I just finished a playthrough of the game, and I have to say to the devs, great job on balancing out the weapons from the mod. The MP5 now feels useful with it’s accuracy and damage output, and the shotgun feels a lot more similar to the original. However, one absolutely humongous problem I found with the Revolver and the MP5/Glock is the amount of ammo you can carry for them, especially with the Revolver. The incredibly small amount of ammo you can carry with the Revolver, and the fact that you have no idea when you’re going to get a restock of it’s ammo, means that it’s very hard to actually use over the other weapons, especially in the later parts of the game where big fights ensue that would surely use up all of the ammo you can store in it. I personally feel it would be best if the ammo count would return to the original Half-Life’s 36, which would be fine realistically as it’s not that hard to keep track of 36 .357 bullets as it is keeping track of 125 shotgun shells or 125 crossbow bolts, but even just doubling the current capacity to 24 would do wonders for being able to realistically use it. As for the MP5, through most of the game it’s alright on ammo since it’s also the Marine’s main weapon, it’s harder to find ammo for it in Forget About Freeman and much harder in Lambda Core since in both of those chapters you’re fighting the Aliens more so than the Marines. The only real way this problem could be solved is either putting in extra 9mm ammo in those chapters, or alternatively boosting the ammo count. Personally I think boosting the ammo count to 240 would be just enough to be able to use it in those chapters until you can get to a place you can resupply, and it’s certainly realistic enough since most riflemen in armies around the world carry around 7 magazines of ammunition into an operation, and that’s with rifle ammunition, not the 9mm pistol ammo used in the MP5.
I will have to disagree strongly. There’s a reason for all the things you mentioned.
The game WANTS you to use other weapons and get out of your comfort zone. Lambda Core, for instance, wants you to use the Tau and the Gluon, that’s precisely why there’s so much ammo for them lying around but not so much for the Glock/MP5. Surface Tension on the other hand favours the MP5 and shotgun - due to all the ammo for those two weapons.
The revolver is very strong. Increasing its ammo count would screw balancing badly, realism aside. It’s all about AMMO CONSERVATION.
The game is not intended to be played with only the MP5 or only the .357 - knowing when to use which weapon (really can’t stress this enough) is one of the most, if not THE most important aspect of Half-Life’s gameplay (and the Black Mesa devs did a great job on recreating it).
125 shotgun shells or 125 crossbow bolts? Where did you get these numbers from? O.o
That’s not to say everything is perfect: there is one thing about the ammo system I would personally change: Add a new “highest” difficulty that drastically decreases ammo count throughout the game. I feel like the shotgun in particular is overpowered at the moment, not because of its damage output (that’s totally fine, I love the shotgun’s gibbing powers!) but because there’s ammo for it everywhere making you keep hitting the 8/64 ammo limit (even when using the shotgun as much as I do). Limiting max ammo to 8/32 and decreasing amounts of shotgun ammo in-game would make the game much harder without making it as punishing as upping the marines’ damage output, simply because you wouldn’t be able to rely on just your favourite weapons alone but instead forcing you out of your comfort zone more often, as mentioned above. Currently there’s barely any need for ammo conservation (only for certain weapons such as the tau or revolver and maybe a few others), which is a real shame because it’s one of the core aspects of Half-Life.
I might start a whole thread about this ammunition topic in the future, because it’s something that really bugs me!
Firstly, I find that reasoning to be incredibly flawed. The game already encourages you to switch up the weapons you use simply by the situation you’re in. In a long range engagement? Switch to the Revolver, Glock, or Crossbow. In a medium range enagement? Use the MP5 or the shotgun’s alternate fire. In a short range engagement? Shotgun especially but MP5 as well. A bunch of enemies are grouped up? Use the MP5’s alt fire or a grenade or satchel. In an indirect engagement where an enemy is around a corner or down below? Throw some snarks or use the Hivehand. Enemy behind cover? Throw a grenade or use the Tau Cannon’s alternative fire. There’s already more than enough incentive to change the weapons your using, you don’t need to factor ammo into it at all because otherwise it actually limits what you can use since you won’t have the ammo necessary for that specific situation. Besides, all of the ammo values were much much more increased in the original Half Life and it didn’t really hurt the gameplay at all. If you’re reasoning this, you are literally going against the original Half Life’s gameplay, you know, the game of which this one is a remaster of?
As for those values, those are the ammo values from the Original Half Life, although I do believe it was like 50 bolts for the crossbow rather then 125, so I apologize for that.
The shotgun’s ammo value is fine as it is. The ammo amount means you always have a backup weapon to go to incase things go south, and it’s really the best short range weapon so if enemies charge you and you’re not already attacking them, you’ll be using it to fend them off.
And that is why I hate the current system.There is no place for hivehand,snarks(even though there is not much ammo for them) and tripmines,grenades,satchels aren’t popular because why do you need them when you have MP5,revolver,crossbow or Tau?
