Congratulations on getting the ball rolling for a Redemption HL2 mod!
Another community you may want to join lads is MODDB, not only does it show a large quantity of mods for all engines including source (which is obviously a great way to let people know what your planning) but its also a good way to get a team together if you need help as its where other modders browse.
http://www.moddb.com/mods?filter=t&kw=&released=def&style=def&theme=def&game=61&type=defPerspective: Should this game use a first or third person perspective, or a hybrid ? la Bloodlines, where firearms would use the first person view and melee weapons switch to 3rd person?
Me personally, i love First Person view, i played bloodlines before redemption and was dissapointed that first person view was only to look at the surroundings and nothing more. One thing i was dissapointed with, with bloodlines though was the fact that when using a melee weapon it threw me out of first person. If you can, definately add it for all weapons - a bonus if you could actually walk around in first person aswell.
I hope you dont give up on this, it would definately be a mod i would download!