Hi Text. How’s work going on Map B2?
If you give me a few hours you may just be able to find out for yourself!
I bet the full Uncut set will be finalized before Xen comes out, and then Xen will come out, and we’ll all be pretty happy. 
I wish the vent maze from We’ve Got Hostiles was still in, but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S94ohyErSw
Cool. Will play through your map B2 as soon as you release it!
It certainly will. 
The vent maze is the chapter’s weakness — the Black Mesa version is fine. Even so, sometimes I think that removing it from the chapter makes it feel like something is missing. But that’s fine.
It creates a sense of continuity throughout the chapter that is heavily reduced by the Black Mesa version. Hell, if you put all three Black Mesa We’ve Got Hostiles maps on top of each other, are the blast doors even in the same place? If I were remaking Half-Life, I would try to make the vent maze more complicated, not less.
Exactly what I would do.
I mean weakness by how boring it can be, mainly for those who have played HL a lot, like me. But improvement upon it would be very welcome, like making the vent maze a real maze. After all, what’s Half-Life without vent action?
Exactly. Hell, I have several ideas for optional areas that the player could access through the vent maze that would add little bits to the story, which would arguably make the vent maze the highlight of the chapter rather than a trailing-off, fading out conclusion.
Of course, the real conclusion to my version of We’ve Got Hostiles would be a huge firefight with the HECU just outside the blast doors, as the scientist in the control room cowers, waiting for you to dispatch all of the HECU’s local forces so that he can safely open the blast doors long enough for you to enter.
The waiting is killing me!!! that and my football team playing very baddly!!! Oh my Benfica!!! :’(
My team has won Friday 
[COLOR=‘Red’]Update: B2 Alpha Released! Only 4 months after B1![/SIZE]
Latest Version: OaR Uncut Alpha B2. Download here.[/SIZE]
As always, please report missing textures (purple/black checkerboards) and models (ERROR signs) to me immediately. It’s nearly 4AM here and I’ve been mapping since midday, so I am definitely off to bed now, so you won’t see a fix until later tomorrow I’m afraid, if there are any. Hopefully not, though given how tired I am, it’s always a possibility.
The download is the full alpha of OaR Uncut - as it includes A, A1, A2, B, B1, B2, C. This is to make installing it as simple as possible so there are no problems like there were with the B1 alpha.
There isn’t a great deal more to say about this, as the B2 video has been discussed to death in this thread in the past few days. There have been some GREAT ideas brought up and some really brilliant feedback suggested, all mixed in among the not so useful stuff, but I’ve really been happy that the community’s been getting excited over these maps and has helped improve them tremendously even before playing them! Thank you everyone who commented and helped improve the alpha even before its release. It’s great to have you guys on my side, I really value it.
In terms of this version’s differences from the alpha footage, there are a fair few. The outdoor area is now more action oriented though I’d say it is still far from action packed. Many of the enemies you come across are “soft enemies,” like headcrabs and sentry turrets, so not full fledged fights. The Sniper encounter has turned out really well and I’m very happy with it, and in terms of optimization it’s actually better than I thought it would be. There’s still plenty of room for improvement and hopefully this will happen in future versions. There are a few additional little scripted scenes and the 50 Cal emplacement adds a neat little challenge to the outdoor environment.
So, where to from here? Well firstly of course I’d love to have feedback, however detailed you decide you want it to be, for B2. Just please remember to check the “known issues” list in the OaR Uncut readme before you start sending bug reports my way - otherwise I’ll get loads of bug reports which I already know about which is a waste of time for all involved. Other than that, there’s nothing specific I’m looking for - but bear in mind the map is sitting exactly on the entity and brush limit. There’s no room for additional stuff without removing some of what’s already there. Ideas for vast expansions and new areas will likely not happen. Additionally “more optimization,” is probably not something I’d be too happy to hear. I know about it, and it’s not as easy as pressing the magical “optimize” button.
