Modding Alien: Isolation

This guide will take you through a variety of steps to teach you how to mod areas Alien Isolation, and extract content from the game.

Made possible by Nathan, MattFiler, [TW]E NѺMiNE and a number of helpful forums and developers!

You will most likely see regular updates to this guide as new tools become available, and of course, there's always room for improvements!

Introduction - Section One

A note before starting section one: the OpenCAGE[github.com] has recently released which provides a GUI for editing most (if not all) of the values discussed in this section. This tool also provides its own wiki[github.com]. Feel free to utilise that tool over manual file editing if you prefer a friendly user interface! OpenCAGE also provides options for backing up and resetting config files.

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This section was written by ENOMiNUS and Nathan.

A reminder; you can edit the XML files with your basic default notepad or word.
Personally, I´ve been using the free Notepad++, because it allows easy switching in tabs instead of windows, multiple files opened up at the same time (which helps when you´re comparing back and forth changes, such as comparing differences in gradients between harder and easier difficulties). And most importantly because there´s less compatibility issues and the formatting of the codes is kept clean, easy to read and logical.
It´s not mandatory, but I recommend a text-editing tool a bit better than the default.

So a link to that incase you don´t have it already.
Notepad++[notepad-plus-plus.org]

Now, the BML conversion tool.

• Download link.
  
• Original forum thread.[forum.xentax.com]

The tool is simple to use. A precaution to take before anything else is to just right-click on the executable file, select properties, go to the compatibility tab, just to be safe click the "change settings for all users" and then tick the box for "Run this program as an administrator" and of course apply/ok for it to set. This is something one needs to do very often with Windows Vista/7/8 and later operating systems.

Whenever you need to convert a .BML file to an .XML file, or the other way around, simply drag and drop the file in question on top of the AlienBML.exe, it then creates the converted version, and adds a "_noconflict"-suffix after each time it creates a new file, to avoid overwriting any existing files of the same name.
So you need to drag-and-drop say for example the gbl_item.bml file onto the AlienBML.exe, it creates a file called gbl_item_noconflict.xml, you can open it up in notepad and change things, save, then pop the edited gbl_item_noconflict.xml on the AlienBML.exe to create a bml file again of your edited xml file now called gbl_item_noconflict_noconflict.bml, so next you need to rename the new bml file back to the original by removing the duplicated "_noconflict"-suffixes, and lastly put the modded gbl_item.bml back into the the data folder:

Steam/steamapps/common/Alien Isolation/DATA

Overwriting the existing file when prompted.
(Naturally for other files another folder than the base DATA folder.)

Item and Weapon Modding

GBL_ITEM

Since I already picked on the gbl_item.xml file I might as well start with it.
We are just going to dive in, opening up the xml file with notepad and move through it, pointing out things, it´s a basic file with simple info so a good way to ease into the modding aspect.

  <objects>
    <ammo name="9mm_pistol_ammo" 
          target_weapon="pistol" 
          default_quantity="1"
          stack_limit="60"
          display_quantity ="true"
          special_slot="9MM_PISTOL_AMMO_SLOT"
          ammo_type="0"
          localisation_tag ="AI_UI_ITEM_9MM_PISTOL_AMMO"/>

Here you can see the stack_limit for revolver ammo, how much you can carry of it, you could switch ammo types around here if you wanted, by comparing to the other weapons that follow down the list in the gbl_item.xml file, you can also do that later, in the files inside the weapons_info/ammo folder, compare say pistol_normal with pistol_tazer.
As you can see, easy stuff, plain english. all the items, the flares, the pipe bombs, crafting resoucres and flashlight batteries follow the same layout.

A little later down the file you can edit the recipes.

  <recipes>
    <!-- IED RECIPES -->
    <recipe name = "incendiary_IED_recipe">
      <input>
        <item name="pipe" quantity ="2"/>
        <item name="gasoline" quantity ="2"/>
        <item name="explosive" quantity ="1"/>
        <item name="gel" quantity ="2"/>
        <item name="scrap" quantity ="25"/>
      </input>
      <output>
        <item name="molotov_cocktail" quantity ="1"/>
      </output>
    </recipe>

Let´s say I want to have only one of each crafting resource needed and scrap also 1, and get out not one but nine molotovs of each craft, and why stop at molotovs, lets get an extra 9 pipebombs each time I craft a molotov, this is how it would look like:

    <recipe name = "incendiary_IED_recipe">
      <input>
        <item name="pipe" quantity ="1"/>
        <item name="gasoline" quantity ="1"/>
        <item name="explosive" quantity ="1"/>
        <item name="gel" quantity ="1"/>
        <item name="scrap" quantity ="1"/>
      </input>
      <output>
        <item name="molotov_cocktail" quantity ="9"/>
        <item name="pipe_bomb" quantity ="9"/>
      </output>
    </recipe>

Again, plain english, in goes the resources, out comes the product.
Now the opposite, of upping how many resources used with each crafting, is trickier, because you´d need to change the UI layout of the ingame crafting menu, because if you´d go ingame with an edited recipe, you´d still have the same slots to click, and if you´d need more slots now for crafting, then you´d be stuck, incapable of committing a resource and crafting the item.
This is something that needs investigating, of how could one edit the UI to be compatible with more crafting resources to commit.

Discovered that you can put any old item listed in the file to the output; ammo, flashlight batteries, scrap, you name it. Not weapons though, that breaks the game.

Later on inside the same gbl_item.xml file you´ll find stuff about hacking:

    <hacking_gating_levels>
	  <hack_max_difficulty tool_level ="0" max_difficulty="0" />
	  <hack_max_difficulty tool_level ="1" max_difficulty="1" />
	  <hack_max_difficulty tool_level ="2" max_difficulty="4" />
	  <hack_max_difficulty tool_level ="3" max_difficulty="10" />
	  <hack_max_difficulty tool_level ="99" min_difficulty="24" max_difficulty="45" />
  </hacking_gating_levels>

It could be possible to change it so that with a level 1 hack tool you could hack level 3 devices, by changing that last max_difficulty to a higher number in the second line. But I would advice against it. Could break progression points in the main game.
Close to the end there´s more, I´m going to copy only one line because there are quite a few.

  <hacking_game_difficulties>
	  <hack_difficulty difficulty="0" inner_selection_angle_in_deg ="14" outer_selection_angle_in_deg ="25" selection_angle_increase_in_deg="10" number_of_rounds ="1" length_of_keycode ="3" number_of_alarms ="0"  timer_countdown_seconds ="20"/>

The rest are for increasing difficulties used for different devices and requiring probably higher levels of the SAT hack tool.
These all determine one hacking mini game, then one where you first find the frequency, and then have a time limit to match the symbols.
The selection angle deg(rees) lines are about how forgiving the tuning to the frequency is, when all you see is static until you´ve selected, the higher difficulties have smaller angles of selection, requiring more fine-tuning until you get to match the symbols. timer count down seconds is self-explanatory. Length of keycode also is simply how many symbols you need to match.

WEAPON_INFO/AMMO

Inside the ammo folder there are files controlling damage, types of damage, ranges etc of different weapons and items like molotovs.
We´ll start at the top with the ACID_BURST_LARGE file one, which [TW]E NOMiNEE has edited.
I´m going to go through some of the lines, since all the rest of the ammo types inside the AMMO folder use the same format.

<damage_rays_per_shot>1</damage_rays_per_shot>
This line is for shotguns 7, so you could edit how many bullets, or rays if not bullets like acid splats, are flying each hit. I´ve tested this, upped the shotguns rays to 19, but I think each ray has the same damage, so you might want to drop the damage done with each ray you add, just in case.

<fuel_units_consumed_per_second_if_firing>0</fuel_units_consumed_per_second_if_firing>
For acid no fuel is used, but the flamethrower consumes 50 per sec, the rate, so you could lower or raise it depending upon what kind of experience you want. Remember to check if you have edited the other fuel lines, is_fuel set to true or false etc.

<projectile_units_consumed_per_shot>1</projectile_units_consumed_per_shot>
For projectile weapons, if not fuel-based weapons, self-explanatory.(Could affect the damage FX)

<range_damage range="3" vs_NPC="300" vsPlayer="300" vsAndroid="300" vsAndroidHeavy="150" vsFHugger="0" vsPhysics="6" headshot="1" Damage_1="Acid" Damage_2="None" Damage_3="None" Ragdoll="8" vsAlien="0" AlienStun="0" StunDuration="0" EMPDuration="0" BlindDuration="0" />

Each "vs" line simply specifies the damage done to different entities, npcs, the player, androids, and the alien as vsAlien. Range probably does not need explanation. Headshot seems like a damage multiplier for the head. the Damage_1, 2 and 3 lines specify what type of damage FX & behaviour you want to see, as [TW]E NOMiNEE explains in good detail in a section below. You could put the second damage to "Impact", and then "incendiary" for three, incase you wanted interesting damage to occur to players and humans + androids when sprayed by acid.
The Stun, EMP and Blind durations only work if you also put into the damage sections to specify "Stun", "Blind" or "EMP", AlienStun="99" makes the alien back off for a second or two, cool animation ingame, but then it comes after the player.
That´s the basics, the molotovs and pipebombs are the grenade_he/fire files. Same with flashbangs, EMPs are the burst_large ones, you´ll know since it has the _tier2 or 3 suffix after it, representing the different v1-3 blueprints you pick up.

Try making the shotgun have damage vsAlien in short range, and then only AlienStun on longer range, with damage at zero, for a nice mix, because when both are nonzero, the game prefers damage over stun & the alien will not stagger, only receive the damage & still run away or at you.

Comparison is the best way to learn, open up different ammo files and switch back and forth, seeing what changes with what weapon for instance, or How the tiers compare to each other.

NPC Modding

So far what can be edited in the bml/xml files are in the folders VIEW_CONE_SETS, which hold interesting files for the sight of different npc characters, like androids, humans, to some degree sight and attention is also edited in the difficultysettings folder files, and also in the chr_info/attributes folder files.
Personally I haven´t edited the sight and attention that much, but felt that I should point out that they exist and allow a lot of tweaking, incase someone is interested, but the folders I mentioned, the viewconesets, the difficultysettings and the attributes folders hold some interesting information, the Behaviour folder inside the DATA folder also holds much interesting stuff, but those are more advanced and unknown to me, I´ll mention them in brief in the end of the guide.

Minor discussion about the concept of Templates.

Many of the files which will follow in the rest of the guide use templates, these are default files with basic information, and the rest of the files build on top of those, editing some, leaving others unchanged, you can tell if some file uses a template by it stating so in the very beginning, as in:

<Template_Name>DEFAULT</Template_Name>

And so you´d know that the file you are editing is using the information provided in the file named default, and then having it´s own changes from the default. If a file does not change anything from its template, then it usually avoids repeating it, because the game can read that the file in question uses the template, and so it assumes the information provided in the template as a given until specifically told what is changed from that template.
There are situations in which templates of one file have templates of their own. The difficulty settings work in such a manner.

DIFFICULTYSETTINGS

Inside the difficultysettings folder inside the DATA folder, you have 5 files of interest. Novice to iron, easiest to hardest.

I will skip here the Alien section, as I´ll talk about that indepth in its own section. Opening up easy difficulty you´ll notice that it uses medium as its template, and medium uses hard as its template, meaning hard values are takes as default, then medium changes some things from that, and easy changes some more on top of that. if a line is ommitted in easy then it will be taken as-is from medium, and if it is ommitted from medium then it will again be taken as-is from hard.
Apart from the Alien section in the beginning, the <NPC_Generic> section in the diff-files and everything else below talk about the senses. There is also a general section, but very little is edited in those.

