Barnacle Gun Alt-fire and puzzle solving.

  • Barnacle Gun Alt-fire and puzzle solving.

    An idea came to me just now for the Barnacle Gun. While it's primary fire function pulls you towards objects how about it's alt-fire function pulls objects towards you? This alt-fire function opens up the possibilities for some new kinds of puzzle solving using the barnacle to move or pull objects from a great distance. it would of course act different from the HL2 gravity gun and would be more limited in its verstility but i could still see it creating some unique things. Such as pulling a distant lever to open the next area or perhaps you could pull some boards or even a barrel onto a spot to solve a physics puzzle.

    The reason why I bring this up is while hl1 barnacles only interacted with organic things. hl2 barnacles pulled up things like boards, barrels, and even boxes. it would be weird being on the source engine and not allow the barnacle gun to interact with at least some of these physic objects.

  • brilliant, these are really fun ideas! I'm thinking, what if the primary fire automatically pulls you towards a point like the traditional weapon, and the primary fire also pulls objects towards you, but simultaneously pressing the alt fire would give the barnacle slack so you can remain attached to something without having to let go or pull yourself in too close. I know in particular playing on op4_hairball and attaching to those grapple points in the opposing teams base, it was so freakin easy to get stuck on the wrong side of a wall or under the platform that the flag was on, just stuck there. You could be grappled on to a player with your flag but then you'd have to let go because you were stuck, making yourself completely vulnerable and losing your chance. So I'm thinking imagine if you could remain grappled but let loose and sink down to the ground a little so you can get at a better angle before pulling back in. You could even use the barnacle for some puzzle involving a wrecking ball or something attached to a large crane!

    Also, I really love the idea of energizing an electrical panel with the shockroach we gotta find a place for this ^^

  • We could even do a puzzle that combines both the use of the shock roach and the barnacle gun. Perhaps there's a circit that needs a charge to go through it but it's incomplete because a part of it is missing, a junction point is mislaigned, etc. So the player has to use the barnicle gun to pull something to connect the circit into alignment for the charge to go through.

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    Just tossing out the idea but maybe this could be incorporated for the Pitworm fight. Maybe generate a live current so the gearbox has power in the first place.

  • Another idea for puzzle solving is with the Spore launcher. since the spore takes time to explode there could be a far away object that needs to be destroyed that can be reached by the spore launcher but not regular grenades.


    Now if you guys go with my Race X base idea, from my thread regarding the last chapter, perhaps there could be organic objects or doors that have to be "fed" spores fired from the spore launcher in order to be activated. Again to add puzzle uses for opfor's more unique weapons plus to make the "Race X base" feel different and distinct from anything Xen or Black Mesa related.

  • magmasloth64 wrote:

    brilliant, these are really fun ideas! I'm thinking, what if the primary fire automatically pulls you towards a point like the traditional weapon, and the primary fire also pulls objects towards you, but simultaneously pressing the alt fire would give the barnacle slack so you can remain attached to something without having to let go or pull yourself in too close. I know in particular playing on op4_hairball and attaching to those grapple points in the opposing teams base, it was so freakin easy to get stuck on the wrong side of a wall or under the platform that the flag was on, just stuck there. You could be grappled on to a player with your flag but then you'd have to let go because you were stuck, making yourself completely vulnerable and losing your chance. So I'm thinking imagine if you could remain grappled but let loose and sink down to the ground a little so you can get at a better angle before pulling back in. You could even use the barnacle for some puzzle involving a wrecking ball or something attached to a large crane!

    Also, I really love the idea of energizing an electrical panel with the shockroach we gotta find a place for this ^^
    That slacking Alt-fire could also allow more use of the rope swinging physics!

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