Half-Life 2: After-Life | Update 1 - Building A Foundation

PepicWalrus

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Building A Foundation

Introduction

Hey everyone It’s Pepic! Welcome to the first progress report on Project After-Life. It has been some time since our initial announcement back on July 23rd. Moving forward we will be looking to get progress reports out around the end of each month to keep you in the know on how we are doing. We have many topics to talk about and some stuff to show off!

Meet The Team

During the month of August and onward we have assembled our initial team. Please welcome our initial team who are helping out with the project! Also special shoutout to @90spiderbros who has done the artwork for this thread and created a custom Half-Life inspired font for our usage! Definitely hit them up if you are interested in a commission.


SERVER DIRECTOR
@Raiden
@PepicWalrus

DEVELOPMENT
@Aspect™

SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR ACCESS

@Revanox -
@Toriwarior30055 -
@Ricsow

ADMINISTRATOR ACCESS
@Vaz
@Provingmedusa
@Gyarik
@A. Vaher
@SmoothAsMilk
@MaXenzie
@WstStranger
@NiGHT
@Braders

Lore Team
@deathwolf

Artist
@90spiderbros

Gameplay Systems

In our initial announcement we gave brief explanations on the kinds of gameplay systems we wish to add, over the last couple months we have planned out more and have more to share and to ask your thoughts on.

When you begin in After-Life you'll be met with our character creation screen that begins with selecting one of our available species.

We have three species locked in for launch that being Humans, Vortigaunts, and Transhumans. I am also hoping to get Xenian Grunts as a playable race for launch but that is tentative at the moment. Additional species are being considered such as Alien Controllers, & Shock Troopers as possible post release playable species.

Once you make your selection each species will have an array of origins to choose from, these can be considered a loose backstory for where your character has come from and each will have unique traits tied to them. These origins are broad / vague enough to fit a variety of different stories.

Once you have selected your origin you will be taken to a page with multiple tabs to actually build your character.

The first being where you choose your model, and define your character's sex if applicable.

The second will be your information page. Here you'll input your name, height, birth date(Vortigaunts choose generation), pronouns, and your basic description.

After this you will build your character sheet. Assigning your stats, skills, and traits. This is tied into our S2RP system which we go into further below. One thing we are aiming for is that you will not be grinding skills/levels/xp. Stats wise your character will not change much outside of character creation beyond perhaps special events that might reward traits or if something major happens to a character. The idea with character creation is that it’s flexible enough to build your character in a way that you want to while being different then the way someone else may build theirs.

One thing I wish to avoid is the current stat system we have where one person is just mechanically better by simple means. Here a new player will be mostly on par with a long-time player beyond earning some improvements through actual participation in roleplay that has a large impact on a character.

Progression will primarily come from the gear that will primarily be crafted by the community. Between wearables, gear, and augments just to name a few possibilities. We go into crafting next after this.

Once you have built your character mechanically you will then get to select your starting kit. Instead of just starting with a random selection of clothing, and a suitcase like in times past you will get to choose from a selection of items what you start with. The items offered will differ based on species and origin.

Then you will get a summary screen to review everything, and finally enter the After-Life!

Please give us ideas for traits and skills you'd like to see

We’ve been planning out our crafting system more and I have become quite familiar in the last couple months with Foxholes logistic systems and Star Citizen has also recently revealed their plans for crafting. These two have been my primary inspiration so far for what we want from our crafting system which will be Logi Lite. These systems are of course designed for a much larger scale environment which is where the Lite aspect comes in.

Player Economy and Crafting will be tied together, while we running the server will be able to ensure it continues on if things lag behind in certain parts to avoid bottlenecks.

The core loop will be gathering raw materials - taking them to the appropriate facility to be refined - taking the refined materials to the appropriate station to be crafted into components - Using those components to craft. We will be adding a system that will allow the creation of automated resource nodes.

