You are stuck in a workshop with a non-functioning airboat.
Your task is to use the gravity gun to find parts for the airboat and escape the radioactive water.
Look carefully for what you need and find ways to access them.
- Title: Hover Craftsman
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-hover-craftsman.7z
- Size : 1.12MB
- Author: Corey Mckemy
- Date Released: 04 March 2013
Download directly into MapTap [1.12MB]
You MUST have MapTap installed before using this link.
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.
- Copy the mckemy_hovercraftsman.bsp file into into your C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\ep2\maps folder.
- Launch Episode Two
- Open the console and type map mckemy_hovercraftsman and press ENTER tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
The playthrough/walkthrough below is provided by PlanetPhillip. See more of my playthroughs on this site: VP: PlanetPhillip.
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All sizes are the same screenshots, just in different resolutions.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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1,260Overall
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50365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 21 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 8 Mins by Ade
Longest: 0 Hours, 35 Mins by Zekiran
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 48 Mins
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This only gets a “Maybe” from me because the attention to detail was lacking and the implementation need some work.
Others may not enjoy it because there is no combat, so just bear that in mind.
The basic idea is sound and crashing through the wooden fence was fun but the whole thing is contrived. As picky as that sounds, a level needs players to feel it’s real or else it moves into a different kind of design approach.
I don’t think it will be the best EP2 map you will play this week, but neither the worst. Play it only if you need your EP2 fix, otherwise watch the video above and then decide.
Using Gauge
Medium
15 Minutes
Well, it’s okay.
If you played Research and Development, you may remember a part where you have to gather some parts to make some sort of hovercraft. That was fun, right? Well, now somebody thought it would be great to make a map based on that part of the mod.
Though, unfortunately, it’s not executed that well. First of all, there is no combat whatsoever in this map, so I’m pretty sure a LOT of people will be disappointed. Second, the atmosphere is REALLY basic and the only part I liked about it is that nice lightning touch.
Also, while I was playing this map, it felt like I was not doing it the right way. Having to stack stuff up is not my thing. I had to replay this map 3 times to beat it.
Overall, play this map at your own risk.
Eh, not the best. Not the worst.
As TolisXTRM said, this takes the assembly portion of Research & Development and tries to build a short puzzle map out of it. It’s not difficult, although a couple things are worth mentioning. The first is that there’s no reason why the water should be electrified. It’s not blocking progression and because the player has no health display due to lack of a HEV suit, it doesn’t make sense to damage them. The player can take real damage when they don’t have a suit, and contrary to popular belief, there isn’t regenerating health.
The second is that I never found a clean way to get the motor. The bridge you are supposed to set into motion is incredibly dodgy to stand on, so the best I could do is leap from its apex after getting it to swing and hope to grab the motor on the way down into the electrified water. Didn’t feel like a quality solution. Then, with the propeller, it seemed like there was a whole weight distribution puzzle going on, but I just punted it off the shelf and took it. Kind of silly.
While I’m fine with assembly maps that have a clever presentation, as R&D did, keep in mind that they are just the battery puzzle with a different coat of paint.
Manually
Medium
10 Minutes
It’s not, but that’s exactly what I thought and mentioned it in my video. It’s radioactive, but I only knew that from reading his homepage.
I believe that’s the way you were supposed to do it and I found it dodgy too.
I also just grabbed the propeller but I was under the impression that the weight distribution puzzle was just to get you onto the pipe so you could get to the motor.
Ah, yeah. I went back and looked and I didn’t hear the Geiger counter, probably because of not having the HEV suit, so I didn’t think of radiation at all. Why not just use the toxic textures at that point? Course, even before answering that, what’s up with the crates that can’t be picked up? 😛
I didn’t use the weight puzzle to get onto the pipe. I just brought over the oil drums from the garage and stacked my way onto it.
Yeah, there’s definitely more questions than answers here.
I’m guessing the author didn’t want the player to wander about to jump right on the conveyer belt and like prop jump over the fence and end the map the improper way.
I have a feeling that if the author didn’t account for stacking crates to get onto the pipe, they probably didn’t think about prop jumping either.
Well, I shouldn’t say that. He partially considered the stacking. That’s probably why the crates in the water are unmovable. But that’s not the case for the oil drums inside the warehouse, of course.
