Get onboard HL2 mod

So what is your job exactly? Coder, Artist etc..?

I was going to tell you about an Idea for a MOD i had but, I just made it up and it is too cool. sorry, but i think you have got a cool idea here but you will have alot of comp with an idea like this.

quote:Originally posted by Groady

So what is your job exactly? Coder, Artist etc..?

well if you can do anything then you can help. So long as that something can be used in the mod. I don't think we would have much need for someone that could fit their fist in their mouth [:)]
we need artists and coders of all sorts.
we have a basic web page up at the moment which has a little bit of info on it
warofretribution.homestead.com
as for comp yeah im sure there will be lots of compitition
most likely the only mod that'll be played for hl2 (or at least by most ppl) will be cs2
but hey were are doing it to make a kewl mod.
And there is probably going to be stuff in this mod that you won't see in any other [:P]
but im not going to tell YOU :)

hey guys,
names ben, i lead the project as is.
This game concept has never been attempted and seems to be something that will have no competition...
its a Post Nuclear War mod, based in real cities and areas over the world including some generic maps, including realism through weapons used and the maps... and also some futuristic weapons and classes, it prooves to be a very promising outcome.
We currently have the sound department filled and require 2 coders, as many modelers as possible, 1 2d artist, 2 texturers, and 2 mappers...

if anyone is interested contact myself on
icq: 6118625
MSN: sharplaya@hotmail.com
email : " " " "
Phone : 0439623631

Finished reading the write up on your site. The concept sounds pretty interesting, but im just curious if you have heard of "S.T.A.L.K.E.R Lost Oblivion". If not then maybe you should take a look at it because the theme is very similar to what you guys have going. Which is kinda sad in a way, cuz if u thought ur game was original, it makes you wonda how many of our own concepts really are.

depends if they are successful or not... if they arent their mod is irrelevant to my self and the production of this game.

also, thank you for bringing this game to my notice, i didnt know it existed, but im sure we can make the mod alot differant because of the use of real cities within australia will attract a large australian audience and that is our main concern...

quote:depends if they are successful or not... if they arent their mod is irrelevant to my self and the production of this game.

That's one of the wierdest attitudes I've ever seen. Sure it might hurt the ego of "coming up with the idea first" but gosh darnit, it's bloody good research! Every idea I've ever had - I've looked up - and it's been done before - but that's good!
a) It validates the idea
b) You can see the pitfalls, pros, cons and make sure you don't make the same mistakes someone else has gone to the bother of making for you.

quote:And there is probably going to be stuff in this mod that you won't see in any other
but im not going to tell YOU :)

Hint from now on, don't say anything if you plan to say nothing (geddit?).

quote:This game concept has never been attempted and seems to be something that will have no competition...

Also, I hope you are actually referring to the "concept" and not the conceptual setting. I want to see new products out there just as much as anyone! But I don't want false hopes based on insincere and un-backed up posts (seeing as you don't want to go into the concept too much, which I can understand! I just don't appreciate people going on about concepts that they have no intention of validating at this point in time).
G'luck!

sorry about the comment, but it was strickly regarding MOD's not full release titles.. sorry for that.
but i just see MOD's as a form of add on, and well you only seem to notice about 5-6 mods that are acctually of good standard and reach more than 20 servers when u search for a game...
i was speaking as saying, if there is a 'MOD' based on a post nuclear war setting, and it doesnt seem to gain as much attention as other hit titles because its poorly produced, it seems the right thing to do; to just excuse it from being a treat and continue to create a piece of work that will gain recognition.

Of course you mentioned that maybe there was 1 game that had the same concept as this, but there you are totally wrong, maybe that game had something to do with a nuclear explosion and fallout... but that doesnt mean its the same? does it?
our mod is more or less world wide rahter than one specific area, invloves a more rather interesting storyline...

you can sit here and cricise the game because there was another game taht uses a nuclear explosion in its story line.. and call it the same idea... or you can please just try and give some positive feedback rather than the negative....

im sorry for writing its never been done before... but when i researched that game didnt come up in my results and the only ones that did were RTS games...

and i insure you, the game will look alot differant compared to this... other already done post nuclear war shooter or wateva you choose to call it...

