Yours were too?
Using the crowbar to kill barnacles is supposed to be more of a last resort, not a way to save ammo.
While I do agree with most of the things above, especially that bullshit bullsquid in blast pit, I don’t really want the HECU’s accuracy to be decreased, just their reaction time, and only by a slight amount. I think one of the most glaring problems would be the Apache, because it is ridiculously more problematic to fight than an Abrams is. I understand you guys promote gameplay over realism but come on!
Plus the last part of surface tension is missing, and that’s just not cool.
But that’s the point - you have to avoid touching it if you don’t want to take damage or waste some ammunition. It makes them a bit of a danger, rather than a very minor inconvenience. They’re fine the way they are now, IMO.
I had made a similar thread a maybe a month ago, ill just copy what I wrote then.
My list is gathered from things I have encountered in-game and some things that the community has reported on these forums. I will update this in the future as I continue to replay and examine the game.
I have generally organized my list with the problem followed by the suggested fix in parenthesis.
General suggestion withought specific problems are preceded and finished with {}.
Problems preceded by – are generally related to the previous line.
Many of the things on this list are minor, I have tried to keep the suggested fixes as realistically plausible/achievable as possible.
Feel free to post your suggestions for things that can improve the game. Also feel free to criticize my list.
My list:
General:
-
Jumping height is too short, leads to frustration in general and for certain jumping puzzles. (Raise jumping height, could use hl2’s settins for jumping)
-
Animation for crowbar is unnatural/swings too fast. (Replace with hl2’s animation)
-
Glock fires too fast. (Add short delay between each shot/perhaps make a tiny bit more powerful?)
-
Crosshair for grenades is very difficult to see. (Enlarge crosshair)
–Grenades also are thrown too high. (Make thrown grenades fly straighter, like in hl2)
-
In general, hecu grunts will single you out even if other enemies are present (I don’t know what causes this)
-
{Not necessarily a problem, but perhaps there could be more instances of the military troops fighting xen on the ground, also hecu grunts dont throw grenades. [At least I havent seen it]}
-Vorts charge is too fast, player doesn’t have time to anticipate/ prepare for the attack (increase charging time)
-Marine accuracy is too high, at least on easy difficulty, leads to frustration. (Decrease marines’ accuracy.)
-In general, I think that perhaps the introduction of new elements should be clearer. In half life 2 every concept was introduced in its basic functions, and gradually shows you how to apply the concept in new and unique ways. I think that is what is missing in black mesa, it rely’s on the player’s knowledge from playing hl2 or episodes.
In Residue Processing:
- Some members of the forum report confusion in the room with many conveyor belts. I will take a closer look at this area later.
In Surface Tenstion:
- The helicopter encuonter in the cliff section takes too many hits to take down. (Reduce # of hits required to take it down.)
–Side Note: There could be some possible confusion for new players with the ammo resupply crate, they may not know they can interact with it.
(Consider having another instance of it earlier in the game.)
–Animation for helicopter crash is a bit strange. (make animation look more realistic)
-
Not enough cover in area where player first meets the tank, after the cliff scaling section (adding cover that can perhaps be
destroyed by the tank, forcing player to move.) -
In section with the tripmined building, before reaching the room with the elevator in the middle, those single tripmines in
the hall shouldn’t destroy the whole building / fade to white / be instant failure. (Make those tripmines with crates cause normal
damage.)
-Gargantua section:
– Gargantua ingnores the marines that shot at you through the vent. (Have the gargantua dispatch the marines first
{preferably in a very brutal and cinematic nature.})
– In area with the artillery, it is unclear that one is supposed to shoot the radio tower, the first reaction for most
is to shoot the gate. In general very little is destructible in the scene. (Create a cinematic physics
destruction for the gate when hit with artillery/ or make objective of hitting the tower more obvious.)
–{Perhaps Gargantuam could eventuall break/ topple the tower if the player fails to kill it within certain amount of time.}
In Forget About Freeman:
- The area where player meets second tank in the level is awkward, the proxitiy of the tank and its inability to fire on close targets leads
to xen enemies defeating soldiers in the room and then running close to the tank and attacking it, otherwise ignoring the
player.
