Don’t worry, we quite agree.
The concept we have for our HEV suit (render of the previous iteration here) has been designed for function.
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, that’s a pretty simplistic (in an engineering sense) design, but also a sturdy and practical one with lots of room so it doesn’t chafe or jab the user. I like it! 
lol, people talking about breast-plates XD
Well it’s perfectly valid discussion. Breast plates are pieces of armor, and the HEV suit is a suit of powered armor. Not really hilarious.
“High-impact reactive armour,” so yes. Discussing armour plating makes sense in context, and accommodating both male and female physiology is also prudent. You don’t necessarily have to, as video games can be unrealistic and crazy, but for the HEV it only makes sense.
A bit more on topic - I’ve always missed the Hazard Course in Black Mesa. I always started the game with the Hazard Course, even long after I no longer needed an actual tutorial. Valve put A LOT of effort into making not just a useful tutorial, but a cool and immersive one, as well. Moreover, finishing the optional tutorial would automatically start the game from the first chapter anyway, so it made for a seamless, continuous experience.
I always liked to imagine that Gordon had to take an HEV training course immediately before the experiment, either because it’s safety protocol, or because the “Administrator” was expecting the Resonance Cascade and wanted to prepare the “Subject” for the events ahead. In my mind, Gordon got done with training, washed up, took a train back to the dorms to have breakfast, then took the iconic train down to the Sector C Test Labs and Control Facilities.
With that in mind, I’d love to see the Hazard Course reimagined, and indeed expanded upon.
The fiction that we decided upon (then asked Marc Laidlaw to confirm, which he actually did!) is that our Hazard Course takes place well before the events of the main game, right at the start of Gordon’s employment. I’m still pretty hyped that Mr. Laidlaw replied to us, actually! 
We’ve taken advantage of this little bit of canon to expand the storytelling just a bit. Hopefully you’ll like it!
That would be excellent, yes, provided it still integrates into the core game seamlessly. What I mean by this is I’d really love to see finishing the Hazard Course transition you directly to Black Mesa’s opening chapter on the train without dumping you back to the main menu. The original Half-Life did that, so it made the whole thing feel like a unified experience, rather than just an off-canon tutorial.
I’m a bit disappointed that this takes place so long before the events of Half-Life, though. I honestly would have loved to see this in-line with the events of the Resonance Cascade. I would imagine today’s test is very important, so I always thought Gordon was being put through a “refresher” course to prepare for the seriousness of the proceedings. I always imagined him taking the train car out of the course, changing back into his civvies and hopping on the train to Sector C Test Labs and Control Facilities. Would certainly explain why he’s running late
That said, I still want to see the Hazard Course very much. I’m very impressed with the community effort to restore stuff cut from Black Mesa.
In an effort to not modify any more Black Mesa stock files than necessary (among other reasons) we won’t be doing that. We’d have to decompile the first BM map, clean it up, recompile, etc. it’s all really not worth our time and potential problems.
Also, the HC is really nothing special, not really something an employee would likely need a refresher on. I’d argue that it makes less sense that the course happens on the day of the experiment than it does happening long before (which was our reasoning to begin with, even before we got confirmation). If this test is so important, why would they risk delaying it for a simple refresher of basic human movement functions? Seems like Freeman only would have needed to walk, climb and push, not really worth the risk to brush up on.
Having it take place some time before the events of the main game both allows us more freedom in writing and is in-line with official word.
Fair enough, I suppose. Will that work off the Black Mesa main menu or will it need to be an alternate executable/shortcut?
It’s implemented into the main menu. If the updated free version or the Steam version are released after we finish, we plan to release a patch to keep support for this.
We could easily make the Hazard Course load the first BM level immediately after fading to black though.
Agreed, and I’ll add this: there’s a message displayed at the end of the Hazard Course, congratulating the player for completing it, but it also adds “Come back any time.” That’s not really an introduction to load the first chapter of the game imho. Also that kind of message is only displayed in Game Over screens or when finishing the game, so it shouldn’t be weird that completing the Course sends back to the menu.
Right, that’s how the Hazard Course worked in Half-Life. Maybe give us an option at the end of some kind? I know it’s a minor detail to get so hung up on, and frankly I’d play the Hazard Course either way. Not really trying to complain or anything. It’s just that… I like seamless games that don’t bump you back to a menu between chapters.
It’s certainly not a bad idea, but I’m not sure if giving an option is possible. It’s cleanest if it’s either one or the other.
I’m definitely not opposed to the idea of fading to black and transitioning to the first chapter.
Anyone wanna take a vote?
Personally, I’d say no. There’s not really many pros or cons to either as it’s almost entirely down to personal preference, though.
Pros: Seamless transition. Cons: Forces players that don’t want to go through Inbound to quit early, and it implies that there’s no significant time gap.
I am pretty sure the original was separate from the rest of the game. I can fire it up later tonight, but if I remember correctly, you ‘play game’ then choose 'training course, easy, medium, hard" or something like that.
Integrating it with the rest of the game IS a personal preference, but I am not keen on automatically firing up inbound.
What if I wanna go back over the course and wander around a bit? You know, talk to the guys in the window, check out the cracks in the floors, look to see how they put together the fire pit etc.
I am also voting no. At the end of the original Hazard Course in HL we boarded a train from OAR, while at the start of Inbound we are on a tram car of the Black Mesa Transit System - at Level 3 Dormitories, with low security clearence. I don’t think the Hazard Course would be at such a place. And last but not least, Gordon has no time for practicing that day - he has a very important ‘press this and push thas’ job to do in the AM lab.
The vote isn’t for whether or not the train immediately goes to Inbound. We are sticking to the story that the training level does not take place on the same day as the game. The vote is to decide whether or not the game loads Black Mesa Inbound after fading to black at the end of the ending scene in the Hazard Course, instead of dumping you back to the menu. Either way, the fade to black and an ending scene is going to happen; that will not change.
This I actually agree with. I wasn’t aware of the story behind it and I’m perfectly willing to accept whatever story you pick for it. My main reason is I hate being dumped to the main menu between “chapters” and would like the game to go straight to the first chapter of Black Mesa. The fade-to-black is perfectly fine. You may even want to give some kind of time skip message, ala “Three months later…” somewhere in the fade. Or not and just leave it black, that also works.
One of my primary beefs with Half-Life 2, for instance, is the separation between the Episodes. You end the main game, you get run through the credits, you have to quit, load the next one and start a new game. It’s not a big deal, but it’s massively immersion-breaking and yanks me out of the experience worse than the constant Source stuttering.
But of course, it’s not my call.
Another vote for putting the player back on the Main Menu after Hazard Course.