Are you ready to be thrown into an immersive high quality game full of hundreds of enemies who are just dying to munch upon your delectable brain? Take the fight to your enemy and employ dozens of weapons to fend off hordes of the undead. Anything from machetes and pistols to Gatling guns and grenade launchers, the power is in your hands. Complete missions and special item quests to increase your reputation among your survivors, and don't forget about the opportunity to hear your friend's screams of agony on the online chat feature. Plan strategic infiltrations with your comrades into infested areas in the world, and explore and collect new weapons, armor, and accessories over 8 different maps each about as detailed as a 15th century mosaic. If the challenge of staying alive isn't enough, go hardcore and create your own clan. Attack other player's forts, collect food to fend off starvation as the struggle for survival is intensified, and climb the ranks all the way from a lowly private to a lord! Only one question remains to be asked "Are you ready to embrace the SWAMP?" Well, get ready because the SWAMP, is coming.
Swamp is the first ever, high quality, multi player, first person shooter. As player, you are dropped in a zombie infested area, and you have to collect items and kill zombies to survive. There are several weapons and pieces of armor available, and as the player you can develop your own way of surviving the infestations. Besides collecting weapons and armor, you can participate in several missions to gain experience, and complete quests to gain reputation, wich will be explained later on in this readme. Please read through this document carefully, for it will provide many insights as to how to play the game.
This section describes what you will need in order to play swamp fluently. First, we will cover what requirements your system has to meet so that the game can run properly. Then, we will talk about what you need to enjoy playing online.
In order for Swamp to run properly on your system, and in order to be able to play Swamp correctly, your system has to meet the following requirements:
If your system doesn't meet the above requirements, you still might be able to open or play the game. The results however, may not be as you expect them to be.
What is it?
A Kaldobsky Gamer Account is an online ID (identification). It is a way for my game servers to know who you are, and to know that you are welcome to join in on games. The Gamer Account is your ticket to playing my games online. All of my games have a demo or single-player mode that you can use for free, with no restrictions. If you want to play with/against other people, though, you need a Gamer Account. Your single account will allow you access to multi-player mode in *all* of my games - Swamp, Castaways, and any games I release in the future, all for the price of just one Gamer Account.
Why is this necessary?
When online games allow you to sign up with only a name or an email address, those games are very easy for hackers to destroy. Providing an email address is considered a weak identification, which has no weight, because people can easily create as many email accounts as they want. If a troublemaker is removed from one of these games, they can have a brand new email address within minutes, and fool the game into believing they are a brand new person. Gamer Accounts must be purchased with real money, so someone cannot easily make as many as they wish. This is a much stronger form of identification because the real life cost adds weight to it. If a troublemaker is removed from one of my games, they must pay real money to try to get back in. When cheaters and hackers have to pay real money each time they are caught, it discourages them from ever trying to return.
How much does it cost?
A Kaldobsky Gamer Account is subscription-based. It costs $24 per year, which works out to just $2 per month. To first create an account, everyone is required to pay for 1 full year. This is also meant to prevent troublemakers from being able to make many new accounts. Note that the price is in American (U.S.) dollars.
How do I get a gamer account?
First of all, you will have to go to the following URL to start buying an account: https://p9.secure.hostingprod.com/@www.kaldobsky.com/ssl/aboutgameraccounts.php The "PayPal" button on the bottom of that page, will bring you to where you can start buying the account. After the actual buying is complete, you will receive an e-mail with an activation link in it. If you don't receive such an e-mail, make sure it's not in either the spam folder of your e-mail client or the spam folder on the website of the e-mail provider. If the e-mail is not received nor in the spam folder, you need to revisit the page [https://p9.secure.hostingprod.com/@www.kaldobsky.com/ssl/aboutgameraccounts.php] wich contains a "Resend activation e-mail" option at the bottom.
The year I bought the account for has expired, do I need a new account?
No, you can keep on using your account you purchased. the only thing you need to do is add an additional six months. You can do this by visiting the following link: https://p9.secure.hostingprod.com/@www.kaldobsky.com/ssl/login.php First, log in with your account username and password. Then click on the "Account" link on the top of the page. At the next page, you will find a "PayPal" button, wich will let you buy six additional months for your gamer account.
I forgot that my Account expired a week ago, what now?
Don't worry, even if your account expired say a week ago, all your data is still valid. If you add six months to the account, you will be able to access my online games again.
Generally there are two files available to download or update swamp. We will start with the main download file. This file will always contain the latest version, no matter if it is a major update or a small patch with bug fixes and therefore its size will always be very large. You can download this file from the following location: http://kaldobsky.com/audiogames/Swamp.zip After downloading, you will have to extract the zip file to a place of your choosing. It can either be on your hard drive (both internal or external) or on a thumb drive or USB stick, as long as there is more than 700 mb space available. There are several ways to extract zip files, so we will not go into detail how to extract the file with every available tool out there. Note however, that you should always extract the files from the zip archive into a directory to let the game function properly. So, don't extract the zip archive to "c:\" but rather to "c:\Swamp\". Even if you don't have any special tool installed to extract zip-files, from Windows XP onwards, extracting zip files has been built in to the operating system. If you have Swamp already up and running on your system, and an update has been released, you can always download the patch and overwrite the older Swamp files. You can find the patch at: http://kaldobsky.com/audiogames/SwampPatch.zip After you extract the patch, you will have to use the files from the patch to update your main Swamp directory.
Below you will find all the new features, changes and bugfixes for this version. Consult the "changelog.txt" file in your Swamp directory for all the changes of all versions.
New features:
Changes:
Bug fixes:
In order for Swamp to run correctly, there are a few files that need to be registered on your operating system. This will be accomplished by following one of the three steps outlined below. Please note: after you completed the first step, verify if the game as able to run by opening the Swamp.exe file in your Swamp folder. If you receive errors, please press "OK" and return to this document to follow step 2 after wich you should launch the program again. If that still doesn't work, follow step 3. If none of the steps work, please contact Aprone at jeremy@caldobsky.com to discuss the issue. Now, to register the files; The first step, wich is also the easiest, is to run the "Checkup.exe" utility found in your swamp folder. How does it work?
If all went well, you should be able to play Swamp now. Verify by opening Swamp.exe. If you hear a voice say "Welcome to Swamp version 3.4 by Aprone", you're good to go, and you can skip the rest of this chapter. If for some reason file registration was not successful, please follow step 2. For step 2, you will need to know if you are running a 32-bit or a 64-bit operating system. You can find this information in the "System" option in the windows control panel, or by right clicking the "My computer" or "Computer" icon and choosing "properties". Once you have the information, do one of the following:
After one of the above files has been opened, the needed files should be registered. Please verify by opening "Swamp.exe". If you hear the message "Welcome to Swamp version 3.4 by Aprone", spoken to you, the registration was succesfull and you can skip the rest of this chapter. If you still receive an error message, please read step 3 outlined below. For step 3 you will need to know wich operating system (32-bit or 64-bit) you are running, because that will change the location where you need to copy files to. After the files are copied, you will need to open "command prompt" to actually register the files. After that, you should be ready to start playing.
File registration step by step for 32-bit systems:
File registration step by step for 64-bit systems:
Now that the files are registered, we can go ahead with configuring Swamp to our liking. First, optionally, we will create a desktop shortcut to the Swamp.exe file. For this, open your Swamp folder, and navigate to the "Swamp.exe" file. Press the "Applications" key or press "Shift+F10" to open the context menu. Navigate to the "Send to" sub-menu. Hit "Enter" or right arrow, and navigate to the "Desktop (Create shortcut)" item and press "Enter". Now you have an extra icon on your desktop with the name "Swamp.exe - Shortcut". If you want, you can change the name to something easyer by pressing F2 and changing it. After you're satisfied with the shortcut, or if you don't want to create one, we can go ahead and open Swamp.exe, and start the configuration. If you opened the game before this step, the program will tell you that and you will have to press "Alt+Tab" until you find the Swamp window.
Now that Swamp has been opened, you will hear your system default Sapi5 voice speak a welcome message. This is because Swamp is configured to use Sapi by default. If you want to use a screen reader instead of Sapi, you will need to press the tab key until your screen reader is announced. If you are using a screen reader wich is not listed in the available options, you can try to use NVDA since it has been reported that selecting this screen reader allows others access to Swamp too. If the selection of NVDA doesn't solve your problems, you will have to use Sapi5. If you want to use a different Sapi5 voice (provided you have those installed on your system), the next chapter will explain in detail how to do that. If you use a screen reader, skip the next chapter.
Below you will find instructions on how to change your system default Sapi5 voice. Some of these instructions are Windows-version specific, so only follow the instructions for your version of windows.
Windows XP:
Windows Vista and Windows 7 32-bit:
Windows Vista and Windows 7 64-bit: If you want to use a 32-bit voice (eSpeak, DecTalk, any Next-up voice, or others) you need to follow the next procedure to use the voice you want:
If you want to use a 64-bit voice, the following instructions apply:
Windows 8 32-bit:
Windows 8 64-bit: If you want to use a 32-bit voice (eSpeak, DecTalk, any Next-up voice, or others) you need to follow the next procedure to use the voice you want:
If you want to use a 64-bit voice, the following instructions apply:
Once your default voice has been configured, you can adjust the speech rate (speed) everywhere in the game. If you press "Page up" you increase the speech rate (make Sapi speak faster). If you press "Page Down" you will decrease the speech rate (Sapi will talk slower)
Now that Swamp speaks with the voice we want it to speak with, it's time to explore the menu. We are currently configuring Swamp, so we will not go into detail on the different game modes yet. Later on in this Readme, every game mode will be properly explained, for now though, the configuration is all that matters.
To navigate in the menu, we can use the following keys on the keyboard:
We will explore the main menu until we come across the first configuration item we need: "Our account details"
As the menu-item itself suggests, we need to press Enter to be able to enter our account name here. Please note: only enter the account name if you bought a Kaldobsky Gamer Account. The name of this account, is the name you chose when you completed the registration process after you received the activation e-mail. Also note that the game only requires your account name, and not your account name and password. After you entered the account name, press Enter to confirm. The game will tell you that your account name has been set to what you entered as a confirmation. After this step is completed, the menu-item "Press Enter, to set your gamer account username." will change into "Your account username is ……………. Press Enter, to change it.
"Voice set to 1. Press Enter, to change it. Press + and - to adjust the pitch." While this message is spoken, you will notice another voice telling you a name. The second voice (thus not your screen reader) is an in-game voice. This voice will be used for sending audio clips to your fellow online gamers (more about that later)and it will also provide hurt sounds to let you know you have been hit by a zombie. As the menu-item itself already said, if you press Enter here, you will toggle between all 56 available voices. Every voice will announce his or her name when you reach that voice. If you by accident skipped over a voice you liked, you can press Shift+Enter to go back a voice. When you find the voice you want, you can further customise it by adjusting the pitch. Press the + (plus) key to raise the pitch, and press the - (minus) key to make the voice sound lower. If you later on decide you don't like the chosen voice so much, you can change it inside the game too without having to close the program and opening it again. Once you change to a different voice, the pitch settings will be set back to their default values. As with the different game modes, we will discuss that later on in this Readme. As soon as you found a voice you might like, we can go on to the next menu-item.
The next menu-item is one of the most important ones. It says: "You have not yet agreed with the Swamp User Agreement. First read all the terms and conditions carefully, either in the file "User agreement.txt" or you can read them below:
This software is provided as is without warrantee of any kind, expressed or implied. Jeremy Kaldobsky (AKA Aprone) will not be held responsible for any damages or inconveniences caused by the use or misuse of this software. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Jeremy Kaldobsky (AKA Aprone) from and against any and all losses, damages, lawsuit related to this software.
This agreement is perpetual and may not be terminated except by the mutual agreement of Jeremy Kaldobsky (AKA Aprone), and the licensee.
Jeremy Kaldobsky (AKA Aprone) retains the right to modify this license at any time. Please revisit this file in future game updates to read a current version of the agreement.
Swamp is created by, and owned, by Jeremy Kaldobsky (AKA Aprone) of Kaldobsky LLC. Playing the game is a privilege and not a right. If you violate any rules while playing, you may be banned and no longer permitted to play. If you have been banned from Swamp but still attempt to connect and play online, then you are in violation of this user agreement.
The single player portion of Swamp is free for anyone to use. The multiplayer experience requires a valid (and activated) Kaldobsky-Gamer account, which can be obtained from www.kaldobsky.com/audiogames/.
During special game events (holidays for example), Swamp may download additional files from the server. Some of these downloads may be optional, but others will be mandatory and automatic. Attempts will always be made by Aprone to keep these file downloads to a minimum so that it does not negatively affect players who are on limited bandwidth connections.
Taking part in any prohibited activities may result in your Kaldobsky-Gamer account being permanently banned without warning. Warnings may be given, and some bans may be only temporary, but these will be given out at the administrator's (Aprone's) discression. Never assume that you will receive a warning before a ban is issued! If your Kaldobsky-Gamer account gets banned, any funds remaining in the account are forfeited to Kaldobsky LLC and will not be returned to you or transferred into another account. If you do not accept this, then NO NOT SIGN UP FOR A KALDOBSKY-GAMER ACCOUNT.
If the situation calls for it, Aprone maintains the right to hand out other forms of punishment for violations, including but not limited to altering characters (example: lowering a player's level or removing items from their inventory) or disabling certain features (example: disabling a character's ability to trade items or chat). These alternate punishments may be temporary or permanent, depending on Aprone's discretion.
Determining guilt is soley at the discression of the game's admin (Aprone). You may contact him at (Jeremy@Kaldobsky.com) to dispute a ban, but the decission is ultimately up to Aprone, and him alone. If you are not willing to trust the admin's (Aprone's) judgement, then NO NOT SIGN UP FOR A KALDOBSKY-GAMER ACCOUNT.
Taking part in any of these activities is a violation of the Swamp User Agreement and is grounds for having your Kaldobsky-Gamer account permanently banned:
End-User-License-Agreement (EULA)
This product is protected by Federal Copyright Law. Kaldobsky LLC retains the title to and ownership of the Product. You are licensed to use this Product on the following terms and conditions:
LICENSE - The licensee is defined as a single individual using their own personal Kaldobsky-Gamer account. Kaldobsky LLC hereby grants the licensee a nonexclusive license authorizing the licensee to store this software on any number of computers at a single time. Use of this product by more than one individual, using the same Kaldobsky-Gamer account, terminates (without notification) this license, the Kaldobsky-Gamer account, and the right to use this product.
YOU MAY NOT: Distribute, rent, sub-license or otherwise make available to others the log-in information for their Kaldobsky-Gamer account, except when given express written permission from Kaldobsky LLC. In the case of an authorized transfer, the transferee must agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this License Agreement.
RESTRICTIONS: - The Single player features of this software may be used by anyone at any time. Multiplayer content may only be accessed by a user holding a registered (and activated) Kaldobsky-Gamer account. You may not modify, de-compile, disassemble, reverse engineer or translate the software.
US GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS - Use, duplication or disclosure by the United States Government is subject to restrictions as set forth under DFARS 252.227-7013 or in FARS 52.227-19 Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights.
TERM - You may terminate your License and this Agreement at anytime by destroying all copies of the Product and Product Documentation. They will also terminate automatically if you fail to comply with any term or condition in this Agreement.
LIMITED WARRANTY - This software and documentation are provided "as is" without any warranty as to their performance, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. The licensee assumes the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the software. In no event shall Kaldobsky LLC or anyone else who has been involved in the creation, development, production, or delivery of this software be liable for any direct, incidental or consequential damages, such as, but not limited to, loss of anticipated profits, benefits, use, or data resulting from the use of this software, or arising out of any breach of warranty.
Once you've read through the agreement, and you agree with it, press Shift+Enter to confirm the game that you accept the terms and conditions. Every time Swamp receives an update, the terms and conditions might change as well; therefore, after updating Swamp, you must re-read the user agreement, and press "Shift+Enter" in the game's main menu to declare you've read and understood all the rules, regulations and procedures outlined in the file.
The next menu item has everything to do with "See monkey". If you have no See Monkey, the item will be "No See Munkey". If you have a See Monkey and the game detected it, the item will be "See Monkey". If you plug your See Monkey in after you launched the game, you will have to press "Enter" to start the detection of the device. It might take a while for the game to detect it, so be patient. Later on in this readme, you will get more information on how to use the game with your See Monkey
The next menu-item "Stereo sound test" will play a sound going from the left speaker to the right one. This is to insure you placed your speakers correctly, or that you have your headphones correctly positioned.
The item "For tips on almost anything you would want to know, be sure to read the Readme.html file, found in your Swamp directory." let's you know you can always read through this file if things aren't totally clear.
With the option "Set sound output device" you can configure Swamp to play through another soundcard than your default one. If you press "Enter" to activate this option, you will be presented with a list of audio devices found on your system. Select the device you want, and confirm with Enter. If you want to Cancel, just press Escape, or go down the options list until you find the item "Previous Menu". After you selected an audio device, you will have to restart Swamp for the change to take effect.
The next item is "Sound boost is off. Press enter to enable it. (Your computer may prompt you for security settings when the file swr.exe is launched for the first time.)". Sound boost is a utility that will divide the Swamp sounds over two programs. This can be helpful if your system can't coop with a lot of sounds all at once. As the item said, your system might prompt you if you trust the program. Make sure you choose the option "Trust this publisher" so that you'll not get this question every time you start Swamp, if you decide to enable sound boost.
With the next menu-item "Graphics off. Press Enter to change it." you can choose between eight different graphics modes. This can be helpful if you have a bit of sight left, and want to use it while playing. Just as with the voices, press Enter to cycle through all available modes until you find the one you want.
The option "Mouse sensitivity set to Default. Press Enter to change it. When setting up your keyconfig.ini file, mouse buttons can be tricky because there are so many different designs out there. You can press a mouse button now and Swamp will tell you what code it is." allows you to configure the sensitivity of your mouse movements. You can press Enter to cycle through the available settings, but I recommend leaving this on the default value for now. This option can be changed later on (if needed) during playing the game, so that you will notice its effect immediately. Also, you will not need the codes of the mouse buttons unless you plan to change the default keyboard layout from swamp, wich we will discuss later on in this readme.
With the next menu-item "You've put in over 0 minutes, playing Aprone's Swamp!" you can find out how much time you spent playing Swamp.
The last option in the menu is "Exit the game" wich obviously will close the program.
Now that we covered the entire menu, and configured all the available options, we can actually go ahead and discover how to play. The next chapter will teach you how to move around, and find your way on the map. You will also know how to find items, and kill zombies.
Before we connect to the online world of Swamp, we need to practice moving on the map, finding things (loot) and defending ourselves by killing zombies. We will do this in the "Custom maps" portion of the game. Why? Because we can adjust the map, number of items and number of zombies to our liking. Also, dying on a custom map doesn't have any consequences except you have to relaunch the map. In the online game, dying should be taken much more serious, but more about that later. To locate the "Custom maps" option, open Swamp and in the main menu navigate to "Custom maps" and press enter. Next you will be presented with a lot of options wich we will change depending on what we are going to practice.
As soon as we select the "Custom maps" the game will ask us to choose our settings. We will go through them one by one, and modify where needed. Use the Down Arrow or Right Arrow to go through the configuration options.
Map set to multi1. Press Enter to change it.
We will leave this option as is, since you will start in Map1 (Multi1) when you play online for the first time. (If you had a character on previous Swamp versions, and that character is still active, you will be put at the last location that character was on in the online mode.
Zombies set to 150. Press Enter to change it.
Since we are practicing movement first, we have no need for zombies. After pressing "Enter" to change the setting, we need to enter a number between 0 and 300. We will enter 0 for the time being, and confirm with Enter.
Zombies spawn randomly. Press Enter to change it.
