How (not?) to make a HL2 mod (The Devblog for "5")

Two @ One Twenty Eight

2011-08-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

I was doing some research on how geothermal plants work (research of course being a quick check on Wikipedia) and I decided to base the level archetecture around how the plant works. This is a turbine room. Seawater is pumped in from the shoreline to feed into the igneous rock covering the crater. When pumped into the earth, the water turns to steam, which is collected by a second pipe and sent here to a turbine to spin it. When the steam is piped through the turbine, it is cooled back down and the runoff is sent back into the system.

So this is my prototype for the combine-built turbine room. Obviously it still needs work, but the lighting definitely looks like a keeper. Problems I'm currently trying to fix in the existing layout are some door buttons that aren't functioning properly (despite having correct I/O) and attempting to fix the lighting in this room. As you can see in the first screenshot, the light only seems to detect the posts holding up the catwalk and not the catwalk texture itself. Since props can be alpha-channeled, I'm hoping the same can be done with transparent textures such as this- lit from below, it makes for very dramatic lighting.

Addendum

2011-07-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

Worked more on the Geothermal Plant idea last night. Finally working up an exterior. Designwise I wanted a stealth-oriented take on the cliffs area in the original Half Life, with a ton more scenery porn due to the mountain's commanding view of the island.

As to the tower in this screenshot, I'll give you three guesses as to what that's designed after, and you won't need the last two.

Five @ Five

2011-07-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Shot one: Coastline of the blacklisted map that has been featured here so much I should stop blacklisting it. Still needs work.

Lately I've been working on this room. The general idea for this area of the base is an extension of the "Air Exchange" idea from Half Life 2's original story.

As you can see here, the variances in purpose for the facility allow me to experiment with some fog types, color combinations, and architecture in a manner different from the original game. The general idea is that the Combine's Air Exchange is going forward, but they're engineering with existing Earth fauna such that a large facility like the Air Exchange isn't necessary. Change the trees, let them grow around the world for a few generations, and you wouldn't need to spend exuberant resources on a problem that can virtually solve itself.

My other test has been on breaching tactics. Here, you can see the rather interesting effects of red phosphorous. I'll probably post a video of the breaching moves once they've been sufficiently scripted.

Five @ Five - The Geothermal Plant

2011-06-11T02:49:00.001-07:00

I've started work on a completely different area of the island due to an in-progress overhaul of the island's basic architecture and game flow. Over the last two days I've been working up a nice interior.

I've been reworking some aspects of the island's security system. Floor panels were a bit buggy, so if they are used they will be used sparingly. In this case I decided to test out the laser grid system used in the Overwatch Nexus during Half Life 2. I changed up the logic to meet my needs, and this turret comes out of the floor and knocks over the barrels concealing it to surprise the player. A good stealth experience keeps things interesting by throwing unexpected situations at the player and that's what I intend to start doing with my level design. Bring your brown pants.

Credits due to Vecima of Type 3 Studios for the tutorial on fixing prop shadowing, I implemented it on some of the props in this map to test it. Looking great so far.

The island itself has a checkered history. It was a Soviet military installation for some time before being decommissioned after the 7 Hours War. Rebels briefly occupied the site before the Combine took over and established their training ranch for Combine Elites.

3 years in development and we didn't even do an anniversary post!

2011-04-08T21:02:00.001-07:00

The inactivity on this blog is starting to resemble the Black Mesa Twitter feed. And for that I apologize. But I've had a lot on my plate- between school and a film project I've been working on for a long time, it's been hectic. Thankfully, the film is very close to completion so I can try to focus more on finishing this mod and overcoming the technical hurdles that have been messing with my progress on this project.

I've been working with a dockyard map lovingly donated by Nicadeamas lately, so keep an eye on this box, as I'll be trying to do more updates here and on the Twitter, which has been also sorely neglected.

-Kenny

Anyone know a good skinner?

