Black Mesa - [BMS] Adam-Bomb


Hello, Science Team!

Launch day is finally here, complete with a brand new trailer! We are making a big push to let everyone know that Black Mesa 1.0 is OUT! Please share this great news with your friends and followers on any social media platform.

New Trailer


1.0 Patch Notes!
We have been working exceedingly hard to bring you Black Mesa. Since the full release of Xen (0.9) we have done a complete overhaul pass on the combat design and guidance for all the earthbound levels, redesigned the HECU marine AI, upgraded the Vortigaunts AI, and built a new, modern user interface.

At launch, we’ll be right here to fix bugs and add quality of life improvements. After that, we will be taking a break before starting up on any big updates.

So, without further delay, here is a detailed change list for Black Mesa 1.0!

Overhaul


Game-Wide
Our time in Early Access gave us lots of opportunities to beta test new content and talk with our community. We took what we learned during the development of Xen, and applied it to the Earthbound Chapters.

- Improvements to every major combat arena in the game
- Redesigned puzzles for clarity and intention
- Enhance environments to highlight objectives

Art
We took a number of sections throughout the game and updated them visually to help the game feel more cohesive. We also made better use of the dynamic lights that we created for Xen.




Artificial Intelligence
HECU


-Better utilize cover and movement in general
-Put suppressing fire on players last known location and where they expect you to be
-Use grenades more strategically and more often
-New environmental analysis lets them track, flank, and move in for the kill
-Use weapons and abilities depending on their class
-Occasionally use RPGs (grenadiers)
-Use under barrel MP5 grenade launcher (commanders)
-Drop med kits properly (medics)
-Marines wearing a gas-mask will now use alternate, radio-filtered, deepened voice lines, which sound much more like the original HECU!
-Use more voice lines and communication



Vortigaunts

The Vorts got an upgrade too, with features from their Interloper counterparts and new features to make them more fun to fight!

-Dodge on spawn or dodge when player aims at Vort
-Better navigate to the player
-Use close-range charge attack (Dispel)
-Use dynamic lights when attaching
-Vorts AI now behave differently depending on how brave or scared they are feeling, which is based on damage taken / done to the enemy.

Balance
-Slightly nerfed assassins to have lower health and accuracy
-Nerfed Abrams 50 cal damage to make it less murderous
-Buffed Apache 30mm damage slightly

Code Fixes
-Optimized sun shadows
-Optimized dynamic lights
-Fixed bug with popping sun shadows
-Removed view punch from smaller caliber weapons
-Fixed trip mine hitbox
-Added dynamic lights to portal effects
-Fixed NPC teeth being black or bright colors
-Made sure all tripod and ceiling turrets use tracers
-Fixed gravity in Earthbound
-Fixed HECU calling wrong SMG animation
-All new, modern user interface
-Expanded options with descriptions and performance cost

-Fixed HEV chargers giving you 76 charge instead of 75
-Fixed slide sound effect playing each time the player crouched
-Changed tank machine gun accuracy for better game play



Workshop Mods Warning
Lots of mods have not been updated to work with the new version of the game. Until they are updated, they may (and probably will) cause all kinds of strange and seemingly unrelated bugs. If you want the best Black Mesa experience, make sure that you do not have any mods installed. If you have had mods in the past, it may be worth uninstalling the game, deleting all local files in Black Mesa, then reinstalling the game.

Level Design
General
-The entire game has been subject to a huge number of bug fixes and improvements throughout. The following notes won’t mention every single fix, but will detail the most important ones! We scoured the community for things to fix.
-Removed all old “dynamic” lightstyle VRAD lights and replaced them with new gbuffer dynamic lights. These will look better and perform better.
-Full dynamic light pass across the whole game. Lighting should be much moodier and dynamic throughout.
-Updated lightmap scales across many chapters, so baked lights will be more defined and have nicer shadows. This will result in generally nicer looking lighting.
-Implemented CSM volumes across every outdoor map, which should substantially improve performance at no visual cost

Black Mesa Inbound
-Updated title card to take up more of the screen
-Fixed various dynamic light errors
-Totally re-arted outdoor/cave sections
-Fixed tram not casting sun shadows

Anomalous Materials
-Updated lighting for HEV suit holder room
-Updated down lights to have crisp shadows
-Went through light maps and increased resolution (now that we are no longer using light styles)
-Updated Vortigaunt Xen scene with newer environment visuals
-Removed light style lights and replaced them with new dynamic lights

Unforeseen Consequences
-Fixed headcrabs on platform elevator from spinning around 180 degrees as they landed
-Fixed various console errors that may have been affecting performance
-Fixed houndeyes spawning in and facing wall away from player
-Updated coolant/valve puzzle to better teach core valve mechanics and for better player guidance in general
-Improved design of AM machine control room to force the player into the space
-Improved player guidance throughout the chapter and added player “drop downs” and closed doors to prevent confusing backtracking, or breaking danger sequences
-Improved box jumping puzzle
-Improved lighting for the “Lamarr jar”
-Changed ladder skins to red to help them stand out from similarly colored walls
-Improved sewer water section to show the player the ladder exit before they find the valve to raise the water level, allowing you to know where your end objective is before activating the flood
-Improved platforming/jumping on the crane boxes section
-Improved Crowbar pickup by highlighting it with door movement
-Added rewards for exploration
-Added guidance light to first retinal scanner to help new players

