Comments - SabreXT

Good stuff. Well done.

Good stuff. I noticed that the leg model on the kick is different with the HEV suit on and off as well. Nice detail.

Nice idea.

Sounds like the right call. One of the things that stops me enjoying repeat runs of Half-Life is the over long tram and intro section I've played dozens of times. Ditto with the various long, boring "unskipable cutscenes" in Half-Life 2. So much so I've been tempted to make maps that are one empty room with just a level transition to replace them. I'm reminded of the bridge scene in ep 2 where there's barrels blocking the way and that's enough to keep most first time players on track. That's a way better solution.

My mod might have had 30 seconds of non-story, but I had exposition guy easily be ran past on repeat playthroughs. Yeah, it's not "realistic", but having the player being able to ignore the story, be it by skipping cutscenes or running past everyone is more valuable than forcing them to sit through talking that they hate.

If the section is complete, why not record it and upload it somewhere?

"I had to laugh when I walked into the huge outdoor area halfway up."
Thanks. I hoped that someone would get a kick out of that. When no one mentioned it I assumed it fell flat.

The lighting I never really thought about. If I do more mapping in the future, I'll try to do something more interesting.

Yeah, the ending is flat. As said in the deleted scenes article, I originally planned for something bigger and more interesting, but poor Half-Life couldn't take it.

Thanks for the kind words. :)

I guess it is a bit too easy, but in my defence, I'm not a fan of mods that are super difficult, or mods where it's possible to get yourself in an unwinnable situation. Maybe it's something I can work on if I ever do any more Half-Life maps?

One thing I noticed is that some of these are games that had a bad reputation when it comes to enemies.

In Mirror's Edge for example, the enemies got in the way of the high speed platforming stuff.

Valve has canonised mods before, but I think creative differences would get in the way first. Black Mesa, Guard Duty, and the other mods that set out to remake an old game have not only taken years, but some people aren't happy with this or that minor change.

Having to make tough calls on what stuff to keep or cut (the leaked resource collecting, randomised spawns, etc), as well as the specifics of how the story would play out. I can't realistically see how they would do it.

I've considered making my own Episode 3 mod, if my current mod is reasonably well received. Though I would make it in Half-Life 1 for various reasons I won't get in to here.

There are 2 problems with Episode 3 mod. One is doing the material justice. It would have to something of the scale and quality of Black Mesa, and I don't see that happening in a reasonable time frame. Black Mesa still isn't done after almost a decade.

The other is that the Half-Life 2 community tends to be picky when it comes to their head canon, as you and the maker of Cinematic Mod found out. I think that if an Episode 3 mod was released, there'd be backlash from the community for not conforming to their particular head canon.

I thought the whole point of using the SourceSDK's was to prevent this kind of problem?

Sticking to re-compile only seems fine, unless it's a small number of quick fixes.

It's been a year? Damn, I'm behind.

For what it's worth, I agree with you for the most part. I think the mod has some serious issues, but the bashing it got was way overboard. I remember one video where a guy was playing the mod, he seemed to go in looking to hate it, and went on a rant that the metro cops had been replaced with army guys. I'm kind of reminded of the hate Cinematic Mod used to get. I think part of it is when something goes against their head-canon, the Half Life community jumps on it and tries to tear it down.

I thought you were going to make an indie game?

"I won't deny, seeing art assets that are clearly from other franchises does break me out of the world that Leon has crafted"
Likewise. There was a modder who changed some to more in line with Half Life. Not all of it is good imo, but for me, re-adding the combine back into the mod really helps the feel of it.

I tend not to vote in mod of the year, because there's so many good mods, how can I possibly choose? >_<

I strongly disagree about Greenlight "literally killing the market". I remember before Greenlight existed, there was constant complaints about how you were either one of the lucky few to get on Steam, or you were doomed to failure. Now Valve has opened the floodgates, people are turning around and complaining that simply being on Steam doesn't guarantee success. You can't have it both ways.

The deleted guest comment was me. I thought I was logged in, but apparently not.

I didn't know this was on here, and with a new release too. I'm was part way through replaying this mod.

Yeah, I want to make sure all the Half-Life 1 stuff, maybe Half Life 2 and Doom, but I assume Doom is all sorted.

Is there any kind of organized effort? A forum thread to co-ordinate maybe?

I didn't know you were on the Black Mesa team. Congrats.

Scavenging for loot seems a strange choice. I thought this was an action game, not a survival game?

Maybe. There's a game called Progress Quest that reminded me of your game, as you litterally pick your stats (which seem meaningless) and then the computer plays a RPG for you, in plain text and progress bars.

There's a number of ideas I've had in the past that have since become "big". Having weak AI in a multiplayer game is one example. Although my execution was going to be way different, DotA and LoL are pretty big right now. Halo Warzone with creeps was much closer to what I had planned.

Ultimately though, it's not about what ifs, but what was. We can run around claiming we were first, but no one will believe us, and if they did, it wouldn't mean anything. Sure, we'd get recognition for starting a game design fad, and that's it really.

There's a few games that actually beat big names to the punch. The Guardian Legend did the whole "action game with persistant RPG mechanics" thing way before it was popular. Death by Degrees, while not a very good game, has a structure and combat system similar to Batman Arkham Asylum. There are many others, but I won't go into them here.
Games like Parasite Eve 2 and Dino Crisis 2 felt like they were ahead of their time, and while they never got much mainstream recognition, I won't be surprised if at some point there's a smash hit game or mod that uses a similar structure or mechanics. Although the core concept of "kill stuff = m guns to kill stuff" has been done a fair amount, the execution hasn't quite matched those games.

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Card war was great. Hopefully more ballanced, and SC has a larger verity of enemies than OC had.

Related to that, there's a single player Half Life 2 mod that you might be interested in called Swarm, which is basically a NPC war where you buy various upgrades with points gained from killing enemies. Moddb.com

Black Mesa: Special Tactics Sector sounds a lot like Card War from Obsidian Conflict. I liked that map, so it will be interesting to see it in Sven Co-op.

Why no updates?

"Removed politically incorrect and offensive graffiti, posters and Easter eggs."
Why?

Having read these articles, I think your game failed to get across the ideas you wanted it to. Though I suspect this comment will be written off with the same attitude the game is meant to condemn.

First, I want to say I don't like this idea that's been appearing in games recently which says not playing the game is how to win, or at least presented as a viable option. Even ignoring that, in this context it doesn't work. As GamerGate has shown recently, SJWs and corrupt journalists want people to be silent. Though sitting out of flame wars and not bothering with troll comments, I get.

Anyway, onto the issue with the game itself. Parody, satire, whatever it is you want to criticise (online behaviour in this case) involves highlighting the absurdity of what you're critiquing. Simply doing the same thing doesn't do anything. A good example is Police Squad. It made fun of cop show cliches, it didn't just make yet another bad day time cop show. This is why I feel your game might have missed the mark with so many people, because the trollish behaviour and self righteous attitude is a reflection of how many such people act.

How long have you been working on this?

Looking good so far.

I liked this game back when there were players, then the players went away. :(

This is why competitive games need bots.

Also, when your (or in rare cases, valves) internet is down, and you're locked out of half your installed games. Most you can just open the .exe in the steam folder though.

Also, games with mandatory updates.

I saved a bunch when I stopped buying £1-£2 games on sale that I never got round to playing.

I've started playing CS-GO, now I'm getting steam money from selling case drops. I wonder who it is who's buying all these cases me and my friends sell, but now I know the truth.

or save his parents.