Alien succesfully removed from game

[[Lebowski]-=ThArK=-]

After a few hours trying I finally found a way to remove the Alien from the game for those players who wants to free explore the Sevastopol without the constant threat of the xenomorph.
The way to do that is making a little mod on the file ALIEN.BML that the game uses to set the alien attributes.
At the end of the file there is a line that sets the alien behaviour with "alien_behave" and I replace it with "NoBehaviour" so the alien still is there in some vent but doesn't make anything. It is freezed.

For those who want to edit that .bml file must be with an hex editor. I recommend to backup the whole folder before making any changes.
There's a link to download the modified .bml file https://www.dropbox.com/s/zfl7obl54wp8e2a/ALIEN.BML?dl=0

First of all rename the original ALIEN.BML in Steam\SteamApps\common\Alien Isolation\DATA\CHR_INFO\ATTRIBUTES\ to ALIEN_BACKUP.BML or something like that, then paste the downloaded file in that folder.

And thats all! Notice that humans or androids still can kill you! Be careful!

[Rawex]

Very cool, nicely found out =)

[KrellianKruge99]

I was thinking of something along the lines of modifying the games overall AI to 'see' the player as a synthetic rather than a human and that way even the hostile synthetics should theoretically ignore the player as well as the Alien.

[ap0]

So you made "Gone Home" out of Alien Isolation.

[Koranis]

But you can explore the station once you launched the alien into the gas giant. So what's the point? Just asking...

[soopytwist]

Originally posted by Koranis:

But you can explore the station once you launched the alien into the gas giant. So what's the point? Just asking...

You can't explore "everywhere" until you have all 3 data cells for the hacking tool and all 3 cutting tools. You don't have them all at the point of removing the alien; not until the end of level 15, by which point some players will be bored of constantly hiding so this little hack could come in handy....

...and I just realised I might have dropped a spoiler in there, sort of. Sorry about that.

EDIT

Added spoiler tags.

[tombdiver]

Nice!

[Daflux™]

Originally posted by tombdiver:

Nice!

yeh - this....

[-OrLoK- Слава Україн]

Hello there

Splendid work. It'll be a useful little tool!

Rgds

LoK

[-OrLoK- Слава Україн]

Hello there

All we need now is someone to program in all the mechanics and items from SS13 and well be ready to go!

Rgds

LoK

PS. With the AI and alien out of the picture is the station still navigable as there seems to be a lot of cutscenes. Or like the Alien to they trigger then stand idle?

L

[Gas Head]

Very nice! Thanks!

Also, do you think you can manage to alter the difficulty .bml files? I want to try to "mix" different parameters from different difficulties: For example:

- ALien reaction to gunfire from easy
- Damage System, View cones, enemy reaction times and resource management from hard
- general Alien AI from medium (on hard the Alien is simply too annoying)
-

[[Lebowski]-=ThArK=-]

Actually I'm working on changing the speed of Alien movement, trying to understand the .bml file and parameters, to decrease the speed in vents... and forcing the alien to walk around slow, just walking and not running fast without a reason like sometimes it does. I don't know if it's possible. It will give the player a little more time between the alien patrol rounds.
About your question most of things you comment are included in the same .bml that behavior is, and I'm trying to understand because all the file content is a mess... but your point is a very good call.
Anyways, it's beyond my skills to found a way to "mix" difficulties, I don't have so much technical knowledge... just like to play a little touching things.

I will post any further progress with you guys.

[Gas Head]

Yeah, those files really are a mess. Also I don't know how to hex edit. If someone was able to convert those .bml files to .xml and vice versa, modding would probably become much easier. I don't know if that's possible though.

Anyway, good luck to you in your projects! I can't wait to finally see some mods showing up for this game. Your idea about slowing the alien down in vents is a very good one.

[Qatsi]

Nice mod! Makes it possible to admire it up close, try weapons on it, or even walk with it as if it were a pet (at the end of Crew Expendable).

[Bru741iX]

Originally posted by Gas Head:

- general Alien AI from medium (on hard the Alien is simply too annoying)
-

Then play on medium... Did you seriously expect "hard" to be a walk in the park?

[Gas Head]

Originally posted by Bru741iX:

Originally posted by Gas Head:

- general Alien AI from medium (on hard the Alien is simply too annoying)
-

Then play on medium... Did you seriously expect "hard" to be a walk in the park?

I actually do play on medium. But unfortunately some settings from hard, and even some from easy, would enrichen gameplay for me. That's why I am looking into the difficulty .bml files, if it's possible to combine individual parameters into a "custom" difficulty setting.

I don't think I'll succeed though.