[Hen7]

Hey it's me, the creator of the mod, as you know NH2 will be featuring a lot of scary events and I'm kinda running low on ideas so if you have any scary idea for an event, scripted thing that will happen or anything like that post it here.
Who knows maybe your scary idea will be in the final mod.
I'm really low on ideas so don't be shy and feel free to flood the thread (with ideas of course)

[Ido]

I'd like to mention that we do have a story, but of course merging creepy events is possible. So throw it on him, boys (and girls).

[mrkaki]

Well, I thought of something, you see a room, and you go inside, you take a medkit and then you go for the exit, as you look at the door it'll close and you'll hear laughing and then a few fast zombies will break a wall and attack you.

[NeatNit]

I thought about an idea that you see a little girl there (if you have a model) and she screams but her lips don't move :shock:. then she runs and when you follow her the screen starts to flash like lightning and suddenly she truns into a strider only with low HP so it will be possable to kill it with a weak weapon so it won't be too easy to continue the game with such a good weapon as a rocket luncher. I guess it's pretty stupid but I never came up with good ideas.

Edit: Instead of the girl turning into a strider mabye she gets surrounded by striders with a War of the Worlds skin and they drag her into them or just grab her with their arms. I know it's almost impossable to make but you'll figure it out I guess.

[i am HOLLYWOOD]

i think you guys should throw in some of those "dream sequences" that they do in F.E.A.R. and Day Hard, where the screen flashes and something happens.

For instance in F.E.A.R. there's this part where the lights go out in the room, then come back on and the room has turned into a blood covered hallway. You start to walk down the hallway to the door at the end. when you get there, the door explodes and this face jumps out at you. The lights go out, then come back on, and you're standing in the room that you were in to begin with.

Day Hard had some stuff like that too. like this one part where you go into a room and you see all these zombies running around and biting you, then the screen flashes and you see that there's nothing in the room except you. when you entered another room, you fall off a cliff, then wake up and are standing at the door.
The best was when you try to open a door and you have this insane 5 second onslaught of creatures and images on the screen. only to find out the door is locked. . . .

little things like those that make you afraid to go into a new room.

and the mod looks great so far.

[Hen7]

Thanks for the comments guys, really appreciate it
Mrkaki, thanks, cool idea.
Neat-Nit, I don't think that a girl who turned into a strider that you have to take down with an RPG will fit the mod so much, sorry.
HOLLYWOOD, you got some right points there, I am going to make these "dream sequences" things, also I've been thinking about that part you mentioned from F.E.A.R a lot of times when worked on the mod

[mamachin]

Okay okay, how about this...

You open a door to find yourself standing at the end of a long hallway. The hallway has lights on the ceiling which light it up. But as you walk down the hallway, as you step beneath each light, it breaks and goes out. It continues like that up until about half way down the hallway. When you get halfway, all the lights ahead of you break leaving you only one light left to stand in. Then maybe make the sound of a Fast Zombie running along, and make it coming from both directions so those with good sound can't tell which way it's coming from. Whether to use actual fast zombies or just a sound effect is up to you i guess.

Edit: Since it is going to be a mod not a map, you may or may not be including fast zombies. As an alternative to Fast Zombies, you could simply use foot steps (Either running or walking, whatever tickles your fancy) maybe some screaming or weird noises, the kind that a phycopath would be making if he was running at you. It would give the whole "Asylum feeling".

[mrkaki]

Mamachin, I love the way you think. I'm with you all the way.

[Ido]

Nice ideas. We're noting them all, keep 'em coming
Also, try thinking with no limits, even if it's crazy. Let your creativity stream, we need it . But in the same breath, try keeping it in the mod atmosphere - it's a dark, abandoned asylum, full of illusions and... creepy stuff.

[worldtitan]

I listed a few hopefully one of them is good.

Idea # 1
As the player is walking along a corridor,A giant shadow should creep up from behind to the front of the player. The player turns around and the shadow quickly shrinks back into wherever it came.

Idea #2
player approaches a lifeless body lying near a vent. A bright light blinds the player but not completely.Player will see the body shoved into vent,with bone breaking,crunching sounds.

Idea#3
This one is simple. as the player nears a dark,A body flies out of the dark.The dead body should surprise the player plenty.

With all these idead I should start my own mod:D .I hope some of these help.

