Doom3 official mod support should be limited

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Okay let me lay this down for you. First of all, I applaud Valve and their continued support of the Half-Life community. It makes an already kickass game kick even more ass. However, this is a double edged sword that's very, very sharp.

Recently I tried to get a frag on in Half-Life. The multiplay menu told me I had to get a patch to the latest version. Fine, I thought, less bugs. The patch was 18 megs. The game itself is very complete, naturally I assumed that these 18 megs would be mostly devoted to new TFC levels. I was right, too.

When I multiplay I'm a strict free-for-all kind of person. Being FORCED to download updates to a component of Half-Life I will never use seems wrong to me, simply wrong.

According to the patch information it also fixed an online cheat possible with OpFor, and added a spiffy new feature to single play: You can now shoot the cockroaches. Wonderful, I thought, now I don't have to stampede the fuckers. Definitely worth spending 18 megs on.

I loaded up a multiplay game and browsed the servers for a clean game of Half-Life. When I found one I attempted to connect. It started downloading a map. Screw that, I needed my fix quicker than that so I aborted the connection. The game locked up. Nothing got me out of it shorter than drop kicking the power button. Great.

Well, since I had the latest version and I have some spare time I decided to delve into the campaign again. From the get go I noticed some issues. During the tram ride the message 'Openingtitle3' came up instead of a subtitle. Just a little mistake I thought, if there are any more they should be just as minor.

The game's performance didn't seem as smooth as it used to either. Oh well, probably because I have so much more inside of my OS right now.

Now then, while running through the office complex area with a Barney on my back, exterminating slaves with extreme predjudice, a rather bizarre thing occurred. While going around a corner in the area to get to a secluded office with a health item on the desk there's a barnacle stuck to the ceiling. Well, when I got to it that barnacle was pulling up a scientist. So I aimed and attempted to save the scientist. For some reason, when I killed the barnacle a pellet from the shotgun killed the scientist too although I was rather close. Immediately Barney opened fire on me and plugged me a few good times before I put seven lead pellets into his forehead. I have a screenshot of a dead barnacle with a dead scientist hanging on to the bottom of it's tongue. It's the weirdest damn thing ever.

I made it half-way through We Got Hostiles (right before the first marine) when I died on a trip mine. Damn sensor machine gun went off and shot the thing. Oh well, at least I died in a brand new way. So I when I hit the button to come back to life, pow, the game is gone. Not crashed, not froze, just *blink* and I'm back at Windoze with a different resolution and everything.

Who do I blame for this problem?

Valve, of course. They're spending too much time on TFC and supporting the mod scene and their OWN DAMN GAME is decaying away because of it.

I'm all for them helping out the area. However, their own product should come first, and TFC should *not* be shoveled right down my damn throat. All the patches now probably equal over 100 megs, and most of that is just going right into that damn thing.


Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT calling Valve a bunch of puppy humping shit lickers for what their doing. What they're doing is admirable. However, surely the must be a middle ground where the mod scene is happy and the original game doesn't get fucked up.

Oh well, back to Immoral Conduct.

[Guest lukin]

Well, technically, they're supporting themselves when they support TFC. They hired Team Fortress Software as part of Valve shortly before Half-Life's release...

However, yes, just because they made it doesn't mean they had to put it in their patches...it still could of been separate. When epic releases map packs for UT you don't have to download the 50 meg things or however big they are when you patch the game.

They have been 'supporting' Counter-Strike without making you download it within the patches. I question their motivation for this though, when they release 'Half-Life: Counterstrike' boxed editions commercially, so some unknowing person who is browsing through games at a software store and has heard of Counter-Strike's enormous popularity....but not the fact that it's free...will buy it.

[danarchist]

I myself am a big fan of TFC...however, making me download 50+ megs so I can play online is unfair...I only have a 56k and its worse at my dad's house. Instead of putting TFC updates in the patches, they should concentrate on making Team Fortress 2! When the hell is that coming out anyways? They've been making it since 98 or something. Jeez. A better solution would be seperate downloads like a main upgrade patch plus a TFC map/bug fix patch.

[Jon]

Large patches keep the pings low. Cuz you're all downloading the game instead of playing it :P

Heh I used to play a lot of halflife when I was on 56k and you just roll with the punches. I'd rather have a bug free game and downloads than vice versa.

Having said that, vintage halflife/tfc/cs is before TFC 1.5 came out :/

[DiSTuRBeD]

Heh, yeah. People keep praising what Valve do for the mod community. WTF? They have done so many STUPID STUPID things.
What about waiting for 6 months until they release the fucking game source?
TFC would be ok if it was on the CD, i don't want that piece of shit. ITs ok, but i dont want it. I want the patch, a new version of Half-life without the bugs, but there's no way in hell i'm giving it 18megs of my time.
ID seem to be going down that road too. The sourcecode was pretty late with Quake3, and the uncompatibility with the 1.27 patch was horrible. You gotta give them credit for keeping their patches small and filled with stuff you need only tho.