Choose a Custom GameSys for playing this mission by using the drop-down list to the left of the "Play Mission" button.

Read through this file to learn about each Custom GameSys file.

SUMMARY
CHANGES
DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF THE TTLG GAMESYS ARCHIVE v1.1
NOTES ON THE CONTENTS OF v1.1
INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE
CUSTOM GAMESYS ARCHIVE DISCUSSION THREAD
CONTACT
*********************************************************************

SUMMARY:
The mods to Thief Gold and Thief II make the AI more perceptive,
quick, and responsive.  Among the SS2 mods, those of Goit and
Anisotropic implement the widest range of changes in keeping 
with forum wishlists.

CHANGES
1.1
  Anisotropic's excellent mod has been added to the archive, along
  with a detailed explanation, in this document, of the changes he
  has made.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF THE TTLG GAMESYS ARCHIVE v1.1:

- Three first-tier folders: "darkgold", "metalage", and "shock2"
- Within each first-tier folder:
     - a second-tier folder called "original" that contains the
       original *.gam file from each game.  This is provided for
       the player's convenience in case the player accidentally
       overwrites a *.gam and then wishes to revert to the
       official installation.  These original files ("dark.gam"
       and "shock2.gam") may also be found on the game CDs.
     - a second-tier folder for each custom *.gam file.  Each
       such folder is named for the TTLG member who submitted
       the custom gamesys.

Here is a tree diagram of the contents of the archive:

+---/darkgold
|   +---/earthquakedamage
|   |       dark.gam
|   '---/original
|           dark.gam
+---/metalage
|   +---/earthquakedamage
|   |       dark.gam
|   '---/original
|           dark.gam
'---/shock2
    +---/anisotropic
    |       shock2.gam
    |       strings.crf
    |       chglist.txt
    +---/crion
    |       shock2.gam
    +---/earthquakedamage
    |       shock2.gam
    +---/garboshnik
    |       shock2.gam
    +---/goit
    |       shock2.gam
    '---/original
            shock2.gam
*********************************************************************

NOTES ON THE CONTENTS OF v1.1:

In addition to the original *.gam file for each game, the
archive contains one custom *.gam for _Thief (Gold): The
Dark Project_, one custom *.gam for _Thief II: The Metal 
Age_, and five custom *.gam files for _System Shock II_.
The archive also contains one custom "strings.crf" file
for _System Shock II_, for Anisotropic's modification.

The two custom gamesys files for Thief I and Thief II
were created and provided by Earthquakedamage.  Files for
System Shock II were provided by Earthquakedamage, Goit,
Anisotropic, Garboshnik, and Crion.

Below are descriptions of how each *.gam modifies its game:

THIEF GOLD and THIEF II:

  Thread:
  http://www.ttlg.com/forums/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=14&t=007542&p=
  
  Goal: Increase difficulty
  
  Thief I and Thief II:
    AI: Increased vision, hearing, aptitude
    AI: Increased peripheral vision in alertness levels 0 and 1
    AI: Decreased sloth
    AI: TimeWarp factor decreased by .10 (making enemies faster)
  Thief II only:
    Equipment: Garrett has Constantine's Sword in Thief II

SYSTEM SHOCK II:

  Anisotropic:
    Thread:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=003881

    Goals: Balance!
    ITEMS:
    - Autorepair Unit concept eliminated.  Autorepair Unit object
      has removed.
    - French-Epstein Device concept eliminated.  FED object removed.
    - Some alien organs require higher research skill
    - Hitpoint bonuses for Endurance have been increased on easier
      difficulties.
    - Smasher overhand strikes multiply damage by 2 instead of 1.5
    - PSI boosters boost the base PSI skill level by 2 points
    WEAPONS:
    - Wrench does not benefit from Standard skill (nor indeed from
      any weapon skill, though it is still affected by Strength or
      OS upgrades)
    - Certain high-level enemies have been modified to resist the
      specialized damage caused by the Assault Rifle and Pistol.
    - rate of fire has been increased and Recoil has been lessened
      for the Assault Rifle's automatic setting
    - The Shotgun has been strengthened and its blast radius 
      reduced.
    - Laser Pistol decays more slowly and causes more damage.
    - Laser Rapier requires only an Energy skill of 3 and does
      more damage against robotic targets
    - EMP Rifle causes more damage to mechanical targets and has
      a small electrical suppressive effect
    - Grenade Launcher requires a strength of 4
    - Grenade Launcher's rate of fire and projectile speed have
      decreased
    - Disruption and Proximity grenades have been improved
    - Blast radius of grenades has increased
    - Fusion Cannon requires a strength of 6
    - Fusion Cannon uses 2 prisms for normal and 3 for deadly
      shots.  Deadly ones cause twice the damage of normal ones.
    - Fusion Cannon has been converted into the game's most
      deadly weapon.
    - Shard has been converted to an anti-organic (but not
      anti-mechanical) weapon, so that it complements but does
      not replace the Laser Rapier
    - Viral Proliferator has been converted into an effective
      *indirect* weapon against organic targets (around corners,
      against groups)
    - Viral Proliferator's has been given a large blast radius,
      giving it the potential to backfire on the player in some
      situations
    - Annelid Launcher has been made quite powerful against all
      organic targets, firing single clusters or double clusters
    PSI DISCIPLINES:    
    - Projected disciplines yield an effect instantly
    - Cryo and Pyro produce splash damage
    - Localized Pyro does more damage more quickly, but does not
      last as long
    - Molecular Duplication duplicates nearly *anything* (except
      PSI hypos)
    - Molecular Transmutation changes nearly *anything* (except
      quest items)
    - Soma Transference no longer damages the brain unless the
      stars have been destroyed.

  Earthquakedamage:
    Goals: Eliminate melee swing bug; strenghen Fusion Cannon;
           strengthen Annelid Launcher and Viral Proliferator;
           strengthen Laser Rapier so that it matches Shard

    - Melee *swings* no longer alert AI with a "major anomaly"
      sound type
    - Fusion cannon damage increased by 1/4 in normal and 1/3 
      in death mode
    - Annelid Launcher and Viral Proliferator deal 1/5 to 1/4
      more damage
    - Laser Rapier does 1 point more damage (matches shard)

  Saracoth:
    Thread:
    http://www.ttlg.com/forums/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=40&t=001128

    Implemented: ???

  Garboshnik:
    Thread:
    http://www.ttlg.com/forums/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=40&t=001365

    Goals: Strengthen Laser Rapier, Fusion Cannon; Weaken
           Assault Rifle (possibly not implemented)

    - Improved laser rapier (2 weaponbash stims)
    - Improved fusion cannon (2 fusion explosions)
    - Assault Rifle shoots only standard rounds (implemented?)

  Crion:
    Goals: to make SS2 more like an experience-point-based RPG

    - cybermodule upgrade costs are multiplied by 3 or 4
    - various creatures might carry cybermodules
    - various creatures might carry other useful items
    - grubs may be toxic
    - toxic grubs may appear when some furniture is destroyed

  Goit:
    Goals: to pose a greater challenge for experiences players;
           to take full advantage of neglected or imbalanced
           skills or weapons; to broaden the set of viable and
           attractive character skill combinations
    Methods: weaken standard weapons; improve underused weapons;
           make underused skills more attractive

    - Optimal ammo (armor-piercing or anti-personnel) multiplier
      reduced by 25% (mech, half-mech, annelid, half-annelid
      from 4,2,4,2 to 3, 1.5, 3, 1.5)
    - Assault rifle degrades more quickly
    - Modify is more costly (see below)
    - Laser Rapier base damage increased by 50%
    - Fusion Cannon base damage increased by 50%
    - Annelid Launcher base damage increased by 50%
    - Viral Proliferator base damage increased by 50%, both modes
    - Viral Proliferator modification #1 requires only Mod 2 skill
    - Grenade Hybrids have a chance of dropping an exotic weapon
    - Small and large beakers hold 6 and 12 worms respectively
    - Autorepair Unit concept eliminated.  Autorepair Unit object
      may be recycled for 30 nanites.
    - French-Epstein Device concept eliminated.  FED object may be
      recycled for 30 nanites.
    - Repair skill costs approximately 50% less.
    - Modify skill costs approximately 20%-50% less.

