Half-Life 2: Enhancement Mod (V5) - Games

Whilst we're on the subject of the combine sniper.... Why not have the Ep2 rifle model mounted on a ledge and have the Combine soldier use the same animations that the mounted turret gunners use (see canal levels and the beach en route to Nova Prospekt). As for the whole grenades thing just have some barricaded crap around the sniper like bits of corrugated iron that covers the whole window with the exception of the hole for the rifle to stick out of and perhaps a space for grenades to be thrown into. Or even a basic energy field that only covers half the window leaving space for grenades

Because that would require extra work, and would make using grenades (the only means of killing them) into a trick-shotting game. Plus as said before, having them out of sight reinforces the idea that you can't kill them through ordinary means.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;41003629]Because that would require extra work, and would make using grenades (the only means of killing them) into a trick-shotting game. Plus as said before, having them out of sight reinforces the idea that you can't kill them through ordinary means.[/QUOTE] I don't think he means a tiny little pillbox-slit of a hole, but something more like what HL1 did. In HL1, snipers were functionally exactly the same. The difference is that they were behind some basic foliage and camo tarps, which grenades could be thrown through. This implied that the sniper was seriously dug in, and that there's a helluva lot of stuff that he's hiding behind. We already know that the combine have permeable shields that block everything sans bullets, so who's to say they can't have the opposite mounted for the snipers? I'm sure it wouldn't be too much work, because all you need is a noclipped brush in the window space and the actual sniper NPC does the rest. No extra challenge and negligible workload. [QUOTE=MrBunneh;41003848]having one of those combine fields over the window would feed be detrimental to gameplay. the whole way up to your first meeting with snipers has taught you that those fields don't let anything past, and then you want to put the [i]opposite[/i]? that's such horrible game design I don't know where to begin to be honest.[/QUOTE] Point taken. But then it doesn't have to be a shield. As long as it's something non-colliding that fits the scene, it'll have the same effect.

having one of those combine fields over the window would feed be detrimental to gameplay. the whole way up to your first meeting with snipers has taught you that those fields don't let anything past, and then you want to put the [i]opposite[/i]? that's such horrible game design I don't know where to begin to be honest.

Okay what about adding an invisible metal plate (doable with a simple brush) just above and to the sides of the laser? That way if you fire into the window, you'll get visual (sparks and ricochets) and audio (metal impact sounds) feedback that should very clearly tell you that '[I]this enemy is behind heavy cover and cannot be shot[/I]'.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;41004579]Okay what about adding an invisible metal plate (doable with a simple brush) just above and to the sides of the laser? That way if you fire into the window, you'll get visual (sparks and ricochets) and audio (metal impact sounds) feedback that should very clearly tell you that '[I]this enemy is behind heavy cover and cannot be shot[/I]'.[/QUOTE] It'd also say "Shit that guys is behind heavy cover and my grenade will probably just bounce right back at me"

[QUOTE=I am Error;41004968]It'd also say "Shit that guys is behind heavy cover and my grenade will probably just bounce right back at me"[/QUOTE] And having visual cover in the way wouldn't send the same message? I'm still for not changing the sniper at all. Just leave it the way it is, it's fine.

I didn't actually say visual cover is good. I've thought about this as long as it has been up for discussion over here, and I seriously can't think of any other way. I'm sure Valve had the same thing going on over there when they did it. Or maybe not, maybe they're smarter than we are. Anyway the point is there isn't any other way that is as easy and as clear as the one they have. It works fine, don't use more time on it, move on.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;41000266]Here's a random idea. What if the Sniper's laser was determined by difficulty? Example (and only an example, do not take this as a solid part of the suggestion): Easy: Normal Laser Normal: APC style Laser Hard: No Laser[/QUOTE] not having a laser would just be entirely luck-based. make it more like a small, barely visible dot instead

Snipers don't need any tweaking, leave them as it is right now. This isn't Radical Changes Mod 25, we have enough of that already.

IMO Mr. Someguy's idea of different sniper lasers depending on the difficulty was pretty great

[QUOTE=MrBunneh;41003848]having one of those combine fields over the window would feed be detrimental to gameplay. the whole way up to your first meeting with snipers has taught you that those fields don't let anything past, and then you want to put the [I]opposite[/I]? that's such horrible game design I don't know where to begin to be honest.[/QUOTE] Perhaps we could use the "liquid glass" material that's on barricades instead? [IMG]http://combineoverwiki.net/images/c/c5/D1_trainstation_02001.jpg[/IMG] Alter the hitboxes of the barricades to remain consistent (so the liquid panels block bullets but not large objects), and then have a square panel of that bolted to the window. I've always liked that strange material, and thought it was a shame it wasn't used more often. That said, yeah, it's probably simplest to leave the snipers as they are.

At the very least, there should be some broken glass decals around their nests or something, All the snipers fire out of broken windows, but most of the windows look like a group of glass specialists came and took all the panes down. The first few even look like some builder just forgot to put the frames in the wall to begin with :v:.

