People, get off that mindset.
Whenever any new idea comes up which has the potential to be interesting, there’s always one clueless asshole in the room who thinks it would add a month to the release date because our precious devs had to ask the Make A Wish Foundation for a way to code through braille.
^ This is what I’m talking about. We’re not supposed to consider something if this asshat has no idea how to do it.
NPC ammo counts? It’s the easiest thing in the world, easier than putting in shell-ejection. Easier than calibrating an acceptable rate-of-fire, even. And I’m pretty sure it was already implemented but removed.
A few things sometimes warrant that response:
“Perhaps it’s a touch too hard for the team to add in the portal gun.”
“Getting rid of the loading screens and having the maps load dynamically would require re-writing a good chunk of the engine.”
“There’s no way the team would be able to get a movie file to play on a screen in the game.”
But short of those things, what business do you have saying an integer is a bitch? What gives you the right to say a heightmap is too much work for the result?
If you’ve never done any work like what you’re commenting on, keep your mouth shut. It seems hard to you because you’re a dumbass.
By the way: I’ve seen AVIs play on a screen in a Half-Life 1 map.