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

[BlunterII]

orc,

 

Interesting ideas.

 

Ideally, I would try to do the following:

 

- Bring all the prices and item values down to their actual post-war levels and numbers (accross the board). Some research might be required in order to make it appear accurate.

- Most weapons that are for sale at the regular vendors, like the arms dealer, should probably be with prefixes 'used', 'worn', 'rusty', 'shabby', 'tattered', 'frayed' and their durability (current/max), damage values, range, durability step (durability decrease after firing a single bullet) and looks would reflect that too.

- The majority of the firearms loot dropped by the bad guys should not be brand new either. Well maintained (current durability close to its max) perhaps, but not new.

- Availability of common, old models: should be for sale from the start. MPs, prewar rifles, some handguns and MGs, etc.

- Surplus ammo should be abundant and available from the start or as soon as the corresponding firearm or clip group is for sale. (regular - balle ammo shows up by default, I can't do anything about that)

- Higher end models and special ammos should never be available at the regular store/ shop. (Ex.: MG34, AK 47, STGs, SKS, Bazookas, etc.)

- Introduce various 'black market' traders with a DialogMode shop system. Very limited selection of high end items, some special ammos and rare models. Their inventory can be controlled via scripts, the uiShowShop(), unfortunately, can not. (AFAIK).

- We don't need to worry about various explosive charges ('engineering grenages' in the editor), since we can build those at the base lab and workshop now.

- Speacialty ammos will also be available at the workshop once we figure out the process (find rare ores >>> smelt + casing + ??? >>> specialty ammo). This idea will need to be developed further.

 

___________________________________

 

Kataklismik,

 

You are welcome.

___________________

(to be continued)

 

~ Blunter ~

[VodkaBear]

- Surplus ammo should be abundant and available from the start or as soon as the corresponding firearm or clip group is for sale. (regular - balle ammo shows up by default, I can't do anything about that)

You obviously can nerf it then, probably even below surpluss ammo, price, dmg or both. Or if you'll implement more armor-equiped enemies ball ammos shouldn't pierce it, at least 100% for smg and pistols.

[BlunterII]

All right, here is a small update.

 

I've been working on a variety of different things in the past two weeks:

 

- Bernau scenario zone(still in development),

- fixing various scripts (especially the "Ruins". Occasionally it used to heal damaged enemy units. Thanks for testing, Tsylie ...),

- making new random encounters (Poland primarily),

- creating new RPG items ,i.e.mushrooms and Zloty - Polish currency,

- testing the crafting system at the base,

- correcting some of the texture inconsistencies, etc.

 

(I caught a cold a few days ago so it's taking longer than I anticipated).

___________________

 

VB,

 

I am not working on the ammos at the moment, but I'll keep your feedback in mind for any future references.

 

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Anyway, here are a few screenshots of the Poland REs I've created:

 

 

 

Most of the RE templates in the mod are 48x64 with some notable exceptions (like "Castle Linden", "Ruins", etc.)

 

...that reminds me - I need to redo the "Castle" completely from scratch when I have time.

________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't added any enemies yet...

______________________________________

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

 

 

 

It took around 600 texture spots to finish the terrain here. I think it looks all right now. What are your thoughts?

 

___________________________________________________

 

 

 

Yes, it's pretty dark.

The probability of that light setting is set to 5%. I usually use it for testing, to see how efficient various sources of light are.

 

_____________________________________________

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

...and another encounter in the forest:

 

 

This one features even more terrain spots (700+).

______________________________________

 

 

What was the name of that painting by Vasnetsov... err..."The knight at the crossroads" Well, it's the "knights" in this case...

_____________________________________________

 

 

 

The earlier mossy textures were a bit too saturated and bright. I felt I needed to tone them down a bit.

_____________________________________________

 

 

I had to create it. Having mossy logs on the ground right next to some regular looking stumps - just didn't feel right.

___________________________________________

 

 

It appears pretty cheery in the morning light.

 

_____________________________________________

 

 

 

Hmm... A box, in the middle of nowhere?..

Suspicious!

_____________________________________________

 

 

I like the way the campfire illuminates the surroundings... feels warm and kind of homie...

No wonder the moths are attracted to it...

______________________________________________

 

 

 

...proceeding to the second round of our log tossing competition. So, who goes first?

______________________________________________

 

 

 

It's surprisingly dry under the pine trees (i.e. large spruces).

Rain or shine...

_______________________________________________

 

 

 

Mushu would approve. No doubt about it!

