Suggestions for the final Steam BM version

[debeerguy007]

@JeffMOD

Is there any chance we’ll see more of the scientist dialog implemented? There’s a whole ton of it that never seems to show up ingame, like a large portion of the randomized predisaster stuff, and the “player death” dialogs, all of which are hilarious. More than a few of them don’t even have lipsynch data, which is a real shame because I have no idea how to edit phonemes properly.

I can answer that for ya JeffMOD. I’m definitely planning to make updates to the scientist dialog implementation, as well as revamping the EQ/Mastering of all npc dialog in general, to give it that extra polish.

At what point these updates will become available to everyone, I cannot say for certain, but here’s what I’ve got planned:

• All npc dialog (guard, male scientist, female scientist, etc) will remastered for improved audio quality

• All npc dialog will be set up in the sound scripts(not done previously)

• All vcds scene files will be updated to look for sound script entries

• As a consequence of using proper sound script entries, the closed captioning file must be revised with proper entries

• Concerning yet to be implemented npc dialog, said dialog will be carefully reviewed to determine if it still has a viable use in the current vision of Black Mesa (perspectives change over time, so I cannot guarantee all the remaining dialog will be used. There may an opportunity to cut fat)

[Dotard]

Hmm… interesting to see the amount of polish it still gets.

[bkdale86]

@your-name-here

I don’t understand the question. If leeches were added again, they’d probably be particle effects. I don’t know why they weren’t present in the current release.

This will never happen. Don’t even think about it.

Leeches were dropped because they sucked game play wise. In HL2 they only occurred when you went too far into the water boundaries of the maps. We added them into APP and a few other water areas and A: they made a area that was slightly hard into extremely hard and frustrating. B: you couldn’t kill them. C: you had very hard to see enemies that sucked your suit/life out and just made it miserable for no reason. Same reason the damage was cut from QE laser burn hole. While realistic (and I liked it) the player died too may times getting through the whole with low health and if they made it usually died on the fall at the transition in the next room.

[Mr_Someguy]

@bkdale86

Leeches were dropped because they sucked game play wise. In HL2 they only occurred when you went too far into the water boundaries of the maps. We added them into APP and a few other water areas and A: they made a area that was slightly hard into extremely hard and frustrating. B: you couldn’t kill them. C: you had very hard to see enemies that sucked your suit/life out and just made it miserable for no reason. Same reason the damage was cut from QE laser burn hole. While realistic (and I liked it) the player died too may times getting through the whole with low health and if they made it usually died on the fall at the transition in the next room.

I miss leaches because they made the waters more treacherous, and now several areas are just bare without them. I agree most of the time they sucked, I still don’t like the start of Apprehension, but when there were leeches, it was just completely unfun. There were somewhat annoying in FAF although it was amusing to see them get swept away or killed by the gears, so that made up for it. In Power Up they were used best, you could just run to the box and break it, then watch as most of the leeches drown (sometimes one or two would survive in the drain).

It all depended on the use, but the first level of Apprehension was my least favourite level in the game, partially because of those leeches. Of course, Apprehension alone made me happy the leeches were gone. If I had to playtest that level as many times as you, I would have removed them too!

[BendyBread]

@Mr. Someguy

-snip-

I too hate the beginning of Apprehension. I mean in general I hate the stupid chapter, it’s kind of ‘eh’ and the ichthyosaurs seem to just debilitate me to the point of not wanting to play. Like I know they’re not in the beginning section and I still crap myself thinking it’s going to just come out of the murk and eat me (I once decided to play with their swim speed and turned it up from 700 to 5000 and it’d cross the entirety of the damn water in a second, oh lord).
I’m not sad to see leeches go, I hated them full stop. Stupid annoying floaty things that just drain suit energy. God knows in black mesa the second you have any energy, 2 shots from a HECU guy pretty much zaps it all away, so I’d rather keep what I can.

As for anything new I think I’d like to see added. Maybe some sound effect changes for certain things (this is just me personally so I can of course use mods and stuff).
The MP5 sounded too grating and slightly piercing to my ears, so I ended up using the sound package that replaces it with the HL1 sounds, seems more fitting. I don’t know. The current iteration feels both unpleasant to the ear, and mildly ‘meh’ feeling wise.
The SPAS sounds pretty damn epic, and yet in a sense something is ‘missing’. I think the HL2/Ep1/Ep1 shotgun spoilt me, because it felt/sounded so satisfying to use. I don’t think I’d want to do another file swap(mainly cause I don’t know how and I dont think anyone else has done it yet), but I do think it needs just a tiny bit of oomf to it. I like the reload sound though, that’s spot on.
That’s pretty much it for weapon sounds, the rest are spot on.

I might get into other sounds later, we’ll see. The main one (and I’ve mentioned it before) is just ichthyosaurs having more sound, or the existing sounds being loud enough to be noticeable.

[bur]

Why not add the leeches back in as a purely visual feature?

[ysrael214]

Make the area where there is an ichthyosaur in ST more deeper and ominous looking at depths.

