Update on stealth skill:
The new stealth skill is the answer to a vanilla problem between the balance of the Silent running and Speed Enhancement. Stealth skill substitutes Silent running and a new aug will take it's place to stand up against Speed Enhancement (This new aug is what we need a pixel pusher for). As a result one can combine stealth skill with speed enhance (or the new currently incomplete aug) but since GMDX's AI have greater perception and abilities all-round this does not pose a problem to the challenge stealth provides. Also speed factors into sound produced (both falling and running) so you will be making more noise running about with speed regardless unless you are tactical about it.
Trained: Vanilla when landing it was just considered a footstep sound, however there was a bug with the formula for z axis velocity that increases the footstep sound the harder/faster you land. This is now fixed and a separate, louder sound event is sent when landing from height. Upgrading to trained reduces this sound volume/radius by 50%. (
Advanced: This is, simply put, silent running lvl 2 with passive capability. Why not just keep silent running but make it passive, you say? because when fully upgraded you run completely silent and this would topple the challenge somewhat of stealth if passive, and even then it still wouldn't be the ridiculously useful and fun aug speed enhancement is that also gives you somewhat sped up crouching. Why not remove Speed enhancement's faster crouch speed then, you say? Because the two still wouldn't compare. Speed Enhancement is
ridiculously good for both playstyles, but the majority already know this anyway.
Master: Simply reduces enemy visibility range by 30%. GMDX's AI are far more perceptive overall in all sense[s] of the word, but most noticeable is their vision, where you absolutely must stay out of their line of sight unless cloaked or hidden in darkness or very far away. The next release will reduce their sight abilities a little so hiding in darkness is more effective also, but with this skill at master it puts their visibility ability somewhat near vanilla (but still stealth is overall harder due to many other factors such as more formidable cameras and turrets, less resources, other AI stats and better reactions etc).
This skill is essentially the weapons skill of the stealth playstyle. A shooter must upgrade weapons skills to make shooting easier. A sneaker must upgrade stealth skill to make sneaking easier, and you will likely feel the pressure to do so because stealth is harder than vanilla. Yes a sneaker will still likely want to upgrade weapons as well (at least pistol), but the shooter may want to upgrade heavy weapons, heavy weapons skill not being all that useful to a stealth player. Still, the idea is that any player can have any skill they want providing they have the skill points and through additional starting skill points as well as reduced cost of the other skills, stealth skill is essentially paid for by the mod (unless you want to put those points into something else).
Regardless, GMDX through it's tougher difficulty does encourage the player to use both playstyles and to think outside the box, so this skill is useful to a more shooter-centric player also. It also ensures the mod can be completed without killing anyone easier. Warren Spector would have been mad at me if he tried to do so before as it was the hardest challenge of all by far, more so than vanilla where it was already quite a challenge without the use of cheats and exploits.
Anyway, I hope you guys are not disappointed! Now we just need to implement this new aug that replaces silent running, and I am excited for it but it's not possible without someone to edit and animate this one single mesh.
The alternative for this aug if no one steps forward to help will likely basically be blink from Dishonored, though not quite as powerful due to no bioelectric energy regeneration but the problem is it's not as badass as this new aug idea I have (no spoilers) and it would make no sense as a legs aug.
![Neutral :/](./images/smilies/icon_neutral.gif)
So I will not be giving in...
Edit: Whoops, just noticed that typo in the skill description: "foostep". Heh, better fix that up now.
We wanted to do more for stealth skill (pickpocketing) but this should suffice.
Anyway, here are additional updates:
-Hacking drain time when master level is x4 slower so the player can read emails etc at their leisure. Computers skill is also now titled to be a little more specific: "Hacking", as you can see in the pic above. The skill only influenced things hacking related, it didn't make the player more skilled in excel.
-3 weapons have some new SFX.
The estimated release date for what will be a rather large update to GMDX, fixing bugs and adding refinements and new features is 20/Jan/2014. Of course this is not guaranteed as it is not getting released until this new aug is completed.