What makes a scary HL2 Mission

[DawnSoft]

I am going to do HL2 mapping now, tell me what kind of things I should have in mind because I want it to be a survival horror sort of mission. Also how to do it cause I am a n00b

 

[pierreofthefr]

It's most definatly the enviroment. I'm sure if someone really was good at it they could make an entire mod without a single enemy that scares the crap out of the player. With enviroment comes lighting, which needs to be used well enough that the levels are lit enough to traverse but not too bright that the fear of the dark fades. You would do this with env_lights and such with options of flickering lights, and different colored lights. Also you probably want the levels to be compact to optomize fear and allow you to have things sneak up on the character. Survival Horrors require many triggers (like trigger_multiple) so that scripted events can occur like you are walking down a hallway then the light goes out, a door closes, or an enemy unit is activated. This is also useful for having different sounds playing which can also add to the scary enviroment. I feel that lighting, tight spaces, well done scripted sequences, and sounds(scary) are just some of the main components to a scary enviroment. There are a ton of great tutorials on how to do these things on sites such as the valve development community page where there are a list of tutorials on mapping and modding which should help you with your development. Good Luck, hope I could help.

 

[kazsymonds]

The envoironment, comprising the lighting, the sound and of course the things in the map itself.

Play ravenholm a few times!

Scariest things of ravenholm:

1.It's night
2.Some areas are lit only by burning barrels
3.There are huge razorblade things that make you think WTF
4.Areas with not just the normal dead bodies, but blood all over the place. The mind goes wild picturing how violent whatever took place was
5.Enclosed areas are very scary (i remember the relief when i finally got on a rooftop in ravenholm)
6.Number of enemies can add to the panic factor
7.Shortness of supplies

Etc

 

[Barnz]

That sounds like a bad designed video game, rather than being scary.

 

[DawnSoft]

Ravenholm setting? I was thinking about starting in the sewers but the sewer lights from HL2
show up as errors

How do you get NPC's walk from one place to another and make a zombie get close to you about to attack then gets shot by another guy that after he walks towards the player gets taken down by a fast zombie?

 

[MattyDienhoff]

Go for:

-Darkness
I'm not just talking about a little darkness, I'm talking real darkness, so you can see very little without a light. Environmental lighting should be dim and inconsistent. Spooky shadows are an option.

Continuing this train of thought, I'd like to see a mod that deprives you of the HEV suit (and its flashlight) and has you rely on flares and environmental lighting to see. Those cool flares from Episode One are underused. Depriving the player of the HEV suit when they're pitted against most kinds of enemies would make the game too difficult, but zombies aren't really that hard ordinarily. Depriving the player of the suit's protection would make the zombies' hits more damaging and would, therefore, make them scarier. It would also mean the player would no longer have protection against poison crabs' toxins, so you could make limited but very effective use of those, because they would then be more dangerous.

-Weather effects
Combined with darkness, weather could be an excellent spooky factor if done right. Imagine, a foggy and rainy night. It's dark, and visibility is limited. The sound of the rain should be loud enough to obscure zombie moans somewhat, reducing the player's situational awareness. In addition to the sheer eerieness of such conditions, reduced visibility also helps offset the zombie's inherent weakness as an enemy. Imagine a person with a pistol in a field with three zombies 50 meters away. Those zombies are dead, they don't have a chance. Now imagine the same scenario, but with visibility reduced to 5 meters due to fog. That's quite different and a whole lot more scary.

If you're going for the survival horror feel, I'd also suggest limiting ammunition, most mods give the player too much so they're free to waste it. If you're going to rely on zombies as the player's primary foes, engineer scenarios where the player has to engage those zombies from some kind of disadvantaged position, like near some kind of environmental hazard (such as a ledge) or in an enclosed space, to limit the player's room to maneuver.

So, the player has no HEV suit (no armor, just 100 health points), no flashlight (only flares), and limited equipment. The environment is dark, visibility is limited. Sound like a scary scenario? I think so.

Also, one last idea. The player could, at some point, have to build a trap to deal with an approaching horde of zombies (since they don't have the ammunition to shoot them all.). Perhaps the trap could be set up already, but be missing a component that the player has to find before the horde reaches them (creating a natural kind of time limit).

 

[Parsnip]

Lighting

 

[Commander Xillian]

I say, tight coordoors, with fast Zombie sounds every few moments, even the screach, inorder to get people to jump at nothing. Remember: people hate the Poison ombie sounds, so have them as well. So, all in all, rely on sounds more than actual enemies.

Also, have blood streaks leading into areas where dead bodies, Zombies, or ammo can be found. Realism, you know.

 

[Officer Combine]

And you also need dead zombies. Just to get them suspicious.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Fewer light sources forcing you to use your flashlight and plenty of ambient sounds include (footsteps, wind, and wierd noises)

If you have lighting, stick with colder colours. I have this section on my map where there is a corridor with light blue flourescents, and it really sets the mood.

Whenever I have triggered an event (i.e. activated a power switch), I have zombies on a scripted sequence run by in a nearby dark corridor. Its very effective with fast_zombies (if your not making a full conversion mod), though I'm having problems with zombines actually running to a scripted seqeunce area (they walk )

I'm having problem with the NPC maker, though the intention is to make a vent break, causing headcrabs to fall into the room