My snowflake opinions about On A Rail

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

I hadn’t played Black Mesa since release, and I just discovered the Surface Tension and On A Rail Uncut content mods, as well as the fact that the author has been hired by the Black Mesa team.

My ignorant, idiot opinion is that he wasn’t hired to bring his talents to only preexisting content in Black Mesa. Creative agreements have become a lot more complicated since the Steam Green Light and the team’s decision to sell their product, and putting him on the payroll removes barriers for incorporating his work.

I’m going to speculate, time permitting, that the uncut mods have inspired the team to expand the current iteration of On a Rail. I’ve been given almost a decade to learn that even if the black mesa team says something isn’t worth the trouble, they are going to do it anyway, no matter how long everyone has to wait.

Playing On a Rail Uncut opened by eyes to the weaknesses of the chapter in all three iterations: Half-life, Black Mesa, and Uncut itself. I don’t believe I have anything unique to say, but it’s stuff I don’t hear enough. This got longer and longer the more I wrote, not trying to state the obvious.

Why On A Rail sucked (Half-life)

Players that are having fun have a wealth of patience. Players that are bored have next to none. Without patience, players can’t tolerate complexity and delay gratification, qualities of games that make reaching goals feel far more rewarding. Unfortunately, complexity and delayed gratification take too much of the blame for the frustration surrounding On A Rail.

Attempting to reduce player frustration is battling a symptom, not the problem. The chapter can be salvaged this way, but the fact will remain that on a rail is not fun.

Consider the premise of On A Rail, as a design pitch, compared to how things actually turn out. The player has been slowly walking, jumping, crawling, and climbing their way through the game environment for hours. As a prize for slaying the Gargantua, they are greeted with a change of pace. They get to ride a train on a rail road, sans green goo bath.

Trains are time-honored in video games because they are a gold mine of ideas. You can travel fast, crash through things with impunity, perform tasks on moving platforms, avoid obstacles, switch tracks and carts with quick thinking, and so on. I couldn’t conceive a way that anyone could make them boring.

It happened.

It’s almost as if On a rail is deliberately designed so that the player never wants to use the rail cart. The chapter’s hallmark gameplay asset goes completely wasted.

If you attempt to have any fun on the cart, or at the very least, do something to justify riding a train in a train level, the game punishes you. The entire railway is nothing but a checklist of traps, ambushes, and roadblocks. You are taught early on that traveling fast reduces your ability to react to hazards, and that everything from point A to point B is arranged to kill you if you choose to remain on the cart.

The enforced strategy is to travel at the lowest speed and forfeit the cart at the first sign of danger. Evasion and combat are way easier on foot, and by extension fast travel through the tunnels is safer on foot. The cart is not required to complete any section of the chapter, and the player can skip sections and take shortcuts without it. It is totally useless.

The pretense is a lie. On a rail is not a vehicle mission - it is an escort mission, until the player correctly decides that the cart is not needed.

Even worse, the level design takes stop-and-go to such an extreme that you simulate being stuck in traffic. You crawl your cart through the tunnels for mere seconds at a time, and just before you feel the sensation of progress, you are forced to dismount the cart and spend a disproportionately larger time clearing out obstacles on foot. The reward is the right to escort your cart a few dozen meters and do it again.

One of the staples of Half-Life’s success was its rollercoaster pacing - rising and falling between intense and mellow, and never letting the player remain in one or the other too long. On A Rail uses that same process sped up to the point of parody, where the player doesn’t spend enough time in either.

Valve amended these problems in Half-Life 2 with their airboat and car sections. Like On a Rail, you spend a lot of time halting travel to solve puzzles and dismantle combine outposts. But unlike On A Rail, the stops are well designed and of a balanced length as to not feel like a contrived chore or a slavish task, and briefly inching along on a track is replaced by intense vehicle action and chase segments. I’m also not afraid to stay in the airboat and car, I’m afraid to get out.

