NEWSA+SIMBION_tweaked Support and Gameplay

[Grump642]

Nightwatch, what is the "trigger" for the nasty chopper in Garbage? Is it the talk with Serity, or getting the Groza? Here's why I ask. I go to Garbage, help Serity with Bandits, get Groza, take out APC(while dodging chopper), go through level changer, save what's his name from Milatary, get the flash drive in the Underground, then leave Underground the same way I came in. I used the "backdoor" level changer to go to Cordon to sell my loot and re-stock on food and ammo. I get the documents, go through the level changer to Garbage, dodge chopper killing Bandits on a dead run with 2 "fire dogs on my butt. Get into train tunnel, spin, and take out fire dogs. Sprint for Serity's building and sell some loot, talk to Serity, and he gives me another Groza! Now I have 2 Grozas, but also have 2 choppers, and the APC re-spawned. The 2 choppers are NOT flying in formation like they did the other time this happened to me. Then I could treat them as one, and evade pretty easily. Now they are flying separate routes, one on one side of the barn, and one on the other. I'm trapped! So I plan on re-installing the game using Patch 04 instead of my normal 05. Yes, I used your 05 file. Good Grief!! I can deal with 1 chopper, but 2??

[Nightwatch]

Sorry replying late, Grump642, there has been an awful wind, actually some sort of hurricane over parts of England, London included and some branches from a very tall tree next to our building broke the window of my apartment. So, a lot of unexpected things to do, lol, but all has been taken care of now. So, now the game: When you finish the Seriy protection job and you speak with him, all hell breaks loose (if you don't count the previous Horror time and the bandits, lol)
If you don't speak with Seriy, then the mission will remain incomplete, so when you speak with him, a couple of info-portions are released (such info will be checked and required by other following events and missions) and you get the Groza_NT +missile/grenades and also the infamous Garbage Heli (with a different very aggressive logic than the others, a logic that some other Helis- that come only in Extreme mode- also use in various parts of the game) and the special Extreme mode APC are also released... all at he same time.

The thing is, this Garbage Heli above Seriy's Hangar(as it has become famous so) is not the only Heli in Garbage! There's also another resident Heli from the normal NEWSA.SIMBION_T files, which appears randomly depending on players progress and a bunch of other checks. So it seems you have validated the appearance of the first/resident/universal Heli (call it whatever you like ) and also the EXtreme Mode Garbage Heli has been summoned as well. Great! It rarely happens, randomness (though is not a preset value) or better to say the chances are low; so you've hit the jackpot. Sorry.

When you re-enter Garbage from the Military base side after you've completed the "get the military case" mission, the X_Mode Garbage Heli (that notorious one) and the X-Mode Tweaked APC are both re-spawned again. However, it has come to my attention that, on some CPU/RAM configurations, this APC may not re-spawn the second time. (I had spoke with someone from Intel on this and matters like these once, and the answer was -somewhat vaguely- that it was just one of those things. Yeah, I think it wsa the right answer )

I remember that this double Heli attack had happened to me at least once, though not quite often, either. But, the funny thing is that I don't remember what the hell did I do about it, lol. If I had my stubborn side at that time, I might've try and try and try until I passed out, lol; or if it was a lazy side of me that was in front of the PC, then I might've reloaded from an earlier save. Or, you can try keep sleeping for 3 hours each time one after another, eventually game will start throwing out different scenarios, Horror-Times, etc, and that Heli routine will divert.

[Grump642]

Yeah, just my luck! I tried everything I could think of, for about an hour, including the sleep trick. Made it back into Agrap once, only to be met by a heli and 6 Military!! Sooo.. I uninstalled and patched to 04, which I have wanted to do anyway. Some days the Zone SUCKS!!!!

[Grump642]

The 1.0004 patch seems to make a big difference. More Military then I had time to kill, when I went for the documents. Plus, expert Bandits even attacked the Military while I was there. So I got to kill them too!

[Nightwatch]

LOl, I'd play Lottery if I were you.
But, yeah, patch 1.0004 is a better one, actually the best one out there. 0005 was mostly for multiplayer options but did not quite live up to the expectations for single-player improvements. Therefore, many modders still prefer 1.0004 patch base game.

[Grump642]

I am tired of the main char getting killed before I can collect my money! And as for the Hunters, if they keep stealing my stuff, I will declare WAR!! just like I did in another play-through.

[Nightwatch]

I like the sound of it Air smells like a big war coming.

[Grump642]

Well, I have seen a lot of death in my 6 play through's of this mod. Lots of main characters dying and all. But NOW I have seen it all. Poor Barkeep. Just selling his rotgut vodka and minding everyone's business, when Heli bullets come through the roof and then he is gone. My first thought, of course, after saying a prayer for the dead I mean, was WOW!!! Look at the loot!! But once I calmed down, I figured the game just wouldn't be the same without him. sigh... So I reloaded my last save, and now he lives again. Makes me feel kind of God-like.

[Nightwatch]

LOL, If everything in life had been like a video gave. That migh not be a good idea, who knows, because then maybe the evil characters would do their things again and be more careful this time not to get stopped. Hmm..
On the Barkeep note, yeah, I remember once Zombies had attacked the bar and killed him there, along with everybody else. At that time, I had done the same as you did, I had reloaded the game. Heh he.

[Grump642]

I think Hunters killed the crazy guy you mentioned. If so, Max better go into hiding! Even if it means I have to wipe out all the Freedom to get to him!! Damn, the only people I'm not at war with are Duty and Stalkers. And that's because I had to get a reset on Stalkers after a "kill stalker" mission. I'm so friendly.

