Welcome to the second edition of my Deus Ex newsletter – July 2013. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform people of all the new happenings going on in the Deus Ex community – these include new mods, maps, minimods, servers, clan wars, community events, fan art etc. If you would like to have your work featured, or if you have anything to add, please get in contact with me. You can comment here, catch me on steam (chinesedemocracy677) or email me at chindem@live.com.
Without further ado, here is what has been happening in the Deus Ex world in the last thirty or so days…
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Terminus Machina mod Released!
The “soon to be post apocalyptic” cyberpunk Deus Ex single player mod Terminus Machina has been released (a week later then initially scheduled). It has been described by it’s author “SilverSpook” (who voices the role of “Number One” in Deus Ex: Nihilum) as being “essentially a long playable demo”, but at around 2-4 hours of gameplay perhaps that description is selling the mod somewhat short. Not to mention Terminus Machina was specifically designed with maximum re-playability in mind, with different choices of skill sets keeping the action fresh the next time around.
In Terminus Machina you take on the role of a skilled individual working for the Hex Gen network, a decentralized movement of “hacktivists” resisting the economic pillaging conducted by the wicked triple alliance of “Big Tech”, “Big Military”, and “Big Finance”.
Hex Gen, otherwise known as Generation Hex, are a new rank of freedom fighters. Very much a secret society, Hex Gen remains the only group to successfully execute an attack against the “Plutos”. Other endeavors include DDOS attacks on twisted corporations and corrupted investment banks and Hex Gen have also taken over control of drones and androids that once belonged to “CyberSec” – the main military and law enforcement aimed with the task of tackling any organised rebellion groups.
In the futuristic world of Terminus Machina you can expect the following;
- Facial, vocal biometric capture devices
- “Nohface” electronic face projector for thwarting surveillance/drones which cover almost every inch of city
- Wireless internet-Darknets: all web activity is fully surveilled, thus you need stealth not only in meatspace but in cyberspace
- More types of hacking: cryptography, DDoS, spoofing.
- Write your own malware, unleash it on the internet to infect machines to create your own botnet army.
- Hunger: experience real economic destitution as you slowly die of starvation and are forced to beg, steal, or even kill for a piece of bread.
- DIY: Upgrade your hemp trenchcoat with solar trim, syphon electricity from the private power grid.
- Mechanical hacking: Take apart old phones and radios to hack together an EMP gun, reverse engineer a captured police-state drone into your own personal bodyguard.
- Nature Punk: set up a hydroponic garden in your squatted flat so you don’t have to kill for every meal.
- Biohacking: play God with your own DNA to give yourself bone-hammer knuckles, bat-like sonar, or cheetah-like musculoskeletal structure. Just be careful not to turn yourself into Frankenstein or give yourself an artificial cancer!
Download Terminus Machina here
Don’t forget the latest v1.1 patch, download it here
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Sharpshooter Multiplayer Mod is born!
The latest mod to make it to Deus Ex multiplayer is Sharpshooter, an online deathmatch mod made by Atrey. Sharpshooter is a mod that switches the players weapon (and often grenade) set every forty five seconds. The weapons available are a mix of the default weapons and also the weapons found in Unreal Tournament, thanks to hejhujka’s “tnag” mod. Currently the mod has ongoing improvements and development (the latest version being v1.2), I am currently running a server that is hosting this mod called ~[FGS]Sharpshooter v1.2~.
I am currently editing some of my maps specifically for the Sharpshooter gametype, these edits include taking away weapon boards, biobots, grenades etc, spacing out spawn points and adding custom Sharpshooter textures made by Jager. Expect these edits to be fully completed soon as well as the introduction to a greater number of maps on the server, including new material very soon.
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Deus Ex: Revision Trailer Released
The latest trailer for the Deus Ex: Revision can be seen below along with a screenshot of Smugger, latest murmurings hint to a release before the end of this year. Deus Ex: Revision is a single player mod with the goal to change and improve all of the environments of the game, and occasionally edit the difficulty of a goal. As well as vastly improved environments, Deus Ex: Revision will bring in new weapons, texts and characters and even a new soundtrack.
An early demo of Deus Ex: Revision was released way back in early 2011, this remains the only released material from the RVision team and can be found below.
Deus Ex: Revision mod official page found here
The soundtrack is made by a duo called EdenShard, their aim is to do the original melodies justice while enhancing the game’s atmosphere and improving on the overall quality of the sound. The “Mind the (Synaptic) Gap” track can be heard here , also a very small sampling of the new OST can be heard in the recently released Paris trailer found below.
Deus Ex: Revision’s version of Smuggler’s hideout.
Below are some shots of this fantastic looking mod, these screenshots compare the original environments to the improved Deus Ex: Revision counterparts.
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Hatchet Mod Updates
The author (WCCC) of the Deus Ex single player mod Hatchet has been very busy in the last thirty days and has made many updates to the mod. Below are screenshots of Hatchet’s crafting system which allows you not only to create custom weapons and ammunition from various materials but also to breakdown those weapons and ammo into their material component parts. Many different types of weapons and ammo are possible to craft, some examples of custom ammo are door breaching shotgun shells, incendiary hollow point and high velocity, multi-target penetrating sniper rounds.
