HL : Source (Full Overhaul Modification)

Yeah, getting specific people to specialise on more specific tasks would probably be a good idea. I also suggest, when recruiting, try to find people with plenty of experience. It's great that people who are just learning how to model\map\etc are getting into modding, but a big thing like this is probably way too ambitious for people who are just getting used to their software.
 
Yeh i hear that,

Although i am encouraging people who's skills are "lacking" to keep up the practise, never know what they could produce if they put their mind to it.

Actually giving them something which could contribute to the mod and their skills means alot to people. Even if it doesn't turn out quite good enough, they'll have learnt a fair bit so could improve on it next time.

Why we're going to be openly cooperating with the community, if someone outside the team wants to give something a shot, we'll give them feedback and see what they can come up with. Might be well worth our time, it usually is i find.
 
Personaly I think what jheaddon is planning is gr8, I always thought that Black Mesa should be a bit more futrureistic, and the new tram looks gr8

Personally I dont see how making the tram look amazing will destroy Half Life
 
Although i personally wouldn't complain at the challenge, i think Logic has this one correct
 
A tram like that would certainly look cool, but to me, it just wouldn't be Black Mesa. :shrug:
 
Incidentally, a bit further into the project when you start dealing with sound, I will most likely have time to (and be very happy to) help out in that department. Since a lot of the sound will stay the same (no way can dialogue be re-done, for example), and Half-Life 2 will also be a possible source for sounds (hev suit, crowbar, magnum etc), the work needed in this department would be less than other mods of this size, but you may want to spruce up some of the environmental sound, and various other things. If you do, let me know. I'm currently already on a mod team (neotokyo, currently a UT2k4, and soon to be HL2, mod) which is why I wouldn't join another mod team where all content had to be created from scratch, but I don't mind working on something like this, which will be fairly long term and won't involve a complete sound overhaul.

I'm learning an incredible amount about game sound design from working on neotokyo right now, and I also have a degree in Audio Engineering ;)
 
jheaddon said:
Yeh nice idea with the skipping, sure can get a little annoying after a few plays!

Zeus - We're not going anywhere :) Also, what makes you think they will be hard to replicate? I think they'd be fairly easy to replicate at the same level as they currently are.

They will of course look stunning with the HL2 capabilities :)

AI is another thing, at first i suggested keeping to HL1 type of AI, but experimenting with HL2 NPC AI, see how it works out? Not sure how well it would work with the HL story layout in Black Mesa, would sure be interesting against the marines and such though
Click to expand...

You mean you can remodel the 3 tentlicle monster, gargantua, and nihlanth and animate them? Nice.
 
Logic - Feel free, i had planned to to get someone to try make nice high quality replicas of all music and audio files. Maybe a voice actor or two for new models? e.g. if have many scientists - no clones.

Zeus - Anything like that can be done, would take some time to get done properly though, hence why the project is going to be fairly long lasting
 
The original HL music was CD quality, you won't be needing any higher quality than that, so I really don't think replicating the music is necessary, unless you want changes to the music itself. I've always thought it'd be a whole lot of fun to do an alternate, orchestral soundtrack for Half-Life, but of course recording live orchestras isn't exactly cheap :p .. Maybe one day.

Quite a good idea getting different voice actors for different scientists, though it wouldn't be worth it unless the quality of the voice acting was top notch. Still a possibility though. Some of the game audio could definately benefit from re-doing, so that would probably make up the bulk of the needed audio work.
 
Hmm thats a good point, would be interesting to do, but yeh not sure i've got the kind of cash lying around...sorry

I was thinking about making Black Mesa really populated, so not just a few scientists working here and there. Any thoughts?

I'll make a list up of sounds which HL needs, see what ones HL2 has which might be able to use if nicer quality than originals.
 
Perhaps not add more people, but just make the ones there more active. Rather than just walking around, looking at walls, they could probably be given more active tasks to do, or more complex things to discuss with each other.

