HL2 Mod Idea - WWII - 'Purple Heart' Thread

Half-life 2 World War II Mod - "Purple Heart"

I. Concept -
The Concept of the game is to defeat Allied/Axis Powers from carrying out there plans. The main point of the game to make it both fun, and reallistic. Day of Defeat is pretty reallistic, but you can't drive tanks, planes, or shoot any anti-tank craft stuff where it actually looks real. The point of the game is to make it somewhat like DoD, but more Allied and Axis teams. So we are looking at a 'Call of Duty' or 'Battle Field 1942' type game. I heard the Half-Life 2 engine makes the wheels roll and propellers spin, so we can focus mainly on reallism and fun.

II. Teams -
The teams can be based on Axis and Allied of course. On Omaha Beach (Normandy D-Day) for example, it was Allied vs. Axis. The countries on the allied forces were America, Canada, and Britain. Axis force only had Germans, because they were defending the part of the beach, to take over France in the morning. So it's 3 countries bonded together to make allied force, vs. the Axis which is Germans only.

Most maps you will have this choice

Allied -
America
France
Britain
Canada
Russia (At the end of the war, in the beginning they were Axis.)

Axis -
Germany
Russia (Axis on most maps like the battle of El Alamein.)
Italy

So most maps will have the countries included in the specific battle, or map.

III. Weapons/Vehicles
There will be a wide range of weapons, included for every country. America made the m1 Garand, so the Allied American team can only use the garand. The Canadians get there weapons, The British, and the French get all of there weapons. If one country of a team didn't produce that many weapons in WWII, you would might want to add a weapon from another country just to give them support. When weapon switching, you dont have the stupid fast 'quick switch' that CS and Day Of Defeat has. No, it will show that you grab your gun in front of your face, strap it on your back, and pull out pistol manually. Manually meaning it just doesnt show up magically, it shows your arm pulling up the pistol/rifle, and cock back the chamber or slide of the weapon. So no QUICK SWITCHING. If you have a heavy machine gun, it will take longer to pull out when u have pistol, and same with a heavy sniper rifle that britian uses. So the weapons will be all from the countries who own it, and will be reallistically equipped on the battle field.

The vehicles will all be drivable, except the 'decorative' ones, that make the map look more sceneric. The planes will be active, and drivable. Example, a simple trooper plane can hold about 10 people, so 8 people can hop in the plane, making 2 the driver and the passenger. The people who arent driving can jump out of the plane, if they use parachute. They can land on water, on land, and on buildings, anything goes, this is reallism. Of course when you hit the ground, it will take about 10 seconds to get up because no one can survive a 500 foot drop and land perfect, unless you have horse legs so get real. Tanks, Amphibious Landers (the things that the troopers landed ashore on omaha beach), and much more vehicles. im not going to go in depth in the vehicles until someone wants to start this mod.

IV. Graphics
You know what to expect on HL2.

Well, the blood is going to be real, instead of fake .bmp red splashes on ur face, we could try to make it 'steamable'. As in it runs down your face, swet appears, and the mouth's talk in the game with voice. When the arms are blown off by rocket launchers and tanks, you just want see a chunk of his arm off, youll see the gory effects. Like a string of your flesh is hanging out while blood spews everywhere. If you lose an arm or leg in battle, a medic can come up to you and press 'h' to bandage the injured soldier, and press 'p' to pickup the soldier you wrapped. Bring him back to the medical tent, and spawn like 20 seconds later with 55 health. When you get shot on battle field, and your layin on the ground, your gonna stay on the ground until an enemy shoots you, or a medic heals u. If you get shot, and your layin on the ground and theres no medic on the team, you'd better leave the server cuz your either gonna be left there till you bleed to death, or an enemy soldier comes knife you up lol. I want this game to be based on its title 'PURPLE HEART' for bieng injured from war, and saving another soldier in battle. FOCUS ON REALISM! In omaha beach, THERE IS NO MEDICAL TENT. SO BEWARE Lol.

