[HL2:EP2] Station 51

[UncleSam]

A level for Half-Life 2: Episode 2, about 10-15 minutes of fast paced running and gunning.

DOWNLOAD HERE!

Combine forces are closing in on your rooftop observation post, fight your way out and escape! I tried to expand on lessons learned from my other HL2: EP2 level and numerous other small projects since then. More open combat arenas, with multiple lanes and room to maneuver with plenty of cover. Visually, I tried for more complex/realistic brushwork, and a more cohesive theme.

Please do let me know your thoughts if you give it a try.







DOWNLOAD HERE!

[Epifire]

I am glad I picked this up. Usually I despise playing most Source mods but this was fun and seemed well planned and well executed. I love the bsp geometry, since I am a mapper too and I fell in love with a lot of the designs you came up with immediately. I do have a few things to suggest and point out as for what I did notice...

So upon extracting, I have to move all of the assets in your package directly to my folders where they go in ep 2. So that was a bit of a hassle. Not worried for just trying it though.

The AI spawning (as a suggestion) could have been triggered in more broken up sets so that we don't have groups of six converging on you all at once.

Oh and you may want to add auto saves before fights as a note cause I died and had to completely restart.

Just some things to point out level wise, which are quite minor...

I know you know that the brightness can be toned down some on these sprites because you did in some other spots of the map where needed.

Also here you might want to think about making these breaks, more like breaks with revealed wood shards sticking out along the edges and what.


A note about the zombies in the shafts. It appears that early on you increased the health of them when you first run into them. But later on the zombies towards the end of the encounter have notably less health. Small, but just a balancing note. Otherwise great job, and I found it quite Valve like. You kept the map flow very interesting, and if HL 2 DM was a fun multiplayer game I would say convert this into a map for it. XD

Was taking a break from my own mod out of being brain dead, but this inspired some more thoughts.

[Armageddon]

It's not a mod epifire it's a map for EP2. Also it crashed when I heard the second sniper.

[UncleSam]

Thanks for giving it a try, Epifire!

Do you know where the enemy clumping was especially bad, or at least where you noticed it?

I'll go back and add autosaves, good idea.

Light sprites noted, I'll make a run through and double check them all, there are probably a few more overbright ones.

That window could use a little more detail, have to see what I can do.

That's really weird about the zombies, I haven't tweaked the health at all. I think they might be invulnerable in certain states when they're rising out of their resting animation, that's the only thing I can think of.

Armageddon: Is it just after you crawl through a vent, just after the sniper? You might be hearing a flare shooting off that sounds sort of like a sniper. I had crashes a long time ago when I still had it try to play an animation for shooting off the flare, but I now just play a sound and shoot the flare off without animation. You're loading it in Episode 2, right?

[Epifire]

Do you know where the enemy clumping was especially bad, or at least where you noticed it?

That's really weird about the zombies, I haven't tweaked the health at all. I think they might be invulnerable in certain states when they're rising out of their resting animation, that's the only thing I can think of.

For the clumping one spot is right when the flare goes off, and the drop ship lets about six combine out after you. The only thing I could think of was maybe to have several come and send them in a steady manner. You could add trigger zones to the paths that you have to go. Only problem with that is if some one rushes it they get even more combine all at once. So your call. Now that you mention it I also notice there was no second sniper for me. Odd but there was only one at the very beginning for me.

So for those zombies. The first corridor where there is about eight or more could take almost three head shots to the face with the shotgun. I didn't mind as it was surprising and made it more challenging. Maybe I was hitting multiple hitboxes at once when there were a few zombies grouped together. It just seemed to be different for beginning to end.

[UncleSam]

Yeah, that whole roof section is a little tricky. Since it's so open, there are a lot of possible ways that can play out. I could change up where the troops stack up after they disembark from the drop ship, maybe spread them out a little. I think I'm ok with a rushing player running into more troops. There's always the option to hang back and pick them off, lots of cover for flaking and retreating.

There's only one sniper, I'm not sure where that's coming from in Armageddon's playthrough.

Still weird about the zombies, I'll have to look at that a little more, see what other factors could come into play.

[Miigga]

Played it

I don't really have anything constructive to say but it's really good

[HoliestCows]

everyone is such a better mapper then me. UncleSam, this map is fantastic.

[Armageddon]

Yeah my guess was it's a flare, flares crash for a lot of people in the EP2 engine.

[Gambini]

To the question which concludes the map: YES!!

Really loved it. Design and layout are both very coherent and well done. Everything seemed evenly good and fun. Also, I´m sure it took me more than 10-15 minutes. I didn´t check the clock but I´d say about 20-25 min, which is extraordinary considering the average shortness of single map projects.

About the way you delivered it... Well, I would have used some bsp packer to include the sound (which could use some radio filter) and the cache files (/graphs & /soundcache) aren´t needed.

Looking forward for more maps by you.

EDIT: In case you want to use it, i have added a quick radio effect to your sound:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/72c5n3clx ... essage.rar

[Dives]

I really enjoyed this. I can tell a lot of care and effort when into making this.
I noticed one bit of sillyness though.

This combine never triggered alertness and just stood there staring at the corner.

[UncleSam]

Thanks for all the feedback, guys! I've made an update with your feedback so far. It's the same link.

Added Gambini's edited sound file, so the radio actually sounds like a radio. (Thanks a ton for that, by the way!)
Added autosaves.
Added extra brushwork to those skylights.
Tried to space out Combine spawns a bit more.
Packed the sound into the BSP and removed cache files from the download.

Dives: Weird, I've never had him do that. I guess he got bored. He actually starts on the balcony outside, not sure why he's there in that screenshot.

[Epifire]

Replayed it sir, and the results were wonderful. All the things I suggested on were edited as I saw and it was more refined. I really must say it just feels like a Half-Life level should. You put, "to be continued?" at the end of the map, and I say you should. Great work, and it really has inspired me on my own mapping.

[Smurftyours]

everyone is such a better mapper then me. UncleSam, this map is fantastic.

Stop fishing for complements and sympathy.

[HoliestCows]

everyone is such a better mapper then me. UncleSam, this map is fantastic.

Stop fishing for complements and sympathy.

Are you trolling? Because I am not asking for complements, I already get them.

Anyway, UncleSam, I found this, is this suppose to be made like this? Im referring to the pipe just ending randomly.