Articles - HaZardModding Coop: Star Trek Elite Force II for Star Trek: Elite Force II

In February we where playing the HaZardModding Coop Mod live on stream hosted by @Gallitep.

Despite the few issues that we ran into during the stream @Gallitep felt that the HaZardModding Coop Mod for Elite Force 2 is comparable to Sven Coop for Half Life and even more stable than Synergy for Half Life 2. Which makes me very happy to hear, since I feel this is very high praise coming from him.

With the bugs that where discovered during the stream fixed and some new features added, I feel confident that this is the most polished and reliable version of the HaZardModding Coop Mod for Elite Force 2 Multiplayer to date.

However, I have decided to work on Version 7,

which will be based on a clean code base, thoroughly separating standard game-code, upgrades-code and coop-code. This will take a few months, but should provide a solid base to get rid of all the bugs that can’t yet be fixed. In the meantime version 6 will be maintained and receive updates as needed.

NEW Feature - COOP CLASS !ability

Changed, so that the ability when used will apply to all players at once, not just the player in front of you. But it comes at a price, after using your ability it has a cool down of 60 seconds. The 4 little rectangles below the Class Hud show how much your ability has recovered. You can simply type !ability or use the Circle Menu to quickly activate your Class Ability.

NEW Feature - Circle Menu

A feature inspired by modern games, by the stroke of a button a overlay is shown with various options. Cycling trough the options is possible via right click and selecting a option is done with a left click. Currently the overlay shows 3 options to select from, the Class ability, the Objectives and the Communicator.

NEW Improvement - Enhanced and Remastered Audio

You get to enjoy AI-Enhanced and manually Remaster Audio-Dialog of the GBS which is included now in the Coop Mod. An update for the Singleplayer version of the GBS Mod is in development and will take a few more weeks. The AI-Enhanced audio files improve massively upon whats provided with the original release of the open source Mod.

CRITICAL Fixes - Mission breaking bugs fixed

Thanks to the fact that the play trough with the Host Gallitep was streamed live on twitch and recorded, many issues could be fixed that where previously reported but could not be reproduced or identified. The visual records and the direct conversation with the person that ran into the issue helped a great deal in resolving them.

NEW Improvement - Last Man Standing

The LMS code has been rewritten completely and prevents now Players from cheating by simply reconnecting. Also picking up a secret golden Ship during LMS will revive dead Players and allow them back in. Also transferring a life to a dead player can be done with the command !transferlive or by using the Coop Communicator Menu.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to @Gallitep for hosting a special Coop stream.
And to the special Guests @Wilverine and @KdogPrime.

Watch a recording of the stream on YouTube

First of all, happy Christmas and Holidays to you all!

In time for the end of the Year 2023 comes version 6.0018 of the HaZardModding Coop Mod for Star Trek Elite Force 2

The new playable Test level prf_pointAndClick alowes you to try for the first time Point and Click Mechanics in Elite Force 2, enabling a whole different way to play a level.

The Basic controlls are:
FIRE, to select and de-select a unit.
ALT-FIRE, to mark a place for the unit to move to or use its special ability at.
USE, to activate the Special Ability of the unit.
RELOAD, to zoom in and out.

The Test level features four Hero units, each unit has its a special ability:

Jurot, can heal friendly units nearby.
Picard, can order a powerful Orbital Strike.
Munro, can request a Awayteam beaming down.
Tuvok, can Mindmeld with enemy units and make them become one of your own.

Another noticable new Feature is the Ability for Medics to heal friendly NPC with your Tricorder, a feature that has been requested many times. There are also many more minor new Changes, Feature and Fixes as well as some newScript Commands.

I am especially looking forward to any feedback regarding the Point and Click Test level.
Enjoy the new version and have a great time.

This version mostly consists of bugfixes, upgrades and conviniency features. There is no new content, except for prf_bCommander, a example map for recreating Bridge Commander like Bridge control.
There is one more map in Work and it might come out in 2023.

