Iron sights just wouldn't feel very Half-Life since at its core the series is basically a "more realistic" Quake with reloads as is, which is why i'm glad MMod went the FEAR route. The weapon variety's a weirder topic. Half-Life 1 does offer new weapons as the situation arises, but most of them have their uses in various situation beyond that and there are valid reasons to use, say, the Magnum AND the Crossbow beyond ammo conservation for either. About the only weapon that loses its luster is the Pistol, and that's still good for taking out zombies and houndeyes without wasting other ammo types; even the Crowbar can stunlock some enemies to death if you're risky.
Half-Life 2 often felt a lot more situational, as the game was even given an achievement in the Orangebox update of never firing more than one bullet all game long (though I dunno if vehicles counted for this). You got the Shotgun (finally) at Ravenholm? You're gonna get a lot of mileage out of the shotgun in Ravenholm. You got the RPG? It's reserved near-entirely for gunships and striders, with conveniently bottomless ammo boxes nearby for the occasion. The SMG and Pistol were just workhorse weapons for catch-all situations as a result, with the Pistol dropping off after the SMG basically replaces it aside from accuracy. The Crossbow gets uses a few times in the coast and war chapters, but conflicts with the Magnum as mostly just a quicker way to kill foes when they already die so easily below Hard, and the AR2 and SMG awkwardly fight over a rapid fire combat weapon position, even despite the AR2's limited ammo pool. The Crowbar doesn't stunlock enemies so it got delegated to headcrab baseball and object breaking, and even the Gravity Gun does the latter better.
Honestly, having like a four-weapon limit for situations as they arise wouldn't be that big a deal if they carry that sort of HL2 development philosophy going forwards. Maybe six weapons if we consider the crowbar and gravity gun always on-hand for quick-swapping to. While HL1 gave you different weapons to use in different situations as you please while having a few gimmicks along the way, HL2 just sort of gives you the Gravity Gun and then floats around a bunch of weapons in your inventory that are either interchangeable or entirely focused for specific situations. Can't imagine how much worse it would've been if they stuck to the Beta ideas which had even more weapons along for the ride to clutter things up with limited use.
Well, iron-sights aren't just iron-sights, when you think about it. Iron-sights imply that mechanics were designed around COD-style shooting, where it's mostly hitscan, and stop and pop. That's arguably the influence HL2 had with it's lower movement speed, and hitscan Combines that are basically 90% of what you shoot at in the game.
If there was a new Half-Life game, I'd hope it would rely more on projectiles, we've seen DOOM 2016 prove it can work on consoles, plus DOOM had an okay sized arsenal.
They could add iron sights, but removing the weapons I disagree with. Half-Life is from an era where that was an expected game mechanic, and removing it now would take away some of it's personality. Like Serious Sam or Doom or Wolfenstein, the huge arsenal has got to stay. In fact HL2's arsenal being less diverse than HL1's was an early criticism I used to hear from HL1 fans.
in Half Life 2 coded in 2003 they had you drop weapons to pick up new ones
I mean HECU Grunts were one of your main enemies in HL1. But I see what you're getting at, and Valve seems to agree given that they changed the Hunter from an AR2-style weapon to timed explosive projectiles. The commentary on the Hunter even says they wanted an enemy that changed combat from sitting in cover to running and shooting, and the Hunter's timed explosive attack and mobility were good for changing things up.
Hey, I don't know if people remember, but about a year ago I started a parody series around rewriting the events of Half-Life with the help of Botnik's predictive text program. The same bot program that wrote this.
Here's a link to the original thread postings. HL1 HL2 HL2:EP1
You all seemed to like the first 3, but I never got around to completing it. So here, after a year, is Botnik HL2: Episode 2:
Freeman hurt worse than qualified fungi. Luckily, the beyond black blindness was temporary and abandoned his mind town.
The train was beyond repair. Dog was happily jumping about because he kept his optimism for the H.E.V. suit. Barney appears again entirely somewhere safer than the train wreckage.
"Gordon will have to go on foot from here, brother! " Said Barney very intelligently.
Alyx is under the train because she might wanna grab stuff, but she is hurt and is going to feel bad soon.
Gordon lifts the gravity, pulling injured Alyx out, but she is dead. Dog is not entirely glad. Barney runs off to find research.