    <ANDROID>
      <Senses>
        <max_hearing_distance_modifier>-5</max_hearing_distance_modifier>
        <visual_sense_activation_modifier>-0.1</visual_sense_activation_modifier>
<visual_combined_sense_activation_modifier>-0.1</visual_combined_sense_activation_modifier>
<weapon_sound_sense_activation_modifier>-0.4</weapon_sound_sense_activation_modifier>
<weapon_sound_combined_sense_activation_modifier>-0.15</weapon_sound_combined_sense_activation_modifier>
<movement_sound_sense_activation_modifier>-0.1</movement_sound_sense_activation_modifier>
<movement_sound_combined_sense_activation_modifier>-0.1</movement_sound_combined_sense_activation_modifier>
        <flash_light_sense_activation_modifier>-0.3</flash_light_sense_activation_modifier>
<flash_light_combined_sense_activation_modifier>-0.3</flash_light_combined_sense_activation_modifier>
      </Senses>
      <General>
        <damage_dealt_scalar>0.7</damage_dealt_scalar>
        <damage_received_scalar>1.45</damage_received_scalar>
        <attack_pace_modifier_per_npc>1.1</attack_pace_modifier_per_npc>
        <attack_pace_modifier_max>3.3</attack_pace_modifier_max>
        <suspicious_item_loop_scalar>1.3</suspicious_item_loop_scalar>
      </General>
    </ANDROID>

The negative numbers in the senses part all mean that either the distances are shorter, or the reflexes slower, using the viewconesets and other sense data from attributes folder as templates again, the "_modifier"-suffix is self-explanatory, modifying existing values, which exist elsewhere.
Hearing distance, flashlight sense, again, how fast to react to the flashlight.
The general section also has some self-explanatory information, damage_dealt_scalar, lower number is less damage the npc deals to enemies, received is the other way around. Comparing hard with medium, lower attack pace number seems to mean faster attack pace, higher number slower attack pace. Suspicious item loop scalar seems to mean how long the npc in question will be distracted, for example how distracted they will be by flares and noisemakers, but I´m not 100% sure about that. Lower number on harder difficulties with the suspicious item loop scalar.
In the end of the difficulty settings files it talks about viewconesets, again modifying them, easier difficulties have negative numbers.

CHR_INFO/ATTRIBUTES

The Defaults file inside the steamapps/common/alien isolation/data/chr_info/attributes folder is the template for many other.
<Attack> section has the player melee damage, which is most likely the maintenance Jack swing damage, 500 might seem high but when you check how much health different npcs have, you´ll see it´s in comparison rather moderate.
The android has the grapple attacks talked about, and [TW]E NOMiNEE has more to say about it below, bigger interval between grapple attacks seems to mean they cannot spam their grabs as often and are forced to use their fists more, then you can put how damaging "per ticks" the grapple attack is, and how much you have to spam the "E" key to shake yourself free from them.
The Alien has a large health number, and regenerating health, probably directly translating into the game as when the alien is damaged to a certain threshold the alien flees to heal. So theoretically, you could lower or raise its regen rate to control how long it stays safe in its vents after you´ve fended it off.

I´ll leave some of the final sections to my experimental Alien AI discussion, but I´ll go into detail about the Aggrovation settings.

  <Aggrovation_Settings>
    <aggro_rate>
      <aggro_gun_aimed_rate>0.2</aggro_gun_aimed_rate>
      <aggro_warning_rate>0.25</aggro_warning_rate>
      <aggro_interrogative_rate>0.25</aggro_interrogative_rate>
      <aggro_standdown_rate>-0.1</aggro_standdown_rate>
    </aggro_rate>
    <aggro_distances>
      <aggro_aggressive_distance>10</aggro_aggressive_distance>
      <aggro_warning_distance>20</aggro_warning_distance>
      <aggro_interrogative_distance>20</aggro_interrogative_distance>
      <aggro_standdown_distance>20</aggro_standdown_distance>
    </aggro_distances>
  </Aggrovation_Settings>

The rate numbers most likely work with the logic that each "tick" or second, that rate number or percent is added, and when it reaches a threshold, like the number 1.0, then, for instance, the npc becomes hostile, or passive. Example: <aggro_gun_aimed_rate> translates into the game as the player aiming their weapon at an agitated human, and higher the rate the faster they turn aggressive (faster reaching the threshold to turn hostile) - if you haven´t lowered your weapon in time.
Interrogative rate is when they grow suspicious, they might see a glimpse of you, and the longer they see, they grow curious and might wander to look closer. Standdown rate is negative because it is lowering it from the 1 to 0 again, then the npc loses interest and resumes its idle duties. Distances control when the rates start to kick in. Get too close to some humans and they begin to grow agitated until turning hostile for instance.

Weapon and NPC Modding Continued

The<capsuleRadius>is the range how the models collide with the object of this world,higher value make the model walking like a pinball, as for lower value they move rather smoothly,but when set to too low some of the ai behavior could be affected,such as the<cover_job_minimum_distance_to_player>.

The <Grapple_Gauge_Decay_Rate>means how fast does every tap "gone backwards" from every ticks.On same tap numbers,higher value makes tapping more easier,every tap of yours is rather steady,as for lower value,you will need to tap very quickly or your tap could be invalid.

The<Grapple_Attack_Interval_After_Block>says itself,if you are not in an open area,or there's a wall/cover beside/behind you,this controls the interval of how the droid trigger the attack of slamming the player to the wall.

The<defense_gauge_decay_rate>and the<defense_gauge_decay_delay>is same as the <Grapple_Gauge_Decay_Rate>,but it's for counter attack the player when being hit by your maintenance jack.

The<max_range_to_search_for_ESCALATION_jobs>indicates that how far will the NPC go to "not idle".

The<cover_job_minimum_distance_to_player>is an interesting one,it controls whether if the NPC will start to take cover if the distance between the player and the NPC is within this range;when the<capsuleRadius> is set to very high,they could be stuck in the cover,when set to very low,they won't even take any cover,since their capsules is near non-existent.

The<hiding_hearing_range>8</hiding_hearing_range>is how far could your enemy hears you if you're hiding in a locker,under a desk..etc

Also,different damage effect from the weapon could make the NPC react differently,like the facehugger will have a acid explosion if it's hit by a weapon with the damage FX "impact",so if you add this attribute to a flamethrower,then the facehugger will explode too.

Here's the reaction to the effect:
1.Acid:
NPC:Much like an impact. Player:Only have acid on your screen. Object:None.
2.Incendiary:
NPC:They will on fire and scream. Player:None. Object:On fire.
3.Impact:
NPC:just like being shot by a pistol/Hit by a jack. Player:Same. Facehugger:Explode
4.Melee:
NPC:A much heavier impact. Player:Like being hit by the Alien.
3.Stun:
Driod:Stun. Heavy_Droid:None. Player:Blind. NPC:Only stop their movment for a sec.
4.EMP:
Droid:Disabled. Heavy_Droid:None. Player:None. NPC:None. Object:Minor impact.
5.Blind:
Droid:None. Heavy_Droid:None. Player:None. NPC:Blind.

