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Dystopia is a cyberpunk-themed modification of the 2004 first-person shooter Half-Life 2. Its first playable demo was released on September 9, 2005, after a year of planning and nine months of development. Dystopia's popularity is quickly growing within the Half-Life 2 community, the demo having already been downloaded more than 900,000 times.

Overview

Dystopia is a total conversion multiplayer-only mod that takes place in a futuristic world where two factions battle for control - the Punk Mercenaries and the Corporate Security Forces. Dystopia is a first-person shooter, and like many other mods, it is team-based. Though player models are markedly different between teams and each team has a different set of objectives, both teams are identical in terms of attributes and available equipment.

Dystopia's most unique feature is perhaps its cyberspace gameplay. Players who equip themselves with a "Cyberdeck" implant can "jack-in" to the cyber-world (called "decking") and use special virtual terminals to control electronic systems in the regular game world, thus helping their teammates meet objectives.

Another feature of note is Dystopia's "Awards" scoreboard, which is displayed at the end of each round. Awards are presented to players who excelled in certain areas, such as "Minions do my Bidding" for the player with the most spider grenade kills.

Whether or not Dystopia will remain a free mod is still under consideration. As the team member "Fuzzy" puts it:

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With the September 26th Steam update that introduced Source and the new HDR code, Dystopia users began to experience problems such as malfunctioning game options, crashes, and for some players, an inability to load the game at all. Three days later, an update for the Dystopia demo was released, resolving issues created by the Steam update.

Gameplay

Implants

Dystopia features a system of "implants" which allow players to tweak their abilities to match their playing style or role within their team. Implants give players special abilities, such as thermal vision or cloaking. There are two categories of implants: HeadSpace implants and BodySpace implants. Each class has a different amount of HeadSpace and BodySpace available for implants; the heavier the class, the less space for implants. The implants are as follows:

  • HeadSpace:
    • CyberDeck - allows user to jack-in to cyberspace via terminals throughout the map.
    • TAC Scanner - sweeps area for targets, displaying enemies on the player's HUD and minimap as well as those of his teammates.
    • Thermal Vision - counters the Stealth implant by allowing player to see heat emitted from bodies, but removes the player's ability to distinguish friend from foe via the HUD.
    • Sound Wave Triangulator (SWT) - displays the position of enemies' footsteps on the HUD as red triangles, enemy fire as yellow triangles and grey triangles for bullet impacts. In addition, a blue circle provides an all-around diagram of nearby sounds and their intensity. Can be countered by using the Sound Suppressor.
    • Cortex Bomb - a self-destructive explosive device that triggers after the player has reached 20 health points or below. It takes time to explode, and if the player is killed or healed to above 20 health points before this time, it deactivates. The explosion deals massive amounts of damage.

  • BodySpace:
    • Stealth - cloaks a player to a degree; when standing still, the player becomes almost completely invisible. Visibility increases with movement.
    • Sound Suppressor - Counters SWT by disabling sound for all enemies in range.
    • MediPlant - heals nearby teammates for 10 health every second, but drains energy very quickly. Also heals the user, but only for 4 hitpoints per second.
    • Leg Boosters - allows "charged" jumps, and turns the shift key into sprint.
    • Superconductor Capacitor Storage (SCS) - increases player's energy storage by 25 units.

Except the SCS, all implants require energy to function. Energy regenerates over time.

Classes

Dystopia is class-based, and as such, each class is unique in terms of weapons, implants, and overall performance during gameplay. Classes are identical for both factions. Each class has three unique weapons, only one of which can be carried at a time. All players are also outfitted with a silenced Machine Pistol, a mêlée weapon (Katana or Fatman Fist), and some type of hand grenade.