Office Complex
-Fixed bad autosaves throughout
-Added cover to first ceiling turret section
-Added new dynamic lights to elevator
-Added clip ramped steps for better player and NPC navigation
-Added more dramatic lighting for the “help my buddy” scene where you can first get the shotgun. In addition…
-...moved the Shotgun back to its rightful place with the Guard in this chapter!
-Updated map C freezer puzzle, to better illustrate cause / effect and utilize the entire space
-Improved all “shortcut” doors given consistent signposting (use wooden boards)
-Improved changed ladder skins to red to help them stand out from similarly colored walls
-Removed end valve/fire hazard, to streamline the end of the chapter.

“We’ve Got Hostiles”
-Fixed consistent crash that occurred when using closed captions at lower resolutions
-The HECU overhaul really shines in this chapter!
-Re-timed music start cue and added an explosion before it so it transitions in less abruptly
-Replaced dynamic lights and shadows in the transitioning elevator between map B and C

Blast Pit
-Fixed janky dying scientist so he doesn’t just pop when he dies
-Substantial improvements to Tentacle AI
-Added art to map E to make it feel more like you’re heading down the shaft where a giant tentacle monster just lived.
-Moved the first .357 here, to match HL1!
-Added xog volumes to areas with radiation liquid

Power Up
-Multiple fixes to the Gargantua to make him behave better throughout
-Added xog volumes to bottom of water section in map B

On A Rail
-Removed redundant console in Map A opening puzzle to streamline progression
-Added alternate route in Map B office fight vs 50 cal, to allow flanking. Also changed approach path to provide more cover to the player.
-Fixed bug in map B where battery light would show through the world
-Overhauled launch pad fight in Map C so that the player must use the entire space and a variety of different angles and tactics.

Apprehension
-Overhauled opening barrel puzzle for map A to remove redundancy, better signpost the various stages of the puzzle, and encourage more exploration of the initial arena.
-Overhauled lighting around the shark cage to better signpost objective.
-Mood lighting across the entire chapter to enhance the ambiance and also better direct the player in multiple places.
-Removed soft lock where players could put barrels in the crushers and lock progression.

Residue Processing
-Reworked navigation around the trash compactor to stall the player a bit more (gives the doors more time to open so there’s less of an awkward pause), and better direct the player.
-Entirely re-arted Map A opening section.
-Significant streamlining across the entire chapter to reduce length of backtracking and make the path clearer and easier to discern for players.
-Substantially improved performance throughout the chapter

Questionable Ethics
-Improved signposting in the lobby fight to make the origins of each wave clearer to players

Surface Tension
-Several major performance fixes and optimization tweaks throughout the chapter.
-Completely redesigned and re-arted Map A (dam map). Every combat encounter on the map was redesigned and the Apache fight was improved.
-Added structure to the end of map B to help guide the player better and highlight the exit
-Replaced all old HL2 rock models with new, beautiful models
-Foliage pass in many places across the chapter
-Moved around some cover and rocks in map C to help the player
-Fixed the Apache fight in map C to use proper health values and move between phases
-Implemented cinematic physics rocks at the end of the Apache fight in map C
-Reduced difficulty in the “whack a Gordon” section (removed some I/O logic that makes it so the Marines always know where you are) and improved player guidance
-Fixed bug in the “whack a Gordon” section where the tank would blow up a wall randomly for no reason, even after it had died
-Art pass on transition from map D → map E.
-Added a system to eject high velocity gibs when you kill the snipers
-Art pass on map E’s trip mine warehouse. Now with 200% more explosives!
-Reworked map F’s intro sequence so it’s more like you are coming into the middle of a conflict, rather than some Alien Grunts randomly standing around waiting to die
-Lighting / guidance improvements in map F’s bombed out building
-Door to the bathroom in map H will now close behind you so you can’t escape the Snark sequence just by backtracking

Forget About Freeman
-Redesigned map B big finale fight. Now features considerably more aerial action and a big bang for an opener!
-Re-arted the snarks devouring HECU scene to better reflect the prominence of the alien infestation throughout.
-Redesigned map B underground garage fight to more prominently highlight the aliens vs HECU aspect.

Lambda Core
-Substantially improved player signposting and direction across the 3 “hub-like” maps (C, D and E).
-Several guidance and path improvements to map C, particularly the main path by the huge turbine, to let player flow through easier.
-Significant optimizations across all Maps C, D, E, F and G. Performance should be drastically improved for all users.
-Several lighting improvements between maps D (orange map) and E (blue map), to better visually differentiate them and reduce player confusion.
-Simplified several paths around Map D and E to make navigating to your destination easier, and also massively simplify backtracking to map C.
-Multiple new dynamic lights across maps D and E to help guide the player better.
-Improved signposting on the Map G teleporter puzzle to make it feel less like trial-and-error. Burns now appear around each teleporter you’ve gone through, so you know which ones you’ve tried. The “right answer” teleporters gain a new sparkly particle effect once you’ve used them a first time, so it’s easier to remember.
-Overhauled Map I finale sequence before the teleport to Xen. You now no longer take falling damage (as previously intended), the combat is now centered entirely around controllers, and the core navigation of the arena has been rebuilt to facilitate better flow around the arena and serve as a light bit of long jump training.

