User talk:Marphy

Archived talk: 1

Wallace Breen's name Trivia

Hello. Why do you think the deleted trivia shouldn't be in the article? Most of the main cast all have BTS info on such things and it feels relevant enough. Perhaps at least a shortened version (without historical trivia) could be left in? Cvoxalury (talk) 18:52, 3 March 2024 (MSK)

This sort of name trivia has been part of an ongoing removal pass for some time now, and there are still some such trivia points remaining on the wiki. Some characters do have behind the scenes information related to their names, such as Gordon, Adrian, Barney, and so forth. These have been directly stated by the developers as cited, so their relevancy is not in question. However, searching for the etymology of each individual first and last name is original research, and while such research can be warranted in cases, the issue is that stating the historical meaning and definitions of these names in the articles is presumptuous, effectively speculation. Unless actually stated by them, there's nothing to suggest that the developers put such thought and credence into the historical origins behind their name choices, hence this original research lacks pertinence to the wiki. For example, Odessa Cubbage's first and last names may pose some interesting historical connotations, but we know Marc chose it simply because he saw a funny name in his email's spam filter. Delving into and explaining the etymology of the name offers only speculative relevance. Marphy (talk) 03:32, 4 March 2024 (MSK)

Edits not saving

I'm not entirely sure if you're the one I should be asking about this, but for the past while I haven't been able to edit for more than a minute or two without getting the message "Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. You might have been logged out. Please verify that you're still logged in and try again. If it still does not work, try logging out and logging back in, and check that your browser allows cookies from this site." when trying to save an edit. Might you happen to know what could be causing this? -Gulliblepikmin 00:35, 30 May 2024 (MSK)

Has this issue been able to significantly impede your ability to make edits? I've experienced this error message as well, but I simply had to press "save changes" again and the edit would successfully go through. This is an inconvenience, but it's a very minor one. So far, the problem hasn't warranted immediate action since it's trivial to get by, but if you're having more severe consequences like completely losing edits or never being able to get an edit through at all even when trying to save it a second time, we'll have to investigate it more urgently. Marphy (talk) 05:28, 30 May 2024 (MSK)

It's been more of a large annoyance than anything else as I can copy the page data and edit summary to temporary notepad tabs, and can thankfully just press my web browser's "go back a page" button to re-access my edit for copying in the event that I do get the "Sorry! We could not process your edit" message. The reason I reported it in the first place was due to being unsure if it was a problem only on my end or not. -Gulliblepikmin 16:23, 30 May 2024 (MSK)

To be clear, do you completely lose your edits when this error message appears? Are you getting logged out when it happens? When it occurs for me, I still remain logged in, and my edit is still saved. The edit itself just simply doesn't go through, hence only needing to press "save changes" again to finally make it live. I have not experienced it myself in a while, so I can't replicate what I was experiencing back then (and what you're experiencing right now). Marphy (talk) 02:55, 31 May 2024 (MSK)

I seem to be experiencing what you're experiencing, or at least something similar to it. Next time I make a large edit I'll check if the "save it again" option works. -Gulliblepikmin 03:51, 31 May 2024 (MSK)

Help for adding Images of HL:SDK and Recent Max Leak Content

Hi there, I'm a New user who's been thinking of Adding Images of Content from Both the HL:SDK and The Recent .max File Leak that occured back in April. I'm considering this since I've seen people on the Old Facepunch forums show off content in the SDK that doesn't seem to be mentioned on the Wiki. (Such as Ted Backmann Barney being in the c2a4_sterilzer .Max Files (Despite the Animations being already mentioned on the Advanced Biological Research Lab Page), The Revised "Wide Eyes" Barney making up most of the 3ds max Files for Barney Along with the Old Shotgun and RPG Viewmodels (The rpg .max files happen to be broken while the .SMD file Appears Fine) plus i've seen Other stuff not yet mentioned when i went through the .max Files myself). Some Places of this info being mentioned include these Posts - https://web.archive.org/web/20160607143108/https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1253345&page=120 (At the Bottom of the Page) / https://web.archive.org/web/20181016003037mp_/https://forum.facepunch.com/games/ujfl/Half-life-2-Cut-Content-Is-it-me-or-dose-the-cut-content-look-better-than-what-we-got/160/#postypdjt (Version on the Newer Forums) as well as this one Where It shows the RPG_launcher.smd plus another Old Barney Render. - https://web.archive.org/web/20190612095724mp_/https://forum.facepunch.com/games/sqrb/VALVE-CUT-CONTENT-V2-1-Digging-through-Valve-s-trash-since-2003/23/#postnqcrp

Now for taking Images of this Content (Plus the 2024 .max File StufF) for the Overwiki, I wonder how to handle this Stuff image-wise? (i don't know if GIMP is alright to be used as an Alternative for Photoshop or InfranView) Any Suggestion on how to present this Content are welcome as i'm unsure of how to showcase the max file stuff.--HoodwinkedHalfLifeFan (talk) 12:38, 2 July 2024 (MSK)

Opps! Just to be clear, I was only trying to add a timestamp but ended duplicating the above post unintentionally. --HoodwinkedHalfLifeFan (talk) 13:43, 2 July 2024 (MSK)

What issues in particular are you having with the images here? Capturing them in the right format? Determining the best settings and way to present of the content? I'll say that a great deal of this content is extremely technical and esoteric in nature. While these are interesting findings, it's difficult to illustrate in a clear manner to the average reader what they're supposed to be seeing in an untextured model that looks nearly identical to another existing model. Marphy (talk) 08:32, 4 July 2024 (MSK)

Brazilian Portuguese interwiki

I tried to put a interwiki link on Half-Life for the Half-Life/pt-br page I just made and it didn't work, I guess it just needs to be allowed by an administrator, so can you do that, please? Tusk Act Minus 1 (talk) 05:08, 23 August 2024 (MSK)

Support for the Brazilian Portuguese language ("pt-br" prefix) has been added. Marphy (talk) 06:39, 23 August 2024 (MSK)

Should I only use official translated names for creatures? Like using Chupa-Crânio for Headcrabs but keeping Houndeye as Houndeye, and if it's something simple to translate or a title instead of a name like the Bug from Xen or Antlion King (Antlion has an official translation) can I make the page's name the translated version or should I like use the English name and put a literal translation in front of the first mention of the name, something like this: O Antlion King (Formiga-Leão Rei) é uma Formiga-Leão de seis olhos cortada de Half-Life 2. Tusk Act Minus 1 (talk) 03:01, 15 September 2024 (MSK)

If an official translated name exists, use that where applicable. If no official translated name exists, then unfortunately I can't say there's one consistent rule than can be followed since there are going to be many exceptions and edge cases to deal with. I'd say your suggested approach is a sensible means to go about handling such names. Marphy (talk) 17:50, 15 September 2024 (MSK)

Transmissions: Element 120

Hi, I recently made an edit to a couple of pages for the mod. Is there much point in keeping information about the achievements separate from the main page? It seems extremely redundant because of how bare-bones the central article already is, and in my opinion, it'd be a good idea to follow the same procedure as the other games' pages for general consistency. Cheers. Georgian Bankrobber (talk) 17:57, 12 September 2024 (MSK)

The full list of achievements is a long and fixed table of information that's largely extraneous to the encyclopedic documentation of the subject (more akin to a game guide) that also takes up an inordinate amount of space in an article. It was decided some time ago to relegate these lengthy and intrusive tables to their own dedicated subpages so as to not overwhelm their base pages. Of the achievements we currently have listed on the wiki so far, the only article that acts as an exception to this rule is Portal: Still Alive, and this particular subject matter is exceptionally minimal when it comes to material to cover (although, as noted, the article could still use some illustrative images). The Transmissions: Element 120 article you brought the achievements back over to is a much bigger topic that offers a fair amount of information to cover, and while a mod is not as substantial a topic as one of the full commercial titles, there's certainly more the article could be doing right now (including adding images, again as already noted). Just as they would prove to do so in most other articles, placing the complete achievements list here would unnecessarily take up a disproportionate amount of article space. For now, the most likely course of action related to these achievement tables would be to move the Portal: Still Alive achievements to their own subpage rather than undo how the majority of dedicated achievement subpages have already been set up. Marphy (talk) 01:10, 13 September 2024 (MSK)

Reversion of edits

Hello, I understand the reversion, I had hoped the AI I used was sophisticated enough to keep meaning and nuance, perhaps I should have gone over myself to verify the information was accurate and only the comprehension was improved. I believe AI can definitely improve readability when done right on the wiki however. Have a good day — Unsigned comment by Ferociousdreams

About the new images of the early camo Combine Elite.

