Project 117 - Half-life 2 Modification Thread

Hey names Wannabe im project leader of the project117 mod.

Our mod is currently in the planning stages. and we're all new to modding. However we are all on a game design course that will teach us many of the skills needed and as such we formed a mod team. We chose half-life 2 due to the fact that half-life was so moddable and half-life 2 source engine already seems to suit the type of game we're looking at making.

Anyhow The basic concept is :

The game is based on first person action. but will be backed up with a strong storyline. it's based in the future. with first contact with an unknown alien life. as an unknown spacecraft enters the sol system. Unforntunaly these aliens are none to friendly

The game will be based on team played missions. With the players taking the role of a specialist team of soldiers trained for first contact. The alien's will be AI controled.

Another major feature that we want to implament into the mod is hacking. While alot of other games. use a simple press and hold or at best a mini game thats simplistic to hack. we want to include a more realistic hacking. It will be script based from a console. and will allow players to learn new tricks. it will be much easier than true to life hacking. but will be on par ( hopefully ) with games such as Darksigns.

The team are currently working out many ideas and we try and keep the websites updated with infomation as much as possible.

While we have alot of dedicated team members we're lacking currently in much of cetain skills. As such anyone intrested in helping out or even joining the team please contact me.

We are currently in need of :

Any concept artwork you wish to submit, credit will be given.

Any idea's please feel free to drop in the irc room or forums and give us some suggestions every one will be concidered by the team.

Models will be accepted and reviewed and credit will also be given however we cannot say if the model will be used or not right now.

Contact :

E-mail - xfxmaximus@hotmail.com
IRC - #project117 @ quakenet
Website1 - Moddb.com
Website2 - Project117.uni.cc

It sounds like it has potential(like the hacking thing alot),but right now its very... cliche, you know its just kinda, bleh. I think this mod could go somewhere though. Let us know some specific details and I think that will start attracting more people, stuff like what specific weapons will be used and more exclusive features. I would help you guys out, but I am always slammed with work, but I am sure you can find some people that will help you around here somewhere. Good luck guys

Ok just a little info on some of the features. ( these are not set solid yet. were still working on them. we have alot of coursework to deal with aswell )

Unique characters - Each character will have seperate skills allowing for players to build there perfect team

Unique Weapons - Each character will have a weapon unique to them

Mech(s) - Right now we have decided 100% for one of the characters to be a mech. Wielding close combat weaponry MAYBE some advanced visual modes and the ability to weld doors open and closed.

Hacking - Any character is able to do this. some will be given bonuses these are yet to be worked out.

Command vehical - We're hoping to use the live camera feed function of half-life2 to provide a "command vehical" this will be based at a specific location and will have monitors of all the Characters showing a view from there helment/shoulder. It will also be the only location at which a map is available. we want this to be useful but no NEEDED to complete the missions.

Weaponry - There will be a mix of both Projectile weapons new and old aswell as energy based weaponry. we're also looking at trying to think of some original weaponry.. which is hard

Enemys - While many of the aliens are yet to be decided on we already have plans to implament an enemy that uses the grav gun to attack. This may be simply throwing the characters off there feet or perhaps causing force damage. ( much like the shield gun of UT perhaps ) aswell as the simplistic idea of having larger aliens that spawn the smaller aliens.

While alot of this is very "cliche" however as a new modding team we dont want to try and push the boundrys too far. We want to try and keep with what works and add a little.... personality to it. Ill put my hands up and say.. the majority of ideas are taken from several other games/films but then the idea is to make what we think will be a fun and playable game. therefore we're looking at what is "fun and playable" in other games and adapting them to our own. I suggest you check out the alien swarm mod for UT2k4 as thats what got me thinking of this mod idea.

Whoa, you guys are new to modding and you're planning on making something this ambitious? I recommend careful planning and building up to a big mod. Implement the things the biggest things you want first to see if they'll actually work, just so you know whether or not it should be part of the final product. Then, work from there, and you should fit in nicely to a mod you'll be satisfied with

It's a cool idea, too, so don't be too bothered by that part of it.

True its a big project for a new team. however we are on a games development course ( well all but 2 of us ) and we have the support of an actual Games Developer ( well ex dev ) who worked for Gremlin Interactive, while he isnt part of the team. i do count on him for alot of advice.

That's good. Get as much help as you can, so you won't be a part of the group of dead mods laying around here

Sounds good and please dont add yourself to the mountian of dead mods either start and finish or dont start at all good luck.

Sounds like Matrix Online...sort of.

Edited by: CyanideCotdPnuts

Im almost 100% that wont happen. not only is game development the prefesion we're all looking at. We also have a group of "friend" who said we wouldnt last 2 weeks. So we have the drive of proving them wrong and rubbing it in there face when we actually finish it

But no. the main reason for this mod it to learn

Matrix online.. how so? ill have to go read up on that again because i dont see any similarities :/

Edited by: v3.Wannabe

Cool. I'm aiming towards game development as well. Personally, I'm going for producer

I think the only similarity between MO and this is hacking, and both reasons for the hacking is different from each other

Although, I got to admit, Enter the Matrix's Hacking feature was perhaps one of the coolest features of any game I played. Not to mention, it was the only good part about the game. lol

Oh reminds me. While most people will give me abuse for asking. im going to anyway. We currently only have one coder whos skill is limited. we're looking for a coder whos intrested in the project and up for the challange.

I will also be attempting to learn myself.

use your mod control panel to look for a coder.