Rather than scripts randomly popping up across the map resources will be in predefined locations. Perhaps you go to a scrap yard for metal, or a forest for wood. This will allow people to have contested zones over these resource points, to try and control them, and fight over them.

These resources then have to be taken to the right facilities and not everyone might have immediate access to a specific station they need. Part of the logistics system will be that it’s gonna be very hard to have full control over every crafting station we’ll have. Meaning you’ll have to interact with other characters, or groups who may have control or access to them. Perhaps there’s a company you can just pay to do it to smelt your metal, or perhaps you need to take more drastic measures. These types of places will also be Points Of Interest that can be fought over, or destroyed if you want to halt someone's industry.

After you have all the needed components to craft the item you want and the appropriate crafting station here’s how our item crafting will work. You will have the base recipe, let's say we’re crafting a pistol. The base recipe will produce a stock pistol and any pistol of the same type will have the same statistics.
On top of the base recipe there will be a modification slot and using different materials in this slot will modify the statistics of the item with both pros and cons. For example, say you use aluminum as a modifier, maybe the item weighs less but also has reduced durability, versus titanium which increases the weight and durability of the item.

After this will also be the ‘catalyst’ slot which is where exotic materials come into play. Some items may require exotic materials to make like high end gear but on top of this they can be used as a catalyst which will add a unique property to the item like damage types, resistances, ect. Say you use a Dark Matter Core as a catalyst perhaps it makes any weapon into a pulse based weapon and in turn you could make armor resistant to pulse based weaponry.

Food as well on the inverse of the item tree say you use a drug your modifier can make the foods better or worse or as a catalyst say you use a drug and spike the food and then eating that will apply the drugged effect such as say, poison?

To finish this off we also intend to also allow unique descriptions to be added to every craftable item. So you can describe what your weapon, clothing, food, ect looks like. Equipped items even showing up on the examine screen which we’ll go into later on.

Here is a list of examples of different crafting materials

Grades: Natural, Refined, Components, Exotic

Natural: Wood, Metal, Stone, Coal, Oil

Refined: Alloy, Planks, Bricks, Gunpowder

Components: Wires, Circuits, LEDs, Batteries

Exotic: Dark Matter, Gemstones, Xenian Material

Schematics will be a way people who lack the relevant crafting skills can still produce items. Schematics will be datashards they can get from crafters and slotted into the fabrication stations to produce the items they want. However schematics are of limited use and will corrupt over time requiring you to go to the crafters again. This means those with the skill can craft freely while those who don’t can still craft what they need but are limited in use and come from crafters creating a cycle of dependency.

We plan to have a mechanicalized S2RP system that these will come into play with while also having purposes outside of S2RP in general play.

You will have 5 stats that you distribute your points across. These stats will range from 1-10 with each point in a stat giving a perk/mechanical benefit. Each species will have 5 points assigned already in different ways based on what origin you choose for that species. Then you will have 30 points to distribute as you wish for a total of 35 points.

The five stats are Body, Reflex, Mind, Willpower, and Wits. These are some of your more traditional RPG stats crunched into a smaller selection.

Body represents both strength, and endurance. How much damage you can take, and how strong you are.

Reflex represents your agility, and precision. How much stamina do you have and how accurate you are.,

Mind represents your intelligence, and ingenuity. How good of a crafter are you? How well can you handle machines?

Willpower represents your empathy, and resolve. How fortified your mind is, and how connected you are to those around you and yourself. The Vortessence draws heavily upon this aspect.

Wits represents your perception, and composure. How charismatic you are, and how well you perceive others intentions.

Here is an example using Body. Let's say for each point you put in body for the first few give additional health, and additional carrying capacity up to 5 and then beyond that you start getting additional perks. Like say at Body 8 you get the /doorkick ability and at 10 you get to choose a resistance to a specific damage type.

Each of these stats will have an array of skills attached to them you’ll put further points into. These are how good you are at general things and will have commands to let you trigger rolls for those skills easily.

