After reading through the arguments over the Basic patch from a few years ago, I'd like to throw another patch into the ring that might be more to the taste of the purists among us - Norrwin's
'Standard Mod Patch'.
While I believe the Unofficial Patch aims to create a more polished version of the game that is accessible to modern audiences (feel free to correct me Wesp), the goal of the Standard Mod Patch is to try and preserve the vanilla 1.2 experience, quirks and inconsistencies included.
I'd probably classify myself as more of a 'purist' when it comes to modding/patching games and I can confidently say that I've greatly enjoyed the small number of playthroughs I've done using the SMP since it was released last year. It's certainly interesting to spot some of the changes the Unofficial Patch makes, especially as someone who didn't play the game when it was first released and always followed the advice to install the Unofficial Patch as the vanilla game was supposedly 'unplayable'.
The mod author is rather active online and always open to discussion, and I've had multiple lengthy conversations with him over game design and suggestions for his patch. If anyone is interested in a more in-depth look at the mod, he has a YouTube channel
here, where he does development updates and playthroughs of his work, detailing and explaining the changes that have been made.
The Unofficial Patch does come with some very important binaries that fix a lot of engine/compatibility issues, however, so it will still need installing. If you have no intention of playing with it and don't want it taking up storage space, feel free to delete the 'Unofficial_Patch' folder it creates in the game's base directory as this just contains whatever mesh/texture/map/script changes the Unofficial Patch makes - aka, nothing essential for getting the game to actually run.
If you're absolutely against downloading/using the Unofficial Patch in any form, I believe the four files from the
'Absolutely Unofficial True Patch Platinum' will be enough to get the game up and running. I've never tried this as thankfully, my autism isn't that severe, so I can't comment on how well this method works.
Oh, and if you're launching the game from Steam, don't forget to add/change the launch options for the game to (without the quotation marks) "-game SMP", so the files from the patch are actually used.
Hopefully this hasn't come across as an attack on Wesp or his work. I'm very appreciative of all he's done for the community and his Basic patch is probably still the one I'd recommend to any new players wanting to try the game. My intention was merely to introduce an alternative option to those who may be interested in one.
This also isn't another 'True Patch Gold' vs 'Unofficial Patch' situation. Both mod authors actively collaborate between their projects (if you've ever looked through the changelog for the Unofficial Patch and seen "thanks Norrwin", it's the same guy) - they just differ in philosophy.
Enjoy!
. My philosophy always went along with what Tim Cain wrote in the book "Gamers at work": "In the end, Activision “won”, and the game was shipped with many bugs, cinematic cutscene issues, and incomplete areas." Troika never intended the game to be released in the state it was released in and this wasn't only about bugs!
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