Coop Mod Created 6 years ago2018-07-27 08:37:32 UTC by Screamernail

I want to make a coop mod. I am aware and have played Sven Coop before but not everyone has access to it when it goes for the WON version.

It's named "Resonance Multiply" and it's a fully working WON version mod for 2-6 players. It's also going to be compatible with Xash3D. I want to know how simple it is to make a coop based mod. Is it easy to fixture with the multiplayer settings to make a single player team, stopping friendly fire and allow single player elements into multiplayer maps?

I'm searching for some willing modders, mappers and artists that can help give this mod life.

Given your track record of abandoning projects, you might find it difficult to find dedicated assistance without more concept material. Sketches, outline of the story/gameplay beats, etc.

Apart from giving people a better idea of what you want to create, it would also help give people confidence that you're actually going to stick with the project.

I will try to stick to the project. Yesterday I and my big brother where to play LAN on Sven Coop but couldn't get it to work so I decided to try my hand on creating my own mod for cooperative play. I do have more reasons to make the mod now, and I just want to make it quickly so I don't abandon it in the wrong time.

I think the most difficult factor isn't mappers or artists yet, it's actually getting the multiplayer part done. Sure half life has deathmatch, but as far as I know you can't just take singleplayer maps, throw them on a HLDM server and play them with friends, since HLDM is missing all the entities from HL.

So you'd have to program that yourself. And trust me, programming multiplayer isn't fun. I didn't do it on my own but I've talked to a few people who worked on SA-MP as an example, a multiplayer mod for GTA San Andreas. E.g. you could just take HLDM and throw the entities from HL in there and then edit it all to work in a new mod, but how are you going to synchronize the entities and stuff? There's a reason why not so many games have a MP mod, and even if, it's far from coop.

I don't want to "bash" your dream, but you should be aware it's almost impossible for a single person to do. I assume you have no real programming experience as well, right? If you really want to do this, I'd recommend starting to learn C and C++. If that doesn't scare you away, working with network engines probably will.

No I don't have any programming skills. I'll drop the project then if it's too complicated. Someone else might do a coop mod. For me I'll just stick to do the usual single player modding.

@torekk

HLDM is missing all the entities from HL.

Maybe you should learn more about the topic before recommending anything instead of spreading nonsense?

"HLDM is missing all the entities from HL."

You'd be surprised. Even the NPCs work in vanilla HLDM. Also, all the entities? So even the player spawns, weapons, sprites, transparent surfaces, breakable things etc.?

That nuke in crossfire would've been impossible in HLDM without entities.

GTA:SA wasn't made with multiplayer in mind in the first place. Half-Life was designed with both singleplayer and multiplayer in mind, so it doesn't even need a multiplayer mod.

Now, Screamernail, if you want a simplistic co-op mod that allows you to play HL in co-op, mp_allowmonsters 1 is all you need. The only problem might be the level changes, but everything else should be fine (according to my experience).

Okay I didn't know that HLDM has the entities from HL, figured it'd be the same as for HL2DM where most entitities that were meant for singleplayer got removed. But even if HLDM has the entities, are they synchronized?

E.g. you have a trigger_once, could 2 players activate it or just one? That's what I basically meant.

I guess if they would, things like level changes would work as well.

I think specifically level changes are a problem. I believe most entities function normally (though most monsters require “mp_allowmonsters” to be set to “1”), however level changes (at least, how they’re set up in the base game) do not function. There could be more, for all I know.

You can modify changelevel entities to work in multiplayer: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife/blob/5d761709a31ce1e71488f2668321de05f791b405/dlls/triggers.cpp#L1466

Disable the deathmatch check and add a g_pGameRules->IsMultiplayer() check to disable the transition volume check. You may also want to disable transitioning of entities since that's not really going to work well in multiplayer.

Wow. Maybe I could do this then. Thanks everyone!

EDIT: I'll be fixing the level change problem later. Now I want to make a simple coop map. Do I have to do something else first?

I don't want to "bash" your dream

You mean "smash"

Of course, the other aspect of this is that, assuming we're still talking sticking as close to vanilla as possible, is that it still would be deathmatch at its core. I don't know how much coding it would require if you wanted to disable or restrict friendly fire, respawning, respawning ammo, etc.

Can't I get help with coding? I did say that I'm not good at it.

"E.g. you have a trigger_once, could 2 players activate it or just one? That's what I basically meant."

Sure, look at bounce for an example. trigger_multiple and trigger_push entities which work just fine.

Of course, the other aspect of this is that, assuming we're still talking sticking as close to vanilla as possible, is that it still would be deathmatch at its core. I don't know how much coding it would require if you wanted to disable or restrict friendly fire, respawning, respawning ammo, etc.

You can disable friendly fire pretty easily: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife/blob/5d761709a31ce1e71488f2668321de05f791b405/dlls/multiplay_gamerules.cpp#L527

if (pAttacker && pAttacker->IsPlayer())
{
    return FALSE;
}

Basically if the attacker is a player you ignore the damage. You could add a check here to see if the owner is a player (shouldn't be an issue unless a monster spawned by a player is doing damage) or do team checks instead.

You should probably create a new gamerules class though, otherwise it'll have all of the rules of regular deathmatch.

I must admit that I have no single clue about coding. Why not just do my work? I have no programming skills. I don't even know where things are and where said other things must be or what needs to be replaced.

I don't plan on learning advanced Half-Life programming. I just have to much to do.

Why not just do my work?

Yeah, that's not how it works...

HL already has almost fully working coop, just set mp_allowmonsters to 1. It only lacks changing maps and other mechanics you would need

Thanks everyone for the support. I still have some problems but those will not be big obstacles when I get to know things cause of you all. I'm still having the same major problem, I have no idea how to make a coop map. I don't focus on 1 map and I'm not very active and clear-headed so I can't make one. I can work better with my own textures but those would be too simple and cartoony for a Half-Life based coop mod.

What I was working on now is something called Rack77 that is supposed to be a Half-Life 2 beta inspired mod.I'll be doing some of this a-bit and wait with the coop mod till I get to know what to put into it.

Use the "Team System with VGUI menu" tutorial, then you must only add one team and, voilá!!, maybe you want to add classes in the team, I am sure that it is also is explained there.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030225101134/http://www.planethalflife.com/hlprogramming/tutorial.asp?i=160

A class system here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080915025140/http://hlpp.thewavelength.net:80/tuts/class&feat.htm

This tutorial has a beeter version, more easy to study and, why not, for to copy and pasting it. Pity I did not find it anymore

The guys from TWL did a little fix...

http:/articles.thewavelength.net/364

If you want to add spawnpoints in case the game requires it...

http:/articles.thewavelength.net/522

And here´s where I did find every tutorial I did use for making my mod. The v 2.0 parts (reload call, overheat...) were done by Sheppard and Solokiller

https:/www.sourcemodding.com/tutorials/goldsrc/programming

Another place to look:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080914235906/http://hlpp.thewavelength.net:80/tutorial.htm

Good luck!!!