Half-Life: Hostage Situation Created 19 years ago2005-01-08 19:34:01 UTC by Archie

Hehe, neat man, id love to see it.

I noticed you talked to me on MSN yesterday, but i wasn't around at that time. We'll talk soon.

As for the website: It is just a forum. Is there no actual website with stuff like "News" "About" "Media" "Downloads" "Team" "Etc", and of course, a forum that you already have.

And I choose chapter 1.

abababaaaa.. there IS a website (sorry i thought i explained somewhere) its just NTL are being big meanies and wont increase my websize from 50mb (peh) to their current standard of 250mb even if i say i will pay more... so im gonna up the site anyway but the map vault will be tiny

Cool with me.

Why am I the only member of that board still? I don't know whether to post my ideas here, or on the board. I have a few ideas cooking for the chapter I want to work on, and I always like input.

Oh yeah, just a side note. I'm learning Java this semester, and by the end I should be able to come up with some pretty cool applets for menus and whatnot - I'll see what I can do! If we want a snazzy website of our own, that is.

I actually prefer a Chatbear forum. Aw well.

Is there any custom models/code planned?
I can do a little coding. Stuff like 30 rounds in magazine for the mp5 instead of 50. I can also inplement the Otis from OppFor into our mod if we want to. We'll talk about that later.

Sweet, we have a little bit of coding talent in the group. I personally know C++ moderately well - got up to Data Structures II (about as far as searching/sorting algorithms, and the STL that C++ has) so I could do some minor coding here and there as well. I'm familiar with pointers, dynamic memory allocation (including dynamic 3D arrays), almost all the main control structures, a few of the cool data structures like stacks, BSP trees, queues, etc etc, and operator overloading.

I just found a tutorial about the skill.cfg file, so I can change monster health/strength there - which is exactly what I wanted so I could have Barney/Otis/whoever tag along for good portions of the map, and not die within 2 mins. That was the main reason I wanted to use Spirit, but now that I see there are other ways - I'm completely OK with normal HL.

Have you got any screenshots of this machine 'The Hunter'!!!

ill take 1 now.. 1 minute... no wait.... 5 mins.. i have to compile again ( i added a few things earlier

That's a very long minute there.

lol.. sorry i had that stupid error thingie about some face thingie being too thingie with the thingie.... i fixed it but forgot about the screenie.. 1 min

WOW! they loose so much quality through imageshack

The textures on those images are horribly stretched. The room itself is rather boxy. It doesn't match the machine (or whatever it is) in the middle of it.

"WOW! they loose so much quality through imageshack"

No, its becus you're running in Software Mode. Yuck!

And i actually agree with Ant. The textures are stretched. Try to fix that. You can make it look far more better with normal texturing.

Agreed with the textures. Nice work though, with some fine tuning it will be quite the machine.

I really want to have a custom wad!!!! While sitting in Physics class today, I came up with pretty cool idea for a mini-puzzle. I want to add a machine that generates sound waves, and increases/decreases the pitch as the player pushes buttons on the console. Maybe I'll have it set up where you can define different decibel's (3 buttons, each with varying degrees of "on"), and when the player hits the right frequency, the windows in the room toggle a "cracked" texture, maybe I'll have a few in the cycle that shows the cracks spider webbing throughout the pane, and then finally shatters.

Maybe I'll make it so that's the only way to bust through some glass to advance through that section of the map. Whatcha think?

Sounds nice.
The cracks could be done with triggering decals.. the buttons might be harder.

yeah.. if u can pull that off then brilliant..
For the textures, take a digital camera, set it to take 10 pics (1 every 1/4 second and then throw a rock at a window :P)

Decals, good idea. I was originally thinking of toggling (or scrolling?) textures that I could activate.

As for the buttons, I was going to try using momentary_rot_button somehow. I'm not sure what they used in Half-Life, but remember in the beginning when you could turn the power up on the microwave and explode that guy's lunch? Something like that, but have it reset after a few seconds.

momentary_rot_button isn't going to do what I want it to, I think. Does anyone know how they did that microwave thing in the beginning of Half-Life?

Decompile the map.

I always do that when i want to know things.

I think I will, but isn't a lot of information lost after decompilation? I know there's a huge loss in precision after decompiling code.....

Point and brush entities will not loose there entity information after a decompile, it will be kept intact, except the level's geometry. Do its perfectly safe to decompile a map.