There was another logic gaffe I noticed in Phillip’s video. I didn’t test this, but it may be possible to punt the wood beam out of the ladder before you get to that point, which would lower the ladder and trivialize a great deal of the map.
Node graph message in the start. Text on screen feels like it’s almost never a good idea to instruct the player in that manner, just a custom scribbled image with the stuff you need (vehicle + propeller + engine) would’ve been awesome, if author intends to re-create parts of R&D.
Onto the mod, I found it really odd that the props would stick in mid air and could not understand why the author did not just block off 3 out of 4 walls of the elevator if we were supposed to throw stuff in it and solve the weight puzzle (you can see the glitch in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ral7jVEOYAE ). Also the arrows decal is not enough for directing the player on the pipe, especially for those that have not played R&D – apparently not everybody played it haha – and looking at the pipe there’s nothing telling me that’s the right way to go, as nothing stands out visually, no special lighting, no path beyond that point and no way for us to see the ladder behind it, so not enough incentive to go up there even after solving the weight puzzle, for which I cheated and prop jumped to be able to get props in it, like I said. A little testing goes a long long way.
The ending is blunt and unsatisfactory. The only satisfaction was felt upon assembling the vehicle, that’s always fun to do, irl and in games heh
Play it Later, mmmaybe?
Manually
Medium
8 Minutes
I saw the arrows, but because of the lack of lighting, didn’t see the PIPE they were meant to direct you to.
Also, did you notice that the cinderblocks that were supposed to go in the drop weight, … kind of had no hitboxes? They all just visually stuck together for me. I don’t know if I got a screenshot of that.
Well outside it’s not that dark, imo, but for those that haven’t played R&D, no decals might stand out. In mods in general they’re mostly placed randomly so the walls don’t feel empty. In R&D, almost nothing is random.
Yes, the cinderblocks getting stuck is shown in my vid.
Outside was equally dark to me, with the exception of when the lightning would occur. I’m not positive that this is working as intended for my game, though, because according to other comments on some newer mods some of the things I’ve been seeing as ‘too dark to play at all and require mat_fullbright’ are “amazingly lit”. I should probably just verify my game files and make sure that things are correct, but I haven’t had any issues with episode 2 otherwise, and I have been playing it since downloading these mods and maps. Quite odd.
Another way too dark map… Sigh.
We have the gravity gun but not the HEV? Why?
The physics on the bridge thing were terrible, something must have gone wrong and just never been tested, because it did not sway smoothly at all, and that was where half my game time went: first trying to even find where anything was in complete darkness, and second NOT falling off that bridge directly into the water that kills you.
Another god-mode ending for me, I didn’t feel like restarting but had almost been killed along the way. Got frustrated several times playing this, and probably won’t play it again.
It’s good to use this map as a demonstration of how things could be vastly improved with play testing and better mapping skill.
Manually
Medium
35 Minutes
I am not quite affectionate to “escape” puzzle maps. And even less if they are done into HL2 ( in my pinion; if you use a HL2 scenario, universe or environment, at least be kind to offer some combat on these maps please) , so here I have a dilemma because though overall this map is designed OK and the ideas on it are also well implemented; I know this one it could be play it later, but overall feels to me like a grey map or kind of tasteless, dull map, so that’s why I place a maybe recomm.
Also I really hate to start ANY map without the HEV Suit, and though I think in this map you really never need it, be without it feels to me the same to be naked in HL2 world, also because that disable the “zoom” key and we can not see some puzzle details.
Using Gauge
Medium
25 Minutes
Intentional frustration built in….
Using Gauge
Medium
30 Minutes
It’s a short map based around one puzzle area. It looks decent (the lighting could use some improvement in a few spots, but other than that it’s good). I feel like the idea could really be expanded into a larger mod, where there are various parts and upgrades for the vehicle in different levels, and the workshop serves as a hub.
The puzzles rely on physics things that seem to either have engine or mapping issues, like a generator that flips out when you plug it in, a bridge you set swinging that’s awkward to walk on and an elevator with a counterweight that has some odd physics if you stop to think about it (the masses of the bricks and the player add up weird). Still, the only issue I had solving it was the bridge not being totally easy to jump onto (kept hitting the side railings, which could probably be fixed by changing up the brushes a little), and it wasn’t frustrating at all.
Using Gauge
Hard
15 Minutes