an Un-official Blackmesasource Thread, What do you think about the levels?

[jerkasaur]

well, i thought about making this thread cause i think it'll help the blackmesasource team to find out what people think about their work till now.
the aim is to discuss about the 7 levels that are mentioned here, one or more, and talk about why it's good or why it needs more work.

it is most likly for the posts to be like this:
<name of picture>
<why is it good(pros)>
<why is it bad(cons)>
<what do you think they should do to make it better>

if you have screenshots of other levels, you could post them so that we could talk about them too.

NOTE:
in the "we've got hostiles" screenshot, the upper window for comparison, was made by me, not a part of the actual screenshot.
the "surface tension 3 (inside)" screenshot is a mixture of a "making of c2a4" picture, and an ingame screenshot i took for comparison.
the power up pictures are no longer a part of the bms team's work

 

[jerkasaur]

6char.

 

[jerkasaur]

6char.

 

[jerkasaur]

i hope i don't get banned for sending too many images... this was the last pack.

 

[ríomhaire]

The only thing I don't like so far is inbound and that is because they're ignoring Decay D-:<

 

[jerkasaur]

let's begin.

>we've got hostiles
>good (some details need more work)
>nice textures and level design.
>i can't see the colars for the vortagaunt, i'm pretty sure they'll be there for the release, right?
>in the third screenshot, there's a combine first aid, i doubt you'll use that?
>in the 6th screenshot, the containers could have the bmrf logo on them, like the original game.

>forget about freeman
>everyhing's right the way i see it,
>again the colars for the vorties in the third screenshot, don't "forget about them!"

>office complex
>this is the level i loved most. all the details and graphics make me drool.
>the hole in the wall in the third screenshot looks so geometrical, it's been blownup so it's ok if it doesn't look that flat-cutted.
>where's the shotgun in the first screenshot? i always killed the zombie with that.

>powerup
>all good exept the first screenshot that looks terrible.
>the lighting for the cieling looks great. (i don't know how to spell that.)
>the third screenshot could have more details(where's all the things in the control room?) not looking anything new exept for the lighting.

>surface tention
>it looks great, i looked at all the pictures for the making of it, you've put great work on this level.
>i don't know about others, but personally, i think the shot without HDR looks better, again, it's just a screenshot and honestly, i've never played a map with HDR, so i don't know how it looks in game.
>the third screenhot looks amazing, all those detail are great.

>inbound
>i've talked about it before, probably the level that has the most complains, i'll leave it to others.

EDIT: what about decay riomhaire?

 

[ríomhaire]

let's begin.

>we've got hostiles
>good (some details need more work)
>nice textures and level design.
>i can't see the colars for the vortagaunt, i'm pretty sure they'll be there for the release, right?
>in the third screenshot, there's a combine first aid, i doubt you'll use that?
>in the 6th screenshot, the containers could have the bmrf logo on them, like the original game.

>forget about freeman
>everyhing's right the way i see it,
>again the colars for the vorties in the third screenshot, don't "forget about them!"

>office complex
>this is the level i loved most. all the details and graphics make me drool.
>the hole in the wall in the third screenshot looks so geometrical, it's been blownup so it's ok if it doesn't look that flat-cutted.
>where's the shotgun in the first screenshot? i always killed the zombie with that.

>powerup
>all good exept the first screenshot that looks terrible.
>the lighting for the cieling looks great.
>the third screenshot could have more details(where's all the things in the control room?) not looking anything new exept for the lighting.

>surface tention
>it looks great, i looked at all the pictures for the making of it, you've put great work on this level.
>i don't know about others, but personally, i think the shot without HDR looks better, again, it's just a screenshot and honestly, i've never played a map with HDR, so i don't know how it looks in game.
>the third screenhot looks amazing, all those detail are great.

>inbound
>i've talked about it before, probably the level that has the most complains, i'll leave it to others.

You don't seem to know what a placeholder is.

 

[jerkasaur]

no, what is it?
plz tell me.

 

[Loke]

'Power Up', IIRC, are being completely reworked because Mendasp, a retired level designer which worked on the 'Power Up' chapter, decided to quit BM:S.

Also, some of those pictures are more than half a year old so I guess the levels look quite different then what the pictures showcase.

 

[jerkasaur]

it's what they have for the media, it would be a nice idea to update the screenshots, even if they're from a same level, so that we could see the progress.
but about "power up", the first pic doesn't look good, but the other ones are nice, the lighting and stuff...

 

[armanguy]

looks awesome!

 

[ríomhaire]

no, what is it?
i don't want to get banned so plz tell me

A placeholder is an object or texture used to represent another one that isn't finished yet, or holds its place. For example in 1 released shot(not on the site) the "Dr. Breen's Private Reserve" vending machines are used though they will obviously be replaced with more suitable ones. It's the same with the Vortigaunt and Combine Health charger. Of course there will be a BM one but the Combine one is simply there to represent it.

 

[Kalashnikov]

To the comments above: most have been addressed. The We've Got Hostiles has been updated quite severely, of which you may see shortly. Power Up is being reworked. Mendasp leaving does not mean we have to re-work Power Up. However, we have made the move to reconstruct the chapter.

We are still looking for a level designer.

 

[Crispy]

Ah, Mendasp is such a nub

Any news on why he left or is it a sekret? Maybe he got called up to work on NS:S or he got head-hunted by someone in the industry. Or both!

