Half-Life 2 MMod : AR2 Remaster (WiP) image

not even more complex than a simple gun...

Oh yeah i forgot ,the ar15 has similar little arms that feed the ammo in the chamber.thanks for reminding me.

While the AR-15 lacks those little arms it doesn't need them to feed ammo in the chamber. Sure, this may have some additional moving parts but it does exactly the same job at feeding ammo as a human gun.

i was joking

That's not how it works in canon though. It's a bit more interesting. Basically, each plug is like a magazine holding 30 shots, and the arms reload the weapon after the 30 shots are used up.

Just on a side note, thanks for explaining what "irifle" is, I thought it was a typo on his part.

So anyway, beta arguments aside, I think it just makes more sense for the gun to use a "coin" for each shot, and the whole mag when reloading, I thought it didn't really make sense in HL2 how the ammo pickup was the entire mag, but then in the reload animation only the "bullet", or "coin", was being replaced.

You forgot to mention the most obvious fact that AR2 infinite ammo containers have those curved shield bits as ammo pickups.

Also worth note is the original model of the "combine ball" pre-Ep 2. Looked suspiciously like the housing the 'rounds' are placed into before firing.

I'm pretty late on this, but the idea of a single pellet being capable of firing thirty shots (as with vanilla) is pretty ridiculous, considering that would mean an AR2 magazine with thirty pellets would basically be a nine-hundred round magazine. It's definitely sci-fi, and would explain why emplacement machine guns can shoot, seemingly, forever, but they didn't create the weapon this way; so, they ruined it.

The original model never made sense to me, and learning why just made the weapon feel lazy and unfinished. This brings the model up to date. Now, it feels finished.

I'm pretty sure I'm also being too late for this thread, but a reminder - People saying AR2 reloading makes no sense, but because they cannot understand the high-tech Combine implemented in it. A pellet should contain enough power to fire 30 shots. But why changing it to 'each pellet fires 1 shot'? It's pretty much nerf the rifle in the way it works. And technically, that would cause misfire. The reload is recycled to look like that 'cause it's easier to reload. The arm did everything for you. If you change the the way it reload, the arm is completely useless, and it also cause trouble technically of the misfiring shots. That's how does Valve making it cool, Simple, perfect, and easy to use. Valve could've made new animations for it. They had the time to do it but why don't they? Cause that's how they want it to be. Cut the 'IRifle','3rd person OICW reload' crap. If HL2 BETA did not exists so this everyone could never agrue that it 'used' to be a incendiary launcher or some, stupid things like that. Obviously everyone and the especially the creator brought their idea, but it revolves around the beta things and crap. It's actually 'dumb' and 'pointless' as Cvoxulary said.

In MMod, the Combine somehow destroyed Earth's military forces in 7 hours but can't make a weapon that reloads itself and is powerful with ammunition that isn't huge.

It may look seizure inducing, as the pulse rifle has an exposed receiver, but if you were able to open up the receiver of a real life rapid fire machine gun, and fire it, it would indeed "seizurey rapid change" the bullets as you put it. That is how guns work!

The AR2 is indeed unfinished, and it was likely meant to fire more like this remaster. There is a lot of evidence to support this. The ammunition you pick up from the combine is the entire magazine, not the individual charges you see loaded. The energy ball secondary attack fires from the exact same charge in the original viewmodel, despite using separate ammo in gameplay. There also appears to be an underbarrel attachment on the AR2 that the energy balls were likely intended to come out from, but this barrel is unused. And lastly, since the stored ammo capaicty for the primary attack is only 60 shots (magazine capacity is 30), do you honestly expect us to believe that the giant box magazine on the AR2 was only designed to hold 2 of those charges?

I'm surprised an experienced modder such as yourself did not know this. It should be quite clear to anyone with knowledge of either firearms, modeling, or animating, that the AR2 in its vanilla form makes no sense.

Also - due to the recent updates from HLA, the AR2 is now considered to be reloaded like vanilla. This version isn't as it should've been.

The Pulse SMG in "Half-Life: Alyx" is more of a compromise between the original AR2 and the one in MMod. It is not exactly the same as the AR2 in vanilla Half-Life, and even if it was, doubling down on a bad design still makes a bad design.

So with the Pulse SMG from Half-Life Alyx... The charges do retain the battery like function it had before, with a 30 shot capacity, much like in Vanilla. However, it doesn't have a pointless drum magazine that carries way less ammo than it clearly should, and it instead either carries only 1 charge when stock, or 4 charges in a magazine when upgraded. The placement of these charges do make sense this time around, and are visible to the player for examination. The weapon also has to be loaded manually rather than just magically being loaded upon picking up ammo, as it did in Half-Life 2.

Personally, I never had a problem with each charge functioning more like a battery with multiple shots. What I had more of a problem with was the feed mechanism of the pulse weapons. The weapon autoloads the charges, but Freeman clearly would still either have to put the ammunition in the magazine for it to do that, or replace the magazine. The magazine also looks like it should hold 15+ charges (as it did in the beta), but it only holds 2. Let us also not forget how Valve animated Freeman to hold this cumbersome weapon with one hand, lol.

I have a feeling pulse weapons were at one point planned to fire single shot cartridges in earlier design phases of this game. If you want evidence for this, just take a look at the pulse cannon attached to the Hunter-Chopper or the pulse cannon attached to the Gunship. They both have feed chutes. Why on Earth would a gun powered by power cells have a feed chute belt for moving cartridges? If you look at concept art, the answer is clear... Valve did at one point design them to fire single shot cartridges. Combineoverwiki.net

Not so much...anyway thanks for your support

as if the lasers and energy balls didnt gave that away

yeah, but when you find the magazines/ammo for it, it's the entire drum. NPCs even reload it by replacing the drum.

Could be necessary housing for the, what is it, dark energy?
Anti-matter?
Either way, **** that would need special containment.

You're right, though if the AR2 being a recycled IRifle makes its current depiction dumb so does the reload animation as it was also recycled from the OICW and repurposed for the AR2. The whole thing is inconsistent.

As for the magazines it could just be that it's a container, we find almost all of our ammo in containers or bundles rather than in magazines that we directly load in, exception being rockets.

Way I see it the magazine should be replaceable but with each pellet still holding 30 rounds, allowing soldiers to carry much more ammo for less weight. Of course that's probably way too difficult to translate into the game itself.

Funnily enough, there is an unfinished reload animation of the Citizens reloading the OSIPR correctly (which weirdly depicts the OICW having a charging handle for some reason), but I guess Valve just didn't bother.

I agree with you, in the sense that it would have been pretty darn sci-fi to maintain the single pellet firing thirty shots deal. Were this the case, though, a magazine for this weapon--the best damage-dealing small arm in the game--would have a nine-hundred round magazine. Thirty pellets in a shield mag, and thirty discharges per pellet. You would never need to use any other weapon.

The developers updated the animation in the way that Valve most likely intended the weapon to be done, originally. Furthermore, they did a great job. It is now the same weapon, but it is finished.

How would the magazine hold ten plugs? Even if it could, that doesn't mean you have to give the player 900 rounds.

I think AR 2 was designed specifically for humans and others humanoid races. Because of that this weapon is "primitive" and simple.

To be fair, the "pellet reloading system" had been updated and replaced over a hundred years ago for most guns.

I'm doing animation...but thanks ya bro !

The thirdperson reload animation is just a leftover animation from when the AR2 was the OICW before becoming the futuristic and advanced pulse rifle.

Look at the right side where the tunnel is, the capsules get ejected. :)