Sven Co-op: Pleasing Taste, Some Monsterism

SC 3.0 Preview Video #2, Important Message to Donors
11 October, 2003 | by Sven Viking

We've got another full preview video for you... first, though, here's an important message to anyone who's donated to Sven Co-op or received the Sven Co-op bonus features for any other reason (The message was E-mailed to all contributors, but a fair percentage of the addresses on the list no longer function). Anyway, if this doesn't apply to you, feel free to skip the next section.

As you may or may not have heard, Valve recently released a new version of Half-Life (v1.1.2.0), which comes with Steam. Older versions of Half-Life will stop working at some point, so everyone will need to upgrade eventually. The new version no longer uses WON IDs, however... it uses STEAM IDs. This means the list of WON IDs we use to give people the bonus features will no longer work. To keep your bonus features, you will need to get your STEAM ID to us so we can code it into Sven Co-op v3.0. CLICK HERE for full information!

P.S. - Thanks again to everyone who's supported the mod in the past! There've been a few times now where the mod would have had to close down if not for you. You guys are great!

A new Sven Co-op v3.0 preview video is now available from these locations: (thanks again to our mirrors!)

SpaceMonster - BYGames

The first section of the video shows one of the new maps included with 3.0: Vger -- as well as features such as the Minigun, the Black Ops Osprey, and player-allied monsters' ability to follow players. The second section shows another new map, Sandstone, as well as the new OpFor grunts, MADWHACK-enabled weaponry, etc.

Files are available here for playing the video under Linux or Mac OS. Windows users just need to double-click the EXE.

The Support page has been updated (the information was getting really out of date). If you're interested in helping the mod, please check it out.

I've also added a link up there in the corner of the page... we've always tried to keep the Support system as unobtrusive as possible (just the tiny link on the left-hand menu), but I get a lot of people asking me how you use the bonuses, and a few people actually accusing others of cheating for using the gilded Uzis or electric crowbar. We may have overdone the unobtrusiveness a bit.

Feature Demonstration Video: Edge Handling
9 October, 2003 | by Sven Viking

Here's a tiny video clip just to demonstrate v3.0's new edge handling system. Monsters can now jump from low ledges, meaning that friendly monsters can follow you into areas they couldn't before, and enemies are a lot better at chasing you. They aren't suicidal, though... they won't jump from ledges if the distance to the ground is too great.

The new edge handling system also helps with general pathfinding... there used to be problems with large monsters finding their way up ramps, for example. That's fixed now.

And here's another never before publicly announced feature: Most monsters now take falling damage just as players do. This will be particularly interesting on maps that have the barnacle grapple set to Pull monsters. (Note to mappers: Don't worry, monsters first spawned high in the air aren't hurt).

You can download the video HERE from SpaceMonster or HERE from BYGames. (5mb). You'll need the latest DIVX codec. The map shown in the video is just a test map.

P.S. - Nice, we're Mod of the Month on HalfLife.de!

First Released Sven Co-op for HL2 Content!
7 October, 2003 | by Sven Viking

We're still hard at work finishing off the last few things on Sven Co-op v3.0, and hoping Valve gets the Steam compatibility issues worked out. In the meanwhile, I just thought we'd better release something SCII-related, since I've been noticing that a lot of people don't even realize that we're working on Sven Co-op for Half-Life 2 (and a few of those who did see our earlier announcement are wondering whether we've given up on the idea).

To begin with, just in case you didn't see them on ModDB or the forums, here are the two pieces of SCII "Concept Art" that were released a month or two ago. ;)

More seriously: Yes, we are still working on Sven Co-op for Half-Life 2. Of course, since nobody has the SDK just yet, there are only so many things we can do... but luckily, one of those things is modelling. Below are some (slightly outdated) never-before released renders of one of our new weapons, the Sallington dry-chemical fire extinguisher:

The plan is for the fire extinguisher to work as a melee weapon, as well as generally being used to extinguish burning teammates and other fires. That is, players would be able to spray things with Primary Attack, and club things with the tank by pressing Alternate Attack. Foam could potentially inhibit certain enemies, and one or two alien types will actually be allergic to the chemicals used.

The model and skin were created one of our new team members, ZeroPulse. And yes, the labels were made from scratch, not scanned. Sallington is a fictional brand.

Afraid that's all we can reveal for now... maybe for quite a while, in fact. We should have a small SC v3.0 feature demonstration video for you pretty soon, though, so keep an eye on the site.

P.S. - Apologies to everyone waiting for E-mail from me, I've been having a lot of trouble keeping up lately. I'll try to get a lot of it sorted out tomorrow.