VampireSlayer is a modification to Half-Life by Valve Software. The basic premise was to pit two teams of players against one another, where one side (Vampires) have better physical attributes (running, jumping, close attack) against the Slayers, who have weapons. The Vampire myth lends itself to other playability ideas, such as staking, drinking blood to recover health, etc. The myth also lends itself to interesting settings for maps.

The game is played in rounds, once you are dead you must wait until the next round starts. This shouldn't be too long and there are 'observer camera' modes for you to follow the remaining action.

Getting Started

To activate VampireSlayer, you go to start Half-Life as normal and then choose 'Custom Game' from the menu. You will see an entry for VampireSlayer, click this and then click 'activate'. You can then go back to normal Half-Life menus although the style should look different if VS has been activated. Alternatively, double click the desktop icon created during installation.

Controls

VS uses the same key configuration as normal Half-Life, so there should be no extra control configuration to do, however, you should still go to 'configuration/controls' to set up your keys after you have installed VS.

Vampires use claw attack all the time and don't need to change weapons.

Vampire "Feed" key is the same as your Half-Life "Use" key.

Vampire "Leap" is done using Forward+Crouch+Jump. Similar to the JumpPack in Half-Life.

Vampires can 'sense' slayers using the secondary attack button.

Joining

When you first join a game, whether you've started a LAN/Bot game or you've joined a server on the internet, you will have to choose a team.

You can pick using the mouse or press the number key for the menu item.

The team choices are Vampire or Slayer. Once you have chosen a team, you can then choose a character to play.

Once you're character has been chosen, if there is a game in progress, you may be put into observer mode until the start of the next round.

Teams/Characters

The Vampires' Louis, Edgar and Nina have the same phsyical attributes, but each has a special unique ability on the 'secondary fire' button.

Louis - Nightvision, good for dark maps

Edgar - Stealth - doesn't last long so use it just before you attack.

Nina - Sunlight Immunity - again, it doesn't last long but use it before you venture into the sunlight to attack any slayers.

Father D starts each round with a shotgun, double barrel shotgun and stake.

The secondary attack when Father D has his stake and crucifix selected gives him a few seconds of immunity to vampire attacks. This only works when he has the crucifix out AND he is speaking the Holy words.

Molly starts each round with a crossbow, micro-Uzi submachine gun and stake and Colt Governement pistol combination.

When using the Stake and Colt, the primary attack uses the Stake weapon and the secondary attack fires the Colt Pistol.

There is nothing to stop Father D picking up a crossbow left by a dead Molly though!

Vampires cannot pick up weapons blessed by Slayers.

If a Vampire is knocked out out by bullets, the undead creature will rise after a short time. This is your chance to stake him whilst he's down if you are a Slayer, but be careful 'cos he may rise just before you get to him!

If a Vampire manages to ressurrect, and escapes being staked, he may look for a dead body to feed off to recover his health up to full. Vampires can feed off dead slayers by standing or crouching near the body and pressing the "Use" key.

HUD

The HUD in VS is straightforward. The bottom left is your current health.

In the bottom center is the time remaining for this round. If the timer runs out it is a draw. At the moment the win criteria for a round is to kill all of the opposite team.

When you are dead the hud switches to an observer mode where you can view the remaining action, control the camera and view the remaining time for the current round.

If you are a vampire there is an extra icon that shows the charge status of your special ability. If it's bright red it means it's ready to use, if it's white it means it is in use. Other than that it means it charging, you will see the line move slowly up the icon as it charges.

FatherD also has a charge icon for his 'Pray' ability but it is only displayed when you have the stake & crucifix deployed.

Weapons

The current weapons in VS are:

Mossberg Pump Action Shotgun:

Primary: single buckshot blast.

Secondary: two rounds of buckshot, inaccurate

Double Barrel Shotgun (Hunting Rounds):

Primary: Fires first barrel.

Secondary: Fires second barrel.

Hint: Press both buttons together.

Micro-Uzi SubMachineGun:

Primary: Fire.

Secondary: N/A

Stake Crossbow:

Primary: Fire (instant Vampire kill with a heart/chest shot).

Secondary: Medium Zoom in/out.

Stake And Colt Government Pistol:

Primary attack: Stake does an instant Vampire kill if the Vampire is down.

Minor damage if Vampire is standing, but it will still kill if it takes the Vampires health to zero.

Secondary attack: Fire Colt pistol.

Vampire Claw Attack:

Primary: Instant Slayer kill except arms or legs.

Secondary: Use Special Ability. This can only be used occasionaly.

Rounds/Scoring

Under the "Advanced" properties of Create game you can set how long each round should last.

Under the "Advanced" properties of Create game you can set two values to determine when the map change in VS should occur.

'Time Limit' determines how long a map should be played for. However, if 'Round Limit' has a value assigned, it is the first team to reach this number of wins, then the map will change and that match is over.

If the 'Time Limit' is reached before either team has managed to reach the 'Round Limit' number of wins, the map will still change. So, if you plan on using 'Round Limit' for your games, you can set the 'Time Limit' to a large value so that you have ample opportunity to reach the required number of wins.

Note: a team has to reach this number of 'wins', draws do not count.

If 'Round Limit' is zero, the map will change according to the 'Time Limit' setting only.

Use the 'timeleft' command in console to see how long is remaing of the map time when playing.

Server Commands

mp_roundlimit - set the number of wins required before map change.

mp_autobalance - 1 uses team autobalancing, 0 ignores.

mp_friendlyfire - 0 disables, 1 enables.

mp_tkkill - 1 enables. If friendly fire is also on, a TK'er is automatically killed.

mp_roundtime - set the time for each round (only set on server startup)

mp_decap - enables or disables slayer decapitation.

mp_decaptime - set the time the head stays around for (default 60secs)

You can limit the number of players using a particular character with the following commands, supplying the number of the max limit:

mp_maxmolly #

mp_maxfatherd #

mp_maxlouis #

mp_maxedgar #

mp_maxnina #