Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex (HELP US)

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Y|yukichigai
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Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex (HELP US)

Post by Y|yukichigai »

UPDATEx2: PLEASE, WEIGH IN ON THE "MAYBE" (marked with a ?) ITEMS IN THE BUG LIST. These are things which could be considered design flaws or design choices, depending. I really want community input on these things, lest I inadvertently turn this into a "lite" version of Shifter.

UPDATE: I've established a Google Code account for this project under the name "deusexv2". The project homepage is http://code.google.com/p/deusexv2/. You can retrieve the source code via your favorite SVN client (I recommend Tortoise SVN). If you want to contribute via the project, message or email me with an email address so I can add you to the project. (If you aren't one of the TNM folks or someone I know well you should get someone to vouch for you though)

Okay, so years ago (several) I suggested that perhaps we as a community of skilled coders should put together some kind of "v2.0 patch" for Deus Ex to address all of the remaining bugs and shortcomings in the game. The idea seemed to garner a certain amount of enthusiasm but nothing ever came of it, in part I think because we were all busy on our own projects. Now that hasn't changed for all of us, but I finally got off my duff and started doing something. Actually, I'm doing it. Right now, as I type this, my other monitor is filled with the text of Mission02.uc. Yay geeky.

Anyway, I'd like to re-propose that we as a community get together and make a v2.0 patch. I'm thinking we could do this pretty easily through Google Code (SVN for the win) and with the combined efforts of the talent I know is available here we could probably get it done in a matter of weeks if we really wanted. Who's interested?

Also, I'm putting out an open call for anybody to report any bugs they know of present in the v1112fm or Game of the Year versions of the game. I'll put a list up here as the bugs are reported. CHECK THE LIST BEFORE REPORTING! Eleven billion reports of "Paul isn't in the 'Ton" aren't going to be very helpful.

CURRENT LIST (+ = fixed, - = not fixed, / = partially fixed, ? = should we do anything?):

Code: Select all

 + Castle Clinton Slaughter check tags JC as a murderer too easily
 + MJ12 Confiscate grenade count glitch
 + Ghost Laser Sight in the MJ12 capture sequence
 + Modified Bot alliance in MJ12 lab is reset by breaking a window
 + Datacube falls out of the MJ12 lab level
 + Belt isn't cleared prior to being sent to the MJ12 lab
 + Able to drop items just before they are confiscated at the MJ12 lab
 + Various fixes to keep Paul alive and present until the 'Ton raid
 + Going out the window even when Paul has been saved makes Paul dead
 + Ford Shick doesn't show up in later missions after you've rescued him
 + Statue secret entrance to the lab in Maggie's flat doesn't move in GOTY
 + MJ12 troops in the secret lab play audio barks, making it not very secret
 + Hopping out of the Triad compound makes Gordon Quick try to kill you
 + You can kill Bob Page in the lab under Versalife
 + Entering the code twice for the UC lab destruct stops a bunch of the hazards
 + Final Hell's Kitchen visit has no music (GOTY only)
 + Ray the Odd Mechanic isn't neutral
 + No MissionScript or startup text for the Vandenberg tunnels
 + Hologram of Bob Page at X-51 can be startled into running with a grenade
 + Things shot over water never properly die
 + Changing weapons relies on inefficient Unreal Tournament SwitchWeapon command
 + Ford Shick tries to give you an Aug Upgrade with the wrong object name
 + Buttons do not light obviously enough (bUnlit is not used)
 + Couch texture switch doesn't work
 + Invincible NPCs will drop their weapons sometimes
 + Weapon info screen doesn't display bonuses in Recoil or Reload time due to skill
 + Sometimes there will be two JoJo Fines in the 'Ton
 + Game can only process 16 resolutions at a time, starting with the lowest
 + No upper limit on the amount of skillpoints you can have, which can cause a crash
 + Some Mission Scripts require the exact name "Unconscious" to count properly
 + Pistol Downgrade trick
 + Targeting aug uses BindName for display instead of Familiar/Unfamiliar Name
 + Phones ring while playing "this phone doesn't work" noises
 + Phones still ring when ringFreq variable is set to zero
 + Phones do not properly support the variable which determines their ring sound
 + Crossbow doesn't play the proper firing sound
 + Targeting aug uses itemName for weapons/etc. instead of display name
 + bTriggerOnceOnly doesn't work right for triggers (various infinite skillpoint loops)
 + Aggressive Defense can "detonate" throwing knives, darts, and flamethrower fire
 + Being captured by UNATCO while using a charged item causes glitches
 + Silenced Assault Rifle doesn't make enough silenced shots
 + Carried items are forcibly thrown at the start of a conversation (e.g. TNT to Gunther's face)

 / "Hack/Pick/Multitool then pause" exploit
 / Various NPCs are friendly instead of neutral (Lebedev, etc.)