[Nightwatch]

LOL, you've really hit the jackpot on this run! That crazy swamp guy almost never dies unless getting very heavy hits from heavy weapons. Play Lotto this week.
On the side note, I might think of making him even a bit stronger, hmm, but to a degree that should not be impossible for the player to whack him at the end. I'll think of something on this outcome.
Also, don't forget the Pripyat trader for the recovery of some lost things on this level

[Grump642]

Good idea on making him a little stronger. The quest was dead, but he sold me what I wasted!!

[3040Krag]

In NEWSA, I've had the crazy swamp guy killed by snorks hanging out by his cabin once, and once he wandered near Freedom base (no idea why) during a horror time and got whacked by Freedom fire while they were fighting a chimera.

[Nightwatch]

Good idea on making him a little stronger. The quest was dead, but he sold me what I wasted!!

Great, that the secondary action for the "item" has worked. Might not always work, because in such a case someone else could already buy it before you.

In NEWSA, I've had the crazy swamp guy killed by snorks hanging out by his cabin once, and once he wandered near Freedom base (no idea why) during a horror time and got whacked by Freedom fire while they were fighting a chimera.

LOL another example of active AI, sometimes gets even too active, lol.

[Nightwatch]

Hey Hangman,

I don't know if you have still access to this site from your place, but hoping that you are. Have you received the mod? I sent it to you on a disk on 20-November as I informed you with my email at that day, but not heard from you since then if you've received it or not. If you can see this post, please let me know if you've got it.

[Component Actual]

Nightwatch, is this mod compatible with the newer Sky4CE 2.0 RC4.1?

[Nightwatch]

Nightwatch, is this mod compatible with the newer Sky4CE 2.0 RC4.1?

Theoretically, it should be compatible as the Mod already uses a stable release of Sky4CE Shaders. Having said that, I should also point to a fact that the version you refer to is signed as RC (release candidate) and, as we know, there is always a reason why the authors sign their softawre as of RC instead of "stable release," which means they are still testing it, though it's in the final stages of that process. So, Rc is released is as of "Use it at your Own Risk."

But in my experience with Sky4CE shaders, I would not expect that anything should go wrong even in this RC stage, maybe at worst case scenario, a small unimportant glitch... just maybe. So you can give it a test drive, if you wish. You can report on the differences (if any were to be seen) between the current and RC package Sky4CE shaders. It would definitely be useful, as I would certainly wish to upgrade the Sky4CE shaders to the latest available version (a full stable release, but this test could give a valuable first impression)

[Component Actual]

Well after playing with Sky4CE 2.0 RC 4.1 it was hard to go back to 1.78. The features I most enjoy from the new Sky4CE are the Sun Shafts and the increased/improved parallax occlussion mapping. (The sun shafts aren't perfect in that their angle does not perfecty match that of the sun, but they are still very pretty). The parallax occlussion mapping is really alot more pronounced in this version than in previous versions, and textures really look more 3d than ever. Unfortunately the new Sky4CE can really slow your machine down, but I have found disabling everything but Sun Shafts and Paallax Occlusion makes the performance hit bearable while retaing the best of the improvements. Then if you use the original motion blur parameter by adding -mblur to the shortcut target line and turn the R2_Mblur value to the 0.7-1 range in the user.ltx file, it can really help smooth out the frame rate. So while I only get 30-45 FPS now compared to my previous solid 60, I can hardly tell the difference. The mod seems to work fine in Newsa+Simbion, but I haven't tested it in any sort of extensive, exhaustive, or scientific way. I know nothing of a stable release for this newer version. I think 2.0 rc4.1 was the last release, and I think it was actually released some time ago.

[Component Actual]

Well I am back to playing Newsa+Simbion after taking a break to play Oblivion Lost, and then taking a break after breaking my motherboard, which was a very situation. The reason I quit playing Newsa in the first place though was that once I got to the Garage level I found the helicopters completely indesctructible, which was highly annoying to me and I quit in frustration. So I started in on Oblivion Lost, which has a wide range of compatible mods, and I really enjoyed tweaking out my version, taking bits and pieces from a wide variety of mods. I spent a lot a time doing that until I thought I had the perfect version, and then I broke my motherboard and had to rebuild my raid array and start all over. While I really enjoyed my OL version, the gameplay just wasn't up to par with that of Newsa, so I figured for this go around it would have to be Newsa. But I am still anxious over the helicopter issue I experienced last time. So I did a little poking around and found that in the helicopter.ltx file in the creatures folder, almost all of the immunities had been set to "0" which would explain their invincibility. Now I would like to change these but am afraid of breaking the mod. Nightwatch, I know I am not suppose to change anything, and that I will be doing so at my own risk, but in your opinion o you think the mod will work if I change them right after installing newsa, and if I start a new game?

On a lower priority question, I kind of want to decrease my own immunity to rupture/mutant attacks as well. It seems I am highly vulnerable to gun shots but have a very low vulnerability to mutant attacks, and though mutants are much more aggresive and much faster their actual attacks seem to cause very little phsical damage, and I would like to balance out that aspect a little bit by lowering my immunity to those attacks to give me reason to fear the beasts. Basically my question is same as before, do yuu think this will break the mod?

I know that any changes I make are at my own risk to the mod and game installation, but I think the risks could come with sizeable rewards and I am willing to take them, but I would still like advice from a knowlegeable source. Thanks.