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

General Development Source 1
#441

Thanks for keeping the community up-to-date. If you’re still seriously thinking about using the jump pad in the bathroom, you might want to consider the following:

  1. In order to make its appearance more “logical,” you could tear out the right wall of the bathroom. This creates a sense of space and makes it seem like it could be possible to actually teleport a pad in (as opposed to putting it in a completely enclosed room). Removing the wall is also critical to orienting the player. They will know that if they use the jump pad in a certain direction, they will fall to their death. The current iteration of your bathroom provides no indication as to how players should approach the pad.

  2. Make sure the sniper can’t hit the player when they use the pad (either not fire or miss), as they will be exposed and particularly vulnerable in midair. While watching someone get headshotted in the air is hilarious, it’s no fun when you’re the target.

  3. Bioluminescent creatures evolve in darkness…therefore make sure the Xen fauna are placed logically if you decide to change the lighting in the bathroom.

  4. Remember, NO WINDOWS IN BATHROOMS…that’s just naughty.

Regarding the furnace area, I’m glad you’re going for simpler solutions in fixing the fire puzzle. One thing that might make the appearance nicer is to increase the size of the furnace. It seems a little small compared to the giant pipes feeding it and doesn’t look like it could produce the huge flame burst out of the blue pipe.

Best of luck!

#442

I have taken a lot of the advice and feedback offered in this thread, PARTICULARLY for C2A5H which was much rougher than C2A5G on board. Though there’s still a fair amount about C2A5G to fix, I want to get C2A5H to the same level before I move on further.

The process is time consuming and difficult. Lots more testing needed than the early phases of map design. I plan on doing it all in a chunk.

So this means my next move is probably redesigning the Garg Chase (which will now be C2A5I). This shouldn’t be massively time consuming, I’m just redesigning the area where you first encounter the Garg with a more dramatic scripted sequence, and leaving everything else after that largely the same (with improvements, hopefully making the Garg not retarded like it was in BM’s version - sorry devs! But it was the worst done aspect of BM for me! He was BUGGED IN SO MANY WAYS!).

I hope to start work on C2A5I on Sunday/Monday. Until then my mapping progress will be negligible, probably just half an hour’s work when I’m bored and taking a break from uni work) Once that’s “complete” (earliest stages complete, that is), then I will refine G and H to a high standard. And believe me, it’s not high standard yet. Then I. Then a release of some sort, even if it is limited to a group of testers privately here.

#443

A little insperation, although considering that the Black Mesa facility is in the middle of of the developed world, one of these add-ons wouldn’t make much sense, an Oil refinery (if that was what you were aiming for to begin with) might be a good idea. It fits the criteria, and it even has a furnace inside of it. Up to you how the puzzle goes though.

#444

Too bad that barrels do not make much sense, I really like the puzzle, would like it being kept somehow.

#445

Maybe there could be an actual cap you have to close to cut off the gas flow? Like have a valve/switch near it that you turn, and it clearly shows something inside the furnace closing to cover up the gas flow in the same way as the barrels, but have part of it missing (and have it clearly look like it’s broken/missing a piece) and when it gets half-way the button “sparks”, and have the other piece that looks like it laying around somewhere?

#446

#447

About the satchel pipe - you should make them close it. Perhaps don’t program it as a “Door”, make it a scripted event item. After the explosion wickets would brake and it would fall on the ground allowing you to pregress. You can also add a few signs and equipment that would imply that it’s a maintenance area. Also add a few locked doors. And add some minor pipes there as well.
Change the breakable glass - the one you’re using is not breakable throughout the entire game, make it look slightly destroyed.

#448

Oh my god. Idea, and I think it would be hilarious. After the satchel is thrown into the pipe, and the soldier closes it… After the explosion, the door could be ripped off the hinge, and found impaling the soldier against the wall. Doesn’t have to be animated, as the explosion would block the view.

Edit, that was stupid.

also edit: hes already stated that the pipe door is supposed to close, the choreography for the scene just messed up. He has since fixed it to be more reliable.

#449

Genuinely, this would be hilarious.

#450

outstanding work so far @textfamguy! keep the good work up!!

#451

I’ve been following this since you started, and wow, great work. You said earlier that one of the pipe doors didn’t make real world sense but made good gameplay; I think it was the satchel pipe. A logical explanation for this could be that it is a pressure relief valve of some sort, maybe put a sign to that effect. Just an idea.

