Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

[FISKER_Q]

From: x
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 5:07 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Custom AI?


Hello Rick Ellis,

Some people from the HL2.net and myself are discussing the instance of scripted sequences and/or AI Hints.

I think that people are confusing Scripts/Scripted Sequences with AI Hints. AI Hints might make it look like it's scripted, but it only like a pointer to the AI itself.

Anyways one said that you have made a hint to the AI that if it encounters (possible?) falling objects from the player, it will then try to position itself under the object, it's not about if it's true.

But the question comes to this.

Wouldn't it be cool if you could like customize your gaming experience by maybe either choosing difficulty level, or make a custom one where you can decide how the AI should react. So is this one of the plans? Like making an abillity for a customizing AI so you can make the game either more hollywood like, or more sneaky like?

*** We don't have this type of functionality in HL2 but you could certainly do this as a mod.

Rick
Valve

Regards,
x

Edit Commentary: I think it would be cool if anyone made a mod like this once HL2 is out, think of the possibilities of whacky AI's

 

[BladeTurbo]

-----Original Message-----
From: Livesay, Brad
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 1:12 PM
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: HL: Source

Hello Mr. Lombardi,

First I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your team for the wonderful job on the original Half-Life (which I still play every now and then) and for keeping us informed on the status of HL2. This is where Valve Software shines; you do what 99.9% of the other developers fail to do, keep your fans informed. The question I am hoping you can answer is regarding the use of the Source engine on the original Half-Life. I read the interview you did with Boomtown, but I’m confused on a couple things. The first is, will the HL: Source be available as a bundle when you purchase HL2 or will you have to buy it separately? This leads to my second question. If the changes are invisible, what would be the benefit? Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this.

Thank You
Brad Livesay

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your interest in our games, and for taking the time to write to us.

Regarding HL1 Source, there are subtle changes throughout the game. You'll see new features such as physics and the shader system being used. In additon, the lighting on the world and characters will look better, with shadows and more.

We have not yet announced the specifics on how we will make all of this available, but we will be releasing that information soon.

Cheers

 

[CoolFunkMan]

Just some info on the HL2: Collectors Edition...

From : Doug Lombardi <[email protected]>
Sent : 20 May 2004 21:20:02
To : "xxxx xxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject : RE: HL2 Collectors Edition availability...?



Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to write to us, and for your interest in our
games.

The details on the collector's editions are still being finalized. But
we hope to offer them around the world. Soon as we have the final pieces
in place, we'll get the word out on this.

Cheers

-----Original Message-----
From: Iain Morton [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 1:03 AM
To: Doug Lombardi
Subject: HL2 Collectors Edition availability...?

Hello, I was just wondering something about the HL2 Collectors Edition.

Will it be released world-wide, or just be limited to the US? I remember
the
UT2004 Collectors Edition never saw the light of day over here in
Europe, which has my kinda worried.

Thanks if you can reply, as I know you're busy with HL2, and congrats
for another excellent showing at E3 this year.

All the best to you and everyone at Valve...

 

[Axyon]

Anyone else that thinks they're funny by posting false information in this thread will be dealt with much more seriously from now on. You have been warned.

 

[WhiteBoy]

From: Kyle
Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2004 11:09 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: What hardware do you guys use?


I am sorry if you were the wrong person to ask about this, but with you being in the position you are, I thought you would.

I was wondering what are the basic specs on the computers that Source was developed on. I wouldn't mind knowing this so I know what would be a good setup for a computer for major modding of the engine. Also, I suspect the systems there are running on high in processors, and I was wondering what you used for the cooling of the computers since I know from experience that a decently fast CPU can run extremely hot under heavy loads.

Hi Kyle,

We generally use the fastest hardware we can get. Most developers, level designers and artists have 2.5GHz machines or faster with 1G of ram and all are running ATI 9600+ or GeForce 5000 series or better graphics cards. You don't need that type of machine for making mods or building the game, but it certainly helps.

Rick
Valve

 

[KiNG]

iv had this a for a lil while thought i could share i guess.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Basoco [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2004 11:04 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Questions about Source

hiya

I feel like i have someone on the "inside" when i e-mail you =P
thank you for answering my e-mails. Iv managed to gather a few more
questions about your Source Tech and i hope you would be able to answer
them. Thank you in advance even if u choose not to answer.

In this Video:
http://www.havok.com/products/Zombie.avi
havok displays its animation blending. Are you planning to add this
feature? (this would be amazing)

How many more features are u planning to add to Source before its
released? (the main ones would be nice to know if any =) )

Im so damn interested in hl2 and source i just want to know more about
them, any information you can give me i would be very appreciative. i
hope you get a nice break after hl2 is shipped.

KiNG


Subject: RE: Questions about Source
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 09:08:15 -0700
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]>
To: "David Basoco" <[email protected]>


Hi David,

We're using a version of Havok prior to V2.0 with A LOT of custom code
added. While you won't see the exact thing they show in their videos,
you'll see that we preserve momentum in our ragdolls and a few other
tricks to give the same perception. Preserving momentum allows running
enemies to ragdoll and continue with their motion as the ragdoll flops
around.

We are pretty locked down on the tech with HL2 so any of the bigger
ticket features will have to wait until after the game ships. Having
said this, you haven't seen all of the current features of the engine
yet.

Rick
Valve

 

[Rossell]

-----Original Message-----
From: Rossell Inc [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 6:33 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: HL2 (I bet all subjects look like this )

Good morning. I was just wondering how do you think the hardcore
Half-Life massive will react when they reach the end of HL2? Do you
think they'd be gobsmacked?

Cheers mate and nice going with HL2. It looks the bomb.

I think the hard core audience will be amazed...

Rick
Valve

 

[poseyjmac]

---

From: asdf asdf [mailtodesertmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2004 5:55 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: question about darkness, flashlights in HL2


I'm a mapmaker and I'm wondering if in HL2 we can make truly dark levels where you will need a flashlight to maneuver around certain areas AND im wondering if the darkness is true black, so that people can't turn up their brightness and see everything? splinter cell: pandora tomorrow does this well. i plan on making some scary levels with hl2 so this is why I'm wondering. thanks for any reply

-Jon

<-----Original Message----->
From: Rick Ellis
Sent: 5/24/2004 12:43:37 PM
To: @desertmail.com
Subject: RE: question about darkness, flashlights in HL2

Yes, darkest = black in our levels.

Rick
Valve

 

[Raziaar]

I put all of ricks replies in quote form. to distinguish them.

Hi Raziaar,
See my answers below.

Thanks,
Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: Raziaar [mailto:********(took my e-mail address out)]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 4:03 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Source Physics Engine: Flight?


Hello Rick!

I've e-mailed to ask about the source engine and its ability to simulate
flight.

It struck me that when Gordon picked up the sign of ravenholm in one of
the 2004 E3 demos, and shot it, it flew a much shorter vertical distance
than say, a barrel might. I know objects in the game have mass, but i'm
also guessing they also produce drag if their shape would realistically
do so. It sure seemed that when he shot the sign up it didn't fly as far, and
so much differently because of its drag characteristics.

*** Well there is drag in the game and there objects also have mass.
The lower mass of the sign would mean it would have less momentum when
it had the same force applied to it that the barrel has (think what
happens if you get hit at 5 mph by a bicycle vs. a car

I was also thinking, that if you modelled a paper airplane or something
with very low mass and decent flight characteristics, would it actually
'glide' in the game? Or would it just fall to earth like a stone, and if
so, do all objects just fall to earth like a stone? You guys said in the
past its possible to make a game like bf1942 using the game engine, if
things are scaled appropiately, but if you did, can you have a more
realistic flight model than that game, or would you have to cheat the
flight dynamics like they did to achieve it?

This might be possible, however a paper plane has lift created via the
wings that it has, which means it would fly instead of fall (all objects
without lift fall given gravity). You could simulate this in a mod if
you wanted by setting the gravity to something other than 1.0 for that
object. We do some of this with things like grenades to make them have
lofty trajectories instead of flat ones (they look more realistic that
way).

If you could answer these questions, it would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely, Raziaar

 

[Talos248]

Hi Markus,

Please see my comments below.

Thanks,
Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: Markus B. [mailto:*****@*****.de]
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 10:12 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: questions concerning Half-Life 2

Dear Mr. Ellis,

first of all I'd like to thank you for the wonderfull game experience
I've had with Half-Life. I've got my copy directly from Sierra here in
germany as a present because i made my practical work there in 1998.
Now with Half-Life 2 coming I am pretty curious about some things. I
hope you have the time to answer some of my question, but I understand
if you can't answer them because there may be other things to worry
about with the upcoming sommer release.
So these are my questions:

1. Is the coast level seen in the e3 2004 video the same level we've
seen in the e3 2003 video or is it another part of the game wich just
seems to be quite equal?

** The coast in the game is a very big place so what you've seen isn't
exactly the same place but it's in the same area as the 2003 demo. The
coast is one of my favorite places in the game just because of the
vastness of the area.

2. If i throw a paint can at an enemy will the paint be on his body as
it was on the wall?

*** If Source had fluid dynamics this would likely happen automatically,
however we don't so you'd have to simulate this (which is quite possible
and not too difficult to if you were making a mod).

3. Do you now anything about the Collectors Edition now? I think you
don't know anything about the extras by now but what about the package
design? Will the game be in a normal amaray case or be in some super
special lether or metal case? Will the Half-Life 1 source port be in
that Collectors Edition or will the source port be sold separatly?

*** Doug Lombardi is your guy for questions like this. I'm not aware of
what's in the collector's edition, etc.

4. I am so curious about that Half-life 1 port (I am nearly as ecited
about that port as i am about Half-Life 2) - When can the community
expect first media (screenshots, videos...) about that source port?

*** We will be announcing more information about the ports soon. Please
stay tuned for that information.

5. At this E3 you said that the game is still a few weeks from the beta
stage (acording to this link: http://www.halflife2.net/ and its news -
19th May). I always thought that a game that has reached the beta stage
is still months away from the final 'gone gold' status or is "beta" a
very expandable term?

*** There's alpha and beta phases in most projects. Where one ends and
the other starts is different for every company. Beta for us is the
very last stage of development, with final polishing and minor tweaks
taking place so it doesn't necessarily have to be a long drawn out
process.

Thank you for reading i hope to hearing from you soon. And good luck
(although you don't need it) on this project! I am sure this game will
redifine the genre as Half-Life did back in 1998!

*** Thanks for your interest in Half-Life 2 and the Source ports.

Rick

Yours sincerely
Markus B. - A Half-Life fan since 'day one'

 

[63]

Hello Gabe,

Recently you gave an interview to a Swedish magazine GameReactor.
In this interview you said that "Marc Laidlaw wrote a 1000-pages thick bible on the Half-Life universe after the first game and as I said earlier there is lots and lots to tell." If the translation is correct (http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=23362), will this
"bible" be publicly available? You have a lot of HL followers VERY interested...

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

- Waiting patiently for summer...
Alex Dunfee



Hi Alex,

Your message was forwarded to me by several people at Valve, asking about a 1000 page bible of HL backstory. I'm not sure of the translation myself, but I suspect what Gabe meant was that I have written easily 1000+ pages in working out the story between HL and HL2...over the years we have overhauled the script and story several times, creating the equivalent of half a dozen screenplays in addition to gameplay and design specs. Some of it has gone into HL2; some may go into future expansions. We generate a ton of material and hone it down to a minimum, seeking the right balance for the game. We try to put all the important information into the game itself; it's there for the player to discover. I don't think we would ever put out a lot of story information outside the games themselves. I believe the story should emerge through the game, or not at all. It's all about the game.

Yrs,

Marc Laidlaw

 

[Varsity]

From: Tom Edwards [mailto:blank]
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 3:49 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Mantling

Hi Gabe, I was wondering if HL2 will feature 'mantling' (auto-climbing/dropping down from scalable objects like in Thief and Prince of Persia)? If not, would it be possible to mod it in?

No it doesn't.

Yes, it would.

 

[UltimaGecko]

Send it around 10pm yesterday, so it's basically a response in 14 hours...It's awesome - I think some of these haven't been posted yet (think a couple have though) anyway, onto the e-mail:

Hi [UltimaGecko (had my name in there, heh)],

Please see my comments below.

Thanks,
Rick
Valve


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [UltimaGecko]
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 10:35 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: HL2 and a couple Steam Questions (hope it's the right guy, heh)


Half-Life 2 looks extremely nice - and it'll be one of those games I get without a demo...if only for the physics alone. I hope you guys are having fun making it, and that most of the fans aren't giving you too much trouble (guess I'd include myself in there, so...sorry for slowing you down ). I've just got a few questions about Steam and HL2:

1. Will Steam's HL2 release allow the user to download the game in different languages if they choose? Also on a similar note, if so, would people who bought it in a store be able to download them too? [kindof awkward, I guess, but I like to play in languages other than English sometimes]
*** Yes, you'll be able to select all of the languages via Steam just as you can now with CZ. Sure, if it's part of the game or updates, a retail user running on Steam will have the ability to play them all.

2. When playing singleplayer games on Steam (such as original Half-Life and Opposing Force) the game seems to take a longer time than it used to for loading. It makes me think it's downloading the .bsps or something, but I'm wonder if (a) HL2 singleplayer will have some strange Steam setup, even if the user isn't connected to the internet, and (b) if the speed single player maps will be obtained from Steam currently is being tweaked.
*** I think this is your perception, games running on Steam shouldn't take any longer to load than games from disc unless of course you waiting for new content to come down from Steam.
[Guess I gotta check out my HL Steam, heh]

3. Have you guys ever tried to put weird sounds into the face-poser, lip-synching thing? Like Bzzzz or meow, or just some messed up sounds most people can't make? [I think it could make some funny faces...]
*** Not that I'm aware of, but there's no reason it wouldn't work.

4. Doors seem to be opened and closed with a use key (as opposed to a 'touch the door', 'be close to a door' or a 'use the door' approach in the original), I can think of some applications of the 'approach the door' form (using triggers in the map design), but (a) I'm wondering if you could just make a brush that has a proximity in the map maker to accomplish this now, and (b) will the use key be used on other things in-game? Like in the E3 2004 videos Gordon goes into the interrogation type room, and while I can only speculate on the awesome plot, the use key could be used to sit down or something.
*** You could put a trigger close to the door that caused the door to open when the player crossed the trigger if you wanted automatic doors. The "use" key is used for lots of things, using the health/suit rechargers, getting into/out of vehicles, etc.

