You won't even need a plot Masta, it's gonna be required when the plug on WON will be pulled out. So yeah, Steam's mandatory once WON goes down.
And on the topic of textures....are the any detailtexture support?
It's a nifty new feature for HL in Steam that creates fake bumpmaps with a greyscale texture overlays. I'm pretty sure I remember Hostile Intent doing this and it did VERY well....
Here's a link, just scroll down to the March 7 news post, and drool at the screenshots....
BUT a warning.....
Detail textures do NOT work on cards below the GF4Ti or GF3Ti. This includes trhe GeForce MX series (including GF4 MX440) I'm not sure which Radeon cards don't work, but I presume the ones below a 9600 Pro won't work.
EDIT : What good is it making a post without a link when you say there's a link?
http://www.planethalflife.com/hostileintent/