Alien Swarm update adds AI Director, new difficulty
August 24, 2010 - 8:18am
Alien Swarm has been updated!
The patch includes a new AI Director, who will analyze your team's performance and change the mission accordingly. It also includes a new mode, "Onslaught."
More info HERE.
The patch includes a new AI Director, who will analyze your team's performance and change the mission accordingly. It also includes a new mode, "Onslaught."
With that in mind, we've added "Onslaught" mode, which introduces an AI Director that dynamically generates swarms of aliens based on several factors, such as the squad's stress level. Onslaught works with any difficulty setting and ensures no mission plays the same way twice.
More info HERE.
August 24, 2010 - 12:12pm
#1
A Fantastic update to an already fantastic game - I love how the AI Director works in L4D/L4D2, so I can only imagine this will function in a similar way 
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August 30, 2010 - 8:18pm
#2
Onslaught mode is simultaneously the best and worst thing to happen to Alien Swarm. Best, because let's face it - it's incredibly cool and makes the experience a lot more enjoyable and a lot less predictable. Worst because it reduces so many players to whining crybabies who bitch at me to turn off Onslaught and quit the first time a mission fails, even if it's over something stupid, like the engineer taking a left instead of a right and walking into 15 parasites. And considering I'm basically forced to play alone, and thus forced to rely on strangers to help me, I'm forced to put up with demanding halfwits who insist on playing on Easy with three Medics, if possible.
Do you see now why I'm so stubborn about solo content in MMOs?
More to point, though, Onslaught transforms Alien Swarm into a completely new game. You never know what to expect around the next corner, which keeps you on your toes. Is this corridor going to have the same five bugs you expect, or is it going to have a shield bug? You walk through a safe door and suddenly a parasite jumps on your face. You're walking around when you hear the subtle clue that a Swarm is incoming, and immediately you lock your eyes on the Engineer's motion scanner to see where the Swarm is coming from.
It means more bugs, more surprises, more exciting fights and, sadly, a greater need for team play and at least a basic level of player skill, or at the very least knowledge. Simple stuff, such as "Pumping shotgun rounds in your team-mate's back is bad." or "You're a Tech, YOU need to hack this console, because my Officer ass can't." or "If you pick the Medic class, then frikkin' take a Medkit or a Medic Gun, you asshole!" or "If you intend to rush ahead and solo the entire level, don't get pissed off if we let you get eaten by an Swarm and then laugh behind your back." I mean, it's not complicated. You'd think that sort of thing would be obvious, but I guess it isn't. I'm not even talking about obscure stuff like "You can bypass the fire in level 4." or "You can cut the door and shave off a third of the level in level 3." I'm talking about stuff as simple as "Don't be an idiot!" yet random game joining seems to team me up with idiots virtually all the time. Making the game slightly more complicated just makes that problem worse.
Do you see now why I'm so stubborn about solo content in MMOs?
More to point, though, Onslaught transforms Alien Swarm into a completely new game. You never know what to expect around the next corner, which keeps you on your toes. Is this corridor going to have the same five bugs you expect, or is it going to have a shield bug? You walk through a safe door and suddenly a parasite jumps on your face. You're walking around when you hear the subtle clue that a Swarm is incoming, and immediately you lock your eyes on the Engineer's motion scanner to see where the Swarm is coming from.
It means more bugs, more surprises, more exciting fights and, sadly, a greater need for team play and at least a basic level of player skill, or at the very least knowledge. Simple stuff, such as "Pumping shotgun rounds in your team-mate's back is bad." or "You're a Tech, YOU need to hack this console, because my Officer ass can't." or "If you pick the Medic class, then frikkin' take a Medkit or a Medic Gun, you asshole!" or "If you intend to rush ahead and solo the entire level, don't get pissed off if we let you get eaten by an Swarm and then laugh behind your back." I mean, it's not complicated. You'd think that sort of thing would be obvious, but I guess it isn't. I'm not even talking about obscure stuff like "You can bypass the fire in level 4." or "You can cut the door and shave off a third of the level in level 3." I'm talking about stuff as simple as "Don't be an idiot!" yet random game joining seems to team me up with idiots virtually all the time. Making the game slightly more complicated just makes that problem worse.