Nameless Specimen Created 13 years ago2011-10-20 13:57:18 UTC by Dimbeak

Nameless Specimen
Hey guys, I think I'm ready to start a new mod. I'm prepared to dedicate my mapping shedule to this, and I think I've learned a few things from Theoretical Disaster.
This game will be for Half-Life 1 and will be Singleplayer. It will also be using Spirit of Half-Life.

[i]Storyline:The player will start out in an odd sort of chamber, surrounded by scientists. I figure the prefabbed scientists would work fine, only this time they are the antagonists. After experimenting one the player for years, he finally manages to break free and roam through the testlabs. As he constantly murders scientists, (him being as messed up as he is,) he manages to find a large balcony, seeing that this laboratory is on a large skyscraper. Realizing he has to find a way to go down, he attempts to slide down the sides of the building, until he is spotted by a military helicopter. Eventually, the military makes their point in the game, with an attempt to stop him. Since he was in the testing chambers so long, he cannot remember a thing.

The military eventually captures him, right as he makes it to the base of the building, and he is taken to a brainwashing facility. However, he manages to break free from their grasp, and makes his way through their odd facilities. The military quickly attempts to apprehend him, but he manages to push them back. He then has the choice to go to the main control room of the building, or attempt to exit. The game end if he attempts to exit the building, and he is killed by black operatives. If he goes to the main control centre, then he will obtain a radio, and the game will continue. Basically, the choice is like a "Quit Now, or Go on?" The thing is, the player won't know.

In the control room, he notices an odd man in the briefcase. Putting his weapons down, he speaks with the man, and the man only replies with "You don't know what wrath you can unleash." The odd man is then rescued by black operatives and placed into one of their dropships. The player then has to take a radio before he can continue through the map. On the radio, the man with the briefcase talks to him as he continues through the base, now in a hurry to make it to the exit. Over the radio, the man explains that the player was chosen to be experimented on, and explains that the player was responsible for much robberies and murders. The player is then told that they added power to him so they could win any war and America could threaten any country they want, forming the world into total masonry.

The main continues "But our plan has backfired, and you know what you've done. We have no choice but to attempt to detain you. You're just lucky you haven't unlocked your power." The player, before he makes it to the exit, is locked in and gassed. In the gas, his anger builds up, he drops his weapons, and gains his superweapon, which is just his arms. With his arms, however, he manages to use a supernatural force to bust through the exit. The game is then beaten when he destroys an entire fleet of the military, and escapes into the town. Since he only escapes into the town, it could be ideal for a sequel.[/i]

The story is not very complicated, but it would probably have some decent gameplay.

[i]Gameplay:In the gameplay, the character will be able to speak. At some points, when he researches certain areas, he may make jokes or remarks. However, this would require a good it of voice acting. Also, most weapons would be kept original, except for the skin for his arms. There is no suit at all, he is only a person (who had been injected with some sort of powerful vaccines). Also, there will be a lot of interaction with the environments, such as random machines in the laboratories he can use, and military dispensery units.[/i]

Team I'm Looking For:
I'm not looking for a very large team, just a team enough to do some voice acting and maybe a bit of mapping.

Seems quite an interesting story for a mod. But these lines seemed a bit odd:

The player is then told that they added power to him so they could win any war and America could threaten any country they want, forming the world into total masonry.

I think you're getting too much into specifics for such a mod, if you understand what I mean.

I, at least, approve this project. But remember that I haven't seen anything conclusive from you yet( you had mod ideas in the past).

This could really be a genuine game, because if the levels are done after the story, you'd have specific chapters. Which, imo, is good!

Good luck with this, and if you make any progress, don't forget to register your mod on moddb ;).

As skeptic as I am regarding this mod pulling thru, I do like new hl1 mods and So do the community. Here is a flowchart for you to do the work, to guarantee a better chance of this mod coming to release

Make first chapter maps - use the demo maps to attract a team - make more maps - make voice acting files - finish all maps - make models if needed - beta test all laps - release!

7 steps, shouldn't be too hard right? I believe in you man.

You want to create a new mod/game/short story every other week.

Stopped reading after "After experimenting one the player for years".
And because that was a lie, "The main continues" also annoyed me. Also, do you even know what a vaccine is?

Now that I've satisfied my inner editor... The story is alright. But that's about all I'd give it. Maybe it was just the way you wrote it which didn't convey what you meant properly, but the first paragraph seemed very loosely connected, and I can't really see how it'd work well ingame. The rest of the story isn't too bad, if not a little cliché.
On that note, the inclusion of what I presume is the g-man (knowing you) is
A- Not really going to be appreciated by anyone other than HL players (yes, I realise that's the only people who'll play it, not the point)
B- Not entirely beneficial to the story. It doesn't make a whole load of sense.
C- The purpose you've given him (explanation of the character's background) could be done in better ways, like overhearing a conversation.

