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[Source] Mod Megathread

Botolf said:
As far as Valve games go, Episode Three will probably end up looking better than P2. Portal's aesthetic has generally been simpler than the Half-Life universe's.

I'm not sure I know what you mean about the water. Do you mean the caustic effect on the cave walls? I'm fairly sure that's an animated texture effect.
Click to expand...
There are ripples and waves in flowing water on the ground if I'm not mistaken. I'm used to Source engine water mostly staying put. I think the guy's blog said that he hacked in support for flowing water and caustic effects (the erosion on walls? I'm not familiar with that).
 
More Zeitgeist goodness: http://www.moddb.com/mods/zeitgeist/news/morituri-vivunt-diutius

shot_03.jpg


Goddamn, I can't wait for this mod. The atmosphere looks really well done.

Blizzard said:
There are ripples and waves in flowing water on the ground if I'm not mistaken. I'm used to Source engine water mostly staying put. I think the guy's blog said that he hacked in support for flowing water and caustic effects (the erosion on walls? I'm not familiar with that).
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Hmm, moving water. Might be a colliding particle effect, or an animated model? Caustics are the rippling reflections of water shining on the cave walls, fairly sure that was done through an animated texture overlay.
 
Aren't there, like, Counter-Strike Source maps that use flowing water?

29wrb04.jpg

cs_militia

Probably just a variant on that effect. It's not realtime/dynamic/whatever, or anything, but nothing in that video suggested a realtime/dynamic/whatever effect, either.
 
Sega1991 said:
Aren't there, like, Counter-Strike Source maps that use flowing water?

Probably just a variant on that effect. It's not realtime/dynamic/whatever, or anything, but nothing in that video suggested a realtime/dynamic/whatever effect, either.
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Well, I still thought it look good, even if it is just faked/hacked. That it looks good is the goal I guess! :D

Specifically, watch the 720p version on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bPjEbenew and look at the waterfalls around 0:40...that area looks nice, but then around 1:04 or so, "flowing" through a tunnel, there is water on the bottom that looks really good in my opinion.
 
I played a little of the original Dear Esther today, and the only problem I have is there is no captions and I can't hear the voice over. Hearing impairment sucks :(
 
Blizzard said:
Well, I still thought it look good, even if it is just faked/hacked. That it looks good is the goal I guess! :D

Specifically, watch the 720p version on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bPjEbenew and look at the waterfalls around 0:40...that area looks nice, but then around 1:04 or so, "flowing" through a tunnel, there is water on the bottom that looks really good in my opinion.
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Looks like an animated texture effect scrolling over a static mesh to me. Probably fairly cheap, looks great too :D

You can see the caustic effects during the same portion of the trailer, on the walls.
 
Overwatch made its first public release today. Two maps, lots of unfinished areas and etc, but it's interesting to see some of the gameplay elements they're pushing.

- 1 player takes on the third-person role of Overwatch, everyone else plays rebels in standard FPS mode.

- The Overwatch can activate environmental hazards, spawn Combine soldier squads, and open doors. I believe all of these things cost charges, which are essentially timed delays.

- The Resistance have to move through the maps completing objectives. So far there are two basic objective types: Destroy a generator (using grenades or SMG nades), hack a console (stand next to it for a few minutes).

- If you die as a Resistance member, you go down and a teammate has to stand over you and hold down E until the bar fills. It's not nearly as fast as revives in something like Left 4 Dead, so someone attempting one is highly vulnerable.

- The Citadel map seems to be too easy for the Resistance, perhaps there aren't enough choke points for the Overwatch to take advantage of. The floor plan is very open. The streets map is a lot more balanced, the Overwatch can tear the Resistance up with massed Shotgun soldier squads. In fact, I won my first game as the OW by doing that very thing. I massed Shotguns and sent them in at the same time as the Resistance were activating one of the final consoles.
 
Sega1991 said:
That sounds a lot like Zombie Master.
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It does share a lot of similarities, and the devs themselves admit that a lot of the mod's inspiration comes from ZM. I've yet to see any zombies though!
 