For now, this option has no influence so we skip it.
Loot set to 200. Press Enter to change it.
As was the case with the zombies, we don't want anything to disturb us, so we press "Enter" to change this setting. We then have to enter a number between 0 and 200 and confirm with the Enter key. We enter 0 here, and press the Enter key.
You start at the default location. Press Enter to change it.
This setting controls where your starting location will be. Since we want to be at the default location, we will not change this setting.
Pistol and Axe only. Press Enter to change it.
This setting allows you to have either your default gear, or all available weapons in the game. For now, we will not change this setting.
Launch map
This will actually launch the map with all our configurations taken into account. We will press enter here, and then we can start practicing moving around.
One of the first things we noticed when we launched the game, was that there was music playing in the menu. Once we launched our custom map, that music changed. The menu and every map have their own song. We can increase or decrease the volume of the music, or we can completely switch it off, by using one of the following keys:
Once we've set the music to our liking, we can concentrate on how to move on the map.
The first thing we will practice, is tracking beacons. almost every map has around 13 different beacons set up. These beacons will lead you to the most important places on that map. As soon as you activate a beacon, you will get a signal (kind of beep beep) wich will increase in speed the closer you get there. Along with the signal, you will also be told the direction you have to go, and what the distance is between you and that beacon. It's also possible to repeat the information, in case you are going towards a building and you need to know the directions again. Distances in Swamp are expressed in tiles, because the maps are built using tiles too. Some of those tiles are street, others grass, others water and still others buildings. If you no longer need a beacon to be active, you can either track another one, or you can deactivate the beacon by pressing the same key combination again. Below you will find all available keystrokes to track the different beacons.
Tracking beacons can be useful if you need to find your way out of a building, or in some cases to find the building itself (in case you need it). It also helps some times, to discover what buildings there are, and how far they are.
As an example, we will activate the first beacon by pressing "Shift+`". The game will speak the following message: "Tracking Safe Zone, Go West 10 tiles". As said before, you will also hear a constant beep sound, to show the position of that beacon. If we would activate the last beacon, the game would speak the following message: "Tracking Destroyed business, Go South West 261 tiles". You will hear no beacon, because you're too far away from it. As you can see, the distance is rather big. We press "shift+=" again to deactivate the beacon and the game will say: "Tracking off".
To scan your surroundings, Swamp offers various radars to help you. You have four directional radars and one "full area" radar. To activate them, use the keyboard commands below. To swhich them off at any time, press the Space bar. The radar commands are:
First, we will try our forward radars. We press the "up arrow" key. We will hear a sound going from left to right. This sound means that there's a bit of open space in front of us. Now we will pres "Shift+Up Arrow". We now hear a different sound, wich indicates there's a wall not too far from our position. If we would activate the left short range radar with the "Left Arrow" key, we would hear a mixture of both sounds. We start out hearing a wall first, and open space near the end. That last bit of open space, is the same open space our forward radar revealed earlier. If we were to activate or long range left radar with "Shift+left Arrow" we would discover that not to far from our position, on our left, a wall is standing.
The two sounds we herd so far, are the sounds you will find most of the time during playing. However, impassable objects like "Sandbags" or "Stacks of crates" will make a different sound. Since none of those objects are present in our location, we will not hear them, but later on during online play, you might run across such objects. Treat them as a wall basically, and you will be fine.
First of all, you will need your mouse and keyboard together for this chapter; Basically, your mouse is used to make you run forward, and to turn you left or right. Your keyboard can be used to swhich between running and walking, to make sidesteps, walk backward, and turn you 45° to make you face certain directions. Also, some keys will give you information about wich direction you are facing and where you currently are. You can also discover at wich coordinates you are, if you need to. First, we will go through all available commands, and then we will start exploring. The commands for moving are:
Now that we know all the keyboard and mouse commands, it's time for practice. First, we will press the right mouse button to go forward. As our radar indicated earlier, we should expect a wall not too far away. After a few steps, you will bump into that wall, and stop moving all together. We can do a few things now: walk backwards, take sidesteps or turn either by 45° or by moving the mouse left or right. We will try sidestepping first. First off, we will go left. There's a wall not to far from us, so we can't go that way. Now we will sidestep right, and see what happens. It seems we went through "Storage and supplies" and hit a wall in the end because the game red: "Storage and supplies" and "Leaving Storage and supplies". As you move between different areas of the map, the game will tell you each time which zone you are in. Let's take a few sidesteps left now, until the game says: "Storage and supplies". To repeat this information we press the "V" key and the game will tell you: "Current location is Storage and supplies of Safe zone". You will also have noticed that the sound of your footsteps changed, from walking on wooden floor, to walking on carpet, to walking on wooden floor again. This will also help you to discover what kind of area you are walking on. Some of the areas like "broken windows" (wich we will discuss later on) are definitely areas you need to be careful around. One type of area, the Fire, can even drain your health if you stay too long in it. Now back to our predicament: "Storage and supplies". We take a few more sidesteps left, until we hear our footsteps change from wooden floor to carpet, and until the game announces: "Leaving Storage and supplies". Instead of walking forward, we will walk backward now. For this we press and hold the "S" key. After a while you will hear your footsteps change to "Grass" wich indicates we are now outside. Besides the change of our footsteps, the game did speak the following messages: "Infront of the Safe zone", and "Leaving Infront of the Safe zone". Now that we're outside, let's press "V" again to check where we are. Not surprisingly the game will tell you: "No data for your current location." because you're in a grassy field wich could be everywhere. Instead of walls, there is another kind of object wich will not let you move forward once you hit it: the map boarder. To discover how this boarder sounds, we will now use the "turn 45°" commands to make us face North. First however, we will press "W" to find out wich direction we are facing. Once you press "W" you will hear a voice say: East. This means, that it would be quicker to turn us 90° left, than turn us 270° right to face north. Since pressing Shift+A will turn us 45° left, we have to press it twice to be facing north. Every time we turn 45°, the game will tell us the new direction we are facing, so in our case that is: "N E" or North-East, and "North". Now, forward we go, by pressing the right mouse button, until we can run no more. We hear some kind of wall scraping / stone moving sound, and the game telling us: "Northern map border". Depending on the map, some boarders might contain places wich enable you to travel to other maps (wich we will discuss during the online game play, later on). To conclude this chapter, and to be ready for the next one, we will combine moving around with the beacons we discussed earlier. First we will activate the first beacon by pressing "Shift+`". Depending on how far you walked backwards, the spoken distance might differ a bit, but the principal will remain the same. Once you activate the beacon, the game will tell you: "Tracking Safe Zone, Go South East 62 tiles". You have two ways to complete this objective. The first and easiest way is to turn 45° until we face South, the first part of the directions we were given. Since we have to turn 180° to face south, it doesn't really matter wich way we turn, as long as your game says "South" in the end, all is well. Once facing south, we can start running forward. To make sure we don't end up running too far, we need to repeat our directions to the beacon we are tracking from time to time. As long as the game says "Go South East 54 tiles." we can continue south. If the game says "Go East 50 tiles." we will have to change directions and go East. If you notice that the beacon sound is not in the centre of your sound field you have to change directions again to run a bit more South. After you run a few more steps south, you will notice that the distance to go east gets shorter, even though you are going south when pressing the "B" key. If you change directions to east again, and you find that the beacon sound is more or less centreed in your sound field, you can run forward. If you hit a wall, instead of the Safe Zone, use the sidesteps towards the beacon sound. The closer you get, the quicker the beeps will sound. Once they are almost constant, you can go forward an walk right into the Safe Zone. The second way is to turn 45° until the game says "S E" or South-East, and run forward. This method works best if you are familiar with the map, and know that there are no other buildings in your way, to prevent getting stuck. Keep in mind, that here too, the beacon sound has to be in the centre of your sound field. Once we arrive in the Safe Zone, we will walk until we hit the wall and deactivate our beacon by pressing "Shift+` so that we are ready for the next chapter.
The building helper is a tool to help you identify whether or not you are walking towards an exit of a building. You can activate and deactivate it by pressing "Shift+Space". The higher pitched heartbeat means you are going towards the exit, the lower one means you're going the wrong way. Since we are still with our face to the Safe Zone wall, we will activate the building helper. Now, turn 180° so you face "West" and take a few steps forward. Notice the higher pitched heartbeat. Now walk backward, and listen to the lower heartbeat. Now, walk sideways left and listen to the lower heartbeat because you're going farther away from the exit. Take a few sidesteps right until you leave "Storage and Supplies" and then walk forward again until you're "InFront of The Safe Zone".
Everything we've covered in this chapter will be very important throughout the entire game. If something isn't totally clear yet, feel free to reread that part causing you trouble. also, take the time to try navigating on this map, the more you practice, the more you will remember. When you're ready, proceed to the next chapter to learn how to gather items on the map.
Before we can start practicing picking up items, we will have to configure our "Custom Maps" first. For this, we open the main menu either by opening Swamp.exe (if you closed the program) or by pressing "Escape" anywhere inside the game. Once again, we will go through all options, and make changes where needed.
Map set to multi1. Press Enter to change it.
We will leave this option as is, since you will start in Map1 (Multi1) when you play online for the first time. (If you had a character on previous Swamp versions, and that character is still active, you will be put at the last location that character was on in the online game.
Zombies set to 0. Press Enter to change it.
Since we are not ready to start killing yet, we leave this at 0 for now.
Zombies spawn randomly. Press Enter to change it.
For now, this option has no influence so we skip it.
Loot set to 0. Press Enter to change it.
Since we are practicing picking up loot, we need to change this setting to 200. Press "Enter" to activate the setting, and type 200 followed by the Enter key to confirm.
You start at the default location. Press Enter to change it.
This setting controls where your starting location will be. Since we want to be at the default location, we will not change this setting.
Pistol and Axe only. Press Enter to change it.
This setting allows you to have either your default gear, or all available weapons in the game. For now, we will not change this setting.
Launch map
This will actually launch the map with all our configurations taken into account. We will press enter here, and then we can start practicing grabbing loot to our hearts desire.
The first thing you will notice when you launch the map, is the constant buzzing of insects in the background. These insects are feeding on corpses wich contain items for you to pick up. There are several types of items:
To start us out, we need to turn until we face "West" to be able to get out of the Safe Zone. After that, we can run around the entire map and pick up everything we can find. To pick up an item, you have to make sure, the buzzing sound is in the centre of your sound field. You might have to move your mouse either left or right, in order to centre the loot perfectly. Once the loot is centreed, you can go forward and pick it up. This is the ideal time also, to practice moving through the map, using radars to prevent hitting walls, and the beacons and building helper to get you out of buildings if you entered them. Once you feel you are ready for the next step, you can read the following chapters to get more information about armor and weapons, after wich we will put zombies on the map for you to practice killing them.
Armor is a kind of clothing wich protects your body from the elements of nature, and in Swamp's case, from the hits from the zombies. Below we will discover to wich class what piece of armor belongs, how the protection works, where we can find the armor, and what we can do if we equip "special armor".
The armor available in Swamp is divided into 5 classes of protection and divided over six boddy parts. First, all armor pieces along with the class they belong to and possible side effects, will be listed below. Then you will get an explanation of the protection system. After that, we will discuss the location of all available pieces of armor. And, to conclude this chapter, I will explain all the special armor available.
List of all armor pieces (For this list, I will folow the list of body parts as seen in the game. If the class of a piece of armor is none, it means that this particular piece is considered special armor and will be discussed at the end of this chapter.)
Chest armor:
| Piece | Class | Side effect |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Coat | Very Low | Decreased speed |
| Tattered Vest | Very low | None |
| Football Pads | Low | Decreased speed |
| Leather Jacket | Low | None |
| Kevlar Vest | Medium | Decreased speed |
| Composite Armor | Medium | None |
| Swat Vest | Widely Varying | Decreased speed |
| Plate Armor | High | Decreased speed |
| Ceramic Armor | High | Decreased speed |
| Apronic vest | High | None |
| Camo Jacket | None | Decreased loading time for weapons |
| Tuxido t-shirt | None | Decreased loading time for weapons |
Head Armor:
| Piece | Class | Side effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ball Cap | Very low | None |
| Hard Hat | Low | None |
| Bike Helmet | Medium | Decreased speed |
| Paintball Mask | Medium | None |
| Motorcycle helmet | Widely Varying | Decreased speed |
| Football Helmet | Widely Varying | Decreased speed |
| Military Helmet | Widely Varying | None |
| Riot Face Guard | High | Decreased speed |
| Apronic Helmet | High | None |
Leg Armor:
| Piece | Class | Side effect |
|---|---|---|
| Work Jeans | Low | None |
| Plastic Shin Pads | Medium | Decreased speed |
| Armored Leggings | Widely Varying | Decreased speed |
| Metal Shin Pads | High | Decreased speed |
| Ceramic Leggings | High | Decreased speed |
| Apronic Leggings | High | None |
| Overalls | None | Decreased loading time for weapons |
| Camo Pants | None | Decreased loading time for weapons |
Shoulder Armor:
| Piece | Class | Side effect |
|---|---|---|
| Motorcycle shoulder pads | Low | None |
| Football Shoulder Pads | Widely Varying | Decreased Speed |
| Epaulettes | High | Decreased Speed |
| Reflective vest | None | Decreased loading time for weapons |
| Quiver | None | Decreased loading time for weapons |
Foot armor:
| Piece | Class | Side effect |
|---|---|---|
| Boots | Low | None |
| Combat Boots | Medium | Decreased Speed |
| Bunny Slippers | None | Quiets footsteps |
| Running Shoes | None | Increased speed |
Waist Armor:
| Piece | Class | Side effect |
|---|---|---|
| Running Shorts | None | Increased speed |
| Athletic Cup | Low | Decreased speed |
| Balls Of Steel | Medium | Decreased speed and noisy |
| Adult Diaper | Widely Varying | Noisy |
| Inflatable Sheep | None | Can Cross Deep Water |
Now that we know all the available pieces of armor, we will take a closer look at how the protection system works. Every bodypart is responsible for a certain amount of protection of the entire body, and how much protection every part provides is below:
Armor does not only come in several pieces, each peace belongs to a class too. There are five different protection classes, and an armor class wich can perform special functions. Not all classes can cover your entire boddy, and some classes will slow you down more than others. Generally speaking, the higher the class, the higher protection, but the slower you will run. To better understand this, let's assume one hit of a zombie would reduce your health by 10 points. Let's also assume that for every class, all bodyparts could be covered, and that no armor skill has been raised. The classes and their protection are thus:
The sixth armor class is the "special functions" class. These armor pieces allow you to reload certain weapons faster or to swim through brush kreek and the lake just like the zombies can. This special armor does not offer any protection, so consider what pieces to put on so that you don't lose too much protection.
Now that we know the available armor, and how well it can protect, it's time to discover where we can find everything. I will list all pieces of armor, along with the locations where you can find and / or buy them.
Now that we know where we can find all the armor, we delve deeper in the functionality of the special armor. Special armor never offers protection, but either decreases the time it takes to fully reload a weapon, or allows you to pass through unpassable terrain (when not wearing the armor). The special armor, and its functions are:
The second type of loot we take a closer look at are the weapons. Just as with armor, weapons belong to certain classes. Every class has a key on the keyboard to be equipped. Pressing that key a second or third time, will swhich to the second or third weapon in that class. The table below will show you the weapon, the class it belongs to, how much ammo it can hold by default and what type of ammo it uses.
| NAME | CLASS | KEY | CAPACITY | AMMO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field Kit | Medical | ` | 4 | Medkit |
| Axe | Melee | 1 | 0 | None |
| Riot Shield | Melee | 1 | 0 | None |
| Machete | Melee | 1 | 0 | None |
| Sledgehammer | Melee | 1 | 0 | None |
| Glock 19 | Pistol | 2 | 15 | 9 MM ammo |
| Glock 17 | Pistol | 2 | 17 | 9 MM ammo |
| Detonics Combat Master | Pistol | 2 | 7 | .45 ACP ammo |
| MK23 | Pistol | 2 | 12 | .45 ACP ammo |
| Browning Citori | Shotgun | 3 | 2 | Shotgun shells |
| Benelli | Shotgun | 3 | 8 | Shotgun shells |
| AA12 | Shotgun | 3 | 20 | Shotgun shells |
| SPAS12 | Shotgun | 3 | 9 | Shotgun shells |
| Armsel Striker | Shotgun | 3 | 12 | Shotgun shells |
| Winchester | Sport Rifle | 4 | 5 | .30 Calibur |
| Marlin | Sport Rifle | 4 | 6 | .30 Calibur |
| Remington | Sport Rifle | 4 | 6 | .30 Calibur |
| MP5 | SMG | 5 | 30 | 9 MM ammo |
| Uzi | SMG | 5 | 40 | 9 MM ammo |
| UMP45 | SMG | 5 | 25 | .45 ACP ammo |
| Vector | SMG | 5 | 25 | .45 ACP ammo |
| M-1928 | SMG | 5 | 50 | .45 ACP ammo |
| AR15 | Assault Rifle | 6 | 30 | 5.56 MM ammo |
| M16 | Assault Rifle | 6 | 30 | 5.56 MM ammo |
| Steyr AUG | Assault Rifle | 6 | 30 | 5.56 MM ammo |
| M4A1 | Assault Rifle | 6 | 30 | 5.56 MM ammo |
| SCAR-H | Assault Rifle | 6 | 20 | 7.62 MM ammo |
| ACR | Assault Rifle | 6 | 20 | 7.62 MM ammo |
| AK47 | Assault Rifle | 6 | 40 | 7.62 MM ammo |
| Shortbow | Archery | 7 | 1 | Arrows |
| Longbow | Archery | 7 | 1 | Arrows |
| Crossbow | Archery | 7 | 1 | Arrows |
| Chainsaw | Combustion | 8 | 100 | Gas |
| Flamethrower | Combustion | 8 | 100 | Gas |
| M40 | Sniper Rifle | 9 | 1 | 7.62 MM ammo |
| M60 | Machine Gun | 0 | 100 | 7.62 MM ammo |
| M240 | Machine Gun | 0 | 150 | 7.62 MM ammo |
| HK23E | Machine Gun | 0 | 150 | 5.56 MM ammo |
| MG4 | Machine Gun | 0 | 200 | 5.56 MM ammo |
| Vulcan Minigun | Gatling | - | 1000 | 7.62 MM ammo |
| M79 | Grenade launcher | = | 1 | Grenades |
Now that we know all the available weapons, it's time to studdy each weapon closely. You will find the weapons, a description (if needed), the range of attack, and any special mode they can be used in as well as the accessory required for that special mode (when applicable). To switch between weapon modes, you press the "T" key. Note that when activated, modes will remain active even if you switch to another weapon, and switch back to the one you were using before. Only when you log in on multi player, or if you start single player or a campaign, will the weapons be set to their default mode. The only exceptions to this rule are the M40 and the Vulcan Minigun. Their default mode is the equipped mode, wich will require you to press "T" to be able to fire the weapon.
Now that we covered the weapons in depth, we will take a look at the ammo. I will list here, where you can get all different types of ammo. Some ammo is only available on certain maps or in certain places, wich is why I need to list them.
Last but not least, I will list here all locations for all weapons and accessories. If there are special requirements to be able to find something, they will be listed here too. Please note: the Fieldkit, the Axe and the Glock 19 belong to your default equipment. Whenever you die, you will always have those at your disposal.
Before we can start killing zombies, we once again need to change the configuration of our "Custom Maps". For this, we open the main menu either by opening Swamp.exe (if you closed the program) or by pressing "Escape" anywhere inside the game. Once again, we will go through all options, and make changes where needed.
Map set to multi1. Press Enter to change it.
We will leave this option as is, since you will start in Map1 (Multi1) when you play online for the first time. (If you had a character on previous Swamp versions, and that character is still active, you will be put at the last location that character was on in the online game.