 

[jerkasaur]

To the comments above: most have been addressed. The We've Got Hostiles has been updated quite severely, of which you may see shortly. Power Up is being reworked. Mendasp leaving does not mean we have to re-work Power Up. However, we have made the move to reconstruct the chapter.

We are still looking for a level designer.

great, i'll be happy to see more shots soon.

A placeholder is an object or texture used to represent another one that isn't finished yet, or holds its place. For example in 1 released shot(not on the site) the "Dr. Breen's Private Reserve" vending machines are used though they will obviously be replaced with more suitable ones. It's the same with the Vortigaunt and Combine Health charger. Of course there will be a BM one but the Combine one is simply there to represent it.

my bad... didn't know the name for that.

 

[jerkasaur]

it seems like i forgot about some pictures, here they are:
for those who don't know, in the "powerup 4" picture, the wires and pipes are photoshop done.

 

[Lukasz]

meh....

 

[Kalashnikov]

Also noted, the Power Up shots are no longer apart of BMS.

 

[Polaris]

In this screen I see containers with Northern Petrol logo, why you don't use Black Mesa logo? (or it's only temporary?)
Everything looks great (especially Jackar's levels)...

 

[ríomhaire]

In this screen I see containers with Northern Petrol logo, why you don't use Black Mesa logo? (or it's only temporary?)
Everything looks great (especially Jackar's levels)...

See my post on placeholders.

 

[Kalashnikov]

Polaris: the shots there were taken prior to any alphas of BMS and really any real custom content. The Northern Petrol signs were replaced the following week from that media release.

 

[jerkasaur]

great. i'm thinking of asking the mods to change this thread's name to "blackmesa source screenshots" it makes more sense. btw, i'll ask them to remove the "power up" pictures too.

 

[kupocake]

TBH, I wasn't ever really taken with the Power-Up level that was shown in the Media update. Sure it was work in progress, but it was still inferior to every-other work in progress screen that was taken. It's all very well falling back on the WIP excuse, but, especially with shots like that of the Power-Coils, what is the point of releasing screenshots of areas that need loads of work? That it's being entirely reworked is not a bad thing IMO.

I think the first area that got me really excited was Surface Tension for sure. Most media before then was nice enough, but ST's Dam is truely reinventing the original game. The recent Inbound releases - whilst controversial and certainly imperfect - also have that feel for me. And Decay being ignored? I think that's perfectly fine. The fact that it's a Gearbox expansion only remotely scrutinized by the real HL story-masters and the basic fact that only about 2% of Half-Lifers actually even know what Decay is, make it a dubious authority. Valve nor Gearbox created everything in the original games with the kind of precision and logic that the unpaid mod-team get to lavish on a production of this kind.

One thing i'm not clear on in regards to the mod. I've heard that Surface Tension is in fact finished. Is this true, and it therefore BM:S policy to only show a single section of the finished chapter? It's a good policy if that's the case, but I can't shake the feeling that the Dam in ST is so good that the rest of the level can't possibly be finished yet!

 

[jerkasaur]

Valve nor Gearbox created everything in the original games with the kind of precision and logic that the unpaid mod-team get to lavish on a production of this kind.

exactly, if you read RTB, more than 50% of their work was based on "hey why don't we do this?" logic.

about this mod being finished, what i understand from bms team's policy, is that untill final release, everything's 50-50. it's mentioned 30% complete, but i'd rather cal it 45%, that's ofcourse if they don't plan to change anything.

 

[Mendasp]

TBH, I wasn't ever really taken with the Power-Up level that was shown in the Media update. Sure it was work in progress, but it was still inferior to every-other work in progress screen that was taken. It's all very well falling back on the WIP excuse, but, especially with shots like that of the Power-Coils, what is the point of releasing screenshots of areas that need loads of work? That it's being entirely reworked is not a bad thing IMO.

Well, that first media release showed a really rushed Power Up (and it's quite noticeable, that tesla pic should have never ever been released, in fact it was all orange textures the day before the media release, IIRC), the second one was more refined, but still quite crappy, with some textures ported straight from HL (I'm only talking about my pics).

So, I decided to scrap all that work (for obvious reasons) and start on a completely different area of the map... which was looking quite nice, but then I left the team, so it wasn't showed to the public

I'll probably end up reusing part of that content (without BMS materials/props, of course), so it's not like it's lost forever, anyways. I'm not very active nowadays, although I guess NS: Source would help me a bit with that, I'm sure

I suppose I may look like a terrible mapper from those pictures, and I know someone will be happy about that :angel:

 

[kupocake]

I suppose I may look like a terrible mapper from those pictures, and I know someone will be happy about that :angel:

The shots weren't "terrible", just not up to the standard of the rest of the updates. I didn't wish to come off as judgemental of your mapping skills, just critical of the release of the media at that stage. All great mapping looks like bellow-par at some stage in it's development, it's just that your Power Up was unfortunate enough to be shown at that stage. I'm glad it's being reworked, but it's kind of a shame that it isn't you who is getting to do it.

 

[jerkasaur]

we love everyone in bms from the team members to the Ex-team members and fans and...
you were great, but you just didn't have enough time to work more on the map for a media release. actually i got that tesla pic from a real crapy old german website, just to show the progress of the mod.
still waiting for a bms media release btw...