Aye, the ones that open up, you fall down into a pit and then they fart you out. It’s awesome.
Zeregeo : I don’t think it would change so much the HL experience. I don’t speak about making the whole game in a limited time (it is not Prince of Persia :p), just a few sequences. It is basically to give some adrenaline to the player, without changing the story.
Ibanez : Why not, it could happen for not-critical areas (simple room with ammo/medikit). Or at least, you don’t die if you fail to find what to do.
Other ideas :
-When we fight Marines, we could hear a marines shouting “reinforcment will come in 4 minutes, stay !”. If we kill the marines and speed up, we don’t see them. If we take too much time, there will be a few more enemies (nothing critical, so)
-before the atomic bomb is launched on black mesa, we could have a voice-message asking to leave the area asap.
you evil twin : it not exactly the type of sequence that I wanted to talk about at the beginning. The “stay 5 minutes and shoot enemies” is common in videogames. We know what to do, there is not such an “emergency” feeling. The sequence I described is more “oh, what’s up ? What am I supposed to do ? There is a door here, but it looks closed. Can I open it with this button. Yes, quick !”
(ok, the idea of “fighting marines” just above doesn’t fit exactly with this definition, but you understand)[/SIZE]
I realize it is a little late to suggest improvment to the mapping, but I really think it is easy to implement.
Zeregeo : thanks
Do weapon models and textures count as an environment in that context? 
Only if “detailed” counts as good animation, texture & sound and not appealing to gun nuts with anal-retentive accuracy to real world models.
Things like this would fit really well in Half Life, where the player is meant to be able to go through the game how they want. Things like alarms and emergency messages are designed to speed up the player, but not actually force time limits upon them.
When I played Ep 2 I naturally sped up when the Combine began assaulting the base, even though I knew I didn’t have to. I got a sense of excitement but at the same time wasn’t forced to make concessions to get somewhere quicker than I needed to.
I’ve actually grown to dislike the Lamda Reactor section purely because of the time constraint on it. I prefer to play more tactically so sprinting around trying to kill all those Controllers doesn’t suit me well at all.
All in all I’d say adding in these timed sequences would make some people happy, but irritate some too. If you like the idea of running against the clock just imagine you only have 5 minutes to get somewhere. Surely your imagination hasn’t been completely destroyed by games and television?
this is why it’s good dislike mega-wumbo-realistic video games.
I don’t agree with the original poster about the game being a “stroll”. The first time I played Half-Life, I always had adrenaline pumping. Sure enough, now that I’ve played it over and over countless times, it has become a stroll.
I like the idea of adding more timed sequences to gain extra ammo or for a shortcut. This worked well in HL2: Episode 2 when you had that rail car that slid into the abyss and you had to get the supply crates out.
I see where the original poster is going with this, but there already some “timed sequences” implemented in the original Half-Life. For example, triggering the blast doors in We’ve Got Hostiles and Jumping into the portal to Xen. In my opinion, taking down those controllers wasn’t that fun. I don’t really feel as if adding more timed sequences would add anything to the game.
I would not even mind if there were time-limited sequences in critical areas, like blast doors shutting down a corridor you need to go through. Just that there should be an alternative way of getting through, if the blast door does not open again. Stuff like that.
There also have time limit when the portal to xen is finish but if you don’t get inside the portal, That machine will blow up causing game over.
and in the end, if you don’t enter the portal that gman open for in some time, you also get a bad ending.
…Green lava?
…
Fucking GREEN LAVA?
I would advise you to abstain from such atrocities.
I refuse. That incredible low viscosity begs for more.
BTW, there already are doors that slowly close, but can be re-opened if you manage to get stuck by them. Those are all the firedoors with “Break in case of emergency” glass/buttons near them. Quite often, before I learnt how to fight efficiently, I managed to break the glass (explosion, unaimed weapon fire) and then had to hurry through them.
You are re-inventing the wheel here…
we aren’t explicitly re-inventing old mechanics, just changing them. or, if the dev’s don’t approve, leaving them as they are.
…so to conclude, we’re leaving them as they are.
i think theres a mod for hl1 that has many timed sequences only problem is it crashes do to me not being able to get to the train before it explodes one 4th of the way through the game.
Personally I’m all for slowly closing doors/hatches whatever, as long as they don’t get frustrating, or differ the game too much from the original Half-Life… On the note of frustration, I would NOT enjoy “do this in bla bla minutes, or you lose” because I’ve always hated that sort of bullshit in games…
:jizz:
Talking about “Secondary silo ambush”, didn’t it frustrate you / annoy you that Magnusson kept mocking you / commanding you around no matter how quickly you proceeded through the danger-filled sections?
Actually, there was no time constraint per se, in fact you were just protecting the scientist opening the portal.
The only time-limit in there was that you had to enter the portal in the 10 or 15 seconds window, but that’s hardly “scene with time limit”.
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But the Secondary silo incident actually gave me an idea: What if instead of fake or real time limits, the dialogues / announcements / radio chatter reflected how fast or slow you were in a particular area? Or similarly: Why do Rebels tell you “Wow, Gordon, you really put on a clinic!” in the Hunter-Chopper showdown sequence, EVEN IF YOU DON’T actually get the “Puttin’ on a clinic” achievement this time? It would be better if they said “Awesome! You really hit it with every mine!” in case you managed it, and they’d say “Wow, glad you finally disposed of it, I was starting to lose faith in you”, if it takes you 20 attempts (and 10 dead rebels around)… ?
That sounds like a lot of work for something that very few people will notice.