The Telic Campaign
An Unofficial
Expansion Pack for Alien Swarm
Last Updated
: 08 Dec 2005
The latest version
of this manual is available
online
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
The Telic Campaign is an unofficial expansion pack
for the Unreal
Tournament 2004 award winning total conversion, Alien Swarm. In Alien Swarm, you
control a squad of space marines through dangerous missions
agaisnt hordes of hostile aliens. Alien Swarm isn't just another bug
hunt, in order to succeed you will need to command your soldiers
strategically and make use of each marine's special ability and
equipment to achieve different objectives throughout the mission. Alien
Swarm supports single player or multiplayer cooperative mode with up to
8 players. If you haven't played it yet, download it now
and connect to
a server or add it to your next LAN party.
The Telic Expansion Pack builds upon this extremely
fun gameplay by
bringing eight new, unique missions in the form of a complete campaign.
In addition to the maps, Telic expands the Alien Swarm universe with
new weapons, extra items, more dangerous enemies, original mission
objectives and modifications to the
standard game rules.
The following are some of
the new elements that
Telic brings to the game:
* A unique campaign with 8 new missions.
* Varied mission environments: from abandoned bases
and high tech labs and underground caves.
* Seven new weapons that add on to the existing
arsenal.
* New equipment items: demolition explosives, sentry
gun
assembly kits, chemical grenades and more.
* Original music and sounds.
* Additional creatures with custom models and
challenging tactics.
* New interactive objects, npcs, mission objectives,
custom triggers
and more.
* Tweaked game rules to enhance the cooperative
aspects of the game.
* Optional mutators allowing players and server
admins to
customize the gameplay.
The basic principles of Alien Swarm are retained:
vibrant non-stop
action
and challenging situations that require active cooperation from
the whole team. Stay sharp, watch those corners and remember.. short,
controlled bursts.
Installation
System Requirements
* Unreal Tournament 2004 - Updated with the latest
patch
* Alien Swarm 1.3
* A computer that meets the minimum system
requirements for UT2004
* Telic can run on any OS supported by UT2004
(Linux/MacOS/Windows)
Installing Telic
To install Telic, just unpack the contents of the
zip file to your
UT2004/ folder, making sure that you keep the directory structure
intact when extracting the files. Telic
will not overwrite any existing game or ini files.
If you wish to do it manually, move the files to the
correct folder
using the guide below:
*.ut2
files go in UT2004/Alienswarm/Maps
*.utx files go in UT2004/Alienswarm/Textures
*.uax files go in UT2004/Alienswarm/Sounds
*.u and *.int files go in UT2004/Alienswarm/System
*.usx files go in UT2004/Alienswarm/Staticmeshes
*.ukx files go in UT2004/Alienswarm/Animations
*.ogg files go in UT2004/Music |
Playing Telic
Playing online
The best way to enjoy the Telic campaign is to play
it with other
people, joining a public server online or setting up a LAN game. In
order to play online, launch Alien Swarm normally and connect to a
server that has Telic installed. The Telic team maintains an official
dedicated server that runs the campaign at the following address:
[TES]
Telic Server
|
Ip
Address: 195.13.62.130 Port: 28600
|
Once in the server, bring up the map vote window
(normally 'F1') and
select the entry 'Telic Campaign'
to
start a new campaign.
Launching Telic
offline
Launching Telic for a single player game is pretty
straightforward. The
easiest way is to launch Alien Swarm normally, go into the single
player menu, and then select 'Custom
Campaign' -> 'Telic Campaign'
. When launching Telic this way, you can easily resume the campaign
from the last completed map by selecting 'Continue last custom
campaign' from the menu.