A close look

Prefacing each section is a tallied list of how many times the chapter heavily suggests or forces you abandon your cart. Note that it’s always a good idea to exit the cart, but this list can’t include everything that attempts to kill you, only very harsh ambushes the player is probably meant to avoid entirely.

c2a2a---------------------------------------------------------------------
Stops: [OPTIONAL] Path to rocket ass
(1) Path to crane controls to clear track

Most of the distaste I hear for on a rail is directed at its first map. This isn’t really surprising, but I’m of the opinion that it’s one of the least problematic maps in the chapter.
I’m going to have to switch to a graphic for this part. It’s impossible to walk a reader through this without visual aid at a glance:

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I’d like to hear some responses after seeing the level dissected. Does the first map try to do too much or too little? What’s the problem here? I know people say they don’t like feeling lost, but I think the less obvious problem is players want something else to do besides wandering the tracks. They feel lost and bored.

c2a2b1+c2a2c------------------------------------------------------------
Stops: (2) [SUGGESTED] First revolving elevator - marine ambush
(3) Gate at Marine/Vort crossfire, switch immediately accessible
>>[SUGGESTED] explorable area, Marine/Vort battle in long office

This map is where my opening complaints come to light. It begins with the revolving elevator and marine ambush. The player is planted in a open position, and they are force to correct their aim with the rotation of the elevator against marines with superior cover and a partial surround. The design encourages you to abandon the cart mid-ascent and take the ladder instead, a nice metaphor for the rest of the chapter.

Next up is the split track with the small marine encampment and mounted gun. The design here is a little strange. Each track has its own gate, with the switch to proceed immediately accessible on the wall, but the player is given the option to follow stairways on either side. One leads back to the cargo elevator used in the marine ambush for some pick-ups, and the other takes you to an expansive 2nd floor corridor that terminates further down the track. A large Marine/Vortigaunt shootout triggers at the end on arrival.

My problem with the design is the game encourages you to dismount your cart just to walk to a fight instead of driving there, and then backtrack to your cart when you realize there isn’t anything left there to do in the aftermath. And if you decide to just skip the stairs and proceed on rails, you miss out on the upper level content entirely.

Surprisingly it is pretty safe to drive through the crossfire ahead at full speed. But you’re a little late for the action because of trip mines planted in the way - they spawn right in front of your cart after a loading screen.

c2a2d---------------------------------------------------------------------
Stops: (4) Silo access combat sequence

No complaints about this area. The rocket silo is designed to be an intermission, and the short rail section immediately after is straightforward.

c2a2e---------------------------------------------------------------------
Stops: (5) Area fronting the side-by-side track and it’s gate switch
(6) Large Marine hold out protecting switch
(7) [SUGGESTED] Second revolving elevator - marine ambush - explosive elevator

Personally, this is where my patience starts to get thin. A lot of time has gone by and there’s been plenty of interruptions along the way. The player has seen the rocket and is expecting closure in a reasonable timeframe.

Resorting to graphics again:

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c2a2f---------------------------------------------------------------------
Stops: (8) Gate in low-hanging box conveyor hall, switch immediately accessible

The final rail section. Pretty straightforward with a single rail switcher to required to exit a square-shaped loop. I just wish they didn’t feel the need to place another gate here.

I came to the total of 8 stops, the issue here is both the frequency and quality of the stops.

But only 8 stops doesn’t sound like something to be concerned about, and for me it wasn’t. I’ve played through On A Rail many times without feeling the need to write up a crusade. It’s a problem you have to exaggerate to notice the effects.

And with that we’re getting to what I mean by Uncut being an eye-opener. It also made me see the wisdom behind the Black Mesa Team gutting the chapter, necessary or not.

But let me get this out of the way: Uncut is an amazing accomplishment. It’s unfinished and not everything the author wanted. He made it crazy fast, and he did it all with a limited tool set, damning constraints, and a lot of daily stress. It also wasn’t designed by committee, and most of the feedback was forum users who are going to give an overly-optimistic appraisal because they are just damn grateful the mod even exists.

This also isn’t a criticism of On A Rail Uncut. The time for that has come and gone. I’m merely calling attention to a proven way to make the chapter worse.

Here is a list of stops after Uncut is added to Black Mesa.

(1) Track elevator/power plug puzzle
(2) First revolving elevator - turret trap
---------------------------------------------------UNCUT
[3] Area to break loop with power/crane/switches
[4] Security Office search and Marine/Vortigaunt combat in long office
--------------------------------------------------/UNCUT
(5) Silo access combat sequence
--------------------------------------------------UNCUT
[6] Blast door blocking material transit, switch at a brief distance
[7] Area fronting the side-by-side track and it’s gate switch
[8] Large marine hold out protecting switch
[9] Second Revolving elevator - marine ambush - explosive elevator
[10] Gate in low-hanging box conveyor hall, switch immediately accessible
[11] Gate to exit outdoor warehouse, switch at a brief distance
[12] Outdoor control box to break loop and subsequent ambush
[13] Destroyed Revolving elevator
--------------------------------------------------/UNCUT

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AreWeThereYet

13 stops, and they are longer, much longer. The effects of that left me feeling very drained. Level fatigue. It’s there in the original On A Rail, just too subtle to put a finger on. The first thing I did after completeing Uncut was open MS Paint and bust out the flow chart above.

That’s all I have to say about the first half of fixing On A Rail, streamlining. I need to stop clacking on this and actually get something posted. The rest of the stuff I have to say is about making the cart segments fun and exciting, which requires radicalization.

Also are there any devs who would like to lend me their ear? It might be a little hubristic, but if I talked anyone into even one of my ideas, I’d like for it to stay a surprise like anything else in the game.

#2

Now before we go any further on this topic, let’s take a step back and look at motivations of both the Black Mesa Team and Textfamguys Uncut mod of on a rail.

Black Mesa decided to cut it back because it felt boring which I can see why they made that decision.

The Uncut Mod was an attempt to replace the cut content whilst using a bit of artistic licenense to mix and change things up a bit but to extend the chapter back to it’s original length.

What you are suggesting is something I have pondered and I have to say, This is something I agree with somewhat without going into any real detail about sections or that were in Half Life or sections that were in Black Mesa or Uncut Mod’s or even RK’s Loop Mod.

I am a strong believer in Making On a Rail a Vehicle section rather than a jerky foot stroll through underground tunnels. I have cited before that I think when the chapter was developed that some inspiration was drawn from Idianna Jones and the temple of Doom mine cart sequence. Without being specific I think if it was split up by strong vehicle section followed by having to get to the next train on foot to get away from something for instance like a deluge of water. Perhaps the Garg should have been chasing you through the underground tunnels before killing him later on in the middle of on a rail rather than at the end of power up. I do believe that this chapter if it was to be extended needs a radicalization as you put it and more akin to HL2 vehicle sections.

That was my final conclusion without taking away from the actual brilliant recreation that it is, I felt like I wanted to speed down the tunnels and anyone remember shooting the switches so you did not need to leave the cart? Anyway yes more on cart action, excuse the pun but on rails shooter.

But in a nutshell I think the chapters main failure in all versions that I have played is that you neither feel like you are chasing anything nor anyone is chasing you. That I feel without being specific is the solution to the chapter and if the feeling of a chase both ways round can be induced that would give it what it needs.

#3

The actual sign mechanics themselves make little in the way of logical sense. I’d want some kind of menu on the car itself, diagetic, that would let players switch tracks as they drove without wasting bullets. A redesign of the cart so that there’s cover on the back end would also go a long way towards resolving the chapter’s issues, because the cart would make an excellent mobile cover point. A military modified model with more armor and an MP5 ammo crate would also be a nice later-chapter modification to the base carts.

#4

I don’t buy that the tram is an “escort mission”. Escort missions are where you have to take a vulnerable NPC to some kind of safe area. If you don’t do it right, the NPC can be killed, captured, or something other that ends the game and you have to start over.

The tram is not vulnerable. It cannot be destroyed (except by scripted events). If it is destroyed or left behind, the game does not end. It is simply a “mount”.

#5

It cannot be destroyed but I heard it can be rotated sideways by saving and loading the game :stuck_out_tongue:

#6

On a rails should be a good opportunity for a horror chapter, but let’s face it’s too much work to change the level.

#7

Yeah, I’m definitely of the opinion that On A Rail Uncut is the best of the three preexisting On A Rail iterations (Half-Life, Black Mesa, and Black Mesa Uncut), but the chapter really deserves a full-on redesign because the core design principles of the chapter, in all versions, are out-of-whack because they all make you ask the same question: Why am I using a train? In Half-Life and Black Mesa Uncut, the question is asked because the train is obviously more dangerous to use than traveling on foot, and the path is also kind of short. In Black Mesa, the question is asked because the path is obviously very short, and the train is also somewhat more dangerous to use than traveling on foot. The ideal iteration of On A Rail would span more distance than all three put together, but would be very fast-paced. On A Rail needs to be a long journey in the sense of a long distance, not a long time. There should be some tram stops in the chapter to break things up, but as is, the quantity of tram stops are padding - they expand the time, but not the distance, the exact opposite of what the chapter needs. Black Mesa removed the padding, but the problem of the chapter not covering a long distance was only exacerbated.

Thank you for posting this; this was very eye-opening. If the Black Mesa team is redesigning On A Rail from the ground up, then my feelings of hatred towards them for delaying the final release for years are transmuted to feelings of gratitude towards them for trying to make the best game Half-Life can possibly be.

#8

This annoyed me a little bit more than it should have. It’s just a bit of a silly statement.

You have feelings of “hatred” towards us, for “delaying” the release of an unfinished remake that you’ve publicly stated you don’t even really like? Think about it.

The game isn’t finished. We’re not delaying it because we think it’s really funny to watch you guys squirm. We’re working at it - hard. We all have lives and real jobs. We have very limited time and resources to invest in this. Even though we’ll be selling it…eventually, we are not making any money whatsoever while working on it. This is the key difference between this and a game from an actual game studio. That mere fact alone means we will never be able to invest the time and effort we’d love to. We do what we can. We’ll get there, and it’ll be awesome. There’s plenty to hate in this world, but I don’t think we’re it! :stuck_out_tongue:

Onto the topic at hand…

An interesting and eye opening read which I think summarizes pretty well the issues with On a Rail as a chapter. Well observed - and I do also share your criticisms of On a Rail Uncut. I was never really that happy with it myself, anyway. It doesn’t represent what I can really do or what that chapter can really be, if I’m honest.

I guess the thing is, it really begs the question of what you think the constraints of a remake are. One of the things I always thought was cool about Black Mesa, even before I joined the team, was that it mostly did its own thing, but within a HL1 framework. This is what we’re doing with MP, too. I think to make those fundamental changes to On a Rail, which, I agree, would undoubtedly improve the chapter, would require you to step outside that HL1 framework, as that design “flaw”, or “feature”, as it might be called, is really quite central to the entire chapter. The stopping and starting IS On a Rail. To remake it into this really cool sounding Indiana Jones adventure where it’s an exciting tram chase - would be to make it NOT Half-Life, as that is very far from what the original did, vision wise.

I’m sure a lot of people would support that kind of change - but I think it clashes with the principle of working within a HL1 framework. To me at least, it would change On a Rail too dramatically for it to still be a remake of the On a Rail from the original. Sure, the BMS iteration is truncated - but it’s really still the same chapter, in terms of fundamentals. It sounds like it would make a seriously cool workshop map set or SP custom chapter, or something like that though - would LOVE to see someone make something like that!

I’m probably rambling a bit so I hope what I’ve said makes sense. Bear in mind these are just my opinions, too. TL;DR I think your ideas for reworking the chapter are great, but I don’t think they’d quite fit in.

