BiG D's mutator pack

[BiG_D]

Download Version 1.2 from ForceGamers (http://www.forcegamers.com/filedb/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=23)
MutAOC - Turns all aliens into crates. Don't look at me, it wasn't my idea.
MutMoreMarines - Allows more than 4 marines to be used in single player (or multiplayer, I guess... (multiplayer not tested))
MutPurpleBlood- Causes the aliens to bleed purple. Untested online.
MutRambo - Disables friendly fire. Does not work online.
New! MutStickTogether - Any marine who strays too far from his teammates is swarmed! Eat that, Rambo!

[Corion]

:0( Now everyone's going to host servers with the ramboMode Mut, which may be good for them/you but it feels like a piece of AS is dying when you take off FF.

How about a mutator that makes an uber alien spawn when someone dies of parasites?

[BiG_D]

:0( Now everyone's going to host servers with the ramboMode Mut, which may be good for them/you but it feels like a piece of AS is dying when you take off FF.
I agree that it isn't Alien Swarm without FF, but I can't see any good servers adopting the mutator, so I doubt it will be a problem. I coded it for my AO-Box which ultimately wasn't finished in time, and figured I might as well do something with it in the meantime.


How about a mutator that makes an uber alien spawn when someone dies of parasites?
On the player's death location? hmmmm... Sounds like fun...

[Corion]

Would also be nice to have a mutator that would force players to use a certain alien/uber alien skin for custom maps or on servers which would like to make sure one player is not getting an advantage over another by having custom-bound all his keys. To go along with this, what about a blood-color mutator?

[Taika]

To go along with this, what about a blood-color mutator?
Aye! I wanna see BLUE...thats right...BRIGHT BLUE alien blood ;)

and i think before you released the no FF mutator you should've set it so it could only go so low, or at least make it so you can't make it 0%...that would make a few of us a lil more comfortable i would think...

[OptimusPrime]

I agree with Corion: "Now everyone's going to host servers with the ramboMode Mut, which may be good for them/you but it feels like a piece of AS is dying when you take off FF"
Alien Swarms lifes from the taktic and with no FF, everyone is taking a flamethrower and a shotgun firing in all directions without looking for teammates in their way. I think this mutator can really destroy what Alien Swarm is.. :-(((

[Dalai]

Sucks :(

[tank hunter]

If you take out the FF from AS, it is not AS anymore... :(
I have played something like Rainbow Six series (mostly one shot kills) and Splintercell (mostly 4 shots kills). AS's FF is not that bad compared to those. I think FF in AS gives AS charater and taste... :thumb: ...thus we should keep it.

[Butters]

Burn the heretic!!11

:wildcat: :wildcat: :wildcat:

Damn, can't do it anymore :( .


Edit: On a serious note: thinking that this mutator will be adopted in every server and/or will bring the end of alien swarm is plain silly. At most, it might be used by mappers if they are designing some special purpose map that would benefit from it, or occasionally enabled by server admins when ninja joins the game.

[Carth]

Burninate him :wildcat: :wildcat: :wildcat:

What were you thinking BiG_D? :mad:

At least alter the mutator so falling damage is active, then I can boycott every server that puts it on by falling on people.

[Mek]

http://www.ccadp.org/kemchar.gif

[Sohtaraz]

http://www.ccadp.org/kemchar.gif

One picture is worth more then thousand spam messages...

I agree.

[Nachimir]

Suckage :(

[Rehevkor]

What's the big deal? If you run a server you don't have to use it, and you don't have to play on servers that do run it. I see nothing wrong with a no FF mutator.

[Carth]

It's against the Alien Swarm doctrine. Once people hear of Alien Swarm without FF, the blasphemy will spread through the community infecting servers far and wide. And people will forget of the FF-less Alien Swarm of the good old days, and they will join our servers and kill us all.

I warned against this happening. The great Dalai listened, but BiG_D the evil one turned to the dark side.

[Taika]

Reminds me of when the little 5-12 year old CS players found out that servers had the option to turn off FF around beta 0.7 and whined like @#$!in hell to turn off FF and then all the server turned off FF and the only servers one could find with FF on pingeg high as @#$!in hell....

[Sohtaraz]

Hey D, while your making more mutators: All camera and dificulty unlock would be quite cool.

[tank hunter]

The Friend (Take 2)
You visit your friend but he was busy for the house keeping. Your friend warmed you saying you could play some game when you waiting. So you found AS, wow a new game using UT platform. So you login and joined a server using your friend's name. Thinking you were playing Invasion with ZERO FF. Using minigun, your fav weap, you jumped around and circle-drifted. You wondered why the server kept restarting every 30sec. And after some 10 times restarts, you got kicked. Somehow you sent some harsh words over. You are so embarassed b/c you were kicked, so you never tell you friend about it.

Just imagine what happen when your friend login next time... (http://forums.blackcatgames.com/showthread.php?p=96777#post96777) Ah...ZERO FF huh?

[BiG_D]

Can anyone actually confirm it works in multiplayer? I think it would be terribly funny if it didn't...

