Blogs - Bubbinska

After an extended hiatus from modding and creative work in general, I've now enrolled in a computer science (programming with some games electives) course for this year in the hope that I'll learn the skills needed to actually contribute meaningfully to modding or indie games dev. My goal for the end of this year is to have made measurable progress toward one of two projects that I'm keen on:

- A single-player Half-Life 2 campaign which runs in vague parallel to HL2's timeline
- A "shmup" game (ie. Tyrian, Raptor: Call of Shadows, etc) of my own design

I've written down a lot of ideas for both of these things and my choice will largely come down to what I'm learning and what I think is a more feasible project as a first "proper" release. My role in either project would be as a programmer, because it's what I'll be learning, what I think I'm best suited for and what appears to be most desired in both my IRL circles and online.

For now, however, I've just reinstalled SMOD and am going to have a crack at re-imagining SMOD:Zenith's scope and certain elements of the design. For now there is nothing to report but I hope to have something interesting to show by the end of the month.

It's funny that I dish out abuse to WoW and JRPG players because their game formula is very much akin to constantly adding 1 on Calculator. Grinding is tedious. This is sad, because I've got that nagging lust for player progression which can only be satisfied by levelling up. Sad, in a way.

One of my favorite mutator's for Epic's UT2k4 is the UTRPG mod, which lets you level up and spend points in raising abilities such as health, rate of fire, etc. The system is hilariously broken but still fun as all get-out.

Which is why I want to make a mod for Half-Life 2 which brings to RPG-style level progression into a singleplayer (to start with) shooter. I will be listing anything I think is cool below, which may or may not see the light of day, as I bite off more than I can likely chew, and start work on this project.

// Quick rundown //

Title: HL2RPG (working title, lol)
Planned Features:
- Initially single-player, hopefully Co-op and Versus modes included down the track
- Use half-life 2 weapons, later adding more in / replacing originals
- Uses an RPG-style "experience points" system, to determine character growth.
- Killing enemies and completing objectives nets the player experience to level up (100 xp = 1 level) - Upon level-up, the player is given skill points to spend in the level-up menu (similar to Mass Effect?)
- Externalize the "AUX POWER" function from half-life 2, creating 2 new values - Suit power and Stamina
- The player has a number of attributes to improve (Vitality, Agility, Strength, Skill, Energy) which improve certain aspects by default and unlock new abilities
- Agility controls player speed, jump height. Unlocks wall-jump, double-jump, super-jump, etc
- Strength controls ammo carry amount, melee damage. Unlocks door bash,
- Vitality controls health and stamina. Unlocks regeneration, adrenaline burst
- Skill controls accuracy, weapon reload/animate speed, recoil. Unlocks magazine packer (more bullets per mag), Sniper Shot
- Energy controls Suit Power. Unlocks Bullet-Time, perhaps some psychic attacks?
- Game is set in the same universe as Half-Life 2. Perhaps another city? 

Welcome to my ModDB page, in which I will be keeping a log of the planned features and releases of the upcoming mod that I'm working on, based on the SMOD platform for Half-Life 2.

If you haven't heard about SMOD, I recommend you take a look at the Unofficial SMOD Wiki, as it's written in english and contains sufficient information and links for the mod. Other notable mods include SMOD:Tactical, which has inspired me to begin work on a mod of my own.

While SMOD Vanilla is great and provides a solid and functional base for others to work on, a few factors reduce its user-friendliness: 1) The documentation is primarily in Japanese and automatically-translated English, and 2) mod support is difficult to come by due to this language barrier.

The mod I am working on will hopefully increase user-friendliness and by extension accessibilty, similarly to fitzroy_doll's CSS SCI FI mod. After a solid foundation for "plug-ins" such as weapons, configurations and maps has been established, I intend to shift focus to creating custom scenarios, again similar to CSS SCI FI, but with some more detailed scripts and some maps of my (or my team's) own creation.

Progress so far - last updated 18th Feb:
Configs 100% --Refers to anything with .cfg at the end. Mostly just getting all settings and modes complete.
Weapons 100% --Includes models, scripts, any other functions related to weapons.
Mapping 0% --The actual physical .bsp files for any maps created for the mod.
Mapadds 0% --Scripts used by SMOD to add entities and gametypes into maps post-creation.
Other Content 75% --Everything from menu functions and look, to packaged music and configuration programs.
Tutorials 10% --An online tutorial base for people who want to customize their mod further.

I will make a release when Configs, Weapons and Other Scripts are complete.

~Bubbinska