_________________________________________________

 

Right, the mushrooms!

 

 

I've had this idea for a while... I just didn't know how to implement it until now...

 

The behind the scenes mechanics:

 

- The models: one is of the "oil lamp"(with side handles removed through alpha testing) and the other (larger one) is of the "flower vase 01" (with its glass material removed). They come is two varieties: regular red Amanita Muscaria (Fly Amanita) and its yellow (tan) cousin. I lumped them together because they share identical pharmacological properties.

- Stability: well, the vase01 was very unstable. It would break every time a usable object in its vicinity was activated. You might have experienced that when opening different drawers and cabinets in various original encounters. The oil lamp, on the other hand didn't have that problem. So, I combined those two via child object and voila!

- Collection: (see below)

 

 

...achieved by placing an indestructible "Vent" (usable object) underneath the mushrooms. When activating it the mushroom objects and the vent are removed and the corresponding RPG items are added to the forager's inventory.

 

 

I might need to substitute the bags for something else since the I.V. geometry used here (even though I removed the tube texture) still shows when pressing ALT.

 

I am planning to add them to the base lab "Create Medicine" queue.

One of the possible conversions/ crafting recipes could be:

 

- strong alcohol + fly amanita = spiked alcohol

- strong alcohol (spiced) + fly amanita = spiked alcohol (extended duration) ???

 

I am not sure about the exact naming conventions yet... still thinking about it...

 

Thoughts?

_______________________________________________

 

(to be continued)

 

~ Blunter ~

[Revenger210]

Nice new update Blunter! I like the introduction of the mushrooms, they truly give a unique flavour to the game now XD But jokes aside, I find them neat. When it comes to the alcohol naming, well, spiked alcohol sounds good enough, and for the second one... hmm, I don't really have any ideas right now.

 

Perhaps, you could eliminate their naming of "alcohol" altogether, since the mushrooms provide some pharmaceutical bonuses, you could switch their names to elixirs or sth similar. Like, "Medium Elixir" for the first one and "Strong Elixir" for the second. It'd be cool, I think ;P

 

As for the maps, they look pretty great to me, I love the eerie looks of the night fog time setting. I'd like to see those maps in a winter setting too, but they're fine just the way they are now)

[Spaceweezle]

HeyBlunt,

 

Really enjoying the mod thus far, though I have only just started.

 

I have a question that you or another fellow might be able to answer: Is the experience growth altered for this mod ? I seem to be leveling very quickly, which is not my preference. I can't remember leveling so fast in vanilla. If so is there a way to slow down leveling ?

 

I would also love to see decimal values for Familiarization on weapons like in H&S.

 

Cheers!

 

Edit:

 

Yeah, the experience growth is insanely fast. I've only done 3 random encounters and 2 missions and I'm level 7!, it took me 50 random encounters and 3-4 missions to get to that in vanilla. I read that the co-efficiency of stats is x3 instead of x2, but geez I only have 6 intelligence which has almost reached 7 already. Way too fast for me.

 

 

More feedback-

 

The pacing of this mod is a mismatch for my particular play-style. I don't like the fact that good weapons come so easily and/or are so easily accessible. The "Piggy" (better than an M29) is not good to offer at the start if the game. Also the mod seems to be spitting scoped weapons at me on simple random encounters.

 

Not sure if this is relative to the mod or blind luck, but I got the bank encounter on 2nd random encounter. At this point I've done 2 RE's and 2 missions (induction included) and I've got some of the best weapons, I've got $52,000 and I'm almost level 8. Pacing is just way off for me, And I'm playing hard-impossible difficulty.

 

New uniforms are just fantastic, though they are way too cheap.

 

I didn't like the changes to medical items. Having almost non-existent requirements and that many uses defeats the purpose of the medic class outright.

 

Going to put this mod off temporarily or indefinitely, depending on whether i can find a solution to the pacing issues. All-in-all, a stellar mod with many fine additions. I may be the minority who have these opinions, but at the end of the day, it's your mod and you only have to please yourself. People like me are just happy that you shared your work.

 

PS: Thank you for all your help on the steam forum, much appreciated.

 

 

Cheers.

[tofudog]

Shiny happy modding!

 

Blunter is back, the big bad real life monster is tamed (for now) and we can return to - as Campino and the Toten Hosen sang: "Komm mit uns, verschwende Deine Zeit!" (Come with us, waste your time!).

 

I just love those little screenshots! Rocco forgot the marshmallows, what a tool!

