We modified it to drop off 3 waves max, because infinitely respawning enemies is a really stupid mechanic, and we didn’t want to punish the (large number) of players who may not have realised that they have do destroy the Osprey. Why would it just keep on infinitely going around, dropping troops to their deaths repeatedly?
I love the game so far, though I’ve only gotten to On a Rail. However, this is where I’ve ran into something I’m not a particular fan of. I’m aware that the 2012 version of the mod came under fire for the voice acting done by the HECU marines, but in the 2015 version this is taken to a bit of an extreme. The 2012 version’s HECU marine voice acting was cheesy but it was true to the flavor of the original Half-Life. That’s what the game was. It had quirks like that which made the fighting a lot more memorable. The marine voice acting is cold and sterile, resulting to make the fight scenes feel very indistinct. I liked hearing them bark orders at each other and toss banter at Freeman, now it feels a bit too perfunctory. Plus, the “killing my buddies” line has turned into “killing marines” which kind of left a sour taste in my mouth.
EDIT: Whoops, ignore this
Yea it spammed infinite HECU until you destroyed it. Having never played HL1 myself, I was at a loss as to how so many marines kept coming until I finally got out of that garage and saw the osprey. Edit: lol fail, I was on page 3 when i posted so I didn’t see textfamguy’s post.
Also it might be me but since there’s no latency issues possible in SP I think it’s the game. The assassins have wonky hitboxes or something, I’m playing the game on “normal” but I tweaked some things like giving bullsquids more hp since they seem kinda weak and reducing gravity of the mp5 grenade so it actually flies a half-decent distance. I dropped the hp of assassins all the way down to 20(as an experiment, trying to figure out what the actual damage value of the 357 was) and it still took 2 bodyshots from the magnum to kill them. Either they’re hard-coded to take 2 357 rounds before dying, or the hitboxes were counting the hits as armshots since I made armshots do 0.6x dmg and legs 0.8x.
btw, the magnum’s damage value is 45 if anyone cares. Wasn’t aware notepad++ could open .dmx files before.
One thing that I want fixed:
Shotgun headshots in multiplayer: with the 2-barrel shot, you can kill someone at full health. Reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaly frustrating. 1 hit kills should be reserved for the charged tau cannon.
At least half the weapons in our game can one hit kill you. It’s not just the Tau Cannon.
The Shotgun behaves very similarly to HL1’s Shotgun, and has the same damage output - 80 from a single blast, 160 from a double blast. Ours has that damage spread over twice as many pellets as HL1’s Shotgun, and has more spread and some damage falloff, to prevent Shotgun sniping. We actually think the Shotgun (barring some of the animation cancelling aspects we are working on), is one of the weapons we got quite right in terms of balancing. I’m working on balance right now, tweaking from the first wave of feedback.
I knew most could 1-shot you. (I forgot about explosives when I wrote the last thing. It’s balanced because getting killed by them is avoidable) I just think that 1-shot should be only tau, explosives, and gluon should kill quickly. those things take some skill to kill with but right-clicking with a shotgun takes almost no thought, planning, or aim.
Just played a little bit of Single Player and Multiplayer and I’m gonna give my first feedbacks:
GENERAL:
- I loved how the Emergency Broadcast System being present in the game, it makes me foreshadow of the military coming in the facility.
- The return of an unused OST (Office Complex) makes its debut in the game.
- Loving the Multiplayer, and it looks balanced (for now)
- I love the new sprinting animations instead of using that “friendly” animations when sprinting (sadly can’t sprint backwards).
- Those pickup animations are so good especially the following: Glock, Crowbar, RPG, Tau Cannon, Hivehand and Snark.
- No Announcement System in Lambda Core. (I used the command speak in the console, and used the words present there AND it 100% works!)
- Hazard Course VOX easter egg returned in Unforeseen Consequences (No, no and NOOO!).
- Weapon bobbing is now the same as Half-Life 2’s.
WEAPONS:
Crowbar
- In SP, it’s attack speed is so high that it looks more like a “RAPEbar.” It will be fixed in the next updates.
- One of its idle animation is the same as Half-Life 1. I like it.
- It can’t kill a Barnacle in a single hit unlike in Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2.