We will be using a D10 roll system with exploding and imploding dice. This means rolls will be 1d10+Stat+skill. Rolling a 10 will mean an additional 1d10 is rolled and added to the equation. Rolling a 1 means an additional 1d10 is rolled and subtracted from the equation.

Political players will shape the direction the world heads. We plan to start off in a mostly neutral middle of the road place with the ideals that shaped the society but generally freeing. There will be laws that our political players can change, enact new ones, or remove them all together.

At the beginning of the server the old council will be off screen. There will be no change for the first 2-4 weeks (subject to change) this is for two reasons with the first being it'll let the community get a feel for the world we're making and the setting as a whole.

And it is so during those first few weeks our political characters can form their political parties and create campaigns as we build to a major election to establish the new council voted upon by the population. We go into the society structure and statues below in the lore section.

The Populus Council has seven members in an oligarchy style governance. Among the seven one will also be voted as First Citizen who leads the council as a whole voted for internally by the council and the elite citizenship of the Populus.

We want these elected members to have true power to shape the society everyone plays in. Controlling sections of society, distributing resources, deciding what issues are focused upon by the government and what isn't.

We plan to expand the examination system. When you examine someone you'll get a screen that shows their body, their visibly equipped items, and their detailed description.

You will then be able to describe individual limbs which will be considered ‘bare’ I.E what that part of you looks like without anything covering it. When you equip something and that limb is moused over then it would then display the description of that clothing item.

On that note we are wanting to allow the ability to describe -any- item you craft. Weapons, Tools, Clothing, Food, even vehicles maybe? We will always be limited by models no matter how many we add. This expansion of being able to describe yourself, what you wear, and what you wield will allow for even greater expression of your character.

We can also expand this to other things, say you get a cybernetic arm? Then whatever description you had before that would be replaced automatically by the description of the installed cyberlimb. Say you get a tattoo we can add a tattoo gun that will let people inscribe them to your body, displaying in the color(s) used. The opportunity for expression will be great.

With this I’d also like to change the way people are examined beyond just walking up into someone's face and holding E. At the moment I am thinking the best way will be just making it a command and you look at someone. So you look at someone and /examine (or a keybind) and the box will pop up allowing you to look over their descriptions. This would be limited by range however things like scopes or binoculars could extend that range, and perhaps types of scanners can play into this to allow the viewing of peoples medical status, augments, concealed items, ect.

Notebook
The /notes command will be expanded into a notebook. Allowing for different pages to be made, labeled, and organized. Possibly even share them with other players / transcribe things onto paper you possess.

Lore Page
A dedicated in-game tab will be added that the staff team can manage, creating an in-game overview of the world's lore, and post about current developments that have happened in major events for the server. That way people who are just joining us, or returning from hiatus can be kept up to date without needing to go through different forum posts.

Enhanced Expression
We will also be allowing people to choose the font in which their speaking messages will display with. You'll choose from a font offered from a list. When you type normally your text will then display in this message, or if it's a /me and you include quotation marks around a message it'll convert it like italics. There will be a selection for everyone, and premium will expand the listed offers.

Example:
Player has Times New Roman selected as their speaking font so it would display as this.

/me folds his arms and says "Mighty fine day we're having."

[Name] folds his arms and says "Mighty fine day we're having."

Development Showcase

Aspects has also been working on the UI, and has gotten it to the point as seen in the concept made by @boots! For now this is what we have gotten done development wise. Aspects has had to pause development this last month due to real life affairs however has recently returned and will be starting development again! An ad is also going out and we will be looking to pick up a second developer. I want to express that we will be taking our time to get the core development needed before launching which are the things discussed primarily in this report. At the current rate it will be into 2025 before we start looking at launching. But we will also be doing tests before launch.

