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Half-Life 2 Hints
Summoning Creatures
Do you remember the Grunt-O-Matic (impulse 76) from the original Half-Life and how fun it could be, especially if you used the "notarget" code and then bound the Grunt-O-Matic to a key so that you could quickly teleport in lots of grunts to do your fighting for you? It was a great way to replay Half-Life once you got tired of playing through it the "regular" way. Well, someone at Valve screwed up Half-Life 2's Grunt-O-Matic, and it doesn't work. However, you've got something a whole lot better!
The "npc_create" code can be used to summon up an NPC or creature of a specified type. It'll appear at the spot you're pointing the targeting crosshairs (if it's possible for that creature to appear there). You can bind an "npc_create" code to a key in order to quickly and easily summon creatures to do your fighting for you. In fact, if you summon up something friendly, like a vortigaunt or a citizen, you don't even have to use "notarget" in order to avoid drawing the summoned creatures' fire.
EXAMPLE: To make the V key summon a vortigaunt every time you press it, type this on the console:
bind v "npc_create npc_vortigaunt"
Some NPCs such as metro cops, soldiers, and citizens can be given weapons. To set which weapon they'll have when they're created, first use the "npc_create_equipment" command, as in this example where a citizen is created after setting up the pulse rifle as the default NPC weapon:
npc_create_equipment weapon_ar2 npc_create npc_citizen
Following is a list of creatures and NPCs you can summon up. Note that npc_ needs to be added onto the beginning of each one (as in the above examples).
