Alien Swarm

[taviow]

Valve released a new game, Alien Swarm, for free earlier today. Anyone here interested in it?

 

Info about the game here.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Already got it, it's pretty fun. Some of my friends are getting tons of crashes though.

[Serrano]

I can't help but wonder how long it will be before someone recreates the movie Aliens with the SDK.

 

Dominic White over at the RPS boards;

And here’s something mindblowing: The game has a tile-based mission editor. You string together rooms to make missions, assign objectives, and (if needed) polish up in Hammer afterwards, but creating levels looks to be ridiculously fast and easy.

 

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Swarm_TileGen

 

There will be hundreds more levels out within a month.

Here is something of mindblowing importance:

 

There is an in-game editor which can randomly generate missions.

 

In Steam Tools, install the Alien Swarm SDK.

Run the game as normal.

Activate the console.

Open it.

Type ‘SV_Cheats 1′

Type ‘ASW_tilegen’

 

There you go. One level editor. I just tested it. Without hyperbole, it took me three minutes to generate and compile a whole new level from scratch. And then I was playing it. And died really quickly because there were no bots to help me, but whatever, it WORKS.

 

I repeat: THIS GAME HAS A RANDOM MISSION GENERATOR AND IN-GAME EDITOR. The number of missions is officially infinite without ever touching Hammer. Have fun.

 

I’m fairly sure it’s because I just don’t know how to add bots. Although they may need navigation meshes generated.

 

Either way, here’s the full guide on using the Tilegen editor:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Swarm_TileGen

 

Apparently you can invite friends straight to generated levels, and it’ll send them the raw generation data so that they can compile it on their end (took me about two minutes to compile a decently sized level), saving you trying to upload the whole map to each of them.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Serrano

[Atom523]

I downloaded it, had massive amounts of trouble find a game to play without being disconnected. Finally got into one game, i was the medic, the officer and heavy weapons guy leaves the tech guy and me behind, and despite my efforts the tech guy gets killed and we lose. Then i disconnected. Maybe another day i will have a functioning group and have more fun.

[Tale]

Tips: (Also known as things you can figure out in 5 minutes of offline practice, so why don't you know them at level 5?)

 

There is a yellow triangle on your map. That is your destination.

Reloading discards unused ammo in the magazine.

The sentry is not your primary weapon, stop carrying it around and trying to set it down at every opportunity.

[Serrano]

The sentry is not your primary weapon, stop carrying it around and trying to set it down at every opportunity.

 

[WorstUsernameEver]

I'm downloading it. I'll let you know my impressions.

[taviow]

Well damn, that was sweet. I'd easily pay money for it.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Almost got to the end of the campaign on easy, damn this game is insanely hard.

Edited July 20, 2010 by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

[Thorton_AP]

The original was also very hard.

[Oner]

Played through ~half the game (or not, who knows), it's pretty sweet.

[WorstUsernameEver]

It crashes goddamit. It crashes, oh, oh, yes it does.

I can't even start an offline practice.

[Oner]

Hm, works fine for me. Though I got some bug in my first match and had to quit.

[Malcador]

Very fun game, playing with my friends reminds me of Natural Selection back in 02-03. Game freezes up for 5-6 seconds for me every now and then, might be due to my alt-tabbing once, haven't seen others complain so probably local to me.

[Morgoth]

Played some offline but it wouldn't connect to a game online.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

If anyone wants to play just add me: "WILLTHEALMIGHTY". I don't have any of the good equipment so far, but I'm an okay shooter.

[Oner]

Mhm, I can't add friends unless I have a registered game on Steam. Great job Valve. (No, I don't care that the average user has a gazilion games.)

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I hate that, I actually need to buy a game on steam to just add friends. It's silly and I don't see the point.

[Gfted1]

I think when I get home tonight Im going to bite the bullet and download Steam. This game looks interesting and FO:NV is on my radar too so I might as well. Im going to hold you all responsible if my rig explodes.

[entrerix]

now you can take advantage of their ridiculously awesome annual holiday sale too.

 

steam = good prices (provided you have patience to wait for sale prices)

[taviow]

I believe the reason for needing games is to avoid those people who create accounts and add random people and spam those "CLICK HERE FOR FREE GAMES" messages, and then you end up getting your account stolen.

 

Anyways there really are ways to get a few free games on Steam so you can add your friends.

 

For Nvidia users: http://www.steampowered.com/nvidia/#

 

For ATI users: http://www.steampowered.com/ati_offer1a/

[Humodour]

Mhm, I can't add friends unless I have a registered game on Steam. Great job Valve. (No, I don't care that the average user has a gazilion games.)

 

It's solely to prevent spam bots.

 

You can add a game demo or a free game to your account (Alien Swarm) and it should be fine.

[Oner]

Mhm, I can't add friends unless I have a registered game on Steam. Great job Valve. (No, I don't care that the average user has a gazilion games.)

It's solely to prevent spam bots.

 

You can add a game demo or a free game to your account (Alien Swarm) and it should be fine.

Alien Swarm was added from the get-go, but I added FO and LoL and I still can't add friends. Edited July 20, 2010 by Oner

[taviow]

Mhm, I can't add friends unless I have a registered game on Steam. Great job Valve. (No, I don't care that the average user has a gazilion games.)

It's solely to prevent spam bots.

 

You can add a game demo or a free game to your account (Alien Swarm) and it should be fine.

Alien Swarm was added from the get-go, but I added FO and LoL and I still can't add friends.

 

You have to add Steam games, Non-Steam doesn't work. See the links I posted. You don't have to install them, they just have to be idle on your list.

Edited July 20, 2010 by taviow

[Oner]

Oh, thanks. I missed your post.

 

Hmm, still no good.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Oner