Research & Development is a good example of how to do things that help show you the way but are entirely in-world. It even has a few “take note of this over here” decals to help you spot useful stuff if you happen to be looking.
It may not need an indicator as to what to do, due to it’s linearity, but it’s nice to have reminders as to why.
When I first played Half-Life, only a few years ago, I didn’t exactly get to play it every day. Somewhere between Power Up and Lambda Core I forgot what was going on. I couldn’t remember where I was going, or why, and to this day most of those chapters seem to blur together, and they don’t seem to have any significant plot-related events save for being knocked unconscious and waking up in a trash compactor. Until the end of the Lambda Core the only reason I kept playing was simply “to finish the game” and because I had nothing better to do.
This happened to a far lesser extent in Half-Life 2, and dramatically less in Episode 2. That’s how I know the series is getting better, rather then being just a long mindless shooting gallery. I had hoped to see a little of that improvement in this mod.
That’s as dumb as saying that the game doesn’t need the first two chapters, and the ending because ‘everyone’ who’s going to play it already knows what happens.:retard:
I honestly think f_rand and I touched on the main reasons not to include objective indicators right HERE. Part of your problems seems to be that you’re expecting there to be more storyline in HL1 than there actually is. Much of HL1 was simply the story of a single theoretical physicist beating all odds and managing to survive against alien invasion, government conspiracy with the laws of physics crumbling around all of them. As for keeping track of the individual goals, try LISTENING to the scientists and security guards, as they ARE actually more than just cannon fodder and door openers.
If you’re having trouble remembering things because of how little game time you have, try opening a notepad file on your computer and TAKE NOTES. If these notes were handled by the game itself, then that would kill half the immersion of the game, as “Gordon Freeman” would know what his goals are, but you would likely STILL be lost even WITH the in-game notes. As it currently stands, if YOU are simply bumbling your way through the game, then you can also assume that “gordon freeman” is ALSO bumbling his way through these events as well. This is critically important to capturing the mood of HL.
While it’s true that there really isn’t that much story in Half-Life, there are plenty of memorable events (some more important then others) that could be easily be milestones, but somewhere around the middle of the game the events seem to blur to me. The events are there, they just need to be made more definitive. And after these events it’s usually the best times to have a reminder.
The thing is, I do listen to everything the scientists have to say, the problem is that for long stretches of time they either have nothing relevant to say, or there aren’t any around at all. Not to say that there should be scientists running around everywhere, but if I see them after a few hours of isolation, I’d hope they’d say something a bit more helpful then “do you know who ate all the donuts?”
If I have to take notes on what is going on in a game’s story, then the problem is clearly the game’s plot is spread incredibly thin.
Similarly, if you stop playing the game for two days and don’t remember what you were doing last, then the problem is clearly your memory’s not what it should be.
Come on. Half-Life. Objective indicators. Seriously.
Not gonna happen.