Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop News

Today's update includes map changes, translation updates, and some polish on the medals system.


A quick update on the changes that have happened since the release of the medals system:

The art for the Heroes of the Interstellar Armed Forces medals has been remade by Ax-now. There are now four variations of the "top 100" medal, cycling once each per year.

Players with the "top 100" medal have also been awarded the participation medal, in case they prefer how it looks.

Medal icons now load from the API rather than being packaged with the game, so in the future adding new medals will not require a game update. They're also slightly sharper than before.

We're in the process of adding community medals. They can't be equipped yet, and as of this post only Beta Tester and Translator medals have been given out. Once they have icons, they will be equippable without the need for an additional game update.

The Beta Tester medal is automatically given to anyone who completes a mission on the beta branch. Due to a bug, some of you may have gotten it earlier today just by starting the game during a certain time window. Oops! Consider yourselves honorary beta testers.

• Research 7: Illyn Forest: Fixed some drones moving at 1.5x the intended speed.
  
• Research 7: Illyn Forest: Fixed director parasites spawning underground.
  
• Research 7: Illyn Forest: Inverted colors of generator health bar to avoid confusion.
  
• Research 7: Illyn Forest: Replaced a dynamic light with static lighting to improve frame rate.
  
• Research 7: Illyn Forest: Improved end generator area visuals.
  
• Research 7: Illyn Forest: The generator being broken no longer fails the mission; it can now be repaired.
  
• Tilarus-5: Midnight Port: Fixed another case of quantum-entangled doors.
  
• Lana's Escape (all missions): Fixed mission titles missing "Lana's".
  
• Lana's Escape: Lana's Sewer: Reduced shaman healing speed on easy, normal, and hard.
  
• Paranoia: Crucial Point: Fixed aliens near the end of the mission getting stuck.
  

• Added rd_buzzer_blur convar as a method of disabling blurpoison effects for computers that don't handle it well.
  
• Experimentally changed how buzzer poison is updated (asw_motionblur_forceupdate). If you want to help squash this bug, see the thread in the community hub discussions.
  

• Temporary weapons (except for generic objects and extra weapons) can now be picked up in an empty primary or secondary slot.
  

• Updated Chinese translation.
  
• Updated German translation.
  
• Updated Italian translation.
  
• Fixed inventory item data that appears on the Steam Community always being shown in English ingame.
  

• The in-game HoIAF leaderboard can now be toggled to show Steam friends or nearby-ranked players and has a button to open the website.
  
• asw_player_avoidance is now replicated and thus available for use in challenges.
  
• Fixed a crash when a marine tried to move on an empty server.
  
• Added HUD support for asw_draw_kills 1.
  
• Added cl_auto_restart_mission, a convar that causes the lobby leader to restart missions on fail automatically.
  
• Minimum controller aim distance moved slightly further from the marine.
  
• Fixed a rare case where chat could lose keyboard input focus.
  

• Fixed SetSpeedModSpeed input not working on marines.
  

Today's update adds medals, fixes a wide range of bugs in official campaigns and the UI, and adds a few goodies for mappers.


You can equip a medal from your Steam inventory and it will appear in lobbies (not in demos or singleplayer) next to your promotion and level.

There are three medals currently available to start: a medal for participating in Heroes of the Interstellar Armed Forces (awarded at the end of a season), an upgraded version of the medal for placing in the top 100, and a medal you can earn by completing the Ready for Duty achievement in Team Fortress 2.

We've granted medals for Heroes of the Interstellar Armed Forces Season 1 to about three quarters of the participants. We can't add items to your inventory if you haven't played for over a month, but we will retry weekly for up to a year. If you're missing a medal from longer than a year ago and you've played the game recently, contact support@reactivedrop.com.

• Jacob's Rest: Landing Bay: Disallow director on spawners that spawn aliens from air or metal floor.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Landing Bay: Move some spawners so that spawned aliens aren't stuck in clips.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Landing Bay: Convert some nodes to marine hints, so that onslaught aliens aren't stuck.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Cargo Elevator: Fix visible spawn animations of drones climbing out of concrete floor.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Cargo Elevator: Fix spam in console for missing unborrow activities for parasites and harvesters.
  