*********************************************************************

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE:

The original installed *.gam file ("dark.gam" for Thief I and 
Thief II, and "shock2.gam" for SS2) resides in each game's main
folder.  Replace that file with the desired custom *.gam file
and then start the game.  To restore the original installation,
replace the custom file with original (provided in the archive).

     Please note: Anisotropic's mod also includes a custom 
     "strings.crf" that reflects the changes he has made and
     corrects various anomalies in the game's texts.  To use
     that file, simply back up the original strings.crf and
     replace it with this one.
*********************************************************************

CUSTOM GAMESYS ARCHIVE DISCUSSION THREAD:

System Shock II customizations:
  http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=004030
Thief I and Thief II customizations:
  http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=14&t=007973

*********************************************************************
CONTACT:
I created none of these custom files; I merely assembled them.
Use them at your own risk.  Use common sense when replacing
files; backup your original installation.

Contribution to future releases of this archive are welcome!
Contact me if you would like to share a custom gamesys.  If
you would like to write a *.gam loader for windows to be
included in the archive, let me know.

Grundbegriff <grundbegriff@ttlg.com>
Moderator, Thief General Discussion, http://www.ttlg.com
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=14




========================================
System Shock 2 Custom GameSys files:
========================================
----------------------------------------
Anisotropic's GameSys: list of changes
----------------------------------------

**If you're viewing this in Notepad, be sure to enable Word Wrap**

1) Global changes

The French-Epstein and Auto-Repair devices have been removed.  With Auto-Repair units in the game, whatever utility the Repair skill might have had went right out the window.  Removing the French-Epstein devices helped to finish with balancing out the skills.

Some alien organs now require a higher Research skill.
In general, the requirements ramp up as you encounter tougher enemies, culminating in a required Research skill of 4 to research Rumbler and Psi-Reaver organs.  With the LabAssistant implant, the requirements aren't excessive.

The HP bonuses for Endurance have been increased a bit on the easier difficulties, in the hope that this will make an investment in END a little more handy.

Smasher overhand strikes now do 2x damage instead of 1.5x.  This upgrade can definitely be useful, although I'd still recommend Lethal Weapon first.

And finally, Strength/PSI boosters now boost 2 points instead of 1, making these rare items at least more useful than implants.  

2) Weapon changes

- The Wrench no longer benefits from Standard skill, or any other weapon skill.  If you're playing Pure Psi, you shouldn't notice any difference, but a standard-weapons guy may notice a decrease in damage.  STR still effects damage, as do O/S upgrades.

STANDARD WEAPONS:
- The Assault Rifle and Pistol are mostly unchanged, but certain high-level enemies have been toughened against specialized damage.  In the AR's automatic setting, recoil has been decreased and ROF has been increased.
 
- The Shotgun is more powerful in general, and the spread of pellets has been narrowed a bit.  The slugs, with powerful Standard damage provide a low-budget alternative to specialized bullets.

ENERGY WEAPONS:
- The Laser pistol degrades at a slower rate, and does a bit more damage.  That's it!

- The Laser Rapier is now fairly good all-around, and utterly devastating against robotic targets.  If you need a powerful melee weapon against robots and cyborgs, this is it.  It now requires only an Energy skill of 3.

- The EMP Rifle is devastating against mechanical targets, and now has a small electrical surpressive effect.  Unchallenged against mechanical targets, but still worthless on flesh (obviously) 

HEAVY WEAPONS:
- The Grenade Launcher now requires a STR of 4 to use (BrawnBoost helps).  Rate of fire has been decreased, as well as projectile speed; damage is unchanged however, so this remains the most powerful skill-1 weapon.  On the plus side, Disruption and Proximity grenades have been improved, and the blast radius of the grenades has been increased slightly.  