Zombies set to 0. Press Enter to change it.
Now that we are going to start killing, and to closely resemble what map1 will be like once you go online, we need to change this setting to 150. First we press enter to activate the setting. Then we enter 150 and confirm with the Enter key.
Zombies spawn randomly. Press Enter to change it.
This option will tell the game, where zombies should spawn "come to life". Randomly will pick any available spot on the map to generate a zombie. This includes buildings, streets and everywhere you can think of. The only building zombies will never enter is the Safe Zone, because as the zone itself suggest, that's a safe place.
Loot set to 200. Press Enter to change it.
Because we do want bullets, armor and Medkits, we don't need to change this setting.
You start at the default location. Press Enter to change it.
This setting controls where your starting location will be. Since we want to be at the default location, we will not change this setting.
Pistol and Axe only. Press Enter to change it.
This setting will let you use either your default gear (as would happen after you dy online, or going online for the first time), or you can be fully armed when going on this killing quest. The choice is up to you. If you want to change this setting, press Enter to do so.
Launch map
This will actually launch the map with all our configurations taken into account. We will press enter here, and then we can start killing, and finding loot until we dy and have to start over again.
Now that we're on the map, we can not only hear the loot as described in the previous chapter, but we also hear footsteps and growling noises. These footsteps and the growling are the zombies. To kill a zombie, first make sure your weapon(s) are loaded. If you start with your default gear, you only need to check your Field kit and your Glock 19. You do this by pressing the keys corresponding to the class of that weapon. They are listed in the previous chapter, but for your convenience I will list them again in a few moments. If you chose to go fully armed on the battlefield, you will have to check a lot more weapons. Please note: your amount of ammo is limited, so you might not be able to fully load all weapons and you might have to go hunt for loot to fill up the empty weapons. If you decide to use another weapon that uses the same ammo as a weapon you don't wish to use anymore, you can also unload that weapon to save ammo. Besides the keyboard commands for the weapons, I will also put in all the keyboard commands we have used so far. To not disappoint you, we will also discover some new keyboard commands here, specifically to check the number of kills, and to check how much health you have remaining. Also, you will discover how to load and unload the weapons and swhich between their different modes if they have any. You will also know how to check the weapon you are using, the ammo that it still has and the amount of ammo you have in reserve. To no longer keep you in suspense, here are the keyboard shortcuts:
Now that we have all keyboard commands listed, we do need to check our weapons. As said before, press the key corresponding to the classes of the weapons to activate one of them. The game will tell you wich weapon you have activated, and most of the weapons will make a distinct sound when they are activated. If the game states that you don't have any "Sub-machineguns" or any other kind of weapon class, that means that you need to loot for them. If the game says: "Browning Citori equipped. It has 0 of 2 rounds, and you have 1200 shotgun shells in reserve.", you will need to load the gun by pressing "R". Once you went through all available weapons, and loaded the once you could load, it's time to head out and kill. As said before, killing essentiallyis the same as finding loot. You need to centre the zombie footsteps in your sound field, and press the "Right mouse button" to fire your weapon. Depending on the weapon you are using, the range of attack will be different. An Axe will only be effective if zombies are really close to you. Though the Axe will save ammo, you might be injured when the zombies attack you because they are so close to you. After a few hits by zombies, it's always a good idea to check your health. You can do this by pressing the "X" key. You will get a message like the following one: "100 percent health. You are not wearing any armor". Checking your health is very important, because once your health goes below 75% zombies are able to break almost everything you have, one peace for each time they hit you. Keeping your health above 75% is therefore a good idea. Zombies will not break things every time you go below 75%, but it's a risk you do want to avoid. If you are out of Medkits, you can always return to the Safe Zone. Why, Because besides being an area where no zombies can enter, the Safe Zone is the only place where you as player can slowly start recovering health, and get your clothes cleaned if there's blood on them. Also keep in mind that killing and surviving takes practice, so don't be discouraged if you dy several times in the beginning. When you are ready to go outside to kill, turn 180° to face west, and run into the zombie infested Swamp. If you happen to dy you can launch this custom map again for some more practice, until you feel confident to face the online world of Swamp.
For those of you who own a See Monkey, please read this chapter, for it will explain what help you can expect from that device. For those who don't own such a device, you can skip this chapter and go straight to the online game mode.
In Swamp, the See Monkey can be used to look around you, like you would do in the regular world. It's not a replacement for the mouse though. You will still need your mouse for aiming and shooting, but you can use the See Monkey to have a very good idea of your surroundings, and avoid trouble if you spot it. Below you will find the keyboard commands to re-centre yourself (to look straight ahead again), and to activate the calibration menu in wich you can use the default keys to calibrate your device. These keyboard commands are:
It might take some time for you to get used to playing with the see Monkey. The practice section above, is the ideal way to try your device, before diving into the online world of Swamp.
Now that we have all basic knowledge under our belts, we can connect to the Multi Player portion of Swamp. There we can chat with people from all around the world, buy and sell equipment, lead and join missions, and built up your character just the way you want. If that's not enough yet, you can also trade equipment if you meet the requirements, play through a cycle to acquire a title, and much much more. Ready? Set? Here goes.
To avoid problems connecting to the Swamp server, it is always a good idea to close Swamp and reopen it, if you were playing the Custom maps for example. Once the game is open, we navigate through the main menu until we find the option "Multiplayer game" and press enter to select it. I will be using a non existing Kaldobsky Gamer Account wich is called "readme" and has the games password set to "html". If you don't have a Kaldobsky Gamer Account, you will not be able to continue to the following steps. If you do have such an account, and you configured Swamp with your account name, you will be asked the following: "Your Username is readme. Enter your gamer password". The password required here, is the games password, not your account password, because you are playing a game, not going to change your account details. Since I am kindly asked to enter my password, I type html. Once you entered your password, press Enter to confirm. You might have to wait a few seconds before the following message will be spoken: "Choose your character. Select the character you want and press enter. If you would like to permanently delete a character, select it from the list and press Shift Delete". This message means that your character list is loaded, and that, if you have multiple characters created, you can choose one to play with. If you recently bought your Kaldobsky Gamer Account, your character list will be empty by default. To create a character, we press the "Down arrow" or the "Right arrow" key until we find the option "Create a new character" and press enter to confirm. Next the game will ask: "Enter the character name you wish to create. Leave blank to cancel." As stated in the "user agreement" characters can not contain punctuation symbols only, nor can they contain titles; also characters resembling Aprone by alias or real name, nor the name of one of Aprone's family members who do play Swamp, is not permitted. If you had a Swamp account before, creating a new character, gives you the opportunity to change the old account name into something else if you so desire. be aware that you can only use every old account you own one time only, so consider your character name with care. I will create a character called readme, so i type readme. Once your character name has been entered, press Enter to confirm. You will then proceed with connecting to the server. You will hear the following messages: "Connecting to the server as readme (in my case and the character you just created in your case)..., followed by "Connecting." and "Connecting to master server..". If the connection is successful, you will hear: "This connection to the server, is sponsored by donations from (A random person out of the list of sponsors for the game). If the server is offline, or if the server is full, you will hear the game tell you: "The server appears to be offline, or could not be contacted for some other reason." Once a connection is established however, we can discover what Multi Player has to offer us.
If you happen to own an older Swamp account, it's time to import that account to the currently connected character. If you are playing Swamp for the first time, you can skip this chapter and go to the next one. To import a character, we open the chat prompt (more about the chat later). For this example, I will import the character readme, with the password html. We import the character as followed:
If the import went successfully, your connection will be terminated and you will have to close and open Swamp again, for the imported character to take effect. The import will transfer all the reputation, experience points, levels and inventory from the old character to the new one. Once you are re-connected to the server, you will be at the location your old character was at the time you logged out of the older Swamp version. This might mean you will be in the middle of a map, and will have to run back to the Safe Zone.
As soon as you are either connected to the server, or playing offline, and you want to change some settings without closing the game, you can press "Escape" to access the full list of menu-options as we saw earlyer in the main menu. This allows you to change most of the settings on the fly, so you can test the new settings without restarting the game. As soon as you have changed the setting syou want, (except for the output device) you can press "Escape" again to close the menu.
Now that our character has been created, and we are connected to the server, the first thing that we might notice is people sending messages to each other through the chat. By default we will be in the English chat channel. If you speak another language, you will be able to swhich to the channel of your language by pressing "Shift+." to go forward one channel at a time, or "Shift+," to go back one channel at a time. Once you found the channel of your language, you can start chatting yourself.
Before we go on to the actual use of the Swamp chat, you need to be aware of a few rules. These rules are put in place to make the Swamp experience enjoyable for everyone. All rules are written below, and an explanation of certain terms is provided where needed. The rules for the Swamp chat are:
To open the chat prompt, we press "/" the slash key. You will hear the game say: "Type your message." After we type out our message, we send it by pressing enter. As an example, we will write the message "Hello everyone", wich goes as follows:
As soon as you press "Enter" the game will repeat your message: "You say, Hello everyone". A side from sending regular chat messages, you can also send action messages like "i am doing something". This requires a special command in front of your message. The command is "/ (slash) me (followed by a space) and your message". We will tell everyone that we are doing something as follows:
As soon as you press enter, your message will be send to everyone and the game will say: "readme is doing something". The /me (slash me) command, has a short form too: / (slash) e . Using /me (slash me) or /e (slash e) will produce the same results.
If someone is close to your location, and sends a chat message, you will hear a series of beeping sounds, to indicate that player's location. This can be helpful if you require assistance.
If you know some people on Swamp, you can always send them a private message. For this we use the / (slash) w command. After that command, we write a space, and then we write the name of the person we want to send a message to. The name of the person is always followed by a space. Finally, we write the message we want to send, and press Enter. As an example, I will be sending a private message to myself. In Swamp, sending a private message is called whispering, and it works as follows:
Once the message has been send, the game will tell you: "You whisper readme this is a private message". If someone send you a private message, the game will say: "Whispering readme says. this is a private message". you can always reply to the last person that whispered you by using the / (slash) r command, followed by a space, and the message you want to reply with. We will reply to the last message we receive as follows:
The game will tell you the following when your reply has been sent: "You whisper readme Thank you for the message".
To review the last 50 chat messages, we can use the keyboard commands below. Pressing one of the keys multiple times will go farther back into the history, or farther forward, depending on wich message you are:
Besides sending and receiving messages, the chat function can be used to obtain information about players; You can find out where someone is, what level someone is, how many times a person died, how many zombies he or she killed since the last time he or she died, and how well a person can perform in missions. The list below will contain all of these commands. Please note that after every command, you need to write a space, followed by the name of the person about whom you want to acquire the information. As an example, I will request all information about readme, and I will put the answers below the commands:
Do you remember that during our Swamp configuration, we selected a voice to use during the game? Besides the sounds this voice provides when you get hit by a zombie, the voice also provides all kinds of messages you can send. Players who are nearby, as well as zombies, can hear those messages. These messages can be used to warn people, to say hi in a different way than chatting, to ask someone to cover you and much more. To be able to send a voice message, you need to press "F" first, followed by another command key. Since not all commands have messages attached to them, the list below will contain all the valid commands you can use when you activated "Voice mode". If you want to cancel the voice mode, you have to press "F" again. Activating and deactivating "voice mode" will play a different sound to let you know if it's active or not. Besides voice messages, the voice mode allows you to send 12 customisable script messages. By default these messages ask for help, tell others your health, your coordinates, and lots more. In the list below, all these commands will be listed:
Once you start to know people better and better, there might come a point where you decide to become Swamp friends. The advantages of being Swamp friends are:
To add a person to your friend list, you do the following:
As an example, a person called "readme" will be added to my friend list. When you entered everything correctly, the game will tell you: "readme, and all of this person's other characters, have been added to your friend's list. You will only be sent alerts about this friend, if they add you to their friends list too." Friend requests can only be confirmed if the other person adds you to his or her friend list too.
To remove a friend from your list, you do the following:
As an example, a person called "readme" will be removed from my friend list. If everything was correctly typed in, the game should say the following: "readme, and all of this person's other characters, have been removed from your friend's list.
If you want to start out with a clean friends list, you can simply clear your entire list by doing the following:
Below you will find the commands to find out who is on your friends list, whitch of your friends is online, where they are, and how to send them a private message. All of these commands will require you to activate the chat prompt first. Then you type in the command, and confirm with the Enter key. After each command, I will write what kind of message the game gives me as a response. Since my list is empty, the game will not have a lot of information to share. However, as long as you have people in your friend list, the game will show you the information you need. The commands are:
This will display a list of all the people who you befriended. In my case it says: Your friends list is empty.
This will show you who of your friends is currently online. Since my list is empty, the game says. No friends online.
This will show you who of your friends is online, and where they are. Because readme has no friends yet, the game tells me: No friends online.
This will "whisper" a message to all your friends who are online. Because I wrote / (slash) fw (space) This is a test message to all my friends, the game tells me: You friend whisper this is a message to all my friends
Besides chatting and making friends, there are a few other functions related to players. These functions are: player locations, player pinging and player tracking. Below each function will be explained in detail
Player locations
If you press the key combination "Shift+/" (Shift + slash) the game will tell you how many players are at the same location as you are, and how many players are in other places. After that, the game will tell you who is at your location, and wich level they have.
Player pinging
If you are running around the map, you can enable player pinging to find out if there are players near you. To enable or disable player pinging you press the key combination "Shift+Enter". The game will tell you either "Pinging other players.", or "Pinging off".
Player tracking
If you got stuck somewhere, or if you need to follow someone to provide cover fire, you can track players. You can cycle through all the players that are on the same map as you are, by pressing "O" to go backwards and "P" to go forwards between the available players. Once you selected the player you want to track, the following commands are available:
Besides the maximum of 13 predefined beacons on every map, the online mode of Swamp allows you to create your own beacon. This can be helpful if you need to locate a specific spot on the map wich doesn't have a standard beacon (places to travel to other maps, forts etc), or to help a player in dire need in case of trouble. For the custom beacon to work, you need to know the exact X and y coordinates of the spot you want to create a beacon for. The coordinates may not contain any decimal numbers, and have to be separated by a comma. To create a custom beacon, you do the following:
To swhich off the custom beacon, you need to simply track a standard beacon; you can always press the standard beacon twice to stop tracking anything.
During playing, the game itself will send out messages. These messages can be loot you found, you entering or leaving a building, and much more. You can review the last 50 messages the game sent by pressing the following keyboard commands:
As discussed in the chapter about Custom maps, it is very important to check your health from time to time. To check your health, the amount of bloody clothes you have, and the armor you are wearing as well as the protection your armor gives you, you press the "X" key. The game will tell you: "100 percent health. You are not wearing any armor".
Pressing the "C" key during the online game, will tell you exactly how much zombies you have killed, along with your accuracy and how much shots you have fired. After pressing the "C" key, the game will say: "1 Kills, accuracy of 100 percent, with 1 shots fired".
From time to time, it is useful to know how much rep or reputation (more about that later) and or food (more about that later) you have, along with how much exp or experience you gathered (more about that later). Along side this information, you will also know how much exp (experience) you need for the next level. All this information can be obtained by the press of one single key combination: "Shift+C". The game will tell you: "You have 5 reputation and are a level 1, with 4 experience. Your next level requires 496 more experience".
Now that we know all there is to know about player and game interaction, it's time to see what the Safe Zone can offer us. Besides healing players, and cleaning their clothes, the Safe zone also heals broken or sprained limbs (if a player comes back from a sub-map). As if that wasn't enough, if you press Enter inside of the Safe Zone, you have an entire menu, wich will offer you a lot of opportunities. We will go through the entire menu, explaining things as we go along.
If you press enter on "Get equipment.", you will be presented with the Safe Zone store. Every Safe Zone (sz in short) has its own store. You can buy items, provided you have enough reputation to pay for them. You earn reputation by killing zombies, by donating equipment (see the next chapter), by completing quests, and by successfully finishing missions. Every main map has its own sz, and every sz has common and different equipment for sale. Once you find the item you wish to buy, press Enter to activate your choice. You will be asked to enter the amount of items you wish to purchase. To complete the purchase, press Enter. Be very careful: the game does not refund misplaced orders. This means that if you type the wrong amount, and you have the reputation to pay for it, you will get the amount you entered. You can however slightly recover from this mistake by donating the excessive items, but that will only give you half of your spent reputation back.
The next item in the menu is "Donate equipment". As the item says itself: you can donate things you found on the map here. Every item you donate will give you an amount of reputation equal to half the value that item would have when you would buy it. For example: one Med kit costs 40 reputation, and will give you 20 reputation if you donate it. There is only one item wich you will never be able to donate: your Axe. This means that you will always have at least one weapon to go out of the Safe Zone, and kill zombies on the map (provided you don't dy in the process). When you donate a weapon, it will be automatically unloaded for you. You can not however, donate your active weapon. You have to swhich to another weapon first, to be able to donate it. you browse through your items by using the "Up" or "Down" arrow keys to go back or forth an item. If you have a rather long list of items, you can use the "Left" or "Right" arrow keys to sort your items into categories. Once you select a category, only items in that category will show up. The available categories are:
Once you find the item you wish to donate, you press "Enter" to confirm. The game will then ask you how much of that item you want to donate. By default, the game assumes you want to donate one item. If you don't want to change this, you just press "Enter" to confirm. If you want to donate a different ammount, you press "Backspace" to delete what's in the edit box, type in the number of items you want to donate, and confirm with the "Enter" key.
This menu-item speaks for itself. A quest is a small kind of mission, wich you have to complete for the sz of the map you are on. These kinds of missions are finding a certain object in a certain building, and is randomly picked out of the list of available quests. To repeat your quest objective, you can press the "Q" key any time. If you are not doing quests; pressing "Q" will tell you to survive. In missions (se next chapter) "Q" will inform you how many crates have to be found and dropped before the mission ends.
Leading a mission is not something to be considered lightly. You are responsible for whoever joins you to complete the objective you chose. therefore, all of the missions have the requirement for the leader to be at least level 8 (for non warehouse missions) and level 10 (for warehouse missions).. Also, in order for you to be able to lead warehouse missions, you have to find Diesel fuel first. Most of the missions require one tank, while some require two. If you want to know how much diesel fuel you found already, you can press "Shift+q" while you are playing. The game will tell you: "No cans of Diesel fuel." in my case, and the amount of diesel you found in your case. As soon as you press enter on "Lead a mission.", the game will tell you "Choose an available mission for your level." and you will be presented with all the available missions. Navigate with the arrow keys until you find the mission you want to lead, and press Enter to confirm your selection. Note that after every mission the amount of fuel you have (for warehouse missions) or the amount of reputation or food (for none warehouse missions) will be listed. First I will list the entire menu with all available missions, and then I will discuss all the different mission types in depth.
The following four missions are either Warehouse or strip mall missions. I will only list a short part of the menu-item, followed by the explanation where this mission will take place.
Now that we know where the missions take place, we can consider wich warehouse we want and start configuring the mission to our own likings. The reward your team, and you get, will both depend on how you configured the mission and on how often a particular warehouse or the strip mall has been played. Once you located the warehouse or strip mall you want, you press "Enter" to confirm your choice. Next, the game will tell you: "Mission menu. Configure your mission." The menu to configure your mission looks as follows:
The term "Last man standing" applies to the following missions:
On a Last man standing mission, or LMS in short, you don't take anything from your original game inventory. You start out with the default gear, and you will have to survive as long as possible. You have to have at least six people in this mission in orde to be able to launch it. Killing a zombie adds 10 seconds to your timer, while finding a piece of loot adds 1 minute to the timer. To successfully go on an LMS, you will at least need 4 people in your team, before you can launch it. To make survival more difficult, players will be able to kill each other after a few minutes passed. This means you will not only have the zombies to worry about, but also the other players who, like you, want to be the last man standing.
