I've just finished and posted the new feature list... quite a lot of stuff on there. The final feature list will be the same or, if not, very nearly the same. Check it out!

Progress on 1.9's going fairly smoothly, BTW... if we can continue to avoid the various disasters that turn up whenever a version of a mod (or SvenCo-op, at least) is almost completed, it'll be ready in time to release on Saturday (US time). Might be close, though :).

Below are four screenshots from "Stadium-f", showing the friendly monsters in action... by the way, friendly monsters aren't white and transparent be default... just set up the ones without new skins that way, in the map (using the Squadmaker), so you could tell which was which.

A Friendly Female Assassin fighting an Evil Barney	Don't worry, Friendly Garg will save you...
(3rd Person View) : A Barnacle grabs a Friendly Alien Slave	Friendly monsters take on an Apache.

Update: In case I didn't explain it so well, before... the FGD file below is for v1.9 of SvenCo-op, which hasn't been released yet (set for release in four days). It's just to give mappers a head-start...

P.S. A new copy of the Message Board has been installed... hopefully it'll work now.

The Sven Co-op v1.9 .FGD file is now available for download, HERE. Please remember that you need this only if you're making, or intending to make, SvenCo-op maps. 

An entity guide, with setup instructions and information on the new entities and entity options, can be viewed HERE. Some of the new things covered are: Random events, friendly monsters, and the new Squadmaker entity (which allows you to spawn monsters with a great deal of different properties). Be sure to check this guide before using the aforementioned fgd!

A feature list for 1.9 should be online soon, BTW... hopefully tomorrow. For now, here's a screenshot from the incredibly well-made map "Crisis2", by Hawk (maker of the Nightmare maps). 

The map features excellent use of a train, reminiscent of Valve's On a Rail maps (although it's a lot more fun with some friends on the train with you, imho), and a lot of situations where teamwork is necessary or extremely helpful. Requires a minimum of 2 players. 

Since, from what I've seen in the past, setting release dates is usually bad luck, I'll try this instead:

If I did not think that setting release dates was bad luck, I would tell you all that SvenCo-op v1.9 would be released in one week's time, on the 16th of December, 2000.

Well, hope that worked... In the mean-time, here are four new screenshots from 1.9. The first is from a test map by Mad Jonesy, which. The next two shots are from the new version of Osprey Attack, by Sniper, and the last shot is from the updated version of SvenCoop1, by me :). All shots show off the new observer mode, which is currently available only with cheats enabled (and cheats are only available when "maxplayers" is set to "1").

By the way, the main thing that's currently holding 1.9 up is a strange AI bug -- If a friendly monster appears in a map before any other monster, just after Half-Life is started, all monster AI is messed up until Half-Life is reloaded. If a normal monster spawns first, though, everything runs perfectly 'till Half-Life is closed. Seems like an AI bug, but nothing with the actual AI has been changed. Weird :/.

If we can't get it fixed, we'll just make it so that friendly monsters need to be spawned using monstermakers/squadmakers (squadmakers allow mappers to do almost anything with spawned monsters that they can do with normal, placed monsters). This way, mappers can just make sure that a normal monster is spawned before anything else (even if only a couple of seconds before).

A new map is now available from the Files page... called Test Lab, it's sort of a mix between a killing-monsters-in-interesting-ways map and a walk-through map, split into multiple arenas. Petty interesting, anyway :). There tend to be a lot of monsters and such, by the way, so not sure of how well it would work over the Internet. The map was made by LordSlayer.

Version 4.0 of RandMap, the random map generator that works with SvenCo-op, is now available from the RandMap site. Looks pretty good... maybe support for friendly monsters and such, can be added once 1.9's released.

P.S., the 1.9 .fgd file will probably be released within the next few days... and a full feature list will hopefully be ready before 1.9.

Update: The bug that was making it impossible to post messages on the Message Board has been fixed. A new, less-buggy version of the message board script will hopefully be installed in the near future.

The site for Operation Retribution (the popular SC mission pack by SoBek) is now hosted on SvenCoop.com! New URL is: http://retribution.svencoop.com/ . Also, an OpR forum has been set up on the message board.

The Forge has posted a review of Sven Co-op, and given it 95% (and we didn't even have to bribe them! (much ;). Pretty good considering that they didn't try the newer maps :).

