Poll Question 159 – Do you expect there to be a new vehicle in Ep3?

15th February 2010

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

I’m not really a big fan of vehicles in games, but I fully appreciate how they break up gameplay, allow players the opportunity to cover large distances etc.

Each vehicle in the Half-Life series has had the environment matched to it. Whilst that might sound obvious it doesn’t always seem to work that way in mods or even in games.

Assuming we are going to be playing in ice and snow there seem to be a number of possibility; snowmobile being the most obvious.

This week’s (late – sorry about that!) question is quite straight forward:

Do you expect there to be a new vehicle in Ep3?

If you do, what kind of vehicle would you like to see?

The Poll

42 Comments

  1. well, seeing as how the borealis is stuck in the middle of an iceberg or something, there will probably at least be some sort of snowmobile or skido, but they might just end up using a modified airboat. Some sort of hovercraft could be cool too.

    I’m still hoping that they’ll implement some sort of saddle system that’ll let you ride the large organics, like the annt lion guardian, strider, and gunship.

    1. bobdog

      Agreed — the Arctic theme would tie into a snowmobile, although that’s been done successfuly in other games, such as NOLF 2.

      RE: saddles, I can just see Gordon finally break out in voice: “Yee-haw — ride ’em cowboy!!” 🙂

  2. Talon

    I think that vehicles will be less prominent in Ep3 assuming that much of the action will center around the Borealis. It may be interesting, however, to take over a strider or Combine gunship at some point.

    1. The Dias

      You can’t “take over” a strider or a gunship. They’re living things without pilots.

      1. Talon

        The strider enemy has always seemed to me to be a mechanized war machine operating by artificial intelligence, remote control, or by some sort of entity within the machine itself. After all, the strider is entirely metal–I do not recall any organic components visible on its hull. Therefore, why not have a situation in which Gordon takes control of a strider by gaining entry into the hub of the machine or by accessing a control station from which the strider receives its instructions? Even if this is not part of the canon of Half Life 2, a strong imagination could implement such a scenario to add a unique element to the gameplay. I think that this concept may have been explored, in fact, in one of the older Half Life 2 mods.

        Regarding the gunship, you’re probably right about it being a living entity. I was really thinking about a helicopter at the time I responded above, but since I don’t center my life around this game, I may occasionally use the incorrect term.

        1. BayBluesJake

          I think the strider has organic components and autonomous control or thinking.
          After the battle with DOG you can grab it’s brain with the gravity gun (at least it seems to me like a brain) which falls into the water after DOG’s fast and hard disassmbly works.

          1. Did you guys completely miss the word SADDLE?

            You don’t drive a horse, or an elephant, you RIDE them. Hence the point of some sort of saddle system; you stun the mount rather than outright killing it, and then hook up the saddle along with some sort of control system (possibly through electrical stimulus, maybe even directly to the brain) to guide it with.

            1. The Dias

              That’s retarded. how would you get on either of them, and why would they even let you ride them. Synths aren’t just wild beasts. They’re combine units that take orders like everything else.

              1. Alyx can hack rollermines, and reprogram turrets to target combine instead of the rebel forces, you can reprogram a hoppermine simply by picking it up and setting it back down.
                Striders, Gunships, and Hunters are all generaly considered to be biomechanical, so from the mechanical side, why should Striders, Airships, and Hunters be any less susceptible to being “hacked” provided an appropriate interface was developed through which to do the hacking? And from the biological side, why should they be completely immune to being tamed once the mechanical side is dealt with.

                This is science fiction after all. Where the hell did your imaginations go?

                1. Talon

                  I agree. A very well-written response.

              2. Tell me honestly that you wouldn’t be totally stoked to go flying around on an Gunship, picking off combine and Striders from the safety of the sky, or trucking around on a Strider, disintegrating combine and their APVs with its giant beam cannon, or trundling around on a Hunter and pegging combine with its fletchets, maybe even being able to jump up to 2nd story floors like they can.
                The Antlion guardian doesn’t even have the allegiance issues to deal with. Instead of just having the stupid little pheromone ball, why not control the antlions through the guardian itself? Send a few antlions ahead to break up the defenses a little and then spur the antlion guardian into charging and busting through whatever weaknesses are formed, or doors, or even walls.

