S4 League (Korean: S4리그) is a third-person shooter multiplayer game developed by Pentavision and published by Neowiz Games in 2006. It is hosted exclusively in Korea by Neowiz Games. It has been hosted in Europe since 2008 and North America since 2010 by alaplaya.[1]
Gameplay[ | ]
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Game modes[ | ]
A Touchdown match.
S4 League has currently six modes to play: Touchdown, Captain, Deathmatch, Chaser, Arcade, and Battle Royal. For all except Arcade, a weapon restriction can be set like "Sword-Only," which restricts users to melee weapons and limited skills.
Players must have at least one weapon and one skill equipped in order to enter a room and play.
Touch Down(TD)[ | ]
Two goals are set up on either side of a field. The player must grab the ball called a "Fumbi" and take it to the opposite team's goal in order to score a Touchdown. The Fumbi also quickly drains the SP of the player holding it, which results in the use of skills being disabled until the Fumbi is dropped or the character dies. Passing through a gate or falling off the map will "reset" the Fumbi, which returns it to the starting position. There are 7 maps.
Death Match (DM)[ | ]
Places up to six people on each team, and has the player fight for a set amount of points or until the time runs out. There are six maps.
Battle Royal (BR)[ | ]
Consisting of Free For All - Death Match, where every player fends for themselves. There are no teams, and no limits. Places up to 12 players up against one another to fight for a set amount of points or until the time runs out. A target also appears on the highest scoring player as the match progresses. The player that kills the marked player is rewarded with more points for the kill. There are only two maps.
Chaser[ | ]
One player is chosen randomly to become the Chaser. The Chaser's objective is to dominate the survivors in the given time, or survive if the survivors are too powerful, which is unlikely since the Chaser receives a huge attack and defense bonus, and reload time is shortened. The Chaser's vision is also limited, since the Chaser Doll is blocking part of the visible area, and the survivors are outlined in red and black from his/her eyes. The players who are not chosen as the Chaser are the survivors. Their objective is to either kill the Chaser or survive in the time given. When enough attack power is implied on the Chaser,measured by a bar, the player receives 2 bonus points. While in a round, the player who is in 1st place and is not the Chaser is the "Target". The Target will always have visible cross-hairs which can be seen as long as the target is in your viewing screen. If the Target is killed, the Chaser receives double points and the next player on the ranking list is the Target as long as he/she's alive. There are also damage rankings, which are awarded to players if they either harm the Chaser enough with ranged or close-ranged weapons. Damage rankings give off bonus EXP at the end of the match. There are 4 maps and one more in the Korean version of S4 League.
Arcade[ | ]
The player can play the storyline of S4 League. It pits 1–4 players to work together to complete 8 stages against computer opponents, with three difficulty levels to choose from. Each stage has a different objective, from either defeating all the waves of enemies, protecting a NPC friend, or defeating a boss. Before and after each stage, there are cut scenes that advance the story further. Players get 6 P-Coins a day, which can be used for extra lives. They reset every day and do not stack. If the player runs out of lives and dies during Arcade, they must pay 300 PEN per re-spawn. From completing Arcade, players receive PEN for completing each stage.
Captain Mode[ | ]
Players are split into 2 teams, 6v6 max. It pits both teams against each other like DM mode, and the objective of this mode is to kill all the captains. The "captain" status is acquired at the start of the rounds, and the winner of the game is determined by the best of ___ amount (best out of 9 for example). The round starts with everyone who is at the start of the round with captain status which grants the base of 500 hp if teams are even, and increases according to the amount of players on each team. Everyone who joins in that round after it starts or dies as a captain becomes a normal player hunting for the captain. The Normal player's job is to either protect the remaining captains or hunt down the other captains which is easier due to a tracking system on the map (only available when the player is not a captain). A team wins the round if they eliminate all the captains on the opposing team or have more Captains when time is up. If both teams have equal amount of captains when time runs out, the winner is decided by the total HP remaining on both teams' captains. A map was added with the "Dark Lightning" patch. There are now 2 maps in all.
Weapons and Skills[ | ]
All weapons and skills offer a "license" which allows a player to test a weapon or skill for a period of time. Licenses may only be obtained once through the license training. Weapons can cause criticals which increase the damage done per hit. Weapons do critical attacks when head-shot attacks occur, yet some weapons only do critical attacks when the attacker is at the same height as his target.
Weapons are divided into 6 classes: Shooting, Heavy, Sniping, Mental, Installation and Close Range Weapons. Skills are only divided into two classes: Active and Passive.
Costumes[ | ]
Along with weapons and skills, S4 supports a large selection of clothing items including shirts, head decorations, pants, shoes, and gloves. All items can be upgraded to give additional bonuses to damage, damage reduction, HP and SP, and other benefits such increasing moving speed.
Items in the shop are usually part of a set but may be mixed and matched freely. Completing a set does not give any additional bonuses. Some items require the player to reach a certain level before using, but also do not give any additional bonuses. Damage applied to equipment during Touchdown matches are reduced if the player is killed while holding the Fumbi.
Tournaments and Events[ | ]
Several tournaments are frequently organized by the S5 Judge Staff along with the AlaPlaya S4L Event Team. Each month the monthly S5 Versus Tournament is held (normally during the last Saturday of each month). Players sign up for each tournament using the AlaPlaya Ticket System (similar to a Personal Message system) that allows users to contact administrative AlaPlaya staff and be signed up for said tournament. The normal amount of maximum applicants signed up for each tournament is 600, even tough a lot more players apply. Also, once a year, the AlaPlaya S4L Event Team along with the S5 Judge Staff organize the S4League World Cup where players from all over the globe may participate, no matter what country they are from. The AP S4L Event Team also hosts various Events each weekend, and sometimes periodical small tournaments (with special rules, such as "Alpha Team chases and kills Beta Team players with ONLY Plasma Swords in the First Half, with roles reversed in the Secon Half". On Tournaments AP rewards are given to the winners (Top 3 Players/Teams) and on Events, PEN rewards are given (normally, to the Top 3 Players of each team).
S5 Judge Staff :
- Reiki.Kito (S5 Master Admin)
- Scyn (Tournament Commissioner)
- Solfur
- Frail
- Alice*
- Fake
- CautioN (Retired)
- Femme (Retired)
- Prostitute
- Ferre1ra
- Hikaru
- Scotexix
- eXeD
- Taeyeon (Volunteer)
- sCRY-NoctiS (Volunteer)
- SamiboySE
- Godzillasaurus
- Versa
Networking system[ | ]
S4 League uses a P2P & P2S2P connection in order for players to play in matches. When a player connects to a match, they become connected to the other players in the match as well as the server itself. The ball/Fumbi movements in Touchdown Mode is server-based. Player movements, actions & attacks are based on the player connections. However, when it is impossible for two players to connect properly through a P2P connection, the game will force them to connect through a server. In this case, the PING between the two players is replaced with one's PING to the server with the letters "(R)(T)" behind it, standing for "Relay Tunnel".
PSP edition[ | ]
A special version of the game called S4 Portable is in the works for the PlayStation Portable game system since 2008.[2] However, since nothing has been announced, normal speculation is that it has been canceled.
References[ | ]
- ↑ "Alaplaya announces European S4 League". http://www.gamershell.com/companies/burda_ic_gmbh/444182.html. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
- ↑ "Pentavision announces S4 League". http://darkdiamond.net/web-notes/pentavision-announces-s4-league/. Retrieved 2008-09-13.