Operation: SHOCK

[Lenyoga]

Operation SHOCK is a mod for Arma: Cold War Assault // Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis.
The first beta release comes with a demo mission, a mod folder and a few basic units and features.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BnNXGjvpDg

Story
The main story takes place several years after System Shock 2 (at the return of the Von Braun) on a UNN space station. There will be two enemy factions, details will come later, because all the ideas are constantly changing throughout the process.

Mod Features
- A big fat UI overhaul,config file changes, modifications to the equipment files
- Custom weapon scripts, visual effects and gameplay scripts

Weapons and Items
- Most classic weapons and many items from Shock 2 will be present in slightly updated form
- all weapons have specific fire scripts, a ricochet system has been added for some
- Items include some of the hypos from Shock 2 (health, anti radiation, anti toxin, psi) and mission relevant objects
- Audiologs and cyber modules are included too

RPG Elements
- Stat system: You'll have three basic stats (Weapons, Tech, Psi) and three minor stats (Medicine, Repair, Research), they influence weapons and items, as well as the hacking minigame and context-dependent situations (repairing medical stations for example)
- Currency system: Nanites for hacking and researching, cyber modules for upgrades.

Units
- Shodan: former UNN personnel, security bots, cyborg assassins, turrets, security cameras, protocol droids
- UNN: UNN soldiers, crew members
- : special forces
- the mutants were scrapped, because the first storyline idea involving TriOp picking up the mutagen which evolved into the Many was dropped.

Buildings, Objects, Levels
The toughest part to create - all the interiors, misc objects and anything decorative you find within the levels.

Sound
The sound design is one of my major focus areas. I'm sticking to Eric Brosius' style in Shock 2 and the Thief games, the music will be kept in a similar style (with techno tracks and dark ambient tracks for different sections). All of the sound and music is edit and created by me, using Audacity, Ableton Live and several other production elements. I've finished a few tracks using software versions of classic synths that were used in the original game soundtrack, as well as samples of the game's demo tracks (provided and respectively created by Josh Randall)


Plans and Info:
March 2014 - working towards a beta release with the first mission, campaign not planned yet (mod folder with basic files, enemy units, weapons, scripts, etc. but no full campaign)
January 2015 - demo mission with mod folder and all basic gameplay elements and features finished and uploaded
July 2015 - demo mission with mod folder reworked and uploaded

I'm working on this project alone, so a final release date cannot be estimated yet. Most important updates will follow in this thread (chatter on the general topic, questions, ideas and so forth are welcome.)
If you want to see funny colorful moving thingies, seek out that YouTube playlist (sorted oldest to newest to get some picture of the improvements): http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDa9kDdf16sn8tRuc4Yyv2PBNFvpitDhZ
If you want to have updates on Facial Tome, here you go: https://www.facebook.com/OperationShock
(other than that, I'm also on OFPEC.com and reachable via PM)

Requirements:
To see the full colors, you need to remove the night pixelshader effect (the one that makes everything go black and white at night, for some reason) - the best way to go is Kegetys' DXDLL - http://www.kegetys.fi/ofp/index.php?p=others (it has a configuration file or dialog, you can change the settings there)




Releases:

Demo v0.86 So, here's the updated demo release with the first mission:
Download link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/102863946/OperationSHOCK_demo_v086.rar


Thanks to everyone for the support so far, and especially to the WW4 team and SoldierEPilot!

[Lenyoga]

And to put out a little update here, too, - I'm still on it, the demo level is in the making.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON0LBpXRxmg

[Lenyoga]

So, update today:

- finished weapon entries and pics for everything
- sound editing and lighting for the intro level
- new floor-mounted turret
- ricochet system (to be improved)
- different ammo types
- different models for guns and ammo on the ground

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP_MknVgNqQ

... anybody out there? Or am I all alone in the OFP modding subsection?

[krzychuzokecia]

... anybody out there? Or am I all alone in the OFP modding subsection?

You'll never walk alone! We're watching on all fronts!

[nicserpiente]

wow very nice addon, the camera is beatifull, well done! 
after I wish edit some mission with it.
cheers

[Lenyoga]

@krzychuzokecia Good to know!

@nicserpiente Thanks! I'll release some guide on how to use all the global variables and units along with the mod and demo mission too.


