C2A5H, bit of an issue… let the screen speak for itself. Basically, the agrunt pops in right on the teleport, then it jumps right up to the LAV.
As for the TOW, as I said: Why not an ammo crate with some respawning TOW rockets.
It’s not something I’ve really considered - I don’t know how to do it, though I’m sure it involves no more than 1 or 2 entity setups. I prefer leaving it on the videos, in all honesty.
Cheers Conti. The alignment I’d designed it that way - it actually took me half an hour to align all those walls like that. It looks A LOT worse the way you suggested, because the texture repeats on the Y axis. It’s a bit weird to explain, and a picture speaks a thousand words, so here’s how it would look the way you suggested:
I think we can agree it’s much better the way it is now. It looks a bit unusual, yes, but it’s a lot better.
Cheers for contacting Kevin for me too, I appreciate the effort on my behalf. Thanks Conti. I’ve pretty much written it off as a no-go personally, though it would have been nice to just to get a cursory, definitive “no” from somebody, but hey, everybody’s busy, right? If he gets a hold of me at some point, it’ll be nice, and I’ll work to make it work, but I’m at peace with it now. Thanks again.
Yeah, I know about this. I’m looking into it. VERY weird bug. As for the respawning TOW rockets, as far as I know there’s only one place in Black Mesa where stuff respawns, and that’s the Osprey scene on C2A5F. I’d rather not have respawning stuff. I’ll try and figure a solution.
Had a VERY busy day today which I certainly wasn’t anticipating, in terms of uni work and housework. So I probably can’t release tomorrow, though it’s still a possibility. Thursday for sure though.
EDIT: Attempting to make the transition between C2A5G and H far, FAR more detailed. How does this look? Good or bad? I love it, but it does change the theme quite significantly…
I’ll probably move the security camera. It needed to be moved, anyway.
EDIT 2: I also plan on using this effect somewhere in the gasworks OR Furnace room (not both, just one) too. Should look good, yes?
Just giving other options to advert that 1/1000 chance of some crazy player deciding to waste all the TOW rockets.
As for respawning stuff, there’s a rocket crate on c2a5c (the cliff map) that has unlimited ammunition. So there’s more than just one as far as I’m aware… beyond that. I could understand, but it could be a lot of an easier I/O setup (I think). Another easy solution would be to go ahead and shoot it with some explosive (whatever it may be).
Edit: And yes, the effect looks good. I’d remove that door that’s slanted so the aliens can walk out after the fight (provided you choose to keep it in that area) or let the door behind that area open.
Okay, fair enough, I hadn’t thought about the crate on C2A5C. The problem with those crates is the entity can only spawn ammo types, and the TOW missile isn’t technically an ammo type, it’s just it’s own thing. Luckily, I’ve actually come up with what I think might be a fairly reliable and effective system for measuring if the TOW rockets have been used up or not. Trigger_multiple, tied to a filter_activator_class, meaning it only gets activated by item_missile_tow. This trigger encompasses the whole of the TOW courtyard. The trigger_multiple fires the output OnEndTouch, activating the failure message. This means once all TOW missiles cease to be inside the TOW courtyard (because they’ve been destroyed) this would trigger the failure. The destructible door would also fire an output OnBreak which disables the trigger. Pretty good, no? The only problem with it is that it can’t differentiate between the TOW missile being destroyed and carried outside the trigger. So if the player wanted to they could throw all their missiles out the courtyard and would fail. But…that’s fine. They’d be deliberately trying to lose so they’d only have themselves to blame.
Can I have some more comments on this effect at the end, guys? I’m still 70/30 on whether to have it or not. It looks good but changes the feel of that area A LOT. I’d like to get some more opinions before I decide to copy that change over to C2A5H’s transitional area.
Uh, can we get a screen shot of just how large that trigger area is? Because if it’s too small and by some mericle the player decides to lay a grenade right in the middle of all of the TOW missiles (and sends them flying) wouldn’t it cause the game end?