bye

quote:Originally posted by Maitrek

quote:And there is probably going to be stuff in this mod that you won't see in any other
but im not going to tell YOU :)

Hint from now on, don't say anything if you plan to say nothing (geddit?).

well firstly that was a joke at doord, and besides that post had other info.
Now to try to explain some things about originality.
I'll use an example for this. I was listening to some orchestral music and my dad said "what music is that?" and is said its by a composer called Hajime Mizoguchi. He reaplied by saying it was like some other classical song. I can also use movies as an example.
Good will hunting won best original screenplay, and while having some things that were original there was also alot of stuff that you could find in other movies or books. Does this make that movie completely unoriginal.
So now on to this mod. Yes there are many things which occur in other games, movies and books. I have to admit that my first thought of this concept with similar information thats in this post was simply battlefeild meets mad max. That kind of concept doesn't exactly scream originality.
However like i said there are some things in this mod that will give it originality on some levels.
When you look at it its next to impossible to come up with an entirely original idea anymore. Any idea you come up with WILL at least have elements in common with other games.
Look at deus ex, that was considered a very original game but when you look at just the concepts it wasn't really.
I am simply saying that originality is a ghost. Impossible to achieve now that its dead. Okay there might be some area left just waiting for a genius to come along and discover.
Okay i understand the information that has been presented doesnt exactly make you cream your pants because its so original [:0] but we were hoping that people interested would ask us about anything that wasn't given. But i'll leave it at this, you would of heard or the saying don't judge a book by its cover. Well you also shouldn't judge a book by its blerb. (i know cause i got this book because it sounded really good on the back and the book itself was bloody horrible [:p])
Oh and if you are unhappy about the information about the concept (or i should say lack of from your perspective) then speak up and ask questions that you want answered.
Lastely (yes really) to sho-nuff; isn't it STALKER Oblivion Lost or am i just confused. [?] And yes our concept does share some things in common with that game but it also doesn't.

quote:Originally posted by Meatex_Salami
to sho-nuff; isn't it STALKER Oblivion Lost or am i just confused. [?] And yes our concept does share some things in common with that game but it also doesn't.

Im not to sure about the name, and i wouldn't b 2 concerned with that right now. What you guys need to focus on is some evaluation between your MOD and STALKER. Reason being is, without sounding too harsh, you could be making this game in vain.

My suggestion is that you find out as much as you can about STALKER, work out its goods and bads, then with this knowledge, rewrite your concept to beat the pants off these other guys.

OK Fair enuff you might not have the privelages they had in development (time, capital,manpower), but if your gonna do it, you might as well make the most of it and prepare yourself to build it the best way you can. Like they say "All you have to do is strive for the top, God will decide whether you make it or not".

There seems to be a bit of talk about whether the game is original or not. It's impossible to convince people about originality until some screenshots (not concept art) are put up. While the blurb about a 'Post Nuclear War' may not sound exciting, the art direction and any possible gameplay mechanics could offer a unique twist.

Meatex makes a good point about Deus Ex. It's really not that original, it's just that no one had really blended the gameplay types together that well before.

The point is (a sentiment echoed by the peeps who write Game Developer Magazine) 'Great ideas don't make a great game. Great execution of ideas make a great game.' After all, I thought the N64 FPS with the Bond license attached would be shite, but Goldeneye turned out rather well, didn't it?

Golden eye rocked!

Guys its always a good idea to do research and seeing that there is no clear cut info on your mod we here really have to trust you when you say its different enough that it wont get compared to Stalker.
I hope for your sake it is because a mod will never stand up against a polished full game and Stalkers is looking real fine.

Maitrek is kind of right when he said:

quote:Hint from now on, don't say anything if you plan to say nothing (geddit?)

He just did'nt phrase it all that well lol. Sorry Maitrek. [:)]
Saying you won't give info almost reads we don't have much idea of what we have more than its under NDA etc, I'm sure there are areas about the mod you can openly discuss without it releasing all your plans, story/plot/setting/genre etc.

I hope it all goes well, alot of Mods fail, but if you guys think you have something special then go for it and I hope everyone here at Sumea gives you the help/resources you need instead of negativity.

You learn more so from failures than you do from successes. If our mod fails it'll still be usefull experience.
And goldeneye di rock. I still list it as best game ever next to deus ex. They both had problems but were both really well done and fun.
Yes it is true you can take a bad idea and turn it into a really good game. Look at the sims, if someone told me that idea i would of told them to get a life rather than trying to make a sim of one [:P]
Like i said if anyone wants to know more about the mod just ask.
The only info im not going to hand out is details on the major plot twists.
One thing i can tell you which is different about our mod is ours will be the first FPS multi only game with a story on par with some of the greatly written story games. (not as good as deus ex but maybe close to the level of max payne)
Jonathan Kerr, perhaps you will help us to ensure that our game ideas are implemented well as well as art?

ok, well competition wise, i see a mod very differant to an acctual game..
It really depends on the game engine right?
example? Half-Life and Day of Defeat or CS.. now. these two games were already done a few times... war and modern tactical assault type games... and alot were already done, but you will notice the sort of community these games recieve, and im not saying DOD was as successful as say MOH, but it still had a fairly large audience and managed to get it self retail because of this...

Thats exactly the point here, you will always have competetion, and the competetion will have better points about their game against yours, and sometimes your game is just so bloody nice to play, people get hooked because of the large community, smooth gameplay and the lesser proffessional development...
speaking about that, the palyers like to have input on a game if they like it, and if they try to write in to a large game company, you will notice they get no reply? But they write into a MOD team and acctually recieve feedback, and are able to have a say in the next version...

It makes the players feel asif they have part in what may happen next version and they can enjoy the game knowing they have that privellage....

I will be allowing this when the mod gets it version 1.0 complete because i love feekback from people and i want people to tell me what should be done..

the concept is acctually in doc form at the moment, and other things being thought over are staying in my head for now.

Some things it will incorporate:
*4 races.
*2 teams.
*set number of 31 weapons in version 1.0 (planning to expand more on concept designed futuristic 'pulse' weapons in later version) these including weapons starting from the 1st world war upto present.
*realistic map design (we go out into public areas, take photos of a familiar area. take it back to the mappers and let them map it, and turn it into a war ravaged area) planned to be a release of 7-8 maps in first version. These being two from canberra, 3 from sydney, 1 from melbourne, and 1 or 2 generic maps to suit some multiplayer missions we have planned.

In a week ill post the full doc here, the storyline is still being writen... but its estimate to be about 60 pages.

keep up with the feedback :)

cya

It doesn't really matter if you do an idea that someone else has done before, as long as you can do it better than they did. Because people will forget the things that are the same if they think your game is better, otherwise they will just say its a lame ripoff (notice how there never is a good ripoff?).

quote: Look at the sims, if someone told me that idea i would of told them to get a life rather than trying to make a sim of one [:P]

Apparently the Sims started as an architectural game until they added people to the mix and realised it was more fun to mess about with people than buildings.

quote: One thing i can tell you which is different about our mod is ours will be the first FPS multi only game with a story on par with some of the greatly written story games. (not as good as deus ex but maybe close to the level of max payne)

Some people didn't like Max Payne's story. I probably shouldn't say this but the anonymity of the internet protects me [:D], but 'plot' shouldn't be listed as a USP. Once people know the twist, the effect is lessened. One question, if you want to tell a great story, why not just write a book? You'd make more money that way (although, I'm not saying that you are motivated for that reason).

However, if your story is up to what you claim it will be, then I'll be the first to ask for a giant sized piece of humble pie. Despite my negative sounding post (i'm just offering food for thought), I do wish you guys good luck. It sounds like an ambitious undertaking but I hope you can pull it off.

