Thats quite simply impossible. The MP5 is also -stronger- than in HL1. The major difference is the suckiness of your own armor. Things still take a time to die from anything but magnum crossbow, but you die in half a sec, thats what makes the MP5 weak.
Yeah the marines were easily the weakest part of the mod. The DEVs said they used modified combine AI from HL2, but I don’t recall the combine ever being that good.
I think it’s entirely because all stealth is rendered moot due to their detection abilities.
Of course, it’s pointless to complain about the soldiers because they don’t play a part in Xen whatsoever!
The detection times are quite absurd (not to mention that outside of certain scripted sequences, They seem to see behind them as well).
This would be less of an issue if, like in half life 1 the AI would shoot, stop and move, shoot, stop and move a bit more, but here it’s just a constant barrage of bullets. Also You don’t seem to be able to ‘flinch’ AI.
I actually still really liked the HECU fights. I had so much fun at times when I was running around and I had to take cover so I would dive over some boxes and stuff to reload while kickass music played.
I would like to know how the HECU on the dam were able to hit me when I was stood (visible, but a long way away) near the map entrance. They were extremely accurate too.
Just tested out some HECU stuff using Hammer and some measurements.
At long range (1792 units), a standard HECU grunt will hit about 1 bullet in every 2 to 5 bursts, and each bullet will do 1 damage and drain 4 suit power on Hard mode, or 6 damage if you have no suit power. You can also take down that same HECU at the same range using about 3 to 7 well-aimed bursts from the MP5, with some randomness. So at that range you will win as long as you can aim properly, even with a weapon not intended for long range. It’ll probably use up a lot of ammo unless you’re using an accurate weapon though.
Test wasn’t entirely formal, but I did get kind of the gist of how things work. I might do it again a bit more rigorously sometime later.
What’s interesting is that suit power drains really quickly when you’re in ANY firefight with the HECU, whether you’re at 100 power or 25, or whatever.
There are marines who spot you from where the other manhole is at.
Oh, and i was able to get behind marines’ back more than once on Hard, so I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.
Their damage and health is fine. It’s their supernatural sight and reflexes what needs fixing.
Sneaking and hiding in the shadows would be awesome, but that would be just asking too much. 
I tried running around a corner and PREFIRED my shotgun and a soldier there still fired first… lol
Yeah but this is ONE soldier. This is a video game, not reality. I should have more survival chances than one random standard enemy, especially considering I’m usually facing 4+ at once, not just one.
If on TOP of that, you give them incredible reaction and aiming abilities, then that makes it really unfair. Unless, what you consider fair is Gordon Freeman dying, since in all likely realistic scenario, there’s no way he can outmaneuver an entire infantry division by himself.
As I just said, I’ll be the first to admit that my test wasn’t too formal and had flaws. But if one point was made, it’s that their aiming abilities at range are far below your own, even with the same weapon (provided that you are good enough to be able to aim in the first place). So you do have the advantage, especially at range. Up close is where it starts to get fuzzy with damage values and reaction times and whatnot.
Besides, if you’re allowing so many people to shoot you at once, then you should probably rethink your strategy a bit, no? I’ll admit that my #1 cause of death by HECU was because too many of them were firing at me from multiple angles that I couldn’t cover all at once. Their AI tends to be very good at moving around and getting new firing angles. Keeps you on your toes.
And that is why camping a chokepoint as they come around the corner tends to be so effective. Because you know where they come from and all you need to do is focus on one spot. Especially in Questionable Ethics.
BM’s gun wielding AI does have some issues. Not just the Hgrunts, but the guards, Agrunts, and Vorts too. The assassin has done some weird shit, but because of the nature of that enemy it’s not really serious.
Actually the vorts aren’t that bad. Maybe the charge is too fast and the running speed is too slow.
The all-knowing-all-seeing eye they have access to is one thing, but picking a position to hit a target is pretty strange too. Like, they either run back and forth between bits of cover without firing a single shot, or stand out in the open completely immobile spraying at the enemy (you or otherwise). If I have a guard with me, and a zombie comes out, he’ll run towards it, stand still well within melee range, and then get killed because he’s too close to shoot. (not my vid, but it’s a consistent reoccurance) I’m not sure if the major problem is Source though. I’ve seen this type behavior exhibited in every single source game with a shooting enemy. I really don’t know how much can be done about it.
…Basically, yeah. The deadeye shooting before sight is a bit ridiculous, but the confused slow jogging back and forth around the map makes the first issue way worse.
Dudewhat. BM’s mp5 is a fucking beast.