I'd say that the snipers should be more concealed than they are, without making them more defensive. Think HL1 snipers what with their tendency to not shoot at you straight away and sit in a corner waiting for a good chance instead, but in HL2.

Aaand here's part 2. [t]http://filesmelt.com/dl/d1_trainstation1.jpeg[/t] The building Freeman jumps into has a few issues. The lack of glass in the attic windows is a bit odd, but understandable given the lack of a crowbar. Could there be a hinged window here instead? After the attic, I find it strange that the player is knocked out in the small corridor, yet wakes up in the elevator room. It might make more sense to only have metrocops appear from behind the player and chase them into the elevator room, with one hanging back to block the door. Alyx's entry is most likely from the nearby bridge. After being cornered and knocked out, you can hear smashing glass, but the idea of her leaping through the glass is a bit far fetched. I can imagine her shooting the glass and taking out a few metrocops, which would just be an additional sound (and maybe some bullet hole decals). [t]http://filesmelt.com/dl/d1_trainstation2.jpeg[/t] The elevator is also a problem. It's the only way to get to any floors in the building, and couldn't have allowed the metrocops to get to the third floor so quickly, given that the APCs pull up just as you get in the window. It's also way way too long. I imagine the reason is to give Alyx enough time to say her lines, but this has the unfortunate side effect of sending the player way undergound, so none of the layout makes sense. It also descends two floors; given the windows seen from outside, it should only descend a single floor. My naive opinion would be to replace the elevator with a stair well; have Alyx unlock and relock some doors with her EMP as she goes to both rail road the player and give enough time for her dialogue. Having transparent windows and some external landmarks would also give a nice sense of continuity. Kleiner's lab actually stays almost the same between chapters (the only difference is a damp patch which moves, and the mini elevator in the teleport room vanishes). It's outside where the problems begin (again). [t]http://filesmelt.com/dl/d1_trainstation3.jpeg[/t] The substation seems to have a few problems with it (I'm a robotics grad, not an electrical engineer, so take my analysis with a heap of salt). Given the red and white smoke stacks, Kleiner's lab is probably a coal burning power plant (Kleiner having taken over the generator room). The size of the plant and yard, omission of transmission towers, step up transformer and inclusion of an oil circuit breaker (cylindrical thing with two large antennae) leads me to think it's probably a switching substation, or "switchyard", just providing power to the trains and nearby houses. However, it's still missing any distribution cables, generator and distribution buses and switchgear. I think the yard should instead look more like this: [t]http://filesmelt.com/dl/gm_flatgrass0000138.jpg[/t] The balcony Freeman eventually teleports to serves no purpose (no ladders, no doors); I'd propose getting rid of it entirely and replacing it with those large wooden cable spools or something else similarly stable. The security fence should be extended to enclose the entire switchyard (it acts as a sort of Faraday cage IRL), and the raised concrete walkways should ideally be gotten rid of. The stairwell Freeman runs into to escape the scanners could be reworked. It could be remade as a proper stairwell and be extended to lead up to an inaccessible covered walkway connecting the power plant/Kleiner's lab with the adjacent building. The area over the top of the trainstation could be changed into employee parking and a front office, neatly rounding off the whole area. [t]http://filesmelt.com/dl/d1_trainstation4.jpeg[/t] I won't go into the trainstation again, I think Mr Someguy covered that. I'll try to get the next few sections done a bit quicker, been working on my CV for the last week.

[QUOTE=QwertySecond;41009510]part 2.[/QUOTE] I found the "switchyard" and "stair well, etc." changes interesting, but others, such as having windows in the attic you crawl into, are pretty 'meh' to me. In regards to the windows, they're open for a reason, it's meant to show the player where to go. If you took that away then for those that either haven't played it, or don't remember that part too well, it would be confusing. We could add some broken glass around the edges I suppose. As for the elevator and Kleiner's lab, a while back MrSomeguy wrote about this, and if I recall right, we settled on leaving it the same. Making it into a stairwell is just pretty stupid (in my honest opinion), and going down an extra floor isn't all that emersion breaking. If we really need to change that we'd probably just extend the whole building up a bit, keeping the 2 floor ride, but making it make more sense from what you can see of the outside. And last but not least, the attic fight. When outside on the roofing you see the Combine APC driving towards the building right after you get to the spot where all the doves were, giving them plenty of time to get up a floor or two before you came down. The other thing is there could have already been people running up into the building before the APC drives up, considering they were waiting in 2 different rooms. As for the fight itself I always though it was- "Alyx comes up through the elevator, and fights the CPs, smashing one into the window (evidenced by the cop lying on the floor pretty close to the broken window)". Sorry if this sounds rude, I don't mean it to be, I really appreciate the research you guys are doing into the game, I just feel some of the things are unnecessary or don't make much sense [I]to me[/I].

