Half-life 2 Cut Content - Is it me or dose the cut content look better than what we got? - Games

[QUOTE=WillWow_mc;47103911]Well, all I can say about how we're doing in terms of RTB development is that 2015 seems to be a good year, with multiple mappers joining us. Also, if anyone was interested in joining, you can sign up on the RTB website and contact us about it.[/QUOTE] Well I'm glad to hear that, as most mods aren't this lucky two years in.

I welcome all the new users to the thread.

(thanks to barnz for pointing this out) the area from the [URL="http://i.imgur.com/1Gzt5Zm.jpg"]2nd screenshot of half-life ever released[/URL] is actually located in the 0.52 alpha, but in a rather unexpected place. it's underneath the tentacles in silodemo (the silo map with tentacles). in the alpha, and is entirely textured with the color black, and is substantially less complete then the version shown in the screenshot. i retextured it with dev textures in my port of silodemo some images: [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/GJINhuk.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/Vs5hVl4.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/dOEYGAo.jpg[/img_thumb]

[QUOTE=Gamerjman19;47070473]So, Raising the Bar has their own website. [url]http://halflife2raisingthebar.weebly.com/[/url][/QUOTE] So... yet another mod about HL2 beta. How many of those we saw already? And for now, we have some screenshots of beta maps with some changes, and lots of overdone models. Well I wish them best of luck, but development of that mod won't take long I guess (as almost alwyas)

[QUOTE=gargamel9000;47118929]So... yet another mod about HL2 beta. How many of those we saw already? And for now, we have some screenshots of beta maps with some changes, and lots of overdone models. Well I wish them best of luck, but development of that mod won't take long I guess (as almost alwyas)[/QUOTE] Are you saying it's a lost cause?

Sorry for chain posting but I can't wait for a full beta recreation mod! (Dark Interval, Raising The Bar, etc,)

[QUOTE=jackfu;47121469]Sorry for chain posting but I can't wait for a full beta recreation mod! (Dark Interval, Raising The Bar, etc,)[/QUOTE] You'd think by now there would be one who could pull it off. It's totally possible, but it still hasn't happened. I think the reasoning behind this is lack of discipline, leadership, and maturity within the community but that's just my own assessment. Granted it's still a huge undertaking but not impossible. Black Mesa did it more or less.

[QUOTE=Milkyway M16;47123952]You'd think by now there would be one who could pull it off. It's totally possible, but it still hasn't happened. I think the reasoning behind this is lack of discipline, leadership, and maturity within the community but that's just my own assessment. Granted it's still a huge undertaking but not impossible. Black Mesa did it more or less.[/QUOTE] and it took forever

-snip-

[QUOTE=Milkyway M16;47123952]You'd think by now there would be one who could pull it off. It's totally possible, but it still hasn't happened. I think the reasoning behind this is lack of discipline, leadership, and maturity within the community but that's just my own assessment. Granted it's still a huge undertaking but not impossible. Black Mesa did it more or less.[/QUOTE] Yes, they did it, with a team of dozens and a finished game as a basis, though still coudln't had made all of the chapters. Now, how could this serve as an example to the leak mods which are sometimes made by a single person, with rough concepts and primitive maps at their disposal? This assessment of yours is irrelevant. P. S. What is it about 'discipline', by the way? Is modding a job now, a duty? It's a hobby and I, for one, am only going to release something which pleases me sufficiently, which is of quality. That is why it takes long.

[QUOTE=Milkyway M16;47123952]You'd think by now there would be one who could pull it off. It's totally possible, but it still hasn't happened. I think the reasoning behind this is lack of discipline, leadership, and maturity within the community but that's just my own assessment. Granted it's still a huge undertaking but not impossible. Black Mesa did it more or less.[/QUOTE] BMS was recreating existing maps with an existing plotline with existing everything (except content but you even know what kind of content you need). The storyline in Raising the Bar isn't complete and leaves various things open to interpretation. Let's say we've got that locked down. You've got a Source engine that likes to shit itself (blaming the tools is always easy enough) and lacking amount of plugins for third party software. We wrote an (incomplete) 18 page design document detailing everything from technical aspects, characters, enemies, weapons, levels, chapter endings, story line, base maps that could be used from the mappack, city architecture, the combine, the combine structures, the combine colorschemes and release schedule. We really struggle with keeping motivation up with MI. AGNMI was fantastic motivation because they provided silly content and that really kept us going. Sadly that's gone now. Another problem we've faced with MI is our extremely high standards. They're just too hard to keep up with which means we're not using any of the low quality stuff that's found in the leaked content (except maps but they're fixable). A lot of our team members were in their teens when they started working on our project and they're in a time of their life that's extremely busy which means modding gets down prioritized a lot. I, personally, work a full time job and I've got a 3 hour commute everyday (changing at the end of February so who knows what might happen). I'm burned out and I can't stand using Hammer anymore because the process is so tedious. I'd rather spend my free time doing something I enjoy thoroughly. Working with Source is just not that thing anymore. If you can find me 2-3 motivated modellers (that can take care of everything among themselves meaning textures + everything required to get it ingame) and 2-3 motivated mappers we should be able to produce something for sure. Finding that these days is just hard to do.

