The Specialists
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| The Specialists | |
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| Developer(s) | The Specialists mod team |
| Designer(s) | Filippo "Morfeo" De Luca & Lorenzo "John_Matrix" Pasini |
| Engine | GoldSrc |
| Version | 3.0 (June 21, 2007) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date | October 29, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
| Input methods | Keyboard, mouse |
The Specialists is a multiplayer mod for the popular first-person shooter computer game Half-Life. The final version of the mod is 3.0.
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[edit] History
The game was created by Filippo "Morfeo" De Luca & Lorenzo "John_Matrix" Pasini. Originally made to be a team-play game (much like Counter-Strike, but with added action movie realism), The Specialists soon evolved into a "Free-For-All" game with action movie realism. The Specialists 1.0 was first publicly released on October 2002.
On June 21, 2007, TS received its final major update, 3.0. The possibility of a 3.1 has been mentioned by the development team, which would include minor feature additions and any necessary bug fixes to put the mod in a finished state.
[edit] Gameplay
The Specialists, or TS, is a multi-player action movie mod/total conversion for Valve's best selling first person shooter, Half-Life. It is intended to resemble a generic action movie, and is often compared to the film Face/Off, though several of the default models and some of the game-play elements appear to be references to The Matrix. It contains over 29 weapons, many power-ups, and 5 official game-types (although there is an unofficial game-type, Role-Playing).
One of the features that The Specialists is known for is "Bullet Time", the ability to manipulate time to pass in slow motion. "Bullet Time" has been implemented in other titles such as Max Payne, but is typically found only in single-player titles, whereas The Specialists is mainly a multi-player modification. The game also makes heavy use of stunts, even rewarding players with scoring bonuses for stunt combinations, and also has a simple kung fu system for melee attacks. Although it is far from being the first shooter to include stunts and kung fu (a notable spiritual predecessor The Opera), The Specialists is the first to combine them with multi-player slow motion game-play.
[edit] Player models
- Agent - A character clad in a suit and sunglasses. Resembles a generic government agent and, by extension, one of the agents from The Matrix trilogy.
- Castor Troy - From the movie Face/Off
- Gordon Freeman - Half-Life's famous action hero with a black trenchcoat.
- The Hitman - Ruthless assassin dressed in a business suit. Based on Agent 47 from the Hitman series of games.
- Laurence - Laurence Fishburne portraying his Matrix character, Morpheus.
- Merc - The first of two original The Specialists characters, the Mercenary
- Seal - The second original The Specialists character, the Navy SEAL.
There are also many other custom models you can download.
[edit] Movement and stunts
The various stunts that can be performed are all dependent on the gauge to the left of players cross hair. The player will notice that the mouse is moved up and down, the dot in the gauge will move up and down as well, depending on where the player looks. The position of this dot dictates the kind of stunt performed. Because the gauge is split into 3 categories, those are called high, medium and low moves.
[edit] Main stunts
Flips: These are performed by tapping the jump key twice in quick succession. They will cause the player jump forward or sideways (depending on the direction of movement) and perform a flip in mid air. If this is performed when the player has zero or backward momentum, the result is a back flip that will cause damage to other players if the other player is near enough. The back flip is only available if the player has 60 or more equipment weight slots free.
- High: Full flip, lands on feet, brief direction penalty upon landing. [Player may not change direction until penalty period is over]
- Medium: Forward jumping flip, lands on back.
- Low: Short flip, lands on back and slides forward.
- Backflip: Full flip, lands on feet, no penalty.
Dives: A dive is performed by pressing the stunt key. Pressing the key once will launch the player forwards, sideways or backwards, depending on the direction of movement. The player will then land on the ground and stay prone until either the jump or the stunt button is pressed again, at which point the player will rise to their feet. If the stunt button is held down when the player hits the ground after a dive, a forward roll will be performed and the player will rise straight to their feet, allowing much more freedom of movement.
- High: Long dive capable of clearing obstacles
- Medium: Straight/forward dive
- Low: Short dive which causes the player to slide along the ground
Rolls: Rolls are mainly used as an evasive maneuver, they can be performed by Double Tapping the duck key. When the player does this he/she will roll in the direction he/she is currently moving. As previously mentioned, after a dive, a roll may also be performed by holding the stunt key as the player hits the floor. Rolls can be performed regardless of free slots.
Climbing: Player can climb up most walls for a short distance and even move along them. To do this player has to stand next to a wall and double tap jump key and he/she will pull himself/herself a short distance up the wall, holding down jump will cause him/her to do this again. If the player has 60 or more slots free, this move can be performed three times in succession. If the player has less slots free, the maximum number of climbs is two. To climb an object successfully the player must be looking at the object with his/her cross hair. If the object is lower in your field of view than the cross hair then the player will perform a flip instead of climbing.
