Alien Swarm Add-on for UT2004 Showcased

Crusader writes "Black Cat Games has announced the release of Alien Swarm, their Unreal Tournament 2004 modification that features an overhead POV cooperative multiplayer battle against AI-driven aliens. There's torrents for both the trailer and the mod itself. Linux users are catered to as well: the ZIP package contains a shell script-based installer."

Comments

So real...

[trainsnpep]

Too bad people now need to connect the words Alien and Unreal. No, you were not abducted...that was a game...

fp?

Re:So real...

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck did that mean?

Re:So real...

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, what the fuck? What the fuck indeed.

slashdot swarm

[greywar]

And now all the aliens from slashdot have swarmed their server. One post before me and their server is already dead. What the heck? Did the developers steal the web server?

Re:slashdot swarm

[livhan28]

i think this is a new record, unless their server was already dead.

Re:slashdot swarm

[Throat constant]

Hey, don't call us aliens!

We're highly developed parasites.

Re:slashdot swarm

[speeDDemon (nw)]

Yeah, well I haven't seen the aliens swarming the torrents.. Only 66 people with incomplete copies ? Come on, Lets put the power of /. to some good use.

And where are all the guys with the beefy bandwidth ? Cmon, Its less than a 1.0Mbit / sec

Re:slashdot swarm

[Guspaz]

Azureus' tracker measures in megabytes per second not megabits per second. The hint (on the tracker page) was "MB/s" as opposed to "Mb/s"

This game mod looks nice.

[antdude]

Does anyone know if this game has first perspective? I watched the trailer, and it seems it is like only from top view.

Re:This game mod looks nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

hence "overhead POV".

Re:This game mod looks nice.

[homb]

It's only 3rd person from above. That's a design choice, to encourage a more squad-level tactical experience.

Re:This game mod looks nice.

[DrEldarion]

If you want a game like that, play co-op in pretty much any other FPS out there. The whole point of this is to be an overhead squad-based tactical action game.

Sort of like a real-time multiplayer X-Com.

Re:This game mod looks nice.

[antdude]

Dr. Eldarion, I know. But I like the whole idea based on Aliens movie. Scary, team work, etc. Natural Selection mod was cool, but the graphic is outdated. AvP games were soso. :)

Re:This game mod looks nice.

[antdude]

Actually, I found out there is some 1st perspective but only in spectator mode. You can watch up to four different close players. The camera sizes aren't big, but very cool. I will have a ball playing this!

NS

[Anonymous Coward]

This looks like Natural Selection to me. Except not as cool because you can't play alien in this mod. www.natural-selection.org

Re:NS

[antdude]

Yeah, I noticed that too. It would be cool to have humans play the aliens.

Re:NS

[waveclaw]

This looks like Natural Selection to me

I wouldn't know as this looks like Slashdot Swarm Add-on for Black-Cat Studio's webserver is the #1 showstopper for May 2004.

Re:NS

[eyeye]

It looks almost identical to Alien Breed on the amiga.

I don't know if Alien Breed was "inspired" by some previous game too but I wouldn't be surprised.

No.

[Throat constant]

It wasn't dead. It worked when I first clicked on it...

You murderers!

New headline.

[mikeophile]

Black Cat Games creators of Alien Swarm, have themselves been swarmed by Slashdotters.

Cache

[Anonymous Coward]

just cuz i am so nice here is the google cache, no guarentees it works (lots of pictures, kinda misses the point of the site)
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:bA95RI AgNowJ: www.blackcatgames.com/swarm/+site:blackcatgames.co m+swarm&hl=en

NOT natural selection

[Anonymous Coward]

this is not a deathmatch mod, it's coop and single player. Its alot of fun really and pulled off very professionally!
BTW, no you cannot switch to first person mode, but that is very intentional..
Find a few people owning ut04, set up a teamspeak server and have fun with this :-)

Re:NOT natural selection

[PhrostyMcByte]

Why TeamSpeak? UT2004 has its own voice support.

Re:NOT natural selection

[Anonymous Coward]

right, but I can't use that because I set up a listen server and ut's voice support doesn't work for the server player, only for the clients.

Re:NOT natural selection

[Trent Polack]

This is a UT2k3/2k4 mod I believe; and 2k3 doesn't have voice comm.

Re:NOT natural selection

[Guspaz]

NS isn't deathmatch either, it's a team-based RTS/FPS hybrid.

And for anybody wondering what the hell we're talking about, follow the link to Natural-Selection.

Re:NOT natural selection

[NecoX]

Which sucks ass and doesn't have voice activation, and eats resources.

Re:NOT natural selection

[MortisUmbra]

Because UT04's voice chat, while a valiant effort, sucks major rectum!

