What I do agree with (currently) is the AMOUNT of IP/HE ammo, but this is probably due to the same reason as above; If you never find any, you won't be able to test them. I'm sure the amount of this ammo will be reduced in the future.

[Fishmachine]

For those who say the game is unbalanced: keep in mind that we are using this mod as a testbed at the moment and that we work on a total new campaign with its own maps and bad guys and whatnot. If you checked the previous pages, you would know that Blunter has been working on some very powerful enemies you can encounter not to mention that the bad guys will use the new types of ammo as well and that there will be new types of PKs and stuff like that. Whole it is true that the original campaign of the game is unbalanced right now, I dont think this will be the case once we introduce the whole new campaign.

 

Well, if the campaing will be changed, that might make the new weapons fit more into its timeline.

But! I still think the new ammo types need some kind of a rework, not just making the "normal" bullets obsolete.

For example:

Ball/FMJ - standard ammo (as in vanilla)

JHP/HP - higher damage, no penetration (as in vanilla)

AP - lower damage, high penetration (versus armored targets). Not for pistol/smg sized cartridges.

Tracer/incendiary - standard or lower damage, dmg over time (bleeding-like). Not for pistol/smg sized cartridges.

Explosive - only for large-caliber weapons as secondary ammunition - low penetration, but with area effect.

 

And regarding new, powerful enemies and their deadly weapons - creating OP enemies is not an answer for OP weapons, as one-hit-wonders kill the tactical aspect of the game forcing who-shoots-first-wins approach.

[tofudog]

A happy new year everybody,

 

I take full blame for not reading the whole thread before commenting on balance .

And as far as I understand warfare the deadliness of real life guns has lead to the tactical implication that he who hits first will live, while the other one will not.

No matter if the caliber was a lowly .303 or a mighty 7.62x54R (did anybody else notice how it is russian guns that hit the hardest in this game?).

Though I share in the sentiment, that it makes for a more exciting game if you have to hit the other guy A LOT until he quits and you can progress through stages that make it increasingly easy to do so.

Maybe a layout of that progression and the place of everything within it might help clear things up.

 

A small update or several:

 

1) A few months ago a helpful zombie has uploaded the editor to this forum. I am installing sql on my main machine as I type this. Finally I can put my big foot where it belongs: In my big mouth .

Truth be told: I would have believed you if you told me LUA was a malayan fish-dish 5 days ago.

 

2) Disclaimer: This shall in no way be construed as implying that Blunter and the crew of this mod are anything but completely awesome in what they are doing here. This is just an attempt to share my experience using the fruit of their labors.

 

I was curious about my feeling, so I reran castle Linden, doing nothing. I just sat my group in the living room, and guess what happened: The Dust group (aka gun turrets)did take care of everything. I only had to intervene twice, when some bad guys were camping in blind spots.

Case 1: There is a kink in the palisade on the west side, just before the stairs up to bruiser´s post. That position is blind to all of the gun turrets. And this is where one zombie parked, holding up the whole goddamn war.

Case 2: The southeastern corner has a comfortable place for three bandits to take cover, which is what they did, only moving to their shallow graves when I submachinegunned them.

 

Also: this very piece of wall has room for 1 figure to be on it, which is bad for the zombies, as they cannot get up, but they still try to, comfortably being mowed down by whoever is slinging his gun up there (Dani with her bigass Sauer comes to mind IF somebody tosses her spare ammo).

 

Apart from that I did NOTHING, through the whole siege. The PK never even got into Bruiser´s arc of fire. Dust took him alone.

Even the Tesla team (who have relatively human stats right now) were relatively unscathed in the end.

 

3) If I am boring you with tech, please don´t read the following paragraph.

 

I still think that a cable is way too mundane for Compton´s needs. If you really want to transfer a shitload of current from a to b, you can just steal a piece of railtrack and weld it in place - its sliceplane is large enough that the inferior conductivity of iron vs copper (1:6, meaning copper is 6 times better or iron has to be 6 times bigger to be as good) does not matter.

If you are a snob about conductivity you would use a silver cable anyway (~5% gain on copper).

 

However, there are other devices that I would think of.

If I was the mechanic in charge of setting up a device to produce powerful electric pulses the result would be something like this:

 

A mobile generator or three (what is available? How much power do you want? Chaining is always an option), because it does not interfere with regular operations.

Your typical mobile generator is powered by a truck-engine and it delivers AC-power. The engine of an M3 halftrack would by my best estimate throw ~70 kw in generator mode.