[Taika]

aye it would...were doing all this madness and yelling and whining and it wouldnt work..jeez that would be classic

[Thalaxasis]

I'm thinking if it works, it will become popular.

People in general like things easy, so they can win and feel successful. That is why it is becoming more and more difficult to find a normal+ server as more and more people begin to play the game. When you consider that nine out of ten restarts are because of accidental team killing, you can see why such a mutator has the potential to turn a tactical game into a short-lived run-and-gun.

Why do I say short lived? Because right now Alien Swarm is limited in levels - sure we have a some community created maps out there, but other then BugPlanet, I haven't see anything good.

Note: We do have some quality gimmick levels, ie: Death Match maps, but I consider those to be just that, gimmicks, and not in theme with the game.

With the low level of content - good content, but low levels of it all the same - I'm already seeing people drift away from it. Not because they don't like the game, but because they're tired of playing the same levels over and over. Most of us have cleared the game a multitude of times and unlocked all the extra modes.

We did this WITH friendly fire on, so it was always a challenge, likely why the game has kept as many as it has. With friendly fire removed, it will become incredibly easy to shotgun and flame the game at any difficulty. This wouldn't be a problem if people didn't take the easy route to everything, but go browse UT04 servers, Quake 3 servers, mod servers... those not touting realism, ie: RO, are almost universally FF disabled. People like taking the easy route. Friendly fire being disabled is the ultimate easy route in Alien Swarm and will turn what was an extremely challenging game into a weekend wonder, one of those games you blow through in 10-20 hours and forget about.

We'd be blind to think most players are interested in tactics; we've all seen that 90% of the people in public servers (ie; non-quiz protected/ password locked) exploit bugs time and time again. We've all seen the sheer volume of people who have no interest in team work at all. Can you imagine how it'd be without the weight of friendly fire to keep most of them in check?

It's a neat little mutator, I really appreciate that work was put into it to add another potential feature to the game, but I honestly hope it doesn't work in multiplayer. I'd rather we have a small player base of people who want to play the game right, then a hoard of gibbering morons looking to run and gun the tactical aspect of the game into the dirt.

Am I chicken little? Is the sky really falling? Maybe, maybe not. Guess we'll see.

Hope the post made sense, didn't have a lot of time to edit it.

[BiG_D]

Nope, confirmed, no multiplayer. :cool:

Sorry for the mass panic... :sweat:

[Taika]

/me sighs a huge sigh of relief...

[modetwo]

Nope, confirmed, no multiplayer. :cool:


Goodie. ;)

[Thalaxasis]

I'm glad to hear it.

I do appreciate that you wanted to give us something cool to toy with, its just friendly fire is something you shouldn't mess with, like a vengeful god or Operah on a ham binge. Nothing good could come of it.

Hope the reactions didn't discourage you from attempting to make other cool stuff.

:)

[immortius]

Please make a mutator that replaces all the alien meshes with crates. I would, but I'm too busy at the moment. :P

[BiG_D]

Are we talking wooden crates?
stalls for time...

[Master-Builder]

Are we talking wooden crates?
stalls for time...
No, killer crates... from hell.

[immortius]

Wooden crates would do.

(You might find it quite simple to merely set alienclass.default.mesh = mesh'crate', followed by a quick sweep to do the same with existing aliens.)

[Corion]

And instead of being infested, you can get splinters!

[BiG_D]

Well, changing the mesh isn't working for me (something about a constant) but I'm sure I'm doing it wrong, so I'll keep poking at it for a while.

And as for the blood colour, each new colour requires me to make 3 new subclasses of the original green, which may require new textures if UT doesn't have that colour already. I'll do it, just wait until I get some of these other things out of my way...

[Corion]

Can't you at least add support for purple? I thought there was purple blood already but I hadn't seen the option inside of AS.

[OptimusPrime]

what will be the next mutator? Respawning? Unlimited Ammo? God-Mode?
When i see everyone restarting cause only one teammate died, or peaple who stay as long in a level shooting the unlmited respawning aliens only to get one more star, I m shaking my head and ask myself "why dont they play singleplayer?".
AS needs the difficulty it has so dont make it easier!!!

[BiG_D]

Purple blood will be fairly easy; I'll include it with the next pack.

AS needs the difficulty it has so dont make it easier!!!
MutYouAskedForIt -- All aliens move twice as fast, and do twice as much damage. All marines do half as much damage to aliens, and twice as much damage to teammates. Also when a marine dies, it causes an explosion. Parasites are invincible.

Will that be good enough?

[Taika]

YES!! Make a mutator that brings the old parasites back xD

[Nachimir]

New blood would be cool :)

[Carth]

MutYouAskedForIt -- All aliens move twice as fast, and do twice as much damage. All marines do half as much damage to aliens, and twice as much damage to teammates. Also when a marine dies, it causes an explosion. Parasites are invincible.

Will that be good enough?
Yes it will. This can take the place of the boringly easy insane mode.

[Corion]

Don't make parasites invinicble ... make them half the size or move at an increased speed.

EDIT: LOL Big_D was kidding but everyone's taking his idear seriously! Maybe the devs can make another difficulty setting called "Super Insane!" ... I dunno lol.

