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CHANGE LOG

Version 1.1
- Stealth I was changed (details below; search for 'Stealth I')
Upgrade from 1.0 to 1.1 is done by simply overwriting all the files. As long as Stealth I is not yet taken, you can upgrade the mod and continue playing the game. Otherwise, you'd need to go back to a previous save, prior to taking Stealth I.
- The amount of stamina regenerated from water drinking was increased (to help with the realistically slow stamina regeneration).

Version 1.0
- Initial version

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DETAILS OF THE CHANGES

SPOILERS: If you are new to Prey, or if you'd prefer to discover the changes as you play (they are all explained in-game), you might not want to read this.

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Health, Stamina and Stamina-usage changes:
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- Hitpoints progression modified to 125/150/175/200 (Conditioning/Toughness1/2/3). I think the vanilla 300 hitpoints of Toughness3 was an overkill, even on Nightmare difficulty. On the other hand, Conditioning now gives 125 instead of 115, a small help for the early game due to the increase in difficulty.

- Food (except the Superfruit) no longer provides any direct health regeneration. The well-fed bonus provides a minimal one (but over time, not instant), though with the Metabolic Boost it provides modest healing (but again, over time, not instant).

- Since food is so abundant in the game, to make it more useful, stamina regenerates very slowly now, and the main use of food is to regenerate stamina (i.e. to give Morgan an "energy boost", which seems much more immersive to me). Hence if sprinting or using the Wrench often (early in the game you probably have to), Morgan should either carry food or store it nearby.

- Food can also be manufactured with the Fabricator. You should be able to find the fabrication plans around halfway through the game in terms of accessible locations.

- On the other hand, actions do not cost as much stamina now, so Morgan can sprint and swing the Wrench several times more before running out of stamina and having to eat something. Stamina I/II and the Stamina Boost chipset (Kinesthetic Assister CRU) provide cumulatively decent stamina regen, if you don't want to rely on food.

- Water no longer gives health regeneration. Instead it "refreshes" Morgan by providing small stamina regen.

- Due to the mod scaling down Mobility I (explained below) and the reduced inventory size (explained below), sprinting and using the Wrench can remain useful throughout the entire game. This should provide an incentive to manage the stamina also in the late game, by increasing it with abilities or regenerating it with food and water.

- Health also regenerates on its own (as it would realistically), although very slowly, and will stop regenerating if Morgan has any damaging traumas.

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Trauma changes:
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- All enemies can now cause some type of trauma. This includes the Mimics which, like all melee attacks, can cause bleeding (though it will take several hits before Morgan gets Hemorrhage from a Mimic, and it is less likely to happen on the lower difficulties).

- The most severe traumas (Hemorrhage, Radiation Sickness and Third Degree Burns) will cause continuous health loss and will eventually kill Morgan if not healed (i.e. Morgan can literally bleed to death). Note that the effects stack, so for example if Morgan gets hit by two enemies that cause Hemorrhage (or twice by the same enemy) he/she will bleed faster.

- Concussion drops all Psi points, unlike vanilla where only part was lost but all powers remained equally castable, which I think trivialized the trauma. Plus, if they are mind powers and require concentration to cast, it doesn't seem very believable that Morgan can still cast them with a concussion (though granted, it's hard to argue about realism when it comes to psychic powers).
After the Concussion is healed, the psi points need to be regenerated (i.e. they will not be automatically restored upon healing the trauma), although the Concussion healing drug will restore some psi points, depending on difficulty (40 on Normal).

- Concussion also scales up on Hard and Nightmare, and is more common. The Elite Mimic grab, and all explosions and explosive attacks can cause it. These include the Poltergeist blast, the Cystoids and the projectiles from the Phantoms, the Telepaths and the Nightmare, plus Morgan's own Kinetic Blast (so be careful when casting it in narrow spaces) which, per vanilla, are all explosive attacks.
I think the psychic powers are rather overwhelming anyway (with the psi pool points maxed and several upgraded powers, Morgan indeed becomes unstoppable, as Alex says in the game), so the Concussion trauma and the reduced inventory for Psi-Hypos should also provide some balance.

- Fracture reduces jumping, movement speed and stamina considerably, unlike the modest reduction of vanilla (it can't be that easy to jump, move and swing the Wrench with broken bones). Melee attacks by the Nightmare can also cause fractures (in addition to its ranged attacks which can do this in vanilla), as well as several consecutive melee hits by the Phantoms.