2010-10-07T04:00:00.000-07:00

Just askin.' Ya'll come back for updates now, 'ya hear?
[/fake Texas Accent[

Results of the first test...

2010-01-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

Apparently I've invented an infinite spawner for Combine.

However, they do seem to be searching the hopsital of their own accord and are fully capable of manipulating doors.

So naturally, I decided to jazz things up by spawning rebels into the Combine mess and lag ensued, as did awesomeness.

Even impulse 101ing did nothing for me to help stop the constantly respawning tirade of Combine enemies. If anything, I just figured out what Hard difficulty in SMOD: Tactical must be like. Anyway, going to try to fix the respawner and adjust the scripts, and that should fix the assaults!

Paul is Live and So are We: Three at Five at Five

2010-01-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

Far too late. But I'm working on it. This used to the the hospital. Till I took the building I had built and tried to make it work with my squad AI. I discovered I needed to start expanding the architecture to make it play properly since the player couldn't move very freely, let alone the AI.

Compiled photos to follow, and if the squad hypothesis works, then I'll do an article on Type 3 about how to do it.

Well, that plan went out the window.

2009-08-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Yeah, no beta. Sorry folks. Been very busy this summer. However I am loading up hammer tonight, because my main obstacle with getting my first part of the island done is the HL2 Squad AI. I'll be running more tests tonight.

Going into high gear

2009-06-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

We will be entering an accelerated phase of development on the mod soon, I plan to at least have a playable beta done by late August. This is my goal, and I intend to reach it. I've got some great ideas on the table, it's just a matter of getting the time to get into Hammer and work.

Unfortunately, my copies of Prototype, Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence, and Shadow of the Colossus beg to differ right now. (That last one I intend to finish, since it was a major inspiration for my mod.)

FiveDevTeam has infiltrated ModDB!

2009-05-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

Our team now has a ModDB Profile.
Hopefully we'll be adding content to it shortly related to the mod. Go ahead and read the exclusive entry there!

Fires of Industry

2009-03-17T03:28:00.000-07:00

Admittedly time has been scarce for me lately. Least of all for old hand Adam Foster who hasn't updated his blog since December 10th.

So I'm happy to give you the latest-

*************ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT*****************

Oh hell.

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$urV3L1/\NC3 CAPTUR3
2/7/2013
15:55 local time

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#######################################

And we're back. That was odd. Security camera images from places that don't exist. This blog gets more novel every day.

Happy new year from FiveDev and a status update

2009-02-10T02:28:00.000-08:00

After going on a gaming and cider guzzling spree for some time to prevent our brains from melting due to haggling with Hammer, I'm here to announce that we're still on track with some concepts for the mod. I've been testing a few things, and with any luck in a couple days I'll cough up a video of what exactly I've been working on. It's not a trailer by any means, but you will get to see what we have planned. Hopefully when I get these CQB room assaults done your jaw will hit the floor from the awesomeness. Sadly no image content for this entry, but more is to come and I hope to blow some minds with how I'm doing this little experiment.

Happy Christmas from FiveDevTeam!

2008-12-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I'm pleased to announce that we now have a coder in talks with collaborating on Five with us. His name is Craziestdan and his previous work includes "Dreamball," a nice little mod where you can roll around and solve puzzles. Quite a nifty bit of work, feel free to play it while we whip ourselves into making more maps.

He will be helping us move the maps and level assets to a specialized codebase for Five with a few little changes. We look forward greatly to working with Dan and getting progress made on this little mod, which turns one year old... yesterday! Wow!

Before you play the game, RTFM. (XD) It helped me for the controls.

As for Five's progress, terrain stuff for the mod has been downright tedious but once it's done the island's beaches should look quite nifty. I'll probably post a little video eventually so you can see what I've been doing this whole time.

