HL2 mappacks...

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

....larger than 10 MB are finally starting to appear and I played some.
Overall most were fun to play but two things did bother me about them:

- What happened to the cool mod directory principle of Half-Life, that was
even copied by id for Doom 3? All the packs I played had to be started
from the console like in the old days. Isn't there some alternative from
the Steam program or is this only available to Valve sponsored mods?

- It seems that the HL2 engine is not as good for large areas as most of
us assume as one pack playing in a small urban section was slower on my
system than Doom 3 because it didn't use the not-visible-through-portal
method which was much more obvious than in HL2 in another levelpack.

--
Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

x-no-archive: yes

Werner Spahl wrote:

how to start a mod is a detail! an insignificant detail!
what is important is the way valve forces mod developers
and pc gamers to use mods
with steam mod developers no longer can give their work
directly to pc gamers, the free exchange was killed by
valve and that means everything

it's censorship! pure censorship! like a dictatorship!
the dictator valve has to "review" every work before its
released to the public
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! THIS IS CENSORSHIP!

mods are all about community and share amount pc gamers not
a publisher like valve having total control and monitoring
every move and creation done by gamers

mod developers should BOYCOTT half-life 2!

mod developers working in half-life 2 are traitors and a
complete disgrace to their kind!

mods were always about FREEDOM!
valve killed that freedom like they are killing everything
good in pc games!

--
post made in a steam-free computer
i said "NO" to valve and steam

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

steamKILLER wrote:
> with steam mod developers no longer can give their work
> directly to pc gamers, the free exchange was killed by
> valve and that means everything
>
> it's censorship! pure censorship! like a dictatorship!
> the dictator valve has to "review" every work before its
> released to the public
> THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! THIS IS CENSORSHIP!

Really? I thought you could just dump the files in the HL2 directory
and start it through the console. Not ideal, but it cuts out Valve.

If the only way to get your mod out there is for Valve to recognise it,
do they actually review the mod and only let it through if it meets
their criteria? Or do they just make everything available?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Wed, 11 May 2005, Chadwick wrote:

> Really? I thought you could just dump the files in the HL2 directory
> and start it through the console. Not ideal, but it cuts out Valve.

Still stupid of Valve to cut out their own great idea which is continued
in other games like Doom 3. It reeks again like more control for them.

--
Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Wed, 11 May 2005 13:50:53 +0200, Werner Spahl
<spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

>On Wed, 11 May 2005, Chadwick wrote:
>
>> Really? I thought you could just dump the files in the HL2 directory
>> and start it through the console. Not ideal, but it cuts out Valve.
>
>Still stupid of Valve to cut out their own great idea which is continued
>in other games like Doom 3. It reeks again like more control for them.

Not by much. It's easy to produce a HL2 Mod without having to do anything
special. All that's needed is to create a new directory and install.

I know this for sure - I used the Source SDK to create my own custom mod
(which hasn't yet been modified), and it appears in the "My Games" list.
Installing map packs shoudn't be any different (although they are generally
installed directly in the game or mod they were designed for.)

The only thing I don't like is the fact that addons tend to mingle in
directly with what appears to be the main mod.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Werner Spahl" <spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de> wrote in message
newsine.LNX.4.58.0505101611110.14722@cicum1.cup.uni-muenchen.de...
> ...larger than 10 MB are finally starting to appear and I played some.
> Overall most were fun to play but two things did bother me about them:
>
> - What happened to the cool mod directory principle of Half-Life, that was
> even copied by id for Doom 3? All the packs I played had to be started
> from the console like in the old days. Isn't there some alternative from
> the Steam program or is this only available to Valve sponsored mods?
>
> - It seems that the HL2 engine is not as good for large areas as most of
> us assume as one pack playing in a small urban section was slower on my
> system than Doom 3 because it didn't use the not-visible-through-portal
> method which was much more obvious than in HL2 in another levelpack.
>
> --
> Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
> "The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships

thought it just depended on how the mod author uses the sdk? might be wrong
as i haven't really used it very much.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Wed, 11 May 2005, Raymond Martineau wrote:

> I know this for sure - I used the Source SDK to create my own custom mod
> (which hasn't yet been modified), and it appears in the "My Games" list.
> Installing map packs shoudn't be any different.

