As of September 29th, System Shock 2 has been updated on Steam to help be a bit more stable with Windows 10, fixing a bunch of bugs and glitches (all the glitches used for speedrunning are untouched) and a few fixes for a more modern experience. The game feels much smoother (at least from the last time I've played). I haven't checked whether the GOG version was patched as well.

How does this impact the speedrun? Not by much on the Steam version, as the pipe in the first section of rick (which was present in far older versions of the game) is the only addition this update has made, right before the mantle-relocate glitch on the ladder. Another change is the change of the .exe file from Shock2 to SS2, which means a slight tweak to the autosplit file is required (changing Shock2 to SS2).

https://imgur.com/a/BiUyi (caps of the pipe, before and after patch 2.46)

https://steamcommunity.com/games/238210/announcements/detail/1493364699937085089

"Disruption grenades now actually deadly as per their description,"

So... should disruption grenades on modified gl be legal in any%? If they are no longer bugged to not have the modify bonuses (which are luckily unchanged, i still believe that 100% bonus damage on first modify is the laziest glitch in the game), I believe they're now capable of 3-shotting shodan without modify and getting damn close to 1-shotting with the modify on botm fling (5 heavy with a modified gl would require QUITE a lucky modify roll since you'd be limited to 1 modify unless you take a light detour and root around the garbage can in command). It takes nearly no detour to get the 3 disruptions right next to the body after hazmat, I always find myself grabbing his nanites despite not needing them at all, since I am extremely good at this game.

Although to be fair it's like a 1 second save at the cost of losing consistency i.e. grenades like usual sometimes explode on nothing so you'd have to rely on cryokinesis-ing shodan to actually win if you miss even one disruption

edit: actually if night dive were the people who own the IP now, i spose they can jus do whatever since this is the official version now. this sounds pretty stupid but i post before i think because im very good

Although to be fair, they could very well have stayed true to their internal name of "toxin grenade" and chosen to have them do nothing to shodan for some reason, like it does in the vanilla game. idk what the deal is with that but you could prolly test real easy if you just summon_obj toxin grenade on a save right before shodan, with an updated ss2 of course

I've compared using the "toxin" grenade compared to both EMP and regular frag grenades with unmodified heavy to the max heavy upgraded in the average any% run (usually being 4) on SHODAN, with the unmodified grenade launcher and the grenade launcher with level 1 modification. Number of grenades next to type denotes how many grenades it takes to kill SHODAN.

[center]UNMODIFIED GRENADE LAUNCHER Heavy 1 (Unmodified) Frag: 6, Disruption: 7, EMP: 6

Heavy 4 (average any% heavy stat at end) Frag: 4, Disruption: 5, EMP: 4

Heavy 5 Frag: 4, Disruption: 4 or 5, EMP: 4 [/center] [center]GRENADE LAUNCHER W/ 1ST MOD Heavy 1 Frag: 3, Disruption: 3 or 4, EMP: 3

Heavy 4 Frag: 2, Disruption: 3, EMP: 2

Heavy 5 Frag: 2, Disruption: 2, EMP: 2[/center]

Clear difference, the level 1 mod does double the damage of the grenade launcher, and I think the grenade launcher in such a way has always been legal (earlier any% runs used french-epstein devices iirc). Though, it's your call whether you think it's more consistent in a run or not. I would try but I'm caught up with college work. Judging by this, I think sticking with frag grenades is the better choice regardless, whether you're using the modded gl or not.

oh so disruptions are still worse than frag/emp and modification still does the exact same thing as it does in vanilla, cool, nothing needs to happen at all. fun!

That new pipe is incredibly weirdly and inexplicably placed. It's easy to work around though, but I have to burn another speed booster the way I circumvent it. Does anybody have a better/faster workaround? Note: Quicksaving and quickloading cancels speed boosters, so doing the clip works the exact same.

Also, I'll work on updating the autosplitter Soon™.

honestly if you don't want to work around it like that, email me proof that you legally own the game on gog/steam and i will give you my download of 2.45 that i had lying around on my hard drive so i could fuck around with dromed. obviously please do not redistribute. clkrisnik@gmail.com.invalid

oh also theres dromed already on it, it's just that i dont actually use it to modify ss2, just investigate geometry to determine where my lines should be, how to set up the engineering shaft fall, etc

In a recent practice run, something weird happened. On rick1, in the few rooms before the rumbler room, a door refused to open on me. It was the room with the radiation (from the rockets). The door wouldn't open on me until I pressed the switch in the room adjacent. I feel that this might've also been added recently :/ Thing is, it didn't happen to me before up until this week.

EDIT: I've reloaded saves from a newer run (quick save) and it still stayed closed on me until I pressed the switch to the rockets. Weirdly enough however, I reloaded one of my practice saves (from the older patch), and the door would open without the switch being pressed. Started a new game, and the door was closed unless the switch was pressed.