How to make Alien Swarm dedicated server to automatically say announcements?

Question

What I want is to make my server to automatically print invitation text to every player when he connects my server. Or I want my server to say a message in fixed time interval. How do I do it?

Do I need to use SourceMod for this? If yes, how do I make it using SourceMod?

Asked by DIMEDROLL

Answer

It is needed to install SourceMod and Advertisements plugin. It has all the documentation. Here is an example of advertisements.txt:

"Advertisements"
{
    "1"
    {
        "type"      "S"
        "text"      "Please download the latest addon maps: www.moddb.com/games/alien-swarm/addons/alien-swarm-mappack-12"
    "flags"     "z"
    }
}

Answered by DIMEDROLL

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How to disable death camera and speed up level restarting in Alien Swarm?

Question

I have played on ASBI servers where death camera is disabled. Also there is a nice feature when the last player dies you don't have to wait and look at the "Mission Failed" and "Statistics" window but the level restarts quickly, writing with yellow text "Forcing ready..."

How do I create a server from inside a game to have these features enabled?

I have downloaded and installed ASBI's server.dll and h_alien_selection.txt. But this didn't help

Asked by DIMEDROLL

Answer

Quick restart isn't actually an ASBI feature. Anyone (who is server leader, of course) can do it. Just press F8 as soon as you see the red "Mission Failed" message, and look for a restart button at the bottom.

You can also use this F8-restart anytime during a mission, when you feel like the players who are alive right now are unable to finish the mission.

---

Sadly, death cam is tougher to disable. asw_marine_death_cam 0 does the trick, however, it requires cheats to be enabled. Moreover, as soon as you disable cheats, it goes back on.

How to do it: In main menu open the console, and write there sv_cheats 1 Enter asw_marine_death_cam 0 Enter and then type map <the map you want to play> (e.g. map as_sci1_bridge) Enter

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UPD: If you connect to an ASBI server, leave it and then make your own server, it will have some similarities to the ASBI servers, like no death cam and changed player collision. Restarting the game removes these effects.

If you're running a dedicated server, you can disable death camera by installing SourceMod and using such command:

sm_cvar asw_marine_death_cam 0

Answered by BlaXpirit

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What ports does Alien Swarm use?

Question

I keep on getting disconnected from Alien Swarm (after 10 retries the game auto disconnects) And I remembered that I'm getting very few ports to my computer. What ports should I forward to my computer so that I can play most effectively?

Asked by McKay

Answer

I believe 27015 is the port you should be forwarding for client connection. A server can be hosted on any port, but this appears to be the default one.

If you want to host a dedicated server, you would need to forward 27005 as well.

Alternatively, this post on Steam forums suggests enabling

• UDP 27000 to 27020 inclusive
• TCP 27020 to 27050 inclusive

Answered by Oak

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What is the quick load achievement in Alien Swarm?

Question

Today, after 3 hours of game, I gained

Quick Load - Successfully perform a fast reload.

but I really didn't understand what it is and how I got it. Can you explain me what to "perform a fast reload" means?

Asked by Drake

Answer

When reloading a gun, there's a meter in the bottom left corner. Inside the meter there is a small grey rectangle. If you press your reload key a second time while the white bar is inside the grey rectangle, you will reload in double quick time (and work towards the relevant achievements).

You may find it helps to move the reload bar much closer to your character by changing the following cvar: asw_fast_reload_under_marine 1.

You'll have come across this before if you've ever played Gears of War.

Answered by Lee

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How can I add bots to an Alien Swarm online game?

Question

How can I play Alien Swarm with only one friend and have the AI control the other two characters?

I find it very difficult to play with only 2 characters, and I'd like to fill the empty slots with AI.

I know it must be possible somehow.

EDIT: The accepted answer works, but the bots don't do anything more than firing (no healing, no welding, nothing). I have to control them to do anything more than just firing.

Does anybody know how to solve this?

Answer

To add a bot to your game: cl_selectm (marinenum) (slot)

To remove a bot from your game: cl_dselectm (marinenum)

(marinenum) should be between 0-7 and corresponds to the character to be added.