A capacitor (or a bank of capacitors, if you cannot find a single one to suit your needs) is dependent on DC-power for its operation, so you would first need a transformer to give your power the desired Voltage, then a rectifier to convert it, then the capacitor bank and finally a bigass contactor to release the pulse.

 

The transformer would need to be custom built, as it needs a specific relation of threads on the input and output sides.

If you have a machine shop (the armory of a special forces base would be sufficient) you can do this yourself.

For raw materials you would need one or more kilometers of basic cable and a solid iron core.

A low power (everything is relative) rectifier is used for consumable electrode arc-welding, so you could cannibalize a number of welders (using portable machines about 20 would be sufficient) and set them up in parallel. Or you could find yourself 4 titanic diodes and voila - instant rectifier.

 

The last piece is the contactor, which can not be synchronized from smaller pieces and thus must be a single device.

 

From that grocery list I think the piece most likely to be troublesome to find would be the contactor.

Diodes would be nice, as a bank of ~20 small rectifiers (IF the power from a single truck is enough) is a bit cumbersome.

 

Assuming you could not find a contactor on the open market, you would have to take one from a power station (don´t be shy, take the main circuit breaker from the installation - in itself only barely portable, I would guess, but as our heroes are capable of lugging around a solothurn AT-weapon this should be no trouble).

If you would also want to hide what you have taken you would also have to blow up the whole installation and either fake an accident or plant evidence to blame a convenient scapegoat.

As a side-effect you might have to have your conscience overlook what effect that loss of power has on the civilian populace of the area.

 

Sketch of the mission:

Steal the main switch, plant evidence blaming Die Wölfe (anything to diminish popular support for their cause is good). Blow it up. Thank the Heavens it was just a coal powered installation and not a nuclear one.

What did we learn today, Children? asks He-Man Adam. Yes, correct. Only those who get blamed in the end are terrorists, the others are just unsung heroes, doing what is necessary for the greater good.

 

 

Now for the oscillograph. Oscilloscopes were introduced in the thirties, but the familiar device with vertical and horizontal calibration was introduced commercially in 1946, if wiki does not fail me.

Their use is in visually showing waveforms (rhythms) of fluctuating energy. Like the reflections of a radar wave. I understand how Compton would want such a device to study how the sphere reacted to different patterns of stimulation.

The obvious path to get one would be anywhere a radar is.

That should yield a long list of targets, almost all of them military in nature. But what if a clandestine group used a radar base, say for timing smuggling flights to avoid air-patrols?

Smugglers would object to handing over their precious technology, if the heroes are lucky, gunslingingly so. But they would not go running to the authorities if their objections were overruled - which is what makes them a target. And if you can confiscate some pirated copies of Windows 48 while you are at it, so much the better.

 

 

If you are bored by tech, you can switch back on HERE.

 

4) The installation has finished, now I have to figure out how to make the MSSQLSERVER service available to the editor.

Life never gets boring.

 

This has - once again - gotten longer than intended. Now I just hope that some of it has been useful to somebody and take my leave.

 

Bye.

[BlunterII]

Happy New Year, everyone! I guess in a couple of weeks we are going to be celebrating "1 Year In business". Wow! Hopefully, I'll be able to release something by then... we'll see.

-----------------------------------

 

Ecthel,

Thank you very much for editing.

I'll make all the suggested corrections as soon as I am done with this update. Don't worry about being 'late'. I am still under the weather too... Besides, there is still a lot to do with the scenario we are working on. Usually I just switch to something else while waiting for the feedback. This time I finished populating and testing "Counterfeit", "Seefeld" and a small 'auto' encounter - "Fingerprints" (where we get the thumbprint file form Lt. Colonel...)

----------------------------------

Thank you tofudog, Fishmachine, Fireman, xboi107th and Vympel for your compliments, concerns and feedback. I'll try to address some of the points separately (later)... Generally, I think Lt.Havok summed it up pretty well - I've never advertised this mod as a finished product - it's always been 'ready for testing' - as it is not finished and balancing issues including the ones some of you brought up here will be addressed (along with many other things). Right now I am trying to get the first part - introduction of the 'Die Wolfe' out the door and that's what I am concentrating my efforts on.

 

----------------------------------

 

I won't post "Counterfeit" screens since I've covered that zone in detail earlier in this thread. I'll just say that currently there are 24 enemies in that encounter: 6 Grimm Bandits and 18 Smugglers. The outcome varies, but most of the time they are really good at killing each other if we decide not to interfere in their quarrel. In one of my playthroughs Otto was the only one left...

The "Debrief" following "Counterfeit" worked as it should during my in-game testing... correct dialogs played and Hints shown.

