December 2017 – General Chat

1st December 2017

HOLY HEADCRABS!

It’s December already – where did the rest of the year go?

I’m hoping to finish everything related to the mapping challenges for next year, plus I also hope to start a new updating event, similar to 100 Summer Days of Nostalgia but smaller in scope and commitment.

I’d also like to start a discussion about the possibility of creating a story-based RTSL EP2 SP mod.

Anyway, what have you got planned?

49 Comments

  1. Bolloxed

    I recently realized that I hate Half-Life.

    1. I’m pretty sure Half-Life hates you.

      1. … in Soviet Russia

        (meme)

  2. I had intended to replay a few from the hall of fame, but 3 now I’ve downloaded won’t open in steam, says files are missing, whether that’s me or the mods I don’t know…. and where I’d get said missing files I’ve no idea. I wonder if re downloading steam would make any difference, or make it worse, thing is, some mods do play and others do not…very strange..

    1. Did you install the Source SDK 2013 patch for them? Most of those mods were broken with the Steampipe update some years ago. You can grab the patches for each mod on ModDB.

      1. not sure but I’ll have a look..

        1. Basically you have to do that for every mod released prior to 2012-2013. Stuff which was released after is already working without the need to patch it.

  3. just downloaded Ravenholm from Mdb, but that doesn’t work either.. you’d think these things are kept up to date and pre patched..oh well..

    1. AI

      If you go to ModDB and search for the name “Malortie” he has made many easy to install patches for a great deal of “Broken” mods!! I’m sure Phillip can help you out!

  4. Might I suggest that any mod, especially if shown in the hall of fame is patched, tested and replaced or deleted…no point in offering downloads that don’t work.

    1. Well, if you tell me which ones don’t work I can look into them.

      1. well, Siren for one, but there were at least 2 others that I’ve forgotten the names of..there’s probably quite a few..

      2. AI

        Phillip, did you dl the files yet?? I can’t tell

        1. Yes, I got them, thank you.

  5. I hope that RTSL EP2 that you are talking about is similar to TWHL tower, i really liked the concept of that mod!

  6. I finished Deep Space Nine last month and really enjoyed it. Anyone who has seen it, I’m sure, can remember the Dominion War and the epic 12-part finale. Almost everything about this series clicked for me. I enjoyed all the characters, the complex political intrigue, and the fascinating one-off episodes like Far Beyond the Stars too.

    I can’t say the same for Voyager at this point. I knew going in that Voyager was divisive at best, and thus far I think that reputation is deserved. I will reserve judgement until the end, but some things really stand out. “Threshold” is an infamous episode, for good reason, but I found a lot more to dislike about “Tattoo.” That was just offensive, as is pretty much everything about the walking Native American stereotype Chakotay.

    I also finished Skyrim, at least the main story, which I thoroughly liked. This game took a while to grow on me, but once it did, it was a great experience. I put off the main story for a good 30-40 hours, just exploring and side questing. I liked how the game never pressured me to do anything beyond what I wanted to do. It is happy to take a backseat to your wishes, and it was like a breath of fresh air compared to many games today.

  7. I’m probably just gonna play some games i’ve played on the ps2 that also have a pc port,(the suffering and the suffering ties that bind, hitman blood money) play csgo and watch some old classics i have in a over 50gb folder.

  8. lj4linux

    Guys, you should play “Operation Rosenberg”. It’s just a demo but it’s huge!
    You’ll find it on GameFront.

    1. I’ll try to add it to the site today, thanks.

  9. As far as i’m aware of Philip, you only know little about mapping and that little is for the goldsource engine. I’m not saying that you shoudn’t make a mod, but it will be very challenging for you because you haven’t done any mapping to the source engine. I might be mistaken, but feel free to correct me.

    1. I wouldn’t be making the maps. One possible idea, probably for 2019, would be to plan a whole mod and make each map a challenge, with the winner being the map used. AT the end of the year, the whole mod would be released. Of course, we would need to carefully plan transitions between each level, teleports, tunnels etc so that it feels natural. There are other things to consider too, but it’s just a plan at the moment.

  10. JamaicanDave

    Ahh ’tis the season to be jolly fa-la-la-la-la la-la-la-la. Now December’s arrived it’s officially time to start getting excited for Christmas, curse the fact I once again haven’t done my shopping early and promise myself that I really will try and get back in shape after the xmas excesses.

    I’m still periodically trying to map for Black Mesa but my enthusiasm wanes very quickly now.

    I’m also looking vainly for a small house or flat to buy but, barring a spectacular crash in the property market bringing prices down to sensible levels, it’s never going to happen. Currently property prices are just disgustingly obscene. Perhaps I’ll cheer myself with a new game or two instead. I quite like the look of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

  11. I had plans to replay the HL franchise (+ mods) in december because Black Mesa Source was to be finished then, but it seems it won’t happen: the Xen release has been pushed into future again :(.

    I know, I could play BMS in the current state, but if I managed to hold off for 5 years, another few months won’t kill me :).

  12. If anyone remember Entropy: Zero. The mod that I raged on it so hard months ago. I will redo the mod again, to see if anything has changed in V2.

