i know this question is tired and old, but im going to ask it anyway
i wasnt active on the forum for…years now, so many things had happened, and a lot of games, consoles, updates, graphics things have improved since
black mesa isnt as relevant as it was, and the game for all purposes is INCOMPLETE
so the question is
will black mesa XEN and overall final chapters, become another HALF-LIFE 3?
also, why do you get so angry when someone asks about it?, as far as i know, you are actually charging money for the title right? so, unlike the huge campains and episodes you actually made for free(original black mesa) you are actually getting paid for the product, so, i see no excuse whatsoever to not even say, “hey people, we wont make xen ever, just enjoy the game as it is”, we at LEAST deserve an answer
:thumbdown:
When it’s done, it will be done.
- just because the devs work “valve time”, the Xen parts won´t become another HL3 …they have ensured us many times that they´re working on them
- It´s not about being angry…it´s about constant asking for something that has been already answered with “when it´s done” … It takes a large amount of time to re-create (and maybe even expand) the whole Xen part from the very bottom. Keep in mind that many of these devs have their own lives, families, jobs, schools…many of them work on this only in their free time, not full-time…
- Isn´t “when it´s done” enough for an answer? They want to make sure the Xen part will be as good as the BM part …with or without releasing some early media…
I don´t mean to be rude to you or anything…you just need to be patient…the Xen part will come, don´t worry
The answer to “When will Xen portion of the game be finished?” is “When it’s done” - It’s been the same way for years.
Because:
Asking once is enough. I repeat, Xen will come along when it’s finished. I REPEAT. XEN WILL BE RELEASED WHEN IT’S FINISHED. It’s been answered numerous times.
Yes, players deserve an answer, and that answer is “When it’s done”. Have I mentioned that this was answered before?
Half-Life 3 was never stated to be released “when it’s done”. However, Xen was definitely stated, on several occasions, firmly and concisely, that it will be released “when it’s done”. That’s the core difference between being announced and unannounced.
Black Mesa is in Early Access and is incomplete as of right now, yes, that’s true, but Xen will come and fill in the gap to complete it. And we all know when that’s going to happen.
Crowbar Collective has never stated Xen will not be released. No, no, no, in fact, they repeatedly and thoroughly stated the exact opposite of that for years: They said they will release Xen, “when it’s done”.
Lastly, just because they aren’t showing off anything doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. It means that it’s just not ready yet to be revealed. It wasn’t announced in 1994 that Half-Life 1 was going to released - it weren’t even on production yet. But it did got released anyway. Half-Life was indeed announced to be released in 1998 prior to its release. Valve simply were not ready to announce that Half-Life were ever going to release before they finished everything. Same thing apply for Xen portion.
I’d like to point out that the game is in early access, meaning it’s still under development.
Things are still being added on a regular basis, and the notes on the most recent update (Which I suppose you haven’t seen, otherwise you probably wouldn’t have made this thread) outright mentions that some of the technology added last week is going to be used extensively in Xen.
Game development takes time, and because they want their overhaul of Xen to be a surprise, they’re not going to release any details or screenshots of it until it’s done, but they are working on it.
Sit down and wait patiently like the rest of us and stop accusing the devs of lying when you yourself have admitted you haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on lately.
It’s true since 2012 it has been almost four years since the free version of Black Mesa was released. Black Mesa mod version was in developement for eight years. So soon we will reach half the time the mod was being worked on. Does that put the Black Mesa devs in bright light ? In my opinion NO. Because Xen is much smaller content than the rest of the game and I know they are going to expand it, however I doubt that it will be as long as the earth chapters. So almost four years in development of Xen without any confirmation or any details, gives windbladezero a full right to ask where it is and there is no reason for anger especially from nondevs users. Let’s be honest people, Black Mesa devs are really taking their time with the game, especially now when they earn money from it. I assume it was something like this:
- dev01: hey guys we already earn money from the game on steam, then why bother releasing more content ?
- dev02: Because we promised Xen chapters long ago.
- dev01: okay so we will work on it SOMETIMES
- dev02: Yeah, in the meantime let’s just add some updated models and port surface tension uncut, because people has to pay for something new and there must be reason for them to pay right ?
While not all of it might be true and this is just my opinion on the situation, I’m preety sure some of my arguments are right at least partially.
As a developer on another large scale source engine project, I think what you’ve just stated is complete nonsense and is clear you have not much knowledge on:
- Source engine development.
- Game development practices.
- Mod team work ethics.
- Early access development.
Also the fact you’ve just appeared here with 1 post means you could just be windbladezero trying to back yourself up, and if that’s the case, why?
I am not windbladezero. In fact i worked in source a bit, for example I made some alpha xen maps in a thread on this forum named community project xen fanmade remake. I lost my password because I was inactive for 3 years on this forum. I just came back here to see if something changed regarding xen, and no still nothing. So before you make stupid and out of place statements that I have no idea what’s going on then don’t reply at all, besides as I said earlier this is simply my SPECULATION what is going on in the Black Mesa team. You people get more and more aggresive each year.
