Hey I've an idea for a mod! Wanna help out?... please... - oh go on!

[SillyBilly]

Ello der ya’all! Here’s a good one for ‘ya – I’m looking to establish a mod team to work on a present day tactical FPS modification for Half-Life 2 based on real international counter terrorism squads – but wait, hold your firing back a little bit until you hear me out. :bounce:

Firstly, a little about me - my name is William Barr, I’m resident in Northern Ireland, have a keen interest in 3D modelling and am currently using 3Ds Max 5. I have modded games in the past - the likes of Unreal and Ghost Recon - but this admittedly is the first time ‘big project’ I have planned.

The mod that we will eventually develop will not simply be another Counter Strike - Counter Terrorist vs Terrorist clone – as is now implied by using the term tactical shooter in this day and age. Instead Reinstatement (working title) aims to deliver both a fast passed and violently realistic… erm, counter terrorism experience – ahem. Think Rainbow Six – but faster.

Missions will be based on real world locations with a variety of campaign modes – each Militery Force will undertake a different campaign – with different missions and advisories.

At the start of the game your create your character – customising their appearance and attributes (sort of in a RPG style, also I’d like to investigate the player being able to add their own appearance to characters), once your assigned a mission you will command a four man ‘entry team,’ a second NPC entry team will act in a mission that you have a limited control over. You will be able to choose the other characters operating with you and assign them specific weapons, equipment and uniforms.
Once that’s finished the mission begins with an opening in-game cinematic (i.e. your operatives clambering slowly down the side of a building or jumping out of a chunnok helicopter on top of a building etc) at which point the camera switches to first person and you control your team from there, while the second team start their root.

You can control your operatives using onscreen commands by pressing the action key over an object will bring up a basic menu of what you can command your comrades to do, with a submenu for more advanced orders (i.e. ‘clear room’ then chose their entry ‘door open/ door breach/ door kick’ and finally if they area to throw any objects into the room ‘frag grenade/ stun grenade/ gas grenade/ smoke grenade’ etc. An example would read when a door is highlighted ‘clear> kick> stun’ and so on.
A closing cinematic signifies the successful or unsuccessful outcome of a mission – then it’s off to the next location.

The missions should be short, fast, violently realistic and full of activity from start to finish (i.e. no long periods of walking about doing noting – when the teams go in it’s a race to find hostages before the terrorists execute them). This will involve lots of voice acting as as soon as shooting starts things will get frantic.
Players after a slightly less realistic but more cinematic experience will have the option to listen to music in-game, once action picks up the music plays faster etc – but they can turn it off all together.

I’ve included with this post some stimulus material – namely a paramilitary terrorist model I have been working on (equipped with stereotypical balaclava & tactical assault vest – waiting to be boned!.. quit laughing – you know what I mean) – he’s not 100% finished just yet but enough is complete for you to get an idea of the photorealism we are trying to achieve.

IMAGES: Front View - Back View - Face - birdseye View

This mod will be very realistic, very violent, very enjoyable to play and very… erm… pretty…

I’m sure a few of you guys may knock it’s originally – but the main aim of this project is to create a game that’s enjoyable – regardless of genre.

So finally, finally – what do we want from you guys!
Well – we’re after a lead coder, a few other modellers/ skinners (for weapons, static meshes, characters etc), mappers, script writers (every mission needs a realistic background after all) and Valve’s HL2 SDK so I don’t ever have to touch XSI again.

So if you’re interested in contributing drop me an e-mail or reply here with a few examples of past projects… ‘Till we meet again – ta ta!

Oh – should have pointed out – at the moment we do not have a website live and kicking – expect that to change by the start of next month

 

[Adrien C]

Man good luck, but you should stay away from CS clones.

 

[merc]

I agree, try something more away from terrorists or counter terrorists no matter what... I am actually trying to get a mod team together, and so far we got about 3 people - two modellers, a mapper, and a concept artist... i hope your mod goes well but if you cant get anything going pm me maybe we can combine teams or something

-merc

 

[SillyBilly]

Lol – oh the shocking truth of it all! well if all else fails I’ll ‘ave to try and pilfer other modders from different communities and unite them under the amazing HL2 banner – muhahahaha… ahem.
But seriously - I like ye ole good vs evil in a tactical military shooter kinda way, as I’m sure a lot of other of you minions in the so called “real world” do too – the selling point (or well, downloading point) of this mod will simply be the quality – not just visually but with fun set peaces, enjoyable missions that grab you by the genitals and simply don’t let go until you’ve finished.
Nevertheless here’s those damned pictures again – ENJOY!

IMAGES: Front View - Rear View - Face View - Birdseye View

 

[Kyorisu]

Whatever floats your boat the more power to you. Hopefully your mod will be a success and some people will find joy in playing something other than CS for once.

 

[SillyBilly]

Cheers for the quick responses guys – and I understand where all of you are coming from. I’ll have a few more images and hopefully acquired an extra team member or two soon.

 

[dassbaba]

sillybilly the try is valiant but there are already too many ct vs t mods

and the model is great but the arms are too thin

 

[Desolator]

im in!, ps, you need bumb/normal mapss!

