Turret health

I have several turrets in my single-player map, and I want to set the health so they are difficult to destroy.

However, I don't have any idea what number to set their health to. Is the number a percentage? Or is it like the original Half-Life, as some arbitrary unit (200 is "relatively strong"). I would like to have some knowledge of the health unit (best compared to the health of a NPC entity).

For example, how many health unit does a regular combine soldier have? 100? What about an antlion guard? 400? It would be very helpful to have this information when designing single-player maps.

There might be a reference somewhere on the net already for this inquiry, but I couldn't find it. If it exists, a simple URL link to the information would suffice. Thank you.

I think it can only be done with programming but I can be wrong

Hey satchmo,

This will tell you the health of different Combine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_%28Half-Life_2%29#Humanoid_Combine

There should be a SetHealth input or something similar, if this is also what you were asking.

As a sidenote, I'm not sure turrets even have a health variable.

Turrets have infinite health, they cant be killed. You may remember in HL2, the only way to stop turrets shooting is to knock them over, and they start up again if you pick them up. Perhaps you could do something with physics entities, so more force is needed to knock them over?

---

"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Well. What you can do is get creative :smile:

Such as ... placing strategic, small, physic entities (which are all the same entity) around the turret (this would be the hard part) parenting it, so it'd move with the object and such. Texture them with clip (or no draw, something) then, A) They will move with the turret and B) Can have an output that deactivates the turret. Since, I'm sure the turrets have that mode. Since, phys entities can take damage. If you want the turret to literally be destroyed you can spawn gibs on "break" for the phys entity trigger an explosion (which is also in the phys properties) and then kill the turret, so it is completely gone from the map. You could change the mode of the turret ... or whatever you want, really. Something else you can do is make a filter entity and tell it what type of weapons can harm the phys entities ... so, for instance, you can make it so RPG and Grenades harm it, but gun fire doesn't. The gun fire would go through and hit the turret, making it possible to knock it over, and the turret could actually be destroyed by using actual explosives.

I'm not sure why more things like this aren't being done, honestly. I think everyone's ingenuity from HL1 went out the window when they started working on HL2. You still need that type of insight, the engine and, more specifically, the entities are still very limited. :smile:

Anyway, give it a try ... it is just an idea though, I've never personally done this, but it should work ... somehow.

Just get more creative.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Thanks. I am amazed that this thread was brought out from the grave. I originally posted it in January of this year, but I never got any answer for it. I thought the ceiling turret is destructable (because the ground turrets can be destroyed by grenades).

This was originally planned for my Justice map, but that map was completed a long time ago. I had already figured out a way to deactivate the ceiling turret. It actually adds more fun to the gameplay than simply destroying it.

I hope the information is useful for someone else.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

I didn't notice. I don't think I even saw this thread until when I posted.

You should mark some sort of answer so the thread doesn't show up on the "unanswered topics" search :smile: (Post what you did and mark it correct)

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Thanks Crono. It never occurred to me that I could do that.

This is what I did:

I made a separate switch in the basement that controls all the ceiling turrets (including the ones in the basement). To deactivate the turret in the conference room, the player has to go down to the basement and turn the switch off. The switch itself does have a health meter, so by lobbing a grenade at the control will turn the turrets off too.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge