What about making a vortigaunt in the Xen factory just look at you from a distance and then it turns back to continue its work? But you can’t shoot it because it’s too far away, so it just can be invincible for a moment without the player recognizing.
This is Half Life. If I can see it, I can most definitely shoot it, thank you very much.
:retard:
How would you know they’re not attacking you for the same reason you can’t attack them?
Yeah, glass and distance don’t really work well guys. If it is introduced then we need a more organic transition. My two cents was for a weapons jam animated as a few out-of-ammo animations strung together. Not sure if that would feel natural, but it’s the best I could come up with.
As I said before, you haven’t lost anything if you attack the vorts. If you notice it, fine. If you don’t notice it, fine.
When I first played through, I just figured they didn’t expect you to be there and therefore hadn’t been given orders to kill you. Their behaviour makes sense when you realise that they are slaves against their will, as is made clear by the shackles on their wrists and body, and are therefore given orders until told to stop or do something else.
As for making it obvious to the player, I personally don’t think it’s necessary since even the person who attacks them isn’t losing anything. But the whole glass wall/weapon jamming thing is far too complicated.
You could instead turn it into an exciting experience for the player. If the player comes in and finds 20 vortigaunts all in the same room with minimal cover, not many people would choose to attack. If you then place cover on the other side of the room, the player is forced to run. In that moment, they will realise that none of the vorts have attacked or even paid the slightest bit of attention to the player, thus revealing their purpose as slaves. If you want to, you could then introduce the Controller with a loud noise, at which point, behind cover, the player is able to make the connection between the Controllers and the vorts, and is able to run or fight to their content. It could be a bit like the scene in Call of Pripyat with the bloodsucker lair: unnerving yet simultaneously intriguing.
Although I think the whole idea, and by extension, this thread, is pretty bad, I must admit, Floyd may just be on to something here.
If he was behind glass and still had intent on attacking you, he’d leave his post to get you and alert others of your presence on the way.
But Floyd is the rightest person here so far.
What about players that would run towards the cover WHILE shooting the vorts, thus enraging them? Of course, your first point in this post still stands. I guess there’s no way to pass this message flawlessly, but I think your idea would be the best we could get.
Interesting idea, and good point about how this would demonstrate the link between the vorts and controllers - there isn’t really any other way of doing that without exposition. Also, I think it helps show a bit of the inner workings of Xen, which I like.
I think if it’s clear the vorts are busy doing something else it’d be easier to distinguish it from a glitch, since the developers wouldn’t bother making them do all that if they were meant to be hostile.
a simple idea to resolve the conflict of the Xen factory:
When you arrive to the passive vorts zone you see a vort working behind a Xen force field (maybe powered up by controllers or some shit like that) he sees you, he approaches the force field, he touches it with his hand. He makes a sad face goes back and continues working. Then as you walk around you see the vorts ain’t attacking you. When the controllers arrive all the vorts can play the animation of the collar hurting them that was featured in hl1 and they start attacking. If you kill the controllers then the animation plays again and they stop attacking.
That would add more drama to the story, explain the vorts situation and indicate you when they are passive and when they are not. It’s better than glass and distance in my opinion. Also this way would maybe prevent people run to cover while shooting the passive vorts as _L1pE_BR said
I think when in the lambda complex, there could be a group of scientists talking about some of the aliens that seem to be fairly intelligent, and a line like “…but they aren’t all hostile- Just some of them, they seem…almost sentient.” and another scientist would say that he was running and ran into one who just looked at him and walked off.
It could be that from the beginning there were some that wouldn’t attack unless provoked; this could be an “Oh shit” moment to a player who listens and realizes that they’ve just been running around gunning things down, shooting first and asking questions later, Gordon is supposed to be sort of a hero, or at least a decent person who is being as much of a monster as those coming in and killing random defenseless scientists. Although, all of this relies on the player paying attention to background conversations and be emotionally invested enough to actually care.
I have an idea:
You see a vort behind glass. A security guard runs in and the vort cowers instead of attacking. The guard then lowers his weapon and keeps moving.
At this very late stage in the game the developers wouldn’t have time for scripted sequences or voice acting. You want something very simple that is able to be implemented easily and with no potential glitches.
The problem with scripted sequences are numerous. You need to get the player to notice, then to make the connection that it’s not just a lone vort, that it’s not just a random glitch, that the reason they’re not attacking is because they’re slaves, that the ones controlling them are the Controllers. This is all very hard to convey in one scripted sequence.
The suggestions recently made all have inherent problems.
This is Half-Life. A very simple game of run and shoot. You don’t want a moral dilemma every time you come across a vortigaunt. Besides, you’re kind of missing the point. The vorts that you encounter in the BMRF can be ruthless and merciless because that’s what they’re being programmed to be; they are an invasion army being ordered by the Nihilanth. The ones in Xen are being ordered to grow/maintain the army of the alien grunts which is what they’re doing in the factory. That is until the Controller enters and orders them to kill Gordon. This connection is what needs to be established, not that the vorts are intelligent beings, we find that out in HL2.
