@Kerry
Thank you so much!
Really appreciate you taking the time to share this.

I think we might be missing something… On the SOLUTION tab on this page you can see my playthrough, although the “fork in the road” section isn't there because it only happens if you die.

1. “Sometimes the button doesn’t work” — I’m not sure what happened there. Did you first flip the power switch at the end of the hallway?

2. “He doesn’t throw the street crowbar” — When you die and there’s no street fight, the crowbar will be on the hood of the car. If you don’t die and there is a fight, he will throw it. If it doesn’t reach the ground within a certain timeframe, it should then spawn on the hood.

Please let me know if you had to watch the Solution video and whether it was helpful.

The mod is excellent, no doubt about it. One of the best, if not the best.

I don't remember exactly, but it's definitely during those moments when there's a fork in the road in the headcrab's dreams.

The scene with the door and a bunch of keys, the ghost chase (sometimes the button doesn't work), the fight where Russell throws us ammo (he doesn't throw the street crowbar). It's a shame you can't save where you want. I understand that this would otherwise break the entire mod, but sometimes reverting to a save doesn't help.

@Kerry
Hey Kerry, I appreciate the honesty.
This mod is rated hardcore in terms of difficulty.
I wanted to lower the bar a bit, but working solo on such an enormous project has been really exhausting.

Could you please share the “soft-lock” moments you ran into?

Bro, why the heck is so hard lol

Stuck in many moments (also soft locksa)

@edo9k
Thank you very much!
The main problem with this mod is that it was mostly built in a vacuum, with only 5 playtesters during 2 rounds of testing (unlike Valve’s approach - several NEW testers after EACH modification). This, combined with the brave choices I made (e.g., hyperrealism with no hints, elevated difficulty, and very novel, never-before-seen mechanics), was a recipe for disaster-and yet, to my surprise, most people still enjoyed it, at least most of it.

1. The screwdriver is standard. It has built-in “hand poses”: if you hold it by the end, Alyx will grip it with the tips of all her fingers. Too bad many people never tried to do this.

2. When Russell calculates the throw, if a tree branch or other collision is in the way, it becomes an invalid throw. I know it’s annoying. These are just two of about a million small problems I had to deal with.

I appreciate your thoughts—thanks again!

Hey man, I've been playing your mod and I thought I'd leave some criticism

- The screwdriver: can you make it so you just have to hold it up to the screw or perhaps increase its "hitbox"? I get you're going for realism but because of how the hand snaps to the screwdriver it was such and awkward movement it was hurting my wrist.

- Strider fight: there's a bug where Russel keeps messing up his throw and the mags accumulate behind the car, under his window. The freezing time mechanic is really cool and I was initially amazed but soon found it to just not be very fun. I know this isn't very constructive cause I can't quite elaborate further.

Overall I enjoyed the mod (especially the trippy dream section, absolute cinema) but it could use some polish here and there.

@sAlo5
There were things that would have been impossible to accomplish without AI.
Which, in turn, would make it even harder than it already was.
But...
I am still working on the final update.

Sadly I'm very on the fence about whether or not to play this because of the AI stuff... It looks like a great mod

@hexamyl
I really appreciate it! It's the first song I've ever recorded - one of the few without AI. Just a $250 guitar on free VST plugins (also acting as a bass), and some free drum plugins.
I'll upload the early version of the full soundtrack soon!

please upload song from teleporter section to youtube, it goes so hard, man!

That's alright, I've been holding out in this mod for a long time and I'm excited to test it out!

@Keyboardperson
I was debating whether to leave the project as is or push the final updates, which would require another round of testing, but I won't be home for at least another 5 weeks, sorry

Was waiting for an update before my first playthrough, will let you know how it goes

@Millie
Glad you liked at least some of it :)
Even though this mod didn’t go the way I planned,
God willing, I’ll make it better someday.

@PeterJay dw that is just natural. After a while all mods start to feel the same so i get wanting to make something different. As long as it's something that you can be proud of, some problems are okay. Besides, most additions were things i really liked including whatever the heck went on in chapter 2 and the manhack variants

@Millie
Thanks, I know, the whole thing was designed to be 'unconvecional' right from the start, because I got tired to do the same thing over, in the other mods, Then I took it too far, It's way too brutal and unforgiving, but if you are seeking something new and horrendosly difficult this might be it, otherwise it can be a case study on how not to make a video game ;)

Still, i do not think i wasted my time by playing this mod. moreso just getting annoyed in primarily the first chapter.

@PeterJay i honestly didn't mind the issues too much. I mean, i would have if it was a AAA game, but i just got really annoyed for a while at looking around in the dark considering there arent a lot of things that point to what you should do and more that are distracting enough to make you think that you are supposed to do something else. When the combine guy commented after i threw a bottle (i didnt hear exactly what he said) i thought i just had to keep throwing stuff so that he comes to investigate the noise and i could sneak past him. other than that, i got stuck for a while in the later part in the chapter where you have to use the elevator and climb up. i thought that i had to put something there to fix the bars considering i was just done with a puzzle that used a hidden object as well. Turned out that i just needed to climb up and grab the part that was still there.

@Millie
Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback! You're absolutely right. The new update included some voice-over that should help guide the player. Also, the new (and much better) tutorial was about 95% finished, but the mod stopped gaining new players, so I lost motivation. Now it's gaining traction again - probably due to the school break - but unfortunately, I won’t be home for about a month to finish it. Anyway, I really appreciate any criticism, and I’m sorry for the inconvenience.

