Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop News

It wouldn't be an Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop anniversary update without a shipload of fixes!

[h2]Missions[/h2]

• Jacob's Rest: Landing Bay: A crate in the welding tutorial room no longer allows bullets and grenades to pass through.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Deima Surface Bridge: The Bloodhound no longer does friendly fire damage.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Deima Surface Bridge: Moved the forklift and box on the bridge slightly so they are no longer hovering in the air.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Sewer Junction B5: Extended the escape area to include the southeast corner of the breach.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Timor Station: The Bloodhound no longer does friendly fire damage.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Timor Station: Fixed parasites walking on air at the final hack if a small bridge wasn't extended.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Timor Station: Fixed tech requirement staying active during data download.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Timor Station: Removed the delay for opening doors after power activation.
  
• Area 9800: Wastelands: Fixed marines being able to be thrown upwards into a deadly fall by shieldbugs during the final gauntlet.
  
• Area 9800: Wastelands: Fixed tech requirement staying active during data download.
  
• Operation Cleansweep: Storage Facility: Some barrels are no longer marked as debris and can be used for cover.
  
• Operation Cleansweep: Landing Bay 7: Cleaned up invisible walls in the final area.
  
• Operation Cleansweep: Landing Bay 7: Added lights and instructor hints to make it clearer where the escape area is.
  
• Operation Cleansweep: Landing Bay 7: Fixed tech requirement staying active during data download.
  
• Research 7: Transport Facility: Fixed walls turning invisible at certain camera rotations.
  
• Research 7: Jericho Mines: Fixed an invisible hole the floor near the laser.
  
• Tears for Tarnor: Insertion Point: Moved satelite dishes slightly to avoid them obstructing the view while inside the outpost.
  
• Tears for Tarnor: Abandoned Maintenance Tunnels: Replaced the broken window laser bypass route with stairs.
  
• Tears for Tarnor: Abandoned Maintenance Tunnels: The laser is now red because red lasers are more scary-looking. (Please stop walking into the laser.)
  
• Tears for Tarnor: Abandoned Maintenance Tunnels: Added CAUTION signs surrounding the path that goes through the laser.
  
• Tears for Tarnor: Spaceport: Fixed tech requirement staying active during data download.
  
• Tilarus-5: Arctic Infiltration: Fixed tech requirement staying active during data download.
  
• Tilarus-5: Yanaurus Mine: Expanded the area that counts as being on the elevator for starting it moving.
  
• Tilarus-5: Forgotten Factory: The Bloodhound no longer does friendly fire damage.
  
• Tilarus-5: Forgotten Factory: Fixed the elevator being blocked by dropped weapons.
  
• Tilarus-5: Communication Center: Fixed tech requirement staying active during data download.
  
• Lana's Escape: Lana's Complex: Extended escape area to be more intuitive.
  
• Paranoia: Unexpected Encounter: Fixed tech requirement staying active during data download.
  
• Nam Humanum: Platform XVII: Fixed platform being blocked from moving when marines stood in certain locations.
  
• Nam Humanum: Platform XVII: Fixed bot marines being left behind in some cases.
  
• BioGen Corporation: Operation X5: Fixed tech requirement staying active during data download.
  
• Reduction: Operation Sandstorm: Fixed strange terrain rendering near north-west objective.
  
• Reduction: Operation Sandstorm: The entry ship can no longer be destroyed by marines.
  
• Bunker: Removed a misplaced kill plane above the starting and ending rooms.
  
• Reversed Cargo Elevator: Expanded the area that counts as being on the elevator for starting it moving.
  

[h2]Weapons[/h2]

• M42 Vindicator: Made grenade visual effects more resilient against packet loss.
  
• Model 35 Pump-action Shotgun: Fixed reloading automatically when firing a double blast even if automatic reload was disabled.
  
• M868 Flamer Unit: Fixed reloading automatically while shooting extinguisher even if automatic reload was disabled.
  
• M868 Flamer Unit: Fixed the flamer appearing to fire while empty when automatic reload was disabled if there was only 1 unit of flamer fuel remaining.
  

[h2]Models[/h2]

• Forklift: Updated the physics mesh.
  