Even if you did not really work on any mod and just made up those scenes I would come back to see what our "heroes" had gotten themselves into now.

Btw. Dani Kunstler is totally underrepresented.

Here's why:

It was in my very first playthrough of the original SS2 campaign, in that mission when you have to infiltrate a russian base, bureau or something in Siberia while TH enter from the other side. I decided to try opening a locked door with a big ol' Rpg 40 and ended up taking out the door, some walls and a lot of floor too. So I am standing there, feeling right stupid, staring at a gaping expanse of nothing, when into the stunned silence Dani chirps: "Do you feel better about your mother now?"

To me this remains one of the absolute highlights of over 30 years of gaming. I have NEVER ever felt so owned by a piece of code.

 

Thrud's Sword? As in: Thrud the barbarian, from White Dwarf Magazine? Nice touch.

 

Has the name of Toby's gun been finalized yet?

If I recall correctly, Patrick Pearse, the commander of the Irish Volunteers, was using a Webley Revolver during the 1916 Uprising against the English. Would be just the kind of thing Holly would hold onto, if she could get her hands on it.

So I propose to christen the gun "Claidheamh Soluis" (Sword of Light) after the newspaper of the Gaelic Revival, that Pearse edited.

 

My 2 cents on ammunition, pistols and economy:

 

Pistols:

H&S introduced an inventory weight system, which made the pistol a viable choice of sidearm for lower strength characters.

From my point of view nobody who could pack an SMG would bother with a pistol. The SMG is almost as agile, longer ranged, higher damage (both due to a longer barrel on the same ammo) and vastly superior in rate of fire.

So - to me - it is either introduce an encumbrance limit a la H&S or live with the inferiority of pistols. Maybe (very maybe(very, very, very maybe in fact)) make them the only silencable firearms.

As far as I know, in this period pistols among combat personnel were restricted to officers and vehicle crews anyway.

 

Ammunition:

Hollow points were forbidden for war use by the 1899 Hague Convention, explosive projectiles under 400 grams were forbidden even earlier in the 1868 St. Petersburg Declaration (interesting point there: small charges that are only sufficient to kill or maim a single man got banned, because normal bullets were up to the job and were deemed far less likely to cause excessive suffering, while large charges were, for the achievement of military objectives, considered too useful to ban).

Civilian use of hollow points continues because of the lower risk to bystanders, due to the low penetration of the bullets and in hunting because of the damage potential of HPs (and anyway a hunter is supposed to only shoot when a kill is guaranteed - couldn't be further from a military situation).

So my standpoint is:

no extra ammunition types, except "because I can" showoff single finds - in reality the vast majority of eg. mauser bullets were the standard variety too, with the bulk of the rest being tracers and AP.

Explosive Mauser rounds were, as far as I have found out only issued to snipers and only on the eastern front - they had to turn in any remaining explosive bullets, when being transferred to any other theater (Stalin had renounced all "rules of war"-kind of agreements that czarist russia had entered into and german use of explosive bullets was strictly to retaliate against use of explosive bullets by russian snipers(which happened because Hitler refused the one-on-one regulation Russia tried to implement (and those things were not standard issue for russian snipers either, but salvage from aircraft guns)). In any other theater of war their use would have been another war-crime.)

And yes, I know that legality is kind of an odd point to raise in a black ops environment (though an engagement in which illegal ordnance was used might draw another level of attention than an ordinary shootout, so this might be a mission-specific restriction(hint, hint)).

 

The "game" justification is, that you have rocket launchers and handgrenades, which are kind of obsoleted by explosive bullets.

 

Economy:

Whatever. I couldn't care less. Which is not true, or else I wouldn't be writing this.

I liked the quartermaster-economy of SS2. You were not forced to loot and squeeze stuff into every last square of everybodies inventory, you could pick up a Luger or another iconic piece as a memento and that was that. No hassle, free ammo for everyone and get on with the game.

 

Furthermore I consider grenades to be too long-ranged currently.

 

Have I said that I am happy this mod is alive again?

[Fireman]

Happy Holidays everyone,

 

Took me a while to get through the updates had exams and such, but it's looking fantastic. The Poland random encounters will be very interesting to play with how dense the forest is, compared to the original forests, can you even see someone who's like 6 cubes away?

 

Mushrooms in Silent Storm is indeed unbelievable xD

[grammarsalad]

All right, here is a small update.