The next mission we find in the menu is the Sniper mission. In a sniper mission, you do not take your original game equipment, but you receive an M40 and the needed ammo for that weapon, and you will be dropped off at a building where you will commence your sniping exercise. You need to locate the roof of the building, and then kill 50 zombies as quick as possible. You can do this mission on your own, to practice using the M40, and when you do the mission with several people, the person who kills 50 zombies first, wins the mission.
The following missions belong to the team warehouse missions:
Both of these missions take place in a special warehouse with a truck for both teams. You need to be with six people at least, (3 people per team) to launch this mission successfully. The objective is for the team you belong to, to find the specified number of crates, before the other team does. Killing zombies during this mission, will bring the killed zombies to the other team, to make it more difficult for them. Dying during this mission will make you lose all your equipment, but if your team fails to gather the crates first, will not bring you any harm.
The next mission in the menu is the defender mission. This mission takes place in an abandoned school building. You do not take your original game equipment with you, you have to find weapons and ammo along the way. Zombies will be outside, and will slowly start breaking down the barricades that are spread out throughout the building. The mission is over either when you die, or when the "Last Stand" is broken down. Every time 50 zombies are killed, the next wave of zombies comes towards the building. Each wave of zombies will increase the collective pot of reputation or food, and experience. From wave 5 onwards, Dires will be added to the mix of the zombies you can find on Map1 and Map2, and from wave 10 onwards, the Amorphous will be added to the mix.
The "Custom Multiplayer Map" or "CMM" is the online equivalent of the "custom maps" option, found in Swamp's main menu. Once you activate this item, you will be presented with the following menu to configure your mission:
You will take your regular game equipment on this mission, but if you would happen to die, you don't lose anything. Also, the items you find in this mission, will not count when you log in on the game, the next time.
In Capture the flag (or ctf) you will be a member of either the red team, or the blue team. Every team must have at least three members before you can launch the CTF mission. Your team's objective is to capture the other teams flag seven times, to be the winner of the mission. You will not take any of your original game equipment with you, wich means you have to find items along the way. Also, there will not be any zombies in this mission, but that doesn't mean you will not have to worry about getting killed. In stead of zombies, you can kill players from the other team, while logically, those players wil try to kill you too. Dying in this mission, will not put you out of the mission. Instead, you will be brought back to the point where you started the mission, so that you can help out your team. When you start the mission, or when you dy, you will be put in a long corridor. This corridor serves as a waiting area. You can either run north or south, and when the game says to press "Enter" to respawn, and you do, you will be back in the mission. To score a point, you first need to capture the flag of the other team. The flag will make the same sound as a special item, or a crate and is always located at the crib inside the other team's base. Once you pick up the flag, you and all other players, will hear the cries of a baby to indicate you are carriing the flag. If you hold the flag, your weapons will load slower, your armor will offer less protection, your weapon will deal less damage and enimy attacks will be more painful. In these conditions you will have to find your way back to your own base, and reach the crib there to reset the flags. If you get killed along the way to your own crib, you will lose the flag and the other members of your team will have to recapture it. The flag you lost will remain on the spot where you died until one of your team mates picks it up again. The flags will be reset as soon as a person of the other team walks over the spot where the flag carrier of your team was killed. Once a team is able to score 7 points, the mission ends.
When activated, the game will tell you: "Requesting an updated list, this may take a moment". After a few seconds, you will receive the message: "Choose a mission to join". If other players are leading a mission, it will show up in this list. If there are no missions being lead, you can only return to the previous menu. For your convenience, there is a command to swhich on mission notifications. When enabled, every time someone is leading a mission, you will be told so, and you can decide if you want to join or not. You can only join missions from the SZ. If you no longer want these notifications, there's also a command to swhich them off. The commands are:
Once in a warehouse mission, the mission leader can decide a particular player is not doing anything, and rather obstructing the mission, and kick that player out. If the player who has been kicked out, happened to drop off crates, those crates will be lost, and the entire team has to find those crates again. To kick a player out of a mission, you do the following:
When you are in a warehouse or strip mall mission, and if something happens causing you to have the leave the mission in the middle of it, you can use the "Retreat" feature. The retreat feature is only available in the truck, and works as follows:
During the mission, you can press Q to check the status. In warehouse, strip mall or team warehouse missions, pressing Q will tell you how much crates are still needed to complete the mission. In LMS, "Q" will not reveal special information. During a Sniper mission, pressing Q will tell you who is is leading or the closest to getting 50 kills. During a defender mission you will know at what wave you are, and how much is in the rep / food and exp pot. In CTF, pressing "Q" will tell you to defend your own flag and try to steal the flag from the other team.
Along with the "Q" command, there's also the "Shift+Q" command. During warehouse, strip mall and team warehouse missions, this command will tell you how much crates you are currently holding. During an LMS, this command will tell you how much time you have left, before you return to the Safe Zone (provided you don't die before the time's up). During a defender mission, pressing "Shift+Q" will give you the status of all the barricades. In a CTF mission, pressing Shift+Q will tell you how much points each team scored so far.
This option in the SZ menu will let you customize your character, by putting skill points in the available categories. Before going into detail about the skills, we will find out what skill points are in fact, and how you get them. Every time you kill zombies, or every time you complete a mission, you will be rewarded with both reputation (to buy things) and experience points. These experience points, will let you reach higher levels if you gather enough of them to level up. For example: you start as a level 1 player with 0 exp (experience). In order for you to reach level 2, you have to acquire 500 exp to level up. Once you gathered enough exp, a "level up" sound will be played, and you will have one skill point to spend. Every next level will require you to gather more exp to reach it. In the beginning, the differences are not that noticeable, after a while though, it will take longer and longer to reach the next level. In theory there is no limit to the level you can reach, but since the required exp goes higher with each level, you will arrive at a point where it will take forever to level. As said earlier, each gained level gives you one skill point you can spend. If you made a mistake in spending your skill points, the server will allow you to reset everything once every 24 hours. You also get the ability to reset your points once you level. Note that you can not save up resets to spend them later on, if you don't use a reset, it gets removed and you will have to wait until the next reset, or until you level. You can reset your skill points by using the reset command as follows:
Now that we know what the skill points are, we can take a closer look at the available skills. (Because my example character didn't level, you will see that there are always 0 skill points left to spend)
As you can see, there are a lot of skills you can choose from. Since you will be walking slow in the beginning, speed might be the first skill you want to fully extend. Because this skill has a limit of 40 points, you can reach your full running speed at level 41.
Putting points into armor, can raise that protection of that armor class higher than its original protection. However, putting too much points in it will not protect you more. Armor can only protect you up to 95%, wich means you will always sustain damage when a zombie attacks you. These armor skills can be used to develop your own combination of armor: low armor with skill points can perform as good as, or better than high armor with no points. The choices are all up to you.
This menu-item will open up a menu where you can find all the body parts where you can put armor on. If you want to equip a body part with a peace of armor, you press Enter on that part; The game will cycle through all the armor you have available for that part. It will also tell you, wich class that armor belongs to, so that you can select the armor class you want. Once satisfied with your equipped armor, you can press "Escape" to go back to the game, or choose the option "Previous Menu" to return to the SZ menu. One note about armor: from time to time, an unlucky hit from a zombie might damage or even break your armor. There is no way to prevent this from happening, and will make sure you are motivated to search for or trade in armor so that you have spare pieces in case of a damaged or broken one. Although damaged armor can still be equipped, it's protection will be less than that of the not damaged version of that armor peace.
The last three items of the SZ menu, are parts of the Swamp story. Every SZ on every map, has different parts of the story, so in order for you to understand the full Swamp world, visiting other maps can be useful.
An outpost is a special building on every main- and sub-map, where you can buy all types of ammo found in the game. It also is the only place where ammo like arrows can be found. If an SZ doesn't have the ammo you need, you should visit the outpost. Some outposts can be tracked by a beacon, while others have to be looked for. Once you enter an outpost, you press "Enter" to open the menu, and use the same procedure as you would use when you get equipment from the SZ. The last two items in the menu are extra details either about the building, or about the Swamp story in general.
After gathering loot for a while, and killing zombies, you might want to find out exactly what your situation looks like: how much ammo, wich weapons, pieces of armor etc. You can take a look at your inventory everywhere in the game, but be advised that opening your inventory does not pause the game, and you might get attacked while you are browsing through your items when doing that in the middle of the map. Open your inventory by pressing the "I" key. To browse through your items, you use the "Up" and "Down" arrow keys to go back and forth between items. If you only want to know what weapons you found, or what armor you have available, you can use the "Left" and "Right" arrow keys to select an item category. Once you select a category, only items in that category will show up. The available categories are:
As you can see, disabling trade will prevent other people from sending you items, but you will still be able to send items to other players yourself. If you want to send items to someone, you have to make sure first, that you and the other person are on the same map, either during missions (except LMS, Sniper and Defender) or in the regular game. Then you need to browse to the item you want to traid in your inventory. Once you found the item press Shift+Enter to start the traid. First, the game will ask you to whom you want to send the item. Type in the player's name and press Enter. Then the game will ask you how much of the item you want to send. (you can't send more than you own) Once you entered the amount you wish to send, you press Enter to confirm. Now the game will tell you that you gained (minus), (amount) of the (item) and a sound will be played that corresponds with the item being traded. The other player will at the same time receive a message that you sent (amount) of (item) and will also hear the sound corresponding to the item being traded. As an example, the player "Readme" will send 100 9MM ammo to a player called "Billy". First, "Readme" has to make sure that "Billy" is on the same map he is. Then, "Readme" opens his inventory and looks for the 9MM ammo. Once he located that item, he presses "Shift+Enter" to start traiding. First "Readme" enters the name "Billy" in the edit box and presses "Enter" to confirm. Then, "Readme" enters 100 as quantity in the edit box and presses "Enter" to confirm. At that moment, "Readme" hears the sound of 9MM ammo being picked up, and the game tells him that he gained "minus 100 9MM ammo", and the message "You have sent 100 9MM ammo to Billy". At the same time, the player "Billy" will hear the sound of the 9MM ammo being picked up and the message: "Readme has sent you 100 9MM ammo."
Throughout the online game you will encounter a few different types of player characters. We will go through each type, and discover what the differences are. We start off with normal characters, and work our way to hardcore, from where we will take a closer look at titles.
If you didn't import an older character, or if the character you imported is a character that you didn't convert to hardcore, you will have a normal character. This type of characters can buy and sell items, can gain access to other maps provided they have the required level, can traid once they are level 60 and have only the Safe Zone to rely on to heal them (if no other player heals you first). However, once a normal character reaches level 150, he or she can become a hardcore character. The decision is up to you, but is irreversible. Once converted, there's no way back, unless you choose to start a title cycle. (more on titles in a bit) You can convert your normal character to a hardcore one by visiting the "Boarded up Door" in the factory. Once there, you have to press "Enter" to open the door. If you have the required level, the man behind the door will let you through, if not, he'll scream at you to go away. Once through the door; keep running forward until you reach the point where it says: "Press Enter to convert". After pressing Enter, you along with all other players, will hear a clap of thunder, and your connection will be closed. You will have to log in again, to find yourself in the Safe Zone from map1, as a hardcore player with level 1 and 100 food.
Once you're a hardcore character, you will notice that there are a few differences between normal mode and hardcore mode. Hardcore players can not buy equipment, they will have to find everything by themselves or traid things. There are no limits to travel to other maps, but they need to find food in order to move. One unit of food is equal to 1 minute of movement. (If you have 100 food, you can walk around the map for 1 hour and 40 minutes) Trading can be done from level 25 or higher, while missions keep their original requirement to lead them. Players who are hardcore, can use both the Safe Zone and forts to heal them and clean them up. Last but not least, hardcore players can form clans to help out each other and to battle other clans. Clans can hold up to eight members, can take possession of forts and fight with others to take over their fort and any equipment stored there in. First, we will take a look at the different hardcore related chat commands, then we will take a look at the Safe Zone menu, and lastly, we will discuss forts in their entirety.
Below you will find a list with all chat commands, specific to playing in hardcore mode. All commands will first have an explanation about what they do, and will be followed by an example. Before you enter one of these commands, you have to open the chat prompt first:
This command shows you how much food a particular Hardcore player (playername) has. To find out how much food the player Readme has, you type: / (slash) food (space) readme (Enter)
This command will give a person (player) an amount of food (foodamount) you specified. To give player readme 100 food, you would type: / (slash) give (space) readme (space) 100 (Enter)
This command will show you wich players belong to the clan (clanname), after wich you can acquire information about the individual clan members. (clanname has to be replaced by the actual name of an actual clan) If you want to know who belongs to the clan readme, you would type: / (slash) clan (space) readme (Enter)
This command will create a clan with the name you entered. This will automatically make you the owner of the clan, and you will be able to invite people, kick them, and transfer ownership. (clanname has to be replace by the name of the clan you want) To create a clan called readme, you type: / (slash) create (space) clan (space) readme (Enter)
This command will invite a person (player) to your clan. They will have to type to "join" command below to accept your invitation. You can only send one invitation at a time, so you have to wait until the first person joins before you can invite the second one. (player has to be replaced by a real player name) If you want to invite the player readme to the clan, you type: / (slash) invite (space) readme (Enter)
When you are sent an invitation by the owner of a clan, you can use this command to join the clan. (clanname should be replaced by the actual name of a clan) If you have been invited to join the clan readme, you need to type: / (slash) join (space) readme (Enter)
This command will remove (kick) the player with playername from your clan; (playername has to be replaced with the real name of a player) If you want to kick player readme out of your clan, you type: / (slash) remove (space) readme (Enter)
This command will make playername (wich has to be replaced by the name of a real player), the owner of the clan. If the owner left the clan, and didn't specify a new owner, anyone else can appoint a new owner except themselves. To make readme the new owner of the clan, you would type: / (slash) owner (space) readme (Enter)
This command will ClanWhisper a message to your online clan members. This means that only they will receive the message you sent, in case it is crucial information only your clan members need. To whisper the message "This is a test message" to all the online members of your clan, you would type: / (slash) cw (space) This is a test message (Enter)
Even though most of the Safe Zone menu looks the same for both normal and hardcore players, there are a few things that we need to delve into. I will outline the Safe Zone menu below, and where needed, I will provide an explanation as we follow the menu:
Forts are abandoned businesses wich you can find on all main and sub maps. There are about 20 buildings throughout all maps and they allow all hardcore players to quickly heal (for two food) or, when they are part of a clan, to store some posessions, to gain extra experience, and to view your character skills and armor. Because a lot depends on weather or not you own the fort, we will first dive into the fort menu as seen for all hardcore players. Then, we will discuss what the fort menu looks like if you actually own the fort with your clan.
As soon as you enter a fort, you will have to press "Enter" to open the fort menu. Since forts are open to zombies, it's always a good idea to either make sure it's quiet around you, or to know exactly wich option you want to use. If the fort doesn't belong to your clan, you will have the following menu at your disposal:
This fort is owned by (clan)
As soon as you press "Enter" you will hear this information. It can be useful to know to wich clan a fort belongs, so that you can plan an attack, or just heal quickly if the clan in question appears to be too strong.
Attack this fort. Battle any defenders and stand inside of their main building, to slowly drain it of food. Reducing their food to zero will capture the fort for your own clan. This will cost 100 food.
As soon as you press 'Enter" on this option, you will be placed in a new fort map. This map has a road, fences, and most importantly a fort in the middle. Depending on how many raiders the defending clan gathered, there might be a lot of them present on this map. Also, there will be zombies walking around trying to kill you as attacker, as well as the owners of the fort. Owners of the fort can also stand inside this map to defend their fort. This "fort" map allows players to kill one another, if they are from rival clans. This means that the owners can kill you to safeguard their fort, but also that you can kill the fort owners to make it more difficult for them to defend their fort. Players will not lose any equipment they've gathered throughout the game, but items can still break. This means that if you manage to shoot other players, they might have more trouble than they bargained for because of broken items. But, if other people shoot you and manage to break something, you better make sure you have a backup plan. Once you are killed, you will have to login again, and will be placed in the last safe zone you were at before you went to the fort, where you entered the special map. As soon as you locate the main fort building, you have to walk inside to actually start draining the food reserve the clan has put into this fort. Every player on this map will drain the food reserve 10 units of food per 5 seconds. therefore, the more clan mates helping you in this attack, the quicker the fort will be taken over. There's no way to know for sure how much food there is in a fort, so you better prepare for a long stay just in case.
Heal yourself at a cost of 2 food.
To activate this item, you have to press "Shift+Enter", because you need to confirm the purchase (because of the food penalty). Once you have pressed "Shift+Enter" your health will be at 100%, and all your bloody clothes will be cleaned.
History of this fort.
Forts, as well as all safe zones and outposts, have their own little story to them. Pressing "Enter" on this menu-item will read the story connected to this fort.
Return to the game
This menu-item, once activated with "Enter", will bring you back to the game.
If your clan happens to have a fort at their disposal, and you find yourself standing inside that fort, you will have the following menu available once you've pressed enter:
Enter this fort's map. Standing inside of the main building will slowly generate XP for your character.
When pressing "Enter" on this item, you will be placed inside the "fort" building of the special fort map. Every five seconds you survive inside, will give you 10 experience points. While being inside the special fort building, the raiders that your clan gathered to defend your clans fort, will not attack you, but you might be attacked by either zombies or other "attacking" players from rival clans. If you would dy on this map, you will not lose equipment you gathered throughout the game, but items can still break once your health goes below 75%. Once you are killed, you will have to login again, and will be placed in the last safe zone you were at before you went to the fort, where you entered the special map. The longer you stay in the "fort map" in the fort building to be precise, the more experience you gather, and the more chance your clan has to avoid the fort from being taken over.
Deposit food. The fort currently has (amount of food) food. (This also works to defend the fort from attackers)
As discussed earlier, stocking food in your fort will increase its defences. Rival clans will have to stay longer inside the special building to get the food reserve to 0. Once you press "Enter" on this option, the game will ask you how much food you want to deposit. To put 100 food into the fort, for example, you type 100 and press "Enter" to confirm.
Withdraw food. The fort currently has (amount of food) food. (This also works to defend the fort from attackers)
If you discovered that your character is very very low on food, you can use this menu-item to withdraw food from the fort reserves. Once you press "Enter" on this item, the game will ask you how much food you want to withdraw. If you want 100 food for example, you need to type 100 and confirm with the "Enter" key.
Heal yourself
Once you press "Enter" on this item, your health will be 100%, and all your bloody clothes will be cleaned.
View your character
This menu-item allows you to set or modify your skill points.
Change your armor
With this menu-item, you can change armor in case you found better one, or in case something got damaged or broke.
History of this fort.
As soon as you press "Enter" on this menu-item, the game will read to you the fort specific story, comparable to those of the safe zone and the outposts.
Item slot ###.....
The next eight menu-items are the fort slots. These can be used to put broken or damaged items in to get the repaired, or to increase the defences of your fort building. You can also use fort slots to exchange items, or to save items for others or yourself in case something goes wrong and you don't want to lose them. Below you will find a list of the special items that can be stored in the fort slots:
Return to the game
This is the last item in the menu, and will return you to the game once you pressed Enter to activate it.