Gordon thinks Alyx is coming off rather stupid for being hit with artillery trains.
"People are still easier to kill than my reputation" smartly whispers Gordon into her watery ear.
Suddenly, Barney reemerges with 17 Vortigaunts with greenish bangs. Aliens are still fodder for firepower, so Gordon pulls his crowbar into combat clinking against carnage. Vortigaunts stretched thin across the grass swiftly.
Kleiner emerges from dog and lifts alyx onto nothing.
"Science is going forward again! " shouted Kleiner as he poked Alyx with a garden gate gnome.
"Yay cheese! " screamed Alyx upon living.
Gordon eyed her down. He did not trust slimy zombies, but Alyx was nice like his cat.
So before everyone else suspicious finds them, Barney, Alyx, Kleiner, and Gordon force their way over collapsing walls trying to reach white forest.
After reaching the tank base, Kleiner screams as he sees combine swimming in rocket fuel. He is quite fragile and weeps.
Gordon is behind on his beating quota, so he prepares for executions.
That was when they saw large cement rockets made for dimension rides. There were obviously more overprotective combine mothers and babies elsewhere, so Gordon ignored the wet soldiers and flew into a rocket so he could slaughter the combine home world in bloodlust.
He hit a serious red button that made charming sounds and the rocket started to take off, killing combine swimmers with glee.
"Dr. Freeman, the questioning was not finished" said a voice behind him. Gordon was into dark rooms again and entered Gman. But Gman was dead so Eli got the new lawyer suit.
"My daughter hates synonyms! " he said, hitting Gordon with his briefcase. Freeman blacked out due to shocking violent words.
Go look at Bioshock Infinite and tell me if that did anything good for the series.
exchanging weapons has its place, but half-life really aint where i think of it. i love it in halo for instance, but the gameplay is just so different there.
half-life's always been more like a slower quake to me. idk if a new half-life game now would be the place for that kind of experimentation.
god, I forgot how nova prospekt on hard was such a FUCKING TRASH FIRE
if ur playing mmod keep in mind its a lot tougher in general
Iron sights could be fine if they were optional, and not the gun doesn't hit shit unless you use the ironsights. The whole point of Ironsights in shooters of the last 15 years has been to slow down gunplay and movement.
Half-life 2 has a big problem with the weapon's hit scan nature, in that the weapons accuracy is always the same and always works in a random cone. It makes weapons frustrating at times. Tap firing should be more accurate than just holding down fire, but in Source games, it doesn't matter which you use due to always being cone.
Simulated projectiles aren't hard to implement, nor exceptionally demanding. The original halo uses simulated projectiles for every weapon, and aside from the assault rifle, weapon's don't have a fixed cone of fire. Projectile spread increases the more you fire, so the first shot is always accurate.
Limited weapon choice doesn't really work for half-life though. Many weapons have situational and general use, and limiting what you can carry can ruin an encounter. Back with Halo again, I know that if there's a rocket launcher, then up ahead are vehicles or big enemy, which takes out the surprise.
The thing that always bugged me most with Half-life 2 is the lack of weapon variety and too much redundancy. There's no fantastic or odd weapons, and nothing that's really alien. As said earlier, every weapon has overlap or is made redundant by another. The gravity gun ends up being the solve everything tool once you have it, as once it's in hand you never need to shoot a gun again (though you do need to use the RPG for a few encounters after that).
Come to think of it, there was a mod a played a while back that gave you a 4 weapon limit. Two of those weapons were the gravity gun and crowbar (which could not be dropped), so you could only pick two other weapons up. I can't recall what mod that was though, it's been quite a while. It might have been an MP mod. What ever it was, it wasn't great.
Not to sound elitist, but in my opinion, ironsights were invented mostly to help with controller aiming. Turn around rapidly, but when precision is needed, toggle ironsights. There's no use for this when you're playing with a mouse. In fact, if you want a run-think-shoot-live type of rapid game, ironsights would take away from that, forcing you to slow down and shoot an enemy, instead of "dancing" around it.
I'm on the same train with having all weapons held at once, I think amno or situation should be what control the guns used.
I do like power weapons though, having mounted guns, and short-term OP stuff is certainly something to experiment with.
bull.