8vw8rp.jpg


Nightmare House 2 has been released

After over two years, Nightmare House 2 is finally done. Nightmare House 2 is the product of the "WeCreateStuff" team, responsible for the widely-popular "Portal: Flash Version". The content for "Portal: Flash Version" was later recreated in the actual Portal game, and went on to be officially included in the Xbox Live Arcade release of "Portal: Still Alive" (or so I've been told).

Nightmare House 2 comes as a sequel to the original Nightmare House from 2005, a claustrophobic (and maybe a little cheesy) HL2 mod that opened with the player being stranded next to a crashed vehicle in the middle of the woods. After finding your way in to an apparently abandoned house, the player had to deal with some unexpected entities. The original Nightmare House was followed up a year later by "Nightmare House: Remake", which offered a level of polish to the original Nightmare House in order to tide fans over until Nightmare House 2 was complete. For some reason, "WeCreateStuff" has chosen to remove Nightmare House Remake from their Moddb profile and website, offering only the 2005 version for download. However, Filefront still has Nightmare House Remake for those seeking the updated version. There are enough differences between the two that it's entirely conceivable to play both versions back to back and still have fun.

Nightmare House 2 takes us to an abandoned (?) hospital as we follow up on the ending of the original Nightmare House. Things seem to be taking a decidedly F.E.A.R. twist. Trailer here. Official site here. Moddb profile here.

It would have made a little more sense to hold this back for Halloween, but fall is approaching and I enjoyed the original Nightmare House enough that I am already downloading this and have decent expectations for it.

------

Okay, downloaded and installed. The reason Nightmare House Remake was taken down is because it is included in Nightmare House 2 as a "Prologue". It's been updated even further to include some stylistic choices brought forth by NH2.

235dt2.png


Which means there is now a dark "border" around the screen, the flashlight is set a little lower, and the game has a much darker, more washed out palette thanks to the Source's color correction system. I don't know how much I like it, really. It really makes it feel like I'm having a hard time seeing; like I have really bad tunnel vision, or something. Those of you with motion sickness are going to have a really bad time here, too, as the last "improvement" brought over from NH2 is a rather extreme "view bob" while you walk, perhaps to make it more "realistic" or something.

Also, though I can't speak for NH2, for those of you who hate jump scares... think twice. Normally jump scares don't get me, but NH Remake (or prologue, whatever you want to call it) has a few and some of them got me good - even though this is my second or third time playing through it. It's not all jump scares, though, thankfully, which is what makes the few jump scares that are in there all the more potent.

Unfortunately, thanks to something Garry's Mod did, I'm going to have to re-download all of Episode 2 before I can continue on and play the actual NH2.
 
I'm enjoying this so far. I was wondering why I couldn't find the remake of NMH and glad it's part of the Prologue since I never got to play the first one.
 
Wow, Nightmare House 2 was pretty good. It was kind of a combination of things from other games (especially F.E.A.R.), but it was thoroughly enjoyable. If you enjoy horror games, play this immediately.
 
I tried playing Nightmare House 2 but I just found myself unable to figure out what the hell im supposed to do to get into the house right at the beginning. After 20 minutes of running in circles in the dark i just gave up : /
 
Do I still need Counter-Strike: Source if I own the Orange Box and the Source SDK to play Nightmare House? Or do I need it so that I don't get any missing textures?
 
Freedom = $1.05 said:
I tried playing Nightmare House 2 but I just found myself unable to figure out what the hell im supposed to do to get into the house right at the beginning. After 20 minutes of running in circles in the dark i just gave up : /
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Here's a hint:

Look in the shed that's in front of the house.

If you've already done this and are still stuck, here's how to get in:

Get the axe from the shed. To the left of the front door to the house is the entrance to the basement. Break the lock and go in.

Don't worry, the rest of the mod is pretty straight forward, and it's much better after the prologue.
 
I'm up to the part where you team up with those guys. Thoughts so far:

Not as scary as the first Nightmare House. NH1's jump scares were often really scary because they weren't that close together; so when they did happen, it was a shock. NH2 wears out its welcome in this regard pretty quickly. It seems like around just about every corner, you're going to see the girl run by, or a monster run by, or a skeleton get dragged out of view and then disappear. If you see a dead body, count on it moving in some way when you approach it.

That goes the same for a lot of scares, I'd say. Concepts get re-used more than once. It's scary the first time, not so much on repeat viewings. It also feels like the game does a bad job of directing you to scary images; several times during the start the game did that "color drains away" thing like I was supposed to see something scary, but I couldn't see what.

There's some creative stuff in here, though. I really like the long hallway you get trapped in that gradually gets smaller and smaller until you're left in this teensy tiny room. There are a few moments where you're crawling through vents and something similar happens. That moment of "Wait, wasn't there a door here?" is great.

The zombies aren't very scary. I hate it when you can tell that somebody just retextured HL2's City 17 citizens, and that's what we have here. They at least looked gruesome in NH1. I guess they still do here, but they're missing that truly "nasty" element they had in NH1.

Gonna keep playing. Despite the lack of being afraid, this is pretty cool.
 
And... beaten.

The part I stopped at last time, with the SWAT soldiers, marked the end of the silly "weak jump scares around every corner" nonsense and the game started getting genuinely creepy.

In some ways it does feel sort of like they asked "What scares you from other videogames?" and they put those in here. The mannequins, for instance. Why are their sewing mannequins in a hospital? Because of Condemned: Criminal Origins, which had a creepy (and nearly identical) mannequins segment, that's why. Considering the credits mentions a "NH2 Suggestions Thread", that's likely exactly what happened.

But it ultimately doesn't hurt the game too badly. It was fun while it lasted.
 
Sega1991 said:
And... beaten.

The part I stopped at last time, with the SWAT soldiers, marked the end of the silly "weak jump scares around every corner" nonsense and the game started getting genuinely creepy.

In some ways it does feel sort of like they asked "What scares you from other videogames?" and they put those in here. The mannequins, for instance. Why are their sewing mannequins in a hospital? Because of Condemned: Criminal Origins, which had a creepy (and nearly identical) mannequins segment, that's why. Considering the credits mentions a "NH2 Suggestions Thread", that's likely exactly what happened.

But it ultimately doesn't hurt the game too badly. It was fun while it lasted.
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I can't disagree with your earlier assessments as well as what you posted here. You're correct, but I thought that it was very well done for a mod. I especially liked
the F.E.A.R. like hallucination segments. That one in the really dark rusted hallway that kept getting shorter genuinely creeped me out.

I do wish that they didn't reuse so many of their scares. As for the part with the
mannequins
, I've never played that game, although I had heard about that segment. I still think it was done very well.
 
Inkwell said:
I can't disagree with your earlier assessments as well as what you posted here. You're correct, but I thought that it was very well done for a mod. I especially liked
the F.E.A.R. like hallucination segments. That one in the really dark rusted hallway that kept getting shorter genuinely creeped me out.

I do wish that they didn't reuse so many of their scares. As for the part with the
mannequins
, I've never played that game, although I had heard about that segment. I still think it was done very well.
Click to expand...

I've never played Condemned either, but like you, I had heard of the scene. After beating the game, I looked up a clip and the scenes are very, very similar. To NH2's credit, though, they do use the mannequins in interesting ways outside of that scene. But, since neither you or I have played Condemned, there's no way to know if those were also... "paid tribute".

I especially like meeting the mysteriously silent SWAT guy and when you do what he motions for you to do, you enter the room he's in and... surprise! Infact, a lot with the SWAT guys was great. Seeing them picked off one by one is when the game really, really started to creep me out, because instead of "oh no that dead body moved" it was "Oh shit, this guy went insane, something pulled this guy under the door and murdered him, anything can happen!"

It didn't feel like such a... generic videogame setting anymore. I wasn't just some videogame hero stranded in a zombie-filled air-quotes "spooky" hospital anymore. The heavily-armed badasses that I had been leaning on for the last 10 or 15 minutes were dropping like flies, often to things I couldn't see.

