The Hack Swarm Thread - HypernovA mod for Half-Life

Well this is a brilliant enemy I had the idea for that would definetly add a interesting fight whenever its there.
This devil is called the Hack Swarm, and it is a support synth.
It is a synth version of a alien grunt, so its gonna be a mutilated version of its former self, turned into a cybernetic creature, not sure exactly what it would have, maybe combinish armor around the usual places, inplace of a hivehand some sort of gun built into its arm like a pulse rifle or cannon, and maybe a big red eye inplace of one of the two organic ones, the thing about this creature is the special manhack rack thing it carries on its back, judging by how big undeployed manhacks are and the size of alien grunts I figured there would be what, 20 or so manhacks per Hack Swarm?
now you could be thinking "20 manhacks!?! thats insane!" well I thought of some balances for it.
Its not exactly "common" think about poison zombie rarity more or less.
Its idle while deploying manhacks, only uses its gun when its unleashed all the hacks.
Its slow from all that weight.
Probably makes alot of noise, the manhacks could make alot of jittery noises and such even when undeployed.
When idle it can only deploy one manhack every couple of seconds, meaning that the player will have more then enough time to kill the Hack Swarm with 1 or 2 well placed revolver shots before too many are released.
There would be only be 1 at a possible time, 2 in some special occasions, and god forbid more then that at a time.
This is an enemy I just thought of one night.
So what do you think?

Interesting Idea. I like it. But they, again, can't be in HypernovA's actual game, because the combine were conquering xen at the time of HL1. Maybe, if I do make HN2, I can add him. That's a big IF. But if not, mappers can use him.

Rather then make a new thread I decided to reply to this one for my Gnomeball gamemode. Two teams spawn in a large symetrical room with a line dividing them with nothing but gravity guns, should they cross the line they automatically die, they can't respawn, after a few seconds vents, tubes, etc will drop gnomes from above, players then pick them up with the gravity gun and toss them at the opponents, should they get hit by a gnome that was thrown by an enemy they immidietly die, occasionally an explosive barrel will drop from the ceiling and can be grabbed and tossed, they do not instakill but do nice radius dammage, should the round go on for a few minuites fast headcrabs will start falling from the ceiling which they start off neutral and go for the closet player to them, then once they are zapped by a gravity gun they switch over to that team and attack the opposing team, until it takes enough blasts to die, should the game still be going manhacks will start coming down in the same fashion, should the game still go on rollermines will start flooding the arena, with them switching teams when zapped but never dieing, and coming down in swarming numbers to quickly finish the game should it go on too long.

Sounds interesting. I like the idea. I might add it. Oh, and do you want to think of any more gamemodes?

Maybe unlockable mini campaigns where you play as a Headcrab or Antlion guard or Combine, I know the headcrab and combine things have been done before but I haven't seen anything about playing as an antlion guard where you can control antlions by "tossing" the stuff that pheropods produce, obviously not the pheropods themselves due to them being like guts or something.

Actually how about a versus type mode where the map decides what "factions" are on it? and the goals you must acheive. Like a Combine vs Antlion thing where the combine must set and detonate charges to cause cave ins on tunnels and block the antlions from getting to their base, while the antlions must aquire Antlion Guards to knock down the Thumpers protecting the combine base? But how they can use special "units" like the antlion guard is based on C&C renegade. Where they gradually gain points and gain them faster by killing enemys and dealing dammage? Then when your respawning you can "buy" yourself an Antlion Guard or an overwatch soldier to play as. Obviously units like the Antlion Guard will be balanced so they are neither cannon fodder or indestructible forces. Maybe unlockables like better weapons or perks from playing like the unlocks in tf2?

So what I have for Factions/units.
Black Mesa: Scientists, guards and robo grunts, They start with low level weaponry but can gain access to top secret weaponry that can blow away enemys such as the Tau Cannon or the Gravity Gun they are extremely versatile and capable of adapting to nearly any situation.

HECU: Full of grunts and officers these guys are strong and fit but while they may have a physical advantage over their opponents they can quickly become out gunned by superior technology for them to wheel back with tanks, apcs and other vehicles.

Black Ops: Stealthy troops capable of penetrating behind enemy lines using cloaking and superior agility, while using a deadly weapons capable of killing unaware enemies in a heartbeat.

Combine: These guys are merciless, unforgiving, and strong in technology and strength, They can use vehicles, advanced weaponry, vehicles and synths against their foes.

Xen: An alien species who use organic powers and weaponry rather then manufactured devices, versatile with a deadly combo of units allow them to take on most enemys.

Zombies: Swarming, Mindless, the zombies may be slow but they're strong enough to withstand most attacks aswell as surviving even fatal blows cut in half, they can kamikaze, poison, and even in death the headcrabs can still wreak vengeance upon you.

Antlions: Swarming aswell as the zombies, speedy with extreme melee power and strong but innacurate ranged attacks, they can easily tear apart the strongest of enemys with their swarming numbers.

Race X: Almost exactly the same as Xen with different units.

So this would definetly be quite the gamemode where you can play as almost anything ranging from humans, to gunships, to antlion guards, to gonarches, and gargantuas. Depending on anything you feel like putting in.

Also a VIP gamemode of this, Every faction will have a VIP which is extremely powerful and must be protected otherwise they lose. Also he/she is chosen randomly among the players on the team before the round begins.

