40K Source

Edited 4 Nov 2012
Last weekend we released Beta 7.0 the new, stable version of EX that I expect to be playing regularly for months to come.  This means I am now free to start hacking about with the code, adding new features and breaking stuff.  Before I start on the big stuff I want to make some balance tweaks and UI improvements to make the 7.x Alphas even more playable.

Download 7.01 (3,943 KB)
40ksource.com (http://40ksource.com/files/ex_alpha_patch_7.01.zip)
chromeangel.co.uk (http://www.chromeangel.co.uk/Exterminatus/Downloads/ex_alpha_patch_7.01.zip)

More patches bellow

Installation instructions
If you already have a copy of the EX alpha, delete it.  If you don't already have Beta 7.0 download and install it as normal.  Copy the sourcemods/ex folder containing beta 7.0 to sourcemods/ex_alpha (so you can still play the beta version too).  Extract the 7.01 patch to your sourcemods folder ( they should overwrite files in the ex_alpha folder ).  Restart Steam.  You should now see both the Exterminatus Beta 7.0 and Exterminatus Alpha listed in your library.

Features

• New map entity ex_team_filter to enable mappers to filter various trigger entities based on which EX team the activator belongs to (now including ex_capture_objective).  I plan to phase out the previous ex_filter_team and ex_filter_one_team entities by the release of the next beta.  New FGD included in the patch, so mappers can update their maps.

Tweaks

• Moved ex_capture_objective team filtering capabilities to the new ex_team_filter entity.  This may well break several existing maps.
• Added a second light to capture objectives to show how close to capture it is.
• Added a hint to Hold the USE key to capture objectives target IDs.
• Added a hint to breakable objectives target IDs.
• Fixed horizontal scrolling on menu items with more that 6 items.  Use cursor keys to scroll or click on end buttons,

Balance

• Buffed the damage Deathspitter do from 25 to 27
• Nerfed Tactical marines by removing their Bolt Pistols
• Buffed Tactical marines by giving them a 3rd spare clip of Boltgun ammo
• Buffed Apothecaries by giving them a 3rd spare clip of Bolt Pistol ammo
• Nerfed all Missile damage by 20%.
• Buffed Carnifex armor against high damage.

Bug Fixes

• Attempted to fix an intermittent server crash caused by dying Servoskulls.

Edit 14 Oct 2012
New sound effects and HUD icons are being developed by community contributors, I hope we'll be seeing the fruits of their labors in coming weeks.  On the coding side i've cracked the problem of full-screen loading images, but i'm not including it in this patch because the map loading images need re-working to be suitable for  full-screen viewing.  Work has been started on the signature weapon for an Assault marine class, a combination of chainsword and boltpistol, that looks for Jump key presses to trigger a jump pack effect,. but this still needs a lot more work before testing can begin.

I had some good suggestions for new features following this weeks games (on a more practical scale than "add Orks" or "add Chaos").  I would welcome more suggestions like these being written up after the games where I can keep track of them.

Feature

• Class menu is always shown when the player dies, all classes are displayed.  Classes that cannot be afforded are grayed out. (this was actually in last weeks alpha, but the grayed out images were missed out of the patch).  I'm hoping this will answer the FAQ "How do I change class?"

The 7.01 patch (see above) has been fixed with the addition of the missing images.  Re-download and extract to your SourceMods folder to apply the patch.

Edit 21 Oct 2012
It's been slow going on the Assault code this week,  I would have preferred to spend another week working on the AM, but I know how you guys like regular updates.  The Jump pack is not 100% complete in this build, but I want to start testing how fast marines impact the balance.

Feature

• New tier 2 Assault marine class (see below)

Tweaks

• Restored the global time limit feature from HL2DM and defaulted it to 26 minutes.  ( I hope this will fix the client crashes when a server has been idle for long time)
• Target IDs for allied objectives should now say "Defend" rather then "Use" or "Break",
• New biovore crosshair.
• Update Boltgun view model.

