The green first responders look great but they don't feel that different from regular guards. I feel like they should have higher health and should have their own scripted sequences where they're usually running into the mess instead of away from it like all of the other guards. My idea was to see a squad of them exit an elevator and start shooting at aliens. Maybe give them shotguns as well, if that's possible.

The HECU models should also make sense and differ depending on what chapter you're in. The first time you see them in We've Got Hostiles they should look like your standard soldiers, body armor, some with gas masks. When you encounter them again in Power Up almost all of them should be in gas masks or MOP suits because the area is more hazardous and as such the military would take more precautions this deep within the facility. In On a Rail you should expect to see a fair number of gas mask soldiers because again this is deep within the abandoned sector of the facility, but now you should see more heavy units like the HEV soldier as command begins to conduct interception operations on you. With the ambush in the extended chapter all of the soldiers should be wearing night vision goggles and high-tech gear as this is a thoroughly planned ambush, even put 1 or 2 HEV units in here. Once you reach the rocket at the end of the chapter you can put some heavy units there as they would likely put as much as they can there to stop you. Now in Apprehension it doesn't make that much sense for the black ops assassins to be there, but since they are you mind as well put a few male assassins there to spice up the combat.

In Questionable Ethics the soldier models are more or less the same as before, not really many specialized units because you have the drop on them, they're just garrisoned there running security. Now once you reach the scientists hiding out, this would be a great spot to add some new NPCs there. In Office Complex, it makes sense to find a secret service guy there since he could have been separated from his VIP in the frenzy, or the executive could have died. Since it's guaranteed to have a suit scientist spawn in the labs, I think you should add 2-3 secret service guards in here and alter the scene a little bit to have them run forward and clear the halls. Then once you reach the checkpoint right before the ambush, they go into the security room and close the security doors to stop anything from sneaking up behind. Then point their guns through the door as you walk into the ambush and they get locked behind. Speaking of the ambush, it's kind of the same thing. Lot of specialized units in there like the heavy and even the HEV, maybe you can script a special leader unit that tries to stay away from you and shout orders. Surface Tension should have a healthy mix of regular and special units. Yes they send tons of units after you to intercept you, but it doesn't ever look like they try to ambush you. Even when you instigate a fight towards them it doesn't look like they aren't explicitly prepared to fight you (for example on the dam map it feels like you surprise attacked one of their checkpoints and asked for backup, which causes them to dispatch their APC out to you and to call in an Apache for backup). Once you reach the last few maps of the chapter where the tides are turning towards the aliens then feel free to make the HECU's bodygroups much more random as units become scattered and regroup and everyone has varying levels of gear, maybe have some of those guys without any body armor in this section, anything goes.

Now that I've reached Forget about Freeman, I wanted to talk about the Black Ops. In Opposing Force the black ops are introduced only after everyone pulls out and you're left behind so it should be kept similar in this mod to try and keep a consistent timeline. I think the final fight when you see the surface for the last time would be a good spot to introduce them. You start off by fighting some marines who are just trying to get out of there, then a black osprey flies in and a bunch of black ops jump out, turning it into a 3-way battle. Now since this is one of the last times you encounter the marines there aren't a lot of opportunities to swap out marines for black ops so I think the story should be altered just slightly for the lambda levels. All of the scientists throughout the whole game tell you that the lambda team has the best chance at fixing this incident, so maybe the black ops should be tasked with infiltrating the lambda labs and figuring out how to stop the alien invasion. As such, you would again find the black ops engaging the soldiers once you take the elevator down, this time being a 4-way battle between you, the aliens, the marines, and the black ops. Then when you encounter the assassins in the cargo area there's some black ops there as well. The final encounter with the black ops to give the player enough opportunities to fight them should be in the room where the HEV scientist is sitting in the last entrance of the lambda labs. A group of black ops are there with some blacked-out vehicles nearby fitting an explosive to the giant blast door to force it open (the same door that the alien grunt squeezes open) and you stop them before they're able to make entry (or they could blow it up, there is a 2nd blast door behind it they would have to force open). The rest of the chapter you don't encounter any more marines and I think it's fine as is.