Know down

<Down_But_Not_Out>
      <Down_But_Not_Out_Enabled>False</Down_But_Not_Out_Enabled>
      <Down_But_Not_Out_Chance>0</Down_But_Not_Out_Chance>
      <Down_But_Not_Out_Health_Percentage>0</Down_But_Not_Out_Health_Percentage>
    </Down_But_Not_Out>
    <Knocked_out>
      <knocked_out_time>12</knocked_out_time>
    </Knocked_out>

<Down_But_Not_Out> can only be triggered by melee attacks,with health regeneration enabled,there's a chance that the enemy will be knock out(somewhat like the game "thief"),and attack the player once they wake up,also,this attribute can't be enabled on some character such as the Facehugger,since the Facehugger is script to death with a melee attack,force enable it could cause a CTD(Crash to desktop).

Lowering the volume of footsteps(a bit):

 <Footsteps_sense_generation>
    <footstep_loudness_maxed_out_speed>3</footstep_loudness_maxed_out_speed>
    <footstep_loudness_min_speed_considered>0.25</footstep_loudness_min_speed_considered>
    <footstep_loudness_min_clamped_input_loudness>0</footstep_loudness_min_clamped_input_loudness>
    <footstep_loudness_max_clamped_input_loudness>1</footstep_loudness_max_clamped_input_loudness>
    <footstep_loudness_min_scaled_output_loudness>0.25</footstep_loudness_min_scaled_output_loudness>
    <footstep_loudness_max_scaled_output_loudness>0.6</footstep_loudness_max_scaled_output_loudness>
    <footstep_loudness_crouch_multiplier>1</footstep_loudness_crouch_multiplier>
  </Footsteps_sense_generation>

Please be noticed that all "output" option can't set to zero or the sound will back to normal(while the effect is still there),and even in the lowest value possible,there's still a limitation of how low the volume can be.

Alien AI Modding Part 1

I'm concerned mainly with ALIEN.BML inside the chr_info/attributes folder, the difficultysettings folder files and the ALIENCONFIGS folder also located in the DATA folder.
The alienconfigs folder has the basic default info about leash ranges, if you do not know what a leash range is for the alien, then more playtime would clear that up, or you can see how others describe the alien AI, like in this handy guide, referring to habitat areas and beacons, but it´s referring to the same thing, the minimum/maximum radius the alien can stalk around the player.

<near_target_exclusion_radius_first_stalk_min_modifier> <near_target_exclusion_radius_first_stalk_max_modifier><near_target_exclusion_radius_subsequent_stalk_min_modifier>
<near_target_exclusion_radius_subsequent_stalk_max_modifier
<near_objective_exclusion_radius_first_stalk_min_modifier>
<near_objective_exclusion_radius_first_stalk_max_modifier>
<near_objective_exclusion_radius_subsequent_stalk_min_modifier>
<near_objective_exclusion_radius_subsequent_stalk_max_modifier>

A high max radius and the alien can hunt for you farther away from your location, a low min radius and in can hunt for you very close.This is for when the alien is actively on the ground walking. A low min and a high max value and the alien has more freedom to roam around, more freedom for the alien equals more unpredictability, but also more haphazard and potentially scarce encounters with the alien.
The "_modifier" -suffix above is because I copied those from the difficulty settings files, and they act as modifiers for the templates used in different scenarios in the game, which are located in the alienconfigs folder.
The default file inside the alienconfigs folder has gradations of intensity files on top of it, mild, moderate, moderately_intense & intense. The more intense files have a shorter leash for the alien, shorter breaks, less time spent in vents and a few other things I´ll discuss in the next section. The harder difficulties work with the same logic: Shorter leash, meaning the alien is forced to be closer to the player when it is hunting, shorter breaks etc.

<Vent_Attract_Time_Min>
<Vent_Attract_Time_Max>

Vent attract time´s about when the alien crawls above the player (within a certain range, either determined by the min/max stalk radius values or the BackstageAreaSweep distance I´ll talk about below), these don´t appear as 100% limitations, the choice of wording, using attract time, seems apt, even though you might have high min+max attract times to the vent, if the alien has a reason, a more attractive option available, it will drop down faster.

<BackstageAreaSweep>
    <role_timeout_min>45</role_timeout_min>
    <role_timeout_max>60</role_timeout_max>
    <min_distance>10</min_distance>
    <max_distance>40</max_distance>
    <min_idle_time>5</min_idle_time>
    <max_idle_time>10</max_idle_time>
  </BackstageAreaSweep>

The alien has a whole life backstage, when you don´t notice it around. It can take breaks, pauses, and it travels to some distance (min max determined there), and takes a timeout. While it´s on this break, you will not find the alien, it will disappear from your radar as it will remain still, and it will be idle, it might cycle through some decisions, like should it continue its break, or return to hunting.
Obviously you could speed things along by making noise to draw it out, but otherwise the alien will travel within those limits.
The distance seems important, not just time, because the alien is still actually crawling, moving around, and that distance to travel over takes time. Here´s an article where the devs talk about the alien being a wireframe skeleton, crawling around the vents, taking breaks, being always present even when away from the spotlight.

The files in the ALIENCONFIGS folder seem like templates for different situations in the game, some regulate intensity, as the devs want some places and times to be either more relaxed or intense, and others control some kind of different templates for different distances for the alien being on hold for story purposes, the BACKSTAGEHOLD files are for controlling how far away it is on certain fixed breaks, because again, once it is taken out of its break, it will have to crawl to the player, and that distance can be important.
Then on top of those templates, the DIFFICULTYSETTINGS put further modifiers, so that the default template for intense situations are on harder difficulties even more intense etc.