The "Falkensee"/ "Paretz" scenario split also worked.

 

So all in all I am satisfied with the results so far. Further testing will need to be done though...

---------------------------------

 

...and now - "Seefeld"...

 

 

Due to the uneven terrain in Seefeld (well, all my maps end up like that anyway...) there is a slight delay (3-6 sec) before our Hero shows up. Unit placement issues that's all. Just be patient, please.

__________________________________________

 

We start a dialog with the lonely 'Station Master'. BTW, what is it in German? Bahn-Chef? Bahnhof-Master?...

------------------------

ready for editing:

 

Seefeld_Dlg1

 

You: Are you in charge of the station?

Station Master: I am. Well, normally my husband is. He stayed home sick today and I am covering for him. Why?

You (ignoring her question): When is the express supply train from Poland arriving?

Station Master: Any minute now. I just received a telegram from Warsaw, it's running ahead of schedule. Why are you asking all these questions?

You: Frau, it's not safe here. You better go home and join your husband... Right now.

Station Master (scared): Oh, oh my god! All right,.. Thank you. I'm leaving...

-----------------------

 

 

...pulling out a weapon seemed to do the trick...

___________________________________

 

 

_____________________________________

 

Now, that the civilians are safe we get on the boarding platform.

 

 

Currently, we have about 2 turns to position our units before the train arrives.

 

ready for editing:

 

TrainArrivingEarly

 

The train's arriving early. Stay off the tracks!

 

 

________________________________________________________

 

 

...ignoring the warnings has consequences. Fatal consequences in this case.

_____________________________________________

 

 

That's right, Rocco... Bad move!

_____________________________________________

 

 

...Tsk, tsk. We'll need all the help we can get to repel the upcoming attack.

___________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

TrainIsHereKilledYourUnit

 

The train has arrived... By accident it ran over one of your units!

 

__________________________________

 

If we heeded the warning...

 

 

ready for editing:

 

TrainIsHere

 

The train has arrived...

____________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

AndSoDidTheDW

 

It appears the attackers are here as well.

 

____________________________________

 

...in the meantime in the forest...

 

 

...decided to make use of those masks I made several months ago.

_______________________________________________

 

 

______________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

Seefeld_Dlg2_DanBad

 

Oswald: You take the front and I'll cover you from the house. Be careful! The train's been switched, it might be a setup.

Fighter (dismissively): Come on, Oswald, you worry too much.

Oswald (irritated): I worry just the right amount. Let's quickly wrap it up here. I need to get back to the manor; those idiots broke the security system again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Seefeld_Dlg2_DanGood

 

Oswald: You take the front and I'll cover you from the house. Be careful! The train's been switched, it might be a setup.

Masked Fighter (dismissively): Come on, Oswald, you worry too much.

Oswald (irritated): I worry just the right amount. Let's quickly wrap it up here. I need to go visit Erwin...

____________________________________

 

 

----------------------------------

This post is getting a little too long. See next one.

___________________________________

(to be continued)

 

~Blunter~

[BlunterII]

"Seefeld" continued.

__________________________

 

Since everyone approaches these situations differently I'll skip the fighting...

 

 

...that's right... it was tough. Currently, there are two enemy snipers (with perks) covering the station, a machine gunner constantly longbursting the building with 7.5 MAS (IP) until he runs out of ammo, one grenadier with several 0-23s (8) and 11 infantry charging your position (Kar98s, MPs, and a few Mannlicher-Carcano M91/24s without scopes I made).

 

 

Scope removed. Range decreased by 4. The rest is the same as the scoped version.

 

_______________________________________________

 

 

...but could it be Oswald's?

_____________________________________

 

...nope. He doesn't have any...

 

 

...so whose are they?

________________________________________

 

 

Someone tipped Oswald off about the supply train...

Let's find out who it was...

_______________________________________

 

 

Mikhalev should be able to help...

______________________________________

 

 

On exit we get a loot screen and automatically start the next zone - "Fingerprints".

 

---------------------------------------

ready for editing:

 

Seefeld_Dlg3

 

You: ...yes, Lieutenant Colonel, all of them if possible... Thank you, sir. I'll meet you there.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Zone - "Fingerprints"

 

 

______________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

Fingerprints_Dlg1

 

Mikhalev: Here is the file you asked for.

You: Thank you, sir.

_________________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

Fingerprints_Dlg2

 

Mikhalev: You said the person who dropped the note had their fingertips mutilated?

You: Yes, as if they were burned or boiled. Why?

