Telic FAQ
Last Modified: 19 Dec 2005
- General Questions
- Q: When are you releasing the Half Life 2 version?
- Q: Where can I discuss Telic with other players or members of the team?
- Q: How can I contact you for [insert reason here]?
- Q: Hi, I am Paul Verhoeven, and I want to sue you.
A: If you are talking about the announced Alien Swarm version for the source engine, "Alien Swarm: Infested", we are not Black Cat Games!. Ask them :). If you are asking about Telic for the source engine, we have no plans to do that.
A: We normally read the Black Cat Games Alien Swarm forums, but please, do not create countless threads about telic there, since it's a general forum for Alien Swarm and isn't run by us. We also hang out on IRC: #swarmcampaign on irc.starchat.net
A: You can send us an e-mail or get in touch with members of the team on IRC: irc.starchat.net, #swarmcampaign.
A: Talk to our crack law firm composed of Exo, Mk1-killer and Uarch. z0mg!
- Gameplay related
- Q: This campaign is too hard even on easy!?
- Q: Why is Daylight not on the lobby map this time?
- Q: I'm on Aqueduct, in the shaft that was filled with water. Where has the lift gone?
- Q: I cannot see stim packs anymore, what happened to them ?
- Q: How do I directly give ammo to other players?
- Q: Equipment X is completely useless or completely unbalanced !
- Q: How do I use the Morita Carbine effectively?
- Q: How do I use the Shenks effectively?
- Q: How do I change grenade types with the Grenade Launcher?
- Q: How do I detonate Remotes/Proxies ?
- Q: I can collect grenades? How do I do that?
- Q: How do I use the Hunter rifle effectively?
- Q: What does the Sentry Kit do? How does it work?
- Q: There is no extra Magmum ammo in the AmmoBag! Please fix!
- Q: Why does the Gas Grenade hurt me?
- Q: Is Flamer / Grenade Launcher / T75 a good loadout?
A: Telic is certainly harder than Sigma, and maybe a bit harder or on par with Ortega. We wouldn't recommend playing Telic for starters, that's what Sigma is there for. Telic is really aimed at players that already know Alien Swarm and have played at least one campaign.
Having said that, there are some things that are unique about Telic and might seem to make it harder than other campaigns: First, there is a small learning curve even for experienced players because of all the new objects, equipment, and maps. Second, Telic is more teamplay oriented, so it requires active participation from all players on the team. Try to talk and coordinate with your team more. Voip/Teamspeak is great, free and works with all OSes. Use it. There are Alien Swarm public Teamspeak servers at: blackcats.homeip.net and one run by the THN crew at serenity.thehavennet.org.uk.A: It is an optional map. It only appears when you complete an optional objective in a previous map.
A: Your team is a bunch of assholes and has left without you.
A: The Telic mutator stims option is active. In Telic stims are not in the roster any more but get assigned by default to every marine. To use them, bind a key to "Use Stims" in the settings page, or use the console and type: "set input [some_key] stim" eg. "set input x stim". This bind will allow you to use stims in regular Alien Swarm games whenever you have the item in your extra slot and to use the default stims in Telic games.
A: In Telic Campaigns, if you have an ammo bag it is no longer necessary to drop the ammo for others to pick it up: simply stand near a comrade an right click his portrait to directly restock him with clips, similar to the way a medic heals.
A: Maybe. You can discuss it with us through email or on IRC/forums if you want. The Telic weapons were heavily tested to ensure they fit in well with existing equipment. They also have a small learning curve, even if you are an experienced Swarm player. Maybe you should give them a second try. You might also try observing other players using them effectively. It might be a matter of taste too, so if you dont like it, just dont use it!
A: Basically, the morita behaves like a normal rifle. It is slightly more powerful than the P-Rifle at the cost of a more limited autoaim system. Pressing alt-fire (middle mouse button usually) will lock you to the nearest target in view, you'll see a red laser, hear a beeping sound and see the message 'LOCKED' near your ammo counter. You'll then have perfect aim to the chosen target, until it dies or you turn around. Bringing flares, flashlight or headlamp will also work to gain autoaim.
A: Shenks are foolproof. Aim and fire. Watch your ammo. That is all.