But I'm just negative. If you put enough effort in, I'm sure you're capable of making this mod well.

P.S. It's been said a billion times before, yet no-one seems to listen. If you want to attract a team to a project, display some media first! No-one is going to join a project solely on a storyline.

Ugh. Too many spoilers in that description. Now there's no point in playing the mod, because we already know exactly what will happen, down to the ending. It does seem like a solid base, which can be made into a great mod, but perhaps you want to shorten the part you've revealed, and add the "sequel" as the second half of the mod?
EDIT: Perhaps the first part of the mod could be, instead of a mindless scientist slaughter, a stealthy escape from the labs as the player (perhaps weakened due to lack of armor/under 100 HP) avoids security forces (Barneys, and maybe a few Hgrunt shotgunners using a custom model with the barney meshes instead of the soldier ones) and scientists (who could alert security either by running to them, calling for help, or hitting alarms) on their way out. Give them only a weak melee weapon and make sure there are no readily available supplies, and you could create a tense feeling in the player. (The trick would be to do this without making it annoying) Maybe you could get a coder who can do a shadow-based stealth system (or fake one by using creative entity setups)
Just think of all the cool stuff you could do! (And don't reveal it to the general public if it has to do with the plot)

As he constantly murders scientists

Dunno how the player would go killing the scientist NPC's.
i considered this option when i used to make OP4 mods, and the appeal wasnt strong.
But if you make the scientists attack, like in Point of View, you may get away with it

The story is not very complicated

Pffffffff! I don't want to know what your idea of a complicated story is!

I'm going to try to say this without being condescending or discouraging, because I have a real problem with that.

Start over from the beginning. What was the first thing that came to your mind when you got the idea to make this mod? What was the INSPIRATION behind it, the main IDEA? What was it that you wanted to achieve with this mod? Think about it hard, because that's what it boils down too. You need this main idea, because you will find that the precise story, the sequence of events that take place, and their details... well, they aren't really that important when you begin, if you have an IDEA that's truly compelling. The details can be modified, and they should be easily modifiable around this main idea. I'd suggest doing this to avoid getting trapped when you're mapping. Get stuck? Don't like a chapter/section? Bored of it? Ditch it, think up something else. Mapping around your writing is VERY troublesome. Writing around your mapping, well, not so much.

Think about the chapters of Half-Life. Would it matter if On a Rail and Power Up were switched? Would it matter if Residue Processing simply didn't exist? Well, in terms of pacing and coherence, maybe, but the STORY of Half-Life would remain unchanged. That's because the game was not dependent on precise plot details. That's a good thing, because too many all-important, game-changing details in an action FPS bog the player down, majorly. Furthermore, the game was not DRIVEN by these precise plot details either. The player had one major reason to keep going - he was trying to escape.

That was the beauty of it. You could enjoy the game without paying too close attention to the details. They were there for you if you wanted, and the game invited you to be sucked into the story, but you weren't required to understand it to have a comprehensive, enjoyable game.

Thing is, words are so deceptively easy to put down. They're addictive. You can write for a few minutes and come up with a whole new chapter easily. Now try translating that into actual playable material. you'll be at it for months, easily, just to create a section that took mere seconds of thought. Don't get bogged down in that. Rigid, unchangeable storylines must be the death of so many mods... I'd implore you to first understand your main idea, or main theme that you REALLY REALLY LIKE, and stick with that. Then, play fill in the blanks, and write as much as you want. If an idea doesn't make sense at one time, write it down anyway. Maybe you can fit it in somewhere later, who knows? But don't write yourself into a corner to start with, because you're really going to regret it later, when you're into it four or five months, working on your fourth or fifth map, and you realize you're bored of the story and it's become a chore to work on. That's when you're going to wish you could mix things up and map whatever comes to mind.

whys srry here? i thought he was abducted or spontaneously combusted or got eaten by lions on a saffari or joined the French Foreign Legion or bought a house on the moon or something

hmm i might help u with mapping, creating prefabs and preparing textures from cgtextures
we could make a short mod-episode with 30-60 minutes gameplay that would be a good lesson

Of course NineTnine, there was no time for TWHL with all that going on!

How about a mod about srry's incredible adventures as told by NineTnine.

well at least its presented nicely.