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Humans vs Animals Mod Returns!
A multiplayer mod called Humans vs Animals has returned after almost two years of absence. The mod pits a Human team against an “Animal” team. The goal is to destroy the enemies “object”, the mod sees players working cooperatively to achieve this goal and makes for some great game play moments. The mod is still in development stage and will have many updates and improvements, currently the mod is looking for more maps.
Both Human and Animal teams have six characters you can choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. If the human team are to stand a chance against the animals they must work together and compliment each other. Each character in Humans vs Animals can level up and become more powerful, these levels range from one to four. Players level up by killing enemies, shooting the enemies object, healing teammates, giving teammates ammo and bio energy etc.
Human Team
The most powerful member of the human team is the Soldier, this is most apparent when the Soldier is leveled up, he can have up to three protective augmentations and has a very handy assault rifle. The Nurse character is a very important member of any human team as she can administer health to not only herself but to teammates which is key for the human’s success. Equally important as the Nurse is the Engineer, his role is resupply the team’s ammunition and bio electrical energy, like the Nurse he can also replenish these elements to himself.
The Special Force character is a stealthy character with the cloak augmentation, he has auto generating LAMs and so is good for covert attacks. Hacker is the fifth human character, and is most effective against robots with his auto generating EMP grenades, the Hacker can also place auto turrets and so is a very effective member to hold defensive positions. The last of the human characters is the Flamer, this character is the heavy weapon specialist and starts off with a flamethrower and a GEP gun. This makes him effective against the slower moving animals such as the Robot and the Karkian.
Animal Team
The Karkian is the first animal in the selection screen, and is a slow moving and large, therefore easy to hit, character. To counter these weaknesses the Karkian has a deadly bite and can regenerate it’s health by eating the corpses of any human or animal. The Gray is a fast moving alien who has a radiation field around it and can damage any human that strays to close to it. It has the vision augmentation and so can see any cloaked humans and it can spit radiation. The Greasel is a small and fast, hard to hit animal, and like the Grey it can spit, except the Greasel spits poison and not radiation.
The Dog is the fourth animal and is fast moving and small, also the Dog’s footsteps are silent which makes it ideal for covert and surprise attacks. The Robot is a large, slow moving, mini gun shooting, auto health generating behemoth. However it’s size and speed is it’s weakness and is vulnerable to EMP attacks which leave the Robot with distorted vision and a slower shooting mini gun. The Spider is the last of the animal team, like the Robot is has auto generating health, it can also temporarily disable auto turrets. It’s main attribute however is it’s ability to drain the human’s bio electrical energy with it’s taser like attack.
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Deus Ex: Nihilum patched to v1.2
Deus Ex: Nihilum has recently had two patches released which address some gameplay issues, the latest of these is v1.2 and can be downloaded here (You don’t need to install the earlier v1.1 patch before installing this one). As an added bonus the Deus Ex: Nihilum soundtrack can now be downloaded here
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Project TARSUS has long overdue update
Project TARSUS has had a long overdue update which showcases several areas of Amsterdam including the bar and apartments. The main plot of the Project TARSUS mod has been kept very close to the chest, the mod’s author “Team_Anthogonist” however hints at the reassembly of the Knights Templar, who then become a threat to nano-technology.
Project TARSUS updated shots can be seen below.
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Counterstrike Mod in the works for Deus Ex Multiplayer
A Counterstrike style mod is currently in development for Deus Ex multiplyer, this mod is being worked on by a member of the Deus Ex community called Bam.
The mod will feature;
- Counterstrike weapons
- Ported Counterstrike maps
- Team based elimination
- Suicide vests
- The ability to shoot holes in people’s heads (cool!)
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Other new multiplayer stuff
Atrey’s Weapon Mods released
Atrey has released lots of weapon packages, (found here) the weapons include shovels, Chainsaws, Axes and Glass bottles, a video showcases some of these weapons below.
Knife Arena by Jager
Knife Arena is a new gametype for Deus Ex multiplayer made by Jager. It features a map called DXCS_35hp_2 which is based on the 35hp_2 map from counterstrike, it contains counterstrike weapons thanks to Cat’s CStrike weapon mod. The Knife Arena gametype can be downloaded here
DXMP_Amon by myself
My latest map that I have been working on, is based on the Unreal Tournament ’99 map of the same name, the map is approximately 60% complete, with most of the brushwork in place. I still need to add spawn rooms to the map and the ceiling areas need a lot of work, the latest shots are below.
Early build shots below
DXCS_Dust2_Long by Jager
Jager’s version of Dust 2 from Counterstrike, screenshots below.
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Miscellaneous
A model by Alvin D for use in the upcoming Assault gametype for Deus Ex multiplayer.
An early look at a “RiotDrone” from the Return of Denton single player mod, this drone carries two rocket launchers as well as the ability to fire rounds. Mod by AlvinD.
Well that concludes my second newsletter, thanks for reading! There’s still lots of cool stuff going on with Deus Ex which is great to see, I’ll hopefully see you all next month for another edition!
Chinny's Deus Ex Blog 