Talk:Xen (Half-Life)

message: The Screenshots at the section "Additional Screenshots" did not show in my computer. I can see the others at the side of the article so I don't know if you have used a different configuration. In case its a compatibility issue, I use Windows Xp proffesional with standart Microsoft Internet explorer. Hope it helps. I always liked the views of Xen :)
:Hi.  I've reverted the screenshots back to their original format.  Recently this was changed to a "gallery" format (which I'm not familiar with).  Anyway, all of the shots on the page are now presented the same way.  Personally, I think this looks much better anyway.  Using "gallery" just increased the amount of white space on the page (at least at my end).  Anyway, hope this helps.  --Plumbago 07:50, 18 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi User:25.  Sorry about reverting your gallery changes.  As you can see from the above, some users can't get the Gallery to work.  Don't know why - might be a browser thing (I only use Firefox, so I don't know).  I have to admit though - I'm not a big fan of the Gallery format.  It makes the images a bit too dinky and difficult to discern for my liking.  Might be OK if your screen resolution is low (~800), but looks funny >1000.  --Plumbago 18:10, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the info. ╫ 25 ring-a-ding 18:14, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Screenshots 

message: The list of "major enemies" at the bottom of every Half-Life related page is incomplete. Could someone create new pages or write paragraphs on here about other lifeforms, specifically the tentacle plants and those annoying mini-Nihilanth things that teleport into the Lambda core? Screenshots of them would be good as well! And it would be helpful if we could create a new page on the Race-X aliens seen in Opposing Force. I would create pages myself but I don't know how!  :)  Rusty2005 26/09/05
:The "mini-Nihilanths" are called Alien Controllers. And to make a new page, you just put the name into the URL (i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Controller), or put it into the Search bar, and follow the instructions. (Incidentally, it's a good idea to add comments to the end of the Talk page, not the beginning. A quick way to do it is to click on the plus sign next to "Edit This Page.") --Yar Kramer 14:59, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: By the way Rusty2005, I've commented on your additions re: thumpers on the Antlion page.  Can you respond?  You probably haven't put the Antlion talkpage on your watchlist, so may well have missed this.  Cheers, --Plumbago 15:46, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lifeforms 

message: I've created a new page for the Race X aliens from Opposing Force. Please add to the page in any way you see fit!  Rusty2005  26/09/05
:And I've (a) added it to Template:Half-Life, and (b) put a stub note in it. --Yar Kramer 16:27, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Race X 

message: Right now I just made some modifications to the article to make it more neutral and include some more relevant facts.
Some problems with the (old) article:
*In the introduction, it is stated that Xen's alternate-dimension status is a possibility, although that has been confirmed repeatedly through in-game dialogue. A lot of time is spent with speculation about an invisible planet and talking about what the gravity "should" be doing instead of what it is doing.
Changes: The description of Xen's unique "gravity" is elaborated, while the large amount of speculation is reduced. Enhanced description of the Border World, based on HL2 dialogue. 
*The ecosystem section kind of glosses over Xen's distinctive 'plant' life by categorizing it with all other types of organism. There's one bizarre point where Nihilanth's organic fighter planes are speculated to work like giant bees. A lot is said about them that probably belongs in its own article, since such a complex description of their behaviour has little to do with Xen. There's no mention of Nihilanth's limited industrialization of some areas. There's no mention of Race X or the Antlions' likely Xenian origin.
Changes: The ecosystem category is divided up into a short introduction describing the habitat, a non-sentient category that focusses on the distinctive plant life and a sentient category that describes the Nihilanth and his civilization on Xen. Also, an Unconfirmed category includes Race X and the Antlions as possible Xen dwellers. 
*Some facts that weren't included don't really fit into any category.
Changes: Added a Politics section, describing Xen's territories and strategic importance to Nihilanth, Humanity and the G-man.
*The narrative section consists almost entirely of speculation, very little to do with the actual narrative of the games. The assumption is made that the G-man works for the US government, etc.
Changes: This section is replaced with a brief description of how Xen factors into the Half-Life universe, with more emphasis on what is known than on what could be speculated.
All in all, I hope that makes the thing easier to read and provides a bit more factual basis. 
However, someone's reverted it now. Oh dear. Could that please be changed back?
:Aw damn, that politics section sounds interesting.  Heh, I'm the guy that made the old Lambda Project website, where I theorised that the Xen asteroids could be orbiting some kind of invisible object.  It's nice to see that sort of thing has gotten a mention on here!  I think I may add a section about the Xen crystals, though I may put them on a seperate page. --your evil twin 04:21, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some Repairs 

message: There's a quote made by him on this page. If he's a Valve employee (or used to be), this should be noted, as in "Doug Lombardi (a former Valve employee)...". Kimera757 16:06, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I believe he's head-honcho over at Valve.  No "former" about him.  Hence the lack of explanation.  Cheers, --Plumbago 16:21, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Who is Doug Lombardi? 