• Jacob's Rest: Cargo Elevator: Prevent harvesters appearing from air near marines.
  
• Operation Cleansweep: Storage Facility: Fixed three doors existing in a quantum state where welding one could weld the others as well.
  
• Operation Cleansweep: Storage Facility: Made a decorative door near the end of the mission indestructable.
  
• Research 7: Research 7: Fixed some places where aliens could fall through the floor.
  
• Research 7: Research 7: Fixed some invisible walls when rotating the camera.
  
• Research 7: Illyn Forest: Changed how aliens attack during the generator defense event. Aliens should no longer get stuck in an unkillable attacking state. The generator can now take friendly fire damage.
• Research 7: Illyn Forest: Updated lighting and water.
  
• Research 7: Jericho Mines: Removed the mechanic of destroying the door panel which only confuses players and makes them locked with the queen and fail the mission.
  
• Research 7: Jericho Mines: Significantly reduced the chance the queen will be blocked by anything. Including barrels, sentries, aliens.
  
• Research 7: Jericho Mines: Allowed usage of sentries, but they will be destroyed by queen if players try to block her.
  
• Research 7: Jericho Mines: Added backpacks to dead on-map marines bodies.
  
• Research 7: Jericho Mines: Improved visuals for rotated camera.
  
• Research 7: Jericho Mines: Added soundscapes.
  
• Tilarus-5: Communication Center: Fixed some light props hanging in the air.
  

• Updated Chinese translation.
  
• Updated Italian translation.
  
• Fixed out-of-date compiled closed captions for some languages.
  

• Disabled the game instructor hints for "toggle equipment orders" and "hold to walk" on controller.
  
• Added some stat tracking for use in a future update.
  
• Fixed some developer messages being written to the console with developer 0.
  
• Fixed minimap rotating independent of view when spectating a bot in first person.
  
• Death cam now temporarily forces the camera to third person if enabled.
  
• Fixed a game freeze when selecting the "find more" option in the mission chooser with the Steam Overlay disabled.
  
• Fixed a crash when looking up a challenge's metadata while partially connected to a server.
  
• rd_dump_workshop_mapping_client and rd_dump_workshop_mapping_server can now be filtered by specifying a filename prefix.
  
• Kills are now tracked per player rather than per marine when updating global stats. This means that if you inhabit multiple marines in a mission, you will get credit for all of your kills on the stats website, and if you switch to a bot marine that had many kills right before the mission ends, those kills will not count towards your stats.
  
• The mission chooser will default to the campaign you selected when switching missions before creating a lobby, and to the deathmatch tab when voting on a map to play after a deathmatch map ends.
  
• Connecting to a server via a lobby now checks server_blacklist.txt.
  
• The dedicated server browser window will no longer get stuck open.
  
• Disabled asw_instant_restart on challenges that use vscript.
  
• Added asw_instant_restart_debug to log the actions taken during an instant restart.
  
• Added convar asw_marine_shadows, which can be disabled to remove shadows from marines and potentially boost frame rate.
  
• Clicking a name on the F9 player list now opens their Steam profile in the overlay.
  
• Added asw_client_chatter_rate (client) and asw_client_chatter_enabled (server) to limit the cl_chatter command. By default, it is limited to 1 voice line per second and the cl_chatter command is allowed.
  
• Added a change mission button in the campaign transition screen.
  
• Added a default player name color for players not controlling a marine, and made player names team-colored in team deathmatch.
  
• Non-campaign missions now save selected marines between retries.
  
• Fixed a bug where watching a recording of yourself accepting a promotion would accept a promotion if you were eligible to promote.
  

• Added the "silent" keyvalue to all types of grenades. Setting it to 1 prevents the grenade from producing any sound.
  
• Added the CreateEffects input to boomer and mortarbug explosives. This spawns the sounds (unless "silent" is set) and particle effects that would normally be spawned when an alien creates these explosives.
  
• Added rd_door_melee_damage, asw_welding_scale, and asw_goo_burning_damage convars for use in challenges.
  
• Added a GamePause vscript function.
  
• Challenge convars are re-checked more frequently.
  

Today's update includes fixes for first person and some upgraded objectives for mappers.

• Fixed the auto-aim icon not appearing on enemies when using a controller.
  