One question: With 31 weapons, will they all be available in deathmatch mode (assuming there is a DM mode). How are you going to balance 31 weapons against each other? Will you do it Halo style? How do you prevent earlier weapons from being rendered useless when a player picks up a better weapon? Will there be any incentive to keep earlier weapons? How will a 1920's handgun stand up to a 2030's handgun?

differance being... a pulse pistol is more effective towards a player wearing aa sort of 'powered' armor rather than a conventional hand gun... the game will take all these things into consideration when we alpha test the first non-public release... we will see the pitfalls and change these to accomidate.. the gameplay wont be some every man for him self death match at all... its a game where you have to start from default kit and you need to advance through the city to push back the enemy pushing forward and to capture points.. when these are done, you are given barter points which are used when you enter a barter stand.... you can buy weapons, armor, ammo and health...
therefore, if someone kitted with say a level 3 metal armor, and a kw97 pulse rifle, you will recieve 3/4 the acctual cost of these if you choose to barter them, or barter your default weapons, and just pick up his weapons... but problems faced with this are, the armor may be faulty and damaged if you didnt kill him properly... and the waepon may be low on ammo....
just some aspects of the game... but tell me how this can improove or if its a good idea

caio

quote:Originally posted by sharp77

differance being... a pulse pistol is more effective towards a player wearing aa sort of 'powered' armor rather than a conventional hand gun... the game will take all these things into consideration when we alpha test the first non-public release... we will see the pitfalls and change these to accomidate.. the gameplay wont be some every man for him self death match at all... its a game where you have to start from default kit and you need to advance through the city to push back the enemy pushing forward and to capture points.. when these are done, you are given barter points which are used when you enter a barter stand.... you can buy weapons, armor, ammo and health...
therefore, if someone kitted with say a level 3 metal armor, and a kw97 pulse rifle, you will recieve 3/4 the acctual cost of these if you choose to barter them, or barter your default weapons, and just pick up his weapons... but problems faced with this are, the armor may be faulty and damaged if you didnt kill him properly... and the waepon may be low on ammo....
just some aspects of the game... but tell me how this can improove or if its a good idea

caio

What I gather from that is that there are 2 types of armour? Each is weaker to it's opposite? What I'd like to know is how much can a person carry? Can they carry all 31 types of weapon? Will all 31 types of weapons be available in each map?

Does everyone start with a default kit, or are default kits unique to each race/team? What even is a default kit?

quote:therefore, if someone kitted with say a level 3 metal armor, and a kw97 pulse rifle, you will recieve 3/4 the acctual cost of these if you choose to barter them

So each item/armour/gun has a points 'value'? When you kill someone with these items, you get 3/4 of that value added to your (monetary) score? BTW - I thought barter meant to haggle or to swap?

How do you 'push back'? Is a map divided into territories? When a team loses, do they 'go back a square' until they are back at the start? If so, that's quite a unique take on things.

thats stuff you'll have to wait and see about.. there are of course many types of armors, and each race of player which you choose has its own, and each armor has its own attributes...

no they CANNOT carry 31 weapons. They can carry a melee weapon, a pistol, either a rifle or an auto rifle, and 2 misc items...

Default kit being, low class armor, pistol and melee weapon.

each item has a certain dollar ammount attached to it, because hardware does cost money.
You sell it back to a barter, which then allows you to buy higher tech weaponry or armor. Barter can either be you trade or sell for money..

push back... would stop the attack of the enemy be better? or how about we just leave what ever they are doing to the 'players' of the game.. they need to capture points in some maps... other require them to protect a convoy which is passing through a town, others require you to clear out the enemy bunker position..

what ever the case be, wait and see what comes out. thats it

Just clearing some stuff up - sorry to take this thread back a few posts.... maybe I'll add something useful on at the end :)

Alot of what Meatex/sharp said is pretty eaily answered in my original post.
Example

sharp77 :

quote:Of course you mentioned that maybe there was 1 game that had the same concept as this, but there you are totally wrong, maybe that game had something to do with a nuclear explosion and fallout... but that doesnt mean its the same? does it?
our mod is more or less world wide rahter than one specific area, invloves a more rather interesting storyline...

you can sit here and cricise the game because there was another game taht uses a nuclear explosion in its story line.. and call it the same idea... or you can please just try and give some positive feedback rather than the negative....

Maitrek:

quote:I hope you are actually referring to the "concept" and not the conceptual setting.

Setting is part of a game, for sure, but that above statement means I hope that when *you* say "this concept has never been done before" that you aren't referring to the setting, but that you are referring to the entireity of the game concept (not just a part of).

And I hate double posting, but I covered the whole originality problem in my post.

Maitrek:

quote:Sure it might hurt the ego of "coming up with the idea first" but gosh darnit, it's bloody good research! Every idea I've ever had - I've looked up - and it's been done before - but that's good!
a) It validates the idea
b) You can see the pitfalls, pros, cons and make sure you don't make the same mistakes someone else has gone to the bother of making for you.

Now on to something useful.
Well...guess I can't think of anything :)

Good luck with the mod, just make the design solid, worry about large amounts of content and balancing later! (I'm sure Daemin can tell you what I do to DDs with more content than balance)

That sounds almost identical to fallout tactics...

4 races.. Humans, Super mutants, Ghouls, Deathclaws
2 teams - Brotherhood of steel and those robot guys
Weapons that include 'pulse weapons' and first world war ones.. Yup..
Map design. Fallout tactics featured this as i recall..

I think you'll need to look at the core elements of the game more.. All you have on there at the moment are cosmetics details.. With a few minor changes to the wording, you've pretty much got every team based FPS out there..

acctually... fallout had roughly 6 or 7 races... it didnt just have the bos and robots, it had the reavers, rebel type scums, robots, large cockroaches lol... alot of stuff in that game, i cant remember..

the pulse waepons idea did come from that game.. because we wanted a sort of futuristic look with the game also... but fot was rpg..

map design? i dont recall fallout tactics every creating maps from already built cities and making them a post nuclear war setting... they never did that at all... their story was told as is and doesnt have any connection to our real world at all...

you probley had 1 valid point there which was the pulse rifle... the others need to be revised and asked again...

and if you read hte design doc you wouldnt be saying its the same as every other fps... so its the same as cs, dod, tfc, doom, sof2 and all them put together is it?? they are all differant in game play, but hold the same idea of point the gun and shoot...

i think you fellas should think before you post... here it is.. type, read, think, re-write, read again then post... just give me ideas... say oh.. i think this would be a great idea for you to add, to make it really differant! this would help... yea.. stuff like that would be better :)

thanks guys

I don't think you realise quite what I meant by core gameplay elements.. The fallout references were aimed at the originality.
At the moment, the only one that is original is the map design one. - and this succeeding depends on how good the level designer is.. I'm sure that mods like counterstrike and day of defeat have featured 'real world' locations.. But in the end.. Who will actually care if their local shopping center is part of a level.. A very small part of the demographic..

In terms of the core elements.. Lets have a look at what you have..

4 - races.. Races can be defined as characters with different abilities to each other - or classes.. TFC is a good example of this.. It had soldiers, snipers, medics, engineers. Each had different stats, and different skills that could be added to the team. So yes. 4 'races' has been done before, and simply calling them 'races' doesn't make the game different.

2 - teams. DoD - axis, allies.. TFC - red, blue.. The teams may appear different... But in terms of abilities or skills.. They are evenly balanced.. If each team had seperate abilities, such as Natural Selection for example.. I would say you're on a much better direction.. That would mean you'd need to re-think 4 races - the game would be too cluttered with 8 different kinds of characters running around.. If you change the word 'race' to 'class' - like I said before, you may be able to work something good out.

As for weapons.. 31 eh.. What, honestly, is the point of having more than 10 weapons, when most people will use maybe 3 - 4 and disregard the rest as crap.. Get a couple of cool ideas as per what races you have, then work from there. Look at natural selection, the humans get maybe 5 weapons..

In terms of original ideas, I've seen none.. If you look at the last 3 mods that made it big.. They each have their own original core elements that bring people back.

CS - The money system, objectives and round times.
DoD - Reinforcements, realism(stamina, 1 hit kills)
NS - Two completely different teams, strategy

What does your mod have? I'm not talking 'cosmetic' details, like weapons, but things that effect gameplay at its basest level.

Okay, the originality of the concept is not an issue. The game will stand or fall on it's own merits, so everyone just drop trying to *prove* that it isn't original...because it completely doesn't matter. Perhaps if you've got some advice about what worked in Fallout and could translate to this title, then mention it. Otherwise don't bother posting.

Instead of bitching "Oh! Four races has been done before, muahaha" - try discussing what HAVING FOUR RACES can do to help/screw up the game dynamic.

