It took a while, but the Sven Co-op Contest Map Pack is finally here! Click here for screenshots of all maps.
Please note that Propanic is not included in this pack, and will be released separately at a later date. There are two reasons for this: 1. The map and its custom files are 325MB in size! (Even compressed, it would more than double the size of the map pack) 2. It pushes the limits of the engine so much that a crash bug in 4.07 prevents it from being played to the end. For this reason, we will probably release an updated version of the map at the same time as Sven Co-op 4.1.
2nd place: sc_propanic - by TrEmPlEr (not included in map pack)
3rd place: deadsimpleneo2 - by Nih
Runners up:
Mystic Radar - by RNG
Shanghai Harbour - by MysticMDT
sc_Inbound - by Moaby
Man's Answer - by Naigel
Gears of War 2 - by Cyberdaemon
sc_S28 - by The fox
sc_Castle - by generic
4Ways - by agrs700
Many thanks to: All entrants; CryoKeen, JPolito, and all contest judges; and Noesis Interactive, for providing additional contest prizes! Full details on the contest, and prizes received by the winners, can be found here.
Sven Co-op in Mod of the Year awards 12 February, 2010 | by Sven Viking
Thanks to all the people who apparently voted for us in ModDB's Mod of the Year 2009 awards -- even though we'd made no mention of it this year! We were ineligible to place in the top ten due to winning in a previous year, but thanks to you, ModDB gave us this nice write-up under Honorable Mentions (don't know if being second in the list means anything?)
Featured in every single MOTY since we first started, Sven Coop is one of the oldest mods on the ModDB database yet still being developed and still popular as ever. Its no surprise that its an honorable mention again.
We were also one of only two Half-Life mods listed in the Top 100 Mods & Indie Games category. Here's a little Golden Spanner Retrospective to mark the occasion:
In 2004 we won 1st place in the Best Action Mod category, and 2nd place in the Best Mod category! (Just under what is now a commercial game). Sven Co-op for HL2 was also voted the #1 most anticipated mod (unfortunately, real-life issues have since left the project stalled indefinitely).
In 2005 we ranked 5th in the Best Mod category, beating out most HL2 mods. :)
From 2006 onwards, previous winners were ineligible to win again -- but we did get an Honorable Mention, as we did this year. -- Thanks again for your support! As usual, development of the next release is dragging on for longer than we'd like. We do have some interesting and highly unexpected features in the works, though, so it's not all bad news. A deadline has also been set for final contest map bugfixes, so hopefully those will be released sometime soon. Stay tuned.
This Post Censored In Australia 25 January, 2010 | by Sven Viking
Just a quick post to apologise for the pop-up, and also to mention that: it is temporary, we are not being paid for it, and it should only appear once to each person. (Update: Now removed, as the protest is over).
Once implemented, Australia's compulsory Internet filter will block Refused Classification games like Left4Dead 2 and Aliens vs. Predator. Since it would be impossible to block individual Steam games with this filter, the entire Steam service would theoretically be blocked if Valve didn't comply with all censorship requirements. This would also block Sven Co-op for those living in Australia (including some team members).
Sven Co-op 4.1 News Update - Anniversary edition 19 January, 2010 | by Hezus
While we may have been keeping quiet about our progress on Sven Co-op 4.1, we certainly haven’t been sitting around doing nothing. Since today happens to be Sven Co-op’s 11 year anniversary, we figured it would be an appropriate time to share some of the things we have been working on.
Aside from tons of crashfixes, bugfixes, AI improvements, balance tweaks, etc., SC 4.1 is also set to include a large set of new entities that will radically expand the possibilities level designers have when creating their maps, which should help ensure a steady influx of fun, original maps in the future. A brief resume of the new entities and their functions:
trigger_changevalue: Changes the keyvalue of an entity. Can perform arithmetic operations or even binary logical operations on values.
trigger_copyvalue: Copies a keyvalue of one entity to another keyvalue of another entity.
trigger_renameplayer: Allows the mapper to provide individual players with a targetname. This could be used to attach various things to players, or perhaps to create player classes with different abilities.
trigger_condition: Compares the keyvalue of an entity with a value specified by the mapper, and fires a true or false target depending on the result of the comparison.
trigger_changemodel: Changes the model of an entity. Supports players and playermodels. Useful for mutating enemies, force changing playermodels or ambient model effects.
trigger_vote: Allows a mapper to trigger custom votes. Useful for canceling cutscenes or choosing difficulty levels.
trigger_createentity: Allows a mapper to spawn any entity he wants as well as set the keyvalues for it. Keyvalues can be copied from other entities, e.g. the brush model of a func_pushable.
game_player_counter: This entity checks how many players are on the server and triggers its targets if the specified values match.
game_slot_counter: This entity checks how many slots the server has and triggers its target if the specified value matches.
func_clip: Serves as a clip brush but gives more control over what gets blocked. Also allows players to be blocked.
env_weather: Allows mappers to create weather effects such as rain or snow.
More detailed information on the new entities, as well as changes to original entities, can be found in this thread.
If you’re not entirely up to date on mapping lingo, or would just like to hear some examples of what exactly these new features could be used for in the game, here are some possible usages:
Using trigger_changevalue and its arithmetic functions, a mapper could set up a system for buying weapons or detpacks. Using trigger_renameplayer and trigger_condition, a player with the "Demoman" class could then set up a detpack on a wall. With the wall broken down, a Gargantua is revealed. Using trigger_copyvalue to copy its health value, the gargantua will gradually become more enraged as it takes damage, and a trigger_changemodel entity will increase its movement and attack speed. Various scripted events will also be triggered, and the garg will start breaking down the building it is in. The garg will eventually call for some of its xen pals for backup, and the number of xen creatures teleported in will be proportional to the amount of players on the server, using the game_player_counter entity.
In case you're more of a visual person, we also have a test video showing some of the new features:
These are just a tiny fraction of the things made possible with these entities, so there is a lot to look forward to!
The Community Map Project Released! 24 December, 2009 | by Nih
While you’re all waiting for the contest maps to be finalised and hopefully enjoying the unexpected release of Land of Legends, we’ve decided to bring you another Christmas surprise. Can you guess what it is? Well you don’t need to, as I will reveal it in the following paragraph:
The project was originally started in December 2002, and it might even be argued that the project is older than that. Long-gone forum poster OmEgA came up with the idea of a joint mapping project, where multiple mappers would collaborate in the creation of one large mappack. The project quickly gained interest from a lot of people, and it ended up involving a total of 15 different mappers, 8 of which have had previous maps included in official SC releases. Work on the mappack, dubbed the Community Map Project, fluctuated, with periods of low and high progress, and the project was frequently declared to be dead, only to later be revived.
Well, it’s done now. These 7 high quality maps will take the players through an epic ride of interesting environments and exhilarating gameplay experiences. Enjoy