[sgtpieman]

@bur

people react to it because it’s bad and unnecessary, doesn’t matter how it’s meant

You know, when thinking on that I think there is actually some brilliance there, even if unintentional. It reminds me of Black Mesa itself and some of its problems people react to (hence this thread) because they are bad and/or unnecessary, and it doesn’t matter how it was meant. One example that pops to mind is the voice acting for the hgrunts. They are terrible. So terrible people actually said so during the Valvetime leak. So the devs just threw a filter on it and said it was intentionally bad. Whether or not that is true (I’m sure it is, calm down), the voices are still bad and it is unnecessary to make them sound like a Bond villain’s henchmen, or in this case sound like someone attempting to sound like a Bond villain’s henchmen mixed with “Generic Military Speak!”

So, you know. It’s good the sounds are being remastered for NPCs. Hopefully that means rerecording and not touching up the sound files already there. At least rerecord the grunts. It’s distracting how bad they came out. Other NPCs came out great, but if you want to remaster them feel free.

But I digress! In Blast Pit, there are some issues with the large computers when you first start the chapter. Give me a sec and I’ll edit the post with pics. Anyways, the phong is so messed up. It makes it look like the thing is covered in saran wrap. This is noticeable in a normal playthrough, so I would suggest either removing the phong on those computers or reducing it–greatly.

In fact, my suggestion is to take a breather and just play the mod not as a dev, but as if you were someone who just downloaded it. Any problems or things irking you that you guys find, just write them down and take a glance at them later. See if you can fix them or not. Maybe during development you forgot some things or you couldn’t find a solution to the problem. A fresher mind might hold the answer.

But of course, this is coming from a guy who makes rather lackluster skins and somehow got a bunch of compliments for hexing a few models. I’m just making suggestions, so feel free to ignore me :retard:

EDIT: Because there are three images, I’ll just hyperlink them so this isn’t even lengthier of a post.
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[bur]

Good point. I think the same can be said about the jumping mechanics.

I’m not sure if I posted suggestions in here, so I’ll just do it now:

Firstly, change some things to be more consistent with HL2 and episodes. Like restoring the jump mechanics, the original animations and behaviour for the magnum and the crowbar (the only weapons shared between BM and HL2) and also any common enemies between the two, and maybe some other stuff I’m forgetting.

Secondly, release a mini-mod for HL2 and episodes which brings over improvements from BM, like the colour filters when near radioactive waste, ragdolls as physics props (headcrab), ability to shoot friendly NPCs, bloodsplatters on viewmodel, gibbing, and probably other stuff I’m forgetting.

That’s it, really.

[SirEgon]

My one suggestion: The return of the old shotgun model

[Mr_Someguy]

@sgtpieman

But of course, this is coming from a guy who makes rather lackluster skins and somehow got a bunch of compliments for hexing a few models. I’m just making suggestions, so feel free to ignore me :retard:

Hey don’t be too hard on yourself! If it’s any consolation, looking over your work is how I learned how to use the character manifest and hex models!

[xalener]

@SirEgon

My one suggestion: The return of the old shotgun model

gahpfff

no way man

[Dotard]

… you are responsible for my nightmares now.

[Medkit]

In the lambda core, make the security guard follow us, and cover us, while we’re waiting for the Xen portal. This is the way it was in HL 1, this is the way it should be in Black Mesa.

[Dark_Signal]

I think the apache needs to be fixed for the steam version. Currently it can take more hits from a missile launcher than the abrams tank (which is utterly stupid), and it always seems to snap towards its crash target in an instant, which doesn’t look natural.

[Orpheon]

The apache is all kinds of buggy. There’s a known glitch that, if you go back into the room and then come back out into the cave while you fight it, causes it to completely ignore you and shoot at something off to the left of the cave. So yeah, hopefully they can tweak it a bit when they fix its bugs.

[Mr_Someguy]

I have an idea for the Apache Fight. Make it 3-7 hits to kill, but the catch is that this boss version has a jammer that disables the laser tracing, so you have to try and hit it with unguided rockets.

[ysrael214]

It will lose the sense of tutorial for the RPG since that’s the first time you use it.

[Mr_Someguy]

Yeah I guess that’s true. The current fight is hardly a tutorial itself though. Some people might get there and just end up thinking “8 rockets to shoot down a helicopter? Wow the RPG sucks, the Tau Cannon only took 2 hits to chase that other one away.”

[KyuuGryphon]

If you’ll excuse me waffling on about this again…

@Mr. Someguy

“8 rockets to shoot down a helicopter? Wow the RPG sucks, the Tau Cannon only took 2 hits to chase that other one away.”

This is exactly what I don’t like about the helicopters in Black Mesa as-is. I mean, I know that the balancing is something that’s going to get looked at anyways (or I was under that impression at any rate), but the helicopters are way too resistant to the RPG.

I think it’s safe to assume that most people playing Black Mesa have played Half-Life as well, but even so - The effectiveness of the RPG is simply too low when it’s first encountered. Is it useful against tanks and the LAV’s and such? Yes, but it’s first shown against a helicopter, where it’s utterly outclassed by the Tau cannon.

I don’t have an issue with the Tau being more effective against helicopters or armoured vehicles, but the RPG is pretty much useless against the helicopters at this point.