I’m working on that script for the final. It’ll be a tad better.
But enough about that. Have some “We’ve Got Hostiles!” in glorious high definition.
Nice to have a general view of the High Security Storage Facility. The surface warehouse is like the top part of an iceberg.
Btw about your last version, I like the light effect you added in the vent shaft, though you should add a lamp somewhere (in off state to keep the effect) as it would be weird that the top part is not lit in usual. Also, maybe you can diminish the light a bit more to make it dark enough for the barnacles to be barely visible without the flashlight. Most of the vent maze is dark so keeping it for the shaft would continue the mood, even with red lights like in the last vent before reaching the security station at the beginning/end of the map.
One last thing, that zombie in the vent is just horrible. It makes no sounds before you reach it nor when falling at your level. However the creepiness is perfect when it starts crawling at you. I always go backward while burning him with a flare. I’d suggest to have some metal sounds activate when we reach that part, and one when he falls down, to really startle players.
I don’t have a lot of feedback for the new version of Vent Mod, but there’s one major issue that still needs to be fixed before you release the final version.
- Fix the cubemapping issues in this area. It’s really immersion breaking seeing the lights in this area flicker from bright to dim during this scene. Also, this reflection is messed up unlike the other side.
Are you talking about the ridiculous bloom? I think that’s more a tonemap config thing.
I honestly have no idea what that is.
- At the sentry gun vs bullsquid scene, I suggest to turn off one of the lights, or make it flicker.
- The scientist interrogation scene… how about the marines executing the scientists 1-2 seconds after we get there? + the scene needs some dialog
- In the room right after (next to the interrogation scene) give the security office’s locked door a denying beep when used.
Excellent work .RK, I think you accomplished your objective very well! The maze feels expansive without being convoluted or boring, the new areas fit perfectly, and there are just enough weak enemies to keep things interesting–expertly balanced. The torso in the vent is perfectly executed! I do have a few suggestions though.
The main vent shaft with all the barnacles seems too brightly lit. Perhaps you could use red lights, or simply reduce the number of light sources.
In the vent with the bullet holes near the turret, maybe add a dead headcrab, just so those holes are there for a reason? Just a thought.
For the interrogation scene, perhaps you could piece together a short conversation from existing dialogue that could trigger at maximum hearing distance, before the player sees the characters. Then it could conclude once the player reaches the vent with an execution, and the scientists die no matter how quickly Gordon kills the grunts. Or they could just finish their conversation and sit there staring at each other unless Gordon intervenes. (As an aside, having them all silently staring at one another is highly amusing if you imagine that they’re waiting for the gimp.)
The torso in the vent outside the security office doesn’t seem to work well, or at least it didn’t for me. Perhaps it could already be lying on the floor under the vent in a pool of blood. A bloody smear leads up the wall to the vent, which is speckled with more blood and has the dead body of that guard from the beginning inside, his arms hanging out limply. Another idea: maybe just use a full-size zombie scientist instead of a torso?
In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this addition.
Hey guys!
Final should be soon. Something like that anyways. That is if I actually stop being lazy for once.
I think now’s a good time as any to toss out some replies. I’ll start with some general comments first.
I’m getting some comments on the lighting of the shaft. Since it’s the same exact setup as the previous one (where the ceiling collapses), it’s not changing. The brightness is fine.
That is, unless you guys want me to make it completely dark. That honestly doesn’t sound like a half-bad idea, and I wouldn’t be against it either.
And I’m going to throw this out there now; I am no longer accepting suggestions on the interrogation scene. It isn’t worth my time to try fixing something that works as is. It’s not perfect, but I already have my plans on how to improve it and I will not be making any exceptions.
As far as the cubemap issues in A map’s security office, I will thoroughly look into that this time around because it seems to be giving people a lot of grief. I’m no big expert on what’s exactly is causing the cubemaps to behave the way they are there, but I will stamp it out!
I quite honestly borked that part. There’s supposed to be an invisible wall there that prevents the grunts from being able to see into the vent. I use this technique at the turret scene too. But here I set it to toggle off if you hit a grunt, but be active later. Apparently that didn’t work.
