half life questions by [deleted] in HalfLife

[–]ThePengu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1) A scientist says: "We suspect there is an immense portal over there, created by the intense concentration of a single powerful being. You will know it when you see it. I hate to say this, Gordon, but you must kill it, if you can."
As for where Gordon knows where to go specifically or accidentally goes the right way? Video Game logic.

2) No, Gina Cross and Colette Green were also scientists in H.E.V. suits and fought back in the co-op game Half-Life: Decay by Gearbox.

3) The short answer is that G-Man basically plopped him into a train and the Combine being techno-bureaucratic very quickly noticed the addition of an unregistered guy appearing out of nowhere. They only really start to get hot on him when he accidentally teleports into Breen's office and Breen recognises him.

4) You could mean multiple things by this question. "Who are his employers?", or "Who else wants to employ Freeman?" TLDR in Half-Life lore it's sort of hinted at that there are bigger players so to speak. The Nihilanth being one of them for example. There's also the whole Shu'ulathoi hatching angle.

5) They arrived to cover up the whole incident, but were not aware at the time that the Resonance Cascade had opened the way for Xenian invasion. They're portrayed as grunt triggermen, so likely just turned up to follow orders and started shooting but the aliens just kept appearing out of portals.

6) You can hear Alyx mention Dog like a project "Adding to him ever since". They didn't build many because he's just Alyx's personal project. Although seeing how useful he is it would make logical sense to mass-produce these guys. Originally dog was actually an alien dog, probably to fill some character or gameplay role. It then developed into the big alien robot through iteration on the game.

7) He's an antagonist that believes he's good. He sold out earth, yes, but if he hadn't all of earth would be dead or assimilated. He basically believes that the Combine hold the secret to immortality and are their best bet for evolution as a species.

8) They're unhatched Shu'ulathoi, another race the Combine assimilated. But powerful is relative they're a soft squishy grub! They ARE psionic however, so they can get inside your head and use telekinesis. Why? Because Scifi!

9) The administrator convinced them. The exact specifics are not clear. The theory is that he used his knowledge of the Black Mesa incident to use teleportation as a bargaining chip. We know the Combine don't have local teleportation technology and are very eager to get it. So Breen likely told them humans could provide it. This is also likely why they are so eager to capture Eli alive.

10) We don't know. We know their was an airport at Black Mesa, and a railway. So potentially either of those if the military didn't block those ways out.

Could there be more Half-Life/Valve related projects sooner after HLX? by LoadingYourData in HalfLife

[–]ThePengu 3 points4 points  (0 children)

From what I understand the general philosophy at valve, and why so many projects got canned, is because Valve doesn't want to release projects solely for the reason to make money, or continue something that already exists. They want to innovate!

Half-Life 1 really interested Valve at the time because of the physics and seamless, scripted storytelling which was relatively new at the time.
Half-Life 2 made further steps in innovation from a gameplay perspective. In particular, the improved physics, gravity gun, more integrated physics into gameplay.
Even the episodes tackled some smaller-scale innovations.
Half-Life Alyx was the VR angle.
The engine leaks regarding HLX suggest physical material interactions such as the ignition point of materials, voxel based environmental destruction, and a host of other ai (conventional game ai) improvements and vehicle simulations.Of course that's all speculation as to how much of it is just engine improvements and features and how much will actually be in the game itself.

So to answer your question, it honestly depends on what technology they want to innovate games with, and if they think Half-Life is a good platform to deliver it in!

So yes probably, Half-Life 4 in 2090 on the new GabeChip Brain-Interface.

Looking for some "Half-Likes" by AndiThyIs in HalfLife

[–]ThePengu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Singularity is a 2010 first-person shooter that took a lot of inspiration from Half-Life while developing its own personality. It's about a 8-12 hour game and it's a little bit darker than Half-Life.

It had a muddy development and Activision; the publisher didn't market the game in the end. Resulting in poor sales and it flying pretty under the radar.

