Really bad balancing

Black Mesa Archive In-game Issues (Mod)
#1

I can appreciate that the game should be challenging. I actually like it. But certain aspects are really bullshit, to be honest. This game wasn’t lacking for time to beta test, but on normal difficulty, the soldiers are too accurate and do WAY too much damage. I have to reload zones multiple times because two half-missing bursts will take me from 98/75 down to 60/0, and one more burst from there leaves me at 20.

The guns are also really poor feeling. The shotgun and pistol do their jobs, but the .357 feels fiddly and inaccurate (iknorite?) and the combat rifle has too small of a clip to kill two soldiers, even when you are hitting every round home, along with too poor of an accuracy compared to their OWN rifles.

Zombies hit hard enough, headcrabs are really hard to hit for some reason with anything but the crowbar (I used to hit those little bastards midair with a pistol) and I feel the chargeup time on the vortigaunts is too fast, and does too little damage. I like the bullsquid spray, but with every ranged monster, bullsquids a slight exception, I feel like I can NEVER get the kill without taking a guaranteed hit or ten. it just isn’t that tactical feeling, when it really should be (the AI is great!)

My only concern with almost everything’s AI (soldier in particular) is that they respond to your presence way too fast. Add a minor, 0.2-0.5 second delay before a monster recognizes your presence, because their reaction speed is so computer-tastic that they always get the first shot off, even when they shouldn’t. I don’t feel satisfied or rewarded for good shots or good play, like I do in HL1 or other games where my good aim and suprise attacks leave my opponents wrecked and me without a scratch. the first time I felt like I did something cool was sending a satchel charge up the lift in power up. I then had to reload five times because every time a soldier that I knew precisely where he was, at about 20 yards, just as I round the corner to clock him with a .357 round, he and his mates manage to pump a full burst into me and take off all of my suit power and half of my health. It’s just not fun having to redo fights simply because the AI is better than you can possibly be.

Hopefully this can be taken as constructive criticism. Patch the combat rifle’s clip to 50, increase the accuracy just a tiny bit, improve the .357’s accuracy dramatically and take that stupid iron sights motion out (it’s just so out of place it’s laughable) and increase the vortigaunt charge time and damage to where we can kill them before they shoot if we see them first, as well as take the soldier combat rifle damage down a ton, as well as ding the accuracy they have about 5-10%. The combat rifle soldiers should NOT feel as terrifying at any range as the shotgun wielding ones are when their barrel is six inches away from your face!

Also, make the blast pit tentacles more distractable. grenades should distract them for more seconds, and they should have more random patterns of banging. I was more successful just sprinting, which felt dumb.

(this feedback is based on gameplay up to on a rail)

#2

and here I thought it was too easy.

#3

I noticed pretty much all of these things as well… like exactly. It’s creepy.

As for the iron sights, you can disable that in the Black Mesa section of the options. At first I thought I would like it, but it doesn’t function well enough, so I turned it off.

Oh, and you’re only up to OAR so far? You’re gonna love the end of Questionable Ethics. heh :meh:

#4

The most overwhelming thing about this game, in total honesty, is the music. Jesus tittyfucking christ. BMS’s music is nothing less than PERFECT. I haven’t heard a soundtrack this good since Bastion, and BMS is better than that by a longshot!

But christ, these little details (and they really are little) are almost ruining the game for me. Shattering the immersion when I have to reload every 20 seconds in not-very-intense scenes. I’m good at FPS’s, and am a serious half life veteran. But on normal mode, this game is kicking my ass and punishing me for being human.

#5

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#6

I agree with Givekidsmeth. This mod is a goddam masterpiece (I’ll post my full thoughts once I finish it), but I keep getting utterly curb-stomped by marines on Normal despite the fact that I never had much trouble with the original game, even on Hard (pre-Xen, that is). I wouldn’t say BM is impossibly difficult or unfair or anything like that, but I do think the balancing could be a bit better. :slight_smile:

#7

I must agree with OP.

Please consider lowering the reaction time and the accuracy of the AI. I tried the game on normal as well and it’s really unbalanced.

#8

Yeah. I forgot the change the difficulty in my rush to play, and I’m noticing some of these things on easy, even. I’ve always played Half Life in a way to get a feel for the situation, reload, and execute perfectly the second time. I’ve had to do this WAY more times than I’ve had to do in any old HL run.

Also, I was scoping some soldiers, walking with their backs to me, and I was so far away I could only see em clearly through my crossbow. Then, before I could get the shot right, they BOTH turn around and immediately start shooting me…with every bullet hitting. I can’t do that at all. Thankfully their damage on easy is okay to deal with, but still…its a problem that carries over to the higher levels where they can tear you to bits in a few shots.

#9

I haven’t launched BMS yet but I remeber HL1/HL: Source and Opposing Force were pretty much hard on normal when I replayed them couple of years ago. Dunno how I ever played HL1 then I was a kid.
Most modern shooters are much, much and much more easier that “good old games”. Even Half-Life 2 is more easy than HL1 - I saw a live stream where guy nearly made it to “Hazardous waters” with steering wheel as his controller.

#10

Black Mesa is much harder than Half-Life 1 IMO.

#11

I had this issue with many of the soldiers when I was solely using my MP5. Now, whenever I face marines, I tend to take out the bigger weapons (357, shotgun double-blasts, and whatever explosives I have). It’s true that you can’t stay inside their vision very long, and you really can’t face them on the equal ground of “fully-automatic 9mm weapon” or you’ll be worn down.

It’s difficult to account for everyone, though, because plenty of people have felt the marines are at just the right level of difficulty based on their playstyle. I don’t mean to be rude, but just keep in mind the game has different difficulty settings that can still be fun. And if that’s not for you, make sure you’re using all your weapons. Even the trip mines can be a fun easy kill if you use them right (which can be as simple as finding a marine, placing one, then running away)

#12

Yeah, the little things are killing me here. The unbalanced-ness, the insanely glitchy ladders, the mp5 not feeling like it does a damn thing, the short swing on the crowbar?, and of course the miserable jumping, though admittedly I have FINALLY gotten pretty used to that last one. (But it took me til Residue Processing! :rage :slight_smile:

Playing through this game is like having the best day of your life, you won the lotto, your first child was born, you took a trip to the moon… however, every hour someone just runs up to you and slaps you across the face. After it happens a bunch of times it really starts to sully the mood of the whole thing. =/

(Weirdest simile ever, eh?) :retard:

And bugs I don’t care about, I could encounter a million bugs and that would be okay, but when these little core things constantly show up it gets frustrating.

A masterpiece that needs to be framed properly. lol

Same happened to me. At the Dam I take it?

#13

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#14

The ladders shouldn’t be very glitchy. Just play with them for a bit.

  • Push ‘Space’ to ‘jump’ off the ladder.
  • Push ‘E’ to ‘fall/let go’ of the ladder.

When jumping off the ladder, (space) be sure you are facing the direction you want to go. You can turn full 360 while standing on the ladder, without moving up or down. You do not need to push ‘W’ or ‘D’ to jump a specific direction nor does it make you go any further. Just push space.

#15

I know that’s how they are supposed to function, but they haven’t always worked for me. I have had numerous instances where I have tried to jump onto a ladder, only to not catch it and fall to my death, others where I’m not even jumping, I just walk at it from the side it’s on and I still don’t latch and just fall down the hole.

Getting off I’ve had less problems, but there have been a few times where I have tried to dismount to the side, and it threw me backwards instead, again plummeting to my death.

Thanks for the reply though, and as others have already said, your soundtrack is one of the greatest things about this mod, it’s seriously flawless. Applauds

Edit:
(Also, ladders seem to be glitchy in a lot of games, so I’ve kinda come to expect that they’ll fail me at sooner or later no matter what I’m playing. lol)

#16

I’m only on We’ve Got Hostiles at the moment, and I’m enjoying fighting the soldiers. But then, I’m playing in Medium despite the fact that I’ve beaten all the Half-Life games and expansions and many mods in Hard mode.

In medium difficulty I wasn’t finding the game very challenging and I thought it silly that there was plentiful 357 magnum ammo everywhere, I was using it as my main weapon against everything, including headcrabs. Then when I started fighting the soldiers I was glad I had that magnum ammo!

#17

Aah yes… jumping onto a ladder, from an angle, can be problematic. There shouldn’t be many instances where this is a required game mechanic. The only times you are forced to jump onto a ladder, you are given a direct front shot. But I hear you. I’ll mention it to Ram, and see what he thinks.

Thank you for the compliments!

#18

Actually, all the times I was required to jump onto a ladder it worked flawlessly. The others were just random ladders here and there that I tried to jump on. Maybe my expectations of ladder acrobatics are just too high. Who knows. :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t know if you’ll even need to pass it on, looks like he’s already lurking in this thread. (Or was anyway.)

#19

Eeyup, most of Surface Tension I spent with the .357 out taking shots from behind some rocks upwards of 30 meters sometimes. I don’t really mind the damage they deal, but their accuracy doesn’t seem to diminish over distance much aside from ridiculously far away and that kind of kills my strategy, heh heh.

#20

I’m only at OAR so far, but some of the tactics I’ve found to work well are using grenades as much as possible and just rushing them with the shotgun. I also enjoy softening them up with explosives and just mowing down the weakened marines with the MP5, but that can be tricky for various reasons.

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.