BMPD: Pre-Disaster Apprehension

The storeroom door is fine, as there are other closed off rooms with the same door seen through bm_c2a3b


The elevator, I agree does need some additional detail. I want redo the brushwork and get a button setup, as I really have no clue how I made it so janky, so when I do that the trim will go in as well.

I really liked how the ceiling beams are. It’s basically a trim around the walls, with one or two beams going across.

If anyone has an idea what to put in the last racks, please let me know. I just don’t want it to be repetitive.

Pallets of bottled water.

Excellent idea.
also backstock for the multitude of vending machines, sodas, chips, candy bars
Emergency supplies, flashlight batteries, mylar thermal blankets, NOAA weather radios, dehydrated water packets, espresso bars
Satirical items, #10 cans of Pizza Sauce, and unfolded pizza boxes, 50 lb bags of Purina Vort Chow, pallets of photo/picture albums
bulk coffee and powdered creamer, 5 gallon buckets of partially defatted chicken fat
Office supplies, calculators, reams of xerox paper, toner, pens, pencils, dry erase markers, pocket protectors, staplers, recycling containers, mouse pads

In all seriousness if you can stick a tranquilizer crossbow and/or some ammo in an open ammo crate I think that would make a good addition, or possibly take a shark cage and lay it on its side between two pallets.

They seem to go through a lot of microwave ovens, a couple pallets of those wouldn’t hurt.

MEDIA - MAP A: Sector E Storage and Xenotherus Icthycanthus Laboratory

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Nope, nevermind, I’m just dumb.
(I didn’t make the thumbnail correctly)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639336803

Any non-game-breaking problems won’t be fixed until map B is released.

Looking good; I can’t give in-depth commentary right now due to my computer still being stuck in what I’ve termed ‘headache mode’, but while I wasn’t initially sold on the whole ‘rennovation’ idea for the beginning of Apprehension it’s really coming together.

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Finally got ahold of a backup computer while my main one is on its way back to the manufacturer, so here’s some comments:


I’m pretty sure there was originally a fence or some other kind of grating over this power box; if not I’d classify that as a map bug where the original BM devs thought it would not be visible because there really should be.


Levitating props on the computer console.

Something must be done about the trams, as they move very slowly in reverse.

It would actually be very nice to be able to get down here into the maintenance area.

Odd that there is still rubble floating in the containment pool now that the catwalk is intact. I’d suggest moving this stuff onto one of the wide sections of the catwalk.

A lot of these office-style doors can open, but won’t close. This is a known bug where the doors won’t close if there is a solid brush inside the collision geometry; you can set the glass to ‘not solid’ to get it to work

I would suggest flipping this container around so that the open part is ontop; like a trailer container.

This ladder could use some supports on the bottom half where it just hangs. Alternatively, perhaps just terminate the ladder model at the bottom of the tube and extend the logical func_ladder- I find it helps mobility in pre-disaster maps to assume that Freeman can grab ladders or ledges at eye-height and lift himself up.

Not sure why this door is inoperable or why there’s this black brush on the other side.

The movement sounds for this door don’t sound ‘heavy’ enough.

Similarly, I think the shiny elevator doors look a little out of place here and would probably be better with the ‘grungy’ texture.

Managed to get into the shark cage and was unable to extricate myself. I would suggest sticking an Office Complex fridge-style lever on this plate (it actually appears to be a warning sign) that causes the cage to be pulled back up to the crane so that the player can climb out; either that or just put a slanted physics brush on the cage so that the player cannot get in by jumping and will always slide off.

It is impossible for either the player or the Black Mesa staff to get to these lower-level balconies on the non-bridge side of the wall. For the middle one I figure you could put some kind of elevator behind that garage door, but for the bottom one I’m not really sure what to do with it other than maybe making it possible for the player to get from the ladder directly to them or alternatively making the big metal partition a door that moves up and down so that the balcony in question can be accessed from the other side.

Similarly, the player can climb up out of the far side of the pit using this ladder but there’s not really anywhere to go.

The second balcony from the top is also inaccessible.