Advanced:
If you want to launch Alien Swarm directly into the
Telic campaign or
you want to play Telic with the Telic Mutator, you need to
start the game with a batch file that sets a few command line
options. Included in the distribution, there is a script StartTelicCampaign (.bat file
for Windows, .sh for Linux) to do this. You might need to edit the
script if the game is installed in a non-standard location. The command
in the script is:
(Windows version)
start
..\System\ut2004.exe
AOL-TelicCampaignLobby.ut2?Game=AoCustCamp.AoCCLobbyG
ameInfo?CustCampStr=AoTelicCamp.AoCCTelicCampaign?CampaignSlot=11?NewGame=Yes?Slo
tName=Telic?Mutator=AoTelicBeta.MutTelic?CampaignType=Custom
-mod=AlienSwarm
(Linux version)
exec ../ut2004
AOL-TelicCampaignLobby.ut2?Game=AoCustCamp.AoCCLobbyG
ameInfo?CustCampStr=AoTelicCamp.AoCCTelicCampaign?CampaignSlot=11?NewGame=Yes?Slo
tName=Telic?Mutator=AoTelicBeta.MutTelic?CampaignType=Custom
-mod=AlienSwarm
|
To remove the telic mutator, you just need to delete
the
string
"?mutator=AoTelicBeta.MutTelic" in the command line. You can also
resume previous campaigns by selecting the appropiate "CampaignSlot"
and setting "NewGame=No".
To change which parts of the Telic Mutator get
activated, you can use
the admin interface to the mutator using 'mutate' commands, or write a
mutator section in the AlienSwarm.ini file with the configuration
variables. Check the section "Mutator options"
for detailed information
on this.
Listen
server
To start a listen server running Telic, you just
need to have Telic
installed as described above and start an Alien Swarm listen server
normally. Players joining the server will be able to vote for a new
Telic Campaign using the map voting menu, as the custom campaign
mutator gets loaded by default.
Advanced:
If you want to run the Telic mutator on the
listen server, you
will have to launch the server from the command line. The Telic
distribution comes with a script (TelicListenServer)
that launches a
listen server with the Telic mutator enabled. Depending on your
installation, you might need to edit the script to point at the
location of your ut2004 binary. The command line options
for this are:
(Windows version)
start
..\System\ut2004.exe
server AOL-TelicCampaignLobby.ut2?Game=AoCustCamp.AoCCLobbyG
ameInfo?CustCampStr=AoTelicCamp.AoCCTelicCampaign?CampaignSlot=10?NewGame=Yes?Slo
tName=Telic?CampaignType=Custom?Mutator=AoTelicBeta.MutTelic?Listen
-mod=AlienSwarm
(Linux version)
exec ../ut2004
server AOL-TelicCampaignLobby.ut2?Game=AoCustCamp.AoCCLobbyG
ameInfo?CustCampStr=AoTelicCamp.AoCCTelicCampaign?CampaignSlot=10?NewGame=Yes?Slo
tName=Telic?CampaignType=Custom?Mutator=AoTelicBeta.MutTelic?Listen
-mod=AlienSwarm
|
To load a previously started campaign, just change
"NewGame=No".
For mutator configuration options, check the section
"Mutator Options"
below.
Dedicated
server
If you want to host a dedicated server that runs the
Telic Campaign,
you need to install the Telic distribution as detailed above, and add
the following lines to your server config file (typically
AlienSwarm.ini in the AlienSwarm/System directory) at the end of the
[Engine.GameEngine] section :
ServerPackages=AoTelic
ServerPackages=AoTelicBeta
ServerPackages=AoTelicGuns
|
Nothing else is required to allow people to play the
Telic Campaign on
your Alien Swarm server. The campaign can run independently of the
mutator, but if you want the server to run the Telic Mutator for
additional modifications (recommended), you need to add the string
"?Mutator=AoTelicBeta.MutTelic" to the server startup command. The
configuration of the mutator can be done interactively using 'mutate'
commands when you log in as server admin, or by setting the
appropiate configuration variables in the server ini file under the
header [AoTelicBeta.MutTelic].
See the section "Mutator Options" for a
detailed explanation of the variables and configuration options.
Please note that the Telic Campaign weights about 80
Mb compressed, and nearly 150 Mb uncompressed. If you add the Telic
Campaign to the
server, any players joining the server should be required to have
Telic previously installed in their systems, as downloading the
whole campaign from the server or redirect is likely to waste a lot of
bandwidth.