Download 7.02 (15,887 KB)
40ksource.com (http://40ksource.com/files/ex_alpha_patch_7.02.zip)
chromeangel.co.uk (http://www.chromeangel.co.uk/Exterminatus/Downloads/ex_alpha_patch_7.02.zip)

More patches bellow

Installation instructions
Install 7.01 as above.  Extract the 7.02 patch to your sourcemods folder ( they should overwrite files in the ex_alpha folder ).  Restart Steam.  You should now see both the Exterminatus Beta 7.0 and Exterminatus Alpha listed in your library

Assault Marine Alpha
The new Assault Marine (AM) is a tier 2 class and may replace the Veteran as the marines melee class (I need you're feedback on that).  The assault marine's signature weapon is a combination of chainsword and boltpistol, primary attack is the pistol, secondary attack is the chainsword.  With this combo equipped AM can perform a long jump by pressing Sprint and Jump at the same time.  The Jump feature has a 4 second cooldown (same as the Genestealer's leap.  AM also get 4 frag grenades, as the Jump is feature of the signature weapon, not the class, he cannot leap with grenades equipped.

Known Issues

• AM portrait uses the Veteran image.
• AM Chainsword doesn't animate unless it's within range.
• AM combo weapon looks like he's holding a plasma pistol in the 3rd person view.
• AM combo weapon is using Veteran Combo animations.
• AM player model is using Veteran animations.
• AM player model materials are still work in progress.
• AM cannot use his jump pack unless his combo is eqiupped.
• No indicators of when the Jump Pack has cooled dow.n

Edit 21 Oct 2012 20:30 hrs
There was a bit if a fluff up with the server in 7.02, causing it to crash when players spawned as Assault Marines.  Patch 7.02b addresses this issue.  You only need this patch if you are testing locally or running an alpha server.

Download 7.02(b) (1,945 KB)
40ksource.com (http://40ksource.com/files/ex_alpha_patch_7.02b.zip)
chromeangel.co.uk (http://www.chromeangel.co.uk/Exterminatus/Downloads/ex_alpha_patch_7.02b.zip)

Install 7.02 as above.  Extract the 7.02b patch to your sourcemods folder ( they should overwrite files in the ex_alpha folder ).

Edit 28 Oct 2012
Bug hunting in the Assault Marine code this week, still lots of work needs doing, but this version should be more playable.

Feature

• New jump pack readiness indicator in the bottom right (same place as the Bolter fire mode).  Subtle, but I hope you'll see it out of the corner of your eye.

Tweaks

• Nqss has improved the performance and appearance of his map ex_tarsis_ultra.
• Moved all the jump pack code out of the weapon combo into something I'm calling "Abilities, this means AM should now be able to jump with any weapons. This also mean I can easily add leap/jump abilities to other classes easily (Lictor i'm looking at you) and that other classes could use the combo as well (wargear option for the Tactical class?).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the AM combo not doing any damage, the BP and CS should do the same damage as their solo counterparts now.
• Fixed the AM combo becoming inaccessible if you run out of bolts.
• Fixed the AM combo not animating when you're out of csword range.

Download 7.03 (36,712 KB)
40ksource.com (http://40ksource.com/files/ex_alpha_patch_7.03.zip)
chromeangel.co.uk (http://www.chromeangel.co.uk/Exterminatus/Downloads/ex_alpha_patch_7.03.zip)

More patches below

Installation instructions
Install 7.02 as above.  You won't need the "B" patch if you're upgrading to 7.03.  Extract the 7.03 patch to your sourcemods folder ( they should overwrite files in the ex_alpha folder ).  Restart Steam.  You should now see both the Exterminatus Beta 7.0 and Exterminatus Alpha listed in your library.

Upcoming
At the last minute I got a sound effect contribution from a 40k fan youtuber called alfabusa (http://www.youtube.com/user/alfabusa), i've not had chance to update the code to use it yet.  We'll try it next week, in the mean time check out his channel for some 40k lulz.

Edit 4 Nov 2012
More development of the Assault Marine (AM) this week, not exactly polishing, more like bringing it up to specification.  In the last day or so a wide variety of additional features and tweaks have sneaked into this patch, read on for details.

Features

• New jump pack sound effect by alfabusa (http://www.youtube.com/user/alfabusa).
• New "Psychic Healing" alternative "wargear" for the tyranid Zoanthrope class.
• New Venom Cannon combo alternative "wargear" for the tyranid Carnifex class (VERY alpha lots of place-holder assets).
• Added the "Leap" ability to the tyranid Lictor class. Sprint+Jump to activate - Experimental

Balance

• Reduced AM cost from 75 (tier 2) to 25 (tier 1). - Experimental
• Buffed Chainsword damage form 50 to 75 per hit.
• Nerfed Apothecary health from 200 to 150.

Download 7.04 (7,870 KB)
40ksource.com (http://40ksource.com/files/ex_alpha_patch_7.04.zip)
chromeangel.co.uk (http://www.chromeangel.co.uk/Exterminatus/Downloads/ex_alpha_patch_7.04.zip)

Installation instructions
Install 7.03 as above.  Extract the 7.04 patch to your sourcemods folder ( they should overwrite files in the ex_alpha folder ).  Restart Steam.  You should now see both the Exterminatus Beta 7.0 and Exterminatus Alpha listed in your library.

If you have problems installing or running this patch visit the Steam Community Game Group, chat room on Steam.  I'll be there to offer advice during testing times (please be patient, I will be in-game, participating in the test at the same time).

Tweaks

• Equip the Apothecary class with the Assault combo (BP+CS) instead of separate Bolt Pistol and Chainsword weapons.
• Converted the Narcathium healing aura and regeneration of Meds into an Apothecary ability, so it works with other weapons.
• New 1st person animations for the Assault combo.
• New 3rd person weapon model for the Assault combo.
• Improved the AM player model textures.
• New AM class portrait.
• New Warp Bolt particle effect.
• Show the scoreboard and notify players when the round times out.

Psychic Healing
This is the "easy way" for me to give the tyranids healing without going for something like regeneration, which would change the tyranid gameplay.  The primary attack in this new "wargear" is the same as the regular thrope, so he can still attack and defend himself, the secondary fire mode (warp blast) has been replaced with a healing aura around the thrope, which uses the same amount of energy and damage as the primary attack.  It's not very fluff friendly to give the selfless Tyranid swarm a mdeic, but it's something that felt missing from the tyranid gameplay, I hope the rule lawyers will forgive me.

Upcoming
I've asked the Vman to make a new particle effect for Jump Pack jets.  Since the AM is just about ready, next week's alpha will be a "roll up" patch incorporating all the changes from 7.0 to 7.05 (I might jump the number to 7.10 to emphasise the significance).  Then we can start work on a new Tyranid class to balance the Assault marine.

After Action Report 7.01
Completely forgot about the class menu overhaul so I failed to include any of it's graphics in the patch.   Good job only 3 people wanted to test.  All the more to play test next weekend then.

After Action Report 7.01 (second pass)
Better turnout this week, got some idea of how the balance was working.  Even has a visit from GeoDav the top man at UT40K (http://www.moddb.com/mods/ut40k-the-chosen).

Tactical still feels useful, even without bolt pistols and Genestealers aren't running amok.  So that's all good.
Buffing the Deathspitter does not seem to have made a noticeable difference, maybe someone who payed marines more would have a different opinion.

No questions about the menu changes, except from the one player who didn't get today's update (there is always one.  Why does it have to the the one with the mic?).

All the objective stuff went un-mentioned, so I assume it's all making sense.  Actually got a compliment for the addition of the second light, so that's good.

Re-balancing the Fex and Missile launcher seem to be working, I think I could go a bit further to get the full effect.

No server crashes.  It's too early to say if the Servo skull issue is fixed though.  More evidence of server spending too long on a single map causing client crashes after map change.  Definitely need a time limit for all maps.

you see , we are not going to suggest you any bad tings , only proper improvements , which will be complemented by players

first sorry for my bad english.