5. A lot of people on various forums are wondering about some parts of the E3 2004 videos. When Gordon is in the crane moving the crates around, the crate and the crane's magnet both have shadows and they overlap on the ground below (I'm pretty sure you guys would have noticed this by now), has this been fixed?
*** We're aware of it.

6. How much of the original E3 2003 was scripted? I've heard that almost all of it was, that most of it was, or that it was just using lots of AI hints. While it would be very cool if the AI was that dynamic I could see that using a lot of hints and some scripting too, so I'm just wondering.
*** That was actual AI that you saw running. We don't have a scripting language in Source, we use entity I/O to connect various pieces of AI together. AI hints are used to tell the AI things like where cover points are, hints on pathing etc.

7. In sites like Gamespy's hands-on preview they say that they sometimes caused dynamic fires in buildings which sometimes caused them to need to leave a building. Assuming it hasn't been removed or anything, (a) How often does it happen and what's it caused by? [grenades mostly, I'd imagine] (b) How common is it? And, (c) is it possible to put fires out? [maybe some water manipulation or something, heh]
*** Many things can cause fire. It is possible to put it out, but I'm not going to tell you how as you'll have to see when you get the game.

8. Is the game engine less dependant on vis-blocking now? I've heard some people say that the L shaped coridors are fairly present, however some areas like the dried-up ocean and some of the city spots seem like they don't require as much or any vis-blocking. So I'm wondering if the engine doesn't really require it anymore because everything's drawn at once, and the only seperation is level changes; or they're just less obvious because of the way the engine works (the area with the ant-lions seemed to have some vis-blocking type coridors, so I'm wondering if it was just the level design or because it's more detailed indoors, so they need more blatant vis-blocking)?
*** Vis-blocking is done for performance reasons. It's used to disable physical objects that the player has no way of touching as well as cutting down what the engine has to draw. We have area-portals that we use in big areas for cutting down visibility etc. They are triggered by the player to "open" areas as needed.

9. Probably unanswerable, but I'll try my luck anyway, heh: Do you guys mark summer as any basic time from May to October, or are we going with actual yearly summer from June 21st to September 22nd? (mid-summer this way would actually end up around my birthday in July, but hey, that's fine with me - that'd be an awesome present ). Maybe you could throw out a month for me (wouldn't have to be accurate, I can accept delays)?
*** We mark Summer's start and end somewhere between Jan 1st and Dec 31st...



Now you really didn't think I'd answer this one did you?
[A man can try, now, can't he? ]

Er...maybe I need a solid number like 10...so...err; 10. have you played through (some/most/all of) the game yet? Hope you guys are having fun making the game...take a nice long break when it's done. Hope you get around to reading my e-mail (but hey, feel free to work on the game instead, it's more important ).

*** Yes I've played through most of the game, it's alot of fun, I hope all of our fans love it as much as we do.

Good luck, have fun.
I'm definately getting Half-Life 2.

UltimaGecko,
[my name ]

 

[lans]

I got answered back in 3 mins...can't believe it!...

It's still in the game, just shut off for the E3 demos.

Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: The defiant one- Irfan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 12:51 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: About the crosshairs...

Dear Rick,
Hope everything is going well with Half-life 2. Well I'll
make this quick, was the crosshair used in last year's E3 (2003) toggled
off in this year's E3? the one which indicated ammo and health - because
personally I thought it was a pretty cool crosshair - or has it been
removed.

Thanks,
Lance.

 

[Wolf]

-----Original Message-----
From: William Fettes
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 2:42 PM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: netcode query

Hi Yahn,

I know Valve is incredibly busy finalising what looks to be their second
GoTY, so I'll make this brief.

I've been trying to find a quote which I vaguely remember a Valve
employee making (I think it was you) about Source's netcode cf. HL1's;
something to the effect that firing a shotgun with hitscan detection in
Source required half the bandwidth of HL1 because of improved
compressibility. I've looked high and low at VERC and the HL2.net Valve
email thread for the actual quote, but to no avail.

What I'm wondering is whether my memory is incorrect. Did I dream this,
thouhg more importantly is it basically true? I'm asking because I'm
kinda the local proselytiser of Valve (as if you guys need one ) on a
particular forum (plug OCAU), and we were debating about how an
ostensible HL2DM game, using the manipulator with a decent quantity of
server side defined physics objects (think relatively frequent barrel
tossing in 32 player), would perform network wise. Most games seem
limited to death client ragdolling in terms of physics, but then again
most games don't have HL1's netcode let alone Source's...

I'd appreciate if you could shed some light on my ramblings...

Cheers,

Will Fettes

It could have been me about the shotgun thing, but probably it was Gabe.
The netcode itself is just a tool used by the game programmers to
replicate data. For things like the HL1 shotgun, we use less bandwidth
due to some system changes, though I'm not sure how to quantify that
specifically. However, because HL2 objects are more complex overall
compared to HL1, I wouldn't want to say that we will use less bandwidth
than HL1. I think "comparable" is about right.

Things like the manipulator will probably work okay (but be lagged of
course) if they run on the server side. Trying to predict the physics
locally to the client to truly predict that particular weapon...that
would be pretty tough.

Yahn

 

[nicrd]

my first post here. Rick answered in about 2 mins.


From: Nicolas Rousseau-Dupuis
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 2:50 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: side scrolling mouse

Hi Rick,

First of all, I want to say you had a great presentation at e3 this year and I'm looking forward to kill some combine soldiers using the Manipulator.

I have a question about controls: I have the Microsoft mouse with side scrolling, will this be supported in the game ? It could be combined with the regular vertical scrolling to change weapon, or to lean.

Thanks for all the support you give to the community.

Nicolas Rousseau-Dupuis

Unfortunately, there aren't enough people with mice like that yet for us to spend the effort adding that feature. If that becomes a popular feature on mice, we might look into adding that in the future.

Thanks,
Rick
Valve

 

[MyrddinE]

From: Myrddin Emrys [mailto:********@******.***]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 11:51 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Subtitles in Other Languages

I have read, from as far back as E3 last year, that you embed the
subtitle information along with the lip syncing into the voice audio
files. This makes localization easy, because the lip syncing and
subtitles are packaged together.

However, will it be possible to show subtitles in a language that does
not match the voice? Can I select voice and subtitle languages
seperately? Sometimes it is fun to get the 'subbed anime' effect,
choosing one language you are learning, and subtitles in a language you
know.

Even if it is not possible in HL2, will it be easy for a mod to allow
the user to select language or subtitles separately, or do the file
formats make this rather complicated?

To: "Gabe Newell" <[email protected]>
From: "Yahn Bernier" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 13:48:06 -0700
Cc: <********@******.***>

We get the subtitling information from a separate data file now, the
sentence data in the .wav is just for phoneme generation now (this has
changed since e3 2003) so yes can play the game with audio in one
language and captions/subtitles in another.

Yahn

Thank you very much for your answer, and good luck on meeting your
Summer release date. I bought a new computer last September... this
time, I'll be waiting for HL2 to go gold before ordering my new video
card. ;-)

 

[Darkknighttt]

Me: Are you looking into getting the friends list fixed on steam? Because I usually have trouble logging on it.

Gabe: Yes, this has been a problem with most people and we have recieved many complaints from this. We are hoping the friends list will be fixed by the time Half-Life 2 ships.

 

[Chris D]

From: Bryan [mailto:*******************]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 4:27 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Sound Question


Hey guys. I'm so eager to Play Half-Life 2, hope it's coming out soon. I have a question about sound cards. I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and I was wondering if these cards are supported for Half-Life 2? I know most people have their Sound Blaster Live/Audigy cards, but what about the ones with the lesser known Sound cards? Can I play with EAX on my Santa Cruz?

You should be fine with that sound card. EAX is a Creative only feature (not something we decide) but you'll still have 5.1 audio if your system supports it.

Rick
Valve

Thanks goes to Bryan for e-mailing me this one.

 

[Chris D]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Deeming [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 4:24 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: BINK

Gabe,

I think I noticed from one of the E3 demonstrations this year that you
ran
one of them from a BINK .exe. Was I mistaken or was this actually the
case.
If this was the case then will you be releasing it soon?

Chris_D
[email protected]

In the ATI booth and the VU booth we were running the game.

In the Sneak Peeks panel, I ran a BINK video off of a laptop. The binks
should be going out shortly.

 

[FISKER_Q]

A little late: But i didn't even see it for all the spam:

If and when we decide to charge $$ per month, we'll be producing content to release each month to ensure there is on-going value to warrant a monthly fee. We don't have any plans like this right now so I can't really comment on it.

Thanks,
Rick
Valve



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: x [mailto:x]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 11:10 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Steam all-games subscription?


Hello again Rick i was wondering about the 10$ a month subscription plan, and i hope you can answer this,

I was thinking, when it goes live, will there be some kind of "trusty member" refund thing?

For example:

I buy the Steam subscription, i pay 10$ a month, then maybe after 2 years, i would think that it doesn't seem worth it anymore.

But when you get in that case, it might just as well not be worth cancelling, even though you want to.

So would there be some kind of lojalty bonus for paying members? Like they could get like a game or 2 of their choice, free when cancelling the subscription. (Of course only working in that way, so you wont get any keys out of it or similar, of course this would also reset his "lojalty" so it doesn't get inherited by future subscriptions)

Cause i think that might be a good idea, so if you decide that you probably won't be using steam subscriptions in the near future, you would be able to like get Half-Life 2 for free so you atleast could play that, as lojalty for all those money he has spent.

Regards,
x

 

[PrivatePanic]

-----Original Message-----
From: "**********" [mailto:***************]
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 10:34 AM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: Question about the German localized Version of HL2

Hello Mr Bernier,


being a HL-Fan from Germany, I have a little question:

Will the German Version of HL2 be cut like HL1 (Yellow blood, robots instead of humans, etc) ?

If this is the case, would there be any possibility to "un-cut" the game while still having German dialogues?

And, finally, I noticed that HL1 automatically downloaded the German localized stuff when I changed my Steam-Language to German - will HL2 do the same?


Thanks,

*************


I don't know, it depends on what is needed to pass the German censorship laws. We don't have the final word on that yet.

Yahn


...not very encouraging for us German HalfLife-Fans, but I still hope

 

[dream431ca]

From: Matthew [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 10:31 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: new info


Hello Rick. Sorry to bother you. I want to make this brief. Will there be any new information regarding Half-life 2 before its release? Thanks.




Yes you should expect to hear more as the release date approaches.

Rick
Valve

 

[tokin]

Hi,

That's news to me.

Cheers

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 3:00 PM
To: Gabe Newell; Rick Ellis; Doug Lombardi
Subject: Clarify rumour please?

I hear PC Gamer is doing a preview or something in their August issue
about TF2...konw anything about this?

 

[Head-Cracker]

Hi Alex,

No plans on it currently, but once the game is finished we'll be looking
at things to enhance the engine.

Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 10:56 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Fluid/Air dynamics

Hello Rick

I was wondering if you will add fluid/air dynamic on source ?

 

[Xcellere]

Potential security problems have been solved, our game is no more "hackable" than any other game, and most likely will be less so.

Rick
Valve

____________________________________________________________

Hello Rick,

Eric T. here again, hope everything is good with you.

My first question: has Valve fully recovered from the source code leak? Have potential security problems been totally fixed or is there still a chance that Steam/HL2 will suffer from hacking at launch?

Thanks as always,

Eric T.

 

[ShinRa]

The E3 2004 vids were truly amazing. You know of course people nit-pick at the stupid little things that don't really matter. However there was just one thing i was questioning.

In that part with the zombies when the demonstrator set them on fire with the canisters, the fire just dissappeared off of the zombies instead of slowly dying down, or not dying at all. Is this planning to be fixed or is that what we can expect to see?

Thanks for your time, best of luck with HL2!

We are well aware and has since been taken care of. Thanks for your interest in Half-Life 2.

Rick
Valve

 

[DreamWraith]

From: DreamWraith [mailto:**********@******.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 2:48 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Mod Expo


Hi there Gabe! Thanks in advance if you reply, and thank you all for working so diligently on getting us what is promising to be an amazing game, and an amazing engine to work on. If you don’t have time to answer maybe you can forward everything, I don’t mind J I think it’s a standup thing that you guys a pretty much the only developer today that actually responds to fan emails.



Sorry to bother you but I really just have one question.



I work for the HL2 mod for Renegade X: The Dead 6 ( http://www.dead6.net ). I was just wondering when the mod expo might be happening, if you have an estimate. Also, are there any specific requirements to attend and such other than working for a mod? I live in the ‘greater seattle area’ if you will, so obviously it would not be a problem for me to get there. Any info, no matter how vague would be appreciated, and sorry in advance if this has already been asked.



I know I said only one question, but heres another anyways.



This is specifically related to steam so maybe you might forward it. I was wondering if there is any idea about how long before the actual release the preload will take place. Like if there is an estimate at all.



Again thanks in advance if you choose to answer, and thanks for being an inspiration!
Note: Gabe forwarded to Chris

Hi there!

We are doing initial planning for the next Mod Expo right now, but don't have any estimates available for the time frame of the event. We're planning for it to be in Bellevue, and will be taking more of a workshop / seminar approach this time, rather than the individual mod showcases.

When we have some more concrete information, I'll be posting about it at the Collective (http://collective.valve-erc.com/) and you'll likely also see it at the other community websites (planethalflife.com, halflife2.net, etc).

Thanks for the interest! Check back soon for more info.

Chris.

 

[KiNG]

nice guy, hes replied to all my e-mails. i hope there will be a flamethrower in hl2 that has volumetric flames (clear out a bunker or a house)

Subject: RE: Questions about HL2/Source
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 13:04:50 -0700
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]>
To: "David" <[email protected]>


Hi David,

See my answers below...

Thanks,
Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: David [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 12:45 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Questions about HL2/Source

hiya
dont know if you remember me but iv sent a few e-mails that
you've
replied to =).anywho i have a few more i was wondering if u didnt mind
answering.

will there be more variation in the way zombies look?
i know you said that npc humans would have different appearances, i was
wondering it this would also apply to zombies(different clothes, or
damaged body parts?).

*** I'm not sure how many zombie models you have seen so it's hard to
say if there are "more". There are a number of them already.

does source use volumetric fog or fire? i noticed on the TF2 page that
it says it uses new volumetric fire for the flamethrower and i also
thought that the volumetric fog on the UE3 demonstration was rather
nice.(wonder if i stumbled onto an unseen feature...)

would it be possible to incorporate the havok 2 engine down the road?
iv
played max payne 2 and i absolutely loved shooting someone and seeing
my
bullets have a effect on the enemy.

*** Sure, we have built the engine to be very flexible and modular.
This will allow us to replace modules over time instead of re-writing
the entire engine (like we did this time). As to whether we'll do
havok
2 or not I can't say at this time. We put in man years worth of effort
into enhancing the havok code we licensed so I'm unclear as to whether
we'd upgrade havok code or our own, or maybe both.

does source use normal maps for decals such as blood marks? im not
exactly current with which type of map is the most realistic...or even
what im talking about sometimes =P

*** It can however we aren't using those yet in HL2. I'm not sure how
much they would add to the effect.

is source still planned to have deformable terrain?
and if so to what extent? (can i knock down walls with an rpg or blast
a
foxhole with c4)

*** Yes Source supports deformable terrain. You could mod the things
you are referring to.

how often do u plan to update source? and will valve inform us of the
new features that are to come with the update? oh and can u give me a
little taste of what features are to come?

*** This hasn't been determined yet, however with Steam we have the
ability to update pretty frequently if we see the need.

im still excited as ever and i get hyped every time i think about it.
ill buy you a beer if i could squeeze any more info out of you about
the
game that you are excited about. cheers heres to hl2 and source =P.

thanks again

kp

 

[clarky003]

From : Rick Ellis <[email protected]>
Sent : 09 June 2004 17:32:46
To : "Matt Clark"
Subject : RE: Another HL2 fan with a question,



The Source engine contains support for multiplayer gaming, and Valve
plans to release several multiplayer games at the time HL2 is made
available. We've announced Counter-Strike: Source. We will be more
releasing information on the other games and how they will be made
available to gamers in the coming weeks.

Rick
Valve
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Clark
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 8:37 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Another HL2 fan with a question,

hey rick,

first of all, Im really inspired by the huge amount of work you guys
have put into your games , especially HL2, since I have asked alot of
games company's questions about the games development process, like Ubi
soft, EA, and Discreet, and I think it's fair to say Its still hard for
me to comprehend how much work actually gets put into all of this
process. From the models to the program that gives it all substance in
the end.

Mainly I wanted to put to rest a few demon's that seem to be troubling
me and most of the fan base following HL2. Im sure you get asked this
fairly frequently . but It would be awsome if you could clear up on
the Multiplayer aspects the HL2 game.

As alot of community members seem to think CS:source is the Multiplayer
that is written in with HL2, Is this the case ? or does HL2 come with
it's own unique multiplayer. (the one with Gordon as your default player
model ).

I know its a daft question, but pretty much the entire halflife2.net
community is in confusion and really aren't too sure about this , lol

Best wishes to you and the Valve team , astounded at your work

,Matt

 

[dream431ca]

Good day Yahn. I have a quick question on Half-life 2 and steam. When Half-life 2 becomes available to upload on steam, will we have a choice to upload it or not? Also, If we do upload Half-life 2 on steam, will we be able to go to a store, Buy Half-life 2 and use the CD-KEY from the store version to unlock the steam version? Thank you very much.





My current understanding is that, yes, you will have a choice as to whether to preload HL2 on Steam or not and that you will of course be able to buy HL2 at retail and then go online on Steam using the retail CD key.

Take care,

Yahn

 

[zoidberg]

Current HL2 performance on GFFX

Not really big news, but at least, this is directly from the SOURCE
Note: this isn't actually a response from valve, nonetheless this is a mail that appeared on the DIRECTXDEV mailing list, so everyone can verify this on his own:

[There is a thread about labelling games that require PS2.0, DX9 compatible cards]

From: Gary McTaggart <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: "DX9-compatible" implications
To: [email protected]


5600 runs HL2 at 5-10fps with ps_2_0 in common maps, 5600 runs HL2 at 30-40fps with ps_1_1 in the same map. This is running at 1024x768. The ps_2_0 shader may be a little bit more complex in this case, but not much. I could push down the resolution to get a decent framerate, but why if it runs great as ps_1_1 hardware?

Gary

 

[Anthraxxx]

I don't know where, but someone was wondering if the Collector's Edition would be released at the same time or later than the regular version. Well here's what Gabe had to say



As far as I know, they will ship simultaneously. Can't imagine why they'd not ship simultaneously.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Daniel [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2004 4:03 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: collector's edition


Gabe,

There has been talk in the community that the HL2 collector's edition will ship after Half-Life 2 gets shipped. Many people are wondering if the collector's edition will ship at the same time as the regular version, or will it ship after the normal version is released. It would be much help If you could elaborate on the matter.

thanks

 

[phantomdesign]

From: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 12:44 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Clearing up some LH2 rumors on the HL2.net forums.
There are reports/rumors floating round that....
-------------------------------
(Source = www.halflifesource.com)

"Valve will deliver the finished game to Vivendi Universal within a few weeks. However, Vivendi is telling us that they hope to have the game on the store shelves by the fall."
-------------------------------
I'm not asking whether or not this information is 'true' or asking for a release date, but is this information indeed reliable?

