New mod that I believe improves experience dramatically

[The WarSimmer]

LINK: https://www.nexusmods.com/alienisolation/mods/16

I have played Alien Isolation for a long time, and have "fixed" some of the core issues/complaints with the game to improve the experience. See the bottom for a TLDR list of changes. This mod will make the game much more enjoyable to new players.

The biggest change in this mod is to the alien's behavior. The vanilla game is way too unrealistic and frustrating- the alien is basically tethered to you on a leash the entire game once you first encounter him. You end up dying nonstop, and the horror and fear element is removed and replaced with frustration. An amazing mod, "unpredictable alien," was created to counter this problem, but it was created a long time ago before all the parameters of the alien's behavior were understood. The result was an alien that you often NEVER encountered, as well as behavior that didn't make sense.

Basically, the alien has three different "modes" that he can be in at any moment:
1) The Backstage- This is when the alien is above you in the ceiling. He is not an active threat at this time, but if you hear movement in the vents, he is close and may hear you if alerted through sound, and you are in danger of him dropping down.
2) The Frontstage- This is when the alien has dropped from the vents and is walking around Sevastopol. He may not be "hunting" for you, or anyone, for that matter, but he is active and will attack people he runs into.
3) The Stalk- This is when the alien has been alerted to a presence and is actively "Stalking" for a sound or target he has been alerted to. This is when the alien is most dangerous.

The issue with the unpredictable alien mod is that it is coded in ways that don't always make sense. For instance, it was often programmed in a way where the alien would be "leashed" within a tighter radius to you while in the frontstage rather than when he was stalking you. I have remedied these issues and playtested THOROUGHLY. I believe the alien's behavior is now not only randomized in a way to where it doesn't feel like he is stalking you the entire game, but is also still incredibly tense, and challenging.

I have also shortened the time allowed to crack codes via the hack-tool. The times have been shortened just slightly, to provide a bit of a challenge. In the vanilla game, the times are so forgiving that the mini-games are more of an annoyance than a challenge. Another change is in the weapons. Now, the shotgun CAN make the alien retreat. Rather than stunning the alien, shooting him twice will now make him flee to the vents. Note that because he is no longer stunned from getting shot, you must squeeze off two shots quickly before he gets to you, which is VERY difficult, and you should only attempt it as a last resort- keeping balance. I have also modded the revolver in the same manner- but you must get 5 or 6 shots off, and over time he becomes immune to it totally. It is basically impossible to get 5 or 6 shots into him before he catches you, but I wanted to include this option to give the player a chance, however slight it may be.

I have slightly altered lights to make them glow brighter. This is NOT a brightness increase. What it does is make lit areas have more of a glow, but dark areas will remain totally dark. I highly recommend setting the gamma very low. While in a vent, you should not be able to see your hand in front of your face, it should be pitch black. But lit areas like the deck on the torrens should be lit. Using this mod in conjunction with a low gamma will increase the atmosphere dramatically.

Finally, I have included two versions of this mod- one that keeps the original heavy thumps of his footsteps, and another that removes it entirely. Unlike other mods, all other sounds the alien makes are still included- such as his screams, hisses, and growls. It is only his footsteps that are removed.

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TLDR:

1) Alien behavior is much more realistic. He will not stalk you constantly. I have perfected his behavior beyond that of "unpredictable alien," which was created before all of the alien's behaviors were understood. I believe that this mod is the best alien behavior mod.
2) Hack tool is now on a slightly shorter time-limit to provide a bit more challenge
3) The pistol and shotgun can now make the alien retreat, but it is very difficult to pull off with diminishing returns. Shotgun no longer stuns the alien and requires 2 shots, and the pistol will require 5 or 6 rounds.
4) I have slightly altered lights to make them glow brighter. This is NOT a brightness increase. What it does is make lit areas have more of a glow, but dark areas will remain totally dark. I highly recommend setting the gamma very low. While in a vent, you should not be able to see your hand in front of your face, it should be pitch black. But lit areas like the deck on the torrens should be lit. Using this mod in conjunction with a low gamma will increase the atmosphere dramatically.
5) There are two versions of this mod- one where the alien's footsteps remain unchanged, and one where his footsteps are silent. I believe the silent footsteps contribute to atmosphere, but have included both options for you to choose from. Unlike other mods, it is ONLY the sound of his footsteps that have been removed. Hisses, screams, growls, etc, have been left in.

This mod is meant to be played on medium, but the highest difficulty is ok as well.

[Dayve]

Sounds great, I'll give it a try on my next playthrough.

[The WarSimmer]

Keep in mind that the mod is meant to be played on medium difficulty and is designed for non-veterans. I believe it will help facilitate a tense and survival horror feel to the game that is aimed at newer players. This isn't a challenge mode for experts, so if you're looking for that you may be disappointed. It's an attempt to improve the unpredictable alien mod with a few more enhancements thrown in.

[Budoshi]

Too bad it changes too many things that i dont want to be changed.