Going into Test Maps

2008-12-05T01:47:00.000-08:00

Today I'll be showing off some stuff we found out with test maps we are doing for aspects of the mod. Feel free to speculate but I won't say anything about what's in the screenshots. However, the shots you are about to see are very graphic in nature. I decided to cut loose on a test map with an infinite respawning metrocop, by a trigger- well that's telling. Anyway, I waited until there were lots, then I bound a key to impulse_101 and set god mode on.

This is the carnage that followed.

I tried waiting longer the second time I did it and I crashed Source by using an smg1 grenade in the middle of about 100 metrocops and at least 40 airborne manhacks. I bet my older computer would have wound up in rigamortis by that point...

Either way it's nice to know what Source can do for you!

EDIT: New carnage pic in 1440x900 glory!
I wonder if anyone's nuts enough to try making that into a desktop...

Still Alive!!! Five @ Five! Part Fi- I mean Four

2008-11-11T13:59:00.001-08:00

First image: An experiment with func_percipitation to create the illusion of dust particles in the air in the older buildings. Impressions anyone?

Yes I am Still Alive and so is this mod.

Everyone hum with me!

While you're dying I am still alive
And when you're dead I will be still alive

The rest of the images- well, not talking about those yet. In any case, more is to come with five's development, though we have been pretty slow lately we are chugging along.

Biological Downtime

2008-09-07T00:51:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love it when I'm on time with my updates? Well, once again sorry for all the delays everyone but I was unable to operate the computer for a while because a severe illness hit me. Thankfully I'm back on my feet now to tell you that I did some research while I had the time. And two cookies for who can guess what's behind this door.

Rest assured, the FiveDev team remains committed (and not insane!) to bringing you the best mod we can possibly make. And progress is getting underway.

Data Stream Currently Unstable

2008-08-22T23:56:00.000-07:00

Five's main files are undergoing a bit of a migration to my new development environment, a nifty Vista powered dual core DX10 laptop. So once I get my level data onto the new computer I should be able to see a lot more of the effects I'm using in the mod (I might even retry that color correction idea I had a while back to tint the whole mod a light shade of blue. Example:
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/minority_report30.jpg)

It even supports motion blur. Excellent. Also, I'd like to take a moment to thank Death Spektor in particular, he is now the second unofficial member of the development team, for a total of five members.

(I just had to point that out. That number keeps popping up too much!)

Anyway, he's been slaving away at a near final build of one of my blacklisted levels, and I thank him most gratefully for his assistance. I suck at optimization and he makes my work a lot easier to deal with. So props to him big time for helping us.
As for that visual content? Still forthcoming. I might just post it in the Windows Media format I accidentally recorded it in. We'll see.

Sorry we've been neglecting you all...

2008-08-14T00:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a long few weeks since our last update, but the strained schedules of our members continue to slow progress somewhat. However, we will be getting some more visual transmissions from our inside man soon.

Prefecture

2008-07-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

Work is indeed progressing.

Just so you guys know:

2008-07-18T22:14:00.001-07:00

TaSk InTeRcEpT @480 10/7/2013

2008-07-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Subject 01- Program Summary- First subject was dropped onto the island @000. Upon infiltration of the first sector, subject was shot in the gut by the first target. A second strike to his side discontinued unit stabilization systems. Target bled out @510. Body retrieved @520. Ammunition stocked strategically to rebalance the test.

Subject 02. Program Summary- Sniper 1 terminated by candidate after prolonged inactivity period @30. Subject 02 reconnoitered the island for 50 additional beats. All remaining snipers reported contact with the subject. Sniper 3 was mortally wounded via shrapnel @127. Sniper 2 at the dockyard position terminated Subject 02's candidacy @150. Subject 02's corpse was retrieved @153. Ammunition was restored to rebalance the test. Restocking crew reported the subject had moved fuel supplies intended only to encourage tactics involving explosives to a storage area near the dockyards. The supplies were returned to the coordinates specified in the testing area's original design.