Maybe using the SDK is too complicated, or why do most of the current
mappack creators use the console way? In HL1 it could be done by simply
editing a text file, without needing the SDK at all...

--
Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

x-no-archive: yes

Chadwick wrote:

i read otherwise but don't remember here but basically was
mods had to be loaded from a central steam valve server
mod creators had to give all their work to valve and then
they would made it available in their servers

were did you get the mods? wasn't from a valve server?

basically valve wants to be on the center of everything
like in a "1984" dictatorship type world were "big brother"
knows everything

valve centralizes everything and knows about everything even
what you are doing right now

i bet in the future you will have religion based cults around
steam worshiping master valve

--
post made in a steam-free computer
i said "NO" to valve and steam

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Raymond Martineau wrote:
>
> >On Wed, 11 May 2005, Chadwick wrote:
> >
> >> Really? I thought you could just dump the files in the HL2
directory
> >> and start it through the console. Not ideal, but it cuts out
Valve.
>
> It's easy to produce a HL2 Mod without having to do anything
> special. All that's needed is to create a new directory and install.
>
> I know this for sure - I used the Source SDK to create my own custom
mod
> (which hasn't yet been modified), and it appears in the "My Games"
list.
> Installing map packs shoudn't be any different (although they are
generally
> installed directly in the game or mod they were designed for.)
>
> The only thing I don't like is the fact that addons tend to mingle in
> directly with what appears to be the main mod.

Good call. I did the same myself, with the same results: "My Mod"
(imaginative title, huh?) appears in the My Games list.

So does it follow that you can just drop a mappack or mod into the
appropriate directory and it will appear in the Steam menu? It can be
started from the Steam menu instead of the console? And you don't need
to have it "certified" by Valve first?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Thu, 12 May 2005, Chadwick wrote:

> So does it follow that you can just drop a mappack or mod into the
> appropriate directory and it will appear in the Steam menu?

If this is so easy, why is noone doing it? After all these were
supposedly mappacks from Half-Life mapping veterans...

--
Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

steamKILLER wrote:
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> Chadwick wrote:
>
> i read otherwise but don't remember here but basically was
> mods had to be loaded from a central steam valve server
> mod creators had to give all their work to valve and then
> they would made it available in their servers
>
> were did you get the mods? wasn't from a valve server?
>
> basically valve wants to be on the center of everything
> like in a "1984" dictatorship type world were "big brother"
> knows everything
>
> valve centralizes everything and knows about everything even
> what you are doing right now
>
> i bet in the future you will have religion based cults around
> steam worshiping master valve

SteamKILLER, listen carefully:

You do NOT get mods for a Valve server, unless they are specifically
from Valve. 3rd party mods can be placed in a folder called SourceMods
in your Steam folder and these appear as such in the Steam menu. They do
not have to be validated by Valve at all.

Therefore, your assumption was WRONG. If that assumption about Steam was
wrong, imagine how wrong you may be about a lot of other things
regarding Steam. If you're working on incorrect information, perhaps
your STUPID, IDIOTIC, RETARDED campaign against Steam is baseless.

And if that's the case, you're finished here.

 

[Toby]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On 2005-05-12, GFree <gfree678@gmail.com> wrote:
> steamKILLER wrote:
>> x-no-archive: yes
>>
>> Chadwick wrote:
>>
>> i read otherwise but don't remember here but basically was
>> mods had to be loaded from a central steam valve server
>> mod creators had to give all their work to valve and then
>> they would made it available in their servers
>>
>> were did you get the mods? wasn't from a valve server?
>>
>> basically valve wants to be on the center of everything
>> like in a "1984" dictatorship type world were "big brother"
>> knows everything
>>
>> valve centralizes everything and knows about everything even
>> what you are doing right now
>>
>> i bet in the future you will have religion based cults around
>> steam worshiping master valve
>
> SteamKILLER, listen carefully:
>
> You do NOT get mods for a Valve server, unless they are specifically
> from Valve. 3rd party mods can be placed in a folder called SourceMods
> in your Steam folder and these appear as such in the Steam menu. They do
> not have to be validated by Valve at all.
>
> Therefore, your assumption was WRONG. If that assumption about Steam was
> wrong, imagine how wrong you may be about a lot of other things
> regarding Steam. If you're working on incorrect information, perhaps
> your STUPID, IDIOTIC, RETARDED campaign against Steam is baseless.
>
> And if that's the case, you're finished here.