There are three classes:

  • Light - the quickest, most agile class, with the least amount of armor
    • Weapon Choices:
      • Shotgun - Fires a spray of pellets at enemies, most effective at close range. Alternate fire fires two shells at once for double damage.
      • Laser Sniper Rifle - The Light "Sniper Rifle", charged with primary fire, secondary fire activates scope. Primarily used for long range combat; a fully charged shot will kill light and medium classes, doing considerable damage to a Heavy class.
      • Boltgun - Fires an electrically charged bolt, charge can be released using secondary attack, damaging all enemies near the bolt. Can score a headshot.
    • Implants: 5 HeadSpace implants slots, 7 BodySpace implant slots; all implants are open
    • Grenades: EMP grenades (hinder the vision and hearing of enemies while disabling their implants and energy regeneration, along with slight damage)

  • Medium - class with average speed and average amount of armor
    • Weapon Choices:
      • Assault Rifle - A basic assault rifle with a moderately high rate of fire and moderate damage, with an alternate zoom function that also causes the rifle to enter burst fire mode. If on primary mode, rate of fire will increase over time. Can score a headshot.
      • Grenade Launcher - Fires round projectiles that will explode 3 seconds after fired. Can be remotely detonated using secondary fire.
      • MK-808 Semi-auto Rifle - The medium's "Sniper Rifle"; has a light zoom scope and does high damage. Can score a headshot.
    • Implants: 4 HeadSpace implant slots, 4 BodySpace implant slots; all implants except Stealth are open
    • Grenades: Frag grenade (does moderate damage)

  • Heavy - the slowest of the classes, but with the greatest amount of armor
    • Weapon Choices:
      • Rocket Launcher - Sends a high damage projectile which can be steered using the mouse. Has a reload duration of 15 seconds.
      • Minigun - Quickly fires slugs into the enemy, very high rate of fire, low accuracy. Can be wound up before combat at the cost of movement speed.
      • Ion Cannon - Fires a turquoise beam of energy, which does more damage at shorter ranges; secondary fire zooms in.
    • Implants: 2 HeadSpace implant slots, 1 BodySpace implant slots; all except CyberDeck, TAC Scanner, Stealth, and MediPlant are open
    • Grenades: Spider grenades (crawl along the ground, seeking out an enemy if it "sees" one)

Cyberspace

Overview
The gameplay in cyberspace is significantly different from that of the "real world." When players jack-in to a cyberspace terminal, they merely project an avatar of themselves in cyberspace; that is, their real world body is still sitting in front of the cyberspace terminal, completely vulnerable to enemy fire.

Movement is faster and more agile in cyberspace; players are able to move in giant leaps and bounds that would not be possible in normal gameplay. Cyberspace also has no absolute direction; a player can treat almost any flat surface as "ground." (However, the location of down can only be changed if walking on special gray tiles) As for weapons, there are two "attack programs" in cyberspace, each fired from the Avatar's hands: Hitscan, which fires a narrow bolt of energy that hits instantly, and Projectile, which launches an orb of energy that acts like a straight line projectile. Hitscan is fired with the primary fire button, and Projectile with the secondary fire button. The Hitscan attack takes twice as long to cooldown as the Projectile attack. Damage is drawn directly from a Hacker's energy pool; when they run out of energy, they are dumped out of cyberspace. Projectile attack does some splash damage.

As previously described, the purpose of cyberspace is to complete objectives not normally available through real-world gameplay. Such options include hacking turrets, opening doors in the real world, and capturing spawn points. This is done by accessing special terminals in cyberspace. Often, these terminals are protected and must be "hacked" into - this is a simple process which consists of using the number keys to run "hacking" programs. However, these programs take time and energy. Once a player has accessed a terminal in cyberspace, that player can encrypt or otherwise protect the terminal with similar programs (again using the number keys) to prevent an opponent's access attempts.

It is generally accepted that people new to the game should figure out decking by themselves in a private server, as an inexperienced Decker can almost certainly keep even the best of teams from winning.