Xen
-Added missing collisions to many props

Gonarch
-Fixed crash when you shoot Gonarch’s mortars (again)
-Fixed some logic in map B where the Gonarch could randomly be missing during the crystal cave sequence
-Fixed bug in map C where Gonarch wouldn’t show up for the final chase
-Added missing collisions to many props
-Re-balanced Gonarch AI for all the difficulty modes

Interloper
-Fixed bounce pads during chase in Map A1 to always put the player where they’re meant to go
-Fixed map D glass at the end of the elevator section sometimes not shattering
-Fixed transition bug at the end of map D so players will always transition at the end
-Fixed sucky vent in map D1 to fix a rare case where players could fall through it out of the world
-Added another layer of lasers to the bottom of D1 to prevent rare bug where players could fall out of the world

Nihilanth
-This was already perfect so we did not need to fix even a single thing on this ;)

Endgame
-Fixed tram door occasionally going missing for some players

Thanks. Hope everyone enjoys Black Mesa!


Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N
Mar 2, 2020
Black Mesa - [BMS] DIGITAL SPORTS
Hello again, fellow scientists! I bet you weren’t expecting to hear from us again so soon!

We’ve just pushed another update to the game based on feedback from yesterday’s beta. As with the previous beta, you can find the latest update on the public beta branch.

We found an issue with the update’s deployment which meant that certain maps weren’t updated when they should've been. This led to some bizarre issues (which were not present on our internal build) with rainbow/pitch black cliffs in Surface Tension map A, or Gonarch C being unbeatable. Those issues should be resolved now.

We have also deployed a few major UI and AI improvements.

As always, please let us know what you think! As with the previous beta, we are mostly on the look-out for game-breaking issues.

Here is a small changelog specific to just this new beta only. When 1.0 goes live on March 5th, we will post the full changelog for all of 1.0!

UI
  • Fixed bindings layout.
  • Fixed layout for new Video Options tooltips.
  • Fixed missing translations.
  • Fixed Engine crash with New UI on exiting the game.
  • Fixed sensitivity bug with the “Invert Mouse Look" option.
  • Fixed manual saves limit bug.

HECU
  • Removed old Combine code responsible for spontaneous rushing and other quirks.
  • Rushing now occurs less and is more dependent on distance. The HECU will tend to rush less now if they’re further away from you.
  • Fixed infinite looping of melee schedule. Now rather than standing there hitting you repeatedly, there is a 50% chance of retreating after each attack.
  • Added a new “Cat and Mouse” behavior which is used while in cover or holding assault points. This is much closer to how HL1’s Marines behaved and is more engaging to fight. If you attempt to approach their cover point, the HECU will now try to suppress you with "extreme force," while still remaining in cover. They will then immediately try to hide again after being exposed.
  • Fixed the LOS checks performed before firing. Now they are much less likely to accidentally shoot each other in hectic scenarios, as they will take into account their weapon LOS before each shot, rather than before bursts.
  • Fixed Grenadier with RPG running around for a while instead of focusing on firing. Now he should fire as soon as he finds an adequate position, with no delay.
  • Fixed rocket spawn position for Grenadier with RPG. It no longer shoots from just below his head anymore.
  • Increased suppression point query radius. This causes HECU suppression behavior (where they fire at your position when they can't see you) to occur more often and have a chance of covering a bigger area.
Mar 1, 2020
Black Mesa - [BMS] DIGITAL SPORTS
Hello again, Black Mesa friends!

We have pushed another build to public beta on Steam. This is the second revision to the 1.0 update, which will take us out of Early Access on March 5th! If you are interested in helping us test, we would greatly appreciate it. You can find instructions on how to opt into the beta here.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1711867920418803575

What’s in this Beta
Since the last beta, we have tackled any important issues that were raised by the community, along with eliminating the previously known issues list. Moving forward, we are most importantly looking for any major game-breakers or issues with the UI.

We also believe that all the achievements should now be fully working for everybody. Those of you who struggled to earn some achievements in the previous beta, please attempt to do so again. If you experience any further issues with them, let us know!

Known Issues
At this point, we have addressed most of the issues (if not all of them) with the game that we intend on fixing for 1.0. The goal of this beta is mostly to check that the game is fully functional and ready for the final release, start to finish. Please let us know if you run into anything major.

Thank You!
Most importantly, a big thank you to everyone who helped us test this beta, and all the betas thus far. Your feedback was invaluable and we have absolutely loved pouring through your notes and thoughts!

The previously mentioned MASSIVE 1.0 changelog will be shared with you all once we have set 1.0 to the main branch on Steam, so those of you who would love to devour every little detail will be able to do so.

PAX East
Finally, we are currently at PAX East! In case you didn’t see our last update on this, please check it out here:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1716372156954041181
If you’re at the convention, please stop by Booth 24081 and check us out, have a chat, and play our demo! We’re having an absolute blast so far!



