This is correct. Just accessing any security terminal will immediately terminate any security alert in progress. Any summoned bad guys will still be roaming around though.

The nice thing about opinions is that they can be changed. Respawning is just a tool. It can be used well, or poorly, like any other tool. Saying "I hate all games with respawning!" makes exactly as much sense as saying "I hate all games with physics!" or "I hate all games with scrolling!"

But hey, I guess he's free to miss out on one of the best PC games of all time over this.

Again, he's free to his opinion. you trying to change it is bothersome, to me. Like you're so insecure that you have to convince EVERYONE that SS2 is THE BEST GAME, BAR NONE, NO ONE CAN NOT LIKE IT. It's fucking dumb. Also, nice last minute edit.

You know, if I'd only played through the first few hours I would've agreed. However, you progressively get stronger throughout the game, as well as receiving a lot more equipment and ammo, which helps taking down enemies faster and more efficient which is a far cry from the beginning of the game in which you must meticulously save ammo for only those dire situations.

In short; the start of the game is hard due to the respawning enemies and lack of ammo but as you progress it gets easier.

There is a way to significantly reduce the spawn rate of enemies, so that you can effectively clear an area of enemies. However, keep in mind that if you return later, a token force of opposition will appear. Cameras would still summon reinforcements.

STEP 1 - Go to your base System Shock 2 folder.
STEP 2 - Create a text file, and rename it "user.cfg" without the quotes. Be sure to change the extension.
STEP 3 - Open the file, and add the following line: "no_spawn", without quotes.
STEP 4 - Save the file, and play the game.

Pretty much. Enemies DO respawn, but only 1-3 at a time, and generally well away from the player, and even then, respawns don't start until later in the game . At the point in the game which the OP describes, there should only be two wrench hybrids in the immediate vicinity, and maybe 5 or 6 total in the accessible part of that map. Unless he triggered an alarm, or encountered some heretofore unheard of bug, there simply won't be 15 hybrids to fight.

Personally, I always thought SS2 handled respawning VERY well. Except when an alarm is triggered, you never face an endless stream of respawning enemies, a la Call of Duty, and the respawns that do occur, occur sparingly, . you never quite know if an area is completely safe, but generally once you've "cleared" a level, then the major threats are gone. In other words, it keeps you on your toes, without making you feel as if killing your enemies is futile.

This is quite strange; without triggering the alarms, that should not happen at all in that point of the map... even if you ACTUALLY triggered an alarm (which is quite difficult to miss, with the whole voice over and HUD signal) there should be only 3-4 more guys at most.

You also have to keep in mind that, while the game does a good job at masking this, the levels are actually quite small; with a strictly finite number of enemies, it would be either too crowded/too easy... a find that a mild respawn here has it's benefits, both as a tension setting and as a way to access more resources from bodies, which are quite scarce the whole playthrough

As many suggested, you can tone down the mechanic by editing a CFG file

You're probably right on this and I share the opinions of the OP so I'm not going to argue but I'll explain my reason for my similar opions.

First, I find this game's atmophere creepy and tense, yes and it's a nice add to the gaming experience but that has almost nothing to do with the enemies, sure if I turn around and there's a zombie I might get "jump scared" but that's nothing.

Secondly, respawning enemies are tedious. I somewhat understand 'always tense' because of respawn but I play games as a relaxing interest, to have an experience first and foremost, challenge is way down the list of my priorioties. I'll probably miss a lot of the best games but that doesn't bother me, I'm going to miss a lot of good stuff regardless of my choices.

Currently I'm in the Engineering Cargo and up until now the respawn didn't bother me if one excludes the alarm but now I got into a situation where I had no medical hypos, low on ammo and a bunch of exploding robots were coming at me. At this moment I have basically two choices: reload (which I already do too much) or try and keep at it somehow. The second choice will put me into a situation where I'll have to reload because I might turn into a boss or a situation where to make any progress I'll have to take some damage. Now I'm sure this is the entire point of gaming, the challenge, for many, probably most people but it's not for me, not anymore. I found it 99% tedious, 1% fun.

Now, unto helping this issue. When you add that file no respawn line, does that work with a current save and does it affect alarms?

The situation in the Cargo bays of engineering isn't so much respawning (although there do tend to be a couple respawns hanging around the central hub each time you head that way) but the fact that all of those protocol droid crates contain an active droid. If you get too close, or damage the crate -- such as by destroying a droid too close to a crate, then the crate will open and you've got another droid to deal with.

The cargo bays are generally regarded as the hardest part of the game, as your resources are still extremely scarce, and your character is still very "low-level" and weak. The scarcity of resources remains a challenge throughout the game, although it's never quite as critical as it is in Cargo Bay, but by the time you hit the Recreation Deck (1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the game) your character will be sufficiently powerful to be able to handle anything that comes your way.

I found that the respawn rate seemed to increase near/below the entrance to Engineering Control, to the point of becoming sufficiently tedious to ruin the atmosphere for me. Perhaps the random number gods were against me at the time.

Ok, lets throw some light over the matter:

Each level has an ecology: a number of foes of each type. Every now and then the engine checks the ecology, and if it's below of the initial levels, there's a chance of a respawn. So it could NEVER be more critters than the starting number.

Also, the levels are quite 'small' so the provability of a bunch of respawns accumulating in a single spot is very low: the spawns are at random locations, and there's a low provability of not encountering them before there's more than, for example, two of them.

Said that, in the "user.cfg" you could use this codes (copied from systemshock.org):

Monster Spawning
If you've killed everything in a given area, and you wait around long enough, you'll notice that more monsters are spawned to keep you busy. To minimize respawning, use the configuration variable:

no_spawn


System Shock 2's ecologies look at how many monsters are in a given area. If a defined minimum number of monsters are present, there is a chance that a new monster will spawn. The variable:

lower_spawn_min <n>

reduces the defined minimum monster count on all ecologies by <n>.

raise_spawn_rand <n>

lowers the chance of a monster randomly spawning by changing the random chance from 1/i to 1/(i+<n>).

The link of the source and much more information:
http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=12.0

Regarding security alarms, I never hack the computers: I just use cryokinesis on all the cameras!

@MonsterZERO: I really hope you figure out a fix; you'll be missing out on a wonderful gaming experience if you walk away from this title.

This information is explained in detail along with other tweaks, e.g. - weapon degredation, in the file readme_patch.txt which is in the System Shock 2 directory of everyone's installation. It's under the heading Configuration Information in the readme.

Hacking security also temporarily disables turrets, which can be extremely handy in certain areas.

exagerattion to the max. i am playing on imposible and i just went ahead and triggered an alarm. i took down 4 enemies.

the game is also set on a ship, and you often backtrack and go through areas you've visited before to find an area you just unlocked.

if there was no respawning, you would be walking through empty corridors a lot.

if you are constanlty being atacked you are doing something wrong. rethink your approach and stats you wanna upgrade.