Re:NOT natural selection

[Anonymous Coward]

Although NS isn't just a deathmatch game, this game is nothing like NS. (NS players, I am a constellation player who's been playing since first release. Trust me, this is nothing like NS.)

This game, you control up to 4 characters (1 at a time, rest are either "hold" or "follow") in a top-down game. There's no building (although you can pick a deployable sentry as one of two weapons for any of your characters) and no resources. Really no "RTS" to this at all. More like old-school scrolling games although it looks pretty nice.

The graphics are pretty good although a bit dark in spots. Gameplay is fairly hard (at least for the 2 of us who were playing) and you'll probably want to take a smart rifle for yourself. (The ai players are fast enough with a regular rifle.) A flashlight or flare will also be a huge blessing.

There IS a slight RPG aspect to the game. Team members that make it through the level gain medals and skill points that can be used to improve your characters. :D

Quite enjoyable althoug long-term it may not hold your attention.

Definitely worth a download though.

Re:NOT natural selection

[Robmonster]

Actually it DOES have voice activation. You just have to edit the .ini fgile to activate it and set the volume level. They dont give you a way to set this up in the main game.

It works pretty well too.

Re:NOT natural selection

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not?

1. yet ANOTHER voice app. Sure, competition is great but It has SUCKED to change voice apps ever time you turn around. I started with Roger Wilco, then had to install that MS bastardization, then Teamspeak, Then Ventrillo, Then TeamSpeak again and I'm sure there's 1 or a few that I've missed. As a gamer & user, this is a pain in the ass. I do not want more than 2 voice chat apps to deal with.

2. *WARNING: I haven't tried Q2k4's voice chat, so I can assume you can use it only while playing the game? Many of us do voice chat outside of the game and the UT2k4 would likely conflict with our regular voice chat. There is life/chat/game beyond Q2k4

Re:NOT natural selection

[Anonymous Coward]

OH yes, because EVERY gamer alive is a master of .ini files and actually knows these stupid tweaks off by heart. They ALWAYS do a half assed job on the "additionals" in the UT series.

Re:NOT natural selection

[Robmonster]

Any intelligent person would have a quick hunt around the official game forum to see if a feature is available.

Chances are if you think it would be a good idea then someone has already asked (and asnwered) the question on the forums.

Multiplayer troubles with the Linux client?

[SilentStrike]

Is anyone having trouble connecting to multiplayer games with the linux client? The game works fine in single player, but whenever I try to connect a multiplayer game, I always recieve a "connection failed" message.

Re:Multiplayer troubles with the Linux client?

[Anonymous Coward]

This happened to me. I installed the Jailbreak mod the other day and the game seems to act goofy like that when switching between unofficial gametypes.

Here's what I did to fix it. Load up the game, hit join multiplayer, select a normal gametype (DM, CTF, etc) in the drop down menu like you would if you were searching for a server to join, then hit back, and exit the game. Start up the game again and then connecting to Alien Swarm games should be no problem. It worked for me, but I am running on Windows. You might have to do this again if you switch between custom mods often.

Re:Multiplayer troubles with the Linux client?

[Jaysyn]

Exactly how is a question concerning the mod we're discussing offtopic?

Jaysyn

Re:Multiplayer troubles with the Linux client?

[Jaysyn]

BTW it might just be a bug in UT2004. See here.

Jaysyn

The website is working for me

[drinkypoo]

But the tracker is dust. Does anyone have torrents for a working tracker?

More Mirrors

[CrusadeR]

http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=5020

http://www.3ddownloads.com/Action/Unreal%20Tournam ent%202004/Mods/AlienSwarm

There's also a Loki Setup-based Linux package here:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/liflg/alien.swa rm_1.0-english.run?download

Re:More Mirrors

[Anonymous Coward]

AlienSwarm_v1.zip:
Mirror 1 - 3ddownloads.com
Mirror 2 - icculus.org
Mirror 3 - Brody
Mirror 4 - nim-rod.net
Mirror 5 - Fileshack
Mirror 6 - Fileplanet
Mirror 7 - ut2003hq.com
Mirror 8 - extreme-players.de

On another note...

[Jaysyn]

... Jailbreak 200x is also out (yesterday) & is lots of fun!

Jaysyn

Since no one seems to have admit it...

[Anonymous Coward]

I will. When I started reading the report I thought this was just another singleplayer mod that somehow go posted. Then I saw the word 'cooperative' and knew this news worthy.

SmashTV 2004!?!

[poolguy]

Big money! Big Prizes! I Love It!!!!!!!!

Patch

[dryan]

FYI, this mod requires the latest patch.

Pretty cool

[Fiz Ocelot]

Downloaded and played through the tutorial and first campaign level. It's very well done. A little too easy to roast all of your team mates with the flamer though...did that the first time I got a hold of it.