You sum up pretty well the condition of almost all big Source mods (and probably not only Source). - too ambitious - focused too much on details. Lots of overdone models, that are sometimes better than Valve's (well that's not hard to do these days). - many "ideas guys", almost no coders ;D - growing and growing number of new mod's features. - too big dev groups and bad communication. - One person who wants to rule everything and doesn't listen to anyone, or opposite - nobody to take crucial decisions. - [B]lack of time[/B] It always starts the same, Lots of content to show at start, mostly models and concepts, then dev screenshots, even great looking maps, then after months people start to go away. Updates are less frequent. And after year or more mod is abandoned. There were so many mods that end in nothing. Well maybe not in nothing. It was very often a portfolio for devs and good way to get to the game industry. But potential players of those mods got nothing. This thread is a great example: [url]http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1444547[/url] Almost every mod that is not set in HL universe ends like this (I was in Prison Island mod for example). Most of those project are/were just too ambitious. When I look at Steam Greenlight and all this shit that's gets greenlit (and earns money) I just wonder what went bad xD Those games are so many times worse than many mods :( I'm sad. But hey, it's not topic about fail mods. Get back to HL2 beta :) I wish this new mod ends up well anyway. I love HL2 beta.

so i got those alpha map ports on the workshop and in a good condition [URL="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=387592742"]download here[/URL] images: [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/vcRjDRk.jpg[/img_thumb][img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/7hloTif.jpg[/img_thumb][img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/wIk4IjP.jpg[/img_thumb][img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/I8BEx4A.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/S4GCcmN.jpg[/img_thumb] includes: c1a2c c1a3b c1a3c silodemo techdemo (the maps that are generic hl1 map titles have prefixes so gmod doesn't confuse them with half-life: source maps)