Most Visually noticable change:
- The Communicator menu was re-desinged and upgraded.

Other noticable changes in this version:
- Upgrades and improvments of other huds
- Coop Classes will no longer regenrate player health/ammo/shield
- Added code panel Interface for !login to the Communicator Menu
- !login, is now working on all maps.
- New !follow command, marking you green on the radar for all players
- New "Follow Me" on Communicator Menu also activates !follow command
- Coop Technicians will now solve all puzzles fast (as a modulation).
- Added: !notransport Command, activating a Transport inhibitor.
- Added: !stuck will transport player to another player if already at spawnlocation
- Added: !help will show Communicator menu with commands to Player with Coop Mod installed

In the Future new Versions will mostly consist, much like this version of bugfixes, upgrades and conviniency features.
Features and code that does not work right will eigther be fixed, cut down or removed, there are no plans to add any new features that are not already on the todo-list.
The goal is to conclude the development of the HZM Coop Mod for Elite Force 2 in 2024.

Aditional care will be given to the Singleplayer, how ever Savegame cross compatibility is due to huge technical barriers still out of reach.

In a special bonus episode of Star Trek: Elite Force 2, Chrissstrahl and Wilverine will be playing through one of the many story-driven levels included in the expansive Co-Op Mod & discussing many features that make the new gameplay elements possible, while having a great time.

If you like Star Trek games, head over to Wilverines channel for his enjoyable playtroughs.

Watch the Video on Youtube

Editors Choice

Welcome to the Editor's Choice awards for the 2022 Mod of the Year Awards, where we show recognition to the mods from the past year that we've found to be personally deserving of attention. We've chosen a series of award categories which range from best singleplayer mod, to multiplayer, to most anticipated and to several more unique and theme related categories.

Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is a game I've played a lot of times over the years, usually with the Unofficial Patch at my side and occasionally one of a number of competent refreshes of the VTMB sandbox installed as well. UP still remained the certain inclusion for any playthrough, though, and that was a mantle I thought insurmountable...until I finally got around to playing the Clan Quest Mod. This mod amounts to an expansion more than anything that is almost fully voice acted and features hours of well-written and generally well-executed content. One of the boss fights near the end of the game on the Sabbat side is a particular highlight and all in all, we're surprised this one hasn't placed before - so now's the time to amend that.

Combat Revolved somehow makes Halo: CE into even more a whale of a time with a friend, revising the sandbox, adding more foes into the equation, and expanding the weapon and vehicle roster just enough to enhance without overdoing it. There's plenty of quality of life improvements as well, from diversifying the co-op character to a range of AI and weapon rebalances that change how even hardcore Halo fans will approach this classic campaign. It was already hard to beat storming the Control Room or doing the Warthog rally on The Silent Cartographer with another Spartan by your side, but Revolved makes it so fun to go back and do it all again.

It can be hard to select for this category as whilst the many 4k HD AI upscale packs and ambitious ReShade presets out there can add a little bit of additional polish to a game, it's hard to pick up on mods that totally reshape how we view the title and the engine it's built upon. Sometimes we select projects that rebuild a game from the ground up, as with last year's winner, to be comparable with modern titles; but this year, eXperiment is our pick, as a mod that proves Goldsrc is still, well, gold, and has plenty of room for creative reinterpretation. Not only making the most of the technical limitations of the engine, it also takes the art style in a different, fresh direction for its own narrative, and given these graphical revisions, it fits handily into this category. A special mention must go, though, to Portal RTX, not developed by a conventional modding team, but by the folks at NVIDIA using RTX Remix! We're excited to see what modders will achieve when the tool makes its way into the public's hands.

The Editor's Choice is a good chance for us to shine a light on some of the top mods that haven't, for whatever reason, placed in Mod of the Year before - so for Best Overhaul, we're exercising that privilege for Back2Fronts, a complete overhaul of Call of Duty 2 featuring new missions for the singleplayer in addition to new weapons and new enemy types. Newer CODs have had a real lack of modding support - the last time it was a focus was Black Ops 3 - but with Modern Warfare 2 (2022, that is), slated to include tools aimed at allowing UGC to flourish, it's a great time to look back on the legacy of COD mods and revisit gems like Back2Fronts.

