The above post was all I needed to confirm my suspicions that you were a fellow Brit.
I can’t even tell a British voice on a video, what the heck!
I do think BMS OaR actually works out pretty well and the content that’s there is impressive. However, there are a couple of things that are missing which detract from the experience. The first is rail-switching, which made the rail system a puzzle in and of itself. It’s a shame the dev didn’t keep this by making it more simplified. The second is the storytelling aspect…you can actually do so much more here w/scripted sequences than what’s there (e.g. showing marines setting traps/dominating xenofauna but struggling w/the vorts, scientist executions, etc).
In any case what’s the plan after ST uncut? Are you modifying the rest of ST or retiring from HL mapping?
I’m surprised you couldn’t tell from my accent on the video! I’ve been told by many people I have a very British accent, even though I’ve never really thought so myself.
I’m still on the fence about OaR so for now I’ll play it by ear. There’s a lot I can add but…as I’ve said before I think BM’s OaR is pretty good anyway, whereas I very strongly felt ST was missing something.
As for the plan after ST Uncut…I don’t know. I do doubt now I’ll modify the rest of ST, in all honesty. It’s a lot of work. At the VERY most, I’ll take a look at C2A5B, re-add the Tentacle and make the Apache chase you throughout the map. I won’t retire from Source mapping though, I do thoroughly enjoy it, and my mapping skills have literally doubled in their scope and ability since I started this project. I’ve learned so much! I don’t know if I’ll do anything for Black Mesa, but who knows. I’ll probably carry on mapping for CS, and I might even try my hand at a HL2 map or something.
OH YES, please. The only thing truly missing from the chapter in comparison to HL1. Also interesting to hear that you have learned a thing or two from this project 
Thanks for considering my idea text, about barney “taking a load off”. However, the audio line does exist its used in C2A5F, if you have the barney follow you from C2A5E after saving him from the grunts, bring him to the massive weapon stock pile in C2A5F were he’ll say the line and tell you to go on with out him.
Totally agree – the Apache chase through the canyon was iconic and I sorely missed it in BMS. True, you can just blast it from the get-go even in the original HL1, but I remember the first time I played HL1, I either ran out of ammo in my Tau cannon or my aim was so bad I had no choice but to flee with the Apache chasing me the whole way to the storm drain. Definitely one of my favorite memories in that it felt super tense.
Regarding the missing tentacle, I saw this being discussed in another thread and I think they pointed out that the tentacle amidst the minefield could prove interesting in that the mines could be detonated by Freeman as a distraction to get away from the tentacle, or vice versa, they could be detonated by the tentacle as an extra hazard to Freeman. Either way, it adds purpose to the mines which in BMS seemed a bit trite.
We still need to let Barney say: I own u a beer! 
Not just a thing or two, my mapping has improved tremendously.
On another note, I’ve been working on the exterior for the parking lot, trying to make it a tad more presentable. Ildarion observed it looked a bit bad and I agreed with him. I’ve changed it slightly, in the hopes of making it a bit better. No major overhauling, just a bit better. I retextured and moved the large HL2 windows, and added two bits of decoration.
Old - screenshot courtesy of Ildarion.
Much better, yes? Still not perfect, I know, but it’s about the best I can make it.
EDIT: I’d quite like some opinions on this so I know if I should change anything else, just thought I should clarify that.
I’ll also quickly clarify how the next release will work.
I’ve basically just FINISHED C2A5G. That is to say, FINISHED. Completed. Line under it. A few small things to do here and there, but…it’s basically hit 1.0. It’s looking good. I’ll move on to C2A5H (there’s not too much to do on C2A5H, mostly clipping) and C2A5I tomorrow. I can probably be ready by Wednesday, there’s not a great deal left.
The way the release will work is on Wed or Thur, I will release 1.0 RC1. I don’t know how modders/devs do it normally so I’ll be doing it literally. RC1 is the first candidate for release, of course. I would ask that you provide feedback as quickly as possible. I will aim to get RC2 out the door literally the DAY after. At this point I’ll be just looking for bugs/ironing out the final issues. I will continue the release candidate phase until I am satisfied I can release it fully to the highest standard. I am imagining that I won’t need any release candidates past 2, and may only even need the first one. I’ll cross those bridges when I come to it. Hope this makes things clear. Once I’m satisfied I’ve got it right, I will then release 1.0. After 1.0 I will not continue working on this project - at least I won’t be working on C2A5G, H and I. I may still do other things with Black Mesa, though.
I have some notes about this latest version of your maps. Few of them are gameplay things; mostly are aesthetic details. In this stage your maps need more artistic adjustments than gameplay changes.
(Forgive me if some details below were already pointed out by someone else; lately I haven’t enough time to read all the massive feedback you received. I’ll point the details that really stand out for me. The minor things I’ll leave to the next release.)
