This article is an overview for Mapbase's changes which could modify gameplay and/or how the game behaves.
For the most part, Mapbase is supposed to be "invisible" to players so it could maintain vanilla functionality and serve as a blank slate to work from without having to obligate to new gameplay brought on by "improvements". For Half-Life 2's gameplay, almost all of Mapbase's changes are optional and the ones which aren't are either bug fixes or are for rare scenarios. All of them are intended to serve at least one of these purposes:
- Fixing issues which prevent certain map designs from working properly.
- Providing more options for more diverse kinds of scenarios.
Both of these reasons are vague, but they apply to everything.
(mention dynamic interactions, metrocop grenades and companion energy balls, etc.)
HL2:DM weapons in HL2 + Stunstick pickup behavior
Mapbase adds weapon_slam and weapon_stunstick as weapons mappers can use in singleplayer maps/mods for players to use for themselves.
weapon_slamis a charge which can be used as either a tripmine or a satchel, being the successor of both the tripmine and satchel weapons from Half-Life 1.weapon_stunstickis a melee weapon which metrocops use in the starting areas of Half-Life 2. It does more damage than the crowbar, but it's also much slower.
Since weapon_stunstick is an existing weapon in HL2 and picking it up normally just gives players suit armor, a keyvalue on the new hl2_gamerules entity is capable of controlling what should happen when a player picks up a stunstick.
