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Metastasis

Metastasis
In a research sector of the United Security Initiative known only as 198X2, a group of scientists and station personnel are assaulted by an unknown threat. As their colleagues die one by one, they must fight to survive and figure out who is doing this to them, and how to stop it.

The Game
Metastasis is best described as a survival game. At the start, one or several players will be secretly selected as your opponents. You will be placed within a space station in the sector 198X2 and must figure out who is the enemy, and kill him before he kills you and your fellow humans.

Depending on the number of players in the game, there will be one or several enemies.
1-4 players: A lone enemy, who will either be a former researcher mutating rapidly into a cunning adversary, or an alien organism killing off station workers for unknown reasons.
5-9 players: Both the mutant and the alien work to kill your team as well as each other. Only one side can stand victorious.
10-12 players: The mutant and the alien are once again your adversaries, but rumors abound of a cold, metallic killer waiting to rise and annihilate every living thing in the sector.

Humans
To aid you in your fight, you have a myriad of station resources and your own education to assist you.
Being a research group in a theoretically dangerous sector, stations are equipped with state of the art military supplies, including many types of combat suits of varying abilities. You have been trained to use these suits, albeit only against the organisms on the local planet. No doubt you can adapt them to perform other, more murderous tasks. There is also an assortment of defensive and offensive weaponry, from stationary turrets and force shield generators to grenades and mighty fusion bombs.
You also carry your life experience and career with you. There are nine possible careers assigned to you at the beginning of the game, from researchers with various doctorates to a visiting captain of the battlecruiser Swagger to the lowly local janitor. Each career provides a unique benefit and alters your initial equipment and monetary income.

Enemies
The mutant and alien both have strong physical capabilities. Each is capable of overpowering an unequipped human easily. However, they are alone, and hate each other as much as they hate humans. The mutant and the alien both sport an ever changing genetic code- within the span of mere hours they can change their physical and mental makeup drastically. As the game goes on, each will slowly evolve into more powerful forms. Eliminating them early will prevent them from overpowering you with massive strength, dominant mental abilities, or swarms of minion-like organisms.

Infection
The mutant has the ability to evolve a infectious called a prion. By weakening the human body, the prion eventually forces a genetic change in the host, altering it to serve the original mutant and take its form.
The alien also has a similar parasitic microorganism it launches into humans, slowly weakening them and eventually eating them away. By doing so, the parasite grows into a facsimile of the original alien, while retaining traces of the infectee's personality, though twisted into serving the alien leader.

Stations
Featured in the sector are four space stations and a planet situated around a single star. Each station has unique capabilities and can be visited at any time by using one of several types of spaceships or escape pods. The largest station is the U.S.I. Queen Niffy, which boasts a large infrastructure and fleet of spaceships, as well as many curious research labs dedicated to the sector. Other stations include the Arbitress, an advanced sensors station, the Kyo Station, which is a container for the experimental Kyo Cannon spatial artillery platform, an old unused station now scheduled for demolition. These are all situated around the orbit of the local planet Minertha, a terraformed but as yet uncolonized planet. A small military station was set up some time ago, but no one currently occupies it.
A battlecruiser from the U.S.I. fleet is also currently visiting the sector.

Credits
An extensive list of credits for the artwork featured in the game can be found within the F9 menu of the game. Special thanks needs to be given to to Clan Sirs, Catar, DarkLink_Rper, EnragedBullfrog, OmeedESF, Mooglefrooglian, mrzwach, lorg, Aenir, Scruffymurphy, Jarkill, InfernoInfernal, and especially Kodua.

UPDATE (1.8.2):
-See changelog at http://thegoodsirs.net
I don't even anymore

Keywords:
parasite, who'sthealien, mystery, alien, mutant, space
Contents

Metastasis (Map)

Reviews
00:56, 30th Jul 2009 Linaze: Lacks a proper description.
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Well, I recall there are already some similar maps in SC2, at least in EU - Malum Ruina, Parasite and such... not to mention the recreation of Dark Deeds and The Thing map.

so they have been impatient too, lol xP
I don't want everyone switch on sc2 and let wc3 die q-q it just seems... hypocrisy to me o.o we played this game for like 9 years by now and will we just abandon this because a similar game with just better graphix came out? hell..[/SIZE] "]
 
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The SC2 version of Meta is indefinitely on hold, and probably will remain that way forever, since none of the development team particularly likes SC2. At all. Especially Activision's new direction for it and Battle.net in general.