 

I've been working on a variety of different things in the past two weeks:

 

- Bernau scenario zone(still in development),

- fixing various scripts (especially the "Ruins". Occasionally it used to heal damaged enemy units. Thanks for testing, Tsylie ...),

- making new random encounters (Poland primarily),

- creating new RPG items ,i.e.mushrooms and Zloty - Polish currency,

- testing the crafting system at the base,

- correcting some of the texture inconsistencies, etc.

 

(I caught a cold a few days ago so it's taking longer than I anticipated).

___________________

 

VB,

 

I am not working on the ammos at the moment, but I'll keep your feedback in mind for any future references.

 

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Anyway, here are a few screenshots of the Poland REs I've created:

 

 

 

Most of the RE templates in the mod are 48x64 with some notable exceptions (like "Castle Linden", "Ruins", etc.)

 

...that reminds me - I need to redo the "Castle" completely from scratch when I have time.

________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't added any enemies yet...

______________________________________

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

 

 

 

It took around 600 texture spots to finish the terrain here. I think it looks all right now. What are your thoughts?

 

___________________________________________________

 

 

 

Yes, it's pretty dark.

The probability of that light setting is set to 5%. I usually use it for testing, to see how efficient various sources of light are.

 

_____________________________________________

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

...and another encounter in the forest:

 

 

This one features even more terrain spots (700+).

______________________________________

 

 

What was the name of that painting by Vasnetsov... err..."The knight at the crossroads" Well, it's the "knights" in this case...

_____________________________________________

 

 

 

The earlier mossy textures were a bit too saturated and bright. I felt I needed to tone them down a bit.

_____________________________________________

 

 

I had to create it. Having mossy logs on the ground right next to some regular looking stumps - just didn't feel right.

___________________________________________

 

 

It appears pretty cheery in the morning light.

 

_____________________________________________

 

 

 

Hmm... A box, in the middle of nowhere?..

Suspicious!

_____________________________________________

 

 

I like the way the campfire illuminates the surroundings... feels warm and kind of homie...

No wonder the moths are attracted to it...

______________________________________________

 

 

 

...proceeding to the second round of our log tossing competition. So, who goes first?

______________________________________________

 

 

 

It's surprisingly dry under the pine trees (i.e. large spruces).

Rain or shine...

_______________________________________________

 

 

 

Mushu would approve. No doubt about it!

_________________________________________________

 

Right, the mushrooms!

 

 

I've had this idea for a while... I just didn't know how to implement it until now...

 

The behind the scenes mechanics:

 

- The models: one is of the "oil lamp"(with side handles removed through alpha testing) and the other (larger one) is of the "flower vase 01" (with its glass material removed). They come is two varieties: regular red Amanita Muscaria (Fly Amanita) and its yellow (tan) cousin. I lumped them together because they share identical pharmacological properties.

- Stability: well, the vase01 was very unstable. It would break every time a usable object in its vicinity was activated. You might have experienced that when opening different drawers and cabinets in various original encounters. The oil lamp, on the other hand didn't have that problem. So, I combined those two via child object and voila!

- Collection: (see below)

 

 

...achieved by placing an indestructible "Vent" (usable object) underneath the mushrooms. When activating it the mushroom objects and the vent are removed and the corresponding RPG items are added to the forager's inventory.

 

 

I might need to substitute the bags for something else since the I.V. geometry used here (even though I removed the tube texture) still shows when pressing ALT.

 

I am planning to add them to the base lab "Create Medicine" queue.

One of the possible conversions/ crafting recipes could be:

 

- strong alcohol + fly amanita = spiked alcohol

- strong alcohol (spiced) + fly amanita = spiked alcohol (extended duration) ???

 

I am not sure about the exact naming conventions yet... still thinking about it...

 

Thoughts?

_______________________________________________

 

(to be continued)

 

~ Blunter ~

THoughts? Awesome!

[edwardo34]

Мод ещё разрабатывается или уже нет?

[Fireman]

I google translated that and I'm wondering as well, hope everyone is still doing okay.

 

Anyone knows what happened to Blunter and/or Tsylie?

[MacNille]

I am glad to see that this mod is still going strong. I have install the game again on my laptop, and I will install the mod once more.

[tofudog]

Hello again,

 

I started another game and when I came to Castle Linden I was mightily surprised:

Except for a crash when mopping up the first bandit wave everything worked perfectly - even Sting was back in the game and shot herself some zombies!

 

Just wanted to let you know.

