Alien Arena 2007

Latest revision as of 14:02, 30 November 2010

Alien Arena 2007
Alien Arena Gameplay
Company/Developers:	COR Entertainment
OS:	Linux, MS Windows
Type:	Game
Licence:	GPL
Web site:	http://red.planetarena.org/

Alien Arena 2007 is a free standalone deathmatch game based on source code released by id Software. Begun by COR Entertainment in 2004, the game combines a 1950s-era sci-fi atmosphere with gameplay similar to the Quake, Doom, and Unreal Tournament series. Alien Arena focuses mainly on online multiplayer action, although it does contain single player campaigns against bots.

Alien Arena has been released for Microsoft Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. Alien Arena has been free-to-play since its inception, and there are currently no plans to change it to pay-to-play.

Gameplay

There are 35 standard maps to choose from, 11 player characters, and 9 weapons with alternate fires, and a grappling hook. The game is powered by the id Tech 2 based CRX Engine, which features 32 bit hi-res texture support, shaders, textured particles, stainmaps, reflective water with refractive shaders, light bloom, real-time shadows, real-time vertex lighting, normal-mapping, and other modern effects, all of which can be turned on or off in the menu. Also featured is an internal server browser for finding other people to play online and the external Code Red Galaxy program which also serves as an IRC interface.

Alien Arena features standard Deathmatch, similar in style to Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament. Also included are Capture the Flag, Deathball, Team Core Assault, Team Deathmatch, All Out Assault, and Cattle Prod, a new play variant that requires players to herd robotic cattle to earn points. There are six game mutators (excessive, instagib, rocket arena, vampire, regeneration, and low gravity) which can alter the game to play differently. All modes can be played online against other players or offline against bots. The bots can be customized using an external program included with the installation of the game.

As of Friday, 2007-10-12, the latest released version of Alien Arena 2007 was version 6.10. This version features the addition of a one-on-one duel mode, as well as numerous gameplay enhancements. Most notable are a new weapon, shorter weapon respawn times, and a health and ammunition system similar to that found in Quake III. The release also includes a number of optimization, security, and stability fixes, a redesigned GUI, and the use of the standard utility cURL for downloading content from other players.

Weapons

Alien Arena features 9 weapons and a grappling hook, each with a secondary function. You start out with the Blaster and the Violator, and can pick up other weapons at their spawn points in the various levels (assuming a weapon-modifying mutator isn't set on). The weapons progress from 1 to 9 roughly in order of power.

• Blaster

The first starting weapon. The primary fire shoots out a slow moving plasma ball that does minimal damage. Takes 4 hits to kill a newly spawned player. The alt fire shoots out a much weaker plasma beam that may fire and hit immediately, but does hardly any damage compared to the primary fire and isn't used very often. The primary fire can be jumped off of, kind of like a rocket jump, to gain new heights/speeds and string together trickjump maneuvers.

• Violator

The second starting weapon. The primary fire is a melee attack that kills fairly quickly. The alt fire is a slower firing melee attack that kills faster than the primary fire. The violator functions very much like the Quake 3 Arena gauntlet melee weapon.

• Alien Disrupter

A railgun type weapon. Primary fire shoots out a 60 damage beam slug that takes 3 hits to kill a newly spawned player. The secondary fire, when held down, is a scope, much like a sniper rifle, and when released fires a beam slug that does three times the normal damage. However, the secondary fire emits a noise that can be heard by other players, so it's not a good function to be sneaky with. This weapon is used (with modifications) in the instagib mutator.

• Chaingun

Machinegun-like weapon. Primary fire spins the barrel and fires a stream of rapid fire bullets. The secondary function engages all the barrels simultaneously for a powerful shotgun burst. Very effective with the quad damage.

• Flamethrower

Spews fire that is most useful for damage over time. Primary fire is a constant but short ranged stream of flame that does moderate damage, but is enhanced with damage over time. Secondary fire shoots a long range mortar shot that does more damage than the normal shots, but consumes more ammo. Is the only weapon in the game that is capable of harming a player after death.

• Rocket Launcher

Does what the name suggests and shoots rockets. Primary fire is a moderately fast and quite powerful rocket shot with a fairly large amount of splash damage. Secondary fire is a slower moving rocket, but if the player has cell ammo, it homes in on players. The most commonly found weapon in the game. This weapon is used in the rocket arena mutator.

• Alien Smartgun

A grenade/mine layer that deals electrical damage through it's blast radius, as well as with direct, electrically charged hits. Primary fire is a grenade that explodes in a few seconds time. Secondary fire is a mine layer function, where the mines either explode when walked over by a player, or, if not touched, in a period of time. When groups are layed, they all expire at the same time.

• Beamgun

A very powerful and sought-after weapon that shoots a stream of beams that may not have the power of blast radius or large areas of effect, but deal damage quickly. Primary fire is the constant stream of beam slugs. Secondary fire is a more powerful, but delayed blaster shot that can also be used to blaster-jump, and can also be used to plasma-climb.

• Vaporizer

The most immediately-devastating weapon in the game, this is Alien Arena's equivalent of a BFG. The primary fire is an instant-killing blast that may take a few seconds to come out, but deals a lot of damage over a large blast radius. The secondary fire is a plasma bomb that also deals damage over a large area. This is the hardest weapon to find in the game.

• Grapple Hook

A weapon not found normally in gameplay, but is decided by a server setting. The setting determines either if the grapple is disabled, or you spawn with it, along with the blaster and violator. Primary fire is a hook that, when attached, will bring you to it's destination rather quickly. Secondary function is a hook that doesn't grab things and isn't very long range, but is used primarily to attack players. However, the normal function can also hurt players, just not as effectively.

Community

Alien Arena has two main components to the community; the COR Forums , and the IRC Channel #alienarena@EFNet, or #alienarena@QuakeNet.

There are also several active clans which participate in official Cups, Ladders, and Free For All matches. Player stats are also tracked and can be accessed via the Galaxy Client, or, if in the EFNet IRC channel, by using the !aastats <playername> function programmed into the channel bot.

Screenshots

Source

• English Wikipedia