Last but not least, there are also players who have a title in front of their name. They can either be regular or hardcore players. They have the advantage that they can use several new weapons (wich are unavailable for players without a title, with defender missions being the exception) and that they can traid from any level. Obtaining a title is not so easy: you first need to get to a certain level to convert your character from normal to hardcore. Then, you have to gain the same level to be able to convert from a hardcore to normal character. For example, if readme wants to be a Private, wich is the first title, he would have to get to level 150 in normal mode to be able to convert to hardcore. Then, once hardcore, he will have to gain 150 levels to be able to convert back to a regular character, and thus accepting the title of private. For your convenience, I will provide a list with all titles, as well as the level you need in order to convert either from normal to hardcore, or from hardcore to the next title. In order to get a very high title, you have to go through all other "lower" title cycles first. This means, that if readme wants to be a specialist, he will have to become private first, and then get 175 levels to convert first to hardcore, and once again 175 levels to convert to a regular character with the title of specialist. The available titles are:
The Swamp server can, from time to time, host a special event. A special event is an event where several things can happen, included, but not limited to:
Only these special events can reward the player with Apronic Armor (Apronic Vest, Apronic Helmet and Apronic Leggings), Bunny Slippers, Running Shoes and Running Shorts.
Besides the Apronic and special armor, special events can award you with unique weapons. Unique weapons are regular weapons with extra capabilities: can load more ammo, stronger than the original weapon, can shoot faster, can shoot multiple rounds, or a mix of several of them. These special weapons are only at your disposal during the special event, and disappear whenever you log out or go on a mission (wich means you no longer participate in that event). How you aquire a unique weapon, depends on the special event.
If you found a bug (something that's not working how it is supposed to be working, not how you think it should work), if you discover a specific player doing something that is impossible without using a form of cheating, or if you run in to a player who is not behaving on the chat according to the rules, you have the opportunity to report these things. To report something, you can either write Aprone an email at Jeremy@kaldobsky.com, or you can use the built in report feature. To use the report feature, you do the following:
Note that your report can only contain a limited amount of characters (because the chat prompt can only contain a certain amount of characters).
A bug is generally speaking something that doesn't work properly in the game, or something that happens or shouldn't happen when certain actions are performed. A bug report has to be understandable and reproducible. Reproducible means that other people who want to verify the bug, can perform certain actions to make the bug happen again. I will first give you an example of what a report should look like, and then I will show you what a report should not look like. (please note that these reports are examples only, and in no way real bugs) A good report looks like this:
Every time I picked up a Med Kit on Map 1, the game told me I received a broken leg and a sprained ankle, and someone had to heal me before I could resume walking normally.
A report should not look like this:
I left my character on the parking of the Hardware store, to get a cup of coffee. when I returned, I was killed.
The first report is a bug, because you shouldn't receive a broken leg nor a sprained ancle on map1, certainly not when picking up a Med Kit. The second report is not a bug because you shouldn't leave your character in the middle of the map, where zombies can attack you. (you should return to the safe zone first, and then get a cup of coffee)
Before considering to report a player, you have to realize that Aprone has access to all chat logs (from all channels, and whispers too). Also, Aprone is the one who decides to act upon certain accusations, or ignore what has been reported. So, if you want to report a player just because he kicked you out of a mission, your report is going to be ignored (because kicking someone out of a mission is not in any way breaking the rules). However, if you kick a player out of your mission, and that player starts insulting you constantly, you do have the right to file a report; but note that it may take a while for Aprone to read it, and to take an appropriate course of action. If for some reason a player reports your behaviour, and you would receive an account warning, you have to realize it's not the person who reported you who is to blame for the warning, but the blame lies with yourself for behaving the way you did.
There are still a few chat commands we didn't discuss yet. Those chat commands are ment as either a shortcut to acomplish things, or to quickly configure things. (Remember that you can enter any of these commands, only when you have opened the chat prompt with the / (slash) key.) The commands are:
For your comfort, I will once again list all available keyboard commands, and mouse commands wich you can use in Swamp. Throughout this Readme, we have covered a lot of those, and having them in one place can be helpful. You can always look up this information by opening the gamekeys.txt file, wich you can find in your Swamp folder. Keyboard and mouse commands for Swamp:
When the voice prompt has been activated, the following keys will perform the actions outlined below
This chapter will teach you how you can modify keyboard commands for Swamp, add people to the muted.txt file so you don't receive chat messages from them anymore, add people to the losers.txt file so they can't join missions you are leading and how to customize scripts to send with script keys.
The keyconfig.ini file, is one of the files that Swamp.exe generates, the first time it has been opened. The file contains all available commands from the game, and most of them will have a keyboard command assigned to them. Your modifications can only take effect once Swamp has been restarted. To add or modify a keyboard command you can use all letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols as well as the Enter key and the Space bar. Page Up and Page Down can also be used. You will have to make sure that no key combination is used two times, because that will not work. To add a modifier key to your keyboard command, you have to write one of the following symbols behind the capitalised letter, or the punctuation symbol ( or ENTER or SPACE):
Some of the items in the keyconfig.ini can be very useful to have a keyboard command:
Favourite weapons can be very useful to have. As an example, we will use shift f1 to program favourite weapon 1, F1 to activate favourite one, Shift+F2 to program favourite 2 and F2 to activate favourite 2. Our lines in keyconfig.ini would look like this:
Set favourite weapon #1:F1+ Swhich to favourite weapon #1:F1 Set favourite weapon #2:F2+ Swhich to favourite weapon #2:F2
Now, let's assume I want my Axe as my first favourite weapon, and my Glock 19 as my second favourite weapon. To accomplish this, I do the following:
Now if you press "F1" you will instantly activate the Axe, and if you press F2 you will instantly activate the Glock 19. You can do this with every weapon you find, but since there are only two favourites, you will have to choose wich weapons get the preference. Remember that weapons like the Vulcan Minigun require you to press "T" to activate them (and fire them) and setting them as favourite weapon doesn't change that. Since the keyconfig file can be generated by Swamp, making a mistake can be undone by one of the following:
If a player is sending you chat messages wich you find annoying, inappropriate, or if you don't want to be bothered by that player in particular, you can add his or her name to the muted.txt file, found in your Swamp directory. Once this file has been opened, you can add the players you want to add by putting every player name on a single line of the file. If you want to add players A AB and AC your file would look like this:
In this file list up to 999 names of players that you will not hear if they type or whisper messages. This is a way to ignore annoying players. Keep every name on its own line with no unnecessary spaces before or after. Do not remove this first line. A AB AC
Once the players have been added, you can close the file and save the changes. The next time you start Swamp, the added players will no longer bother you. If you only want to temporarily mute someone, you can do that with the following chat command (remember to open the chat prompt first): / (slash) mute (space) playername
If you want to unmute someone, you can remove that player from muted.txt, or you can type the following command (remember to open the chat prompt first): / (slash) unmute (space) playername
When playing missions, it can sometimes happen that you come across a player who enjoys making your life difficult during the mission. Instead of having to kick that player every time he joins up, you can add him to the losers.txt file. As is the case with the muted.txt file, every player name should be on its own line. Once you added the player at the bottom of the file, and saved it, you need to restart Swamp for the changes to take effect. If you want to add the players A, AB and AC to your losers list, the file should look like this:
In this file list up to 20 names that will not be allowed to join missions that you lead. Keep every name on its own line with no unnecessary spaces before or after. Do not remove this first line. A AB AC
You can customize what information is sent by the script keys, by editing the "scriptkeys.txt" file in your Swamp directory. There are 12 script keys you can use. Script keys can contain text, special commands (the commands you type in the chat prompt), and some variables wich I will list below. After you made and saved your changes, you must restart Swamp so that the new script keys are loaded. The variables you can use in your script keys are:
As you can see, when you open script keys.txt, all those variables are written there too for your convenience. To modify a script key, locate the number of the script key you want to change, and write the text after the = (equal) sign. A few examples:
key 1=My current coordinates are x [x] and Y [y]
When you activate script key 1 you will chat the following message (as an example our x coordinate is 111 and our Y coordinate is 234): "My current coordinates are X 111 and Y 234"
key 2=Using [weapon], with [ammo] rounds.
When you activate script key 2, you will chat the following message (as an example our current weapon is the Glock 19): "Using Glock 19, with 15 rounds"
key 3=/r I'm busy at the moment, I'll whisper you back later.
When you activate script key 3, you will reply (/ (slash) r) the person who last whispered you with the following message (as an example, we will reply to readme): "You whisper readme I'm busy at the moment, I'll whisper you back later."
Some of the script keys are already filled in, but you can easily replace them. Once you made all the changes you want to make, save the file and restart Swamp so that the new script keys are loaded.
Warning: the below may ruin some of the surprises hidden in Swamp and take the fun out of discovery for new players. You have been warned.
A puzzle is a special item only found on maps 3 and 4. Once you pick it up, you must donate it in the right place to kick off the adventure. If you do, you will get an item in return which you must take to/donate at the right place, where you get another item, and so forth until the puzzle is complete. Puzzles reward you with fuel and, in one case, a longbow. Read on for the solutions to each. You may only carry, and thereforee solve, one puzzle at a time. If you pick up a second puzzle of the same type, it will simply change into random ammo.
If you pick up an item called "Jennifer's letter", findable on Map3, do the following: donate it at the Safe Zone on map 1 (remember there is a Jennifer's House on map 1?). You will receive a "Letter to Tom" in exchange; take this to map 3 and donate it (Tom is the resident hunter). You will get some dried fish for your trouble, which you must donate in map 1, where people are starving. You get a teddy bear in trade, which you must donate on map 2 (no idea why). You get a pocket watch in return, but donate it while still on map 2 and you will receive solar lights. Take these to map 3 and donate them. Finally, you get eight cans of diesel fuel!
There is also a "Billy's Keys" puzzle that can be found on map4. The solution to this one is more complicated: donate it on map2 and you will be asked to find an employee file. You must go on a mission to the small warehouse to find this - on the small warehouse map, enter the Manager's office to pick up the file. Donate that file back on map2, then proceed to the burned out house on map1. You will find a locket there; take that back to map2 and donate it, then take the box of bowstrings you get to map2's outpost. Finally, take what the guys at the outpost give you and donate it on map3, and you're done. You will get four cans of fuel and a longbow for your trouble.
The "Torn Dress" puzzle cannot be picked up, only won. If you win a Last Man Standing mission that began with five or more players, you have a chance of being given this puzzle. To solve it, donate it at the Safe Zone on map2. Go to the abandoned tank, on the East side of Green Lane. Next, go to the fish tanks in the Pet Store on map1, then to the dog adoption area, then the grooming section. From there you must lead or join a strip mall mission; go to the empty candy boxes in the Candy Store, then to the abandoned car next to the service alley, and from there back to the Phone Store where you'll get a message just before you reach the truck. Once the mission ends, go to the Visitors centre on map3, specifically the first stall in the women's' restroom, and then to the east side of the centre (outside). Next, go back to Map2 and to the north wall of the hospital, then inside the hospital to the exam room wing near the south end of the building. Go into Examination Room A, then move down the hall to Examination Room D and then to Examination Room C. You will fight and beat the killer, gaining twenty bloody clothes and a broken leg in the process, but you will win. Return to the Safe Zone on map2 and donate the necklace of fingers you got in the Pet Store to receive thirty diesel fuel.
On map5, be careful: there are two zones where people are actually trying to shoot you! You can read more in the stories of the Map5 Safe Zone.
If you are being attacked by a zombie (that is, it is hitting you), you do not need to worry much about aiming, no matter which weapon you have, with the M79 being the only exception. Pretty much any shot will hit the zombie if it is that close to you.
Below is a very broad overview of each map in the game. Smaller details and specific locations are not given, but this should be enough to get you started and to help orient you as you explore.
This map is separated into two parts (east and west) by Brush Creek. Carrigan Avenue, which turns into Carrigan Bridge to cross the creek, runs east to west, bisecting the creek. From this, we can see four rough quadrants. Green Lane runs north to south near the western border, and Indie Drive runs the same way near the eastern border. Both intersect Carrigan Avenue.
When you start in the Safe Zone, you are in the northwest quadrant. This contains Jackson Street, the Gas Station, Kai Mart, and the Auto Mart. Most of the space, though, is open ground.
The southwest quadrant holds the Destroyed Business, Pet Store, Hardware Store, and that's about it.
The southeast quadrant holds all the houses on the map including a burned-out house.
The northeast quadrant holds the Outpost, Church, and Factory.
Map2 contains three streets: Green Lane runs from north to south and is near the eastern border. It is intersected by two streets, Avery Drive near the northern border and Wilson Road near the southern. Between Wilson and Avery on the eastern portion of the map is the Hospital, with Green Lane to the east, then the Hospital parking lot east of Green. A clothing store is in the northeast corner of the intersection of Green and Avery, and if you follow Avery west you'll come to the train station to the north of the street. Railroad tracks extend south from the station, passing the rear parking lot of the Hospital and, further south, a business whose rooftop is Map2's outpost. After the business is Wilson, which does not quite reach the tracks. South of Wilson and closer to the tracks is the Bowling Alley, and further east is the Diner (north of Wilson) and the Police Station/Safe Zone (south).
Map3 is more confusing because it is not laid out in grid form. The Safe Zone is part of a line of stores that cover the western border, past which is Bentley Road, which runs east from the stores to the eastern border. Wilson Road runs parallel to Bentley near the northern border, past several abandoned businesses. Both roads cross Indie Drive, which runs from north to south in front of the line of stores on the western border. The eastern border is mostly covered by Brush Creek, which flows south into Brush Lake. Ranger Bridge crosses the creek near the northern border as part of Wilson road and leads you to a large area of land covered mostly by trees and bordered by the northern and eastern map borders, plus Brush Lake and Brush Creek. Acorn Avenue heads southwest to Acorn Bridge, and leads off this part of the map and back to the main part An area called The Ring is where Acorn and a few other small roads meet, and is home to the Visitors' centre. These small roads (Polar, Country, and a few others) wander through the map, cutting through stands of trees and not usually moving in very straight lines.
Map4 is a very easy map to grasp, as it is mostly swampland. Green Lane enters it from the south-eastern quarter, separated from the eastern border by a building and ending soon after it enters the map. Stark Road does the same further west. Between Stark and Green is a diner, and north of where the two roads end, just after the diner, is nothing but swamp interspersed with stands of marsh trees. The north-western portion of the map holds a small grocery store, and office building, and the Safe Zone. The outpost for this map is roughly north of Green Lane, near a small fire and some plank bridges.
Sub1, the second floor of the hospital on Map2, is best thought of as a square with an offshoot, in very general terms. When you arrive, you are in the elevator, facing south. If you move south, you will find the Cafeteria, on whose south wall are two rooms. On the east wall is a counter, behind which is the kitchen, and east of that are two storage rooms. If you go north from the eastern side of the Cafeteria you will move along a hallway. There are restrooms to the west, followed by a door to the Burn Ward. The hallway ends in a waiting room with a small closet on the eastern wall. The hallway continues west out of the room, past the second entrance to the burn Ward, then turns south to go back to the elevator (which will be on the east side just after the hall ends). On the west wall of this part of the hallway are two openings. The northern one leads to a small hallway with an exam room on each side, and an empty space beyond. The next leads to a dialysis room. The offshoot previously mentioned is just past the waiting room as you move west. The hallway also goes north, passing a corridor on the east side that leads to several rooms. The hallway continues north, ending at a wall with a room open to the east. The outpost is west of where the hallway ends, past Dialysis, near several stacked chairs.
Sub2, or the Wilson Bridge map, follows Wilson Street between maps 2 and 3. It is cut in half by Brush Creek, running north to south, and crossed by Wilson Bridge. Aside from a steakhouse on the north-eastern side of Wilson Road, and a destroyed safe zone (which will NOT keep you safe) on the south-eastern side, the map is pretty open. There are abandoned buildings here and there, but overall this map is quite straightforward.
Sub3 has two parts. The larger portion is accessed from either Map1 or Map4. In the case of the former, you will arrive facing west, on jackson Street; in the case of the latter, you will be facing south on Stark Road. These two roads meet at an intersection quite quickly; Jackson continues west to the border of the map, passing some buildings and trees on both sides. Stark goes south, past a fence with gaps all along its length which runs east to west. Beyond the fence, on the eastern part of the map, is the parking lot of a factory. West of this are railroad tracks and trees which continue to the western border and take up the space between the fence and the southern border. The factory roof, and some of the factory itself, cannot be accessed from here. Instead, you must go to Map2 to get there. This roof section is smaller, though the sewers can make it tricky to navigate. Once you exit the sewers, you will be in a factory with crates, shelves, and offices. Stairs on the southwest corner lead to the roof.
The missions that are listed first in the Mission menu take place here. You start at the truck, facing west, and emerge onto the northern dock. This and a bunch of crates fill the northern half of the warehouse. Straight ahead is the Main Floor, which contains still more crates and takes up the middle of the map. The south dock is south of the north dock, and takes up the rest of the warehouse to the south and east, bordered on the west by the main floor. Shelves run along the south wall of the main floor. On the western wall of the floor are two doors. The south door leads to the Repackaging centre, while the north door goes to Quality Control. Between them is a long stretch of wall, bounded by two openings, both stairways to a small second floor. A window leads from the second floor to a roof outlook, assuming said window has broken, and stairs go from the roof to a small paved area that lies between Repackaging and Quality Control. Crates will not appear on this paved area, but once the right windows break it is a quick way to move from one section to the other.
This map is used for the second set of missions available and is harder because it tends to have more zombies. You begin by facing south, and directly ahead of you are two sorting floors. Floor A is the larger and takes up most of the middle of the warehouse; to the east is floor B, bounded by external walls (and thereforee breech points) to the east and south. South of floor A is Outgoing Storage, lined by shelves on the south wall, a barrier to the north, crates to the east, and Parts Inspection, a small room, to the west. Just north of Outgoing Storage is the Manager's office, whose door faces east. Parts Inspection and floor A both open onto the Storage Room, a room with mostly shelves in it, plus more windows. Despite the shelves and crates everywhere, paths exist to let you easily move around the map. You could go south from the truck, then east to floor B, south toward the southern wall, west to Outgoing Storage and then to Parts Inspection, then north into the Storage Room and from there east back to floor A.
This map is used for all the chemical processing missions. You start out facing west at the truck, in the middle of package rollers that line the east wall on either side of you. Straight ahead is the outer wall of the office and monitoring station, whose door is around the corner, facing north. From the east wall to the west wall in the southern half is mostly crates, but there is a good-sized patch of fire near the west wall. The middle of the map is taken up by the office, and the south wall is lined with four venting towers. They are numbered consecutively, with tower1 on the east and tower4 on the west.
The strip mall map is where the two types of strip mall missions take place. You start in a storage room, facing west. Moving west, you emerge into the cell phone store, which extends north. It makes an L shape with the video store, which intersects it in the northeast corner of the map. The Video Store continues west, and runs into the Candy Store, which ends at the map's western border. The only other store on the map is the Shoe Store, which is south of the Cell Phone Store past a small alley. The rest of the map is a parking lot with the usual scattering of parked cars and light poles.
This map is extremely simple: two roads intersect in the centre, dividing the map into four pieces. Each piece holds one or two houses. Some houses leave space between them and/or the map borders, and some do not.
The Sniper map is also simple. Exit the elevator and turn west. A few steps down the hall is a staircase heading north. Take it, and follow its turns until you emerge on the roof through the door facing west. A second staircase exists, south of the elevator in a small chamber off the hallway. Its door faces north.
Below are common questions and their answers.
I keep hearing things about map1, map2, the second floor... how many maps are there? There are currently eight maps for use in multi-player (non-mission) mode. Map1 is where you first start. Map2 is a second area which you can only get to once you are a level 8 or above. The second floor is a third map which is the second floor of the hospital on map 2. Once you get to map2, you can go to the second floor of the hospital once you reach level 12. From map 2 you can get to the Wilson Bridge map, which leads you to map 3. Wilson Bridge requires you to be a level 20, and Map 3 is not available to players under level 40. Map1 also includes an entrance to map4 for wich you have to be level 50, as well as most of sub3 wich requires you to be level 40. To get to the second floor of sub3, you must enter by way of the sewers on map2. Map5 is accessible from Map3 and has the requirement to be level 60; it is a shopping mall where you not only have zombies to worry about, but dug-in human shooters as well. So, in summary, there are eight non-mission maps in total.
