Aliens Colonial Marines Overhaul (ACMO for short) has always been about getting the best out of every aspect of the game wherever possible. There is no 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. See below for a full rundown of the changes!
What to expect :
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
Pre Installation :
ACMO V6 should be applied to a freshly installed fully patched original version of the game with no modifications or tweaks applied. Please re-install the game or verify the installation before installing this mod.
If you have previously played ACM you will need to remove the games configuration files located in My Documents\My Games\Aliens Colonial Marines\
This folder must be renamed or deleted in order for the mod to function correctly after it has been installed. This includes users of ANY previous version of ACMO!
Installation :
Copy the contents of the ZIP into your games installation folder
e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Aliens Colonial Marines
Execute the Install batch file now located in your games installation folder. This will remove certain game files to allow mods to be used and apply a fix to the EXE to prevent the steam restart loop bug.
If the installation was successful, the install batch file should disappear. You can now run the game and enjoy the mod!
Graphics Options and INI Tweaks :
ACMO v6 includes all the ini tweaks I know of, as well as the various typo fixes and other improvements to take advantage of todays hardware built right into the game, no edits needed. Simply run the game and use the ingame video sliders to configure the game to your liking.
It is highly recommended to reconfigure the brightness in game video settings before playing the first time. This game is intended to be dark, and having brightness too high will wash out the graphics and ruin the atmosphere.
Hiding the in-game hud :
Pressing F6 during gameplay will toggle the ingame hud on and off for greater immersion on lower difficulty levels. Note that the hud is required for the smartgun display.
Features
Campaign (Main and Stasis Interrupted) :
Difficulty levels have been reworked to provide great challange variety.
Recruit - Ally Marines are very effective in combat and will kill enemies quickly. Enemies have less health. WY Mercs will not flank or throw grenades. Xenos rarely pounce with a long cool down if they miss
Soldier - Ally Marines are effective in combat but can be overwhelmed by Xenos if outnumbered. WY Mercs will flank sometimes and rarely throw grenades. Xenos will pounce regularly
Hardened - Ally Marines are mostly effective in combat but stumble easily and can be overwhelmed quickly. Enemies have more health. WY Mercs will flank if possible and throw grenades regularly. Xenos will pounce regularly with a short delay between attempts
Ultimate Badass - Ally Marines are effective when ganged up on a single target but otherwise its on you. Enemies have more health. WY Mercs will flank if possible and throw grenades if you give them an opportunity. Xenos will pounce if they can with very little delay between attempts
Ammo cache's around the levels are no longer based on the ammo you need but randomised. Random wieghting has been adjusted to compensate
Ammo dropped by WY Mercenaries is based on ammo you need
Bug Hunt :
Money earned while Solo increased by 1.5x to make the initial stages easier
3 and 4 player games each player earns 25% less cash to slow progression
Cash per kill increase reduced for xenos
Cash per WY Heavy Merc increased
Turret Kill cash halved
Super Weapon pickups cost slightly less and can be used 10 times
Secondary ammo refills cost slighly less
Xenos always use the dark skin instead of the brightly coloured ones
Competitive Muliplayer Modes (TDM, Extermination, Escape, Survivor) :
!!DO NOT USE THIS MOD IF YOU INTEND TO PLAY COMPETITIVE MODES!!
Unfortunately the multiplayer xenomorphs are based off the campaign AI xeno's and so are effected by changes made to them.
