Half-Life 2: Citywide Containment (Brainstormed Concept)

[Xatrix Scientist]

Inspired by videos of Half-Life 2's beta, and mods attempting to recreate it such as Missing Information, I have been thinking of wanting to write the design document for a similar project. I'd want to utilize cut enemies, cut weapons, and cut locations, but the general outline and structure of the story would be different from other attempts. I was thinking of combining elements from the HL2 beta, the retail HL2, and HL1's cut content with some of my own additions. Plus, I want to do it as a mod for Half-Life Source, or at least make the game play and look like Half-Life 1. I want to do this, firstly because I want to see HL2's content rendered in the graphical look of GoldSource, and secondly, because I want it to be simpler and not rely on character facial animations. Yet, I want it to be in Source, because Source has better NPC pathfinding A.I., a little more complex enemy A.I., the fluid animations, and the physics.

Let me just get straight to the concept.

Gordon awakens on the train, witnessing Xen-life in the wastelands, and the brutish conditions of City 17. He starts off at the a city area, and gets confused for an employee for the Citadel, and ends up there. At the Citadel, it runs similarly to Black Mesa, except all the scientists are paranoid and probably insane, and Combine soldiers keep them in check. One scientist recognizes you, and hides you so that the Combine patrol won't catch you. He takes you to the secret oracle in the utility room, who is none other than Mr. Friendly in a containment tank. Mr. Friendly tells you what has happened in the world since the disaster, and tells you that the "pale blue clothed man" wants him to find Gordon's old colleagues outside the city, and find a way to get them away from Dr. Breen's reach so that they might find ways to stabilize the planet. Gordon escapes, and has a series of misadventures in City 17 and the Wastelands, with aliens and Breen's soldiers hunting him down. And plenty of Half-Life 1's old enemies are among them.

Here are some of the changes I have in mind for how the game plays:

*The Strider would be altered so that he has a big eye right where its gun should be (as an ode to the Pit Worm). Its first appearance would be a major puzzle-based boss fight through city ruins (in the vein of the Tentacle fight), and is much larger than the original Strider. It would peek through the windows of buildings to see if Freeman is there, and would take notice of noise like the Tentacles.

*Combine soldiers could be evaded or killed by stealth, just to make them more fun to fight.

*Return of classic Xen alien critters.

*Non-linear gameplay, hub system, and optional side quests with rewards.

*Gordon would still not have a voice, but since it's a mod, I thought he could have a dialogue tree when talking to characters with certain information. Similar to Fallout's dialogue system.

*Inclusion of grotesque alien boss fights, like the Ravenholm Gonarch and the Oceanic Hydra.

*Zombies (or Mawmen) who can climb ladders, set up traps, and display odd social behavior.

*New weapons like the AK-47, Explosive Bolts attached to Crows, and the Quintessence Pipe (a Dark Energy equivalent of the Gluon Gun)

*New scientist types, some modeled from B-Movie actors and New Wave musicians. Because they are mad, few you can trust, and some may try to kill you.

*Grunts and assassins making a reappearance as bums, hoodlums, and street urchins.

*A more developed Alyx, which you spend more time with.

*A wide, explorable cityscape, with aspects of Kingpin and Blood 2.

*Multiple Hazard Course levels: one on Xen, another on a junk riddled shore near Black Mesa East.

*Inclusion of the original character model for the City 17 residents (as seen in the picture where they are running from the Strider)

*Glimpse of the Combine alien world.

This is part of some of my brainstorming. There are sections from the beta that I'd like to include, like the Borealis mission. I'm also toying with idea of a boss fight with Judith Mossman, one where she's in a better armored Hazard Suit, and then operating a battle mech. As to how the whole thing will be carried out, I don't know.

What say you, Interlopers?

[Armageddon]

Best of luck programming all that and making all the art assets, see you in five years.

No really man, that's a lot, scale it down to just one thing you know you can make and do it and release it. The HL1 mod Reissues has a level that's set in City 17 with ported and remade content, it's very impressive. I'm not sure why you'd want to remake HL2 locations in HL1 though other than the Xen AI which doesn't exist in the HL2 universe anyways.

[Xatrix Scientist]

Thanks, Armageddon. To clarify my aim, I don't want to remake HL2 locations in HL1. Just HL Source. The reason being, I want to use HL1-styled polygonal graphics in the Source engine. Sounds weird, I know, but I thought it might narrow things down for me.

I know it sounds too ambitious. That's why I want to start it off as a design document, figure out what I can or cannot not do in HL Source.

[Major Banter]

I tend to rip on these kinds of threads pretty aggressively, so I'm going to try to rein myself in a little.

This is what is widely known as an 'ideas guy thread'.

It's not that your ideas are bad per se, but there's a clear-cut lack of knowledge of how much you're asking of yourself and others. All ideas, no substance. Maybe some people will hand you some constructive criticism but what's the point? The general ideas you've laid out here would be ambitious for an experienced studio in terms of sheer code, let alone art assets and level design. For example, do you know what "return of classic Xen alien critters" translates to? Thats:

- A new bone, rig, hull, and full animation set
- A new model, with variable skins
- Necessary particle effects
- A complete sound suite
- Accompanying code including AI, pathfinding, general behaviour, attacking behaviour, etc. etc.

For each creature. Each. Even if you used an available hull and tweaked it for every other alien, good luck in recreating the Gonarch. While many of your ideas are ok, and certainly workable into an easier method of delivering the concepts, by the point you say "then operating a battle mech" I'm pretty firmly under the impression you've gone beyond brainstorming into bonkers.