Glock - I love the new fidget animation, but I want the old fidget present too (Gordon flips the gun), so the gun has 2 fidget animations.
- Good thing that it now uses Half-Life 1’s style.
Magnum - Maximum ammo decreased from 6/18 (24) to 6/12 (18) which is now same as Half-Life 2’s.
- Ammo pickups give twice ammo.
MP5 - This model reminded me of the one used during the 2009 trailer.
Shotgun - If only the model is slimmer… I don’t know for sure.
- Ammo gives 8 shells… Seriously, I don’t know how many shells are there in the shotgun box… I’ll check the ammo later.
Crossbow - No pickup animation or any good animations yet. (My idea for the pickup animation is Gordon inspects the Crossbow and inserts a clip and prepares it. Ilopn’s animations may be useful for the Crossbow’s revamp).
- Maximum ammo is 5/10 (15)… needs to increase to 5/20 (25) or any as long as it’s balanced.
- Ammo gives twice like the Magnum.
RPG - Good thing it’s no longer COD Style — rocket moves SUPER DUPER FAST.
- You can now carry 6 rockets (1/5) instead of 5 (1/4).
Tau Cannon - It now looks like the original LD model from Half-Life 1. (I kinda like if the 2012 model and the 2015 model were both combined)
- Pickup animation sounds reminded me of DooM.
Gluon Gun - Like the Glock, the jiggle the handle has been removed. I like to have 2 fidget animations (the new one and the one jiggling the handle).
Hivehand - Prepare your anus!! XD
Hand Grenade - Sprint animation is a bit synced out.
Satchel - Sprint animation is a little synced out.
- Detonator has no sprint animation.
Tripmine - Why is the maximum capacity is 6 instead of 5?
Snark - I love that fidget animation. Same with pickup animation.
ENEMIES: (So far)
- Headcrab has increased HP and damage is compared to HL1’s Medium and Hard Difficulty.
- Zombies damage are the same from HL1’s Hard Difficulty.
- Assassins are overpowered… Do they use that Cloacking Device in Hard? They really need to use Grenades at you.
- Gargantua has no stomp attack, but I love its sounds.
- Tentacles have no death sound in Blast Pit when burning.
- Good thing the Garg’s code has been fixed especially in Surface Tension.
- THOSE DEMOLITION HECU SOLDIERS have returned (Soldiers using grenade launchers).
OTHER:
- Chargers have 1 extra capacity – same with those Vending Machines. 51 – Health Charger, 76 – Suitcharger and 16 – Vending Machines.
- Gluon Gun has no disintegration effect to gibs. (Has been issued and concerned)
- Can’t smack the crates into smaller pieces.
- Some Vorts can’t seem to notice you.
- Why there are no dead female scientists after the Resonance Cascade? I can only see them in Questionable Ethics ONLY!
- No HUD for Spectators in Multiplayer.
- Spectators should not be classified as DEAD but (Spectator).
- Barnacles can’t be killed by a single crowbar hit.
- No splash effect for Gluon Gun in MP, and it should only consume 1 ammo because its rate of fire is already 300 (same in HLDM). In campaign, it does need to consume 2 ammo due to its rate of fire (Well, this is present anyway).
- The skill.cfg really needs to be easier for those who want to have a new balance or want to mess it up, BUT IT IS 100% RECOMMENDED TO MAKE A BACK-UP BEFORE MESSING IT UP. I can’t see some weapon damages there… or something else… Is it already in the DMX file now?
- At the start of Office Complex, you get Glock ammo instantly.
I think that’s all for now…
Sorry you’re behind on your dead women quota.
I really do not know what just happened to them after the Resonance Cascade. MOST of the dead were all male. BTW, My feedback is a compilation so there were some (a little) stuff that were repeated that I posted a long time ago, so it really needs to be understandable.
Sorry dude I don’t like your idea. I really hope you will always be able to insta-kill with close range doublebarrel shotgun-shots and zoomed crossbow in BM. It made the game (original HL1) way more suspenseful and exciting. And I think they will be less random because the playeranimations are different in BMDM. In HL1 your playermodels head leans forward and down when jumping… It looked fine but sometimes it caused random headshots (for example when a grenade exploded 1 meter in front of you…) You was also able to deal great amounts of headshot-damage by shooting rockets to the ceiling above your enemy.
I played some TF2 lately and I some small suggestions about the hit-feedback. When you hit somebody in TF2, you have hitsounds (“dink”-sounds) and you can see the amount of damage you have dealt to your enemy. Also when you pick up a healthpack or armor in TF2, you can see on your HUD how much armor or health got added to your stack. These are small additions that could make the game more comprehensible. Another feature that I liked was how Items and locked players got outlined in Left4Dead. In Reflex (a new Arena FPS game which is currently on early access on steam) you have outlined enemies and teammates instead of brightskins. I’m not sure if this would be cool in BMDM, because in Half-life you didn’t had glowing brightskins. People were only able to change their models textures to flat colours. This made models more readable in dark areas or infront of noisy background map-textures, but you was still able to hide (in shadows or on uncommon spots) from your enemy and the chance of his eyes missing you was not completely removed from the game. In Half-Life I liked to silently take some position in the map and camp with the Crossbow. After a while people noticed me, but sometimes it was a really nice and effective playstyle if you kept moving and changing your position from time to time. So what I’m trying to say is: It would be nice to find a good way to improve visibility in BM. Maybe you could add an optional outline-effect for pickups. Playermodels should be easy to read in good visibility conditions (light maps without fog, rain or dust) but they shouldn’t jump into your eye to still give players the chance to play stealthy.
Sorry for topic-change 
I actually think visibility was more a problem. I realize it wasn’t the shotgun that bothered me, but that I didn’t know the person who killed me was there. If I had, I would’ve been able to avoid it, so I agree with you. (Also, I looked into Reflex, it looks really cool. Should I get it, or should I stick with Quake Live until Reflex gets released.)
So, I just got done playing through the full SP, and I loved it. Big fan of the original mod, and the release version is similarly excellent. Easily stands up to modern AAA games. I really wouldn’t have space or time to list everything that was done RIGHT with this game. But that said, I’ve compiled a few lists of things that I’d love to see changed in future updates.
There were only two issues that I’d say actively irritated me as a player:
1.The helicopter battle on top of the dam is really REALLY awful. In the original HL, you could just quickly jump in the water to avoid it and swim to safety. Really, I’d argue that this would be the sane thing to do when you’re being attacked by an Apache. You RUN LIKE A MOFO, you don’t stand and shoot back with small arms. I think a perfectly valid solution to this situation would be to prevent the chopper from firing if you’re a certain distance underwater, which would reward the player for quick thinking while still requiring them to fend off the 2 Icky’s and manage their O2. After trying to swim to safety more than 10 times, I checked the internet in a rage only to learn that we’re supposed to use the Tau cannon. If this is really what you want players to do, you REALLY need to put in some sort of indication that the Tau cannon is effective against vehicles. Maybe in the introduction scene for the cannon you can have the scientist mention off-handedly that it was designed for the military as an anti-vehicle weapon. Because up until this point it’s just a fantastic way to gib HECU, but we’ve NO reason to assume it’s the only thing that could take down a chopper.
2.Auto-crouch-jump is fantastic, THANK YOU! It was such an archaic mechanic in the mod release. My only mobility complaint now is that sprinting and jumping seems kind of broken to me. While I’m holding down shift to run, I don’t jump when I press the space bar. I have to let go of shift and immediately hit jump in order to get any distance. I can’t count the number of times I’ve tried to sprint and jump at the same time, only to have my character run right off of a ledge like a moron. I can only think that you were trying to make distance jumping require skill to pull off, but I’ve always been annoyed with any mechanic that makes it HARDER for me to get the character to do what I want.
Additionally, I think a few environmental puzzles are unnecessarily cryptic. The original HL had a number of spots where you just had to try EVERY door/ladder/vent/darkened corner/switch and see what works, but I think we can all agree that’s pretty bad from a gameplay perspective. You should give the player a clear goal, and then have them figure out how to get there. I shouldn’t have to use process of elimination to get further in the game
1.The changes made to that puzzle early in the game where you have to find and spin two wheels to get the door to the freezer area open was a huge step in the right direction. When my wife played through the mod version (having never played the original), it took her quite some time to figure out what she was supposed to do given that there was no indication before that point that wheels were not just props and could be interacted with. The new signs around the door are much better, but I think you could still make it more clear that the door won’t open until you heat the room. Right now the sign says something like “Don’t go in until it’s warmed up” while not directly saying that the door is physically locked but can be opened if you find a way to warm up the room. Also, maybe a popup text when you first wander near the wheel to indicate that it is a usable object would be nice.