[QUOTE=endorphinsam;47124299]and it took forever[/QUOTE] They also went through what seems like a huge reworking of most of their content though, but yes it took forever. A full sized game made by modders will take forever to complete. [QUOTE=Cvoxalury;47124445]Yes, they did it, with a team of dozens and a finished game as a basis, though still coudln't had made all of the chapters. Now, how could this serve as an example to the leak mods which are sometimes made by a single person, with rough concepts and primitive maps at their disposal?[/QUOTE] Because the idea is the same, a dedicated group of people doing what seems impossible. The "primitive maps" that we have to work with are still in a better state than Half-Life maps. Black Mesa had to completely remake a game essentially from scratch. The only thing that they had already made for them was the story. [QUOTE]This assessment of yours is irrelevant.[/QUOTE] That's a little harsh [QUOTE]P. S. What is it about 'discipline', by the way? Is modding a job now, a duty? It's a hobby and I, for one, am only going to release something which pleases me sufficiently, which is of quality. That is why it takes long.[/QUOTE] Modding takes discipline. Game development takes discipline. Many things take discipline. I don't see how you could disagree with that. Yes, it's a hobby but it took a lot of discipline for the Black Mesa team to "finish" and release their mod. [QUOTE=ProZak;47126021]BMS was recreating existing maps with an existing plotline with existing everything (except content but you even know what kind of content you need).[/QUOTE] They were still essentially making a game from scratch minus the storyline. The also didn't really have the ability to take too many liberties without upsetting the community. [QUOTE]The storyline in Raising the Bar isn't complete and leaves various things open to interpretation. [/QUOTE] I think that this is one of the greatest benefits associated with attempting to recreate the old storyline. I think many people see this as a drawback but I love this aspect of leak mods. We have way more creative liberty to make whatever we want. Black Mesa had to be strict about keeping everything the same as it was in Half-Life. They took a few liberties and the community lashed out. They were restricted by making a mod based on a pre-existing story. It may have helped in some ways but it certainly had its drawbacks. I see the unfinished nature of the old HL2 story as a mostly positive thing. It gives leak modders more creative freedom. [QUOTE]Let's say we've got that locked down. You've got a Source engine that likes to shit itself (blaming the tools is always easy enough) and lacking amount of plugins for third party software.[/QUOTE] I've worked with Source a lot, not as much as you but still a decent amount. I fully agree. It sure has its downfalls and I have the same gripes as any other Source modder. I just don't let that get in the way of making the game that I want to make. Source sucks for real game development and I would never choose to use it to make a commercial game, but it has yet to actually have a negative affect on my motivation. [QUOTE]We really struggle with keeping motivation up with MI. AGNMI was fantastic motivation because they provided silly content and that really kept us going. Sadly that's gone now.[/QUOTE] I'm not trying to be rude at all here, but I don't understand how this was ever motivation for you guys. To me, I just focus on making stuff that I think is cool and stuff that I can be proud of. [QUOTE]Another problem we've faced with MI is our extremely high standards. They're just too hard to keep up with which means we're not using any of the low quality stuff that's found in the leaked content (except maps but they're fixable).[/QUOTE] And this is why I would personally choose to have lower standards. I have nothing against using leak models and textures as well as HL2 models and textures because that is the artstyle I've chosen. That said, there are a ton of leak models that I wouldn't use because they're just too horrible(example being a lot of the older models from the cut weapons). With MI, you guys chose to have a more modern artstyle with nicer looking models/textures/etc but to me that makes too much unnecessary work. Don't get me wrong, the stuff you've made looks great, I just wouldn't pick that route myself. I think the most important standard to have though is level design. I don't mind if my models and textures look like they're from 2004 because that's what the rest of the game looks, I am not ok with bad maps though. [QUOTE]A lot of our team members were in their teens when they started working on our project and they're in a time of their life that's extremely busy which means modding gets down prioritized a lot. I, personally, work a full time job and I've got a 3 hour commute everyday (changing at the end of February so who knows what might happen). I'm burned out and I can't stand using Hammer anymore because the process is so tedious. I'd rather spend my free time doing something I enjoy thoroughly. Working with Source is just not that thing anymore.[/QUOTE] Life is definitely the biggest distraction to any modder. Life gets in the way much more than I'd like it to, but it's still manageable to maintain relationships, family, friends, hobbies and careers all simultaneously, it's just difficult. [QUOTE]If you can find me 2-3 motivated modellers (that can take care of everything among themselves meaning textures + everything required to get it ingame) and 2-3 motivated mappers we should be able to produce something for sure. Finding that these days is just hard to do.[/QUOTE] For some reason I don't think it's as hard as you think. There are still plenty of leak mods that pop up and new modders who enter the scene. I've never seen MI actively try to recruit either, so maybe people don't know that you're looking for modders. Sorry for the mega-post, I didn't have time in between all of your posts to reply to them individually. Basically all I'm saying is that leak/rtb mods are not a lost cause. It blows my mind that in all these years, no one has released anything substantial and that no one has even surpassed MI in terms of released content. It can be done and I have no reason to believe otherwise. There are some major hurdles to overcome but I see no reason why it can't be done to some degree(meaning maybe not a full game, but maybe a few remade chapters with a coherent story). Also I didn't mean anything offensively, so if my replies seem offensive, it wasn't intentional. [editline]13th February 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=gargamel9000;47126350]You sum up pretty well the condition of almost all big Source mods (and probably not only Source). - too ambitious - focused too much on details. Lots of overdone models, that are sometimes better than Valve's (well that's not hard to do these days). - many "ideas guys", almost no coders ;D - growing and growing number of new mod's features. - too big dev groups and bad communication. - One person who wants to rule everything and doesn't listen to anyone, or opposite - nobody to take crucial decisions. - [B]lack of time[/B] It always starts the same, Lots of content to show at start, mostly models and concepts, then dev screenshots, even great looking maps, then after months people start to go away. Updates are less frequent. And after year or more mod is abandoned. [/QUOTE] And this is exactly why I brought up leadership. I think that if any leak/rtb mod ever wants to see the light of day, it is crucial to have good leadership.

Was digging through some leak stuff again and found a folder buried called "bustedgarbage" Wondering what the hell it was I slapped it into Half Life 2 [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xLewKNxQ9E[/media] I understand the folder name now, though I honestly don't know what I was expecting.

[QUOTE=gargamel9000;47126350] It always starts the same, Lots of content to show at start, mostly models and concepts, then dev screenshots, even great looking maps, then after months people start to go away. Updates are less frequent. And after year or more mod is abandoned. [/QUOTE] We really need to help motivate those mods.