- In order to introduce limitations when fighting injured, there is a new trauma called Pain. Every injury will increase Pain, and it scales with difficulty. The amount of Pain (having 3 levels: moderate, severe and extreme) will affect at different degrees Morgan's agility (slower movement and sprinting speeds, tiring more quickly when sprinting, cannot jump as high), weapon usage (damage and accuracy) and psi usage (longer power cooldown and higher casting psi cost). The handicap of extreme Pain is huge (for example outgoing damage is almost half, psi casting cost almost doubles), so might be preferable to retreat and heal (as one would do realistically) than continuing to fight.

- Toughness1/2/3 each provide 10% (up to maximum of 30%) resistance to Pain, so as Morgan's health increases, he/she can absorb more Pain before his/her fighting capabilities are affected.

- The natural health regeneration made the abilities Regeneration I/II obsolete, so they were replaced with Resilience I/II which give 10% each (for a total of 20%) Pain resistance. That way whether you decide to play with Human or Typhon abilities, there is Pain resistance via both routes.
The two routes stack, but note that they are multipliers, not cumulative (per the game design). Hence the total Pain resistance, if you decide to also take the Human route (where Toughness3 provides 30%), will be 44%, not 50%.

- The Exhaustion trauma now takes a very long time to pass on its own (several minutes, as it would realistically), although if Morgan has stamina regen (Stamina I/II and the Stamina Boost chipset) or drinks some water, it will reduce the time a bit. To clear it rapidly, Morgan will need to eat some food (though it still takes few moments, so eating it in the middle of combat won't help). The Medical Operator can no longer cure the Exhaustion trauma. It is also much more likely to become exhausted, due to the realistically slow stamina regen. Exhaustion also reduces the jumping height (I guess an oversight by the game makers that it didn't in vanilla).

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Healing changes:
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- Medkits provide modest healing directly (10/15/30 for Base/PhysicianI/II, on Normal difficulty) but, to compensate, they can now heal three traumas: Hemorrhage/Bleeding, Third Degree Burns, and the new trauma Pain. The other two traumas that can be self-healed with drugs (Concussion and Radiation Sickness) are considered to require very specialized drugs, so are beyond what the Medkit can do.

- The Skeletal Repair Kit was removed, as it was trivializing the trauma, plus it seemed to me like a rather unbelievable item (how would Morgan access the broken bone to apply the collagen?). Now the only way to repair bone fractures is by visiting a Medical Operator.

- To alleviate Pain, Morgan can use a Medkit, Superfruit, visit a Medical Operator, or take Painkillers (new item, in lieu of the Skeletal Repair Kit). The drugs for Concussion and Hemorrhage also provide small pain relief when used to heal the respective trauma.

- All healing items (Medkit and drugs, plus the Medical Operator) apply anesthesia, during which Morgan is immobilized, unable to use psi, and will take double damage if attacked. Hence usage during combat is prohibitive.

- All healing items are explained to be intravenous injections (realistically they would have to be in order to provide immediate effect), hence their usage requires opening and therefore disabling the suit. This makes healing prohibitive outside the station not just during combat but at any time.

- Healing also makes weapon usage unavailable. Since EMP is the only way I could find in the game to make weapons unavailable, I had to make all weapons reliant on power. All weapons, including the Pistol and the Shotgun, indeed have electronic circuits (they have screens, provide feedback to the suit, and the game mentions that the Margrave has superior electronic gun control systems, which means the regular Shotgun must have them too). Realistically the power must come from the suit, and healing therefore, by requiring the suit to be opened and hence disabled (same as what an EMP would do), makes weapons unavailable.
And EMP now, by virtue of disabling the suit, disables also the Pistol and the Shotgun (not just the Stun Gun, Gloo Cannon and Q-Beam, as in vanilla) because they cannot get power from the suit. Granted, the explanation is a bit thin (the safety on the Pistol and Shotgun engaging when they have no power), but I couldn't find any other way to disable all weapons.

- Trauma healing drugs may not cure the trauma completely in one take. Several may be needed, depending on the severity of the trauma. Also, the specialized drugs provide greater healing for their respective trauma than the Medkit (for example, for a large Hemorrhage, you may need two Medkits to heal it instead of one Coagulating Gel).