I’m going to level with you though in that I didn’t playtest the section because I thought it would work. I even forgot to delete a handgun near that vent (which I was using for… something). Silly me!
Heh, I accidently forgot to put lights in at the top. It’s fixed in the editor as of now.
As far as the zombie goes, I think I’ll give work on that a bit. How I have it set up is that the zombie spawns just as you reach it. I can tweak it a bit so that it’s there by default and drops once you reach it. That way you’ll hear it coming up.
The lighting is fine. Not everything at the BMRF needs to be broken!
Will do with the door though. Thanks!
Glad to hear you are enjoying it. Praise always makes it worthwhile to continue on through to the finish.
You might want to look a bit more closely at your surroundings. Those bulletholes are just the first part of that area’s environmental storytelling. 
The vent zombie has been a bit of trouble for me. I tried using a full zombie scientist but they just don’t play well with those types of spaces (believe me, just trying to place one there gave me a shitload of problems). It wasn’t feasible to place it on the ground outside either just because the scientist inside the office would have to know about it since he’d pass through that area. That’s why placing it in a vent seemed to be the best option.
The only other recourse would be for the zombie to be dead by default. That’d be a bit of a loss I suppose, since I know you guys would like to kill it yourselves (that’s the reason you suggested it too!)
can u ad gaurd 2 interogate seen??
Nah. Looking forward to the final version. 
Why not just put a normal zombie scientist feeding on the guard’s torso next to the vent, and add some blood to show it was dragged out. Afterall, if you pay attention at the vent drag scene at the begining, the zombie is fully limbed.
I detailed why I didn’t do this in my previous post. You can’t put a full zombie in vents like that and simply placing one outside would make no sense because, again, the scientist inside the security booth would have to know that zombie is there just because he would have to pass through that area.
However, after spending a good deal of time today scripting (which I also worked on the sequencing for the interrogation scene - no dialogue though), I think I’ve been able to find a fairly nice solution that should hopefully satisfy.
The door is now LOCKED by default, and the only way the scientist will unlock it is if you kill the zombie. That way you could say he saw the zombie, ran into the room and barricaded himself inside, and only let up once it’s dead and he sees that you are an ally.
You can still get into the office through the vent and progress normally without killing the zombie though, so you have that option if you don’t want to kill the zombie.
Unfortunately no guard torso at this time. I’ve found out in the past that those have some very nasty bugs concerning how they act as physics objects. I’d love to, but it would look terrible.
Good idea with the zombie. And having parts of the dead guard laying around probably isn’t necessary anyway. A large blood pool and trail up to the vent should make it clear what happened.
I made a fairly difficult decision today.
As you probably are all aware of, the flares on the C map are very very wonky. And I’ve tried time and time again to locate the source of the problem. My tests have pretty much resulted inconclusively. It’s possible that it has to do with the light_environment, but there’s absolutely nothing I can do to fix it short of deleting it altogether, which I am very loathe to do. This is an issue that I very much care about.
So I’m going to make the new sections their own separate map. I believe this is the only real solution that’s available to me at this point. I’ve considered doing it in the past, but I’m afraid the time has come.
I think that should give me some room to improve the new sections as a whole though. And I think I’m going to do a bit of expanding. So look forward to it.
We’re in the final stretch you guys. Shouldn’t be too long now!
Do what you think right!
- One question though: what about the freezer room in the diner? Guess that will mean a one minute visit to that previous map?
Oh no no no no. That’s still all part of the A map. I’m not changing the load points for that map. I’m just making everything from where you escape into the vents on the surface to where the load point is now its own separate map. It’s fairly-pain free as far as loading goes.
Sorry about the confusion!
It’s too bad that you have to do that to fix your issue with map C. Hopefully moving the new sections to a new map will fix your issue with the flares.
[COLOR=‘Red’]IMPORTANT TESTS INCOMING[/SIZE]
I’d like to conduct a quick round of public testing on the new D map before shipping the final in hopefully a couple days time. Please note the map I am sending is standalone and is not integrated into the Black Mesa campaign.
Is this the same map as the other release, with just some improvements, or is it a completely new map?