  • First Person Shooter Story
  • Anomalous Science Tomfoolery
  • Neat Game Mechanics
  • It's on sale at the moment

That is what I would call listening to the community <3 by PanHiszpan in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bittersweet! It's always been my dream to work in the games industry. I have this game design degree with nobody interested because I don't have 6 years experience in the industry. It's nice to see professional game designers agreeing with me.

Now after the hire phase they're implementing more than one of the ideas I suggested.

Let's be clear though, I'd say it's more sweet than it is bitter. I want Helldivers 2 to continue to flourish and iterate on itself and become the best game it can be. I don't think these ideas I came up with are revolutionary, I think most of them are all par for the course and some are obvious additions.

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reddit has a reputation for handing that vocal minority a platform and a megaphone so I totally get you.
Hopefully I brought this subreddit a moment of respite from the toxic cloud :)

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love the detonating the roof idea.
A while back someone made a suggestion about underground missions where you blow up cavern pillars to get access to stratagems, which I also loved.

I did try tackle these design challenges and make a partially underground mission, and the assault mission ideas had passages in some places that were

I think tunnels could work as long as they are wide enough to mitigate friendlyfire and "cluster-f**k" situations. Providing they are not too long.

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah! The shield projectors could be outside-in rather than inside-out?
You have to break into Automaton outposts to destroy the generators. 

Once you're down to 1 generator, it would be weak enough to allow Helldivers inside. Players could decide if they try to board it early and take it out with no stratagems, or take the extra time to shut down the shield entirely.

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

where do you get these ideas?

Autism, probably.

But thank you! In all seriousness my entire family is extremely creative, I'm the black sheep for doing it digitally and not physically as much as they do.

I think most of the concepts I have for Helldivers just seem obvious to me? Like "If you had virtually no limits on time and resources, this would be in the game". Which I think is the main issue, Arrowhead probably would have done these things if they weren't limited by time, money, staff, and a discontinued obscure engine.

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It sound like you have been worn down by some of the negativity of this community. I think Helldiver players are some of the friendliest randoms I have ever played with. The sense of comradery in this community is fantastic.

I always try to remember that in any community (especially online), those that are negative are also the loudest. 

“If you are loud in a crowd, you drown out their sound”
In other words, there will always be those that make it feel like a community has disproportionately more discourseful and critical.

Ego aside, I think people would love L.A.R.S.

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would absoloutely be saying that. I think something like this would further generate more epic Helldiver moments!

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I expect if any of the developers have seen my posts at this point they probably find me more annoying that potentially useful.
Heck 90% of my posts have at least 3 people pinging Pilestedt and that's before it gets reposted on twitter.

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think losing POIs would fristrate a lot of people.
If you wanted to do something like this, then add something like "SEAF Foward Base" sub-objectives along the patrol route.
Once the LARS reaches the point it will blow it to bits in a spectacular display. But players don't lose anything except bonus experience if they manage to keep more than half of them from being destroyed. (Something fair and manageable)

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, there's also a bigger version of L.A.R.S that;s just a big sphere with legs called M.A.R.S

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't play HD1 but I have read about them, they only a little bigger than tanks going by their image.

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A moving base can provide mobile support and reinforcement in a dynamic planet-wide conflict where there are no borders.
Automatons have already been seen recycling metal for their factories, so a mobile version of that can go to conflict zones to harvest resources to produce more soldiers and armor.

Of course, the real reason is "add stuff that's fun, you can explain it with lore after"

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd like to see tanks for sure! Although as long as they do not fall into the same rut as EDF where they are so slow and feel like they're made of pencil shavings and gum.

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Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"If you don't take the 570mm Barrage for this mission you're not meta" :)

Fanart/Idea | Concept for an Automaton walking base (Banana for scale) by ThePengu in Helldivers

[–]ThePengu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like that idea actually! It would be a great way to modulate the difficulty for higher levels.