So as "add Orcs" or "add Chaos" is said quikley, the mostly will shoot. When a new Map change, are the Marines quickley full and the Tyranids take a while bis full.

My personal opinion:
Tyranids = self health, slow but so you see it
Tyranids = shoot poison and the Marines loses health, for that is the Medic by then Marines
Tyranids = Stealer should make two jumps

general Opinion:
Who is the display : "I kill Player 1 with Bolder"?

it was the first.

Thanks for the feedback Wiese. I am not sure I understood it all, but I appreciate the effort.

You want Orks and or Chaos in the mod, this is clear enough.

Players generally prefer to join the marine team.  Which is why CozWorld runs with auto-balancing turned on.  Not sure if you think this is good, bad or you are trying to suggest a soloution.

You would like to see all Tyranids heal themselves slowly (regenerate).  I think this would discourage the kind of selfless rushing of the enemy that makes tyranid attacks so fierce.  I would like to add some kind of healing to the Tyranid side to balance the apothecary.

This translated badly.  Shooting poison and Medics?? Marines treated by medics do not take a any more damage from Deathspitter acid  (this is already in the mod), would be my best guess.  Please clarify.

Stealer should be able to make two leaps, clear enough.  Do you want them to leap while they are already in the air?

I think you're asking why the kill notices do not always appear.  I do not know.  I suspect it maybe to do with the plug-ins CoZworld uses on his server.

WTF?   If you are not sure if you are making yourself understood please write more, it may help use English readers make more sense of it.

On the subject of Tyranid  healing. Their represented by Hive Fleet Behemoth and the Fex's themselves don't get auto heal until the arrival of Leviathan. Since Source is buggy eating ragdolls for health might be only be possible in singleplayer.

Instead the Zoanthrope could use one of three abilities that could be used as a healing ability. Catalyst, Dominion and Onslaught. There is also a Warp Shield ability only available in Dawn of War and I don't have the game to know what that does. It seems more like a personal shield though instead of protecting the Vanguard.

Why do people keep asking for Chaos and Orcs? This isn't Deathmatch -_- nor are Leviathan represented except for a single map.(cloud use a Nid subskin for that) Right now the mod doesn't represent even half the firepower Space Marines and the Tyranids can bring to bare even during the First Tyrannic War.

Can anyone tell me more about Catalyst, Dominion and Onslaught? (I don't have an up to date codex)

An alternative to having a dedicated healer class/wargear would be to have bio-mods of the existing wargear that enables regeneration. 75 point regenerating warriors or 150 point regenerating biovores for example.

People like Chaos and Orks, having collected both armies I can see their attractions.  Adding a third race might well bring in more contributors who are just interested in that one race, but we would need a LOT of content to add a third race and bring it up to par with the ones we've got.

After Action Report 7.02B
I had a feeling this one was going to be kind of flaky.  There was only one source of server crashes though and I managed to fix that with a hot patch to the server (hence the "B").  All the other new features worked (more or less).  Overall opinion: Assault Marines (AM) = Fun

Bugs

• The AM weapon combo is barely doing any damage.
• AM can exhaust all there weapons and be left unarmed.

Known Issues

• AM portrait uses the Veteran image.
• AM Chainsword doesn't animate unless it's within range.
• AM combo weapon looks like he's holding a plasma pistol in the 3rd person view.
• AM combo weapon is using Veteran Combo animations.
• AM player model is using Veteran animations.
• AM player model materials are still work in progress.
• AM cannot use his jump pack unless his combo is eqiupped.
• AM cannot tell when his Jump Pack has cooled down.

Suggestions

• Change the Jump Pack sound to be different to missiles.
• Make only the "bodies" of spore mines collide.
• Notify players when mp_timelimit causes a map change.

I've probably forgotten some, hopefully Nqss will remind me.