This back area is a little bland, in particular the textures in the stairwells. Maybe add some vents in the ceiling here? And possibly make the concrete textures on the stairs slanted to match.

MEDIA- MAP B: Sector E Sub-Level Generator (Decommissioned) and Cryo Storage

One thing that I think would be neat to see is a valve or control panel somewhere that would let you raise and lower the water level in the big pit.

OOOH new levels!

Got a node-graph-out-of-date warning on both; it’s a small thing but should probably be fixed. Other than that there was nothing I’d consider an actual bug although I do have some design remarks/suggestions:

This area came out looking really neat, but it’s a shame we can’t go deeper down into the submerged portion. I know that Source has some issues rendering water against glass but I know a way to make it work using the $refraction shader (which is what was used to make the green liquid tubes in Questionable Ethics. If you’d like, I can make a water-against-glass texture for the Apprehension water.

It’s a bit of a shame you can’t turn on the generator pistons any more; alternatively I’ve been thinking about making a model of these things being intact and was wondering if you’d be interested in that.

These screens are very hard to see due to the ‘bloom’ effect; I’d suggest turning down the ‘bloom’ and ‘tonemap max’ parameters in the env_tonemap and making the regular, non-texture lights brighter to compensate.

Ladders typically have a safety warning on them telling you not to stand like this. I’d suggest moving the security officer down a few rungs, and giving him the ‘lean_table’ animation instead.

These levers look like they should control the hangar doors, but don’t seem to. Is this planned?


In this area in the original level, you cannot see the side walls due to the crates in the way and so it’s not clear that there aren’t additional doors there. I’d suggest adding such doors to make this room feel like less of a dead-end closet.

In regards to the pit and generator, I know what I want to do with it, there’s just some problems with the control room and it’s elevator.

The cut-off doors, angled, flush windows, and claustrophobic feel make it look like the actual floor should be down another ~16 HU down or so. Conveniently, this is the same depth as the ceiling below, so I can’t simply lower it.

And then there is the elevators. I hate these. It’s very obvious that they are supposed to be the same, but after level 2, the doors rotate 90 degrees to the left, making it the most complicated elevator to date™.

elves%20copy

If these things were easy fixes, you would start the generator by turning valves in the pit on various floors, and starting the pump (the pit is for storing coolant for the generator) in the control room, before turning on the generator.

With map C, it’s not officially released yet because I still have problems with the shadows from the hangar doors. I just lumped a static-doors version into the update for shits and giggles. Plus, the only way you’ll be allowed to access the map (besides loading from the console) will either be from nocliping past the vent, where map B loads C from the console using a point_clientcommand (That’s how map A brings you to QE, btw), or from the marine dragging hallway, which will connect to RP somehow.

MEDIA- MAP C: Helipad thing (idk what to call this, any ideas?)

And with that, I think I will call it quits for Apprehension for now. The only things I want to add to existing maps is new models for some of the destroyed ones (Map A silo catwalks and Map B repaired piston covers), and some intractable documents, and Map D, which is all my own design. With an exception of the silo catwalks, nothing of value is really being added (Map D is currently way to complicated for me to have the inspiration to work on), so I’ll ether work on Surface Tension or one of the multiplayer maps.

So I’m making another pass through pd_c2a4h and working on connecting it directly to pd_c2a3a, but there’s some issues with the geometry.

Here’s the OAR/Apprehension-style rail exits in c2a4h:

Here’s the level transition in c2a3a:

Obviously this doesn’t come out in the same direction either of the entrances come in, but it’s also impossible to make it come out the same direction by adding another curve- at least not without bumping into the other rail line heading north.

Thus, I would propose flipping the curve around and connecting it to the west-facing tunnel:


I know I’m late to this, but for the control room situation, maybe you could instead make the ceiling higher if possible. And for the elevator issue, you could have an elevator with 2 sets of doors, they exist in real life.

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Map A has been updated. Map B has been recompiled, but the main feature I want to add, (a giant 6-story elevator) is still not complete.

Really digging your first foray into the document system, although on my screen it appears partially cut off:

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.