I totally agree, the mod needs more battle between HECU and Xen aliens
and that way they could take place in a box floating somewhere in the infinite void outside of the map, thus saving memory space
plus, it might turn out different every time you watch it
Agreed on two points:
Seeing “zombines,” AKA Marines turned into zombies would be a great way to drive home the point that the soldiers are losing. In fact, I’d say that they should start replacing the scientist zombies entirely by the end of the game. That way, you start off seeing how the helpless science team are being torn apart by aliens and being turned into monsters. But there are only so many scientist and what appears to be a shit-ton of soldiers, so as they take more and more casualties, you start to see an overwhelming number of zombies come from their ranks. The aliens are done with the personnel and now they’re culling the soldiers in such great numbers that you see their reanimated corpses all over the place.
Zombies hide the entire head of the character anyway, and the soldiers look like they’re all wearing identical uniforms with just different heads. What this means is you pretty much only need a single zombie model. And it doesn’t have to act any different. No need to have them pull out grenades or run. Just have them be a different skin for the same basic enemy.
Secondly, I agree on the subject of monitors. In fact, I’d love to see a LOT of those all over the place. On a Rail could have them in every Soldier holdout spot, and they could toggle between several “off-screen” battles happening somewhere else. Remember Nova Prospekt? That zone makes EXCELLENT use of monitors. You check one out and you see Combine soldiers fighting an Antlion Guardian that’s just killing them utterly. You check another and see soldiers setting up turrets and taking positions. You go to the place later on and you find them all dead, the Antlions having overrun their position.
That sort of thing could do wonders for immersion. You could show fights between soldiers and aliens all over the place without having to add them to the map, and you can show fights taking place before Gordon arrives, only to find the aftermath. I’d LOVE to see that.
That wouldn’t save memory space at all.
I agree with this thread. I was blown away with the amazing quality of the game, and wasn’t really shocked when the HECU were pulling out, but when I finished there did seemed to be a little bit missing, and I think it was the lack of real threat from the Xenians. So yeah, if it is possible to add more of that in a patch (and the devs should feel in no way obligated, they’ve done a ton of work already), I’d definitely welcome it.
I think the devs decided not to add soldier zombies due to the extra time and work required making a model/npc, weighed against relatively little gain. I agree though, it’d add a lot to the atmosphere of them being overwhelmed, which was one of the reasons Valve added zombine in the first place. Maybe if they don’t want to make one themselves, a fan with good modelling abilities could contribute a soldier zombie model? I know relatively little about adding npcs, but it shouldn’t require to much coding if their AI is the same as regular zombies (which it should be, canon-wise - the only reason zombine act differently is because they’re cyborgs, so their neural programming is fighting against the headcrab).
Technically you would have to add them to the map due to how monitors work in Source, but yeah, it’d be nice to see if the devs have time to spare.
HECU Zombies from on a rail onwards would make sense…
But seeing more of them towards the end and the odd zombine hecu running towards you suicide style grenade in hand like the zombine could shake things up nicely with the gib model this could be hilarious too.
Also when arriving at Xen we discussed having HEV Suit zombies - super tough ones that take more than average damage. But not overdoing it but for the sake of taking the original further really.
Can anyone do the reskin for these 4 NPC’s
HECU Zombie = different skin on normal zombie
https://www.garrysmod.org/downloads/?a=view&id=85783
HECU Suicide grenade zombie - Based on Zombine model HL2 episode 1 - reskin (ZECU?)
https://www.garrysmod.org/downloads/?a=view&id=107509
HEV Suit Zombie - fast Zombie reskin
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Npc_fastzombie
HEV Suit Zombie 2 - npc_poisonzombie reskin (couple of these before reaching gonarchs lair would fit well)
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Npc_poisonzombie
Which I think is fitting because I never got the impression the military was losing due to being totally out-gunned; it was more due to the fact that the alien forces seemed limitless where-as the HECU was not.
HECU have better firepower and more health than Vorts, thus making them more or less equal could help. I don’t even think I have ever seen one defeating a HECU alone, sure not without my interference.
In the original Half-Life I only ever saw vorts kill HECU 1 on 1 if they managed to get into melee range. Otherwise a HECU would usually take on two or more before being zapped to death.
Alien grunts on the other hand could easily take on two or even three HECU in many cases. It seems to be relatively the same in BM. It’s just that when the aliens and HECU fight it is like… two vorts vs four HECU and then a few seconds later two alien grunts and more HECU are repelling in.
I mean without having to rearrange map chunks to include the extra locations. On the Portal 2 commentary, one of the big problems map makers mention is that every time they tweak a map, they have to tweak where it connects to other maps, which takes time in redoing adjoining locations. They ended up using the same portal technology as before to link maps while they were making them, so they never interfered with each other. That’s basically what I’m saying - new locations that don’t have to slot into the existing map progression ought to be less work than the same thing integrated.