HL2's Pistol and AR2 have better shots with tapping. Only SMG1 doesn't but it doesn't matter since it's designed to be all-around crappy (sans GL).
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the AR2 is far better tapping.
The SMG1 also gets infinite ammo during the highway levels.
I just got a weird flashback that Hazard Coarse Barney's voice reminds me of Dale Gribble.
Shots taken from the same place on the dock, except the bottom one which was a crate distance from the wall. 30 shots from single button press, each shot taken after the fire sound ends, vs 30 shots of just holding the button down and crosshair in one place (one shot always goes high due to the recoil climb).
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/2151/34f32053-520b-43e2-89a4-9f17db53080f/spread.jpg
The spread is the same, the recoil of the AR2 just makes auto seem worse since it causes the crosshair to climb and move left or right.
Hmm, Far Cry, FEAR and STALKER were originally designed for PC only, and while they didn't have true ironsights, they all had an 'aim' button that zoomed in your view slightly, increased your accuracy, and made you move slower. A year before COD Modern Warfare popularised ironsights, Red Orchestra came out, a PC-only game with proper ironsights.
I think it was just a general move towards 'realism'. People realised that FPS protagonists ran around like Rambo, shooting from-the-hip, despite the fact that guns have sights on them, and if you stand still, put the gun to your shoulder and actually aim the damn thing then you should be able to shoot far more accurately.
There's actually plenty of history of HL2 having ironsights, thanks to SMOD.
With a bit of help from Onemanshow, I created SMOD Remastered (the first modded version of SMOD... a mod of a mod). Onemanshow then went on to make SMOD Redux. One of the many nifty features of SMOD Remastered and SMOD Redux is that all the HL2 guns have proper ironsights. Standard SMOD uses the default MP7 / pulse rifle models and so the ironsights looked a bit bleh, but we replaced them with better-looking MP7/pulse rifle models with proper good-looking ironsights.
And yes, playing through Half-Life 2 with guns that have proper ironsights is great. They aren't essential - you can still shoot the MP7 or Pulse Rifle with the same degree of accuracy (or inaccuracy) as in regular HL2 - but it is also great having the option of moving slowly and shooting a small/distant enemy with more accuracy.
In fact, come to think of it... old Blood 2: The Chosen had a submachine gun that was spray-and-pray in primary fire, but a secondary fire where you put the stock to your shoulder and fired accurate 3-round-bursts.
I am delighted that MMOD has overhauled the bullet mechanics in the game, and given you the ability to aim your gun. I think it's a bit of a shame that he's decided to go with 'zoomin in' rather than ironsights. I know that in the first release the pistol had ironsights, the MP7 zoomed in, and people complained about the inconsistency and so he's made the pistol just zoom in as well.
I'd have preferred it if instead he'd given the MP7 decent ironsights. It's been done before in SMOD, and it's been done a ton of Call of Duty and Battlefield games, there have been plenty of games where an MP7 has had a good-looking red dot sight or holosight or whatever. For those than grumble that ironsights don't belong in HL2... well you can simply play the game without pressing the 'aim' button, and it'll play exactly the same as regular HL2.
Doom and Wolfenstein have shown that it's still cool to carry a lot of weapons at once. I don't feel there's really a need to add ironsights, HL2 introduced the zoom feature.
Anyone bugged by that blue empty shelf that LOOK like you can "build" yourself but disappointingly can't? Well me neither, but I did it anyway
https://imgur.com/a/wzeoTr4
Should I make a thread in Developer?
I would. I've been following you remaking these collision meshes and I honestly want all of the props to be redone - where there can be improvement.
And during Anticitizen One / Follow Freeman, if you have followers they'll give you free SMG ammo if you're low on it. That whole chapter also kicks off with an SMG Crate outside Kleiner's lab and I think there's another one somewhere along the way. Basically the SMG is your baseline automatic weapon while the AR2 is your special automatic.
Great stuff!
Er, so was FEAR wrong to have aiming in it, then? FEAR has an aim button, that makes you zoom in slightly, and move slower, and be more accurate. It's also a game where you can run around at speed, you can leap into people and do kung fu kicks on them. It also has several dedicated sniper weapons - the ASP burst-fire rifle, and the particle cannon. Yet in a pinch you can zoom in your SMG or assault rifle for a better shot at an enemy that's shooting down at you or is partially behind cover.