People talk about weapons and armor I can never seem to find and that are not available to buy, like a paintball mask or bow. What is going on? Some weapons and other gear can only be purchased from the Safe Zones on map2 or above. Others, like the bow or AA12, can only be picked up on certain maps. Also, looting is random and weapons are rare, so just because you do not find a weapon in an hour does not mean it is not there to be found. The same is true of different types of armor - much of it is map-specific, and hard to find besides.
I broke a leg, or sprained an ankle. What happened, and how do I heal it? All sub maps hold the chance of getting injured. If you pick up loot, it may be a broken leg or sprained ankle. If this happens, your only option is to ask another player to come heal you, or limp back to a Safe Zone on your own. Safe Zones will heal these injuries, but it can take quite a while to get there.
I found a can of diesel fuel. What is this for? Diesel is very valuable as it enables you to run missions (provided you are a level 4 or above). If you cannot, or do not wish to, run a mission, you may donate the diesel; it has no other use aside from running missions. Note that cans of gas are different from diesel and are used to run the chainsaw and flamethrower.
My Vulcan Minigun or M40 rifle won't fire! You must brace it first (use the weapon mode toggle, t by default). Bracing will also help steady your aim when using the M60 or M240.
The last Swamp option we didn't discuss so far, are the Campaigns. First we will talk about loading a campaign and saving your progress, then we will go into details on how to actually write a campaign. There currently is no easy way to obtain campaigns. You will have to ask around on the Swamp chat to get your hands on some campaigns. Once you have the campaign file, you need to put it into the "Campaigns" folder, wich you can find in your Swamp folder. Once the file (and optionally other content) is in place, you can open the games "main menu" and navigate to the "Campaigns. Custom adventures created by others in the Swamp community." item. If you press enter on this option, you will get a list with available campaigns.
Now that we have a list of the available campaigns, we can select one, and press Enter to load it. Once your campaign has been loaded, you will have to listen to the instructions provided, or press Q to repeat your objective. If the campaign requires a lot of time to be completed, you can always save your progress to play it later. To save your progress, you press escape anywhere in the campaign and navigate to the item that says "Save your progress". Once you press Enter to activate it, you need to enter a file name: "Type the file name you wish to use, and press Enter. Do not add a file extension. Leave blank to cancel". Once you typed a file name and pressed enter, your progress will be saved.
If you want to reload your progress, you have to close the game when it is opened, and navigate in the main menu to the item "Load previously saved campaigns". Once you press Enter to activate this option, you have to type in the file name you used to save your progress. Once the filename has been typed in, and you press Enter, you will be put at the point you left off.
Below you will find all the information you need to write your own campaign. This information can also be viewed in the CampaignGuide.txt file, found in your Swamp directory.
Swamp campaigns allow players to script custom adventures that use the standard maps or custom maps they have created. This guide will give you a basic list of the script commands available to these campaigns. Using these commands to create a fun and interesting adventure will rely on the creativity and ingenuity of the author. Script files are standard text files that must be placed in the "Campaigns" sub folder within the main Swamp directory. The campaign script file is pretty lenient when it comes to extra lines and comments. If a line is blank or begins with "\\", //", or "'" then it will be treated as a comment, and your script file should still work just fine. Adding in comments can help you remember exactly what a line or section is meant to do, so don't be afraid to include some. The single most important line in the file is the one that tells which map we will use. It is a good idea to start out with this line, and the format is simply the word map, an equal sign, and the file name. map=multi1 If your campaign ends up using multiple custom maps, you can group them together into a folder within the maps folder. Accessing them would only require adding the sub folder name to the usual map command. map=firepit\introduction If you want players to begin in a location different than the map's default, these 2 commands can be used to spawn players on an exact spot. Don't use decimal numbers, and also be aware that several of the commands will not work if you put extra spaces before or after the equals sign. To be safe, try to never add in extra unnecessary spaces. Setting up your own X and Y coordinate is completely optional. If you choose not to add these lines then the map will just use the default starting location. x=30 y=14 If you want to set the player's direction, that can be done with the degrees 0 through 359. Start by typing "d=", followed by the degrees of the direction. 0 is East, 90 is South, 180 is West, and 270 is North. Other values represent any other angle you wish to have inbetween the 4 standard directions. d=90 Teleporting players to a new spot on the map is slightly different than setting their starting X and Y coordinates with the lines we just covered. To move a player to a specific location on the map, start by typing "jump to ", followed by the X and Y coordinates where you want him to go (separated by a comma). Do not use decimals in the coordinates. jump to 50,50 As a more advanced command specifically meant for simulating 3D structures, you can manually set a new fake X and Y coordinate for the player. The new coordinates are fake because the player will not move when this command is executed. When the player checks their current location, it will forever tell them the relative coordinates based on the fake ones you provided. As an example imagine you are at coordinates 75,75 in an elevator. To simulate that the elevator has taken them up, you use the "Jump to" command to move them to another part of the map decorated to seem like the next floor. The problem is that the player could check their coordinates and realize that they have actually just moved somewhere else on the map. After moving them, you can set the fake coordinates to 75,75 and it would then seem as though they were in the same location but raised up higher than before. Start with "xy shift", the fake X coordinate, a comma, and the fake Y coordinate. There are no spaces before or after the comma. Do not use decimals for the coordinates. xy shift 75,75 If you wish to remove an xy shift, type the following command. xy normal Normally Zombies respawn once they are killed, but you have the option to disable that. This is only recommended for campaigns that have been carefully scripted to keep players busy and challenged during the entire battle. As you can imagine, if the zombies don't respawn automatically, players could quickly run out of things to fight. If you choose to disable zombie respawn, here is the line to add to the file. no respawn In custom maps, normally items will vanish forever once they are picked up. You have the option of enabling item respawn, which will create a new item and randomly place it on the map after someone has picked it up. The new item will exactly match the old one so this is a way for you to populate your map with exactly the ratio of items you want, and it will stay that way. If a player finds a gun that they already have, then they will be given ammunition for it instead. Here is the code. Item respawn As a more advanced command, you can adjust the performance level for the client. By default this value is set to 60, and it represents the maximum distance away that zombies, guards, and allies will be processed by the game. In a perfect world, this value would be increased to 710 so all game entities will always be processed. The problem is that as the settings go higher, the processor load increases. Lowering the value improves performance but can affect the AI of the zombies in unusual ways. It is not really recommended that this value even be changed, but it is here just in case someone wants to. Start with "performance=", and the new value. Do not use a decimal for the value. performance=75 If you are reading this file before Swamp has been officially updated to version 2.9, then you might not be used to the idea of zombies becoming stronger as the player levels up. If you choose to start the player at a specific level, here is the code. level=10 As an important tip, changing the level of the player will only affect the strength of new zombies you create. This means you can place a zombie, change the player's level, place a new zombie, and those 2 zombies will have different strengths even if they are the same type of zombie. Besides setting a specific level for the player, you can also level the player up by a single level. At this point it probably doesn't make much since to have a single "level up" feature, but it makes more sense once we get into scripted events. Here is the code. level up During the game players can press Q to hear their current quest message. You can set the player's quest message with this code. quest=This is a sample quest. You can replace this message with whatever message you want. You can have the game read off a spoken message with this code. say=Zombies are coming to eat your brain. This is generally something you do not want to have happen. Radio messages are similar to using the "say" command, but the player will hear the radio message sound, and the message will be listed among the radio chat history. There are no spaces before, or after, the equals sign. To make the message sound more authentic, you can begin the message so that it seems to have been sent by someone specific. radio=Aprone says, we need more firepower on the west wall! Player experience points and reputation points can both be set to a specific value easily. For experience points, start with "set player xp=", followed by the amount you want it to be. Do not use a decimal for the value. set player xp=50 For reputation points, start with "set player reputation=", followed by the amount you want it to be. Do not use a decimal for the value. set player reputation=1000 Instead of setting experience to a certain number, you can choose to add a value to it. Start with "add player xp=", followed by the amount you want to have added to it. Do not use a decimal for the value. You are allowed to use a negative number to reduce the player's experience points. add player xp=25 Instead of setting reputation to a certain number, you can choose to add a value to it. Start with "add player reputation=", followed by the amount you want to have added to it. Do not use a decimal for the value. You are allowed to use a negative number to reduce the player's reputation points. add player reputation=900 Maps that have a Safe zone or Outpost can benefit from changing the storyline players can access from those locations. The Safe zone has 3 story sections, each with a menu title and a story. To set the title, start with "set safe", the section number 1-3, "title=", and the new message. There is no space between the word "safe" and the section number. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. As a tip, menu titles should probably not be very long since they are just part of the menu. set safe2 title=The day was not going well. To set the story, start with "set safe", the section number 1-3, "story=", and the new story. There is no space between the word "safe" and the section number. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. set safe2 story=I awoke to the sound of gunshots in the distance. My neighborhood was filled with panicked screaming people, running back and forth everywhere. No one knew what was happening! Outposts have only 2 story sections, unlike Safe zones which have 3. To set the title of an outpost, start with "set outpost", the section number 1-2, "title=", and the new message. There is no space between the word "outpost" and the section number. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. As a tip, menu titles should probably not be very long since they are just part of the menu. set outpost1 title=Holding the road. To set the story, start with "set outpost", the section number 1-2, "story=", and the new story. There is no space between the word "outpost" and the section number. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. set outpost1 story=Most of the alleyways and side streets have been blocked off, so this road represents only one of 2 ways to get inside. A few of us guys are stationed here to defend this spot. You can choose exactly what gear the player will begin your campaign with. If you don't specify any gear then the player will start out with only an axe. To quickly equip the player with the basic items (field kit, med kit, Glock 19, and some ammo), just include this line of code. starting gear You can give items directly to the player by following this format of code. Start with "give item", the amount of the item, and then the exact item name. The commands themselves are not case sensitive, but item and zone names are! Be sure to get the exact spelling and capitals to be sure the items will work as desired. give item 1 Glock 17 Items can be added to the map so that the player has to actually go and find them. Instead of a specific spot, you choose an area where the item will be randoly spawned within. Start with "add item", the amount of the item, the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the spawn area (separated by a comma), the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the spawn area (separated by a comma), and the exact item name. You can turn the spawning area into an exact spot if you just set both sets of coordinates to the same spot. Don't use decimals with the coordinates. If you want the item to be a unique item that sounds like a crate, add a minus sign at the beginning of the item name. Keep in mind that unique items will not work as normal weapons even if the name is the same. Here are example lines for a normal item, and for a unique item. add item 1 35,16,37,16 AA12 add item 1 10,10,50,20 -Can of dog food As a tip, If you want to create a random item, name the item "*" (the star created by shift + 8). The game will randomly turn this item into anything from the standard item list. Using random items can also be useful when you have enabled item respawning because it gives the same effect as playing online, where the items are always new and random, instead of being the same few items repeated everywhere. When the player picks up a random item, the amount is determined by the client to match the default for that item type, regardless of the amount you had entered. A list of all current game items can be found at the end of this file. This gives you the items but also helps you be sure you have the spelling and capitals correct. Especially for ammunition, med kits, and random items, there are times when you want to place many items but don't want to use a separate command to add each one. To spawn multiple items with a single command, start with "add items", the number of individual loot piles you want, the amount of the item, the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the spawn area (separated by a comma), the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the spawn area (separated by a comma), and the exact item name. You can turn the spawning area into an exact spot if you just set both sets of coordinates to the same spot. Don't use decimals with the coordinates. The normal item naming rules apply exactly as they do with the normal "add item" command. add items 15 1 10,30,80,80 * You can make the game play a sound file for the player by following this code. Start with "play sound" followed by the file path. The file path already starts in the "/sounds/" folder of Swamp, so you will need to specify which sub folder your sound can be found in. play sound items\ammo.wav To be a bit more advanced you can play a sound so that it seems to have been put into the map with the player. Start with "put sound", the X and Y coordinates where the sound will be (separated by a comma), and the sound path. Do not use decimals with the location coordinates. If the player is close enough to the location, they will hear it. put sound 10,10 guard/Behemoth1.wav Adding zombies can be done in 5 ways. The most basic way is to simply have zombies added to the map randomly. Keep in mind that the maximum number of zombies is 400 so if you try to go over that limit, no new zombies will actually be created. Start with "add random", the name of the zombie type, and equals sign, and the number of zombies you want added. Do not put in any spaces before or after the equals sign. add random dire=2 A more advanced way to add zombies is similar to adding items onto the map. Start with "add spot", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the spawn area (separated by a comma), the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the spawn area (separated by a comma), the type of zombies to be created, an equals sign, and the number of zombies you want added. This will not only spawn the zombies, but they will all spawn within the area you have specified. This gives you more control over where and when players will encounter zombies during their campaign. Do not use decimals for the coordinates and do not put in any spaces before or after the equals sign. add spot 35,16,37,16 canine=15 At times you may want to add zombies randomly around the border of your map. To do this, start with "add border", the type of zombies to be created, an equals sign, and the number of zombies to add. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. add border normal=5 Rather than specifying coordinates, you can use the map's zones to spawn zombies. You will need to know the exact spelling of the zone, with the capitals matching what is in the map file. You'll also need to know if it is a primary or secondary zone. For a primary zone, start out with "add zone1", the type of zombie, "=", the number you wish to add, a space, and the name of the zone the zombies will spawn on. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. add zone1 normal=5 Gas pumps For placing zombies in secondary zones, the code is the same except "zone1" is replaced with "zone2". add zone2 tyrant=1 Gas Station Removing zombies works similar to adding them with the "add spot" command. Start with "remove zombie", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the type of zombies to be removed. All zombies of the specified type will be removed from within the area you've specified. Do not use decimals for the coordinates and do not put in any spaces before or after the equals sign. remove zombie 35,16,37,16 normal To help you with the ways to create and remove zombies, here are the names of the zombies you are able to spawn. Normal Canine Giant Tyrant Stalker Matriarch Reaper Lamprey Dire Amorphous' Raider You can also use this code to add/remove an NPC guard like the ones you see outside of the safe zones. Just use the name Guard instead of a zombie name. There are 2 ways that you can add sound decorations to the map. The first places a looping sound at the coordinates of your choice. Start with "add amb ", then the X and Y coordinates where you want the sound (separated by a comma), and then the file name. Do not include the ".wav" file extension on the name. The game assumes these looping sounds will be found in the "sounds/Ambience" folder of Swamp, though CAE Jones found a quick way around that in the past, LOL! add amb 4,4 alarm1 In addition to the normal looping sounds, sporadic sounds will contain random delays of time before they loop again. These are the kinds of sounds that are used for the zombies banging on windows and doors in the warehouse missions. Start with "add random amb ", then the X and Y coordinates where you want the sound (separated by a comma), and then the file name. Do not include the ".wav" file extension on the name. The game assumes these looping sounds will be found in the "sounds/Ambience" folder of Swamp. add random amb 4,4 WindowHit Removing ambient sounds from a map can be useful in many situations. Instead of removing sounds by their file name, you specify a coordinate range and any sounds within it will be removed from the map. This also makes it easy to clear an entire area just as easily as you can clear individual sounds. Start with "remove amb", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma). Do not use decimals for the coordinates. remove amb 10,10,12,12 If you wish, you can specifically pick the background music for your campaign. Start with "set music=", followed by the file path to the music file. The file must be in an mp3 format, and the file path assumes you are starting in the "Swamp/sounds/" sub folder. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. set music=Music\Lastman.mp3 Swamp maps use zones to describe things about the world. With a specific script you can change the description of a zone as the player is playing. The hardest part is knowing what zone ID number you need, so I've added a way to output a zone to help you as you design. Reading off the zone is really only good for the person creating the campaign, and I recommend removing the command before handing it out to other players to play. To have a zone read off, start with "say zone id=", followed by the zone number. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. To find the exact zone you're looking for, you could use this command to guess and check numbers, or you could open the map file and count how many down the list your zone is. say zone id=45 To change the description of a zone, start with "rename zone id=", the zone number, and then the new description. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. rename zone id=45 An empty cabinet drawer. To speed up the ability to find the zone you're looking for, and to know its zone id number, a command has been added that will read each zone from the map and output it into a separate file for you. This is a command that should be removed after it is used so that players of your campaign aren't bothered by the debug message. output zones Swamp maps are composed of tiles. For debugging purposes you can have the game read off information about a tile type based on its ID number. Start with "say tile id=", followed by the tile number. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. I recommend removing this command before giving your campaign out to other players, because it has no use except for helping you figure out which tile number is the one you want. say tile id=3 Changing map tiles is a very powerful way to customize your advanture. You can simulate doors locking behind players, windows breaking, and many other things. Each line only changes a single tile, so complex map changes will result in many lines of code in the scripting file. To change the tile, start with "change tile", the X and Y coordinates where you want to change (separated by a comma), a space, and the new tile type you want this spot to become. Do not use decimals for the coordinates. change tile 4,4 3 During some more advanced campaigns, changing individual tiles will simply not be enough. To save an incredible amount of time, Swamp allows you to quickly copy and paste parts of the map into a new area! Start out with "copy map", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area you want to copy (separated by a comma), a space, the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area you want to copy (separated by a comma), "to", and the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the new area you want the map data to be copied to (separated by a comma). The copied map data will include all map terrain and zones, but it will not include copies of ambient sounds, items, or zombies that were in the copied area. copy map 75,90 100,130 to 20,20 If an advanced campaign is copying map data from outside of the normal playing area, problems can arise when zombies try to spawn in those areas. Using the "resize map" command you are able to tell the client to only use a portion of the map as the playable area. When the map resizes, the North and West borders will remain the same, and the South and East borders will be moved to match your new values. Here is an example of the command. resize map 75,50 After using this command, the actual map is exactly the same size so no data is lost. This command now forces randomly spawned items and zombies to only spawn within these new map limits. As an example, imagine we started with a warehouse map that was 75 by 50 tiles in size. Because we wanted to animate walls and windows breaking, we made the map wider in a map editor so that we could put the different map pieces along the Eastern edge. Of course we kept the original border wall around the map so players can't actually walk over there, but randomly spawning loot and zombies could normally spawn in that area we added. So even though we're loading in a map that is 100 by 50, we use the resize map command to reduce it back to the original 75 by 50. This keeps zombies and loot in the correct area but still allows us to copy map sections that we are storing along the side. If this section seems confusing, don't worry! This represents a rather advanced technique that beginning campaign developers probably won't be using. Beacons are used to help players navigate between major locations on a map. Traditionally beacon number 1 leads to the local safe zone, on maps that have a safe zone. To change a beacon start with "change beacon id=", the beacon number (1 through 13), the X and Y coordinates where you want it to lead (separated by a comma), and the new description for the beacon. Do not use decimals for the coordinates. change beacon id=1 10,20 This is a test beacon. After changing beacons, map tile data, and zones, some campaign developers might want to save their modified map as its own map file. Separate map editors (CAE Jones' map editor to be more specific) already allows you to create and customize your own maps, but for a quick change to a map this might be convenient. The saved map will be named "savedmap" and will be found in the Swamp maps folder. The command outputs only to this file name so that people can't create campaigns that accidentally overwrite official Swamp maps. Any new ambient sounds that you've added should be saved in the new map file, along with all terrain, zone, and beacon changes. Items and zombies will not be saved. Save map During the game you can use a command to load in a brand new campaign file. Perhaps you have made a few campaigns that all tie together with a progressing story line, or you have an introduction campaign file that lets users choose the adventure they want to load up. Loading a new campaign will forget all of your current custom variables and events. campaign=pyramid.txt Some people will like the idea of loading data form other files, but they will not actually want to load up a totally separate campaign. Using the include command, campaign designers can split their work up into a few separate files that get linked together with commands. New code that is loaded will be added to the current code instead of starting over as a new campaign. This will be especially useful for developers who wish to share useful pieces of code that can be easily added to other projects, such as stores, custom AI behavior, or other tools. In some situations, the include command can be used to give SCS the use of sub procedures/functions. include=storesystem.txt Dire howls and Matriarch cries draw zombies into an area based on sound. You can quietly produce the same effect to draw zombies to a particular tile. Start with "lure", the X and Y coordinates for the location (separated by a comma), a space, and the intensity of the lure. The intensity is the number of tiles, in a radius, that the call will travel. Do not use decimals for the coordinates or the intensity. lure 10,10 30 A variation on the lure command is called Area lure. Area lure takes all zombies within a square of coordinates, and lures them to a specific location that you choose. Start with "area lure", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area to affect (separated by a comma), a space, the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area to affect (separated by a comma), a space, and the X and Y coordinates for the location you wish to lure the zombies to (separated by a comma). area lure 12,50 30,65 100,120 If you absolutely positively want some zombies to know where the player is, reguardless of how quiet the player is being, then the "hunt" command is the key. All zombies affected by this command will instantly know where the player is, and they'll rush off to attack it. The effect will eventually wear off, but it takes long enough that the zombies should reach the player first. Start with "hunt", the X and Y coordinates for the location (separated by a comma), a space, and the radius of the effect. The radius determins how large of an area will be affected by the "hunt" command. Do not use decimals for the coordinates or the radius. hunt 50,30 25 At some point you will want to end your campaign and reward the player with a victory message. The command works almost exactly how the "say" command works, except the player will be taken to the main menu without the option to continue playing the campaign. There is no sound played when this command is read, so if you want a sound to be played you will need to use a separate command. Start with "victory=", followed by the message that will be read. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Victory=You have won! Excellent work soldier. As you might imagine, the "victory" command could just as easily be used as a defeat message since there is no actual sound played to go with it. As an alternative you may use the "defeat" or the "draw" commands, which do exactly the same thing as the "victory" command. There is literally no difference except your own personal preference. Each of these 3 commands reads the message and prevents the player from continuing in the campaign. Defeat=You lose! Draw=Thank you helping to test this campaign, the rest will be worked on later. To be continued. Ending the campaign with the "defeat" command might not be the effect you are aiming for. With a single command you can choose to kill the player instantly. Here is the command. kill player To hurt the player, start with "hurt player=", and then the amount of health you wish to take away. Hurting the player in this way will not make any sound to alert the player that they have been injured. If the player's health lowers to zero with this command, then the player will be killed. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use a decimal for the value. hurt player=10 To heal the player, start with "heal player=", and then the amount of health you wish to add. Healing the player in this way will not make any sound to alert the player that they have been restored. This command will not raise the player's health above their maximum health. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use a decimal for the value. heal player=20 To set the player's health to a certain amount, start with "set player hp=", and then the amount of health you want them to have. If this command attempts to raise the player's health above their maximum health, the player will end up with their maximum health. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use a decimal for the value. set player hp=95 During the course of designing or debugging your campaign, it can be useful for the author to become both invisible and invincible. This allows you to move around to observe the zombies' behavior without them being drawn to you. The commands to turn on and off this ability are the following. god mode mortal mode With a single command you are able to instantly kill zombies within a coordinate range. Start with "kill zombie", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma), a space, and the type of zombies you wish to kill. In the following example, every stalker within the coordinates will be killed. Do not use decimals for the coordinates. kill zombie 10,10,40,40 stalker If you want to inflict damage on the zombies instead of instantly killing them, this can also be accomplished. Start with "hurt zombie", the minimum damage you want to cause, a space, the maximum damage you want to cause, a space, the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma), a space, and the type of zombies you wish to kill. Do not use decimals for the damage amounts or the coordinates. The actual damage caused to the zombie will be randomly chosen between the minimum and maximum damage, so if you want an exact damage just set the minimum and maximum to the same number. If the command injures multiple zombies, each zombie will be affected by random damage, so it will not be exactly the same for each one. The following example will deal between 5 and 15 damage to any canine zombies within the coordinates. hurt zombie 5 15 0,0,100,100 canine These are the choices you can use for the zombie kill or hurt commands: Any - This will not hurt/kill allies or guards, only zombies. Normal Canine Giant Tyrant Stalker Matriarch Reaper Lamprey Dire Amorphous Raider Guard Ally Computer controlled players, referred to as Allies, can be added to your campaign to help tell a story, to reinforce the player, or even to serve as a person to be rescued or escorted somewhere. Allies can be killed by zombies, but in most cases the zombies will prefer to go after the actual player if they can. To add an ally, begin with "add ally spot", the amount of the item, the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the spawn area (separated by a comma), the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the spawn area (separated by a comma), "name=", the name you wish to give to the ally, "gun=", and the exact name for one of the Swamp weapons. You can turn the spawning area into an exact spot if you just set both sets of coordinates to the same spot. Don't use decimals with the coordinates. There are no spaces before or after either equals sign. There is a single space before the word "name", and also a single space before the word "gun". When naming your ally, remember to keep it short enough that it won't annoy the player to hear it read throughout the campaign. add Ally spot 14,10,14,10 name=Jeremy gun=MP5 When an ally is created it is assigned a voice randomly. To manually choose a voice for your ally, start with "set ally voice", the ally's name, "=", and the number for the voice. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. The voice numbers are the same as the folder names for the different voices. set ally voice Fred=7 By default, all allies have a movement speed of 30. This causes them to run approximately the same speed as a human player that is not using any points toward running speed. To manually choose a different speed, start with "set ally speed", the ally's name, "=", and the new speed. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use decimals for the speed value. Increasing or decreasing the ally's speed by too much could cause strange behavior or even errors. It is highly recommended that you do not use any speed value below 10 or above 50, unless you have done so in the past and did not experience any problems. set ally speed John=35 By default, all allies start out with instructions to stand still in the spot they spawned. You have a few options to choose how the ally will behave. Start out with "set ally mission", the ally's name, "=", and then the new behavior word. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. The available behavior words are "Stop", "Follow", "Go", and "Wander". "Stop" is the default behavior which tells the ally to stand still even if it has a destination it wants to travel to. "Follow" instructs the ally to follow the player to the best of its ability. "Go" tells the ally it is allowed to move, but only to move to its destination coordinates. Once it arrives at those coordinates it will wait there until it is given a new destination. "Wander" tells the ally to wander freely just like zombies tend to do. set ally mission fred=wander By default, all allies start off being obedient to the player. If an obedient ally is close by, the player can use voice commands to alter the behavior of that ally. Using the voice command for "follow me" will set that ally with the "Follow" behavior. Using the voice command for "stay here" will set the ally's behavior to "Stop". These 2 commands give the player a chance to stop an ally, clear or scout the area ahead, and then call for the ally to continue following. This is especially useful in rescue style campaigns where you must keep the ally alive. Allies that are not set to be obedient will simply ignore voice messages sent by the player. This gives the campaign script full control over the ally. To set the obedient setting of an ally, start out with "set ally obey", the ally's name, "=", and either "yes" or "no". There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Selecting "yes" means that the ally will obey the player, and "no" means they will only follow commands given in the campaign script. set ally obey Jeremy=no By default, all allies start out with aggression level set to "none". You have a few options to choose how the ally will behave. Start out with "set ally aggression", the ally's name, "=", and then the new aggression word. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. The available aggression words are "None", "Some", and "Full". "None" prevents the ally from ever attacking zombies, "Some" will make the ally attack any zombies that attack it first, and "Full" will cause them to behave like most players and fight any zombies that come within range. set ally aggression fred=full A freshly created ally will begin with their weapon loaded with 1 full clip of ammunition. Once that ammo runs out, they have nothing. To give your ally reserve ammo, start out with "set ally ammo", the ally's name, "=", and the amount of ammo you want to give them. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use decimals for the ammo amount. You do not have to specify the type of ammo because it will automatically become the correct type for the weapon the ally was assigned. set ally ammo Jeremy=60 At times you will want your newly created ally to have an empty weapon. You can manually set how many bullets are loaded in their weapon. Start out with "set ally clip", the ally's name, "=", and the amount of ammo you want to give them. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use decimals for the ammo amount. You are allowed to enter a larger value than a weapon normally holds, if that's what you want to do. set ally clip Jeremy=0 Ally awareness is a rating for how quickly an ally will identify a new target as zombies are approaching. If set to the best level, the ally will almost instantly begin aiming and firing at the next zombie. This makes the ally more useful in combat but it does lower game performance as more computer resources are used by the AI. Besides helping game performance, making the ally less aware helps simulate real players who would need a few moments to notice and aim at the next incoming zombie. Start out with "set ally awareness", the ally's name, "=", and the awareness value you want to give them. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use decimals for the ammo amount. The default value is 12. Lowering the value makes the ally faster and choosing a new target to attack, with zero being the fastest. Raising the value make the ally slower at deciding what to shoot, but this also improves game performance. set ally awareness Jeremy=12 Aim is the accuracy of the allies whenever they fire a shot. Excellent snipers would only be a fraction of a degree off, when firing at a distant target. Firing a weapon at a close range target could be 2 or 3 degrees off and still hit the zombie with each shot. The aim value for your ally is the maximum number of degrees their shot will sway to the right or left. Start out with "set ally aim", the ally's name, "=", and the aim value. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use decimals for the aim amount. The default value is 6 for allies you create. Lowing the value improves the accuracy of the ally and raising the value lowers it. If your ally is supposed to be a soldier, the default 6 might fit quite well. If the ally is a trained sniper you might want to lower the value below 6, and a civilian might be higher than 6. set ally aim Bill=6 Shot delay is a random pause between shots as an ally fires at a target. Some people fire off shots from their weapons as quickly as the gun allows, but most people pause for a moment to adjust their aim or to listen for signs that the zombie has been killed. Start out with "set ally shot delay", the ally's name, "=", and the delay value. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use decimals for the delay amount. The default value is 15 for allies you create. Lowering the value will cause your ally to rattle off his shots closer together, while raising the value puts a potentially larger pause between them. The lowest this value can go is zero, which makes the ally fire each shot as quickly as the weapon will allow. set ally shot delay Aprone=15 At times you will want your ally characters to play sound effects or speak phrases. The "ally sound" command works just like the "play sound" command except it will cause the sound to come from the ally's current location. Start with "ally sound", the ally's name, "=", and the file path. The file path already starts in the "/sounds/" folder of Swamp, so you will need to specify which sub folder your sound can be found in. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. ally sound fred=voices\1\medic.wav Allies can be instantly jumped to any point on the map. Start with "set ally jump", the X and Y coordinates for the location (separated by a comma), a space, and the ally's name. Do not use decimals in the coordinates. set ally jump 18,24 Aprone Movement commands can be given to allies. Start with "set ally go", the X and Y coordinates for the location (separated by a comma), a space, and the ally's name. Do not use decimals in the coordinates. If the ally's behavior has been set to follow the player, then the movement command will quickly be forgotten and the ally will continue to follow the player. If the ally's behavior is set to stand still, the ally will ignore the movement command until you set its behavior to either "go" or "wander". set ally go 18,24 Jeremy Half of the scripts we've covered don't seem to be very useful at the very beginning of the campaign, so this is where events come in handy. Normally you can have blank lines or comments in your campaign file, but events require 2 lines that have no such extra stuff between them. The basic idea is that the first line determins what kind of event you are creating, and the following line is the campaign code you want to have happen once that event comes true in the game. For example you could have a player level up once they reach some location on the map, a certain sound play once they pick up some special item, or a swarm of zombies to spawn once a player walks out the front door of a building. By repeating event codes you can have multiple lines of code all execute at the same time. The first event type happens once a player walks into a coordinate range you set. Start with "location event", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma). Do not use decimals for the coordinates. Remember that the very next line should be a normal script command that will happen once the player has walked to that portion of the map. location event 3,3,10,10 say=You have walked to the top-left corner of the map. As an important tip, avoid creating location events that do not have at least 1 tile range in both the X and the Y coordinates. If you specify only a single X value, for example, then the event is unlikely to ever trigger since the player is unlikely to ever land on that exact X value. Even if the game says the player is at that X coordinate, remember that the game rounds the decimal and you are probably not exactly on that number. If you keep your location event with at least 1 square tile of an area, then players will be able to walk into it without any problems. The second event type is a Zone 1 event. This also works by location but it uses the zones of the map instead of the coordinates. An example of a zone 1 location could be the "snack aisle" in a store. Start with "zone1 event" followed by the exact name of the zone. Make sure you match the zone name exactly how it is in the map file! If the capitals are different then it will not work. While it seems like capitals should be ignored to make this easier, there are situations when changing capitals is done intentionally so that you can do more with events. For example consider needing an event to happen once a player reaches the "checkout counter" of a store, but 5 other stores exist on your map that also have "checkout counter" zones. You don't want the event to happen in the wrong store so you could simply choose to capitalize the "C" for one of the stores but not for the others. This lets the game read them the same while allowing you to customize them enough that events will treat them differently. zone1 event Jackson street The third event type is almost identical to the second. Zone 2 events use the alternative zone information from the map. An example of a zone 2 location would be the "Kai mart" which is a large overview of an area, and not a specific spot inside of the Kai mart. Start with "zone2 event" followed by the exact name of the zone. Make sure you match the zone name exactly how it is in the map file! zone2 event Kai Mart The fourth type of event is the item pickup event. This event occurs when a player picks up an item with the same name. Start with "pickup event" followed by the exact item name. You can use standard item names, such as the weapons we're all used to, or you can use the names for custom items you've placed yourself. pickup event AA12 The fifth type of event is a zombie counter event. This triggers once the total number of zombies has dropped to (or below) a certain number. This event will not work if you have zombie respawn enabled because the total number of zombies will not actually go down as they get killed. Start with "zombie event=" followed by the number of zombies. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. zombie event=14 As an important tip to remember, guards will count toward the zombie count of the map. If you have added 2 guards and wanted to have some event occur once there were only 10 zombies left, you would use zombie event=12. I'll take a quick break in events to explain the campaign timer. The campaign timer allows you to set an event to happen after a certain amount of minutes or seconds. Rather than beginning the timer automatically, you have to enable it yourself. This actually gives you the freedom to only activate it after some other event, or to simply not use it at all. To enable the timer, here is the code. start timer The amount of process power it requires is not even worth mentioning, but I did add in a command to disable the timer as well so that it won't be running after you're finished using it in your campaign. Here is the code to stop the timer. Stopping the timer sets it back to zero minutes and zero seconds. stop timer You can pause the timer so that it will stop, but will not lose track of the time that already went by. This is the command. Use the "start timer" command to unpause the timer when you are ready. pause timer You can manually set a time into the timer if you wish. Setting a time into the timer will not enable the timer for you, you will still have to use the "start timer" command for that. Start out with "Set timer M=", the number of minutes, a space, "S=", and the number of seconds. There are no spaces before or after the equals signs. Do not use decimals for the values. set timer m=2 s=56 The sixth type of event is the timer event. Start with "time event m=", the number of minutes, " s=", and finally the number of seconds. There is no space before or after either equals sign. There is a space before "S=". Do not use decimals for either value, and be sure to put at least something for each spot, even if it is just a zero. time event m=4 s=30 If you find yourself in need of more than 1 timer, you are allowed to use up to 10. The 3 timer commands and the timer event we just covered are all meant for timer 1 by default. You can simply include the timer number (1 through 10) after the word "timer" to access the rest of the timers. Even though you can leave off any extra numbers to default back to timer number 1, you can also choose to include the "1" if you like. Here are examples of all 4 timer commands set to use timer number 7. start timer7 stop timer7 pause timer7 set timer7 m=4 s=0 If you have done any work with events, you may have noticed that they only trigger once. For example, if you have a message speak once the player walks to a certain place, that message will only be read once. This is because events have a certain life span, and by default that life span is a single use. You can alter your events to have a specific number, or even an infinite number of uses. You begin your event line by putting a "+", the number of uses, and another "+". Then type your event line as normal, without putting in any extra spaces. Here is an example of a location event that will happen 3 times. Each time it will teleport the player to a spot on the map. +3+location event 0,0,8,8 jump to 15,15 If you want the event to happen an infinite number of times, enter the number -1, like this. +-1+location event 0,0,8,8 jump to 15,15 As an important tip, be careful when using infinite event lifespans. Imagine an infinite location event that doesn't move the player out of the actual location! The player would still be standing in the same spot so the event would keep triggering over and over forever, which would likely cause the game to freeze. As a more advanced way to handle your events, block events can be used. Block events are a way of having a single event line run multiple script lines. If you wish to use them, add the word "block " in front of your event line. You absolutely must add the line "end event" at the end of your block though, or it will error and have odd results. You must also avoid using any comments or blank lines within your block. Here is an example of a location event that will do 4 different things when the player walks into the correct area. block location event 0,0,8,8 say=The portal opens and you have been sent to the space station. level up quest=Explore the space station. jump to 15,15 end event When using block events, be mindful of the order you put the commands in. In the example that was just given, I made sure to do everything else before I used the "jump to" command to move the player. If the player had been moved right away, it might not have finished executing the commands because the player would no longer be in the correct location for the event. Block events can still have their lifespans increased like normal. Just add the lifespan command to the beginning of the event, while being sure you do not put any unnecessary spaces between the "+" and the word "block". Here is an example of a block pickup event that will happen a maximum of 2 times. +2+block Pickup event Vulcan Minigun say=You've found a rare and powerful weapon! level up end event Swamp campaign scripts allow you to create, and use, up to 100 custom variables. These variables can be set and modified by events, and then later you can use them to form multi conditional events. To create a new variable start with "new var", followed by the name you wish to use, "=", and then the number value this variable will start out holding. The name can be anything you wish as long as it does not contain spaces. Do not put any spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use a decimal as the starting value. new var escapedfactory=0 Once a variable exists, you can set it to a new value if you wish. Start with "set var", the variable name, "=", and the new value. Do not put any spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use a decimal for the new value. Don't worry about matching capitals with your variable name. Swamp will know that it is the same variable even if the capitals are different. set var escapedfactory=5 You can add or subtract from your custom variables when needed. This could be used to add up points as the player collects special items, count down each time a player travels through some special portal, or any other way that I'm just not thinking of at the moment. Start with "add", the variable name, "by", and the number to add to the variable. You can use a negative number if you want to subtract instead, but the command will still begin with the word "add". There is a space between the word "add" and the variable name, and there is a space before and after the word "by". Do not use a decimal for the value to be added. add taco by 12 In addition to adding numbers to your custom variables, you can also add 2 custom variables together. Just use the variable name where you would have put the number. In this example, taco becomes equal to itself plus the value of the variable potato. If taco started out with 10, and potato started out with 5, then after this command taco will have a value of 15 and potato will be unchanged. add taco by potato You can use the "add" command to subtract if you are adding a negative number to it, but this trick will not work if you intend to subtract one variable from another. For that situation, there is also a "subtract" command. Start with "subtract", the variable name, "by", and the number to subtract from the variable. There is a space between the word "subtract" and the variable name, and there is a space before and after the word "by". Do not use a decimal for the value to be subtracted. subtract lumber by cost The seventh type of event deals with custom variables being compaired to values or to other variables. Start out with "var event", then the variable name, then the comparison sign, then the value you want to compare it to. The comparison signs are "<" for less than, "=" for equals, ">" for greater than, "<=" for less than or equal to, "<>" for not equal to, and ">=" for greater than or equal to. Var events will only trigger when a variable is set or changed by using the "set var" or "add var" commands. Here are 6 examples. The first event occurs once the variable taco is less then 4, the next occurs once taco is equal to 4, the third occurs once taco is greater than 4, the fourth either less than or equal to 4, fifth is not equal to 4, and the last is greater than or equal to 4. There are no spaces before or after the comparison sign. var event taco<4 var event taco=4 var event taco>4 var event taco<=4 var event taco<>4 var event taco>=4 Instead of using a specific number, you can use the name of another variable. Here is an example of an event that occurs when the variables taco and bacon both match each other's value. var event taco=bacon The eighth event type triggers when zombies are killed. You can specify which type of zombie death will cause the event to trigger, or you can set it to happen regardless of the type of zombie that was killed. Begin by typing "kill event=", followed by the word "any", or the name of the type of zombie. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Capitals do not matter for the zombie type. kill event=dire The ninth event type deals with user typed messages. During the campaign a player can press / and type, similar to typing messages in multiplayer. A chat event allows you to run scripts as the player types messages. Start out with "chat event=" followed by the message they must type. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Capitals do not matter with the message and the event will still trigger even if the player's message has capitals differently than yours. chat event=testing A similar but different chat event is called the chat contains event. This event will only trigger if the message the player types contains a certain word or words. In this example, the event will trigger if the typed message contains the word "home", even if their typed message was something such as "There is no place like home". chat contains event=home The tenth event deals with custom variables, but allows for 2 separate comparisons. In double var events, each variable can only be compaired to an actual value (not another variable), and greater-than and less-than comparisons are not allowed. Start with "double var event", the first variable name, "=", the value, a space, the second variable name, "=", and the second value. There are no spaces before or after either equals sign. Do not use decimals for the values. The event will trigger once both variables match the values you entered. Double Var events will only trigger when a variable is set or changed by using the "set var" or "add var" commands. double var event taco=2 and bacon=4 The eleventh event type occurs when the player uses the Shift+Q key combination within the game. In multiplayer that normally reads off the amount of diesel fuel or crates the player has. The "ShiftQ event" includes within it the power of the "var event" as well. The player must press Shift and Q, but a variable must also meet the greater than, less than, or equals to condition in order for the event to trigger. Start out with "shiftQ event", then the variable name, the comparison sign, and the second value. The comparison signs are "<" for less than, "=" for equals, ">" for greater than, "<=" for less than or equal to, "<>" for not equal to, and ">=" for greater than or equal to. You may not use the built-in variables, but standard numbers and your custom variables will work just fine. There are no spaces before or after the comparison sign. shiftq event taco>1 The twelfth event type is nearly identical to the "shiftq event" but occurs when the player presses enter within the game. The "enter event" includes within it the power of the "var event" as well. The player must press enter, but a variable must also meet the greater than, less than, or equals to condition in order for the event to trigger. Start out with "enter event", then the variable name, the comparison sign, and the second value. The comparison signs are "<" for less than, "=" for equals, ">" for greater than, "<=" for less than or equal to, "<>" for not equal to, and ">=" for greater than or equal to. You may not use the built-in variables, but standard numbers and your custom variables will work just fine. There are no spaces before or after the comparison sign. enter event power=45 The thirteenth type of event is the item donate event. This event occurs when a player donates an item, with the same name, to a safe zone. Start with "donate event" followed by the exact item name. You can use standard item names, such as the weapons we're all used to, or you can use the names for custom items you've placed yourself. donate event Chainsaw The fourteenth type of event (I number them because it helps me remember) triggers when the player fires a certain weapon. This might be useful if you want a gun to break after they've fired 10 shots, or to let them shatter a window by swinging their axe. Start with "fire event" followed by the weapon name. Normally you have to be extra careful with item names to be sure the spelling and case are exact, but in this event the game will understand even if you leave all of the letters lowercase. fire event axe The fifteenth type of event triggers when the player is killed. Most players realize they have lost when some zombies chew them to pieces, but you may wish to run commands anyway. death event Allies tend to be stuffed with delicious brains, just like the player, so from time to time they will be killed by zombies. The "ally death" event triggers when this happens. Start with "ally death event", a space, and the name of the ally. ally death event Ryan The location event is very useful in running commands as the player moves around the map. The movements of allies can be tracked as well. Start with "ally location event", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma), a space, and the name of the ally this event applies to. Do not use decimals for the coordinates. ally location event 3,3,10,10 fred The nineteenth event type is a merger between the location event and the enter event. Location enter events trigger only when the player presses enter within the appropriate range of coordinates. Start with "location enter event", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma). Do not use decimals for the coordinates. location enter event 0,0,6,6 The twentieth event type is a merger between the location event and the shift+Q event. Location enter events trigger only when the player presses shift+Q within the appropriate range of coordinates. Start with "location shiftq event", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma). Do not use decimals for the coordinates. location shiftq event 20,30,26,36 As a rather advanced event type, you are able to trigger an event when a player's fired bullet impacts a wall at a certain location. This can be used to simulate breaking windows, a door lock being shot off, or puncturing the wall of a ginger bread space ship thus sucking the player out into the vacuum of space. Start with "location impact event", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma). This will trigger if a wall within those coordinates is shot with a bullet, arrow, or struck with a melee weapon. location impact event 14,14,45,45 You are also able to trigger an event when a player's fired bullet impacts a wall at a certain zone. This is a lot less stable than using coordinates, but it has been included into the SCS language for those willing to use it. Depending on the way zones have been placed on the map, this can work perfectly or simply not work at all. You would have to test it first to find out which it will be. Start with "zone1 impact event", and then the exact zone name you wish to use. Make sure the spelling and capitals exactly match the zone in the map file. zone1 impact event Behind the Gas Station For impacts on the secondary zone, just change "zone1" to "zone2" like this. zone2 impact event Gas Station During the course of a campaign it can be necessary to actually move the coordinates of your location events. This is considered an advanced technique, but "location", "ally location", "location enter", "location shiftq", and "location impact" events can have their coordinate boundaries changed. Each of these follows the same pattern, so the original "location event" will be used in this example. Start with "move location event", the original X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), the original X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma), a space, the new X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the new X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma). Do not use decimals for the coordinates. Make sure you use the correct original coordinates because the command looks for an exact match to know which location event it is supposed to be changing. move location event 20,0,25,6 0,0,4,4 Here are examples of the other move commands. move ally location event 20,0,25,6 0,0,4,4 move location enter event 20,0,25,6 0,0,4,4 move location shiftq event 20,0,25,6 0,0,4,4 move location impact event 20,0,25,6 0,0,4,4 The use of custom variables can increase the power of nearly every command that has been mentioned so far. Variables can be used to customize messages or to let your campaign script adjust itself to fit the situations. Here are a few examples. With the exception of the "var event", "double var event", "shiftq event", and "Enter event", you can substitute numbers with the custom variables you have created. set var difficulty=15 add random dire=difficulty When being used in a situation that involves a typed message (such as "say", "quest", "beacon", and "zones"), you will need to surround your custom variable with brackets. This is how Swamp will know that it is a variable and not just another normal word in your sentence. set var rockets=3 quest=Collect [rockets] more rockets and bring them to the base. In addition to the custom variables you create for yourself, Swamp campaign script (SCS) allows you to use built-in variables. The built-in variables will always be inside of brackets, even if you are using them in places that are not typed messages. The following example would display a personalized message containing the player's name, and then it would use a custom variable to inform them of their current progress on some type of mission. The custom variable must be within brackets because it is being used in a typed message. say=Excellent work [player.name]. You have collected [score] diamonds. In commands and events that are not typed messages, custom variables no longer need brackets but the built-in variables always do. This command lures zombies to the player's exact coordinates, using a radius that is a custom variable. (A list of the built-in variables can be found at the end of this guide.) lure [player.x],[player.y] lurepower When debugging your campaign script, it can sometimes be useful to have the script completely stop, and give you information about the current state of your variables. The debug command will use a windows message box to display a message. The script, and the Swamp client, both pause until you press enter to continue. Your variables can be included in the messages, by surrounding them in brackets, just like the other commands that use typed messages. debug=Taco is [taco]. Reading from the player's inventory can be an easy way to track their progress as they gather items from the map. If you supply the item name the "item count" command will count how many the player has, and will store it in the custom variable of your choosing. Start with "item count", the name of your custom variable, "=", and the exact item name. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. item count temp=vulcan minigun Counting zombies works very similar to counting items in the player's inventory. You are able to specify coordinates to check within, and also specify which type of zombies you want to count. The results are stored in the custom variable of your choice. Start with "zombie count", the X and Y coordinates for the top-left corner of the area (separated by a comma), and the X and Y coordinates for the bottom-right corner of the area (separated by a comma), the name of your custom variable, "=", and the type of zombie you wish to count. Do not use decimals for the coordinates. zombie count 0,0,30,30 taco=ANY These are the choices you can use for the zombie count command: Any - This will also count guards and allies. Normal Canine Giant Tyrant Stalker Matriarch Reaper Lamprey Dire Amorphous Raider Guard Ally Random number can add variety to your campaign, and prevent players from simply memorizing everything that will happen. Creating random numbers works similar to including custom variables in your commands and events. The random command has parts to it that must be filled in, but remember that it is not actually a command or an event of its own. It is used in place of a number or a variable. Start with "[random/", the minimum value of your random number, "/", the maximum value of your random number, and "]". There are no spaces anywhere in the command. Do not use decimals for any of the values. In the following examples, the random number will be used in a few commands you are already familiar with. The first takes a custom variable, that I named dice, and stores a random number in it between 1 and 6. set var dice=[random/1/6] This next example takes my custom variable taco, and adds a random number that could be as low as -5, or as high as 5. add taco by [random/-5/5] The minimum and maximum values for your random command can even be variables themselves! They can not, however, be other random commands. Each of these 3 examples shows a different way that variables can be included directly into the random number generator. set var taco=[random/potato/25] set var hurt=[random/1/[player.hp]] set var car=[random/[player.level]/[total.zombies]] When an event triggers, normally each line of code within it will be executed. A single line if it is a normal event, or all of the lines inside, if it is a block event. You won't always want each line of code to execute, so you can use the optional "IF THEN" condition on your statements. Start with "If", the variable name, comparison symbol, "Then", a space, and then your normal script command. There is no space before or after the comparison symbol. Using "IF THEN" conditions is only meant for commands, and not for events. The comparison signs are "<" for less than, "=" for equals, ">" for greater than, "<=" for less than or equal to, "<>" for not equal to, and ">=" for greater than or equal to. In this situation, the message "Hello!" will only be displayed if the variable taco is equal to 1. If taco does not equal 1 then the line will simply be skipped, but the event itself will still lose 1 life span. "IF THEN" conditions work with standard values, custom variables, and the built in variables. if taco=1 then say=HELLO! You can group multiple sets of "IF THEN" on the same line to require multiple conditions to be met. Many languages use the term "AND" or "&&", but in SCS you use the same "IF THEN" directly following the last "IF THEN". The following example will only say the message if Taco equals 1 and Fred is less than 4. if taco=1 then if fred<4 then say=This works! We've covered how to use "IF THEN" conditions to stop certain lines from executing. Events can also be limited by using a "WHILE AND" condition. Begin your event with "While", then your variable name, the comparison sign, the value to compare to, the word "And", and the normal event command as usual. You can not use the built-in variables at this time, but custom variables do work. There are no spaces before or after the comparison sign. The comparison signs are "<" for less than, "=" for equals, ">" for greater than, "<=" for less than or equal to, "<>" for not equal to, and ">=" for greater than or equal to. while taco>3 and chat event=Fire When stringing together life cycle settings, block conditions, and "While And" conditions to your events, it is important to put them in the proper order. The following example demonstrates a block event, with unlimited lifespan, and a "While And" condition so that it only triggers if the variable potato equals 1. Always start out with the lifespan code (if desired), follow with block (if desired), then any "while and" condition before finishing up with the event itself. +-1+block while potato=1 and location event 0,0,6,6 say=Hello. end event Storing strings (or text) into custom variables can be useful, but it should be considered a more advanced way to use the variables. If numbers can be used to get the job done, then I recommend using normal numbers rather than text. As time goes on I'll try to improve support for string variables, but for now, use them at your own risk. LOL! When using strings (text), you absolutely must surround your words with quotation marks so that the client knows you are typing words and not the names for custom variable. Here is an example showing various ways that text can be stored and used within custom variables. Two variables are created and set to hold text, notice that there are quotes around the words. The enter event compares a variable to a string of text before it will trigger, and once it does trigger it sets taco to become the message "I am Aprone". Finally a var event triggers once the variables taco and potato are equal to each other, showing that the equals sign is able to compare messages the same as it would normally compare numbers. new var taco="Jeremy Kaldobsky" new var potato="I am Aprone" enter event taco="Jeremy Kaldobsky" set var taco="I am Aprone" var event taco=potato debug=Yay it works! During multiplayer, Swamp players are used to being able to purchase items from the Safe zone stores. Purchase might not be the correct word since the story explains they are lending out weapons based on how much they trust you with them, but in essence it is a store. You can create your own stores for your campaigns! By default your custom store starts out empty, but if you ever wish to change your store you will need to clear it out and stock it again. Here is the command for clearing out the current store. clear store By default the store will be referred to as the Safe Zone, because in multiplayer the Safe zones are where players encounter stores. You can change the name of the store, which will change how it is referred to in the menu options. Start with "Store name=" and the new name for the store. Changing the name has very little effect, but players who review back through their messages might normally see "Safe zone menu" when it is not appropriate, if you do not set your own custom name. store name=Fish market To stock your store with items, start out with "store item", the exact name of your item, a comma, the number of this item you get whey you buy it, a comma, the store price, a comma, the sell price that the store will pay you for donating, a comma, and finally the accepted value. The accepted value is 0 or 1, where zero means the store will not buy this item from you and 1 means it will. There are no spaces before or after the commas. Do not use decimals for any of the values. store item MP5,1,50,25,1 Here are examples for all of the normal ammunition types, with the correct amounts and prices filled in: store item 9mm ammo,20,24,12,1 store item Shotgun shells,12,24,12,1 store item .30 calibur,20,24,12,1 store item 5.56mm ammo,20,30,15,1 store item 7.62mm ammo,20,80,40,1 store item Gas,60,60,30,1 store item .45 ACP ammo,20,24,12,1 store item Arrows,2,2,1,1 Your current store will always be accessible by pressing enter in a Safe zone, but at times you will want to put stores in other locations. When this command is executed, the player will find themselves in your custom store. This command can be put into a location enter event if you want to mimic the way players access the Safe Zone store. open store Storytelling can be a very important part of a campaign, or sometimes a campaign just needs to present the player with a list of choices to choose from. In a similar way to creating a custom store, you can create a custom menu. By default your menu is empty, but if you wish to clear it at any time this is the command. clear menu Adding items to a menu requires 2 pieces of information. Start with "Menu item, a space, the listing number, "=", and the message you want added. The listing number should be 0 for normal messages that are only meant to relay information. If you want the player to be able to press enter on something from the menu, you must supply a listing number. Listing numbers can be anything from 1 to 99999. There are no spaces before or after the equals sign. Do not use a decimal for the listing number. menu item 0=Welcome to my humble home. My name is Potato, and as you might have guessed, my parents hated me very much. menu item 4=You can press enter on me if you wish. You can use a command to close down the custom menu if you wish. This is particularlly useful if you want one of the menu choices to close down the menu automatically. close menu To make your menu more interactive, each menu item that has a listing number will trigger a special menu event if the player presses enter on it. Start out with "menu event=", and the listing number. menu event=4 say=It works! To have the safe zone menu open for the player, this is the command. (This command essentially does the same thing as the open store command) safezone menu To have the skills menu open for the player, this is the command. skills menu To have the armor menu open for the player, this is the command. armor menu List of built-in variables that SCS currently supports: [player.X] The X coordinate of the player. [player.Y] The Y coordinate of the player. [player.D] The direction that the player is facing. [player.HP] The health of the player. [player.maxhp] The maximum health of the player, based on their current level. [player.name] The name of the player. Be careful never to use non-numeric variables in places where a number is required. [player.level] The level of the player. [player.zone1] A string variable returning the name of the primary zone that the player is standing in. [player.zone2] A string variable returning the name of the secondary zone that the player is standing in. [player.zoneID1] Returns the ID number for the primary zone the player is standing in. This is useful for developers who must find zone ID numbers to use in other commands. [player.zoneID2] Returns the ID number for the secondary zone the player is standing in. [player.shots] The total number of shots the player has fired since beginning the campaign. [player.hits] The total number of times the player has shot a zombie since beginning the campaign. [player.kills] The total number of kills the player has achieved since beginning the campaign. [player.lastshot] A string variable returning the name of the last weapon the player attacked with. [player.lastchat] A string containing the last message the user typed. [player.xp] Returns the amount of experience points the player currently has. [player.reputation] Returns the current amount of reputation the player has. [total.zombies] The total number of zombies on the map. [map.sounds] The number of ambient sounds on the map. [map.loot] The number of loot items on the map. [map.width] The width of the map. [map.height] The height of the map. [map.name] A string variable returning the file name of the map that is loaded. [random/#/#] Becomes a random number based on the range you enter. [timer.seconds] The total amount of time on timer number 1, displayed as seconds. [timer.minutes] The number of minutes on timer number 1, rounded down to the last full minute. [timer#.seconds] The total amount of time on the timer number you supply, displayed as seconds. [timer#.minutes] The number of minutes on the timer number you supply, rounded down to the last full minute. [deadzombie.x] This provides the X coordinate for the last zombie that was killed. This is especially useful within the kill event. [deadzombie.y] This provides the Y coordinate for the last zombie that was killed. This is especially useful within the kill event. [ally.*.x] Put the ally's name in place of the *. This returns the X coordinate for the ally. [ally.*.y] Put the ally's name in place of the *. This returns the Y coordinate for the ally. [ally.*.hp] Put the ally's name in place of the *. This returns the current health for the ally. [ally.*.mission] Put the ally's name in place of the *. This returns the mission/behavior number for the ally. 0=Stop, 1=Follow, 2=Go, 3=Wander. [ally.*.clip] Put the ally's name in place of the *. This returns the current number of rounds the ally has loaded in his weapon. [ally.*.ammo] Put the ally's name in place of the *. This returns the current number of rounds the ally has in reserve. List of current game items: 5.56mm ammo 9mm ammo Shotgun shells .30 calibur Gas 7.62mm ammo .45 ACP ammo Riot Shield Glock 19 Glock 17 Browning Citori Winchester Field kit Med kit MP5 Uzi UMP45 Vector M-1928 AR15 Benelli Shortbow Longbow AA12 M240 Arrows Leather Bracer Small Silencer Yukon Scope Small Suppressor Large Suppressor Chainsaw M40 M60 Vulcan Minigun Sledgehammer Machete Flamethrower Winter coat Tattered vest Football pads Leather jacket Kevlar vest Composite armor SWAT vest Plate armor Ceramic armor Apronic vest Ball cap Hard hat Bike helmet Paintball mask Motorcycle helmet Football helmet Military helmet Riot face guard Apronic helmet Work jeans Plastic shin pads Armored leggings Metal shin pads Ceramic leggings Apronic leggings Boots Combat boots Motorcycle shoulder pads Football pads Epaulettes Quiver Tuxedo T-shirt Reflective vest Camo pants Camo jacket Overalls Inflatable sheep Adult diaper Diesel fuel Bunny Slippers Running shorts Running shoes Sprained ankle Broken leg Bloody clothes
Below you will find a list of all quick guides available in your Swamp directory:
First of all, a big thanks goes out to Aprone, for providing us with this wonderful game, and for providing the missing information on some chapters of this readme. Secondly, I would like to thank Mehgcap, for some of the information found in his readme. Then a huge personal thanks goes out to the following people, who took the time to read the file and provide suggestions and corrections:
Swamp is written by Jeremy Kaldobsky (AKA Aprone) Copyright © 2014 Kaldobsky LLC, Swamp sounds were provided by Kai This readme was written by Criticview
last updated at 2014-12-22 17:16