<:: Message started...

Recently, our technology branch at the Citadel has reserved a strange message from an unknown source. We have put our core team to work, but we haven't been able to crack the code within the past week.

We are requesting any Decryption Teams in our ranks to assist in this decryption.

This message can be viewed on the terminal.
<:// End of message...

To my surprise, it seems there still seems to be some members in this group. Either you're staying because you hope this could come back alive, or you're just too lazy to leave the group. Perhaps it's neither, and this group has a sentimental value to you.

If anything, it still feels good to have some people who care. If you're reading this, at any rate, you care for something about this group.

Now, I have recently finished Black Mesa Source Part 1 and downloaded its soundtrack. Both things are wonderful pieces. One of my favorite parts about the game was being in part of the Seven Hour War when the Xen jets are locked in an airfight. (Not much a spoiler.)

This had me thinking of how amazing (epic) the Seven Hour War actually was. I hope I'm not the only one when I say I would love to see the makers of BMS do a Seven Hour War mod.

Not only did thoughts about the SHW come across, nostalgia happened to me.

I realized, looking back at this project, that it could have lived through some extent if I had kept up with the budget. I know this because Hostell (oh yes, Hostell) did a bunch similar stuff we had already planned.

Examples of these are as such: City 8 (we had planned), powerful Resistance (though they tried not to, their Resistance far outnumbers their Combine), use of mechs (though we outruled that in our canon), overpowered Overwatch units (the equivilant of our BLITZ.), and used of the TNB packs.

And surprisingly, they lived with that for a bit. (Of course, playerbase and activity will trump over any amount of success.) They even used PAC 2. And although some people disliked it, it still happened. So yea, I apologize people. In hindsight, we were actually a step ahead, but (referring back to my follow-up), I was hesitant to put all these (at the time) outworldly ideas to the test.

I hope to have some amount of discussion with any surviving members here. We weren't big to begin with, but at least we were friends.

Shoutout to Spygass, btw.

I never did follow up on why I basically quit the Priority One project. So I might as well, since I have nothing to do at this moment, do so.

First of all, controversies on the content was the main headache buster for me. I promised too much to too many different parties. All-in-all, it was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of content that we never actually needed. In fact, if I had come out with a content pack, it would drive away most of the playerbase because of how large it was. PAC, especially in a HL2 setting, was extremely unconventional because you couldn't exactly add many items to your own character. This wasn't based in a more free-form wasteland setting where you would have freedom of what you could wear.

I was the guy that tried pleasing everybody. That's why when I failed to please everybody at once, I had to fail everybody at once.

Beta week wasn't really a week at all, and it was hardly successful. I had to use a vanilla script (because the one I had been working on didn't work) and was using a server that was paid off by a friend. Well, Hostell members decided to flood the server (just another party for me trying to adhere to) and with that, DDoS attacks. Now I'm not saying the Hostell members caused much trouble, but the server wasn't ready for that much attention.

The storyline was also too much, in my personal opinion. Once again, I promised every party a little bit of something, and with it all added together, it would simply not work out. There were multiple suggestions to just "stick to the main storyline", but at that stage, it was hard to tell exactly what was original. I tried following in the footsteps of a long lost community with our story instead of starting completely new. It was doomed to fail from the start.

Lastly, our budget was completely drained. Despite a few offers for the server to be paid for, I simply couldn't afford to be in that type of debt. One person even said that just seeing the community bloom was enough for payback. Of course, I already knew that wouldn't happen.

I hate to have crushed your hopes. Really. But I just wasn't (and probably still am) not fit to run a community. So if anybody still cares about this, here are your answers. I've been avoiding it for a while, but I'm not sure how that helped at all. Hope you've got what your looking for (whoever may be reading this).

Ex-Project Leader,

Helix

What?

What happened to this community..?

Yes, you heard it. Beta week is in effect. This means that a lot of stuff will be switched around and changed. Everything temporary can be expected to be deleted. The major changes are primarily the UPF and how things run. If you do not like something such as content, map, or anything being tested: Please do not spam us about it. We're holding beta week for a reason. To see how things hold.

Thank you.

-The Priority Team