Beyond, a Half Life 2 Modification Thread

Alrighty then, let's get this show on the road.

I'm currently working out (along with a mapper and a concept artist... who I still have to tell that they should register here, stupid me)
a Mod.

I'm sure you want to hear what it's all about right?
Well then, do not let me keep you waiting:
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Half-Life : Beyond

The story takes place after Half-Life 3 (whatever that may be). The One Free Man has defeated the Combine with the help of his friends Alyx and Barney, not to mention the entire Resistance and Dr. Kleiner along with his pet headcrab Lamarr.
Mankind enters a new era. It is a time of great technological achievements and man seems to have found a way to tolerate itself.
Cultures are united and global peace is no longer an idea.

The Earth is rebuild and families are reunited.

With the help of the GMan, and his 'benefactors', a massive spaceship is constructed. With a length of over 8 kilometers it is the greatest construction in history. All of this was possible because of the clever re-usage of Combine technology.
The crew consists of hundreds and hundreds of volunteers, both men and women. All expertly trained in their fields, all volunteers.
Their mission: Explore the deepest parts of space.

They are ready...
The ship is ready...

Launch.

You find yourself on the bridge, go on, explore the decks.
The crew seems to be happy and excited. You share their enjoyment. Your feet guide you through the ship: The cryo tubes, armory, the luxurious sections, all brand new.

An alarm goes off. It seems there is somesort of unknown contact.
You have to report to the bridge, it's probably nothing. But still, you hurry.
Thinking it's some kind of asteroid, you arrive on the bridge.
Ships scream across the hull. Not a ship you're familiar with. What... Who are they? Extra Terrestrials? Aliens?
You freeze as the captain calls: " Red alert."

The ship begins to shake. Under attack...
The captain orders the hyperspace jump to be fastened.
Everyone is to go to their assigned cryo-tubes.

You give the captain a nod and you speed off to yours.

An explosion rips through the deck, you fall to the cold steel floor. Fire breaks out which is quickly cooled off by the ship's automatic Fire-control-unit. Doors open automatically as you run for them. Finally, your tube.

You dive into your safety. The door closes along with your sigh. You look outside: People running, explosions, chaos.
"Hyperspace jump in 3... 2... 1..." A white flash blinds you for a few seconds.
Everything seemed to have stopped. A man stands in a running position in front of you. He was going for his cryo-tube, but he was too late. Oh my god... what will... A deep rumble comes closer and closer. Your ears are about to pop. Your scream is overpowered by the enormous rumble of the engines.

Black.

Black for days... months... years...

[Automatic Cryo-System Online]
[Starting Up Wake Up Call]

The door opens under the hiss of air escaping. An ancient smell penetrates your nose. You stumble over rubble. Your eyes get used to the light and you seem to be able to look around. The... the ship. What happened?

...

...

You have arrived, a little late, but no matter. You are here, that's what matters.
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That's all of the story I can tell. I can add that it's big, very big. Oh, and quite original.

Now we have that out of the way, onto the fun stuff! (notice the slight sarcasm)

We need people, face it, we can't create all of that with the three of us.
There is me (music, modeling *ahem* just started, story/concept, music (learning), I seem to be the 'leader'-figure), my friend (mapping, oh he's so good, well that's me talking, story/concept (he's a really good hole-filler)), and last but certainly not least my other friend (concept art, and he has great Photoshop skills).
I'm kinda new to this, so I'm not entirely sure what we exactly need:

Atleast:
Mapper (Extra mapper is always welcome)
Modeler(s) (Who uses Lightwave 3D or 3DS Max, who can teach me a thing or 287609)
Coder (For what... Err... dunno, we probably need one)
Animators (Again for what I don't know)

Did I miss anything? Well if I did, fill it in.

So if you are one of the above, and you have spare time, and you want to work with us, and you want to work on the mod and actually keep working on the mod, and you are slightly crazy (just as we are), post away, pm me or mail me at nfsplayer@hotmail.com.

Does that wrap things up?

...

Yeah I guess it does.

Well I hope you found this as enjoyable as I did.

-|IXI

Ok,

well you heard the first guy talkin about a HL 2 mapper, well that's me

(probably the first member of the team to have made a profile on this site, that should make you happy IXI !)

We both run this project and we intend to finish it with or without a team, but as we, and maybe you know, that could take days, months, years, depending on how big you want it to be! I don't need to tell you that we need more mappers, more modellers, more of everything and everyone who has experience in HL 2 modding.

The storyline is something that is largely set.
But we might be adding small changes as we see fit or if we detect more plot holes.
But trust me when I say that we intend to make this a fun and interesting single player experience with an unexpected twist (maybe some humour too, we all like that don't we?)

Please If you have anything to say or are you able to help us contact us
at nfsplayer@hotmail.com >> IXI's email

or armageddon144@hotmail.com >> My email

Or you could just leave us a PM, or post a reply here.

wow,that sounds awesome.But shouldent you wait for Half-Life 3? What if teh whole earth explodes in teh end or something

Haha, then we'd be pretty screwed, no we're just assuming things went well,
and that the good guys win (as usual) ofcourse there are nasty twists in HL and HL 2 and we're aiming at accomplishing the same thing with our mod.

Exactly. Valve is going to run over all post-HL2 mods with an even worse story for HL3. Sorry about that. Cannot you put them modding skills to some better use? Like in helping me? Or anybody else?

There is NO HL3..... the continuation is now episodes =/

Edited by: cheeseyballz

cheeseyballz wrote: There is NO HL3..... the continuation is now episodes =/

Nah, Half-Life 2 continuation is in episodes. half-Life 3 is still in development on a modified Source Engine.

