Underwater Barnacles

Black Mesa Archive Suggestion Box
#1

Yes I know the mods nearly done and all that… But I thought I’d make a thread regarding this, I think it’s too interesting to go in the small detail thread soo…

How about placing Barnacles in some of the more boring underwater portions of the game. For example throughout the underwater ‘maze’ in Residue Processing or perhaps several in the Coolant/water in Lamba Complex.

The Barnacle’s could latch onto the bottom of the waterway and their tongues could simply float in the water and should you touch them, function basically like the normal ones, except of course they may cause you to drown as well as eat your face… :’(

Sorry if this has been suggested before the data crash. :meh:

#2

I don’t think it was suggested before, but since barnacles weren’t placed in the water in either hl1 or hl2 then they won’t be there in BM.

#3

I’ve never seen it either in other mods but I can make a mistake. Sounds weird tho. I’ll prefer that its tongue move in the water like a seasnake and be more deadly than simply floating.

#4

aren’t they will drown, since they does breathing?

#5

Whilst Barnacles seem adapted best to a humid habitat such as sewers and waterways, they have evolved to latch onto and live on hard surfaces facing towards the direction of gravitational pull (ceilings to you and me), this is because whilst their tongue is flexible, strong and elastic, it doesn’t seem to have any muscular strength. Instead Barnacles seem to have some sort of internal tongue retracting mechansm which is activated by reflex when their tongue snares onto something. It’s unlikely that they can live underwater as they are clearly not adapted for it.

#6

Underwater no, hanging from ceilings with tongues just above water, yes.

#7

Hey, brilliant suggestion! That never occurred to me before, but it makes perfect sense, from being named after an underwater creature to their appearance and method of gathering food. It would also allow for some really creepy, atmospheric underwater locations with seaweed-esque forests of drifting barnacle ‘tongues.’

Maybe I’m misreading you here, but you seem to be saying that Barnacles “are clearly not adapted” to live underwater because their tongue is flexible and doesn’t have muscular strength except for retraction. But if the tongue floats, it doesn’t exactly need muscular strength, does it? In fact, its pretty much like how jellyfish ensnare their prey.

#8

So are people talking about having the main barnacle under the water, so as to pull the player down, or just that it’s tongue sits in the water rather than stopping above it?

If the latter, perhaps the stickiness of the tongue only works if it’s not wet…?

#9

sounds like a good idea, but I don’t think it will be implemented.

#10

I dont support the idea, because its just not how a barnacle would behave. They dont latch on to the sides of walls either.

#11

maybe that’s because of gravity. I wonder how they latch on to celiings anyway…it would be cool to see one latch and how they move IMO!

#12

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Well personally I think this sort of thing isn’t too much of a change… Like the Devs have stated they are pretty much entirely changing certain sections to make them more believeable/interesting, which in my opinion is slightly more of a deviation than putting a few old enemies in new interesting places.

That’s a good way to go too, they have a few of those in Sven Co-op and it really scares the crap out of you when you get pulled out of the water towards a pair of teeth :stuck_out_tongue:

My rationale for that is that they probably started life as micro-organisms that floated around in the atmosphere until they found a nice damp, food rich environment, which they then latched onto and grew into a mature (?) Barnacle. That said… How they managed to grow so quickly after the RC is beyond me, but it’s just oen of those things we’ll never know…

Everything aside, I doubt anything suggested this late will be implemented… I just wanted to throw the idea out there simply so we can have a good discussion, or (maybe) if someone planning a few mods for Black Mesa could think about implementing it.

#13

I bet that they never move, except perhaps as younglings. I envision the adult barnacle spews them out around itself, and they quickly latch themselves on. This would aslo explain why there are often bunches, or clusters of them in one area.

#14

The barnacles themselves are never seen underwater. But I definately remember seeing their tounges hanging below the surface in the canal section of Office Complex, if I remember correctly.

#15

Gabe Newell said in an interview once that barnacles reach ceiling spots by crawling up the wall and then finding a good spot on the ceiling. It catches food similair like the standard web-spnning spider. Finds a good spot to catch food, waits for prey to be entangled in trap, then consumes it.

Its Ingenious. :stuck_out_tongue:

#16

This is ridiculous.

Why would a BARNACLE be anywhere near the water?

#17

Hehehe, yeah that’s the vibe I’m getting from a few people :stuck_out_tongue:

#18

Yes it is a big change. It’s like adding a new ability (since, like I said, they’re not placed underwater in any of the half-life games). And I’m pretty sure that Valve thought about it long before you did, since the real barnacles live underwater. And yet they’ve decided that their barnacles will be land creatures. And yes, devs said they will be changing certain sections OF THE MAPS. Not, giving Xen creatures new abilities. Cause in that case, they could also give headcrabs the ability to swim underwater :wink:

#19

lol :smiley:

#20

An awesome idea, combining the crushing jaws of the Barnacle with the panic inducing threat of drowning. Unfortunately unlikely to be in Black Mesa due to no proof of Barnacles having the ability to survive underwater.
Still, a nice idea however.

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.