@Millie
The elevator buttons at the start of the tutorial act as a level selector. Press and hold the number corresponding to the level you would like to play for 3 seconds.

is there any chance of a chapter select option? would rather not have to replay the mod from the beginning just to play one specific part. Also feel like it should be more obvious what to do with the screwdriver. I originally just forgot about the vent as soon as i passed into the screwdriver area and the darkness also didn't help, thought I had to open the door until i just watched the walkthrough and found out that all i had to do was grab the screwdriver and backtrack. Other than that, i have a few minor problems with the mod but the screwdriver part just annoyed me so much that i had to state it. the only real problem other than that was using the screwdriver because it would not cooperate. the tutorial explained a lot of important stuff but i would have never thought that i could just grab a random screwdriver and use it. Alyx is not the type of game that makes it unclear on what you can interact with so if it feels difficult to even think of using a random screwdriver.

@Disguised Poison
I swear I've changed it up like five times to make it feel right, but it's still too difficult to some:(
You've got to take a moderate swing and do it fast - just be sure not to hit anything in your real environment.

I have hit that 2nd pad lock with the hammer so many times in so many different ways, to no avail :(
I have seen λrokh doing it in 3 hits. Nothing seemingly special about it either. So I just don't get it.
What's the trick?

@Wheeze
I'm sorry you had a bad time.
If I get around to it, I'll make a better tutorial and maybe add a bit of developer commentary about the thought process behind the whole project.

Please elaborate on "a boss stood in place."
In the meantime, feel free to watch either λrokh's playthrough or check out the SOLUTIONS thread with my old playthroughs.

Also why couldn't I manually save through out that entire endevour?

I want to like this campaign but MAN I struggled just trying to progress. I feel like my paitance is tested more than my skill since I can't tell what the game is trying to tell me in terms of direction. Didn't help I had low health after being shot during the first chase segment.

Also, what's with chapter 2 and its repeating segment(I stopped playing up because I didn't want to endure that same set of cutscens followed by being jumped by the worst enemy in HLA(Antlions) and a boss that just stood in place.) is it supposed to do a full loop or is there something I'm screwing up?

@Doodles

There are a lot sound effects, some AI music, Voice Over was transformed using AI, also I've used the StableDIffusion to make some textures and upscale the old ones.

what content is AI generated?

"INCLUDES AI GENERATED CONTENT"

Ok??

Yikes! Thanks!

@REESES PUFFS
It's meant to be like that lol.
Just take of headset of her head...

Hi there,
I'm encountering an issue in the tutorial section of the mod. Right after the first elevator scene, where Alyx is putting on the VR headset, I see a large number of spinning "ERROR" entities scattered around the environment.

I've already tried disabling all other mods, and I’ve redownloaded and reinstalled the addon, but the issue still persists.

Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks in advance!

@smets.gert
Thanks for the info, I am glad it worked, but it's not ideal as it never happened to anyone this far.

Normally I didn't get dragged forwards to the white door, but suddenly it just worked after multiple tries. and I didn't even change anything, it's weird. But I'm more than happy that it works again :)

hey! I am glad it worked but I am still dying to know what happened!

It suddenly worked after about 7 tries (I'm persistent lol). i'm having lots of fun playing :)

also did you look at the Solutions threat?

@smets.gert
interesting...
so you are stuck in place and not being pulled forward like here:?
https://youtu.be/SLpjB6EU1rc?t=1448

@PeterJay
no, I just play it in VR without any other mods enabled. I really don't know whats wrong and it'd be unfortunate if I can't play the other chapters.

@smets.gert
Hi,
Do you play with no VR mod?
Biohacking doesn't support it....

It's an amazing mod and I've loved playing it so far, but I'm stuck in the cutscene at the beginning of chapter 2 (the one with the heartbeats) and I don't know how to get out. I've tried restarting, but it didn't work :( .Could you help me?

About to give it a try :)

@bingbof
used the flathead?

vent part is broken, i cannot use the screwdriver to get the vent open

This is awesome! Without any doubt one of the hardest and easily the most complex map in the workshop. A horror map without any jumpscares, just plain horror - this map goes under your skin.
The elevator scene got me this time but I managed to get the "good" ending.
Made a playthrough here (version from April 20th): https://youtu.be/SLpjB6EU1rc

I'll give it a go on the new run. And if you need a playtester, I've been playing the game on 3 different headsets since the thing came out. I'd be delighted to test this.
Even with the bugs, I'm still putting this mod at like... peak of peak. Up there with Bioshock.

@Banjo
Let's face it, having only 5 playtesters ( Alyx veterans btw ) for a scale of scope was way too risky.
But that's all I managed to get.
I am making turret section WAAAAY easier now, but throwing nade at it will not work this time.
Check out the Solutions Thread, you can find many tips there how to make generator section much easier!
Those tips will work with the new version also

Oh yeah, and I also suspect I ran out of ammo way too soon. I've been exchanging all my resin for ammo, and even bullshitted the turret section by just simply THROWING the grenade that far, and I'm fresh out when I put in the fuel for that section. Looks like I'll be dying!

@Banjo
Oh dear, I've got no idea.
I've been stresstesting this section so hard, on ultra quality, preserving as many zombies as possible-all while recording gameplay, and it never failed. Not even once!

THAT IS VERY DEPRESSING!