HL2R's Release:
HL2R is now released on Moddb! This has honestly been a passion-project of mine for a while now. And I definitely wouldn't have gotten this far without the gracious help of the Sourcemodding community. Especially the awesome people in the Entropy Zero Discord. Who helped both when I was first starting out with learning Source, and playtesting the final versions of the mod before this Moddb release.
Improving HL2's gameplay into something that I enjoy just as much as HL1 has been a really interesting and fun experience, and I'm excited to see what people think of the finished mod!
A quick FAQ:
Here's an FAQ to some questions some of you may have.
Is HL2R completely finished?
Most likely not, I still have some ideas as to features I might add in the future. And the mod will definitely get bug-fixes and patches in the future based on reports and feedback.
Is this compatible with MMOD?
Not currently. MMOD is closed-source, so that means that if a compatibility patch were to happen, it would have to come from the creator of MMOD. That being said, MMOD's assets like models and textures should still work via mounting.
How much does the mod change?
Generally this mod follows the rule of less is more, AKA Minimalism. The focus is mainly on improving/expanding what's already there while preserving the core experience. Huge graphics overhaul's, fundamental gameplay changes, or haphazard additions are not the focus of the mod.
Not saying that these things are inherently bad, they're just not what I'm going for with HL2R.
How hard is HL2R?
The mod is generally shooting for a difficulty level similar to HL1, but its hard difficulty is generally harder than HL1's hard. I personally find challenging gameplay fun, but for others it might be a bit much. Either way the mod still includes lower difficulty options like easy and normal, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem.
Can I base my mod off of HL2R?
Yes! I would be honored if someone found HL2R useful enough to warrant using it or its code for their own mod. It's totally open-source so you don't need any permission from me.
Closing thoughts:
A huge thanks goes out again to people in the Sourcemodding community. And I want to also mention DK's GRAI Mod. Their mod was out way before I ever released mine, and was the main inspiration behind me making this in the first place. Please check it out when you have the chance.
Lastly, here's a short gameplay segment of water-hazard that I feel shows a good representation of the gameplay of HL2R:
any installation instructions
I tried it, and... honestly didn't like it. It's frustrating.
There's nothing awful about it, but I just found it slightly decreased the fun factor of the combat just about everywhere it was applied.
More difficult? Yes.
More fun? No.
More like Half-Life 1? No.
You should probably make the "Unstandard-Issue" option more adjustable with adding different options for it that allow you to make it only apply for either only the metropolice or just the soldiers rather than have it affect both from the start, Aside from that this is honestly a pretty neat mod and it makes Route Kanal actually engaging.
Congrats, bro. It's a really neat mod! Can't wait to see more stuff coming from you :)