Forum posts

Time to stop sniffing glue before bed.

Would be good to have you.

If all goes well, I'd like to say I could release the mod by the end of the year... time is hard to come by these days!

Preaching to the choir...

http://www.moddb.com/games/half-life/addons/barney-with-357

Unless you're not using the base models, in which case, leave it with me. I can't actually check the files you linked at the moment

My wife was going to get me Divinity: Original Sin 2 for my birthday, but she treated me early and I got it at the weekend.

I've only really played the prologue and I already love it. Just creating my character and origins alone was a blast and the dialogue is incredibly well written and acted.

I created a ranger/archer type character as I tend to do on my first playthrough of anything, but I was also able to put together a brief origin story as well, in that I was able to say that I was a scholar and a noble before the events in the intro took place.

It's actually quite funny as well, which I was not expecting. Within minutes of getting into the full game world I came across a cat (who I was able to speak with thanks to one of my perks) who has just started following me out of sheer bewilderment.

It's a good job all my chosen words were very, very funny.

You should, it is and I'll take your word for it.

In other news, when attempting to take a target alive, be sure to check the room for fuel cells before discharging your shotgun.The word I'm looking for here, is "bollocks!"

It would be pretty tricky, and would require a lot of instant pausing between steps.

I know that the ghost claus isn't fault until an enemy specifically identifies you as an intruder. They can catch a glimpse of you, but if their exclamation mark fills your out.

So... Move down far enough to open the door below you, pause. Sidewind directly next to the crate, pause. Unpause, E, take item, pause. Sidewind again, into the righthand corridor as far as you can. Run to the room at the end and shoot out the window with the silenced shotgun.

Bingo... you probably failed. I would have.

A'ight, I'm gonna extend once more to take me up to the end of my next week off. Cut off is now October 22nd. That's the absolute last time though, because then I'll be back at work until March.

Also where do we send submissions?

Either host them somewhere and PM me or send via email if need be: coffee@scotchandcoffee.co.uk

I'll be honest, I could do with an extension.

Based on the location of the thread, I would say yes.

UPDATE!
We're in the final stretch now guys. This is the last week to get your first drafts submitted. I've had three submissions so far. If anyone is still working away and needs another extension, now is the time to say.

Thanks to everyone who has sent their map so far. Everyone else, confirm if you are still working on a map, or be struck off the list on Sunday.

I have faith. Earnest Desforge is good people.

Also, many thanks for saving Inna Fox's old dumb ass.

As my pod approaches the Foundry ship, I almost feel pretty confident. One of the benefits of my years of freelance maintenance work aboard the various faction ships means that I have a good idea of how the ships are laid out, and how their crew operate.The Fiasco-Hardcastle device is being transported aboard a relatively small Glitcher ship. I dock my pod and board the ship. As the airlock slides open, the gravity of the situation hits me. In the comfort of my pod, I knew that I was safe. Practically undetectable to these larger ships unless I hovered right outside one of the windows. But now I am in the ship. I am an intruder. The feeling hits me in the gut like a sledgehammer as I notice one of the crew enter the corridor ahead of me. Fortunately, he turns away from the airlock and heads for the control room. I quickly dash down the hall and into a side room, a large window looks out into the deep black abyss of space and set in one wall is a terminal.

The standard practice aboard these ships is that the crew act as both guards and general workers. They tend to gather in one of the larger rooms and talk shop, taking it in turns to run errands and tending to the various checks and tasks that keep the ship operational. I know for a fact that sooner or later, somebody is going to come and check this terminal. If I’m lucky, they’ll be carrying a keycard.

A few minutes later I hear footsteps approaching. My heart leaps into my throat as I press myself into corner, willing my body to merge with the wall. The worker passes by, focused on the task at hand. Hanging around his neck is a level one security card. He approaches the terminal and checks the readings on a console on the wall. I know for a fact that these checks do not take long at all, so I have to act fast. I pull out my wrench and squat down, slowly crossing the room towards him. Close enough to see over his shoulder, I see that he is entering the reading from the wall monitor. He’s nearly done here. I let him punch in the last two digits and submit the entry and then bring my wrench down on his head with a thud.

