Project Northway

[Javokis]

Welcome to the new Project Northway section.

Project Northway (or PNW) is planned to be a mod for the Half Life 2 game that will take place in a real location in the US of A where the main player lives out his life in the Half Life 2 game world under Combine occupation. The hope is to add a more real feel to the Half Life 2 game world by using a real character from a real location while still maintaining the fantasy element that makes HL2 fun.

When does this take place?

The timeline of Project Northway follows along the canon of Valve's Half Life 2 game story where the resistance decides to rise up after hearing word about the fall of Nova Prospekt.

Where is this location?

Project Northway will take place in Thurston County of Washington state within the USA. This will be the starting point of events till the player travels north towards Seattle in later mods.

Who is the player?

You will play the role of a college student who also works at the college. I figure this will give the mod that Half Life feel in that just like Gordan, your character isn't a special tactics soldier either.

How is everything going to start?

You wont be thrown into the action from the start. You'll gradually be transitioned into it with a little introduction to the characters living routine. The player will be on a bus on his way to work when the chaos breaks out. The bus should also give another Half Life feel to the Project Northway mod in that you'll be on one of those large vista rides, allowing you to view the game world before you're lunged into it.

What is the player to do?

Well unlike Gordan, your character wont have any special suit to protect him, but fortunately there isn't any toxic waste sites you'll have to trot through nor will you'll have to deal with direct Combine conflicts very often. Gameplay will consist of letting NPC helpers fight for you, while you provide support in the hacking department, which consists of reprogramming Combine defense systems and unlocking those pesky doors. The player might have a gravity gun, but I'm still deciding. So the gameplay is mostly in puzzle solving.

I have always wanted to make my hometown in some kind of 3d engine. I originally wanted to make Olympia and Lacey using the Redemption game, but I have come to realize that the Source engine would most likely accomplish the goal much better and easier. Hopefully, I'll have help doing the maps which I'll probably use in later projects - like to work on a storyteller mod later on. So far Google Earth has been helpful in giving me an idea of how everything should be layed out.

There is currently no estimated time frame for the completion of this project. I cannot predict how long this would take or how difficult this would really be, but the tutorials should give me direction when it comes to doing this project and if I end up being the only one working on it, well, it will be a long time before anyone sees a storyteller mod. Right now, everything is in planning phase so I'm not in need of developers at this time. What I'm looking for is idealists with a good grasp of gameplay ideas that are realistic to impliment for a newbie mod.

[Bloodywolf]

Most editing I've ever done was skinning for Garries mod 7

[Javokis]

I currently have no idea how to do bump mapping or any kind of Source engine texture effects. I would like to start by making props for my house. I figure a good place to start would be to build my house, but I need to figure out how to make textures. I also need to make some custom props.

I will start with something simple - like a microwave.

Yes... I will make a microwave prop using textures from google image searches. My next step will be actually doing it.... or trying to. I may go as far as to script the microwave so you can put stuff into it that can be microwaved. I think it would be cool to have someone place a pop can into the microwave and script the microwave to blow up with a massive explosion - the player should clear the kitchen.

[Bloodywolf]

Most I learn of skinning and texuring was from

http://phwonline.com/ There is a handy tutorial section on the forums

and

http://forums.facepunchstudios.com/

[ORI]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_mapping

This will help you understand bump_mapping, in short it seems like its another black and white map that tells the engine how to render(im assuming black = more shade(deeper spot), white = less shade(higher spot)
Anyway the Wiki gives a good example.

There are also HL2 level design video training on www.3dbuzz.com that are for free. they usally  make quality education material.

[Javokis]

I may actually start out with just a normal map environment and just make the intitial mod a 3d experience of interaction and exploration then add the Combine occupation elements with destruction and stuff later. This is kind of how Valve did their stuff. They built the City 17 warzones without any destruction then modified it later.

But to avoid having to make more than I want to, I do want to setup logical block zones to guide the player from point a to point b while giving logical reasons why they can't wander about.

While I'm planning this stuff out and currently having no motivation to model, I may just play around with making Wodal for Redemption in the meantime.