Elite Force II is one of the better Star Trek titles, with the franchise not faring as well in this department as its oft-compared sci-fi twin sibling Star Wars. Built upon the classic Quake III engine, Elite Force II is a solid shooter where you fight off the Borg Collective and prove resistance is not, in fact, futile. The only thing missing is the signature Star Trek away team experience, and with Hazard Modding Co-op - a mod that has seen regular updates now for fifteen years - that's something now open to all. Featuring multiplayer support in the singleplayer story and secret missions, this is the mod for the action-oriented Trekkies to get together and kill some Borg!

It's no secret that Supreme Commander 2 wasn't quite the sequel the dedicated fans of massive-scale RTS were looking for. It's still a solid game, but compared to the first title, it's considerably cut-back and much simpler. For those who were hoping for a little more bang and plenty more economic strategy, the Revamp Expansion Mod is an unsung hero that has singlehandedly brought much of what was once loved back into Supreme Commander 2, featuring a more complicated economic model, a revision of the research system to facilitate classic unit tiers, and many more experimentals that are far larger and more destructive than ever before.

Historical mods - especially for Total War - tend to culminate around the middle-ages, but there's untapped potential digging back into the centuries before the first millennium whilst still remaining in AD. Insularis Draco tries to shine a light on some of the dark ages, focusing on the rise of barbarian kingdoms, the waning influence of the Roman Empire, and the rising powers of Europe in the year 452 AD. There's little peace and quiet in this time of history and difficult choices will need to be made to eke out supremacy!

Lord of the Rings is a mainstay of the total conversion scene - if there's a game with a medieval or fantasy twist, you can bet there's a mod introducing Tolkien's mythology into the mix. This isn't the first Lord of the Rings total conversion for a Total War game, but it's one of the most promising and beautiful in recent years. Whether you're replaying some of the most iconic battles in the series from a commander-on-the-field's point of view, or pursuing the mod's new campaign taking the Ring Bearer from Hobbiton to the fires of Mordor, this mod's spring of Lord of the Rings action never runs dry.

Earlier this year, we received the feline-simulator Stray, which saw players occupy the paws of a curious cat in a cyberpunk world. Stray took the world by storm because, well, anything involving cats usually does, and it spawned an interesting question in one modder's mind - what if DOOM, but as a cat? The beautifully bizarre melding of these ideas is Stray DOOM, where you'll rip and tear through the usual suspects of demonkind not as a buffed-up space marine, but as a dainty, athletic cat. We have to give an honourable mention here to another mod called Doom Shinobi which, similarly, places you in standard DOOM levels against standard DOOM enemies, but now, as a kickass ninja. Stray DOOM wins out as the concept is just a little zanier and more fitting of this award, but Shinobi is still worth a go!

Some games are modded to hell and back whether they feature a proper SDK or not, and some games we'd love to see mods for unfortunately never seem to get their UGC off the ground. That made it a great surprise, then, to see movement from Metro 2033: Legacy this year as they transitioned to a new engine and continued their journey towards an expansive new POV in Dmitry Glukhovsky's world. It was fans of his books that first put these games into motion, and now, new fans continue the cycle of creation. That's why we can't wait to see what Legacy has in store for us in 2023.

The 2022 awards are proudly supported by mod.io. Launch an official mod community for your game with powerful moderation, discovery, events, marketplace and metrics systems, using our cross-platform mod SDKs and plugins for Unity and Unreal Engine. Interested in adding mods to your game and finding out more? Reach out for a demonstration.

What mods would you have picked given the chance? Let us know in the comments and get ready for the next announcement in a few days, the most anticipated mods and then the big one soon after that, the Top 10 Mods of 2022!