What is INVASION?
INVASION's goal for FIREFIGHT RELOADED is to implement more content, such as enemies, weapons achievements, and maps. In addition, it does a lot of rebalancing to make the mod a much more enjoyable experience, adds new gameplay elements (such as Katana Charging), and adds quality of life features, such as viewmodel adjustment, Steam Input, and improved GamepadUI sliders. This update also celebrates FIREFIGHT RELOADED's 10th anniversary.
Why more achievements? You said previously after ENDGAME that you wouldn't add any!
Yes, I did say that, and I didn't forget that. However, after reading some community feedback from the Steam Reviews, I decided to add more achievements. The problem currently with the achievements currently in FR, is that a majority of them are milestone achievements, which aren't exactly fun to achieve. My goal with the INVASION achievements was to make each goal fun to obtain, and most importantly fit the mod itself.
Why do it get the "KILLIONAIRE" achievement when I start FIREFIGHT RELOADED?
Back in ENDGAME, I removed the KILLIONARE achievement from the mod as I felt like the achievement's goal was practically unobtainable for the wide majority of people, and it was also unfun. However, I kept the achievement on Steam itself as I didn't want to mess up achievement progress, and it was also able to be obtained in older versions of the mod, which can be played through Steam. ENDGAME's removal of the achievement however made it unobtainable in return in newer versions of FIREFIGHT RELOADED, which messes things up for achievement hunters. So everyone who starts INVASION will now get the KILLIONAIRE achievement.
What happened to the Codex?
For those not informed, the Codex was a planned guide for INVASION that would detail every weapon and enemy in FIREFIGHT RELOADED, and implement some kind of lore/story into the mod. I mentioned something like it in a response to a Steam Review, but never really announced anything like it. While the Codex is not "non-canon", it was scrapped mainly due to time constraints. However, I decided to finish and polish up the Codex as an official Steam guide for those who wish to read it. It connects to future Bitl Development Studio titles, as well as brings some kind of explanation of FIREFIGHT RELOADED without it explicitly being brought into the Half-Life lore. I didn't want FR to be connected to Half-Life story wise, but I didn't want to distance it from Half-Life either.
I'll detail the story below, spoilers ahead!
The story details the results of the FIREFIGHT RELOADED research simulation as seen through the viewpoint of the Kronic Empire, a mysterious multidimensional empire that established a working relationship with the Combine. Through this relationship, they acquired an accurate simulation of the Half-Life universe and used it to train unbiding souls into their army. One soul, simply known as the Traveler, interests the empire due to their raw power and was a fundamental part of their detailed research of the Half-Life universe and connected universes. However, the power of the Traveler peaks the interest of the Combine as well, making them send one of their own into the universe to see what the Traveller is capable of.
The Codex is currently unfinished, and I'll additional post when it's fully completed.
Why is there ammo limits?
In the past, FIREFIGHT RELOADED had a virtually unlimited (up to 999 per ammo type) ammo limit for each ammo type. The reason why this was changed was that it removed any reason for players to switch weapons to others, or search for ammo. The changes to the ammo limits for each ammo type allow each weapon to be used , and introduces proper resource management.
Why was the default loadout changed?
Previously, FIREFIGHT RELOADED had the MP5 and the Knife in the same loadout. However, this was changed in this update, removing the Knife from the loadout and swapping out the MP5 with the Sniper Rifle. This was done for a few reasons:
1. The MP5 was too similar to the SMG1. The MP5 also serves as an upgrade to the SMG1 in terms of fire rate, making it overshadow the SMG1 for everything except its grenades. The Sniper Rifle, in context, is a weapon that itself was overshadowed by more powerful sniper weapons like the Railgun and Crossbow. By putting the Sniper Rifle in the default loadout, players will be able to start out with a long range weapon, which gives it a use in the loadout, like I'll describe later.
2. The knife was too powerful to include in the beginning loadout. Not only is it a more powerful weapon than the Crowbar, but its secondary fire instantly kills most enemies. I felt like this weapon would be better as an unlockable, so it was removed from the default loadout.
3. The loadout is now balanced to have every commonly used damage range. You now have the capability to do melee range, short range, mid range, and long range damage all from the same loadout. You can also do explosive and fire damage as well. The weapons in the current loadout makes it more versatile for many different play styles, making every beginning of a playthrough feel more like a fresh start.
Why was the length of the mod shortened over time?
When FIREFIGHT RELOADED released back in 2015, one of the problems with the original experience was the length of time required to beat the mod. Experience was incredibly slow to gather, there was no way to quickly gain more experience, and the maximum level was level 50, making it hard to even complete the mod in the first place.
With ENDGAME, I reduced the maximum level to level 20, and implemented a better algorithm that properly rewards players for different kinds of kills. This reduced game length significantly. In INVASION, this was compounded by the introduction of XP Boosts, which are unlockable when you level up or purchasable with Kash obtained in-game.
The reason for the shortening of the mod is that I later realized (from my own personal playtesting mainly) that FIREFIGHT RELOADED is better as a shorter experience. It shouldn't be a 12 hour campaign because that isn't its design philosophy. I wanted to make it so the most can be completed within 30 minutes to an hour, as I feel like the design promotes a more "pick up and play" nature. In addition, this reduces the number of crashes when playing it long term, as older versions of FR would crash by reaching the entity limit. The reduction in game length reduces the chance for this to happen.
Are you still accepting translations?
Yes! Please read this blog post for information about the FIREFIGHT RELOADED translation project: