Feedback on Black Mesa retail

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#121

To go off what you say, Stabsley, I tend to think the focus should be less on how to reel in the MP5 and more about what makes the other weapons not fun to use in comparison. I find that, like you, I rarely used the Shotgun because it seems woefully inaccurate and weak against enemies more than about 64 units away. Another aspect that I feel is overlooked is reload time, in conjunction with how speedy the enemies are. In this game, to reload is to die, particularly against the impossibly zippy HECU units or Houndeyes who glide effortlessly through the levels. And reloading takes a very long time, especially with a nearly-empty Shotgun, which further diminishes its usefulness. To put it bluntly, the weapon isn’t there when you need it to be. You need double-shots for it to be useful at all, so you deplete your ammo at the most inopportune times. The big magazine of the MP5 means you’ll spend more time firing than reloading, so it’s naturally the thing you’re going to reach for.

To put it another way, if you were playing Borderlands, the MP5’s reload rating would be a 3. The Shotgun would be a 6, and its lack of damage and accuracy would make it inferior in nearly every case.

#122

you should correct the “sensitivity” on when the game applies falldamage… at the moment you get falldamage only when you fall down very profound abysses… but 10 damage is good, don’t change that…

#123

I have played the first few chapters of the EA release and I was blown away (again). Black Mesa just looks and plays so good (it also makes me wish I had a better computer so I could play BM in its full glory). Out of the lots of things I liked there are a few things that I disliked.

-The shotgun. It just didnt feel like it should feel. I think the Shotgun in Half-Life 2 and its Episodes and the one in the old Version of Black Mesa is perfect. Its one of the strongest weapons in the game - yes - but thats because its supposed to be. its a friggin shotgun. Its limited range and relatively small magazine makes me still use the other weapons. Now it just feels unsatisfying and lame.
I also dislike that you now get the shotgun before the surface battle in WGH. i always thought it was so awesome that you see the shotgun at the beginning of the level and ask yourself “hm how the hell am I going to get this?” and then, after barely escaping marines and helicopters and shit you get into that office and get the shotgun you almost forgot about and finally get to use that (once) awesome gun.

-The scientist before the resonance cascade. Yeah hes the Stanley Parable narrator and thats pretty awesome but I just think the old voice fitted a LOT better. (I know this is nitpicking but it just breaks the immersion for me) I would prefer him as a multiplayer announcer or as one of the scientists of the Lambda team right before the teleporter (iirc there is one scientist sitting away from the others. he could have some interesting dialogue). Rather some optional easteregg instead of “Hey look its the stanley parable guy!!!” (I know its not meant like this but it feels like this)

-The new glock. Although I think the new alt fire mechanic is interesting, it simply makes the gun a lot less useful in my opinion. After getting the mp5 I mainly used the glock to kill barnacles, headcrabs and clear mines and tripmines. In other words: do shit thats not worth the ammo of other guns. All this now takes significantly longer because the glock has such a huge delay (yes it is huge when you try to kill 10 barnacles. it used to take ~2 seconds to kill a barnacle, now its ~6). I could use the alt fire but thats not as accurate and wastes ammo. Then I could simply use the MP5 to clear all of this, it wouldnt make a difference

-I also hope for the VOX-Lines in OC and LC to return, I still dont know if theyre supposed to be absent, but they just make the world of the game seem more rich and detailed.

but remember, these are just a few things I disliked apart from the hundreds of things i liked. keep up the good work

[Edit:] One last thing I think was offputting is the desktop icon. We used to have this nice highres HL2-Style icon, now we have a strange lowres, pixely icon that looks very bad on white backgrounds https://puu.sh/i0rbN/4cda57567d.png

#124

I feel I have to agree with the post above in almost every way, excluding the bit about Kevan Brighting (he’s just too great to take away). I’d also like to add that the snarks and .357 should deal slightly more damage (in sp at least)

#125

I’m looking forward to purchasing and playing this, but I have to wonder: did they fix the Marines? In the 2012 version they were hideously overpowered because their aiming skills were quite literally at the level of ‘Counter-Strike aimbot’. I’d like to know if the devs fixed this.

#126

Exaggerated the death of the scientist in the chapter “Blast Pit”. When giving information ridiculously dies.

#127

Yes, the HECU ai has been completely define, they’re a blast to fight, now.

#128

I assume you mean the AI has been completely redone, which is great! Thanks for clearing that up.

#129

There are a few AI “issues” I’ve found (not sure if they’ve been mentioned yet).