Nixon's Richard suggested removing the gradient of the intensity files, to have the alien either always fixed to its relaxed intensity behavior or being very intense. This could be achieved by taking the desired values from one of the intensity files and changing the default file to reflect those values, then merely deleting the lines inside the other intensity files which conflict with the new default values you wish to apply in all circumstances, making all the mild, moderate, moderately_intense & intense files into clones so that they would look like this:

<AlienConfig>
  <Template_Name>DEFAULT</Template_Name>
</AlienConfig>

And they would then use the default file lines exclusively, which you edited to reflect the desired level of intensity. A link for such a mod is provided in the last section.

In a similar vein, Seeing that the different backstagehold files are when the alien is on a fixed break, not a dynamic one, but a scripted one for the story purposes, you can see that they have the breaks set as such:

<BackstageAreaSweep>
    <role_timeout_min>-1</role_timeout_min>
    <role_timeout_max>-1</role_timeout_max>

Therefore, If you´d want to remove story-forced breaks for the alien (this could potentially break some gameplay mechanics, not to mention the story!), it should be possible to allow the alien to literally show up anytime by changing the "-1" into a positive number. Conversely, if you would wish to remove the alien from the game, then editing every role_timeout_min/max line you find inside the alienconfigs folder to read the same "-1" should do the trick* (or edit one template and make sure none of the others which use that template has the same line, in similar fashion as above with the fixed intensity. Also remember to remove from difficultysettings files the role_timeout_min/max lines so that they don´t conflict).
*The "-1" might not work. My superficial testing yielded contradictory results, so one might have to go the old-fashioned way of just replacing insanely high numbers into these parameters.

To reiterate, The alienconfigs folder has a default file, which controls the default leash ranges, vent times, break times, some other wander and sweep area sizes. Then it has templates for levels of intensity, for when the game wants to slightly relax the Alien activity, or pull it closer to the player and force it out into the open to stalk more, those are the mild, moderate, moderately_intense & intense files. It also has files talking about how far away the alien should be when it is on hold, for story purposes, also on alert status. Sometimes it is on hold at a relaxed distance, the BACKSTAGEHOLD_MILD.BML file, and sometimes it is on hold very close by.
On top of this, the Difficullysettings folder files modify across all intensities either for more relaxed or more intense, based on the difficulty, so that when the game switches to use the intense template, if you are playing on Nightmare difficulty, the leash ranges & vent times will be even shorter from the normal intense moments.

Alien AI Modding Part 2

There are obviously more parameters of interest, but I do not know them really at all.
So what follows is highly speculative, with little testing history done.
Continuing to look at the files found either in the alienconfigs or difficultysettings folder, we find lines like these:

<decrease_sweep_duration>
<increase_sweep_duration>

Probably self-explanatory, they somehow control the time the alien takes to make its sweeps while hunting, but I´m not sure how exactly they control the time, as the difficulty settings modify them in strange ways. More intense and harder difficulties have the increase sweep duration as a smaller number, but none seem to modify the decrease duration.

<sweep_box_half_width>
<sweep_box_min_half_length>

These probably have to do with the size of the area the Alien sweeps and stalks, but don´t quote me on that. Again more intense and harder difficulties put these at smaller values, that the alien seems to do its patrolling sweeps in a smaller area closer to the player.

The various "menace" lines look like some kind of threat assessment, like how suspicious the Alien is, or aware of present dangers, or maybe they relate to a heightened state of aggressiveness the alien can achieve, like I said, I don´t really know what these rest interesting looking lines do. (One line says "meance", looks like a typo, but it is reproduced consistently in all the damn files, so I´m afraid to correct it, if the devs actually coded the typo in, another apparent typo is the mofisier bit in the hard difficulty setting bml.)

ALIEN.BML

The ending of the alien file inside the attributes folder has some interesting tidbits, I´ll copy them here:

  <Job_Behaviour name="Job_Behaviour">
    <max_range_to_search_for_IDLE_job>200</max_range_to_search_for_IDLE_job>
<max_range_to_search_for_ESCALATION_jobs>10</max_range_to_search_for_ESCALATION_jobs>
    <min_time_between_idles_for_stalk>60</min_time_between_idles_for_stalk>
  </Job_Behaviour>
  <Aggrovation_Settings>
    <aggro_distances>
      <aggro_aggressive_distance>10</aggro_aggressive_distance>
      <aggro_warning_distance>20</aggro_warning_distance>
    </aggro_distances>
  </Aggrovation_Settings>
  <Hiding>
    <hiding_search_radius>7</hiding_search_radius>
    <hiding_post_search_exclusion_radius>10</hiding_post_search_exclusion_radius>
    <hiding_hearing_range>6</hiding_hearing_range>
  </Hiding>
</Attribute>

Talking about ranges to search for different "jobs" sound promising, there are "idle" jobs, "escalation" jobs. I think they refer to idling, breaks, and looking for trouble, in essence.
Aggrovation settings we already talked about.
Hiding looks like locker or otherwise hiding hunting behaviour, when the player is crouched under an object obscured or inside a locker, the radius the alien starts to look in, the radius in excluding to look in the same place, assuming it will exclude looking again there, hearing range.

Now here are my test lines, I have copied some of the new lines from the defaults template and a few others, then I´ll try to explain what I hope to mess around with.

  <Job_Behaviour name="Job_Behaviour">
    <max_range_to_search_for_IDLE_job>400</max_range_to_search_for_IDLE_job><max_range_to_search_for_ESCALATION_jobs>30</max_range_to_search_for_ESCALATION_jobs>
	<max_range_to_search_for_INVESTIGATIVE_job>999</max_range_to_search_for_INVESTIGATIVE_job>
    <min_time_between_idles_for_stalk>30</min_time_between_idles_for_stalk>
  </Job_Behaviour>
  <Aggrovation_Settings>
   <aggro_rate>
      <aggro_warning_rate>0.22</aggro_warning_rate>
      <aggro_interrogative_rate>0.22</aggro_interrogative_rate>
      <aggro_standdown_rate>-0.11</aggro_standdown_rate>
    </aggro_rate>
    <aggro_distances>
      <aggro_aggressive_distance>10</aggro_aggressive_distance>
      <aggro_warning_distance>20</aggro_warning_distance>
	  <aggro_interrogative_distance>30</aggro_interrogative_distance>
      <aggro_standdown_distance>40</aggro_standdown_distance>
    </aggro_distances>
  </Aggrovation_Settings>
  <Hiding>
    <hiding_max_search_time>99</hiding_max_search_time>
    <chance_hiding_not_chosen>0.25</chance_hiding_not_chosen>
    <hiding_search_radius>11</hiding_search_radius>
    <hiding_post_search_exclusion_radius>22</hiding_post_search_exclusion_radius>
    <hiding_hearing_range>6</hiding_hearing_range>
  </Hiding>
</Attribute>

I hope to create a finer gradient of different behaviours, like maybe the alien could investigate a bit more, maybe even stand down, get bored with chasing (assuming you actually can outrun it!). This is all assuming my intuition of what these lines are referring to is correct, for instance when the player is in hiding, the max search time for the alien is allowed to be higher, there´s a 1/4 chance the place or room the player is hiding in is not chosen, search radius slightly larger and same with exclusion radius.
Like I said, experimental, I still need to confirm this.

