Black Mesa Source V5 - "They're still working on Xen?" - Games

[QUOTE=Whatsinaname;42472518]Yeah, and that's why it failed so badly. The music should compliment what the player is doing, not the other way around.[/QUOTE] Well to be fair, its kind of hard to predict how players will act. We've seen time and time again that even beta testers don't nessecarily reflect how the general playerbase will act.

[QUOTE=overwatch pvt;42473787]Well to be fair, its kind of hard to predict how players will act. We've seen time and time again that even beta testers don't nessecarily reflect how the general playerbase will act.[/QUOTE] It's not hard to predict what the player will do when there's only one real option for the player. If there's dudes shooting at you, it's going to be an action scene. If there's a puzzle to solve, it's going to be a lot more methodical than an action scene. If there's something to sneak by, then things are going to be slow and tense. If you have action music during a stealth sequence, you're basically encouraging the player to do the wrong thing.

An important part of Half-Life's design is the ability to avoid damage. God, I wish I had the means and ability to use Hammer so I could get rid of all the bullshit player traps in BMS. I'll make a list if I have to.

[QUOTE=artDecor;42475798]An important part of Half-Life's design is the ability to avoid damage. God, I wish I had the means and ability to use Hammer so I could get rid of all the bullshit player traps in BMS. I'll make a list if I have to.[/QUOTE] It's not just traps, either. The infamous Counter-Strike skill HECU, the Vortigants firing attacks off superfast, the Alien Drones being even more annoying with their homing bees than the original game, the choppers that make mincemeat of you.. If it was plausible, with skill, to avoid most damage in Half-Life, Black Mesa does the opposite; the devs seemed to anticipate players would take shittons of damage and throw a lot more health packs and stations around to try and compensate.

I took lots of damage in HL, and I took lots of damage in BM. I'm just bad, then.

[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;42479732]I took lots of damage in HL, and I took lots of damage in BM. I'm just bad, then.[/QUOTE] Pretty much this. How exactly do you avoid damage from an RNG Hitscan weapon, anyway?

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;42480430]Pretty much this. How exactly do you avoid damage from an RNG Hitscan weapon, anyway?[/QUOTE] By making it so that the enemies using it don't have insane accuracy and reaction time. Usually it helped to be on the move and react quickly, but the BM soldiers just took it to a whole new level. I honestly don't understand why the BM team seems to think HL1 wasn't hard enough. The houndeyes and vorts had longer charge time for their attacks for a good reason.

[QUOTE=Whatsinaname;42480586]By making it so that the enemies using it don't have insane accuracy and reaction time. Usually it helped to be on the move and react quickly, but the BM soldiers just took it to a whole new level. I honestly don't understand why the BM team seems to think HL1 wasn't hard enough. The houndeyes and vorts had longer charge time for their attacks for a good reason.[/QUOTE] I dunno I played Half-Life's On A Rail to get ideas for Text's version, and the HECU seemed very hard-hitting, and this time health supplies are very rare and less effective.

The enemies weren't very problematic for me (at least after various skill.cfg edits) I'm talking about the bullshit in the map design. * The Vortigaunts too close to the hole you drop down from in bm_c2a5f * The furnace in Residual Processing with the lack of downtime (This one makes a bit of sense, but it's still bullshit) * THAT GOD FORSAKEN SPRINKLER PUZZLE IN APPREHENSION (You find a busted gas pipe spitting fire down a hallway. Most people's first thoughts would be to turn the valve on that pipe to turn off the gas, but that causes it to blow up in your face. You're supposed to find a sprinkler valve and turn that on instead. Punishing the player for not using your fucked up adventure game logic. Fantastic.)

The furnace is actually possible to get through without losing health, you just need ace timing. Personally I would have said the first encounter with the Houndeyes. It's impossible to kill them with a crowbar and not take at least one hit.

you're exaggerating. besides the HECU, playing through the game was a breeze.

I was talking about taking damage, not dying.

I'd like it if the HECU moved around more. They pretty much become bullet spewing statues once they spot you. Plus if they were more active it could hinder their accuracy a bit.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;42486504]I was talking about taking damage, not dying.[/QUOTE] i was referring to artDecor's post. should've quoted it to make it clear.

I'm not saying it was difficult. I'm saying it was sometimes poorly designed. Yeah, they're little things, but strong attention to detail is what made Half-Life so good. I absolutely love the mod, but it was the small, easily fixable things that pissed me off.