Thanks MuzzleFlash, I'll make sure to do that.

Okay, I have my beginning transition figured out. Whoever works on Chapter 2 will have to please try and make it match, or at least make sense. Here goes:

(end of chapter 2)

Gordon (and probably Barney) will have to end by boarding a cargo truck that is enroute (on the way) to the military lab. Why a cargo truck? Well, what's one thing that is essential to every lab? A shipping/recieving area where materials are shipped in and out. Gordon and Barney will need to find a way to sneak aboard this truck.

(start chapter 3)

My map will fade in to Gordon (and probably Barney) in the back of this cargo truck (func_train), making its way down a series of tunnels and carved underground rock. I'm busy building these tunnels right now to look like they were actually carved, but will have some structural support and tunnels visible.

Gordon will ride this for maybe 45 seconds - 2 minutes total, where he will have a few options of leaving:

(1) You ride the truck all the way into some sort of station, where you will be able to obtain ammo on exit, and may possibly have Grunts to deal with.
(for those who like to blast their way through)

(2) You can jump out the back early, and try to sneak your way in from an earlier point.
(for those who like mild fighting, with some sneaking)

(3) There is a way to exit the truck through the bottom inside the canopy area, where resourceful players will notice a manhole exit when the truck stops at the security checkpoint. It will lead to a small section of sewers, will players will be able to then climb up into the actual level, totally unnoticed.
(for those who like complete stealth, with as little attention to themselves as possible)

I'd just like to point out that when working on your levels, make sure to talk to those with chapters preceding and following yours - make sure your transitions match up!

What do you guys think? I have an excellent cargo truck prefab I got off the snarkpit (it was exactly what I was looking for) and the guy says anyone can use it as long as they credit him. My first order is to get this section of the map running smoothly. I have part of a cliff wall completed, with the structural support to come next. My plan is to have a few different stretches of tunnel, and then connect them together sort of like legos.

Hey Hunter - where are the other 2 guys who are working on this? I have only heard from you, MuzzleFlash, and myself.

well mercenary has mysteriously dissappeared and craig got hit by a car this is going sooo well.

And that idea of yours sounds absolutely GREAT! im really excited about your contribution.. iv been experimenting around a bit and i want my section to be lab/machinery room/lab/long dark corridoor with elevator to lower level (my second map.) where it will be similar but it'll be.... i dunno, kinda more dreary.. darker.. eviler...

Thats a point... whats your second map gonna be coldfeet or is this gonna be big and ur gonna make it out of 2 maps?

lol, our Mod team is being knocked off one by one....

Hunter, my plan is to divide the opening sequence and the actual lab into 2 maps total. My first map will be this opening transition (getting to the lab + getting inside) and my second map is going to be navigating through to underground lab to find the scientists. I'll have mixed combat and some puzzles, but I'm going to be sure to add pieces for gamers who like to play stealthy - alternate routes and whatnot.

brilliant... and for those of you who have 'mysteriosly' coughs and hides knife dissappeared go to this:

CLICKY!

Once I get a few sections completed, I'll be all over the screenies. If our work is good enough, perhaps we can get a few other resident mappers here to join us cough*kol*cough.

YAY, im still here!

Ill start on my part soon. ;D

plots against muzzleF

hey muzzle, if you could go stand over that manhole.. and dont look down... or grab onto the edges... and cover yourself with crocodile food... :P...

iv almost finished my overview of my first part.

Pushes Hunter into a bottemless pitt

damn... how did u know it was meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee splatt

GAME OVER

Retry?

<yes> <no>

any screens yet? sounds cool what you guys are doing. i would help but im too busy with school. that and i just got married and im trying to hold down a full time job. but never mind all that. let me see some screens!

You? Married? How old are you?

I don't have screenshots yet, but you can check out my latest addition on this site. Its in the Completed Maps vault. The picture with the big red V...

School and marriage? You a teacher?

Looking forward to screens also.

how can u have a full time job AND go to school... oh wait.. yes seventh... must be a teacher.. or a lunch lady

thanks btw lament.. im glad your looking forward to it

Heh, I'm married, go to school full-time, and hold a part-time job myself. I'm 21. Oh, and I just bought World of Warcraft - bye bye free time!

Ok, so, this project will never see the daylight i geuss.

Well chuck your wifes, your WoWs and your GCSEs out the window and work harder

Plus, WoW sucks... i played it for a few weeks and loved it, but got bored sooo fast.. every multiplayer game is too similar to the last.