- PhysicianI/II increase the effectiveness of alleviating Pain of the Medkit and all drugs with painkilling effect (in addition to the increased effectiveness in restoring health).

- The Superfruit no longer clears all traumas (that would have made it a way too powerful item with this mod) and its health restoration is more modest (30 base, 60 with Metabolic Boost). But it is still a very good item, considering the reduced inventory space and the reduced number of healing items. Consumption of the Superfruit immobilizes Morgan temporarily due to the anesthetic component that restores health and alleviates Pain, so it's not a good idea to use it in combat, although unlike all the other healing items, it doesn't disable the weapons (as realistically it wouldn't require opening the suit to eat it), so up to you if you want to take the chance.

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Inventory changes:
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- Inventory is now of fixed size from start to finish.

- Weapons are twice the size, hence not all can be carried.

- Stacking of items is considerably reduced. Maximum stack is 5 for food/drinks, 5 for grenades, 3 for medkits and psihypos, 5 for spare parts, 3 for suit repair kits and weapon upgrade kits, 5 for drugs, and 10 for all junk items (except exotic; I guess for the alien matter one can suspend disbelief and assume that it is so small that huge amounts can be stacked and carried).

- If you like to recycle everything you find, you will likely need to run back and forth to a Recycler often (given that you are probably going to have most of the inventory occupied with weapons and usable items). If so, you can carry a mobile container. For example a destroyed operator has a large capacity.

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Suit changes:
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- Similarly to the healing, using the Suit Patch Kit to repair the suit is no longer instant, but it takes some time during which Morgan cannot move, use weapons or psi as he/she is busy with the repairs. Hence it is prohibitive to do it during combat or at any time outside the station. I think self-repairing the spacesuit during a spacewalk (when Morgan uses it for life support) was probably the least realistic aspect in vanilla.
The Engineering Operator on the other hand can be assumed to repair the suit externally from all sides without disabling it, so it was left as safe to use. Inside the station though it will still immobilize Morgan during the repair, so best not to use it if there are enemies nearby (it will also immobilize Morgan outside, but being immobilized in microgravity obviously doesn't matter much).

- Suit damage increased for all attacks (especially for bullets, explosions and fire), and the suit degrades faster. I think it was way too low in vanilla (Morgan could get killed from physical attacks or fire, yet barely a scratch on the suit). Suit damage also scales up on Hard and Nightmare. Damaged suit makes Morgan less resistant to Pain, in addition to the vanilla reduced resistance to physical attacks.

- The Suit Modification human abilities no longer increase the inventory size, but instead allow Morgan to make the suit stronger, by adding 5% suit damage reduction at each level (for a total of 15%).

- The above mentioned Typhon abilities Resilience I/II (as replacement for the obsolete Typhon abilities Regeneration I/II) also give 10% each (for a total of 20%) Suit Damage reduction. That way, again, whether you decide to play with Human or Typhon abilities, there is Suit Damage reduction via both routes, and the two routes stack as multipliers.

- Due to an EMP disabling the suit and, consequently, all the weapons, the Voltaic Phantom becomes much more dangerous if relying on weapons only (i.e. without psi powers). Due to its aura, Morgan won't be able to fight it from close range without an EMP or Nullwave Transmitter grenade as the only unaffected weapon is the Wrench. Similarly, the Technopath also becomes much more dangerous if only relying on weapons, especially during a spacewalk (since disabling the suit cuts the life support system, but that is unchanged from vanilla), so Morgan will need to nullify its psi powers quickly.

- Suit oxygen supply is no longer unlimited. Instead it lasts about 30 minutes, which should be more than enough for the quests requiring spacewalks. However oxygen consumption increases considerably when in fear, so be careful when attacking Weavers in space if Morgan has no fear resistance. It also increases considerably if exhausted, although that's probably only going to be an issue if Morgan explores the Shuttle Bay before oxygen is restored there. Outside the station there aren't many opportunities to use the wrench and become exhausted (unless Morgan goes outside already exhausted). Additionally, a damaged suit leaks more oxygen than in vanilla.