+AM doesnt have visual effects of his JP
+I haven't seen any effects of the melta , haven't tryed inferno

My suggestions

+additional clip for the AM boltpistol
+Icon in the middle to notify the JP of AM ready
+Switch the timer of the map change manually on and off , for maps like thunderhawk , which don't need those
+Heavely argued feature about maps with no timers , to add win stances to the map change time
as a draw / human win / tyranid win which is changed via inputs (changed during game)
+Apothecary special combo weapon Nact+Csword and a pistol



Possible things
+Change veteran into sergant , of t1
BP+Csword combo / grenades / speed
+Add new veteran in t3 with power weapon and JP

codex stuff about thrope powers
warp strike

range 24
power 5
AP 3
type , assualt 1 , explosion

warp spear
creats a beam of warp powers , whcih penetraites almost everything

range 18
power 10
AP 1
type , assualt 1 , heavy power

Warp shield , additional unpenetratable save throw 3+

Apothecary pretty accurate at some point.
He got power of "Know no pain"
which saves everyone under that rule (he is a part of command squad , so untill apothecary alive , they can do it) with special throw. If your model took damage and If throw failed , they took damage , if throw for special rule is not failed they are getting battle rage and took no damage at all

Exception , lethal strikes , close combat weapon which ignores save throws and weapon with AP1-2

about vore
The rule about hiding instinct is that any creature , which doesn't have enemy in range could use attack throw as the move throw and hide in the closest cover (if there will be enough points for it)
the creature in cover stays there

Anything in there about the Catalyst, Dominion and Onslaught abilities/bio-mods?

nothing about that in the 5th edition

armor and biogear:
Reinforced Chitin (armor save 5+)
Claws and teeth (counts as normal close combat weapon)
special rules:
Synapse Creature - in few words , all the creaturies in range , which doesn't have rule of instincts are going to use rule Fearless , even if they retreat and gets into the range of the Synapse , they restore thier morale right away.
Psyker
Shadow in the warp - means that all the enemy psycers in range of it suppose to get psycho test 3 pf d6 and gets damage from warp of any double 1 or any double 6

I got most of my info from the 40k wiki as lexicanum says nothing about it.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Zoanthrope

Leech Essence is only self heal and the three others I mentioned seem to be more like group rallying abilities rather then healing.

they collected this info from codex and
Deathwatch - Mark of the Xenos (RPG), pp. 34-35, 53
Imperial Armour Volume Four - The Anphelion Project
so its info not from a single source

AM proven to be less effective then it supposed to be.
1.You can hear him jump , so fast capping is harder
2.The close combat weapons of him are weak or even his health is no match for his enemies
you can kill nid only in group of AM's /or with support of regular marines /or if its stealer
if you try to get in close combat you either die fast either do low damage and get your kill stealed
3. you are getting low amount of points

I can do more kills with stealer , because
1. silent jump , so i can flank enemies
2. marines doesn't have much HP to kill , so kills from behind are much more easy
That is the point of AM , he got low health which doesn't make him good at close combat


damage of the Csword increasing
Affects all swords? yes , please

health? maybe , the apothecary proven more effective in Close combat because of health

After Action Report Alpha 7.03
Assault Marine (AM) is progressing slower than I would have liked, but there is no-one to blame but myself.  Now the novelty has worn off the AM feels less fun to me, I had expected getting the weapon damage working would making him even more fun, but i'm just not feeling it.

It seems like the AM isn't equal to his 2nd tier piers in terms of combat performance.  The bolt pistol takes a LOT of hits to kill a warrior and leaping in for melee combat is very risky, even against a warrior.  AM seems to be a pretty good distraction class, many times I was caught scanning the skies when I should have been keeping my eyes on the ground.  At least it does not seem to be making the marines rush.

All the things I fixed seem to actually be fixed.

Bugs

• VIS / Portal issues with the new taris, Nqss is aware i'm sure.
• Server-side crash needs investigating.
• On Two occasions Oolon reported being unable to respawn, no clues.

Nearly all of last weeks known issues still remain, so that's my goal for the next week.