Concept
AD_4nXcE7SarHrgScaYFICKxxkBS-ggL4IFI5G7i1ZNsa-g1m9QhdwCvqBVq-NrMoS6d4wwqIEek_aeGA1SSGrEzl_sBXuZA2dBFW-YGqNmkyc9OzS-EteDn66rXGNtQutV7jSfZlCn3kIIED6aYrb10zHNxWxQ

in-game



We also have a custom font inspired by the Half-Life 2 font for our usage.
dhxD9tT.png



Want to keep up to date? We also now have a YouTube!

Lore

We also have been working on developing the world so when we launch a rich history will be ready to go, dig into, and pull from. A cohesive Lore Guide with all the hard facts of the universe is in the works to act as a jumping off point for peoples writings but here is some further insight.

The world as we knew it is gone, country lines erased.. in the wake of the Race X Incursion in the later half of the war A combined effort made from Lambda and the many different groups that fought for freedom, the remnants of Civil Protection, and Transhuman Collectives, Vortigaunts, and Xenian forces all came together An alliance to take down the Geneworm forming into a treaty and with this the Combine as a whole ceased to be. The Advisors receding into the shadows.

That alliance became a treaty, and from that treaty The Populus was formed. Pooling resources, technology, and minds an oasis was built in the wasteland that remains. The first new city built in the post occupation era, and it became known as Bastion Prime located somewhere in Western Europe on the coast of the North Atlantic Ocean, or what remains of the ocean anyways.

Populus Standing
One thing that will be a facet of After-Life is your standing within The Populus. There are three major tiers of classifications for the general population and then two overarching standings.

Outlander
Those who do not reside within the governance of the Populus are considered Outlanders. These are people who do not hold a permanent residence within the walls of Bastion Prime or its surrounding region that fall under Populus Control. They are considered foreign visitors that can come from any part of the area outside Populus domain. They hold little to no privileges from the Populus and cannot partake in votes. They cannot be business owners, and can only be employed

Civillianship
Majority of the civic population within the Populus falls under the status of civillianship. This means you live within and are a member of the Populus population. However civilians are often the ones that fall through the cracks, live on the edges of society or the lower works of Bastion Prime. Civilians are the common workforce and the backs the society is built upon. Life is hard and your rights are limited but you still have them. Your voice can be heard in votes for those in running for councillorship but you have no say in who on the council becomes First Citizen and you cannot run for positions of power.

Citizenship
Citizenship is for those who have proven themselves to the Populus in one way or another. This is the life of promise that allures so many to the Populus and that portrayal of a new tomorrow. There’s many different ways to obtain Citizenship. Some were heroes during the war for freedom and granted citizenship for their efforts, perhaps you did a stint of service for the Peacekeepers, you made a sizable donation to a government body, or were recognized by the council for a grand feat.

Being a citizen provides you access to the best of life styles within the Populus. You are generally unstrained in your ambitions within legal parameters. You can run for a position on the council, pursue enterprises, and live in the nicest parts of Bastion Prime. You can vote for councilors and who on the council becomes First Citizen and you can attend open council gatherings where laws are voted upon.

Councilorship
You are one of the seven elected council members overseeing the Populus. Councilors represent their political parties and are voted upon by the general population of both citizens and civilians. It is your job to draft laws, handle city wide issues, and steer the direction of the Populus in your favor, for the good of all I’m sure. Each Councilor tends to oversee a unique sector of society alongside their political party agendas.

First Citizen
Among the seven Councillors one of them elected to become First Citizen. First Citizen is the elected leader of the council, ensuring everything is running smoothly. Their voice matters most. They resolve disputes and can settle tie breakers upon council voting. They can decide to put votes out to the population on matters instead of leaving it purely to the council. They do not wield total power, as they cannot approve laws of their own design outright.

Those who possess Citizenship are allowed to cast their vote for who they wish to become First Citizen. This happens at the beginning of the First Citizen election process. Whoever gets the popular vote is awarded one tally mark announcing who is most favored by the majority of the population.