So far, Marines are annoying but seem just as annoying as they were in Half-Life 1. It is funny though, that they can be little dots on the screen and still be able to shoot you accurately. Nevertheless, playing on medium against them isn’t that hard. There are plenty of health stations in the game, and when I am low on health, I usually only have to reload a save up to a few times to replan/rethink. And one of the joys of Half-Life 1 is reloading a save to replan and do a more efficient/badass job. HL1 was extremely tedious for me (first and only playthrough), making Black Mesa seem not so bad.
It’s important to realise that the MP5 now has more realistic recoil, so your first shots are accurate but if you keep the trigger held you spray bullets and many of your shots are likely to miss unless the enemy is close-range. Also enemies only receive 80% of the damage if you hit their arms or legs rather than their chest; if you are firing an inaccurate full-auto spray at an enemy then many will be hitting the arms or legs.
So when fighting medium or long range, you should repeatedly tap the fire button as if you were using a pistol, you’ll rapidly fire accurate 3-round bursts. 9 bullets will kill a human soldier (if you hit the chest), so that’s just three taps of your fire button. If any of the shots hit the arms or legs it won’t quite be enough and you’ll need to fire a fourth burst of bullets. Or if you hit the head then you’ll only need two bursts of bullets.
I think that increasing enemy reaction times (ai_reaction_delay_alert and ai_reaction_delay_idle) should solve most people’s issues with the game. At the moment human soldiers, sentry turrets, bullsquids and vortigaunts all fire at you the instant you are visible to them (a delay of a 0.3 seconds if they are in “idle” mode, or a mere 0.1 seconds if they are alert to your presence). This means it is effectively impossible to shoot first - an enemy unaware to your presence will nonetheless fire his gun/shoot his lightning simultaneously with you firing your gun, unless you are shooting him in the back and he is oblivious. And if he is alert to your prescence, he will ALWAYS fire first, if you pop out of cover you cannot get a shot in first. Values like 0.7 for idle or 0.3 for alert mean that you can actually take unaware enemies by surprise, or have a firefight where you pop out of cover and fire shot without the enemy shooting you first. (People have said that the vortigaunts charge-up too fast, but if the vortigaunt had a slightly slower reaction time then that might take care of that problem anyway.)
What’s odd is that HL2 had the same enemy reaction times as Black Mesa. Perhaps HL2 had something in the Combine soldier AI which meant that while it may only take a tenth of a second for him to see you and start shouting or moving etc, it would take half a second before he would fire his gun.
Does anyone know if crouching actually improves accuracy of shooting?
I find MP5 more useful than in the original game. It’s got an improved range and rate of fire, so you can now shoot down the grunts with it in one or two seconds. In the original Half Life this weapon’s only use was the grenade launcher, as it sucked in everything else.
Im having similar problems. I am playing on hard, and i expect it to be hard yes, but cheating ai =/= hard. Im not a FPS noob, and have finished several shooters on max difficulty, and have never run into anything this frustrating since insane call of duty blops.
There is a fine line between a challenging level of “hard” and making the game arbitrarily hard. I am up to the opsrey battle and after a good 40mins of attempts i gave up and had to god out. Things like the new marines know exactly where I’m hiding, and the (more annoying IMO) fact that they were completely ignoring the Alien grunts (who were also charging my position and ignoring the marines)
Dont get me wrong, I love the mod, its go so much going for it, and im all up for a challenge, but cheating AI a good game does not make. 
Hahah, when I got to that part, I actually freaked out and fell into the elevator shaft. I landed in the side of the elevator shaft, fell and caught my fall again, and managed to get on top of the elevator and ride it back up. It was hilarious.
I found that out quickly and took up a new strategy (Cool huh? Dynamic strategizing). I threw a grenade around the corner, the soldier ran like hell, and I blasted him because he was too worried about avoiding the blast. I found that it is easier to flush the soldiers out than to try racing them to the trigger. I would expect highly trained soldiers to behave like that. If you don’t have a grenade? I rolled an explosive barrel around a corner and lit it on fire. Did the same job. Don’t have either? You will find something to aid you.
In Power Up, I had issues with soldiers just raping me, so I would get their attention, set a trip wire, and retreat. They would set it off (not exactly smart) and I would clean up the remains from a distance. Sure I had to quick load a lot of times but this has to be the first time I have been challenged so much and it forced me to change my normal: Run into a room, shoot everything that moves before it shoots me, move on.
I have had to do more crazy shit than I have ever done. I almost never ran backwards in other FPS games. I would always try to move forwards and by the time I reach the enemy position, they would be dead. I have had to set traps, toss grenades, set up satchels…hell, when I play the original I don’t even use half the guns. Mix it up.
Not noticeably. I can kill an HGrunt in 3-4 bursts on average at midrange crouched or not.
The advantage of crouch is to present less of a target to them so you don’t get shot nearly as much.