Sven Co-op: Pleasing Taste, Some Monsterism

Screenshots/AI Improvements
30 July, 2003 | by Sven Viking

Sniper gave me a few screenshots demonstrating a couple of his more recent improvements to monster AI/pathfinding.

The first image shows how monsters will now move to the edge of ledges if it'll help them gain line-of-sight with their target.

The second and third images show the way enemies will now choose their positions to prevent friendly-fire... as you'll see, the grunts in the screenshots have lined up partially surrounding the player in order to all have a clear shot.

Another AI improvement (not demonstrated in these images) is that monsters will now run away from zombies when they get too close, instead of standing there firing while the zombies whack them.

More news to come within the next few days, hopefully...

Interviews In All Directions
18 July, 2003 | by Sven Viking

HomeLAN has posted an interview with Jerig and me, talking a bit about plans for SvenCo-op for Half-Life 2.

HomeLAN: First, when did the mod team decide to create a co-op mod for Half-Life 2?
Jerig: Because it's there? Working on making a mod for one of the most popular multiplayer games out there has been a kick, and the lure of doing the same for the sequel is even stronger. There is a lot we've learned from our first effort that we'd like to do better the next time, and also a lot of new features in Valve's new engine we'd like to exploit. There's a lot we were unable to do in the first SC, more things that because of early decisions we couldn't shoehorn in later, and many ideas we'd like to expand upon.

As well as this, HalfLife-Mods.com has posted their own Sven Co-op 2 interview.

Timmay: Is your development team hiring people? If so, is there any way to contact you?
Sven Viking: We recently added a few artists to the team. Apart from that, we’re always in need of more people to create and submit quality co-operative maps (these are handled in a free-lance fashion, similar to Counterstrike, although we release official map packs). Sven Co-op is a fairly mapper-oriented mod… we give mappers as much power as we can to create the experience they wish to create. Our mapping features and gameplay systems combined with Half-Life 2’s advanced mapping technologies will allow level designers to create some pretty incredible content.

These'll be the last SC2 interviews for a while... we've mentioned pretty-much everything that we're able to talk about at the moment. This doesn't mean that there won't be news, of course.

Sven Co-op v3.0/SvenCo-op 2 Interview
15 July, 2003 | by Sven Viking

Half-Life.de has posted a SvenCo-op interview, with some information on both SvenCo-op 3.0 and SvenCo-op for Half-Life 2. You can read it here, in German, or here, in its original English.

Some listings on the Features/Changes List have been clarified a bit, by the way.

New Sven Co-op v3.0 Features/Changes List
14 July, 2003 | by Sven Viking

An updated SvenCo-op 3.0 Features/Changes List has just been uploaded... I'd post it in the news here, but it's just too long.

There are now over 100 items on the list (this is just the changes since the last release), and it doesn't even list unfinished features. The new weapons are left off the list, for example, because there's still some tweaking to do on them (and also because it'll be more of a surprise this way)... so there'll be some extra items on the final list, some of which will be pretty significant.

On top of that, some of the listings (e.g. "Global and per-entity sound replacement added.") could take up about a page in themselves, if we went into any detail :). There's still a lot to read, but it's well worthwhile doing so... there are some pretty important features in there that we just haven't had time to announce individually. The node graph/monster navigation improvements alone have a considerable effect on gameplay, just for example... and you can give commands to NPCs/friendly monsters who're following you, now.

If you have any questions about the way features from the list work, or what they do exactly, post them in this forum thread, and we'll try to get back to you.

P.S. - The artist positions have been filled -- there'll probably be a news update about it later on. Thanks to everyone who applied!!

SC2 Interview
8 July, 2003 | by Sven Viking

ComputerAndVideoGames.com has just posted a SvenCo-op II interview, with some discussion of Sven Co-op for Half-Life 2.

Just a quick note on current happenings: Jerig's basically back now, and should be able to help Sniper finish up the 3.0 code over the next while. Nivekdev is going to help a bit in his spare time, too. All in all, things are going pretty nicely :).

SC Team Announces Sven Co-op For Half-Life 2
1 July, 2003 | by Sven Viking

SVENCO-OP TEAM ANNOUNCES SVEN CO-OP FOR HALF-LIFE 2
WAIKIKAMUKAU--July 2, 2003--The SvenCo-op Team announced today that Sven Co-op for Half-Life 2, sequel to the popular Half-Life co-operative modification, is currently in late planning stages. Valve Software, creators of Half-Life and its upcoming sequel, have recently expressed interest in helping the SvenCo-op team following the release of Half-Life 2.

“The team and I are currently working to finish the project design so we can immediately push forward once we get our hands on the SDK“ said Sven Viking, SC Team Leader. “We really feel that with Half-Life 2, we will be able to take co-operative gameplay to the next level.”

Sven Co-op, the original Half-Life co-operative mod, is currently the most popular co-operative modification in the world, with over 100,000 recorded downloads of the v2.0F installer.

Sven Co-op for Half-Life 2 will benefit not only from Half-Life 2’s highly advanced engine, greater volume of content and extensive feature set, but also from new and innovative gameplay resulting from four years of experience with the genre. Among the new features will be the ability for mapmakers to create their own game modes, and features to make gameplay more rewarding.

Work on Sven Co-op for Half-Life 2 will not impact the development of Sven Co-op 3.0 or the They Hunger Co-op conversion. Watch www.svencoop.com for news of these projects in the near future.
About the SvenCo-op Team:
The SC Team has extensive and varied experience developing computer mods -- some members have had over four years of experience in establishing and working with co-operative gameplay. Their first project, Sven Co-op (initially released January, 1999), has received both critical and public acclaim, and was chosen to be exhibited by the team at the 4th Annual Half-Life Mod Expo in Dallas, Texas. Visit www.svencoop.com for further information.
About Valve Software:
Founded in 1996, Valve creates entertainment software titles, including Half-Life®, Counter-StrikeTM, and Team Fortress®. Valve's portfolio accounts for over 8 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 88% of the online action market. More information about Valve is available through the company’s Web site at www.valvesoftware.com.

By the way, we're also looking to add an artist or two to the team (2D, skinning and/or 3D). Reliability essential. If interested, please send an E-mail to sven@svencoop.com with work examples.

Update: We've disabled the forums temporarily, as there've been so many people coming to check the announcement that the server has been having trouble coping (pretty incredible, considering we're no longer serving big downloads from the site or anything). We'll open them up again as soon as the rush is over.

P.S. - PortailMods has translated the press release into French, if you find that easier to read.