- The Fusion Cannon has been almost completely overhauled.  It now requires a STR of 6 in addition to a heavy of 6, but easily holds the title of Most Powerful Weapon.  Normal shots use 2 prisms, while Death shots use 3 prisms and do twice the damage of Normal shots.  
Downsides?  High module costs, easy accidental suicide. 
Upsides?  This will utterly annihilate anything you fire it at.  The assault rifle may be more practical in general, but who cares?

EXOTIC WEAPONS: 

- The Crystal Shard is now almost exclusively an anti-organic weapon, and that it does very well.  It's more effective than the Rapier against organics, and requires fewer modules to use, so it's usually the better choice -- but if you want armor-piercing capability, you'll need the Rapier. 

- The Viral Proliferator is now a deadly "indirect" weapon against organics.  The large effective radius of its explosions makes it a very effective weapon around corners and against groups, and it is quite powerful against all organic targets.  However, against all but pure annelids you will find that indirect attack is your only option -- the projectile moves slowly and it's easy to get caught in the large blast radius.

- The Worm Launcher is extremely powerful against organic targets.  Unlike the Proliferator, it does no splash damage and does not differentiate between human and annelid tissue.  It can either fire single-cluster worms, which are powerful enough to kill smaller creatures such as spiders, or double-cluster worms for that extra power against Rumblers and Psi-Reavers.  It's accurate and fires relatively quickly, and so is very effective in all forms of combat.  However, unlike the Proliferator, you'll actually need to have a line-of-sight to your enemy (the horror!).

All in all, a very good choice for those poor souls heading into the BOTM. :)

3) Psionics changes

- Projected disciplines such as Hypnosis, Surpression, Cryo/Pyro are now instant-effect.  Cryo/Pyro also now does limited splash damage, which can be either good or bad depending on how close you are to your enemy.   

- Localized Pyro does more damage at a faster rate, but doesn't last nearly as long as it used to.  Very nice against swarms, spiders, and groups of hybrids.  It will no longer protect against droid explosions, however.
 
- The Molecular Duplication discipline can now duplicate virtually anything, with the exception of Psi hypos.  Need another med-bed key or ICE pick?  Want another Pistol in perfect condition?  Hell, you can even duplicate that arachnid organ or GamePig if you want to.  However, the more complex or massive items require a _lot_ of nanites to duplicate, so you really won't be able to use do 'special' duplications until you get Transmutation.

- The Molecular Transmutation discipline can now transmute virtually anything, with the exception of quest items.  Every jammed pistol and redundant suit of armor becomes a source of nanites.  VERY useful, particularly for funding the more decadent duplications (see previous entry).  The Psi-guy's newfound control over matter serves as a very nice perk, and makes him loved in multi. :)

- Soma Transference will no longer damage the Many brain, unless you've killed the stars first.  Yes, the final bit will actually be a bit harder -- still easy, though.


====================================
New Ultimate Difficulty Mod for Thief1/Gold
====================================

If you are like me, the original missions (as great as they are) and many FMs are lacking in the suspense and immersion they once had.  You know all of the tricks of the game.  You know just how much you can push your luck with a guard and still avoid being noticed.  You find it too simple to run around a mission, black*jacking every guard in sight and casually chucking their body into some dim corner.  Sure, there are self-imposed styles of play that can add challenge back into the game, but to me at least, they detract from the immersion.  And they dont change the fundamentals of the gameplay all that much.  

In January I got a spiffy new computer with EAX capability et al, and I felt the desire to replay my two favorite games.  But I wanted more of a challenge.  I have ghosted before and while that was good fun, it wasnt exactly what I was looking for.  What I wanted was the same feeling I had when I originally played my first mission of Thief two years ago.  That nervous hesitation, that uncertainty about just how much I could get away with without being detected and that feeling of fear and panic after being spotted.  So I set out to create a custom gamesys for Thief that would change certain aspects of the gameplay in fundamental ways, in the direction of increased realism and difficulty.

