Second Garg & Tactical Map

I kinda had an interesting experience. As soon as I heard soldiers, I chucked a few grenades through the vents, killing the soldiers. That triggered the garg to break through and start rampaging around. When I got to the vent, it was still shot by something, and I had the unique experience of the garg being already at the end of the chase, waiting for me.

i knew what to do with the tactical map because i read the change for a mortar in the BM Wiki many moths ago :slight_smile: although when you r in the tower there is a shake that is little anoying but is fine cause it should not be easy to target the garg

+1 for another who thought jumping in the water was a good idea… “SWIMMING STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.” Duh, what was I thinking :retard:
After playing a little flame-tag (and losing), I reloaded and got through just fine the second time.

The tactical map was very glitchy for me and hard to use. And I too didn’t initially realize it was supposed to be “fired,” instead of “used.”

I’m kind of surprised that this was the only instance in the game thus far when your fire button disconnects from whatever weapon that you’re holding. It wouldn’t have been such an issue if there were other interfaces in the game where this sort of mechanism took place. You know, like computer terminals or other things like that. Or some sort of visual clue would have been nice, like the crosshair changing in some way. Or maybe even having to “use” the map and then get into firing mode, similar to the 50cal or TOW.

The “disconnect from weapon-in-hand” mode is kind of a cool feature though, if used correctly. It could potentially be put to good use in other parts of the game as well where direct fighting isn’t involved.

As for the map itself: subsequent playthroughs resulted in the tactical map working normal with no glitchiness at all. Also, I too was disappointed at nothing else being destroyable with the strikes. All in all, I still enjoyed this part of the mod very much.

EDIT: Wait, I just realized I had the crowbar equipped every time I used the tactical map for fear of firing off on it… I don’t actually know whether the crosshair changes or not :confused:

Hi
+1 for another who thought that diving in that sewer was a good idea,
then I got back and I saw the Garg shaking that tower…
A real anti-climax moment…

Actually, if you look to your left out the vent while the soldiers are shooting it, you can see the Garg forcing open the doors behind it in the scene.

I did experience FPS drops while outside, no where else, beyond that I went straight for the tower, but I decided to climb the ladder on the other side of the jump pad… wasn’t all that visible.

The main problem with the Garg, IMO, is that in the original, you had to run down into the water, with him following you, and quickly climb up the ladder, race back to the tower and call a mortar strike on him before he got up the ramp leading to the tower. But this time, all you have to do is jump up onto the tower and click on him.

Actually, you didn’t have to run into the water in the original. I never did that and still managed to beat him.

I just used a Xen jump pad to get up to the tower and nuke the Garg.

EDIT: ^ In the original HL. BM has a ladder on the tower, I just booked it up that and spent about a minute fumbling with the touch screen while the Garg shaked the tower with me on it.

I always thought the soldiers heard you rumbling around in the vent and when you make that drop that makes a nice audible thunk, they start shooting. You could argue that in the original, the soldiers “magically” heard you and started shooting everything. Then Mr. Garg knocked on the doors and plows over the soldiers. I ran like hell and ran straight to the tower because I played the original, then took a few seconds to figure out the map and killed him before he even got to humping the tower.

I don’t get why they didn’t use the Xen jump pads more than the one time in Forget about Freeman…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duzftz9wZYo

Recorded last night with headphones on. On my Compaq Presario as a comparative video to the one from my actual Let’s Play of the same segment in my Let’s Play.

Pretty much my cleanest run of that segment yet. Still have yet to have the targetting screen glitch on me.

Yeah, like maybe have the guard attack the tower only if you’re on it

Yeah, probably should just use an OnTouching output trigger for the top of the tower to trigger the scripted_sequence for the Garg shake.

If you look out the grating on the side of the vent as the soldiers shoot it, you can see the Garg prying open the doors behind them. Though I do agree that it was a jarring transition between the snark vent part to the Garg fight.

I agree with pretty much everything in the original post, and I want to add my own two unimportant things that I noticed:

  1. There is an invisible wall that prevents you from going back into the garage you ran out of with the Garg behind you earlier. While I knew pretty well by then that the BM level designers hate backtracking with a passion by magically closing doors and gates behind Gordon’s every other step when there is no enemy alive to do so, this one time the level designer didn’t even bother to create a sensible obstacle, it is just an invisible wall that prevents you from going where you were minutes earlier. Why not make the ceiling crash down or maybe have the Garg leave a car in the way? If you’re going to arbitrarily prevent the player from visiting old areas if s/he so wishes, the least you can do is give a good reason for it being impossible to go back.

  2. The mortar effects are awfully unimpressive. HL1’s was far louder and more fun to watch/hear. In general the explosives in BM are absolutely horrible, aesthetically speaking. There is no punch to the explosion sounds whatsoever, but in this scene it hit me the hardest. I see this point as a strange anomaly because literally everything else sounds great, guns, ambience…

I too dived straight in the water and was killed by the Garg pretty easily when I FINALLY managed to get close enough to notice the ladder on the tower. I couldn’t beat the section without retrying back to the start of the chase, which… isn’t that much time but the amount of time I spent exploring the water and non-garg areas made it feel annoying.

Altogether I do think the section to be reworked. I know once you’re up on the tower the Garg doesn’t attack you, but I think it would be a better payoff if there was an earlier section where we have to use an airstrike panel.

I do imagine it’d be awesome to be introduced to the airstrikes seperately and just be all “oh that was neat”, and then shortly after, the Garg chase happens and you find another panel, and right away you’re like “…AWESOME 8D” when you realise the implications. I also wonder if I would have “got” the airstrike panel for the first time under pressure like that if I wasn’t already familiar with the concept from HL1.

Funnily enough I didn’t even notice the jump pad either. I wasn’t even aware BM had them, and since I’m not a HL1 buff I forgot they even existed until I replayed HL: Source the other day to compare with my BM experience.

Another thing that I found weird about this section, is that I could actually push cars around when I was running through the tunnel, like they weighed no more than a normal wooden crate or something. I suppose this was so the garg can kick them about, but it’s awkward. I’d rather have it completely scripted as to where he hits them and where they go and not have the player be able to move them.

I agree with all the other points raised as well.

Yeah Bjossi, that really bothered me. Another place I noticed this, (at least I think so, I only checked quickly so maybe I’m mistaken) was when you enter the building to launch the rocket. You go up the ladder behind the servers, or whatever they are, but if you turn around, the hatch you just came through is mysteriously gone and there is just floor there. Ummm, WHAT?

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