This also goes for the weapons for the marines
Engine / Other :
HUD toggle feature mapped to F6
INI tweaks and changes are now applied directly by the game itself into your config file, so no custom tweaks are required
Each graphic slider in game has been updated so that the last 3 positions on each apply more tweaks and updates to improve graphics
The lowest 2 positions on each slider remain unchanged from the original base game setup to maximise performance on old computers
Graphics :
Increased lighting quality, shadow distance, shadow count, shadow resolution and enabled shadow casting on most light sources
Texture upscaling and sharpening applied to all model and world textures
Increased particle emitter max draw distance, particle count, lighting quality, lifetime and spawnrate
Increased material shader quality and render distance
Increased decal creation distance, visible count and lifetime
Material properties on character and weapon models as well as most mettallic and infestation surfaces reworked to remove fake lighting effects and improve image quality
Higher quality shader settings applied to base game
Hud toggle button added to base game
Special Effects :
Smoke, Fog, Dust, Steam and Vapor particle effects reworked to ensure the highest quality effect is always generated when on screen
Slime, Sparks, Electricity, Rain and atmospheric effects reworked for greater visual impact
Acid Blood special effects reworked to be more visible and create significantly more burn decals on surfaces
Human Blood special effects reworked to be more visible from a distance to help with hit feedback
Character-on-fire special effect reworked so the entire body looks like its on fire
Bullet Impact sparks significantly increased to help with hit feedback
Bullet Tracers reworked to make shots visible and assist with aiming
Shotgun Shells, Bullet Casings and Grenade Shells are now ejected by the appropriate weapons and fall to the ground
Front and Rear Armor plates fall from the player when losing all armor and fall to the ground
Sound :
Ambient sound effect volume and pitch variance increased
Sound Occlusion enabled on all weapon sound effects and enemy voice effects
Sound Attentuation adjusted on many special effect sounds
Xenomorphs :
Heavily reworked AI state rules and attributes to give maximum freedom to the xenos
Removed and Replaced many instances of buggy functions with similar stable functions (eg replacing displace with repath)
Reworked pathing costs to heavily favor walls and ceilings, and anything out of view
Enabled tail attacks from any surface
Disabled melee encounters to allow xenos to attack you from the front
Increased melee damage, attack speed and maximum combo count
Reworked skin materials to be less visible in the dark, but show greater detail under light through specular lighting
Switched Soldier Xeno leap for the Lurker leap with QTE struggle
Ranger xenos allowed to spit while moving and are more likely to engage in melee combat
Lurkers have been given more freedom on how far they can roam and how long they can hide when stalking
Raven 2nd and 3rd stages are easier to make the boss fight more enjoyable
Colonial Marines :
Rebalanced health, accuracy and damage to increase marine reliability and usefulness
Reworked pathing costs to promote keeping close to the player but prefer covered and less open routes
Adjusted combat timing rules to improve reaction time to changes during combat
Reworked skin, metal, fabric and rubber material properties
Shoulder Lamp angle adjusted so that during combat it is pointing roughly where the AI is shooting
Weylan Yutani Mercenaries :
Reworked pathing costs to significantly promote use of cover and flanking positions over direct combat
Adjusted health and armor to make accurate shooting more important
Weapon usage and damage rebalanced
WY Mercs will throw grenades if an enemy remains in cover or still for too long. Elites throw firebombs
WY Heavys have significantly more health
Reworked metal, fabric and plastic material properties
Weapons - General
Weapon hip fire position moved down to a more realistic position
Weapon Wander aiming mechanic completely reworked
Recoil Recovery rate used to simulate weapon wander while shooting
Max spare ammo for primary and attachments rebalanced according to weapon power
Weapons - Pistols
Slight damage increase at range
Large damage decrease during a Xeno pounce QTE
Weapons - Pulse Rifle (Hudsons)
graffiti removed from body
Switched to fully automatic firemode
Rebalanced recoil
Large long range damage boost
Significant damage boost over MK2
Highly effective against armor
Weapons - MK2 Pulse Rifle
Rebalanced to be a less powerful more versatile and controllable Pulse Rifle
Medium long range damage potential
Underbarrel Shotgun now fires Incindiary rounds instead of standard buckshot
Weapons - Pump Action Shotgun (Standard and Hick's)
Very high close range damage potential but extremely limited long range potential
Hick's Shotgun stronger for medium range engagements
Weak against armor
Weapons - Tactical Shotgun
Extreme close range damage potential but extremely limited long range potential
Fires special high pellet count ammunition with a high spread
Weak against armor
Weapons - Assault Rifle
Rebalanced recoil and damage to excel in human combat
Increased Rate of Fire
Defaults to Fully Automatic, can be upgraded to 5 round burst
High long range damage potential
Very strong against armor
Underbarrel Shotgun fires Incindiary rounds instead of Buckshot
Underbarrel flamethrower has significantly more fuel to compensate replacing the flamethrower pickup with the smartgun
Weapons - Battle Rifle
High damage at all ranges
Significant damage boost to ensure good shots are one hit kills
Weapons - Submachinegun
Boost to rate of fire
Low long range damage potential
Very weak against armor
Weapons - FlameThrower
Rebalanced to require a short sustained burst on untouched xenos to kill
Damage over time from fire is high but not enough to kill on its own
Weapons - Smartgun
High damage at all ranges
Increased rate of fire
500 round drum magazine
Tracking mechanic improved to lock faster, stick with moving targets and compensate for recoil more reliably
Weapon dispersal inversion disabled to make short bursts more reliable than continual fire
Smartgun has replaced the Flamethrower during the campaign any time it was found in the game world
Weapons - Plasma Rifle (DLC)
Extreme damage output over a small target area
Switched to instant fire
Only 2 shots per cannister
Weapons - S.H.A.R.P (DLC)
Projects fly significantly faster
Projectiles will explode via proximity during flight otherwise projectiles explode a short moment after contact
High damage over a small target area
Weapons - Double Barrel (DLC)
Extreme damage at close range over a large area
Significantly more spare ammo
Weapons - Ripleys Badass Contraption (DLC)
Pulse Rifle portion mimics Hudsons Pulse Rifle above
Slightly less vertical recoil but slightly more horizontal recoil than Hudsons Pulse Rifle
Flamethrower starts will a full tank but otherwise mimics the standard Flamethrower
Love The Overhaul Graphic. Well Done Templargfxs this is my true Aliens Day. Show your Support everyone and make sure you say Oorah To Ashes!