Oh, also:

This is well off the mark, I’m afraid. I’m not incorporating On a Rail Uncut into the mod - I don’t even want to, at this point. It will not happen. I’m working on MP. Gasworks, among other things.

#9

I’m sorry, Text, that was a bit harsh to the team. My feelings on the matter aren’t really rational, come to think of it. :frowning: The devs are pretty cool, you especially!

Correct me if I’m wrong, though, Text, but didn’t the BM devs say a long time ago that the Xen chapters would be revised so heavily as to “step outside the framework of” those maps? I think it’d make sense to revise On A Rail that heavily, too, and for the same reason. If responding to this would violate the “don’t talk about Xen” rules, feel free to just ignore me.

I guess that the main design principle I’d like to see in a revised On A Rail would be Water Hazard-inspired, but I don’t believe that would violate the Half-Life spirit. Essentially, I’d like to see On The Rail be among the longest chapters in the game, in terms of “number of maps” and “distance traveled per map”, but for tram-stopping events to only occur every other map or so. A typical player should be able to pass through roughly every other map without getting off the tram. Like the airboat segments in Water Hazard, the tram rides are fun breaks that give more of a feeling of progression (and scenery-building) than actual gameplay, like an interactive, industrial, Xen-fucked version of Black Mesa Inbound.

#10

No worries. It’s all good. You guys are cool too! Working with you guys for the Uncut stuff was an awesome experience.

Now that you point out that about Xen and vision, that is actually true - and I really hadn’t even considered it, which is strange! It feels like a cop out from logical argument now to say that Xen is the exception…but in some ways, it is. I can’t actually articulate why very well but I feel like that’s the one area where it is justifiable to really stray from the original because in the original it totally was super far away from a fitting ending. It was a frustrating platforming section where it should have been an incredible alien world with limitless opportunities and a great climax to the game. The thing that everyone remembers about Xen is its aesthetic, but I don’t think the gameplay is necessarily what people remember it for.

With On a Rail, at least in my opinion, straying from the original so far as to make it an Indiana Jones type deal or whatever you’d like to call it, is less justifiable. It violates a section whose GAMEPLAY everyone really remembers, for better or worse. See, your idea about the Water Hazard stuff is really cool, and I love the sound of a chapter like that. You should make it! I’d love to see that.

Our version of On a Rail is done. I haven’t explained this very well but maybe with some time to think about it I can word it better.

#11

Everyone remembers Xen’s gameplay “for better or worse” too. :smiley:

Maybe by the time Black Mesa comes out, I’ll have a computer that can properly run Hammer (or Hammer 2, as the case may be) and I’ll finally be able to start my belated modding tenure. Or maybe it’ll be someone else. :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

A man after my own heart! Yesterday I found this question asking the best order in which to play the Half-Life series, and before noticing how old the post was I started typing a response. A few minutes later my response was an essay. Instead of necroposting, I decided to post it on my TV Tropes page, and after editing and expanding it’s now probably twice the length. ; _ ;

I wish I had found something I was passionate enough about to accidentally write essays on when I was still in high school.

#13

A bit of a necro-post, but since the “official” On a Rail: Uncut thread was locked, I had nowhere else to put this:

I love On a Rail. It was one of my favourite chapters from the original Half-Life, at least once I figured out the Byzantine logic behind it. More than any other part of the game, On a Rail forces players to be proactive, to explore and find non-obvious solutions. Up to that point, Half-Life has led me by the nose. “Levels” were linear with fairly little exploration of any consequence. Maybe there’d be a side room or an extra few lengths of corridor, but it was always obvious where I was supposed to go and what I was supposed to do. When in doubt, just keep following the corridor.

Then comes On a Rail, and all of a sudden that doesn’t work. If I “just follow the corridor,” the rail cart loops forever. I have to get off and do something, but what? And crucially, get off where? There were three separate places. I tried going on foot but the electrified rail killed me, and it felt cheesy as hell. So I stopped at the various stations, explored, killed a lot of things, got shot by a turret but I figured it out. Then I got stopped at another station. Eager I went to explore before I would come back to the cart, only to stray SO far away as to go through a map load. and find a completely new track and a bunch of new stations. Having gone through everything I could visit on foot, I went back to my cart and found the rail led me to those locations anyway.