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Chipset changes:
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- V-Amp .23 (the sneak-attack-health-restoration chipset) was removed although, to compensate, another was added in its place (an explosion-resistance chipset; explained below). I think V-Amp .23 was the weirdest item in vanilla Prey. I can suspend disbelief with the PsiV-AMP .24 - a successful sneak attack may give Morgan an adrenaline rush and the chipset may somehow convert it to psi points - but instant health restoration from a sneak attack just doesn't seem believable.

- The trauma reduction chipset (Care4Yu S-i34000x) no longer does that, as it would be a too powerful item given all the trauma changes. Instead it provides a boost to the health regeneration.

- The INTegral Structor b5nm chipset's suit damage reduction was lowered from 50% to 15%. The vanilla 50% would be too much considering the increased importance of the suit in this mod, but also seemed rather unbelievable - hard to see how adding a single chipset would make the suit absorb half the damage from all the different damage sources, i.e. fire, laser, impact, explosions. The explanation was also updated as it was somewhat misleading in vanilla - it seemed as though it only provides protection from environmental sources, but it is from any source, including enemy attacks.

- For similar reasons (too much and not believable), the chipset that shields Morgan from fire damage now provides 25% resistance instead of 50%.

- In lieu of the V-Amp .23, there is a new chipset for damage reduction, for explosive damage, which provides 25% resistance to explosions and, with that, resistance to concussion from explosions (but it won't affect concussions from other sources, such as a Mimic Grab). Following the vanilla naming convention, it is called Explosion Shielding (*) 19.4GHz.

- The chipset that protects from physical damage (PolyShield CRU[v2]) no longer provides damage reduction from asphyxiation (not sure what was the reasoning behind this in vanilla), but instead provides resistance to bleeding for the physical attacks that cause it, in addition to the resistance from the physical attacks themselves.

- The immunity of the EMP Shielding chipset (EMP Shielding (*) 19.4GHz) was changed to 50% resistance, meaning equipment recovers in half the time. I think immunity was an overkill in vanilla, turning for example the above mentioned Technopath from a formidable foe during a spacewalk into an insignificant foe when it has no turrets.

- The Nullwave Shielding chipset's immunity was also changed to 50% resistance. Immunity, again, I think was an overkill (especially considering how powerful the psi abilities are), with Morgan being able to nullify psi in enemies, but enemies not being able to do the same in Morgan, even though Morgan learns how to use psi from them.

- Considering the randomness of finding the chipsets, all the above changes should also make the game more balanced. For example if playing with psi powers only, finding the Nullwave Shielding chipset early in vanilla would make the game too easy, even on Nightmare difficulty. With this mod, I think there aren't any overpowered chipsets anymore, so whether you find a particular one early or never during the whole playthrough, it won't matter all that much.

- The Psychoshock Shielding chipset description was updated because it was a bit misleading - it doesn't provide resistance to psychoshock but to psychic damage caused by psychoshock (the Nullwave Shielding chipset is the one that provides resistance to psychoshock itself).

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Weapon changes:
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- To balance the start game in a more realistic way, not just for damage received but for damage inflicted, shotgun initial damage increased by 35%. However upgrade progression is slower, so the final value (after all the damage upgrades) remains the same as in vanilla. Elite phantoms will still be a challenge at the beginning of the game though, especially on Nightmare difficulty.

- The Stun Gun upgrades were significantly toned down. Not sure how everyone else feels about it, but for me the fully-upgraded Stun Gun was game-breaking in vanilla. Having a range of 15 m, recharge of .25 seconds and stunning enemies for 9 seconds (and double that with Combat Focus), meant any enemy other than the Voltaic Phantom and the Nightmare was no longer any threat (even if they surprised you, you could stun them in .25 seconds and then take all the time in the world to kill them). Now the maximum range is only upgradable to 10 m and the maximum stun time to 6.5 seconds. The recharge time starts at 2 seconds and is upgradable only down to 1.5 seconds. I would have preferred a delayed reaction (the way stun realistically works), but couldn't find any way to do this, so instead made the recharge time much longer.

- Autoreloading for the Pistol, Stun Gun and Q-Beam was disabled, not because of realism, but because it cannot be cancelled (only the Shotgun allows cancelling), and I think it was interfering with gameplay. You could run out of ammo in the middle of a fight and it would trigger automatically, not allowing a weapon change.