• Fixed being unable to turn in first person on controller.
  
• Fixed the vindicator's secondary fire aiming at the marine's feet in first person.
  
• Fixed other weapons changing the aim angle when using secondary fire.
  
• Marines are no longer pushed in circles if they walk into another marine in first person while facing south.
  
• The current player's marine now has a shadow and a reflection in first person.
  
• Fixed bot marines being invisible when swapping marines in first person.
  
• Marines now aim at the crosshair in first person rather than aiming parallel to their eyeline.
  
• Arbitrary minimap rotation (such as in first person or during death cam) will now cause objective areas and the map texture to be clipped to the minimap area rather than the weird stretching that existed before.
  
• Added some missing alien names for asw_objective_kill_aliens.
  
• Fixed asw_controls 0 sometimes acting like asw_controls 1 in multiplayer.
  

• Removed deprecated fields from asw_objective_* in Hammer. Specifying one map marker with the BRACKETS syntax will still work as before for compatibility with existing maps.
  
• Added a SetIncomplete input to asw_marker.
  
• asw_marker can now be rotated, including during gameplay.
  
• asw_marker positions and statuses now update immediately rather than once per second.
  
• Added SetProgress and SetMaxProgress inputs to asw_objective_triggered. These can also have their initial values configured on the entity. If max progress is positive, objective progress for things like end-of-mission experience is determined by these inputs. Does not automatically mark the objective as complete or incomplete.
  
• asw_objective_countdown can now be configured to be any type of disaster countdown, not just nuclear detonations. Sounds, text, and failure animation are editable in Hammer.
  
• asw_objective_countdown can now be started again after it has been cancelled.
  
• Implemented asw_objective_kill_queen.
  

Today's update adds an official First Person challenge, fixes sticking points in instant restart, improves readability on small screens, and fixes damage visual effects.

• Fixed zombies, headcrabs, and antlions not showing overlays for status effects.
  
• Fixed AI and ragdolls for headcrabs.
  
• Fixed a hitch when antlion workers used their ranged attack for the first time in a level.
  
• Fixed antlion worker spit aim.
  
• Antlions and headcrabs that deal poison damage now use the HL2 behavior for poison (heal over time).
  

• Instant Restart: Now clears spawn selection.
  
• Instant Restart: Now clears the VScript VM.
  
• Instant Restart: Now clears loadout editing state for briefing.
  
• Instant Restart: Now clears the mission restart countdown.
  
• Instant Restart: Chat is no longer closed during restart.
  
• Fixed a server crash when a marine with no associated player tried to move.
  
• Computers and wire panels no longer show the mouse cursor if a controller is being used to access them.
  
• Deselecting a marine in briefing now properly clears the tooltip.
  
• If rd_chatwipe is 0, chat history is no longer temporarily hidden when the mission starts.
  
• Added an official First Person challenge.
  
• Fixed first segment of rd_boss_bar being misaligned.
  
• View punch, poison blur, screen shake, and HUD damage indicators now work while spectating.
  
• The main HUD font no longer scales below 20px (960px tall resolution). At 720p, this is 33% larger, and at 800p (Steam Deck resolution) this is 20% larger.
  

• Changed how info_marine_hint and info_node_marine_hint look in Hammer to avoid confusion with other hint entities.
  

Today's update is a maintenance release, fixing some bugs as Heroes of the Interstellar Armed Forces rolls over to the start of Season 2.

• Certain older Workshop addons are now marked as Bonus Missions or Deathmatch in the new mission chooser.
  
• Added rd_workshop_unconditional_download_item convar for dedicated servers as an experimental workaround for addons not receiving updates. Set it to -1 to update every addon at server start, or a positive number to update every addon after that many map loads.
  
• Cleaned up some unnecessarily chatty logging.
  
• Manual mission restarts now stop adrenaline.
  
• Error messages that use EResult error codes will also include the corresponding name.
  
• Fixed challenge names being truncated to 3 bytes in the server browser.
  
• Fixed inability to activate ingamebriefing or playerlist after an instant restart.
  
• Fixed missing location (mission) names on screenshots.
  
• Heroes of the Interstellar Armed Forces: Added the Accident 32 campaign to the list of approved missions.