Project Concept: Nepranexos (HL1 mod) Thread

This basic idea started about 9 months ago, and was originally going to be incorporated into a plot for a text-based RPG, but after some thought and consideration, I can see the possibility of it being turned into a fantastic mod for HL 1. I'd go for 2, but 1) my system can't handle an engine like that, and 2) I don't think that a mod of such magnitude can be developed just yet for a game that has been only just recently released, and editing options only very recently explored

Nepranexos is the name of an asteroid mining colony owned by the Terran nations of earth as a place for interstellar madmen and the worst of criminals to live out the rest of their days, labouring hard hours to produce minerals for the fleets of the Terran nations. It is among many such colonies, except for the rumors of the high amount of prisoner deaths and sightings of strange catlike creatures that people see coming out of the walls and slaughtering prisoners.

The storyline is in 3 parts, to be completed in the same game, where you play the roles of 3 characters.

The first one is that of Grlszl (pronounced Grelsh), an alien terrorist, whom after destroying a civilian Terran spacecraft, was sent to Nepranexos, his jaws, which normally would allow him to cannibalize different races and incorporate their DNA into his own, allowing him to make various transformations, have been wired shut, allowing him to subsist on a diet of liquid gruel. The after a brief introduction of him, a ship of unknown origins collides with the station, creating mayhem of gargantuan proportions, providing grlszl the perfect means to an escape. But nightmares begin to come true, a the ship that collided with the station unleashes the horrible catlike creatures and they begin rampaging through the station. Armed with his claws, a suit of almost unusable armor, and a stun baton, Grlszl has to fight his way to the surface, towards freedom.

The second part is that of the Terran side, where you play the role of Jakob Stone, a scout for the space marines. Your base, the closest to Nepranexos was the place to receive the distress call, and the recording, consisting of screams and gunfire. It's up to you and your squad to investigate the asteroid and try to subdue the threat.

The Third part is that of the Autorian infiltrator, codenamed 'Visage'. Your role consists of the biggest plot twist int he entire story, and something I probably wont say aloud in public out of risking to reveal the secret ending.

With three different storylines to choose from, each one with a different story, and each one progressively more difficult than the first, that gives you over nine levels of game difficulty to play with. This game also has good multiplayer deathmatch potential, to play out the war to ensue in the 'aftermath' of this event.

The overall theme I am pushing for is that of horror, the fear of the unknown, combined with a claustrophobic map, strategic lighting, and some unique custom sounds. I also hope to introduce several new weapons, which I have written up in detail.

My skills with modding are very limited, as I lack much experience, and talent. What I can offer is a storyboard, basic map drawings, and as a musician, I can generate some excellent sound effects for this. I see this mod as being convoluted (in a good way) with many intersecting plots and lots of potential.

If anybody is interesting in learning more, please let me know

Comments? Questions? Concerns?

Edited by: Lomo93901

I don't really think it's a good idea to make it a HL1 mod. Who would like to play a HL1 mod, no matter how good if you could play a just as good (and visually much better) mod for HL2. Just my 2 cents

I like the name "Nepranexos", because it's original (can't find it on Google). What does it mean?
The idea of an alien terrorist is pretty cool, IMHO. The liquid gruel diet is a nice humorous touch.
However, his ability to use other people's DNA reminds me of a character from Jack L. Chalker's SF series "Rings of the Master", as does the idea of a prison colony on an asteroid.

Are you sure you want to use the HL engine?
You originally wanted the mod to be an RPG, so maybe an RPG engine like Morrowind would be a better choice.

Your idea's main selling point is the story, so I don't think it should be turned into a multi-player mod.
Besides, there are too many multi-player mods already and not enough good single-player mods :-)

Edited by (in order): Fragvergnugen, Fragvergnugen

The name of Nepranexos was generated by a little program a friend made for me that randomly mixed words and syllables to create star system names. Nepranexos was originally to be the name of the solar system. The concept of Grlszl originated from a character I once had in a game called 'Werewolf; The Apocalypse' and he was a black spiral dancer, a werewolf cannibal who had turned to the game's equivalent of infernalism.

His race I have named the Zhevo, a people that primarily consists of mercenaries. Their appearance is that of wingless bats, with large, squashed up heads and enormous ears. The biggest physical trait is of their mouth, which rather than running horizontally, is vertical, from chin to the middle of the forehead (Giving them a mouth large enough to be able to eat unwilling victims, including large ones). The idea of the prison asteroid, appearance-wise, I gained my inspiration from two movies. One was the sequal to Alien, in which the marines go down into the hive to explore. I love the giger genre of horror, and the confined claustrophobia associated with it. The second one was a star wars movie I saw when I was rather young, when the captain (or admiral or whatever) is arrested and sent to a frozen planet's mining colony prison.

