Sticky Questions: About GD / OBM

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    • Hi! I have 3 questions and i would be glad if you could answer:

      1. One thing that i didn't like about op4 is how weapon and enemy introductions are kinda rushed due to the fact that the game lenght is too short, how will you guys handle the the weapon/enemy introduction ? Are you planning in extending the game's lenght ?

      2. I personally think that that the Xen race has little "screen time" in op4, how much original alien enemies will be in OBM ?

      3. Do you know who ate all the doughnuts ?

      Oh and sorry for any gramatical errors, english is not my native language and im typing from my phone

    • 1. Do you have exact examples of such an introduction you didn´t like? Contrary, you can list some introduction you did like in original Half-Life. And yes, some scenes may be altered/extended/added, but we do not plan to expand the game significantly.

      2. It´s true that RaceX was dominating Opposing Force, especially in later stages. We cannot say much about this, just that the enemy placement will not be 100% same as in the original game.

      3. Horst Fuchs

    • Kilighann wrote:

      One thing that i didn't like about op4 is how weapon and enemy introductions are kinda rushed...

      Mr.sugar wrote:

      Do you have exact examples of such an introduction you didn´t like?
      I totally agree!

      Both weapons and enemies - and I would even include certain locations like the Lambda Labs, deserve to be treated with more importance at their introduction.

      Standout Introductions in Half Life

      The HEV Suit - I know this isn't a weapon, but it follows the same rules of equipment introductions - it is presented to the player in a clearly cinematic way (center tank on a raised platform), and builds anticipation by having to be unlocked via a button press. Simple extra beats like these make players excited to get their hands on your artwork.

      The Rocket Launcher - recovered from a HECU bunker just before fighting your fist Attack Helicopter.

      The Hive Hand - Discovered at the end of the long and treacherous journey through the explosive-packed warehouse.

      The Tau Cannon - By far the most cinematic introduction: an entire scene plays out between a Guard and a Scientist before the player even sees it. Only after hearing the weapon overcharge and kill the two men, with only two smoking boots left behind, does the player get to hold this radical laser gun.

      Introductions That Should be Bigger in O:BM

      The Wrench - As the old saying goes, "the melee maketh the man."
      The introduction of the wrench as the Adrian's weapon of choice is a big alarm bell to the player that "hey, this guy's different!" To me, there's even some symbolism in the fact that the scientist, meant to create and discover, uses a wrecking bar, whereas the Marine sent to silence and destroy uses a tool for construction and repair. I' think that this introduction could be made a bit more fun in two ways. First, there should be a crowbar nearby, but something causes it to slide away or become electrified, making it inaccessible or unappealing. Second, the wrench itself should be presented in a more meaningful way - perhaps it was used to repair something vital (Black Mesa announcement system, an important elevator, etc.) or was found on an ally's body (a dead Engineer?).

      The Desert Eagle - This is a second cue to Adrian's character.
      The fact that he uses a beefy, military grade sidearm with a laser sight shows that he is meant for combat. Rather than being found on a security guard (which made NO SENSE by the way) it should be found either on a recognizable squad mate from the intro (likely the Seargent originally in charge of their squad) or in a cool looking equipment case that needs to be opened first, to take suspense. If it's introduction animation hasn't already been decided on, I think it would be really cool if we saw Shephard actually attach the laser sight.

      The Biological Weapons - This is another major character bit that I don't think the original writers even realized they made.
      Gordon only uses two biological weapons throughout Half Life - the Hivehand and the Snarks. By contrast, Shephard uses Snarks, The Shock Roach, The Spore Launcher, and the Barnacle Grapple. FOUR WEAPONS, three of which require direct attachment to his hand in order to operate. To me, these always signaled Adrian as more in tune with the extraterrestrial equipment. This is both a testament to his respect for gear as a Marine, and his ultimately less violent path when compared to Gordon: Adrian only staves off an attack from the Gene Worm, forcing it back into its portal alive. Freeman commits COSMIC GENOCIDE by executing the last of the Nihilanth's race in the one place it thought it could find refuge. As a result, I think each of these bio-weapons should act as a badge of honor, recognizing Shephard's humanity in the face of apocalyptic events.