Aiming is totally optional in FEAR, you could just use the SMG at shotgun at short range and then keep an ASP or particle cannon for long range, and never need to aim your SMG. Did the makers of FEAR 'half-ass' that game mechanic? Your game shouldn't have aiming in it unless you have situations where you've got no choice but to go up against a sniper with a submachine gun?
What about a game where you can either fight with a sword or gun, or you can use magic or telekinetic powers? Are the game mechanics half-assed if it doesn't force you to use magic to progress, or doesn't force you to use a sword? What about Deus Ex? Did that half-arse something because it didn't force you to hack computers to progress, or didn't force you to use stealth?
Whatever happened to allowing players to play the game they want to play it? "No, you can't have an aim function on your assault rifle, because then you'd have no reason to use this sniper crossbow! (Despite it being a one-hit kill, and really satisfying because it nails people to walls.) If you want to shoot a distant enemy, you'll switch to the fucking crossbow, and YOU'LL LIKE IT."
You don't get the Magnum till half way through Water Hazard. You don't get the crossbow till half way through Highway 17. If you don't have those weapons yet, or you are out of ammo for them, and there are some metrocops shooting you from a high, distant vantage point. The inaccurate MP7 will take about 30 shots to hit him.In vanilla HL2 your only option is the 9mm pistol, that's the only thing that has enough accuracy. OK, wow, found a use for the boring pistol that everyone forgets about once they've got any decent weapons. How does it hurt the game if you can hit an aim button to boost the accuracy of your MP7 and kill that metrocop with 10 shots rather than 30?
And what's this bullshit about 'Half-Life is about speed'? I've been playing Half-Life 1 and a gazillion Half-Life mods for 20 years and I've never played it running around fast. I'm just a scientist, forced into a situation with dangerous aliens and soldiers. I'm not charging in there and mowing them all down, going "AAAARRRRGGHHHHH!!!!" like Rambo or Rex Power Colt.
It seems like you play Half-Life as it if were classic Doom or Quake and spend all your time circle strafing and kiting the monsters and marines. I prefer to peek out from behind a crate, chuck a grenade to flush out a soldier and then gun him down when he's in exactly the right spot.
The Unforseen Consequences and Office Complex chapters of HL1 actually do a great job of subtly teaching the player about using cover. http://thegamedesignforum.com/features/rd_hl_2.html (Which wasn't really a thing in games like Doom or Quake.) It teaches you to take things carefully and not panic.
If you're all about charging into the fray, then any kind of aiming function isn't for you. But the game never forced you to run-and-gun. HL1 had an aiming function, players that want to run-and-gun would still run-and-gun, and players that want to take it slowly and carefully would still take it slowly and carefully, but with the added option of being able to actually aim their military submachine gun.
Hell, HL1's soldiers crouch and aim their guns and shoot in three round bursts; yet somehow it would break the game if Gordon was able do the same thing?
They also sprint full-tilt everywhere, so they've kinda just nabbed the best of both worlds.
HECU grunts disappear at some point, and HL1 has Vorts, Alien controllers, bullsquids - all enemies who's damage you can avoid (vorts are hitscan, but have a wind-up animation).
HL2 only really has zombies, headcrabs, and antlions, who stop attacking you after you get bugbait
Portal 2's release date is now closer to Half-Life 2's release date than it is to today.
that's because it's that kind of game. Ironsights less useful the better you are at arcade shooters.
All opponents have means to have their attack cancelled by the player, via either retreat, flinch or death. If you don't act fast then you allow npcs to get free hits on you which is the opposite of the goal.
You can move extremely fast in HL1 and you still can in HL2 (albeit you need to know what you're doing in source). Even doom3 which was a huge change of pace for the series is still relatively fast and arcade-ish.
https://s.gvid.me/s/2019/01/21/poster-19-01-21%2016-29-41.png
models/props_vehicles/carparts_tire01a.mdl
Also, I wouldn't object to a thread in the developer section, though I don't know how much traction it'll bring.
I'd support a Gmod workshop addon with fixed collision models.
I'm just going to quickly mention that this the mark of somebody who sucks at having fun. FEAR gives you so many health/slow mo max boosters + grenades and medkits that its really not hard to just run around slide kicking and blowing shit up in slow mo.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.