HL1 (Goldsrc) Modding Thread

So, recently, I decided to get back in business with Hammer and wished to create my own custom single-player story.
In LAYMAN'S terms; what will I need to do to be able to provide a functioning copy of the finished mod?

I wish to feature:

Custom Sounds

Custom models/re-skins (But use the Half-Life AI)

Custom Sentences (For the NPCs to speak)

Custom textures

Custom menu screen

No multiplayer

How should I set this up? What steps do I have to take to make this single-player story function on someone else's machine? I plan on sticking everything into a .zip file, but, the problem is, I'm not at all sure WHAT EXACTLY would go into this .Zip per se.

If I set up Hammer with the Half-life.fgd (Game configuration file), how will I add this custom content I listed above? Aside from the WAD files, I am sort of...lost in how to set everything up to use the Half-Life configuration in tandem with custom content that I create. And how would I go about packaging all of this up for distribution here on ModDB and elsewhere? Thank you in advance.

Please do not send youtube video links. Thank you.

I am wondering all of the above myself. I always thought when I'll get to the point of releasing my mod, I would search of how to set it properly up. I am eagerly awaiting for any responses to this one too.

I'd think that you'd need to set everything up properly BEFORE you began, too. Meaning: During the Hammer configuration steps, but if you just went ahead and started making .Rmfs, I'm sure you COULD theoretically copy them over after you set up the new config - I believe your mod would have to have its very own special folders/directories for models, sound, textures, animations, etc. that you could call back to via hammer. Now for finishing it, I assume, and even heard once that you'd have to create a .Pak file. Those were set up a certain way to where you could have your own .Pak file built of your custom content and if your mod also relied on Half-Life content as well, the mod would call back to one of the original Valve .Pak files...Yeah, I have the gist down, but there's all the loose ends...I mean, I'm also wondering if you'd have to create your own .Fgd file specifically for your mod, even if you didn't have any code back-end...To be honest, I'm quite surprised that within a community of nearly half a million modders, who reside on a site called "ModDB"; there aren't a ton of replies on this post, which is regarding one of the most heavily modded games in history. Twhl.info There is THIS site, however.

I mean to set it up properly for release. I believe we both have set our mods up just right in Hammer, but there is some extra work to do for them to be playable as Half Life mods (what files they need, in what format, which directories etc.). I simply have no idea what to do after finishing my mod whatsoever. And I am surprised as well from the lack on answers here. Maybe it's such a basic knowledge that we should know it already? Dunno

As for Twhl, it's indeed a great site. It has some nice tutorials but I am not sure if there's one among them which could help us.

That's a shame, but I'll still give it a shot. I'd ask Valve, but they'd probably tell us to piss off. As for our questions being total n00b queries - I don't think that's the case.

Edited by: Half-Rats