      The Displacer - This was always my favorite weapon in Opposing Force.
      Not only was it blindingly powerful, with its one-shot kills with splash damage. It gave the player more agency over how they would explore the map. Do I conserve my ammo and only use it against the strongest enemies, or do I pass through Xen, collecting more equipment and learning about parallel events. On that note, I think it would be really cool to allude to Gordon's antics in Xen - perhaps we hear the Gonarch's wail in the distance in one portal trip. In another, we're sent to a Grunt assembly line.

    • Kilighann wrote:

      I forgot the name of the chapter but is the one you find the pit drones for the first time, there are some crates in the garage and if you break them you will find a rocket launcher and some laser trip mines.

      Dr.Criss-Cross wrote:

      Kilighann wrote:

      One thing that i didn't like about op4 is how weapon and enemy introductions are kinda rushed...

      Mr.sugar wrote:

      Do you have exact examples of such an introduction you didn´t like?
      I totally agree!
      Both weapons and enemies - and I would even include certain locations like the Lambda Labs, deserve to be treated with more importance at their introduction.

      Standout Introductions in Half Life

      The HEV Suit - I know this isn't a weapon, but it follows the same rules of equipment introductions - it is presented to the player in a clearly cinematic way (center tank on a raised platform), and builds anticipation by having to be unlocked via a button press. Simple extra beats like these make players excited to get their hands on your artwork.

      The Rocket Launcher - recovered from a HECU bunker just before fighting your fist Attack Helicopter.

      The Hive Hand - Discovered at the end of the long and treacherous journey through the explosive-packed warehouse.

      The Tau Cannon - By far the most cinematic introduction: an entire scene plays out between a Guard and a Scientist before the player even sees it. Only after hearing the weapon overcharge and kill the two men, with only two smoking boots left behind, does the player get to hold this radical laser gun.

      Introductions That Should be Bigger in O:BM

      The Wrench - As the old saying goes, "the melee maketh the man."
      The introduction of the wrench as the Adrian's weapon of choice is a big alarm bell to the player that "hey, this guy's different!" To me, there's even some symbolism in the fact that the scientist, meant to create and discover, uses a wrecking bar, whereas the Marine sent to silence and destroy uses a tool for construction and repair. I' think that this introduction could be made a bit more fun in two ways. First, there should be a crowbar nearby, but something causes it to slide away or become electrified, making it inaccessible or unappealing. Second, the wrench itself should be presented in a more meaningful way - perhaps it was used to repair something vital (Black Mesa announcement system, an important elevator, etc.) or was found on an ally's body (a dead Engineer?).

      The Desert Eagle - This is a second cue to Adrian's character.
      The fact that he uses a beefy, military grade sidearm with a laser sight shows that he is meant for combat. Rather than being found on a security guard (which made NO SENSE by the way) it should be found either on a recognizable squad mate from the intro (likely the Seargent originally in charge of their squad) or in a cool looking equipment case that needs to be opened first, to take suspense. If it's introduction animation hasn't already been decided on, I think it would be really cool if we saw Shephard actually attach the laser sight.

      The Biological Weapons - This is another major character bit that I don't think the original writers even realized they made.
      Gordon only uses two biological weapons throughout Half Life - the Hivehand and the Snarks. By contrast, Shephard uses Snarks, The Shock Roach, The Spore Launcher, and the Barnacle Grapple. FOUR WEAPONS, three of which require direct attachment to his hand in order to operate. To me, these always signaled Adrian as more in tune with the extraterrestrial equipment. This is both a testament to his respect for gear as a Marine, and his ultimately less violent path when compared to Gordon: Adrian only staves off an attack from the Gene Worm, forcing it back into its portal alive. Freeman commits COSMIC GENOCIDE by executing the last of the Nihilanth's race in the one place it thought it could find refuge. As a result, I think each of these bio-weapons should act as a badge of honor, recognizing Shephard's humanity in the face of apocalyptic events.

