Half-Life 2: Alternis mod

Welcome to our third Progress Report.

Hi again!

Right off the bat, I'd just like to say that a few things have come up for me in life, and I've been quite busy in these past few months and I'll most likely continue to be busy until the end of May / start of June at the very least.

So I'd just like to apologize in advance if I can't get as much work done on the mod in the future.

Anyhow, let's get into this month's Progress Report.

d1_canals_06

Now that we're in Water Hazard I figured I should try making the first "detour" of the mod. One of the ideas I've had for a while was that I could try implementing some of the "original" Half-Life 2: Deathmatch maps into the campaign itself. They're real locations in the world of Half-Life: 2 after all, why not try to "slot them in" to where they'd be logically in the main game.

So that's exactly what I've set out to do.

Now, what map would fit the Water Hazard aesthetic? dm_runoff, of course.

But before getting to work, I quickly went and threw together a top-down map of Water Hazard, just to get an idea of where to place dm_runoff and where to create this detour, as well as where it should end, and I've decided on starting from d1_canals_06 and ending at d1_canals_08.

So with that figured out I've went ahead and made a tunnel starting in the city-outskirts portion of d1_canals_06.

And this tunnel leads all the way to the Alternis version of dm_runoff, that being al_runoff.

al_runoff

Here it is, the modified version of dm_runoff, made to fit the rest of Water Hazard.

Now, obviously the changes aren't too drastic but there's a fair number of them.

For starters, there's quite clearly water here now instead of it being bone dry, and that's for easier navigation with the airboat of course. There are quite a number of metrocops as well, since I'd imagine this to be some sort of base of theirs. They'll engage you as soon as you enter the main canal area, and they'll also call in the signature headcrab canister strike from the original dm_runoff on you.

The base will also go into full alert as soon as you enter the premises, causing the blast doors to close, which you'll have to override later on to enter the facility.

Now these aren't the only changes obviously, but these were the most significant ones. The smaller changes would include fixing several exploits where you could break out of the playable area, adding supply boxes / pickups everywhere, and revamping certain aspects of the map to fit Alternis' gameplay better.

But besides all that, this is the dm_runoff you all know at its core.

To leave, you'll have to open a gate that will let you access the river behind it, leading you to d1_canals_08. The controls for that are however inside the building, so you'll have to fight your way there one way or the other.

That's all for al_runoff for now, although I'm still planning on making a few changes to it in the future.

d1_canals_08

So here came having to actually connect the other end of al_runoff to d1_canals_08, so it could be a proper detour.

The small river I've added at the end of al_runoff now leads to a few fairly long industrial canals section meant for shipping. You'll have to make your way down these in order to get back on track.

After a while you'll eventually come to a set of large water gates blocking your path, and a control room nearby, which you'll be able to access after climbing aboard an abandoned ship.

You'll find the gate controls inside the control room, which'll let you open the gates and finally get back on track.

After opening the gates, a familiar sight should greet you and you'll be able to continue on like nothing ever happened.

And that's pretty much it for this detour. I didn't want to do anything too ambitious for the first one since this mainly served as a test to see what implementing something like this would entail and how I should go about doing it.

That also wraps up all the maps I've had for this report, since as I've said most of the work went towards making this detour happen.

Sidenote

I'll be honest, I've never been very comfortable with having taken a few ideas from Freeman's Mind: 2 without permission and implementing them in Alternis. Yes, they were among the very first map changes I made when Alternis was just a prototype. However, porting them forward and updating them in this current version, essentially having them sit there as if stolen, just felt wrong to me.

So I've decided to contact Ross Scott about whether he's okay with any of this and if he'd like to see them removed.

Surprisingly, Ross got back to me quite fast and not only was he okay with these ideas being implemented, he got me in touch with the brilliant mapper behind all the original FM2 changes who was also completely okay with all of this. So an absolutely huge thank you is in order to them for allowing me to do this!

Now, this doesn't mean I'll be actively seeking to copy FM2. That would be the last thing I'd ever want. However, if our map changes happen to overlap, or if I draw inspiration from FM2 in a general sense, it's good to know that it shouldn't pose a problem to anyone.

Thanks for reading!

Well, that's all I've had for this Progress Report. As I've said due to me being quite busy at the moment I might not be able to get as much work done on Alternis in the following 2 months, but I'll certainly try to.

In any case, thanks for reading this Progress Report, I'll see you in 2 months and have a nice rest of your day!