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Extra Difficulties [BETA]

Thank you DarkStorm , Pac0master , Mr.Santiago and Sexy Nutella for the help/inspiration =)

Credits to all the devs of the BMCE mod, from which i used the cleansuit model/texture! Please go check their mod out, it's super worth it and it's one of the best mods out there! https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2068862348


I was watching Sexy Nutella's amazing Cinematic Black Mesa playthrough (go check it out on youtube btw). In the playthrough, the ichthyosaur's health was increased so it would die in 4 xbow shots rather than 2, because SN felt like it was too easy for a mini-boss to die that fast. I totally agreed with the decision and wished I could make a mod that alters the fish beast. Some time later, like now, I adventured into the workshop community but soon found out that there's not really much we can alter of core stuff, because of the source code limitations.

But still, i intended to do a mod. Then i realized i didn't want to make just a "Harder Ichthyosaur" mod, but make a mod that adds more difficulty "options" including this change. Searched in the workshop to see if people had already done it, and albeit some of them had tried doing similar things, i wanted to add my feel into the mixture. And so, i ended up creating 3 Extra difficulties for Black Mesa: Harder, Challenging and Nightmare.

• Harder difficulty is, in my view, what the original Hard difficulty should be. It makes very few changes such as changing some weaker npcs that should not be that weak (like the mentioned ichthyosaur). It's how i will play on "Hard" mode from now on.
  
  The Ichthyosaur's difficulty is increased(still killable), HEV zombie is stronger(I like the concept of this npc so much, it gets scary when you think about it, the only other enemy with the same suit as yours, that you can survive explosions with, and then it just dies. it now has the perfect health to withstand a blast but also not be a ridiculous sponge), Knockback houndeye stronger (they don't die as fast as normal houndeyes now, produce bigger blasts), Vortigaunt's attack accuracy is increased and they react slightly faster, Bullsquid and Nihilanth health and damage are slightly buffed.
  
  
• Challenging Difficulty is to hard difficulty what hard is to normal difficulty. It's basically a fourth difficulty, grabbing some of the ideas used in "harder" difficulty. It also makes some core gameplay changes that i originally intended to reveal the features of, but i think that not spoiling it makes it a more intriguing experience.
  
  
• Finally, Nightmare difficulty is a variation of the Challenging difficulty, trying to answer the question "what if Freeman didn't have a HEV suit?". I think that pretty much explains it. The HEV is replaced with a regular hazard suit (Still missing hud/pov models), no suit chargers, Kevlar instead of batteries are found.

1. To install any difficulty, please setup a custom folder, then download the .vpk of the difficulty of your choice from this Drive [drive.google.com], and copy it to the custom folder. (you can only have one vpk of this mod at the same time in the custom folder in order for the mod to work properly.)
   
2. Launch Black Mesa and Set the difficulty to Hard. All done!
   
3. Note: Clicking "Subscribe" will Install Harder difficulty (you will have to unsubscribe if you want to play any other).

How to setup custom folder(it's easy): https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=502670746


After a Lot of trying to work around Some issues that i will list ahead, including talking to the devs personally, none of the things i wanted to do to finish the mod are feasible in a simple way, and require Hammer Map editing and causes the mod to be gigantic. So This is where i get off, for now:

-Barnacle Damage is Fixed at 15 (I wanted to make it instakill you. If you want, gameplay wise, if he hits you, reload previous save)
- Xen Crystals Have to be removed manually because the command that turns them off (xen_hev_charger_rate 0) doesn't work (For gameplay purposes if you want to play along, Avoid every Crystal possible for the real nightmare experience)