– Soldiers have opposite problem they will ignore xen enemies and instead attack you if they see you in this area, though this is also a problem throughout the game, soldiers will generally single player out.
–(Perhaps this specific area/room is in need of re-structuring)
Some final comments
General/Miscellaneous issues
A. Integration of community assets. Some players have done some excellent work in the community projects section so I am wondering if there are any plans to integrate this into the official steam release? For instance, Larsa’s “Alone” piece would be absolutely perfect to add to the Xen teleporter puzzle (the three golden leaves). There’s also some good work being done on the particle effects of the weapon blasts and the restoration of the Hazard Course and Surface Tension (see below). Will the Dev team pick and choose which projects to integrate or simply ignore them all together?
B. Some of the splatter effects on Gordon’s arms disappear instantly when weapon swapping with certain combinations while they seem to remain with other combinations. Ideally, the persistence problem with the effects could be fixed as they look great.
C. Numerous players have complained about the amount of crouch jumping in the game. The jump height in the game should be increased such that the use of this technique could be reduced (but not eliminated) while still making the jumps appear realistic.
D. On Power Up, two marines will come down from the elevator once the power is on. A script should be in place which would have another pair of marines on the upper level come down if the two marines are killed and the elevators are raised. This makes sense as a raised elevator with two dead marines should raise suspicion and would allow the player an opportunity to use trapping techniques (e.g. trip mines, satchel).
E. While some players have complained about the platforming gameplay in Xen and beyond, I think it would a mistake to remove these elements completely, as they are an iconic part of the endgame. Adding a secondary long-jump module function, such as 1-2 second thrust adjustment in midair, should help to resolve some of the difficulty issues while maintaining faithfulness to HL.
I think the accuracy issue is a serious one in BMS and it not only detracts from the game’s realism but also kills gameplay diversity (and fun factor). Here are some examples where the problem is glaring:
-
Shotgun marines-at close range, these guys do extreme damage and will kill you quickly. Though this is somewhat by design, the fact that they never miss means that are much more unforgiving than they should be.
-
Engaging marine groups-the BMS devs have done a great job with level design by providing lots of areas for cover. However, these areas rarely get used because of the extreme accuracy of the marines. It’s just easier to crouch in one corner and let them come to you, thereby diminishing the number of viable tactics you use.
-
Power Up elevator scene-There is one shotgun marine and a pair of regular grunts waiting for you once you go up the elevator. On hard mode they can cut you down quickly because of their accuracy, even if you use a barrel for cover.
-
Questionable Ethics finale-this speaks for itself and is the greatest proof of why marines need an accuracy nerf. Again, it’s not smart to use the cover areas that the devs intended (you will get surrounded) and you have an extremely limited arsenal that can be effectively be used this scenario (magnum, shotgun), which again kills tactical diversity.
-
Low health situations-in these scenarios, marine accuracy makes it unnecessarily difficult to run for cover or simply survive an engagement.
-
Decreasing soldier accuracy would make it more reasonable for devs to implement more grenade play to flush out players which would make things interesting without seriously ramping up the difficulty.
In general, I think that perhaps the introduction of new elements should be clearer. In half life 2 every concept was introduced in its basic functions, and gradually shows you how to apply the concept in a unique way. I think that is what is missing in black mesa, it rely’s on the player’s knowledge from playing hl2 or episodes. Also, as previously mentioned, the vort doesn’t give the player time to prepare or anticipate the shot. The charging time for vorts was very important in hl1. Also I think that the marine’s accuracy really shouldn’t be much better than the combine’s in hl2, at least on easy
Any specific examples? The only one that comes to mind for me is the snark intro, but that’s only cuz c2a5f was cut…and will be fixed in a community project.
What else do you think is missing from my list?
