Articles - Rogue Lambda

Hey everyone. Lead dev Alice here.

Welcome to the first of many ReVance media updates. We have been working hard over the past months to put together a load of new content that we think will interest everyone from new to old fans.

Speaking of old fans, if you are one, you’ve probably come to expect to see well made visual assets. I’m here to say that today’s article does not disappoint.

First, I’d like to show off our model of Alyx’s signature gun. Not only have we upgraded the design, but we’ve given it a whole new model courtesy of Jerson Gaming.

As you can see, he’s managed to cram a ton of detail into quite a small package.

Next, a piece that some of you may have seen before, made for the old Vance team, by the talented Cheeki Breekio:

I’m happy to announce that this concept has finally come to life in the form of a 3D model, created by our resident character modeler, Gálbano:

Next, we have a couple old designs reimagined by our current artist Leo Hiroaki. First, the assault variant of our wasteland bandits:

Followed by our Heavy Combine Soldier (otherwise known as the Adjudicator, or Judge for short):

And of course, both of these guys have been given a 3D model of their own:

Shifting gears to the player experience, I’d like to introduce our reimagined Heads-Up Display. Our HUD combines Half-Life 1's charm with a more Half-Life 2 inspired “modern” aesthetic.

As we continue this journey of ReVance development, I’m excited to introduce the first of many devlogs we have planned. Narrated by our current Lead Mapper, Paragon, these devlogs will offer a more detailed look at the new features we’ve added.

To parrot Paragon, we’re always looking for more talent to help us make this dream a reality. You can find us over at our Discord Server

As a final announcement we’d like to say that unfortunately after this Development update, the gitlab project will return to being private. We will not revoke permission or access to use any of the game’s assets you may already have access to, however we ask that you respect our decision to keep the awesome stuff we have in the works a secret :).

When our playable demo is ready for release, we plan to release it publicly for free on steam. Stay tuned for more info on that!

Happy holidays,

The ReVance Team

Dev Blog #2: Half-Life 2: Badlands | A New Beginning

Hello everyone! Woah, it's been some time since I've made a development blog on ModDB. It's pretty much been a year since I told you all that Radiated was on hiatus, but a few days ago I decided enough was enough and I should start working on this project again, so here we are!

What the hell... What is Half-Life 2: Badlands?

Well, HL2: Badlands is Radiated. It's pretty much the same project; however, as of writing this development blog, I am currently overhauling the story to something a little bit more manageable for myself and the team. The major changes are that Badlands will no longer be an episodic modification; it will be released as one complete product at some point in the future. This does not mean any vertical slices or demos; if we have something ready to show the public, I will make sure people don't get bored waiting for this project to release.

What's Been Done in 2 Years?

Not a-lot… Well, yes, there's been a lot of development, but unfortunately, there isn't much I can show the public outside of some completed code and a few screenshots. Since a lot of the work has been surrounding the introduction scene and nothing past that:

The lead developer of "Half-Life 2: Through the City," Kajlo, created the redesigned citadel collapse sequence seen above. Obviously, this map was and still is extremely work-in-progress, but as I begin to get used to hammering and working with other level designers, we should be able to make the final rendition of the introduction levels.

Another level designer on the team Taz worked tremendously hard last year on concepts that may or may not see the light of day within Badlands, but his work is interesting to show nonetheless.

Reloading Turrets:

The reloading turrets could've been a mechanic added in some of the earlier chapters, as the player is tasked with having to clear out a load of mutated antlions.

Shock Hands:

The shock hands are the first of many mutations within Badlands; the shock hands act as a lesser version of the Supercharged Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2: Episode One. With the shock hands, the player would be able to rip off metal doors and destroy the environment in order to progress. The shock hand was also used as a way to combat enemies:

Mutated Antlion Nugget Drop:

Mutated Antlion Explosion:

Mutated antlions in Badlands would spew out toxic radiation upon death within the first few chapters and then would begin to drop small "radioactive nuggets" for the player to pick up. The plan at the time was to tie these nuggets to different abilities the player could use, such as healing, a more aggressive push for shock hands, and a faster speed. Only one was ever created.

What Now?

At the moment, I'm in the middle of giving this project the revamp it deserves. I'm still busy with life, but I have time to give this mod the attention it deserves. Thank you all very much for still following along as I go. I'm still working on NIGHTFALL, an HL2RP server that was meant to be a prequel to Radiated. But because of how things are going, Badlands is most likely going to be a sequel to NIGHTFALL. If you'd like to join our development server for Badlands and other projects, the links are down below, and if you'd like to support me and the team, the KO-FI links for NIGHTFALL are also down below!

Also, we're still looking for coders! It'd be fantastic if we could have a coder on the team, as that would mean we could get Badlands out to you sooner rather than later!