Advanced NPC/Alien AI Modding

UPDATE 11/11/17 - the Alien Isolation AI Behaviour ModKit is now available which includes a fan-created LegendPlugin and tool to export/import behaviour trees for modding in Brainiac Designer. Click here to read more and download![github.com]

The Survivor/Working Joe/Alien behaviour trees can be found within the /DATA/BINARY_BEHAVIOUR/_DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.BML file. Unfortunately this file is not compatible with the AlienBML tool that we used in previous sections to extract and repack the game's BML files. However, there is a workaround that you can use to allow the tool to read this file.

Download this version of the _DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.BML file (it's in XML format) and save it somewhere you will remember. AlienBML will be able to convert this XML to BML with no issues! When you've modded the XML and created your BML (just drag your modded XML onto the AlienBML tool), all you need to do is paste your new BML into the BINARY_BEHAVIOR folder and rename it to _DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.BML (keeping a backup of the original).

Alternatively, you can use the AlienBML.exe supplied with the fixed _DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.BML download. Place the AlienBML.exe and _DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.XML from that download in the DATA/BINARY_BEHAVIOUR folder, modify the XML and then run AlienBML.exe. This program will convert your XML to BML and save it as the correct name so you can instantly test your changes in-game.

Inside this working XML you will see the output of The Creative Assembly's AI editing tool, which is a plugin that I believe is called "LegendPlugin" for a piece of software known as "Brainiac Designer[brainiac.codeplex.com]".

This software allows the developers to create flowcharts (behaviour trees) of how characters in-game should react to events that happen in the game world (E.G. you point a gun at an NPC, the Alien is searching for you, etc) and then export the behaviour trees to XML files for the game to read. You can see an example Brainiac XML file here[github.com], which is very similar to the ones you will find within the _DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.BML file in Isolation.

Unfortunately, there is no way to use Brainiac Designer to edit the _DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.BML file because The Creative Assembly's "LegendPlugin" plugin isn't publicly available, and without that plugin Brainiac won't work with Alien Isolation's XMLs because it won't understand the way that they were created. We're going to have to do all edits manually within the XML file, no GUI tool for us!

So where to start? Obviously this file is incredibly complex with a lot of different things in it since it comes from a visual editor and isn't necessarily meant for plain text editing. Luckily for us though, it's pretty neatly laid out and shouldn't be too hard to understand. The hardest thing to understand is exactly what every AI state does, but that shouldn't be too difficult since they are all named appropriately. For example, "COULD_RESPOND_TO_HIDING_PLAYER", "PLAYER_HIDING", "ConditionHasAWeapon", "ConditionCurrentWeaponNeedsReloading", etc.

I can't really advise on anything specific, since the file covers such a wide range of behaviours, so all I can recommend is for you to mess about with it yourself. Just remember once you're done editing the XML, save it, drag it back onto AlienBML and rename the BML it outputs so that it is named _DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.BML. Always keep an original backup of your file though just in-case you make a mistake in your newly edited version - which is probably very likely!

Good luck! It's great fun to mess about with this file to see what effects it has on the way the AI behaves.

Introduction - Section Two

This section was written by MattFiler.

UI Import/Export

Please refer to the "Editing UI" section of the OpenCAGE Wiki.[github.com]

Texture Import/Export

Please refer to the "Editing textures" section of the OpenCAGE Wiki.[github.com]

Video Import/Export

Exporting Video

Download VGM Toolbox[sourceforge.net]. Once installed you can convert cutscenes. Navigate to your 'steamapps/common/Alien Isolation/DATA/UI/MOVIES' folder, inside VGM Toolbox click on 'Misc. Tools' > 'Stream Tools' > 'Video Demultiplexer'. Drag all files in the MOVIES folder them over to the VGM Toolbox window where it says 'Drop Files Here'. Before you do this, make sure your format is set to USM and you have selected Audio and Video.
VGM Toolbox will now convert the files and put them in the new folder you just copied the USM files to. You'll notice that the audio file(s) are in the format of ADX and the video is in the format of m2v. m2v can easily be played using VLC, or can be converted online or via a downloadable conversion tool. To convert the ADX audio file(s) you need to download another bit of software called PES Sound Converter[www.moddingway.com]. Once it has downloaded, open it up and choose ADX to MP3 at the top of the window and then just drag your newly converted ADX file(s) in and follow the steps it asks you.
If you want to mod the cutscenes to feature your own custom made videos, check out the "Video Modding" section.

Importing Video

After you've created your video, you need to export the audio feed and video feed separately, as you will need these two different files for later in the process. These formats need to be .AVI and .WAV. If your editor won't let you export in these formats, or it will only allow you to export video, there are plently of converters you can use online to convert your files to the correct formats easily.
Once you have your .AVI and .WAV files, you need to download a free bit of software called {LINK REMOVED}Scaleform Video Encoder. After you've downloaded Scaleform, extract it and open up the file called "ScaleformVideoEncoder.exe". In this window, you need to navigate to your input name, and use the file input button to locate your .AVI file. Once you've done this, uncheck the "Use Audio Track" box below it. Next you need to go to the "Other Audio" section and choose "Mono/Stereo" and then locate your .WAV file in the file input box. After this has been done, select "use framerate from input file" on the right hand side of the window and then hit encode.

