• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Black Mesa: Xen Trailer released

Around 2011~2012, Black Mesa was a free mod. There was a polemic where some fans asked how they could contribute moneywise with the project, and the devs said they all had good jobs, didn`t needed money and the project was just a hobby, so the fans should donate to charity.

After a year or so they announced the paid version for Steam. I don`t know if the money acquired is donated to charity.

Anyway, anyone else remember this or i'm getting crazy?
I recall the mod moving to paid status on Steam, I didn't know the story behind it, and I bought it to encourage them.
 
The game has a 94% approval rating on Steam, so it's not exactly "bad".

In the original Half-Life, the HECU couldn't fire and move at the same time, so a lot of their time in combat was spent repositioning, which made them seem intelligent and gave the player more time to breath. In BM, they run at the player while firing, so you pretty much have to take them out instantly, which can make the combat flow less satisfying. The team has already re-written the A.I once (since the mod release) and have tweaked the enemy fire cones to make them less frustrating. (In the mod the HECU target you instantly with pinpoint accuracy). They will look at the A.I again once the game is out of EA, but because the encounters are designed for the existing A.I, it's basically too much work to start from scratch. So they will tweak what they can.

As far as Xen goes, the Agrunts have new A.I which is pretty much what the marines should have been, so there is no reason not to play Xen because of A.I concerns.
I think you are exaggerating the effect of these changes on the AI system, assuming they are true. These changes are pretty far from breaking the game, when I played through it I thought the game was a breeze (or as much as the original one was) and a VERY welcome upgrade to the graphics (arguably they still look dated). This mod makes it pretty hard to o back to the original version of the game.

I don't think there is a reason to believe its score is undeserved, a couple of people complaining about the AI on dedicated forums is not necessarily representative of how the large majority of people experienced Black Mesa.
 

eot

Banned
The game has a 94% approval rating on Steam, so it's not exactly "bad".

In the original Half-Life, the HECU couldn't fire and move at the same time, so a lot of their time in combat was spent repositioning, which made them seem intelligent and gave the player more time to breath. In BM, they run at the player while firing, so you pretty much have to take them out instantly, which can make the combat flow less satisfying. The team has already re-written the A.I once (since the mod release) and have tweaked the enemy fire cones to make them less frustrating. (In the mod the HECU target you instantly with pinpoint accuracy). They will look at the A.I again once the game is out of EA, but because the encounters are designed for the existing A.I, it's basically too much work to start from scratch. So they will tweak what they can.

As far as Xen goes, the Agrunts have new A.I which is pretty much what the marines should have been, so there is no reason not to play Xen because of A.I concerns.
I can't really disagree with what you said, because it's true, but I think it understates the impact on the two games. Fun AI is almost never AI that behaves intelligently, it's usually expressive AI that is fun to fight. Half-Life had that, and it did a better job than most shooters before and since (HL2 didn't have it until Ep2 with the hunters). Black Mesa's hitscan grunts genuinely put a damper on the whole experience for me. Granted, I'm in the small subset of people who will replay HL just for the combat, I really love it.

I never tried the non-mod version, but it's good to hear they improved (or at least changed) the AI. Might give it a shot.

I think you are exaggerating the effect of these changes on the AI system, assuming they are true. These changes are pretty far from breaking the game, when I played through it I thought the game was a breeze (or as much as the original one was) and a VERY welcome upgrade to the graphics (arguably they still look dated). This mod makes it pretty hard to o back to the original version of the game.

I don't think there is a reason to believe its score is undeserved, a couple of people complaining about the AI on dedicated forums is not necessarily representative of how the large majority of people experienced Black Mesa.

It's not about being hard or not. I did play it on hard fwiw, but for me it's about whether or not the combat is fun.
 
Last edited:

SnapShot

Member
I have to admit I'm very disappointed in the current state of the beta, Gonarch and Interloper drag on for far too long and they re-use the exact same puzzles and gimmicks more than 5 times per level. Nihilanth boss is very confusing and seizure inducing, too much crap going on my screen, jeez chill on the god damn particles.

Ammo balance is all over the place, they give you infinite Tau and gluon gun ammo but never enough ammo for any of the other weapons, and the infinite spawning vorts is lame and gets annoying after a while.

G-man's voice acting is weak, even the guy who did the voice acting for G-man in HDTF is so much better, doubt they'll be able to fix some of these without reworking entire sections of the chapters, such a shame.
 

FireFly

Member
Steam reviews are so biased and padded by awful users and people that get it free, and people that get it free and it's not disclosed, they're useless.
As far as I am aware, Crowbar Collective never gave out any free copies of the game.

I think you are exaggerating the effect of these changes on the AI system, assuming they are true. These changes are pretty far from breaking the game, when I played through it I thought the game was a breeze (or as much as the original one was) and a VERY welcome upgrade to the graphics (arguably they still look dated). This mod makes it pretty hard to o back to the original version of the game.

I don't think there is a reason to believe its score is undeserved, a couple of people complaining about the AI on dedicated forums is not necessarily representative of how the large majority of people experienced Black Mesa.
I don't think they break the game. My point is just that the marine A.I is not as satisfying to fight as it could be – which is something the developers themselves recognise; hence why they plan on revisiting it.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
 

garballax

Member
 
Top Bottom