 - "Inventory Received" window doesn't combine two instances of the same item
 - Friendly bots at Vandenberg will kill the X-51 scientists if they're hit with friendly fire
 - Conversation system doesn't support transfers from non-DeusEx classes
 - Cloaking is not nullified when you are on fire
 - Non-explosive projectiles don't break glass
 - Checking bodies for inventory can lead to an infinite loop, or somehow derail to your/another NPC's inventory
 - Logspam when NPCs weilding GEP Guns try to lock on to you
 - Various instances of logspam due to shoddy DX code
 - Shooting on the main dock before Alex's message makes Paul hate you
 - Paul can hate you during the 'Ton raid
 - Throwing knife "ammo" has no icon for the items received window

 ? Paul can be tricked into using lethal weapons against the NSF
 ? Ammo you haven't picked up is displayed in the weapon info screen
 ? Bullet tracers move very slow
 ? Overlap inventory exploit
 ? Patrol and teleport MissionScript functions do nothing
 ? Unarmed NPCs can plow through obstacles (A.K.A. "Nicolette the Tank")
 ? "Inventory Received" window doesn't show proper counts for ammo given
 ? NPCs magically stop burning when they die
 ? Bullet spread is weird and inconsistent
 ? No price and product display on Vending Machines
 ? NPCs know your exact position when you are cloaked
 ? Extra Soda/Candy textures are not used
 ? Conversations with animal speakers attempt to invoke nonexistant animations
 ? There are two additional unused sounds for Rats
 ? Paul's answering machine (and the message it comes with) is not in the game
 ? Unused VOIP conversation between Lebedev and the unknown party
 ? Ammo pickup amounts from frobbed corpses is always 1-4, instead of based on the default pickup ammount
 ? OMG I CANT GET ON TEH BOTE
 ? Throwing Knives suck
 ? Spawned AugmentationCannisters (using the summon cheat) have no augs in them
 ? Unconscious NPC description doesn't include the name
 ? Manderley's Safe is walled up
 ? Hazmat suit doesn't protect against fire/electricity/etc. (description says it does)
Finally, I have a few ideas for things to go into the patch which may straddle the line between "bugfix" and "changing the game". A good example would be the message you're supposed to hear on Paul's answering machine during your first visit to the 'Ton: should it be added back into the game? Would that disrupt the "established" Deus Ex experience too much? (Ditto for the later unused conversation between Lebedev and someone else) There are going to be some difficult decisions to make, and input would be appreciated.

EDIT: More fixes before I pass out for the night
Last edited by Y|yukichigai on Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:42 pm, edited 10 times in total.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by CorinthMaxwell »

Hmm......Is it considered a bug if you take certain non-conventional paths, and don't (or do) get skill points or certain conversations that you'd normally get by going the traditional or accepted route?

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, first find the secret route into the MJ12 armory. Then, take the "alternate path" to get to the bottom floor of the building you land on when you first arrive in Paris.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by Y|yukichigai »

CorinthMaxwell wrote:Hmm......Is it considered a bug if you take certain non-conventional paths, and don't (or do) get skill points or certain conversations that you'd normally get by going the traditional or accepted route?

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, first find the secret route into the MJ12 armory. Then, take the "alternate path" to get to the bottom floor of the building you land on when you first arrive in Paris.
I'll have to test that to be sure what you're talking about, but if you're talking about strolling down the destroyed shaft... I wasn't aware that didn't give out skillpoints (or does it). I'll have to take a look at the specifics.

I'd say suggest them regardless. The worst that can happen is it doesn't make the list.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by Jonas »

The main thing I would want fixed is that the skin change functions on couches and recliners don't work because of a coding error, so their alternate textures are never used despite having occasionally been set to appear by the level designers (for example some of the Paris apartments are supposed to have blue couches, but they show up as the default black leather because of this bug). For some reason that one has annoyed the fuck out of me ever since I noticed it.

What's this TAD message in Paul's hotel room that you mention?
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by JC_Helios »

Jonas wrote:What's this TAD message in Paul's hotel room that you mention?

"Paul, I know you said no phone messages, but South Street's going up in smoke. We'll have to meet at the subway station."

Plays first visit to Hell's Kitchen.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by CorinthMaxwell »

Y|yukichigai wrote:
CorinthMaxwell wrote:Hmm......Is it considered a bug if you take certain non-conventional paths, and don't (or do) get skill points or certain conversations that you'd normally get by going the traditional or accepted route?

