Dax's Review of Smod Redux V8 -

Okay, where do we start?

This mod is awesome.

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It's rather more of a patch from the last version, but the add-on pack and the amount of changes it brings more than makes up for that.

- LOOOOOOOADS of Money!

The money system has been destroyed, meaning you no longer have to use money to buy health from health kits.
This is a lifesaver, as many people overlooked the money on the ground and instead just kept on rushing to Combine, and wondering why their medstations
weren't working. Thanks Onemanshow! You just saved a lot of idiots from coming onto the forum and complaining!

- C'mon! I've got a Sawn Off-Shotgun!

The weapons and their upgrades are a major and very welcome upgrade. The addon pack adds in 4 weapons, the Desert Eagle, the M4A1, the M249, and the P90
(Which was from Redux 6). The sword (Ninja Sword here!) has been downgraded so you can't go all Bruce Willis with it. And the best part of it is, the
A35 and the Sawn off Shotgun can be used by NPC's! So now you can have Combine Soldiers shooting Mossmans rigged as a Fast Zombie with Sawn Off Shotguns!

- Yay Gibs!

Infinite Gibs can be spread about the land with Very High settings. This makes plenty of children cry in sheer awesomeness while the guy from Evil Dead
comes behind them and guts them with a chainsaw (Also a Smod weapon). Which is epic, as you all probably know/should've known.

List of changes -

GAMEPLAY/SCRIPTS
-Non-Plot Critical Allies can be killed by you on the "Easy" SMOD Skill Level now.
-Eating Gibs no longer gives health on the "Nightmare" skill level.
-Greatly decreased the chance of ragdolls holding their weapon on death with Action Movie-style ragdolls due to reports of a leak that can cause crashes.
-Lowered max Rifle Ammo limit to 120.
-Lowered max Heavy Rifle Ammo limit to 40.
-Allowed infinite gibs/ragdolls on the "Very High" SMOD performance setting.
-Raised ragdoll/gib limits on the "High" SMOD performance setting.
-Enemies on the "Hard" SMOD difficulty setting are now more accurate.
-Adjusted the player's bullet speed with the Max Payne-style Bullet Time.
-Raised amount of gore effects on the "High" and "Very High" SMOD gore setting.
-Fixed shotguns taking up the "Rifle" category instead of the "Shotgun" with the "1 Per Category" SMOD Weapon Limit setting.

WEAPONS
-Removed SLAM mine as it failed to perform to the standard of the other weapons.
-Removed Sniper Ammo due to redundancy issues. SVD now uses Heavy Rifle Ammo.
-Sawed-Off and A35 can now be used by NPC's. (thanks tiw!)
-Gravity Grenade no longer uses ammo. Must be picked up again after it is thrown.
-Altered MP40 recoil and damage.
-Eliminated wind-up time on MP40 melee attack.
-Double-shot on the Sawed-Off is now less accurate and kicks harder.
-Adjusted Sawed-Off accuracy, recoil and damage. Raised number of pellets.
-Sawed-Off pellets now lose damage at longer ranges.
-Sawed-Off pellets now can penetrate surfaces and NPC's.
-Adjusted max inaccuracy on CZ-52, OICW, M1 Garand, MP40.
-Fixed CZ-52 spread not moving from the maximum accuracy.
-Changed dynamic crosshair size for MP40, OICW and Sawed-Off Shotgun.
-Disabled crosshair on Sawed-Off Shotgun and Minigun.
-Lowered Minigun accuracy and damage. Raised run speed when holding it.
-Lowered Pulse-MG recoil and raised accuracy.
-Lowered the distance the OICW shoots grenades.
-Raised OICW accuracy. Especially when using the scope.
-Raised OICW damage.
-Raised damage of grenades fired by the OICW and A35.
-Lowered Jackhammer spread and damage. Removed damage drop-off at longer ranges.
-Raised Jackhammer recoil.
-Added Semi-Auto fire mode to Jackhammer
-Tweaked rate-of-fire on the Sword.
-Raised damage and range of both Sword attacks.
-Dual Pistols can now be fired underwater.
-Raised damage and recoil on M1 Garand.
-Fixed Spike Grenade world model using the view model.
-Lowered Fists alt-fire damage.
-Lowered AK-47 damage slightly.
-Lowered Grease Gun damage slightly.
-Lowered Karabiner 98k damage done by NPC's.