Slipping the card from around his neck, I then lift his unconscious body up onto my shoulder and, spotting a storage room down a long hallway, carry him over to the door. It detects the keycard and slides open. I dump the body to the ground next to a large orange crate. Curious, I decide to take a peek. Lifting the lid, I see that it is not the device that I was looking for, but rather a useful little tool called a Subverter. This beam allows you to turn enemy shields and turrets against them, should you have the ability to stomach the moral implications of such an act. Hoping it won’t come to that, I pocket the gadget regardless.Leaving the sleeping crewman in the storage area, I make my way to the second storage room which is located in the rear of the ship. Passing the hallway to the control room, I know that the pilot will be of no threat to me while he is connected to the ship’s controls. I spot the third and final crewman working on another terminal and I slip by without any trouble.

Reaching the final door, I slip into the storage room and open the crate. There is is. The Fiasco-Hardcastle Device. I have no idea what it does, and I don’t intend to find out. I can slip out before the other crew member returns to his post. Sprinting through the hallways to the airlock, I enter the pod, dropping the device to the ground with a heavy thud and uncoupling the pod. I quickly turn and run. I did it. I just did that. I breath a sigh of relief, but I still check the monitors multiple times to ensure I’m not being followed.

Finally docking at the Cuba Hub, I return to the recreation room and drop the device into a pod, which then shoots off to… frankly I neither know nor care. I need a drink.

The chronicles of Benetto Chatelier
Prologue

I power down my Breacher and step out into the pod bay. Walking to the elevator, I see a hastily prepared banner covering the station’s original livery. I remember thinking that the station coordinates seemed familiar, but the last time I was out this way it belonged to the Glitchers and was known by a different name.

The elevator comes to a stop and opens into the recreational area. The Glitcher influence is undeniable. Countless holographic displays in various bright hues, an eclectic selection of furniture from across the galaxy and the constant hum of neon and fluorescent lighting. Looking to the bar, I see three of the four stools are already occupied. These people are certainly not Glitchers. Their outfits are dark and muddled, comprised of various grades of leather and steel. Nothing you would see among the four factions controlling the majority of the galaxy I take a seat at the end of the bar and order a coffee, earning a sideways glance from the guy next to me. I avoid direct eye contact.My name is Benetto Chatelier. I am an experienced, freelance engineer and I am in deep shit. Over the years I have worked with each of the factions on a temporary basis, and this is seemingly how I came to be in this situation. After a fairly standard job repairing the primary control terminal aboard a Foundry ship, I returned to my home to find it ransacked and my wife and son missing. The only thing that remained untouched was my datapad, which contained a simple proposition. Acquire the Asante Mark II or never see my family again. I do not know who took my family and I have no idea what the Asante Mark II is, or where I would find it. To that end, I was also provided with a set of coordinates and a name. Sader Fiasco.

I down the last of my coffee and scan the bar. In one corner of the room, an elderly woman sits and idly tabs at a datapad. I stand up, look around one last time, and with a heavy sigh I step over to her table. I slide into the seat opposite her and she looks up.

“Hey, you need something?”

“I… I want... to steal the Asante Mark II,” I stammer awkwardly “Can you help me… steal the Asante Mark II?”

“Probably,” she says “Send me the details. I’ll put some feelers out.”

I’m almost stumbled at how casually she says it. This woman looks old enough to be my grandmother. I notice she is giving me a quizzical look and I quickly fumble for my own datapad, pulling up the data and hand it over. She taps it a couple of times, then hers before handing it back to me. I look at the pad and see she has returned it to the home screen. I wait a moment, but she doesn’t say anything. “What happens next?”

“My rate’s two hundred credits,” she says. “I’ll start now. Come back when you have the money and I’ll start telling you where to look.”

I gulp and get to my feet quickly, wandering over to the other side of the rec room which is relatively empty. I back into a wall and slide down until I am seated on the floor. Two hundred credits? I’m a mechanic! I check my utility belt. All I have on my is my wrench and five credits. I also have a disposable device that can be used to disable electrical equipment from a distance, which the mercenary types refer to as a crash beam. I have no doubt that it would be useful to somebody, but I don’t think I would get more than 6 credits if I sold it to one of the vendors on this station.

Then I spot it. A few feet away from me is a database terminal, with another hastily prepared sign which reads: Jobs. I step over to it and activate the panel. Hoping to find some requests for repairs, installation assistance or salvage operations I am quite taken aback by the list that appears on the screen. Assassinations, rescue missions, hostage taking. This is insane! I almost walk away before I think about my family. Where are they? What is happening to them?

