Version 3 - The Risk Always Lives news

Version 3 brings the alot to the table ontop of V2's already pretty big list of changes!

Primarily the focus for V3 was Xeno AI, The Sulaco levels, and further balancing and bug fixing.

Inside the Finite State Machine for the Xeno's were several features that were disabled. I am not sure why (as they work fine) and these have been integrated into the AI with changes to the rest of the FSM to use them. This really adds a whole new level to Soldiers especially. They act and react like a Lurker on a rampage! Their approach to you will now take cover into consideration to keep them safe, they are more likely to run at you at a slight angle instead of heading directly at you in the open, making them much trickier! All round the Xeno's have become much more dynamic and unpredictable! There is a lot of balancing required here now so there are 6 extra Xeno Soldier configs available to help with Difficulty.
The first real attempt to rework the insta-kill move of the Soldier xeno. It still uses it way too often, however it does now use it much less!

Melee Encounters have also had their first rework to make the lurker actually difficult to push off, but not impossible. Getting the sweet spot will take some time and I still don't understand what alot of the nameless stuff does yet. Im sure it will only get better!
Fighting Soldier Xeno's in Melee is no longer a guarenteed win if you swing first. There has always been the change that you can win, you can tie, or you can lose when you strike with your melee, but it was configured so you'd always win. You will sometimes find now when you hit a Xeno with melee it will push your weapon to out of the way! Im still working on these as I only just found the code that controls it.
The animations for these are often fantastic and another attempt at working their timing has been done to try and make them last longer. I was somewhat successful but more tweaking is required

When I realized I could "hack" the game into using the one LOD setup for each LOD definition with just one value change per LOD (instead of 30+), I decided to redo every particle system again using this method. In V2 I manually edited each LOD level to max out the amount of particles used, but the tremendous amount of settings per LOD level meant getting them working properly was impossible so it only had small effect.
Now the effects look identical from any range (up to their max which hasn't changed yet). This includes effects like fog, dust, 'particulates' or little bits floating in the air and rain. This meant for example when you walked into the Infestation for the first time, the far side of the room was rendered at basically as if you were standing over there, and it makes a huge difference!
There are hundreds of particle effects in the game and thousands of LOD levels as a result so I will be doing this change in stages. Sulaco, Hadley's Hope, The Derelict, Stasis Interrupted, Bug Hunt

The Pulse rifle has seen some small changes to recoil sway, accuracy and damage to make it a little better when used in short, controlled bursts.
Each shotgun has had its ammo type redone so that each single pellet does about the same damage as a pistol shot. This makes them much more powerful. Those with the double-barrel. Enjoy! Enemies have NOT been given this upgrade!
SMG damage increased a little and recoil redone for more gradual wandering
Sonic Electronic Ball Breakers stun time has been reduced for the time being back to like it was originally until I get to MP balancing. It does a bit more damage now per shock so using it in combo with the auto shotty is quite awesome
Not much else was done in regards to weapon gameplay for the moment to allow some more feedback to come in.

Master Effects files have been redone as I moved as much as I could into the game itself.
I reworked the game's built-in SSAO effect to actually look like SSAO instead of that weird multi-shadow thing it shipped with. This makes a great difference on the quality as the SSAO pass by the engine is done before particles are drawn, meaning the SSAO is behind fog instead of ontop. If you turned this off before because of how bad it was in the original game, turn it back on.
Gamma, Brightness and Colour shifting is done by the engine now, with Master Effects providing HDR image finishing, high quality SMAA, DOF and SSGI depending on your quality choice. SSGI is enabled from high up and is quite expensive, but it is the only addition past Medium quality. Ultra simply max's out High's samples and blur process quality for the crazy people out there.

SSGI or Screen Space Global Illumination is the simulation of light bouncing off a surface and lighting another. For a real-life example turning a torch on in a dark room lights up the entire room, not just what the torch is pointed at. Because this is "screen space" which means it uses only what you see on the screen (and nothing beside or behind you) its limited in how much it can bring to the game. I have focused its setup to create a much more dramatic effect for the Shoulder Lamp. If your PC is powerful enough this really adds to the immersion, as it lights up more than just that circle.
It does however also have its drawbacks. The HUD casts light onto game objects behind it so its best to turn it off. Some pitch black areas with lense flares representing a light source (without the light) can look quiet odd due to the SSAO brightening up the pitch black scenery to a washed out flat color.

The INI files for the game have been redone for compatibility and stability with DLC so you should be able to play Stasis Interrupted now. If you do still have issues, before starting SI, go into the graphics menu and set the 3 graphics slider to 2 steps less than max. You should be able to get passed the flamer guy! I will look into this when DLC gets it's turn!

The Sulaco has being given the Love it deserves and the levels now look much better. Big effects like Fog, Smoke, Mist, Dust, Particulates, Fire and Sparks have been switched to uberlod to max out the atmosphere. I spent a bit of time on the effects used within the realtime cut-scenes to make them as good as I could, as well all the cooler set pieces (Sulaco Hanger, Infestation, the Gravity Well and the Fusion Core scene in Mission 1 for example).
Combined with all the core graphical changes, the Sulaco and its scenes look at times incredible! It really makes moving through the corridor-level play style better. On level 3, Easier Mercs + Awesome Exploding Spaceship Backdrop + Fantastic Graphics + a FREAKIN Smart Gun turns this level into a truly memorable moment!

V3 focused mostly on the graphical upgrade (its pretty impressive) and expanding the Xeno AI to use all the code available. A few bugs have been removed but a few more have been added but this is just par-and-course with hex editing. As settings for things hit their sweet spot then I can focus on reducing/removing the bugs without inevitably adding more back in later!

A full itemized change-list will be uploaded to the homepage soon for people who want all the nitty-gritty!