Sven Co-op
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Supported OS:
Windows • 
macOS • 
Linux + 
SteamOS (See system requirements)Chromebook ready:
Unknown / TBDSteam Deck status:
Playable - 
More info on ProtonDB 
Sven Co-op is a cooperative game for Valve Software's 
Half-Life. In this mod, players must work together against computer controlled enemies and solve puzzles as a team. It is currently at version 5.0.
The mod was originally created and released by Sven Viking as a small "mod" with 2 normal single-player maps and the command "sv_allowmonsters" set to 1. Sven Co-op was released on January 19th 1999, before Valve's 
Team Fortress Classic, and is therefore seen by some as the oldest Half-Life mod in existence that is still in development. Sven Co-op has since grown to become a full blown mod, with a full team, formerly ranked as the 4th most played game on Steam, excluding the official games being sold by Valve.
Sven Co-op is still under development.
Contents
Development team
- Daniel "Sven Viking" Fearon
- Founder, Project Manager
- David "Sniper" McDermott
- Lead Programmer, Web Design, Mapping
- David "Commando" Starr
- Mapping, Project Coordination
- Oscar "Nev" Björhn
- Programmer
Gameplay
Since Sven Co-op is heavily based on the original Half-Life, it is essential that you are at least familiar with Half-Life and its controls, and it is recommended that you have completed Half-Life's Hazard Course. The single-player campaign of Half-Life 1 is supported by Sven Co-op, but in a slightly altered form to create more challenge for multiplayer games.
SC levels are set as missions and are generally separate from each other. Many missions span several maps, and some are collected together in a series. The aim of most levels is to reach the end or to achieve an objective -- obtaining a high score is not essential to beat a level, its just part of the fun. Map scenarios include settings set in Black Mesa, cartoony worlds, World War 2 in Africa, Fantasy-like maps and modern urban warfare set in the Middle East.
Some of the most major features of the mod include:
- In-Game Monster/Player Info System, that displays info about the monster or player you are looking at.
- The ability for mappers to create friendly monsters and let players issue orders to them.
- The ability for mappers to change the models and sounds of each monster and weapon.
- A medkit weapon that heals other players and allies.
- Major Monster AI improvement
Monsters & Weapons
Sven Co-op includes several new monsters and weapons. Most of these come from 
Half-Life: Opposing Force, but have all been coded from scratch.
The new monsters included in the game are: The Pit Drone, Shock Trooper, Shockroach, Barney and Soldier Zombie, Baby and normal Voltigore, Gonome, Male Assassin including the Osprey, Otis, Cleansuit Scientist and the new Grunts, all from Half-Life: Opposing Force.
Sven Co-op also includes three other monsters, namely the Baby Gargantua, the Robo Grunt and the Heavy Weapons Grunt. The last two were originally supposed to be included in Half-Life, but were cut.
The new weapons included are the Barnacle, Pipewrench and M40a1 Sniper Rifle, from Half-Life: Opposing Force.
Sven Co-op also includes some original weapons, namely a Medkit, Single and Akimbo Uzis and a Minigun. There is also a small secret weapon included.
Mapping and Modeling Community
Sven Co-op has a very active Mapping and Modeling community, as evidenced by the recently released map pack, The Big One 490 map ppack. Sven Co-op also has a busy modeling and model conversion scene, and a group of these once went out to form the Half-Life Improvement Team, dedicated to improving models for all Half-Life games.
The Sven Co-op team has worked together with many HL1:SP mod developers to convert their maps to Sven Co-op. Most notable is the They Hunger Coop project, which will be released some time after Silver.
The community has slowly dwindled over the years, but Sven Co-op still remains one of the mods with most custom content. This success might be because of several reasons: Due to Sven Co-op's single-player nature, it is easier for mappers to create their own worlds and scenarios, and the ability for mappers to change models and sounds give them even more freedom. A backside of the "single-player" style, is that Sven Co-op maps generally take more time to create than maps for multiplayer games, but SC mapping has still managed to thrive.
A common criticism of single-player mapping for games, is that you never know how many people have played your map. When you are mapping for a coop game, you can create your own scenarios and tell a story to the players, and still be able to see how many are playing your game online.
Sven Co-op 4.0
Version 4.0 was completed and released.
A changelog for 4.0 was released but many features have since been added to the mod. Here is a short list of some of the announced features for 4.0:
New gamemodes
- VIP - Players must escort a fellow player or NPC to a defined point. Mappers have the option of setting up spawn points for guards to various routes along a path the VIP must take.
- Assault - Players must run into an area guarded by NPCs and destroy specified objects. Can be an unlimited amount of objects, specified by mapper. Upon destruction, object triggers something. Can have time limit.
- Invasion - Players must defend structures or NPCs within the given time period from invading monsters. Structures and NPCs can be repaired, and the mapper can define whether or not a given entity is allowed to be repaired by the players. Via the class system, players will have the ability to build things like sentry guns or other defensive structures.
