So that could be the reason behind those strange bugs or is not related at all?

@SpL15 Oh that's because you need both the workshop_dir and workshop_000 (or something similar) in the same folder when you open it GFCscape.

I didn't rename the vpk, since it was the only mod that installed there as vpk file that had the name "workshop_dir". Although when I copied the vpk file in the custom folder again (since I tried to reinstall the whole game just in case), and opened it with GCFScape just to see if everything was alright, all the files were greyed out and when it tried to open them, the next error popped out in the console below:

Error writing C:\Users\CoreI5\AppData\Local\Temp\gameui_english.txt (Error (0x00000002): Error opening file. El sistema no puede encontrar el archivo especificado.)

The part in spanish says "The system can't find the specified file", I'm not too familiar with this tool or Source modding in general, so maybe I was doing something wrong.

@SpL15 That is very strange, considering that this mod only edits a couple of files. Not really sure why that happened lol. Did you also rename the vpk? Could be a conflict with another mod. It looks like sometimes placing the vpk directly into the custom folder is not enough. Glad you could get that fixed and that you are enjoying the mod!

Oh btw of course, I've been having a lot of fun with this mod. It really adds some of the challenge that HL2 was missing.

So, when you say copy the mod into the custom folder, you are refering to copy and paste the vpk file itself? I did that and for a while there were some really weird bugs:

- The "Very hard" option didn't appear in the menu, only "Hard".
- In the menu screen that shows the plaza, you could hear random explosions in the background that didn't ever stop.
- In the menu screen that shows the inside of the citadel, the Scanners that appear there just randomly exploded whenever the menu finished loading.

Even with all of this, the mod seemed to work just fine. Just to test it and see if it could work, I placed the contents of the vpk file inside a folder, and then placed that folder inside the Custom folder. And lord and behold, everything was fixed. I don't know if I was doing something wrong or I didn't read the instructions correctly, but it was something that was driving me nuts for a while.

@johannbigbones^ Yeah, that section was already pretty difficult in the vanilla game. The whole prison area in general is just a huge difficulty spike with few checkpoints. I wish I could place a couple of extra battery spawns around the map to balance it a bit better. You can definitely do it if you play it very safe and let your antlions draw out most of the fire and abuse the ships' fear of rockets, but other than that not many tips I can give.

@bigfatcarp93 I have a standalone version specifically for MMod that is on gamebanana, I recommend you try that one instead. As for the crash, I am not really sure what it could be, sorry.

@Lemernade :3 It's only a cosmetic change for when you select the difficulty. It should be immediately visible by just subscribing to the mod, unless there is another mod that edits gameui_english.txt. You could try moving the mod up your load order and see if that fixes it. If your language is set to something other than english, you might not see it.

Playing on Very Hard is brutal, I've somehow made it to Nova Prospekt, but I'm stuck in the courtyard cause chip damage deals so much damage.

so Basicly this fits perfectly with Beta Aesthetics 3.0

So weird issue, not really sure where the fault is here. I've been using this with MMod and can't load Canals_03; it crashes to desktop when I try. Any idea what's going on here?

I think it may be a conflict or a bad installation on my part, but I don't see the very hard diff in my options. Is there conflict with other common mods or am I missing something obvious?

STILL TOO EASY

Ah, I understand. Time to get good, lmao.

I think the real issue here is the lack of extra crates with HEV batteries/health pickups AND autosaves for the area, which result in this abrupt difficulty spike. This was present in vanilla already, but it is accentuated here. After some consideration, however, I think I will leave this section as it is since you can play it a bit more careful and still get through even if it is with some struggle.

Very hard is, well, supposed to be very hard so that gives the regular hard difficulty its own place too. The best tips i can give are: aim for the head, time your shots with the pistol, fire at center of mass with the SMG, and grenades are your best friends (it makes the AI go into panic and gives you an opening to shoot).

That's all, good luck!

Thank you, that means a lot. I've always felt the same way, so I decided to channel that into creating something.

On another note, I've also re-played the water hazard section and tried tweaking a couple of numbers, but it always ended up either making the enemies a total joke and messing up the balance of everything else.

No problem, I love the work you've done here regardless since HL2 was always kind of a snooze-fest in terms of difficulty and I love to see that rectified.

No offense taken. Yes, this section is incredibly difficult. This is because the metrocop health is standardized to 40. In vanilla half-life 2, they have 26 health in the early chapters and 40 in the later chapters. Here, however, they always have 40 health and all weapons have been buffed to feel roughly the same against them, while improving their effectiveness against soldier and later-game enemies.

I made this mod right after playing MMod, so I was locked-in during playtesting. As of right now, you have to aim for the head with the magnum and other weapons to take the metrocops out in time and use your grenades very wisely to get through this section. I was debating on whether or not to reduce the metrocop health so that they die a bit faster or, at least, make it so that they die to 1 magnum hit to the body. I'll look into it a bit more, but I think I'll do something along those lines to make this section less frustrating. Thank you for for the feedback.

I'm playing on very hard and I gotta tell you, the canals section where you first get the magnum revolver and enter the warehouse with the cargo containers was brutal. I found most of my deaths coming from being swarmed by manhacks that just will not die, and you cannot ignore because their cuts really hurt a lot. The SMG is too inaccurate, the pistol has too low a magazine capacity, and the crowbar is much too slow. While dealing with that, I'm getting shot by metrocops with surprisingly accurate SMG fire from a distance. Frustration sets in pretty quickly when you can't deal with one problem fast enough before the other problem kills you. I hope I don't sound salty, or like I'm personally insulting your work, I write this still a bit angry from the encounter LMAO

Thank you! I went through it a couple of times myself to make sure nothing was too bs (you make the game you want to play). If yo do spot anything that feels out of place difficulty-wise, please let me know, and thanks for giving the mod a try!

Seems pretty challenging and balanced for veterans. Good work

That worked, thanks!

@The playerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Just updated the installation instructions. Let me know if it is clear now.

Could you please give more detailed install instructions?