I now move onto starting to clean up the feedback from all the maps Alphas, and getting ready for the public beta release. Next week is my final week of work before I can go back to mapping full time again, so I wouldn’t expect the beta release blindingly quickly. However, I also wouldn’t expect it to take very long either. I’ve been really happy with all the alphas thus far, and so far there are NO areas in OaR Uncut which I want to give a major redesign to, which is great. Pretty much every area on ST Uncut was redesigned at some point, which is REALLY time consuming! Hopefully most of my effort can be dedicated towards improving visuals, scripts, and bugfixes, rather than redesigning entire sections of the map. Tomorrow I’ll start on A1, which I have some plans for expansion, actually. A1’s the only map in OaR Uncut which isn’t full to the brim in the BSP, so I might as well pack it!
We’ll have to wait and see. I hope you guys enjoy the alpha, I look forward to hearing from all of you! This project can really start moving forwards now.
Alright! I’m downloading it right now.
Ah, so you did put the sniper back in.
Hey all, I’m yet ANOTHER long time lurker on the forums, but now that I have just won a long, drawn out battle with my email conformation of this account. :fffuuu: Well, now that I am here, I’ll say what everyone else has said before: Great job on your work here Text, for all of your creative mapping and determination towards both OARU and STU. Really, its amazing! I’ll be sure to track the progress of your mod, and I’m planning on a massive playthrough of Black Mesa again with OARU and STU when it gets done. And now for a final cliche statement: Keep up the good work!
Downloading now, Text! I haven’t watched the youtube videos deliberately so this will be one nice surprise! 
Thank you very much mate!
AHHHHHHHHAAAA!!! Text you sneaky bastard, I was NOT expecting that sniper encounter. I said to myself “where did he put him?” then I found him alright!!! lol very nice job overall. I did a play through of OaR from start to finish just to see how all the maps came together, and they did very nicely, I couldn’t wait until I got to B2, I as so pumped. Then when I exited the warehouse (nice choice of music) the scene came together perfectly. Never got player fatigued from playing all the way through, the change in that lighting from earlier to later maps was a good call.
Few very minor things that stood out:
- These two bodies should be located somewhere else, maybe just outside the container, they look odd with now blood, maybe its juts the female scientist that looks out of place.
- Love how the flatbed falls if you jump on it. But it triggers the sentry beam at the bottom, consider moving the beam (maybe that was intended?) I feel it ruins the mood of he zombie ambush at the base of the latter though if all the sentries go off on you.
- This sandbag placement looks odd, just how it crosses from the concrete to the tram.
- From the warehouse exit you can see the headlights of the enemy tram before it even begins to move, its not really a problem but my eyes were drawn right there the whole time maybe tuck it a little further back in the tunnel.
- This is just a request could you add a few more military vehicles to this bare road. It would add to the idea of the convoy that drives by and explains how the soldiers arrived at said location. But if your hitting the map limits by adding those then nevermind.
Small side note, you already have bodies placed around B2’s rail yard; I feel it could use a few more. But as I said before if your hitting the limits nevermind. Also the flare sound you use for when it fires sounds like it was shot off right next to you, even though it was fired from what looks to be miles away (technically I don’t think you should hear it).
Anyway B2 was awesome Text, I love OaR now and you’ve really made it stand out. Thumbs up.
Good job with map B2, Text! I really liked the sniper encounter. The sniper’s position was perfect!
I even played through the entire chapter and I thought your maps improved it by a whole lot! I believe you made it one of the best chapters of Black Mesa. I’ll give you some feedback for the final part of map B1 and Map B2 very soon!
Oh yay, perfect release time. Just as I redownloaded Black Mesa on my new computer. Be able to enjoy ST Uncut and now OaR uncut with no lag. >
Excellent! I’ll be sure to try it out tomorrow, too late for tonight I’m afraid.
Oh hell yes, this looks awesome. About to play it, feedback coming soon.