I considered making it a prison planet, but made it an asteroid purely for functionality. 1) You can't exactly punch a hole in a planet with a ship (unless it's truly gargantuan), and 2) Having a prison planet reminds me too much of several sci-fi movies, including Star wars, star trek, and Chronicles of Riddick.

I also agree on the multiplayer, actually. I was going to add it as an afterthought, to perhaps attract more players. I myself perform HORRIBLY in PvP combat, and have no real issues with leaving a multiplayer option out

As for RPG, I decided on the HL engine for two fairly good reasons. The first and foremost is that I don't own any RPG games anymore, and haven't for a while. The second, which was the real buy-in was that RPG-based games have very little potential to scare you. You wander through an area, get a random encounter, and get to see everything happen on the screen in a combat where you can't be surprised. You enemies arethere, and that's that. With an FPS, you are running down dark cooridors, climbing through wreckage, and fending off enemies that jump out at you left and right, never quite knowing where the next one is coming from. For a game intended to be a sci-fi horror, I came to the conclusion that an RPG is simply inappropriate.

And to answer the person above's question, I'm going to repeat that i have no intention of using the HL2 engine for my mod to start off. For one, my system couldn't handle it. What's the point of creating a mod if the creator can't build, test and play it? And for the second, the game is still very new. Getting together a team familiar enough with the engine to be able to coordinate and create a game worth putting up at this point in time is pointless, in my opinion, unless you yourself are VERY good at meshing. With the HL1 mod as it is, the best mods take over a year, if not longer to see come to fruition. The HL2 engine would take twice as long. I'd rather wait 2 years for people to become familiarized and skilled in the platform before even conceiving or embarking on a project of such magnitude.

Anyways...

I've been playing around with Valve Hammer, to experiment with lighting and sound possibilities and have come up with some interesting results. Screenshots to follow soon.

Ven0m wrote: I don't really think it's a good idea to make it a HL1 mod. Who would like to play a HL1 mod, no matter how good if you could play a just as good (and visually much better) mod for HL2. Just my 2 cents

many peeps still cant play hl2 and and play hl still.

There will always be a hardcore fan base playing the old games, people still make mods for Quake and UT for example.

ShortCutMan wrote: There will always be a hardcore fan base playing the old games, people still make mods for Quake and UT for example.

wasn't doom 3 built off the quake engine anyways? I don't think it has it's own unique platform of it's own, just a lot of power and time that went into it...or so I've heard

acturaly it was half life that ws made of he quake engine. so was call of duty

And doom 3 is based off of it too so yes you are right lomo . It was highly modified but yes it was built off the same thing.

-Rob

After some messing around in ValVe Hammer 3.5, I managed to work out a nice little room for testing lighting. In the center, the cube cage thing with the light is simply a rust testure and about 20 different blocks with three strong pulse lights, the primary one being red, the lower being blue, and the upper yellow. If you peek to the side you can also see some runner lights I made. Once again another block, varved at a certain angle, so the light bounced off the inside and can be seen outside. I plan to make good use of those

This is the general textural theme I'm looking for. Mostly low ceilings and rusty textures, giving everything a dirty feel and look.

As the game starts, the basic color tone I'm looking for is amber lights and such, but shortly after 'impact' in the first story, many of the main generators get killed off, leaving emergency and chemical lights to set the scene. Do any of you think this would be a mod worth pursuing?

Comments? Questions? Concerns?

It sounds to me that this could be a really cool mod. The only real problem is trying to get people with the skills needed to make it to join the team.

I'll help you, if you want. I have a bit of experience, having done some storyline creating/editoring before, and I might be able to do some of the concept sketches (if my scanner decides to work!)

Edited by: Gryx

Sounds good. I have a general idea of the content, but I'm not very creative when putting it to paper, but when using a reference I can recreate to a 'T'. I sent you a PM, Gryx.

I'm probably going to do a forum post (when I figure out where to put it) to try to recruit people to help. As long as they're not ones to drop out after a week.

Just got your PM Lomo. Thanks for the prompt reply!

I don't know if a forum post asking for help will work too well though. I've tried getting help that way before but it didn't work.

Do you have a website running? That way you can post on help wanted and the mod pages and ask for help there. That might have a better chance of success.

I'll have a site up in 24 hours or less.

Get aim, add my sn in my profile. Let's talk.