Surface Tension Uncut - Re-Adding Cut Areas/Scenes (Expansion Project)

General Development Source 1
#1

Final Final for real Update: 26/06/13
The very final version of Surface Tension Uncut - v2.0 has now been released and is completed. Revisiting these maps has been a joy and I’ve been honoured to get to interface with the community again. This new version sees numerous and many bugfixes as well as total redesigns of many areas. Definitely check it out even if you’ve played the old version before. I consider this the definitive Surface Tension Uncut version.

Final Update: 06/01/13
Version 1.1 final is now released, and with that this project is now complete. It’s been a wild ride, everyone, thanks to all those who took part. My involvement with this project is now at its end, I will now move on to working on OaR Uncut.

[COLOR=‘Red’]Click here for a walkthrough of the first 2 maps (v2.0) with a developer commentary from me. This map showcases the most meaningful changes from 1.11 to v2.0, and shows nicely the meat of what ST Uncut is really about. Recommend you check it out to gain some insight into the differences!

[COLOR=‘Red’]Click here for a walkthrough of all 3 maps (v1.11) with a developer commentary from me. I strongly recommend that you watch this, to gain insight into my reasoning for changes and certain bugs. This video is a little outdated, its a few versions old, but the mapset itself hasn’t changed a great deal since then. It gives you a general idea. I will update with a new video soon.

NAVIGATION/CONTENTS[/SIZE]

Introduction[/SIZE]

This community project was created to remake the sections of Surface Tension which were cut from Black Mesa. I strongly felt that the omission of these chapters (namely the map C2A5F from the original Half-Life) strongly harmed the storytelling element of the game, and lessened the impact of Forget About Freeman. Seeing all the battles between the aliens and the HECU in Half-Life was one of the most awesome features of both Surface Tension and C2A5F, and I felt it was something definitely missing from Black Mesa. It also tied the story together - it simply made sense in Half-Life’s Forget About Freeman when the military decided to pull out, but it didn’t really have the same effect in Black Mesa due to the lack of fighting between the military and aliens as observed by the player.

I’ve aimed to change that, by re-integrating the cut maps. The player will see a lot of fighting between the aliens and the HECU. I’ve redesigned the original maps from Half-Life from scratch and integrated them into BM’s existing campaign. I’ve also modified Black Mesa’s Gargantua chase a fair bit, to make it both less buggy and more exciting. This mod is an add-on to Black Mesa. When you install it, it adds 3 maps to Black Mesa’s Surface Tension chapter, which slot in naturally with the rest of the campaign. It must be added to an existing installation of Black Mesa, and as such requires Black Mesa to work.

Implementation[/SIZE]

The three maps are now complete. They tie seamlessly into Black Mesa’s campaign and are AT THE VERY LEAST (I feel!) the same quality as the rest of Black Mesa. I’ve made very careful considerations everywhere and with the extensive help of the community, created a balanced, fun, exciting, and varied experience. In my eyes, Surface Tension now has a fitting finale consistent with the extremely high quality of the rest of the chapter.

My maps tie in seamlessly with the main Black Mesa campaign. If you install my maps and overwrite BM’s existing files, your Surface Tension chapter will be SEAMLESSLY expanded to its original Half-Life 1 length using my maps. You move seamlessly from the Black Mesa dev designed sections of Surface Tension, into mine, and back to their maps again for Forget About Freeman. I’ve done my best to make it a seamless transition experience.

Here’s a brief description of the way in which my expansion works:

Downloading and playing[/SIZE]

Latest Version: 2.0 Final - Final Release (Installer Version). Download here.[/SIZE]
[COLOR=‘Red’]I URGE YOU TO READ THE README AND THE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING MY MAPS. I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY PROBLEMS WHICH COULD HAVE BEEN SOLVED BY READING THE README.

Bear in mind that my maps replace some stock Black Mesa content, so back up stuff you’re not prepared to lose.

How to install:

Extract the contents of this zip file into your BMS folder. This will install the maps. Make sure you back up your old files - my map pack replaces 2 stock Black Mesa maps: BM_C2A5G, and BM_C3A1A, so back those up. To back them up, go to your BMS folder, then to maps, and then copy and paste them to anywhere of your choosing. If you don’t like my maps or want the old ones back, you can then replace them easily in the future. Also back up your scenes.image file in the scenes folder. This makes my maps incompatible with any mods for BM which changes the scenes.image file. If anyone can figure out how to actually make it compatible, please let me know.