Best Wishes,
Jonathan Griffin
------------------


----- Original Message -----
From: Gabe Newell
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 11:40 AM
Subject: RE: Clearing up some LH2 rumors on the HL2.net forums.

Not from us.

 

[Kouler]

Hey Erik! [originally Yahn]

I was wondering about this for a while.
Last year i purchased a 9600 XT and I got my HL2 coupon (which I still
have with me right now).
When HL2 will be released, will I be able to go to a shop and trade the
coupon for HL2? Because i'm on dialup, it'll be a pain to recieve HL2
through Steam.
On the coupon it says "please allow up to 4 weeks for delivery" and as
you probably guessed, i will not be able to wait that long.

Thanks so much,

Max



Hey Max,

We're going to be preloading the game pretty far in advance, so while it's going to take some time, you should be able to get the game.

We won't have any alternative ways of redeeming your voucher.

Erik

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Subject: RE: simple and short question
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 08:05:46 -0700
From: "Yahn Bernier" <[email protected]> View Contact Details
To: "Albo Frank" <[email protected]>

Yes

-----Original Message-----
From: Albo Frank [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 1:14 AM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: simple and short question

Is Half-Life 2 still on for a "Summer" release date?
Thanks in advance

-Cow

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Subject: RE: hl2 stil on for summer?
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 16:39:05 -0700
From: "Jay Stelly" <[email protected]> View Contact Details
To: "Albo Frank" <[email protected]>

yes

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Albo Frank [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 1:19 AM
> To: Jay Stelly
> Subject: hl2 stil on for summer?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> -cow
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?

 

[63]

Are we still playtesting?
Yes. Usually at least a couple people a week come by to test different aspects of the game.

Have you personally played all the way through HL2?
Yep. But it's been a while. I should play through again soon.

Should I trust retailer X's specific release date?
Probably not.

There's a rumor that Valve is relasing the game in 2 weeks!?
I've reached my limit of release date comments for the day.

Are buildings in HL2 fully descructible? Like, can I burn them all down?
Well, no.

Do you guys read boards like hl2.net regularly?
Yeah, we all do, but especially Marc Laidlaw. The poor guy's addicted. (Hi, Marc!)

Can people change the HL2 HUD opacity?
Not currently, but I think that'd be cool. I do much of the HUD stuff, so I'll look into that.

What did you not get to put into HL that you did get to put into HL2?
My top 3: Vehicles, lots of attention to the overall art-direction of the game world, & female characters.

Apos, good questions. Can't get to them right now, though.

Hi, Hired-Gun. It's been a while. I owe you some photos.

We love you Greg!

 

[Apos]

As found here
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=507185&postcount=106

The Mullinator asked: Is the playtesting about balancing and tweaking the levels, or is it about finding bugs?
At this point it's mostly about squashing bugs, but some balancing work is still happening. And we're testing lots of other things. For example, we've been reorganizing the weapons into different HUD "buckets" (numbered slots) this week, and we're playtesting different configurations. I think we're closing in on the final arrangement.

Murray_H asked: Price range for HL2 collectors edition?
Not sure yet. But this reminds me, I've got to do some work on the packaging for the retail collector's edition. Doug Lombardi and I have been looking into some different metal containers, but I'm really behind on nailing down the details.

Somebody asked: Will that beam-physgun from the 2003 techdemo be in the final game? Is it available to Modders?
No & probably not. But a Mod could build one fairly easily in Source.

Daegon asked: What's up with the Valve/US Military collaboration?
I haven't heard about that for a long time. Someone should ask Rick Ellis that question.

Tab asked: What are your feelings about the code theft?
I'm grateful for all the help Valve got from gamers in tracking down the people responsible. I was helping to field lots of mail that got sent in to the "helpvalve" address, and was talking with the authorities quite a bit during the whole investigation... so it's been really gratifying to finally see some results. There is no way the case would have gone very far without all the help we received from the community.

Six Three asked: When is "Akzidenz-Grotesk" being released?
I don't know. In the meantime, try this game.

Several people asked: What was the easter egg in the E3 2003 vids?
I don't have the heart (or the spine) to answer this question.

Cutey_Kaite asked: Greg, can you marry me?
A/S/L

jimbones asked: Get back to work?
Ok.

 

[Raptor6]

complex vehicles in mp aren't a nono

You can certainly have a drop ship carry vehicles around and do what you
are asking. As for lag, I'm not sure why you'd think there would be lag
from doing this but it should work fine.

Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxx [mailto:xxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 3:37 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Multiple Vehicles attached to each other?

Hi Rick,

I hope that you can answer me my question:

Can you attach vehicles to each other and drive them in mp without lag?

For a better understanding, here an example:

Can i attach an drivable apc (~6-8 players in the apc) to an dropship
model?
So the dropship flies a defined route to his landing zone,lands, and you
drive the apc out of the dropship?


Thanks in advance,

Raptor6