(slot) should be between 0-3 and relates to the player slot the bot will fill. -1 can also be used; this will fill the next available slot.

These commands must be used while in the lobby; using them anywhere else will result in invalid command errors.

Source/More information

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Does adrenaline cause the in-game clock to slow down in Alien Swarm?

Question

I'm currently gunning for the speed-run achievements in Alien Swarm, and as a result every second counts for the level completion time. It occured to me that it might be helpful to get through the hacking sections as fast as possible if one activated adrenaline immediately before starting the hack; however, this would only be useful for the level time if adrenaline slowed down the clock counting the level completion time as well as everthing else.

Can anyone confirm that adrenaline slows down the level completion time clock, or is this idea pretty much useless?

Answer

Adrenaline slows down both the level completion time clock and game-time (they are the same thing in Alien Swarm).

I played Landing Bay on Normal difficulty to check. The first Landing Bay run had a completion time of 2:18 with no adrenaline. Second Landing Bay run had a completion time of 1:43 using 9 adrenaline packs. If adrenaline did not slow down level completion time then the second run would have been 3 minutes (that was real-time) instead of 1:43.

In case you didn't know, a number of wire hacks (with ones in Deima Surface Bridge being an exception) can be bypassed by cutting down doors with a pair of chainsaws. This has saved me plenty of time on speed runs :) Unfortunately computer hacks can't be bypassed.

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More Alien Swarm Campaigns?

Question

I have played a bit with Alien Swarm now, and after 17 hours the default Jacob's Rest campaign starts to become known. Are there around any good campaigns? Do they plan to release other official campaigns?

Answer

As of August 2010, there are currently no other official campaigns other than Jacob's Rest. It is unknown whether or not more official ones will be released, so only speculation is possible at this point. However, the game shipped with a SDK so players could make their own maps and campaigns. If you check the game's official forums, you can find information there about custom maps and mods that players have created.

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Alien Swarm: how should we go about Oustanding Execution?

Question

I've got most Alien Swarm achievements under my belt. In fact I'm missing:

1. SynTek residential speed run (time limit on a map)
2. Nuke from orbit (kill 100,000 swarm)
3. Outstanding execution (complete the entire campaign without anyone dying)

Nuke from orbit is basically easy (dunno if I'll even try though), and I'm sure the speed run can be done with some practice. I'm sure Outstanding execution would eventually come by just grinding, but seriously, that's a lot of work. But it's the achievement that I want most (after Hardcore, which I already got).

I think the main problem is stupid deaths. The friends that I'm playing with can handle themselves, same as I. We usually play hardcore friendly fire so we've learned not to kill each other (except the occasional panic), and we rarely play below hard onslaught at all. So the basic potential should exist, but I just don't think we'll manage a full campaign even on normal difficulty by playing the usual way. Yes, we've briefly tried on a couple of occasions.

What advice would you give?

Answer

Here would be my advice :

• Play as a team (you already do)
• Play in normal mode to make it easier (you've already figured that out)
• Have a full medic (with both gun and medic packs to put on the ground) or at least with medic gun and play around him he is the center of the team.
• Take items that stun / freeze / slow but don't do damage to help a teammate in bad position without destroying him (best example : Freeze grenades).
• Secure some positions halfway if someone is low health to take time and heal everyone with health beacon (use turrets if needed to secure position).
• In normal, its really easy, so use a fighter to open the way and another one to close it, put medic and engineer in the middle.
• Don't separate to finish faster, its the best way to make stupid mistakes.
• Rush is better because aliens don't have time to spawn, but only if everyone is following and you protect medic well.
• Don't fight all with flamethrower (because it doesn't kill instantly), one or two is enough.
• Don't use grenade launcher, it's the best way to make a stupid mistake and kill a teammate (use freeze grenade instead)

That's about all, it's usually fairly easy to achieve if everyone stays concentrated and doesn't run around alone thinking its too easy.

EDIT : For synteck residential** EDIT : For synteck residential speedrun, can't remember the names but if its the first one. All members of the team need to take chainsaw to destroy doors, it goes faster than using adrenaline with an engineer or unsealing. Also use weapons that don't slow you when using them or recharging (shotgun is good, flamethrower isn't).

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