Scaleform will now convert your video (this may take some time) and should place it in the same folder that your original .AVI file is in. Locate your new .USM file and copy it to your "steamapps/common/Alien Isolation/DATA/UI/MOVIES/" folder. In this folder, you need to choose the existing USM file you want to replace, and rename it to include a 1 after its name (E.G. "CA_IDENT.USM" would become "CA_IDENT1.USM"). After renaming the existing file, rename your new file the original name of the USM you just renamed (E.G. "CA_IDENT.USM"). If you now launch the game, the file should of changed over to your new video.

Audio Import/Export

Exporting Audio

To export sound files, simply download the Alien: Isolation Audio Extractor[github.com] and place it in your Alien: Isolation directory (alongside AI.exe). Run the extractor and press enter to begin the process. Sounds will be output to /DATA/SOUNDS_ORGANISED/ and /DATA/SOUNDS_UNORGANISED/. "Organised" sounds are named, and "unorganised" sounds are un-named, as the soundbank manifest doesn't list a name for them.

Importing Audio

Audio modding is possible in this game as it uses Wwise. I've done some myself and it doesn't work too bad. I'll write up this section when I've got more to share.

Model Export

The game's models are available from the 'steamapps/common/Alien Isolation/DATA/ENV/PRODUCTION/<<you choose a location>>/RENDERABLE' or 'steamapps/common/Alien Isolation/DATA/ENV/GLOBAL/WORLD/' or 'steamapps/common/Alien Isolation/DATA/ENV/PRODUCTION/<<you choose a location>>/WORLD' folders (there may be more but these are the three I believe to work). The process of extracting the models is much the same as the process for the textures, so I won't rewrite it all. Just note that instead of the file having 'TEXTURE' in it, it will have 'MODELS' in it. The naming system other than this works exactly the same, and instead of using the AITexExtract tool, you need to use this tool and copy the 'AIPAKTool.exe' and 'Unpack_MODELS.bat' files from that to your directory with the MODELS .PAK and .BIN files in. To extract them, the same as textures just drag them onto the .bat file.
One problem with the models is that they are in .pObject file formats and the developers of the mod tool were working on a converter to use them as readable 3D model files for programs like Blender and 3DSMax, but they seem to of given up with this project. There is a Blender add on that allows you to open the .pObject files that was finished however, it's quite time consuming to use but awesome to try out. To read up about it, visit the forum here[forum.xentax.com] and download it here[rel.cra0kalo.com]. We'll update this mod guide if the converter is released (see a screenshot of the converter in development here[forum.xentax.com]) although unfortunately it's probably never going to happen. There was even a toolkit in development for the models (see here) but again it's not released so we'll update this mod guide if it comes out.

Animation Export

To extract the game's animations (in Havok format) you can use Cra0kalo's PAK converter. Just find your ANIMATIONS.PAK file in the /DATA/GLOBAL/ folder and drag it onto the Unpack_ANIMATIONS.bat.

Skeletons and also each level's collision map / physics map can be opened within Havok 2012.2.0-r1. The tool for this is available to download at this link[drive.google.com].

Using the Debug Checkpoints

After a lot of work, I managed to enable debug checkpoints within Isolation. This allows you to teleport around the map, skip to different sections of gameplay, or enable some developer scripts like spawning NPCs.

Check out the video below to see the debug checkpoints in action:

It's great fun to mess about with and can lead to some really interesting situations in-game. Download the modded UI.PAK here to access the debug checkpoint menu!

Extras

Cheat Engine

The Cheat Engine is normally used in games to enable easier settings in the game and make the general game experence less challenging. After a quick search online, somone has made a cheat table for the cheat engine that works with Alien Isolation. Although this cheat table does allow you to enable things like the Xenomorph not being able to attack you, it also allows you to enable some cool features such as free camera, allowing you to explore parts of the game that are completely unaccessable like rooms A-23, A-24 and A-25 on mission 5. Along with the free camera it also has some great visual enhancements like customisable depth of field, blooming effects and more. There are also some screenshot friendly options like the ability to disable the HUD and remove the effect of your space helmet when on missions that require you to wear one (like mission 8). Read on to learn how to use the Cheat Engine for Isolation, or skip to the section below to learn how to use the custom-built tool that enables similar improved features with a GUI in-game.
To use the Cheat Engine with Isolation, simply download the latest Cheat Engine from the official website[www.cheatengine.org] and grab the Isolation cheat table from the Dead End Thrills forums[www.deadendthrills.com]. After they've both been downloaded, install the Cheat Engine from the installer file you just downloaded and once the install is finished (watch out for some sneaky unwanted product options on the install program) you can begin to customise it for Alien Isolation.
Take the cheat table you downloaded and rename it from 'AIaob.CT.txt' to 'AIaob.CT' if it isn't already named as such. Now double click the cheat table file and it should launch in the cheat engine.
To use the new features, just run Alien Isolation then alt+tab out of the game back to the cheat engine and click on the search icon and find the process of AI.exe and click open.
If it prompts you to leave listings as they are (or something along those lines) just choose the default option. To enable the features you can either find the keybind for each one or you can just click the empty box next to the name of the feature to enable it. Be careful as the set keybinds will still work so you may accidently turn something off during the game, so it's worth checking the keybinds before you start. Enjoy!

HattiWatti's Cinematic Tool

This mod is very similar to the Cheat Table mentioned above, only it has a GUI which shows in-game (which can be hidden for screenshots etc) and also some features are slightly improved. One massively improved feature from the Cheat Table is the free camera. In this mod, the free camera works with controller as well as keyboard and mouse, and it is not jittery - it is very smooth and the speed of it can be controlled. In this mod there are also a few features that aren't in the Cheat Table like time remapping - allowing you to speed up or slow down the game, and advanced FOV controls with no limits, allowing you to set the FOV to whatever you want. There are also some really sweet controls of the post processing which the Cheat Table was a bit limited on, allowing you to get some really awesome looking gameplay!
To install it, all you need to do is download the Alien Isolation tool from this website[cinetools.xyz] and copy them to your Alien Isolation install folder (E.G. /Steam/SteamApps/Alien Isolation/). Once copied, run Alien Isolation and then go back to the install folder. From the install folder, launch the new FInject.exe, and click the Add button. Here you need to locate the AlienIsolation.dll in your install folder that you just copied (you only need to do this the first time you launch FInject.exe). Now, in the text box in the top right of the window, type in "AI.exe" (make sure AI is in capitals, else it will look for the wrong program) and then hit the Inject button. Next to the textbox you just typed AI.exe in you should now see the Alien Isolation egg logo and it should start up a console program, don't close this.
Now go back to Alien Isolation. In the game you should now have a new menu. From here you can control all the settings, so have a play around! To hide the menu itself just press the insert key, to move up and down the options use the arrow keys, and to choose something just press enter.
A helpful note is that due to a recent game update, you now need to freeze the game before you can enable the free camera.