Assassins are insanely stupid, they just stand afar and shoot so they’re easy shots for the crossbow. They used to feel a little trickier if I remember. Also do they not cloak on Normal difficulty? Maybe I’m imagining it but on the mod I seem to remember them doing it. I’ll check for myself shortly but as is I killed all 4 of them in Apprehension within 20 seconds because it’s like they’re complete morons now.

Likewise, Vorts also just got dropped on their heads as kids or something. They’ll just stand and attack without moving usually, and then sometimes just turn into a brick. As in they literally just stop doing ANYTHING but stand on the spot.

On the bright side, the HECU doesn’t absolutely make me want to not play anymore. They’re definitely more reasonable and fun. The MP5 was kind of overpowered but it’s been tweaked in a patch since I had first started so it’s more reasonable. Shotgun got a tiny buff which is nice, but I still honestly never use it except against houndeyes and that’s it.
Will update with more stuff later.

#130

This is a known issue and is currently being addressed.

#131

In the original Half-Life, I kinda remember that those Assassins are capable of throwing grenades at you. Any chances of bringing it back (if possible)??

BTW, I just noticed that Snarks have a secondary function: Its function is to throw them near you. :slight_smile:

#132

Feasible from a real-world perspective, but a bad idea from a gameplay perspective. By giving them glocks in the early game, you train the player to expect them to carry a glock. The first time the player encounters the medics in later stages, she may approach them thinking they’re carrying glocks and aren’t a threat, only to be killed or severely injured by medics that are carrying heavier weapons. This would be frustrating and unintuitive, as you’d have changed the established gameplay rules out from underneath the player.

#133

actually, not really. yes it would result in some one getting shot to death cause they thought medics had only glocks, but seeing as things like the gaurds have better weapons as the events go on it would almost be expected for the medics to pick up better weapons… hell giving them the weapon pick up function from hl2 would even be nice, having the medics in the first incounters take their buddies guns and start unloading on the player would be cool.

#134

why the guard explotes in 3:14 minute

youtube.com/watch?v=P_tlS14XtEM


(can you see the video??)

This is strange
It is a bug in the game
The guard auto explotes LOL

#135

2560×1440

Will post full feedback soon

#136

I’m not 100% sure but i’ve noticed this and it may have something to do with quickloads. As in, the ragdolls look fine and normal, then i do something bad and hit the quickload key and then they are all spazzed out/halfway in the floor/etc just like that picture.

#137

There’s a few problems/oversights in the options menu of the game, first and obvious ones being that some settings in the Black Mesa tab don’t work and don’t stick when you relaunch the game. Some of the keybinding options don’t stick after launch as well. In the Mouse tab, there are useless text boxes that don’t do anything, and if they do, they are in the wrong places and appear non-functional. Also, there are some old and redundant keybinding settings left over from HL2 that didn’t get removed, like weapon catagory 6, and send/recall squad. I also don’t see the option to rebind the default chat key. One last thing, there are some contradictory settings. Going to Keyboard then Advanced, there is an option to enable quickswitch of weapons, however, in the Black Mesa tab, this setting is also present. And in the Difficulty tab, the easy setting claims the computer will help you aim, yet there is a toggleable setting in the BM tab.

#138

We know. There’s a UI overhaul planned at some point in the future.

#139

Sorry for dishing out so many fucking bugs, but this one is pretty game breaking if you use it in the right way. It seems to be left over from HL2. If you press your crouch key, then release it before your character gets back up to full standing height, about 88% to standing height as a rough estimate, then quickly hold crouch, you will be walking at crouch speed, but your view will be above what it should be, almost appearing as if you were slowly walking. You have to time it correctly so you are taller than crouch height, but still shorter than standing height. It is tricky, but really possible. What makes it gamebreaking in both singleplayer and multiplayer if you do this next to a vent or a confined place that requires you to crawl, then go into it, your view will clip into the world and you can see the contents of the whole map, and probably even other players before they can even anticipate you, because your player box is in crouch height to fit in the vent or hole, but your view is higher than that. I haven’t had much time to experiment in multiplayer, but does definitely work in both modes.

#140

The speedrunning community calls that Schrodinger’s Crouching, if I recall correctly. I don’t know if there are any similar exploit areas in BM, but in one of the Nova Prospekt maps in Half-Life 2, you can use it to push a button through the floor and skip an entire section of the level.

It seems to mess with the enemy AI as well, I’ve had Half-Life 2’s npc’s completely fail to shoot me while doing it.

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.