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Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Confirmed
Satertek writes "Following up a previous post, a teaser was posted on the Steam website with the image HL2DM.jpg entitled 'Soon', confirming rumors of a Half-Life 2 Multiplayer Deathmatch game. It was also brought up on the forums by Valve. It will be released alongside the SDK sometime this week." Update: 12/01 13:49 GMT by T : Since this was written, "this week" has turned into "now"; the update was released last night.
November 30, 2004, 8:05 pm valve
A Half-Life 2 update has been released via Steam. Please restart Steam to apply the update.
Included in this update:
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
* New multiplayer game featuring physics simulation system
Half-Life 2/Source SDK
* Includes game code needed to create Half-Life 2/Source MODs
* Ability to edit Half-Life 2 maps
* Maya model exporter
* 3d Studio Max model exporter source code
* Sample MOD with vehicles
Source Updates
* HTTP and non-HTTP map auto downloading functionality
* Enhanced dedicated server logging capabilities
* Various tweaks and fixes
*Also: A Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Map Making Contest has been announced. The winning entry will receive a cash prize of $5,000. Two runner up entries will receive a cash prize of $3,000.
I've been playing it this morning. I'm not too impressed to be honest.
Whereas I'm getting around 60FPS in the single player game, the amount of crap (i.e. radiators, filing cabinates, chairs) that's being thrown around in the game really slows the game down and makes it jump around and stutter. I've also been experiencing quite bad lagging on the few servers I've tried.
It also appears that there's only two maps included... Well, that or every server admin out there has already decided that they'll only put two particular maps on rotation. (I may be wrong, I haven't checked this out properly yet.)
All in all, a nice addition, but either my computer or the game could do with some optimisation before it becomes playable.
I know why they call it HalfLife. Spend any amount of time playing this thing and you have half the life you did before. In my case, that wasn't very much, but not it's even less... :(
For those who haven't had a chance to try it out yet, it's a mixed bag. The two levels included (the Prison [Nova Prospekt] level in SP, and the sniping part of City 17) are fairly small, and they allow you to use the Gravity Gun. They've smattered the levels with lots of throwable objects, so "throw and catch" isn't uncommon, but for those with only half-decent machines or connections, it starts to lag quite fast, especially with 16 players.
Weapons are pretty much the same as HL2SP/HL1DM. You've got your machine gun, grenades, crossbow (hell yeah). The only new one like I say is the Gravity Gun so you can mess with the physics.
It's a nice alternative to CS:S for those who don't enjoy it. However it's quite fast paced, and I think we need bigger levels before we can fully appreciate it. But, nice one Valve.
i hate being killed by a grav-gun fired toilet. ooooh da p41n!
IAAL
Since the latest update, I havent had any of the crashing problems I had previously been experiencing (yay). But I have also seen a performance hit of over 40fps! (previously >90fps, now mere 50fps) :/
I havent had any of the problems I see others mentioning about multiplayer performance hits- deathmatch has run just as smoothly for me as singleplayer, but all at only 50fps. I dont understand this, performance has been cut sharply in half, and the framerate is now noticeable
Anyone else experience this?
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
What happened to Doom 3? Doom 3 SDK was released a long time ago and there are few mods.
The mod maker Orange Smoothie has done nothing with the Doom 3 engine:
D3M: In general the whole Doom3 community is eagerly awaiting a modification that will bring Doom3 to the well known glory of Q3A for example. From your personal view, are you convinced to fulfill this task?
derean: Absolutely not, OSP for Quake3 has had hundreds and hundreds of man hours put into it by rhea and there is no way I could hope to put as much time into Doom3 as he did in Quake3. We can however provide a solid basis for future work and that's what we've set out to do.
May be 3D engines and SDKs are too complicated? Or was every body waiting the Half-Life 2 SDK?
I don't have a clue.
My city: Barcelona.
I would see this as more of a way to get your name out there and as a resume-builder than an opportunity for cash.
Map-making can be a great way to show off your design skills if you want to break into the gaming industry.
That's bull. There are tons of people switched over to CS:Source. Just check the server list. It certainly isn't Half Life 2: Multiplayer, I'll agree with that, but that doesn't mean that CS:Source sucks. They made some graphical improvements, yes, but they also made some gameplay improvements as well, i.e. smoke grenades are actually really useful now, flashbangs are far superior to their counterparts in 1.6, you don't get damaged through walls and such by nades, etc. Now, the only complaint I have is that the headshots seem to be rampant in Source, but whether that's just crap or a valid observation, I have no proof for. Still, overall it's a great improvement over CS 1.6, and once the map support is there, and now that the SDK is out, it will definitely take over 1.6.