Not quoting 'cause too lazy to cut around everything right now. Anyway, the top changes aren't really necessary imo. The shooting wouldn't work because she didn't kill the CP's, only knocked them out. If she killed them, then Civil Protection would decent all over that building immediately, and no doubt this would lead to Kleiner being discovered. Instead, the KO'd CP's will wake up some time later, and would probably assume Gordon is long gone, if not for the fact that he's spotted in the Trainyard, drawing their attention away from Kleiner's building anyway. As for where Alyx came from, it doesn't really matter, she's a sneaky fuck and seems to often pop up in high security areas (she snuck into the Depot in Nova Prospekt [I]alone[/I] for god's sakes). Kleiner probably got ahold of her after his convo with Barney and had her scout the area outside looking for you. Of course, knowing you're an 'unregistered' citizen, and seeing the suddenly heavy Civil Protection presence, it doesn't take a lot of smarts to figure out that you're probably over there somewhere. As for the Elevator, I would settle for only making it go down one floor, but having Alyx stick around after it arrives to finish talking. If not, then it's not a big deal to leave it the way it is, although it is a little disorienting as I always thought that part was in a basement dispite the fact that we end up outside again without changing elevation. I agree with all the stuff about the power plant generator doohickies. I don't know crap about how it works, but anything to make it more authentic can't be bad as long as it doesn't wreck gameplay (it doesn't). Instead of removing the catwalk, something else can be done about it though, like making it lead somewhere, but inaccessible.

I always thought that the combine must have started dragging you towards the lift when Alyx busts in and kills them. I would almost think it would be better to have a staircase adjacent to the lift somewhere that maybe she used, or an attic-access that's swung down and open, indicating she dropped in from the roof perhaps... I haven't played this area for a while but adding in a (now locked perhaps) staircase and maybe having a dragging sound play for a moment before Alyx takes out the combine might be all that's needed? The area you wake up in with Alyx was always a strange, barren kind of room to me, like it was meant to have something more in it but they just never bothered to work on it. Like a storage attic or something you know?

I think she came in the missing window, if you noclip into the room before getting knocked out the window is still intact. [t]http://static.glitchvid.com/facepunch/vgameandmods/images/hl2em/d1train04window.png[/t]

[QUOTE=Snood_1990;40950420][img]http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3959/mrmetrocop.jpg[/img] Praise the modeling gods, for today Mr Metrocop is UVed.[/QUOTE] uh, stripper boots on that cop

[QUOTE=Dictator Dean;41016717]uh, stripper boots on that cop[/QUOTE] Agreed, the heel is way too high :v: [t]http://www.bribetpolicesupply.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Original-SWAT-Light-Safety-Toe-Side-Zip-OS1160.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=kaze4159;41016914]Agreed, the heel is way too high :v: [t]http://www.bribetpolicesupply.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Original-SWAT-Light-Safety-Toe-Side-Zip-OS1160.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] those ones are too tacticool

[QUOTE=Dictator Dean;41016983]those ones are too tacticool[/QUOTE] The heel is too tactical what. Is that even a valid complaint for a shoe?

[QUOTE=Dictator Dean;41016983]those ones are too tacticool[/QUOTE] Do you even know what tacticool means? Those are pretty standard boots

[QUOTE=kaze4159;41017049]Do you even know what tacticool means? Those are pretty standard boots[/QUOTE] it means cool and tactical. The shoe is too tactical while simultaneously cool. it's bad

[QUOTE=Dictator Dean;41017072]it means cool and tactical. The shoe is too tactical while simultaneously cool. it's bad[/QUOTE] I would like to know what makes a boot 'tactical' ...

[QUOTE=Dictator Dean;41017072]it means cool and tactical. The shoe is too tactical while simultaneously cool. it's bad[/QUOTE] No, "tacticool" means adding "tactical" things for no purpose other than looks. If you run around with a rifle equipped with an grenade launcher (with no grenades), a night vision scope, and a flash light and say NVG's on your head, and it's mid-day, then it's tacticool, because none of that serves any purpose other than looks. What you said it.. I don't know what you said even. It's a pair of boots, there's not a lot to it. And the only focus is on the shape of the heel anyway, that's even less to worry about. At that point you're saying a shape is too "tacticool".

[QUOTE=CrystalGamma;41017106]I would like to know what makes a boot 'tactical' ...[/QUOTE] because its in cock of dooty once EDIT: seriously [highlight](User was permabanned for this post ("Reinstating Ban" - Craptasket))[/highlight]

[QUOTE=Dictator Dean;41017201]because its in cock of dooty once EDIT: seriously [highlight](User was permabanned for this post ("Reinstating Ban" - Craptasket))[/highlight][/QUOTE] Thank you, Craptasket, for showing us mercy from this stupidity.

CPs and Combine Soldiers (-especially those) always had pretty high heels[I]- left pic[/I]. [t]http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091007090021/half-life/en/images/7/71/Metrocop.jpg[/t][t]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/adibrook/P1010076.jpg[/t] We decided to model the boots of of 'Jack Boots', which look very similar, and also can have pretty high heels[I]- right pic[/I]. Jack boots were actually used in the military, mostly by Germans in WW2, so they are functional in combat.