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[VJ] Rebel HEV Soldier (npc)

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Excerpt from a speech of a Resistance Officer to a group of HEV trainees:

"...A reminder to everyone in this room that our enemy (the Combine) are as ruthless as they are brutal and cunning as they are deadly. To many of you this is not news, but when you put that suit on you will become the primary target to every hostile in the area. Not just because of the greater threat you will pose but because what that suit represents. Do not grow comfortable in its added protection and enhancements. Rely on your training and situational awareness as this suit is meant to enhance not replace your abilities. When you put that suit on, it does not turn you into Gordon Freeman, but that does not make any one of you in this room any less a free man. Remember the lessons you will learn here when you are fighting out there and I can guarantee one day your children and your children's children will live a world scoured clean of the Combine and their corruption."

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If you enjoy the addon, don't forget to leave a thumbs up!

It has been a little rough for the Resistance since the Combine started fielding its new specialized units. Now it is time for the Resistance to start responding. May I introduce you all to the Rebel HEV Soldier. This is a rebel that has been trained to the use the legendary HEV suit. It is important to note this is not the same suit as Gordon Freeman. After the Battle of City 17 and White Forest the Resistance saw the usefulness of such armors against the Combine's forces and now had the support and logistics to scale up their operations. As such, they began work on their own models of the suit and started training promising and skilled fighters in its use.

The Resistance's first model of the HEV suit has an over-shield and a battery pack attached to the back of the suit to be used for recharging the shield if it goes down, but only partially to avoid fully draining the battery. The suit itself also speeds up the user's reflexes making them much faster on the battlefield.

Each HEV solider is equipped with a modified AR2 and a Gravity pistol. This AR2 has a larger magazine, a scope, and beam cannon instead of a Combine-ball launcher as its secondary. The beam cannon is able to damage Combine armor, synths, and aircraft. The Gravity pistol is a scaled down version of Freeman's Gravity gun. It is useful in aiding the soldier in their survival is used properly.

Survive-ability is important, that is why the Rebel HEV Soldiers will stay aware of threats and aids in their area. They will use their Gravity pistol to launch grenade back at enemies. They will also seek out health vials and batteries if their heal or shield is low. If their shield is destroyed they will often fall back if possible and wait until their shield recharges.

Features of this NPC include:

• Weapons: Rebel-modified AR2 with under-barrel Beam Cannon
  
• Tools: Gravity pistol
  
• A rechargeable over-shield
  
• The ability to redirect grenades using Gravity pistol
  
• The ability to pick up heal vials and batteries if injured
  
• Custom animations
  
• Custom voice lines (modified Male01 voice lines)
  
• HEV suit voice lines
  
• Glowing textures

Feel free to offer feedback and suggestions. Such things help me with future development of addons. I tried adding a snippet of lore to go along side this one. If you guys like it I will try adding more hopefully not cringe lore to go along side future releases.

This npc required me doing a little bit of everything to make him work the way I wanted and I am very happy with the result. Expect many more Rebel npcs going forward as well as Combine. Now begins the arms race between these two factions!

In the meantime, enjoy!

A massive thank you to everyone I credited here. None of this would have been possible without them.

Credits:
Valve - HEV Model
JuoNoVom - Original HEV soldier textures
P0dC3der - Weapon model and texture
Speedy Von Gofast - Original over-shield code for player models, adapted to npcs by me
SligWolf - Grav pistol model
Entropy: Zero 2 devs and Breadman - Battery material
Zippy - Original baseline weapon and npc code, heavily modified by me

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For anyone asking about the map:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3454574565