TemplarGFX's ACM Overhaul - Gameplay, Graphics, AI, The Works

[TemplarGFX]

Aliens Colonial Marines Overhaul (ACMO for short) has always been about getting the best out of every aspect of the game. There is denying the game even after patches was lackluster at best. The AI sucked, the gunplay sucked, the story was eye-roll worthy and the characters under developed and overly cliched. It was not all bad though, and it had its moments. The levels could look fantastic, the weapons look great and the sound is very faithful to the source.
ACMO is primarily focused on three areas of the game, AI, Gunplay and Graphics. Each area has been heavily tweaked, playtested, balanced and tweaked some more to get the best out of every mechanic possible.
While there is nothing that can be done about the story the rest of the game is much more enjoyable than it was before with more varied and improved gunplay, unpredictable and deadly xenomorphs and darker atmospheric lighting and effects.

Full details and changes are avialable at the ModDB page


DOWNLOAD HERE
http://www.moddb.com/mods/templargfxs-acm-overhaul

My Paypal.me site : paypal.me/TemplarGFX


Unfortunately ACMO is not a miracle patch that turns the game into what was promised and teased back in the day and there are still many bugs and issues that remain that cannot be fixed with a hex editor.
Despite that buried under bad design choices, rushed development and typo's there is a decent game to be found, certainly better than the one that was released by Gearbox. When you play ACMO you are still playing the same game, its just everything works better, everything looks better and as a result the game is much more enjoyable.
The AI can still get stuck, and sometimes they still bug out and just stand still but it happens less often and is much less likely to impact gameplay progression than before. Human vs Human combat is not exactly what you would call tactically sound and their choices are often still suicidal
Due to how these changes have been applied to the game, it is one change for the entire game and all the modes. This can lead to pacing issues with your ally marines either leaving you behind or not following at times. Triggering the next sequence will make them catch up if they are behind or they will wait there for you. If you are seperated to much they will eventually be teleported to you.
When its all working however you can expect much more satisfying and enjoyable encounters, especially with the xenomorphs who move much more like they did in the bullshot video crawling over everything and being much less predictable foes

This project is a work in progress and will be expanded and improved over time to try and refine the game even further to an enjoyable experience. We're open to suggestions and feedback to help shape the future iterations of the mod!

If you would like to thank TemplarGFX for the Aliens: Colonial Marines Overhaul and help support future updates, you can now donate to James through PayPal. Donations aren't expected, but they are greatly appreciated!

Want to join a community of like minded ACM gamers, organise COOP and Bug Hunt and just hang out with awesome people? Join the official discord for ACM Overhaul : https://discord.gg/MVvmG7j

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ha-HrALZ8

Install Guide for V6 by TheSpoons313
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k8HKtLMwt0

ACM Modded vs UnModded Comparison by AlexPlaysVideoGamez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEcjxp9RmVo

[Larnievc]

Originally posted by TemplarGFX:

Originally posted by Larnievc:

I've no idea how I would record my gameplay: I'm a complete duffer at that kind of thing, lol.

Bandicam

I shall defo give that a go!

So I came home from work and thought 'I'll kill some xenos' and fired up the game. I had had a busy day so I was not on top form and I got killed so many times it was unreal.

Then it hit me: I just wanted a relaxing bug hunt, rather than a nail biting challenge. I double checked and I was playing it on recruit. So even on the easiest level it was a considerable challenge.

So I got to wondering about the difficulty levels. As it stands there does not seem to be a massive amount granualtion in difficulty (and I must stress this is from my perspective only) between recruit and ultimate badass.

What I mean to say is that recruit is hard and anything higher than that is so hard that I don't even attempt it. The upshot of this is that there is only effectively one difficulty level in the game I can play (reading this back to myself it sounds very entitled, I certainly don't want you to think that I do not appreciate all of your hard work).

Is it possible to make the range of difficulty from recruit to ultimate badass wider? At the mo, if ultimate badass is a 10/10 difficulty the recruit is 7/10 and I wonder if recruit could in fact be 4/10, soldier be 6/10, hardend could be 8/10 and ultimate badass remain 10/10.

This means alien killing demons have the challenge of 10/10 ultimate badass level of difficulty but if you come home early from work and just want to spend the arvo mowing down xenos you can do that, too.

Is there an easy way to do this (although, to be clear, I certainly don't want you to put any more work into this than you feel you waant to, lol)?

All the best, Larnievc.

[Larnievc]

I have some recorded footage but I don't know how to up load it here.

Can you tell me how?

ABE: oh I see, now. I need to upload to youtube...

ABE: here we go..

https://youtu.be/AAVl2W3INsQ

That's on recruit!, lol!

[Larnievc]

https://youtu.be/VnvDl2GE9KM

As you can se, even when I know where they are they are massive ♥♥♥♥♥ to kill (even on recruit), lol.

[FadedHistory]

Finally installed the mod. The game looks and feels so much better. I think the difficulty is a bit too much for my tastes but overall I think you did a great job. Xenos actually move much closer to how they should and the AI Marines actually hit targets!