Subject 03- Program Summary- Sniper 1 eliminated @45. Unpredictable acquisition of new combat tactics by the Subjects warrants the construction of a training area for future recruits. Furthermore, the Fairness Committee suggests repositioning of personnel in Section 1 to enhance the reality of the challenge. Sniper 2 terminated at the dockyards @102. [Post-test note: Body location has not been identified. Collection teams suspect obliteration of Sniper 2.]
Sniper 3 dispatched Subject 03 with two headshots, negligibly six pot shots were also fired. Subject 03 evaded the Sniper for 20 beats, but was forced out by necessity when ground teams approached his position. Consider notifying Administration of effectiveness of the Main Island for training Snipers in live fire exercises as well as training Elite operatives. Ammunition resupplied in increased quantities to improve subject survivability.

Subject 04- Program Summary- New sniping teams were rotated to the island, replacing all previously deployed units. Subject 04 performed with unusual perspicacity. He eliminated all four targets slightly under 200 beats. To his credit he explored much of the island and frequently outpaced the Subject tracking equipment. He is the first graduate of the program. Subject 04 displays an unfortunate penchant for creativity. The Promotion Committee recommends delaying his Elite respecifications until cyborgization technologies advance.

Subject 05- Candidate selected from Inglewood Dissident Holding Facility. Testing area now in preparations for the new candidate.

The staff would like to pass a candidate for Elite training in the near future.

CONFIDENTIAL

2008-07-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

78.08-----------------------------
20.95---------
0.93-----
0.038--
0.002-

tRaNs-OpT rEc1e\/3I] @318 25/06/2013

2008-06-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

I: I am at peace with my this shithole. I've got every spot marked. This is going to be easy.

II: This is going to be easy. This is gooooooingggggg to be easy provided I can survive the minutes between firing my beloved plasma pulse rifle. (A drawing of the plasma pulse rifle)

VII: I Blew his head clean off. Fun, but creepy. Not normally trained to shoot at Combine uniformed. Except in special circumstances like this one. Discrimination is not an option.

I (or VIII): They released a new target. I saw him run past, had a different pace to his gait. Should be fun in the future to note differences in running speed. Differences in head explosions are always interesting.

II part II: My inability to destroy the target made me realize that there are several design flaws in how the employers refurbished the island for training. I will exhaustively enumerate these throughout the room.

Not enough explosive barrels. There are no explosive barrels here, and I imagine few are on the island at all. Makes it tough for us to miss.

Too many buildings. Should have been demolished so we can get a clear shot. There are no locks in my nest outside the inner door. I imagine this would be true for the rest of the island.

Too much ammo. They should do a better job of cleaning up the ammo. Each successive game stacks the odds against us. (Third at the time of this writing)

Went to the employer's island after the third target's demise. They need to check the vulnerability of ventilation shafts. Need to clean up the older areas, they pose a security risk.

5 At 5, Part 3

2008-06-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

The long awaited third entry in our series of devblog posts, more than a week late... Sorry about that guys! I've been extremely busy and not exactly working on the mod 24/7. I do however have some content for you guys, mixed media-

An early shot from what I have been working on in the latest tidbit to the blacklisted map.

The newer, prettier version, with lots more going on in it. Gameplay for this segment is mostly complete.

Big plans.

A hint of things to come

2008-06-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

Aw, crap,

2008-05-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

I'm behind schedule with my 5 at 5 updates. Hopefully I'll add something in the very near future, I've been hard at work on some fairly.... strange architecture on my little blacklisted level. Maybe more once I get areaportals fixed, and with any luck I'll release the level to beta testers within a couple of weeks.

A bunch of work on the mod and now I'm running on Valve time. Fantastic.

How (not?) to Develop A Mod, Part Four

2008-05-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

My next section of our development blog will deal with mapping theory itself for our mod.