The second phase is entirely focused on the Council who vote amongst themselves publicly, a Councilor cannot cast a vote for themself so it must go to one of their peers. The vote is spoken aloud during a general hearing in front of gathered citizens and broadcasted to the population of Bastion Prime. The Councilor is allowed to give their reasoning for their choice in vote or keep it private but who they vote for is a public affair.

Each Councilors vote counts for one tally, if in the initial vote there is a majority victor they are elected First Citizen, if there is a tie those who lost the majority will be removed from the voting candidates and those who are in the tiebreaker can no longer vote. The councilors remaining will then revote until there is a single member with a tally majority.

The Combine Aren’t Gone
At the end of the war with the death of the Geneworm Civil Protection and Transhumans were all branded autonomous. Synths were let loose into the wilds, and the Advisors went silent, for most..

Most who were loyal to the Combine have gone their own way, assimilated into society. Some put down their masks, hide their past, while others make amends and others harbor loyalism. But a select few were chosen, Combine Operatives exist at every level of society, infiltrating to push the agendas of their masters. This is how the Combine will still have its presence in After-Life. Anyone could be a Combine Operative. From those running for the council, to crime lords, to simple shop owners. This will be a secret whitelist that is kept hidden even from each other OOCly. These individuals will be given tasks to push the Combine agenda.
Map
We have been exploring possibilities of what maps we want to use and wish to reach out for suggestions from the community. I believe a commissioned map for After-Life will ultimately be in the cards to fit all our needs but that will not be for launch.

So we are asking for anyone who has a suggestion on a map that fits the following vibes.

We are looking for a near futuristic city map, that has an industrial underground / slums sector, a nice upper sector, and an outer city area of decent size. Things that can be looked at for inspiration on the vibe is like Piltover & Zaun from Arcane as a big inspiration for the dichotomic vibe we want. Geo-location will be somewhere on the western european coast. The city itself is newly built.

We discovered this map as a prime example for the vibe we want. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3337580289&searchtext=

Closing Remarks

There has been a lot of discussion in the community about the project from the initial announcement and we are quite pleased to see that. Please if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or concerns speak up about them so we can consider them in our development. Likewise make use of the forums with one of these posts or make a suggestion thread, a lot of talks happen in the discords and while what is there is very good it is quite easy to get buried and lost.

We will be taking our time with this to build a foundation to spring off from, and put in new ideas into this genre while reaching into new territory rather than just making another HL2RP Iteration. In our initial announcement we projected for the beginning of 2025 as a launch but development has been slowed by real life affairs for all those involved. But this has given us the time needed to plan accordingly. We'll be keeping you updated through 2025 and as these systems come online we'll look to do gameplay tests.

Until next time from myself and the Team,
See you in the After-Life.
 
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PepicWalrus

Electron
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john

barbecue chips aint shit
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i like that u guys are doing dice s2rp it should've been implemented ages ago
 
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PepicWalrus

Electron
HL2 RP Server Director
GTA RP Playtester
Joined
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Messages
814
Nebulae
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i like that u guys are doing dice s2rp it should've been implemented ages ago
There will be further rules for it as well so there's a clear structure of how it should operate without the need for staff oversight.
 
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sots

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Most who were loyal to the Combine have gone their own way, assimilated into society. Some put down their masks, hide their past, while others make amends and others harbor loyalism. But a select few were chosen, Combine Operatives exist at every level of society, infiltrating to push the agendas of their masters. This is how the Combine will still have its presence in After-Life. Anyone could be a Combine Operative. From those running for the council, to crime lords, to simple shop owners. This will be a secret whitelist that is kept hidden even from each other OOCly. These individuals will be given tasks to push the Combine agenda.
this sounds amazing btw, imo hl2rp has always been at its best when dealing with espionage and sneaky schemes from both combine and rebels
 
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