Just going to weigh in and agree that the marines need to have their reaction time and accuracy nerfed a bit.
I think they are tactically pretty good, but the inhuman reaction speed and accuracy isn’t a good thing. Also, as someone else already pointed out, the “trained soldiers vs. a wimpy scientist” argument has no bearing on the issue. Further, as has ALSO been pointed out, real soldiers’ first reaction to incoming fire is to seek cover, not instantly begin spamming hot death with laser-like accuracy.
As for the MP5 and burst fire, I think that’s fine - IF burst firing would actually make a difference. In my experience (being a CS player) it was instinctive to try using burst fire, but it made no real difference in the gun’s effectiveness. Also, the AI marines don’t appear to be using burst fire and their accuracy is marvelous. LOL
I agree with you, but I do feel like the HGrunts are just a tiny bit too good. I found it easy to kill them when I could flit around and isolate them for an easy kill, but when there isn’t enough space or cover for that, like in the QE finale, it gets very tricky.
What’s this “Burst-fire” everyone’s talking about? If you mean firing in bursts, yeah, the soldiers in HL1 did that, in BM they just go full-auto.
The player’s SMG isn’t really burst-fire (bursts do make it more accurate though) - it’s full-auto, but the player can’t pull the trigger without firing more than one bullet.
This is what I was afraid would happen. Developers always think their games are too easy, but you’ve been working on this and testing it for so long. I call it the Rogue Squadron Effect.
Nooooo! I think the ‘Normal’ mode is OK, especially if the reaction times and accuracy will get fixed. The ‘Hard’ is hard, but it must be hard, right? and not just named hard.
I think you’re missing our point. Nobody is claiming that they should be able to charge in without a thought and raze every enemy in sight Rambo style before any resistance can be mustered. They are quite correctly stating that there is an issue with the game’s settings and AI tracking.
By the way, your tone in this conversation is entirely insulting. Not only are you assuming you’re the only person here who remembers what classic shooters were like, you’re also assuming everyone here is playing modern crap shooters like CoD and Halo and that somehow this means they’ve lost their edge. And you’re mistaken if you think HL1’s difficulty is anywhere near the level that Black Mesa sits at level for level.
Black Mesa’s normal mode is currently competing with HL1’s hard mode. And at least in HL1 none of the enemies knew where you were before they ever laid eyes on you.
But the problem is you can’t really fight them tactically, because when you want to shoot them from a cover, you have to make you visible for the time to shoot and since it takes enemy soldiers less than half a second to react, you get shot. They do not miss when you stand still, that’s why the best way to fight them is to run like crazy and do the Rambo.
I dont really see how this is an bug though. I wonder if this thread really should be here.
Anyway the easiest way to kill the grunts is using the magnum and headshotting using hit and run tactics. Also keeping track on how the grunts always move is good. The hardest part so far was the end of QE, I solved it by sniping them down with arrows, magnum and then throwing a satchel at the door so the four running out where much easier.
Each soldier is assigned a random proficiency number [0.0~1.0]
[list][*]0.0 is reduced accuracy with existing reaction time
1.0 is current accuracy with prolonged reaction time
[/*:m][/list:u]
Wham. Some soldiers will still snipe you (with more of a delay) and some soldiers will still have godly reflexes (at the cost of accurately). And many will have a compromise of somewhat reduced accuracy / slightly slower reactions, gently assuaging the type of complaint found here.
Aaaahahaha, nice reference. That game wasn’t “Nintendo-hard”, but certain levels later in the game were disastrous for lost players.
Let me dispel some of my alleged assumptions.
1.)I’m not the only one here who remembers what classic shooters were like.
2.)I’m not saying everyone plays “crap shooters like Cod and Halo.”
What I am saying though, (and you got this half correct ) people have lost their edge if they think BMS is too dificult as it is, and the lack of effort it takes to beat a modern game will emulate that. Granted, it might not be the only reason…but it sure is one.
I mean, hell, the WoW players went through a similar thing between the Wrath and Cataclysm expansions. Cataclysm launched and people were dying everywhere. They asked Cataclysm to be nerfed, most failing to realize the previous expansion made them hella lazy gamers. And then, they got through it just fine.
I am no hardcore gamer and I have died in a couple places a few times over. But to think to myself, that normal needs toned down? Hell no. It’s a nice middle place between easy and hard. If it’s too challenging, go easy. Not challenging enough, go hard.
The system isn’t supposed to be:
-Easy
-Kinda Easy
-Nightmare
as this thread seems to think it should be.
Never said it was…?
Nice hyperbole there. Can’t say I have seen that yet.
Thank God games like Myst weren’t released when most people had internet. I could just imagine all the forum posts about it “being too hard” and it “needs patched” because it “isn’t balanced.”
Now that statement WAS written with that tone you accused me of.
At medium range/long range I find that repeatedly tapping the fire button to fire 3-round bursts (rather than full auto) keeps my shots pretty accurate, while holding the trigger down causes a wider spray. If you use the MP5 when fighting the soldiers in the Osprey section in We’ve Got Hostiles you’ll find that firing in full auto will cause many of your bullets to go wide, while if you repeatedly click on the enemies the MP5 brings them down even though the are quite a distance away.