Mutator options
The Telic Mutator adds a variety of different
options to spice up the
game. All the options are run from a single mutator, and can be
configured via mutate commands by a server admin and through a section
the configuration file. The Telic Mutator is not required to play the
Telic Campaign, and is not loaded by default when a new Telic Campaign
is selected. However, we advise server admins to run the mutator with
default options on a server running Telic for a better experience of
the campaign.
To load the mutator, you need to add the string
"?Mutator=AoTelicBeta.MutTelic" when starting the game. By default, the
mutator is very unintrusive and runs
with all the optional features turned off except on Telic Campaigns. If
you want to activate any of the optional features outside the Telic
Campaign, you can add the following section
in the AlienSwarm.ini file:
[AoTelicBeta.MutTelic]
bAddTelicEquip=True
bAddTelicHelmets=True
bAddTelicStims=True
bAddNoFFAward=True
bAddTelicMelee=True
|
Setting the variables to 'True' or 'False' will
Enable/Disable that
particular feature of the mutator:
- bAddTelicEquip
:
Adds the
new Telic equipment to the roster screen in non-Telic maps or
campaigns.
- bAddTelicHelmets
:
Adds the helmets to the marines for any map. Helmets
play an important role in some Telic maps by allowing marines to
breathe in hazardous environments. The addition of helmets to
non-telic maps is really just cosmetic and
doesn't affect the gameplay.
- bAddTelicStims
:
Adds the Telic Stims, and removes the stim pack from
the equipment list in the roster. The Telic Stims work by assigning a
default stim pack to every marine - medics get 3 charges, other marines
1 - instead of having stim packs as an optional extra item. This
default stim pack shows up in the HUD and is activated via the "stim"
exec function that players can bind to a key.
Other stim packs that might exist in the map are not
altered. The purpose of this modification is to remove the need to
select stim packs as extra equipment, freeing the slot for other useful
choices. We found that games played with Telic Stims tend to be less
dependant on constant slow motion action, and more geared towards
cooperative action and tactical use of the inventory.
To bind a key
to the 'stim' function, assign a key to "Use Stims" in the settings
page or use the command "set input some_key stim". E.g.
to bind the 'x' key to the stim function, bring down the console (press
TAB or ') and type:
- bAddNoFFAward
:
Adds a new 'Special Merit' medal that gets awarded
to players that have not caused any damage to other fellow marines
during the mission. In the Telic Campaign, players get an extra
accuracy star when they are first awarded this medal. Adding it to
other campaigns or single maps will just let you know at the end of the
mission which marines didn't hurt any fellow players.
- bAddTelicMelee
:
When this option is activated, melee attacks can
affect other marines. Sometimes it is useful to
nudge fellow marines in order to grab their attention.. :)
Mutate
Commands:
The mutator can also be configured in game by the
server admin using 'mutate' commands. The 'mutate' function in the
Telic Mutator accepts the following arguments:
- ShowConfig - Shows the current configuration for
the mutator.
- ShowOptions - Shows the list of options that the
mutate command accepts.
- AllOn - Sets all the mutator config variables to
True.
- AllOff - Sets all the variables to False.
- Equip - Toggles the Telic Equipment.
- Helmets - Toggles the Telic Helmets.
- Stims - Toggles the Telic Stims.
- NoFFAward - Toggles the FF Award.
- Melee - Toggles the Telic Melee.
- AddToTelic - Toggles the default behaviour of the
mutator
when running Telic Campaigns.
Eg. If you are running the mutator with all the
options turned on, and want to
remove the Telic Stims in the following maps, log in as server
admin and type:
You should get the message: "Telic Mutator:
Telic Stims set to False", and the stims will work as usual in
the following maps.
Every time an option is changed in the mutator, the
current configuration is saved to the ini file.
Note that none of the mutator options will have any
effect on
default Sigma or Ortega campaigns. At the request of BCG, we decided to
turn off the mutator when running Sigma and Ortega in order to keep the
game balance of those campaigns in their original form. If you want to
play Sigma or Ortega campaigns with the Telic additions, you can still
create a Custom Campaign that recreates the missions and lobby map of
those campaigns and run the mutator on top of them.