2.There should really be a text popup in blast pit right before you walk into the tentacle room that crouching makes you quieter. While us veteran gamers have long known that “let’s be stealthy” means it’s time to hit ctrl, this is really not something that is trivially obvious to someone who hasn’t been introduced to that mechanic before. Again, I’m thinking of watching my wife try to run that section a few dozen times before finally asking me what to do. (EDIT): It seems like just sprinting through the pit is entirely possible now. This is a good thing for people who don’t know about the stealth mechanic, but I’d still put in something about crouching=quiet.
3.Also in Blast Pit, the turbine fan you switch on from underneath always seemed like an easy setup for a no win scenario. If you switch the fan on, but don’t get onto the ladder quickly enough, you’re going to get trapped down there and have to reload the most recent save. I’d either recess the ladder far enough that you can’t get hit by the fan or let the player turn the fan back OFF in order to try again. No-win scenarios that force you to suicide are no fun. Also, I’d put in a few more unbreakable objects around the rim of the fan that get blown up into the air. If you are facing the wrong way and don’t see it or have already smashed that pallet to kindling, there is really no indication that jumping at the fan blade (obvious suicide in most contexts) is the solution to the puzzle. Or maybe just a text box if someone spends way too long stuck in that area.
4.I had no idea you could reprogram sentries until almost the end of the game. Maybe a character mentioning this mechanic? Or just a text popup upon sneaking up behind a conveniently placed sentry? Also, I really wish they didn’t still shoot you once they’re reprogrammed. It makes carrying a turret around a HUGE pain in the ass.
5.Could we get some sort of visual indicator of when we are or are not operating a train, like in the original? I’ve had a few times when I try to slow down the train and just end up running backwards off the thing because I wasn’t actually controlling it any longer.
6.The part where you need to raise the rocket to progress seems a bit cryptic to me. I mean, as gamers we’re all used to pushing every button we see, but there is really no indication of “push all the buttons and you can open a door over here”. Maybe a sign on the door that says something like “Automatic door will remain closed while rocket is in service bay.”?
7.After you launch the rocket, there is a door that opens into an area with a collapsed train elevator. You’re supposed to use the ladder over in a corner of the room to go down a level, but it’s actually pretty hard to see it given that the light over it is broken. If you glance at that corner while the light is flickering off, you’d have little chance of seeing the ladder. I’d consider putting a unique light source over there (like one of the red bulb lights elsewhere in the game) to draw the eye more.
8.In the room with the three moving pistons to get across the gap, the button to turn them on really kind of blends in with the prop control panel. Once you start modeling realistic looking control boards, it gets really difficult for players to figure out what is functional and what is decorative. Perhaps making the red light on the power button blink to draw the eye more? Though I do love that with the Source Engine physics, you can just stack up some junk to bypass this puzzle altogether.
9.I think there should be a LOT more ways to get back up to where you were if you fall in the treadmill section of Waste Processing. Falling down already damages you, and now you have to spend an additional 10 minutes trying to find a way back up? Seems like a strong encouragement to just save-scumm your way through the area. Also, entirely unrelated, but WHO THE HELL HAS BEEN PUTTING TRIP MINES ALL OVER THIS AREA?! HECU must have some really bored or REALLY paranoid demolitions techs. Really, though I’ve never liked this section of the game. Seemed really unnecessary in the first HL as well.
10.Just after the dam sequence, there is the part where you have to jump off a platform onto a long, narrow cement ledge and run around the corner to reach a half-broken ladder. I think this could use with a bit more visual indication that that’s what we’re supposed to do here. It would be way too easy for someone not to even notice that ledge as it currently is.