Mikhalev: We might be dealing with people who didn't make it to the Nurenberg trials. Be careful, Lieutenant.

You: I will.

Mikhalev: All right, I'll meet you at the Central Depot. Good luck!

_______________________________________________

 

 

After the conversation Lt. Colonel and his people leave...

_____________________________________

 

 

ready for editing:

 

ReceivedThumbprints

 

Mikhalev gave you the thumbprint file you requested.

 

_______________________________________

 

 

Plain arch, tented arch, loop, double loop, plain whorl, etc. Examine the note print, compare to your sample print - determine your next victim...

 

Next stop: Central RR Depot.

I need to figure out how to approach it (sequence of events, scenes, opposition arrival, ifs and thens...)

 

[EDIT] Done making corrections. Thanks Ecthel! [EDIT]

 

[EDIT 2]Another thing about the HE/IP rounds - I completely agree with those who found them overly powerful.

I was thinking about doing this:

 

HE/IP - reduce grenade blast radius from 2 (3) to 1 / APA (penetration coefficient) will remain the same.

AP - reduce damage to 2/3s of the Balle round / will probably remove ricochet probability...

Might create surplus ammo in the future (for most ammo types) - 80% of the Balle round damage, maybe...

........

________________________________________

(to be continued)

 

~Blunter~

[Okim]

Hi there.

 

I`ve got just two qustions from the modding perspective...

 

1. how do you make those small pop-ups? Is it how clues work?

 

2. how did you manage to edit the Carcano rifle model? I don`t recall seeing any model exporter utility for this game.

[tofudog]

So, lets try for a short post this time .

 

Will you tell us, when you start auditing for voice-actors?

 

About the ammo...

Have you considered subsonic ammo? Something that does a lot less damage, but is necessary to make the silencers work.

It would also soften the report of base guns.

On rifles you have about 1/3 muzzle velocity, which transfers to about 1/10 impact with the same bullet weight, not to mention a lot less range. You don´t have to be that accurate, as the damage model of the game is softened already - the numbers are just there because I love them.

 

And... have you considered hot-loaded ammo?

Something with a little extra kick, that makes your weapon require more maintenance and maybe is a little less accurate.

 

@Seefeld.

 

I would put it as "Stationsvorsteherin" - the "in" suffix denotes the female form. Also in german nouns are always capitalized - so you would write Frau, not frau.

 

Fritz is such a charmer .

 

I won´t say nothing more, this looks absoulutely fantastic.

 

On a side note I seem to have installed the wrong SQL. Would somebody be so kind as to tell me which one I need?

[BlunterII]

Hello World, hello Blunter,

 

and what a wonderful world it is, that you are creating in these pages.

Slackjawed awe doesn´t begin to describe my sentiment.

 

I appreciate your kind words. Thank you.

 

 

As there is nothing in this world, that can not be made (even) better, here is my presumptuous attempt to do so:

 

You have been the victim of a typo - it must be "Arzt für Allgemeinmedizin" on the plaque of Dr. Whatshisname. Artz is an interesting word too, though sadly it currently does not exist in the german language.

 

Changed to "Arzt..." Thanks tofu.

 

In spite of the obviousity of the thought and the near certainty of its inimplementability I just have to ask, to be absolutely sure: Did you think of adding bayonet or butt attacks to rifles?

 

RPG Weapons and RPG Melee items are two different item categories in the game. I don't think it's possible to combine them into one item (at least, not with my current skill and understanding of the process).

 

An idea that might yield anything from an interesting note, to a random encounter, to a side mission, to a new twist in a storyline that you already do your level best to make beyond byzantine -

 

Meanwhile in Lebanon -

 

On May 15th 1948 the State of Israel was founded. One year later the Mossad, infamous for its abduction and execution of Eichmann in the 60s was founded.

The people who crewed this Institute were around already. For example there was Palmach, a british trained commando unit some 2000 strong.

As they were on extremely bad terms with the british, by whom they (felt they) had been betrayed during the war, they would conceivably set up their own operations in germany, to track down and save survivors, to punish nazis and to make sure the Werwölfe never, never, never got off ground (and to occasionally throw a few full metal jacketed wrenches into the gears of the other inteligence-communities.

Depending on your view of this angle they could not appear at all, except maybe as a red herring.

They could form a limited "partnership " with the soviet, maybe information in exchange for freeing jews from the Gulag.

They could be a random encounter in the form of an extremely vicious group of unidentified combatants a) slaughtering civilians later revealed to be ex-KZ-guards, b) in a gun battle with either a Werwölfe section or a british SIS-squad, c) ambushing the player´s squad in a case of mistaken identity (if you want to be really cruel, that is).