Launch the game.

Open the console. If the console is not enabled, you can find it under advanced options in keyboard settings.

You have 3 options here:

  1. Do a complete playthrough of Black Mesa, my maps will appear where they are supposed to automatically
  2. Do a playthrough of Surface Tension - my maps will appear where they are supposed to automatically. To start from Surface Tension you can use the new game option or you can alternatively type “map bm_c2a5a” into the console (without the quotation marks) to launch ST.
  3. To start from my maps, type “map bm_c2a5g” (without the quotation marks) in the console. This will launch the first map in my set of 3.

Media (Screenshots/Videos)[/SIZE]

Click here for a walkthrough of all 3 maps with a developer commentary from me. I strongly recommend that you watch this, to gain insight into my reasoning for changes and certain bugs.

Comparison Screenshots:

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The first floor of the parking lot has been “grunged” up, darkened, and significantly expanded from its Half-Life 1 variant. It has an extra floor now too and some side areas to explore.

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The Garage remains consistent in appearance with the other garages you find throughout Surface Tension. It’s very different to the original, but for the better (I feel!)

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The TOW courtyard you come to after breaking free from the garage. I made it an outdoor area consistent with the rest of Surface Tension. A DRAMATIC thematic improvement from the original, which was boring, bland and generic.

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Another view of the TOW courtyard. You can see JUST how much I’ve changed it from the original, but you can still recognize traces of the original’s spirit here.

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Remake of the warehouse war between HECU and Aliens. I replaced it with an outdoor area which provides a much nicer aesthetic and allows for usage of aerial vehicles for dramatic effect. It’s been replaced with a helipad and contains a very nice scripted scene with a Manta destroying an Osprey.

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Another shot of the same scene, a bit later on. The LAV bursts out alongside some marines and cuts down the aliens.

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From C2A5H, another scene with a large scale battle between the HECU and Aliens. Also quite changed from Half-Life 1’s version. Contains more impressive aerial scripting.

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Another view of the same area. I tried very hard to make the area look war-torn.

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View of the roof the player must climb onto to progress. Note the 3d skybox in some ways looks like the original.

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The furnace room housing the fight between the HECU and some headcrabs. I made it much grimier and dirtier than the original, as well as adding a short break in the action here.

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The scene where you rescue Barney, which I have completely changed with a different theme. The original area here was extremely lackluster and nonsensical, I’ve turned it into a gasworks, which is an interesting theme and has a sensible connection to the furnace room.

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My re-imagining of Black Mesa’s Gargantua chase. The Gargantua now bursts through the door, and crushes 2 marines with a tank, similar to the original.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)[/SIZE]

Q: How does this affect my Black Mesa campaign, or more specifically, Surface Tension?
A: My map expands gameplay in Surface Tension by 30 - 45 minutes. It ADDS to what’s already there. None of Surface Tension is affected aside from C2A5G, which in Black Mesa’s version of Surface Tension, is the very last map.

Q: I see you’ve included the first map of Forget About Freeman in your release. Why? Do I have to install it?
A: If you want the maps to link up with the rest of the campaign, then yes. It’s to do with the way Source handles level changing. Linked maps must contain references to one another. Forget About Freeman’s first map (C3A1A) originally had links to C2A5G (the last map of ST under the BM Dev Team’s version). With my extensions, Forget About Freeman is now linked to C2A5I (which under MY version is the last map of Surface Tension). I didn’t change anything else on Forget About Freeman aside from the map linkage. You don’t HAVE to install it, but C2A5I will crash once you complete it if you don’t.

Q: Will this be integrated into Black Mesa properly, or remain a fan project?
A: I don’t know! If the devs approach me asking if they can use my stuff, I’m sure as heck going to say yes! I’d be very proud if something like that were to happen. But I have no plans to approach them.

Q: Why was Surface Tension cut so badly?
A: The mapper left halfway through the project, and there are probably other reasons too. Either way, I don’t blame the team. The rest of Surface Tension was actually brilliant, the biggest problem was it didn’t have a fitting end like it did in Half-Life 1.

Q: How do I install this?
A: Read the readme.