MAPS
-Readded HL2 chapter "ENTANGLEMENT" to the chapter menu as later versions of SMOD expanded the chapter limit past 32 entries, but went unnoted.
-Fixed a bug with the added fists weapon location in d1_trainstation_05.
-Adjusted weapon progression in the Canals maps.
-Added new Karabiner 98k locations to the canals.
-Fixed Houndeye navagation in d1_canals_06.
-Reduced amount of enemies in d1_canals_08 slightly.
-Removed Strider in d1_canals_08.
-Made alterations to SMOD's mine puzzle in d2_prison_07.
-Fixed error model and missing f_combine in d3_c17_03.
-Removed and/or fixed a number of new turrets added in the Prison and City 17 maps.
-Make a number of smaller changes to many of the Coast, Prison and City 17 maps.
-Added weapon manager entity into DM_Overwatch and DM_Runoff to keep the number of dropped weapons under a limit, helping performance.
-Changed starting weapon loadout in DM_Powerhouse.
-Removed Bullsquids from DM_Powerhouse due to spawning/pathfinding issues.
-Added extra check against hostile NPC's attacking the player on start in DM_Underpass.
-Restored health items to DM_Underpass.
-Tweaked a number of elements in DM_Steamlab (enemy spawn points and weapons).
-Lowered enemy spawn rate in DM_Resistance slightly.
-Updated nodes for DM_Resistance and DM_Powerhouse allowing for better NPC movement. (Thanks spasior!)
-Removed "Money" that was given for killing enemies in Survival maps even when the SMOD gamemode was not on.

GRAPHICS/MODELS
-Changed zombie2 body textures. (by madmanmad)
-Changed idle animation for zombie2.
-Greatly improved MP40 shooting/reload animations.
-Lowered envmap brightness on MP40.
-Moved Airboat Gun to HUD slot 6.
-Improved Dual Pistol rigging and origin.
-Added alternate bayonet animation left out of the Karabiner 98k.
-Fixed brass ejection rotation on the Karabiner 98k.
-Removed dead frames in MP5 animations.
-Altered Grease Gun shoot animations for better ironsight usage.
-Made more changes to Gordon's mesh and face texture. Optomized texture size as well.
-Altered M1 Garand model for better ironsights.
-Rolled back AK-47 origins/ironsight position to near the SMOD default.
-Fixed bullsquid spit being transparent.
-Fixed visible missing faces on the HL2 Crossbow.
-Edited Alyxgun view model to more closely resemble the world model.
-Fixed Airboat Gun origin.
-Fixed PSP UMD Launcher's excessive envmap brightness.

SOUNDS
-Fixed possible Zombie2 sound spam.
-Rolled back Annabelle sounds to HL2 default.
-Added missing HL2DM soundscape files.
-Disabled out-of-place Laser Gun reload sound.

OTHER
-Changed steam icon. About time.
-Added developer info and website URL to steam games listing.
-Added a note to the "Difficulty" options menu about using the SMOD Menu System.
-Made a few changes to certain config and script files to be fully compatible with the Addon Pack.

The manual is now live and publicly accessible on the sidebar. And for those wanting more, check out the first release of the Addon Pack:

ADDON PACK VERSION 1:
GAMEPLAY/SCRIPTS
-Added "SMOD Player Model" setting to the main menu.

WEAPONS
-Added "Desert Eagle" pistol.
-Added "FN P90" sub-machine gun.
-Added "M249 PARA" light-machine gun.
-Added "M4A1 Carbine" assault rifle.

MAPS
-Added Combine Hunt map "Titanic".
-Added Objective map "Kinyoenta"
-Added Survival map "Torrent"

GRAPHICS/MODELS
-Added "Gordon Freeman (C17 Citizen)" to the Player Model option.
-Added "Combine Soldier" to the Player Model option.
-Added appropriate Kick models to both new Player Models.



And NO, SMOD REDUX WILL NOT, AND NEVER BE IN THE ORANGE BOX ENGINE UNTIL THE SMOD AUTHOR ALLOWS CUSTOM WEAPONS.