Half-Life Trilogy Archipelago Setup Guide

Half-Life Trilogy is Half-Life, Opposing Force and Blue Shift as one Archipelago world. In the Archipelago game list, YAMLs and the Launcher it is still called Half-Life; the name there is unchanged so existing YAMLs and seeds keep working.

What you need

Half-Life on Steam, current build. Not the steam_legacy beta branch.
Archipelago 0.6.7 or newer.
The Half-Life Trilogy apworld, half_life.apworld, in <Archipelago>/custom_worlds/.
Optionally Opposing Force and/or Blue Shift on Steam, in the same library as Half-Life, for a seed that includes them. Install them before running /install, or run it again after buying one.

The mod installs as its own game folder, hlap, alongside valve. Your own Half-Life is never modified: the mod folder inherits every map, model and sound from it through fallback_dir "valve". Removing the mod is deleting one folder, and the client's /uninstall does exactly that.

Installing

Put the apworld in <Archipelago>/custom_worlds/.
Start the Half-Life Client from the Archipelago Launcher.
It looks for your Half-Life folder and asks for it if it cannot find one. Pick the folder that contains valve. It is remembered in host.yaml, so you are only asked once.
Type /install in the client. It creates <Half-Life>/hlap/ and fills it in.
Start Half-Life with -game hlap (right-click the game in Steam → Properties → Launch Options), or pick Half-Life Archipelago from the game list under Custom Game.

Linux users: You must be running with Proton, as native linux is currently unsupported. Tested with Proton Hotfix.

Playing

Connect the client first, then start the game. Nothing is unlocked until the client has told the game what the seed contains, and warps are refused while it is not connected -- otherwise closing the client would be a way past every lock in the game.

Start a New Game and you arrive in the hub rather than on the tram. Every mission is reached from there: walk into a mission's entrance, or press its button, and the game says "Warping to " and takes you there a couple of seconds later. A mission that is still locked says why instead. The hub has entrances for Half-Life's missions; Opposing Force and Blue Shift missions are reached with !warp.

Commands work in two places: chat (Y), with a ! in front, or the console (~, which needs -console) without it. Chat is usually the one you want -- one key, no pause, no ap_ prefix to type.

Chat	Console	What it does
`!ap`	`ap`	every mission and its unlock status
`!warp <number or name>`	`ap_warp …`	travel to an unlocked mission
`!warp <mission> <part>`	`ap_warp …`	to a part you have already reached; the part as `3`, `p3`, `part 3` or `pt 3`
`!warp <map>`	`ap_warp …`	that map's part of its mission, such as `!warp c2a3b`
`!warp <name>`	`ap_warp …`	to a warp point of your own
`!setwarp [name]`	`ap_setwarp …`	make a warp point where you stand
`!warps`	`ap_warps`	the warp points you have made
`!hub`	`ap_hub`	return to the hub
`!tracker [filter]`	`ap_tracker …`	locations found and still out there; the filter is a mission, a map, or `weapons` for each game's weapon checks
`!find [text]`	`ap_find …`	point at the nearest unfound check
`!menu`	`ap_menu`	the warp and tracker as a menu, picked with the number keys (`0` closes it)
`!help`	`ap_help`	these, in game

A / works in chat too, if that is what your fingers do.

Keys

The mod installs binds for the commands that need no argument, in hlap/apbinds.cfg:

Key	Command
`P`	the mission list
`O`	the tracker
`I`	the command list
`L`	back to the hub
`[`	your warp points
`]`	point at the nearest check on this map
`;`	`setwarp` for the part you are in

They are there because of what the console does to single-player: opening it pauses the game, and while the game is paused the mod runs no frames, so a command typed into the console does nothing until the console is closed again. Chat does not pause, and neither does a key. K is left alone on purpose -- Half-Life uses it for voice chat.

The binds are loaded by the mod itself when the map starts, not only by autoexec.cfg, because whether the engine runs a mod's autoexec has varied between builds. They load once per session, so a key you rebind mid-session stays rebound.

Rebind them freely -- the file is yours once it is written, and reinstalling the mod leaves it alone. Uninstalling removes it.

A reply of a few lines is printed in the message area as well as the console, so most commands can be read without opening either. Long listings -- !tracker on a full seed -- go to the console alone, which is the only place they fit, but the message area still says so: ap_tracker: 214 lines in the console (~). A key press always answers with something.

ap_warp takes a mission number, a name, or a map name, and does not care about case or punctuation: ap_warp 15, ap_warp Gonarch's Lair, ap_warp gonarch and ap_warp c4a2 are the same request.

Add a part number to land partway into a mission -- ap_warp unforeseen 6 -- but only for a part you have already reached. It is a way back after a death or an errand in the hub, not a way past the half of a mission you have not played: the checks in a part you skipped to would be free, and warping straight to a mission's last part would be the fastest way through it.

Warp points

A warp takes you back to the state you were in, not to the top of the map. The first time you walk through a transition into a part of a mission, the game quietly saves that moment, and !warp <mission> <part> restores it: the same inventory, the same open doors, the same boss mid-fight. Only that first arrival is kept, so walking back and forth through a seam does not move it.

!setwarp moves the current part's warp point to wherever you are standing. !setwarp lab instead makes a warp point of your own called lab, which !warp lab goes back to; !warps lists them. Your own quicksave is never touched, and neither is any save you made by hand.