V. Conclusion
We need a team to make this mod. Not 1 modeler, 2 mappers, and 2 coders. We need much more to get the job done. So if anyone would like to host this mod, while I map for it, go ahead. DO NOT STEAL THE FEATURES OF THIS MOD, AND RENAME IT. Only the people who work with me can change the name if they like. I would love to map for the HL2 engine, especially on a HL2 mod.

Contact me at Tmil2003 on AIM, CrunchyBlack07 on STEAM, or simply email me at crunchy_black07@hotmail.com

Thank you for reading my mod idea, im glad you actually made it down to this point.

- Edited By CrunchyBlack On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:07:00am

Hmm.
Maybe... not...
If you want a Battlefield 1942-style or Call of Duty-style game, play BF1942 or CoD respectively. Also, if you want an idea of how many other people are working on WWII mods for Half-Life 2, just search ModDB for WWII.

Also, Russia never, ever helped the Axis, and were never part of the Axis, and never fought in El Alamein. That is an insult, being the descendent of a Major in an Australian battalion who fought in North Africa. Unless you learn something about WWII, like even which weapons the Canadians and French used, don't even bother.
I may take you seriously if you can name me ten weapons used by the French, and five weapons used by the Canadians, and five weapons used by the Australians.

- Edited By frosty_theaussie On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:07:28am

Oops, I double posted.

- Edited By frosty_theaussie On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:07:01am

well i want the game's graphics as the HL2 engine, and i'm sure more people would love to see a reallistic, gory, livin-up-to-its-name mod. And about other WWII mods, I guarantee they probably don't have half of the stuff that i included in that post. No game that i know out now thats WWII based is this real that im explaining. So i want this to be real, fun, and diff from other games. you get vehicles like BF, you get MORE teams than u can choose on Call of Duty, and more reallistic than DoD. So, its not basically based on another game if that what your trying to say.

See, exactly, we need research on the mod too. lol.
(Thanks for proving me wrong about Alamein)
But yea, the weapons will be what the country has made. If they didnt produce much, we can add a little American/British guns, cuz they supported each other during the war.

PS: I promise ill research ALL of WWII to get all the battles, and make sure im correct on the countries involved in the war. I just guessed El Alamein cuz i just heard that Rommell was fightin in the desert. I know most of the wars like battle of midway, norway, and all of that, but i promise ill get more and make sure im CORRECT on every one of them.

Well, if you can get it organised as you say you can, I'll be glad to help you as a historic advisor. And let me tell you for a start, Russia was always part of the three Allied powers. They only ever fought on the Eastern front, and the farthest south of Russia they ever got was defending the Georgian oil reserves. And if you want realism, it's the M-1 Rifle, not the M-1 Garand. The "Garand" is just a nickname of the rifle, which is derived from the creator of it.

BTW, Erwin Rommel was a general who was famous for his battles in Africa commanding the "DAK" Deutsches Afrika Korps, and also famous for committing suicide after being presented with an ultimatum from Hitler (not personally adressed, though). He was nicknamed the "Desert Fox" as well, not to be confused with the "Desert Rats", who were the proud Commonwealth soldiers who defended the city of Tobruk.

- Edited By frosty_theaussie On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:18:21am

Okay, you can historically help me with the mod. I can't code and im not a very good modeler, but i can map hella good

Yea we need coders and modelers if anyones interested. We need a good coder to lead the mod, so if anyone out there is 7+ years of Coding, you can be the leader of the mod, and ill tell you the features that Purple Heart needs.

I will try to get a web site up if we confirm atleast 3 Mappers (Im leader of mappers, so ill judge everyone's maps.) 3 coders, and 5 modelers, and some researchers. Once we have this much, we will get started.

- Edited By CrunchyBlack On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:16:57am
- Edited By CrunchyBlack On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:20:12am

I think people with seven years experience of coding actually have professional jobs. That means they've been programming since 1997, before Half-Life 1 came out 0_o

Also consider a name change. There's no point naming a mod that involves nearly every nation involved in WWII after an American war medal. Medal of Honour works because you always play as an American. Call of Duty works because you play as soldiers of multiple nationalities.

- Edited By frosty_theaussie On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:20:45am

Man, you love proving me wrong.... OKAY ANYONE OUT THERE THAT KNOWS MORE THAN THE BASICS OF CODING.... Lets say 3-4+ years of coding.... THERE HAPPY lol

Well it's up to the team, i just randomly chose this title to get us started.
Ill put up a poll one day, once we have enough members on the team....

- Edited By CrunchyBlack On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:22:17am

Do you need any help on the Design Document too?
I've got a bit of experience doing that, having designed three different Doco's myself (one for my Terminator mod, two others just for fun and seeing the reactions of various people).

Sure... we need all the help we can get... Thanks

Which title do u like?
------------------------
Lines of Fire
Conflicting Nations
Purple Heart - Default
Great Battles of World War II - heh, runnin outta ideas
Duty of a Soldier
Nations in War
World at War
WWII Online

I dont know, im not a good title maker.... start posting some good names for a reallistic, gory, fun, type of mod.

If you want a nice feature list of weapons, which I can see you do, here's a list just of the top of my head of all the weapons used by the Yanks (for those of you not up on the lingo, that's Americans)

United States:
M-1 Rifle ("Garand")
M-1C Rifle, Scoped
M-1D Rifle, Scoped
M-1 Carbine
M-1A1 Carbine (Folding Stock)
M-2 Carbine (Larger box magazine, altered ROF)
M-1903A1/A3 Rifle ("Springfield")
M-1903A4 Rifle, Scoped ("Springfield", no iron sights)
M-1941 Rifle ("Johnson", not used much, mainly by Marine SF)
M-1911A1 Pistol ("Colt .45")

M-1928 Submachine-gun ("Thompson", drum magazine)
M-1 Submachine-gun ("Thompson", box magazine)
M-1A1 Submachine-gun ("Thompson", box, altered specifications)
M-3 Submachine-gun ("Grease Gun")
M-3A1 Submachine-gun ("Grease Gun", altered specs)
M-1918 Browning Automatic Rifle
M-1918A1 BAR (altered specs and ROF)
M-1918A2 BAR (altered specs and ROF)
M-1919A4 Browning LMG
M-1919A6 Browning LMG (used by paras and rangers, had a buttstock and bipod instead of the tripod)
M-1917A1 Browning MMG (looked like a Vickers because of the cooling system)

The US also used the M1/M1A1/M9 Bazooka, several mortars (60mm and 81mm), frag grenades (M2 or Mk2) and various other weaponary (M2-2 Flamethrower and several AA/AT guns). In addition, US Officers also used self-acquired personal use revolvers on occasion

I can incorporate all the firearms into the starter of a design document, if you like. Maybe it could eventually turn into the ultimate resource for WWII information

Edit:
Don't use WWII Online because it's an actual game (www.wwiionline.com)

- Edited By frosty_theaussie On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 1:58:15am

Thanks for the info on the American Guns!!! I copied+pasted into a text file under my folder on my desktop, so we need modelers now. And yes, i was thinking about that... on World War II online, Cuz lawsuits could get in the way :-o

Im gonna search some french and canadian guns tomorow, then friday, ill search for the big German/Russian/Italian guns used then..... Can you get started on the italian guns, cuz there wasnt many used in WWII. Thanks

AHH YES! The bazooka and the flamethrower! I forgot all about the flame thrower! thanks...

Oh, if you want to find out stuff on the Candian guns, you're not going to have much luck, because they used the same guns as the British.

That was a trick question which I asked. The Canadians used British and a few American weapons (namely the Thompson). Same goes for the Australians and New Zealanders (in case you can't tell, I'm an Aussie, so I know a bit). I've already got a few bit of information on the German and Russian, and Italian weapons. If you want I'll just get all my information and images and put it in a nice PDF. I've also got ORBATs and TOEs for the United States, Germany, Russia, Italy, Australia and Britain during WWII.

Okay, that sounds fantastic! I really appreciate your help . Yea Canada didn't serve a huge part in WWII with weapons, but they helped fight Juno i think. Btw, the map isnt just gonna be a small itty bitty map like dod's dod_charlie. It's gonna include Juno, Sword, Omaha, Utah, and all of them included on one map. Yes they will be big. But ill keep it updated here on the posts if you would like to know more info on this mod.

