@ λdam
:3
I think the Hazard course should be released as an addon to BM (rather than a mod that uses BM content) that adds a “Hazard Course” button to the menu. It shouldn’t be too hard, just modifying the gamemenu.res file to have something like this between New game and Load Game;
Where bm_h1a1 is the first map of the Hazard Course.
You may have to muck around with the numbers in it to get it in the right spot, but it shouldn’t be too hard.
It looks like you guys have enough level designers, but here’s a question- are you going to add a lobby type area like the console HL had, where Freeman signs in before he enters the elevator? Perhaps a near-topside tram leading to the area the course is in?
to solve the press key problem, we can do it as portal, i mean , gina sais jump and crowch , and in the right of the screen you text that sais jump=spacebar crowch = ctrl, gina: make the thingi spin mesage:use key= spin stuff
@m4rek
I think one was born from the other.
You have a series of rooms build that test specific functions of the suit with observations rooms where results can be viewed and verified from a safe distance. Once those tests are concluded the rooms may have been reused for other test. Once all the testing was done during R&D it would have gone through a series of practical application tests. That would be what the HC comes in. Taking portions of the R&D facility and make an environment of practical application testing. Once all that was completed a training course would need to be setup so the users could be trained. Why scrap what you already have in place for practical applications testing so it was again modified for the training needs. As time has gone by portions of the test facility was reused for other product testing then the HC was modified to still be functional or things break much like the door failure portion where you are routed off the course then back on to it through a separate portion of the facility.
@Floyd
If it is not a purpose-built arena explain the jumping and ducking rooms. They are four rooms that provide visual results when a task is completed all connected by a common observations room. In all the rest of the facility I can not think of an area that shares those characteristics.
I am saying at one point it was a very purpose-build facility that has just fallen to disrepair and modifications to adjoining sections of the facility were made to accommodate the training. Valve presented it so people could get to know the controls so some of its layout does not make a lot of sense. If someone was going to actually build this thing they would not do the R&D, practical applications testing and training in separate facilities they would adapt what they have for all there needs then the facility would be abandoned or re-appropriated for other things. They are not going to take a piece of equipment they spent a good deal of time developing and say ok we need to train people… hmm lets find the most useless chunk of the facility and do it there. They are going to spend some money and build a test and training environment. But now that it is a common piece of equipment less time and funds have been spent to maintain the course but at one point it was rather high tech. OR high tech for its time.
Exactly what piece of equipment are we talking about here? Aside from the hologram, all I’m seeing is a rough-cut obstacle course in the bowels of a research facility.
You seem to be suggesting that the HC was designed purposefully for the HEV suit, but that doesn’t make sense. It has been reconfigured, yes, not specifically designed.
They repeatedly use objects and obstacles that would already be there in the facility as part of the course. They use piping and rocket casing as part of the duck and jump exercise, the water towers are used for the distance jumping test, the HEV suit is even left on a catwalk above an empty missile silo. The environment itself contains masses of pipes, water towers, crates, underground water tunnels - all of which would have no beneficial use to a purposefully-built HEV training area, even if it was old and abandoned.
This is all simply because it was clearly what was available to them. Black Mesa might not have been short of funds, but the point I’m trying to make is why spend money on a new hazard course on the surface of the facility, when there’s a maze of virtually empty underground maintenance tunnels that could be cheaply reconfigured for a tenth of the price.
Also, the HEV suit seems like a relatively new product, whereas the HC is clearly in a state of disrepair, something that would happen only after 40 or more years. I can’t see any proof of a purpose-built hazard course.
I realise that I probably went a bit overboard in getting my point across … I’m off to the bar.
Wow, I just looked that up on youtube. I never realised ps2 HC was different.
I agree with others about this deviating too far from the intentions of this project… HOWEVER, this would be an excellent idea for a bonus-type map after completing BM. I think it would be very cool to be able to play through a normal HC, then BM, then be able to go back through the HC after the RC and experience it in a whole different light - sort of like what happened in Op4 (or was it BS?) - where you revisit the HC and see a Vort swiping at the hologram. NOTE: I realize it’s non-cannon, I’m just using it as an example.
Wow, indeed - I like the way the HEV is presented to you as well.
The HEV Suit…
But it’s blindingly obvious that that is what they do - they take the HEV suit and create a Hazard Course out of the facility because why shouldn’t they? You’ve yet to come up with any reasons or evidence for your argument, and it’s getting pretty tiresome. I have a hangover.
You’ll find that doing something three times does not a sufficient test make.
I don’t believe I’d spend research dollars on building a custom facility just to do some tests on one piece of equipment. Most of those tests can be conducted in the lab under monitored conditions, with diagnostics equipment and technicians. If I really needed to test how something performs during a day at work, I’d give it to the people that need it and see how it performs - on a trial basis of course, the progress would be carefully monitored. At the end of the day, something like the RC is the greatest test of how the HEV performs.
