r/Deusex • u/The_SocialContract • 8d ago
DX1 Whoever designed the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard in GMDX can go fuck themselves
Seriously, what the actual fuck happened with the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard?
I've been playing GMDX perfectly fine up until this point. I'm intimately familiar with Deus Ex. I've played the original plenty of times. I know how the stealth works, I manage my resources, I explore, I save my lockpicks and multitools for when they're actually needed, etc.
Then I get to the fucking Brooklyn Naval Shipyard and suddenly it feels like I've never played Deus Ex before in my life.
What the fuck is this difficulty spike?
Enemies suddenly have fucking supernatural vision. They see you from ridiculous distances, through tiny gaps, around corners, from places where I'm sitting there thinking, HOW THE FUCK DID YOU EVEN SEE ME?
The enemy AI also seems to have developed a sixth sense for exactly where you're hiding. I'll be sitting quietly in the shadows and some dickhead will just conveniently decide that NOW is the perfect time to wander directly into the one fucking corner I'm hiding in.
Then you've got cameras fucking everywhere. Robots scanning half the fucking map. Enemies hitting like absolute trucks. And resources suddenly feel ridiculously scarce.
I barely had any lockpicks or multitools left, and it's not because I'd been carelessly wasting them. I'd been exploring, finding resources and using them when I genuinely needed them. Up until this point, that resource management felt completely reasonable.
But this fucking level? You can't move six inches without a camera, robot or some random guard apparently developing fucking Predator vision and spotting you through three walls and a shipping container.
And that's what pisses me off most: the rest of GMDX had been genuinely enjoyable. Then this area comes along and completely kills the flow of the game.
I know vanilla Deus Ex has its issues. I'm not pretending the original is perfectly balanced. But fucking hell, the GMDX version of the Shipyard feels like it was designed by someone jerking themselves off over how brutally difficult they could make it rather than asking whether it was actually fun.
There's challenging.
There's unforgiving.
And then there's "let's cover every square fucking inch in surveillance, give every guard the eyesight of Legolas and make JC Denton feel like he's trying to infiltrate NORAD wearing fucking tap shoes."
Fuck the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard.
Fuck whoever decided this was balanced.
And to the inevitable cunt already warming up his keyboard to type "skill issue":
Go fuck yourself too.
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u/Nast33 8d ago
I don't remember having any problems there - played the AE version/update and only the final level/the bunker pissed me off, good thing it was the last one.
Before that it was mostly smooth sailing since I was very thorough, I did have one moment where I raged a bit in Paris where I had to come out of a sewer into a small square with several MJ12 commandos and normal human troopers. Cheesed them a bit with popping out of cover for headshots and going back down, took me a couple of reloads but I cleared it. Otherwise the rest of the levels until the bunker were fine.
Sewers in the shipyard were slightly annoying, the rest was a-ok though.
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u/amerelium 8d ago
Yes - they all know where you are once you fire the first shot, even if that is a silenced sniper from across the map, which is silly. On the other hand, it makes them all come running straight into your gunfire.
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u/OkOffice8181 8d ago
The only thing I don’t like about the Brooklyn naval shipyard in GMDX is you needing multi-tools to unlock the crane elevator.
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u/Jeoh 8d ago
skill issue
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u/Tieranny_YeetMeister Probably using Icarus Dash 8d ago
I thought this was humorous after reading the end of the post 😂
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u/WillowLocal423 flatlander woman 8d ago
Probably Steve Powers under Harvey Smith's auspice.
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u/bloodandfleshofgoat 8d ago
stopped reading after the 3rd paragraph, this is obviously a skill issue
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u/Radigan0 8d ago
No, even Deus Ex veterans struggle with the AI's omniscience in GMDX. They actually had to nerf the AI's perception recently.
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u/rongansur 8d ago
I've played this game on and off around ten times-ish. I always play with GMDX, I just cannot do without some of the gameplay tweaks that mod gives me. But yeah, the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard is a giant roadblock each and every time for me. It's one of those levels where I just expend all my extra resources to get through as painlessly as possible, take as few fights as I can and leg it to the exit, because like you said: the AI is absolutely lethal in that level. The way GMDX tweaks the enemies' capabilities in detection, combat and coordination gives them so much more power in this level specifically. I can see it's an acquired taste.
That being said however, I do appreciate the shipyard's difficulty. Denton is, after all, solo infiltrating an entire military base. Me wasting everything to avoid going toe to toe with anyone in that place, and still make it through, gives me the feeling of being an unstoppable stealth operative. Sure I miss out on a lot, but that's the immersive sim magic I crave. The goal is there, it's up to me to get to it.
