Superbus Via Inscientiae - a BM custom map

General Development Source 1
#1

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Download : https://www.mediafire.com/download/sfi5n3v078tkvfr/SVI.7z (UPDATED VERSION) (Size: 43 MB)[/size]
(album link: https://imgur.com/a/ktL4E)

This is a custom map for Black Mesa. ReadMe file is included in .7z file.[/size]

(coming soon to Steam Workshop, when it’s fixed)[/align]

#2

How did you equip the scientist with the shotgun? Is it a weapon or a prop attachment?

Map looking good, will download when I get some time off.

#3

Well I know what I’m playing either tonight or tomorrow.

#4

Oh man. I can’t wait to get my hands on this!

#5

] map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
] map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
] map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
] map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
] map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
] map bm_c2a4x

map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid
map bm_c2a4x
map load failed: bm_c2a4x not found or invalid

Why ?

#6

make sure the gameinfo.txt has game+mod bms/custom/* in it, it gets removed when u opt in or out of te beta’s also i found the map worked on te non beta version not the Black Mesa (Surface Tension: Uncut update version) as mentioned in te readme.txt

#7

Now it’s working , thanks.

#8

9th imagine it’s in SVI ? Because I didn’t saw the lab in this mod.

#9

It was amazing. But need to rebalnce it. Otherwise, it’s superb.

#10

Hey. Too many first-aid kits and armor. It is difficult to find the way. The project itself is very high quality. Evaluation 5.

#11

Very nice work but where have you found the audio files for the EAS02?

I thought they were not yet implemented in the game.

#12

Ok, you have got to do something about the NPCs in the giant fight- I try to get them to hang back, and they keep charging forward and endangering themselves, it’s rather infuriating.

#13

Pretty fun map, and I liked how you tied it back into the canon bits of QE near the end.

One thing, though, and this is coming from someone who has been accused of making the player, quote, “fight the entire USMC” - combat is waaaaayy too intense. You’ve got too many enemies in too short a timespan, and there were bits where I had to scramble after an autosave because there were enemies spawning in behind me and I had no health. (I’m looking at you in particular, alien turret section) Consider adding more health in those bits, or adding a larger delay before enemies spawn in to give the player some time to recoup.

Also, I know it’s reinforced glass, but the shattered panes on the security room were a bit too thick to be visually appealing.

#14

Alright. Having just played through it, my review:

First, the good.:

The map is well designed. Everything looks pretty good, and some creative brushwork definitely adds to it.

Some new concepts helped to freshen the experience. The alien turret section, while aggravating at first, given that you have nothing that can destroy it and no way of know where to find some heavy ordinance, became a fun game of cat and mouse after getting the RPG. Having to backtrack to turn off the fans was a good idea too.

Now, for the bad:

Combat fatigue. There is so much fighting in this map that, around the time I reached the turret standoff section, I was just plain exhausted. You use wave upon wave of enemies in a manner I haven’t seen since the original Doom. There really isn’t a strategy, its just: walk into next room, nearly die, grab whatever supplies you can, fight enemies that spawn because you pick them up, rinse, repeat.

In fact, so many enemies spawn in the standoff section that they actually stack up, requiring explosives to eliminate five or six enemies stuck together. This mountain of enemies actually destroys the better arena at the beginning after you meet the survivors, because the player ends up camping in a room and not using the turret, or fighting the enemies. They just sit, let everyone kill each other, then slowly tear through whatever is left as, in my case, I did by camping in a room with a shotgun waiting for them to come through the door.

The ambush by six to eight Black Ops at the end was just poorly done. They are made to be used in small numbers, in arenas where they, and the player, can move around. Their damage is high because of this, and I also called it before it happened.

It honestly felt like you were punishing the player for making it through your map. There needs to be some down time. Add a puzzle where they need to unlock a door with only a couple of weak enemies to stop them. After they killed that turret? Don’t spawn more enemies. They need time to relax and take a breath after that.

It has the makings of a great map, and hats off to you for making and releasing it. But, you need to work on pacing. Pacing can destroy even the best maps.

#15

Thanks everyone for their input. I originally planned to write very long detailed replies on each and everyone’s comment and try explain what was going on my mind during the making, but that might make me like a bit of creep. I’ve taken a good rest for the weekend, and been working on fixing the balancing issues like people have been suggesting. I like taking suggestions! I also fixed up other minor visual bugs, too.