11.The booby-trapped warehouse really needs the initial scientist dialogue to MENTION the consequence of setting off the mines. All he says is “Be careful”, but we’ve been trained to just shoot mines in our way up until this point. We really have no idea why it’s now an instant-loss until we see the next room, and even then I’d argue that a bunch of “CAUTION: EXPLOSIVES STORAGE” signs would be in order. Though really, I’d argue that the mines in the first hallway are far enough away that they’d not set off the main room anyhow.
12.The coolant tank puzzles in Lambda are pretty cryptic. The problem here is that you’ve created a much larger, more detailed, visually busy environment than before. In the original there were very obviously only one or two places we COULD go, but BM is so much more visually cluttered that you need to do a better job of signposting things for new players who haven’t already memorized the old maps. In one there is a sign by a switch that says “Drain cap closed” or something like this, but it neither tells you that it is possible to open the cap or WHERE the cap is. Also, that switch should be clearly labeled so I know it’ll activate the coolant system. In the other tank, you have to go down into the bottom of the tank without ANY indication that anything of importance is down there to find a way to the next area.
(Continued)
I think the SP needs a bit more work on the difficulty balance. I played on Hard, and well:
1.Satchel charges seem pretty anemic. I detonated one with a bullsquid practically standing on top of it and got spat on for my trouble. That quantity of C4 should really do enough damage to take out ANY regular enemy within a pretty large radius. Hell, probably a tank too.
2.I appreciate the newly rebalanced MP5, but I think it’s made the game too easy on hard mode. In the mod, every firefight was a tense, terrifying game of cat and mouse. In the release version, though, I just ramboed my way through the QE lobby fight on hard mode, ignoring cover and fighting like an idiot and I still came out on top. While I agree that easy mode in the mod was way too hard, I think you’ve overcompensated with the release version and made hard mode way too EASY. While I like that they can’t soak up a dozen bullets and still fight, it seems like HECU AI is really slow to react now, so I can take down 2-3 before they even have a chance to fight back. Gordon Freeman is just a nerd with a fancy suit, not some sort of super-soldier. Facing off against trained military should be intimidating as hell, especially when someone chooses hard mode for a real challenge. Likewise, alien grunts and vorts go down WAY too quick with this gun.
3.By comparison, the shotgun feels really weak now in SP. I can take out a dude with a quick burst from the MP5, but it sometimes takes 2-3 shotgun blasts at relatively short range to do the same reliably. So really, I don’t use the shotgun anymore when the SMG is so much more useful.
4.In the freezer room that is cold enough to damage you, it seems like the damage is a bit too high. It comes off as less of a strong incentive to move quickly and more “Oh, don’t already know where the vent is at the end of this area? You get to die a few times using trial and error to find it.”
5.I do see what people mean about the assassins now being OP. They are ridiculously accurate over long range, especially considering they’re using hand guns. And with the camera shake, it’s damned near impossible to return fire when they’re destroying you. I think they need to be toned down a bit. While I don’t mind a bit of a challenge, just one of them can shred you so quickly that I think they pretty much require save-scumming.
6.I think there are WAY too many rockets lying around for the cliff fight. I had more than enough lying around for me to just take cover way at the back of the cave and destroy the helo with little danger to myself. If you don’t give us so many rockets (or it takes more rockets to kill it) we’d have to dash out from cover to get that exposed ammo box, making it a much more interesting fight. Only problem with this, though, is that we’ve not encountered ammo boxes before and might not know that we can open it…
7.It seems like the only effective way to deal with snipers is the rocket launcher. I’ve had a few instances where a perfectly placed grenade hasn’t done the trick. It’s kinda odd that we can’t just shoot them, and if you’re out of rocket ammo at a sniper position you’re more or less just screwed. I’d fix this with a much larger hitbox for them, or at the very least some sort of backstop to make sure grenades don’t just sail past them if you make it in the window.
8.The Tau cannon primary fire seems pretty pathetic. It takes three solid hits to kill a HECU, while it take 4 rounds from the MP5 to do the same. Given that bullets are in FAR greater supply than charge packs, there is no situation in which I’d rather use the Tau.
And I’ve got some admittedly minor nitpicks with some logical/tonal inconsistencies:
1.The new flashlight is way too dinky. Gordon is wearing a ridiculously fancy suit designed for exploring dangerous, alien environments and we can’t get a decent halogen bulb in that thing?!