P.S It’s no suprise that it’s taking so long for them to make it. It seems like you people would wait for eternity and even longer with a smile on your faces and anyone who wishes otherwise instantly gets criticized.
Xen is being worked on.
Hammer =/= Source Engine programming
Creating maps and actually working with the source engine are 2 completely different things, it might be your speculation, but what I posted was my opinion, you can take it “aggressively” if you want but they are words on a screen and derive no emotion to create aggressive text.
The developers are pretty talkative compared to some developers about what they are actually doing, just because they stay away from answering one subject does not create the scenario to raise pitchforks and demand information, we have this community, they are involved, we all enjoying this title together and create content with it and wait for more to come through.
It will be done when it’s done, it’s your choice wither your here or not to see it when it does land.
What I meant was working with a tool that uses a source engine. My bad.
Well, because there are plenty of things that we can do while we wait. For instance, we could go to college and start our careers. Find love and get married and have kids. Write that novel, paint that picture, build that shed, plant that garden, etc.
Black Mesa is not life. As such, we can wait.
HECU Marine, literally nothing you’ve said so far has been right.
You people all make the mistake of assuming that the game was continually developed since the 2012 release. This is very far from the truth, but it does always make for great dramatic sounding “they’ve been working on it for 4 years, and done nothing!” The reality is exceedingly different.
The reality is, the team took a well deserved break after the 2012 release, and very little work or progress was made until the Greenlight offer at the end of 2013. Between then and the EA release in 2015, the bulk of the work was done on getting the build working and ready for retail release. And remember - the team had no obligation to work on the product during that period. None at all. The fact that you might be a paying customer now does not preclude the fact that we had no money from anything until May 2015. You can only get so far on the promise of future money. And by the way, none of this is a secret or a revelation either! I have expressed these facts many times.
You keep talking about how “we’re paying customers now, you should work faster”. We didn’t receive a cent until the May 2015 release. I don’t consider “real” development to have started until we hit that serious milestone. Since then, the team has worked at an unbelievable rate that I never thought possible. I am immensely proud of us and what we’ve managed to achieve. Look at what we’ve done to the game over the past year.
And that alpha Xen project which gives you detailed development experience? Not to disrespect your work, but that’s on such a profoundly different level to what we’re aiming for with the BMS Xen that they’re not even vaguely comparable. You cannot understand what we have to deal with until you try to create work at the quality we work at. It’s art. It’s difficult. It requires careful coordination across a team of 30, over the internet, in a professional environment, when everyone’s working in their SPARE TIME with differing levels of professional game experience. It would be very arrogant of me to have said in the past that because I made “Surface Tension Uncut,” I understood professional game development. Absurdly so.
You have your answer. It’s “we’ll talk about Xen when we’re ready. It’s being actively worked on and we’re doing our best, it’s our top priority.” This is literally written on the store page. Nobody has been misled. Although we’re keeping Xen under wraps for now, we haven’t been secretive about that fact at all. We’ve actively told people, time and time again, if you’re not comfortable with what we’re doing with our “Xen secrecy,” of course we understand if you want to hold off buying the game. We have no qualms with that and totally understand that viewpoint. We’re not unreasonable. The unreasonable ones are the ones who come in and say “we’re paying customers now, you develop how WE want!”
Also a weird mindset, you’re a paying customer, but you’re paying for the product they’re offering, not to do what you want. You don’t give them money and then tell them what you want it to be for. They offer their product and what it is and will be up front and you take it or leave it.
Thank you for you reply TextFAMGUY1. What you said is absolutely right and my protest was simply the result of impatience. It’s because I always loved Black Mesa. It’s like a masterpiece for me, so I’m very eager to try Xen chapters, especially the work you’ve done with the Surface Tenison uncut is amazing. And you’re right my “little project” with alpha xen can’t be compared with the huge work the devs did. I always supported this project, hey I even came up with the idea of military airstrikes at the end of c2a5i as it was in original Half Life, and I’m glad it remained, even with the alarm sound now ! You convinced me, I will just patiently wait like everyone else.
All BS about Xen aside, I’m more worried about instantly getting disliked when a post seems to be undesirable to the community.
Well, it’s sort of like when someone is asking a question that has been answered over and over and over again, that someone with just a tad of 'common sense, could figure out…
Then they sorta are gonna get shite 
Be careful you could be on the receiving end of a modded Streisand effect involving dislikes, oh my the terror.
There are REAL things to worry about in life, a dislike/like/fakebook friend are not one of those things.
Absolutely 100% agreed. Let’s worry about the REAL, serious issues here, like “why hasn’t Xen been finished yet!?”