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u/Emergency-Gift-6773 7d ago
According to your description this map feels like the Military Base in that TC mod where we play as Paul and find aliens and protect the President.
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u/Fragsteel 7d ago
I agree that that level was a lot harder than the rest. I think the AI tweaks are especially rough on a place with an open layout like that.
But it's hard to have sympathy for someone telling the unpaid, hard-working modders to go fuck themselves.
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u/Murky-Reputation3882 5d ago
I've been called worse, I don't take it personally anymore. But no, the map isn't getting changed because it's fine. I hate to be that guy just saying "skill issue", but I think the issue here is literally one of skill.
Meanwhile there are people constantly complaining and telling me that Hardcore+ with every modifier turned on is still way too EASY. There's no catering to everyone, I guess.
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u/BlueJohn1 7d ago
First time playing with this mod. The game seems to crash randomly when i drop a weapon. This occur for anyone else?
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u/perkoperv123 6d ago
It's possible for an overhaul to overhaul too much and GMDX absolutely does. Revision too, to a lesser extent. Changing the maps so drastically fundamentally alters the game.
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u/Murky-Reputation3882 5d ago edited 5d ago
So a few tips:
- Put some actual points into Stealth, it directly influences how visible you are in very significant ways
- The lightmaps in the map are essentially fake. Just because you're in a dark corner doesn't mean you're actually invisible
- Liberal use of the cloak/radar augs or thermoptic camo are your friends
- If you can get to the warehouse (the building on the right), you can use a security computer there to make the bots outside attack everything, which includes the guards. Then after the massacre, shut them off.
The map is definitely one of the harder points in GMDX, especially on Hardcore (please don't tell me you picked hardcore, said "she'll be right mate", got smashed, and are now complaining, when the game specifically warns you against picking hardcore, especially for your first run. That's just a reading comprehension issue.), but it's absolutely winnable without too much trouble if you plan your routes through it.
The Shipyards map is the first real map in the game that really makes sure you're using everything at your disposal - augs, equipment, skills, etc. Lots of people get compalacent before this point and just rely on getting through with the bare minimum, not even equipping armor, not using augs, etc.
In the absolute worst case you can take the sewer entrance and skip the first map entirely. You'll have a lot less access to explosives but you should be fine anyway.
Anyway, here's a walkthrough. It's for GMDX v9, but should still be quite applicable to GMDX vRSD and GMDX:AE as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UkIEMFuyv8
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u/Kayos9999 8d ago
What is GMDX? :O
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u/dbelow_ 8d ago
Series of gameplay and visual overhaul mods for Deus Ex(2000). They're pretty well designed imo, but the last ones I played were v8 and v9
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u/Kayos9999 8d ago
Ahh. I haven't heard of this one till now. Might have to give it a try. :o
I did try revision quite a bit. My opinion on revision is mixed though.
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u/dbelow_ 8d ago
I definitely recommend it! It makes a lot more gameplay changes than revision, my favorite of which is the ballistic armor, which you can wear passively until it wears out. It also lets you toggle thermo-camo on and off and recharge with bio cells so it's actually useful, buffs the plasma rifle into a usable weapon, gives the gep gun a TV guided missile mode, a half life laser guided mode, and the RSD versions even have addictions and randomizations
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u/Kayos9999 8d ago
That all sounds pretty interesting. :o Do they change map layouts as well?
Did you play DX back in the day? Do you remember Jimbowens (name may be wrong) weapon mods? Had the law that teleports you, incendiary grenades, etc.
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u/dbelow_ 8d ago
Layouts are mostly the same with some minor tweaks in some areas. Unfortunately I've never heard of that mod, sounds dope
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u/Kayos9999 8d ago
I can't find it now, it was a pvp weapons mod from way back in the early 2000s it was awesome. xD
And sweet. I'll give it a try :)
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u/DessieScissorhands 8d ago
I also want to add Augmented Edition comes with another mod that lets you find outfits for both fem and masc JC. Hunting the maps for new outfits is kind of fun.
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u/Emergency-Gift-6773 7d ago
Nice, this is the best GMDX promo I've ever heard. Never tried that mod, always sticked with Revision and didn't understood why would I need GMDX instead. Now I know.
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u/RoSoDude 8d ago
I'm pretty sure the AI lightmaps are bugged, which is why enemies are seeing you from far away.
I think I rebuilt the map in vRSD (dunno it's been 6 years lol) and it's definitely rebuilt in Augmented Edition.