[QUOTE=artDecor;42485039]The enemies weren't very problematic for me (at least after various skill.cfg edits) I'm talking about the bullshit in the map design. [B]* The Vortigaunts too close to the hole you drop down from in bm_c2a5f[/B] * The furnace in Residual Processing with the lack of downtime (This one makes a bit of sense, but it's still bullshit) * THAT GOD FORSAKEN SPRINKLER PUZZLE IN APPREHENSION (You find a busted gas pipe spitting fire down a hallway. Most people's first thoughts would be to turn the valve on that pipe to turn off the gas, but that causes it to blow up in your face. You're supposed to find a sprinkler valve and turn that on instead. Punishing the player for not using your fucked up adventure game logic. Fantastic.)[/QUOTE] Are you talking about the hole in Surface Tension, where when you dropped down, you are immediately hit by a Vortigaunt that you could not have possibly predicted was going to be there? Because that part always pisses me off. I gave up on talking about the little things they did wrong on the BMS forums, because people there will rabidly defend the mod no matter what. If you complain about anything small at all, they will bitch at you for being an idiot, say something about how it's only a mod and you can't expect it to be perfect, you should appreciate what's already there, etc.

I heard it's fairly easy to edit Black Mesa's maps if you decompile them, and know a fucking thing about using hammer. Unfortunately, this is a club I'm not a member of. I'm sure some talented mapper will get pissed off at that sprinkler puzzle soon enough.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;42480430]Pretty much this. How exactly do you avoid damage from an RNG Hitscan weapon, anyway?[/QUOTE] hgrunts in hl1 usually took a second to duck before shooting and they took a year to turn around a corner pretty damn possible to avoid dmg unlike combines

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ECWankh.png[/IMG] do... do you think we should help?

[QUOTE=artDecor;42487428]I'm not saying it was difficult. I'm saying it was sometimes poorly designed. Yeah, they're little things, but strong attention to detail is what made Half-Life so good. I absolutely love the mod, but it was the small, easily fixable things that pissed me off.[/QUOTE] Attention to detail in the original Half Life? I hope you only mean from a gameplay standpoint because the amount of pointless and barren rooms that served no purpose but to be a part of the level were abundant.

[QUOTE=overwatch pvt;42494733]Attention to detail in the original Half Life? I hope you only mean from a gameplay standpoint because the amount of pointless and barren rooms that served no purpose but to be a part of the level were abundant.[/QUOTE] I think he meant strong attention to detail by 90's shooter standards.

Yes, from a gameplay standpoint. None of those pointless and barren rooms damaged you without warning.

[QUOTE=overwatch pvt;42494733]Attention to detail in the original Half Life? I hope you only mean from a gameplay standpoint because the amount of pointless and barren rooms that served no purpose but to be a part of the level were abundant.[/QUOTE] Those pointless and barren rooms, while they are indeed useless in terms of gamrplay, helped add authenticity and scale to the environment, plus they reduced linearity by giving the illusion of a large environment to explore. Personally i loved how BMS expanded on this, which I think is especially apparent in AM and QE.

[QUOTE=Hell-met;42488551]hgrunts in hl1 usually took a second to duck before shooting and they took a year to turn around a corner pretty damn possible to avoid dmg unlike combines[/QUOTE] Funny thing is that Hgrunts have shittier coding yet function better and stay alive longer than Combines.

[QUOTE=ViralHatred;42496948]Funny thing is that Hgrunts have shittier coding yet function better and stay alive longer than Combines.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't say that considering Hgrunts had a tendency to blow themselves up.

It would be nice if they added an option in the Xen update to make the SMG either burst or not burst.

[QUOTE=ViralHatred;42496948]Funny thing is that Hgrunts have shittier coding yet function better and stay alive longer than Combines.[/QUOTE] They function better because they were a little bulletspongy and were pretty speedy when they got running for cover. Compare that to a Combine Soldier, who catches a couple bullets and has to begin shuffling for cover at his average speed and even has to apparently build up momentum for a brief moment to begin that run, at which point you've probably mowed him down. Not to mention the sheer accuracy difference alone.

The HECU reaction time is too fast. Heck I've had them shooting at me before they even finished turning, their gun would be facing away from me, yet the bullets would be hitting me.

Its not like they are trained military professionals and you are just a scientist right?

[QUOTE=Sally;42505139]Its not like they are trained military professionals and you are just a scientist right?[/QUOTE] no you're Gordon