Black Mesa, New Mexico...
With regular system crashes and over-driven equipment, a disaster must have been inevitable.Deep within the tunnels and carved corridors of the top secret research complex within the mesa itself, the catalyst was introduced.
When your only companion (indeed your best and only friend of this piddling existence) suffered from an untimely death, you couldn't help but feel lost and vulnerable. And when you stumbled into a series of strange and unnatural incidents, you soon realized that no one cared about YOUR life. No one would take the time to befriend you... to help you... to save you.
People were dieing.And your best friend was one of many victims.You were forced to survive alone.To live by any means necessary.And to do it your way.
Of course, it didn't help that you were born a cat.
Cat-Life is an original concept for Half-Life and the GoldSource engine.Players will experience the Black Mesa incident from the view of a stranded pet cat.
Using claws and teeth and the natural prowess of a cat, players will travel through the bowels of Black Mesa.Xenian beasts roam the corridors and laboratories and... surprise... cats are conveniently bite-sized for those in-between-meal munchies.
This project includes...
Team Cat-Life:
Sayrken (aka BiGToM) [Team Leader, Mapper, Basic Coder]
Radu IceMan -- 2D artist / concept art
Jan1024188 (leader of Half-Life Ultra) [~INNERCODE~r]
DS (aka Dark Shadow) [Mapper, Concept Artist, Writer]
Ashkandi [3D Artist]
JKBlackNinja [Level Designer, Beta Tester]
d3mon [Mapper]
Djquick [Beta Tester]
Friendly Garg [Original Concept]
The Wildcat [BWL Development]
CXX.LIU [mapper/level designer]
Wizey -- Music Composer
Our Mod-Watchers and Fans [Original Concept, Cat Name?]I'd like to take a moment to thank wavelength for its tutorials and to thank omega, Corvidae, X-Out, XWJ, Badger, Prefect, and BigGuy for their helpful tutorials as they have made editing this source code much easier. I'd also like to thank :SysOp: and Minuit for their support and info regarding the locations of important hull definitions and the like.
Coding: 100%
Buggy and limited Cat POV code. Newer code is being worked, but we still need a coder / programmer to really do this mod justice.
Maps: 90%
All maps are basically done. Currently tweaking and refining. Additional side maps may or may not be added.
Models: 90%
Sounds: 50%
Decreased from 75% for additional, improved sound work.
Music: N/A
No music in the beta.
Total Beta Progress: 82%
15 comments by The_Wildcat on Nov 23rd, 2009 digg this super bookmark
My part in Cat-Life has always been fairly administrative. I run the website and kept the project around until BiGToM was ready to assemble his team. After that, I write news posts, maintain the Cat-Life page and ModDB profiles, and offer suggestions/any other aid that I need to provide.
However, with the lack of a full-time coder and the likelihood that the Open Beta would be basically a map pack with some new sounds and such details, I have also assumed the role of temporary coder.
I re-installed my old Visual Studio 6 for the first time in years and found out just how rusty my C++ has become. Even so, I tracked down a few tutorials and toyed with the code, creating some cheap and ugly hacks to help give the game a better change to game play.
Even so, there is more work to be done and we really need a good coder to clean up my ugly mess. You see, I've done all that I can without taking more time to refresh my C++ and study the GoldSource code to truly understand the details. I have some 20 or so projects around the BWL site that I have put off for a few nights of coding, and even then I have used more time than I would have preferred.
I am sending my current work to BiGToM. The code features wall jumping, wall climbing (modified wall jumps), 2 attacks, a dash button with short stamina bar, simple dark vision, and spawn with long-jump.
The attacks are weaker. The cat makes 50% less noise for monsters to hear. Some monsters have been changed to see the player as less of a threat and the houndeyes are now predators and will attack headcrabs and the cat alike.
Unfortunately, there are known bugs. Sometimes, the attacks can loop unexpectedly making them very potent in that instant. Sometimes hit detection on dead bodies is a little off. The Enhanced IR Night Vision Goggle idea I planned to use for DarkVision wasn't very good. I considered using it for a "catnip" enhanced vision mode pick-up, but that didn't really work either, so that feature was disabled.
DarkVision works nicely, but can sometimes stop the player briefly after level change. Wall climbing works wonderfully, but is also limitless. It's not really a bug, but as long as you are on a wall, you can go up as high on that wall as you like. We plan to use clip brushes to limit players in-game.
Overall, playing this new code has been a lot of fun even with the bugs. Players will need a replacement set of dll's in order to play the original Half-Life as the hull changes in Cat-Life require custom hulls. Basically, Cat-Life works with one set of dlls and playing regular Half-Life with the cat code will require a replacement set of dlls. I plan to offer the over-writing dlls as a separate download.
In-game, much of the game play will have changed. You will need to run for your life more often then stand and fight. The pace is considerably faster and more hectic, yet a fairly experienced player will be able to really play around and make use of the new code for some fun battles.
Here is a short video for your viewing pleasure.
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hummm... i just got an idea... how bout, at one point in the game, you see barney as he sees gordon getting dragged off by the soldiers? :3
or is this mod following a completly independent story-line?
Trackt!
Hmmm i think that,cat should be walking faster and jumping further
LOL epic win
this is epic :3
I wonder if we can see how a Headhumped Cat looks like after Transforming into a ZOMBIECAT ! xD
(buried)
Wait what?
So were gonna play half life without the following:
-No HEV, PCV or armor vest.
-No ability to communicate with other survivors
-No guns
-No allies, including not soldiers nor scientists either.
-Absolutely no protection from enviromental hazards like
.Corrosive liquids
.Acid
.Radioactive material
.Electricity
.Fire
.Water
.Machinery
.Explosions
.Bullets
.Aliens
.And the list goes on...
I'm sorry guys, but this cat of yours will be dog food before gordon will even get to the test chamber to do anything.
I should almost report this to PETA. xD
Terrorist funding Peta can go screw themselves.
You seem to think a cats are stupid creatures that aren't smart enough to avoid or find ways around the dangers of Black Mesa.
jerk
maybe there will be a hcs :P
(havordes cat suit)
Or a FCS
Fragile Cat Suit
And allies could be babycrabs. Babies are ignorant.