• Containerload: Added a physics mesh for cargo containers.
  

[h2]Misc[/h2]

• Fixed jittery movement of spotlight glows.
  
• Added cl_showspectators convar.
  
• Added Die() vscript function to inhabitable NPCs.
  
• Added "friendlyfire" property to sentry tops in Hammer.
  
• Removed and reverted the rd_drone_flinch_resets_attack convar.
  
• Added support for the "Back" command on the settings screen for custom UI reskins.
  

[h2]Infection Deathmatch[/h2]

• Fixed scripts breaking upon new round start.
  
• If you are still experiencing issues, please contact ModdedMarionette.

[h2]The IAF needs you![/h2]
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop will always be free, but that doesn't mean it doesn't take a lot of work from a lot of talented volunteers to make. If you can, consider making content for the Steam Workshop, reporting bugs, proposing code improvements, translating the game into your language, or sending a dollar to one of the people who made Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop possible. The IAF thanks you for your continued service, Commander.

It's that time of the year again. The anniversary of Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop's Steam release.

As always, Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop is only possible due to contributions from community volunteers in the form of donations, code, translations, and game content.

Also as always, there's a double experience bonus going on all throughout this week in-game, and if you look hard enough, you might be able to find some cake.

[h2]Mapping Competition 2025[/h2]
This year's theme is "Residential, Commercial, Industrial". Tag campaigns, missions, or challenges with RCI2025 on the Steam Workshop to enter. Competition entry deadline is August 1st, 2025.

There are a lot of missions in Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop, both in official campaigns and workshop content, that take place around infrastructure like highways, sewers, train stations, or power plants, or in hidden or remote laboratories and military installations. There aren't a lot of missions that take place where people lived and worked prior to the Swarm attack.

Let's change that. This year, your task is to make a short campaign, a mission (standalone, endless, or deathmatch), or a challenge that represents a place that feels "lived in". If you need help getting started, head on over to the Modding / Mapping Help and Tips forum.

It's 2025, and to start the year off we have a pile of community-requested fixes!

• Commanders searching for anomalous materials together may find them quicker.
• Added convar rd_chat_item_messages to opt out of messages about players obtaining items such as medals and crafting materials. (Suggested by Ax-now)
  
• Fixed commanders who opted into phase 2 but not phase 1 not being able to see certain informational UI elements in menus.
  
  
• Jacob's Rest: Deima Surface Bridge: Removed marine hints from an out of bounds area. (Reported by typical russian)
  
• Jacob's Rest: Deima Surface Bridge: Extended triggers on the bridge upwards to avoid players being able to accidentally jump jet over them and have infinite spawners never turn off. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Jacob's Rest: Deima Surface Bridge: Added an incorporeal ceiling in first and third person over the building where the first hack occurs.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Rydberg Reactor: Fixed missing rangers during the final holdout. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Jacob's Rest: Rydberg Reactor: Fixed a spot where marines could jump jet to their death. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Jacob's Rest: Rydberg Reactor: Extended escape area to the entire area beyond the last door. (Reported by typical russian)
  
• Reduction: Silent Station: Fixed missing aliens during the final holdout. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Reduction: Fallen City: Fixed a potential soft lock when skipping the skyscraper. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Reduction: Stowaway: Fixed the door opening sequence at the start of the mission being delayed if the door was not damaged. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Reduction: Inevitable Escalation: Fixed a spot where marines could die while watching the final cutscene. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Area9800: Landing Zone: Fixed the exit being accessible via jump jets before the door is open. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Area9800: Power Plant's Cooling Pump: Fixed the escape area not being treated as an escape area until all other objectives were completed.
  
• Lana's Escape: Lana's Vents: Fixed marine bots taking an unexpectedly long path. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Lana's Escape: Lana's Maintenance: Fixed an invisible wall with grenade collision at the northeast end of the map when the camera is rotated. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Operation Cleansweep: U.S.C. Medusa: Added protection against the doors of the main elevator getting stuck.
  
