Okay, it’s been a while since I last posted something on the forum and I noticed that the game is getting updates that are all going to make the game design look better. But after being released with new updates for nearly a year (which will be the anniversary on May 5th) I must ask as to what the current status of the Xen is. I can now say I’ve played the Xen levels in Half-Life in Sven Co-op and they’re very short. What I want to know is has there been anything new related to the main game in an update (specifically for the Xen) and not the multiplayer? Because the reason I play this game is not for the multiplayer. I play this game to see an enhanced version of the story of Xen made by you guys. I know the multiplayer maps are important as well, but the main reason I (and probably others) got on board to play this game was to play a fully made remake of Half-Life in the Source Engine. I want to know if there is anything at all related to Xen we can at least see so we can be hopeful to see it in soon. Because I don’t post often and I don’t really come here often because I just want to see the update to add the Xen. What I see currently is new updates for what I believe is the main game in the real world and in the multiplayer. I just want to know if we’ll at least see the Xen levels ready hopefully before Valve announces Half-Life 3 because to me I feel like this is the part of the game that is set in Valve time.
Under development.
The dev team will notify us of updates when they feel the time is right to give us said updates. I can’t speak for everybody, but I for one don’t mind the team taking their time on the final maps. I’d rather wait for a good product than get a crappy product now. Just sit patiently, and eventually Xen will come. You’re not helping to speed things along.
Updates take a long time… I understand that Xen should not get released in parts… But on the other hand I don’t understand why they do not tweak gameplay in multiplayer (in small updates). Atm I feel like multiplayer is already dead. Some people might say that it’s not even born yet… But to be honest, multiplayer is released since quite some time now (is it born? or half born?) and the competetive HL community is still waiting for lots of gameplay tweaks. If they split up MP and SP development on their team, then they should bring more small frequent updates to polish what we already have in the game.
Edit: And regarding Xen… I know they promised some more information about Xen’s development status shortly after they released the Crossfire Update.
“Oh, Fury posted in this thread about updates, I wonder what he started talking about” 
Why did OP get slapped with dislikes and passive hostility? This is probably the only time anyone’s ever come and politely asked whether there’s new information and not demand an ETA or complain about it. Didn’t even ask to be given anything new, just if there was any. I mean, sure, he did the “Valve Time” thing, but you’re lying if you think BM isn’t clearly on it (for good reason, mind you).
Anyway, as said before, there’s nothing new regarding Xen, and there likely won’t be any for a while. The devs are intentionally staying hush on that front. If I had to guess, chances are when there’s info about Xen you won’t have to come looking for it. The devs will be loud about it and everyone in the HL community won’t shut up about it. You’ll easily find that info. c:
Agree with Crypt honestly, no need to attack or be hostile to the guy for politely asking for information. We’re all friends here
And yeah, when we release stuff about Xen, you’ll know about it. We won’t keep it quiet, whether it’s a media release or an actual release (which, to be absolutely clear, is still a long ways off!) You won’t need to come searching for it. And trust me, when it’s time to release Xen, you’ll find us screaming it from the rooftops. We are slow, and we know some fans are unhappy about that. We get it, and we understand your frustration, I promise, but there’s not much we can do about it. We’re working as hard and fast as we can, and there are A LOT of obstacles in our way (I could write pages and pages on this topic).
Fury, I love how you’re sitting here telling us to split up our SP and MP teams, when that’s exactly how it’s been SINCE EVEN BEFORE LAUNCH. I have stated this on a vast number of occasions, too. I have explained (to you in particular, several times) why small frequent updates to MP are not particularly realistic for us. Our deployment pipeline is complicated, and Source is even moreso. It takes a significant amount of work on our end to get builds prepped and shipped (we normally have to lock the game down to have no further work done on the deployment branch for AT LEAST 2 weeks or more prior to an update release). Oh and working on branches is a nightmare too. You would be staggered at how much a small change can break X thing, or Y thing, in a completely unrelated way, and how much gets broken when we merge across our branches, which has to be done with every update. Or how often something can be broken on the deployed Steam branch but not on the internal development branch (the workshop in particular has been a horrible culprit of this - works perfectly on our internal builds and then breaks when shipped onto Steam). This was a nightmare to deal with when we launched and were trying to deploy more frequent updates. We’ve learned from our mistakes. We have to keep things manageable on our end as well, not just for us, but for you guys too. We’re going to stick to our model of sizeable content updates with hotfixes for immediate issues, because it’s what works best. You’ll get your MP changes in the next update, I’m actually doing some balancing work on it right now, as it goes.
The game is getting further and further along. Even if it’s slow, you can see the progress with each update. This next update is SP content, but it is awesome. I am so, so excited and can’t wait to get it into your hands. Which should be fairly soon, too!
I’m gonna slap you with dislikes and passive hostility.
y?
You managed to get literally everything wrong in your post. That’s…actually beyond impressive.
Firstly. It. Is. Not. Xen. Please get that through your head. How did you manage to twist my words from:
“We won’t keep it quiet, whether it’s a media release or an actual release (which, to be absolutely clear, is still a long ways off!) You won’t need to come searching for it. And trust me, when it’s time to release Xen, you’ll find us screaming it from the rooftops.”
To the conclusion that the next update will contain Xen? It’s things like this which make it so we have to plaster everything we say to the community with “THIS IS NOT XEN.” People wonder why we do that! And you STILL somehow get that wrong?
The Surface Tension Uncut version in the coming update was made from scratch. Not a single thing ported from my mod. I’ve been working on it for a very long time. I’m immensely proud of it. Everyone who worked on STU has done a phenomenal job (and to be clear, it hasn’t just been me, very very far from it), it is 100x better than my mod versions ever were. We put a lot of effort into it. It’s a totally seamless, high quality, fitting conclusion to Black Mesa. Don’t write it off as “just a port of the mods”.
As for your “confirmed” date of May 16th, I find it very impressive that you’ve managed to confirm a date we haven’t even set yet. In fact, this is the first time I’ve heard ANYTHING about May 16th. Bravo!
Please, think before you post things like that. It’s not a good look. I understand it comes from a place of excitement and fandom, and we really appreciate the overall sentiment - but it really does more harm than good.
Okay I deleted the post
Hey will you add taunts for multiplayer?
I never said you don’t do any progress… All I said is that it’s slow and sometimes it’s very quiet. Like… there weren’t any news or development streams for quite a while now… I understand that this update is going to be focussed on singleplayer and I am already excited about it. I am just not good in waiting -.-
You picked the wrong game franchise to be a fan of if you’re not good at waiting.
Why are you so angry due date?
He was being sarcastic. Check his first post in this thread and you’ll understand:
Yeah, not angry, was just letting you know I disagreed with your (now deleted) post in a fun way. <3
We’re all friends here!
I mean i’m not gonna brag that i asked TextFAMGUY1 the same question about updates
like a month ago, but i did ask about updates like a month ago.
Message text:
Whoa, you asked for updates on Black Mesa?! What an original concept! So proud of you!
Excellent news. Was wondering what was going on with that content. Or new content I should say.
XEN CONFIRMED!