EVERYONE! my beta version of my first map is now complete...

CLICKY

It looks ok. But i don't think you should spoil to much.

lol... UPDATED VERSION THOUGH!! w00t

What's up guys. Sorry I haven't checked in in awhile. I've been really busy now that school is underway. Trying to find time to map, not a whole lot of it though!

Uhm. I don't quite get this: The Chapter 1 discription is this:

1. "Home sweet home." (Gordon is homesafe when he recieves a MESSEGE from doctor kleiner who informs him that the marines are holding hostages and using them for evil slave labour.)

So, I built a small map that looks like Gordons house, build somekind of home cumputer terminal, then make sure somekind of email message appears on the terminals screen, and thats it? And how should i connect this to the second chapter. Where should chapter 2 start?

All this is kindof unclear to me. :/

Maybe Gordon runs to his car to get there...??? Or he teleports to some other place and that would be the start of your second chapter.

well i was thinking sort of hitman 2 style, gordon goes down a drapdoor or something into his basement and sort of uncovers his past... gets the Hazzardous Environment Vest and the crowbar, then head out the door and goes to the end of the street...

<<START CHAPTER 2>>

Gordon walks down an eerie, empty street until he gets to barney's house. He gets barney and as they leave back into the street, a bunch of marines pop out and start shooting (later learned that this is because the tranmission kliener sends was intercepted).
You either kill them or run to somewhere where you enter Coldfeet's truck.

<<START CHAPTER 3>>

The truck starts with a jolt and you enter a tunnel, traveling for quite a while and maybe having to slaughter a few marines a checkpoints.
(use opp4 technique for the journey?)
You Then enter the military base and go through a maze of corridoors until you fins the hostages.

<<START CHAPTER 4>>

Fend off marines and aliens while you follow the scientists to a room with a BIG mutherfucka of a machine and they tell you that this is where they are constructing a nuclear device.
Then fend off more marines and aliens while you escort the scientists and barney to a back door,
You then run back through another door into a warehouse.

<<START CHAPTER 5>> HERE

Make your way through the locked door into a deep pit with a nasty garg. Kill it and find the elevator is broken so find another way out into the deep dark tunnels where you find the elevator.
Go down the elevator and come out into a small, dusty room, fend of some aliens and go through another door into a long, stretching coridoor.
unlock a door, start a machine and open another door revealing G-man.

<<START CHAPTER 6>>

G-man laughs manically before telling you that the nuclear device has been armed and dissappears into a portal.
Fend off aliens and grunts down a maze of corridoors until you get to the nuclear bomb... Throw switches, press buttons do EVERYTHING all in the space of 1 minute... MUAHAAHAH!

<<START CREDIT SEQUENCE>>

Gordon and barney ar at a bar which gradually fades as the credits go on....

HALF-LIFE : HOSTAGE SITUATION
A TEAM EFFORT FROM THE FOLKS AT TWHL

Story - THE HUNTER

Chapter 1 'Home Sweet Home' - Muzzleflash

Chapter 2 'Finding old Buddies' - ???????????

Chapter 3 'Rescue Party' - Coldfeet

Chapter 4 'Bigger problem' - ?????????????

Chapter 5 'Shouldnt take more than a minute PT1' - The Hunter

Chapter 6 ''Shouldnt take more than a minute PT2' - marfry

Mercenary and The Killer would have taken up the ????????????s but Craig is hurt and cant map and Mercenary has dissappeared off the face of the planet.

Woot! I installed Hammer on my jumpdrive, so I can map at school now. Actually, I can map while I'm at work, so it's like I'm getting paid to map.

I have a section of tunnel near completion, I will compile it when I get home, add a few touches, and upload it for you guys to see a small (and I mean small) sample of my work.

Keep mapping!

great! i look forward to it!

okay i just finished the actual 'mod' part of our game... We have a custom game with a new splash screen, main menu and steam directory thinngie.....

All we need now are a few models... if we dont get at least 1 model by Monday, i think I'll just use downloaded ones and give the moddeler credit. it would be much better if we had our own work though....
or at least someone from TWHL

Models needed are:

3 Grunt models.. 2 normal dudes and 1 commander...
2 barney models.. 1 barney in casual dress and 1 barney with different face.
1 scientist model... Kliener in casualwear.

Can this be done?
If you can offer your services please do...