Credits[/SIZE]

-The Black Mesa dev team for creating such an astonishing game with fantastic maps, especially their Surface Tension chapters!
-Valve for creating the amazing Half-Life universe in the first place, and their groundbreaking series.
-Me (Text FAMGUY1) for all the mapping and design, I did this pretty much all singlehandedly.
-One Free Man (from Facepunch) for fixing the UV mapping bug on one of the stock Black Mesa models for me.
-Mbit, for figuring out the solution to the Osprey pieces doing damage, and proposing a few architectural changes.
-Ronster for helping me get the satchel pipe scene to work properly.
-Conti, for his amazing photoshop mockups and effort on my behalf.
-CFoust for creating Propper, a very useful tool which I’ve made good use of. If you’re a mapper, check it out!
-Joel Nielsen for his awesome music, one old song of which I used in this map set.
-The community at large (particularly Tian Wang (Wangman), Ronster, Dadster, and JessieStorm) for providing me with tonnes of feedback and giving me tips and tricks on how to make things work and how to design areas.

#2

Yes, think twice about everything and make sure the area and everything in it makes sense.

Some food for thought, for starters:

Why do you need to use Xen pads to climb? Most multistory car parks have stairs for people, and sloped driveways for cars.

Why are emergency doors only accessible on the top level? The point of emergency doors is so you can go through them at all times.

#3

Alright, I probably didn’t clarify that enough, so I’ll make it a bit clearer, and update the OP.

Parts of the garage have collapsed, blocking off the doors on all levels except the top. The access ways for the cars will be blocked off similarly, though I may leave them open so the player can use the jump pads to go through destroyed parts quickly, or can take the slow long route if they like. Don’t worry - I am thinking about making areas make some degree of sense - that’s part of what I didn’t like in the original version of this map!

You can actually sorta see it in my first screenshot, in the corner where all the debris is, you can see (based on the position door on the level above) that the door is blocked. I simply haven’t mapped out all the debris properly yet. But that’s how I plan the final product will be.

#4

I came into the thread expecting a person with terrible grammar to ask about the possibility of someone remaking the areas and expressing their disappointment.

But instead I was greeted with this! :smiley:
Your progress looks nice so far. The huge redesign is pretty fitting with the rest of Surface Tension, but most of screenshots you provided are almost unrecognizable. They’re not bad at all, but I think you’ve changed them to be a bit too different. By looking at the screenshots you can hardly tell what the areas’ purposes are, whereas in Half-Life it was pretty clear they were vehicle housing/maintenance.

#5

Can’t really help, but good luck! :slight_smile:

#6

You should make the area outside the garage a scrap yard… wrecked cars on flames and piles of tyres…make this area make sense that it is outside the garage and the spares yard… not just a flat space give it detail and like an extension of the room you drop down into…give the road a break for this and the tow blows open the shutter gates to the scrap yard

instead of glass use a brush func breakable select metal wall first make a jagged whole then put a pristine func breakable in the gap tie it to a trgger and an env explosion and blow the place open

Just have the vent break but not with you inside it because it felt weird

instead of having a manta being chased by harriers can we have a harrier with env fire and env smoke stack parented to it and a manta in hot pursuit

Use more displacement surfaces

the helipdads look bad next to the really tall wall try losing the wall and raising the helipads above the road… use metal fences and open up the map in this area so that it does not feel so enclosed… keep the roads curved not so many exits… only 1 or 2 ways out by road even if dummy doors
Good luck

#7

Part of the reason they’re so unrecognizable currently is because they’re very, very unfinished. The second and third shots look very similar, and the last two are so different because, frankly I wanted them to be very different. I will make the areas look more purposeful as I map them out and the concept becomes more concrete.

I made it more outdoorsy because it gives me an opportunity to create some more desert vistas. Everybody loves desert vistas, and they look fantastic in BM. Hopefully I’ll do a decent job of making one myself.

Thank you for your suggestions. I’ll address them one by one.

I like the idea of a scrapyard but I am too attached to the road concept - it adds direction and focus to the map which the original was lacking somewhat, I find. I may combine them together, however, or make the scrapyard adjacent to the courtyard with the TOW - a bit of background detail.

I know how to use func_breakables and all that jazz to make the wall destructible, the problem isn’t with implementation, I just don’t feel a random hole being blown in the wall like in HL1 worked very well. In HL1 they throw grenades at you which closes off the doorway and forces you back into the garage, but then they explode a hole in the wall for…no reason whatsoever? Well, the real reason is to give the player a way to get outside, but it didn’t make sense. If I replace it with some glass and make them fire some grenades through the window I think it makes better sense. That’s why I decided to change it to glass.

I won’t change the vent sequence either. It’s how it was in the original HL, and that scene is familiar to a great many fans. I know it’s a bit awkward and weird, but I don’t feel comfortable deviating too far from the original in that respect.

Your idea with the mantas is better than mine and fits in with the overall theme of the HECU starting to lose. I will use it. Thanks.

I will add displacements to the map once I’ve finished blocking out the level. It’s still early days. I consider displacements to be part of the final details of the map, so for now the outdoor ground is staying flat and blocky.

The tall wall by the helipad is also a product of the map being in its early stages. Eventually I will get around to replacing it with some buildings. Maybe the outside of a warehouse (a nod to the original settings) or an aircraft hangar or something along those lines. I will open up that area, the closed off feel is a product of the work in progress nature.

Let me ask the community this: how would you feel with that giant wall by the helipad being an aircraft hangar? Should it be open/closed? Does it violate the theme of the original too much? Does it make sense for their to be aircraft hangars in Black Mesa? I’m also thinking of making the map have a few “snark pods” (the ones which you can break like in “Forget About Freeman”) and snark related areas, as I feel Black Mesa didn’t utilize them as well as they could have. Does that bother anyone?

Thank you for your suggestions. I appreciate it. I hope I’ve answered you adequately.

#8

here is my tip:

if you want that your map will be played in BM as part of the original mod, you should follow the artistic concept of current BM Surface Tension (hence use the same props and textures).

#9

I like the aircradt hanger idea… you pass by a radar control tower earlier in the level so good idea IMO definatley open swap the warehouse for the hanger and it would be good to see a harrier in there like on a repair dock and get a look at the model as you only ever see it zooming past.

Perhaps some fuei tanks or something and a pipe is severed open perhaps a fire hazard and then sprinklers come on inside the hanger alarms and the door closes you in… trapping you in the hanger

Around the hanger having a see through metal fence looking out across a flat expanse and a runway as a backdrop would really open out the map and make the area feel a lot larger

try to keep the inclusion of crawling through the pipe to escape and the hecu marine throwing a satchel and sealing you in too and having to find another way out of the pipe system. this would tie to fuel and water pipe system

Just more ideas …

#10

This is indeed what I have done. The only major deviation that has been made is the car park, which uses a fairly different tileset.

For now, I am not replacing the helipad with the hangar, I am simply putting it in as a little background detail. However, the runway in the distance I really like. I will certainly make that a skybox detail, I might even show a harrier taking off or something to that effect. Though this is problematic - a proper runway takeoff doesn’t happen with Harriers as they are VTOL, though I just imagined the harrier model in BM is supposed to be a generic fighter. Does this really matter?

#11

Harriers are generally incapable of a vertical take off carrying a full weapons payload so having a runway take off is fine… Nothing wrong with that.

But An open Hanger swap for the warehouse would make sense… Make sure you don’t put an osprey in the hanger… They rotate their wings by 90 degrees and stow their propellers in front of cockpit and at the rear… looking quite different

#12

Out of curiosity, how’re you going to connect the 3 areas to make them fit into each other?

More specifically, are you going to use the existing level formats, It’d likely save you some work in the long run, just some food for thought.

#13

The textures used, are those of Black Mesa or old ones?

#14

Okay, thanks for that info, will bear that in mind. Don’t really know anything at all about air vehicles so that’s good to know.

I’m not sure entirely what you mean by this. The format I’m currently using is I’ve taken the first part of C2A5G from Black Mesa (the part where you get on the turret and mow down waves of Vorts), and then deleted everything after that bit (the vent drop and the garg chase). I’ve then readded the parts from HL1 - which will all be part of the same level, leading up to the part where you get out of the warehouse in HL1 (so in my case, leaving the helipad). Though it is C2A5G in Black Mesa, it is now a remake of the first half of C2A5F from HL1.

I will then have the map transition into C2A5H. The first half of the map will be the rest of C2A5F from HL1. The Garg Chase from BM (as part of BM’s original C2A5G) will be incorporated into the last half of my C2A5H. And then that project is complete.

So, to sum:

BM C2A5G = HL1 C2A5F First Half
BM C2A5H = HL1 C2A5F Second Half + HL1 C2A5G (Garg Chase).

I’m not sure what you’re asking. I won’t use any custom assets on this map, and I haven’t so far either. I want it to fit in seamlessly with Black Mesa.

#15

Well, the textures used are those from the mod?

Ok, that’s ok then :slight_smile:

Cause we don’t want to see which parts are yours and which parts are original :slight_smile:

#16

I’m just trying to figure out what exactly what you’re doing with the levels. It is what I was assuming that you were doing. You’re re-adding the original HL1 C2A5F to BM, there are many ways to do it, and I was just curious if you were going to keep the original progression to the level(s) (as they were in BM) and just add the cut content. Or as you said, cut some of the original BM content to add the HL1 stuff. Sorry I wasn’t very clear on that.

#17

I get that. That’s why I’ve done it the way I have! There are places where I would have liked to use custom assets, but it strays too far from Black Mesa for my liking.

That’s quite alright my good sir. Just to clear up any further confusion, there actually isn’t anything I’ve cut from Black Mesa - just to make that clear. I’ve moved things from Black Mesa around a bit, but I haven’t actually removed anything. The vent scene has been moved into the garage, and the Garg chase will be kinda the same as it was in Black Mesa, but modified in a few ways (the actual Garg chase in BM is rather broken in a large variety of ways).

I’m hoping to make the Garg Chase more similar to how it was in the original - with the Garg crushing some HECU flat with a car and PROPERLY chasing you down. The Garg in BM will run straight past you if you duck to the side, then glitch through the blast doors and stand outside idly. When you walk outside, he’ll then glitch back through the blast doors and break his way outside. Combine this with his insatiable desire to hump that tower regardless of whether you’re on it or not and you’ve got yourself a recipe for probably the weakest scene in all of BM. I’m hoping to fix this, though I’m sure it will be a troublesome road.

#18

I know this applies to an already existing map: but I was wondering if you could add the tentacle back in? Also, would you be able make the mines invisible (or harder) to spot like in the original. The clearly visible mines make the minefields too easy to get through.

I wonder, do you think you can make some improvements to some currently existing scenes (e.g. showing the remaining marines getting overwhelmed by the aliens in forget about freeman)?

#19

I will probably attempt to do things like this once I’ve finished re-adding the cut chapters. Perhaps.

I found an interesting oddity with the tentacle in the desert, actually. On the decompiled version of C2A5B (the section in the desert where the tentacle is in HL1), there actually is an npc_tentacle entity sitting in the middle of the minefield. It obviously doesn’t appear in the game, and doesn’t appear to have been set up properly I/O and entity wise. That leads me to believe one of two things: either the developers messed up this tentacle and intended it to be there but messed it up before release, or the tentacle was originally intended to be there but the developers scrapped it but left the entity there in case they wanted to have it in the future. I’m leaning toward the latter.

I’d also, if possible, quite like to reintroduce the Apache stalking you throughout the first half of the whole chapter Surface Tension. In BM it attacks you on the dam and then leaves you alone until the cliffs - in HL1 it stalked you every chapter until you found the Rocket Launcher. It made destroying it oh-so-satisfying, and also added “tension” to “Surface Tension”.

In any case, I may attempt this. The problem is the “fuzziness” I introduce when I decompile, change, and recompile, existing BM maps. How different my recompiled products are going to be, in terms of lighting, areaportals, optimization, etc, may be too different for my/peoples’ liking.

I was thinking, the amazing scene in “Forget About Freeman,” where the music kicks in and you see the dogfight, I definitely would like to try and expand upon that. Rather than you fighting the marines in that bit, I’d quite like there to be a huge aliens vs humans battle going on the ground as well, which you can watch, and enjoy the moment.

So yeah, I definitely have ideas in my mind which I may or may not be able to implement in the future.

#20

I’ll sit back and watch.

Apart from that, you can find sounds for ‘satchel pipe’ and ‘semperfimyass’ scenes. Obviously it was intended to be put there but wasn’t.

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.