Man that's a long comment. I'm really good at providing suggestions but not as good at executing my ambitious ideas. I guess it just shows how much I care about improving this addon.

Originally posted by tpd1864blake:

I'm opening a discussion so that I don't flood the comments with my feedback, because after drafting it I decided it was too lengthy to just drop in the comments.

After playing all the way through until Xen with this addon, here's my thoughts:

First, the positives. The staff models look great, especially in Anomalous Materials. I like the touch that security guards with a balaclava don't have an ID card, it makes them seem like elite guards. The secret service looking guard in Office Complex looks cool, too bad they're only used in one area - but I'll save my suggestions for him until the end. The soldier models are great and are the highlight of this mod, although some models do seem out of place sometimes. The guys with the oxygen tank look like hazmat units which makes sense for how hazardous Black Mesa is. The new commanders look sweet. Something I noticed looking back is that I never saw any pilots up until Surface Tension when there's all of the fighter jets, which makes sense because you wouldn't see them until they start crashing and parachuting out, no idea how you did that without map edits. Black Ops fit the style perfectly and they look much more intimidating, especially in dark areas. Remodeling the guard in Forget about Freeman to instead be a friendly HECU is really clever and I like it. Seeing Tommy in the Lambda lab was hilarious and I sat there laughing for a few minutes, the other models indeed did look like Coomer and Benrey etc. but weren't as funny. It would be even funnier if you made them invincible.

Most of the things I didn't like is mostly the out of place models in some areas. For example seeing a few random black ops in We've Got Hostiles. Sometimes it produces some funny results like a random soldier in a t-shirt with no body armor at all charging at me like he's going into the front lines with no protection. The engineers holstering an RPG on their back doesn't make sense, they should probably have a turret on their back like you see undeployed around crates.

That's pretty much all of the feedback I have, but I'm going to leave a comment in this discussion with suggestions for map changes (please somebody make custom overhaul addons using these models). If you're not considering making any map edits then you mind as well not read my comment because it's pretty long and rambles on a bit.

Wow, that's quite a long feedback. Thank you.
First of all about secret service guards and pilots. I didn't change them and their placements at all (except rare spawn change of pilot as regular grunt). That belongs to DWBoyGamer's BMCE:R.
Unfortunately I'm not able to add Black Ops on maps (except some specific but even so there won't be enough amount of entries in character_manifest to include all of them). So I decided to make them spawn alongside with HECU.
Commanders and sergeants without vests is a reference to that one commander without armor from Freeman's Chronicles, may be not logically but the idea was these guys don't participate in combat too much (Plus this way dogtags on them could be seen).
Bodygroup of RPG on the back was taken from other mod. There were soldiers with RPG on their back too.

Originally posted by tpd1864blake:

The green first responders look great but they don't feel that different from regular guards. I feel like they should have higher health and should have their own scripted sequences where they're usually running into the mess instead of away from it like all of the other guards. My idea was to see a squad of them exit an elevator and start shooting at aliens. Maybe give them shotguns as well, if that's possible.

The HECU models should also make sense and differ depending on what chapter you're in. The first time you see them in We've Got Hostiles they should look like your standard soldiers, body armor, some with gas masks. When you encounter them again in Power Up almost all of them should be in gas masks or MOP suits because the area is more hazardous and as such the military would take more precautions this deep within the facility. In On a Rail you should expect to see a fair number of gas mask soldiers because again this is deep within the abandoned sector of the facility, but now you should see more heavy units like the HEV soldier as command begins to conduct interception operations on you. With the ambush in the extended chapter all of the soldiers should be wearing night vision goggles and high-tech gear as this is a thoroughly planned ambush, even put 1 or 2 HEV units in here. Once you reach the rocket at the end of the chapter you can put some heavy units there as they would likely put as much as they can there to stop you. Now in Apprehension it doesn't make that much sense for the black ops assassins to be there, but since they are you mind as well put a few male assassins there to spice up the combat.