Meta's future will be continued in a standalone version instead.

As for Malum Ruina, that is actually hosted on our website (www.thegoodsirs.com), so if you're a fan, feel free to drop by and voice your support to Bashar (the creator).
 
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The SC2 version of Meta is indefinitely on hold, and probably will remain that way forever, since none of the development team particularly likes SC2. At all. Especially Activision's new direction for it and Battle.net in general.

Meta's future will be continued in a standalone version instead.

As for Malum Ruina, that is actually hosted on our website (www.thegoodsirs.com), so if you're a fan, feel free to drop by and voice your support to Bashar (the creator).

Stand... standalone? You mean as a separate (hopefully free) game? Wow... just curious, what engine are you planing to use for it?

So you can say Malum Ruina is the SC2 Metastasis version, right?
 
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I suppose you could. It's the same genre, after all, and we've had some input on Bashar's creation (albeit marginal).

Really, though, our focus has been on standalone product, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, since working within an engine like SC2's is frustrating at best.

Plus, Battle.net 2.0 fails, as we all know.
 
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I suppose you could. It's the same genre, after all, and we've had some input on Bashar's creation (albeit marginal).

Really, though, our focus has been on standalone product, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, since working within an engine like SC2's is frustrating at best.

Plus, Battle.net 2.0 fails, as we all know.

yep, it will take them like two more years to make it as good as it was supposed to be from begining - nice they added chatrooms and such, and merged regions, but they still need lots of things to do.

I think I'm going majorly offtopic, but may I ask on what engine you are going to base your game on?
 
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So that means Meta will be continued on WC3, doesnt it?

It is extremely unlikely any future updates to Meta on wc3 will be released, barring some game-breaking bug caused by a just-as-unlikely future patch. Garfield is correct, the future of this game is in a standalone form, separate from any retail game.
 
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It is extremely unlikely any future updates to Meta on wc3 will be released, barring some game-breaking bug caused by a just-as-unlikely future patch. Garfield is correct, the future of this game is in a standalone form, separate from any retail game.
Game breaking bug? o_O

Imo, it would be better to improve Wc3's meta. Making a new, standalone, game is a long process. Wc3 already has a fine engine and good models (atleast if you include those from hive).
 
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Alternatively you could let Fel make his completely own engine with which he can do anything he darn well pleases, removing all limits as to what he can and can't add to the game. No bugs courtesy of Blizzard, no unwanted collision issues (or at least not ones integrated into the game engine), etc. A standalone, while more time-consuming, is definitely the better option.
 
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well, ok I understand that LoL or HoN were cool. But a standalone game of metastasis wouldn't put forward as much features as frozen throne did, LoL and HoN are popular because of their wide fame of DotA style AOS genre. But I fear that standalone game of metastasis shouldn't get that much attention, and should be a waste of time and effort in the end.
 
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Garfield said:
Game breaking bug? o_O

Imo, it would be better to improve Wc3's meta. Making a new, standalone, game is a long process. Wc3 already has a fine engine and good models (atleast if you include those from hive).

Game breaking bug as in those occasionally introduced in new patches to wc3, such as the old permastuns that would appear back in the days of patches 1.17-1.20, or the mass-map breaking with the fixing of the return bug in 1.24. If this happened, we'd return and fix Metastasis so that it was still playable.

As for Wc3's engine, it is most certainly not fine. It's extremely dated, does not scale well, and the online system is passable at best. While unfortunately not much better can be found in any RTS nowadays (Relic Online for Company of Heroes comes close, but is too bogged down in DRM and NAT issues), it's still not acceptable for scalability. As for the models, they're even more outdated, and do not support a sci-fi environment (such as you find here in Metastasis) much at all, except for use as aliens of strange varieties which we've done our best to accommodate.

Using Hive's extensive model base is generally not an option either. The lower download size, the better, especially in Wc3's environment. A map will not become popular if it takes a long time to download, and Battle.net has hard limits on latency and download speeds. Plus there's always the 8mb map size limit.