 

[2ltben]

Normal Maps for sure. You can get 15,000 poly looking faces on a 1,000 poly face

 

[63]

"present day tactical FPS modification for Half-Life 2 based on real international counter terrorism squads"

/me runs away

Why can't anyone do a Football (soccer) Hooligan mod? Don't let them leave the stadium and trash their own city!

 

[2ltben]

LOL. Great idea. There could be a Boston, Massachusetts map, where you have to stop the other team from climbing trees and being too scared from getting down, or from flipping over 3 ton SUVs parked along the streets in celebration. I swear on that night I was GLAD there was 1 hour distance by car between Plymouth and Boston.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Alot of ideas there, but I think it's a little mainstream. However I like the realism stuff.

 

[SillyBilly]

Check out this link for a later version of that model btw: http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=27169

- you can fire it some more there – although I understand what you mean about bump mapping, will start to look into it some more.

In the meantime we have a website that should be online before the weekend (http://www.reinstatement-mod.co.uk) and yes we’re still on the lookout for more members… so come on lads! Have a heart!

"present day tactical FPS modification for Half-Life 2 based on real international counter terrorism squads"
- Six Three, don’t lose heart – this is hard core, realistic, fact based yet enjoyable action - not simply another arcade/ blaster CT v T CS clone. In time I still hope to woo you… oh and convince you that the mod isn’t going to be shite too… lol

 

[Onions]

tactical shooters are getting old man, sit back, have a guinness, and think hard about if you really want to be 1 in 1000 tactical shooter hl2 mods

 

[SillyBilly]

Well – take for example Hidden and Dangerous 2 – a bloody hard game that is as realistic as you’re likely to get (albeit in real life you don’t have quick saves ), the feeling of achievement that you receive when you eventually complete that mission that has been bugging you for days is immense. – When you finally are able to duck that sniper bullet – or when you’re finally able to defend your base from Nazi attack without suffering any losses its very satisfying. This is the audience (if you will) that Reinstatement is aimed at. Games like CS (in my opinion) are simply Quake deathmatchs with stereotypical terrorist/ counter-terrorist skins – a formula that this mod will avoid. I say the mod is fast paced – yet realistic as in real life when an ‘entry team’ assaults a building to eliminate a threat inside – they don’t hang about – it is a sprint, a very demanding sprint at that – this is the feeling that the mod will give to the player. Missions will be hard – and players will have to develop their skills to finish them ‘successfully.’ It’s this achievement that we hope will make the mod enjoyable and very rewarding.

As for Onion’s point – yes it is a valid one mate, there are thousands (well – maybe not thousands) – but lots of ‘tactical shooter’ mods that will be developed for HL2 – but, I’m a firm believer that a mod will only be a success if it is in fact a very good mod. Think HL1’s big players – Gunman/ CS/ DoD/ Hostile Intent etc – these mods weren’t nessacerally bursting with originality – they where just bloody good.

This project is an ambitious one – but if it wasn’t, then I believe it would simply slip into the abyss – an ordinary mod. Personally I intend to spend a lot of my time developing this to ensure that it is as good – and as attractive to the HL public as possible. I want people to enjoy it and get satisfaction from conquering it.

 

[63]

Fad of the Future: Swamp Wars. Mark my Words.

 

[ReDGuNNeR]

I assume that the campaigns are for singleplayer, and if they are, my opinion is that instead of using various counter-terrorism squads, is to follow one squad's exploits throughout a period of time (unless Ct's are called in every day to work). Instead of playing as a generic squad for a couple of missions, and switching to another squad for a few other missions. It would be cooler to follow one experience, and it could all be tied in. For example, in Training, you meet the rest of your team while you learn how to play the game.

When you actually start the game(when you click New Game) you will head out to your assignment and you already know about the team and a little bit about the mission (in Training, your buddies are talking about a group of terrorists have taken over an embassy, and they think the conflict will only last a few hours). 2 weeks later, the standoff has escalated and they have taken control of more buildings (in whatever country) and you are called in to retake them all.


lol, I just realized ive been going on for quite awhile, hope you like (and read) my treatment of the overplayed CT vs Terrorists genre...

I can help you with the story if you like my idea

 

[SillyBilly]

Ponder… lol – this thread has received a lese of life! But not a bad suggestion at all. Yes it will be a single player mod – although we are looking at co-operative multi-player too – where one person leads Assault team one with three AI player while player two leads the second team – again with three AI characters – each entering from different points… Would only be 2 player though – an early idea we want to develop – but we’re concentrating on single player.
The idea of bonding with your team mates is a good one – means that if one of them is killed you might actually feel pitty for them – after they’ve told you about they’re new wife – who’s nine months pregnant.
The reason, though, why we originally wanted to use a variety of teams wasn’t nessacerally to appeal to a wider audience (say a German might prefer playing the role of a GSG 9 character while a Brit would want the hardened SAS) but because these types of hostage-esk type missions don’t happen everyday (on an international scale I mean) that’s why we initially thought that having lots of short – maybe only 4 missions to a campaign would seem more believable than having one mad 16 mission adventure.

Nevertheless – a few good points – our website opens its doors this Sunday – http://www.reinstatement-mod.co.uk – drop us a line there if you have any subjections or wanna lend a hand.

 

[Hl2Fan1687]

i made some music a few days ago if you want to put it in your mod. just e-mail me