Telic Equipment
Primary equipment
- Mustard 280-A Machinegun
Ammo Type: Autogun
Clips: 2
Clip Size: 250
Auto-Aim: Yes
The Mustard 280-A is a solid, belt-fed machine gun,
that fires armor-breaking, 7.62 x 51mm full metal jacket rounds at an
approx. cycling rate of 320 shots per minute.
Originally intended to be used as a tactical
support-fire weapon in small squads, the
bulky M280 series has lately been adapted to allow a single person
to effectively fire it on the move. Although the primitive tracking
sensors
are no match for the sophisticated targeting mechanism of the Autogun
and the single barrel design is prone to overheating, the M280-A easily
makes up for it with just one thing: raw power.
- G119 Morita Carbine
Ammo Type: Rifle
Clips: 5
Clip Size: 99
Auto-Aim: With
alt-fire (lock), flares or flashlight
Lighter and more compact than the 22A7-Z
Prototype
AR, the G119-Morita trades versatility and ease of use against stopping
power and supreme firing precision. Instead of a grenade launcher, the
carbine comes fitted with an infrared tracking device that captures
scanner signals.
On secondary fire, the weapon can identify and
obtain a clear lock on hostile targets. Perfectly suited for long-range
support and situations that require a maximum level of control: no need
to panic when ammo runs low, the Morita makes every single bullet count.
- XM21 Hunter Rifle
Ammo Type: Hunter
ammo
Clips: 5
Clip Size: 12
Auto-Aim: With
flares or helmet lamp
The Hunter Rifle is a new addition to the IAF
arsenal. This model is constructed of a lightweight composite material
that allows it to be carried over large distances with relative ease.
It fires 60mm bullets at a speed of around 1500 m/s, delivering a fatal
blow that is enough to kill most targets in one shot. Although the IAF
doesn't restrict the use of this weapon, it is generally recommended
only to marines who have shown outstanding accuracy during the course
of their career.
- Shenk SMG
Ammo Type: SMG
magazine
Clips: 10
Clip Size: 30x2
Auto-Aim: No
The SynTek Shenk SMG belongs to a brand new
class of
small arms intended as defensive sidearms for second-line troops,
vehicle crews and other military personnel normally not issued with
assault rifles. With an impressive rate of fire and special
high-velocity ammunition, the Shenk delivers a formidable knock back to
any targets at short range. The use of low-weight polymer
reinforcements and potent recoil stabilizers, coupled with its
revolutionary design, make this submachine gun a very controllable and
comfortable to fire weapon.
- GLR80 Grenade Launcher
Ammo Type: Grenades
Clips: 3
Clip Size: 6
Auto-Aim: No
Taking a true explosives expert to handle,
the GLR80 is an extremely versatile device, ideal for clearing
obstacles or fighting heavily armored targets. The launcher features a
six-shot, revolving grenade magazine and a digital detonation manager
that is capable of several firing modes. The standard setting is
contact-triggered explosion. Skilled marines are able to shoot grenades
that can be bounced around corners or can stick to a target, and which
can be conveniently detonated remotely or by a sophisticated proximity
detector. Ammunition that's gone amiss can be collected and reused.
Simply put: If everything else fails, try a 40mm HE grenade.
- Ammo Bag
A standard issue IAF pack containing extra ammo for
the marine's weapons, with supplementary ammunition for the new
weapons. The ammo bag allows a marine to hand out ammo to marines
that need it midway through the mission, either by dropping the clips
on the floor or using the right click option on the portraits.
Extra items
- T75 Explosives
Mark T75 explosives are currently the all-rounder
detonation packs used by IAF demolitions experts to clear paths,
collapse tunnels, sabotage machinery or even bring down a medium sized
building if necessary. A single pack contains a 850 gramm bore charge
of tetra-nitric fluorine acid solvent (2700 standard unit equivalents),
chemically treated with stabilizing agents. The IAF recommends extreme
caution when handling explosive devices.
