A few years back when I first fired up this game, I ended up playing with a couple mods, including a weapon range modification, and grenade throwing mod. Now however, I have forgotten the names of the mods. Anyone care to enlighten me? Overall, I would like to install the best and most compatible (with each other) mods available... Looking for a realistic experience, and increases the difficulty, while still retaining the sci-fi aspect!

Also, I just ordered S2 Gold... what are the differences in mission perametres? I have noted that there are assassination and building intrusion missions. Anyone care to elaborate? Thanks a bunch!

Not sure about mods. If no one else here answers, I guess your best bet is to read the descriptions of what we have in the files section.

As for Silent Storm Gold, it contains Silent Storm (S2) and the expansion Silent Storm: Sentinels (S3). You can read more about Sentinels here. Have fun!

Yeah, I have looked briefly, but I saw nothing about range modifications. I was hoping to have all characters (PC's and NPC's) have a longer firing range in the hopes of making it more difficult.

Speaking of difficulty... why has the AI basically turned "off". When I first started the game, the AI was pretty active, ducking in and out of cover, advancing, and so forth. Now however, there seems to be very little activity with the AI. I hide alot, so I'm figuring it must be something to do with my hide ability.

Even when I am visible to the enemy, sometimes they even refuse to fire! I see them flash red, but nothing. I'm not sure if they have a clear shot or not... but still. I am playing an unmodified game, with free camera controls, and have the NA version of the game v1.2. What gives? Any suggestions or clues as to why this is happening? A bug? If it is, is there any way around this? Thanks again!

You'd need to use some mod or make one yourself to increase the range of the S^2 weapons.
Or you could try the Hammer & Sickle. Novik & Co. modified a lot of the original content including range, carrying capability, AP bonuses and penalties, weapon damage, attribute growth, inability to hide in daylight and so on and so forth. (too many changes to list here)



The defalt AI behavior, imo, is quite poor. Most of the "intelligent" moves are achieved through heavy scripting. Some missions have AI scripts (and thus are more challenging) and some (most of the randoms) don't.


Are you sure they can see you, have "to hit" better than 0%, are not suffering from some disabling critical, have ammo and a functioning weapon?

Blunter

Well, I have Hammer and Sickle, just picked it up shortly after playing Night Watch (pretty disappointing - the movie was good though), and read up on some of the features. It certainly sounds promising.

I'm playing the Axis side right now, and infiltrating the Swiss factory, yet nobody seems like they're willing to put up any resistance. I seem to remember the last time I played this game a couple years ago, I reached this point, and I nearly decimated the whole factory in some pretty fierce fighting. I've just not seen anything like that for the last few levels I have played on. Is it just that maybe I've become a more careful player, more experienced? Seems like something is up in my opinion. Will a corrupted save deactivate the AI, or maybe Game Jackal (creates a NoCD image on-the-fly)?

Concerning LOS, no all I know is that I can see them, but am uncertain as to why they aren't firing or whether-or-not they have LOS to me. If they can't see me though, why do they just stand there in a hail of bullets for 10 turns in a row. Am I the only one experiencing this?

Yes, Hammer and Sickle is quite different and can be frustrating at times. I remember I almost threw the CD out after playing it the first time using the regular S^2 approach (kill'em all). Later I appreciated it better though. Not the story and not the locations necessarily but the new stuff they added and the enemy AI changes.

As for "Night Watch", hmm... after I tried the demo my reaction was - " I cannot believe Nival spent all this time and resourses on a ...(sensored by the author)..... like this. The story, the character development system, the environment, the graphics - everything was not what I expected... Poor design - would be an understatement...
But then again, some people apparently liked it...



It does sound strange...
Well it's been several years since I played S^2 compaign (Axis being my favorite), but if I recall correctly there were quite a bit of "getting stuck" problems, especially with panzerkleins on the stairs leading to the bottom floor.
Another thing is if the AI is set to not leave the area they are guarding they will not, especially if they don't see you. And if they are blinded, stunned, immobilized or otherwise disabled in some major way they will be just standing there.

Do they all just stand and do nothing?
They should at least crouch and look around...



I had the same issues with S^3 "Sentinels", I think it is an AI problem in the first two games.

You won't experience that in H&S that's for sure...

There is constant switch between the "Normal Logic" and "Scripted Logic" going on in the background depending on the players actions at the location. The AI might swarm you and go for the kill, or hide and try and ambush you.

Could be challenging particularly on higher difficulty settings when the bad guys start getting random perks (including "Vanguard", most of the enemy NPCs are soldiers) and interrupting you at everything you do...


Blunter

Well, normally this happens when I have my scout hidden and acting as a foward observer. My snipers and squad support then lay down suppressive fire. So, even though the guy can't see the shooters, he can certainly hear them, and know he's getting shot at! Logic dictates that if you're taking bullets, it's time to find cover, or at least try to flank the position where you think the shots are coming from.



Regarding which game?

H & S (Hammer & Sikle)