A: By pressing alt-fire (middle mouse button usually). In a campaign, you start out with only the contact-explosive grenades though. 2 stars in explosive skill will give you Remotes, 4 stars will give you Proxies. It works this way: Contact -> (AltFire) -> Proxies -> (AltFire) -> Remotes -> (AltFire) -> All proxies and remotes still on the field detonate -> (AltFire) -> Contact...
A: By pressing alt-fire (middle mouse button usually). It works this way: Contact -> (AltFire) -> Proxies -> (AltFire) -> Remotes -> (AltFire) -> All proxies and remotes still on the field detonate -> (AltFire) -> Contact...
A: Proxies and Remotes that went in the wrong place can be recollected. Just stand near them, with the Grenade Launcher selected, right click and choose "Disarm grenades". This will remove all grenades (ONLY YOURS! not those of the other demo marine) in a 128 unit radius surrounding your player and add them to your ammo amount, given you have room in your clip. If not, they are discarded. If you don't have the Grenade Luncher selected, you'll only see a "-" in your right click menu.
A: If you are not a crack shot yet or you spend your sorry life constantly lagging, it's a good idea to bring flares or a headlamp when you arm yourself with the hunter. The flashlight will NOT give you autoaim with the Hunter. Extra stars in accuracy work wonders if you want one-shot kills on higher difficulties.
A: The sentry kit can be used to reload and dismantle a deployed sentry gun. Right-click -> use sentry kit or press the "use extra" key (normally bound to F) when standing near a sentry, and you'll see additional icons pop up on the left side of your screen. UNDO will repack the sentry, RELOAD will add 50 bullets. You can reload 5 times.
A:This is not an error. The IAF tolerates marines bringing along weapons, but does not supply ammunition for them, of course. A Gunfighter award (scoring 20 kills with the magnum and/or pistol) allows you to wield dual magnums though, giving you twice the ammo amount in addition to double the firerate, making the magnums extremely deadly.
A: Because you are not a medic and you lost your helmet, which can effectively filter out contaminants.
A: If you are bent on wiping out your entire squad as fast as possible, yes.
- Installation/Mutator/Bugs...
- Q: I installed Telic but launching it with the .bat or .sh files supplied doesnt work !?
- Q: Telic crashes when trying to load Aqueduct under Linux !?
- Q: Why didn't you provide a MAC installer or launcher ?
- Q: I'm afraid of .zip installs - will they break ut2k4 ?
- Q: How can I add the Telic Equip or other mutator options to single maps or other campaigns ?
- Q: I found a bug or I have a suggestion for future patches, can you implement it ?
- Q: Why can't add the Telic equip to Sigma/Ortega even when the options are True in the mutator ?
A: To check that you have a correct installation, just start Alien Swarm normally and vote for a new telic campaign in the map voting window. If the option doesn't appear or the campaign doesnt start correctly you might have installed telic incorrectly. Make sure you unpack the zip with the directory structure inside the archive (make sure the option is checked under Winzip/Winrar). If you can launch the campaign via the vote window, the scripts are probably incorrect with your settings - try editing the script and changing the paths, command line options, etc.
A: This seems to be an issue with the first 3369 Linux patch, which gets triggered in some big maps (excessive memory consumption getting the process killed under some kernels). Install the new hotfix released by icculus and it should work fine.
A: We don't have any Macs.
A: No. We only do a zip install because it works on all platforms. All the Telic files except the music ones are installed in the directories under ut2004/AlienSwarm/. Telic does not overwrite any files in Alien Swarm or UT2004, so it won't break any of your settings.
A: By setting the relevant mutator variables to 'True'. You can edit the ini (look for or create an [AoTelicBeta.MutTelic] section) or use mutate commands if you log in as server admin. The vars and commands are described in the manual, under mutator options.
A: Probably. Send us a bug report or talk to us on IRC. For bug reports, it helps if you give us a detailed description, show us a screenie of where it happens (for map bugs) or include some relevant log info if it's a coding bug. We will be updating and maintaining Telic with patch releases regularly.
A: Because that's the way it works :). It was coded that way in order to keep the original campaigns as they were intended to be played. There is a workaround though: you create a custom campaign that works like Sigma/Ortega (same maps, even same lobby configuration if you want to) and the mutator will work on top of them.