Black Mesa Source

[FMPONE]

3 hours ago, Radu said:

Might be a bit of a stretch, but I think Black Mesa is a good opportunity to talk about this type of traditional design. Yeah, it doesn't offer much replayability. You can play through it once or twice and can say that you're done with it, whereas an open world game can offer sometimes an entirely different experience with each playthrough. But how many people even manage to get through to the end? This is entirely personal, but when games go over 15-20 hours, they become almost a chore to finish. Sure, there's some exceptions, like Borderlands, you do need a bit of a change every now and then. However, every Far-Cry game, although I've enjoyed, felt like it overstayed it's welcome after 20 hours. I would rather play something more directed that has a proper sequence of events and gets you to the end of the story. Since you mentioned "pc games" I can't really use Naughty Dog's games now can I?  but I would point at those for more recent examples. Hell, take Titanfall 2 for instance. Its short 4 hours sp campaign is regarded as one of the best, which I have to agree with. Doom 2016, even more of a stretch back than Black Mesa or Half-life 2 in its design. And there's plenty of hype around the upcoming Doom: Eternal. As much as companies have shifted to big open world games (which are easier to monetise), there's still a big space to be filled by more traditional linear games.

Regarding the hype, idk, look at every successful game/film sequel and what they did right. Take what made your game good to begin with, improve on the weaker areas and then add that extra something which might be what I was mentioning earlier - a systemic design or if you're into a more open metroidvania level design - maybe what Metro: Exodus went for.

The VR might work for the novelty, but it's still gonna be limiting compared to traditional games. That's what kind of sits bad with me. We're taking a step forward when it comes to immersion, but taking one backwards in terms of gameplay. How will it hold out over the years, because HL2 still does even now, as rough around the edges as it may be.

Ultimately I'm not sure yet another traditional sp campaign would really raise the stakes much. So, let’s say they did do a really nice Titanfall 2 style HL3... I'm not sure that would be that hype or new or different or exciting enough at this point, or even a few years ago. They themselves raised the stakes so much by delaying EP3 on and on, to the extent that they would really have to do something crazy. At least VR is a big enough risk to meet that burden.

[Pampers]

Replayed BMS to check out the new Xen part, and honestly the first part of the game hasn't aged well at all. And it's still the soldier combat that feels so lacking, no cool radio chatter, they basically out gun you from >15m engagement ranges. The submachine guns feels so bad to shoot, idk just didn't sit right at all. Xen on the other hand I am very impressed with. Looks great for a source game, and is a fresh take on the whole Xen part

[JeanPaul]

Im glad you liked xen!

The lack of marine chatter is a bug and will be fixed. Also youre in luck because our release coming out of early access will include a human grunt ai overhaul and a ton of small earthbound map refinements

[-HP-]

I'm almost done replaying HL2 EP2 and I've got hungry af for more HL. perfect opportunity to play this.

[JeanPaul]

Update time!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1711867920418803575

@Pampers I urge you to replay the earthbound maps with our new marine AI and combat space refinements. The AI is an incredible improvement imo. They have classes, bark all their voice lines loud and clear, and will flank the ever living crap out of you . 

We also implemented our improved vorts from the alien maps into all the earthbound chapters. The new vorts run around the combat spaces a ton more, actively dodge your attacks mid fight, and had a lot of their timings changed so they feel like an actual thinking creature out to get you. They also have a new AOE slam attack that damages you and pushes you back if you get to close so watch out!

I really cannot state enough how much the combat has improved its legitimately like a whole new game in certain areas and that much closer to the old half life feel.

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by JeanPaul

[fewseb]

1 hour ago, JeanPaul said:

They have classes, bark all their voice lines loud and clear,

Hey I just played it and was wondering a couple things

-Are the different voice lines indicative of different classes, I noted most of the shotgun soldiers have the deeper pitch and play more aggressive soundbytes. But at the same time some regular soldier used the pitched down voice lines?

-Are the new voice lines just pitch down versions of the old ones or are they new in some way and were they also voiced by Mike Tsarouhas?

[-HP-]

2 hours ago, JeanPaul said:

Update time!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1711867920418803575

@Pampers I urge you to replay the earthbound maps with our new marine AI and combat space refinements. The AI is an incredible improvement imo. They have classes, bark all their voice lines loud and clear, and will flank the ever living crap out of you . 

We also implemented our improved vorts from the alien maps into all the earthbound chapters. The new vorts run around the combat spaces a ton more, actively dodge your attacks mid fight, and had a lot of their timings changed so they feel like an actual thinking creature out to get you. They also have a new AOE slam attack that damages you and pushes you back if you get to close so watch out!

I really cannot state enough how much the combat has improved its legitimately like a whole new game in certain areas and that much closer to the old half life feel.

 

 

[blackdog]

Awesome @JeanPaul, I still have never played Black Mesa, waiting for the Xen maps. Been playing on the PS4 as of lately but a good jump back in HL would be nice.

I was being put off the thought by what was being said, of the discrepancy in quality between Black Mesa and Xen levels.

[JeanPaul]

Well now is your chance

20 hours ago, fewseb said:

Hey I just played it and was wondering a couple things

-Are the different voice lines indicative of different classes, I noted most of the shotgun soldiers have the deeper pitch and play more aggressive soundbytes. But at the same time some regular soldier used the pitched down voice lines?

-Are the new voice lines just pitch down versions of the old ones or are they new in some way and were they also voiced by Mike Tsarouhas?

Only the gasmask marines use new lines which are just pitched down Tsarouhas recordings.

[-HP-]

 

 

 

Love how after what, 15+ years? This comes out a couple weeks before the new official HL game! xD

[will2k]

Played the mod version upon release back in 2012

Played it a second time upon commercial release on steam in 2015

Guess I'll be playing the third time soon, now that it's complete with Xen and out of early access.

Well done to the devs for persevering for so long against all odds.

@JeanPaul @shawnolson great work and congrats on the release!

[blackdog]

Imagine what they can do with Opposing Force

[Squad]

Congratz to everyone who was involved at some point in the 15-years development cycle! I'm looking forward to playing the full version  

[Buddy]

53 minutes ago, blackdog said:

Imagine what they can do with Opposing Force

We'll find out in 2036!

[-HP-]

Is there a way to map controller inputs? Options only seem to allow for keyboard and mouse mapping. I enjoy playing with a controller on my couch, and some of the default controller inputs aren't exactly to my liking.

Edit: Nvm, I'm a retard it's right there next to the main input bindings category.

 

Some random other thoughts, both good and bad. 

- Feels weird how the flashlight is located around the waist of the character, it usually creates some pretty long and buggy shadows.

- the texture of the players hands is really dark. Even in bright areas, your hands are just a black void. 

- great checkpoint system, no need to constantly f6 / f9.

- This game needs an option to make crouch a toggle

- thank you for removing that annoying crouch during jump mechanic.

- grenades take a second too long to explode it feels like. By the time they explode, most enemies already moved out of the aoe. Frustrating. 

- sometimes i find myself in a situation where I've got 1hp and i gotta take down 4 or 5 soldiers, and there's no health packs anywhere. Could this be remedied by, if player has <= 10 hp, breakable boxes always spawn a couple of health packs?

- soldiers feel a tad bullet spongy, and their aim is ruthless.

- shotgun / reloading behavior just feels off. If you click fire during reload, it will finish the reload anim then auto fire when anim ends, probably better to one click stop reloading then click again to fire.