BMS Classic mod for Black Mesa

"Here's to making these updates more regular again, at least!" Well, that comment aged well, didn't it? I can at least partly explain it this time around, though! There's good news, but it's coming off the back of bad news, so here we go.

So, bad news: I had some computer security problems in March that necessitated getting a new computer, and in the process, my dev drive got partly clobbered. I was able to catch onto it before I did anything else, so it wasn't a total loss, but there was definitely some panic for a few days there without knowing how hard progress on BMSC was affected. Office Complex, We've Got Hostiles (of course), Residue Processing, and Questionable Ethics were most afflicted, losing most or all of the mapsrc files, while the likes of Surface Tension, On a Rail, Forget About Freeman (thank god), and Lambda Core were mostly or entirely intact (though on the plus side, all of the compiled files were intact). All in all, it was a pretty sizeable setback, and an annoying one at that.

The good news: I took this as an opportunity to step back and reconsider what, exactly, I was hoping to accomplish with BMSC. While I was - and am still - fairly proud of what I've done with it so far, the fact that the project grew and expanded in scope so rapidly from its inception (which was just putting the revolver back in OC and some other small 1.0 reversions) left things very messy, with files scattered around everywhere with no rhyme or reason to them. The map files themselves were also very messy, with large-scale BMSC changes mixed in with the stock map visgroups without any sense of organization to them. While losing progress on We've Got Hostiles in particular was quite annoying, since it had been coming along pretty nicely, this was a good chance to look at things from a broader perspective again, with more knowledge and experience under my belt.

The result? I've been plugging away at getting things back to where they used to be over the past few months. While things are still heavily WIP, I think BMSC is playing better than ever.

By and large, UC and OC are fairly indistinguishable from where they were before. Bugs and other quirks have been fixed, and one room from UC 2.0 was relocated entirely to a more sensible location, but most of the changes here are internal or aesthetic.

We've Got Hostiles is where some of the much larger changes from old BMSC come into play. While some areas from the old version of WGH Extended remain intact, the overall flow and layout has been changed considerably - partly out of necessity, and partly because I wasn't super happy with how the original BMSC extension played out. At time of writing, nothing is set in stone, of course, but I think it's feeling much better as an extension/rework of the original vent maze already. Plus it's given me an opportunity for a few fancy little touches here and there, so that's fun, lol.

Going back to the drawing board with a cleaner project structure has provided me with a good opportunity to look at some of the larger-scale changes I wanted to make to BMSC that, frankly, were too intimidating at the time. Changes that have been on my to-do list since very early on, such as restoring the full-length Garg chase tunnel in Power Up, restoring the pre-1.5 rocket silo in On A Rail, and even restoring a vent route that hearkens back to pre-STU Black Mesa have been much easier to approach and accomplish, with as little pain as possible. I'm especially proud of the restored Garg chase and ST vents in particular - the former manages to combine the cinematic 1.5 Garg intro, to justify the lights going out during the chapter, with the full-length chase from pre-1.0, giving the best of both worlds. Even the 1.5 tunnel/hallway passage remains intact, albeit in a very different form. The latter is still rough around the edges, but it creates a wonderful sense of tension in the ensuing chase.

I've also been able to take the time to look into some other enhancements I've been wanting to make, such as adding flowmapped water where appropriate. While the new water is still WIP and quite rough around the edges in some places, it already looks very promising, and much more natural than Source's standard water shader (as well as being a nice little gameplay hint to subtly lead players in the right direction).

So! That's basically where things stand at the moment. I apologize for the radio silence, and that I couldn't return with something more substantial (i.e. an actual chapter release) when the time finally came, but I can at least reassure you that BMSC isn't dead. This project means too much tome to abandon it, no matter how long it takes.

I can't comfortably provide an ETA for anything here, particularly since I'll be away for a week later this month, but I'm at least hopeful for more regular updates going forward.