In Questionable Ethics the soldier models are more or less the same as before, not really many specialized units because you have the drop on them, they're just garrisoned there running security. Now once you reach the scientists hiding out, this would be a great spot to add some new NPCs there. In Office Complex, it makes sense to find a secret service guy there since he could have been separated from his VIP in the frenzy, or the executive could have died. Since it's guaranteed to have a suit scientist spawn in the labs, I think you should add 2-3 secret service guards in here and alter the scene a little bit to have them run forward and clear the halls. Then once you reach the checkpoint right before the ambush, they go into the security room and close the security doors to stop anything from sneaking up behind. Then point their guns through the door as you walk into the ambush and they get locked behind. Speaking of the ambush, it's kind of the same thing. Lot of specialized units in there like the heavy and even the HEV, maybe you can script a special leader unit that tries to stay away from you and shout orders. Surface Tension should have a healthy mix of regular and special units. Yes they send tons of units after you to intercept you, but it doesn't ever look like they try to ambush you. Even when you instigate a fight towards them it doesn't look like they aren't explicitly prepared to fight you (for example on the dam map it feels like you surprise attacked one of their checkpoints and asked for backup, which causes them to dispatch their APC out to you and to call in an Apache for backup). Once you reach the last few maps of the chapter where the tides are turning towards the aliens then feel free to make the HECU's bodygroups much more random as units become scattered and regroup and everyone has varying levels of gear, maybe have some of those guys without any body armor in this section, anything goes.

Now that I've reached Forget about Freeman, I wanted to talk about the Black Ops. In Opposing Force the black ops are introduced only after everyone pulls out and you're left behind so it should be kept similar in this mod to try and keep a consistent timeline. I think the final fight when you see the surface for the last time would be a good spot to introduce them. You start off by fighting some marines who are just trying to get out of there, then a black osprey flies in and a bunch of black ops jump out, turning it into a 3-way battle. Now since this is one of the last times you encounter the marines there aren't a lot of opportunities to swap out marines for black ops so I think the story should be altered just slightly for the lambda levels. All of the scientists throughout the whole game tell you that the lambda team has the best chance at fixing this incident, so maybe the black ops should be tasked with infiltrating the lambda labs and figuring out how to stop the alien invasion. As such, you would again find the black ops engaging the soldiers once you take the elevator down, this time being a 4-way battle between you, the aliens, the marines, and the black ops. Then when you encounter the assassins in the cargo area there's some black ops there as well. The final encounter with the black ops to give the player enough opportunities to fight them should be in the room where the HEV scientist is sitting in the last entrance of the lambda labs. A group of black ops are there with some blacked-out vehicles nearby fitting an explosive to the giant blast door to force it open (the same door that the alien grunt squeezes open) and you stop them before they're able to make entry (or they could blow it up, there is a 2nd blast door behind it they would have to force open). The rest of the chapter you don't encounter any more marines and I think it's fine as is.

FR guards will have their vest give slightly more damage resistance. I like your idea about HECU variety depending on chapter as well new scenes with guards and Black Ops being in LC. But unfortunately I can't do this as I'm not a mapper.

Originally posted by Monolith Fanatic:

FR guards will have their vest give slightly more damage resistance. I like your idea about HECU variety depending on chapter as well new scenes with guards and Black Ops being in LC. But unfortunately I can't do this as I'm not a mapper.

I feel your pain. I tried to open hammer editor to pick up mapping to make a BMCE/BMSC combination, but the most I could do was switch from wireframe to textured models and double click on objects to open the properties. This is just begging someone with mapping abilities to be struck with inspiration and create a new set of chapter overhauls requiring this.

I know this discussion is like a year old, but i like the idea of black ops in LC, like replace the assassin cargo fight with a three-way battle like in HL: MMOD, example: HECU corpses along side security and scientists, the the cargo bay being decked out with sentry guns, trip-mines, 50 Cal and stretchers (maybe add some HECU Corpses or wounded HECU npcs you find the ST chapter overhaul?). and the last map before you go into the lambda complex littered with xenian, black ops, security, scientist and HECU corpses, indication a large battle has occoured and a group of ~5-6 Black Ops soldiers trying to blow up a door that the alien grunt opens.