The Lambda Map Complex will hopefully begin reviewing SvenCo-op maps in the near future, which should be helpful for those who can't decide which maps to download. 

On a related matter (though it might not seem so), Sniper made up this great SvenCo-op button:... If anyone wants to use it to link to us, or offer us some type of paid jobs because of it, we won't complain ;).

A Poll has been added... The question is: Which player models from SvenCo-op v1.3 should be kept (or removed) in v1.9 of the mod? Click Here to fill it in!

Also, if you know of any really good player models that you think should be added to SvenCo-op, post info in this message board thread. Thanks :).

And lastly, I see from the new counter that quite a few people are still using Netscape 4 to view the site. Afraid that some of the pages on the site probably won't come out properly in Netscape 4, so it's highly recommended that those users upgrade to Netscape 6.

Don't know exactly why, but there were a few problems with the site yesterday... all seems to be working now, though. 

By the way, if you're coming here from planethalflife.com/svencoop/, UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS, thanks. (No idea of how long the forwarding page on PHL will stay there). Our new URL is: www.svencoop.com

Just a general update...

There's a SvenCo-op review up on Silent Games, as well as an interview with me :). Interview contains a bit of 1.9-related information.

A FileLeech mirror has been added for the Dogs map pack (sorry, intended to do it earlier, but forgot).

King_Cobra made this SvenCo-op banner. Pretty nice :).  :

Keen reports that a new version of his map, SectorE, will be released soon. More information is available from his MapFinger page.

Almost all the v1.9 features have now been added, BTW... some things still need fixing and altering, though.

Hi all... some people have been wondering how 1.4's going, so I made up a list of the current features that're in and working. It's not wonderfully organized, but should give you the general idea of things. By the way, we'll actually be calling it 1.9, when we release... I still call it 1.4 due to force of habit, though :).

TheDogs, by Colin, is now available from the Files page. It's a high-quality series of maps which takes players through a range of diverse and detailed environments filled with grunts and aliens. Pretty nice, imho :), and with six maps (four of which are quite long), it should keep you busy for a while.

  - Sven Viking

Update: FileLeech mirrors are now available for all files. Also, something weird happened to the message board, and we had to revert to a backup... many messages were lost :(.

Whew... well, it's taken a bit of work, but the new SvenCo-op site is finally up and running. Be sure to remember to update your bookmarks and such! (We're svencoop.com now). Many thanks to all the SvenCo-op team members, who've been doing an excellent job over the last few weeks! The new version of SvenCo-op's coming along pretty well, BTW... about 88% of the features are in, currently. Shouldn't be too long before there's only testing and tweaking and such left to do.

A lot of various stuff has changed on the site... in particular, the files have been completely resorted, and the maps are now compiled into a few map packs. BTW, if you're using Netscape, and haven't upgraded to Netscape 6 yet, make sure that you do, otherwise you won't be able to view some of the pages properly.

SvenCoop RPG, by DeathBog, is now available from the Files page. It's an imaginative walk-through map with a fantasy setting... the largest single SvenCo-op map I've ever seen, and probably ever will see :)  (4-mile wide boxes don't count). You travel through caverns, fortresses, dungeons, etc. trying to find the monster lord and destroy it... There are lairs about the place that spawn monsters, and if you don't destroy them quickly, you end up with hundreds of enemies (well, nearly hundreds) onscreen, slowing the framerate down, so be sure to destroy any lairs you come across as soon as possible.

BTW, you know how occasionally you join or start a server, and you can't see any entities (monsters/doors/etc.)? It seems to be a general Half-Life problem that occurs more often in SC, possibly because of the sheer amount of entities in many maps. Well, apparently you can fix it by using ResMan (a small, free prog) to compact your memory... easier than restarting or such. Thanks to VJC for the info on that.

By the way, in case you hadn't heard, the new version of Half-Life (v1.1.0.4) allows you to update your server list for a particular mod, so you don't have to download info for 10,000 CS servers when you're trying o find a game of SvenCo-op, or such (it's like "SmartSpy", but free). To do this, go to Multiplayer / Internet Games / Filter, set the "Are Running Game" checkbox to On, and set the combo box next to it to "svencoop", then click Filter, then Update.

A new version of the Half-Life Admin Mod is out... and they've moved to adminmod.org, so update any links or such. Also, there should be a new map pack or such released in the next day or two... "TheDogs", by cmcmillan (walk-through type).

  - Sven Viking