Additional fixes that I forgot to mention:
General/Misc
-
Scientist medical assistance-In the original HL, some of the scientists used to give a single med-pack or syringe when the player was extremely low on health. Perhaps this feature could be implemented in game as it would help prevent excessive player death and unnecessary reloads. This would also make the players grateful to see Black Mesa staff.
-
Battery life for the flashlight-As it stands now, the player can keep their flashlight on from Anomalous Materials all the way to Lambda Core, which doesn’t seem realistic. The addition of a timer would add an extra element of resource budgeting in game and would be consistent with HL2.
-
Save game menu-Instead of having the quicksaves/autosaves display the map region (e.g. C2A5F), the actual level name (e.g. Apprehension) should be displayed like in HL2 and beyond in order to minimize confusion.
-
Ladder mechanics-Can't believe I forgot about this one as it's been a huge complaint within the community. The ladder should have the same mechanics as in HL2 with regards to "stickyness." It's too easy to fall off of the ladder currently and latching on can be problematic, leading to unnecessary player death.
AI/scripting
- Abrahms-Could used a health boost, especially versus charged tau shots, since it’s a static target and its anti-personnel machine gun is easy to avoid. Armor-wise, it currently feels much weaker than the apache, which should not be the case.
Levels
-
Surface tension-The sniper bullet should look more like an actual rifle round. It clearly looks like something from a Combine energy weapon in its current incarnation. -
Xen/Interloper-While some players have complained about the platforming gameplay in Xen and beyond, I think it would be a mistake to remove these elements completely, as they are an iconic part of the endgame. The platforming in Xen is really not a problem…it’s only when players get to Interloper that it becomes frustrating. Consider adding a secondary long-jump module function, such as 1-2 second thrust adjustment in midair to help resolve some of the difficulty issues while remaining faithful to HL.
The only one I can think of is the crouch-jumping. People somehow manage to get through the crouch-jump tutorial without working out how to do it, or even realising it exists. It doesn’t help that it’s the same area you encounter the first free headcrab. It should probably be moved into a calmer environment where you have to master it in order to proceed. (Perhaps the vent after you get back to the lobby?) Either that or make the hint appear again if people are stuck in areas they need it.
Apparently they do do this, it just doesn’t happen very often. I agree it should be made to occur more frequently.
This was intentional IIRC - it running out was annoying and didn’t serve any gameplay purpose (as opposed to things like Lowlife in Ep1).
Lowlife was by far the best setup for effective use and budgeting of the flashlight but just because there are no scenes like that in BMS doesn’t justify the exclusion of battery life. Look at HL2…the limited flashlight time worked fine and wasn’t really annoying, even though there were no situations highlighting the importance of the flashlight. Aside from the utter lack of realism w/the unlimited flashlight, the other excellent reason for reintroducing battery life is that it will accentuate the great level design and environment’s impact on the player’s mood in certain chapters (see below).
-
Unforeseen Consequences-this level is downright spooky because everything goes wrong. The lighting is very poor in these areas and limited flashlight duration contributes to the player’s discomfort. After all, what you see is usually less scary than what you don’t see.
-
Vents-so much of HL is based on crawling in dark vents. Limited flashlight duration forces the player to budget here to keep them from being startled by a headcrab attack to the face. Again, darkness while crawling contributes to the sense of unease.
-
Apprehension-by far the most tense chapter for me and where I think the flashlight battery would shine the most. Lots of people have a fear of drowning and the dark maze-like underwater areas, while disturbing already, would be even more unsettling if you temporarily couldn’t see where you’re going. Imagine the flashlight running out of power when you’re low on health and frantically searching for the ichthyosaurs in the water. This isn’t annoying…this is terrifying! This level is like the BMS version of Lowlife in the sense that if you have no lighting, death will be imminent.
I think the devs are missing out on a huge opportunity to capitalize on the fear factor of BMS by excluding the flashlight battery. An easy compromise would be to introduce flashlight battery as the default game feature and unlimited battery life as something that could be turned on in the options menu.