Another small update; this time it's one of the enemy units, the cyborg assassin.

Features:
 - fast movement speed
 - medium high armor
 - high damage
 - more or less stealthy (if placed right, he goes with surprise attacks)
 - practically deaf
 - almost perfect vision
 - attack script makes him very aggressive, no respect for personal space

Bugs:
 - if alerted too early (that's why I made him deaf) he walks through walls and other obstacles
 - "fire" command doesn't make him shoot straight, so I had to use a bypass script to correct the vector speed of the projectiles
 - minor issues with the attack script (comes too close, walks into player) -- easily correctable

Little video with proof of the above claims: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOKEE-Wr-Ws

[Lenyoga]

So, I'm not dead yet, work is still proceeding. The demo mission has come along nicely so far, and the difficulty level also seems about right (which means I died 49 of 50 times).

[Lenyoga]

Update! Modfolder + demo mission released, see first post.

[SoldierEPilot]

Impressions and suggestions:

Security cards: too big too be futuristic.

Drop effects and GUI dialogs: nearly tip-top.
Ideas:
1) May be use custom drop particles 4 fusion gun spheres?
2) Make access to SS2 level map by pressing "M";

Robots would be good with more polygons and better textures.
How about to steal some from SS2 high-resolution mods like Rebirth or SHTUP?

Turrets and cameras - just perfect.

Weapons:
psi amplifier - good enough;
shotgun - need smoother iron sight edges;
pistol - very "fat", looks like water toy gun
 FYI: there are 2 similar (but beautiful) guns in OFP:
-USP w/ LAM in SJB_USP2.pbo
-Sig P-226 from SJB_TOSM4.pbo.
People who hate cursor targeting would be more happy to use pistol with iron sight.

Game scripts: well done.

Gameplay: rather promising.
Demo mission is hard, interesting and not completely walked through yet

General note.
Interesting, this project is for SS2 fans who also plays OFP,
or for OFP people at first? In second case you have more freedom 4 creative work.
For example, I never seen fusion gun in SS2 and thus I will never
say "hey man, in SS2 it looks different!". If u will take some parts of
another game models and it will increase visual quality - no one will blame u.

The same is true for the scripts, here are some ideas:
1) You can make med hypos healing not instant, but continuing for, say, 2 minutes.
2) Ring sound after nearby explosion;
3) Random door codes.
Split an audiolog track into pieces:
Original track: "bla bla code is 34099.ogg"
After splitting: "bla bla code is.ogg", "0.ogg", "3.ogg", "4.ogg",  "9.ogg".
4 digits, 5 positions --> number of all combinations: 4^5 = 1024 - big enough.
Use random audiolog construction to make door code remembering useless, when
people can walkthrough the mission several times, but audiolog will be useful every attempt;
4) Any other SS2-style features u want, even if they are not actually present in SS2
but possible (most likely) and good-looking (I hope) in OFP.

Thanks for the work!

[Lenyoga]

Thanks for the feedback!
The fusion cannon will still get an overhaul - custom drops and an animated object for the shot (similar to the original here, but less old looking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI0y8UBabhM&feature=player_detailpage#t=347 )
All of the guns (especially the pistol, already started the new version in Blender, but didn't get to finish it) will be improved over time - but I'd rather not steal from SS2 mods; those guys have laserguns... and converting everything would probably be horrible, too, it's easier to just touch up the things I've made so far in Blender. And the iron sights, of course! They're still based on the old models ...
My main focus in this mod is to stay pretty close to SS2, that's why some design choices might seem outdated, like the non-randomized door codes, the 1999 design on some of the items, etc. Audiolog splitting would also create a few issues, like the ambient background noise being either cut off during the splits, or I'd have to run an extra track just for that.
True about the hypos, I'll definitely implement that!

[Lenyoga]

So, there's an update - see the first post, the download section has been changed. New unit models, sounds, textures, everything.

[SoldierEPilot]

An attempt to split and randomize audiolog.
Intonations/durations on "3", "4" and "5" can be fixed with more
experienced sound master - my Audacity level is extremely low for now.

Or maybe it's cheaper to find sound artist with voice like in log1
and let he pronounce all 0-9 digits...

I'm not insist on this feature thought, but the realization is possible...