Black Mesa - Gordon Freeman
HECU - Sargeant
Black Ops - Commando
Combine - Maybe a strider?
Xen - Gargantua
Zombies - Gonarch
Antlions - Gaurdian
Race X - Voltigore

Hey. First of all, the Zombies are Xenian. Second of all, thanks for the ideas. I haven't thought of the VIP mode like that before, but I already thought of the special map teams. I even tried working on it, but put it on hold for a while. Last of all, phermones ( En.wikipedia.org ) are chemicals secreted from bug's skin. This is how they talk to each other. They can tell each other whatever they want. The other bugs smell it, and understand it. So therefore, pheroPODS should be an organ filled with unused pheromones. When they are destroyed, the pheromones are released.

I know the headcrabs are Xenian,but would you really wanna allow them the ability to use zombies aswell? So what do you think about the unlockable mini campaign idea? There would be special mechanics on each one like Antlion Guards commanding other antlions, or maybe playing as a variety of the different aliens, or the headcrab which would be the most interesting where if you jump on a certain enemys head while no other enemys are around the screen goes black and you are a zombie when it fades back in, and your headcrab can 'evole' during the campaign and develop zombies of that kind. Speaking of which what do you think of renaming the strong smart headcrab and the strong warrior headcrab to the Intelligent Headcrab and the Spartan Headcrab, makes more sense then strong smart crab and is much simpler to say.

At the renaming: Sure, sounds better...but then I'd have to make a youtube remix about the name

Second, the headcrabs would start without a victim. I like the mini-campaign idea. But not for every race of npcs. Also, I was thinking of actually animating the mutation process. It would be significantly faster, and more gruesome. And Zombies won't be able to develop, unless under specific conditions. If you read the "tutorial" I wrote, you'll find out how some headcrabs evolve.

Okay so maybe do the Antlion Guard and the headcrab because those seem like the most interesting. Aswell as maybe the player can grab items such as health kits that they don't need and save them for later? Like a weapon slot (melee first, pistols second sorta thing) where the player can hold up to 3 items at once and drop them on the ground when they need them. So they can save that rare 357. ammo or rockets or emergency health or you get the idea.
And on the HEV next to the health and energy you would have 'armor' basically the energy would soften and completly reflect things like vortigaunts lightning or flame based stuff and radiation, whereas armor will do the exact same thing against kinetic attacks like bullets and punches.

But yeah my best ideas just pop into my head so i'll just post on this thread whenever I think of something you might wanna hear about.

Okay, first of all, ALL the Xen would have to go under one category. Including the antlions. And I will maybe add the picking up of items, but not for ammo, as those are already there (Like for the glock, with the 17 / 250, the 250 is the ammo not loaded). And the energy IS the armor. It doesn't completely protect the player, but it does a pretty good job. In Opposing Force Training, a HECU unit shot at Shepherd with a shotgun, to show that he knows that it protects them. Not 100%, as I just said, but pretty well.

Antlions are xen? They aren't labelled under xen in the wikipedia.

"Antlions were once farmed by Vortigaunts"

Marc Laidlaw himself even stated they come from Xen.

Edited by: KarimIO

Okay so I thought of a Single Player gamemode earlier called "Tower Defence" original name huh?
The maps would be blocks and ramps, as if it was a tower defence in first person, but ofcourse you can make them normal quality maps based off of TD. The paths would be easily recongizable and the entrances and exits would be something like a portal or something, but definetly different from eachother. The player starts off with a pistol and a crowbar aswell as a gravity gun, enemys will go along the path but rather then make them go identical maybe make the paths a tad big and have them use special manuveres and such to avoid getting hit by the player. At the end of the wave the player can open a menu using a hotkey to buy weapons, which he only needs to buy once as he cannot die and he receives full ammo at the end of each wave, but not during it. Or he can buy towers, Basically like the sentry guns and custom towers made for this gamemode and this is where tiles come in, when he buys a tower its placed on a random square adjacent to the player, which he can pick up with the gravity gun, cannot toss it and its disabled in this state, and when he drops it it'll automatically snap to the closet tile, which will be highlighted to the player. There would also be 'Mercanary' towers such as barneys and HECU marines who are basically npc towers, you can use a hotkey to 'select' them and then use the hotkey pointing at another tile for them to move there on they're own. There would be a variety of enemys that you could fight.

Enemys:
Antlion Soldier - Common enemy that randomly flys a small portion of the path.
Antlion Worker - Same as Soldier except dosen't fly and has immunity to poisons.
Antlion Guard - Either boss or strong enemy, can rush along small portions of the path.
Antlion Guardian - Same as Guard but with poison immunity.
Headcrab - Very early enemy, randomly leaps.
Fast Headcrab - Same as standard, is faster.
Poison Headcrab - Slower then standard, more health then standard.
Gonarch - Medium health enemy, bursts into standard headcrabs on death.
Zombie - Slow.
Fast Zombie - Faster then standard zombie, less health then standard zombie.
Poison Zombie - Slower then standard zombie, more health then standard zombie, drops poison headcrabs on death.
Zombine - Faster and more health then standard zombie, not as much as much as fast or poison zombies though.
Gonome - Possible boss, fast as fast zombie, as much health as poison zombie.
Hunter - Fast enemy, good health.
So yeah and whatever other enemys you might feel like adding.

Okay clever little name for one of the towers, The Tauwer, get it? Its a Tau Cannon in tower form, it has a long range and charges before it attacks, does high dammage.

I've been playing borderlands abit last few days and thats where this idea sprang up from, ways to 'personalize' your character, and guns that can be upgraded, not stuff like +8 damage or anything but I mean stuff like lasersights on the desert eagle you don't have as soon as you get the gun but attachments like that can be found and used on specific weapons in your backpack, like different barrels and clips and stuff that allow you to practically rebuild guns to fit your liking, wether its accuracte, low clipped, hard hitting guns, or an inaccurate bullet hell cannon these would REALLY give the game massive replayability.