Half-Life 2: Alternis mod

Welcome to the fourth Progress Report.

Hello there,

First of all, I'd like to apologize for this awfully late report, I severely underestimated just how busy I'd get in May & June, and I just wasn't able to allocate any significant amount of time to developing the mod.

However, many of the things that kept occupying my time have ceased, and since then I've been scrambling to get as much work done on the mod as I could. Despite this, I couldn't get as much done as I would have liked without having to delay the report even further, so apologies if the amount of content in this report isn't quite satisfactory.

That being said, let's get into this month's Progress Report.

d1_canals_06, again

As I've said in the last report, Ross has previously given me permission to take inspiration from Freeman's Mind 2. So with this I've decided to create my own take on the area behind Station 7.

I've kept the houses exactly where / how they were originally and tried to work not only on them, but their surroundings as well.

Both houses have interiors but the one that's elevated higher can only be accessed via its basement.

That's about it for this place though, it certainly isn't a huge area but it sure does add a bit more to the world of Half-Life: 2.

d1_canals_10

After being done with d1_canals_06, I've had to jump to d1_canals_10 because the previous maps were super straightforward and lacking in any logical places that I could alter without messing up the pacing or just being weird. (The maps in question being d1_canals_07 & d1_canals_09) so I've decided to leave them out for now.

d1_canals_10 on the other hand did present a nice opportunity for an alternate route.

Right near the start of the map you'll now be able to access a new area allowing you to take a completely new path through a part of the level.

Here you'll be able to use a few bent I-beams to jump onto a completely new abandoned section of the canals.

Which will lead you to an almost completely dried up, defunct waterway.

This waterway also features a bridge in the middle which has a small hideout beneath it which you'll have to make your way through.

After passing the bridge you'll eventually come to the part which rejoins with the rest of the level, and you'll be able to continue evading the chopper.

A few other things

So that's it for all the additions to the mod that I could get done for this report. However, there are a few other things that need to be addressed.

Firstly, I'd like to thank LambdaGeneration for covering Alternis and bringing attention to it. I honestly never expected them to cover something as small as this project, so you can probably imagine my sheer bewilderment when I saw their video appear on my feed. (And seeing my god-awful, quickly thrown together map of Water Hazard in the video was.. well.. quite an experience.)

However, this added attention does bring some problems with it. The main one being way higher expectations. You see, I never intended for this to be anything more than a tiny modding project that I work on in my free time, that maybe like a few hundred people will ever see. Since that video more than 1k people have looked up this Moddb page according to the statistics and that's already way beyond anything I've ever imagined.

So all I'm saying is, please moderate your expectations for this mod. It will never be on the same level as other actually great mods like Entropy : Zero 2 for example. It's not that I won't try my best, because I most certainly will, It's just that you shouldn't set your expectations too high for this or you1l definitely be disappointed.

With that being said, this added attention also brought a multitude of questions regarding the scope of the mod among other things, that I feel need to be addressed as they've been asked quite frequently, so It's time for a small FAQ.

FAQ

Q: Are the alternate routes/paths forced on the player, or can they choose between taking the original route and the new ones?

A: The option of which route to take will always be ultimately up to the player. So, yes in MOST cases you'll still be able to take the original route. However there might be a few places where you can't due to engine limitations and/or other factors, but I aim to leave the original routes as an option wherever possible.

Q: Are you going to add any new enemies (Houndeyes, Bullsquids ..etc) to the mod?

A: No. Way too many mods make the mistake of adding new elements to the game without any thought behind their implementation. Adding something for the sake of adding something is never a good idea. Bullsquids, Houndeyes and the like wouldn't bring anything necessarily new to the table. If Valve had a good reason for cutting them, then reintroducing them would be a mistake, especially in the context of this mod.

Q: Are you looking for people to help with the mod?

A: No. I'm not looking to assemble an entire development team for such a small and simple mod because It'd only complicate matters needlessly. Having to learn how to manage an entire team of people and all the potential issues that could bring is just not something I want to deal with.

Thanks for reading!

That's all for now, hopefully this FAQ provides adequate answers to anyone who had similar questions, and if not feel free to post a comment below and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Anyhow, thanks for reading this Progress Report, I'll see you towards the end of summer in the next report, and have a nice rest of your day!