To me, On a Rail isn’t an escort quest. It’s a journey. It’s slow, it’s meticulous, it’s altogether too long, the locations can be confusing and labyrinthine, but that’s what makes it fun. Unlike pretty much any other place in Half-Life, the environment itself is my enemy in On a Rail. But the beauty of it all is it’s not a very difficult enemy. All it takes is a sense of direction, a sense of orientation and a sense of distance.

I played Wolfenstein 3D. I played Doom. I played Duke Nukem 3D. I’ve gone through mazes far worse and less logical than that. Hell, “Questionable Ethics” was worse for me, despite being a smaller, simpler level. No, On a Rail to me is like the Half-Life 2 airboat and car sections. It feels like I’m covering a lot of ground and always ending up having to get off and open the way for my vehicle. That’s not an escort quest. That’s how a proper vehicle-centric section should be. You shouldn’t be flying past terrain, ignoring what’s around you. You should be taking in the terrain and exploring it.

To wit, On a Rail: Uncut. I love it. I liked the old Half-Life on a Rain, but even I have to admit it was a pain the donkey. It was made up of ugly, dull tunnels and featureless corridors. This one looks like an actual place. This one feels bigger, it feels like an even more massive journey. It spans such a large range of locations and that train yard… My God that amazing train yard. HL On a Rail felt like doing the same thing five times. On a Rail: Uncut feels like a massive sequence of unique experiences. Yes, it does boil down to “meet obstacle, get off, push button, get on” but that’s basically Half-Life in a nutshell if you want to be cynical.

When I first played Black Mesa, I was left underwhelmed. The game seemed to be lacking the “heart” of Half-Life. For all the pretty graphics added, Gordon’s journey seemed gutted of its substance. On a Rail - cut down to nothing. Surface Tension - cut down to shadow of its former size. Xen - missing outright. What had once felt like a gruelling gantlet of challenges ended up feeling like a summer blockbuster movie. With On a Rail: Uncut and Surface Tension: Uncut, the game finally feels like it has staying power.

I’ve had my fun with rollercoaster games which feel that they have to move you from chapter to chapter before your attention span ends. These days, I’m back to my roots of looking for games with staying power, games which linger on their themes and actually ask me to make my way through their content, rather than shepherding me from setpiece to setpiece. On a Rail: Uncut does this for me in spades.

I got stuck on a large number of locations, but the fault was my own every single time. Once I spent 45 minutes running up and down a station platform figuring out how to turn on the power before it dawned on me. “Wait, I’ve run through a power substation 20 times now. Surely the power would be there?” Sure enough, the POWER switch was in the POWER substation. I felt like an idiot, sure, but in a good way. I felt like an idiot because the map design ended up being smarter than I was. I wish more games would do that.

#14

To iterate on these ideas, I have some of my own that could be used for those interlude moments between the stops.

One for example could be an area where a couple of tracks meet up in a long corridor. A couple of carts pull up next to you filled with soldiers or some other kind of hazard. When you kill the soldiers, the carts slow down or stop and you can temporarily abandon your cart to jump on one of the other which will each take you on a loop to a little station with some much deserved goodies. Otherwise the player can continue on.

Another is that halfway through the chapter, a sort of rival appears. It’s an armored train car with a bunch of guns on it, filled with soldiers. Perhaps throughout the rest of the chapter you fight with this armored car and later just before the rocket segment, you destroy it.

#15

I ditch the cart once I pass the electrified flooded portion of the track. The cart slows me down for the rest of that section.

#16

I personally just love riding the cart :slight_smile:

#17

Making a necropost here. Because of the EA release, I’ll be caring about Black Mesa for the next few weeks before I disappear until xen.