"Exactly. Valve is going to run over all post-HL2 mods with an even worse story for HL3. Sorry about that. Cannot you put them modding skills to some better use? Like in helping me? Or anybody else? "

<< what the fuck is your point If I may say in all my not so subtle manners?

Our mod obviously has nothing to do with the HL timeline except for the fact that it is a sort of continuation, more like FAN FICTION.
see, helping you out with another one of thousands HL DM mods isn't going to work, why? first off, my stupid SDK doesn't want to load up hammer using the HL DM config and second, I hate frakkin deathmatch.

I suggest you use your posts for 1 : constructive criticism 2 : saying that you want to help or have an idea or whatever
or 3 : don't post at all ^^

In my opinion there aren't enough HL 2 single player mods, and even if they give you an hour maybe more of fun, I like em because it's always something different people come up with, and an extra hour of fun made by ordinary people like you and me, Is worth my while.

pwned

And I agree, there aren't enough single player mods. Give me a storyline over sneseless shooting any day.

Good luck

Edited by: Jambozal

And then there's me, the concept artist.

I'll openly admit that I've never played any of the HL series. I'm more of an Elder Scrolls guy. Such as is, I will have to do some research before getting too far. Just a couple sketches in the works right now, I'll probably post them to my deviant art and drop a link here - depending on how Isaak wants it, released now or later.

Cool intro... make sure the rest of the story is as exciting.

Unforunately you won't gather much interest with just a story. Get your concept artist working on character ideas/ possible locations/ etc etc... and maybe even start building the interior of the ship in Hammer. Once you have some media to display you will probably get more interest.

Good luck

right now I'm working on weapons and locations, so far just some cyro-genics stations in a corridor, I'm pressed for time but I've been wanting to do some non-school related art work so it's a welcome sidetrack

Well looks like I missed all the fun here. You made me chuckle Sorrow

Baron, as soon as you're done, drop a link here or something.
Just show it to the people!

Sorrow, you heard them, they want the ship.

nah i dont like to many things to do with space stuff.

Well I wouldn't call it superspacey.
Sure we have some sci-fi elements, well... a lot since it's a fan fiction based around the Half Life universe. With 200 years on top of that.
But it's not Star Trek planted on the Source engine (no offence to the Trekkies).

We aim for a more of an adventure.

I agree with Jambozal. Single Player mods are just better in a far more unique way then multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, multiplayer mods kick ass anyday, but they'll never have what a single player mod should have; more intrigue, storyline, plot, in-depth gameplay, etc...

Anyway goodluck. Even if it is another Half Life 2 mod I reckon you should go for it. Incidentally I am a voice actor... Post or PM if you REALLY need one.

Edited by: Baza

That's exactly what we think. There are just well.. too many multiplayer mods. No offense ofcourse, but if I want to play something along the lines of Counterstrike or Unreal Tournament, I'll play Counterstrike or Unreal Tournament.

Thanks for the offer btw.
We already have access to professional recording equipment here, so we are able to do voices and even make sounds.

But if we need you, we'll let you know .

well, i will play this when you make it. register a mod profile, plan out the work, and i can add you to my modwatch. we can arrange talent exchange too if needed.

aye, problem is, we need a site

problem is, I am not a webdesigner

problem is, we have alot of ideas, but haven't started yet, (I'm waiting for our concept artist to show me some stuff because I'm really really really curious to see what he has made)

I still have alot to learn about camera movement in hammer, (I'm planning on making semi-cinematic stuff)
and ehh yeah we're planning on including NPC's who say stuff to you too.

Today, me and Isaak (IXI) have worked out the first 2 maps in detail, so errh I'm kinda ready to start on that, in the meantime I'm trying to make meself some custom textures... ah well the works u might say.

(ha and I've tried to make some concept art of my own... but I'm amazed by all the beautiful aquarell/painting-like sketches everybody churns out rapidly! I have no idea how everybody manages to do that)

EDIT >> oh I'm a semi noob photoshopper, and right now I'm trying to get into modelling but damn, it's nowhere near as intuitive as Hammer! for example, in Blender, your point of view constantly flies around the center of the 'map/centerpoint-thing', it really makes me want to puke for some reason... ah well maybe give it some time and I'll be able to use Lightwave 3D or 3DSMax,
anybody got some recommendations by the way? >> what is the best modelling suite for HL 2? and most intuitive/easy to get into/relatively speaking...?

Edited by: Sorrow144

Yeah that about sums it up.
Yesterday we spent over an hour lining out the story and exchanging ideas.
And we're only half way through, after that we need to go in more deeply: placement of NPCs and stuff, situations (as in explosions, encounters etc)
We have a lot of ideas that we would like to incorporate.

Oh and we sure as hell want different textures, since the standard HL2 ones are... depressive, in terms of look.

Right now our goal is to set up a site, get some concept stuff, models and map previews and getting noticed.

We still could use some helping hands with that.

Alright, have a sketch to tide you over.

Imcomplete, but you get the idea.

Even though I dont really agree with the whole sequel to Half-Life kind of thing. It will still go on my watch list just because of the unique idea.

i like the intro, seems kinda like darwinia but hl2, and not crappy(that game sucks)

if you can get some basics ready lmk, id be willing to do some basic website work and some mapping, although im a little rusty

hit me with a pm if i can help

The Baron strikes again I say.
Even though it's a sketch.

Mail everything to Sorrow, he has added you to his list if I'm not mistaken.

Enflorence: Well, sequel... sequel. Okay you could say it's a sequel. More of our continuation of the timeline, as stated before somewhere above.

s_oh: Oh thank you, thank you, thank you. Even if you're rusty, rust can be scraped off. I'll send you a PM ASAP.

Well seems like things are getting together here.