And if you just want to sit there and tell him "Your mod has no original ideas" without offering some help/direction/suggestions then keep it to yourself.

I mean - f***ing hell, what's wrong with you guys?

just saying i have 4 'classes' in mind doesnt mean each team uses these...

for eg/ we'll say this much.. 1st class, 2nd class, 3rd and 4th right?

1st and 2nd class fight on team 1. 3rd and 4th class fight together in team 2.

team 1 which will be formally named later, will comprise of humans and a Ghoul type charector which was in fallout.... a small, ratty type charector who is an excellent sniper and is able to run faster and jump higher than a human. Humans are there because they hold the medium in the game and are basically middleground for anyone who wants to play any aspect of the game..

Team 2 will have a sort of mutation alien figure... sort of the same size as a human and what not. but is skilled with the Futuristic weaponry.... also experts with the smg class weapons and has its own attributes. the other part of team 2 will be a huge bulding creature like the hulk... who is able to fire guns while standing which were normally only able to fire by humans when in fixed positions... they are slow, strong and carry extra HP's.

We are revising the spawn method... something new would be very nice.....
it has to be continous gameplay, which incorporates a nice story... some form of system taht keeps it realistic...
like in a war game, having re-inforcements para drop into the game keep its realistic...

taking bobs comment into account... this game would be closest described to NS then... 2 differant teams, strategy needed, incorporates the buy system.. (bartering), includes objectives that need doing, and realism.
if you argue the mapping method is a bad thing, why not just grow up? i couldnt care less if people in other countries dont recognise the maps, thats not my goal at all... but for the many people in canberra its basically my way of slapping a sticker on the game saying 'made in australia' alrite?

if you honestly think the game needs some more 'originality' then help me out please? tell me some ideas and ill work with them...

about the 31 weapons... there is so many weapons, because each charector basically has a set of weapons its best with... tell me a game that has that same concept also... cs, dod and ns dont use that method do they??

an example of this being... if teh 2nd class picks up the kar.. which is our basic level rifle.. sort of like the fallout hunting rifle.. it shoots with more accuracy, faster, and is able to reload faster than the human right? the 2nd class picks up a colt and fires it, and has difficulty firing full auto rather than semi auto... the human has better accuracy with the colt and is able to hold the cursor in the center for 3-4 bullet burst longer than the 2nd class...
each weapon has its own attributes to each 'class'
now do you understand why i choose to incorporate so many weapons??

there is no denying there will be some weapons taht hardly ever get used, be it default weapons or the very cheap to buy ones, but they them selves will have their strong/weak points...

thanks guys..

ben

err... can i comment on something?
i think 31 weapons is absurd, unless you're talking about 16 weapons all but one with two firing modes.

my experience with modding was that fewer, more functional weapons are better than millions. My class based q2 mod had only 2 weapons per class, but was perfectly adequate... i made up for it with highly varied class abilities and weapons with purposes. The weapons you're talking about sound as specific as the ones in cs, and most people use about 3 of those (a shotgun, a eagle, and a rifle of choice).

for example, an angelis (female Air class) could glide... but this restricted you're aiming because you'd need to looks at the person to hit them... for this reason their weapons were air pulse grenades and a spamming gun that sprayed weakly homing little beams that was really crap if you weren't at long range and above the ground. However fire classes had weapons that were designed specifically to weaken or scatter large groups.

also i'd rather see something other than another "origional tactical 2 team game". I've thought up a few alternatives, its not that hard to think up some good ones that avoid just blending elements from previous games.

I would just like to say...
Yay valve!

kezza... your talkin quake 2. ive never heard of your mod with flying girls or wateva you had. secondly.. thanks for your opinion but i choose to ignore it.

again with the originality whinge... how would you like me solve the problem? 4 teams? 3? or maybe 1 team where they sit around have a tea party? 2 teams is of course the original method of play.. 1 team playing the 2nd team.. 1 team versing oposition..

mate.. go and complain, to every single multiplayer first person shooter out there about this rather than post that on this topic alrite?

Screw originality. No one cares if your game is original if it is a piece of crap.
Don't worry about wether your game is original or not, just make it the best f*cking game the world has ever seen!!!
CYer, Blitz