after so many years, did you gave up on XEN?

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#21

Guess the fact that xen its self is a bag of worms which failed in teh original half life.

I can not imagine the amount of testing you guys have to do on it, seriously. You guys have to what, make sure the environment is right, fix the failed story, add bits of the story which while not in the original half life where still canon. possibly rework the ending, but knowing the canon you can’t do much about that.

Then there is bug testing.

Xen is an alien inviroment, look back at half life, look at all the strange and odd objects in it, then realize every inch of that has to be bug tested, ever event, every item. every thing. the low grave alone makes testing a pain as it adds more problems that need to be checked like making sure that long jumping into one of the spiked plants doesn’t launch you into space. (seriously that was a half life 1 bug, hard to do, but man flying from that was fun… to bad death always happened).

Not only that, but in xen there are many areas that the devs will have to either A reprogram AI specificly for, or B revamp completely.

example, in xen are the first 2 gargs that you have to kill with conventional weapons. Something that is impossible in black mesa. This means that the garg AI will have to be revamped for these parts, or a story element has to be added to give the player a way to damage them.

This is just one of many thing, there are also things like the passive vorts, the fact that an enemy can be an ally in section which means the team will have to find ways to convey that, the fact that at least one area has the manta’s firing off beams constantly at a rock, not only do they have to make sure the beam works there but they would have to find some explanation for it.

Then there is the locations them selves. IT is not like they can just copy paste the levels. the xen levels where generally either gravity based mazes on floating rocks or large cave systems, alone thoughs do not translate well into modern games. the fact you are having to swap from jump puzzle ot combat and even do both at the same time is something modern games dropped for a reason.

All of this is just a minor list, I can rant for hours on all the things the devs have to go through to get xen running.

#22

no
devs just lazy

#23

Now to the important question. Do you have a voice actor for gman scene already ? Finding someone who sounds like Michael Shapiro may be a difficult task and I can’t imagine anyone who sounds different for this role.

EDIT: Forget that, I checked the wiki.

#24

Kevin’s G-Man is top notch, no worries.

#25

To be fair, I don’t think there’s a thing he does that isn’t top notch :slight_smile:

#26

Yeah Kevin is basically just amazing at everything!

#27

While repeated questions about Xen have always tended to attract exasperated posts from forum veterans (and politely strained patience from the devs) they usually are not jumped on too badly if they are at least phrased with respect or genuine inquisitiveness. When posters come out of the gate with hostile, rude, aggressive or accusatory posts (the OP here managed all of the above to some extent) they rightly attract greater levels of condemnation.

#28

It’s funny how people say they own something because they paid money. Games these days come with a license to use the product under their terms of use and service agreement. You own nothing! These people with their ‘I paid money’ ideology, then start making demands, or criticize the operations of the company or team involved with the project, or with the way the game works or does not work. It happens on the Internet, such things as criticism, demands, or even judgemental viewpoints. But it’s still funny. They don’t actually own anything; they paid for a license, yet say ‘I paid money’. So what? lol

#29

Well it’s basically just what others have already pointed out in the thread: If they bought the game, they expect the devs do what they want, when reality couldn’t be any more different.

But I think everybody got the idea of how things actually work and what’s the status of the game by now, we should stop going any further (not more than necessary anyway).

#30

Remember, folks. If you put down money for the game, you did so knowing this was an early-access release of the game and did not yet include Xen. When they are done, you will get the Xen chapters for free.

youtube.com/watch?v=0d6yBHDvKUw

#31

Logic aside, when someone paid $$$ for a piece of software, they “own” it in terms of software code and are free to do anything with it. Intellectual property still belongs to the developers, and thus, hold the right to delay updates and development in general.

That aside, I wonder what are CC’s plans when they finish off Xen. Take a well-deserved break and then rework Half-Life 2 and its episodes (calling HL2 and EP1 “City 17” and EP2 “White Forest”)? 8) :smiley:

#32

Depends on what you mean by software code. If you refer to the source code of the game, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Source codes aren’t often released for the products (be them video games or another type of software). Black Mesa, for instance, doesn’t, and it will never be available from what the devs said, only a maybe, for the 2012 mod version.

Besides, I think you still don’t understand how ownership of a video game works if you think you are free to do whatever you want with it after the purchase, wtf. You can read license agreements from various games for examples, it can be that simple. And even if you do modify the game, you won’t be able to charge any costs, unless you receive explicit permission to do so from the developers, depending on what kind of modifications you brought to it. You’re wrong to assume that you can do what you want, and how you want after the purchase of the game/software. To achieve that level of freedom, there are many other processes to undergo.

Anyway, talking about what the devs will do after BM will be finished (which will be in the very far future), they have stated in the past that they’ll most likely not work on another new project similar to this one. We’ll pretty much have to see what happens for ourselves when the time will be right.

#33

Guys, I found the answer.

857×142

Why would you lie to us, Crowbar Collective?

#34

The amount of misinformation and inaccuracy of that post is actually beyond impressive :v .

#35

Reading Youtube comments

#36

Tbh There’s probably been less hostile, rude, aggressive and accusatory posts out here cause I’ve been sticking to the ladies club the last couple of years.

#37

As It is we get topics complaining about idiots complaining about xen. so yeah there is some annoyance with modern era people being unable to wait.

Keep in mind there was once a time, when you would have only one game per year if lucky that was worth playing. now people are all like GIVE ME THIS 2.0 I AM ENTITLED TO IT CAUSE I BOUGHT THIS 1.0.

#38

Kek. They simply said “…when it’s done.” That proves that they said something.

It still beats Valve and their Valve Time when developing games.

#39

Imma laugh my ass off when they release it tomorrow like “oh yeah well here it is anyways nbd guys.”

#40

They’ve already released it, people just have to solve the pizza ARG to find the download link.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.