                1. The Dias

                  Tell me honestly that you think valve would let you do that.

                  You even said it yourself that they’d never let you fly a helicopter, why would a gunship be any different? A strider would also have freedom of mobility problems. And with the Antlion Guard, I just don’t see much of a point of it. They’re not fast or that maneuverable. And riding any of these would just look flat-out ridiculous.

                  Gee, it sure is getting cramped in here.

                  1. a.) Don’t go changing the conditions of the argument. Valve’s likelihood of implementation was never part of this, but merely whether the idea was justifiable and rational.

                    b.) Gunship would be different from helicopters just as riding any animal is different than driving any vehicle. You don’t actually control them, but merely guide them and give prompts for what actions you wish them to perform.
                    The nice thing about biomechanical creatures is that you can claim the ability to affect their programming directly, but due to the complexity you can also claim that this influence is only very basic.
                    My personal method of restricting movement would be to claim that the mechanical side is used to create a predisposition in the gunship to go to a general location, but trying to control where it goes this way is too clunky and inefficient to try to fly it directly through this method, so the fine tune steering is done on by guiding it physically (through some sort of saddle system) This would allow your general path to be restricted to only following the path to a certain location, and once you get there to staying within that location, but then within that restricted area you can steer however you want.
                    What this would essentially mean is that for traveling over long distances, it would handle like a jet-based rail shooter (think like a 1st person perspective only star fox; you can control speed and dodge and shoot, but you’ll constantly be headed in a specific direction) and then once you actually GOT to wherever you were headed, you could fly around unhampered, but the gunship would refuse to go farther than a certain distance away from the defined area.

                    c.) As for Striders, of COURSE they would have freedom of mobility issues. That’s what keeps them from being overpowered in the first place. You can take on big heavy stuff, but will have to dismount to get into small enclosed areas.

                    d.) As for the Antlion Guardian, I’ve already explained how it could be useful to be able to smash through walls and also have control of the ant lions through different means than the pheremone ball.

                    e.) As for looking ridiculous, that’s the whole beauty of it being in 1st person perspective; You’ll NEVER SEE how ridiculous you look! So that part doesn’t even matter.

                    1. And yes, this is getting too cramped, if you want to respond to this, just go back up and make it a response to either talon’s first comment or my first comment above his.

            2. Kyouryuu

              Settle down.

  3. Armageddon

    The helicopter me thinks.

    1. Too much freedom of movement. There’s no believable way to restrict the players path into a specific route. the very most you’ll be able to do is man the guns of the helicopter while Alyx flies or something, and then inevitably crash.

    2. Hec

      Hey I think the same helicopter kick ass!

  4. i was anticipating controllable manhacks, based on the extreme success of such a mechanic…thanks to Human Error. That is still by FAR, the very coolest possible addition to a HL2 mod EVAR.

  5. AI

    I have recently started to play the HL2 series all over(still very enjoyable)and I love the driving,what I would like to see is Gordon Freeman on a motorcycle(shades of my past)or a snowmobile for any Winter parts.

  6. I’m a vintage car buff, so exotic driving is my thing. As such, I’ll drive anything in HL2. I was really happy with the armored car in human error. Loved it.

  7. Kyouryuu

    I think a snowmobile would be the most plausible vehicle, if any. The slip-sliding nature of it could be fun if it was done well. Assuming that the icebreaker Borealis is the ultimate destination, it makes sense that you’d probably need a speedy way to get from here to there. A snowmobile could probably derive nicely from the airboat.

    That said, there was the one-off helicopter in the bunker at the end of Episode 2. It wouldn’t surprise me if the helicopter took you part of the way there (you wouldn’t fly it, but it would be like the helicopter scenes in Modern Warfare or FEAR, for example).

    I agree on the controllable Manhack concept. Maybe not Manhacks necessarily, but a scene like the crane in HL2 hasn’t been done in a while and would be a welcome change of pace.