[RedFoxBot]

Ok, I had to register to add some ideas here......one of the scariest mods I've ever played was called Affraid of Monster, for HL1. (will post a link if anyone wants me too, otherwise just google it).

Several occasions I turned a dark corner, to suddenly find I'm instantly being attacked by a zombie....from behind!
Also....invisible zombies...nuff said..lol

Anyways....you can get loads of ideas from that mod if you get stuck....heres some of my own.

Atmosphere.....this is important...if you can use sound fx, speach and music subtly in the background...that always helps....people usually overlook music...but just think of the best horror films and how the music kicks in before and after the fright!
I like the bit in nightmare house where you where following crying (I think it was anyway)....that helped with the atmosphere alot!!

Imagination is the scariest bit...never fill in all the details...either darkness (obviouse)...or full lighting and something you can't quite make out/blurred (not sure anyones tried that before)

Instead of a person being dragged into a vent.....how about having equipment (healthkit when low on health....or a more powerful gun) dragged away from you (into a vent....or down a coridor with a child laughing....perhaps with a trail of blood behind it)
Don't think anyones done that before!!

Dream sequences...I know they've been mentioned...but there are other ways of doing them....they can be more subtle (buffy the vampire slayer did good dream sequences. Battle star galatica is doing some good ones too)....make the player think it is reality but just start bluring the lines....
Slow down movement.....make walls or doors crumble as unseen forces try and get through...have things disapear and reapper.....or flash in and out like you did with the stalkers.....perhaps make it a slower fade though?
Floor falling away....or pushing up....stairs....now that a good one, have it turn into a slope and and slide the player into a room full of zombies.
Make everything seem fine, then put the player back into the game

Last but not least.....people (or corpses)....blank staring people work best....one person floating in the middle of the room (not dead)...bit like the women in nightmare house with the noose...
Or perhaps a room full of people just staring at you....or just staring into space not moving......the lighting could get brighter and brighter then flash....the room comes back into focus only to find the rooms now covered in blood, no people...and sobbing can be heard.....only to have the lights then fade out to black, scream or heavy breathing and the room now fill with zombies....as the lights fade back in slowly

Hope that helps!

[Hen7]

Thanks guys, a lot of what you've mentioned might be included

[kingsqeerel@hotmail.com]

Oh! Idea! Ok... here's my extremely long idea.

Have nothing happen for a while... all of a sudden you see a man (make up his description, but for the most part, try to make him close to a normal person) in the hallway. He looks surprised to see you, and tells you to quickly follow him to get out. As you follow him, he eventually goes into a dead end, and disappears. As you look at the dead end, you hear him behind you (about, say.... 10 feet behind you) say "Where are you going? This way!" You then continue to follow him again, when you see another dead end. This time he's still with you, in plain sight. He starts walking towards the wall, as if its not even there. Suddenly, a young girl's voice is heard from the wall. "The land of the losssttt... don't... go there..." she/it says. Have some quiet, really scary music play, as the lights dim very slowly, until its fairly dark (make sure to leave enough light on to see whats going on!). The man's face fills with anger, he clenches his fists, punches the wall and screams, "Why did you TELL HIM!" He then starts to breathe heavily, and slowly turns at you. His eyes glow a very soft red (dont make them like flashlights though =P) as he starts to slowly walk towards you. He then screams, and pounces at you, only to disintegrate before he reaches you. The girl who warned you then giggles... :shock:

[kingsqeerel@hotmail.com]

And.... sh**. Apparantly I didn't pay any attention during the registration page. My poor username... has an unneeded e-mail ending... crap. Any way to change it? And sorry for the double post too.

[worldtitan]

I gots me some more.

Ideal#4
You could have a scene were you encounter a door of any kind.As the player walks up to the door to open,a huge pounding begins and knocks the player back.After finding the key/pass to open the door. The door opens to reveal tons of dead bodies,and nothing alive.The pounding is a illusion and you realize all these people were terrified and lock inside with something.Maybe have a gaping hole in the wall with slime around the edges.This is more of the illusion stuff.

ideal#5
As you enter a room,There seems to be some sort of switch on the wall.Upon pulling the switch the player begins to here hundreds of footsteps.Once the player turns around hundreds of zombies/undeads run by.As the player leaves the room,there isn't anything in sight.

ideal#6
Both of the above will hopefully give the player a uneasy feeling,this ones SCARES THE CRAP OUTTA them(hopefully,cause it sounds scary).Player hallway to see a ghostly little boy(i would just make it a sprite). The boy never faces you.When you come within a few feet.He speeds forward and around the corner.The player continues on and thinks that its gone,but before he rounds the corner the ghost comes speeding back around the corner right through the player and vanishes.

