Regarding Sprinting

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

Ever since someone pointed it out to me, this has bugged me when playing Black Mesa.

Half-Life 1 didn’t have sprinting at all. You either ran or walked, and generally always ran. And you ran at a pretty fast clip.

Half-Life 2 had sprinting in all directions and it was limited in duration.

Black Mesa has sprinting, but only forward and its duration is unlimited.

I was wondering, what was theory and thought process was behind the Black Mesa interpretation? To be honest, it feels very strange to only be able to sprint forward and lose all momentum when you strafe or backpedal. But if HL1 didn’t have it at all, well one, why add it in the first place? And two, if you committed to adding it, then why not implement it the same way Valve did in the sequel?

#2

I think it was platforming-related: building up speed to make a distance jump, slowing down to walking pace to navigate narrow areas, etc. It doesn’t seem to be used much for that in the game, though.
As for why it doesn’t work like it does in HL2, probably for the same reason that the flashlight now has no battery- putting a power limit on simple utility functions like sprinting is unnecessarily dickish and adds little to the game.

#3

I don’t know any person who can sprint side- or backwards… So to me HL2-sprint always felt wrong. And besides the ‘realism’-argument, HL1 movement was always more fun to me, because combat was faster, movement felt more direct and with bunnyhopping, different jumphight, different crouch, longjumps, the old physics and the right movement-skills, you was able to cross huge distances quickly and do cool tricks.

#4

I’ve always thought that sprinting sideways and backwards is stupid. Nobody can move sideways/backwards as fast as they can forwards.

We implemented sprint because in HL1 your default movement speed was extremely fast - Gordon always moved at a sprint, basically. This was fine, but we didn’t want people to sprint through our entire game. So we have a slower default run speed and an unlimited sprint, so if people DO want to barrel through that fast, they can.

#5

It’s much better to have a movement system similar to HL2, although its implementation in that game is pretty damn stupid, not to mention unrealistic.

You can’t sprint backwards nor sideways in real life (or not as much as you can when you do it forward anyway). Forward sprinting in BM is just perfect for both realism and gameplay. I can say without any doubt that an always run gameplay style in BM just wouldn’t feel right, at least not for me. It just doesn’t look like BM was designed for a ,rushed, gameplay, instead opting for a slower one, based more on exploration rather than run from point A to point B, do this, do that, shoot some things, move on, which is much more suitable imo.

Also, as someone pointed out here, the flashlight now has unlimited power. This always intrigued me, why did you take this decision? Realism-wise, flashlights don’t have unlimited power in real life. And is it only me, or it’s slightly weak? Doesn’t seem to light up the things so much like for ex. the one in HL2.

#6

I like the small flashlight, because first in real life no flashlight lights up your entire view… and second it adds a slight horror-touch. I like it. Yes it’s right… unlimited flashlight power is unrealistic, but on the other hand the flashlight battery in HL1 and HL2 was rather weak… it ran out of power rather fast… and that was unrealistic, too.

#7

BUT I can without a suit aswell in real life, only Gordon seems to need a suit to have the possibility to run for his life!

#8

I can understand that, referencing HL1’s mechanics, and giving players a choice in how they set their own pace through the game. But why can you still shoot and sprint? If sprint’s only purpose is to allow players who want to barrel through the game to do so, the only way keeping that ability makes sense is if a monster is blocking a door–and your speed running past everyone else–so you just hold the trigger and barrel through the enemy. You know what I’m saying? The ability to move and still shoot while sprinting forwards doesn’t appear to allow for a lot of tactical options, might as well remove the ability to shoot while sprinting entirely to make it’s purpose clearer.

#9

I, for one, would like to see a mod making sprinting and other movement mechanics the same as HL2 (or vice versa), simply to make them feel the same. Same goes for endless sprint and flashlight, and probably some other gameplay mechanics. I’d love to see BM and HL2 have the same basic gameplay mechanics.

That and a mod to add most of the graphical improvements from BM to HL2 would make the experience pretty much perfect :smiley:

#10

I’m not sure how feasible it is to mod that. I think sprint is actually in code, not some kind of configuration or script file. It would be a very interesting experiment, though.

I feel that the “realism” argument is countered by the HEV suit. There’s always been a fictional disconnect here, just like how Fallout’s Pip-Boy doesn’t literally stop time so you can aim at enemies. An average human would be crippled many times over doing the stuff Gordon does on a regular basis because the HEV suit protects him. If the designers of the HEV suit wanted sprint to work in any direction, it could work in any direction.

If we assume HL1’s brisk default speed is comparable to HL2’s sprint, it’s pretty clear that Valve intended for speed to be decoupled from direction in both games, regardless of whether or not it’s realistic. There are, after all, plenty of things in HL that don’t hold up to realistic scrutiny.

#11

Same goes for infinite flashlight in Black Mesa. The HEV suit constantly displays your health, displays the ammo count in your weapons (including in experimental weapons and even alien critters), keeps you functioning through extreme pain with a morphine drip, and uses the battery/charger power to shield you from fire, radiation, subzero conditions, bullets, explosions, and more, all while talking you through its actions and your current state. Methinks it can manage to power a 6v light bulb indefinitely.

#12

From what I’ve been hearing, the flashlight used to drain from the suit power back in some ancient build of Half-Life.

Be glad that doesn’t happen! :stuck_out_tongue:

#13

Five Nights at the Hazard Course?

#14

Well it’s not the case in HL1/BM, BUT is does happen in Episode One and HL2.

Only Episode 2 has a separate battery for the flashlight, so it doesn’t drain the suit’s energy.

#15

No, he meant it originally drained the ‘Armour’ suit power!

#16

That’d certainly explain why there are a bunch of suit batteries scattered around in the Hazard Course when you get to the flashlight tutorial. :stuck_out_tongue:

#17

^What he said.

My thoughts exactly.

#18

Oh, guess I misunderstood.

Yeah, that would’ve been very, very stupid, glad the idea was dropped early.

#19

My god, that’s horrible! And it also doesn’t testify well to Black Mesa’s engineering prowess, if it takes as much energy to power one meager little lightbulb as it does to deflect bullets.

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.