These saves live on this machine, in hlap/SAVE, keyed by the seed and the slot. That means:

A second machine, or a fresh install, has none of them. Warping still works there; it just starts the map cold, the way it did before.
Whether you may warp somewhere is still the multiworld's answer and never the save's. A mission this run has not opened stays shut even with an old save of it sitting on the disk, so replaying a reset seed cannot skip ahead.
They go when the slot goals, and /uninstall removes every one of them. A full run is a few hundred megabytes of savegames.

Anything worth knowing -- a check found, an item received, a mission unlocked, a pickup refused -- appears in the message area at the bottom left as well as in the console, so you do not need the console open to play.

Client-side commands, typed in the client rather than the game:

Command	What it does
`/install`, `/uninstall`	add or remove the `hlap` folder
`/gamedir [path]`	change the Half-Life folder, or open a picker
`/where`	show the folder, the bridge path and whether the mod is installed
`/missions`	mission unlock status
`/newrun`	starting this slot over: forget which missions were finished on this machine, so the server's completions show as "(Remote Complete)" until played again. Required if restarting on the same seed.
`/deathlink`, `/amnesty <n>`	toggle DeathLink, set the forgiven-deaths allowance
`/chat`	toggle relaying chat between the game and the multiworld
`/force_melee_throw`	toggle Melee Throw on in a seed that has no Melee Throw item

How a run goes

You start with one mission open, the crowbar, and nothing else. Missions are unlocked by items from the multiworld. Weapons are refused until the multiworld has sent them: walking over a shotgun you have not been sent leaves it where it is, and the check for it still fires.

Nihilanth is not unlocked by an item. It opens once you have finished missions_required other missions. Clearing it wins your slot when Half-Life is the only game in the seed; with more than one, see below.

Warping into a mission loads the map fresh, so you always arrive with exactly what the seed says you should have and can replay a mission freely. Transitions inside a mission are Half-Life's own, so the level-to-level flow is unchanged.

Quicksave and quickload work normally. The game holds nothing across a load: the client's snapshot is reapplied, and a check you make twice is a no-op on the server.

Options worth knowing

Option	Default	What it does
`missions_required`	all of them	how many missions open Nihilanth
`chargesanity`	on	every health and HEV wall unit, and every Xen healing pool, is a check (122 in Half-Life)
`include_microwave`	off	the Anomalous Materials break room microwave is a check: keep pressing its button until the food inside explodes
`exclude_intro_missions`	on	drop Black Mesa Inbound, the tram ride
`logic_difficulty`	strict	whether logic expects a suitable weapon per mission
`shuffle_hev_suit`	off	armour stays at zero until the item arrives
`shuffle_longjump`	off	on: the module is an item. Off: Half-Life hands it out as it always did
`shuffle_flashlight`	off	on: the flashlight key does nothing until the Flashlight arrives; with Opposing Force in, its maps need the Night Vision Goggles instead. The hub is always lit
`melee_throw`	off	on: adds Melee Throw, which lets secondary fire throw the crowbar or knife. Walk over it to pick it up, or it comes back after ten seconds
`trap_percentage`	15	share of your filler replaced by traps
`include_half_life`	on	Half-Life's missions. Turning every game off turns this back on
`include_opposing_force`	off	Opposing Force's 12 missions and 7 weapons. Needs the game installed
`include_blue_shift`	off	Blue Shift's 6 missions. Needs the game installed
`opposing_force_missions_required`	all of them	how many Opposing Force missions open Worlds Collide
`blue_shift_missions_required`	all of them	how many Blue Shift missions open Power Struggle
`random_starting_weapon`	on	with Opposing Force in, start with the crowbar, knife or pipe wrench at random; the others become items
`viewmodel_style`	per_campaign	`always_gordon`, `always_shephard` or `always_barney` keeps that one's hands on every game's maps
`death_link_amnesty`	4	deaths forgiven before one goes out to the multiworld

With more than one game in the seed, you win by finishing every included game's finale; each opens on its own game's mission count. shuffle_hev_suit also covers each game's own armour item: the PCV on Opposing Force's maps, the Security Armor (Barney's vest and helmet) on Blue Shift's. !ap lists missions by game, and !warp of 3 or !warp bs 2 warps by a game's own mission number.

The HEV suit is never taken away from you, whatever shuffle_hev_suit says: in GoldSrc the suit draws the weapon HUD and owns weapon switching, so a player without one cannot use what they are holding. What the item controls is armour.

DeathLink counts the deaths Half-Life does not treat as deaths, too: falling into the void on Xen and losing a scientist you were supposed to protect both end in a fade to black and a reloaded save rather than in a corpse, and both are sent.

Troubleshooting

The client says the mod folder is not installed. Run /install. If it says there is no server dll, this build of the apworld does not ship one yet.

A mission says it needs Opposing Force or Blue Shift, which is not installed. The seed includes a game this Half-Life folder does not have. Install it from Steam into the same library, then run /install again. The rest of the seed plays meanwhile. If the client says the game is installed but was not linked in, you bought it after your last /install; run /install again.

The game starts on the wrong content. Check the launch option is -game hlap, and that <Half-Life>/hlap/liblist.gam exists.

Checks are not being sent. /where shows the bridge path; both ap_in.txt and ap_out.txt should be there and recently modified. If the client logs a data version mismatch, the apworld that generated the seed and the one installed are different builds -- reinstall the mod with /install.