[edit] Other moves
Gainer: A forward moving back flip. Performed by jumping once, turning the field of view 180 degrees while airborne so that the player is now traveling backwards, and jumping again in midair at approximately the apex of the first jump. While more complex than the standard high flip, the gainer reaches nearly the same height and speed without incurring any movement penalty upon landing. (No longer possible in TS 3.0)
Bullet Dodge: When stationary, in either Slow Motion or Slow Pause, tapping the stunt key will make the player perform a bullet dodging move (similar to the one performed by Neo in The Matrix). You may shoot while performing this move.
Wall flip: It is possible to perform wall flips simply by running into a wall and pressing the stunt key, players character will run up the wall and flip backwards off it. As well as looking very stylish, this can be a useful escape move. Players may perform up to three consecutive wall flips by bouncing between two objects. This move is only possible with 60 free slots or more.
While a player may only perform a maximum of three wall climbs or wall flips, the total limitation for such maneuvers is four. Thus, a player may combine wall climbs and flips at will [flip-flip-flip-climb or climb-flip-climb-flip]. This only works for stunts involving wall usage.
Wall dive: Either while climbing a wall or jumping at a wall, quickly turn and press the stunt key. Your character will dive off the wall in that direction. This was implemented in TS 3.0.
Stock Attack: Since version 2.1 of The Specialists, the player could hit enemies with the stock of a gun by pressing another key. Prior to 3.0, the only weapons available to the stock attack was the M4 and Sawed Off, starting with 3.0, most rifles, some submachine guns and shotguns, and the Desert Eagle have a stock attack.
[edit] Weight and slots
Weight is a very important part of The Specialists, as it determines a large part of how you can play the game. Those who enjoy carrying vast amounts of firepower around with them will be very limited in the number of stunts that they can perform and the speed at which they can move, whereas players armed with only knives or a pistol will be able to move very quickly and perform more stunts.
When you have no weapons you have 100 free slots (changed from 81 in versions preceding 3.0). From this weight and down to 60 slots, you can perform all available moves. When you have weaponry that reduces you to under 60 slots, you can only perform moves in the medium and low category only. If you have less than 40 slots available, only low moves can be performed. If you want to know the kind of stunts that are available to you with your current configuration, just glance at the stunt gauge for the answer. You will notice that it will be either all white, or portions of it will be shaded red, to indicate in which area stunts are unavailable.
[edit] Power-ups
The Specialists contains a variety of power-ups. Power-ups can be separated into two categories: Passive and active power-ups.
[edit] Passive power-ups
Passive power-ups do not require activation: they last until the character is killed, and their effect is maintained for the entire time. All can be found on the map but most of these are awarded after reaching a certain status.
Kung Fu: This powerup doubles the amount of damage that any kung fu attack deals, thus making one attack (the back kick) a one hit kill. This power-up is given to you when you reach the status of Specialist.
Super Jump: The Super Jump ability allows the character to make massive leaps. Useful for maps containing large buildings and outdoor scenes (ts_fall, ts_lobby, etc.). The longer the player holds jump while super-jumping, the higher he/she goes. Sometimes the player will receive falling damage if the jump is too high. This power-up is also given to you when you reach the status of Specialist.
Double Ammo: This power-up gives the player's currently held gun a magazine of bullets carrying double the bullets that the magazine normally carries. It will have this effect even if there are zero bullets left in the gun. Unlike the other power ups, Double Ammo can be used in conjunction with any of the other power ups.
Health: The Health power-up boosts your health up to 150 points, allowing you to take a lot more punishment before dropping. Once collected, your health will drop by 1 point per second until it returns to 100 or you get damaged to 100 or under it. Awarded when Demo Man status achieved.
Grenade: The Grenade power-up provides you with one M61 fragmentation grenade. After the 5 second delay, the grenade explodes. Primary fire causes you to lob the grenade up and over obstacles, whilst secondary fire causes you to roll the grenade across the ground.
Kevlar* (No longer a power-up by default, but occasionally found): A Kevlar vest that gives the player increased protection against damage. It takes 10 slots. Kevlar can be bought from the buy menu, or sometimes found as a power-up.
[edit] Active power-ups
Active power-ups must be activated to have an effect. Active power-ups last for three or five seconds depending on which power-up is used. Active power-ups can be particularly devastating when used with an appropriate weapon. The player may only carry one active power-up at a time.
Slow Motion (Max. 3 Seconds): This power up allows the player to enter 'bullet time' in a manner similar to that of Max Payne computer games and The Matrix movies. Time appears to slow down in the game, with all players slowed down to the same low speed.
Slow Pause (Max. 2 Seconds): Similar to Slow Motion, but far more effective. Under this power up, enemy characters come to a near total halt, while the player can move almost as fast as real-time. Bullets travel even slower than in Slow Motion, while thrown knives hang in mid air.