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, first find the secret route into the MJ12 armory. Then, take the "alternate path" to get to the bottom floor of the building you land on when you first arrive in Paris.
I'll have to test that to be sure what you're talking about, but if you're talking about strolling down the destroyed shaft... I wasn't aware that didn't give out skillpoints (or does it). I'll have to take a look at the specifics.

I'd say suggest them regardless. The worst that can happen is it doesn't make the list.
No, this one had to do with a conversation. Save your game the second you land in Paris. Then, take the elevator downstairs. Next, reload your last save. Finally, find your way to the ground floor using the alternate path. Notice anything different? :-s :?
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by Y|yukichigai »

Jonas wrote:The main thing I would want fixed is that the skin change functions on couches and recliners don't work because of a coding error, so their alternate textures are never used despite having occasionally been set to appear by the level designers (for example some of the Paris apartments are supposed to have blue couches, but they show up as the default black leather because of this bug). For some reason that one has annoyed the fuck out of me ever since I noticed it.

What's this TAD message in Paul's hotel room that you mention?
Interesting. I wasn't aware of that one. I'll add it to the "maybe" list along with the other unused texture issues.

The text of the answering machine message has already been posted, but essentially it just adds a little more depth to things, explaining why Paul appeared to be meeting you at the subway station in Hell's Kitchen. Not sure why it isn't in the final game.

Also, I'm assuming you've heard the Lebedev convo. If not, fire up Shifter and head to the Helipad under LaGuardia. Check out the options for one of the computers in the offices.

Oh, additionally another "maybe": all computers default to the login/pass combo "user"/"user". This actually shows up on a few important terminals.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by DDL »

Yeah, but that happens on real life terminals all the damn time. :)

Also, what's the issue with bullet spread? The fact it's effectively a square rather than a circle?
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by ggrotz »

Great idea! In fact I'm surprised it hasn't happened long before this point. The only thing that I would be hesitant about is that an effort like this wouldn't turn into Shifter 2.0 (i.e. doesn't change the actual game mechanics, only fixes problem areas). Something like "? Throwing Knives and Pepper Spray suck" tends to get into the game mechanics, especially since neither are ineffectual if you use them right (though the throwing knives are rare enough in regular DX that you really have to watch them instead of having fun). That's usually where the complaint comes from.
? Unarmed NPCs can plow through obstacles (A.K.A. "Nicolette the Tank")
Funny story, I'm doing the "complete bastard" run now in TNM and getting farther. I set a Llama on fire and he took out the stone tablets for me. Guess it's one of those things...

Edit: And I'll add a problem. This doesn't occur in DX, but if you are running a mod that has a character with a large number of hitpoints that you can set on fire, eventually conditions will come where the game will crash for an "infinite loop" error.

Omega is a good example. I tried tracing the code once upon a time that governed the creatures there (and could point you to a post on PDX where I was discussing it with Omega's creator if they didn't blow it all up), and ended up into the DX patrolling code, along with the DX "on fire" code. I didn't see anything that jumped out, so it would probably have to be debugged to figure out what the exact fix is. Sorry it's not that specific, but thought I would bring it up.
Last edited by ggrotz on Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by Y|yukichigai »

DDL wrote:Yeah, but that happens on real life terminals all the damn time. :)

Also, what's the issue with bullet spread? The fact it's effectively a square rather than a circle?
The way the spread is calculated is really odd. Rather than just applying an angular offset, the game determines a circular area of possible bullet impact for a relatively short range, e.g. At 10m the accuracy will be within 1.2m on the pistol (not real numbers). The problem is that, after calculating this 1.2m spread, the game just moves that spread based on where the pistol's line of sight ends without scaling the spread. This means that if you shoot at a wall between 10m and 400m away (not real numbers) bullets will appear in a 1.2m circle on that wall regardless of distance. That's not even remotely realistic.

Also, the reticle doesn't really indicate the edges of your spread, in part because of the above issue.

Changing this would affect gameplay pretty significantly, which is why it's a "maybe", but beyond that I can't think of any real reason to keep the system as is. There's no real basis for it.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by Y|yukichigai »

ggrotz wrote:Great idea! In fact I'm surprised it hasn't happened long before this point. The only thing that I would be hesitant about is that an effort like this wouldn't turn into Shifter 2.0 (i.e. doesn't change the actual game mechanics, only fixes problem areas). Something like "? Throwing Knives and Pepper Spray suck" tends to get into the game mechanics, especially since neither are ineffectual if you use them right (though the throwing knives are rare enough in regular DX that you really have to watch them instead of having fun). That's usually where the complaint comes from.
The reason I included Throwing Knives in the "maybe" list is because they used to be more powerful prior to the v1112 patch. Apparently they were weakened because of complaints of them being overpowered in multiplayer. All Shifter does is restore them to their pre-v1112 accuracy and damage, in singleplayer anyway. Of course, NPC random inventory makes them way more common, which is why people complain about getting killed by them. In normal DX I can't think of any NPC who actually carries them, just corpses.

