Poll Question 257 – What type of mod would you most like to play?

14th January 2012

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

So there I was sitting at my desk, staring at the blank screen of my laptop wondering what this week’s poll question should be and then I remembered a comment s.anchev had made (He wasn’t the first and won’t be the last) …“If someone could use all the GuildHall ideas on a full mod, it could make one hell of a mod.”.

And then I had the question. Phew, they are getting harder and harder to write.

Anyway, back to the question.

I made a list of different types of mods that I thought might be fun to play.

I have gone into a little detail below in case readers aren’t sure what I mean by them.

“Project Guildhall” style mod

Guildhall is a game development school. Students learn a number of different aspects of game design and release a variety of levels for a variety of games. I post all the Source SP releases on PP. Now, many of them feature short portfolio levels but some contain new gameplay mechanics and player interaction.

The idea here would be to take some of those new ideas and locations and mold them into one larger/longer mod with a story and coherent background.

“Project Quantum Leap” style HL2 mod

Project Quantum Leap is a Half-Life mod with a difference. It consists of levels made by different authors, well more or less. It has 20 maps with 15 authors. There’s no story, except the idea of leaping into a different level each time.

Perhaps it’s time this was done for Half-Life 2?

Large Art Mod

Most Art mod are small and don’t take very long to complete. What if there was a really large Art mod that required players to play for a number of hours in a style that they have never done before. Would they enjoy it? Are Art mod short by definition? Can they be longer and still hold the interest of the player?

What do you think?

Story-driven Co-Op TC campaign

Whatever you feeling about G-String it would be very unfair to no recognize the effort that has gone into creating it. It’s a monumental piece of work and took the author 5 years to complete.

In some way it might have been more fun if it were a Co-operative Total Conversion. Being able to play with other players and discuss the world around you is interesting but if it’s a single player game that discuss is less likely to take place and certainly not during the mod itself.

Story-driven Co-Op HL2 campaign

Can’t help but think the 7 Hour War would make a fantastic setting for this type of mod. Playing with a group of rebels, all trying to defeat the Combine. Sure, they lose but that doesn’t mean that the story itself wouldn’t be interesting or that groups didn’t achieve victory in small smaller battles. The story could be of a group of playing fighting against all odds just to survive.

Summary

So, there you have the options.

They would all be fun to play, but you only get one choice. Think carefully.

As you may have seen, I left the option open for readers to enter their own answer, so please comment here with it, so other readers know what it is.

That Image Again!

Going off topic a bit, but the image I chose for the thumbnail is exactly the same one I chose for The “Art” mods debate. It’s a fantastic image and perhaps my favourite image of a non-action mod. So expressive. In fact, somebody should start a website just for screenshots of mods.

Time to vote


7 Comments

  1. Hec

    Well I loved PQL for HL1, and I think that would be a pretty fantastic effort of mappers if PP.com would run the PQL for HL2, I hope that would happen some dya here on PP, that definitely woulld be a classic, I know it couldn’t be run the same as a competition but I think start PQL-HL2 is definitely worth it, and I surelly will play that.

    But despite that exciting idea of PQL-HL2, I loved Phillip’s

    Story-driven Co-Op HL2 campaign

    especially if its directed to the 7hr war, I really can’t belive why modders haven’t assumed the challenge to built a great mod based into the 7hr war, only 1187 mod has the first seconds of CMB invassion on earth i’ve ever seen in a mod!, so come on!, there’s a pretty good open field to built a most likely succesful mod I think.

  2. I’ve always said I would like to see a 7 hour war mod. People say well the war was only 7 hours… what could you show? I respond well the mod could be 7 hours and I’d be OK with that !!! Anyway adding coop, fighting with other rebels… that would be absolutely fantastic. I love coop and I love the idea of a 7 hour war. That one easily gets my vote.

    There are already story driven Coop Campaigns, you need not look further than Obsidien Conflict or SvenCoop (hell Svencoop has a full day long tetris campaign you can play coop). Other mods like Afraid of Monsters and soon to be Cry of Fear, are also coop.