  13. Here is episode 6 of Podcast 17.

  14. I’ve got a little problem that keeps me from doing BM:S maps, perhaps somebody can help me out.

    When I open Hammer, several textures – the most prominent being tools_nodraw – are completely invisible. If I draw a brush using nodraw and then deselect it, I won’t find it again the 3D view. I’ve verified the game files (no missing or corrupted files) and even uninstalled and reinstalled Black Mesa two times, yet the issue remains.

    This way, I’m unable to map for Black Mesa, which sucks big time, so I hope somebody knows a solution to this.

    1. I haven’t done any Black Mesa mapping, but taking a look at their build of Hammer I see the same effect. I can’t find any buttons, menu options, settings, or even registry keys that change this, but as a workaround, switching the 3D view to 3D Textured, instead of 3D Shaded Textured Polygons, seems to do the trick. The nodraw button even works as expected; it’s all the way at the right end of the toolbar, and is supposed to show or hide nodraw faces. It has no effect in BM Hammer’s shaded view, leaving nodraw invisible regardless, but does work in the other 3D views, as well as in all 3D views in HL2/episodic Hammer.

      I’m not sure if this is intentional, or a bug, or maybe a compromise necessary because of some particular thing the BM team does in their flavor of Source or Hammer? If they’re responsive to mapper feedback it might be worth bringing up with them, just in case.

      1. Thanks loads! It works!

        I @ them on Twitter a couple months ago to ask them for help, but it seems they never check their notifications, and I don’t have an account on their forums.

        1. Shaded textured polygons simply doesnt work in newer versions of hammer. It also doesnt work in CS:GO.

      2. JamaicanDave

        Huh, I’d tried replicating the problem in my BM hammer, including switching between 3D Textured and 3D Shaded. Whilst that didn’t affect nodraws it did mess up a few other textures. Anyway I was wondering what 3D Shaded is supposed to show? I’ve always stuck using the 3D Textured window myself.

        1. Thanks, crowbar, I hadn’t known it was busted elsewhere too; I think I’ve toyed with CS:GO Hammer in the past, but I’d forgotten that problem, if I’d even noticed to begin with.

          As far as 3D Shaded, Dave, I think it’s just meant to help you distinguish the shape of geometry better. Plain 3D Textured is basically fullbright, everything’s flat, nothing really pops visually. It can be easier to get a sense of depth with a bit of basic shading. I used to use it all the time when I was more active in HL2 mapping, but lately I’ve been doing Quake stuff with J.A.C.K. (basically Hammer for Quake/Q2/Q3/Goldsrc), and I just now realized my viewport’s been set to 3D Textured the whole time. I guess the lack of shading hasn’t been an issue for me the way I’d thought it would be. Funny the things you don’t notice when you’re absorbed in a project.

  15. Oh would you friggin’ look at that!

    So apparently Windows decided that Hammer doesn’t have the “necessary permissions” to save anything to anywhere that isn’t the Desktop. My account is an administrator and I can save correctly with most other programs… but not this one. Whelp, time to clutter my desktop even more!

    I have none of the typical problems that people complain about with Windows 10, but apparently there’s no such thing as problem-less Windows, so I get this instead. Thanks Microsoft.

    If anyone has any ideas as to how this could be fixed, I’d very much appreciate to hear.

    1. Found the problem, apparently my antivirus has a “feature” where it takes over file read/write permissions from Windows and just blocks everything that isn’t a “verified” program…

  16. In Opposing Force, when I look around with the mouse the camera keeps snapping back and so I can’t move the camera at all. How can I fix this? I don’t know how it happened.

    1. Unq

      Try this fix for mouse problems in Op4: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=162747417

      It worked for me. Ultimately I deleted Op4 and fully reinstalled it and the mouse worked fine without the raw input fix above.

  17. It’s now the end of 2017 and more than 7 years, I lurk here.

    I just wanted to wish everyone Merry Xmas and a happy new year.

    2017, what an unexpected year.

    HL3/Ep3’s last hopes died so suddenly when Laidlaw decided to release that “Epistle3” stuff.

    However, this final nail in an already deeply grounded coffin, happened to “boost” the motivation and creativity of the community.

    The last 6 months had been incredibly productive, with ambitious releases such as DARK INTERVAL, HL2 AFTERMATH, OPPOSING FORCE 2 LOST, ENTROPY ZERO, and so on.

    Now that VALVe has seemingly, definitly turned into an EA-like dumb company with such “amazing” projects as ARTIFACT the DOTA2 card game,

    only the fans have the potential to #MakeHalfLifeGreatAgain

    I must also, specially here, thanks all the dev’ who participate in the “Ville” contests, you are a big part of the whole community who managed to maintain the eternal flame of HL’s spirit.

    See you all in 2018.

  18. Podcast 17: Episode 10 – 22nd December 2008:

    I start by singing!

    We interview: Star Trek Enterprise: Temporal Cold War:

Leave a Response

Comment Formatting Guide

Well formatted comments are much easier to read. Please copy and paste the HTML Tags to use in your comment

  • HEADER: <div class="fix"></div><div class="sbe3">TEXT HERE</div>
  • BOLD: <strong>TEXT HERE</strong>
  • ITALIC: <em>TEXT HERE</em>
  • SPOILER: <span class="spoiler">TEXT HERE</span>