[TemplarGFX]

Originally posted by Larnievc:

Originally posted by TemplarGFX:

Bandicam

I shall defo give that a go!

So I came home from work and thought 'I'll kill some xenos' and fired up the game. I had had a busy day so I was not on top form and I got killed so many times it was unreal.

Then it hit me: I just wanted a relaxing bug hunt, rather than a nail biting challenge. I double checked and I was playing it on recruit. So even on the easiest level it was a considerable challenge.

So I got to wondering about the difficulty levels. As it stands there does not seem to be a massive amount granualtion in difficulty (and I must stress this is from my perspective only) between recruit and ultimate badass.

What I mean to say is that recruit is hard and anything higher than that is so hard that I don't even attempt it. The upshot of this is that there is only effectively one difficulty level in the game I can play (reading this back to myself it sounds very entitled, I certainly don't want you to think that I do not appreciate all of your hard work).

Is it possible to make the range of difficulty from recruit to ultimate badass wider? At the mo, if ultimate badass is a 10/10 difficulty the recruit is 7/10 and I wonder if recruit could in fact be 4/10, soldier be 6/10, hardend could be 8/10 and ultimate badass remain 10/10.

This means alien killing demons have the challenge of 10/10 ultimate badass level of difficulty but if you come home early from work and just want to spend the arvo mowing down xenos you can do that, too.

Is there an easy way to do this (although, to be clear, I certainly don't want you to put any more work into this than you feel you waant to, lol)?

All the best, Larnievc.

Do not worry about how you are coming accross with feedback, of course everyone wants what they like in the game and how they would like it and I think everyone understands that when reading. Feedback is really needed as I made all of this on my own preferences, but Im just one person and others (like you) will want different, and I won't know if no one tells me!

You and I were thinking about the same things it seemed. I have been messing with different difficulties and you are correct in that now there is little difference between them. I will play around withe those settings there are for difficulty and see what I can come up with!

Originally posted by Larnievc:

I have some recorded footage but I don't know how to up load it here.

Can you tell me how?

ABE: oh I see, now. I need to upload to youtube...

ABE: here we go..

https://youtu.be/AAVl2W3INsQ

That's on recruit!, lol!

Thats just another day on the farm...

Originally posted by E-Dub ッ:

Finally installed the mod. The game looks and feels so much better. I think the difficulty is a bit too much for my tastes but overall I think you did a great job. Xenos actually move much closer to how they should and the AI Marines actually hit targets!

Thanks for the feedback! If you notice anything you think could be better let me know

[TemplarGFX]

Heres an overview of V3 so far :

Difficulty reworked. V3 will come with 2 core versions Weak Xeno's and Tough Xeno's. By default the xeno's will remain quick and deadly, with an addon again to slow them for those that want it, giving 4 possible difficulty setups.
I've also done a better job balancing Bug Hunt for solo play (should scale well with coop)
Weak Xeno's are basically one-shot kills to the head, and a short bust to kill anywhere. Their speed keeps them dangerous and its pretty fun like this. Tough Xeno's are V2 xeno's!

Sentry Gun improvements! Its (sorta) better at shooting at targets it can see instead of those it can't, and switches targets faster. It's awareness zone's have been reduced to prioritize close enemies better.

Xeno AI tweaks. I've reworked the "gangbang" mechanic now that I think I get what it does. Its used by the ai to decide if you (or their target) is sufficiently pre-occupied to ignore your threat status, so they will charge/pounce/attack/flank etc. I've reworked it so 1 unit counts as gang-banged, and it seems to help make the ai bolder and less idle-prone.

WY Mercs AI tweaks. They are more likely to react from being shot. these animations are called flinches. Even lowering it they still don't happen all the time, but I do see an increase. These interrupt their shooting, so Elites are a bit more manageble!

Huge overhaul of surface materials! I decided to just do it, and redo the specular, normal and ambient spec changes to all materials. The big difference is in ambient specular. For some reason practically everything had 20% ambient spec. Its like someone thought shiny = awesome. Disabling this on all the materials and allowing just normal, light based specular to shine (pun fully intended) really improves the atmosphere. Things are no longer stupidly shiny when they shouldn't be, and shiny when they should. normal (bump) detail is also more obvious on alot of objects (sadly not all use detail maps).
Xeno's are much harder to see now when they are idling on "infestation" as only local light is causing specular reflections on them both equally.
Weapons also look much nicer and more matt, reacting to light more realistically.

Fog,Smoke,Steam tweaks. some effects are stronger, and react better to light squeesing a bit more atmosphere out of the game

Some Screenies :
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=652242273
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=652242361
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=652242398
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=652242575
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=652242317

[Larnievc]

Sounds great! I'm a little concerned about the aliens being harder to see when idle. That in itself is cool but I've seen you play with really dark areas bagging xenos with great skill: I have to turn the gamma up (and putting up with a washed out screen) so I can see them to kill them.