Yeah you got a point but there are a few weapons that sort of have overlapping areas of usefulness (that sounds awkward as heck, it’s almost 7 in the morning where I live). Examples of this are revolver (mid range to long range) and crossbow (long range) OR MP5 (short range to long range) and shotgun (short range), plus a few others. Someone who uses the MP5 a lot and not so much the shotgun can be forced to switch up his playstyle by being given a limited amount of MP5 ammo and an increased amount of shotgun ammo. At least that’s my take on things…
My proposed idea with the decreased shotgun ammo was meant to be a way to make the game a bit harder, however. For normal and easy difficulties I’m fine with it, but I feel like at the moment the decision making in the game is a bit too easy. Enemy up close, use your shotgun, enemy far away, use the .357 is all fine and good and makes room for interesting gameplay, but I personally feel like that ammo conversation adds an additional layer to the game. For example, when you’re low on magnum ammo but have a good amount of MP5 or shotgun ammo left, you might end up thinking twice whether you should take out the marine in the distance with the revolver or maybe instead look for an alternative path leading closer towards him. It does not just force you to make a split-second decision on what weapon to use, it also forces you to perhaps consider the most ammo-conservating way of dealing with the situation, depending on multiple factors.
Again, this should only apply to a gamemode higher than “hard” in my opinion, for players that look for a challenge. Because, let’s be real, just making enemies stronger and your weapons weaker is NOT fixing difficulty levels, it just turns the game into a quicksave/quickload-fest.
Thanks for the insightful reply though. This is a pretty interesting topic!
Ammo conservation is a difficult challenge to face in a shooter. Too much ammo conservation and the game becomes a “saving ammo simulator” and you never get to use the fun stuff, too much ammo the other way and it can become a bit mindless or you just end up using a single weapon.
Personally I think BMS has the current balance pretty much nailed, in this area. Our usage of ammo allows us to change up the rhythm and focus weapon depending on the chapter and the players’ needs. I like that 9mm ammo is super scarce during Lambda Core. It changes things up in a fun way that the player won’t have seen before.
Our strong weapons (like the Crossbow or Revolver) can carry enough ammo that you can mostly rely on them when you need them, but not enough so that you’re always stocked up. With our balance, for example, the Revolver would absolutely be the go-to weapon at all ranges if you could carry a surplus of ammo for it. That shit is STRONG. But - I don’t think you could argue that we’re too stingy with it either. 18 rounds capacity is plenty!
Some games (a recent example that I can think of is Killing Floor 2) go too far in forcing the player to conserve ammo, so that it becomes no fun and no longer really a shooter (they recently undid this in a very wise patch in my opinion). I don’t think BMS crosses that line. I always find the ammo conservation aspect to our game to be fun and not too stingy. I know some will disagree, but thus far I haven’t really seen an argument for why the original way was better. Convince me!
Thinking about it, the real problem is that you don’t really have a reliable long range option available to you anymore compared to the original Half Life or even the BM mod. Sure you could use the revolver or crossbow, but the ammo for those is quite limited, and it especially hurts if you accidentally miss a shot. You could theoretically use the Glock, but with it’s incredibly slow rate of fire, you’re going to inevitably get hit more than you would just running up to them and hit them with the shotgun. Heck, that’s why I loved the Glock in the original mod. It’s fire rate was good enough that you could reliably use it at long range (and the incredibly satisfying click-clack of the reload sound also probably had something to do with my love for it). One of the solutions here is obviously to increase the ammo count for the revolver/crossbow, but perhaps something else could be done…
I really like the way Black Mesa distributes its ammo, specifically because it allows for experimentation - which is great, as you mentioned! But… it’s just gotten too easy for me. I know the location of every medkit, suit battery and ammo pickup. I have already experimented enough - if that makes sense.
But at the same time I know exactly why you’re not interested in adding yet another difficulty level that just makes marines better at going medieval on Gordon’s ass: It doesn’t make for interesting gameplay. Instead it turns the game into a game of “I-kill-you-before-you-have-a-chance-to-even-land-a-shot-and-if-you-do-I-will-just-quickload”. It wouldn’t be difficult, it would be punishing.
But I feel like you can address that issue by instead of changing any damage values whatsoever, distributing ammunition more sparsely throughout the game. Such a difficulty setting would obviously be directed to experienced players who have played through the game several times beforehand.
So yeah. My aim isn’t really to convince you, because I like the current ammo system just as much as you do! It’s just that I feel like making changes to the ammo distribution in its own little difficulty setting (like a closed environment to ensure that it does not impact the experience of anyone who isn’t interested in the changes) could be a good way of providing a fun and most importantly interesting challenge to a lot of players without requiring a whole lot (I know it’s always way more complicated and ambitious than it sounds, that’s game development in a nutshell!) of effort. At least in comparison to making fundamental changes to the marine AI anyway…