Helpful hint

There are many text files you can simply read and edit, inside the data/text/language folders, editing them you can achieve results like these.[forums.alienisolation.com]
Sometimes just experimenting and trying to open something, even strange file formats, you can be surprised to find them readable in plain english, like the .PKG files inside the data/packages folder.

Unknowns

Inside the MATERIAL_DATA folder there is a BML file and an XML file of the same name including information about decals, effects, some basic physics engine values and other tidbits however I'm not sure if modifying these will produce any effect in-game. Worth looking at though!

There's at least one .BIN file that isn't encrypted, and that is the file...

\DATA\CHR_INFO\CUSTOMCHARACTERVOICETYPEMAPPINGS.BIN

In there all the voices are set for the different characters, and it looks like you may be able to switch voice banks around quite easily although I haven't properly tried it yet. There is a bit of information at the top of that document explaining how it's set up too!

Relevant Links

Topic Links.

• Alien Isolation Mod Tools (LegendPlugin)[github.com]
  
• Original BML Tool discussion on XeNTaX.[forum.xentax.com]
  
• Original PAK tool discussion on XeNTaX.[forum.xentax.com]
  
• Sound editing discussion on XeNTaX.[forum.xentax.com]
  
• Alien Isolation forum discussion about Modding.[forums.alienisolation.com]
  
• Link to the original discussion about Alien behaviour tweaking.
  
• Graphics options Tweak guide by AngelGraves13
  
• Short Tutorial based on this on Moddb.

Tools & Misc. Download Links.

• Alien Isolation BML Converter
  
• Alien Isolation UI Mod Tool
  
• Alien Isolation Texture Extractor
  
• Alien Isolation Model Exporter (and Blender importer)
  
• Alien Isolation Animation Exporter
  
• Moddable "_DIRECTORY_CONTENTS.BML"
  
• Batch UI Extractor[docs.google.com]
  
• Notepad++[notepad-plus-plus.org]
  
• Pico Pixel[www.pixelandpolygon.com]
  
• JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler[www.free-decompiler.com]
  
• {LINK REMOVED}Riveal Audio Exporter
  
• VGM Toolbox[sourceforge.net]
  
• PES Sound File Converter[www.moddingway.com]
  
• {LINK REMOVED}Scaleform Video Encoder.
  
• Cheat Engine.[www.cheatengine.org]
  
• Alien Isolation Cheat Table.[www.deadendthrills.com]
  
• HxD Hex Editor[mh-nexus.de]
  
• HattiWatti's Cinematic Tool[cinetools.xyz]

[NuclearRodent]

the game is crashing for me. I edited the game to give me 34 explosives but when I ran it, it froze and crashed to desktop. OpenCage is too complex error wise, I think they need to make the error messages more understandable and less prone to windows registry jargon

[Zacheract]

Somebody should mod the Xenomorph into Xeno-kermit

[deathtrooper246]

How can I change an objective?

[Dogs-R-Dope]

is there a way to make all the npcs do their thing but they just ignore youl ike the alien still walks around and stuff but just ignores you

[Furia_102PL]

<!-- CORE RESOURCES -->
<!-- These are the core resources for the game, used by all the recipes -->
<!-- These first three are the rare components -->

pliss help me

[Furia_102PL]

<object name="gasoline"
width="2"
stack_limit="5" <!-- It is originally 3 ! -->
special_slot="GASOLINE_SLOT"
display_quantity ="true"
crafting_resource ="true"
localisation_tag ="AI_UI_ITEM_ETHANOL" />
<object name="high_voltage_battery"
width="2"
stack_limit="5" <!-- It is originally 3 ! -->
special_slot="HIGH_VOLTAGE_BATTERY_SLOT"
display_quantity ="true"
crafting_resource ="true"
localisation_tag ="AI_UI_ITEM_BATTERY" />
<object name="explosive"
stack_limit="5" <!-- It is originally 3 ! -->
special_slot="EXPLOSIVE_SLOT"
display_quantity ="true"
crafting_resource ="true"
localisation_tag ="AI_UI_ITEM_EXPLOSIVE" />
<!-- The common components -->
<object name="pipe"
width="2"
stack_limit="5" <!-- It is originally 3 ! -->
special_slot="PIPE_SLOT"
display_quantity ="true"
crafting_resource ="true"
localisation_tag ="AI_UI_ITEM_PIPE" />

[Furia_102PL]

I tested it works! in the game.

Look: https://zapodaj.net/566cc2ffa9a04.png.html
<a href=https://zapodaj.net/566cc2ffa9a04.png.html>the-item-crafting-screen-alien-isolation-tips.png</a>

It doesn't show the icons in the Menu correctly! please help! Under what name can I find the files and where? D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Alien Isolation\DATA

I edited the files: "GBL_ITEM.BML" and "GBL_ITEM.XML"
I made a mod to make the game easier! :) in the game it works! but it doesn't display the icons correctly!

[ghramsEy]

Looks like the cinematic tool is hosted on Mediafire. com/ folder/tnmqo9becu169/CinematicTools
Windows Defender automatically deletes the file on removal from the 7z file.
This is because of the nature of programs that inject themselves into RAM.

You will need to tell Defender where to go and how to get there to stop this function.
I cannot make a direct link. Steam keeps removing it.

[ghramsEy]

IS there a better place to get the HattiWatti's Cinematic Tool ? That link is nothing but ads that both my script blocker and windows smart screen do not like. Eventually blocking the site completely which makes it send a bogus "contact your ISP message".

[NINATOR]

Has anyone ever figured out how to use the animation files from Alien Isolation, i.e. if you can use them in a third party program like Blender etc., if so, how?