If they are hard to spot when idle but relatively easy to spot when they are attacking that would be awsome (I'm reminded of the film AvP2 Requiem where everything was so dark it was really hard to appreciate anything) but in a shooter I think one needs to be able to accurately spot and target by reaction, rather than by knowing where they ar and will be.

With the ambient spec I wonder if that is why lights and reflections on my screen seem to have a flat level of luminescence.

Slower, weaker xenos sounds great for an easy afternood of xenos bashing (which is what I' going to try now as the boy is in nursery for a few hours, yay!). I'll film some of it.

Any ETA on V3

[TemplarGFX]

Originally posted by Larnievc:

Sounds great! I'm a little concerned about the aliens being harder to see when idle. That in itself is cool but I've seen you play with really dark areas bagging xenos with great skill: I have to turn the gamma up (and putting up with a washed out screen) so I can see them to kill them.

If they are hard to spot when idle but relatively easy to spot when they are attacking that would be awsome (I'm reminded of the film AvP2 Requiem where everything was so dark it was really hard to appreciate anything) but in a shooter I think one needs to be able to accurately spot and target by reaction, rather than by knowing where they ar and will be.

With the ambient spec I wonder if that is why lights and reflections on my screen seem to have a flat level of luminescence.

Slower, weaker xenos sounds great for an easy afternood of xenos bashing (which is what I' going to try now as the boy is in nursery for a few hours, yay!). I'll film some of it.

Any ETA on V3

Have a play of this if you like and give me feedback!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B38jzMAjNYH4N3J5b1RBUm1ubUk/view?usp=sharing

Its WIP (Weaker Xeno's + Slower Addon)

--edit--

When you say increase gamma, do you mean the in-game brightness setting? If not, you should be using that to make the game brighter

[Larnievc]

Yeah, I mean the gamma setting in the video menu of the game. I'll give the new verson a go!

I've met a bug. Where you can carry the sentry gun to the vehicle bay (and have two sentry guns) the alien attack is not triggering (it triggered once, I got killed but then it does not progress further than the mission prompt to set a parimeter. I'm going to restart the game and install the addon and I'll get back you.

Cheers.

https://youtu.be/s8lVN7NP_Ik

[TemplarGFX]

Originally posted by Larnievc:

Yeah, I mean the gamma setting in the video menu of the game. I'll give the new verson a go!

I've met a bug. Where you can carry the sentry gun to the vehicle bay (and have two sentry guns) the alien attack is not triggering (it triggered once, I got killed but then it does not progress further than the mission prompt to set a parimeter. I'm going to restart the game and install the addon and I'll get back you.

Cheers.

https://youtu.be/s8lVN7NP_Ik

Unfortunately if you check to your left on restarting at that point, you will notice the chick is dead beside you. She welds the door closed....

I am pretty sure this is not my doing (I can't edit that type of stuff)

[Larnievc]

Originally posted by TemplarGFX:

Originally posted by Larnievc:

Yeah, I mean the gamma setting in the video menu of the game. I'll give the new verson a go!

I've met a bug. Where you can carry the sentry gun to the vehicle bay (and have two sentry guns) the alien attack is not triggering (it triggered once, I got killed but then it does not progress further than the mission prompt to set a parimeter. I'm going to restart the game and install the addon and I'll get back you.

Cheers.

https://youtu.be/s8lVN7NP_Ik

Unfortunately if you check to your left on restarting at that point, you will notice the chick is dead beside you. She welds the door closed....

I am pretty sure this is not my doing (I can't edit that type of stuff)

lol!

Crazy Gearbox, Timegate, whoever!

[TemplarGFX]

Originally posted by Larnievc:

Originally posted by TemplarGFX:

Unfortunately if you check to your left on restarting at that point, you will notice the chick is dead beside you. She welds the door closed....

I am pretty sure this is not my doing (I can't edit that type of stuff)

lol!

Crazy Gearbox, Timegate, whoever!

Gearbox is truly the one all blame should be placed on.

Gearbox did all the asset work (designing hadleys / sulaco / guns / people etc) and its some quality stuff. But obviously as soon as the perks of making an Aliens game wore off they passed it off to Timegate. The choice of Timegate was a seriously bad one. Sector 8 was OK only, and other than that, they'd done a few FEAR mods. The result was a bland FPS and one in a not too organised state
Then Gearbox took it back and botched it together into a working sellable game and released it before it was finished.
It is clear that at the end, no real testing and balancing was done. There are stupidly simply bugs and omissions everywhere... If I had full access, the things I could do with this game in a few minutes is crazy!

[Larnievc]

Hi temp, is the slower xeno addon folder supposed to be empty?

[TemplarGFX]

Originally posted by Larnievc:

Hi temp, is the slower xeno addon folder supposed to be empty?

dangit!
wait a sec

[TemplarGFX]

Here you go : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B38jzMAjNYH4QUZfZlcxdkl5ZlE/view?usp=sharing