I take another look at the list and one of the jobs catches my eye above all others. Steal the Fiasco-Hardcastle Device. The ship that it is aboard has gone rogue and is manned by a skeleton crew of mostly mechanics. No guns, no backup and no killing. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, before accepting the job.

Yup, exactly right. Best option would be to take a copy of the texture and stick it onto a 128 squared background

So a mod, rather than a game.

This really is quite a stunning mod. I've not finished it yet as my daughter kinda dictates my playing hours. I will be grabbing the plunger next month when I stick some birthday cash into my steam wallet.

Ha! Awesome.

I've had some real crazy missions in the last couple of days, but neglected to take down any major details. Some of these can be summarised as follows:

• Accepted a GHOST clause (do not get seen, attack no-one) mission and nailed it.
• A defector had to rescue a prisoner from an enormous, heavily guarded ship with only two self-charging teleportation devices (A sidewinder and a swapper)
• Assassinated a target on a heavily guarded ship with a 30 second alarm by hijacking another ship and blasting the whole thing to oblivion.

I may chronicle the adventures of the next random merc I choose, detailing everything as a journal.

Also: You may come across some legendary weapons of mine. There are a couple out there.

Also x2: I have a merc with the personal mission to rescue one of Archie's captured mercs. That should be fun.

There already several examples of prop models being used in the maps, I don't think things like vent covers really need to be modelled. You don't see bullet impacts / decals on models which is why I prefer to not use them for scenery.

Well... pretty disastrous series of events.

Joss Gardener went after Celestine Quigley and was shot by one of the guards. She was then promptly flushed out a nearby airlock. In an attempt to cause disruption and open up a new entrance for her shuttle, she attempted to steal another nearby ship to make use of it's weapon system. Unfortunately, as soon as her shuttle docked with the ship, it in turn docked at the enemy space station. Joss was taken into custody...

Misty Excelsis carried out a few more stealth missions, avoiding any killing. Finally, she got the intel on where her partner was being held. A ship bound for an enemy space station. Once it got there, her partner would be lost, giving her only a 4 minute window to get in and get her partner out. For this mission, she abandoned her morals and slaughtered everyone in her path.

However... it seems karma is a bitch with a twisted sense of humour. She was a few rooms away from her partner's cell, soaked in blood and sweat, when BOOM. A rival faction opened fire on the vessel. two rooms at the back of the ship were blown away, killing several guards and cutting Misty off from her friend. Quickly realising that she could now dock her shuttle right next to her partner's cell, she started to run back to the airlock when another barrage hit the ship. The holding cell was ground zero. Her partner was killed instantly and the rear half of the ship tore away. Her mission failed, she continued to run for the shuttle, the ship still taking fire all around her. Slicing through two panicked guards she leapt into the airlock and boosted away from the wreckage as fast as she could.

She retired from the mercenary life afterwards. No legendary deeds to add to the hall of fame. No victory. No custom named item for other players on steam to find. She simply faded away.

Somewhere in deep space, there is a bar. Aboard a recently liberated space station, it attracts all manner of ne'er-do-wells and mercenaries.Magic Borealis
Like many that come through here, Magic Borealis is a drifter. He keeps to himself and will likely be gone by tomorrow.

Misty Excelsis
A former mechanic, turned mercenary ghost. She completes her missions quietly, with as little contact as possible. Armed with a wrench, she knocks her foes unconscious when necessary, but prefers to avoid trouble and gets around by hacking systems and using duplicated keycards. This has caused her to sway in the direction of taking bloodless contracts, where killing is actively punished. One of her more memorable missions was a bloodless contract, requiring her to steal a prototype weapon from an enemy ship. On docking with the ship, she found that the weapon was actually stored next to the airlock, possibly ready for unloading. She swiped it and left.

Her personal mission is to free her partner from Offworld Security custody.

Joss Gardener
The finest mercenary on the station. She solves missions by any means necessary with a 100% success rate. One such mission saw her using duplicate keycards to simply walk through the hallways of an enemy ship, assassinate a target in a heavily guarded area and walking back out without being spotted. She also recovered some intel from a terminal, which would lead her to Celestine Quigley. Quigley is a small time merc who was captured during one of her first missions. (I was still learning the game mechanics and may have messed up...)