The game needed more of that.
 
Yeah, I actually loved the part with
the SWAT guy in the window, only to find a mannequin there once you go through the door. At first I was thinking 'why isn't this guy saying anything?'

Something strange is that there's a decent amount of humor in the game. It felt so out of place, yet I found some of it pretty funny.
 
never played the 1st nightmare house, played the 2nd one a little, late last night. was pitch black room of course and in 3D as the half life 2 engine works pretty damn well with it. it has some nice little scares and obviously a big influence from f.e.a.r but i was particularly impressed with the sound design, which seemed excellent. by far the biggest scare of the night came when the mrs came in and to ask if i wanted anything and reached out a hand which i saw in a reflection out of the side of the glasses, needless to say i almost shat myself on site :P
 
How is Podcast17 these days?

I stopped listening almost a year ago because there were a few people on there who were a little too smug for my liking, and the podcast was quickly degenerating in to "Haha, we're AWFUL! No, seriously, this is like, the worst podcast ever! And that's what makes us hilarious!"

I couldn't stand it.
 
The quality varies from episode to episode. Thankfully, the show notes make it easier to skip around and listen to discussion on things I'm interested in. The side episodes better feature Minerva at some point :]
 
The Hidden is an incredible mod. The server we joined filled up nicely. Dead right now, so I'm posting on gaf :lol
 
Yeah, everyone needs to try out Hidden: Source. It has a few really neat ideas and is a blast if you play with a group of friends.
 
I haven't played The Hidden yet, I should give it a go sometime.

And Zombie Master 2 appears to really be happening. omgz.
 
1187: Episode One was released today, anyone been playing it? (download link)

There seems to be a lot of custom content, with the vast majority of the weapons, NPCs, and textures being remade or replaced. It isn't the best looking SP mod by any means, but the visuals are often decent enough to communicate the scene adequately. There's a few voice actors in the mix, including those for enemy troops. The atmosphere is light, if not a tad silly at times ("Look what my butt found. A shotgun!"). Fun enough to keep me interested so far.

I'm about 3 hours in and in the final chapters on Normal, so it looks like 1187's length will be roughly the same as Half-Life 2: Episode One's.

1187_observatory03.jpg
 
I've played a bit. I'm still early into the game but that's due to a problem I ran into. When you begin in the apartment complex you're suppose to do all that stuff until it's night and that guy shows up. During the morning sequence the front door is unlocked though. At least if you reach it by going through the glass window the head crab broke through. So I spent a while exploring the outside trying to figure out what to do.:lol

I love all the original animation with the items in the game so far.
 
GoldandBlue said:
I've played a bit. I'm still early into the game but that's due to a problem I ran into. When you begin in the apartment complex you're suppose to do all that stuff until it's night and that guy shows up. During the morning sequence the front door is unlocked though. At least if you reach it by going through the glass window the head crab broke through. So I spent a while exploring the outside trying to figure out what to do.:lol

I love all the original animation with the items in the game so far.
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Heh, I never noticed that. Grabbed the key and didn't even try opening the front door. I suppose I'm fortunate!

Yeah, the animations are pretty darn good for such a small modding team. I've seen a lot of crowbar swings, thanks in large part to running out of ammunition frequently :lol
 
... and finished! Nifty little mod, rough in places but it's definitely a solid effort. Episode Two should be good indeed.

I'll throw 1187 into the OP tomorrow. I played Human Error a few months ago but forgot to add that one, so it'll be up in the OP soon as well.
 
Look at that fucking foliage, it's insane. Source Engine haters are going to eat crows nest fo sho. Can't wait to play this... And see his work being implented in other mods, as well.
 
I was hyped for NMRIH like 3 years ago but that died out a long time ago :/

The zombie thing had been done too much, both in mods, and in retail games.

I played both Zombie Master and Zombie Panic mods a ton, but it just doesn't look like NMRIH is gonna do anything that different from the rest. :(
 
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