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

General Development Source 1
#61

Great work so far…Looking good… Somthing that is still bothering me a bit though is the right angle roads… or really straight blocky roads… It might be better to make this a concrete floor and then just blend sand over it not giving it any particular shape in these areas.

The windy road though looks cool and works well

I just want to draw attention to the vent scene in this vid it’s at the end of the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kTumhx_x0o

Can you keep it that you drop through a hole and not that a section of the vent falls away… Also giving you the opportunity to use the snarks for the first time you just picked up.

Do you plan to the keep the Alien Grunt smashing a HECU Through a concrete wall or make this something a bit softer?

#62

Just wanted to say a super THANK YOU for taking the initiative to add this back into the game. Out of all the cuts, this was the one I wanted added back the most.

#63

You might have a point about the roads - I might change them up a little.

I’m not sure about changing the vent scene or not. I didn’t mind being dropped straight into the action in BM.

I’m going to make the Alien Grunt scene a little bit more brutal than the original I think, seeing as the purpose of this level is to show the HECU really starting to get their asses kicked. Might add a cry of pain and some blood splatters. I think that I might also surround the Alien Grunt with the corpses of dead HECU and blood decals all over the place (not overdone, mind you). Should give a good impression of the aliens being fearsome.

Thank you. I felt the same way too, hence why I decided to do something about it!

#64

The main reason I brought up the point is because the snark is a bit of an odd weapon… If you have it in your hand your in a vent and theres a hole to throw the little critters down… It’s part of showing the player in what sort of circumstances this weapon is effective.

This was absent in Black Mesa because they merged the scene with the garg and strayed from the original… Losing that small tutorial of how and when to use snarks against enemies.

Also falling in the vent and it breaking into pieces as you fall in mid air was a bit cheap and felt weird but I guess they had to do something to make the scenes merge

Can you change the colour of the light from the bullet holes in the vent from that yellow colour to a white with a hint of blue?

#65

It doesn’t matter now, the Snarks are bugged in BM currently anyways.

#66

Hohohohohoho…
I didn’t see the forum for some a week, and then this.
Great job! It was about time…

#67

Progress has slowed down a fair amount, I’m afraid, as I’m working on the AI encounters and setups currently. Nodegraphing seems fairly damn simple, and so far I’ve managed to get the AI into a basic working state. I am facing a few problems, actually, that I’d like to try and overcome. Maybe someone here knows the answer.

How can I get the HECU to throw grenades during a scripted sequence? I’m recreating the scene where you step out of the garage and they throw grenades at you to block your escape. You then duck back inside and some grenades come flying in through the window, breaking it and thus allowing your escape. I know the Combine in HL2 could fire a throwgrenadesattarget output but the HECU in BM don’t seem to have that, which is a shame because it’s damn useful. Getting them to attack the target (the explosives) simply makes them shoot it which doesn’t give you the time to get out of the way, or any hints as to what’s going to happen (huge ass explosion). Any ideas?

#68

Does it help you?

found here:
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Npc_combine_s

Valve developer wiki

Hecu AI is a tweaked version of Combine AI, guess they share the name of methods.

EDIT:
oops, I didn’t read accurately.
Ask for help (PM) to these guys:
dky.tehkingd.u
Crypt19
JeffMOD
Jenova19

#69

uh just a note taht wasn’t a grenade that was a scatchle charge

#70

The satchel charge occurred during the pipe scene. I’m talking about earlier, when you come out the door to the garage and they throw a bunch of nades at you. In the original they fired nades from a nade launcher, but I’m happy to settle for just grenades being thrown at you.

#71

there are 2 locations with the satchel charges, the pipe which every one knows and the door on the car garage which every one mistakes as grenades… took me breaking the game to find it was a satchel charge not a grenade.

#72

Mate, it’s all cool and commendable to re-imagine shit, but I’d really recommend you to stick with indoors since you (we) clearly don’t have good enough assets for all of your outdoor ideas to be realised.

Just sayin.

#73

If you had to break the game in order to notice, what difference does it make?

#74

by break the game I mean god mode, and get stuck in the rubble. I didn’t have to break the game to notice, that’s just how I noticed.

#75

Okay, but the point is that it doesn’t matter if it’s a grenade or satchel charge.

#76

Erm, I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Pretty much all of my outdoor ideas have been realized…

There’s a difference between what I want being realized and you not liking it. If you don’t like it, fine, but at least make that distinction. If you think something is lacking at least tell me what it is rather than vaguely hint at it. I would appreciate at least that.

My problem isn’t with “outdoor ideas,” it’s with scripted events and the AI, something I would have to do whether outdoors or indoors.

Yeah, in all honesty I’m afraid I didn’t consider it a particularly important distinction either. I was convinced it was a rifle grenade and still am. I’ll take a look at it next time, though in the end it doesn’t really matter - the purpose is to make an explosion, which happens either way.

#77

Keep up the good work you doing a good job of it so far

#78

Actually, it wasn’t a rifle grenade, and I’m not so sure making it one is a good idea. Satchel charges or hand grenades would at least give you a moment to escape, but a rifle grenade would just explode on impact. Not to mention that the rifle grenades in BM are extremely fast.

#79

Alright, I guess I was being unclear, so I’ll clarify now.

I went back over HL : S and indeed it looks like it was a satchel charge. I tip my hat to the gentleman who told me it was.

However, my point still stands. Rifle nade, satchel charge, or grenade - the end effect was still an explosion which the player knew to avoid. That was the distinction I was talking about which is, for the most part, unimportant.

In my version I’m going to make it a Frag Nade. I don’t think the AI can throw satchels in BM, and a rifle grenade would indeed be too fast for the player too react.

Hope that’s cleared things up.

Thank you my good sir, and welcome to the forums!

#80

I’ve seen you talk about the tentacle… couldn’t you just create the entity above ground? I haven’t played Half Life, so I’m assuming it came out of the ground?

How did you defeat the one in Surface Tension? Hell, if three of them were invincible boss fights, one of them must be at least a bit tricky. Given the large amount of mines and grenades, did you just throw grenades that blew up the mines right in the Tentacles face?

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.