I think part of the atmosphere of Black Mesa is the vastness of the complex.. it was probably much bigger than it needed to be for the scientists, because there was presumably much more going on when it was a military facility. The population of workers at BM was, for it's size, relatively low.
 
Damn you sure know alot about HL..

Like i said if more people were added it wouldn't be a worthless hoard. But like you said making them more interactive and less similiar would be just as good.
 
hehe, it's more speculation than knowlege.. I definately read somewhere that BM was previously a military operated nuclear facility. I'm just assuming that that explains why a lot of the facility is relatively empty, or just used for storage (boxes, anyone?) - the science teams at Black Mesa seemed to be running a smaller operation than the facility was designed for originally.
 
It was mentioned in many previews that Black Mesa was formerly a nuclear silo (Hence why there's the various missle silo's hanging around)

As for the Hazard Course, Half-Life: Decay (The PS2 co-op campaign, which I would suggest anyone who plans on remaking the HL levels should play before they start messing with stuff) expounds on a few more areas of Black Mesa, including a romp through the bowels of the Hazard Course and a trip through the Dorm rooms.

Also, the PS2 version of Half-Life has updated maps (Which includes stuff like better constructed levels (The offices at the beginning of the Tram ride have windows and doors now; various akward level design was fixed to make the game a little bit less obvious a video game) and a quick scene before the Hazard Course where a scientist talks about a waiver you signed "I Gordon Freeman hereby waive all rights blah blah blah, injury, dismemberment, blah blah blah..." before sending you down the elevator.
 
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Hmm shame consoles are a waste of cash :/

The idea of gordon registering first was already planned anyway

thanks tho
 
Hear is the monorail I'm working on. I'm now determined to get work done because I've been too lazy lately. I usually have to recreate a model so I'm prepared to do that with this. It shows the basic shape of the monorail I'm creating. I'd like to hear some feed back.
monorail.jpg
 
NetWarriorDan - Ooh nice highpoly :)

pickers - Business Information Systems Management
 
needs microbeveling.. then tons and tons and tons of geometry detail put on it.

Then tons of high res textures and effects, bake all that to a low poly version, jobs a goodun and you've got your first mod model. :D:D:D
 
ya know, the one thing you could do would just be to borrow some of the weapons from CSS and HL2 (when it arrives) and use those modles, ass well as use the HC's from HL2 and the zombies too, except they'd need an update to match the scientists or security etc.

Theres sooooo much stuff you could do with HL to make it cooler its not even funny.... brain storm children....
 
I wouldn't mind helping out with this project in any way I could (I even had this idea myself a while ago [before they announced hl:s])


As an idea, to make the tram ride in the beggining less repetative and easier to swallow time after time, well for one, seeing as the whole thing would be updated then people will just be staring at all of the sexy new graphics outside of the tram and all the scenery and such. But as an idea, with HL2's new facial animaiton system, you could add a flat screen moniter in the front of the tram thats all black with just the shoulders and up of a woman (like use a remade gina model or something, or the girl from the training course) who's actually saying all of the stuff on the tram ride.

I don't know, seemed like a good idea at the time.

Nice looking new tram btw.
 
MrWhite said:
I wouldn't mind helping out with this project in any way I could (I even had this idea myself a while ago [before they announced hl:s])


As an idea, to make the tram ride in the beggining less repetative and easier to swallow time after time, well for one, seeing as the whole thing would be updated then people will just be staring at all of the sexy new graphics outside of the tram and all the scenery and such. But as an idea, with HL2's new facial animaiton system, you could add a flat screen moniter in the front of the tram thats all black with just the shoulders and up of a woman (like use a remade gina model or something, or the girl from the training course) who's actually saying all of the stuff on the tram ride.

I don't know, seemed like a good idea at the time.

Nice looking new tram btw.
Click to expand...
Why would you need to make the tram ride better? It's already brilliant and with source graphics... mmmm... Source...
 
