What does the faq have to do with necroposting?
If you, BELIEVE.
Eh, this isn’t as bad as some of the bumping of two-year-old threads we saw back when the forums were relatively stable.
Well since the post has been necroed, we might as well discuss…
I’m thinking that Xen might be one of the most heavily re-worked sections of the game (along with On A Rail earlier on), given that the number one complaint that always seemed to pop up about Half-Life was that Xen kind of threw the game off pace. You were taken out of an incredibly action packed environment and put in an alien world and forced to deal with platformer puzzles and long jumps. My guess is they will try to make it a more fluid experience in Xen right up to the final battle.
I agree Xen most likely will be the most re-worked area in the game, it needs it bad, but at this late in the game I’m not sure how useful to the dev’s we could be about suggestion things to add/change/rework. If anything I would suggest more cinematic moments, the last thread on Xen that was lost when the forums went down had some pretty sweet suggestions for stuff like that and one suggestion that was legendary. But no, no spoilers, even if the devs have no intention of taking any of those suggestions.
So yea, I’m looking forward to how the game’s going to turn out. Having been here off and on for the past 5 years I’ve read a lot so it will be pretty interesting to see the final results.
1 month left, to wait hopefully also I know this mod will be good, and you guy’s are lucky valve is letting you make this epic mod.
What do you mean “let them”? The only thing Valve can do about the mod is make them drop the Source title, and they’ve already done that.
They said a while back that they fully expected the modding community to pick up a full remake of Half-Life.
And don’t forget “They can make sh*tty games like HL: Source” 
To return to the topic title…
I think it would be a nice little feature to have the alien Manta Rays (remember those gliding bluey-brown things?) respond when you jump on them in Xen, as you do to reach teleporters on occasion. What I mean by respond is that they may wobble a little as you land on them, much like how the minature Xen platforms would that were mentioned in this thread earlier.
Another feature although more controversial would be for them to repond with some kind of sound, almost like acknowledging you as a passenger, after all they are used by the alien grunts and vortigaunts as personnel transports. I said controversial because we don’t really know what the mantas are and therefore choosing the sound may be tricky - are they simply creatures native to the alien’s homeworld or are they a result of advanced bioengineering as they appear capable of moving as fast as fighter planes? Also they appear to deploy troops by teleporting personnel (seen as the purple flash) to their underbelly before gliding off - I don’t know many creatures which naturally have this ability but then again we’ve met ones which can generate intense green electrial charges so maybe this is a natural ability.
Lastly in a lot of games I’ve played, the player can be ‘rewarded’ by his/her quick analysis of the environment and reflex times by being able to destroy enemies which would normally pass by in the background of a scene. An example of where this could be used is after you reach surface at one point and a two-tailed manta (pursued by a fighter jet I think) drops an alien grunt in the path in front of you, just before a tank bursts through the wall behind it and marines pour out of the wall breach. It would be good if the player was able to shoot the manta down as it passes to prevent it deploying the grunt or at least damage it in some way. Admittedly this one will require more than a little bit of work but its just an idea to put out there.
Let me know what you think. 
tl;dr :meh:
That was a dick move.
I agree with your suggestions. The mantas seemed rather robotic in the original, and it would be much more life-like if they would at least show some response to you jumping on their backs.
As for the “think fast” moments, we’ll just have to see what the developers have up their sleeves.
Think fast moments are cool, however the example you give is two-edged: Personally I’d rather want the Agrunt to kill few Hgrunts and then be finished off by me, than risk that I have to fight half a dozen soldiers on my own.
Personally, I like my enemies fighting each other so all my work is reduced to simply kill the survivors.
The only think fast moment I can recall is the ability to shoot down a dropship when you acquire the machine gun for the airboat in HL2. I think Valve tends to stray from these scenes because it doesn’t satisfy everyone. Some players may be very happy to charge in, blast everything and grab supplies without looking in a swift motion. Others, like myself, are a lot more methodical and prefer to search out all enemies and possible supplies before moving on. Having these think fast moments punish players who don’t play that way.
I’m sure I read somthing on here about scientists that had already travelled to xen that you see lying around dead in the original which I am sure will defo be in black mesa source mod.
Somone came up with the Idea that there could be a zombie in a hevsuit on xen, I just wanted to say I think that is a really good idea for a bad ass zombie!
Useless necropost is useless and necro :hmph:
Can’t wait to have our first glimpse of Xen when the Resonance Cascade happens 
Bullsquids going omnomnom and Vorts going “OOKCH ACH SEH-ACH” nd starin at you and stuffz.
Thread now thoroughly necromanticized. :3
I hope the vorts in the teleporting scene are all chanty and mysterious like the EP1 vorts.