I've never played the game or the mod until now. I played the first mission and ran into some problems.
1) Picking up ammo. Sometimes the game shows the circle with line through it when I am clearly low on ammo or have no ammo. It will refuse to allow me to pick it up. Even one time I was 0/0 on shotgun and it would not let me pickup shotgun shells. It seems random.
2) Steam still tries to launch the game when closed. I thought I read that it was fixed. I just close steam to cancel the launch.
Otherwise, I'm having a good time :P
Ammo caches are randomized so to begin with you will see ammo for weapons you don't have yet.
It sounds like the batch file did not run correctly and apply the fix. Copy the batch file from the zip into the game install and run it again (not as administrator!)
Go to the steam directory where the game is installed and right-click on the ACM exe properties and only let it start as administrator then steam should not start the game after quitting it helped me
Did you find a fix for this, I am at the gravity well and have not found a single drop for the pulse rifle so far. Seen plenty of ammo that look like the correct clip but the game won't let me pick it up.
Regarding #2, that happens even with the base game. Go find the ACM.exe in the game's installation directory, right-click, go to the "Compatibility" tab, and check the "Run as Administrator" checkbox. This will stop the game from restarting over and over.
To clarify before clicking download:
Are the Quicktime Events (Pounces) fixed since the last preview build? 😂
depends what you mean by fixed lol
Fixed, as in, NOT flat-out broken like in TheSpoons313's V6 Test Build Stream here:
Have a CTD in Misson 4 where you have to go through complex and then go up the stairs then you have to weld the door open then the game hangs and then I'm on the desktop
Without your mod it works without any problems
Thats no good! I will have a look into it
thank you
yes same with me too at the very same point (no hope in hadleys) game hangs then crashes to desktop when you go to use the weld/cutting tool : (
yeah!
Hi! Just got the mod installed and I've been playing a few missions with it. Unfortunately, in Hadleys Hope when you have to slice through the control room door my game crashes every time I attempt it. Any idea how to fix it? I know v6 just came out
Edit: Legit just noticed someone asked the same question lol
First and foremost: YAY! It's finally here! Was waiting for ACMO 6 for a while now! Thanks for your tireless work!
Also, is there any way to turn off randomized ammo?
Whenever I play through the game I usually reset my save so I start from scratch, picking up the weapons where I usually find them making progress. I really like it like that and would also want the ammo drops to be vanilla again.
Can you point me to a file or pack where I might change it back?
Yikes... Game just wants to keep loading every time I exit.
That's not the mod though, that's just "normal" behavior. Actually the mod should fix that.
Just set the acm.exe in the gamefolder to admin and the game won´t restart. This is a Steam-Client bug and got nothing to do with the game itself.
See the installer batch fix. The fixed exe that is supposed to be installed was not being installed.
It was supposed to end up installing and looking like what is seen in Steamcommunity.com
Also got some feedback on difficulty:
That scene where you have to disconnect the fuel lines from the dropship is pretty unfair. I'm playing on Soldier difficulty and basically being a two-hit while npcs are kinda useless, xenos favor me as a player and jumping me from behind while I'm shooting at another one coming at me makes this checkpoint pretty annoying.
It's fine in Coop I think, but in single player it's more like gambling than actually based on skill.
Sure, Xenomorphs should be deadly at close range, but at that particular checkpoint it crosses the line from challenging to frustrating for me.
No salt here, just giving feedback. :)
Some more Feedback on the whole thing, now that I played through the campaign again (with patch 6.2):
- Used addons for no additional smartgun spawns, overhaul WY and Aliens (mostly)and changed ammo spawn back to need-based vanilla settings.
- WY troops often do very little damage and didn't throw a single campaign (Soldier difficulty). Bug?