They could be contacts of your bankman, who did smuggle a few jews out of germany and into switzerland, thus earning recognition as one of the just among the peoples.

The mission gotten through them can be anything from a pickup like "Test of Loyalty" to theft, kidnapping or assassination. Maybe there is a village in a forgotten corner of the Spreewald, where a Sorbian clan has hidden a few jews who need to be sprung from their hiding place, because the officials are still the same as in 44 and the arian locals don´t feel liberated at all.

 

It's an interesting idea, tofu. Although reading a "Palmach" wiki entry makes me think of them as classic "freedom fighters" ( or terrorists, depending on one's perspective, of course)... killing and terrorizing civilians to achieve political goals. I am not sure I'd be motivated to paint them in anything other than rather unsympathetic colors. Is that what you meant by my "view of this angle"?

 

(BTW, the picture on the global map, I posted, is Eichmann's... not Dr.M... I just realized that )

 

Now castle Linden - very nice map, very enjoyable to play, though at times I rather felt like a bystander, so well did the mercenaries deal with the "zombies". There was not really a chance to fail this, was there?

So what could you do - add more zombies to the waves. Make more waves. Make the zombies really charge the castle. Give the zombies stones to throw.

Make the mercenaries killable.

 

"Castle Linden" was my first attempt to create a large multi-wave encounter with 5 players present. I departed somewhat from the original idea Tokyo Rose came up with and ran with my own... Actually, most of the dialogs and interactions were written by one of my kids, so... it was meant to be fun for them (completely different audience, as you can imagine). Now, that they are more comfortable with S^3 I will probably rewrite the 'Castle' to be an extremely tough one-time encounter. The coming changes:

 

Zombies would get:

- higher HPs (400 - 600)

- Classes + damage resistance perks

- More APs

- No AI fear will stay

--------------------------------------

Mercs:

- Normal HPs

- Not as perk heavy

- Lower APs

--------------------------------------

Bandits:

- Classes + perks

- Additional movement and attack routines

- Make their PK auto-destruct (maybe, we'll see...)

--------------------------------------

Castle:

- Make access to mercs' positions easier for melee units

--------------------------------------

Rewards:

- Less generous

--------------------------------------

Durand is planned to appear in other encounters...

Carlton Group is too...

They might even have their own quest-lines. Depends...

 

I would not bombard you with those random suggestions if I had access to the editor and could burn myself trying to do those things, but alas I came late and through GOG

 

That's fine, go for it, tofu. I welcome feedback and suggestions.

 

Now the weapons, they are so damn beautiful, btw.

But... The Solothurn really takes the cake. In real life this beauty was 300 lbs of anti-material awesomeness, served by a 10-man team.

Pretty please - drop it. It is really not needed. With the nerfing of the PK I have seen numerous occasions of Zinaida one-shotting them with Pobeda and API-rounds.

Gone are the days of S2, when Fritz hosed a PK pointblank with his MG 42 and all he did was ruin the paint-job, When you had to scavenge Bazookas off Hammer-soldiers,because you did not bring your own.

I am rambling. PKs were great as opponents, but they ruined the fun when you had them yourself.

Now they are just meat that has not realized it is dead already. Sometimes I think that the same infantryman on foot, with his better perception and greater mobility would have been more difficult to tackle.

 

Yes, that's the direction we are going. Infantry should be the primary, most feared enemy...

I never liked PKs (at least not the way they were implemented in S^2) they upset the balance too much for me. They still do in S^3. Actual tanks would be a totally different story. 'Inpenetrable' power armor (i.e. PKs) - I don't think so. Initially, I thought of removing them completely...or making them extremely rare and not as poweful...(50-80 armor). I still contemplate that possibility.

 

The Solothurn is just the extreme example that is totally out of the box, but the other weapons too are slightly on the powerful side. I think Piggy was the only gun you introduced that did not make it into the end-game (but only because of the silenced 98k).

 

I will certainly readjust the damage, range and other characteristics. Keep in mind, you are experiencing all of this in S^3 environment and its plot. Eventually that will change.

 

As you can see I have been lurking for quite a while now.

 

That's good. Sometimes it's a bit frustrating to address concerns of people who didn't read the thread. You expressed some really good points and confirmed some of my own observations. Thank you.

 

PS.

Do you know the skill watchdog script, by Chuck Chargin Jr.? It has level-up checks, so it might be useful in case you haven´t finished your own research.

 

Yes, I am familiar with that script. It performs an auto update with empirical approximations.