Yesterday, I uploaded new images of a better fixed model of the early camo Combine Elite that I took and edited myself. The next day I noticed that my images were gone and found out you removed them and uploaded new images which were the exact same thing but in high res and different angle.

So, I am asking if those changes were even necessary. Were you trying to improve them?

I apologize if I sound rude or as if I had a big ego, I just think my images are better. PvtANIMAL

Your recent image uploads for the Combine Elite (File:Leak camo elite fixed.jpg, File:Elite camo2.jpg, and File:Elite camo7.jpg) are much lower resolution than the original uploads they replaced, and they're in lossy JPEG format, something that the wiki has been superseding for model renders. My images (File:Combine elite fixed.png, File:Combine elite camo2.png, and File:Combine elite camo7.png) are higher resolution than even the original uploads and are in lossless PNG format, hence they're an objective improvement and in accordance with the future intentions for all model renders. Marphy (talk) 01:03, 23 November 2024 (MSK)

Aha, got it. I didn't know that. Since half of the images are low res and in JPEG format, I thought I'd do the same. Thank you for telling me. PvtANIMAL

File:HL2Doc Ep3 Concept28.jpg

I noticed this concept art showing hunters in episode Three in the arctic regions gallery. Could you tell me where is it seen in the documentary? --24.152.144.132 21:05, 1 December 2024 (MSK)

This Episode Three artwork appears at the 1:46:25 mark as part of the title screen for the epilogue section. Marphy (talk) 21:47, 1 December 2024 (MSK)

Concerning some archival materials.

Hi, I’ve been meaning to reach out for some time concerning the verification of several different forms of media at once + some questions regarding your own personal archive. Is there a discord or email I should specifically reach out to? Thanks! Reagan49 (talk) 23:06, 12 January 2025 (MSK)

Unless you'd prefer email, Discord would be more convenient for ongoing discussions. You can find me in the OverWiki server as marphyblack. Marphy (talk) 00:36, 13 January 2025 (MSK)

sent a (admittedly long winded) message over, thanks! Reagan49 (talk) 01:49, 13 January 2025 (MSK)

Father Grigori's quote page may use some quotes from the Ravenholm cancelled game?

Hi. I don't know if it's a good idea but maybe you will add all these in-game Father Grigori's qoutes (including spoken via loudspeakers radio broadcast in the hospital level) from the Arkane's documentary to Grigori/Quotes? Of course, it's only a glimpse of a surviving piece of content from a cancelled game, obviously wouldn't be complete. No one seems to have bothered to make text transcript of in-game audio. 178.176.76.154 01:38, 16 May 2025 (MSK)

Sure, that'd be perfectly fine. I've gone ahead and done a quick addition of the quotes as lifted from the video closed captions, but they could do with another pass for verification. Unfortunately, it's readily apparent that the closed captions in both Noclip videos are actually inaccurate, so the best we can do is transcribe by ear. Marphy (talk) 07:48, 16 May 2025 (MSK)

Alyx prototype?

Hi. Seems like the List of pre-release Half-Life builds for some reason missed a mention of the prototype of HL:A. Copyright issues? 178.176.77.236 05:39, 19 May 2025 (MSK)

The article is currently confined to Half-Life and Half-Life 2 titles to maintain a definite scope, although it's worded such that it could be expanded to include Half-Life: Alyx easily enough. However, as part of the same intent to define a clear and unambiguous scope, the list is also dependent on builds with concrete and verifiable technical information available (even if the build itself is not public). This is primarily tied to any distinctly asserted build numbers or build/release dates. Technically, literally every piece of pre-release Half-Life media must be from some pre-release build, some of which we can even narrow down quite a bit to a specific event or demonstration (E3 or other trade shows, trailers, etc.). However, we know nothing about any of the technical specs behind these particular builds on display. Hence, they do not qualify for a listing in this article.

The build of Half-Life: Alyx demonstrated in Tyler's stream that you've linked falls foul of this matter. Clearly it's a particular pre-release build that exists, but its basic technical specs are not known (that I could identify in the videos, at least), and it's not publicly available/accessible so that we could potentially determine this information. Another fundamental issue is that HL:A made the jump to the Source 2 engine, whereas everything currently in the article is confined to GoldSrc and Source. The latter two possess a traceable lineage that can be quantified by the established build numbers and dates. Source 2 is largely disparate from this lineage and lacks these designations, so it can't even be represented in the same fashion that everything else in this article follows.