After months of work, I have produced a new gamesys for Thief1/Gold with the following improvements and modifications in gameplay:


* A lone guard who is alerted and makes a confirmed sighting of Garret or a body, searches for him, and gives up, will run to alert others instead of returning to his regular patrol.  After that however, he will resume his patrol.
* The AI vision cones have been completely redesigned to given them better distance vision, a more accurate loss of acuity over distance, and to eliminate Garrets ability to use leaning tricks to blackjack guards while alerted.
* I have heavily modified the dynamics of noise creation as a result of Garrets footsteps.  Running on wood and cobblestone now has the potential to alert guards within a few meters.  This means you will have to *walk* up behind them for a successful blackjack.  Also, creeping on marble, metal, or gravel is actually *quieter* and no longer alerts guards thus eliminating the need to tap the forward key and creep-crouch.
* Garret is now more visible to AIs as the visgem will indicate.  To offset this new disadvantage, I have increased the bonus Garret receives for crouching and sticking close to walls.
* Bodies are now MUCH harder to hide.  Forget about tossing your victim in a shadowy spot on a well patrolled hall.  Only two things may effectively hide a body now: a physical barrier, or an area of nearly absolute darkness.
* The AI have been made faster, especially zombies (who are now a real threat to an experienced player!)
* Residual alertness on guards who have been raised to level 3 now increases their perceptiveness by a considerable margin.
* Yelling made by guards during combat or searching travels further and is heard more easily by other guards. 
* Blackjacking someone makes a minor sound disturbance. 
* A collapsing body makes a minor sound disturbance. (both of these are not loud enough to alert anyone but simply attract their attention if already alerted and perhaps illicit a "Who's their?"..."Musta been rats.")

Usage instructions:
To play with the custom gamesys, your simplest option is to backup your old dark.gam and replace it with the new one.  Load up Thief and be prepared to find a whole new challenge awaiting your in the missions you have grown to love.  Any fan mission that doesnt use a custom gamesys will experience the changes as well.

==============================
Tips for playing with the new difficulty:
==============================

-Never try to run up behind a guard to blackjack them (unless they are the dimwitted ones that work for Bafford) Your default mode of travel should probably be walking from now on.
-Be much more prudent when hiding bodies.
-Take more time to consider your course of action and plan from the shadows.
-Blackjacking is now a more risky tactic and should be used sparingly.
-Plan your escape tactics ahead of time as the AIs wont be quite so easy to evade anymore.
-Be prepared to resort to less-conventional tactics to overcome a situation.  Spots that were possible to sneak through on expert will be much harder if not impossible with this gamesys.
-If guards are nearby, you may be forced to creep while walking upstairs to remain unheard.  This is because the noise Garret makes is a measure of his total speed, not what movement mode you are using.

Changes for version 1.1:

-Fixed a bug that sometimes made moving up stairs unrealistically loud in some cases
-The "alerting others behavior" will now also occur in situations where a guard finds a dead body


====================================
If your have any bugs to report, feel free to email me at jmartens@student.math.uwaterloo.ca.  I am 'Northon' on TTLG. Distribute these files to your hearts content.  A fan-mission author who wants to use my gamesys as a base for their own is free to do so.


THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT

thanks to the briliant ideas of Doc_Brown

ZOMBIE PATCH BETA v0.1

INSTALATION INSTRUCTIONS

1. Create a backup folder and copy the original dark.gam file into it.  To restore Thief's default properties, it will be necessairy to swap this dark.gam with the new one.
2. Next, extract the dark.gam file contained in this zip into your thief folder, overwriting the original one.
3. Enter game mode.

ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS EMAIL ME @ CHIAPPA1@home.com

NOTICE:	IF THIS SCREWS UP YOUR GAME FOR SOME REASON, ITS NOT MY PROBLEM;  I ONLY TESTED THIS MOD IN BAFFORD.
	ARCHERS HAVE NOT YET BEEN CONVERTED INTO ZOMBIES.  IF YOU HAV A ZOMBIE ARCHER SKIN, PLEASE SEND IT TO THE ADDRESS ABOVE FOR IT TO BE INSERTED INTO THE NEXT PATCH.

SPERRY