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Stealth and Visibility changes:
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- Morgan is visible from a much greater distance. While it is hard to argue about realism when it comes to the vision of aliens (January mentions in the game that they don't see us the way we see them), it just didn't seem right the way it works in vanilla. Since the visibility in the game is binary (i.e. there are no degrees of visibility), Morgan could dance in front of a Phantom with a clear line of sight, as long as he/she was just outside its visual range. The mod increases the range such that within the station it doesn't matter much, leaving only line of sight as the factor.

- Morgan is also much more detectable. It didn't seem very believable to me how long it took in vanilla for the enemies to go from an alert to an alarm state. Morgan is wearing a spacesuit and carrying huge weapons after all. It would be hard to mistake his/her appearance.

- Crouching no longer provides any significant increase in the detection time. Again, it didn't seem believable that someone wearing a spacesuit and carrying weapons should became less detectable simply by bending. Crouching is still useful though, in order to move silently.

- The above changes probably alter the gameplay quite a bit, requiring tactical play. The Etheric Phantom will go after Morgan much more quickly. The Military Operator, with its long-range laser (which with this mod can also cause burns and increased suit damage, as you'd expect from a high-powered laser), should give you a run for your money in the late game. Combat during a spacewalk in the late game should also be far more challenging, given that it is difficult to hide (unlike the black Telepath and Technopath) and the enemies can spot Morgan from a greater distance.

- To compensate, Morgan's scanner range was increased proportionally, as it was equally unrealistic that with all the advanced tech that Morgan has, the scanner couldn't mark huge enemies like the Telepath and Technopath until well within visual range. Now the scanner can properly assist Morgan, especially during a spacewalk, to mark enemies long before they can spot Morgan, allowing you to devise a tactic on how to approach them. This change only affects the markings. For the research, it makes sense that Morgan should get close, so that aspect remains unchanged from vanilla.

- Stealth I no longer provides an increase in the time enemies take to detect Morgan. Given that the mod reduces this time considerably, the small increase of this ability became insignificant (and not worth 2 neuromods). Instead Stealth I now increases the sneak attack damage to 175%. Sneak Attack I and II increase it to 200% and 250%, respectively, unchanged from vanilla.

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Psi usage changes:
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- Psi-hypo injection also disables the suit (because, again, realistically Morgan would have to open the suit for an injection) although, unlike the healing, it only lasts for couple of seconds and there is no anesthesia. Hence it can be used during combat if you don't need the weapons, or in space, if the loss of health (due to cutting the life support system momentarily) is acceptable in exchange for the psi restoration.

- Entering psi targeting mode no longer stops time completely (that was way unrealistic). Instead it slows it to a third, whereas aiming slows it to a half.

- While Metabolic Boost was somewhat weakened in that food no longer directly provides health regen (so now the doubling of the health regen only applies to the Superfruit and to the well-fed bonus), to compensate, it also doubles the psi gained from food, including the Superfruit.

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Other changes:
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- Mobility I increases the running, sneaking and crawling speed by 15% (down from 30% in vanilla, together with Conditioning), because it was trivializing the traumas that limit movement, as Morgan could still run like the wind with them.

- Mimics and Elite Mimics no longer drop ammo as loot. Not sure what was the reason behind this in vanilla (maybe Mimics have gun powder affinity?) but it didn't make too much sense, so the mod removes it.

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Quirks (what doesn't work as I'd like):
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- Being immobilized doesn't disable jumping (although it's more of an immersion issue than practical, because the allowed jump height is minimal). This is due to how jumping and Stun were coded in the game, and I don't think there is any way to change it (removing the minimal jump height seems to break the jumping completely).

- The game has a bug with the Shuttle Bay level. If Morgan enters it before Dahl's arrival, when there is no oxygen, the game flags it as such so that Morgan can put the helmet on, but upon leaving the level it doesn't remove the flag. So Morgan continues to be flagged as having the helmet on (even though it is not). While this is not obvious in vanilla because the suit oxygen supply is unlimited (though you may notice that Morgan becomes immune to hazardous gases), the mod makes the suit oxygen supply limited, so you will see the respective notification in the Status tab. But it is just a cosmetic issue. If it bothers you, leave the Shuttle Bay via the Airlock, not via GUTS or the Talos Lobby, or if no longer in the Shuttle Bay, go on a spacewalk and come back.