Yeah, the lack of marine/alien fights is definitely a fault. It’s been clearly explained before that quite a few areas of Surface Tension, where you would’ve seen the aliens start to win, were cut due to time constraints when a mapper quit.
The H.E.C.U Marines weren’t getting they’re asses kicked, the commander just didn’t wanna waste any more troops on black mesa. Its like the war with japan, sure the U.S could had eventually own japan by sending enough troops but decided to use the atom bomb instead so no more troops would die, this is the same with black mesa.
Even tho the H.E.C.U Marines were fighting 5 different enemies at the same time, gordon, BM Security, Black Ops, Xen, Race X, they could had still won if the commander wants to send enough troops.
Most of the battles where the HECU win are due to the AI imbalances though, as it is right now the HECU are too strong vs the Xenian forces. Since this is easily fixable in the skill.cfg, I have a feeling we will see more Xenian forces winning battles in the Steam release. Hell, I did some slight changes myself to make it a bit more like HL1 and the Agrunts are already kicking HECU ass at those points now.
What is this?
Could you share some of these fixes? Is it the same as lowering reaction times and the power of the HECU guns?
Apocryphal new race of aliens from Opposing Force. Supposedly, they came through via Xen, presumably fleeing the combine like the Xenians themselves, and tried to invade earth.
I hope the maybe they can add that back in, maybe as a post release thing. Or at least change some of the AI imbalances that cause the marines to win everytime like the other guy mentioned.
They could tweak it til the Xenians win a majority of the fights for the Steam release and everyone would be happy.
Odd when you consider we never heard from them again afterward. It leaves many questions. Who exactly were Race X? Where did they come from? What was their motivation? Why haven’t we seen them again? Where are they now? What was their relationship with the Xenians?
Although the HL1 expansions are kind of up in the air as far as canon is concerned. Although I believe they are generally regarded as canon. Are at least parts of it.(Like the destruction of Black Mesa with the nuke)
I don’t know if any of you are into the lore of Halo but the HL1 expansions kind of remind of the I Love Bees ARG that promoted Halo 2. The canonicity of it remains in debate and at least some parts of it seem to be canon while others simply can’t be. Although the good thing about Halo is after 11 years of games, novels and short stories everything all fits together perfectly with only a few small retcons and only that one ARG having canon up in the air. And one small non-canon story in Halo Legends played as satire.
The rocket launch was done very well… The mission was in 2 parts the launch and you also had to align a dish to communicate with the sattalite
It was cut from the original half life game but released as a stand alone demo called “uplink” you could mod half life to include the mission in the game but I don’t think it’s position is in the correct place after surface tension.
I think it should come directly after on a rail. because it’s at night and you get apprehended on your way to lamda core and end up in a dumpster.
The dish looked rubbish If it was re-imagined I would prefer to see it like a full parabolic dish. I mapped this dish into the source engine see below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Antenna_One_(Arthur)at_Goonhilly(side_view).jpg
at_Goonhilly(side_view).jpg){kind=link}
It’s not only the first ever full parabolic dish but also part of the largest dish array in the world and is called King Arthur because it is in cornwall in the UK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Antenna_One_(Arthur)at_Goonhilly(front_view).jpg
at_Goonhilly(front_view).jpg){kind=link}
I imagined this to be a better substitute for the dish in uplink and it has a bit of history and is old design but looks cool especially all the walkways and it’s verticality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Antenna_One_(Arthur)at_Goonhilly(rear_view).jpg
at_Goonhilly(rear_view).jpg){kind=link}
So this is part of how I re-imagined uplink but to keep the dome that would lead to this structure outside of it.
Uplink had some good scripted sequences too but it was never properly intergrated into the original half life. It should of been directly after on a rail not surface tension… This is why it seemed to make no sense I guess. It was quite a short level but had some good fun momments in it like HECUS Burning VORTS. HECUS executing scientists combine style and also featured the GMAN and a GARG at the end.
I think after you launch the rocket Uplink starts but you would have to run to a different door under artillary fire and into the control room where you get given the mission and where it ends is back out to the launch site again and on to apprehension where you see GMAN walk through at the end of “Uplink” where the GARG also is will take you back to the launch site or atleast this way it would make sense because after “surface tension” made no sense
Isn’t the rocket explained in the PS2 Co-op mod, Decay?
“Once reunited with Keller, Cross and Green work to seal the dimensional tear to stop the invasion. The military arrive and try to remove all personnel as well as the alien force. After resetting key equipment to prevent a second dimensional rift, the two are tasked with preparing a satellite for launch. The satellite, which is launched by Freeman in Half-Life, is used in tandem with ground-based equipment to significantly weaken the effects of the resonance cascade.[10] Keller tasks Cross and Green with activating this set of prototype equipment, a displacement beacon, which through the satellite may be able to seal the dimensional rift. However, after activating the beacon, both characters are caught up in a “harmonic reflux”, a distortion caused by the rift. Despite this, Cross and Green are able to return safely and Keller congratulates them on their success.[11]”
(questionable canonically, but I was under the impression the major plot points such as this and the Black Ops nuke were checked with Valve).
Also, and my Half-Life lore is sketchy, but wasn’t the purpose of the HL2 Ep2 rocket to re-establish contact with the Satellite launched via the rocket in Half-Life 1?
no, i think it was to close the new portal been made by the combine
yes you are right on Decay… But Decay was like an addon by gearhouse, I am saying that I think “uplink” was originally intended to be contacting the sattalite you launch where as in “uplink” Demo you are told it is so he can get a door open to lambda core which is stupid and I think this was just for the demo and a simple story for the cut level.
That was not ever it’s original intention for creation atleast that is what I think
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because it’s at night like when you launch the rocket
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They need to establish communications link with the sattalite
3, You as the player were involved in stopping or trying to stop the portal tearing open wider and this was the 2nd part you had to play in it establishing the communication with the tool to stop the portal or diminish it.
So the demo changed that and made up some crap about it was to open a door 
ultimatlely the sattalite failed anyway
Both, actually. The new satellite connects to the one from Black Mesa and closes the superportal.
Look we all know what the satellite did thats not the issue. The issue is that it is never explained in game. Doesn’t matter if it was explained in HL1 or its expansions it was never really explained in Black Mesa and thats the problem.
I can definitely see where the OP is coming from.
The rocket issue is just there because the explanation occurs quite some time before you actually do it. However, I remember this was way more of an issue in HL1 itself. IIRC, some guy shouts something about a rocket at you while you are riding by on a train car (and there was also some mention about it before the blast pit, I think) but when I first did it HL1, I hit the button and thought “Oh, look at that, I just launched a rocket into space … hm, that was cool …?!?”
In Black Mesa, at least you can see some stuff on the monitors in launch control that hints at what it’s all really about. IMO it would have really been cool if the lambda core guys would contact you in the control room and tell you what you are doing and maybe talk you through a launch procedure that consists of a bit more than just pressing the ig red button (well, at least now we raise the thing out of the silo ourselves). I also agree, it would have been cool if the rocket would have been mentioned at the end.
All that said, HK alsways told a large chunk of tit’s story by subtle hints in the environments rather than through dialogue or cutscenes or the like. BM does this even better since there such an awesome level of detail to pretty much everything in the game.
I (as well as many others) totally agree with the HECO vs. aliens issue. That seems to be one of the most widely accepted criticisms about an otherwise fantastic experience.
Yeah, the Lambda team could contact you via radio in the control room and explain the rocket launch in a bit of further detail. Just a sentence or two, before you can hit the button. It’d be wonderful.
And yes, I hope they fix the apparent scripted dominance of the HECU against the aliens.