Anyway, the point is that official patches have changed weapon strengths in the past, so there's a case to be made for doing that to a rarely found weapon. Pepper Spray even moreso, because were it not for Unreal engine issues it would be literally useless. The game code as it stands tells the engine to delete the Pepper Spray projectile immediately, as in live-time of zero. It's only because the engine lags in cleanup sometimes that you can ever stun anyone with Pepper Spray.

So yeah, that's my thinking there. I wouldn't want to make the weapon as heavily powered as it is in Shifter, but even a fractional live-time would be better than what's available now.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by DDL »

RE: aim, are you sure?

Is this in adjustaim or tracefire, coz in tracefire it simply takes your start position, adds arbitrary random offset in side/side up/down directions based on accuracy*, then extends that to maximum range or 1024 units (whichever is larger) and uses that as the endtrace, so the actual firing line is a line between start and end. It doesn't do any actual tracing until it's got those two vectors, so the distance to your target should surely be irrelevant. Or am I reading it wrong? Or is it in adjustaim?

I'm sure someone would've spotted an accuracy error that egregious by now, otherwise (though I have been known to be wrong).


*this is why you get a square not a circle, something that annoyed me enough to change it for my autoturrets :P

Also, I thought pepperspray tear gas inherited the cloud lifespan of one second?
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by AgentSmithereens »

As I said before in the thread on the DXE forums, I think this is a great idea. Here's some more bugs I can think of at the moment:

- the laser-wire save glitch
- I'm not sure if there's a scientific explanation for this, but should pepper spray really be capable of partially extinguishing laser wires?
- grenade-flipping (probably not very important since hardly anone uses it)
- any instance where you can frob something in a container or case when it's not open

I'd also love to see the TNM printers in DX. I think it's probably my favourite feature of TNM, and I'm exploiting the fuck out of them in my current playthrough, so would be nice to see in DX.
And if those are going to go in, it would probably be worthwhile filling the DX levels up with all the other decorations made by TNM (brooms, notepads, CDs, TVs etc).
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by Y|yukichigai »

DDL, if I remember right the problem is in how it calculates endtrace. It's not that it doesn't scale at all, it's that it doesn't scale past a certain point, and gets really goofy if the trace doesn't encounter an object. I'll admit I simplified things a bit, but the problem is there.

A good way to see this is to try shooting at a wall. Observe how the spread clusters inside the reticle at 20m, then how it clusters at, say, 100. Theoretically the pixel distance between the outside of your reticle and the outside of the spread as you see it at each range should be the same, but it won't be.

If nothing else, it's WAY overcomplicated for what should be a matter of "apply random offset". :P

P.S. And the reticle still doesn't conform to the outside edges of the spread, which it should.

P.P.S. I thought I remembered Tear Gas having a default live time of zero. I know I had to change that to make Pepper Spray work in Shifter. I'll look at the code in depth once I get home.
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Re: Deus Ex v2.0 - An unofficial fan patch for Deus Ex

Post by Jonas »

Y|yukichigai wrote:Interesting. I wasn't aware of that one. I'll add it to the "maybe" list along with the other unused texture issues.
You should add it to the definitely fix list, it really is a coding error - the code to make it change textures is all there, but somebody in quite a hurry fucked it up so it doesn't work. This isn't a case of something that may have been intentionally removed, it's definitely a bug that should definitely be fixed in a fan patch.
The text of the answering machine message has already been posted, but essentially it just adds a little more depth to things, explaining why Paul appeared to be meeting you at the subway station in Hell's Kitchen. Not sure why it isn't in the final game.
If I understand you correct, does that mean it's a phone call from JC? If so, I can see why they might want to remove it, since it can be a bit weird to hear a message your own character ostensibly left on somebody's answering machine before the game started. If it's not a JC line, just ignore me ;)

As for putting some of TNM's new assets into DX, I think that's quite a lot more radical than a patch would have mandate for - that'd be a Shifter or Smoke39 sort of change, not something you'd add in a community patch. Not that I'm against anybody using our assets in that way at all, I'm just saying it strikes me as outside the scope of a project like this.
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