Yes, because flashlight that runs out of power every ten seconds is way more realistic. Especially when all the other suit modules are working pretty much non-stop.
BM dev 1: “The development of Hazard Source is promisingly fast of progress”
BM dev 2: “I say, we scrap it!!! It’s 2012, people don’t need a tutorial for how to jump, an indication window or two should be enough”
“The mod is released, the majority can’t jump a barrel, BM sucks”
“Seriously devs, is the HEV suit THAT HEAVY, or does Gordon have a mobility disability?”
This is likely what the majority of complainers thought, I as a veteran had no problems with this. but I as well see it as illogical.
BTW, the vid is very funny 
Not saying I necessarily agreed with their decision, just that they did it that way on purpose (probably after a fair bit of playtesting) and so it’s unlikely to change at this stage.
i totally agree with wangman. let it run 1 or 2 minutes or so…
Oh yeah? The limited time available for the battery to be shunted to the flashlight exists because otherwise the other suit modules will stop working non-stop.
We can argue about realism all day but the bottom line is that the flashlight battery is still a good game mechanic and its implementation would be consistent w/the HL universe.
-and thanks jone4s
The thing is, those examples are usually not obvious things to people like us who have lots of experience with source games/hl in general. There are many small things that are subject to this issue for new players. For example:
-in anomalous materials in the freezer room, how would new players know that they have to find a valve and what it can attach to.
-At the beginning of anomalous materials, how would they know that they can light enemies on fire with flares. And cause gas to ignite.
-Supply crates (which I believe first appear during the surface tension helicopter fights)
-That the crowbar is a weapon that has to be activated to be picked up.
There are probably more, but they are small things in general, not huge game changing thing. Oh and yes there is the condemned crouch jumping.
This is one of the main reason why Im not fond of the beginning of anomalous materials, especially the placement of the crowbar. Now that I started thinking of this I should post my reasons:
As I said before, Hl introduces you to a new concept/gameplay mechanic in its basic function, and then shows you how to apply those in new ways.
Especially the beginning of the game, valve already figured the best way of pacing and introducing everything is to gradually introduce the player to to the gameplay. For example:
The tram sequence is used to allow player the freedom to walk around and observe, among many other things. The player can practice jumping, crouching, and become familiar with those controls. He gets off, and along the way to the test labs, he learns to interact with people, and push buttons and pick up stuff.
Shit goes down in the test lab, You push a button, you utilize the crouching and jumping abilities to navigate hazards (like evading lazers), and you move debris blocking your way. At this point in normal hl, you are introduced to the crowbar, who’s basic function is to break stuff. You use it to break a window, allowing you to pass. Only after you learn that the crowbar is used for breaking stuff, did the game throw enemies at you.
In bm, you witness a set piece and then a guard with crappy ai. The actual time when you get the crowbar (and you might already have a pistol,) its when you know that you will have to fight the enemies as soon as you pick it up (new players might not even know they can dislodge the crowbar between the doors an even pick it up.) This does not allow the player to experiment and become familiar with the crowbar before being forced to use it. Also the flares are not well introduced or explained, and actually aren’t used at all after that sequence. It may sound stupid, but for new player, that subtle difference of crowbar placement can make a huge difference.
Fuck I wrote way too much, but anyway, I think this is a pretty serious issue in BM for new players.
arizzi-A lot of your points are legit and I think they make a good case for the necessity of a Hazard Course, as opposed to reworking BMS. You should probably post some of your points in the remaking Hazard Course thread.
I disagree with your crowbar complaints though…it was really clever for them to delay getting the crowbar because it keeps the vets off guard (newbs won’t even notice) and it teaches the players an important lesson: NPCs are very valuable allies in this game.
Hmm, not so sure about these.
Also, the HEV suiit is a sophisticated piece of equipment. Might it not use an alternator like an automobile? Your car headlights don’t run on batteries, and they never run out as long as the car’s running.
MP5 fix (atleast for me anyway):
increase ammo capacity and mag capacity, should fix any ‘‘underpowered’’ problems it may have