• BioGen Corporation: BioGen Labs: Fixed tech marine requirement not being properly removed after the last hack. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Research 7: Jericho Mines: Fixed hitbox for lava being too large. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Tilarus-5: Yanaurus Mine: Fixed an invisible wall with grenade collision. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Tilarus-5: Forgotten Factory: Fixed a broken door suggesting players weld it. (Reported by WTF-8)
  
• Tilarus-5: SynTek Hospital: Fixed a broken door suggesting players weld it. (Reported by WTF-8)
  

It's December, and that means it's time for the monthly update!

• There's a message here, addressed to you.
  
  
• M868 Flamer Unit: Adjusted friendly fire damage and duration on normal friendly fire difficulty. (Thanks, ModdedMarionette).
  • Hardcore friendly fire is unchanged.
    
  • Friendly fire with a flamethrower now once again ignites immediately.
    
  • Damage now scales up linearly rather than slower at the start and faster at the end of the burn duration.
    
  • Afterburn duration is decreased by the amount of time since the previous friendly fire incident, minus two seconds.
    
  • Maximum afterburn duration is 100%, and minimum is 18.75%.
    
  • This means the minimum burn time for friendly fire with default game rules is: Easy: 1.125s, Normal: 1.5s, Hard: 2.25s, Insane and Brutal: a little over 2.8s.
    
  • Afterburn from friendly fire is now counted as friendly fire in mission statistics.
    
• Chainsaw: Lag compensation is now disabled by default. (Suggested by WTF-8).
  
• Bot marines will use guns rather than melee when they have been damaged by multiple enemies in quick succession. (Suggested by WTF-8).
  
• Sentries that have ammo remaining now revert to box form when they are destroyed rather than being completely lost.
  
• Added several functions to the Director VScript interface for querying the list of NPC types. See the Valve Developer Community wiki for details. (Suggested by ModdedMarionette).
  
• Entities that push such as doors and trains now deal damage to non-boss aliens they are unable to push.
  
• Fixed a texture reference count issue with the LanguagePreference material proxy. (Reported by mutezero).
  
• Marine reservation time is now 2 seconds after an instant restart rather than the 30 seconds that a full map load provides. (Suggested by WTF-8).
  
• Added a new main menu background themed after the Nam Humanum campaign. (Thanks, mfz).
  

[h2]The IAF needs you![/h2]
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop will always be free, but that doesn't mean it doesn't take a lot of work from a lot of talented volunteers to make. If you can, consider making content for the Steam Workshop, reporting bugs, proposing code improvements, translating the game into your language, or sending a dollar to one of the people who made Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop possible. The IAF thanks you for your continued service, Commander.

• 22A7-Z Prototype Assault Rifle: Removed damage falloff from alternate fire. Now does 1 damage regardless of distance for any target it hits rather than some fraction of a point of damage.
  
• IAF Incendiary Sentry Gun: Fixed a 2010 era bug causing this sentry to consume 2.5 ammo per shot.
  
• Fire Extinguisher: This item can now always be picked up both in the temporary slot or in a normal weapon slot, rather than being decided per map location. Change rd_fire_extinguisher_force_temporary if this breaks your challenge.
  
• Mining Laser: Fixed a visual issue where the beam would appear to follow the player's aim direction when the laser was being fired by a bot added by that player.
  
• Increased the default size of the fast reload indicator (rd_fast_reload_under_marine_scale) from 1x to 3.5x.
  
• Guns will now consistently start their automatic reload immediately after becoming empty rather than waiting for the primary fire button to be released or the shot interval timer to complete.
  
• Lowered the damage threshold where Harvesters will not spawn Xenomites on death from 135 damage to 125 damage. The requirements that the damage dealt is more than double the Harvester's remaining health and that the damage type was blast remain the same. This means direct hits from rifle grenades should more consistently be able to cleanly kill wounded Harvesters.
  
• Fixed the lobby creation max players dropdown resetting to 4 when the menu is reloaded after changing a setting that moves to a different screen.
  

[h2]The IAF needs you![/h2]
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop will always be free, but that doesn't mean it doesn't take a lot of work from a lot of talented volunteers to make. If you can, consider making content for the Steam Workshop, reporting bugs, proposing code improvements, translating the game into your language, or sending a dollar to one of the people who made Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop possible. The IAF thanks you for your continued service, Commander.