Btw, should i add australians or any other Country that was involved? Or should i keep the main ones in the war.

Hey, Australia fought a huge part in the war! We fought both in the European theatre and Pacific theatre. Anyway, you do know that a map including Gold, Juno and Sword, and the American beaches, Utah and Omaha, would be HUGE. Like, massive huge. I can't stress that enough. Pretty much over 60 kilometers in width.

Also, I think Canada is most famous for it's participation in the old Commando raid at Dieppe. That would make a fun map, IMO, to play. Have the Canadians land at a beach, armed with SMLEs, Thompsons, Stens, Webleys and whatnot, and assign them a few objectives, then they must make it back down to the beach. Anyone who has read "The Commandos At Dieppe" will know what I'm on about.

- Edited By frosty_theaussie On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 2:30:56am

Well ill shorten it as most as i can.... And i heard that the Hl2 Map Creator can hold LOTS more square inches than the basic hl1 can.... and im sorry, i never really learned that Australia fought in the war.... im guessing Allied? I added them to the text file under my folder.... keep updating man.... i like

Oh yea not ALL allies start on the amphibious landings, they can be dropped from the sky into the water, into the back of the germans bunker-land, which the germans has to shoot down planes and stuff to prevent it.... man i just hope we have a coder that can do half the stuff that i say lol....

keep it up man, and thanks for your support

Sorry to keep correcting you, but during Operation Overlord (D-Day), the Allied paratroopers did not ever land in the water during the morning. All the paratroopers had hit the ground and were eating dirt by 0200 very far inland, away from the beaches. Any soldiers that were dropped into the ocean water probably didn't live to tell the tale, so if anyone did we would never know (considering that D-Day was postponed from June 5th to June 6th because the weather was so bad!)

So ur saying, we should just make them parachute? Cuz i want to make it like the real war.... So ur saying, don't spawn on the amphibious landings, cuz you are gonna die no matter what. I think we should just for the action. I mean your gonna die no matter what, and your gonna get some kills, but you gotta do as the war says. So yea, were landing both on ground, sea, and beaches.

Oh yea, overlord is gonna be the first map to the series... im working on it now

Oh yes, we need some Airplane Models, so i can make them swoosh by and drop the guys in the water.... And no, on Operation Overlord Map, Allied will not be able to do anything except fight until they stop the germans. That means no anti tank crap weapons, no bazookas (they didnt use them there), and no tanks or planes to fly, cuz they just fell from the sky and landed ashore. So, lets stick to the facts. Now battle of midway is different, aircraft carriers, Japan and all of them. And pearl harbor will DEFINATELY be the 2nd map. OH YEA japanese! They axis.. lemme add them to the weapons/country list.

So we got Australia, America, Russia (at the end), Canada, Britain, and France as the Allied.

I have Italy, Russia, Germany, japan, and we need 1 or 2 more axis powers.... these are all that i can think of.....

- Edited By CrunchyBlack On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 2:54:04am

Not so, not so. The troops landing on the beaches didn't actually get slaughtered during the ampihibous landings. Here's a timeline:

D-dayandbeyond.org.uk

It's got plenty of information. Basically troops on Utah got it easy. The Commonwealth beaches, Gold, Juno and Sword met differing levels of oppositions. Some troops got pinned down on the beaches while others made it quite far inland. And the Saving Private Ryan view of Omaha beach is a common misconception: It was only a slaughter in a few places. Some units found no opposition.

By far the scaling that the Rangers had to undertake at Pointe du Hoc was by far the hardest.

EDIT: Bazookas, mortars, flamethrowers, BARs and machineguns were all used on the beaches. Somewhere I've got an ACT list (Assault Craft Team) which shows who carried which equipment. I got it off an old 1st Division Captain Veteran, who had plenty of information to share about his experiences on the beaches.

- Edited By frosty_theaussie On Thu 29th, Jan 2004 @ 2:55:28am