Where are you Tau Cannon?

[Wazari San]

In the original HL you find the Tau Cannon in "Questionable Ethics", and in the storage room at the end of "Lambda Core". If you miss it in "Questionable Ethics" (as i did) and think you'll be able to find it in the storage room, think again.

Not finding any other info about this other than info on the original HL locations, I just thought "f**k it, might as well finish the game without it".

I did find it later in the game though, in "Gonarch's Lair".

If you have found it at other locations in the game please comment it as there are little info on the internet about Tau Cannon locations in Black Mesa as of now.

[thray]

The Tau has one of the most humorous and memorable scripted weapon pickups of any weapon. The first one is identical to Half-Life 1.
It's almost impossible to miss, especially if you played the original.game.

[Vassago Rain]

Those are the only two places it's found in, and since they didn't bring theirs along on the mission to subdue the gonarch, leaving it behind in the makeshift camp, it can be assumed even the crazy survey team dudes consider it too unstable and questionable. Only Gordon's macho enough to use one as a weapon.

There's also a grand total of 45 snarks in the whole game, which is a shame. More snarks for the people.

[Salty Peanut]

well, how did you miss it in QE in the first place? it's not like they moved it

[Vassago Rain]

Originally posted by Salty Peanut:

well, how did you miss it in QE in the first place? it's not like they moved it

He might not have checked the room closely, as improbable as it sounds. It was a problem in HL OG, too, which is why they made one spawn in Lamba-A before Xen if you never picked it up, same with the only other pickup of the hivehand, which was also a weapon that was just sitting around out in the open, so you'd think no one could ever miss it, but they did.

Since the bronze age, it's been established that if you want the player to pick up something very important, you introduce it in such a way that it can't be missed, like how every deus ex game makes you select a weapon during the intro sequence, and asks you if you're gonna go in killing, or be stealthy and not so lethal.

[AtomHeartDragon]

How do you miss one in QE?
I mean you could avoid picking it up on purpose, but how do you do that on accident?

I mean this is how the sequence of events looks like:

• you close in on a room which you need to enter to turn on the laser you need to proceed
  
• you hear a scientist and a guard discussing prototype weapon they clearly have with them
  
• the guard blasts a hole through the wall right in front of you (which the actual in-game weapon can't in BM because, uh, reasons) demolishing some stuff
  
• they talk for a moment more discussing the weapon while the guard is playing with it
  
• guard overcharges blowing himself and scientist up and destroying the barricade blocking the room
  
• you enter the room (if only because you have to) and see some carnage, a pair of smoking boots and a sweet if a bit dangerous prototype gun on the floor right in front of them

You then don't pick the weapon because?

[Vassago Rain]

Originally posted by AtomHeartDragon:

How do you miss one in QE?
I mean you could avoid picking it up on purpose, but how do you do that on accident?

I mean this is how the sequence of events looks like:

• you close in on a room which you need to enter to turn on the laser you need to proceed
  
• you hear a scientist and a guard discussing prototype weapon they clearly have with them
  
• the guard blasts a hole through the wall right in front of you (which the actual in-game weapon can't in BM because, uh, reasons) demolishing some stuff
  
• they talk for a moment more discussing the weapon while the guard is playing with it
  
• guard overcharges blowing himself and scientist up and destroying the barricade blocking the room
  
• you enter the room (if only because you have to) and see some carnage, a pair of smoking boots and a sweet if a bit dangerous prototype gun on the floor right in front of them

You then don't pick the weapon because?

Because if it's an important item, you either make people get it automatically, or it's not important enough, and someone will miss it. People will walk past the burning shoes, not thinking about it at all, because it's another room with a button that you need to press to progress, not the room that holds the master sword, and if it held the master sword, surely, the master sword would be located near to where the game has taught you to go, so next to the button? Maybe in a big pile of exploded guard parts, and the smoking shoes, next to the button, instead of just far enough from the middle of the room to where people in a hurry could also miss it.

Happens all the time in videogames that don't make important items mandatory gets, or as close to it as possible, no matter how obvious it may seem. System shock 2 is full of examples that have been fixed by the community, but caused grief for years.

[soly jambos.casa/free_key]

I also missed the tau cannon as I assumed the room was only for the button needed to activate the laser. Only realized I had even missed it when watching a walkthrough for a section I was struggling in on surface tension and seeing the player with it.

[Cursed Hawkins]

Originally posted by Solyphonous:

I also missed the tau cannon as I assumed the room was only for the button needed to activate the laser. Only realized I had even missed it when watching a walkthrough for a section I was struggling in on surface tension and seeing the player with it.

How can you miss it though in Questionable Ethics? You literally hear the guard and scientist talking about it as well as dying to it the same way they did in the original.

[Vassago Rain]

Originally posted by Cursed Hawkins:

Originally posted by Solyphonous:

I also missed the tau cannon as I assumed the room was only for the button needed to activate the laser. Only realized I had even missed it when watching a walkthrough for a section I was struggling in on surface tension and seeing the player with it.

How can you miss it though in Questionable Ethics? You literally hear the guard and scientist talking about it as well as dying to it the same way they did in the original.

See.
My.
Posts.
Above.

[Cursed Hawkins]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

Originally posted by Cursed Hawkins:

How can you miss it though in Questionable Ethics? You literally hear the guard and scientist talking about it as well as dying to it the same way they did in the original.

See.
My.
Posts.
Above.

I never missed the gun in that chapter even in the original so when I got there in Black Mesa because I knew it was there in the original, I knew it was gonna be there in this game as well, even if a few weapons were moved around for Black Mesa like the Crowbar as an example.

[Vassago Rain]

Originally posted by Cursed Hawkins:

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

See.
My.
Posts.
Above.

I never missed the gun in that chapter even in the original so when I got there in Black Mesa because I knew it was there in the original, I knew it was gonna be there in this game as well, even if a few weapons were moved around for Black Mesa like the Crowbar as an example.

>I knew it was there.
>20+ years later.
>AHA! The megaman playerbase absolutely know they can use the mega arm in megaman 1 to throw rocks!

2/10. My point still stands, and will forever stand. If the pickup is important, make it mandatory. If it isn't, leave it the way it is.

[Cursed Hawkins]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

Originally posted by Cursed Hawkins:

I never missed the gun in that chapter even in the original so when I got there in Black Mesa because I knew it was there in the original, I knew it was gonna be there in this game as well, even if a few weapons were moved around for Black Mesa like the Crowbar as an example.

>I knew it was there.
>20+ years later.
>AHA! The megaman playerbase absolutely know they can use the mega arm in megaman 1 to throw rocks!

2/10. My point still stands, and will forever stand. If the pickup is important, make it mandatory. If it isn't, leave it the way it is.

Funny way to try and make an argument against someone who never played the megaman series! As for "if its important make it mandatory if not ignore it" isn't how I view this since the Tau Cannon can be used against the early few helicopters otherwise your just making the game harder than it needs to be on yourself, the only time I intentionally ignored a weapon was the hivehand not because of it not being important but because I wanted to hear the dialog from the guard!