For a long time we simply used grey boxes as placeholders for our building models, but our newest developer ChromeAngel has gone out of his way to make us some nice new models for all of the Resistance and Combine buildings. On top of that, our friend Garrador (who also made our original HUD) has designed us a brand new HUD that looks more Half-Life than before and doesn't borrow quite as heavily from the Company of Heroes design. Check out the new buildings and HUD in the screenshots below (click them to enlarge of course).
Combine Buildings
In this screenshot you can see all of the Combine building models. The big one in the center is the HQ, and from left to right the others are the Garrison, Special Ops, Synth Factory and Armory. The little posts you see in between are Power Generators. The Garrison produces most of the basic Combine troops, while expensive infantry such as Elites and Snipers are produced at the Special Ops. The Synth Factory is self-explanatory (it builds Hunters and Striders) and the Armory provides all kinds of upgrades and research.
Resistance Buildings
These are the Resistance buildings. The HQ is seen front and center. At the top back you can see several Billets, which raise the population cap for Rebel players. The other buildings are (from left to right): two Barracks, Munitions Depot (similar to Armory for Combine), a Triage Center just above the HQ, then Special Ops and finally the Vortigaunt Den all the way to the right. There is also a new model for Scrap points, which you can see by clicking here.
New HUD / Interface
In this image you can see the new HUD in all its glory. It has several improvements over the previous HUD from a design perspective and is overall a lot cleaner looking and uses space more efficiently. On the right side is the command panel which allows you to issue commands to units or buildings (using abilities, attack move, construction, repair, etc). In the center are selected units - if only one is selected then it displays some statistics about that particular unit. The box to the left of the center is for unit portraits - not all are finished yet.
Above the selected units area you can see all of your assigned Control Groups (Ctrl+#) where you can group units or buildings together and hotkey them for fast and easy command of your forces. Like in Starcraft, you can put buildings in a control group so that you can use hotkeys to produce units at those structures even when not looking at your base. The left side of the HUD displays the minimap, resources (Requisition and Scrap for Resistance and Requisition and Power for Combine) and Population.
That's all for today folks. We have more to show off, but not all at once! We are progressing steadily towards releasing BETA 2 and we'll keep you posted as release draws closer. Next time you can expect to see another gameplay video and some other nifty stuff. For now, head over to our community forum if you want to help out or tell us what you think, and let us know in the comments how you like the buildings and HUD! Also be sure to Follow us on Twitter (@HL2Wars)!