We're well aware of how long making a standalone game takes, but it's a much more engaging process than working inside Wc3's very limited game engine. A standalone has far more options available to us, however, and can be very specifically customized for Metastasis to make the most effective interface possible, much better than Wc3's.

Luffy said:
well, ok I understand that LoL or HoN were cool. But a standalone game of metastasis wouldn't put forward as much features as frozen throne did, LoL and HoN are popular because of their wide fame of DotA style AOS genre. But I fear that standalone game of metastasis shouldn't get that much attention, and should be a waste of time and effort in the end.
LoL and HoN are AOS-specific games, and use that as their draw, of course. Ours is not in that genre at all besides control scheme. Furthermore, we don't expect the popularity of DOTA or its many clones (no matter how cool it'd be). DOTA's popularity is really more because of its longevity than any particular quality in the map itself. There are many far superior AOS maps to DOTA that have fallen by the wayside because DOTA was there first.

What do you mean by "as much features as Frozen Throne", exactly? Metastasis as a standalone game would play exactly the same as Metastasis in Wc3, at the very least. Preferably, obviously, we'd like to make it much better, but the first step would be recreating it (with minor improvements, of course).
 
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What do you mean by "as much features as Frozen Throne", exactly? Metastasis as a standalone game would play exactly the same as Metastasis in Wc3, at the very least. Preferably, obviously, we'd like to make it much better, but the first step would be recreating it (with minor improvements, of course).

well I am trying to mean, let's say players should choose metastasis at frozen throne instead of it's standalone game you make, like DotA players not going for any other AOS genre.
Then what's your destination about the game, if you don't want it to be so popular? What are your expectations?
 
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well I am trying to mean, let's say players should choose metastasis at frozen throne instead of it's standalone game you make, like DotA players not going for any other AOS genre.
Then what's your destination about the game, if you don't want it to be so popular? What are your expectations?

I'm pretty sure, especially given the popularity of League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, that people will come to a standalone format to play it, if it's indeed fun (and built well, of course). Furthermore, Wc3 is an eight year old game at this point. A sudden influx of new players is unlikely. Most new players to Wc3 are people pirating the game to play DOTA on Garena only.

Obviously if people wish to continue playing Metastasis on wc3, we can't stop them (as it should be, SC2 battle.net can go die in a fire). But we'd hope they'd see that our standalone version will be vastly improved, and make the jump across to it.

Dogzo said:
just please make the game free :)
It will probably be free, but most likely supported by advertisements or a free-to-play model similar to LOL/HON where you can purchase in-game items. However, we would be absolutely sure to make none of them game-affecting items, so that no imbalance would be generated (no gold ammo, as EVE veterans would say).

Luffy_299 said:
None would pay for it if it wasnt free.
Don't be so sure. There's a fairly large and supportive indie market out there, publishable through Steam and other such places, or even standalone indie games. There are certainly people who'd pay for it, given the opportunity. However, I think we'll probably be releasing this free regardless.
 
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I'm pretty sure, especially given the popularity of League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, that people will come to a standalone format to play it, if it's indeed fun (and built well, of course). Furthermore, Wc3 is an eight year old game at this point. A sudden influx of new players is unlikely. Most new players to Wc3 are people pirating the game to play DOTA on Garena only.

hmm ok. And maybe that's a dumb question, but will you make the game more understandable by noobs/people who are not native english etc.? :D because, maybe it's my bad, but I can't say I understood the map perfectly on first play. Or second play.. You should expand it's explanation parts for game, and maybe use simpler words in game lol. And will it be 3d FPS type or bird's eye view like wc3? Cookies for you if 3d FPS xP
 
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god, i hate where you buy in game items :(, well ,i hope its not soo hard like lol, takes 64 games to get my fav charecter,ms fortune
 
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I just played a game, i was alien, i based my eggs in raptor in niffy, others thought i was tested clear, evolved, boarded in a ship where all humans gathered, they came in my ship, killed 2 of them including their leader, someone followed my tp, i infected him, i died, hes with the mutant in niffy now, and i had to go so i left, Garfield1337 can say the other part of the story.
 