Is it safe to send it straight to work? Well, yes. You’ve already tested it to breaking point in the labs, now you just need to see whether it does the job it was designed for. You want to test it’s overall performance? You have a custom common testing ground, but the HC is not it. What you’re suggesting is that every project would need a new testing facility, and that is what is truly impractical. You’d have a common testing ground, one where you can test that suit, the hazmat suit, new forklifts, those loader things, weapons and ballistics. Something tells me such a testing facility would look somewhat different to what you have here.
See above. The reason you can’t just train people in the labs because you don’t want clumsy idiots who’ve never used a powered suit to knock stuff over, incurring material costs and compromising experiments or the safety of others.
It’s much more reasonable for the HC to simply be built on top of existing functional infrastructure, instead of building something completely new when it is unnecessary, and this is what the HC feels like. How you didn’t get that vibe is beyond me, but each has their own interpretations I guess… Had the HC been custom built, it would look something more like what one of the guys remaking it showed it as, with obstacles rising out of the floor. What you actually have is pipes going across a room; disused large diameter pipes for you to crawl through… Walking through passages suspended over sewers, making your way through more disused silos, even the weapons course looks like it was a small storage area in a past life, not a firing range.
I know Floyd’s answered but I wanted to point something out. Technically they aren’t connected by a common observation room; during the remake, they probably will be. You don’t see this structure anywhere else? Various areas centred around a central point… Blast Pit? Doesn’t ring a bell? The observation area could’ve been retrofitted for that purpose, or it could have been to oversee whatever work was being done in the rooms originally. I figure the former, since I believe the pipes to be original (not the duck-jump ones, the duck and the jump ones), and there’d not really be much to observe there.
Very little of the BMRF is purpose/custom built. It’s all built in old disused missile silos, and in some places it really shows. Only places like Lambda Core can really boast about being purpose or custom built.
And why not? That’s the cheapest way to do it. Reuse something that’s not being put to great use. Don’t build anything new when you don’t have to.
So instead of building a training course in an old, run-down area of the facility which is ideal for the purposes of training personnel in the use of the HEV suit, which you describe to be preposterous in terms of costs and logic, you want to spend three times the budget of the HC we describe by building a new lab for every test you want to perform, means-testing that doesn’t need to be done, and modifying sections of the facility that could have been reused for something else?
Tick Tock.
Your wrong, get over it.
I just read that Tick Tock guys questions and I seriously got dizzy. Be careful guys.
ps2 hc has some nice aditions regarding the hev suit container and the waiting room, i think we should add them , in our way, like theres a securyty guard waiting to do the test , that would explain the wepon training part , like guards and hev users have to do the same test . and what about an option to go nutz kill every one every sentry gun , and get away withit
Yeah, that’s a nice suggestion. However that would mean the rundown look might have to be scraped for a more scientific theme or a mix between rundown and scientific.
it doesent have to be so scientific, the hev needs some kind of container it doesent have to be a super container like in sp, and all that shiny white clean can be removed, the long jump doesent have to be in a super container either, and the waiting room its not on the same place you have the elevator, and i always liked to kill everyone and fight the sentry gun in hc lol but that made me lose, it would be nice to be able to kill every one with alarms and more security enter.
Okay, that makes sense. And killing everyone in that room is still fun, I replayed hazard course yesterday and killed them over and over again, sending more security in would be just the solution haha.
sory this looks prity bad ,
Personally I’d scrap the pipes; they make no sense whatsoever. If we are to believe that that was once some sort of silo, why are there pipes running across the centre of it in this way?
I like the addition of the HEV station to make it make sense as to why a HEV suit is there. However, I like the overall (original) effect of the HEV standing alone on a platform and have come up with a concept on how and why it is there. It is, however, 3:40am and I have to annotate my work…
Or not; if you can make sense of it yourselves that would be great. If not I can explain it in the morning, I have working sketches and a sketchup rendition.
edit: May as well write it up while I’m here…
Basically this view is one you’d never get yourself (in theory). You’re looking up from the maintenance pit, you’ve got some workstations, monitoring equipment and two HEV stations. You’d probably have one or two scientists down here. You’re standing at the door which leads to stairs which lead back to the Haz Course entryway/lobby area. Dead centre is a small freight elevator for sending the HEV up to the personnel taking part in the Hazard Course. They enter from the door above left, as they enter, the freight elevator should just be arriving for optimal effect, being lit up by a single light from above when in position. They then exit by the door above right. This area should be low enough below that all initial attention is on the HEV suit in all its glory. If you look down you should see the sci or tech hard at work, or looking up and acknowledging your presence before returning to his monitor.
-ish. I think I covered everything I wanted to say. I’ve got the next room covered too, but not sure about the very first room… I’m working my way through the Haz Course one room at a time, trying to make them make more sense. I’ve loaded up Hammer to see if I could get the basics done for scale and lighting, but it’s highlighted that I am not as good/proficient/comfortable as I’d like to be… So I might resign myself to concept only, working closely with a proper mapper.
edit 2: Oh and apologies about the weird perspective… circular stuff in 3d is not my best work.
It’s a good idea, but it’s really making things more complicated then they should be. Why not just include the PS2’s version of how you obtain the suit, or something akin to that. Also, I think the lobby beforehand is a nice touch if we would be willing to implement that small section.