WGH - Vent Mod

General Development Source 1
#1

Current Status: Complete - https://www.dropbox.com/s/7lortflu9g82z4r/VentMod.zip

ModDB - https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa-weve-got-hostiles-vent-mod

Introduction

Hey there everyone!

I have begun work on a small project for Black Mesa called “Vent Mod”. It is a sister project to Loop Mod. What this does is add some vent sections after the surface encounter in We Got Hostiles.

In the original Half-Life, the player ventured back underground after barely escaping the surface bombardment in the latter half of the We Got Hostiles. This manifested in a vent maze that we behind the scenes of already explored areas. However, this was not very well received, (seriously, they suck) and rightfully so as to navigate a maze with a movement speed of such a slow pace, and added to that the fact that the vents themselves were very boring, this was for the most part left out of Black Mesa. Instead the run from the military was more hallways.

There is also a problem in Black Mesa’s implementation of We Got Hostiles in that, spacially speaking, there is a huge descrepency. Over the course of the chapter, the player travels at least five stories up in altitude, but only comes down one at the end of the chapter, resulting in the same areas being much higher up the second time around. This is actually the bigger reason on why this Mod is being made.

Vent Mod aims to deal with both of these problems in a fun way. It will make both the vents interesting, get rid of the maze nonsense, as well as solve a spacial error.

Implementation

This mod will add new sections to the maps bm_c1a3a and bm_c1a3c.

Integrated into what was already there, the player will head into the vents. The path immediately afterwards will be changed however. It will recreate a few of the scenes that are missing from the original, such as the dead scientist in the cafeteria pantry and the large room in the vent shaft. No source pictures provided.

Media




Other info
Everyone probably can guess this, but this is the spiritual successor to OpenSourceForever’s ‘“We’ve Got Hostiles!” Uncut’. There is a few reasons why I’ve started actually working on this mod.

*I got extremely excited. I was at first okay with simply waiting for it to get done but then I had a sudden influx of ideas. I don’t think I can really let that sit. So apologies in advance to OpenSourceForever, but them map-making itches of mine has gotten the better of me!

*I don’t expect it to take as long as Loop Mod. Loop Mod was slow because I was learning new concepts and having to overhaul how the map was constructed. And after all that was done I got tired of working on it and slowed down even further. I spent much less time creating it as I did fixing it. I don’t foresee any of these problems with constructing a series of vents, and besides that most of the work is already done anyways.

*Work on the Contract has ground to a dead halt. Literally. There haven’t been any significant goings-on in about a month. I do remain hopeful that the project will continue but in leau of that I will do this in the meantime.

I already have a good deal of the layout already done, but any suggestions on stuff that I can add into the vents (such as headcrabs) are very welcome.

#2

I’m actually totally okay with the vents being a maze, provided that there are interesting things to see at all of the dead ends.

#3

Cool, .RK! I’ll give you as much feedback as I can for your mod.

#4

#5

There are a couple of minor issues that need to be fixed.

  1. In the area before the “Dumbass scientists” scene begins, these 2 barrels don’t have any collision.
  2. In this area, this health charger is a little too high compared to this one.
#6

Hell yeah. I love you :smiley:

#7

Actually, my good stallion, you have my full blessing! PM me if you need any ideas. Here’s 1: a maintenance crawlspace filled with dead mechanics being nommed on by specimens of Sonicanis myriops (Houndeyes) & Gastropolypus toxophlegmata (Bullsquids).

#8

Awesome, after all, Gordon is famous for his vent crawling prowess and there weren’t that many.

#9

That’s super, .RK!

Nice to see additional content for WGH.

#10

I’m curious to see how you can remake this part. Honestly, I didn’t really miss this passage in Black Mesa as opposed to Surface Tension and On a Rail, but I trust you to make this vent maze way more interetsing than crawling-crawling-headcrab-map_transition-more_crawling.

As a suggestion, why not make a plan of the ventilation system visible to players? That way they will have an idea of what lies ahead, maybe trace themselves the plan on a piece of paper (IRL of course :smiley: ). Also, it will add details to your mod, like by placing it inside maintenance rooms/access shafts, maybe even next to a dead scientist/guard who tried to escape through the vents and died for a reason or another (like the guard in the vent leading to the meat locker in Office Complex).

#11

Not entirely sure if those will fit within the vents.

I do intend to try something involving zombie torsos. A couple somethings actually, but I won’t spoil the whole surprise. Not sure if they’re possible but I have faith.

That would be cool, if I could figure out how to show them a 3-D space. If I think of a way to do this, I might try it~

Want to say a few other things at this point:

I have no idea what’s going on with those barrels. Just a heads up. I’ll see what I can do about it.

Considering that it won’t be too long before I get the actual mod content done, it would probably be nice to find already existing bugs (like the ones PC posted). I know that some people during Loop Mod testing chucked out feedback on dev material. So feel free to look for those.

As far as scheduling goes, it’ll be a straight beta-releasecandidate-final deal. And that’s pretty much it. Since this isn’t nearly as complex as Loop Mod, I don’t think it will need five or six versions.

So yeah, that’s the general roadmap right now~

#12

Interesting, to say the least. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

#13

I think it can still be represented in 2D, like some technical plans instead of accurate ones. Also the dead guy could have a hand-drawn map, showing how far he progressed through the vents by trials and errors, possibly trying to reach the same control room as we do in the game. That could also be interpreted as a bad omen for anyone exploring this maze of vents. >.>

#14

I suggested this a few times to a few people… if you decompile/tweak the map where you fight the soldiers in the giant warehouse before going up on the lift to the surface, I think it’d be neat if you added a music que when the first scientist that runs out gets shot. I’d like to put Joel’s Demo 5 there. Since it’s a less intense version of WGH, and if you hear it when fighting soldiers, it makes it CRAZY tense to hear a more-intense version of the same riff while going up the elevator!

#15

Glad you’re doing this, loop mod was great, can’t wait for this

#16

In regards to what you said about my idea: I said CRAWLSPACE, not VENT. There’s a difference. I guess 1 of the vents would open into a crawlspace. For anybody here who doesn’t know what a “crawlspace” is, it’s a hallway that isn’t big enough to stand up in. They’re usually used as maintenance access points & small item storage in industrial areas & houses.

#17

@Open Source Forever

I completely agree with you, and it’s more realistic than going through kilometers of vents only.

#18

Great news! Glad you’ve taken this on, .RK. Will be glad to provide feedback to ya, when the time comes.

Headcrabs dropping down onto the player from above is always a good scare. Include a number of vertical vents running off of the main ones, so that the player approaches each one with fear and trepidation.

If you’re going to use red lights in the vents, use a couple of differing angled light bulb protectors, so that the shadows thrown by them don’t all look identical. If you can, avoid having them all look the same, like they did in STUncut. It’s a nice reality detail. Also, have your usual burnt out lights, and have a couple of blinking ones where corpses are, or at the corner of a long vent. Seeing this off in the distance would be cool. Consider having one of the blinking lights in a vertical shaft that connects to a main one. That’d be a unique look we haven’t seen yet in BMS.

#19

The architecture for the main route plus the cafeteria is done. Now onto detailing.

In other news, I’m thinking about including a scene that would be visible from the vents. The player would basically see a small (read 3 vs. 3) battle between the HECU and some Vorts, with the HECU winning. And if not, I can just make a regular empty room.

Yay or nay?

#20

That sounds good, but don’t intend for the HECU to win, and maybe throw in some scientists.

Maybe have the HECU shooting BM personnel, and then spawn vorts.

BM<HECU< Vorts

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.