2.The heart gib is pretty comically oversized compared to the rest of the organs. Your brain is bigger than your heart, as are your lungs or liver. The adult heart is a bit smaller than two fists together.
3.If the suit charger stations are all explicitly designed for an HEV suit, why do none of them actually hold enough juice to fully charge a suit in one go? I could understand it if they’ve all been partially used, but then they should each have a different amount of charge in them.
4.I miss crunchy cockroaches…
5.The physical force of the crowbar seems a bit much. Every time I hit a huge, solid looking wooden crate it goes flying the opposite direction.
6.When you get the MP5 for the first time, I think there is mention made of how to fire grenades with it, but you don’t get any grenade ammo until much later in the game so it’s entirely possible to forget this information… I think some new players might not even notice that they’ve picked up a new ammunition type until they accidentally hit the right mouse button. Perhaps a text popup reminding you of how to use MP5 grenades the first time you actually get some ammo?
7.And I really have to second (or third or fourth) the issue with the “he’s been killing marines” line. HECU are NOT marines. Marines would NEVER willingly massacre US civilians, orders or no orders. These guys are a fringe group of blackops, not rank and file military.
8.It’s kinda odd that the tesla systems in Questionable Ethics will vaporize any live NPC’s, but leave the dead ones alone.
9.When you get the chance to gas the room full of headcrabs, it’s pretty odd that they all die at EXACTLY the same time. Any way to stagger it so maybe we get one heroic crab that manages to hold out a bit longer? Though I do appreciate the addition of supplies in the room that we only get if we decide to take the crabs on mano a crabbo.
10.For the laser puzzle in QE, the reflector plates on the individual emitters are a really dull metal. Seems like they’d just melt instead of reflecting the beam. Any chance to replace them with a more mirrored surface?
11.Speaking as a researcher, all of the bio labs in QE are incredibly empty and understocked. You’d have 15 and 50ml conical tubes, 1.5ml microfuge tubes, tabletop centrifuges/PCR thermocyclers/96 well plate readers, bottles of chemicals, micropipettors/tips all OVER the place. And each bio lab should also have a biosafety hood. You used them as a prop in the labs before the incident, and they’d almost certainly be present in biology labs as well. (P.S., NO one uses glass test tubes anymore…)
12.Where is all the blood spraying off the surgical unit coming from? As far as I can tell, it’s not hitting flesh anymore, yet it’s still spraying a few liters of blood every few minutes without a source. Looks cool? Sure. Makes sense? Not so much.
13.I’m a little sad that the panic button under the desk in QE doesn’t set off an alarm. Also, it’s so far under the desk that you’d have to kick it to set it off.
14.The huge door just before the start of Surface Tension has a Restricted Area keypad. How the hell does Gordon know the code to this?
15.In the minefield, it’s kind of odd that you can blow up an area with grenades/mines, and then a headcrab crawls out from there to attack you. Explosive damage in that area should probably just kill them.
16.In the Wac-a-mole fight (where you’ve got all the ladders to pop up from unexpected areas) the tank always seems to know exactly where you are at all times, continually firing at you even if you’re down in the canal where no one can see you.
17.The guard animation where he’s dragging himself along the ground has some really odd, rubbery/noodley leg action going on.
18.When you first encounter a bullsquid in Waste Processing, there are two ways to get into the room. One way gives you a .357 to deal with him, and the other just leaves you with your glock and a prayer. Seems like an arbitrary punishment for someone having simply picked the wrong door.
19.In the laser puzzle section of QE, it’s pretty odd that there are some HECU sitting in a room down the hall waiting to ambush you. This means that they heard their buddies fighting bullsquid down the hall earlier and just sat there and let their friends get eaten.
20.When you approach the guard hiding behind the desk at the weapons lockup, he pops up and yells “freeze” but doesn’t actually bother to point his gun at you?
21.When you first see the membranes that drop snarks when disturbed, there are a few gas cans right there just BEGGING to be used as a fire hazard for the snarks, but they sadly are not flammable.
- The Lambda Core tanks should really be setting off your Geiger counter when you’re down there. Anything hot enough to give off Cherenkov radiation would CERTAINLY set off your suit sensor.