Thank you, and have a very safe and productive day. See you all for the 1.0 RELEASE on March 5th!
Feb 24, 2020
Black Mesa - [BMS] Adam-Bomb


In March 2006, two of my college classmates got onto the Black Mesa mod team. I applied as an artist, and they more or less vouched for me. The team “hired” me without even completing an art test. From there I became the art lead, a partner in the new “Crowbar Collective LLC”, project lead, and eventually owner of the company.

As I write this, I am realizing that we plan to FINISH Black Mesa exactly 14 years to the month from when I first joined the team. 14 years working on a single project, with a dedicated team, that had a vision, and saw it through.

There are probably a fair number of people who if you asked them “Do you want to own a video game company?”, would say “Yes! Absolutely. Whatever it takes!”, but it is easy to commit to something when it is guaranteed. If instead in 2006 someone said to me “This will be difficult. You will consider quitting multiple times, and it is going to take you at least 14 years to complete.” I am not sure I would have signed up for that.

Who would have blamed me if I didn’t? For the majority of its development, Black Mesa was a volunteer project. Even after we got the green light to sell the game, we still did not make any money until late June of 2015.

I have heard “you should never work for free”, and I really couldn’t disagree with that more. I did multiple free side projects in college that either eventually paid off, or got me connections I otherwise would not have had. I learned communication and leadership skills in my volunteer fire department. I got my first game industry job because of my free work on Black Mesa, and then after a round of layoffs, my job BECAME Black Mesa. The thing that was supposed to be a portfolio piece to launch my career, became my career, and I would not have been in that position if I didn’t commit to the work as a volunteer.

The key to doing work for free is it has to be important to you AND it has to be important to other people. For Black Mesa, the quality of the source material, and the excitement of the community when we would post even the smallest amount of media is what kept us going.

The fact is, all roads are long roads. If you fear that, you’ll shy away from choosing the one that excites you most, and has the biggest reward. Not everyone is going to have reliable friends to pull them onto projects, not everyone is going to have the opportunity to own a video game company, but if there is something you want to accomplish there’s nothing left to do, but to do it. You can not win the game if you don’t play.

Through luck, hard work, and maybe a bit of ignorance we didn’t shy away from our goal of bringing this game to completion. We are proud of what we built. We think this upcoming 1.0 release is the best, most polished, and most fun version of the game yet. The anticipation and excitement around our project is beyond flattering.

Black Mesa is a video game, it is our video game, and it has its strengths, and its flaws. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned” and while we plan to fully support this game after 1.0 with bug fixes and more, it will never be a perfect game.

This is not to downplay, or make excuses, but as the person who drafts most of these media posts, I think it is important to break away from the marketing and the “hype”. Before Astroneer launched, they made a blog post about managing expectations for their game, and it really resonated with me, and inspired me to someday write a post like this one. We are super excited to have Black Mesa be “complete”, but acknowledge it is not perfect and won’t ever be perfect.

I hope that everyone has something that inspires them as much as Half-Life inspired us. I hope that everyone embraces the setbacks and challenges that come, and I hope no one fears the long road in front of them.

Black Mesa 1.0 will launch Thursday March 5th on Steam.

Thank you,
-Adam Engels
-The Black Mesa team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/
Black Mesa - [BMS] Adam-Bomb


Crowbar Collective and Black Mesa will be at https://east.paxsite.com/, booth 24081, located on the map below (and be sure to check out the super handy app):


The expo will be from February 27th to March 1st and there are still some passes available. Come say "hi" to some of the team, check out the game, take a picture in the HEV suit, and get some free stickers (if we have any left)!


This is our first big convention, and we are excited to see everyone, and experience PAX for ourselves.

We plan to have more information for everyone about the game in the next few days.

Hope to see you there!

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N
Black Mesa - [BMS] Adam-Bomb
Hello Black Mesa friends,

We have pushed a build to public-beta on Steam. This is our candidate for our release out of Early Access! If you are interested in helping us test, we would greatly appreciate it. You can find instructions on how to opt into the beta here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1724246478625804044



What We Are Looking For
Most importantly, game breakers. We obviously want the 1.0 experience to be as smooth and enjoyable as possible, so if you find any crashes or progression blockers, please let us know so we can fix it. The game has been very stable during our internal testing, but we need to test on a wider set of players and machines.

We are also looking for difficulty spikes. Throughout all of earthbound we rebuilt combat spaces and upgraded the AI of the HECU and Vortigaunts. We think this dramatically improves the combat in the game. Let us know what you think, and let us know if there is a section that feels too hard.

In addition to redesigning the combat spaces, we took time to make sure the player path is as clear as possible. Let us know if you find any part of the game unclear. We still have some sections of the game that make you stop and think, but we made a huge effort to keep the player’s momentum up throughout the game.

Lastly, we need help testing the achievements. We now have 50 total achievements, so if you have trouble completing one, let us know on the Steam forums or Discord.



Known Issues
As you’d expect with any 1.0 release, we worked to have the most stable and complete game possible. We think the main game is solid, but we do have another patch on the way to fix what is found in the beta, and to finish off the new game user interface. Here are some quick notes on what you might find broken in the game:

User Interface
-The new UI can’t launch MP listen servers
-Workshop section of new UI is not working
-The Xen maps do not display the correct chapter title for save files
-The godray setting will not save in the settings menu
-The new UI occasionally flickers
-Manual saves show a screenshot of the UI, not the game
-The developer console needs some polish
-Searching for games online takes too long
-Other misc UI errors

If you need to use the old UI for any reason, launch the game with -oldgameui.

Besides that, we don’t expect much wrong with the game. As always, we want to hear about everything you find, but we will be focusing on the issues listed in the section above for 1.0.

We will be back soon with a MASSIVE change list that details the entirety of the 1.0 update!

Thank you, and have a very safe and productive day.



Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N
Jan 25, 2020
Black Mesa - [BMS] Adam-Bomb


Happy Lunar New Year from the Black Mesa team!

We wanted to let everyone know we are close to having a release candidate for Black Mesa 1.0! We also wanted to give an update on what is going to be included in the full release, what our road map looks like going forward, and to mention we are 20% off for the Lunar Sale.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

Beta for 1.0
As soon as it is ready, we will push the build to public beta like we have in the past. After lots of internal and external testing, we will patch the build as needed, and finally, FINALLY (FINALLY!!!) release Black Mesa out of Early Access!

This is a huge deal for us. The team has put in a ton of effort to improve the game in ways big and small.

1.0 Preview
The biggest change we have made is a complete overhaul of the HECU AI. Soldiers will now lay down suppressing fire, flank your position, communicate more, throw grenades more effectively, use their MP5 grenade launchers, and more.

We have also evaluated and changed a number of the combat spaces to better utilize the AI and to reflect what we have learned since we first built Earthbound. It has been a lot of fun redesigning areas of the game to work better, and to use “creativity through constraint” to make the most of our levels without completely rebuilding them.

The team watched a number of playthroughs and identified sections in the game where the pace came to a grinding halt. We redesigned or fixed these sections so that players can keep up their momentum.

In addition to the design, we evaluated the art as well. We took what we learned in Xen and updated A FEW sections of Earthbound to better match Xen and current graphics standards.





We will fully support the game after our launch, and plan to expand upon this process to give the whole game an upgrade while keeping the performance the same.

Road Map
1.0
As mentioned above, we are close to a release candidate for Black Mesa 1.0. We will test the whole game internally, push the build to public-beta for even more testing, patch the build if necessary, then release the game in full.

1.5
We jokingly call this Black Mesa: Definitive Edition, but don’t worry, it will not be any type of re-release or paid content. After 1.0 we will take a few months to go through the game, identify rough spots, and polish the art on Earth and Xen. We’d also like to continue to improve the workshop and organize team and community events to document as much as we can about the Source engine and how to best use it. We don’t have a scope for these events yet, but after years of loving/hating/fixing/breaking the Source engine, we would love to help others get information and solve problems.

Thanks Again
We like to sign off these updates by thanking the community, but know they are not canned lines or something we tack on to look grateful. We are really proud to have been able to finish this game, and it would not have been possible without our patient and helpful community. I don’t think it has fully set in that we are almost “done” with Black Mesa. We REALLY look forward to some low-pressure fun updates for this game, as well as starting in on new projects.

Thank you for the support, thank you for the constructive criticism, and thank you for all the time spent in our game. We will be back soon with release notes and a beta!

-The Black Mesa Team

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N
Black Mesa - [BMS] Adam-Bomb


Happy Holidays! Did you remember to get your Steam tokens and cards today?

Xen is OUT, Black Mesa is on sale for 20% off, lots of other great games are discounted, and I am sure everyone has caught up on their gaming backlog in anticipation of the Steam Holiday event, right?

Yeah, neither have we...

Xen is OUT!
We have pushed a major patch to the Xen levels and released the full game on Steam “mainline”. This means you can play a polished and tested version of all Black Mesa without having to switch into public-beta. If you have been holding out for Xen, this is what you have been waiting for!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

With this update, we not only bring the beta over to mainline, but also implement feedback to refine the difficulty, increase player guidance, fix bugs, as well as increase performance throughout the Interloper chapter. See the detailed change list below.

The game is still in Early Access (EA), so that we can get even more data and bug reports from a wider set of players and machines. We will be watching people play the game and listening to how we can further improve the game for the next big update to take us out of Early Access. In addition to polishing the levels, we want to look at the game as a whole before switching out of Early Access.

Note: It is extremely likely that workshop mods will currently break the game in strange and unexpected ways. During the beta we noticed odd issues caused by seemingly unrelated mods, such as players’ long jump modules not jumping them far enough. If you are experiencing strange issues with your game, try unsubscribing from all your workshop mods. This may resolve some issues. In the future this will hopefully be less of a problem, as workshop modders update their mods to work properly with the latest version of our engine/game.

Road Map
With the Xen levels complete, we have got a lot of questions about what is next for ‘Mesa. Here are our current plans. Keep in mind these are our plans; they can change based on new priorities and new data.

0.91 and Achievements
There may be more bugs found as the game gets played by a wider audience. We will fix any major bugs as they come up, and also implement any small quality of life changes for the levels. We have a new set of achievements that are ready to be implemented for the Xen levels. We would like to release both of these as soon as possible, but if no major issues are found right away, we may roll these fixes and achievements into the 1.0 release.

1.0 Release
We will do a thorough review of the game’s systems and levels to work out any bugs and broken bits for our release out of EA. This includes:
  • A Multiplayer Pass. There will not be any features added to MP for 1.0, but we do need to make sure all the current features are working and work well.

  • An AI Pass. The alien AI between Earthbound and Xen is completely different. We want to evaluate if it can be ported back into Earth without breaking the gameplay balance. We also want to look at the HECU Marines and make sure they are using all their features, and see about reining in some bad behaviour.

  • Workshop Pass. We would love to utilize the workshop for our own experiments and to see what the community can do with our assets and tools. The first step in this will be making sure all the workshop systems are working properly and improve usability.

  • Bug fixes and refinements to the entirety of the game. With Xen, Gordon’s adventure clocks in around 15 hours. We want to make sure there are no major sticking points, and that everyone has the best Black Mesa experience they possibly can.

Earthbound Update
After the game leaves EA, we would like to go through and touch up Earthbound to make sure we are using all our new graphical features, improve gameplay, and try and make the whole game feel cohesive. We jokingly call this the “Black Mesa: Definitive Edition” but the scope will be fairly small. We want to add a couple of gameplay improvements based on what we have learned over the years, and add a couple of visual improvements now that we have a lot more experience making natural structures using Wallworm. A major goal of this update would be to add these changes without drastically affecting performance.

0.9 Change Log
We took in A LOT of feedback from the last beta, and worked hard to get some major improvements to performance in Interloper and other chapters. Here is a comprehensive list of what we have changed and improved in this update.

Thanks as always! The betas have been more valuable they we ever thought possible!

Build Changes
  • Fix for static / screeching sounds - rebuilt the soundcache. Please let us know if this does not resolve issues with static / screeching sounds for you. We think this fix should resolve the issues for everyone but we need reports to know for sure.
  • Fixed Interloper / Nihilanth / Endgame not unlocking correctly.
  • Fixed missing song in On a Rail. This was a bug and not an intentional choice!
  • Fix for the Rare Specimen achievement not triggering in Lambda Core.
  • Fixed some Vort sounds. They were not being properly positioned by the engine, so now will play correct positional sound.
  • Optimized sound code for Controller energy ball attack. Helps with performance, especially when lots of Controllers are attacking you.
  • Fixed "Always Run" (again!)
  • The player will no longer drop items if they are holding them and walk onto a bouncepad. This helps with the purple hat!
  • Fixed incorrectly written / formatted names in Credits. Tidied up some elements of the credits in general.
  • Fixed Sound Effect and Music volume sliders. You can now turn down or up sound effects and music independently. Also added a Master Volume slider that controls overall volume.
  • Last, I am the last...

Gonarch’s Lair
  • Fixed map B mortar related crash. Also fixed crash related to shooting the gonarch mortar in mid air.
  • Reduced Gonarch’s health in the final battle. Health reduced from 3300 → 3000, meaning it now requires 3 less rockets to kill him.
  • Fixed basalt columns in the final fight. There was a bug where the basalt columns in the Gonarch final fight would either deal far too much damage or even one-shot the player.
  • Updated Gonarch death sequence for higher impact.
  • Re-balanced Gonarch final fight on hard difficulty.
  • Fixed incorrect web texture in map C chase. There was a breakable web texture on an unbreakable web which was causing a lot of players to die during the map C chase, because they thought they could go down a route which they actually couldn’t.
  • Various visual and lighting improvements throughout the chapter.
  • Soundscape improvements throughout the chapter for better blending.
  • Fixed RPG colliding with acid mortar fire in Gonarch’s Lair final fight.

Interloper
  • General optimisations throughout all Interloper maps. This should improve general performance for everyone.
  • Optimized dynamic light settings throughout all Interloper maps. This should improve performance, particularly on lower end systems. In some places this has improved performance quite a lot.
  • Fixed the “no free edicts” crash in map D.
  • Split maps C and D for significant performance gains (10 - 20 fps) on CPU bottlenecked systems. No extra content has been added. Map names used to be Interloper C, C1 and Interloper D. Maps are now Interloper C, C1, C2 and Interloper D, D1.
  • Fixed map A crash.
  • Lighting, player guidance, and pathing improvements across all Interloper maps.
  • Significantly re-balanced elevator fight throughout map D. The fight now starts much slower/easier and ramps up throughout. Controller spawns are much more spaced out, and the dynamic cover system on the elevator has been significantly tweaked to provide much more cover for the player, and variance in where the player is covered from. You now only face a full-on 360 assault of controllers during the final “pull-down” sequence. Otherwise you’ll always have cover.
  • Fixed Controller telekinesis explosive barrels sometimes one-shotting or dealing massive damage to players, and significantly reduced their damage. Changed these barrels from 120 explosive damage + uncapped impact damage (physics) to 45 explosive damage with no impact damage.
  • Many visual and lighting improvements throughout map D.
  • Reduced panel health in elevator fight in map D. All panels should be a bit easier to break now, reducing the amount of time you spend at the “final” stop.
  • Removed cover barriers in the middle of elevator in map D. This makes it easier to path freely around the elevator without getting stuck now.
  • Fixed many spots in map D elevator fight where you could get crushed against walls, killing you for no reason. A lot of players died to this, as there were multiple causes. We have resolved most of these now.
  • Fixed a bug in map D elevator fight where some Controllers could use electrocluster attack. They were not meant to, and this made the fight harder than it was supposed to be, as the electrocluster attack significantly limits your movement.
  • Reduced panel playertouch damage in map D elevator fight. Previously, if one of the spinning panels touched the player, it would break and deal 20 damage. This has now been reduced to 10 damage. This makes the spinny panels more forgiving if you fall into them.
  • Added sirens to closed ceiling doors in map D elevator fight. This should help make players more aware that getting crushed against the ceiling is potentially imminent.
  • Fixed elevator visibly clipping through surrounding geometry.
  • Fixed player clipping in/out of massive healing pool in map D1. It was very hard to climb in/out of the pool, it is now buttery smooth. And there is also now a mega HEV crystal in the middle. This replaces an old (and redundant) healing shower slightly earlier in the level.
  • Fixed some floating props in map D1.
  • Made the parkour pistons alternate in map D1. This makes it a bit easier to climb up if you missed one “upward” timing.
  • Adjusted island positioning on tower top sequence in map D1. This makes it take a little bit longer to get to the tower top from the starting island (giving the sequence a bit more length and pacing), and is also easier to jump around than before.
  • Many visual improvements and tweaks to the tower top sequence in map D1.
  • Split map C1 (conveyor sprint) song. The song is now in 3 parts, so players cannot end up doing the 2nd half of the conveyor sprint with no music playing.
  • Made the map C forcefield hearts glow. We had a bug where these did not glow, so were not attracting player attention as much as they should. This will make them easier to see and understand now.
  • Made map C ledge drop down before machine 3 more clear. We noticed a lot of people got confused here so we removed the top platform.
  • Reduced length of Vort Village intro sequence. Removed an unnecessary wave animation that one of the Vorts does in the introductory sequence, to reduce the amount of time the player has to stand around watching them.
  • Fixed many map skips across the entire chapter. It’s a bit harder now to break maps by totally skipping certain sections or doing some clever jumping.
  • Removed a few illogical healing showers in certain parts of the maps.
  • Fixed broken hologram screens on map B.
  • Fixed lots of pod pile ups across map C. This can also help performance by preventing pods from building up (they are performance hungry).
  • In map B, Vorts will now fear you and run away if you attack them unprovoked.
  • Potentially fixed gibs floating above water in map B2.
  • Fixed B1 first control room controllers that did not attack the player.

Nihilanth
  • Fixed Nihilanth voice lines. There was a bug where in Phase 1 he would only use his lines where he tells the player to die.
  • Fixed Nihilanth shield panels (phase 2) not breaking in 1 RPG hit.
  • Fixed Nihilanth song. Increased its volume and stopped it from pausing mid-song.
  • Fixed collision of healing crystals not recessing into ground when crystals do.
  • Nihilanth now has 50% damage resistance in phase 3 scripted intro, so that players cannot cut his health down too far and shorten Phase 3.
  • Disabled the radioactive trigger_hurt when the player gets pulled into Nihilanth at the end of the fight. This fixes a rare bug where players can die after killing Nihilanth.
  • Sped up the final teleport out at the end of the Nihilanth fight. Should make it less likely that players will clip into Nihilanth.
  • Increased effectiveness of Gluon against spinning panels for shield pylon. The Gluon was too ineffective against the shield pylon panels, which didn’t play well considering we taught the player to use the Gluon against these in Interloper. The Gluon now does 1.5x damage against the panels.
  • Buffed Nihilanth mortar attack. Damage is the same, but falloff is reduced significantly, so the player will feel the effect of higher damage if they are stood on the edge of the attack.
  • Buffed Nihilanth energy balls attack. From 8 damage at all phases to 12 damage in phase 1 / phase 2, and 20 damage in phase 3.
  • Buffed Nihilanth telekinesis attack. Doubled speed at which he throws his projectiles at you.
  • Re-balanced Nihilanth fight on hard difficulty. The fight should provide much more of a challenge now on hard difficulty.
  • Fixed glitched clavicle on Nihilanth death animation.

Endgame
  • Fixed being able to fall out of the tram.
  • Fixed a bug where the player could move around inside the invisible room and cause issues during the good ending.
  • Added teeth shader to gbuffer. This fixes the issue where G-Man’s teeth were rendering in black.

Known Issues
  • Minor exploits and collision bugs. The community has done a great job finding exploits and collision issues. We will be fixing these with the next major update.
  • Glowing pink and green props. Some PCs have a small number glowing props. We hope to have this corrected with a hotfix (requires map recompiles).
  • Saving holding items is broken. If you save while holding a physics object, when you load that save the object will float in air. We also hope to address this in a hotfix soon.
  • Multi colored NPC teeth. The fix above for the teeth being completely black, may cause them to be rainbow colored on some machines. We will investigate.

Hope you enjoy!
-Crowbar Collective

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N
Black Mesa - [BMS] Adam-Bomb


From Start to Finish
The whole of Black Mesa, from beginning to end, is available on “public-beta”. Check out the known issues below, and give it a go! We are so pumped to have this out. We appreciate the feedback from the community; as we said before, it has proved invaluable.