- Reserve Grenades 'Sixpack'
Reserve grenades are carried separately in a
special, heat resistant container, since IAF safety regulations now
prohibit highly explosive ammunitions to be transported in a standard
ammobag, after several strike teams were obliterated during
unfortunate flamer accidents. Contains fragmentation grenades for the
22A3-1 Assault Rifle, stun grenades for the 22A7-Z Prototype Assault
Rifle or incendiary grenades for the M42 Assault Shotgun, depending on
the type required by your primary weapon.
- Electronic Sentry Kit
While the simple setup of an automated sentry gun is
a task all IAF marines are drilled to accomplish in under ten seconds,
reloading and dismantling a unit is a more complicated business that
requires both a set of special tools as well as some mechanical talent.
Field tested wrench, turnscrew, reserve bolts, microwelder, digital
voltmeter, diagnosis unit and five ammo cartridges come nicely packed
up in an ergonomically designed carbon fibre coffer.
- Helmet Lamp
An ion lamp that can be attached to the
marine's helmet. The ion flashlight operates at short intervals to
deliver a powerful beam of light under the most adverse conditions.
When the lamp is operating, rifle class weapons can benefit from a
small amount of auto-aim.
- SN2 Gas Grenades
A set of 6 grenades, containing aggressive chemicals
that affect the Xenomorph's nervous system effectively. These grenades
are only available to medical personnel that have been treated with SN2
agent inhibitors.
- Magnum Revolver
These vintage Colt revolvers were acquired by Pvt.
Bastille as a set in an auction in Paris. The frenchman takes great
pride in his personal guns, and painstakingly crafts the .387 calibre
bullets himself with mercury filled tips. The extra explosive charge
gives the bullets a very high velocity and increased killing power.
Upon impact, the mercury rips away the tip of the slug splaying the
lead outwards, tearing through flesh and bone alike with tremendous
efficiency.
- Oxygen Tank
It is generally advisable
to search for and equip an O2 tank before beginning to explore
areas are low on oxygen or contain a high concentration of
contaminants. Oxygen tanks complement the IAF powersuits
efficient recycling systems, providing you with a virtually unlimited
supply of oxygen. With a tank equipped, you can also refill your
powersuit oxygen or that of a close-by fellow marine by
hitting the 'use extra' key ('F' by default) or
selecting the 'Refill Oxygen' option from the right-click menu.
Unfortunately this is a somewhat lossy procedure and can only be
performed a limited number of times before the tank runs empty.
Telic Missions
- Aqueduct
Design: Sniper1
Brief: Life support systems in the colony have been
severely damaged by the
swarm. A quick intervention is required to reactivate the water
processing units and clean the facility from infestation.
Threat: Hazard
Location: Water Plant
- Saviour
Design: smattbac
Brief : Command received a distress signal from the
complex of warehouses north
of Aqueduct. Deep thermal scans of the colony indicate a high
probability of human life in this compound. Any survivors should be
brought back to the dropship.
Threat: Soldier
Location: Warehouse 14
- Daylight
Design: Donator
Brief: N/A
Threat: Unknown
Location: Uncharted
- Mercury
Design: Butters
Brief: The mercury processing plant is running
unmaintained since the swarm
outbreak. The Telic fleet intends to destroy the colony nuking the
mercury reservoirs from orbit.
Threat: Code Red
Location: Refinery
- Fetch
Design: smattbac
Brief: The biolabs have been unmonitored centres of
advanced xenomorph
research since Telic established the colony. Command requires a full
report of the facility and evidence of the research activities of the
corporation.
Threat: Parasite
Location: BioLabs
- Sabotage
Design: Steroids
Brief: Intelligence reports that this complex hosts
the main computer hub and
the protected backup systems of the colony. Hacking into the 'Mondrian'
mainframe, we hope to gain access to Telic's classified data.
Threat: High
Location: Operations
- Tunnel
Design: Donator
Brief: An unkown cargo shipment has been remotely
activated by Telic in the
transportation hub of the colony. Your orders are to intercept the
convoy and destroy the cargo before it travels out of the colony.
