April, 2002 I played through the original "Half-Life", and a sequel "Half-Life : Opposing Force", several times over the past few years. I like seeing how the AI's react to various scenarios, and I really like to change the fate of scripted characters -- without going in to "god mode" or using the console in any way. I guess loading saved games is "cheating", but I allow myself that much The following screen captures show some of the cool scripting in the game Half-Life (and Opposing Force sequel), and some images show how to defy normal scripting. MESSING WITH MICROWAVE OVEN ===========================
FIGURE: Half-Life: Microwave oven, before...
FIGURE: Half-Life: Microwave oven, after hitting the "Use Key" repeatedly, making the power increase too much... This is in the scientist "break room", and a scientist seated at a table nearby says: "My god! What ARE you doing?!" when you finally cause the bowl to explode in the microwave oven. MESSING WITH LIGHT SWITCH =========================
FIGURE: Half-Life: I'm just about to turn off a light switch in a room with three scientists. (NOTE: This is in the pre-disaster phase, when all is well.)
FIGURE: One of the scientists, noticing that the light is turned off, starts walking toward the light switch.
FIGURE: The scientist is approaching the switch.
FIGURE: The scientist just turned on the switch, and he walks back to the other scientists. INTERRUPTING CONVERSATION ========================= Here's another fun thing to try: At the very beginning of the game, when the scientists are in the small room connected to the classic "Test Chamber" (where you make history), and they're delicately avoiding telling you the potential dangers of the experiment, you can repeatedly click the "Use Key" to try to talk with each of them. In the middle of the conversation you can cause the non-speaking member to have a brief chat with you: "I'm rather busy right now.", "Please wait until AFTER the test.", etc.
FIGURE: Half-Life: Both scientists talking at the same time, because I hit the "Use Key" to make the silent half of the scripted conversation start having a more direct mini-chat with me. EARLIEST POSSIBLE ALIEN CREATURE KILL =====================================
FIGURE: Half-Life: I killed a trapped "head crab". (After disaster) ATTEMPTED FALLING ELEVATOR RESCUE ================================= I tried saving scientists in a falling elevator.
FIGURE: Half-Life: Scientists trapped in a falling elevator. When you push the button for the elevator, or when you smash the glass leading to the elevator shaft, an elevator containing three scientists starts falling several floors and gets crushed at the bottom of the shaft. I was hoping I would be able to somehow rescue these scientists.
FIGURE: Half-Life: I'm falling parallel to falling elevator. (Note the scientist facing me with his mouth open: He's saying "Ah, good to see you!", totally relaxed and chipper!) I first tried to fall alongside the falling elevator, just to get more ideas. Immediately I noticed that scientists started talking to me as if they just encountered me walking down the hall or some other normal scenario: "Good morning, Gordan.", "Hello, there.", etc.
FIGURE: Half-Life: I'm falling such that I'm below the falling elevator.
FIGURE: Half-Life: I'm falling such that I'm almost under the falling elevator. It tried this dozens of times -- made easier by doing a quick save at the point just after smashing the glass and entering the elevator shaft, so I could just do a quick load again and again and perfect my jump down the shaft. Anyhow, I tried jumping up against the bottom of the falling elevator, and I tried using my body as an obstacle to cause the elevator to become jammed. Amazingly, these approaches sometimes delayed the final, fatal crush of the scientists. For a while I thought this strategy would eventually work, if I could just get the timing right.
FIGURE: Half-Life: Elevator at the bottom of the shaft, with one of the three doomed scientists already crushed. NOTE: I'm already dead. I tried again and again to save these guys, and there were many times I thought I might have succeeded -- since there was often a significant pause (after my effort) with the elevator sitting in the bottom of the shaft, and I could see the scientists alive inside. But a moment later and the top of the elevator collapsed in to them, and this was followed by the usual explosion. SUCCESSFUL RESCUE OF FREAKED-OUT SCIENTIST ========================================== In the original "Half-Life" I saved several scientists from almost certain death. For example, at one point Gordan Freeman (your character) enters a room and witnesses a scientist that is freaking out. The scientist cries out, "For God's sake open the door! We're all going to die! I've got to get out of here!" (or somthing like that), and then he runs away from a sealed security room, past a raised fire door, and around a corner -- only to be shot by tripod-mounted machine guns, and blown up by laser-tripped mines. Anyhow, I reloaded the game at a point in time just before entering the room. Okay, then I ran in to the room, disregarded the scientist's crazy speech, ran past him, and triggered the lowering of the fire door. The scientist finished his raving, and ran for the fire door, which was now lowering.
FIGURE: "Half-Life: Rescued scientist, still eager to meet his doom. He continued to run against the door, pausing from time to time. I was able to put my body in the way of the scientist and the door, open the door, and crawl under the door as I closed it again. The scientist was saved! Anyhow, later in the game Gordan Freeman happens to return to the same area -- through an air duct! And...the scientist is still there! Running against the fire door in a mad urge to get blown up.
FIGURE: "Half-Life: Rescued scientist, still at the fire door there when I emerge from an air duct (see room to the right with open air duct) -- and this scene is 'hours later' in game time! GETTING CLOSE TO THE "ADMINISTRATOR" ("G-Man") ============================================== At various points in Half-Life you see a mysterious figure carrying a briefcase: The "Administrator". You can never get too close to him, but there are times you see him talking behind thick glass, watching you from behind a sealed door with a window, or walking away in the distance just as you notice he's there. With some experimentation I was able to reach the "Administrator" and interact with him! All without "god mode" or any use of the "console".
FIGURE: Half-Life: Administrator on elevated catwalk.
FIGURE: Half-Life: Administrator starting to walk away! When you cross a certain threshold in the room, the Administrator starts walking out of the room. At first, I just tried running directly for the ladder, and running to the next ladder, and running across the catwalk so that I'd catch up with him. But he was gone -- and this bugged me because I should have caught up with him pretty easily. Still, I am open- minded, allowing for the use of a portal, etc. Next, I tried shooting him with the machine gun. After hitting him with 20 bullets, he stopped walking and simply stood there. Hey! Maybe this would work. I walked up the first ladder, and he didn't move. Wow, this was easy! Then I walked to the second ladder, and that's when he started walking out of the room again! Here's what finally worked. (1) Shoot him with the machine gun so that he stops walking; (2) Climb the first ladder; (3) Do NOT cross the concrete bridge to the second ladder! Instead, go beyond the bridge to the gap, jump on to the railing, jump across to the railing on the other side; (4) walk to the second ladder (stay against the wall); (5) ascend the ladder with your back to the wall (keep an eye on the Administrator); (6) Approach the administrator, shooting your machine gun at him if he starts walking.
FIGURE: Half-Life: Hanging out with the "Administrator" I tried hitting the "Use Key" to start a conversation with the administrator -- but as one of your fellow scientists tells you just after the disaster: "I tried telling the Administrator, but he just would not listen!"
FIGURE: Half-Life: Machine gun fire doesn't bother him.
FIGURE: Half-Life: A grenade exploding at the Administrator's feet doesn't bother him, either.
FIGURE: Half-Life: With some prodding, the Administrator walks to the next room, descends the stairs, and generally walks around. I tried to get the Marine to shoot the Administrator as part of friendly-fire when trying to shoot me (Gordan Freeman). But I didn't get that to work. Also, I tried even greater explosive strength to try and destroy the Administrator (so I could witness a paradox later in the game, with the Administrator showing up here and there, alive) -- so I shot the explosive drums you see in this image. BOOM! No dice. Later I will see how far I can prod the Administrator through the level. You know what would be great? Getting the Administrator to meet himself, all through "regular" game play! OTHER HALF-LIFE RESCUE NOTES: ============================= Early in the game "Half-Life" I tried to save a scientist in a locked room from being killed by a "head crab". For this experiment I *did* go in to "god mode". I turned off collision, and ran through all the walls, stright to the doomed scientist. I made it in to the room with plenty of time to spare. The scientist was backing in to the wall, and the head crab prepared to leap, and I totally unleashed weapons of mass destruction in a confined space, enough to destroy the entire Black Mesa facility, and... and... the head crab leaped on the scientist's face and it was all over! Destiny. I saved a few other scientists in other scenarios, but I have to warn you if you think of trying this yourself: They're ungrateful, and they often remain in a crazed panic and won't chat with you. "HALF-LIFE: OPPOSING FORCE" RESCUE NOTES: ========================================= In the game "Half-Life : Opposing Force", I tried to distract a friendly soldier from going through an elaborate script that ends with his pointless death. I repeatedly hit the "Use Key" to get him to start a conversation with me -- and this crashed the game. This happens 100% of the time when I try this; maybe I stole the lead character from a script, and the game tried to access him again. Anyhow, I found another way to save the soldier, so all's well that ends well. Eventually I had four soldiers following me around, and the only reason I wasn't able to build an army of a dozen soldiers (eventually) was the fact that there were silly "obstacles" that the soldiers just couldn't figure out! For example, they just wouldn't step on to the transit system train car. I was tempted to somehow cause an explosion that would kick their bodies about six inches, just enough to get them on to the train car -- and somehow I'd have to do it in such a way that they didn't hate me and start shooting at me and kicking me. Maybe I'll try to make this work, because it would be really cool to get the whole platoon on the train car and unload them at the next area, and start building a crazy army from there! Listen, I'm sure a simple Q2/HL mod, or even "console mode", would make this possible without the fuss, but I'm interested in exploring the possibilities within the normal game paradigm...But I'll admit that it's all a matter of degrees (given the "save" and "load" capabilities). In the game "Half-Life : Opposing Force", I saved a scientist from falling to his death. The following screen-captures show the success of this mission.
FIGURE: "Half-Life: Opposing Force", Level 3a2, just before the horror.
Saved_Game (Opposing Force) at point shown.
FIGURE: Scientist and "Displacer" Gun falling from random portal high above.
FIGURE: Dead scientist, and my *new* "Displacer" Gun!
But I couldn't let that poor scientist die like that...
Here's what I did to save the scientist from his unfortunate fall. First, I tried simply walking to the exact point where he would land, figuring I could break his fall -- but then he just fell on top of me and we were BOTH crushed by the impact. Then I thought of a nutty idea: Jump up in the air shortly before the scientist fell on me, and, well, counter his impact with my jumping, and then the both of us would gently fall from a modest height of five feet, say. Although the theory disregarded the magnitudes of the physics quantities involved, it had a certain plausibility and boldness. I gave it a try, and that's when the miracle happened: We both survived! But, there was a minor glitch...
FIGURE: Scientist alive and well, chatting with me.
Saved_Game2 (Opposing Force) at point shown.
I saved the scientist, but he was stuck floating above the ground -- and he was still waving his arms and legs wildly, like he was still in a freefall. But I was able to jolt him out of this funk by jumping to his height and hitting the "Use Key" to start conversing with him. He immediately entered a standing position and started talking: "I predicted all of this you know, ALL of it!" At this point he is almost completely normal, and I was able to hit the "Use Key" again (while jumping to his level) to tell him to "follow me", and he does start to make a walking motion... But he doesn't move anywhere. If I wander to another location (nearby asteroid), he exclaims: "This is as far as I go!" Ah, how right you are! --- Colin cpfahey@earthlink.net