Sommore food for thought on the effect, what function would the light beneath the grate serve?
Dunno. Maintenance. Lighting. Doesn’t necessarily need to be anything, really.
They used this effect quite a bit on Blast Pit too, it wouldn’t really serve a purpose there either. It’s mostly just to look cool!
^ Fair enough. Maintenance tube with a body of a guy (HECU or BM personnel, something like that) maybe, could be used as a small stash for ammo or something if you want an opened grate off to the left. It also struck me about the TOW trigger in my previous post.
Not digging the new screens at all. It’s far too reminiscent of Blast Pit which is one of the oldest if not the oldest section of BMS. Between these changes and the Barney room, you’ve created too much of an age contrast in the facility. Plus the theme doesn’t fit at all…just look at all the modern computer stuff in the zombie room and compare it to the new grunge look of this area. Minus the gasworks, I tend to think the buildings around the tank battle are for administrative purposes (the wrecked building in earlier ST was like this) so these changes are just bizarre.
Since you are releasing the final/near final version, you really shouldn’t be adding new features at this time, as you run the risk of introducing new bugs, texture problems, etc. Best to just add the polish up what’s there and do simple substitutions/deletions. There was absolutely nothing wrong aesthetically w/this section before and you’ve received no complaints so simply put, don’t fix what ain’t broken.
Edit:
I will also say that your chapters are now so close to perfect that really adding anything more to them would detract from rather than make them better. Compared to BMS dev work, your areas are already far more interesting and detailed so you’d just be making it stand out even more w/major revisions rather than getting them to blend in, which should be your goal.
I agree it stands out to much, it gives the air lock a dark and grungy look, need to remember you have a nice clean looking break room only 10 feet away. It may work good in the gasworks though.
I actually kind of like it. It’s a secure airlock type transition room I don’t think it has to look like the break room once you’re inside. I’ve been playing through the mod from the start today and got all the way up to unforeseen consequences. The extra detail definitely fits in a bit better with the rest of the mod as that room was pretty bare before.
I was thinking maybe you could add a semi hidden vent somewhere in that area, maybe the room the grunt is in, that leads to inside the security room with the zombie. This could also be a potential vent for a headcrab to be in. There could be magnum ammo in there or a single battery. You could then open the door to that room from the inside to get out. Your maps really don’t have any extra paths like this that go somewhere beyond where you’re needing to go next and an extra vent/area that you can get to, but not necessarily notice on a first play-through is always cool. Also it just still bugs me that that zombie is probably the only enemy you see in game that you can’t actually kill/get to.
I know my suggestions aren’t for much but at the start of c2a5i(think thats the last one) have the door at the half way point in the stairs open able and place some items in it (health and ammo no armor) to prep the player for the next chapter. reason for this room the area that starts the map looks like a air lock meant for checking vehicles that enter the parking area. so it would have a security room.
Concerning the new walls on carpark ramps:
Looks great, but can the lower part of the wall (the part below the horizontal black line that extends across from the base of the concrete pillar) match the gray texture used for the rest of the ramp wall? Might look even better.
Concerning the new look for the bay outside the security office:
It looks way cool, but certainly does change the mood of the setting. Maybe don’t make it so dark (it’s hard to gauge the actual in-game light levels based on screenshots). It’s quite the eye catcher, but you need to justify its existence on some level (maintenance angle would be easiest). I think it would definitely fit into furnace more so, rather than gasworks.
Concerning suggestion from jessiestorm88 about semi-hidden vent:
I’m digging his idea (anything to get my vent-headcrab encounter, eh). It’d be nice to have a semi-secret semi-alternate path scenario (and also to put that poor zombie out of its misery).
Again, I happen to agree with Wangman. Technically, the new screens are nice but they break immersion by being too different and out-of-context. What you can do now is just polish your mod and try and eliminate as many bugs as possible without taking new changes in the art department.
I like how I can’t wait for the next patch of this mod. This is really cool stuff. 