Again, I just want to restate that this game is FANTASTIC. If it sounds like I’m being overly critical, it’s because I love this project and I want to do everything I can to make it even closer to perfect.
You don’t NEED to use the Tau cannon. It’s perfectly feasible to just run away from the chopper, though I agree that it would be best if it stopped trying to shoot you if you dive in the water.
Yeah Lambda Core’s coolant tanks are easily my least favorite puzzles in Black Mesa. I can never remember what I’m supposed to do in those.
I’m not sure if it’s just me, or if it seems ever so slightly easier to figure it out in the retail version…?
Yeah, it seemed a bit easier to me, but I’m not sure if that’s just because it was fresh in my mind from a recent mod play through. Pretty much all of the puzzle critiques I give are a result of watching my wife play BM for the first time. She is a ridiculously smart person, and she managed to puzzle her way through the Portal series with little trouble at all, but many of the BM puzzles stumped her because they often don’t give the player a good sense of where the player should even be HEADED, let alone what the obstacles are. Good puzzle design shows the player the goal, lets them figure out the obstacles, and teaches them the tools available to overcome them. You shouldn’t have to act like a toddler trying to fit every peg into every shaped hole until one works.
As for the chopper fight, I’m not sure I believe you that running is an option. I tried that 10+ times on Hard and never once managed to make it to the control tower. Getting shot while swimming is incredibly obnoxious because there is no reasonable way for the player to avoid it. If my survival depends only on luck and not skill, then the sequence needs to be changed.
This. There should be an alternative to retreating back into the warehouse and taking on the chopper with the Tau. I understand that the depleted uranium in the warehouse serves as an indicator for the player to consider the Tau, but like Stabsley said there is no previous indication you can even damage vehicles with it.
Taking on the chopper itself is annoying. It practically fires its minigun nonstop and only pauses to shoot rockets. It’s hard to aim the Tau on it since you’re under fire all the time.
While I agree that the apache shouldn’t shoot you when you go underwater, you can solve the mg-spam issue by upping its rest interval in skill.cfg. I rebalanced the choppers by upping their damage per shot, slightly tightening the spread, reducing the amount of shots per burst, making them charge up slower, and rest considerably longer between bursts. I upped the health slightly too. They seem pretty balanced to me now, annoying and a definite threat but not “omgwtfbbq op pls nerf” spam machines.
Also yes, there really needs to be some sort of indication that the Tau Cannon can damage vehicles, for players who wouldn’t know otherwise.
Is it really that much more annoying in the retail version? My observation that you can run from the chopper comes mostly from the mod version, in which I pretty much never shot it down using the Tau. When I first went through the retail version, I already knew what was coming so I decided to switch it up a bit and had my charged Tau ready to go, so I downed it within two seconds of it making an appearance. I guess I can’t really say much about it from that perspective.
I think the scientist that you meet in the maintenance room before the puzzle explains it more clearly now. I remember him making an impression on me as to what I need to do this time. I may be wrong though and the dialouge is the same.
But yea, the coolant tank flooding puzzle needs more clear direction. Honestly, I think the guard who most people will most-likely have following them should have a line or two to re-iterate the goal when the player is approaching one of the tank rooms. THAT, and it needs to be made MUCH more clear that the first tanks the player sees is NOT the one they need to fill. I’ve been avoiding BM and HL1 in anticipation for retail for the past few years and I spent forever trying to fill up the first tank I see, forgetting that it’s a reserve and the NEXT one is the one that needs filling. This is even furthur confused by the red diagrams that light up as you progress. It looks like there are 2 tanks to fill in order to flood the reactor.
So, I’ll just say: re-iterate goal to players through off-hand remarks from the guard, and make it clear that players only need to fill the primary tanks, not the auxiliary tanks.
Yes, it is. I actually played though the section a time or two recently with much more success than my first tries, but the Apache at the dam can not shoot at you ACCURATELY while underwater. Swimming + Itchys + 02 + Apache gunfire just seems unfair. Make the Apache either stop shooting, to MUCH less damage, or get less accurate once you get underwater and the scene is fixed.
I honestly hope it’s fixed this way rather than more-directly telling the player the Tau hurts vehicles, and I like to run on that scene. It’s such a wide-open area, so seems like the smarter thing to do.