[edit]
I just buffed the C Sword damage on my alpha server from 50 to 75.  Tyranids Beware.
[/edit]


[edit 2nd Nov 2012]
I just remembered the AM combo isn't showing the right kill icons
[/edit]

further suggestion
for all the close combat classes have an active ability
if they run
they do 1.5 more damage in close combat
they take less damage in close combat in about 1.3 times

The Assault marine lacks the firepower his veteran and devastator counterparts have. Close combat against Tyranids usually means the Nid player will shoot you before getting into melee. Not a smart idea to parachute in front of a howitzer without your own rocket launcher to take it out.

I suggest either making the Assault Marines bolt pistol act like a machine pistol or SMG and only the Assault Marine's pistol, alternatively replace it with a hand flamer effect as a place holder. Though that might be better for a tier three power weapon version.

then , what the point of assualt marines then?
jump around and shoot? without any meele (which means having a meele class to not use it for mneele)

we have veteran already with mislead powers , now when the chainsword damage changed , maybe marines will become more usefull in close combat

i say we need another game test with this amount of damage

The strategy should be softening the enemy up before going into melee, which players should be doing as the Nid Warrior and Vet anyways. Any advantage the Apoc has in in close combat can be easily defeated by turning mouse sensitivity all the way up.

If Source 14 wasn't buggy as hell I would suggest a goomba stomp that stuns everything except Fex and Thrope . Alternatively it could set the enemy on fire if the jump pack was used next to them as its supposed to run on fictional equivalent of napalm.

the tests of damage went pretty good actaully , this buff is what actually were needed over there , let see how meltabombs will do

Concept thoughts on new races balance of AM
if you think about it , the new damage of Csword works for the other races as good as tyranids actually
lets imagine , IG with pity health amount or orks with some good health amount , the AM would rather scary for them , but those races got dakka as well and AM doesn't have much of a health. In case of good use and fast close up AM defenetly gonna kill several enemies of the imperium , but could be easily killed.

for the nids side , as concept again:
seems that warrior is pretty bad nemesis for the AM still , but other classes going to get some painfull experience of AM
waiting for futher updates , of meltabombs ,  venom cannons and plasma

After Action Report 7.04
The ambitious new patch has a whole storm of new bugs.  Believe it or not the Lictor is even more paranoia inducing now he can leap.

Bugs

• New "Psychic Healing" particle effect does not seem to work, i'm seeing the default red X placeholder.
• New Venom Cannon combo's view model is only partial textured and the world model is the same as the screamer killer.  No kill icon.  Shatter effects are going on of their own accord.  Looks like venom shards aren't fading out either.
• If the Lictor leap is staying it needs a HUD indicator to show when it's ready.
• The Apothecary class appears to be missing the animations to use the Assault Combo
• 3rd person weapon textures for the Assault combo appears to be missing.
• The Assault combo's boiltpistol kill icon is not working.
• The server appears to be getting stuck in a loop when the round ends normally, timeouts work OK.

Balance

• New Venom Cannon combo is waaay overpowered.  It needs slowing down and reducing the splash damage and radius.
• 1st tier AMs don't seem to much of a problem, but stealers might need a damage buff to equal the Csword

Performance

• GunGuy had high latency, but I can't see anything here that would cause it.
• Stahlhagel reports the Warp Bolt effect causing lag.

I don't think supersonic means that the Heavy Venom Cannon was to be that spammy. It should be more like a Tyranid version of a missile launcher with less damage and a fire rate some what higher than a Deathspitter's but has more ammo. If Dawn of War YouTube videos are any indication as to how it should shoot.

As for the Stealers give they need better weapons than their claws. Maybe give them Scything Talons or lash whips to justify a damage boost and flesh hooks as an alternative weapon. Or make the rending claws more intimating at the very least. So make use of his two unused appendages

The leap makes Lictor a viable class again, and a dangerous alternative to the Thrope and Biovore. ;D I think its fair to give Tactical Marines some alternative weapons now. IE flamer ,plasma gun. While Devastators get the upgraded versions.