Please just kf the troll.

--
Toby.
Add the word afiduluminag to the subject
field to circumvent my email filters.
Ignore any mail delivery error.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Werner Spahl wrote:
> ...larger than 10 MB are finally starting to appear and I played some.
> Overall most were fun to play but two things did bother me about them:
>
> - What happened to the cool mod directory principle of Half-Life, that was
> even copied by id for Doom 3? All the packs I played had to be started
> from the console like in the old days. Isn't there some alternative from
> the Steam program or is this only available to Valve sponsored mods?
>
> - It seems that the HL2 engine is not as good for large areas as most of
> us assume as one pack playing in a small urban section was slower on my
> system than Doom 3 because it didn't use the not-visible-through-portal
> method which was much more obvious than in HL2 in another levelpack.
>
Man, I'd just like to find a good single-player Half-Life mod. Or just a
level to play through. Doesn't have to be on the scale of _They Hunger_.

But when I go searching on the HL2 websites, all I see are Mods in
Progress and lots of weapon renders.

Can someone point me to a nice single-player adventure I can download
and play?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Thu, 12 May 2005 14:37:17 +0200, Werner Spahl
<spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

>On Thu, 12 May 2005, Chadwick wrote:
>
>> So does it follow that you can just drop a mappack or mod into the
>> appropriate directory and it will appear in the Steam menu?
>
>If this is so easy, why is noone doing it? After all these were
>supposedly mappacks from Half-Life mapping veterans...

Map packs are intended to be used with the mod they are written for. For
example, if they are HL2DM maps, they are placed in the HL2DM folder
directly (

The reason these mapping veterens don't create a mod for these packs is
because it would fragment the online-play. You only need to play around
with mods only if you need to change gameplay mechanics.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Werner Spahl wrote:
> On Thu, 12 May 2005, Raymond Martineau wrote:
>
> > The reason these mapping veterens don't create a mod for these
packs is
> > because it would fragment the online-play. You only need to play
around
> > with mods only if you need to change gameplay mechanics.
>
> These mappacks were singleplayer only and it just seems that there is
a
> "mod" button missing in the HL2 menu to make such things easy, while
the
> Steam variant only makes sense for complete mods...

I think the way HL1 worked with mods and map packs was that it treated
them as basically the same. A true mod was just a map pack with a lot
of other stuff as well.

This worked because the game engine would look first in the mod
directory fior any file. So if it was looking for the model and
animations for a soldier, it would look in the mod directory first. If
it failed to find anything there, it would then check the default HL
directory and use whatever it found there. In tis way, if you wanted to
change the sounds, textures, models etc, you could do so by simply
putting the appropriate file in the mod directory. If you just put maps
in there, then your "mod" was really a map pack, but the game didn't
care.
The result was that all mods and map packs appeared in the mod window
all together.

I don't mind if Steam does the same and lists them all in the My Games
window, although it would be tidier if only true mods were listed as
"games" and once you started the mod/game there was an menu option in
the game to access the various map packs for that mod.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Thu, 12 May 2005, Raymond Martineau wrote:

> The reason these mapping veterens don't create a mod for these packs is
> because it would fragment the online-play. You only need to play around
> with mods only if you need to change gameplay mechanics.

These mappacks were singleplayer only and it just seems that there is a
"mod" button missing in the HL2 menu to make such things easy, while the
Steam variant only makes sense for complete mods...

--
Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Thu, 12 May 2005, Brian Siano wrote:

> Can someone point me to a nice single-player adventure I can download
> and play?

The ones I tried were: Leon's Singleplayer mappack, SP: Das Roboss and
Return of the Restistance #1. You can get all of them from fileplanet.

--
Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships