The complete v8 release of the VC-engine USCM is now available! Its been a long time coming - at one point I thought I might have it done by the end of last year, boy was I wrong! But whats kinda cool is now (its finally done and I can relax, haha, but also) this big release also can be a bit of a celebration for the mod's 20th year! Crazy to think how far its come - I tracked down many of my ancient changelog notes to include in the documentation and my earliest entry was simply that I'd successfully made an 8-vehicle spawner. Cheers to all of you who've used and assisted with the mod over the years, hopefully it has helped ya stay sane and if you're still at it that it continues to do so. Happy stunting!
Download:
VC USCM v8
Partial Changelog
New Interactive Features: On Foot- Warp to Random Location: Warp player to random position on the map
- Vehicle Tracking: Use map/radar 'blips' to track player's two most recent vehicles
- Teleport Loads Quietly: Loads wont trigger an audio chime or message - teleport in peace!
- Teleport Loads Can Heal: Loads restore health+armour of player/vehicle to max values (wont repair visible damage)
- Less Text: Prevent display of Zone/Vehicle Names on entering them + Optionally prevent ISB messages
- Weapon Shop: Spawn a small set of temporary weapon pickups around the player
- Weapon Drop: Immediately remove all of the player's weapons
- Fast Jetpacking: Increases the base speed of horizontal Jetpack movements x4
- Extra Settings Menu: Displays a menu for accessing additional USCM features (see below)
In Vehicle- Repair Vehicle: Fully heal and restore current vehicle to pristine/undamaged condition
- Swap Teleport Locations: Move Locations between Slots - 1 with 2, or 1/2 with 3/4 (+ thus everyone can use all 4)
In Menu (the "Extra Settings Menu")- Change Control Scheme: Select your desired USCM Control Scheme at any time (inside the game now!)
- Partial Feature Lock: Swap between a full vs cutdown/oldschool USCM feature set (prevents triggering many newer features)
- Unlimited Ammo: Never run out of ammo when firing weapons
- Unique Stunt Jumps: Prevent the USJ process (eg. slowmo + camera) [always used to, now its a choice] [VC/LC only]
- Vehicle Submissions: Prevent Submissions by not the button activate them (+ no more message on entering their vehicles) [VC only]
- Vehicle Weapon Gifts: Prevent player receiving weapons from entered vehicles (Shotgun via Police, Golf Club via Caddie)
- Change Current Time: Manually adjust the time-of-day (in 6hr or 5min increments; can hold down for continued change)
- Remove Current Weapon: Remove current weapon held-in-hand by the player (from their hands and inventory)
- Give Selected Weapon: Select any weapon and give it/ammo to the player
- Spawn Selected Vehicle: Select any vehicle and spawn it in front of the player
- Start/Cancel Mission: Select any mission and start it (or cancel an active one) [VC only]
- Change Teleport Location Status: View/Change the Status of any saved Location (available, save-locked, load-ignored)
NB: Those whose Default State differs from prior USCM behaviour are "Unlimited Ammo" (Enabled), "Vehicle Submissions" (Disabled) and "Vehicle Weapon Gifts" (Disabled).
Existing Feature Improvements/Fixes: (Some of them)- Remember Vehicle: Now its a toggle, so you can UN-remember a vehicle! (+ Remember process now smoother for most vehicles)
- Vehicle Spawner Sets: 2a now includes Kaufman-branded Cabbie + Regina, 3a now includes "hotringa" Hotring
- Stats Overlay: New sidebar layout for 'Everything' mode (less distracting changes, more precision, share screen with ISB)
- Jetpack: Can now do downwards+slowed movement (and its handy: auto-stops on collision!), + fixed 'randomly falling down' bug
- Set Player Vulnerability Mode: Supports an extra mode, 'Vulnerable (Dynamic Health)', that doesn't lock max health/armour
(Plus from v8-alpha: 'Default' Control Scheme direct access to 3rd+4th Teleport Slots, "Stats Overlay" having Speed-only option)
General Improvements: (Some of them)- Only one main.scm per map now, with different 'variants' now being 'Control Schemes' that can be selected in-game
- Q: Does that mean I have to change it every time I play if I don't want to use the Default Scheme?
- A: Nope! Savegames remember the status of every USCM feature, so customise any/all features you want (such as Control Scheme) then make a save. Afterwards, loading that save instead of starting a New Game lets you begin a stunting session just how you like it!
- Official support for 5 maps now (VC/LC/SAiVC/TDRVC/AC) plus a special generic USCM that potentially works on any/other maps
- More New Game tutorial stuff removed from VC, and its 'Start Unlocked' behaviour finally includes opened Mansion
- Significant documentation overhaul: content + usability (with additional details added/improved even for unchanged features)
Want to see the full list of changes, or learn more about some of the new features/updates than these one-line descriptions offer, be sure to check out the Documentation.html file included in the release package. Its 'Changelog' tab contains the full list of changes made for this release (and all past releases), and on its 'Features' tab you can click on any of the features to get additional details about what they do, how they work, and tips on using them.
As always, this new version will not be compatible with any savegames you have that were made using older versions, sorry about that.
If you are concerned about the overwhelming amount of additions/changes in this new version (which is understandable!), some things to keep in mind:
- Half the new features are only triggered via the new "Extra Settings Menu" and thus don't need dedicated button combos
- Most of the new features that are button-triggered are only accessed while on-foot, not in-vehicle (thus not during most stunts)
- I tried to come up with button combos that were easy-to-use-when-desired and out-of-the-way-when-not, plus maintained some consistency/familiarity between the triggers of related features (new and old), following existing trends
- If you find most newer button combo features are unnecessary/undesirable or wont need them often, you could use "Partial Feature Lock" to prevent any interactions with many of them until needed (and thus you would not necessarily need to learn/understand/avoid any of their button combos)
And hey, its all good if you'd prefer to just keep using whatever old version you're familiar with instead of upgrading.
Any feedback or questions are welcome.
Cheers