The top down perspective makes things feel like there's something around the corner but you can't quite see far enough....but it's beeping at you..gah!

Reminds me of Mazogs for the Sinclair ZX-81

[slagish666]

Wow, a top-down conversion of an expensive game that has the same general idea and gameplay as a game I opened and was playing way before Christmas all those years ago.

Then again, Mazogs was really good gameplay. I wish I could find an emulator and play it again.

But I also wish I could change the camera angle on this conversion to something that makes a little more sense to my 3D-pampered brain.

Re:Reminds me of Mazogs for the Sinclair ZX-81

[technix4beos]

Here's a zx81 emulator fanpage:
http://www.mypenguin.de/zx81/index.php3

Here's the game:
http://www.mypenguin.de/zx81/ftp/lab.zip

Enjoy. :)

hrmmm

[ShadowRage]

does this mean now we'll be seeing more
"KEKEKEKEKEKEKE ZERG RUSH!! ^___^"
on ut2k4?

get newer bittorrent

[iamr00t]

the tracker link didn't work in 3.3 that i had since forever, but works fine in 3.4

Re:get newer bittorrent

[drinkypoo]

I'm using ABC, I'll try the new ver of that anyway... maybe in three hours or so when the very large download I'm currently in the process of completes. I'm not gonna risk disconnecting now :)

Link to the Google Cache

[tacarat]

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:bA95RIAgNowJ: www.blackcatgames.com/swarm/
Sloooooooooow copy, though...

Re:Linux users are "Catered to?"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a mod. It's free.

Starcraft

[pseudochaotic]

Sounds like Starcraft on steroids, if you ask me.

In-game text.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is anyone else having a problem where in-game text is not displaying? I can see what people type by bringing up the console but that's it. Pretty frustrating bug in an otherwise excellent game experience.

Mod Community Comes Through Again

[OmegaBlac]

I am absolutely enjoying this mod of UT2K4. Just played through the tutorial and will probably hop online later tonite. The AI for my teammates is average nothing exciting, they did what they were supposed to do. Will see how they handle the SP missions later on. One of those alien species moves very quick so its nice that the teammates are able to track them and kill them before they overwhelm your main player.

The mod communites that pop around PC games never cease to amaze me. Ever since Wolfenstein 3D & Doom I have been totally awe-struck by the level of innovation and creativity that mod creators contribute to well established games. These are the people that make games like UT and Quake have a prolong lifespan in the lives of gamers like myself. Congrats to Black Cat Games for an excellent mod for UT2K4 and just in time too! I was getting kind of bored with the same old onslaught, CTF, and DM. Now this mod breathes new life into the game!

Problems with Alien Swarm

[Xepo]

I get this error:
_X11TransSocketOpen: socket() failed for tcp
_X11TransSocketOpenCOTSClient: Unable to open socket for tcp
_X11TransOpen: transport open failed for tcp/0:0
Couldn't set video mode: Could not create GL context

I got the same error when I installed Red Orchestra (another mod), but installing the patch fixed it. I 've obviously still got the patch installed, so I'm at a loss for what to do. Any advice?

Re:Problems with Alien Swarm

[Anonymous Coward]

Verbatim quote of Alien Swarm/Help/Admin Tutorials/linux.html

If you place a new custom map in AlienSwarm/Maps and start the server, it will export the map and try to start the server or client. On the linux client when it exports the map and tries to start the game it will crash with an error saying something like:
foo@foobar System $ sh ./Alien-Swarm-Linux
Exporting AO-{mapname}.....Successful!
WARNING: ALC_EXT_capture is subject to change!
_X11TransSocketOpen: socket() failed for local
_X11TransSocketOpenCOTSClient: Unable to open socket for local
_X11TransOpen: transport open failed for local/{your-hostname}:0
pause_audiodevice stubbed for 0x3
pause_audiodevice stubbed for 0x3
Couldn't set video mode: Could not create GL context

History:
Exiting due to error

This is possibly a Linux UT2004 bug because it doesn't happen for the windows version. Should it crash, just restart it again and it will start up as normal.

Re:Problems with Alien Swarm

[Xepo]

Heh, thanks, I managed to figure it out though.

Just a tip to everyone else playing with UT mods...*never* put anything from a mod in the main UT system directory. It was trying to load Red Orchestra stuff cause I tried putting the RedOrchestra/System stuff into the ut system directory...and it gave me that X11 error as a result.

Re:Linux users are "Catered to?"

[Profe55or Booty]

this was "insightful"?

jesus christ, so you're bitter because they're finally accepting you as a market and you whine that they're just "jumping on the bandwagon"? what exactly do you want them to do? either way you're going to be bitching.

/trolled, i hope

Looks like...