- Aliens basically two-hit me, which often is a good thing since that's just what they do. It leads to a few frustrating scenes though when they come from all sides and there's basically damage out of nowhere with little chance on preventing it (dropship fuel lines scene). On my playthrough it made the difficulty very inconsistent with insane spikes and a lot of trial and error on Soldier difficulty.
- The button-mashing to defend against Alien pouncing should be done a bit faster, otherwise the amount of damage received is a bit too punishing in my book.
- I'd love options to turn back pickup spawns back to vanilla and revert balancing for weapons as well. Those flamethrowers at the derelict entrance for example are classic. They _need_ to be there to purge them with fire... I get that weapon stat changes are mostly made for balancing, but I'd love to have them closer to vanilla concerning the order of usefulness.
- Allies very often stay behind, even at crucial moments, which can be kinda frustrating sometimes and break immersion. I saw this is included in the description and seems to come as a side effect of the AI overhaul, but I think it's still worth mentioning since it changes difficulty a lot in some places.
- Aliens really seem to love the player. It's been a long time since I played ACM unmodded (INSANITY!), so I'm not sure it's the mod or just vanilla behavior. It's kinda weird and annoying to see Aliens go past all those juicy targets to get to me.
- Spitters were very unpredictable for me. I think I read something about faster acid spitting and maybe it's that, but it's kinda annoying sometimes and seems like damage out of nowhere with no way to avoid it.
Keep up the good work!
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Hey there, would you be able to link to the vanilla ammo spawn mod, or tell me how you did it? The mod is great but I'm getting super frustrated by the lack of ammo even on Soldier difficulty.
When I try to start the game after installing the mod I get this message.
Ambiguous Package name:'D:\steamapps\common\Aliens Colonial Marines\PecanGame\CookedPCConsole\._DEFCHA_CMBella_SF.upk', not 'D:\steamapps\common\Aliens Colonial Marines\PecanGame\CookedPCConsole\._DEFCHA_CMOneal_SF.upk'
Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
Previously I was getting a crash to desktop at the same point in the game and thankfully that is now no longer happening. Did encounter one bug though, an invincible merc, emptied an entire Smart Gun clip into the guy and he just kept on trucking. Reinstalled my reshade preset and it looks fine after revisiting the in-game brightness slider.
Thanks for your work on this mod.
hi i'm new to this first consultation
the mod works with non-steam games pirate bone? postscript no need to crack just iso
and second install the game I started it for the first time to see if it works ... then I left delete the aliens folder in my documents then I put the v6 files in progrma files x86 / ACM and I replace and execute the bat file a box appears black, I press enter, it closes and now I hit the game and now nothing starts, only the templar logo comes out, and that's it?
The language affects the installation, I am Spanish
I'm having a glitch with the powerloader/raven fight where I can't inflict any damage to the raven
When playing the Rampant Mission, I experience a crash every time after leaving the Queen containment area and reach the objective for finding the hostage marine. the Mod has been wonderful up to this point. Not sure if it matters, but this is occurring during co-op campaign. We haven't had any other issues! Thanks for the help!
Same thing happening to me
My game wont launch at all. Can anyone help me?
x2
help!
Had to fresh install windows after reformatting all drives ACM works again. I want to use this mod but plan on playing TDM comp.
Am I the only one who happens that the game does not start after the ACM logo appears templar overhaul?
Stuck on the first door on mission 10. Can't cut through it at all and objects have bouncy physics when I shoot them. Also I can't die at all.
I think the installer batch file is not correct.
It deletes itself prior to completing the ACM_fix rename. which means it doesn't complete anything after the delete action (line 20)
Current Result:
```
ACM Overhaul V6 Mod Enabler
---------------------------
This file deletes game files to allow modded file usage
Also installes the never-ending reboot fix by Kasugano
If you are installing on an existing ACM installation, you will need to
Delete/Rename the folder My Documents\My Games\Aliens Colonial Marines\
Skipping this step will stop the changes applying to all levels
Including Bug Hunt and Stasis Interrupted
ECHO is off.
Version 6 should not be installed over an earlier version of ACM Overhaul
Use Steam 'Verify Game' to revert your installation to default
Press CTRL+C now to cancel
Press any key to continue . . .
Could Not Find F:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Aliens Colonial Marines - Copy\PecanGame\CookedPCConsole\DEFGEN_UnlocksVersus_SF.upk.uncompressed_size
The batch file cannot be found.
```
- Note, no complete!