[tank hunter]

And we should have 4 adult aliens or the BIG ONE in Barrack or the Behemonth out of the infested marine instead of 4 parasites; plus stims for the aliens :thumb:

Don't make parasites invinicble ... make them half the size or move at an increased speed. Not half size, should be the size of the little small brown round thingy in the Barrack/Salvage :ebil:

"Super Insane" or "Mission Impossible" would be fine for the "name"... ;)

[Taika]

Hey,,,any of u who beta tested a recent version b4 the release of AO-BOXofDOOM will kno wut a tough para = ;), 0.25xNorm size and 30xNormHP and 2.5xNormMovement :D

[tank hunter]

Hey,,,any of u who beta tested a recent version b4 the release of AO-BOXofDOOM will kno wut a tough para = ;), 0.25xNorm size and 30xNormHP and 2.5xNormMovement :D Advertisement... :nono: :P
Nope, confirmed, no multiplayer.

Sorry for the mass panic... :sweat:... :thumb: :) :D http://forums.blackcatgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif :joking:

[BiG_D]

http://www.forcegamers.com/filedb/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=23 Version 1.1 is up.
Added the alien-crates, as well as purple blood for the aliens. Enjoy.

[BiG_D]

So I just ran an online test of MutAOC, and while it doesn't actually turn the aliens into crates like I want, it does have another side effect which had me pretty amused:

http://bigd.onestop.net/images/unusualReadings.jpg

Also, due to a similar bit of code, the buzzers are so small you basically have to rely on sound/scanner to figure out what to shoot at.

A quick test tells me that the purple blood doesn't work online, either. Well, that or I typed it in wrong. I guess we'll never know...

In any case, I suppose its about time I look into this replication stuff, and get some online mutators working.

[immortius]

Did you have the mutators added to the server packages for these tests?

[BiG_D]

Well, yeah, obviously. Like I mean, everyone knows you need to do that, especially me. :sweat:
Yeah, you got me. I somehow forgot serverpackages. :o I always thought it booted clients if there was a mutator running that wasn't in serverpackages...

EDIT: Not that it seems to matter, still no crate swarm in multiplayer.

EDIT 2: Which file would be the correct one to use here? I have UT2004.ini in the system directory, or UT2004.ini and AlienSwarm.ini in the AlienSwarm/System directory...

[Mek]

Alienswarm.ini

[immortius]

Not sure why you have UT2004.ini in the AlienSwarm/System directory....

Back when testing my Thievery Mutators I found that if a package wasn't in the serverpackages, the classes from it wouldn't exist on the clients. Really annoying being killed by invisible redeemer bolts...

[BiG_D]

Ah, UT99 doesn't have the cheat protection of 2k4, so the clients would stay connected.

The UT2004.ini in the alienswarm folder is slightly different: the lines are editing the original file (at least thats how I see it...)
+ServerPackages=AoPrototype
-ServerPackages=UT2004RPG
etc.

[BiG_D]

Big D Muts 1.2 (http://www.forcegamers.com/filedb/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=23)

Now includes MutStickTogether, a mutator that ambushes anyone who strays too far from the other marines. Not only has it been tested online, but its fun! I'm movin' up! :joking:

[Carth]

It's hard. You better stick together people.

[DeepQantas]

It does WHAT?

How?

:site: :norris:

[BiG_D]

It does two things: First, any marine that strays too far away from the others (a little more than a screen width, I think) suddenly has aliens spawning around him. Secondly, based on the online tests, it causes 48% more arguments. "I saved you, and then you fucking left me behind to get swarmed."
"You're supposed to follow me..."
"Fuck that."

EDIT: And if you want to try it out online, I may have "The Buddy System" server running tomorrow. Depending on when 1.2 is released, of course.

[tank hunter]

What if some fool just tk's the teammate for the "spawn fun" :nono:

And have you tested for "solo"ing? Keep spawning all the way ^^???

[BiG_D]

What if some fool just tk's the teammate for the "spawn fun" :nono:

And have you tested for "solo"ing? Keep spawning all the way ^^???
If you TK someone on purpose I ban you. Pretty simple, huh? I recommend everyone else does the same.

And yes, if you choose one marine at the briefing screen, it makes the mission damn near impossible.

[Corion]

Great idea D! So basically it requires that you have at least one other marine within a certain range or ... DUN DUN DUN ... ?

[BiG_D]

MutStickTogether has been revamped, and is almost ready for another release.
I'd like to give it some extensive online testing, so I'm throwing the current beta up on my server, named "MutStickTogether Test." I'll be in #alienswarm on irc.startchat.net should you have any problems joining, find a bug, or want to discuss the mutator. Hopefully, if everything goes as planned, I'll have a full release ready later tonight :)

EDIT: Server is down, testing was quite successful. Thanks to everyone who dropped in :)

[NeoNizer]

Nice going Big D, these are pretty original ideas.. especially stick togther should make them stick together :P
unless it's like some n00b like me that doesn't know what hit them!

it's starting to fade, but i'm usually lost or lost the team >.>
getting better though :P