I think part of the reason so many beta mods flop is the sheer size and incompleteness of the beta half-life 2 storyline That and there are multiple iterations of the storyline, even I can't make too much sense of it

Hey look PCGamer did an article on HL2 Beta [url]http://www.pcgamer.com/see-the-cut-characters-from-half-life-2s-beta/[/url] "Valve News Network" Nevermind, its not good at all

something about vnn rubs me the wrong way, but im not quite sure what it is [sp]maybe its the fact he steals information and images from valvetime without crediting them[/sp]

[QUOTE=Jackathan;47132554]something about vnn rubs me the wrong way, but im not quite sure what it is [sp]maybe its the fact he steals information and images from valvetime without crediting them[/sp][/QUOTE] he reads straight from the wiki, even if the info is wrong, see the cluster fuck of the L4D video like, at first I didn't notice like "oh this kid is just reading the dumb incorrect info everyone else has already stated", then he mentioned something I wrote on the L4D Wiki because I was sick of idiots asking me about the zombie dog. [editline]13th February 2015[/editline] plus he only has like 6 hours in hl2

I remember I tried to do several beta mods, all of them just based on the storyline and from scratch. I don't think I got past a week each one and my attention span went off.

[QUOTE=Theuaredead;47132391]Hey look PCGamer did an article on HL2 Beta [URL]http://www.pcgamer.com/see-the-cut-characters-from-half-life-2s-beta/[/URL] "Valve News Network" Nevermind, its not good at all[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://puu.sh/fRyKz/8011974fc8.png[/IMG] :v: fucking comment approval

Well, Ive beem mapping for Insolence/Terminus for... like, 2.5 years now. For me, its pretty much a labor of love. Takes determination, and, above all, enjoyment for what youre doing. Why bother if youre pretty much forcing yourself?

Valve News Network more like Valve Poos Network

[QUOTE=RenaFox;47132343]I think part of the reason so many beta mods flop is the sheer size and incompleteness of the beta half-life 2 storyline That and there are multiple iterations of the storyline, even I can't make too much sense of it[/QUOTE] What do you mean by saying "even I"? There is nothing hard about making sense of the multiple storylines. Apart from mostly obscure oldest storyline, there is the Airex version, the Depot/Prison version, and the Nova Prospekt (retail) version. IMO only the former is worth reconstructing as it has the most of the cut stuff, difffers most from the retail, and includes such legendary locations as the Airex, the Borelias, the Kraken Base + Weather control, the Skyscraper which were all cut after the Airex was replaced by the Depot, which was then merged with Nova Prospekt. There is multitude of other things which will take you away from leak modding far before storyline inconsistencies would, from real life issues, to intolerable SDK tools.

[QUOTE=ProZak;47126021] If you can find me 2-3 motivated modellers (that can take care of everything among themselves meaning textures + everything required to get it ingame) and 2-3 motivated mappers we should be able to produce something for sure. Finding that these days is just hard to do.[/QUOTE] Maybe you should merge with Dark Interval, RTB, and Terminus. I'm suggesting this because Black Mesa was the result of a merger. EDIT: Or if not, make a job posting on Twitter, Mod DB, anywhere really.

[QUOTE=jackfu;47135601]Maybe you should merge with Dark Interval, RTB, and Terminus. I'm suggesting this because Black Mesa was the result of a merger.[/QUOTE] From far as I know, the MI team and the terminius team are not on the best of terms

[QUOTE=9999999;47136361]From far as I know, the MI team and the terminius team are not on good terms[/QUOTE] Why not? Because of The-forums-that-must-not-be-named?

[QUOTE=jackfu;47135601]Maybe you should merge with Dark Interval, RTB, and Terminus. I'm suggesting this because Black Mesa was the result of a merger. EDIT: Or if not, make a job posting on Twitter, Mod DB, anywhere really.[/QUOTE] It feels like everyone motivated is already joining RtB. Haven't saw any requests among comments on MI, people mostly talk about textures or how the mod is dead in their opinion. Plus it's would be a challenge to find someone both enthusiastic and meeting MI's high standarts. Not trying to offend anyone here, but people like that are either making their own games or busy otherwise. MI's previous history of being somewhat reclusive and protective doesn't help. I actually would suggest myself if I thought I'd qualify, but even then it's just +1 mapper.

[QUOTE=jackfu;47135601]Maybe you should merge with Dark Interval, RTB, and Terminus. I'm suggesting this because Black Mesa was the result of a merger. EDIT: Or if not, make a job posting on Twitter, Mod DB, anywhere really.[/QUOTE] Oh, this discussion again? Look, everybody has their own interpretations of stuff in the old story among other things, and if merges were to occur then compromises regarding that would have to be made that some devs might not want to make. [I]Please stop suggesting merges[/I].