You said to flood this thread with ideas,so I hope these help you also.

:wink:

[Nightstalker]

I think we need not much scenes with enemys because its not very scary to see them all 50 seconds I think NH2 shoud be much scaryer then the 1. With the right ideas and excellent work it would be the scaryest map ever

[Dimfire]

I may have a decent idea that is both scary and rewarding. :twisted:
It could also be where you get your first weapon perhaps. You round a corner only to find a guy crouched on the side of the wall with his head down while also holding a pistol (or shotgun whatever you like). He notices you and with heavy breathing he says, "ah! ah! Can't you hear them? The voices.. they're everywhere! Getting louder.. Louder!"
He all of sudden drops his weapon, begins screaming down the hallway covering his head in a vain attempt to silence them and runs around the next corner. The screeming becomes all the louder perhaps followed by his voice saying, "No.. no im not ready!" you see a body being thrown back against the corner wall then a mysterious shadow dragging it back around the corner. You then see blood spatter against the corner wall. Then an aging person in a lab coat comes around that same corner with a sinister smile and in a somewhat soothing voice says, "Ah... so we have another patient..." and in the background you hear freakish laughs followed by a flash of light followed by.. nothing except the stain of blood on the corner wall and a weapon in your hands.
Not sure what you think but it could serve well to bring rewards and a nice dose of horror.

[NeatNit]

If you know how to make a so called 'movie' or whatever like in the beginning of hl2 with parts of NH1 and add some parts to make it more scary.

[SpeedWolf]

Here's some idea's.

1# You go around a corner to have a man push you down to the ground. You get back up, then he says "No You Can't make me!" the he runs off around another bend. Once you go around a corner you see his lifeless body on the other side, blood all over the walls, and a scared look on his face.

2# You go into a room, all dark, there is a light on the other end from a cracked wall, showing that theres a light switch. You push it, and thinking it will turn on the lights and you find something spooky in the room, the wall that the switch is on bursts inwards into another room, filled with lifeless body's, when you go in the room the lights turn off, you turn to go into the room you came from just to find fast zombies (or any kind of zombies) ambush you.

I will think of some more.

[Draco122]

I have alot of different ideas for NH2.

In the first NH it had a sense of being calm yet still having a sense of creepiness while later on the scare level increased, from it being mere surprise scares down to deep paranoia.

An asylum is a very good place to hold such a mod like this but if you plan to make it scary alternate a bit from the Asylum to some place else I will explain more on the best areas later.

Atmosphere is an extremely important aspect of any Horror game or modification. If you want to make it scary start soft first then increase the level as you progress however to make it so its not so bland mix it up, post random levels of the "scare" in different forms. But its choosing that level of scare and how it effects people.

Now when it comes to scary you have to know what's the difference from Scary to absolutely terrifying to downright leading to a insane overload of the human senses.

Play on people's phobia's. Claustrophobia is a good phobia to prey on. Have the person go to a room only to find the door in that room is locked and then having the other close behind him and wall's close in, you fumble around with the door handle but nothing works. The walls close in so tightly they hurt you to a slight degree until your actually ducking inside a very small space and then you find yourself in the very same room but nothing has change.

Interaction with enemies is also important but interaction with characters is always important. Since it's based in an asylum you have plenty of types of characters.

Here are types of characters you could base on:

Spirit's
Spirits of past victims who had suffered an early fate inside the hell your in. Some may provide messages of warning, some may be gibberish while some may lead you to a danger or a secret.

Ghostly figure
A figure of a person who mocks and taunts you throughout your travels, something similar to a spirit but torments you, plays with you by taking you to strange locations, fighting enemies or watching and enjoying you squirm inside a trap of sorts it led you to.

A helper
A person who helps you, he/she provides relief for you, someone you can rely on. Only until you really, truly rely on them do they change. For example, a helper character helped you throughout the level only to find out something happen to said character. The character was horribly mauled to death inside a room which could pose as an escape route, a character turns on you at the last second, the character who was helping you was actually a spirit or a ghost but the helper didn't realise until the end.

