AI Director in AS

[17Noemvri]

From what i read in the 2nd sticky there is an Ai director much similar to the one in l4d by the use of the following commands

"asw_horde_override 1
asw_wanderer_override 1


Enables an AI director like in L4D.

asw_horde_class asw_parasite

Enables the AI director to spawn parasites (scary!)"

I find it adds a whole new layer or replayability & difficulty to the game since after a couple of playtroughs i tend to remember every scripted alien spawn and i my opinion this is what enabled those solo speed runs and not the Pre-Tesla or Flamethrower.
However there are some problems with this commands! Even though they work when you host a game and enter the commands before somebody joins, upon map change don't seem to work anymore. Curiously the console states they are still active. Entering the commands in a dedicated server config files produce the same results however they work randomly on some map changes. A work around to this is to have everybody disconect from the server set the values to 0 then back to 1 then vote for a map change. This is clearly tedious, a waste of time and ruins the game immersion.
I really wish the developpers had it active by default but my guess they did not do so is because it requires some additional tweaking.
Any imput would be greatly appreciated.

[banished_one]

I agree it would be great if this was 1 by default

http://alienswarm.uservoice.com/forums/68073-general

You can vote for it here

[truecrisis]

i think the commands work best on maps that have a swarm scene. i agree, it works best on the first map of the campaign.
but they do work on maps that dont.

if you look in your console, it states when a swarm is spawned.

lastly: horde_override is not the AI director, it just spawns a horde every 40-60 seconds
its not the same functionality as L4D

[17Noemvri]

Originally Posted by banished_one

I agree it would be great if this was 1 by default

http://alienswarm.uservoice.com/forums/68073-general

You can vote for it here

I voted yes even though random spawn of paraisites is a bad idea A bit of them maybe. Not too much!

[shackanaw]

Originally Posted by truecrisis

lastly: horde_override is not the AI director, it just spawns a horde every 40-60 seconds
its not the same functionality as L4D

Ah, so that is where the complaint that it wasn't random came from!

[17Noemvri]

Originally Posted by truecrisis

i think the commands work best on maps that have a swarm scene. i agree, it works best on the first map of the campaign.
but they do work on maps that dont.

if you look in your console, it states when a swarm is spawned.

lastly: horde_override is not the AI director, it just spawns a horde every 40-60 seconds
its not the same functionality as L4D

Yes already knew that there is even a sound cue when it happens. Sometimes the hoard comes the momement the lvl start & not after 40-60 sec so you better be ready!

[Vargs]

I was playing with it earlier today. You can even turn it on during public games, which confused the hell out of some people, haha. Definitely makes things harder, since all the static spawns still exist - these commands just add MORE. It's really fun having massive groups coming at you during holdouts.

My favorite bit so far was when we started up the very first map with a non-promoted level 1 pubby in our group. Everyone runs towards the first door that needs to be hacked except the new guy, who is lagging behind a little. Then he gets swarmed by a bunch of drones that aren't even supposed to be able to spawn in that area, and dies 20 feet from the spawn point. Best first impression to the game ever, I'm sure. He ragequit.

Another good story: We're on Timor, and everyone is dead except my friend, who is the tech. He's at the final hacking panel with all the personal medkits and ammo, where no aliens are supposed to attack. He keeps trying to hack the computer, but drones keep coming in a few at a time that he needs to fend off. He's running out of ammo. So he equips the ammo pack that a nearby dead teammate dropped, thereby tossing his weapon on the ground. At that moment, a good 30-40 drones swarm into the room in a giant clump and just flow over him like a tidal wave. Mission Failed.

Also, interesting fact: This director also seems to have no idea where to spawn stuff. I occasionally get a graphical glitch on Timor which makes all the floors disappear, and drones spawn all over the place underground, as seen here:
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/9928/directorc.jpg

[truecrisis]

Originally Posted by Vargs

Also, interesting fact: This director also seems to have no idea where to spawn stuff. I occasionally get a graphical glitch on Timor which makes all the floors disappear, and drones spawn all over the place underground, as seen here:
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/9928/directorc.jpg

this is the reason why the OP feels that its not working on the later levels.

as i said, it works best on the first level

also, its not really the director... dunno why people call it that.
there is a director in the game, but its disabled. theres CVARS for "director" referencing the "intensity" of the gameplay which is how the real director works. it reads how intense youre playing, and if its too low, then it increases the intensity.

[shackanaw]

Originally Posted by truecrisis

also, its not really the director... dunno why people call it that.

Because that is the word one of the developers used to describe it when he posted the commands on the Black Cat forums.

Edit: here is the post: http://forums.blackcatgames.com/show...2&postcount=13

Originally Posted by Dalai

There are some console commands to make the game harder if Insane mode isn't enough for you. Most notably there's asw_horde 1 which activates a L4D style Director who spawns random hordes of Swarm drones periodically.

There are several other commands you can abuse:

"asw_alien_horde" game cheat - Creates a horde of aliens somewhere nearby
"asw_horde_class" = "asw_drone" game cheat - Alien class used when spawning hordes
"asw_horde_interval_max" = "60" game cheat - Min time between hordes
"asw_horde_interval_min" = "40" game cheat - Min time between hordes
"asw_horde_max_distance" = "1500" game cheat - Maximum distance away from the marines the horde can spawn
"asw_horde_min_distance" = "800" game cheat - Minimum distance away from the marines the horde can spawn
"asw_horde_override" = "0" game - Forces hordes to spawn
"asw_horde_size_max" = "12" game cheat - Max horde size
"asw_horde_size_min" = "9" game cheat - Min horde size
"asw_max_alien_batch" = "10" game cheat - Max number of aliens spawned in a horde batch

[Zzinged]

asw_horde 1 doesn't actually do anything.
I tried using asw_horde_override 1 on an offline prac game with sv_cheats 1 and asw_director_debug 1 on and every time it was supposed to spawn a horde, I see 'Error: failed to find horde position'

Soooo I'm not sure if it's working? I'm still reasonably new to the game so I haven't memorised the spawns or anything. I will say though that it -seems- to be working because some games I get drones in the area before the first door on the landing zone map.

Edit: Ok so I played a bit more and after going past a few doors the spawns seem to be working now. I'm no longer getting the failed to find horde position error.