[galaga79]

A lot like that game that came out years ago called Alien Breed.

They have definitely been inspired by the movie Aliens, as the opening scene in the trailer is almost a direct copy of the USS Sullaco orbitting LV-426 except that the ship is called the USS Actaeon.

Are the aliens the same as that in the aforementioned film? If so they are asking Fox to shut down this mod.

better than UT's version?

[British]

So is this better than "invasion" for ut2004? I spent more time waiting after being killed by seemingly immmortal aliens after about a minute in any Invasion game. Kinda boring after awhile.

Re:better than UT's version?

[Neophytus]

If you're looking for an improved game of invasion try Fraghouse Invasion.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

Kekeke slashmob rush!

Re:Yeah right

[dasmegabyte]

Hey. There's lots of money in theft. Just ask the mob...or anybody in China!

Try the game.

[ReKleSS]

Although both games are conceptually similar to Alien versus Predator, Alien Swarm has a completely different style of gameplay. Personally, I prefer AS because it's much more original. For NS, I can just play AvP 1 or 2. -ReK

Re:Try the game.

[Anonymous Coward]

except NS doesnt play anything like AVP strategically

Re:Linux users are "Catered to?"

[ravydavygravy]

The parent comment sickens me - as a long-time linux user, I welcome anytime a company thinks of us when releasing software (commercial or not).

Jeez, you're pissed just 'cos you might have to pay for software every now and again? come on...

Why bother using Unreal engine at all

[Anonymous Coward]

You could do this with StarCraft engine, jeez!

Better tactical experience my ass.

"It was Slashdotted from orbit..."

[celerityfm]

It was the only way to be sure...

heh

On a serious note-- is there a way to get the bots in single player to respond to voice commands? You can do it in vanilla UT2K4 single player, but so far I haven't been able to get that working in the Alien Swarm mod/tc.

Voice control of bots in single player..

[celerityfm]

Doh, this got buried in a reply to a 0 karma post so I'm reposting to get out of obscurity--

Is there a way to get the bots in single player to respond to voice commands? You can do it in vanilla UT2K4 single player, but so far I haven't been able to get that working in the Alien Swarm mod/tc.

Anyone have any luck?

Re:Linux users are "Catered to?" (Your Lucky)

[IAmAMacOSXAddict]

I'm a Mac user and I'm not even daring to hope that someone will write up a fully Manual install description so I can play. Though you never know...

Crossposted to other forums--

[celerityfm]

I posted this both to Shacknews and the Black Cat Games forums for Alien Swarm-- so here's links to those threads in case the question gets answered there first:

Shacknews thread
Black Cat Forums thread

md5sum problems

[Glyndwr]

Hmmmmm....

[~]$ md5sum alien.swarm_1.0-english.run
81a8f7e45c7a5e9cdb9e0 9ab4365ff25 alien.swarm_1.0-english.run
[~]$ cat alien.swarm_1.0-english.run.md5
2a372dcfae4621051 db0ee97af4f7c95 alien.swarm_1.0-english.run
[~]$ sh ./alien.swarm_1.0-english.run
Verifying archive integrity...Error in MD5 checksums: bcc7daefa6fb3c0a04789b9419afd7ff is different from c4fb1c402cd02027e3392292efa1538e

Charming! Four different md5sums. Wassup, doc? I'm just going to get the tar.bz2 from BitTorrent, I think.

Requires patch 3204+

[Anonymous Coward]

mod requires patch 3204+, which causes problems for many people (myself included), the most common being general protection faults.

I suppose I could install the patch, play the mod, then reinstall the original version of the game, but thats way to much trouble just for 1 add on.

Instead I'll wait until Epic releases a patch without stability problems.

Expensive?

[billybob]

Are you kidding? The Special Edition, which came with a free headset and bonus dvd with all the tools you need to make mods and maps and tons of tutorial videos, cost $40.

Granted, this sold like hotcakes, and I couldn't get a copy. I settled for the normal edition: $35. Yah, so anyways, I'm totally broke now, because it was so expensive. I couldn't afford rent and so now I live on the street.

Re:Linux users are "Catered to?" (Your Lucky)

[Anonymous Coward]

As it happens, Alien Swarm works fine on a Mac, and there's even a nice launcher for it. Install instructions are in a sticky thread on the forums, which are kinda missing at the moment. The Mac installer wasn't included in the release because of some last minute issues with the port of ucc-bin.

Alien breed

[sad_]

This game reminds me a bit of the old 'alien breed' series on the amiga.

Re:Linux users are "Catered to?" (Your Lucky)

[IAmAMacOSXAddict]

I didn't know that, Thank you for pointing it out. I thought I was going to have to do it the very hard way and manually install the files into UT2004.app myself.