What is meant by 'surface tension'?

I have a problem and it's not just any problem it's that even if I don't have this installed for an unkown reason it still apears in the game.

@Phantron
No, but the garg chase works more like it did in the mod version.

does this revert back to the mod's version of the Gargantua chase introduction falling down from a vent? I liked that MUCH better :)

game crashes on map A

@SystemShocker287¨
It's possible, but unlikely. We're going by what happened to the HECU in OP4, that is to say, they dug in and fought to the last, or found their way out, not break down and surrender.

Will you be incorporating the passive soldiers from the Overhaul version for the new version of this? I felt that was a rather interesting detail showing the extent of the battle against Freeman.

when i change the graphics into medium or lower the game crashes

3/3
Vanilla has the guys at the front, who are largely static, and the two soldiers in front of the jeep take forever (30+ seconds) before they detect the player occasionally. After killing them and crossing the hill, 4 HECU will run towards the player, with a 5th shotgunner trying to be sneaky There's no APC, no squad in formation, the medic rarely heals and likes to hide behind the chest high concrete wall. Generally, they all die before they accomplish anything.
Then you climb on top of the truck, get inside the 'base,' defeat the 4 HECU, shoot down the helicopter, and that's ST A vanilla.

2/3
The reason it's not one giant gunfight is because fighting 20 aware and psychic HECU, plus a psychic APC, simply isn't fun, so the different groups don't know what happened to each other. I believe Citizen's overhaul version of ST DOES have a big, dumb fight, but no, in BMSC, you'll go from one group to the next, as if you never fought the ones before. If there are HECU that escape and link up with the groups that should be unaware (rare), they'll not be unaware. You can see this happen if you try to snipe the soldiers patrolling the dam, but fail to kill them. They'll run through the base and alert everybody.

@Didzhey3
At the very start of the chapter, some of the soldiers far back will walk towards the hill for appearances' sake, but the two HECU in front of the jeep will spot you very quickly even if you don't fire.
The fight after, if you destroy the HECU APC very quickly, the HECU may decide to fall back to the dam, since it's actually open, or they'll stack up behind the big rock near the APC.

At the very beginning of the chapter, after the first shootout with the soldiers at the exit from the tunnel, I was very confused by the soldiers calmly walking FROM YOU to the dam, as if, you know, a few seconds ago there was no shootout/fight. Is that how it's meant to be, or is it that I have some problems with the mod on my side? After all, I remember for sure that in vanilla ST the soldiers were going to the player, and here, they didn't seem to hear the massacre a few meters away.

Wouldn't it be cool if you added a BMCE strategy guide with the piece of lore as the first two pages as an extra edition for the menu. Not saying I would like this or nothing, just a suggestion.

Another suggestion to add https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870927393

These are just little problems that ruin the environmental story telling. Sorry for all the request and what not. I was also throwing in ideas that I thought would be cool. I think BMSC Is a better way to experience these chapters. Keep up good work.

Every other EAS volume needs to be raised in office complex and last pit

I guess you could also add something like this as well https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2780595370

Another thing about audio I was hoping for you to raise volume for the radios between scripted battles like you did with security jeep. It shares similar volume problem.

Vassago Rain: READ THE DESC BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS
Me: Question who is Behind of the making maps
Vassago Rain: Bro stop bring stpuid, Read it
Me: No ask me :)

@jakestritty
Can't promise anything, but since we've had success adding music here and there, I'll put it on the list.

I would even go for Electric Guitar Ambiance as well for surface tension.

The only other changes if any would be Diabolical Adrenalin Guitar in the chapters we got hostiles and surface tension in the sections the soundtrack played in original.

I pretty much like all the other soundtrack in these chapters.

Ok

@jakestritty
Possibly? We'll see when we get to ST what upgrades/changes we want to make.

Can you add the soundtrack from the beginning of blast pit for the part with the asparagus creature outside the cave?

Is the military sand bags being different on the dam part of optimization? Because I thought that the way they where set up before was better and more dynamic if that makes any sense.

@ Vassago Rain

Not sure why Steam didn't bother to tell me you responded. I actually had to go back and play the original to see that my memory was wrong, because I swear I remember being able to circle back to that armory up until the garg chase in the original. Yeah, that would be a good addition.

@Winter Ranger It's possible, but not likely. Even in HL1, you quickly hit a point of no return and can't backtrack for a resupply (bounce pad into the snark tunnel). I'd like the blast door to close visibly, not magically be closed when the map loads in, so you can go back until you make it to the parking house gate.

Very nice. I was skeptical at first, but am loving pretty much all of these mods.

One request: is there a chance you'd be able to open the blast door between F and G to allow for backtracking? After going to map G, it closes. It'd be nice to be able to backtrack and use up some of that ordinance in the armory like in the original game.

what is building bombing on F?

Last point, this isn't really ST specific, but since the charger Houndeyes are now being introduced here, if it's possible it might be worth looking into making them more individually threatening. They're basically just bigger houndeyes with even easier to avoid attacks, that don't do much to begin with. Maybe have them charge extremely quickly (like less than a second), and make the focus of the gameplay to avoid them. Give them additional damage and maybe have them displace the player more (send them hurtling). And make them a little less pathetic health-wise. They're just way too easy to kill, and that armour means very little when their massive weak spot is always facing toward you.

Make the turrets fire in predictable bursts and have them deal less damage. Make the main challenge of the fight be more on smart positioning and good strafing rather than just the worst kind of peakaboo. Maybe make the shells slightly slower but have the tank lead its shots better to account for it. If you do anything close to that, you'll probably also want to buff its health to stand a few more explosives. A longer, yet less immediately punishing fight would fit this section much better. if you don't or can't do any of that, at least give the player more temporary cover pieces to work with, especially when leaving that one tunnel that dumps you straight onto the street.

Few thoughts. I think the vast majority of this chapter is overall improved and I love what you've done with it, but honestly, I think the tank section is even worse. It's just tedius, especially now that the one tunnel that originally lead you to a safe area now puts you right into the turret's line for fire which almost instantly kill all of your health and power. The game also autosaves right as you leave the tunnel, so you're stuck in a wildly unfair cheap soft-lock. Obviously making the tank not omniscient would help this a lot, but also, the near-hitscan super turrets on the tank are still awful. I don't know how much you can actually alter about the enemies themselves, but if you can, please make the tank better.

What kind of mod?

This is pretty awesome! Can you turn BMC Surface Tension's map bm_c2a5b into a seperate mod? It would be greatly appreciated.

Ok, thanks

Various console commands. Sorry the answer's not more helpful. Dig through the CVARs and you'll find those, and more.

Off-topic, but how did you get those debug messages in the top left corner of some screen shots?

It does, however, bring back a lot of things from ST uncut that never made it to Black Mesa itself, like the Garg breaking down the gate if you take too long to get into Forget about Freeman, and some other things here and there.

um, Vanilla BM has ST Uncut built in...so since this mod doesn't cut any maps from ST technically yes it does include ST uncut

are there any maps from surface tension uncut?

@ninthlyokowarrior
Like Birdy said, support for BMCE (which includes the staff overhaul maps from forever ago), is something that could potentially happen either when all of Earthbound's finished, but most likely won't happen until Xen's done.

This version of surface tension wouldn't benefit much, if at all, from the extra staff types, as it's not vanilla ST+1, but a reinterpretation of it to bring back the tension and feeling that you're in a warzone, something BM vanilla and the staff overhaul don't achieve.

Is the Surface Tension Staff Overhaul mod gonna be added?

Thank you all for the overwhelmingly positive response, guys.

@Vassago Rain Everything.

@F-USER
A lot of the really old mod and very early BM retail stuff did end up getting put back in ST classic. Things like the garg breaking down the gate at the very end of the chapter, the small reinforcements during the fight right at the start of the chapter, the patrol past the hill afterwards, and more, but there's also tons of new and improved stuff.

Download it and have a go.

Updated to fix a pretty embarrassing bug (and a pet peeve of mine) in map A, and hopefully eliminated some softlocks in map H for good. There's probably still more, though.

BMSC isn't yet compatible with BMCE. That's definitely something I plan on looking into at some point, though - probably after finishing up the last few Earthbound chapters, and possibly the Xen chapter.

Actually, Citizen5 said that BMCE HAS been updated, and it works perfectly fine with 1.5.