Inna Fox
Fox is an aging space ninja. Armed with a katana and a variety of evasion tools, he strikes hard and fast... and dumb. Old age has not been kind to him and his current goal is to steal an enemy prototype, sell it and use the credits to finally retire. His missions are often met with catastrophe. One example was a bloodless contract, where he tripped an alarm and was forced to kill everyone on board a transport vessel. Another saw him attempt to capture an enemy officer. This ended badly when he discharged a concussion shotgun at his target, hitting them but also smashing the window to their quarters. The two of them were sucked out into space and while Fox was able to remote pilot his shuttle pod to pick him up, the target promptly suffocated and died.

What I'm trying to say is that this game is intense and hilarious and is definitely worth grabbing. The only you get for the randomly generated mercs is a name and a personal mission, everything else comes from how you play them. The above stories are all things that have happened in game.

Magic Borealis is simply a merc I've not used and a new one will be generated the next time I finish a mission with one of the others. Which, incidentally will be Joss Gardener's mission to rescue Quigley, my first merc who got captured because I didn't know what I was doing

there really ought to be a good tutorial on level changes, I've run into several mods that have this problem

I agree. Up until a couple of years ago, The Core would have had this problem

I've been meaning to pick up XCom Enemy Unknown again. Give it another go.

As for the other suggestions, thanks. There are a few I've played already, such as Diablo 1 and 2. I also tried The Witcher 3 a couple of times and could not get into it at all. I have very little interest in playing a role that has already been written for me, such as Geralt.

So I've recently discovered a love for proper in depth RPGs both in the form of video games and tabletop/pen and paper games.

Recent "RPGs" that I've played (Bethesda's Skyrim and Fallout 4) haven't quite hit the mark, so I reverted back to Fallout: New Vegas, which I'm now giving a proper second play through. I will likely create a new character as soon as I've finished and approach everything differently.

I've also been trying out games that I previously couldn't stand. Isomeric and turn based games. Fallout 1 for example. Having played Fallout 3 first, I couldn't stand the originals for more than five minutes. I've also picked up Obsidian Entertainment's two recent releases Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny and they've both got me hooked.

I was just curious if anybody else has a soft spot for RPGs and had any stories from their adventures, or and recommendations.

Okay, I think I'm ready to send mine in for a beta test. I literally haven't made a single player map since I first started mapping, so I'm unsure on the pacing and such. Anyway, do I just PM you a link, Urby?

That'll be fine

It's certainly looking good.

Glad to hear it

The above post is correct. It's basically up to you how you integrate the airlock into your world.

Just received and played through Dr.Orange's map. Absolutely sublime.

Actually yeah, now that I think about it, back in the early days, using the D3D renderer in Half-Life caused some immense input lag.

So much so that playing Sven Coop with my brother-in-law, he ragequit after dropping into a pit while trying to adjust his falling trajectory. He tried five times and overcompensated every single time because the input lag was about half a second. He was maaad.

Also, what's with using "Penguins" as a slur against Linux users?

OOOH! Ok. Glad you clarified. I thought the manufacturing of OpenGL based hardware was legit harmful to penguins...

Why are you not using hardware that supports OpenGL?

Quadmer is actually easier to say than Admer in my opinion. I have to say "Adam-er"

Motherfucker straight up ran past the door though.

This, right here, is why Fallout 4 was nothing compared to Fallout: New Vegas.

Knowing what your skills are, seeing that they're not high enough to convince a character, then choosing the option anyway just to see the reaction.Also, the mandatory low intelligence play through.

"Are you a maker of war, or peace?"
1. Pizza.
2. Warm.
3. Huh?

Congratulations to MistaX88 for being the first to get his map submitted. Just ran through it and had a blast. Well done.

I really enjoyed DOOM4. I would only play in small bursts though. Like, literally once I finished a chapter I would quit and do something else for a while.

I definitely liked it more than Doom 3. That's on my personal worst games of all time list.

Just finished DOOM (2016). I had a blast, but I immediately uninstalled because the file size is ridiculous, considering all the DLC is for the subpar multiplayer portion. I don't need it on my hard drive anymore.

TWHL POCKETS will be fully "defreemanised" before release.

Suit charge is up to the mapper really. There is no way to strip it in vanilla goldsource, so the player may well enter your map with full suit charge already.