An Antagonist
Someone who is purposely out to kill you in an attempt to escape. For example another character believes you are the cause of this nightmare and so the only possible way to end it, is by trying to kill you in the process, maybe they try be-friending that ypu only to turn and back stab you later on. Basically this person could act as a boss or a figure that has gone insane and kills anything including you in sight.

Other Victims
Perhaps show other victims like yourself in the same situation trying to survive. Or better yet watch grotesque scenes of other characters being killed only to venture to the same place later on. A good example is seeing that aftermath of that women hang herself in NH.

But it should also play on various situations. Sometimes a situation could be a relaxing calm situation then suddenly turn into a horrible one. Have relief points, or sections where a character can relax or rest for a while. However a very sadistic and terrifying way of getting someone to drop their guard is by faking a relief a point, have the player stay in the room to relax only to find out that something happened in that room. Something they wouldn't expect in a room like that.

Another good scare is have one very long scare, something that combines multiple actions in one long go. Flashing images, enemies attacking you for short periods, you facing situations such as falling into a black abyss, walls closing in with terrifying music playing and maybe the sound of screaming. Seeing people get ripped to shreds by something only to find your next in line! That should be something the person could never expect and you decide how long or how short it will be or how many you want.

To satisfy some people, talk about Items and weapons. Have some items that are placed in an impossible area when your in dire need of help. A low HP situation with a medi-kit put on a really high shelf. A weapon placed in the centre of the room only to have something happen or place several weapons several rooms only to have certain ones with special triggers. have like an RPG sitting next to a corpse as you approach you get the RPG but the floor begins to break and you kill yourself falling for a trap. Another could be a mild scare as you pick a weapon an entity appears behind you and you blast a few shells from that shotgun.

Objects as well are important, have them do odd things, float around a room, have them levitate and then thrown at you with such force (do small objects first then increase in size to a near lethal level). Show signs of what other victims succumbed by Objects or use the victims corpse as well. Have a corpse fly through a window, have it dropped from a hole in the ceiling or just have it flung at you. A good example of having witnessed a victim being killed is having seeing him first being killed and then later arriving to the same area only to see an old ageing corpse, as if it happened a very long time ago.

Enemies are also important, you can standard zombies like in your first NH , those were good, very well placed. Another good way is to show characters mis-treating you, have characters shoot at you thinking your an enemy.

The music & sound is very important, have a variety of sounds. Screams, choking sounds, blood chilling sounds like creepy crying, evil laughter. Music such as creepy silent type music is a definite type, try having the silence of nothing but the wind blowing in the distance until a great howl happens as soon as you open a door. Have the music change once a situation changes, like a door locks and the entire music happens to a very fast beat almost adrenaline pumping rhythm then peace.

Environments are very important and are a critical step. For example, you said you were basing it off an asylum. Have it so it changes every so often, sometimes you appear back in the asylum, other times you'll appear elsewhere here's what I got in terms of other locations you can do.

Original NH house
Much like the first NH, have flashbacks to the same house going back and forth in different areas solving puzzles to get out or face and beat threats.

A forest surrounded in darkness of the night.
Taken from a scene in Zombie forest, show a scene of an eerie silent forest with a thick fog and winds. Have a lake and various things inside which instil a creepiness about them with occasional scares

A lonely Ghost town
A ghost town in two separate forms, a barren town in the middle of the day. Completely empty, the only sound is the wind with cries of pain and suffering from various areas of the town. A second version could be one set at night, always constantly raining. Enemies are abundant, cries of pain and victims suffering everywhere with blood soaked walls with signs of decay and death.

A complete white room.
A room completely white, devoid of life and yet hearing the sounds of lost souls in the distance. A single man appears before you, babbling about something. Before long your sent back into internal darkness with the sounds of pain, enemies around and screaming.

The Asylum
The asylum itself both in a current state, a twisted and deformed state and as if it has been abandoned for years. Something that instils a mystery while still providing decent storyline.

And finally an ending sequence, sometimes placing two, three or even four ending sequences make it more interesting and able for people to have a very good replay experience. The replay value will up with more endings, as players get to see the result.

Thats all for now, hopes this helps