 

Would it be possible to link the quality of weapons to the engineering skill?

Like in: Buy a dozen surplus rifles, strip them down and assess the parts. Then build one perfectly functional gun from all the stuff that was still good.

But maybe that is more trouble to implement than it is worth for the game and you can just leave that out and assume it is done behind the scenes

(reflected in the prices and no low quality guns for purchase - if I buy it, it better be in good condition).

 

Have a nice day

[Fireman]

Here we are again and doesn't look like there's any news

[Revenger210]

Oh wow, I had completely forgotten of this thread

 

Yeah, sadly things have gone quiet lately, but I hope, since summer's coming and the college semester is ending in the US soon that we'll see more activity about how this mod is going as of lately)

[Fireman]

I don´t think Blunter goes to college?

 

He seems old, no offense

 

We shall see! I´ll be here, lurking in the shadows.

[mammoth]

I Missed Blunter, i hope he will be back and do updates the MOD.

[silencer_pl]

Since I'm now replaying Sentinels I've decided to check this mod - mainly for the uniforms. Is it me or many of the female variants do not work. I mean do not work by looking exactly the same as the previous in section.

For example Sentinel Soldier / Officer looks exactly the same or Iron Maidens. Any uniform with mask / beret / wig / glasses do not change anything as the ones without. Only hoodies seem to work. Sometimes they differ only on things that "dangle" on the chest.

 

I was testing only on PC. For male character I've used the first guy you get in second mission and all worked fine, so maybe it's the only issue with starting character?

[WerHeruvim]

Headwear and hairs take the same slot (for PC) in Silent Storm. Full redressing works Only for bald characters (all males by default as they have no hair, just texture on the top of their heads).

Blunter found a "workaround" – he made several presets with no hair (See Heads bar after choosing a class and clicking Next). If you choose an option Custom Head, your female character will definitely have hair and all pieces of headwear will not work.

[silencer_pl]

Hmm, that will not work for me as I can't see the mod in custom game, while Noviks mod loader worked fine for finding the correct mod and save game.

 

Also I've found strange behavior in Poland Random Encounters. Foggy night is somewhat treated as daylight because my scout is being detected from across the map (and vice versa)

 

https://i68.tinypic.com/2073xhg.jpg

[silencer_pl]

Actually never mind the first part, it was long time and I forgot you don't put mods into the Mod folder...

[silencer_pl]

Blunter found a "workaround" – he made several presets with no hair (See Heads bar after choosing a class and clicking Next).

 

Either I'm blind or I don't have such presets.

 

 

Edit: Now I understand everything. But it's a shame that hirelings wont be affected too.

[silencer_pl]

Am Having problems with the first banker mission. After killing all the smugglers and Danilov body guards I've searched the house and cannot exit:

 

Found:

 

1. Note on Linz

2. Note from Doctor

3. Notebook, note & diary

4. Badly counterfitted ostmarks

5. Talked to Danielov who gave me folder with documents - that didn't show in my inventory.

 

Is there something else I'm missing ?

 

I've also did this and still cannot leave:

 

Workaround - type this in your console window and press enter: CounterfeitReport=true

 

OR

 

...better - give yourself one of these 4 items instead to update (only one):

1700138

1700141

1700155

1700156

 

Do it before leaving "Counterfeit" to keep all the Globals intact...

[silencer_pl]

Damn, had to give myself the documents handed by Danielov. For future note. Loot AFTER the Leave button is green. Also should I get 5 keys for the mint?

[silencer_pl]

Just played the Castle Linden map. Map is cool, but the encounter should be more extreme. It's probably not possible to mod only for zombies to be killed only by headshot?

If not then they need tons more HP. The HMG in the back of courtyard is so lonely. The mercs are too powerful specially Mr. Dust with his assault rifle.

[WerHeruvim]

Just played the Castle Linden map. Map is cool, but the encounter should be more extreme. It's probably not possible to mod only for zombies to be killed only by headshot?

Played through this map a year ago: yeah, encounter is pretty easy (main hero was lvl 5 with a Lee-rifle). Location design is awesome (like all of Blunter's maps).

 

There is an actual zombie animation hidden in game, as well as pale dead body/hand textures so those enemies could actually look like zombies (see Novik's DieHard mod graveyard encounter or my tough "undead encounter" in Sentinels Redesigned.)

You cannot make them die by a headshot only but may simulate something like this (like let them regen health on hit => they will die if hit by a critical in a head but will successfully ignore most of other attacks).