I firmly believe Text when he says he will never work on his uncut mods again. The art and detail standard for the MP maps is insane, and there’s just not enough time. And if they push release long enough to make time, it couldn’t be worth it.

So I’m not sure who my audience is supposed to be here, it’s about a decade late. Anyway here’s a treatment for the first map of OAR, for anyone who wants to discuss something that will never exist. Maybe the ideas are valuable to other modders.

1580×1441

#18

I think you’re being a little pessimistic just because he won’t make the mod doesn’t mean that someone else won’t.

#19

I tried to update my OP but there’s a new 10k character limit, so I’m just going to keep posting in smaller snippets.

Now that the first map is behind me, I can talk about the second half of fixing On A Rail.

Personally I do believe in the spirit of On A Rail. There is no license here to deviate from the original OAR in an extreme way, even if the result of that would be much more entertaining, because Black Mesa is at most a re-imagining of Half-Life. There should always be a voice in the back of your mind asking “Is this still On a Rail?”.

Back in the old days of the mod there was a line of questioning I heard a lot. What would Valve have done if they had the technology? Of course you never ask what Valve would do if they had the knowledge, they would dump Half-Life and get into digital distribution.

The cart makes the player weak defensively and offensively, it isn’t fun, and ultimately there’s just no symbiotic relationship between the player and the cart. There’s nothing that makes me understand why the cart is in the game.
Enough explaining, weaponize the cart.

800×450

No. It needs more technology, something more cerebral, of MIT stature.

800×1350

One of the legitimate disappointments in Half-Life 2 was use of the physics engine. People waiting on that game were guilty of having imagination - after seeing Valve’s presentations, they vaguely expected physics to radically change video games forever. In the end physics made Half-life 2 look more believable, but did very little to change how the game is played, and it usually did so in a very constrained and simple way that was possible before the technology.

And it’s still disappointing. All of this stuff falls right off the cart at the first hint of motion. After spending a few hours in Garry’s Mod I assume this sort of thing can be accomplished with some special attention.

Anyway let’s go over why I like this and why I believe it’s a great fit for OAR:

  1. Doesn’t escalate the action. Works with slow pacing and low enemy frequency.
  2. Customizable, personal. The player selects cover from the environment and chooses where he/she wants to place defense and offense (front,left,side,rear).
  3. OAR already has a healthy placement of turrets. Motivates the player to patiently dismantle turret traps as trip wire puzzles instead of just destroying them.
  4. The hound eye is a very interesting enemy now.

But some accommodations need to be made:

Some new props might be needed, and the tram might need to be modified to make cover work better.

I usually like how conservative the black mesa team is when making decisions, but the current iteration of the auto turret is no fun allowed incarnate. Sometimes limiting the player’s options is more interesting, and sometimes it’s not. Avoiding the turret’s friendly cone of fire just seems to hinder their use with no obvious benefit to strategy. I can’t advance beyond my turrets, I can’t point my turrets anywhere I intend to work in, and I can’t pull enemies into turrets. All I can do is place turrets in front of me or hold them out from a wall and let them do their thing. Regardless of the fictional problem of turrets shooting players off the tram in a fictional OAR, I really wish turrets would appeal to their Half-Life 2 functionality with no friendly fire.

I also think the ammo limit is way too low. I’m not a balance mathematician, but I’d start with doubling it and working from there. I’m not sure where the concern of them being too powerful comes from. They have a limited lifespan, they are only in select areas of the game, and their purpose is to be a powerful tool the player can temporarily use to mix up the gameplay. Guards follow me without requiring attention, have unlimited ammo, sponge damage for me, are great shots, and don’t shoot me in the back - they are balanced because they don’t last forever, just like turrets. Please let us get some more time out of them.

The greater problem is accommodating for this in the level design. How do we teach the player they can and should do this? At what point in OAR should this be introduced? Will forfeiting a cart the player spent time on frustrate them? Are the sections where cover and turrets are helpful too short to justify the effort? How can I find a better use for my time?

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.