It seems the difficulty problem is very prominent more than I thought. Now I don’t have the best playtester pool in the world, and 99% of the time I had to test my map, I had to do it myself since I don’t have a lot of aquintances. So I believe naturally the map got harder and harder as I made the map. If I had to defend myself, well, I tried my best with what I was given with, at least. But I acknowledge that the map doesn’t have the best combat experience of all. I hope to fix that gradually in the upcoming days.

In my personal opinion, the map felt really easy during the testing prior release, but now I realize that mostly comes from my all-knowing knowledge. I have attatched the full detailed changelog here so you can see exactly what changes I have made without actually playing the new version. Now I do not believe this sort of problem is something that is fixed immediately, so I might have to make a few more adjustment to fully tune to the difficulty people are comfortable with. I don’t want to bombard useless updates that will get depreciated in a few days. This “update” was only released so fast after the initial release, since I realized I’ve given you a difficulty risen from South Korea. We play a lot of hard games here. There will be updates but seldom. Anyway, once the Workshop is fixed, I am planning to release my map there too. Since I will be dealing with larger audience pool with more… unproficiented gamers, I really do hope to have most of things correct.

The patched version is up and it also should be available to download at RTSL when the site owner comes back from the holiday.

    • VERSION 1.1.0. (August 15th, 2016, RTSL Release) -
    • VISUAL
  • Cleaned up the cluttered face-oriented textures at the transit station. Also gave higher lightmap on certain textures there for more realistic lighting.
  • Fixed decals being cut by a ventilation opening in C04 (Hazmat 01) Lab.
  • Fixed a Barnacle’s skin is stuck on space between ceiling and the wall in the basement scene.
  • Gave surrounding walls near the whiteboard a higher lightmap for more realistic lighting effect.
  • Thinned the broken glass shatters in the security chambers.
  • Fixed a health kit and a battery being stuck into the box in the second battle arena.
    • GAMEPLAY
  • Fixed NPC collision bug where NPCs can get stuck on top of a prop in the lobby scene (one with the X-Ray picture).
  • Partially fixed a bug where grenade/satchel charges would not destory explosives in the basement scene (by adding a hidden Tripmine).
  • Alarm lights will no longer turn off when you face the XLC (Xenian Laser Cannon).
  • The battle supplies will no longer spawn until the battle is initiated.
  • The speedrun achievement “GONE IN TWENTY MINUTES!” is now renamed and reduced to 16 minutes. It also will now count time spent in the first decon chamber.
    • COMBAT BALANCE
  • Major difficulty balancing for the second battle scene - reworked the entire scene from the ground up. There are less marines and aliens participating in the battle. The combat should be much more easier for the first time players. But it is still challanging and you still might die if you are not careful.
  • Added supplies in the corridor section for easier health/battery access during the second battle scene.
  • Manning the turret machine gun will no longer spawn extra hordes of enemies.
  • Scientists and Security Guards now have lower health hit points to accomodate lower difficulty. They now have 300 HP, 600 if players attained the achievement reward (prev: 400 and 800 respectively).
  • The four turrets in the PSI chamber now have higher health hit points to make the battle easier. They now have 50 HP, 100 if players attained the achievement reward (prev: 40 and 80 respectively).
  • Removed certain excessive ammunitions in the second battle scene and the XLC scene.
  • Scientists and Security Guards no longer have a super-vision.
  • More health supplies are now available in XLC scene.
  • Partially fixed a bug where scientists would rush into the war-zone during the battle.
  • The XLC has slightly more delay when firing (doubled). This should allow players to successfully dodge the laser if they are skilled enough, but it still shouldn’t be an easy target. The cannon fires at its default firerate initially, but once player gets to a vantage point, it will start fire slower, allowing players to attack it more safely.
  • PSI marine squad settings was revamped. There are less marines now.
  • Houndeyes now may spawn in PSI chamber battle, replacing certain vortigaunts.
  • Removed the Turret Redemption Squad in the XLC scene.
  • Removed an Alien Grunt from OSI 08 Lab.
  • Replaced the Assassin battle as it was proven to be too challanging for players. Now there are considerably weaker enemies.
#16

Ok just played it.

Like the other said, tone down the amount of aliens you spawn in, especially at the 50cal standoff place, it was just “hold fire and try to see what I’m shooting at”.

But I really liked it, fix the alien spawn and I feel like the devs should add it to the game, it would fit right in with the quality of the other maps.

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.