[Ziggy]

Indeed, while the effort by the developer of this mod is very much appreciated it does seem like a very eclectic mix of changes. I think however, if you just want the changes to the Alien behaviour then try only installing the files from the ALIENCONFIGS folder, which should leave the rest of the game untouched? Going to try this myself. I enjoyed playing with the Unpredictable Alien mod but it would do strange things at times and this mod looks promising. I did complete a hard playthrough in order to complete the achievements but I have to say I enjoyed the game much more on a relaxed difficulty, which for me, mirrored the suspense and tension from the original movie.

[The WarSimmer]

Originally posted by Ziggy:

Indeed, while the effort by the developer of this mod is very much appreciated it does seem like a very eclectic mix of changes. I think however, if you just want the changes to the Alien behaviour then try only installing the files from the ALIENCONFIGS folder, which should leave the rest of the game untouched? Going to try this myself. I enjoyed playing with the Unpredictable Alien mod but it would do strange things at times and this mod looks promising. I did complete a hard playthrough in order to complete the achievements but I have to say I enjoyed the game much more on a relaxed difficulty, which for me, mirrored the suspense and tension from the original movie.

Yes, you can do exactly this if you desire. Delete everything except the alienconfig files.

[Ziggy]

Thanks for confirming this. Looking forward to trying out your changes to the alien behaviour.

[Vzzdak]

Been playing regularly for past few weeks. Last night, I tried swapping in *just* the alienconfig files for the mod (backing up the previous files).

1. As a test, loaded chapter 5 (where the doctor sends you into the medical wing to die).
2. The doctor was nearly done talking (presumably the alien becomes active at this point), and the game shut down without warning.
3. Game refused to launch after that.
4. So I verified integrity of the game files, to find there was issue with five of the mod files:

default.bmi
intense.bmi
mild.bmi
moderate.bmi
moderately_intense.bmi

5. Game worked again, but at this point, I swapped my original files back in.

Whatever went wrong, the devs have the crash report data to inspect.

[The WarSimmer]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Been playing regularly for past few weeks. Last night, I tried swapping in *just* the alienconfig files for the mod (backing up the previous files).

1. As a test, loaded chapter 5 (where the doctor sends you into the medical wing to die).
2. The doctor was nearly done talking (presumably the alien becomes active at this point), and the game shut down without warning.
3. Game refused to launch after that.
4. So I verified integrity of the game files, to find there was issue with five of the mod files:

default.bmi
intense.bmi
mild.bmi
moderate.bmi
moderately_intense.bmi

5. Game worked again, but at this point, I swapped my original files back in.

Whatever went wrong, the devs have the crash report data to inspect.

Hey Vzzdak, I believe you probably ran into the problem because you tried swapping it into a game you were currently playing. Steam will say these files need to be validated because they have been modified. I've played through with this mod several times and had no issues- the only thing it modifies are numerical values and there should be no bugs. Next time you try a new game, load the mod first and start clean. That should take care of the problem, but let me know if you run in to anything.

[Xhoas]

Nah, i think it makes the game too easy.

[sebastien.poutas]

Hi,

is this mod compatible with the survivor mod ?

[Hollow]

Nexusmods: "You must be logged in to download files."
Garbage site. The same on ModDB or any file service would be fine.

[UnfriendlyGuy01]

You didn't improve anything, you don't know better than the devs and your mod sucks

[XΞИOΛLIΞИ]

I have tried mods like this before, years ago. The thing is, these mods are great when you already completed the game and figured out how the AI worked, to mix things up and give you a new AI experience for your second run.

But i do believe anyone new to the game should play vanilla the first time, and on hard mode.

The only mod you should really turn on is the settings mod which gives you alternate planar reflections, and perhaps the alias isolation mod to get rid of the horrible shader aliasing the game has, BUT if you have a high end graphics card i strongly recommend to just render the game in 6k or 8k (on a 4k or less screen) using DSR, that way you don't have to use chromatic aberration (alias isolation needs it to work) which imo is really aweful. The game runs in 8k 60 fps easily on high end graphics cards these days. I don't have a 4090 yet myself, but i'm willing to bet it runs the game in 8k at 120fps easily.

[Dayve]

Originally posted by XΞИOΛLIΞИ:

I have tried mods like this before, years ago. The thing is, these mods are great when you already completed the game and figured out how the AI worked, to mix things up and give you a new AI experience for your second run.

But i do believe anyone new to the game should play vanilla the first time, and on hard mode.

The only mod you should really turn on is the settings mod which gives you alternate planar reflections, and perhaps the alias isolation mod to get rid of the horrible shader aliasing the game has, BUT if you have a high end graphics card i strongly recommend to just render the game in 6k or 8k (on a 4k or less screen) using DSR, that way you don't have to use chromatic aberration (alias isolation needs it to work) which imo is really aweful. The game runs in 8k 60 fps easily on high end graphics cards these days. I don't have a 4090 yet myself, but i'm willing to bet it runs the game in 8k at 120fps easily.

I've always disagreed with playing on hard for your first time. I know the devs recommend it but for 9 people out of every 10 it just leads to them dying over and over on the Kuhlman medical mission and rage quitting (that's if they don't rage quit after they pick up the access tuner and die 15-20 times in a row trying to figure out how to evade the 4 armed humans whose guns you inexplicably can't pick up).

[cst1992]

Originally posted by UnfriendlyGuy01:

You didn't improve anything, you don't know better than the devs and your mod sucks

Write your mod then, let's see it.