- Other: Using the Sven Co-op entities mappers can set up all sorts of combinations of these gamemodes.
Misc features
- A new Player Class System. Through a simple text file, mappers can provide up to 10 player classes on their map. Options like choosing the player model, health, armor, specific abilities, weapon load out, etc. will be available.
- New weapons.
- New monsters.
Sven Co-op 5.0
Sven Co-op version 5.0 was announced back in January 12, 2016, with the trailer released on that same day. This version of Sven Co-op includes large amount of changes and new features added, such as:
Half-Life campaign are now completely built-in since Sven Co-op version 5.0, and does not require purchasing Half-Life in order to play.- Sven Co-op is now its own independent game distributed on Steam, free of charge.
- Includes 3 packages: A game package for players, a tool package for dedicated server operators, and an SDK package for content developers.
- Includes use of the Steam game hub platform and community features. (workshop functionality to be included in a future release)
- Sven Co-op now uses a customized GoldSrc engine under licence from Valve.
- Gives us the opportunity to improve upon common limitations in the GoldSrc engine.
- Maps can now be up to ~1,000x larger! (131,072 units away from position zero instead of just 4,096)
- Mappers: See the engine changes section for more details and technical information.
- New build of all Half-Life maps for co-operative play.
- All maps re-ported from scratch for Sven Co-op from Half-Life: Source.
- Enabled cross-map inventory.
- Enabled survival game play mode with checkpoints, so players have to be more careful about staying alive and reviving fallen allies.
- Many maps have been merged into a single map on a per-chapter basis to reduce map changes.
- The game play is now much more pure, with no "kill monsters to proceed" gates.
- New inventory system by using the new entity item_inventory, which is an item that a player holds on to for trigger rules and/or side-effects. Some example possibilities
- A key item must be carried by a player to a locked door, rather than it instantly becoming unlocked for rushers to wait by.
- A bomb defuse kit has to be brought to a bomb to defuse it, or it explodes and you all die.
- A gas mask can protect a player from nerve gas, but only lasts 2 minutes.
- Did someone say Capture the Flag??
- New maps
- Black Mesa: Special Tactics Sector.
- Desert Circle.
- Fortified.
- Stadium 4.
- Turret Fortress: Reverse.
- Updated maps
- Toon Run: Added extensive new areas, and reworked some of the old areas.
- Momma Mesa: Added six new possible endings, a new final boss battle, and new music.
- Another Unit: Added survival mode with checkpoints.
- YABMA: Added survival mode with checkpoints.
- New models for many weapons, ammo, and NPCs.
- New modifiers/effects that can be applied/removed on players and NPCs via inventory items, and scripts, and custom (scripted) entities
- Block use of weapons.
- Damage modifier.
- Extra / less time before starting to drown.
- Friction modifier.
- Ghost / non-solid.
- Glow shell.
- Gravity modifier.
- Invisibility.
- Invulnerability.
- Speed modifier.
- New observer mode
- Standard mode: If no spawn points are available for a player to use they become an observer until a spawn point becomes available.
- Cyclic mode: Players can only respawn out of observer mode when the map explicitly requests so.
- Survival game mode places dead players into observer mode until a live player reaches a checkpoint.
- New preliminary A.I. pathing entities for better control on where NPCs move around a map.
- New scripting engine using AngelScript
- Version 2.30.2 implemented.
- New entity: trigger_script
- A map script can be loaded by specifying a file in the map's configuration using key map_script.
- Scripts can be triggered one off or periodically (thinking).
- Alternative script files can be used, and shared across maps.
- New survival game play mode driven by a shared script.
- Watch out in future change logs as many more updates will come with this!
- New weapon
- Displacer from Opposing Force.
- Player weapons/ammunition can now be carried across map changes. (if a map wants to do this)
- For more changelogs over version 5.0, see this page.
- For more future updates, see Sven Co-op Steam News page.
With all that changes, this version of Sven Co-op was later released in January 22, 2016 on Steam. Additionally, the game has gone free to play and completely standalone, bundled with Half-Life campaigns, and does not require purchasing Half-Life and manually installing Sven Co-op.
Notability
Awards
- Sven Co-op
- Planet Half-Life's Mod of the Week six times [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
- Featured at Valve's Half-Life Mod Expo 2002 [7] [8] [9] [10]
- At Mod DB:
- One of the Best Mods Overall of 2002
- Mods Which Have Seen Significant Enhancements of 2002
- Mods You Should Not Leave Home Without of 2002
- Most Improved Mods, Mods You Should Not Leave Home Without and One of the Best Mods Overall of 2003
- Tied Best Action Mod of 2004
- Second Best Mod Overall of 2004
- Fifth Best Mod Overall of 2005
- Sven Co-op 2
- At Mod DB:
Articles
Interviews
See also
External links
- Sven Co-op - the official website.
Sven Co-op on Steam Store- Sven Co-op on Steam Community
- Sven Co-op Map Database
- Sven Manor Modding site
Sven Co-op on ModDB
Sven Co-op on Gamebanana
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