I guess you should keep this corridor area in the way it is now (without the effect, keeping it dark, abandoned and claustrophobic) and use that new effect in the furnace room only. I think that “Blast Pit-ish” industrial lighting and ambience feel fits much more in the furnace, not this place. That new effect side-by-side with the furnace fire would look awesome.
Holy fuck. I just had a crisis averted. I had a bit much to drink last night and so I decided that would be a good time to stop mapping, but I somehow crashed Hammer while it was saving my changes. I thought nothing of it and went to bed. Came to load up the maps just now, and C2A5G’s VMF file was corrupt. This would have been quite a serious setback considering I haven’t properly backed it up since 0.95. Basically all my progress since the last release would have been lost.
Thanks to Hammer’s autosave and a bit of sleuthing by me however, I’ve managed to recover a working VMF. I can’t tell you how relieved I was.
As per the feedback I’ve received from everyone, I’m moving the effect to the furnace room. It’s a shame, the transitional area always seemed a bit too bare for my liking. I’ll have to try something else. I’ll address one or two things I heard said in response though.
While I appreciate your saying my work is near perfect Wangman, personally I’ve always objected to the ethos “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” particularly with regards to mapping, primarily because the definition of “broke” and “fix” are just so fluid and dynamic. The parking from 081 wasn’t really “broken,” but I decided to change it anyway, and I’m extremely glad I did. If I feel something isn’t up to scratch (which, realistically is my prerogative as the map designer anyway), I’ll mess around with it. This change wasn’t ideal, I agree. I’ve changed it back. Some aspects of mapping are trial and error. It’ll be better in the furnace, as others have said.
I won’t add a new vent system, however. I don’t think the maps need it. As for Jessie’s comment about the zombie in that room being the only one in the game you can’t kill, that isn’t true. There’s one on Questionable Ethics too, and that’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure there are others. There’s a Bullsquid eating a scientist on Residue Processing you can’t kill too. It’s not that out of place.
Having moved the block light effect to the furnace room, I’ve also had to increase its size by 1.5X to make it reach from one side of the room to another. Adding the effect to C2A5G increased VRAD (lighting) compile time from 2 minutes to 6 minutes. So, fast compiles on C2A5H? Goodbye. It’s been fun.
Step 1: Pull out TAU.
Step 2: Charge TAU to full.
Step 3: Release charge at zombie and watch it go through a window.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit.
In all seriousness, yes Text’s right about the zombies. A fully charged TAU shot goes completely through walls too, depends on the charge though.
Seems like an awful waste of tau ammo! As for the vent thing it’s not really that the maps need it, just that they are pretty linear right now. There’s no classic half-life style routes where you go off on a small side route and then end up coming out a door you saw earlier. Maybe I just like secret vent areas. There are quiet a few early on in the chapters and then they kind of die off around questionable ethics on.
I suppose that map is near it’s limit already though. Did you ever consider making the entire gasworks a new map, from the time you drop down into the satchel pipe part to when you exit the gasworks? Wouldn’t that make the optimization for the big tank/alien/hecu fight outside a bit better or is it too much work to do to for little gain?
In Gasworks, this will fit extremely perfect i think!!.. but here not so quiete well i think…
There is literally NO benefit to doing that. Remember, the gasworks and the street are kind of a loop, when you’re in the gasworks you can see outside to the street when the door’s open, and vice versa. So the gasworks has to have the street mapped out, and the street has to have part of the gasworks mapped out. All doing this would achieve is mapping the furnace room out of the memory, which would only make a difference to loading times/entity counts, not performance - as through use of areaportals the furnace room NEVER renders when you’re not in it anyway. Besides, the added 10 - 15 second loading screen in between these sections would already be too much of a downside. It’s not a good idea. I’d like to have a few alternate routes, but…eh. It’s 3 maps of fairly linear extremely high quality content. I’m happy with that. There are a few side areas and little goodies on each map to explore. It’s enough.