Halflife2.net <-- this thread is a good place to ask for help.

get a site up fast. concept, this ^plot you wrote and update your moddb profile every 3 days with something. Your alive or you had a pizza for dinner. when you have mod watchers and you update the (mod or mod profile) they get messaged which means the visit the stie

Already put in a help msg for a coder. we have a website with all the info. and an irc room. we have some concept art and we update the profile as often as we have new information. But as of yet no intrest hence this post

it will come.

there is about 20 hl2 sites find them and email them updates when you have them.

planethalflife.com
halflife2.net
hlgaming.com

aye, i am in the mod team too. And i have been in a mod team before which unfortunately died, but thats because it was a call of duty mod, that was going to offer alot of features, and the project was going slow as we only had one modeller and me, and i was just learning at the time. And it was taking too long, and then we heard about united offensive, and it offered alot of the features we were planning, so we decided to pull out.

Anyway, thanks for you guys who praised the project, and any ideas from anyone would be great.

Am currently modelling a silenced sniper, the reason for this will be revealed when you play the mod.

Edited by: neptar

Ok a quick update on the hacking side :

The ideas so far :

Code based hack system. Two modes :
• Mark III Infiltrator:



Automatically hacks the system. is MUCH slower than themanual way but is guaranteed to succeed. Also shows you how the hack was completed including code.

• Mark III Ice Interface:



Manual hack, allows use of code and tricks in the same way as the automatic system. but is much faster ( depending on the hackers skill)

The code will be based on simple script and wont be too complex ( it may be tweaked later on if it turns out to be too simple or too complex )

To help learn the way to hack. ill write a "how to" guide. and one idea is to add code samples that can be leart through the game.

Anymore examples will be welcome. please just drop them here ( i check every day ) or go to our website and post something on it in the forums. thankyou.

Edited by (in order): v3.Wannabe, v3.Wannabe

**IoWA-13**
Hey peeps pretty soon am gonna be posting the concept idea for the mech, and thn hopefully nt long after sum concept art/texturing

Edited by: FRaGGLEp0p

im not sure why this popped up yet. Its an aliens versus humans thing, and its called 117. Master chief in halos callsign was spartan jhon 117. Just wanted to point it out, sounded a bit similar, but good concept, i like.

v3.Wannabe:

screw playing it safe. Think of the big hits from the mod world - none of them played it safe. They all turned genres on their ears by breaking all the rules.

On Quake: Team Fortress. Overspecialised character classes in a PVP teamgame. Nothing like that ever before. Nobody thought it would work - a game where you need at least 4 close friends to build a team, and all must be online, and people must be willing to take wussy jobs like "medic".

Quake 2: Action Q2. Damn - you move slow, the guns are dull, you die real easy, you have to bandage your bleeding - you suck. But it was the first "realism" deathmatch. Huge success.

Half-Life: CounterStrike. holy shit - when you die, you have to _wait_ to come back, when everybody else puts you in instantly. That took balls. And its slow as molasses. That was ballsy too.

Unreal Tournament: U4E. Everyone else is doing realism. Lets do 60 unrealistic weapons, complete with custom models, graphics, and special effects. Lets make them really, really wierd.

Yes, some big mods play it safe (BF1942:Desert Combat, for example), but only if they're huge, polished, and 1st-out-the-door. Otherwise, be the iconoclast.

We're a small team. of inexperience modders. Sure id love to make the next big mod, but as project leader i have to have a realistic outlook. our team isnt great. there not polished enough to make the next CS. ( not that i would want to ) this all started for one reason. were making the mod to help us learn. if its big. GREAT. if it isnt, so what we learnt skills and we had fun.

and to address the halo issue. YES the name was taken from sparten 117 but ONLY because i was reading the books at the time. The mod will NOT i repeat NOT be based on halo storyline wise or otherwise. sure it make influence some ideas. but thats IT. sorry but ive been told out mod it too much like. Halo, halo 2, Matrix Online, AvP im getting sick of it.. were not BASED on ANY game. we influenced by MANY games/films/books/random artwork.. infact you name it we get ideas from it.

anyhow. please sign up to watch our mod. and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give us some feedback on ideas and new ideas ect

v3.Wannabe wrote: We're a small team. of inexperience modders. Sure id love to make the next big mod, but as project leader i have to have a realistic outlook. our team isnt great. there not polished enough to make the next CS. ( not that i would want to ) this all started for one reason. were making the mod to help us learn. if its big. GREAT. if it isnt, so what we learnt skills and we had fun.

and to address the halo issue. YES the name was taken from sparten 117 but ONLY because i was reading the books at the time. The mod will NOT i repeat NOT be based on halo storyline wise or otherwise. sure it make influence some ideas. but thats IT. sorry but ive been told out mod it too much like. Halo, halo 2, Matrix Online, AvP im getting sick of it.. were not BASED on ANY game. we influenced by MANY games/films/books/random artwork.. infact you name it we get ideas from it.

anyhow. please sign up to watch our mod. and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give us some feedback on ideas and new ideas ect

Yeah, the halo books kicked ass.

That's my point: the CS team or the WF teams weren't polished either. They were just brave. They started out just as clumsy as everyone else, in most cases this was their first mod. But they took the game into brand new directions. The big thing was that they didn't think about setting or story, but gameplay.

IoWA-13 wrote: **IoWA-13**
Hey peeps pretty soon am gonna be posting the concept idea for the mech, and thn hopefully nt long after sum concept art/texturing

Apparently, you're from Iowa. I'm from there, too! Which city do you live in?

go meet up and have mad male secks

Will do, chis