- Binaries\Win32 directory has ACM.exe and ACM_fix.exe
I thing the fix is to move the 'Del ACMOverhaulV6Install.bat' to the last line after the pause. (I REM'd the first Del and the cls to allow an actual log result)
Fixed result:
```
ACM Overhaul V6 Mod Enabler
---------------------------
This file deletes game files to allow modded file usage
Also installes the never-ending reboot fix by Kasugano
If you are installing on an existing ACM installation, you will need to
Delete/Rename the folder My Documents\My Games\Aliens Colonial Marines\
Skipping this step will stop the changes applying to all levels
Including Bug Hunt and Stasis Interrupted
ECHO is off.
Version 6 should not be installed over an earlier version of ACM Overhaul
Use Steam 'Verify Game' to revert your installation to default
Press CTRL+C now to cancel
Press any key to continue . . .
Could Not Find F:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Aliens Colonial Marines\PecanGame\CookedPCConsole\DEFGEN_UnlocksVersus_SF.upk.uncompressed_size
Complete!
Press any key to continue . . .
The batch file cannot be found.
```
- Binaries\Win32 directory has _ACM.exe and ACM.exe
Also we should fix the Echo on line 10, Echo without anything causes batch to print if echo is on/off. 'Edho.' without the quote(') but with the period(.) forces an empty line to be echo'd which is what I think is wanted. (ref: Stackoverflow.com)
Thanks for the changes to Hudson's Pulse Rifle! Glad to see we finally have a movie-accurate Pulse Rifle (ignoring Ripley's) now that it's full auto and the decals were removed.
Three questions for you:
1.) Is there a way to rebind the HUD toggle key to something else?
2.) Have you found a way to disable chromatic aberration? I already know about the HUD effects line, but it doesn't remove the chromatic aberration affecting the whole game.
3.) Is it possible to use this mod that removes mercs from Survival with your overhaul? Moddb.com
Oh and one suggestion for a future update, it'd be great to see something similar to this texmod implemented so the underslung shotgun attachment matches the Pulse Rifle's color: Moddb.com
Edit: I like the new viewmodel positions being lower, but the Pulse Rifle should be higher imo, so that you can see the ammo counter.
Edit 2: Small bug I noticed: the SMG ironsights are slightly misaligned now.
Also, when I quit the game it also closes Steam..?
Is there going to be any newer versions of this mod? From what I'm reading here there's issues with your installer not changing the .exe (and who knows what else), and there's still crashing issues (Rampart mission, stasis interrupted). Invincible mercs showing up, problems with the SMG iron sights... Disappointing for version 6. I had a test version of this release which seemed more stable. Nonetheless, nice progress and what does work is very good. I'll wait until version 7 when you get it right.
.
Technically you should take this version down or put a disclaimer that it has multiple game breaking crashes and bugs.
I'm really enjoying how deadly the xenos are but I have to wonder are the xenos supposed to spawn infinitely when you get to the hive in the sewers on No Hope for Hadley? I don't remember if that was part of the original game.
There are two specific waves of Xenos in the tunnel, if you push too far forward too soon, wave 2 spawns over wave 1 making it utter bedlam. At the end of the tunnel there is a xeno which keeps spawning from the floor on the left corner, it's a proximity spawn that is triggered by the player and is bugged right now. You need to kill the two main waves and then lure the others out of the nest into the tunnel to kill them, whilst popping off the corner Xeno every time you pass its corner. They are not meant to spawn indefinitely at all, but there are so many of them there, that it truly feels that way. They will eventually stop coming from the nest, then all you have to do is shoot the corner Xeno and run into the nest to the exit door. Shoot the first lurker for the checkpoint.
It's a really challenging section now, but man do you feel great when you finally beat it!
im not sure if its a bug or deliberate, but im not getting the option to open unlocked doors, its making me weld them then cut through just to open them, is there something i can do about that?
Is that in the main game or bug hunt? If it's the main game, it's caused by a bugged installation using the broken batch file.
Changes the game drastically and Im enjoying ACM1 Great work!!!
Is there any way to zoom in on the motion sensor? i feel like it was much bigger in the vanilla game, its hard to spot icons on it now
hey, any way i can play this mod without the graphical changes?
Do I still need the "ini" file mentioned on the game's PCgamingwiki page ,the one about hidden graphical features ? Thank you.
I've tried multiple times to install this and get it to work but something isn't working. I've had the mod installed before but it might have been a previous version. I did a complete clean install and verified twice. Deleted everything related to the game before install as well included my documents folder. With the clean install, I copied the files over and ran the BAT file. Then I applied the patch. The game refuses to even launch after the Templar banner pops up. Any advice?