Threat: Arachnid
Location: Transport Hub
- Underneath
Design: Donator
Brief: N/A
Theat: Unknown
Location: Uncharted
Mapping with Telic
content
If you want to include some of the Telic content in
your map, beware that most likely wou will be requiring players to have
Telic installed in order to play your map (in this sense Telic behaves
like a Bonus Pack in UT2004) - which is in general a bad idea.
If you wan to use some of the new actors found in
the Telic code packages, you should add the lines:
EditPackages=AoTelic
EditPackages=AoTelicGuns
EditPackages=AoTelicBeta
|
In the section [Editor.EditorEngine]
in
AlienSwarm.ini.
The rest of the content (static meshes, textures,
sounds, etc.) is
accesible by opening the relevant package within the Editor. If you
want to use an isolated element, say a static mesh or texture, but want
to make your map independent of Telic, you can always embed the object
in the map by saving it into MyLevel. Beware that some objects are not
straightforward to embed, as they might depend on other packages in
Telic (a static mesh might be using a texture from a telic package,
actors often depend on other classes or use assets like meshes, sounds,
etc.).
If in doubt, feel free to email us and let us
know what
Telic content you would like to use.
Playing tips
The basic tip to survive the Telic campaign is to
play cooperatively and to use squad tactics when moving through the map
accomplishing the different mission objectives. The
difficulty in Telic is probably a notch above the official campaigns,
as the telic missions normally have parts that require active teamplay
and cooperation to be completed. Here are some tips that we found
useful during beta testing:
- Hold on
to your helmet! : Marines begin all Telic missions
equipped with the standard IAF powersuit including a combat helmet.
When entering potentially hazardous places,
the marines' powersuits will auto-pressurize and draw oxygen from the
suit's reserve. This in indicated by a blue 'O2' icon and a
counter in the top left corner of the display. If you take extremely
heavy damage, your marine might lose the helmet and the suit will be
unable to pressurize in hazardous environments, so make
sure you pick up your helmet again or find a new one as soon as
possible.
- Learn
to use the new equipment : In Telic you will need to learn the
advantages and
disadvantages of the new weapons and how to use them wisely. The new
Telic
weapons are balanced with respect to the existing equipment, and while
they
offer some
advantages over the standard weapons, they often introduce some
drawbacks. You will have to learn how to make the most out of them and
make wise
selections of equipment for each mission.
- Use the
extra items: Extra inventory items often play an important role
in Telic maps. Bringing a welder, flares or a flashlight, a sentry kit,
explosives, etc. will be of great help for the trickiest parts of a
mission. If the Telic Stims are enabled in the Telic mutator, the extra
slot will always be available to accommodate useful inventory items.
Think tactically and try to select the right equipment for each mission.
- Plan
ahead: The Telic Campaign takes the cooperative aspects of Alien
Swarm one
step further. Many missions will require the team to perform
coordinated actions in different parts of the map, and most Telic
missions just cannot be completed with only one marine. Learn to talk
to
your teammates and plan the tactics ahead of time, try to keep together
and forget about 'ramboing' the maps.
Team
Core
Butters: "The Butcher" -
Hacking, Level Design, Team Coordination
Donator: "The Innovator" -
Level Design, Coding, Writer, Voice Actor
smattbac: "Multitasker" -
Code Magician, Level Design, All-Rounder
Sniper1 : "The Artist" -
Models and Animations, Level Design, Web Wizard
Steroids: "Waveglider" -
Music and Sounds, Level Design, Promo Vid
Contributors
Big_D: Coding and Mapping Support, Testing
Carth: 2D-Art, Testing
Mek: 2D Art, Mapping, Web Support
Voice Acting: DeepQantas, Mordengaard, Broken Arts, Dana
Beta Testing: Baz, Killer-MK1, MjrHurtz, Cpt.Exo, UArch, Mac_Jedi
Acknowledgements
Fluffy: fanboy #1
Flauschi for donating his Alien Swarm server
Renzatic for letting us use "AO-Fuel"
Sithlegend for his weapon models from Annihilation Arsenal
SquirrelZero for his dynamic flashlight code
Spinefinger for the Shenk concept
Dalai for handy code hooks in Alien Swarm 1.3
Black Cat Games for a kick ass mod and valuable feedback
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