    Quantum leap is always an idea I support, but I’ve seen it go terribly wrong so many times (once again in the Svencoop community).

  3. The “Project Guildhall” style mod could be a fantastic development in modding, but one hell of a headache for the unlucky person or persons putting it into a coherent whole! Would be most interesting to play though.
    The style of mod I would like to see would be a long exploration style with a story you only discover as you traverse the maps. I would like the combat to be light to moderate and where a single rocket round brings down the striders and aerial adversaries. Make it a struggle to reach the launcher and the reward will be a more realistic enemy destruction! I want the main challenge to be finding the map/level exit. Whether it is climbing to a high window or ledge, swimming through flooded caverns or simply leaping from point to point, just a nice physical puzzle.
    No timed sections or boss levels, I hate those. And above all, no enemy waves! Leave that in the eighties man!
    I do so love gunning down combine, so I would forgive a couple of wave attacks.
    So basically I prefer “Lara Croft” style exploration with a good dose of combine slaughter for good measure………….
    The “Project Guildhall” style mod sounds the most appealing.

    I do not like multiplayer games as I just see them as ” run, run, shoot, shoot. Shoot while running sideways! But that’s just me.

  4. I just want to see the mythical ship mod…maybe it’ll be in the mythical HL 2/3….

  5. s.anchev

    I will expand a bit the post you quoted for the poll.

    What’s good about Guildhall? It is simple : they have a short map, and they give us a new element of gameplay. But they give us also how to use it the cool way, the good way.

    I think this sequence when we are on a platform linked to a helicopter shooting Combine on an Offshore platform, for example, can be used for something awesome like an assault on a Citadel-like building, slowly turning around and ascending in the highs…With a little Wagner music!!!

    The “play as combine” is also something that have been used in a “cool” way in a “dead” mod (Combine Combat), and also in an awesome mod (Human Error) but they got the idea : play as Combine is just not only fighting against Rebels, they player has to play with some new things, new HUD, new weapons, and some abilities different from what you have when playing Gordon on rebels.

    The moving train is something great, IMHO, I’ve always thought this idea should be worked : it worked pretty well in a short sequence of Precursor, and it is also a WIP DLC for 1187… There is something… powerful and Hollywood movie-like in playing someone shooting in a moving a train… It is perhaps the best sequence of Soldier of Fortune (the game)…

    The best idea is from Ghosts of white forest : if it is expanded in a full mod, it could become a great horror mod… and a great “puzzle” mod, too.

    Well, how about a play as Combine mod with a sequence in a helicopter shooting a Rebel base, while somehow gaining the power to switch between the “living” world and the “ghost” world, and with also a final sequence chasing a Rebel leader aboard a Runaway train???

    We could also at some point, going on a “stealth” mission throughout City 17 chasing a Rebel using a scanner!!!

  6. I voted Story Driven TC co-op.

    Im sure, not all TC’s would work! But if you found the right game, with the right friend, it could be extremely fun. I am playing Gstring, and playing with a friend would be brilliant (finding the way/path, killing soldiers together etc.)!!

    It depends on if the maps were good or not, same with hl2. But I think an epic TC would be better than an epic HL2 game, as co-op doesn’t seem to fit for me in the HL universe.

  7. Mega Sean 45

    I voted for a story-driven co-op hl2 mod. Now in the future I had plans to make the machinima I make on youtube called Combine Rampage and make it into a mod. Although that could be a problem, because the video contains maps that were created by other people and I don’t think I can make those maps into a mod without permission. Making a video in them is fine though. I also thought of making other singleplayer mods like City 17: Aftermath (when you have to escape City 17, but the citadel has already been destroyed), and Rebel Adventures (kinda following the hl2 story, but a bit different, like weapons and npcs, but going into the same areas in a different order). Also if I already made them and I wanted to continue mapping, I thought of making replicas if GTA cities and making them into a mod. I don’t really have much mapping experience at this time, but we’ll see what the future holds.

    I heard somebody is making a 420 minute war mod called: 7even. I have no idea if they’re dead or not. Here u guys check it out: http://www.moddb.com/mods/seven

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