Progress Report 02 news - Half-Life 2: Alternis mod for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Welcome to our second Progress Report.

Hi there!

I'd just like to mention a couple of things before we start,

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone for their patience regarding this delayed Progress Report. As you know due to my mouse breaking down I haven't been able to work on this project for approx. 1.5 months and that meant this Progress Report had to be delayed. So in the past month or so (after I've secured a replacement mouse) I've been working on Alternis whenever I was reasonably able to, so I could get this report out as soon as possible.

Secondly, I've decided that I should probably cut down on the amount of content I'm showing off in these reports. In the previous Progress Report for example, I've shown off almost everything on d1_canals_01a, which isn't exactly the best thing considering that people would probably like to experience these locations for themselves in-game, instead of having all of them spoiled in these reports. On the other hand, I do have to show off what progress I've made so going forward, I will try to strike a balance between how much I should show and how much I shouldn't.

With all that out of the way, let's get into this month's Progress Report.

d1_canals_02

This is one of the first maps that barely had anything changed on it due to me basically having zero ideas with what to do with it. It's such a small and straightforward map there's really not that much you can change about it to make it more interesting.

So I've went in and fixed some issues with the map like the default info_player_start not working for some reason when you loaded the map up in the console and I've also added a small passageway that could help you navigate around the chopper more easily.

That's about it for d1_canals_02 for now though, maybe I'll return to it later if I somehow come up with any ideas for it, but for now it'll stay like this.

d1_canals_03

Now this map on the other hand, had the absolute most work done to it compared to the other 2 maps in this report.

Gordon's journey goes on as normal up until the point where you'd get on top of the pipe in those service tunnels, which is where the detour begins.

After you navigate out of the service tunnels you'll end up in a hotel.

(I'd like to imagine that Overwatch issued lockdown orders for all citizens living near Freeman's current location, which is why there are clearly people living in this hotel, they just went into their rooms and barricaded the stairs.)

Once you exit, you'll find yourself outside on a narrow street overlooking the canals.

From here you'll make your way down to just above the canals where Freeman originally evaded the metrocops that were dropping explosive barrels on him from a truck.

Except this time, they don't have the high ground over you, but they know you're coming and they're ready.

After surviving the onslaught of metrocops you re-enter the depths of the canals, eventually ending up in the room full of explosive barrels you all know.

(As you can see I've revamped the explosion a bit and gave it a bit more of a punch.)

The hole in the wall leads to another small detour which will let you skip the entire water puzzle, if you wish to do so.

(The room behind the exploded wall has also been completely revamped and expanded.)

That's it for d1_canals_03 however, as I've already mentioned, most of the work this month went towards this map and I think you can tell.

d1_canals_05

Here we are, the final map in the Route Kanal chapter.

Again, not much was changed around here besides the "Powercut" mechanic which was inspired by Freeman's Mind. I've updated this back in December to more closely resemble what actually happens in Freeman's Mind 2: Episode 8.

Besides that, there weren't any notable changes made to this map for now.

Thanks for reading!

Well, that's all the maps in this report and that means we're done with Route Kanal for now. I feel I've added every detour / major idea I've had in mind for this chapter, and I can call them "Mostly Finished", which means they work perfectly from start-to-finish, they might just require some very minor touch-ups, which will be taken care of towards the end of development. This means I can focus on creating/editing new maps instead of constantly refining a single one.

Regarding maps I haven't edited too hard however, I've previously stated this was due to either it not making much sense to add anything else or me having zero ideas for it, like d1_canals_02. Obviously this doesn't mean I haven't fixed issues on these maps or anything, It's just that there weren't any major changes made that would be of interest. Although It was never the plan to edit/change every single map in the campaign, I will try my best to add something interesting to wherever I can. And if I ever suddenly come up with ideas for the maps I haven't touched too much, I can always just return to them and make the necessary additions.

That's it for this month's Progress Report however, I hope I've managed to effectively showcase what I've been working on in this past month, hopefully nothing comes up in the next 2 months that could seriously impact development, like this whole mouse debacle we just had.

Anyhow, thanks for reading, and have a nice day!