If you have any questions regarding this development log or the Badlands I'll be happy to answer them in the comments below!

KO-FI: Ko-fi.com

Discord: Discord.gg

- Syph0

Introduction - Setbacks and Concept Art

It's been nearly a year since our last development and unfortunately Radiated Episode One: Left Behind will no longer release Q1 2022 or in 2022. This is no one's fault, the team and I simply don't have enough time to get any form of Radiated (in its current state) out this year. Radiated is still in development, it has not been cancelled despite not meeting the 2022 release date.

Before I get into the main topic in his development blog I'd like to share with you some of the concept art our amazing artist Skwallie has made for Radiated and also NIGHTFALL, a project I will be discussing further in the next section.

Radiated Episode One Concept Art: (In order of appearance)

Daniel Kurian, Radiated's Main Protagonist:

A highly trained LAMBDA Squadron Leader.

B.E.C.A - Bio.Enhanced.Combat.Armour:

B.E.C.A. - Bio.Enhanced.Combat.Armour - is a biomechanical organism that is used to provide Overwatch Units, as well as other Combine factions, with extra armour and protection on the battlefield. When B.E.C.A. attaches itself to a host body, the synth creature can ‘tap into the host’s nervous system and create a link between them and the host. This will then give the host a H.U.D without the need for a helmet allowing them to keep track of vitals and pinpoint enemies.

Mutated Antlions:

The Mutated Antlions are antlions that have mutated by the dark energy blast created by the citadel's explosion at the end of Half-Life 2: Episode One. There are multiple variations of the mutated antlion, the most common being the ones that are legs have been severely damaged as they are the weakest points of the creature. Mutated Antlions are HIGHLY radioactive and admit a radioactive dust cloud after being killed.

The Operative:



The Operative is one of the last surviving resistance members within City 17, now known as Wasteland 17. The character is the only kind of human contact you have within the whole of Radiated Episode One.

A huge thank you to Skwallie for helping me and the team get a great reference on what the models for these characters will look like in-game, go show him some love here: Twitter.com

NIGHTFALL - A New Fresh Take on HL2RP

Whilst on The VŌC Podcast I was asked what NIGHTFALL was and I replied something on the lines of "NIGHTFALL is what I envisioned Race-X to be like". For those that don't know Race-X was my first major project, which I wrote back in 2017 onwards. And that statement isn't a lie either. A lot of the characters and basic story ideas are in NIGHTFALL one way or another.

But NIGHTFALL isn't just Race-X with a new label on top, the HL2RP project is much more than that.

Here's the summary:

"NIGHTFALL is a HL2RP server which is entirely story-driven. Instead of being the endless perma-kill simulator where there's no end goal, where everybody is just a digit on the player-count, NIGHTFALL gives everyone the opportunity to let them have their story to tell and bring others into their story that they have created. We hope to bring an exciting take on the HL2RP experience by being a prequel of sorts to the Half-Life 2: Episode Two modification “Radiated”, anything and everything which takes place within main storyline events on the server will carry through, one way or another into the Half-Life 2: Episode Two modification to insure that peoples stories will live on even when the story and server comes to a close. We hope to be an outlet of creative expression and worldbuilding, one where everyone can make their own memories on"

If this is all a bit foreign to you I recommend checking Yetty's guide to serious roleplay, here: GUIDE.

Clockwork... Reworked

For those that don't know, Clockwork HL2RP was a roleplaying schema for Garry's Mod by Cloud Sixteen which basically defined HL2RP for years. It was the number one gamemode to play HL2RP on. Now in present-day things have changed, CW is now free to use for all and has multiple security exploits as well as it being very much spaghetti code. My one and only developer for Nightfall is now developing a reworked version of the schema which will allow us to have the main feel and look of CW with it now being more safer and secure to run and host on.

We can't show much yet as it's very early on in development but when we can you'll be able to see it on the official Nightfall discord, linked down below.

Familiar Faces

Given the fact that this is a prequel to Radiated as well as being somewhat of a Race-X remake a lot of older characters have a role in NIGHTFALL. For instance, Atticus Lest (Race-X's main protagonist) will have a prominent role within NIGHTFALL as well as Radiated and any other media to fall suit afterwards.

Here's a teaser trailer for one of our events, which also features... some familiar faces:

Ending Off

If you're a fan of Radiated this dev-log might seem slightly disappointing given the fact we've delayed the project. It's not all gloomy though as NIGHTFALL is a project which had Radiated's elements and a literal chance to have yourself referenced with the story!

So, if you have GMOD I'd suggest heading on down to the NIGHTFALL Community Discord server, here: Discord.gg where you can get all the latest news regarding the project and so you can get yourself involved and play on the server when we release which... isn't far from now.

Also, we are STILL actively looking for coders for Radiated as well as other Rogue Lambda projects. If you believe you could help out please don't be afraid to reach out to me on Discord, my name and tag is Syph0#2469.

If you have any questions regarding this dev-log I'll be happy to answer them in the comments.

I hope to see some of you on the server!

-Syph0

Hello! I thought I'd just make this little article to detail what we're currently working on and what we might be working on in the future.

As many of you might already know Radiated - at the moment - is what we've been putting basically all of our work into. We've been working on the project since March of last year, we had a short break but now we're focused and ready to get this mod into the publics hands.

Here's a quick summary:

Radiated is a Half-Life 2: Episode 2 modification set in the ruins of City 17 moments after the events of Half-Life: 2 Episode One. You are Daniel Jackson, a rebel that has been left behind and never made it out of the city. You must adapt to survive if you're ever going to make it out of this new wasteland.

Well, this is one that most of you might have forgotten, Autonomous Zero released in 2018 to less than stellar reviews. In short, it's sequels were canned and people from the team left.
Autonomous Zero: Reloaded is a complete re-imaging of Autonomous Zero, new levels, better gameplay and gunplay AZ:R is miles ahead of its predecessor.

At the moment this mod isn't getting as near as enough attention by the team as Radiated is still the number one priority. Although this will change as time passes and we have more free time.

Power Cut is a little project going on that is predominantly being made by two members Syph0 & MaddieDaKat aka YOUCλNUSESPλM. This is currently being made alongside Radiated and is suffering the same faint as AZ: R, but don't worry! Power Cut & AZ: R WILL be released somewhere down the line.

Here's a little plot summary:

This mod follows the side-story of “Nico”, a rebel engineer. He has been sent by White Forest to investigate and repair a nearby power station in preparation for the rocket launch at the end of Episode 2.

This is mod is has very big puzzle and survival horror elements and is one of our most unique mods yet!

The big bads in this mod are none other than the Hunters, just not the ones you see in Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

These new hunter variants are made to flush out and infiltrate rebel locations of interest.

Well... at the moment we're not working on the mod although Syph0 has begun work on a brand new story it's unclear what'll happen with it. As soon as Radiated: Episode 4 is out and done Race-X will most likely start early development. This has always been a project we would like to come back to so it's something we'll work on doing some time in the future.

Well, that's it!
I hope you enjoyed reading this one through.
If you have any questions you'd like to ask the team make sure to join the discord linked below.

The Rogue Lambda Discord

Dev Blog #1: Radiated Episode One - The Subway

Hello and welcome to the first development blog for Radiated,

It's been quite some while since we've posted anything substantial but hopefully, this makes up for our 8-month hiatus.

Episodes, they're a thing now

Radiated is getting the episodic treatment!

Radiated will be releasing an episode at a time. The first two episodes - Lost & Alone and Friendly In The Mist - will prominently be located underground and beneath the city. The last two episodes - A Combined Plan and Wasteland 17 - will be located in the city.

Now you might be asking, "Why are you releasing this mod in Episodes rather than releasing the mod all at once?". Well, to answer your question it makes it A LOT easier on the team to deliver to you and as Episodes get rolled out to the public we get the feedback we need to fix and patch a chapter up and deliver on the next one.

"When will these episodes be released?" Well, we have no deadline as of right now but I'm hoping that either this year or the start of 2022 Radiated: Episode One will release. No promises though.

Progress, that's a thing now

Radiated's subway level has changed a surprising amount since you've seen it 8 months ago.

Going through three iterations and settling on the one we have now. The Subway has come far.

Take a look:

Please keep in mind that these might change in the future and not everything shown today is final

On the topic of progress have a listen to the Radiated Soundtrack made by the one and only YOUCλNUSESPAM.

Concept Art, that's also a thing now

Radiated has some new characters and foes you'll meet and so we had to make concept art for them.

One of the enemies that'll appear throughout the Episodes is... The Mutated Antlions.

These little annoying pests from HL2 and its episodes have been upgraded thanks to the citadel's utter destruction causing an excess amount of radiation to mutate them.

Thanks Gordon...

Stronger, more versatile and just gross these Antlions pose a massive threat to Daniel in Episode One.

Closing Remarks, because they're also a thing now

In all seriousness thank you all for reading this article,

Whether you're someone who's stuck with us since Race-X or someone who's just found this mod thank you. I hope that we can continue to improve and get this mod out to anyone who wants to play it.

One last thing that I absolutely have to mention that we're actively searching for a coder who can help with this project. If you have some spare time and would like to help us please message me on Discord or join the Rogue Lambda Discord server linked below.

Contact me on Discord: Syph0#2469

Discord Server: Discord.gg