Again, this is too much work. Aside from the trouble of making the vort do a sad face (I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a vort look sad/happy anyway), this requires the dev team to model and texture the forcefield, animate the vort and make sure the player notices all this. All of this when they’ve likely finished Xen and are simply polishing it up.
Also, you say this is better than glass but the forcefield is doing the exact same thing as the glass, providing an impenetrable barrier that the player can see through but not attack. It’s a somewhat blunt obversational tool in which the game says ‘HEY! LOOK AT THIS!’ And, as Dias rightly stated, how does the player know that the vort isn’t attacking the player just because he can’t shoot through the forcefield?
I’m not saying my idea is the only idea or the best one, but the devs just need something simple, quick and effective to display what is otherwise a very minor point in the story. It’s always better to tell the story through player interaction rather than forcing it down the player’s throat with whistles, bells and lights. Half-Life 2 was perfect in this regard. It carefully chose subtle examples such as graffiti, citizen comments and environment to tell the backstory; things that the player could easily miss.
So to summarise this so far could we agree on the following points?..
(1.) The sequence cannot require new animations or character models.
(2.) The sequence cannot require new level design or environment assets.
(3.) The sequence should not be pre-iterated in a diminished form pre-Xen in the BMRF - with the possible exception of QE.
Half-Life 1’s islave has two animations for when the vort is punished (and instructed to become hostile) with the arrival of a controller: collar1 & collar2
Look at the first point and then the second point here.
I know this is a re-imagining, but really this puts it to rest for me - it’s going to follow the same lines guys.
True, maybe not the best Idea I’ve ever had, yet the vort could just look away and sigh but that would mean more script and more job so we better forget about this
I’ve just noticed that Gmod has in the “special effects” models many things that can pass as a force field. It maybe could work for BM.
I do belive you are right, Floyd, we need something that doesn’t really need many scripting (or not scripting at all) that could pass by unnoticed if you don’t want to pay many attention. Yet we need to at least give the players a clue that they are being passive… for a while.
Maybe the devs have already done this level and they have already created a script animation to alert you of it without us knowing; yet this is quite improvable.
Your idea of a great group of vorts is simple and really good the only problems are:
1)“mad runners that waste 50 rounds of mp5 against crockroaches while moving” that could provoque the vorts.
2) when the controllers arrive all the vorts will become hostile, Many players won’t want for sure be raped by 20 vorts at the same time while two controllers fly behind your cover and attack you from behind, leaving the 20 vorts a safe way to get you.
If we could find a way to solve this, we may have the perfect solution
I don’t think many people would attack the vorts for a number of reasons, chiefly because you’d have to be pretty stupid to take on 20 vorts in an open space with just one magazine. Players would be killed fairly quickly; the point is that it’s a battle you can win but only from cover. If they try it and succeed, fair enough. Secondly, the vorts are noticeably preoccupied and in my experience, most players won’t attack something that isn’t attacking them. But to the very small percentage who attack, so what? They’ve lost out on a small but relatively unimportant piece of the game, that’s all.
But there are several things you can do to ensure passivity. You can purposefully ensure that the player’s ammo is running low at this point so they don’t have 50 rounds to spare against the vorts. Prior to the vort room you can create a puzzle or tranquil environment which calms and slows players down so they don’t shoot the first thing that moves.
As to the second point, I didn’t say that the Controllers would fly behind the player’s cover, but simply that they entered. It would just be one Controller, and this is a point where the player is in cover and has direct access to the next room where they can retreat. Also, in the original room, the player has to climb in order to get to the next room, which provides for a greater strategic position. Also, the player could find a stash of weapons as a reward.
Then again, the Controller needn’t enter the room at all and the player simply exits without a fight. Could make for a nice change to constantly shooting everything, and rewards those who notice their surroundings and punishes those who shoot everything.
If you really want to show the Vortigaunts as being forced to fight, here’s how you do it.
Have the player go through some sort of machine or something on Xen that takes all his equipment away and transports it somewhere else. You end up thrown into a room with vorts all around (and thinking shit, I’m dead). A vort comes up to you, doesn’t attack, and beckons to you to follow. You follow him and he points to your equipment. You open the crate or pickup the backpack or whatever stores your stuff.
Enter Controller. Controller does something after you have all your stuff. Vort collar starts emitting sparks and stuff and show the vort violently shake in pain, then bam, switch him to hostile and make him attack you.
The player would learn that they are friendly but being forced to attack you from this because - A. the player can’t kill them for a short amount of time and all the vorts don’t attack and B. there will be a clear indication of the vort being tortured in some way before he attacks you.