Mine is different. It's exact, selective and quest-dependant, with a whole area (ATP) dedicated to that activity and a side-story driving it.

 

PPS.

(Detail to use or ignore as you see fit)

High capacity cable would use thicker veins. You can improvise by splicing multiple standard cables together or you can scavenge from places that already have thicker cables. Places like shipboard electricity, the railway or a relay station depending on the level of sophistication you want. It would not change the functionality at all. Do you have a target wattage in mind?

In a pinch you could cheat by using a higher voltage, which would allow more power on a standard cable, at a cost in risk, since the insulation may or may not hold up. It would also require either a specialized machine (like 230V household vs. 380V industrial) or a transformer to mold the current to a value you can actually use.

As Compton asks for that high-voltage capacitor too, this seems to be the way he is going, so a nighttime visit at the local relay station seems to be just what the doctor ordered.

You also seem to use high-voltage and high-capacity interchangeably. This is not the case.

Basically the same capacitor stores more energy if it is used at a higher voltage. Until it blows up, because the internal insulation fails, which is related to voltage. If you were using a standard voltage you could just use more standard capacitors to satisfy your needs, so I think you really mean high voltage AND high capacity (or high-voltage and a lot of hem).

 

Tofu, Compton needs to lower the shields to be able to access the 'sphere' and study it. Aside from other equipment he already has (which I didn't specify on purpose), he requires a few more items. The 'sphere' is like a small power plant generating huge e- currents ( 100s MegaWatts...)

I am not sure I really want to get into the scientific details, but if you think some of the items are misnamed, misapplied or mischaracterized - could you just tell me - what it is that needs to be changed. Remember, I am limited to the models that are already in the game... and I haven't found any good models for long, thick cables unfortunately...

 

 

PPPS.

Another detail.

When my father served as a medic in the Bundeswehr, which was in the early 60s, equipment still was notoriously scarce. So much so, that medical units were fiercely guarded places, because the expedient solution was lifting things you did not have - but felt a need for - from other units.

Rolling down 20 years into the aftermath of a major war, scarcity of most anything might be a pervasive theme and the hospital staff could come up with ANYTHING at ANY TIME to ensure free treatment.

Be easy on the player and it is Aspirin (chewing willow-bark can be substituted, actually salicylic acid is named for its origin in the Salix-tree) they want. But now they want an X-ray machine... "hey, remember when you were hit by that M24? Now what if we have no more way to find all the shrapnel? Thought so."

 

Are you commenting on the potential "Procure Opium" quest? Or on general scarcity of items and equipment during that time?... Sorry, I am not sure I understand what you are getting at here. Could you elaborate? The vanilla game is abundant with various items and supplies... We can certainly change that...

 

Hi, me again.

I am going to roll down through this thread, commenting things as they hit me (aka making a nuisance of myself).

 

Last thing I noticed was the origin of the hi-cap cable, used in the wiring of Bredows House.

That struck me as odd, because I could find no real purpose to suit such a thing there.

The first thing I thought of was for a signal, but that only requires a very thin cable - thin like barely visible.

The other thing was for transmitting a detonating pulse. And this too does not require unusual equipment. An ex-coworkerof mine who had served in the engineers used to build a bomb for newyear´s eve every year and the cable he used was a common household 3x1.5 attached to the car battery,. running about 30 meters.

 

Now there are 3 possibilities:

1) You had something completely else in mind.

2) Low-power trigger is post WW2

3) Somebody had to make do when installing the device and as bigger is almost always better, when it comes to cables he used what he had.

 

Here is a question for you, tofu: what could we find at a place protected by a sophisticated security system that could be used by Prf. Compton to lower the shields in ATP room and/or study the 'sphere'?

It has to be something small enough to fit in our units' inventories, it should use an existing model, it has to make sense - without too much science or specific numbers.

 

 

Great mod BlunterII! The best one out there I might add. But SERIOUSLY unbalanced as for now.

High power unique sniper rifle AND a mid-game SMG that can easily rip to pieces any unarmored enemy in one burst from an introduction mission? Seriously?

 

The castle RE is great and all, but I got unique endgame-like weapons for my whole team and a f*****g PK. I got a PK before the UN bomb mission. How is that not-gamebreaking, when I can simply walk between enemies and mow them down with virtually no risk of being killed?

 

The HE/IP ammo? While I understand the thought of creating better anti-PK weaponry, it's plainly OP against unarmored enemies and that's why I think it should be removed. My sniper can easily damage multiple enemies with a MISSED shot. And it only gets worse with a full burst from a Levis MG against tight-packed group of terrorists next to a wall. AP ammo is not that bad, but it should have a tradeoff of damage vs penetration, not just be a better ammo overall.