The main idea with "5" was to create a fresh, non linear take on standard Half Life 2 weaponry with a limited weapon set. Since the levels were nonlinear we had to use the Episode Two tech to keep render detail at longer distances. The benefits to AI and graphics improvements were just on the side, because we needed the longer render distance to enable us to make larger areas the player could move through. The first area for example is a large area with several entry points for buildings, combining interior and exterior spaces for a small military base and a power plant. The second section will be much larger and rely more heavily on the long distance draw- a forest, dockyard, waste treatment plant, substation, and a shanty town are planned for the second section which work has commenced upon (below). The current shots below are not representative of the final project, so each area will be expanded.

The main idea for each map is to keep the choice of multiple routes fresh. The entrance to the military base and power plant area has no less than four separate entry points with varying levels of risk. Gaps in a fence, a minor exploration physics puzzle to get over a fence, a more direct route, and a fortuitously placed dumpster all provide different approaches from distinctly different angles and of varying visibility to the first target. Keeping in touch with the alternate way to beat the game (which involves more avoidance, observation, and exploration than direct conflict), two of those routes avoid the sniper in places. The other two are somewhat more direct. This is only the beginning as well. The third segment of the island happens to be even more taxing than the second area, as it requires a HUGE area of open space. I'll reveal more later when the map is under construction.

Remember, your comments fuel progress!

(In other news, I tried the demo for "The Bourne Conspiracy-" fun but infuriating often. I predict that it will get 7s and 8s from the media.)

5 at 5, Part Two

2008-05-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Numbero Dos of our latest development progress. Bean-o has gotten a good start on the second segment of the island. I've taken a few screens from there, section one, and a little bit of the game that I've been working on for quite some time. Once again, I shut up and let the images speak for me.

Images, away!!!

5 at 5, Part One

2008-04-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

plan on adding a new feature to the devblog, where I will essentially force myself to post five images from the development of 5 perhaps biweekly or perhaps not on any schedule whatsoever.

So, to the images!

Aw damn, I missed a golden oppertunity...

2008-04-02T08:42:00.001-07:00

to say yesterday that my mod would be released today. And then make an obvious April Fool joke. Rats! Oh well. It's not gonna release today at the very least. Development is progressing, I managed to make a bit of music for the mod. It's only a technical demo and not representative of the final music. I'll see if I can make a video of the game's in development maps when we get the main island under more final archatecture, and I'll layer the music over it. It will probably be a crude trailer but it should do the job just fine. So I'll do that when I'm not too busy mapping.

How (not?) To Develop A Mod, Part Three

2008-03-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Work is progressing at a faster clip, we've gained a new member to our team, and more maps are in progress. As for what you can learn today, I might as well talk about how to think of an idea as crazy as ours.

Many mods often either try too hard to be innovateive and become cumbersome or not try hard enough and end up being unoriginal. I won't pretend to be an expert (being as this is my first mod project) but I will opine on the subject.

The first thing you need to do is study. Look at other mods, even at professional games, not for ideas necessarily but for what they did right and what they did wrong. For example I'll cite Half Life 2. I loved so much about that game (part of the reason why I'm going to the trouble of modding it), but I saw pros and cons. For one, many sections of the game felt like excess in places. Entanglement was a particuarly annoying chapter for me. Even though a major story point is made midway through the chapter, I felt the chapter itself (particuarly one huge gunfight where you must set up three turrets) was often overly difficult. However, I looked around in the level and began to think strategically on my next playthroughs and got better as I replayed HL2. (I've gone through the game on hard more than five times. I know somewhat what I'm talking about.) Valve's inner theory is telling a story but keeping it firmly within the player's control. So we really don't begin to learn all about the combine until Black Mesa East when Eli explains the newspaper clippings on the wall. The beauty of that sequence was that it was *completely optional.* I love it when a story can get the gist of it across to a casual player, yet still have huge amounts of story in the backweb for the more serious crowd (since I've been on both sides of the fence it's even more apparent to me.). Excellent examples of this point are also in Episode One's Kleiner cast, which again is completely optional and pops up at several points so the player can make the choice themselves to listen or not.