  8. I hope I haven’t voted twice. PP went down last night just as I was on this Post. Anyway:

    Yes and can I have a Hovercraft please?
    Heavily armoured, the gun from the Buggy/Combine Helicopter and rocket launchers like the APCs have.
    That would be lovely.

  9. clunkfish

    I think a flying vehicle would be good. It is really well implemented in Halo, with a subtle way of confining you (by having a ceiling on how high you can fly, imposed by the plane getting progressively lower on power the higher it ascends, and being surrounded by mountains that are too high to fly over) so that mappers don’t have to contend with huge freedom of movement. Then you could have dogfights with Combine helicopters 🙂

    1. when you’ve got alien terrain, you can get away with that, but I can’t think of anyplace on earth with mountains that could believably form a path that way.

  10. A “full equipped” hovercraft would suit me just fine!

  11. Joe

    There was a new vehicle and weapon on episode 2 just because people were not satisfied with the previous episode. Expect a new weapon or game play element but not a new vehicle there is already the air-boat the jeep the jalopy . We don’t need any more. Unless its a freaking plane!!!!!

    1. The Dias

      “There was a new vehicle and weapon on episode 2 just because people were not satisfied with the previous episode” That is pure and utter bullcrap.

      1. Joe

        Really?
        I think there was very little in terms of new content in episode 1 a lot of people were dissapointed. I think using the world “just” was a mistake. I still think it contributed though.
        (the flying veihcle was a joke)

  12. The Dias

    There isn’t a chance in hell that they’d add a flying vehicle. If they have another vehicle portion it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest, but I don’t see them using a snowmobile.

    1. Joe

      They wouldn’t dare add a flying vehicle. For many reasons.
      though a a snowmobile is a possibility, if any. 😛
      It fits the scenario of Ep3 and the theme.

      1. The Dias

        It’s too small. They changed the Jetski into an Airboat because not being able to see it well enough while inside it. A snowmobile is about the same size so they would have the same problem.

        If anything it would be a modified resistance-made vehicle.

        1. No, the problem with the Jetski was that the majority of it was on water and without the frame of reference of the airboat cage, the bobbing wave motion was making people seasick. Snow and ice do not act the same as water, so there wouldn’t be that issue.

          1. The Dias

            “without the frame of reference” That’s exactly what I was referring to by not being able to see it.

            And the problem with the Jetski was that it was too similar to moving on land. The only problem with the movement on water was the camera roll when going around bends. If the same system as the airboat was used it wouldn’t be a problem. If they do have a Jet ski, it would be heavily modified and similar in size to the airboat or one of the cars. That is of course assuming there is a vehicle section & that it’s on snow.

  13. EricFong

    What I guess I a jeep, jeep is useful in arctic.

  14. 23-down

    What do you have with your freaking vehicles all the time ? This goes for all who has wishes for a new1. What I want are new monsters and some friendlys.. I’m still hoping to see Dr. Rosenberg or Shephard, Collette, Otis etc. again. It would be surely interesting to know what happend to them and to close some remaining questions.

    Should there be really a new vehicle then I hope it will be a chopper like in the end of Ep2. Fly it or just be the MG gunner. It would bring hl2 into a new deminsion. But honestly I don’t need it better new monsters.

  15. Hec

    It maybe sounds crazy but i’d like to fly an combine helicopter or at least be its gun man.

  16. Pingback: Episode #71 » Podcast17

  17. sygnus21

    Instead of wishing for vehicles, I’m wishing Valve gets off their butts and just release episode or Half-Life 3.

  18. But wait!
    All the comments are for airborne or landbased vehicles.
    No one has thought of on or under water vehicles and a suitable enemy to go with it.
    This needs more thought.

  19. There should a Harley in one of these…

  20. basicalist

    i dont care what is in hl3, it will be so good, but the option to steer the buggy or air boat with the straife function would be more enjoyable mmmmmmm
    so please, alter it slighly, its so easy isnt it
    scuse spelin

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