 

Thanks Fishmachine. I appreciate your feedback.

 

A lot of the changes that you find "gamebreaking" are still experimental. They are bound to be somewhat unbalancing in the original campaign simply because they are not created for it.

 

Besides, aside from PKs, regular enemies - TH infantry are not that challenging to begin with. While they might present a certain challenge early on, later they are nothing but canon fodder. There are many reasons for that. Here are a couple of them:

 

1) They lack character classes - meaning - no perks. While the player's party gets better every level (increasing their stats and gaining perks), original enemies only increase their stats. There are no real snipers, grenadiers or machine gunners among them. They are just grunts with identical stats. That's one of the reasons why some players attempt solo sniper approach at later levels. Well, I intend to change that. Player comes alone - chances of survival should be slim to none. Overwhelmed, outgunned and very dead.

 

2) Enemy group AI is lacking. They appear to utilize invidual behavior routines instead of group ones. Each enemy has to 'spot' you to take action instead of tossing grenades or shooting at you if their buddies see you. Their 'hearing' radius was very limited - I had to tweak how 'loud' the firearms were to make sure the enemies actually reacted to the party discharging non-silenced weapons.

 

And the PKs should not be "just a nuissance". They are the damned state of the art weapons - what's the sense of the enemy throwing them at me, when my sniper can easily pick them off with a common rifle? They were never gamebreaking mosters in vanilla S3 as they were in S2 - one or two hits from PIAT or Panzerfaust was everything they could take.

 

Well, obviously we have different opinions about PKs.

 

If you want to give better anti-PK weaponry to foot soldiers, just give them man-portable versions of the PK-mounted AT rifles that are already in the game. I doubt anyone would complain if you'd just reuse HMG models for that

 

I have no idea how to do that without any modeling software, Fishmachine. I don't have Maya...

 

I wholeheartedly agree with the post above . I wish this mod came in separate modular parts that separated uniforms from other game chnages or possibly uniforms + plus longer granade range separate from the game breaking changes tha the make the game too easy . Even on hardest difficulty the game seems a breeze . The game is overlaoded with cash money and gold makes late game too easy as well .

 

Vympel, this is a test mod. We are testing various things to see if they work and how they work.

It 's not a final product. It's still in development.

 

It comes as one package. No separate mods, sorry...

 

The game might 'seem a breeze' because you are playing through vanilla encounters. I haven't modified them yet.

 

...'overloaded with cash'...

That's exactly what happened to me in late vanilla "Sentinels"... hmm..

 

What if there were no trader at the base where you could 'unload' all those arbitrarily overpriced late game trophies (that's vanilla system, btw)?

What if you had a seller whose buy-to-sell coefficient was 20:1 or 30:1? Actually, I already changed that from vanilla 10:3 to 10:2...

What if that seller could sell only starting weapons (33/40s, MP38s, Nagants) and nothing else?

What if you had to purchase any other (rare) ammos and explosives from a "black market" trader in limited amounts (or scavenge for them elsewhere)?

 

Hi Blunter,

 

I was wondering if there's a way to reverse the way female hairs change with the outfit. I understand that they'll not have headgear any more, and I don't expect you to change the mod or anything. But if it's convenient could you provide an optional file, or just tell me how to do it?

 

But other than that I really love this mod! Now the game picks up so much faster. No more of that grinding random missions to build up a squad.

 

Thank you, xboi107th.

 

You probably have some specific uniforms + specific type of hair in mind. If so, I can make that/ those uniform(s) combinations available in the next version. What are they?

Are you familiar with the editor?

_________________________________________

(to be continued)

 

~Blunter~

[tofudog]

Hi Blunter,

 

long night, quick answer.

 

The security system itself might yield some explosives (if that is what they used), but apart from that, there is nothing I can think of.

Depending on what else you had in mind, the oscilloscope might be in the house. For models I would not mind if you re-used existing boxes and labeled them "Crate with whatever in it"

 

The Palmach (or whoever) - as I said "use or ignore as you see fit", but thanks for asking anyway. My personal view coincides nicely with yours, so paint them as black as you please. Nobody ever said that in undercover work potential allies had to be nice guys.

 

The medical things... Yes I was reacting to "Procuring Opium", but I also thought of using the hospital as another source of side-missions. Making it kind of a favor-for-a-favor economy in the line of "You are good at killing people and getting stuff, we are good at fixing people up, so lets trade healing a lungshot for getting truckload of anesthetics."