Let's take the polygonals in Source for another example; why? You're going to have to effectively rebuild every single model in the game to make characters not look horrendously out of place, let alone the problems with average resolution 1024x1024 textures on a low poly body. Alternately, use barely any models at all. Source's lighting issues will be exacerbated by low-poly bodies as well. Look at the atrocious port that was Half-Life Source versus Black Mesa.

Everything you've mentioned can be done - just half of it has a massive question mark over 'why' and the other half 'who and how'. As Arma says, see you in five years.

[Riomaki]

What Major Banter said.

Have you ever built Half-Life 2 level before? Not something as grandiose as a campaign - but a single, solitary level? If the answer is "no," then please, do that first. Then again. Then again. Then again. And maybe by then, you'll understand just how much work you are proposing here.

To be blunt, you have no business writing design documents until you have some understanding of just how much work is involved in bringing those ideas to reality. It's the easiest thing in the world to say "Gordon escapes, and has a series of misadventures in City 17 and the Wastelands." It's quite another to break that down and understand what the heck it really entails.

I'd also like to point out one other basic truth of design. For every 5 pages of written ideas, there is probably one paragraph that is actually worth doing. Find that paragraph and build that instead.

[Xatrix Scientist]

I tend to rip on these kinds of threads pretty aggressively, so I'm going to try to rein myself in a little.

This is what is widely known as an 'ideas guy thread'.

It's not that your ideas are bad per se, but there's a clear-cut lack of knowledge of how much you're asking of yourself and others. All ideas, no substance. Maybe some people will hand you some constructive criticism but what's the point? The general ideas you've laid out here would be ambitious for an experienced studio in terms of sheer code, let alone art assets and level design. For example, do you know what "return of classic Xen alien critters" translates to? Thats:

- A new bone, rig, hull, and full animation set
- A new model, with variable skins
- Necessary particle effects
- A complete sound suite
- Accompanying code including AI, pathfinding, general behaviour, attacking behaviour, etc. etc.

For each creature. Each. Even if you used an available hull and tweaked it for every other alien, good luck in recreating the Gonarch. While many of your ideas are ok, and certainly workable into an easier method of delivering the concepts, by the point you say "then operating a battle mech" I'm pretty firmly under the impression you've gone beyond brainstorming into bonkers.

Let's take the polygonals in Source for another example; why? You're going to have to effectively rebuild every single model in the game to make characters not look horrendously out of place, let alone the problems with average resolution 1024x1024 textures on a low poly body. Alternately, use barely any models at all. Source's lighting issues will be exacerbated by low-poly bodies as well. Look at the atrocious port that was Half-Life Source versus Black Mesa.

Everything you've mentioned can be done - just half of it has a massive question mark over 'why' and the other half 'who and how'. As Arma says, see you in five years.

Thanks, Major Banter. That's why I came to you guys, for your experience and advice.

What Major Banter said.

Have you ever built Half-Life 2 level before? Not something as grandiose as a campaign - but a single, solitary level? If the answer is "no," then please, do that first. Then again. Then again. Then again. And maybe by then, you'll understand just how much work you are proposing here.

To be blunt, you have no business writing design documents until you have some understanding of just how much work is involved in bringing those ideas to reality. It's the easiest thing in the world to say "Gordon escapes, and has a series of misadventures in City 17 and the Wastelands." It's quite another to break that down and understand what the heck it really entails.

I'd also like to point out one other basic truth of design. For every 5 pages of written ideas, there is probably one paragraph that is actually worth doing. Find that paragraph and build that instead.

Calm down, Riomaki. I was just giving the general idea of what I want to do, and I only came for advice on on to set about doing it. What I really want to know is what Source is capable of, and how to work within its confines... I was hoping the Half-Life Source would be workable, but judging from Major Banter's remark about it being a poor port, it turns out I'm wrong.

I came her to discuss because this seems to be the only HL2 modding site I know of where modders know what they're doing, and have the benefit of experience to know what to do. Judging from the responses from you, Major Banter, and Armageddon, I've come to the right place.

@Armageddon: By the way, I did play the HL2 level for Reissues. When I got passed the mirror sky effect, I was rather impressed by the skybox and rendering of the Citadel. I was impressed by how the HL2 assets were utilized in GoldSource. It was buggy and tough, but it had potential. Thanks again for pointing out Reissues for me.

[Xatrix Scientist]

I know there's one section of my idea that I want to develop into a scenario: a district of City 17 which leads to the Strider boss fight.

Years ago, there was a mod for Half-Life 1 called After-Life, which sort of predicted the tone for Half-Life 2. It was set in a gritty city level, some Xen critters have altered overtime (the modder gave the barnacle a hard shell), and the NPCs changed with it. The mod was to be a murder mystery, where Gordon Freeman was killed, and the player had to discover who did it. It never saw the light of day, but I admire it for doing a Kingpin approach to Half-Life. Among the ideas I liked was having former allies and enemies turning into bums, and becoming hostile towards you. It would be interesting to have some civilians in City 17 trying to stone you, while some try to help you.

I drew and colored a hypothetical box cover for the mod concept, which better illustrates my vision of The Strider. It's inspired by the original Big Momma Half-Life poster, but with a Strider and Combine soldier in place of the Gonarch and the Combine Soldier. I left the "Mod for Half-Life Source" part as a joke, since I know it won't work, but it's a nice baffling statement to put on any Source mod poster.

[Ale]

10/10 will buy