It might just be me, but those long conversations where some of my favorite parts of Max Payne 1 and 2. I even hid behind furniture in some scenes to hear all the goons’ lines.
I also stayed in place in Route Canal and Nova Prospekt just to hear the Breencasts in their entirety.
This si true anyway, if the dialog is good, I’ll sit around until it’s over or starts looping.
What I’d love is dumber AI
they see you a mile away, they hear you a mile away, they avoid my grenades way too easily
heck, the only time I ever manage to kill them with trip mines is in Power Up, I place a few in that curving tunnel before you reach the HECU’s main base (where they stupidly put explosive crates behind their barricade) then I pop out, dance around then go back and lure them into my lasers
That doesn’t mean they’re too smart, that means that their senses are too good.
I don’t want a “dumber AI”, I want a better designed one. I want an AI that makes me plan out my attack, and makes me think about where I should go. An AI that makes me cover my flanks, and doesn’t make me feel to comfortable just camping in one spot. The current AI doesn’t make me do any of those things. It needs to be fixed.
Prime example being the big fight in QE. Unless you’ve played it before or go through it 45 times to practice, you’re pretty much sniping from the stairs and then eventually doing cleaning up.
I had absolutely no fun with that except for the bad ass music.
well I did not get that in hl2 they say the vorgiuns where actually slave’s I mean interloper really to me when I was 10 looked more like a mining complex.
I’m almost finished playing the original Half-Life, and the truth is I don’t like the HECU voices in Black Mesa: Source or Half-Life. The BMS HECU is over-the-top in a bad way, but at least they sound like humans - albeit comically evil humans. The Half-Life HECU voices sound like robots. Every. Line. Is. Made. Of. Separate. Words. It works okay in the original game because I’m adjusted to the various limitations given the game’s age, but when I tried OldDirtyBastard’s HECU Radio chatter swap for BMS, the clipped speech stuck out like a sore thumb. It’s only a genuine improvement with the scripted sequences. (The dialogue swap directly following Apprehension is a huge step in the right direction.)
Like others, I have to wonder why the HECU in BMS are a bunch of David Hayter-impersonating jerks. I’ve read that the dev team didn’t want us to sympathize with them, but I’m not sure I get that explanation. It doesn’t matter to me if they sound like normal guys, they’re trying to kill me. I’m not going to hesitate shooting them if they’re shooting me.
What I have to wonder is if the decision isn’t more about not disrespecting actual soldiers. “Support Our Troops” has become a 21st century mantra, and I think this culture of ultimate respect and admiration for the men and women fighting in the armed forces has influenced the decision to portray the HECU as comically evil. The idea is that our brothers and fathers and friends wouldn’t do what the HECU is doing, they’d never participate in the slaughter of civilian scientists, especially on their own soil. The recent spate of public shootings I think also has played into it. In American culture, it’s one thing to watch/play an American character killing German or Japanese soldiers in WWII, or Chechen terrorists in 2012, it’s another to have Americans killing Americans. That’s just not done, right? Thus, the decision to make the HECU over-the-top comic villains who couldn’t possibly be normal average Joes. No disrespect, because these are not human beings, they’re monsters in camo.
If that’s the true reason, it’s one I can understand. That being said, maybe we should sympathize with the HECU, maybe I should question the morality of what I’m doing and who I’m working for. We’ve unleashed an apocalypse through sheer hubris. We’re mad scientists blowing up the world because we can. A more human HECU is not going to stop me from eliminating immediate threats to my life, but it will leave me with a deeper, more complex set of emotions at the end of a run and I like that.
edit: sorry if I’m way off base here. It’s only the really good stuff that gets me thinking like this, so it’s a testament to the game’s brilliance!
Um, hate to break this to you buddy, bust someone has been…for a long time…
no they haven’t, he’s talking about an opposing force mod for black mesa, not something like tripmine’s stuff
^
I’m sure as soon as the BM source code is released someone will at least attempt to do so.
just like the HECU skins I say the backpacks should be put on at random. Some models without them and some with them. just like the gas masks, helmets, and the chest packs
Good idea.
Ok, here’s my interpretation of the HECU in Half-Life, then Black Mesa.
https://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090802164207/half-life/en/images/a/a8/HECU_orig_models.jpg
Confident badasses, war veterans who can fight in extreme situations such as Black Mesa, and still kick the alien’s ass at first. Tough and competent guys who don’t talk much, shoot and throw a lot of grenades. But in the end, still humans. Some of them would be reluctant to shooting scientist (but would do so anyway because that’s their orders), while some others would take pleasure from doing it. They look extremely cool, you could just figure out each model’s personnality just by looking at it (like, that beret wearing guy who looks like a damn sadist, or that balaclava one who might be the silent type…). They are extremely strong and charismatic, and their speeches sound nice too (for instance, when a soldier gets hit, he would sometime shout “IS THAT ALL YOU GOT ?”, or “YOU GOT NOTHING !”.
In a nutshell, hardcore professionals.
https://www.majhost.com/gallery/sgtpieman/BMWIP/bm_c2a5d0006.jpg
Gross incompetents who should be lucky to have a job. Young sadist douchebags and one-liner-shouting David-Hayter impersonnators, who do evil stuff for no good reason. They all look and sound completely random. They are not war veterans, they are not badasses, and they are certainly not good enough to survive the very hostile environment of Black Mesa. They don’t look particularly good (like those who aren’t wearing any gloves at all. The options should be either fingerless gloves or full gloves. No gloves ? Meh)
I’ll never understand the devs with trying to make you not feel sympathy for them. the original didn’t have any problems so why change it now? and valve licensed an entire expansion pack to show you the soldier point of view and how they had it just as bad
more dialogue would be great but I’d also prefer the current lines redone with the VAs not told to sound ridiculous.
actually one thing i really would like is to bring in some of the different character models Opposing force added like medics and engineers(i think there were a few more) just to give them some visual variety
Well the medics are in the game, and I think that was a good decission by the devs, as for the engineers, I imagine they didn’t really find somewhere to fit them in.
They can blowtorch doors away, allowing for Combine-style entrances.
Okay, but when did that happen in Half-Life?
No where… but this is Black Mesa, not Half-Life…
Not that they SHOULD put it in, however, the fact that it wasn’t in Half-Life shouldn’t stop them from implementing it, should they find it creates fun gameplay that can be integrated well into the existing game.
Yeah, it’s not like shit like this “breaks the canon” or anything
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.
