AvP2 Demo Patch Update
October 19, 2001
by Jason Hall, CEO, Monolith

We have just checked in a new version of the AVP2 multiplayer demo (1.0.9.2) and it is being tested as we speak. Once we have all the proper approvals it will be released. This should be extremely soon.

Here's the list of changes for the upcoming new version - hopefully all of them will pass the testing process and be made available to you:

• Fixed the crash bug on the Join screen.
• Added async listing of game servers, so it will now add them in blocks at a time and you can see the progress.
• Added a "[D]" to the end of server names that are dedicated... this helps spot them in the list without the filters, and it allows GameSpyArcade to filter them.
• Added the player rename functionality during an MP game... use ' Spanky' to change your name.
• The server list now filters out servers that can't receive proper game information and reduces the total server count by that amount.
• Added a recommendation warning to players who try to start a non-dedicated server with more than 8 players as the maximum.
• Added PageUp and PageDown support to the server list.
• The arrows on the server list now act as PageUp and PageDown instead of just Up and Down.
• Added mouse wheel support to the server list.
• Added double click join support to the server list.
• Made sure you can skip the FOX intro logo with the keyboard... previous it only worked with the mouse.

Scanning through the server lists, We have seen a lot of very crowded servers running on non-dedicated machines. Our tests indicate that non-dedicated servers may start to lag at six players and become increasingly choppy by eight or nine players. This is because the server is splitting time between the local client's application and the server tasks.

Users should please be aware of this and try to look for fast dedicated servers if they are experiencing too much lag.

To help users find dedicated servers more easily, we've added a [D] to indicate a dedicated server (after the user's server name). GameSpy will then have the option of giving us a filter for this so that we can tell users to try joining dedicated servers first when using GameSpy arcade.

Side note - Some people have voiced some concern regarding the run speed of the Alien that is provided in the demo. They want it to be faster it seems. Don't worry. The full version of AvP2 has many different Alien types, and some of them run VERY fast! So the speed that some of you are looking for from the Alien species is definitely in the game!

Last thing - Because the demo only contains a small portion of the game's species and weapons, it is difficult for the demo to retain and demonstrate the full game's character balances. When we balanced the game, we balanced it based on the capabilities of ALL the characters and ALL the weapons available for the full version. Stripping the game down to its MP demo form, has upset the balance some - but there was no easy way around that. Even still, we feel that the demo is fun, and we hope you do too!

The MP demo is only a TINY sneak peek of what the full game has to offer.