Double Fire-Rate (Max. 3 Seconds): When this power-up is active, all ammunition in the player's gun is fired at double the normal rate of fire. If a player is wielding a semi-automatic weapon (such as the Glock 20, Five-seveN, or the like), it is converted into an automatic weapon for the duration of the power up. If a player is wielding a melee weapon, such as a katana, that weapon is swung around twice as fast, and knives can be thrown one after the other by holding the secondary fire button. Furthermore, the Benelli M3, SPAS-12, and Mossberg 500 shotguns can be reloaded twice as fast when this power up is active.
[edit] Official game types
Deathmatch: This gametype pits every man for himself against up to 31 players (32 in total). Your typical all-out Free-For-All, with the objective being to get the most frags.
Team Deathmatch: Team variation of Deathmatch.
Capture the Briefcase: Two teams are pitted against each other. Think of Capture the Flag, but instead you must capture the enemy's briefcase. Capturing a briefcase scores you 10 frags, and returning a stolen briefcase scores you 5 frags.
The One Mode: All players are teamed at the beginning, and one player is randomly chosen to be "The One". "The One" has more hit-points than everyone else, Super-jump power-up, Kung-Fu power-up, and is given the Slow-Pause power-up (given that the player does not have a power-up when he/she becomes "The One"). "The One" also regains hit-points when an enemy is killed. The other players have regular stats, but have the benefit of numbers. Their objective is to kill "The One". The player who kills "The One" gets to become the next "The One".
Last Man Standing: Same as Deathmatch, except you only have one life. The last person alive wins, at which point the next round begins.
[edit] Role-playing
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
An alternative, user-created mode of play involves role-playing in the game. There is an extreme variety of things that constitute role-play in TS. The most predominant form of role-playing involves server plugins (not supported by the TS development team or Valve Software) that add an economy system, much like an RPG. Usually, servers that run these plugins don't allow players to spawn with weapons, but they must receive income (jobs are given by server administrators). Additionally, the plugins may include hunger, which usually kills the player when they attain 100% hunger. However, many servers remove the hunger script as it may crash their servers, disrupting any current role-play situations. However, the first economy-driven plugins for TSRP servers began appearing in mid-to-late 2004. Before that time, role-play servers usually ran no plugins, or a simple TalkArea plugin which adds two forms of chat: limited-area chat for in-character speaking, and server-wide chat for out-of-character speak. A few servers run without economy plugins, creating a "classic RP" environment, and servers such as this are usually frequented by more experienced role-players or those who do not favor plugin-driven role-play. Another alternative method of role-playing is "Zombie" role-play, where a server spawns with unarmed, AI-driven bots with "zombie" models and the players' objective is to kill zombies.
One notorious problem of role-playing on The Specialists is the advent of DMing (deathmatching) in role-playing servers. As role-players generally do not allow fighting not connected with an in-character situation and most players are unarmed, DMers are free to claim as many kills as they wish before either an administrator removes them or they drive all role-players from the server. Most servers no longer use the quintessential RP map, mecklenburg_final, in which ambitious DMers found many caches of unprotected weapon spawns to use against role-players. A single determined DMer can disrupt all role-play in a server to the point where everyone in the server is forced to fight back, especially if the DMer is using cheats. Many role-playing servers counter the DM issue by requiring a password to enter the server, usually obtained by registration on a forum,sometimes furthered by a post count requirement.
As of late 2005, the RP servers (together with other alternative gameplay servers) dominate the TS online multiplayer server list, to the dismay of deathmatch fans, as the number of regularly available TS deathmatch servers has steadily been dwindling since early 2005. The amount of alternative TS servers has been known to confuse new players, who find the vast majority of the servers sporting gameplay much different from the official website's description of the mod. A notable incident, and prime example of this confusion, occurred when a game review site featured an article about The Specialists, and described TSRP as an official gametype.
In 2007, many veteran TSRPers argue (many of whom have stopped playing for this very reason) that roleplay has died off in the game. Scores of unnecessary plugins can be found across the most popular servers, and they are used in place of actual roleplaying with text and character development in order to attract newcomers. It can even be said that these servers are deathmatch servers with RP plugins installed due to the rampant killing done without purpose by so-called role-players in the game, as is evident by the high scores which can be seen using the game's player list feature. The game has effectively turned into an MMORPG where the roleplaying of the pioneer era is replaced with the sole objective of attaining in-game money and items. This "e-money" (as it is referred to satirically by veterans) can be used to purchase items and properties in order to add to a player's personal power in the server.
Currently there have been several different plugin sets, which can create a role-play server environment. The most predominant of these plugin sets is Harbu plugins, or "HWRP" There have also been many other less popular modifications such as Avalanche's plugins, and Twilight Suzuka's plugins.
