The Somme Valley - A WW1 Modification Thread

About The Somme Valley
In 1914, the world was tossed into turmoil when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian radical, bringing Europe, and the world, into a 4 year, 8.5 Million Lives Lost struggle, which we call The First World War. In every war, there are a few battles which stand above the rest, for whatever reason. In WW1, The nearly 6 month Battle of the Somme stands out as the biggest mistake of The Commonwealth.

The Somme Valley is a modification for Half-Life Two, based on the Battle of the Somme. The Somme Valley aims to be a balance between realism, and playability, giving the player a taste of what war was like, but keeping the experience fun and enjoyable. The mod isn't just meant for a good time, but as a history lesson, and a lesson into the flaws of human nature.

420,000 British, 200,000 French, and 500,000 Germans lay dead or wounded by the end of the conflict, making it one of the worst battles, and most drawn out battles of the war. Weather those casualties were caused by bullets, gas, disease, or artillery shrapnel, The Battle of the Somme will be forever remembered in the minds of those who fought there, and those of us who weren't.

Special Features
Gas Attacks: Using a particle system, poisonous gas will be ordered onto the opposing teams' area. The team being attacked with the gas can defend against it by using the Gas Mask feature, but at the expense of vision. Once a gas mask is put on, there are only two blurry eye-holes for the player to see out of, and fire from. If the player denies the use of his/her gas mask, the user will begin to choke, losing health at a steady pace, until the player is dead.

Gas attacks can only be issued when the teams commanding officer (see The Classes) orders it by clicking his/her use button on a radio, which will be located near the players spawn point. Only one gas attack may be issued every ten minutes, and last for two minutes at a time.

Artillery Attacks: Artillery played a big role in The Somme. Artillery will be issued the same way that gas is. An officer uses a radio near his/her spawn point, and artillery reigns down on the opponents map area. Artillery strikes can be issued once every five minutes, and last only twenty-five seconds each.

Detachable Bayonets: Using a specified button that the player designates when customizing his/her controls, the player (when using a class that has a Rifle) can attach or detach the bayonet associated with that weapon. Attaching it will allow the user to use the bayonet as a second fire function, but will lower overall accuracy of the rifle (due to the added weight and length of the weapon).

Detaching the bayonet will increase overall accuracy, and send the bayonet to the Secondary Weapons list, which the player can switch to if needed. When the bayonet is detached, the player can use the "Butt Smack" as a secondary function (see below).

Butt Smack: In Day of Defeat, you may have seen this; The M1 Garand "Butt Smack". The end of the rifle (the butt) is used as a weapon, causing severe damage to the opponent. When the bayonet of a rifle is detached, the butt of the players rifle may be used as a weapon in case of emergency.

Officers using a Pistol can also "Pistol Whip" their opponent, which is when the barrel of the pistol is hit against the opponents neck, causing pain.

Campaign Style Map Rotation: Similar to the map rotation of Global Warfare for Half-Life, when a team wins a map, the next map is brought up in historical order. But, if the team is defeated on that map, is pushed back to the previous played map, until that player is pushed right out of the battle, and loses the campaign. Team Fortress Classic also uses a variant of this in the map "Dust Bowl". Once the attacking team wins, the spawn points are moved up to another portion of the map. If the defenders win the match, the attackers are pushed back.

The Somme Valley will be implementing a larger scale version of the Global Warfare version.

Stationary Machine Guns: Similar to the machine guns in Day of Defeat, a Stationary Machine Gunner will have the option to setup his/her stationary machine gun on pre-setup tripods in strategic locations. Machine Guns were devastating tools of war, especially on charging soldiers over No Mans Land. Stationary Machine Gunners will have more limited ammunition, so they don't totally control the game, and they can only shoot when their gun is setup on one of the pre-set tripods.

The stationary machine guns will also, such as the MG42 in DoD, overheat if abused. This is historically accurate, as Machine Guns of the time were highly volatile, and could only be fired in 4-6 round bursts (safely).

Links & Contact
Website: Somme.hlgaming.com
Forums: Somme.hlgaming.com
IRC: #somme @ irc.gamesnet.net
modDB: Moddb.com

Help Wanted
Can I Be A Part Of The -TSV- Development Team?
We're always looking for new team members here at -TSV-, and we'd love to hear from you! Currently, we are looking for people with the following skills:

- Programming
- Weapons Modeling
- Weapons Skinning
- Weapons Animation
- Player Modeling
- Player Skinning
- Player Animation
- Level Design
- Texture Design
- 2D Design
- Sound Design

If you have one of these qualities, or feel you have something else to contribute, please feel free to contact Chief Phillips directly, or stop by our Forums. However you choose to apply, be sure to include samples of your work (if you have any on hand), and any past experience you may have.

wow this is the best request i've seen in a long time...

and what youre doing on yourself in the team?:P

I like, I like, this does appeal to me greatly. If I get the chance to work out how the coding works in HL2 i'll certainly lend a hand, although I'll not get the chance to operate as a full time coder as other projects get in the way. I can certainly help out when it comes to balance issues and pointers on construction, as well as getting things done, after working with so many mod projects.
You'll find myself hanging around your forums quite a lot now. The most majorly problematic issue I can see your going to have is dealing with the mapping aspect without too many open areas - that is going to be a real problem as HL2 doesn't like big open spaces at all. Also, HL2 doesn't like a great deal of models on screen at the same time, especially player characters and human models. It hates them, you're going to have a tough time alleviating yourselves from these troubles

Good luck, this looks like it can work very well.

Ah, the Somme. I know a bit about it, so you can ask me questions if you want

The yellow-green chlorine gas, launched by artillery shells, did a lot more than just kill... (induce sickness, blindness, etc)

And the British soldiers originally went in bleating like sheeps to symbolize being led to slaughter!

Man, I'm an idiot.

edit: Oh, by the way, moved to Mod Ideas.

- Edited By SeienAbunae On Mon 12th, Jan 2004 @ 6:07:25pm

Hmm, still waiting for that Gallipoli mod. Turks vs. Australians, that's what I'm talking about. Serious gunplay crossed with black humour.

I hope your intentions are good

lol butt smack

The yellow-green chlorine gas, launched by artillery shells, did a lot more than just kill... (induce sickness, blindness, etc)

I'd love to see those effects put into a mod

I think that was originally a large part of the mod idea

Welp, as long as it's a Quake mod I'll play!

It's great to see such overwhelming support (maybe I should have had Thread Watch enabled, lol).

I an the Web Master, Team Leader, Historian, and Public Relations.

We will be having Chlorine Gas, the Officer class can call it in one every ten-minutes of game play (smart teams will use the gas more or less as a cover, and follow behind it).

I'd love to see some of you guys over at our forums at Somme.hlgaming.com and our IRC channel at Somme.hlgaming.com

- Edited By chief-phillips On Fri 16th, Jan 2004 @ 9:56:31am

team leader, how classic

teh_fonx wrote: team leader, how classic

Well, perhaps I could let the team direct itself, and let people do whatever they want? I'd apreciate no more sarcastic remarks, thanks.

go philips

I''ve heard people say 'I want a WWI mod!' and I would tell them 'No, trech warfare=boring.' But the Somme and Gallipoli... both battles that had never occured to me as the focus of a game.

you're the man! make this thing sometime!