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god, i hate where you buy in game items :(, well ,i hope its not soo hard like lol, takes 64 games to get my fav charecter,ms fortune

There wouldn't be purchases like League of Legends where you have to wait to be able to use all the gameplay content. That system wouldn't really work well with Metastasis. So don't worry about that.

Luffy said:
hmm ok. And maybe that's a dumb question, but will you make the game more understandable by noobs/people who are not native english etc.? :D because, maybe it's my bad, but I can't say I understood the map perfectly on first play. Or second play.. You should expand it's explanation parts for game, and maybe use simpler words in game lol. And will it be 3d FPS type or bird's eye view like wc3? Cookies for you if 3d FPS xP

With a standalone game we could easily have multiple language options, so that whichever language you feel comfortable in would display as such on tooltips and other game information texts. We'd just need people to translate it well.

FPS: Possibly, but as an optional game mode only. Metastasis was intended for an RTS experience, thus why we made it on Wc3. As such, that will be the main focus of Meta2.
 
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There wouldn't be purchases like League of Legends where you have to wait to be able to use all the gameplay content. That system wouldn't really work well with Metastasis. So don't worry about that.



With a standalone game we could easily have multiple language options, so that whichever language you feel comfortable in would display as such on tooltips and other game information texts. We'd just need people to translate it well.

FPS: Possibly, but as an optional game mode only. Metastasis was intended for an RTS experience, thus why we made it on Wc3. As such, that will be the main focus of Meta2.

So you say if you would want Metastasis to be a FPS, you would like consider making it a Source (There are SDK modding tools) mod or something like that in the first place?

Since nothing is free in our world, how are you going to get profit from your game (I mean, keeping servers and stuff, that requires money)? Will you have some cosmetic stuff that does not impact the game for sale? Like, I don't know, some character uniform skins or whatever...

What languages are you currently planing to add? I may consider working on a Russian translation...
 
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We don't run Metabot, sorry. Can't do anything for you. The official bot, Sirbot, has been offline for over a year now, due to lack of interest and servers.
 
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I officially declare that I'm reviving Meta 1. Because I can.

SirBot will be back online and hosting games on a vastly improved server within the next day or two. Depending on when I figure out the bugs I'm having right now. Hope to see you there.
 
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SirBot is officially online and autohosting on West, East, and EU. Stats tracking is not yet up again, still working on getting that running.

Tell your friends!
 
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I found a bug , can tell me where i can post my replay because i dont know how to explain this type of bug but it's happening , very rare bug .
 
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You can describe it here, we may have already encountered it, or you can head over to our forums and post it there in Bug Reports.

Slynet.co
 
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Love the map im rating it 5/5 but seriously the new version 1.8.0 PLEASE FIX THAT when u use that phase invisibility and ur ceo ur chopper can be seen
 
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we are in eurobattle.net we LOVE META WE ARE METARDS.!!! Clan İdea !!! if u wanna play metastasis in eurobattle.net join our website and join us.http://www.clanidea.info/

But this map need some fix like Electric suit TOO powerfull have 50 dmg more then rocket suit have and skills he can kill somone with only 1 skill 400 dmg how wtf???

When you use skill if he close to you 200 dmg after your shot 250 dmg WTF? TOO POWERFULL.

And antibody 1 antibody have 5 stack and when u use antibody it cover your ass 45 sec from infects this mean TOO LONG :D my mathematics not enough for say how much:D.

Story: When I in arb. arb damaged and doors opened and closed forever. 150 dmg but cant kill.
Why it happend?

and sorry for my bad english (im god damn peon)not important one:D

ELECTRICT SUIT HAVE TO FIX AGAIN...

Congratulation no stim it is realy better now realy good point.But if u lucky you can drop sti from syllus anomalys and no more anomaly in defunct ??? why we need it ccs:D
 
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Secrets how can learn secrets? like science coat stations Code (object)


Pengiun doll Sheep doll(i know sheep ship) but how can i know what im gone do with pengiun doll and other things?(secrets)
 
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Balance changes incoming in 1.8.1 soonish. Fear not.


and yes, please note the post dates before you comment, this thread's been around for years.
 
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