Oh, I see what you mean. That would indeed be easier.
I think a few little adjustments to the way the maps play out could really help without any need to make new maps.
I’d start at the military camp level just after the cliffs section. Have some vorts beam in up top while you are crawling around in the pipes, not a lot, just one here and there that the HECUs will easily cut down. The sounds of battle while you are below with the dead corpses when you finally do get up top will help with the whole theres a war happening feel.
Now when you leave that area and encounter the APC on the road there should be more vorts\houneyes on the road getting chewed up by the APC, have the HECUs down by the camp dealing with a few headcrabs\houndeyes. (timed spawn ins so they are fighting when you get there) Stick an HECU in the room in the tunnel scraping with some houndeyes… main goal HECU vs ALIEN with military winning.
Next few sections play out just fine (small exception when you save the guard from the HECUs in the tunnels leading to the next APC battle where the major armory is, I’d have a few Aliens beaming in) until you get to the destroyed building section, here I would have the HECU fighting aliens in the ruins, start making it tougher for the HECUs, theyll win but it’ll hurt.
Which leads into the Osprey battle, this should play out differently. This should be a major battle between the Zen and military with you pretty much just a spectator, as it is they all focus primarily on you. Heh a little too much love of that M1A1 model hmmm 
A tank isnt supposed to come thru those doors, it should be alien grunts finishing off whatever HECUs were left. I suppose you could leave the tank in and when you finish it alien grunts come thru the door behind it. Be nice to see a couple of HECU get cut down in the next section before you take the HMG hardpoint and mow down the vorts.
Now everything is setup nice for the next area where you get chased to the arty section where its first announced the military is bugging out, leading into Forget about Freeman. (BTW that alien never crushes those two HECU and always goes straight for me)
First areas of Forget about Freeman play out fine until you get back to the surface and fight HECUs and a Tank, no aliens at all? This really needs to be changed big time. IMO have say four grunts at the little base doing an Alamo with aliens swarming in all over (at this point I think unless you engage them the HECU AI should ignore you) have the tank show up and promptly blow up (destroyed by aliens)
Next encounter is at the bottom of the elevator ride, the HECU in that first part should be fighting aliens, and losing. Which leads to the big battle in the garage like area. IMO tank in this section should be a prop only, and the battle going on in the garage should be setup for the HECU to lose. Would be real nice if this area was setup like HL where you use the tanks main gun to blow the door and the HMG to mow down the onslaught of aliens that pile through… but at least the section behind the door should not have sentry guns it should be alien grunts.
I think these relatively minor changes to the way the maps play out would greatly improve the military-gordon-alien invasion storyline. Another small detail that IMO would be sweet is once you start Lambda Core (BTW I’ve never seen the Lambda Core chapter text displayed when starting that chapter) have a few HECUs at the top of the platform that leads down, fighting aliens. But when you see these guys they are like ‘wait dont shoot!’ ‘screw our orders!’ ‘what do you want us to do Dr Freeman?’ and make them like barneys that you can have follow you around… just need to make sure they refuse to drop down into hall that leads to spy\container level.
What do you folks think?
That’s because they shouldn’t beat the HECU. Vortigaunts are “civilians”. The alien grunts are the military force from Xen, that’s why they are a lot tougher, and they can defeat the HECU(Which is their human counterpart). But Vortigaunts have no special combat skills, they were sent to the Earth mainly by accident(Like the headcrabs, bullsquids and houndeyes) and not as part of the military invasion. Maybe they could sometimes aid the grunts, but they will never be as good as the HECU.
Ever played Episode 2? Vorts being non-combatants is no true.
Yeah but that doesn’t mean they were combatants during Black Mesa invasion 20 years before.
I agree with most of your suggestions, but the Osprey battle in particular just needs changes, since it changed so much from the original. In the original, it wasn’t just Marines. It started off with two alien Grunts porting in as the Osprey was flying into position, and you could actually get them to fight the Marines if you hid from them. As well, the Osprey let down only I think four sets of two Marines, then flew off, so they weren’t endless. Finally, it’s not a tank that broke the gates, it’s another two alien Grunts. What Black Mesa has done is remove the aliens entirely. In fact, aliens have been removed from a lot of places, and a lot of places that had primarily aliens have been cut, playing down their role in the game DRASTICALLY.
Personally, with as many people shouting from the mountaintops that Black Mesa isn’t Half-Life, I’d say use that. Tweak Half-Life (“tweak,” not “cut”) and add a slow ramp-up of the alien menace by having the Marines put in worse and worse fights as Freeman moves through Surface Tension.