      The Displacer - This was always my favorite weapon in Opposing Force.
      Not only was it blindingly powerful, with its one-shot kills with splash damage. It gave the player more agency over how they would explore the map. Do I conserve my ammo and only use it against the strongest enemies, or do I pass through Xen, collecting more equipment and learning about parallel events. On that note, I think it would be really cool to allude to Gordon's antics in Xen - perhaps we hear the Gonarch's wail in the distance in one portal trip. In another, we're sent to a Grunt assembly line.
      I see. The RPG/Tripmine introduction will probably change, since that was annoying in the original game.

      Summerset Banjo wrote:

      What is your favorite thing and least favorite thing about the source engine in you and your team's experience
      That´s very tough question. Source engine is not very dated engine and I think the least favourite thing about it are the tools. Things other engines can handle in split-second are still very slow to do in Source.

    • Hello!
      Will bhop, air-strafe, or bunnyhop be included in OBM?

      I personally think it was a tragedy that bhop was not included in black mesa and really alienated the original speedrun and hl:dm community.

      its truly a core mechanic from the half life series that I feel should atleast be included as an option

      Thanks :)

    • Have you ever considered the option for the full-modeled legs that can be seen from first-person perspective like in Left 4 Dead 1? I really like that the game is akin for more realistic and detailed look, so it'd be really nice if there could be the corresponding option in the settings.
      Also, I've been thinking that it'be pretty interesting to have an option in the settings to carry only two weapons in-game (plus the pistol, melee and grenades). Having the full arsenal on yourself is nice, but it's just that I like to be kinda limited in weapon choice in FPS (even as a long-term HL fan) and just switch to another weapon when out of ammo or getting bored. It's also more realistic. Of course, it's rather controversial and I don't even hope to see that in the upcoming games, but I guess I just wanted to share it.
      Thanks.

    • Ratty wrote:

      Have you ever considered the option for the full-modeled legs that can be seen from first-person perspective like in Left 4 Dead 1? I really like that the game is akin for more realistic and detailed look, so it'd be really nice if there could be the corresponding option in the settings.
      Also, I've been thinking that it'be pretty interesting to have an option in the settings to carry only two weapons in-game (plus the pistol, melee and grenades). Having the full arsenal on yourself is nice, but it's just that I like to be kinda limited in weapon choice in FPS (even as a long-term HL fan) and just switch to another weapon when out of ammo or getting bored. It's also more realistic. Of course, it's rather controversial and I don't even hope to see that in the upcoming games, but I guess I just wanted to share it.
      Thanks.
      This was discussed few times I believe. We do not have plans to include this. I must say no to your second question too. The game will be hopefuly pretty moddable, so both things can be done by community eventually.

      To get back to your second idea, it sounds nice "on the paper", but would really not work as that would totaly break the ballance. I have no doubts that for instance part with Voltigores would be very unplayable with such a limitation. To make this thing fun, entire game would have to be built around this mechanic.

    • Thank you for the answer. I too hope something like that will be established as mods in the end. After I played Brutal Doom I found out it's possible to make even the 27 y.o. game feel very fresh just by tweaking small details in a right way, so I became really interested in these ideas. Anyway, I can't wait to find out how the weapons from OBM/GD feel like as well.

    • Ratty wrote:

      Thank you for the answer. I too hope something like that will be established as mods in the end. After I played Brutal Doom I found out it's possible to make even the 27 y.o. game feel very fresh just by tweaking small details in a right way, so I became really interested in these ideas. Anyway, I can't wait to find out how the weapons from OBM/GD feel like as well.
      Agree. Making old game in new graphics and forget about modernizing other aspects would be a shame. So we really look into every aspect and if we can make it any better.

    • Skill.cfg file in this

      I love customizing in half life games and the skill.cfg file lets me do that, will there be a skill.cfg file in operation black Mesa that you can edit. If so can you make it have customizable: weapon spread, all npc health, all npc damage, helmet and armor resistances, and weapon damages: both npc and player, and lastly player health

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