When I first brainstormed "5," I first thought of the AI in HL2 as compared to a game like F.E.A.R. Fear's AI is excellent- they dive for cover, they can go everywhere the player goes (climbing ladders, jumping through windows) and even some places that the player can't (climbing under pipes), and doing more intelligent things like moving things around to make their own cover (see the 18 minute "Project Origin" trailer to get a hands on look at this idea.). HL2's AI often felt mindless in places (rappeling in front of a water boat just to be run down is funny once, but after awhile it feels stupid, not to mention some of the more fortiuitously placed explosives in some setpieces).

Another gripe I had with both HL2 and F.E.A.R. is that sometimes the experience felt overly linear. MINERVA: Metastasis's opening level for example feels extremely non-linear. (And once you open the service doors to the center of the island, it can be approached from multiple entery points, earning non-linear points from me.) Parts of HL2's "Ravenholm" chapter were similarly non linear, because you had a nice set of rooftops and streets and back alleys to explore and shoot zombies in.

So taking notes from the above games, I attempted to craft a mod. My first attempt was a never-to-be-released attempt at nonlinearity that I tenatively called "Wasted."

The idea was that the player had been tasked with taking a small team of rebels aboard a combine transport over the Sahara desert and retrieve a specified cargo- the HEV Mark V. Ultimately everything went to hell, the player accidentally managed to strap himself in the suit, most of his team is killed, and he manages to port out of the transport as it begins to crash (the very beginning of the game). Under the direction of his Neural Interface (NI) named "Delator" (Roman for "informant"), he was to scout a huge desert locale for pieces of the transport, rip as much data as he could from these scattered terminals, avoid roving patrols of Combine soldiers looking for him, and attempt to track down any survivors from his crew. I ultimately abandoned the mod when the maps hit a huge technical hurdle and the map data was corrupted. In any case, "Wasted" died a quiet drunken death (A little humor!). Out of the ashes of Wasted came "5." Originally called "The Hunt" (name changed because of a mod by that name already existed), it has grown into the in progress mod you see on this blog.

Moral of the lesson: Revisiting old ideas with fresh eyes can give you some excellent refinements you might not have seen back in the day. Remember that hindsight is 20/20, and if you didn't release an old project than feel free to rip yourself off. (Just like I did!)

Progress ticker: Section 1 in progress. Naturally I wouldn't want to spoil what I mean by that.

How (not?) To Develop A Mod, Part Two

2008-02-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

Work is currently progressing slowly on a level for "5," and a few things can be learned here:

Be careful with Displacements.

The level (like the mod) will be quite displacement intensive but to a lesser extent than the main island. You have to plan carefully with displacement textures because

-They're a bitch to manipulate when you need to do fine detail work
-It's difficult to fix a displacement when you screw up
-It's difficult to make a displacement look realistic when you're working on large terrain with lower numbers of displacement verticies
-Texture contineuity (making the ground appear natural) is also difficult to achieve
-Sew can be detrimental to map progress if you sew too early, because it will link the displacements improperly and you will see big seams in the displacements on compile

A few positive things:

-Combine scanner units are incredibly easy to put in a level- just place a few info_node_airs in logical sweep patterns around the area you want patrolled and the scanners will sweep the area automatically and take pictures of the player and other npcs.

-trigger_waterydeath is also relatively easy to implement and will help you block off waterways or oceans when necessary.

-Soundscapes do a lot to add to atmosphere when implemented appropriately.

More updates as development progresses.

How (not?) To Develop A Mod, Part One

2008-02-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

Development on "5" is now in full swing with work on the internal demo complete, and the first level is now being worked on. I figured I'd post another entry here to commemorate our total failure to make any progress.

When you decide to work on a mod, planning is key. Planning is key for just about anything, from asking out a girl to laying the framework for a mod.

The team must start with a clear plan in mind for the mod. Don't even touch Hammer or Photoshop or Maya or whatever else you use before you know exactly what you want to do, but make sure your initial plan is flexible. For all you know, it could be completely impossible.