Energy

While in cyberspace, a Decker's energy will drain anytime they perform an action, such as movement or interaction with a terminal. Any hacking programs initiated by the Decker (password breakers, wedges, etc.) will also drain a Decker's energy for as long as the program is running. This is especially evident when running multiple hacking programs at the same time. When more than one instance of the same program is running, the progress bar on the User Interface will show only the most recently run instance of that program. However, it does not cancel the previous hack, and will continue to drain energy based on the number of programs actually running. Any programs being run will continue to do so as long as the Decker remains in cyberspace. This means that a Decker can begin one hack and move on to another to save time. Being hit by an enemy Decker's attacks also drains energy. If the player's energy is depleted, the Decker is forcibly ejected from cyberspace, causing minor physical damage which can be dangerous if the decker is low on health, and the enemy decker gains a "cyber frag."

Programs

Deckers can install either password protection or encryption on terminals to give two different levels of protection against enemy access. Password requires less time and energy to place, but also is more easily undone by enemy deckers, whereas encrpytion requires more time and energy to place, but also is harder to undo. ICE barriers can also be erected at the entrance to a terminal room, blocking enemy access to that room. A wedge can be used to temporarily lower an ICE barrier, while an ICE breaker will remove it entirely. ICE barriers can be enhanced by adding an ICE mine. Any Decker attempting to wedge an ICE barrier that contains an ICE mine will release the mine, which will then seek them out and do severe damage to their energy pool. An ICE breaker will safely remove both the barrier and the mine without any extra energy loss to the Decker; however, in the heat of battle, speed can be very important and a wedge may be much more desirable. A popular tactic for gaining objectives quickly is to wedge and ice break at the same time, this means if you die before the objective is captured there is a greater likelihood that the next "deck" will be successful.

Maps

As of the demo release, there is only one official map: Vaccine. Vaccine pits the Punks as offense against the defensive Corporates. The Punks' objectives are to capture the docks, hack middle spawn, and destroy the core, in that order. The Corporates must defend against each of these objectives, and can retake middle spawn after it has been captured at any time, however the other objectives remain permanently in the Punks' possession.

Dystopia's "Update 4" included two new maps: Silo and Fortress.

There are several maps currently in development by fans of the game, most notably Radioshack (which is very near becoming official), and others being "dys_cryogen_v1d ", "dys_infect_b4a" and "dys_well." There are also three maps available for Deathmatch, "dys_nadewarfare," "dys_highspeed" and "dys_streetwar2proof."

Slang

Just like any game, Dystopia has slang of its own. Here is a list of slang terms seen ingame:

  • Stealther/Cloaker - a player with the Stealth implant
  • Decker/Hacker - a player with the CyberDeck implant
  • Sec room - A shortened term for the security room on the second level of Vaccine.
  • Gibson - the terminal in the security room on the second level of Vaccine (possibly a reference to the movie Hackers and an homage to William Ford Gibson, one of the first authors to write in the cyberpunk genre of literary fiction).
  • Labia - the hallway just outside of the doors for the stairs from L1 to L2 in Vaccine, named for "Lab 1A," a room in this hallway
  • Ninja - a player who uses the katana and stealth implant in combination, usually rushing or sneaking to take out enemies.
  • Samurai - a player who uses the katana as a medium, generally carrying mediplant. Able to do more damage a hit, but less rate of attack, and unable to cloak, as its ninja rival.
  • Tac - A shortened term for the TAC Scanner implant.
  • Therm - thermal vision, allowing a player to see stealthed opponents.
  • Meatspace - the real world, as opposed to cyberspace.
  • v55 - The hotkey combination for an "emote" which would be a stereotypically homosexual voice saying "I don't think so, sista!". This emote was removed in Update 4 due to excessive spamming. It is being put back in the mod in the version 1 release but with a timer as to stop the spamming issue.
  • Med - A shortened term for the medium class player.
  • Teddy - Nickname for the Spider Grenade; originating from a comic strip in PHWComics. Believed to be named after the lead coder, Teddy.
  • JIP - Stands for "Jack In Point", an area used to enter cyberspace.
  • Cap - To Capture an objective.
  • Cortex noob - refers to a person who runs into enemies with the sole purpose of exploding with the Cortex bomb implant.

External links

Half-Life mods | First-person shooters | Cyberpunk

Dystopia

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Dystopia (computer game)".

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