How to Opt Into the Beta
-Select “Black Mesa” in your library
-Right click and go to properties

-Select the “BETAS” tab at the top right
-Click the drop down and select “public-beta”


Beta Release Notes
-Added Interloper C, Interloper C1, Interloper D, Nihilath boss battle, Endgame
-Changed grenade aim point to be center screen for easier aiming
-Fixed sprint animation playing while swimming
-Fixed shotgun misfire after reloading
-Fixed RPG unguided mode in Earth levels
-Fixed having to press “shift” after each level load with “Always Run” enabled

-Tons of small changes and fixes to the “Xen chapter”
-Fixed Nihilanth intro model
-Fixed most area portals rendering black
-Fixed leaf sounds, and ability of certain objects to fall through them
-Fixed cave long jump in Xen B to be more forgiving
-Fixed houndeye path kill brush in Xen B1
-Key lit bullsquids on bullsquid path
-Minor improvements to art and guidance at end of Xen B1
-Fixed missing sun lens flare in Xen C
-Fixed missing sun lens flare in Xen C1
-Fixed players being able to skip puzzle in Xen C1
-Fixed third plug puzzle so that short cord can not be used in long cords place

-Tons of small changes and fixes to the “Gonarch’s Lair” chapter
-Fixed some lids not blowing off in Gonarch A
-Fixed crashes when player jumps on physics objects (like the rock columns in Gonarch)
-Fixed hard transition from Gonarch A to Gonarch B
-Improved player guidance
-Added red lights to all fumers to better highlight them
-Added “gate” on second ledge before crystal cave so that player can not back track, and soft lock the game
-Increased frame rate in crystal cave
-Improved fire trap
-Put explosive barrels next to each crystal in water cave to better explain gameplay element
-Removed fire from Gonarch final fight
-Lowered Gonarch green fire damage and screen shake

-Tons of small changes and fixes to the already released Interloper maps
-Remove first tentacle that could easily block player path
-Fixed model darkening at start of Interloper A
-Improved player guidance
-Removed phys objects that were on player path
-Small art fixes
-Made long jump path clearer and easier at end of Interloper A
-FIXED CRASH IN INTERLOPER A!
-Better key lighting for player path in Interloper A1
-Fixed most of the water seams in Interloper A1
-Minor art and bug fixes in Interloper B
-Better player guidance in Interloper B
-Fixed players skipping mechanic intro and breaking area portals at start of Interloper B1
-Improved player guidance in Interloper B1
-Minor art and collision fixes to B2
-Interloper B2 no longer fades to black at the end of the level ;)

Known Issues
Overall Difficulty. We suspect some parts might be too hard or too easy. We’ll be watching play throughs and taking feedback to find these issues and fix them.

Performance. We have improved performance across the game, and targeted specific areas to increase the frame rate on all machines. Even with these fixes, there are still some areas we want to improve. For now, don't be afraid to lower your settings if you are getting low frames.

Factory Breaks. We are guessing players will be able to find creative ways to break the factory maps. We don’t expect any of them to be full blockers, but we are anxious to see what players can do to these complex setups, and how we can mitigate issues.


So it is finally out, on beta, for everyone to play. We hope you enjoy it. We will be watching.

Thank you!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N
Black Mesa - [BMS] Adam-Bomb

Happy December!

We've been murdering ourselves to get the Complete Black Mesa Beta out to everyone. We are really proud of what we have built, but there are still some rough edges we hope to smooth out. Like before, we wanted to mention some known issues, but first just some of the fixes we’ve implemented:

Notable Fixes
-Full pass on Xen and Gonarch levels for bugs and player guidance
-Fixed crash when player jumps on physics objects
-Fixed most crashes in the first map of Interloper
-Changed grenade aim point to be center screen for easier aiming
-Fixed sprint animation playing while swimming
-Fixed shotgun misfire after reloading
-Fixed RPG unguided mode in Earth levels
-Fixed having to press “shift” after each level load with “Always Run” enabled

Known Issues
Achievements. There has not yet been a second achievement pass. The team has a list to implement, and we would like to open it up to the community to crowd source ideas that we might not have otherwise thought of.

Performance. We have improved performance across the game, and targeted specific areas to increase the frame rate on all machines. Even with these fixes, there are still some areas we want to improve. For now, don't be afraid to lower your settings if you are getting low frames.

Floating Ragdoll Bodies. The NPCs still float in the air after dying in some sections. We’ve implemented some fixes, but they can still float from time to time.

Options Menu. Some options are being stored incorrectly. We will continue to make sure the settings work correctly on the new UI. The new UI will now be a focus for a post-beta update.

Factory Breaks. We are guessing players will be able to find creative ways to break the factory maps. We don’t expect any of them to be full blockers, but we are anxious to see what players can do to these complex setups, and how we can mitigate issues.

These are some of the fixes and known issues we have in the upcoming beta. Get ready to play the finale to Black Mesa. It’s been a long road, but we are so close. We’ll be back very soon™ with a release post!

Thank you to our community. Your support and testing has proved invaluable.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N
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