It says 'minimize' respawn rather than turn it off, though. From what I've read elsewhere, not all ecosystems in the game can have their spawn rate reduced to an effective zero.

I just activated god mode after a while, which the atmosphere survives remarkably well. Since I no longer had to worry about the endless wrench fodder, I could pay more attention to the existential dread of my character's predicament while exploring the sinister hallways. But YMMV, obviously.

Guess my definition of "excessive" and "constantly" is different to most people's.

It is easy, if you have difficulty issues rethink how you play rather than blame a feature.

Why disable weapon degradation when there are so many weapons and repair tools around?

Why disable enemy respawns when they happen so rarely and give you something to watch out for upon returning to areas?

And yes, watch out for the alarms people, that's obviously not respawns, but spawns triggered by your own actions and failures.

If you don't like the game that's fine. Watch a let's play or nothing at all and play something you enjoy instead.

It still isn't too complex, too convoluted or anything of the sort. Some levels could be better made, sure, gunplay is a little too simple because of its age, graphics too, and so on, but there's nothing particularly wrong with its design approach. No game is perfect anyway.

Ah well, trollers gonna troll.

Not gonna lie, when I first played the game (long before GOG brought it here) I was scared by the interface and what things work, but in the end I mastered everything and made it as far as the Many level, but I could not beat it because it was crashing too much.

With regard to weapon degradation, there is a cool MOD that gives you a Cho-Cho rifle. It's totally degraded as soon as you get it and jams the first time you try to fire it. :P

A lot of vets will find this comment sick and offensive as they were actually stuck in the field with this piece of shit and know first hand that it never worked; to them I apologize, I surely meant no disrespect.

This, and this.

I played through SS2 sometime last year - weapons, ammo and nanites everywhere and enemy respawns were rare (the only way you could get "excessive" enemy respawns is if you set off alarms over and over...).

Weapon degradation can make things a little tricky at the start, but once you get midway through the game there's plenty of spare weapons and maintenance tools to find, and enough nanites to buy dozens of the things at vending machines.

You certainly can, I beat the game that way.

See, this is what I love about life. That people can have completely different likes and dislikes. The things that some of you guys dislike about SS2, respawning, weapon degradation, I love. Because it works great for this particular game, which is all that matters.

I think respawning is done so well here. Never do you actually see the enemy respawn or get blindsided cheaply. As for wep degradation, it adds to the tenseness so well and really hits the feeling home that you're never safe, which is what the game tries to do. Finding guns that are in decent condition happens regularly enough, but not too often that wep breaking is pointless. It hits a sweet spot. And if you know what you're doing, you can keep any guns you have at good condition for the whole game. Just put enough points in repairs and maintenance. If you don't want to put points there, then you're gonna have to make do and try something else.

Focus on exploring and finding guns in good condition and maintenance tools. Use melee. Use psi. Avoid combat so you can save your guns for when you need it. SS2 is one of those games where it's not trying to impress you, you're trying to impress it.

I first played the game in 2009 when I was 15 and I was awful and could only beat the game on easy. Throughout the years after, I only played up to engineering because I was still awful and the game was hard to run. This was before the version of new dark that fixed it up. I finally played all the way through it when it came out on gog, this time on hard, and I was so much better at the game. I understood the mechanics and what it expected out of you, and I still had fun cause it still gives you a good amount of freedom.

I'm not trying to say it's prefect, because it's obviously not, but what it does well, it does so well, and as a whole, it's a masterpiece.

The home of the many and final boss fight do suck. No denying that.

TL;DR

Different people have different likes and dislikes, game is not perfect, but as a whole, I think it's amazing.

but they don't happen rarely. they don't happen upon returning to areas. they happen when you take few steps and turn around, they happen when an elevator takes you to second level and then suddenly a huge mecha appears out of nowhere.

it is a bad design. once in a blue moon an enemy respawn would be okay. but now i expect enemy to be behind every crate, in every room whether i visited it or not. it subtracts so much from tension.

No, respawns don't happen whenever you take a few steps and turn around. A long time passes for them to respawn which is why in my case 100% of the time it happened only after I took care of my business there and I happened to revisit/pass by for any reason. Maybe in your case that happened 90% of the time instead, and you came across a respawn as it happened by luck on occasion, big deal.

Scripted spawns may happen in a few instances in certain places because they wanted an enemy to surprise you from behind. That's a different feature completely separate from respawning and as insignificant. Mobs have patrol routes and hearing, so an enemy coming after you cleared the previous room(s) doesn't mean it was the enemy that respawned after two steps. Not every time you encounter an enemy is based on a respawn. It's not hard to test, go to the very first enemy encounter with the two zombie things, kill them and see how long it takes for any to re-appear as you run around that area (without alerting the others nearby). It sure won't take mere seconds for it to happen. In different areas the respawn success rate may differ, but I never encountered respawns within seconds, I'd definitely remember.

If you had respawns every few steps, well, your System Shock 2 was different to mine. Tough luck, I guess that would be less fun.

The spawn rate depends on which ecology you're currently in (for me it was mild until the corridor near Engineering Control, where it got silly); or it might be another case of whatever befell this person: http://www.gog.com/forum/system_shock_2/respawning_enemies_are_100_absolutely_ruining_the_experience_for_me/page1

in cargo hold. take clear the room. take elevator to third level. half a minute later go down. huge mecha is in the middle of the room

enter back into main area with access to med bay crew quarters etc. i fight monsters just like the first time, get to chem storage unit pick up the chemical go back where i was, monsters are also back. at least half of them.


going to engineering. section closed off by doors. a monster in almost every section. open the door fight monster. close the door. go back for some reason, open the door a monster respawned.


it is fucking stupid. especially with those cyborg guy who for some reason explode when destroyed so i cannot use my wrench on them