Question About The Steam Release And The "Crouch-Jump" Mechanic.

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

I hope that I am not posting this in the wrong forum.

I see that Black Mesa is now available via Steam. I have a very simple question about it.

Does the Steam version retain the imbecilic and needlessly irritating “crouch-jump” mechanic that was one of the biggest problems with the original mod here?

Thanks in advance for the info!

#2

The game now has an auto-crouch jump system which makes it so that most jumps are now just normal jumps. Only very long jumps may require crouching, but they are rare.

#3

Well thank you! That is a big, big improvement over the mod and was just a terrible “feature”. There was at least some controversy about this when the mod was originally released but the devs seemed pretty intent on keeping it; I am glad to see that they have rethought their position.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask about the two other things about the mod that didn’t appeal to me:

  1. The enemies could shoot with pinpoint accuracy across any distance. Ouch! Has that been changed at all in the Steam release?

  2. A common scenario from the original mod, and very annoying to me, was: you could enter a new level or area, and the door or gate through which you entered would close and lock, and you would find yourself in an extremely exposed position facing multiple enemies. Ouch! Not really fair…

Thanks again for the info!

#4

Both of these things have been fixed. Our HECU AI was completely rewritten and I redid all of the balance values across the board. They are much more fun to fight and balanced now.

John redid quite a few of the transitional zones so they were fairer on the player, especially the one on Surface Tension.

#5

Thank you again, I really greatly appreciate your answers (and especially the decisions behind those answers.)

Although I will wait until the final “non-early-access” version of the game in released on Steam, I will eventually buy it and am looking forward to playing what promises to be a much improved version.

Thanks again and good luck!

#6

Why do you call the crouch-jump mechanic “imbecilic and irritating”? o_O This is an awesome game mechanic. Is it so hard to press CTRL + SPACE ? OMG… This generation of gamers is really bad…

#7

Personally, it gives me hand cramps… And, while it has some applications, I’d hardly call it an “awesome game mechanic”. Things like that have wide-ranging applications and serve as game-changers. The Grav Gun is an awesome game mechanic. :stuck_out_tongue:

#8

/shrug

I habitually crouch+jump all my jumps in every game I play, regardless of whether or not it’s actually helpful. The original Half-Life ingrained that into my head, I guess.

#9

I don’t have a problem with it when it is used every now and then. The problem with Black Mesa’s original release is that they required it for almost every single jump in the game. Why make every jump in the game a double button press instead of just making it a single button for the same action? Save two button combos for added gameplay elements.

#10

I need to make a few observations about your post and I hope that you will not take them in the wrong way.

If your contention is that you are somehow a better gamer than I because you like the crouch-jump mechanic in Black Mesa and I don’t, that’s fine. You can be a better, more skillful gamer than I am. I don’t mind at all and won’t argue about it. I don’t really want to be an outstanding gamer; I really just want to enjoy the games I play, even if I play them poorly. Please, game and be happy.

I am not quite sure what you mean by “this generation of gamers” because I have been playing video games for over 20 years - and believe me, I was not a kid when I started.

You might find the original Black Mesa’s “crouch-jump” mechanic to be “awesome” but, sadly for you yet luckily for me, the devs decided to pretty much get rid of it. I would not enjoy and would make no plans to buy the game if the “crouch-jump” remained, but now I can look forward to an enjoyable game. If you won’t enjoy the game without the original “crouch-jump” then you have my sympathy. But this situation might itself be a zero-sum game. If you like the original mod with the crouch-jump and I didn’t, and if you don’t like the Steam version without it but I do like it, then we each get a version we like, and one that we don’t like. So that’s fair, isn’t it? (And the version that you like is free, whereas the one that I will enjoy is $10. So really, the advantage in this matter is yours. Lucky you!)

I had a screen cap - lost now - that pretty neatly illustrated the problem. At one point in the game, I was outdoors, walking along a riverbed until I reached a chain-link fence (and then needed to go into a drainage pipe or similar.) Now, that chain-link fence across the riverbed was mounted on a concrete slab, let’s say, 15 feet wide. As you faced that fence, the flat surface of the slab on the left was 4 inches higher than the unpaved ground on which I was walking; while on the right side, it was 8 inches above the unpaved ground. I could simply walk up (and then maybe jump up - I don’t recall) on the left side of the slab but to mount the concrete slab on the right side - a mere EIGHT inches up - I needed to crouch-jump.

To me, that’s not an “awesome mechanic”; that’s a nuisance. So I used crouch-jump anytime and every time I needed to jump. If my jump key has been entirely superseded by the two key crouch-jump key combo, I basically end up with a two-key jump key, for no good reason.

At any rate, I felt it was a real impediment to my enjoyment of the game, and am glad it’s gone. If you feel otherwise well, sorry. : (

#11

Guys… you can turn auto crouch jump on/off in settings. Everyone’s happy.

#12

Personally? I would have preferred it if there was a “crouch-jump” keybind in the options, separate from the regular “crouch” & “jump” keybinds.

#13

If I too, may ask a few questions:

  1. Did the Voltigaunt and Houndeye charge time get increased? As it was in the mod, they were a little too fast ( especially Vortigaunts), which pretty much made them able to get you with the attacks all the time…

  2. Can you get snarks earlier in the retail? As in the mod you would get snarks very late and the only time to use them properly was during the last battle against HECU.

#14

Not sure about charge time, but I’ve found it fairly easy to dodge vortigaunt bolts in retail. Were you able to dodge them in the mod?

And snarks are available much earlier now! :stuck_out_tongue:

#15

I don’t remember being able to dodge the vorigaunt bolts at all in the open :confused: Because they charged so fast, it was really hard to either kill or hide from their sight… It seems that the charge time might got increased. The small charge time bugged me WAY more than HECU AI ever did :stuck_out_tongue:
As for snarks, awesome :smiley:

#16

The Vorts now charge 1.5X slower than they did in the mod.

#17

I’m stupid.
1.5* slower?

Math says 50% faster, but wording makes me think 50% slower.

#18

50% slower.

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.