And yet these games are still widely copied by people who justify their activity with vague talk of 'freedom' and 'rights' (ie right to pirate).
I can feel the Publishers' ire beginning to rise. Just because Half-Life 2 is good doesn't excuse this copying. Remember, this is why so many publishers moved to copy protection, EULAs and their ilk. As a long time game publisher, I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-publisher, anti-creative behaviour creeping into the players' actions. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I try to sell over the counter to actually be bought by more than 50 percent of the people who play them, and not just sell a licence to hundreds of people at a time.
Ever wondered why the copy-protection measures are so much more draconian in games than elsewhere? It's because people who play games are quite happy to copy them, and it's extremely difficult to make money from them.
Frankly, I love Steam.
I love that I can buy a game without going to a store.
I love that I can download the game to as many computers as I want (at work, at home) and play it anywhere with my personal license (username and passowrd.)
I love that I can run a linux-based game server myself, modify the rules on it myself with perl scripts, and not pay extra money for that right.
I love that STEAM creates an authentication mechanism so I can uniquely identify 1337 h4x0r 12-year-old idiots and ban them for life when they cause trouble on my server.
I love that a small software company can break the large game publishers channel control and sell direct. Guess what, Vivendi? You're dead, and you just don't realize it yet. Muhahaha.
Cheers.
It's basically the same thing that motivates ill will towards redhat. Well, besides the fact that it sucks. They provided us this single platform that came in different flavors and let us all beta test it for them, then they decided to make the enterprise level version a separate product and support the desktop version of redhat (now called fedora, of course) very poorly, making no effort whatsoever to make it stable.
Quite similarly, Valve made a sequel to one of the best-loved first person shooters of all time, and it has ended up loaded with so-called copy protection that will turn out to be ineffectual in the long run (maybe not that long) and that has made it impossible for many of the people who are keeping them in business to actually play the game. Treating every customer like a potential criminal is a good way to chase people off towards someone who doesn't do so.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This multiplayer and movable objects is really what HL2 is all about. The build options are really very striking.
I played deathmatch, but it really isn't what it is all about. Deathmatch is a taste to show the community what it is really all about. Imagine a capture game with breachable walls and doorways, and people slapping up chickenwire and "nailing" wall objects to keep the windows from getting naded, things like that. The piles of junk to keep the attacker options down, and the attackers blowing debris to get to it. rfare, they are urban-like warfare on a map that only looks like urban warfare on the outside. When you can use a couch for cover and move it to hide, then we will be happier. Much happier. Deathmatch is too fast. Counter Strike is aggavatingly fast. It gives you no time to give an option about outplaying your opponent. With objects and physics, you will soon be able to do it.
Look, most of you are crabbing this one... but if it was team deathmatch with liftable steel plate barriers, and sticky mines, you would be screaming like a monkey at the top of your lungs with joy. Don't worry. It's coming. Either by Valve in a week or two or by some modders. Some things are just downright obvious. Movable barriers, wall covers, breachable areas, and everything like that is coming, it is just a matter of who is going to do it.
But why stop there?
The good news is it isn't going to stop there. With an independent physics based system, imagine the "space marine" fantasies that we always had as a kid. You and some buddies online blowing out an airlock and gravity catapulting your way through a chain of asteroids to infiltrate a stranded mothership.
Right now we are playing with standard physics settings, what is going to happen when they start messing with those settings? "Woot, I say, my good fellow, woot indeed."
IMHO, Valve solved the largest problem and my biggest gripe with 3D video games when they made a physics engine that wasn't so wonky it made me laugh. It is simply a matter of time before the next killer multiplayer comes out, and it isn't going to look like CS. I personally can't wait to flip someone's minitank with my little Somali street trash barrier. But hey, keep griping, you'll shut up soon enough when you throw someone through a building in a superhero mod.
Huh...I didn't think you could gravity gun the toilet. I must return to the john and try it! My personal favorite gravity gun implement had been, of course the devastating, indestructible and semi-transparent radiator, but I may now have a new favorite.
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?