#452

The satchel pipe is weird because it’s unclear what’s it’s supposed to represent. I don’t think it’s a pressure relief valve though, as what is it relieving the pressure from? It looks like a drainage tunnel since one end is connected to water, but then why is it connected to the inside of a building? Maybe it’s part of a pipe that’s supposed to connect to the furnace or gasworks but was later scrapped during construction.

In any case, the scene will end up staying because of its iconic status. I think the best way to hide its illogical appearance up is to dress up the inside of the building, that is by making it look as shitty as the inside of the pipe (think the entrance region to Blast Pit). Throw in a couple of nasty looking barrels and shovels and grime up the walls. Then the area will look more like a natural transition from the tunnel to the furnace (furnaces are kinda messy anyway). This is probably the easiest solution rather than a major area redesign.

#453

It’s the top pipe out of the furnace. The water is, and I’m assuming this completely, just rainwater that had filled up the central heating vent last time it rained in Black Mesa… Anything that had gone high enough to flow into the valve was evaporated as it got closer to the furnace.

#454

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that top pipe opening up to let you in from the roof just seems random. Maybe put a broken ladder in the pipe and a sign outside the top hatch saying “Maintenance Access” or something along those lines. The sign explains what it is, and the ladder makes it so it isn’t a random drop through a hatch in the roof.

Edit: Maybe also put one of the signs you already see throughout the game that says something about the confined space permit.

#455

This is smart. I like it.

Military intelligence at its finest…this is funny but I hate it. HECU are not meant to be stupid. You’d think he’d know how to work a satchel given all his training.

#456

They cannot spell “You’re”. They’re supposed to be stupid.

Yes, they taught him the basics of how to use the satchel charge (Throw it away from yourself, press button), but this grunt got creative. Toss it in a pipe and set it off to kill Freeman. Closed the cap to block the blast, but didn’t think to step aside. Moderately inventive, but not smart. That pipe is for hot air/gas, not explosive force.

#457

I know people that are highly intelligent yet can’t spell to save their life(me got the paper work to prove it). the hecu are a special operations team meant to deal with hazards far worse than what the standard military is trained for that said I don’t think they would hire idiots… but people do crack during battle so some soldiers can do dumb things.

#458

Firstly let me say I really appreciate the work you’re doing here and how you’ve kept it to the high standard of the mod. I too, found these missing items to be a bit of a let down. So kudos to you sir.

Me personally, I didn’t find much of a problem with the ladder in the bathroom as there is actually one to the roof in the office where I work. The only issue I had with it was placement, move it against a wall and leading to a manhole to the roof. That would be justified, either as a maintenance access to the roof or fire escape, in the case of the latter I would also have a broken ladder off to the side of the building.

That said, I now find myself torn with the new idea of the bouncer in the bathroom. I’d say remove the traditional bathroom lighting and replace it with Xen Light Stalks, cover the windows in Xenian growth and have a couple of broken faucets leaking water across the room.

I kind of want to suggest some little ideas for the Gant scene, say as you walk in the door a couple of Marines shoot at you with the traditional line (Not on the top of my head) of “Got you now Freeman.” To get your attention only to reveal something of an armored checkpoint, similar to the ones in On a Rail. An Abrams begins to traverse its turret towards you as the Gant bursts through a once thought sealed door, flipping the tank to the side and squashing a couple of marines. With the remaining Marines (If any) beginning to open fire on the new contact, the Gant basically just shrugging off the rounds and begins to give chase.

This would further reinforce your aim of showing the HECU losing their grasp on the facility.

Keep up the good work.

#459

there was never a hatch in the roof in the original you had to break a metal grate to get inside the building and there were no pipes until you clambered into one from the water which was the scene in question

I don’t particilarly like the puzzle in the furnace room It is a bit weird in that you put flamable oil barrels in a furnace to stop the fire… This makes no sense in terms of a physics puzzle with real world integrity

The area should have a fire exit door which is blocked.

I still think it would be better to blow the hatch off as in the original the pipe you come out of after the furnace room is supposed to be a destroyed pipe like there has been an explosion

also there are supposed to be HECU Marines in this area when you come out which is now labelled the gasworks

#460

At leas he tries something!

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.