The helicopter is too hard. Unlike in the original HL, you could just run and take cover and maneuver around the helicopter’s blind spot and it’s predictable. In BMS, it’s not that easy. It appears that the chopper does not have any blind spots and can even shoot even when its back turned. The soldiers aren’t helping either and there’s not much health and power around that level (surface tension). Looks like I’m forced to cheat.
The only two parts I had to replay several times yet were the end of Questionable Ethics (in the main hall where the containment door closes behind you and soldiers rappeling from the ceiling windows) and the helicopter at the cliffs.
I noticed alien slaves and bullsquids became tougher enemies, but I actually like that. In Half-Life they were just too weak and now they are a real challenge.
Also I didn’t have any problems with ladders - actually, I really enjoy dropping down and hit use at the last moment, worked every time so far!
I agree with a lot of things said in this thread. I die in almost every encounter with the soldiers. I tried to come up with a strategy to outsmart them but no. Their AI is almost human. If I try to take cover it doesn’t take the soldiers 2 seconds to eliminate every possible dead angle and start shooting at me from every possible direction. I can live with that, but there’s just one thing. THE SHAKING!! OH GOD MY HEAD HURTS. I was thinking I could just go and headshot every enemy but no, aiming is fucking useless. The screen shake so much. It’s just too realistic which makes it very depressing. That’s why my tactic evolved into reloading every weapon, spraying the whole mag/clip/whatever on to the next enemy, switching to the next weapon, repeat.
Mutto: I totally agree that the game should not be too easy. The normal difficulty level should be challenging even for experienced gamers. I think everyone is ok with that. The problem with Black Mesa is that soldiers’ accuracy and reaction times are out of this world, which is completely unnatural and unrealistic. It’s not the way to make a game more difficult. It’s like if you made enemies always shoot you in head and never miss - it would make the game more difficult, but it doesn’t have any sense. A game should be difficult because of the smart AI and other things, not because of bots’ 0,01 s reaction times and super accuracy.
I don’t get how you guys can all claim that these soldiers have super accuracy. at point blank, they can generally hit me with their full clips, but once i get out to 25 feet or so, their accuracy seems to reduce dramatically. Yeah, I still get hit by stray bullets, but it’s only a small fraction of the total bullets being thrown at me. which makes sense, actually, because soldiers are generally trained to fight at ranges longer than nearly all of the fights depicted in the game. these would be pretty shitty marines if they couldn’t hit a single guy out past 25 feet. Besides, if you can hit them at those ranges, why can’t they?
Reactions times do seem a bit high, but its really nothing you can’t deal with. I typically look around a corner without firing, fall back out of LOS, then rapidly pop back out and blast away where I last saw the baddies. So far its worked for me. (and yes, I do manage to beat them on the draw often enough)
as a side note, its pretty easy to achieve “supernatural” reaction times, IF you know/ anticipate where your enemy is. you can leave your sights trained in on the spot they showed their head last, and blast em the moment they pop out. And since Freeman spends most of his time hiding behind tiny stacks of crates, I’d imagine it’s pretty easy for the soldiers to anticipate where the good Doctor will be sticking his head up next.
I haven’t completed the game yet, but I am just at the start of Residue Processing. I am finally sort of getting comfortable with the game, though this sadly does not equal me having a lot of fun playing it.
Don’t get me wrong, the MOD itself blows me away quality wise. Voice Acting, Music, Level Design is all really, really great. But the issues raised here are valid in my opinion and really ruin a lot of the experience I have.
I currently play on medium but I think I would also be able to play it on hard. The main problem I have with this is that it would be more tedious than hard.
A lot of folks here who post up ‘solutions’ for the fights don’t seem to get it. A lot of the tactics offered here require me to die at least once so that I know where all the enemies are located. I just don’t get where the fun in that is. How is blindly throwing a grenade to a location that I know an enemy is skillfull? That way I might as well just switch on god-mode and be done with it.
Currently I play like this:
F6, go into a room, memorize where the enemies are, die, F9, creep into the room and snipe enemies as much as possible, F6, go further in, die again from the remaining units, F9, snipe or blow away the rest. (With multiple iterations depending on how many stages of enemies there are)
Personally I do not find this very satisfactory. I constantly feel like I am cheating, because I am basically exploiting the fact that all events are skripted. I think this is also the reason why so many of the BM crew think the game is easy. Sure, you guys play-tested every level to death. You know where all enemies are, you know all routes to take and where the next health kit is. Of course this way the game is quite doable on hard (even fun) but the average joe here does not have that experience.
Blackmesa source was nothing less than one of the best gaming experiences in my life, Im 24 years old and I felt like an excited little kid in christmas again, I give this game nothing less than a 10/10, and Ive beaten it twice, hard & normal, I know I cant pay you guys for this, but if you give me a Bank account # lets say I could invite you to a 59.99$ dinner?? (lol)
By the way, if you’re gonna release some kind of update, I’ve two observations that might help;
1: Make the HornetGun in alien grunts a little less shinny.
2: The Security Officers are very hard to kill (by my enemies) they do all the work for me lol.
3: The Vortigaunts shock attack should do more damage.
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.
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