What's a "Moral Compass Cricket Thingy"?

[Moonface]

Have you checked out the System Shock remaster demo footage that came out recently at all, or has the remaster failed to grab your interest yet to bother?

[Maniakkid25]

I have not, thank you for the heads-up. I'll need to watch it later, because I'm at work right now, but I am very interested in this project, and hope it does finally come out.

[Moonface]

I have not, thank you for the heads-up. I'll need to watch it later, because I'm at work right now, but I am very interested in this project, and hope it does finally come out.

You're welcome!
I'd be curious on your thoughts about it after you've watched it since you have experience with the series.

[Maniakkid25]

I think it's rather interesting, but still needs some polish as it looks a bit janky (there's a moment where one of the mutants is walking backwards to the player, and then there's that table that doesn't appear to have the right level of weight for what it is, so everyone just shoves it around). I do also like that instead of a story exposition on loading the game, we get to see them played out, though I do think the bit with Diego was a bit rushed through given what is happening. I do like the liberty they take with the story where they give you a motivation for hacking into such a powerful corporation's servers in the first place, though. Overall, it shows a lot of promise for dragging a game that is nearing 30 years old now into the modern age. I do hope it plays better than it looks, however; right now it's still looking kind of janky for a modern day remake.

Edit: OH S***, the Demo's publicly available?! Did not realize that, nor did I know that pre-ordering would get me the System Shock 2 Remaster for free. I really wish I had the cash right now to grab it...

Edit 2: Having played the demo now, my general thoughts of the video were proven true: it's good, but still quite a bit janky. I've caught enemies floating on air, and not responding to being attacked myself, as well as items floating after interacting with them. Personally, I'd want to give it another 3 months before releasing it, at minimum, to work out a few of those kinks, but it's not like professional, non-kickstarter budgeted games haven't released in such a state (looking RIGHT at you, Bethesda). Overall, outside of the kinks, it's an easy 9/10. And bringing back the original SHODAN VA is just *chef's kiss*. It really is a great reimagining of a classic that is difficult to play, nowadays (the original game is very, VERY clunky to play by modern standards).

[Moonface]

Edit: OH S***, the Demo's publicly available?! Did not realize that, nor did I know that pre-ordering would get me the System Shock 2 Remaster for free. I really wish I had the cash right now to grab it...

Edit 2: Having played the demo now, my general thoughts of the video were proven true: it's good, but still quite a bit janky. I've caught enemies floating on air, and not responding to being attacked myself, as well as items floating after interacting with them. Personally, I'd want to give it another 3 months before releasing it, at minimum, to work out a few of those kinks, but it's not like professional, non-kickstarter budgeted games haven't released in such a state (looking RIGHT at you, Bethesda). Overall, outside of the kinks, it's an easy 9/10. And bringing back the original SHODAN VA is just *chef's kiss*. It really is a great reimagining of a classic that is difficult to play, nowadays (the original game is very, VERY clunky to play by modern standards).

I wasn't aware there was a demo either actually otherwise I'd have mentioned it for you in my previous post.

As for the part I highlighted, it was announced earlier today that the game will release on May 30:

That probably only gives it at most another 6-8 weeks of dev time depending on how much time they need from the game going gold to being released. I dunno if digital-only titles really have anything that needs to be done once they go gold besides submitting a copy of the game onto storefronts and maybe to the rating boards compared to a physical game that has to factor in time to produce and ship all the discs. Maybe the demo is from an earlier build that was stable enough to put out and more work had already been done to the game by the time that demo was circulating. It wouldn't be unusual since a lot of games tend to not put out demos that indicate the exact current state of the game behind closed doors.

[Moonface]

Have you ever tried or considered writing your own music/song before?

[Maniakkid25]

No. While I might be able to B.S. an instrumental if I really tried, I suck at poetry, and don't even want to attempt the process of writing lyrics for a song. I prefer to arrange music that already exists. It's much easier.

[Moonface]

No. While I might be able to B.S. an instrumental if I really tried, I suck at poetry, and don't even want to attempt the process of writing lyrics for a song. I prefer to arrange music that already exists. It's much easier.

Do you ever get ideas of what you'd write about for song subjects even if you aren't able to put it down into a lyrical format? Or like think of maybe a singular line that might be whatever you call the line that gets repeated a lot throughout the song even if the rest of the chorus it's within changes but nothing to really go with it?

If that last one seems oddly specific it's only because as a teenager I'd come up with a singular line or a bit of a chorus piece (not necessarily good in a writing sense but at least fit to some form of a rhythm) but would never manage to come close to anything for a verse or such.

[Maniakkid25]

Subjects? Sure. But basically never actually lines to an actual piece of music. But I think the part that really kills my momentum is that I have nothing to say. I don't have anything I could really write about that could make it into a song. And sure, entire groups have grown from having nothing important to say (looking at you, Lightning Bolt and My Bloody Valentine), but those songs were never about the lyrics, anyway. So, why waste the time wracking my brain to poeticly say stuff I don't have to talk about?

[Moonface]

Ah, fair enough. I mean, anything I thought of as a teenager was stupid angsty shit that would not remotely make for a good song subject. one of which I remember would've been called "Teenage Rage" if I had thought up the whole song, but I know any full line I thought of was what a teenager thinks is "cool".

Do you own any instruments at all or if you ever do get the urge to fool around with one (just randomly or playing something that's already written, not necessarily to compose music since you said you don't really do that) have a particular instrument you'd like to have on hand at times to just mess with?

[Maniakkid25]

I has a guitar I'm allegedly trying to learn, and I have a piano app on my phone. When the urge strikes me, and I have a song stuck in my head, I like to noodle on those to figure out the notes to a song. I actually have a decent ear, so usually I catch what I want as long as my guitar is in tune, but lately that slot has been taken up by E-Pro by Beck, and it's left me confused in a way only a rock song can confuse lol.

[Moonface]

Ooh. What's the fastest song (or song part since a whole song is probably a lot anyway lol) you can play on that guitar currently? Also what type of guitar is it?

[Maniakkid25]

It's a Fender Squier Stratocaster. Squier is their cheap-o, entry-level version of their guitars. And you severely overestimate my ability to play that guitar lol. Probably Plug-In Baby is the fastest song I can play, and even then my chord changes are absolute ass. And before you get excited by that ("Ooh, Muse! They're Prog Rock, man!"), Plug-In Baby is a very basic song that has no solos. Hell, the verses don't even have any guitar in them.

[Moonface]

You know, I never realized that song has no guitar during the verses until you mentioned it. Which is funny since I feel the guitar makes up the most memorable sound from the whole song. XD

Do you think you could eventually get better with chord changes or is whatever the reason for your current limit due to something that's out of your control? (Not sure if maybe it's a co-ordination thing or physical limitation that practice alone isn't necessarily able to remedy.)

[Maniakkid25]

Oh, it's absolutely a co-ordination problem; my muscle memory just doesn't have the chord shapes down, is all. If I actually put some effort behind practicing, I could probably get better in a good 6 months of concentrated effort. But right now, I just don't have that motivation in me. And I even know a song to practice with: Anna Molly by Incubus. That has a lot of fast strumming and quick chord changes to really get me used to it.