Rappeling Combine tutorial - Half-Life 2

In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a Combine soldier rappel into a room, breaking through the skylight. It looks cool, and it’s not that hard to implement. This tutorial assumes basic to intermediate knowledge of Hammer.

First, create a basic room. Mine is about 317 units tall, but the exact size doesn’t matter.

Next, use the clip tool to create a hole in the ceiling.

Cover the hole with a skybox textured brush.

Make the skybox brush tall enough to accommodate a combine soldier. About 220 units high should be more than enough.

It’s ok if there are a few gaps in connecting the skybox brush to the ceiling. The next step should remedy this.

Since the probability of leaks is pretty high, I recommend enclosing the entire map with a brush with the tools\toolsinvisible texture.

Next, create an overhang structure of some sort. This is to block the player’s view of the soldier waiting to rappel. The length depends on where your info_player_start is, so I’ll leave it up to you.

Next, create a brush filling in the hole. This will be your window. Give it an appropriate window texture.

Tie the window brush to an entity,(Control+T).Set the entity to “func_breakable”. Name it “Window”, set the “Prop data” property to “Glass Window” and set the “Material Type” to “Glass”. All of the other flags and properties are unnecessary.

Create an “npc_combine_s” entity on top of the glass. Name him “combine” and set the “Waiting to Rappel” property to “Yes”.

Under his “Model” tab, select “rappelloop”, to see what he will look like whilst waiting to be told to rappel down. Make sure his feet don’t go through the window.

Create an “env_shooter” entity under your window.

Set the following properties for it:

Name: gibshooter
Number of gibs: (30-45)
Gib Life: 5
Course Variance: 0.15
Model: models/brokenglass_piece.mdl
Material Sound: Glass

The rest are optional.

Create a brush textured with “tools\toolstrigger”. Control+T it to a “Trigger_Once”.

Set the following outputs:

My Output Named: OnTrigger
Target Entity: Combine
Via This Input: BeginRappel
Delay in Seconds of:(However many you want. Mine is 0.)

My Output Named: OnTrigger
Target Entity: GibShooter
Via This Input: Shoot
Delay in Seconds of: (Same as last)

My Output Named: OnTrigger
Target Entity: Window
Via This Input: Break
Delay in Seconds of: (Same as last)

Lastly, create an “info_player_start” if you haven’t already.

You're done! This is a cool looking sequence, and is good for ambushes. For any questions or feedback, you can email (hambandito@gmail.com) or PM me.

-Psalm