The initial concept for "5" was the player being dropped into a large forest being assigned to track down a kill a single target, and the target was supposed to have flawless A.I. to the point where he could change position to engage the player dynamically. The sniper would take a shot, we kill the sniper in the nest and spawn a combine soldier behind the nest, then he would assault to a different point as fast as he could, we kill the runner and activate a sniper in the nest, then he would wait until the player was within a radius, then take another shot. The player was to begin with nothing but a melee weapon, and then track down a single shot rifle to engage the sniper with. The map would have been very large, including a rail yard, a small shantytown, and huge expanses of dark forest, complete with constant rainfall and fog to limit the player's ability to engage the target. But we just decided it wasn't feasible to make because of the huge emphasis on the A.I. The combine aren't designed to run away from the player, and since we have no coders on hand, just mappers and texture artists, we decided to abandon this model and turn to the current one. The player is dropped in much the same, except he will likely have a hatchet and find a crossbow shortly in his quest giving him more ammunition. We upped the target count to four and forced the player to figure out a new way of combat, similar to the game "Shadow of the Colossus." The player will need to exploit his environment and flush the sniper. There will be several methods of either flushing or killing the target, adding replay value, plus additional "scout" units actively scouring the island attempting to find and kill the player. Scanner units will also act as informants, and the player has the option of avoiding combat entirely and attempting to unravel the greater motives of the people who dropped him on the island, and interfere with their endgame.

In one way, you could consider the new version more ambitious than the original one, but at least with an island we have a more finite landscape to work with, plus less work with trees and displacements (Forests look bland when you have a bunch of cloned trees). And the new setup also allows for an alternate ending that will be difficult to unravel but well worth the effort.

Another important part of modding is to love your job. This may sound corny, but I genuinely enjoy slaving away at a keyboard working in Hammer because it lets me take my brain and smear it all over a screen for other people to play. (I bet this mod will have far less users now that I've used this analogy.) You and your mod team need to have a unified vision, so having a small amount of people with a large skill set is good. Depending on the scope of your mod, you may need more people. I won't pretend to know about modding with a large team, as this is the first mod I've ever worked on. One of our team has worked on previous mods, but for the most part we are first time modders.

Third part: Don't be afraid to change things when technical issues arise. The current island workload might even change for all we know. Early in the development of a mod, things are very volatile. Things can explode several times over before you nail down a correct concept. Let them explode on occasion. You might find out something better than you had.

The Very First Post!

2008-02-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

Hello. I'm Stephen Hart (You don't want to know my real name. Trust me.), a small time mapper and highly opinionated, completely random guy. In any case, this blog is not about my life or day to day politics like some of my other works, but rather a modding development blog. Since I have not said much about "5" at the moment, this will be the official devblog for the mod. Yes, there will be screenshots, rants about errors, and whatnot here, but first a few words of caution for budding modders:

FOR GOD'S SAKE, BACK UP YOUR MAPS. You have to be absolutely paranoid about your data. Over the course of making an internal demo of "5," I have lost map data at least four times, even though I currently have ten seperate versions of the same map.

COMPILE EARLY, COMPILE OFTEN. Hammer will croak more if you do a large amount of new geometry and not test at frequent intervals. I suggest one compile for every man-hour of work on your maps, and save a new file for alll the new stuff.

WHEN ADDING LARGE AREAS TO YOUR LEVEL, PREFAB THE ROOM IN QUESTION BEFORE COMPILING. This particular instruction also comes from my "5" demo experiences- I lost the underground portion of the map twice, so I prefabed the whole darn underground upon each map revision, so in the event of losing my data, I would be able to stick the entire area back into the map in one operation without having to rebuild from scratch. Entities, brushes, npcs, the works. Prefab it all.

And now a teaser screenshot from the mod:

Perhaps more screens to come. Definitely more rants.