AJ Rimmer said:
Why would you need to make the tram ride better? It's already brilliant and with source graphics... mmmm... Source...
Click to expand...

Yes the first time, but it can get a bit repetative 2 or 3 time sinto the game. and besides that it would just be cool
 
Hey dudes

I guess I could help out with the facial animations, unless the Source Engine totally takes care of that by itself somehow magically.
 
I might be able to design..some levels.. Im getting into level designing, nothing for sure though....

You know... you could make HL look pretty good just by going map and bump mapping the textures or something. I mean, it would make it look better.

I'm no expert mapper, but I'm not half bad...though as im on a 56k and don't feel like preloading HL2(dling other stuff), I can't really check out the new hammer or anything.
 
I do like the monitor idea and please add glass. I know it isn't like the original but glass would just make it a little more interesting.
 
Holy Crap!


I completely forgot about this until i saw the front page


The Xen Designs look amazing!
 
I don't want to be the one to constantly come in and say "don't change things!" but... making xen 'biomechanical'? Xen was pretty much entirely organic, I don't see why the actual design of it has to be changed, you could easily make a true-to-original organic xen heaps better with better geometry etc etc... just a thought.
 
I like the concept of biomechanical..should add a nice touch. I vote leave it.
 
Plus it might do more with the HL2 story, if the combine have anything to do with Xen
 
BRODIEMAN2k4 said:
Plus it might do more with the HL2 story, if the combine have anything to do with Xen
Click to expand...
But its not the real HL story. Only VALVe can tell that.

I'd like to see an update mod that stays true to the original. But I'd play it either way.
 
f|uke said:
I'd like to see an update mod that stays true to the original.
Click to expand...
Ditto. I'd prefer a high res version of the original, (think the G-man or the alien slaves from HL2), rather than an 'improved' version of HL. The same thing with the maps; up the poly count, add bump mapping the overall amount of detail, but don't mess with the layout (even though jumping puzzles bite the big one).

As for the name, HLSE is good (IMO) as you can be really ambiguious about what the SE part stands for: Second Edition, Special Edition, Source Enhanced, Second Experiment, Sometimes Erratic, Silly Experiment....

You get the drift.:)
 
f|uke said:
But its not the real HL story. Only VALVe can tell that.

I'd like to see an update mod that stays true to the original. But I'd play it either way.
Click to expand...
This one, by all accounts is staying true to the original.

Maps - they'll be familiar, just more detailed, larger where needed, extra area's.. Things Valve would have done in HL1 but couldn't because of the technology at the time. All the well loved locations will still be there, just worked on because there's more possible now.

Yes Xen does look different, doesn't mean it wont be any more enjoyable, it just fits in better now with the way the combine look. A "dirtier" biomechanical world than the cleaner combine style, but still recognisable. Besides, the Garg and that headcrab laying thingy were very Biomechanical in nature.. As was the tentacles, barnacles etc. Heck the Headcrabs are a direct rip from Face Huggers.

Where before it had to be a faked window, now it can look out on the outside properly, not all locked doors will be just a texture, many can now lead off into newly made area's.

HL1:S is fine.. but if your gonna redo it, might aswell redo it from scratch and do the best job ya can.

I'll play it, looks like it could be fun.
 
I'm not sure if you even know what you are up to if you intend to redo everything from scratch on a new engine that requires twice the work and time than HL1. You would need a team of more than ten mappers and like 15 other people to create something within a reasonable time frame.
 
-Stratesiz- said:
I'm not sure if you even know what you are up to if you intend to redo everything from scratch on a new engine that requires twice the work and time than HL1. You would need a team of more than ten mappers and like 15 other people to create something within a reasonable time frame.
Click to expand...
So your saying just because something takes a while to do it shouldn't be done?

I don't agree with that. I would rather play a mod made from a couple of people who took their time and had fun, than a mod rushed out in a few months by a large team all butting heads together at every turn.
 
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