 

The ongoing PK-debate... YEEEESSSSS, TANKS!!!! Tankety tank tank tank! Now that would be the ultimate infantryman´s challenge.

As it stands now, I cant see the tactical niche a PK would occupy. It is slow, loud, deaf and blind, vulnerable to small arms fire and it does not really pack any more firepower than a well equipped grenadier. On top of that one of them is probably expensive enough to train and equip a whole platoon of PK-hunting infantry.

If they were the walking tanks S2 originally said them to be, they would be of interest to the military - but then I would lobby for the revised perk trees of "Hammer and Sickle" and assume that you need so much specialised training that our heroes just cannot pilot them.

 

 

That is it for now.

[BlunterII]

Hi there.

 

I`ve got just two qustions from the modding perspective...

 

1. how do you make those small pop-ups? Is it how clues work?

 

I don't use clues, Okim. Everything is done via scripts.

 

Example:

 

function FoundNote()

while true do

Sleep(40)

if HasInventoryItemGroup(GetParty(),1700173)

or HasInventoryItemGroup(GetParty(),1700174)

or HasInventoryItemGroup(GetParty(),1700175)

or HasInventoryItemGroup(GetParty(),1700176) then

Sleep(30)

MessageBox(1701157) --<< pop-up command

StartThread(EnemyDead)

return

end

end

end

 

 

MessageBox - refers to a string (Strings tab) by its number 1701157

 

Here is the actual 1701157 string:

 

<font face=Courier size=16pt><center><color=black>Interesting! Oswald's fingers appear mutilated, yet there is an actual thumbprint on the note you found.

 

16pt - is the default size

14pt - is for longer messages in order to fit them in the message box with limited space

12pt - is for very long messages (looks ok only on huge screens, otherwise it's hard to read)

 

2. how did you manage to edit the Carcano rifle model? I don`t recall seeing any model exporter utility for this game.

 

Most of the sniper rifle models use two materials: rifle and scope. I simply removed the scope material.

 

So, lets try for a short post this time .

Will you tell us, when you start auditing for voice-actors?

 

Yes.

 

For the main quest characters I'd need to finish the introduction subplot first and have those strings edited.

 

For unit Acks (unit replies to different situations), we could start anytime. Novik was kind enough to share the Ack template with me, so we are good to go.

First we'd need to settle on what those replies are going to be for each condition, their relative probability and what language the actor will be speaking (I assume the subtitles will be in English).

 

This will also give us an opportunity to create unique characters (i.e. a pathologist obsessed with death, a constantly preaching catholic priest conflicted about his battlefield actions, a professional thief full of snarky remarks, an alcoholic officer suffering from never-ending hang-over, a fugitive, an assassin, a GI, etc.)

 

About the ammo...

Have you considered subsonic ammo? Something that does a lot less damage, but is necessary to make the silencers work.It would also soften the report of base guns.

 

I have. Unfortunately, RPGammos changes don't determine how loud any given weapon is in S^3 (weapon itself does in RPGWeapons)

 

On rifles you have about 1/3 muzzle velocity, which transfers to about 1/10 impact with the same bullet weight, not to mention a lot less range. You don´t have to be that accurate, as the damage model of the game is softened already - the numbers are just there because I love them.

 

And... have you considered hot-loaded ammo?

Something with a little extra kick, that makes your weapon require more maintenance and maybe is a little less accurate.

 

I am not sure what 'hot-loaded' ammo is exactly, but RPGammos changes don't determine the durability step (RPGWeaponType does) or accuracy (RPGWeapons does).

 

I know I start sounding like a broken record

 

@Seefeld.

 

I would put it as "Stationsvorsteherin" - the "in" suffix denotes the female form. Also in german nouns are always capitalized - so you would write Frau, not frau.

 

Changes entered. Thanks, tofu.

 

On a side note I seem to have installed the wrong SQL. Would somebody be so kind as to tell me which one I need?

 

I am using a computer with WinXP and MSDE for this project.

____________________________________________

(to be continued)

 

~Blunter~

[xboi107th]

You probably have some specific uniforms + specific type of hair in mind. If so, I can make that/ those uniform(s) combinations available in the next version. What are they?

Are you familiar with the editor?

 

Hi Blunter,

 

Thanks for taking the time!

I don't think making more combinations is the way to go. Then we would have so many variants.

I'm trying to set up my editor right now. But it seems that MSDE is not in the steam dl. It's probably not compatible with my win7 system anyway.

I can see why you're staying on XP.

 

Could you show me what you changed anyway?