Lost Coast Anniversary Update

1. Overview

When Half-Life 2 and its Episodes were updated in November 2024 to celebrate HL2's 20th Anniversary, Lost Coast was included in the package, but largely left unmodified. Since 2005, it had numerous small, but noticeable flaws (player clipping issues, geometry seams, invisible faces, inconsistent model lighting). Almost none of it was addressed in the update.

This fanmade project aims to rectify that. Lost Coast has been given a gentle touch-up, patching as many little flaws as it could and sprinkling additional detail and improvements.

2. Installation

There are two versions available.
One is released on the Workshop and is intended for players using the most up-to-date version of Half-Life 2.
The other is released on ModDB and Gamebanana and is meant for players using the legacy build or playing outside of Steam.
The maps in both are identical. The only real difference is the installation method.

Naturally, you need Lost Coast installed; the add-on runs on top of it.

If you're using the Workshop version, just subscribe to it and the game should download the add-on.
Otherwise, download the archive, *unpack* it into Half-Life 2\lostcoast\custom\ (create the custom folder if it's not present).

2. Changes list
The full list of changes is as follows:

* The in-game prompt to turn on Developer Commentary has been disabled. Now the Commentary can instead be turned on by using the Menu option "Developer Commentary" same as with Half-Life 2 and its Episodes. Launching Lost Coast from "New Game" runs it without the commentary by default.
* Dozens of instances of invisible faces, missing model faces/clipping, holes in geometry have been fixed.
* Player clipping has been improved, together with expanded leech triggers to prevent getting out of bounds extremely easily.
* Possible monastery courtyard door softlock has been addressed.
* The water-filled pit nex to the staircase now kills NPCs that fall into it.
* Skipping the final fight by jumping over its trigger has been fixed.
* The player can no longer descend on the lift without destroying the Hunter-Chopper.
* Flickering lighting on the inner monastery dome model has been fixed (also fixed in the HL2 Anniversary update but not in the legacy build).
* Visible closed areaportal behind monastery windows has been fixed.
* The background scenery and 3d skybox has been improved with more foliage, detailed trees instead of tree cards, slightly more detailed buildings, and overlays.
* The main area has received a few minor cosmetic improvements (brush trims, chamfered corners).
* The Monastery brushwork has been made more consistent with its far-away model.
* The St Olga canister smoke effects have been updated to use more textured smoke.
* The water texture has been adjusted to remove visible seams between 'real' and skybox water.
* Background fog settings and cards have been adjusted to look nicer.
* Grass coverage has been improved and made slightly denser/richer.
* Lighting has generally been made slightly more detailed and sharp, but without going overboard.
* An extra interior has been added in the monastery courtyard area.

What this update doesn't do:
* Affect the balance, AI or difficulty in any way.
* Replace/update assets (other than for technical reasons, such as fixing the water texture).
* Change the tone or atmosphere of Lost Coast.
* Restore cut content.

3. Credits

Valve - for Half-Life 2: Lost Coast.
Cvoxalury - all the changes listed above.

4. Permissions

You can reupload and host this anywhere you like. I'd be grateful for crediting me/linking to the original page where you downloaded this from, but it's not necessary.