message: In the article, it says that Xen is all asteriods, and maybe there was unlying planet or something that cannot be seen.  Well, In half life 2, the combine are stealing materials from earth by draining the oceans or any method possible to get them.  I'm assuming Xen has been under combine control for a while longer than Earth so maybe all the easily mined materials are taken so now they are actually ripping the planet apart to get them? It would explain why there could be asteriods.
:Nice theory - but it'd be total speculation, and we have enough problems with that here already.  Sorry.  (As an aside, it's not clear that Xen was ever under Combine control - Valve hasn't given enough information there yet, hence much speculation.)  --Plumbago 08:16, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, I was just replaying the games recently (HL1, Opposing Force, and Blue Shift), and I found that in some levels (particularly Intelorper), the "sky texture" features a clouded sky above with a sun, with a reflection of the same below it (you can see part of what I'm talking about in the picture of the tentacle, I'll try to get another screenshot of that).  The reflection could be caused by water, like and ocean. If that's the case, then that means that Xen's platforms could be held in low orbit over an actual planet.  That also means the gravity is lower because of a lower orbit, but points down towards the actual planet.  And there may be an atmosphere if the platforms are not too far out of orbit.  Of course, the gravity could also be lower due to the fact that the planet's mass is smaller.  Also, note that the platforms are all mostly the same shape, which is a nearly flat piece of any size that comes to point on the bottom, as if the platforms were land mass that were pulled from the ground (possibly from the planet that may be in existence below?).  There are only two odd things about this theory.  One is the fact that large land masses are floating.  This may be caused by very light gases within the structures that make them afloat, or just the fact that the masses are far enough away to free fall infinitly, much like an orbiting spacecraft.  The other odd thing is the really odd "sky textures" we see in Xen enviornments, like the "nebulas," the blown up images from a microscope, or the completely black "abyss."  Of course, the nebulas could be clouds of alien gases in the atmosphere, and the black could be a night cycle on the planet.  But the microscopic images are just bizarre.  Maybe they are giant floating organisms in the atmosphere?  Or maybe it is an effect from G-Man when he is talking to Gordon (like the tram car in space illusion).  If there are other parts when the player sees the microscopic images in the sky when not talking to G-Man (which there may be), then that theory is disproven.  That's about it.  Sorry if it's lengthy, let me know what you think, and I'll get some screenshots of the "sky and ocean" (if we need one).
Those are some inventive theories, but I don't think they're right. The rocks can't be in orbit around a planet. There's oxygen on Xen (Freeman wears a maskless HEV suit), so they'd have to be within the atmosphere, and its air resistance would slow the rocks down so they would fall down to the planet. And if the rocks would be filled with lighter-than-air gasses but still within the gravity of the planet, they wouldn't stay motionless if someone walked over them. They would lean over to your side if you stand near the edge, because you would be heavier than the rock. It would be like walking on a raft. 
As for the giant germs in the sky texture, I remember they were also visible in some Xen-levels in Opposing Force (possibly in bonus areas that are only accessible via the teleporter gun). 
Not that any type of speculation would be allowed in the article, no matter how plausible it may be. But still it's just fun to talk about. :P Fyrius 12:53, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Since we are all going for speculation, here's a bit of my own. Xen, in my opinion, isn't an actual Universe, but a sub-continuum of sorts, stretched thin between two other, proper Universes. I beleive that, at its origin, it was either empty or non existant. Then, before the coming of the Nihilanth, someone/thing began 'importing' things into it: atmospheric gasses, boulders, water, living things, etc. It may be that even space-time itself was 'imported', as air would be added to a vaccumed bag. Given the fact that it existed between two parralel realities, it may be that some of those things got imported from both sides, i.e. the space-time function came from a universe the laws of which allowed for the gravitational force to be much stronger, while the matter itsef came from a universe like our own. In the end, you get this half-universe which is small emough to hold a small quantity of gas together at a breathable density, and has several chunks of rock rppped out of several worlds which have some form of gravitational pull of teir own. Life-forms themselves come from several different worlds (bullsquids, tentacles, headcrabs and Vortigaunts don't seem biologically related to me). The Nihilanth used this 'place' as a refuge, because it appears the Combine cannot get in (which, given their less-than-ideal teleportation wormholes isn't too surprising). If you want an example, it's sort of like the Tinkerbell's realm from the Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton.Preda 21:13, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Possible Reasons for Asteroids 

message: The article says:
Another noticeable feature is that gravity is always directed downwards, rather than towards the asteroid, so that one can actually fall off an asteroid into the void below. While it is possible that the "islands" are small chunks orbiting a larger and unseen planetoid, these unusual physics strongly suggest that Xen occupies an alternate dimension where conventional physics may not fully apply.
However, it is interesting to note that being in orbit around a larger planetoid would not explain the gravity in Xen. Part of the nature of orbiting is that when you are in orbit you are free of the effects of the gravity of the body you are in orbit around. Another way of saying it is that the orbit itself is the only effect of the gravity, so if you slip from a rock that is in orbit you do not fall, you just keep orbiting. -- Lilwik 20:16, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Very true.  How to address this, however, is less clear.  At the moment, the article's bending over backwards to accommodate dodgy game physics within the framework of real physics.  Obviously, for the game to work, it's important for the player to be killed if they walk off of a Xen asteroid.  However, for the above text to sound sensible, we can't just point out this bald fact (e.g. "For game design reasons, Valve lazily apply an inexplicable gravitational field that affects the player but not Xen asteroids").  Perhaps we need to hack out the above text, and replace it with something much shorter and more ambivalent about "unusual physics" and "controlled gravitational fields".  Or something similar sounding.  Expanding the above text would almost certainly be a bad idea.  It could also be original research.  Anyway, thanks Lilwik for picking this error up.  Cheers, --Plumbago 09:39, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Xen Gravity? 

message: Tentacle-trees resemble the Butcher Trees of Darwin IV. Drutt 10:29, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The article you linked to provided this illustration: A sketch of a butchertree. To be honest I can't really agree with the resemblance; though both are carnivorous trees with claws that look alike, this Butchertree has multiple of them on a thick trunk, whereas the Xen trees have only one claw on a trunk of the same width. In summary, while they are alike in a way, it's definitely not a resemblance that the article should say anything about. Fyrius 13:13, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Here's a better picture. Drutt 16:13, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Interesting.  The resemblance is much clearer in the second picture.  Still, I tend to agree with Fyrius that it's not an obvious addition to the article.  Unless the Darwin IV ecology inspired the creators of Xen (or vice versa), I can't see that the parallel's worth drawing.  I can't even work out if the Darwin IV ecology was created after or before Xen's was.  The TV programme was definitely created some years afterwards, but the book might not have been.  --Plumbago 16:46, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: ^^ painting is signed "W Barlowe 87" Drutt 16:52, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well spotted.  In which case, I'm a little suspicious that Valve might have seen these now (some of the other pictures over at the website are also suggestive of Xen).  However, unless we can verify that this is the case, it would just be original research to note the resemblance on the page.  Contacting Valve to query this might be an idea if you want to pursue this.  Either way, thanks for drawing my attention to them.  Cheers, --Plumbago 15:34, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Xen trees VS Butchertrees 

message: First line of the article: 
Xen (pronounced "Zen")
I don't think this is right. For all I can remember, the only time this name was actually pronounced was in the "epilogue" of HL1, by the G-man (I uploaded a recording of it here). I agree that it sounds like he says "Zen", but you can also interpret the pronunciation as "Xen" with a less prominent k-sound. The speaker is known to have articulation problems, after all. Fyrius 19:45, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Since nobody reacted, I suppose nobody minds if I edit this part out. Fyrius 16:03, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think 'X' at the start of words is supposed to be pronounced as 'Z'. Think 'Zylophone' or 'Zenon'. Drutt 18:33, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Zen"? 

message: Just editing this page, I realised that B. Calhoun and Adrian Shephard are both able to breath, and yet there is no evidence of helmets worn. Similarly, there must be some sort of pressure for the Vortigaunts to live there without imploding upon teleport. As I mentioned in the article, scientists lying around Xen are found with helmets on, and there's little point in wearing a helmet unless you need to artificially create a temporarily-breathable atmosphere.
I've not heard any comments from the Valve team about the atmosphere on Xen, and I couldn't find anything in a Google, so it might be worth emailing Marc Laidlaw about it to confirm. --Druckles (talk) 16:54, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Xen's "breathable" atmosphere