Introduction

Hello everyone, this is yet another devlog, pretty much just a month since last one. We've been trying to follow some sort of "schedule" with continuous development, as our release is still planned on first quarter of 2027.

New Returning enemies

HECU
Those of you who played the old ModDB demo of SourceWorld long time ago can remember the HECU type enemies. They had to be temporarily cut for the Steam Demo until we got voicelines for them and some unique behavior.

They started as CS:S models edited by TheGuardianTM over a year ago. Recently I've made some improvements to them - changed gasmask's geometry slightly and added green light for common grunts, changed glasses for shotgunners and edited facemap along with beret model for squad commander.
As for the voicelines, in the past we had several attempts at finding a VA for them. It turned out quite problematic to have someone record them.(Not to mention there were also issues regarding text of the lines themselves). So in the end it was decided to use HL1:OPFOR voicelines. Gasmask grunts have a filter which makes them sound different from other marines.

They have a unique idle animation which supposedly mimics its HL1 counterpart and they also do gestures when talking, unlike combine soldiers.

Gameplay-wise, HECU's movement is snappier than Combine's, this makes them move in and out of cover much quicker. Gasmask grunts carry M16A2s with an underbarrel grenade launcher. Aside from throwing the usual grenades, marines LOVE shooting underbarrel grenades right under target's feet, so player needs to be extra cautious and quick to not get hit by these. HECU marines come in 3 units - the aforementioned gasmask, shotgunner and squad commander wielding revolver capable of heavily damaging the player, albeit not always accurate.
We might add a heavy sergeant unit in the future whenever LMG weapons get introduced.

www.youtube.com/embed/lhzRSNqSKOU

2 New Combine enemies

Rifleman and Elite Shotgunner.

Rifleman isn't exactly a brand new enemy type - just a common combine soldier with different colors carrying an M4A1 rifle. Since that's a CS:S weapon, this currently contradicts SourceWorld's canons, so they will be made to use a different kind of rifle whenever that gets implemented. It will either be a reintroduced AR2 or something completely new.

www.youtube.com/embed/aGAyQgbmEJg

Do you like Combine Shotgunners? I hope so, because there's now an even stronger type of them - Elite Shotgunners.
They use M590, have faster firerate and much more health than usual shotgunners. Their special ability is having chance to get enraged by incoming damage and enter berserk mode in which they gain insane speed, their eye starts glowing and they shake incontrollably, making radio noises.
Using weak weapons will outrage them pretty fast, so it's recommended to utilise strong weaponry and keep distance with them.

Funfact: This isn't their first appearance in a Half-Life 2 mod. These devilish buckshot cyclops were previously featured in Demo version of Fremen's Foes: Redux.

Companion system

www.youtube.com/embed/P_4FiK9JGvg

We've started working on mechanics related to player's companions and allies. Richard will be player's first companion, so he's used in all demonstrations below.
In all previous Demo versions, ally NPCs had infinite health and overall behaved like rebels in vanilla HL2. This is getting changed, since now it's possible to bring companions with you to explore generated worlds or missions.

Let's take a look at its features. Firstly, companions can "silently" teleport behind player if they are too far from each other, so you don't have to worry about forgetting them somewhere. Secondly, allies have limited health now, although they regenerate slowly when out of combat.

After losing all their health, companions won't die, but instead get incapacitated, which will notify player even from far away. While being downed, they can only be revived or else they will eventually die for sure, causing game over. Player's have plenty of time to help a fallen friend, unless there's a horde of enemies actively damaging them to quicken their death. When downed, they get 1000 health which depletes over time on its own, normally they have 150 health.

We don't want companions to die easily, so there's no limit to how many times they can get revived. Jack does so by giving them an adrenaline shot, which is purely a visual aspect and doesn't actually require players to carry extra items.

For a fun little interaction, once in a while you can do a fistbump, which will raise player's heat gauge slightly.

In the future we'll add special bonuses for having one or another companion with you (maximum is 2). There will also be a tiny progression meter for each one, but that's for later discussion :>

Melee takedown animation

(And extra camera work)

www.youtube.com/embed/duUhoqLGUhM

Previously we showed a pistol takedown animation, now take a look at the one for melee weapons.
Takedowns(Or Heat Finishers, as they're called ingame) will now give small health every time.

Quite an effort was spent on making all camera transitions between first person and thirdperson animations look smooth and almost seamless.

Springfield

www.youtube.com/embed/oiYGkQi9gKE

First sniper rifle in SourceWorld and it's a DOD:S one! It's very inaccurate when unscoped, so it works best at long distances obviously.
Scope view is dynamic - there's a passive small crosshair movement, shake while walking, tilt between shots. It was fun giving these tiny extra touches for the sake of immersion.

Rage Ability

www.youtube.com/embed/Z0DM-i2L6ek

"Sometimes things get so crazy, all you gotta do is rage!"

At cost of 100 HEAT and unlocked ability, Jack can now psyche out and get 15 seconds of huge damage resistance with infinite stamina.

Miscellaneous

Status Effects on damage

When hit with bullet or slash attacks there's now a chance to receive BLEED status effect. This applies to both enemies and player.
Explosive damage on the other hand, gives STUN effect.

Improved Muzzleflashes

Muzzleflash textures were changed, added dynamic lights to firing enemies.

Turning sounds

A quiet footstep noise when just spinning around was added.

Finishing words

Not sure what else to say, development still goes on this small-team project. It's not a perfecly smooth process, albeit can't call it a development hell either. There are many motivational and psychological ups and downs happening in the background, but there's always the hope and dream of making the best modification ever which keeps us going, despite all lack of recognition from the community and real life troubles.

Stay tuned for more updates and feel free to lay out your thought below.