C2A5G
- Parking lot:
- The textures in the curved path which leads to the level above isn’t aligned with the columns and other walls. They look weird in comparison with the other textures of the walls, which are perfectly vertical-aligned to the columns:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112675036
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112674982
- The wall with the hole to the outside looks too thin… This wall needs to be way more thick, to look like a reinforced-concrete wall, as the rest of the parking lot/ST buildings.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112674788
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112674887
Example in BM - In C25AF, before the entrance to your maps: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112684461
- Car Shop:
Balancing issues with the marines. Inside the place are 2 Commanders and only 1 Common Marine. Usually in the rest of BM you find only 1 commander for a group of marines. Replace a Commander with a common marine (1 commander, 2 marines).
Other suggestion – more interesting for me, at least – is 3 common marines inside the car shop and one commander outside, giving orders to the other marines in the TOW courtyard. Again, the limit in this case is only 1 commander in the group of regular marines.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112675433
- LAV building: Seeing from above, the design needs some adjustments because the entrances aren’t aligned, which doesn’t fit much to the rest of ST’s maps. The bunker entrances could be perfect aligned between each other, and the red walls near the tent should be “tied” to the building to give the impression of “high security area”.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112675521
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112675579
You could stretch the left entrance or shrink the right to one to keep both aligned; but this alone won’t be perfect. Thinking in a way to link the wall to the building, I found a good example of design to follow in the exit of C2A5F (The building where you fight the osprey and the tank, before entering on your maps): That building design looks even more solid, and the way it is made seems to be easier (I guess) to link it to the red wall:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112684436
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112684493
C2A5H
- The “discreet gate” between the tank and the hole in the wall: That gate doesn’t fit there… As we seen the C2A5H exit, that kind of gate needs giant walls by its side to be consistent with the design. I suggest you to select another type of door to replace this gate (or remove that gate and the path which leads to it altogether… On its place could be a generic wall with windows and little-doors for personnel entrance. The curved road could go directly to the locked furnace gate near there.)
Also, the texture of the wall with hole is different from the rest of the building.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112674847
C2A5I
- The Snark vent entrance:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112675080
It is difficult to get inside the vent with that current design of the vent entrance. The angled grill makes difficult to reach the front of the hole. I suggest a vent entrance totally aligned to the wall, wich only the breakable grill is visible in the outside.
Look at the vents in this pic and you will understand what I mean: https://wiki.blackmesasource.com/images//c/ce/Uc_7.jpg
Honestly, I can’t tell the difference other than the grate and the door. The door’s fine but the grate is meh, though I’ve never had a problem w/this area before. In any case, if you keep it make sure to reflect these elements on the INSIDE of the building as well (e.g. a door on G floor) or you’ll have a problem like the white door and hut storage room in C2A5H.
Conti has some very nice suggestions here which are similar to mine w/regards to the LAV courtyard. The two main issues are to align the bunkers and to add a texture to the metal slabs atop the buildings…note that these textures are present in a previous section of ST (see Conti’s image) and are especially important for you because players can actually see them by getting on the helipad. As for the bunkers, if you push the LAV entrance back, you’ll create more space in the courtyard. This way, you can keep the marines farther from the aliens which will hopefully prevent them from fighting at point blank range.
I think joining the red wall w/the bunkers might look worse than it does currently though, as they are made from different materials and wouldn’t make much sense. It seems to look bad only if you noclip.
I definitely agree with Wangman about the grate. Its inclusion detracts from the aesthetics of the map. The door instead looks okay.
Did another quick playthrough and found a few more problems in C2A5G.
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not sure if its a bug or the way its set but are the ragdoll grunts suppose to fly off the helipad once the ospry expodes, currently there laying on the ground before the battle even begins.
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After the LAV comes out of the door, the alien grunt spawn placement is off currently the one on the left spawns RIGHT NEXT to the LAV. Notice the green portal off to the far left.
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the other alien grunt spawns fine but shows how the left one is off.
TextFAMGUY1,
Concerning your comments on clipping issues:
As you know, this whole exercise is to provide you with feedback. The majority of us do not have the knowledge to fully understand what’s involved in correcting the issues we’ve reported. The important fact is to find them and then let you decide what is fixable, within reason. I recognize that all of the pipe clipping issues may not be fixable, but that’s not my call, it’s yours. So I’ve done my part. Fix what’s feasible and leave the rest as they are and use this as a learning experience as to what to avoid in your future projects.
Concerning human dead body positions:
Praise the lord! It’s one thing to lose ones life in the defense of planet Earth, but to be found dead in a position like that, I think the stretcher bearers would probably drop your body from all of their laughter.
Concerning suggestions for the revisions to the outside of the carpark:
- I notice you’ve added a wall vent on the second floor. To meet the fundamental concepts of a functional world as much as possible, what’s on the other side of that wall vent… another wall vent? Are there any wall vents in the carpark levels? I don’t believe so. That would look odd, only one wall vent throughout the entire carpark structure. Earlier, I was going to suggest having a wall vent (with fan sound) on the other side of the existing AC unit on level 1, in support of its existence. Why would there not be any wall vents in a carpark to combat air contamination? I know, at this stage, let’s not go there. If you leave that lonely wall vent and do place another one on the other side, make sure to include a fan sound (you know me and my fan sounds ).
- I notice you’ve added a man-door, which is probably locked. However, for plausibility sake, if it could be opened, based on how it’s hinged, I think it would conflict with the large door next to it. Hinge the door on the opposite side or move it a sufficient distance to the left.
Other than that, it looks fine.
Concerning the next release:
Glad to hear you’re having at least one, maybe two, RC candidate releases. I know you want to finally put this to bed, especially with the upcoming holidays on the horizon, but do give us sufficient time to provide you with adequate feedback. The community is also dealing with all the usual distractions that occur at this time of the year, so we may not be able to respond in as timely a manner as we have in the past.
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Wangman
Quote
“2. Headcrabs in vents-it’s either headcrabs or snarks…can’t do both so I say snarks. I mean come on…there’s headcrabs in almost EVERY vent in all of BMS. A little variety here is nice!”
I certainly didn’t mean to remove the snarks. Leave 'em, they are a nice change of pace. I suggested adding in a couple of headcrab encounters. One could argue, if they’re in vents ALL over BM, why not here? Just didn’t want one of gaming’s most iconic moments to be excluded from such an impressive add-on, that’s all. Wouldn’t hurt, would it? (Actually, if you’re not paying full attention, it might!).
It is not true, actually. Because after black mesa dev team releases first patch for BM, your map,maybe, will be needed some adjustment or smth. else.
I’ll address some of your feedback as I’m not entirely sure that I can address a great deal of it.
- I’m not sure what you’re referring to here when you say they’re not aligned. Which textures are misaligned? They all look just fine to me! You realize I can’t really texture that bit with that texture any other way, right? (And I hadn’t on previous versions, for that reason!) Unless you’re referring to something different, in which case I don’t know what you’re talking about. Could you clarify a bit?
I will make the hole thicker. I was planning on doing so anyway but you’re right, it looks weird.
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Believe it or not I never realized this. The two marines at the back were from Black Mesa’s vent drop scene, I just assumed they were two grunts for some reason without checking. All types of Marines appear identical in the editor so it never crossed my mind. Will change it.
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The entrances are misaligned because I was originally putting the helipad in front of the second entrance (the one further in) but then changed my mind and never bothered to change it back. I always thought it looked fine - buildings aren’t perfectly symmetric in reality either. Several people have commented on this though, so I’ll bring the indented entrance out to reach the other one.
As for the design of the rest of that building, I don’t want to change it to the one you suggested - because the building leading to C2A5H looks exactly like that one you suggested! Having the same building all the way round the courtyard would look weird. Besides, the building housing the LAV is actually consistent with the one at the end of the road on C2A5A, I used that as an example:
C2A5A’s building as seen in the editor
As for the red wall being tied to the building, I agree it would probably be more sensible from a realism perspective. But the barbed wire fence looks cool, and provides you a view of the 3D skybox around the map, giving a great sense of scale and great view. I’m happy to sacrifice the realism here for the view benefit, and I don’t think it strains believability to implausible heights.
C2A5H 1) I’ll probably switch it for the same type of door as the gasworks door. I won’t remove the road as it’s actually an element which ties ALL my maps together. From the start of C2A5G all the way to Forget About Freeman, you’ve actually followed that road the whole way. It’s really cool I think!
C2A5I 1) Yeah I’ll redesign that one.
I’ve put more vents in other parts of the parking lot. It just makes sense. The vent in the picture is also mirrored inside - it just makes the outside look less like a bare concrete wall and more realistic. All the elements are indeed mirrored inside the building too.
You keep mentioning these “metal slabs” on top of the building and referring to them like they’re a serious issue - but to tell the truth I have NO IDEA what part of the buildings you’re referring to. Could you circle them in paint or something? I’ve looked several times to try and figure out what you’re talking about but to no avail. If you could clarify this, it’d be great.
I won’t push the LAV entrance back, I’ll push the mirroring one forward. I’ve set up the timings to be VERY specific to where stuff is now, moving it back will fire it out of whack and it will be a nightmare to re-adjust. As I’ve already explained, the Marines moving into close range BENEFITS them which is something they need considering they’re vastly outnumbered. I think that scene works perfectly as is aside from the Marine on high ground rushing down.
Those 2 marines are already dead. There’s been a fight here before. Notice the truck is destroyed.
As for the Agrunt spawning, I actually know about that from a recent playthrough but have no clue what’s causing it. I’ll troubleshoot it, thanks for pointing it out.
I’ve added the fans/vents all around the interior/exterior of the parking lot, for realism and decoration. It looks fine!
As for the door, that’s okay as well. The huge blast door is a sliding door so they’re not in conflict, and as you can never open it ANYWAY, you could just say that it opens inwards only, as an explanation.
As for the headcrabs, I said to Wangman, there’s nowhere I can really put them! I don’t want to move the Snark encounters, and having Snarks/Headcrabs in the same vents kinda stretches believability a bit, especially considering how hostile Snarks are. The only place I could really put a Headcrab encounter is in the pipe after you climb into the furnace, but seeing as this pipe was just before alight with gas it’s a little unbelievable. I’m not sure it can be done, sorry.
Yeah true, but it’ll probably just need a bit of balancing as they’ll nerf the HECU and buff the Aliens a bit. That would just require me to remove a few aliens from each encounter.
In response to your comments about my comments:
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Re: Carpark wall vents.
Holy mackerel, you work fast. Great to hear! Do we get a fan sounds, at least on some of them? -
Re: Person-door (we do need to be politically correct) function issues.
Yeah, I know that the huge blast door slides open. Just thought in a fully functioning world where both doors are open and the person-door potentially opened outwards, it would partially overlap into the opening of the blast door, that’s all. Give me some credit for at least envisioning that possible scenario. For once, I thought it was quite astute of me. Yikes, your thought processes may actually be starting to rub off on me! -
Re: Added headcrab encounters.
Too bad there’s not an opportunity, but your explanation makes sense.
Thanks for your considerations anyways. We can’t expect to get all that we want, can we. It’s give and take and you’ve certainly given a lot.
In C2A5I you could add a headcrab in the section of the vent were you drop down in the middle of the fight after the snark encounter.
Have you thought about creating a commentary for the map like Hezus has that incorporates basically whats on the video?
You could PM him for assistance, he seems nice, he’d happily help
But its probably too late to record new stuff and implement the commentary, it’d take a while
Textures is probaby a bad way to describe it. If you look at the ramp wall, you can see that the vertical-ish black lines are actually perpendicular to the RAMP rather than perpendicular to the HORIZONTAL PLANE like the columns and black lines on the floor proper. I believe that’s what he’s trying to say but honestly, I think it might look worse if the lines on the ramp were perpendicular to the horizontal unless you take the time to actually space them properly.
Be careful here…I actually think the current square door is fine, even if there’s a slight problem w/how it retracts. It might look worse and would be inconsistent w/your previous designs if you change this to the gasworks door while the entrance to C2A5I remains square (think TOW courtyard where the Agrunt hangar and the hangar behind the TOW launcher match). Plus, given the small size of the problematic building, you’ll run into the same realism issue, as the gasworks door has no place to retract to. If you do make this change, consider doing it for the C2A5I door as well to keep consistency and don’t forget to add the “lip” (do this w/the Agrunt hangar door too as it’s destructible).
“Metal slabs” is simply the rooftop of the buildings as viewed from above…see image. Note that the top of the building in C2A5A, as well as all other buildings in ST are colored w/a gray texture. All your building rooftops are white and you should therefore change them to match the rest of the ST buildings. Make sure to do this in C2A5G-I and check carefully. Hopefully that clarifies.
This makes no sense though as the snarks are hostile to headcrabs so they shouldn’t be placed so close together. As TEXT said, there’s already too much shit in his maps so there’s nowhere to place stuff. Also, there’s already two SUBSTANTIVE headcrab encounters in C2A5H.
Edit[/SIZE]
One other point: since you changed the choreography of the LAV courtyard, the marines do not ALWAYS get blown off the helipad (you often have to rewatch the scene a few times), which is unfortunate as it’s an incredible effect. Perhaps if some of the evacuating marines were rallied closer to the edge of the helipad, the effect will happen EVERY time. This is important as most players will only play through your maps once or twice so you should maximize the chance that it happens.
Sure. Here you go:
^ This! Wangman phrased better what I was trying to say.
Is there a way to avoid that angled lines in comparison with the rest of the parking walls? How about my suggestion described in yellow? If isn’t possible to avoid that, no worries then… I know nothing about mapping and texturing, so I can’t really see what is technically possible or not possible on the level design perspective.
(My suggestions are most based in what I’ve seen in the other maps of the game, and I don’t remember this kind of alignment of the lines in the walls. Of course I can be wrong. 
)
EDIT:
Got a reply from Stormseeker about Kevin invite for VA: