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Ultimate Tweaks for Beta Aesthetics

Half-Life 2 beta become real.


This mod aims to enhance the experience of the Beta Aesthetics 3.0: Ultimate Edition. I want to thank the creator of beta aesthetics, BenedictKapustin42[gamebanana.com] for creating the original Beta Aesthetics mod and for letting me use some of its assets here to make a couple of extra fixes.

The mod adds a brand new HUD and changes up the gunplay by improving, fixing, and re-balancing the beta weapons in as similar way to the Miscellaneous Tweaks mod to make them feel more unique and powerful while staying within the confines of vanilla. On top of this, it features brand new icons for the beta weapons, their unique ammo types, and implements unique crosshairs in the spirit of Half-Life 1 — all made from scratch. Some of the fixes include adding missing animations, removing unnecessary delay, improving weapon collision, adding the HL1 battery and crowbar hit sound, extending the soundtrack, etc.

This mod also features additional restored versions of additional Half-Life 2 Beta weapons, using the models from the Beta Megabuild as base. Although these weapons replace vanilla ones, they all have had extra attention put into them in and come with fixed and improved sounds, unique icons, crosshairs, naming scheme (either vanilla or detailed, like in Raising the Bar: Redux), and balancing to make them feel more unique from one another. More info on this below.


1) Download GFCScape: https://gamebanana.com/tools/26
2) Navigate to Half-Life2\hl2\custom. If this folder does not exist, create it.
3) Make a folder inside of the custom folder and name it something like "A - Ultimate Tweaks for Beta Aesthetics." Note that the name is important for the priority in the custom folder.
2) Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\220\3410976809 or the workshop directory where you have Half-Life 2 installed.
3) Open workshop_dir.vpk with GFCScape and drag its contents in the folder you just created (the folder within the custom folder).

1) To install the HUD, base fixes, and vanilla weapon names, go to Additional Installation\Quick Install. Then, copy and paste all the folders into the Half-Life 2 directory and overwrite when prompted. A backup is present to revert all these changes.
2) (Optional) To install the detailed custom weapon names for the weapons (includes vanilla and beta), go to Additional Installation\Install Custom Detailed Weapon Names, and copy the files from this folder into the main Half-Life 2 directory, just like the method above.

To revert these changes:
6) Go to Additional Installation\Backup and copy the folders inside, then paste them into the main Half-Life 2 directory.

Note: Also, as of right now, only the English language version of the mod is supported.

Very Important! Make sure your load order is as follows:
0) (Optional) Multi-Script Loader - recommended if using the optional mods and extras
1) (Optional) Beta Weapon Replacements from the collection.
2) Ultimate Tweaks for Beta Aesthetics (This mod)
3) Beta Aesthetics 3.0[gamebanana.com]. I HIGHLY recommend you get the original mod from gamebanana instead of the steam release so that you can swap weapons easier through the custom folder and don't have to subscribe to the weapons in the collection.
4) (Optional) Harder Difficulty Tweaks Standalone - for the true oppressive beta experience.
5) (Optional) Railgun/Sniper Script - to make the sniper behave like a hitscan weapon.
5) (Optional) Citadel Fog Fix - minor, yet meaningful visual tweak for added immersion.

0) To change the weapons, make sure you don't have other model-replacement mods active in the steam workshop so that they do not overwrite the models (this includes this mod and the beta-aesthetics steam release). If you don't want to do that, you can subscribe to the individual weapons in the collection, but this will only change the model and will not update their sounds or functionality, so you will still need to activate them via the custom folder installation of this mod. I really wish there was a more convenient way to do this.
1) Go to the Swap weapons folder, and copy the folder of the weapon you wish to activate.
2) Then, paste weapon folder into the custom folder.
Note: Make sure the starting letter of the main mod has lower alphanumeric priority aka a mod starting with "1" has higher priority than a mod starting with "A."
3) Restart your game since script files are loaded at startup.

Useful commands:
exec fogfix.cfg (extends the fog distance for the current game - this was used on the sandtraps maps)
fog_override 0 (restores vanilla fog)
hud_quickinfo 0 (removes ( + ) <= These bars on the side of the crosshair.)

That's all as far as the installation is concerned. If you want to revert any changes you do not like, make sure to look inside the folders in the mod's main directory and in the cfg folder for additional customization options.

That's all. Enjoy!

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PC_TimeST
-HUD, miscellaneous visuals and sounds, balance changes, custom crosshairs, custom icons, scripts, and extras.
-Sniper reload delay fix, consistent grenade texture, grenade throw improvements, and new revolver texture.
-Beta weapon model ports, fixes, tweaked sounds, textures, and compatibility.

Beta Aesthetics Team and Contributors[gamebanana.com]
-Inspiration for making this mod.
-Original clientscheme.res and hudanimations.txt files.
-Base beta songs used for the extensions.
-Base textures for the grenade and revolver:

Project Beta (Half-Life 2 Beta Megabuild)[hl2-beta.ru]
-Base models, textures, and sounds for the beta weapons.

RTBR Team
-Inspiration for crosshairs, gunplay, and weapon naming scheme.

@Gunship Mark II
-Inspiration for the HUD, which is based on Half-Life 1: MMod.

@Frispy
-Referenced their mod that changes the vanilla HUD colors to make the HUD colors in this mod consistent.

@mtbNTB
-Referenced their original weapon_sounds_manifest.txt and crowbar animation .qc file from their excellent reanimation pack to add the crowbar hit sound, and for compatibility with other mods.

@Jake
-Solution to fixing the turret firing sounds.

Valve:
-Original models and textures.
-Miscellaneous sounds.