Another polar question I’m afraid! Would you be interested in playing a Half-Life 2 Mod where you only played 95% of the time in the vehicles? Would you get bored, or do you love driving? Time to vote:
Do You Want A Driving Only Mod for HL2?
It would need to be coded to ensure the player doesn’t just jump or but imagine a mod where the players starts on foot and has a short but intense fight to reach one of the HL2 vehicles. Once they are in they play the rest of the mod within the vehicle.
Well, I say the rest of the mod but in fact at various intervals the player has to stop and eith have another short fight or a puzzle. At this point they need to change vehicles.
Here are a few more ideas for you to ponder:
The player is on a very large lap. Each lap would take approximately 10 m minutes to complete. After passing the start point the number of enemies and other difficulty settings increases. Not by a large amount but enough to notice. As the player passes the start point, their health could be restored or some other benefit. In the top corner is a counter, the player attempts to go around as many times as possible before they die.
One feature that would be really beneficial would be more vehicles. perhaps one of the Combine tanks, or one of the lorries/trucks seen in the game. Even A copter would be cool. Of course each vehicle should have its own characteristics; strength, speed, armor etc.
The mod would feature clearly defined sections and the player would need to pass each section with all the vehicles before they could continue.
It would also be cool if there were sections that required some very accurate driving. Perhaps gates that we only just wide enough for the vehicles to pass and the player has to drive through at maximum speed, maybe even more jumps. Perhaps a jumping puzzle section!
Perhaps this would be a boring mod to player and maybe it would be really hard to make great maps for. However, I’ve yet to see one, so I’d at least like to try it before I say the idea is stupid.
Maybe it would be hard to create enough variety. That might not be important for the players who love driving. This would probably be a niche mod.
Do you have any ideas for a Driving Only Mod?
I’m currently helping a mod team with something related to this but instead of vehicles you climb onto and ride creatures.
The problem, in all Source Engine games, is the Player model.
It’s a huge undertaking to place Players in certain places and make it look right to the Player and from other Players.
Not so hard in Single Player mods until you need a 3rd person shot, which you undoubtedly will need, but in Multi-Player mods this is a nightmare from every angle.
If you can Google some of the problems Valve had as the Air-Boat in HL2 came to life you’ll find it started as more of a Jet-Ski, but Valve couldn’t get it right.
The nice thing about of the real world physics of an Air-Boat is they mirror the in-game physics of the Source Engine.
Have you played Sin:Episodes?
How’d you like the ride with Jessica?
How about the new HotRod in HL2:EP2?
Not really that interested in driving most of the time, perhaps a nice mario kart like total conversion.
Although if it was planned like Episode 2’s driving it might be fun. It switched nicely between the sections.
I love driving vehicles in HL2, but I wouldn’t relish having to squeeze through narrow gates at top speed. That sounds masochistic. The airboat section of HL2 was easily my favourite part of the game.
I would find it refreshing to have a mod that you fly through, because most mods where you get a vehicle, you drive it two feet, get out, fight, get in, drive two feet, and repeat. I only remember a couple mods that had a section that allowed you to gather a little speed. The reason more people dont do it is because its a lot of work for somthing the player may never see.
I agree with speckman. You’d be surprised how much mapping effort is needed to provide a mere 20 seconds of airboat ride. And I’m not speaking of an ultra detailed enviroment, just the basics.
i want the longjump from hl1 in hl2:}might be nice to let alex drive so I can ride shotty, could be a fun chase.i recall a zombie map you get a car ,killem all to move to the next section.
Not to venture too far off from the original basis of this post, but has anyone ever played Gmod10 and make a thruster-buggy (so if it flips, you can flip it back up) with turrets attached? If you play with other people, I suggest you try it. Very fun Twisted-Metal type stuff. TURBO BOOST!
I accept that and I did mention it in my post. Of course if the player can’t get out then perhaps the levels of details could be less. Perhaps what needs to be made is a POC (Proof Of Concept) with almost no detail but just the basic layout and gameplay for people to play and give feedback.
Perhaps the whole concept is flawed!
I think there’s an important balance between what you’re having the player do and where it’s actually happening.
For example, if you’re going to have the player immersed in combat, the environment isn’t as important as in the parts where you’re just exploring and puzzle-solving (at the same time, this goes along with the need for performance).
In this case, if you actually wanted to have long vehicle sections, the need to have varied and detailed maps is inevitable… unless, of course, there was a way to implement some sort of puzzle solving from within the vehicle. The basic action of crashing against the wooden supports and making the Combine metrocops fall is a basic example.
Good grief! No. I have enough trouble driving those things just a short distance. I would have to give it a pass.
I would think its amazing yeah. Ehh I have good skill level while driving ingame, and my favourite level is Highway 17! Just because of the Bug driving.
btw what happened to Manual_Monaro? He always had criticism and good comments on everything that appeared on PP
No
If it were possible, I think it would be great fun. So what if I can’t drive worth a hoot in video games? I still enjoy it!! Part of the fun for me is crashing. 🙂 Would I enjoy a game that lasted several hours like that? Probably not, but a mod or short game, you bet.
Jimbo, what you have suggested also sounds like great fun.
I don’t remember my true name, are you by any chance related to passerby… who left our wonderful PP community?
In order for accurate driving to be fun, you need a way to drive accurately. I can’t count how often I had to reload simply because the vehicle I was driving tweaked a little to one side and I hit the edge of the jump instead of hitting it straight on or something. HL2:Ep2 might possibly have managed to work out the kinks enough to make it doable. Of course, any game that did this would need to have varying speed on their vehicles. Valve pretty much only seems to have done one speed per vehicle so far(not counting turboboost)
Part of the issue here is if you’re talking about a straight racing game using source Engine physics, or if we’re talking about a HL2 game that requires you to use vehicles. If so, what methods are we using to ensure that you actually use the vehicles. Sure, you might have jumps in the middle that you can’t get through without using the vehicles, but I often just ran around to kill everything and solve the puzzles, and then came back for the car afterward when I came across a jump I specifically needed it for.
Heck, in some mods, I’ve actually skipped the vehicle entirely. It’s not that I don’t like vehicles, they just aren’t usually essential unless you pull a “the floor will kill you” deals. I love driving around, but having to switch between driving and fighting is annoying. If I could still use my weapons (at LEAST single hand weapons) while driving, I’d be totally happy. I’d love to see a mod where you could switch and let Alyx drive while you shoot at stuff.