Intercoursey

Shit yes!

Reverend
Spigotflaps
toss
gesticulating
hats
brown thing
green things
crumpet
flap
flap
trifle
defenstrated (a perfectly cromulent word)
The Walrus Massacre of '83

---

technical
discombobulater
toes
extract
replicate
oneself
expunge

---

Professor at Butt-Nugget University
seething hatred
grandfathers
reverberating
stop
big, shiny crystal
snot globules

That was very fulfilling to fill out in full... Phil

Yeah, not a smart move at all. What do people expect to come of this? I forsee tension between Valve and Laidlaw and restrictions on / removal of the public review system.

I'm planning to download Destiny 2 during the open beta this week. Thing is, it's running from today (Tues 29th) to Thursday the 31st... The middle of the week.

DUMB!

Not only have we just come out of a three day weekend here in the UK, my understanding is that there is a long weekend in the US this coming weekend as well... Why run an open beta in the middle of the week!?

So, I'll be downloading tonight, maybe playing Wednesday and Thursday if nothing else takes my fancy. My understanding is it's a game that is better with friends... but that's out the window now.

Seriously... middle of the week for an open beta?

EDIT

Ok... so I'm kind of annoyed that I really enjoyed Destiny 2's beta... The opening at least. The rest of the beta is multiplayer and none of my friends are playing it!

Huh? Why not?

And here we are. I spoke of my return to this shore. It has been a circuitous path to lands I once knew, and surprising to see how much the terrain has changed. Enough time has passed that few remember me, or what I was saying when last I spoke, or what precisely we hoped to accomplish. At this point, the resistance will have failed or succeeded, no thanks to me. Old friends have been silenced, or fallen by the wayside. I no longer know or recognize most members of the research team, though I believe the spirit of rebellion still persists. I expect you know better than I the appropriate course of action, and I leave you to it. Expect no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final epistle.

It's this paragraph that makes me think that development of the Half-Life series is perhaps being actively suppressed by Gabe and the other senior staff at Valve. I know they say that developers work on what they want and there is no hierarchy, which is a nice idea, but I think it's utter bullshit. There are definitely Project Leads that distribute work. There are people that handle the company accounts, that advise which projects prove more profitable (the likes of DOTA2 and CSGO). There has to be an individual who handles the hiring and firing of each individual working for the company, and that person will no doubt have a position of seniority, taking on people with skills that are relevant to the company's goals.

And here we are. I spoke of my return to this shore. It has been a circuitous path to lands I once knew, and surprising to see how much the terrain has changed.

I believe this is Marc saying that it has been a long time since he wrote anything for Valve, specifically for the Half-Life series, continuing on to say that the overall focus of the company as a whole has changed.

Enough time has passed that few remember me, or what I was saying when last I spoke, or what precisely we hoped to accomplish.

Marc hasn't had any creative input within Valve for a long time, possibly even years before he finally retired. This is confirmed by his next sentence, where he states it would be "no thanks to me."

At this point, the resistance will have failed or succeeded, no thanks to me.

The 'resistance' I think refers to Valve.

Old friends have been silenced, or fallen by the wayside. I no longer know or recognize most members of the research team, though I believe the spirit of rebellion still persists

Old friends being silenced or falling by the wayside? This is why I think that Valve was actively dismissing ideas or pitches regarding Episode 3. The company has changed, people have come and gone, but there are a handful of people who want to work on the kinds of games that once made Valve great.

I expect you know better than I the appropriate course of action, and I leave you to it. Expect no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final epistle

To Gabe: You've clearly made your decision about how Valve should operate from here on. Marc hasn't written anything for the company in a long time, and should they return to form and work on story driven adventures again, he wants no part of it. He is done.

Bottom line, Valve has changed significantly, and has become a company where writers are no longer important.

I'm pushing the initial deadline back. Good news for any of you who have not yet started or even if you're just struggling... such as me. I'm cheating, ok?

Updated the initial post.

On the one hand, a massive weight has been lifted.

On the other... I'd really like to play this.

I wonder if Crowbar Collective could pick this up after they release Xen.

The map itself can be as big as you like. If the player can't get up there, you get a pass.

...I have no idea what is happening.

Is this mod gonna be ld or hd

I'm going LD, but it's essentially up to the mapper for custom models and then ultimately the player for everything else.