So ultimately, in short, the build of HL:A demonstrated in Tyler's stream lacks key identifiable or verifiable specs, making it fall outside the purview of this article's scope. Marphy (talk) 12:15, 24 May 2025 (MSK)

Unknown HL creature?

Hi. Do you have any information on what creature is featured in the screenshot for Half-Life's entry on P. 17 in the 2017 edition of "the best PC games ever" catalogue by the PC Gamer? Seems to me as either an earlier design for Nihilanth from earlier HL builds or maybe just a close-up of a controller.

Sorry for linking the PDF, I couldn't locate the image uploaded on this Overwiki, and unless I accidentally overlooked it, it's not uploaded here (I checked images under Category:Half-Life official screenshots, Category:Half-Life screenshots (pre-release), Category:Xen images, Category:Xen creature images, Category:Nihilanth images, Category:Alien Controller images, Category:Half-Life Alpha screenshots). 178.176.78.171 12:15, 27 May 2025 (MSK)

This screenshot has been identified before but has yet to be included somewhere here on the wiki. At minimum, it would be appropriate for inclusion in the Alien Controller article since that simply is what's being depicted, but any other assertions lean heavily toward speculation. It has been theorized to be an early or placeholder Nihilanth in the past, and this is not an entirely out of line assumption given how many technical aspects the Alien Controller and Nihilanth share, and the angle does suggest that we're looking at a scaled-up Controller (although it could very well be a trick of the perspective as well), but we have really no concrete supporting evidence of this. We know this image must have come a little time before release considering the early models and different visual style of the Xen map, not to mention the date of the magazine article this screenshot originated from, but we have no addtional information available to us. The recently uncovered Net Test 1 and 2 builds lack this content, indicating it must have come from an even earlier date than those builds (at least before October 16, 1998). Hence, the image unfortunately remains a mystery. Marphy (talk) 10:15, 28 May 2025 (MSK)

Brett Johnson said that this was an early version of Nihilanth chamber that he designed, with player having to run on different levels of the tower, that was at the center of interloper factory, and that he also had a potential idea of marines teaming up with player against aliens. It's right here at the start: https://youtu.be/zeg-5d9hWYw?si=tKZvj2Cm5YTftAYz Shift (talk) 10:35, 28 May 2025 (MSK)

Problems with redirects?

Hi. I noticed a few possible issues with redirects, I think:

1) Myrmidont redirects to Antlion Guard but is it appropriate? I think it can refer to Antlions as a whole genus/species? A vort called the Guard so in the game, yes, but consider: he may have done it for brevity (like we simply call a domestic pet a "dog" instead of specifying the exact species, a Dalmatian, a German Shepherd, a Golden Retriever)?

The HL2 Prima Guide uses Myrmidont giganticus for the Guard. Notice how the Latin adjective for "Giant" serves as a qualifier for "Myrmidont"? So there's a Myrmidont which is not "Giganticus" ("Ordinarius" or "Regularis" or something alike). Makes one scratch his head.

2) There're lacking redirects for:

• One Free Man and Opener of the Way (Breen's references to nicknames earned by Freeman among the resistance, heard in one of his Breencasts)
• Vance subprime (a ref to Alyx Vance in one of Overwatch comms)
• Leggies (a Russell's ref to Antlions)
• Bouncer (seems it needs a disambig pages for Fragmentation Grenade (Half-Life 2) and for Grenade (Half-Life: Alyx), Combine troops use it as a code for grenade in their comms in HL2 and HL:A)
• Civil Protection officer (a redirect to Civil Protection)
• Suppressing field and (capitalized) Suppressing Field (redirects to suppression field, used by Breen in a Breencast)
• Necrotic (used in HL:A by Combine troops to refer to Zombies)
• Head-humper (to headcrab by Barney; there's a redirect from Headhumper Barney's in-game subtitle text uses the hyphenated version)

These redirects which would also be nice but may still be potentially problematic otherwise:

• Verdict (The Overwatch voice talks about "terminal verdict" and CP officers talk about "malcompliance verdict". It seems like these refer to bullets shot at violators?)

• Combine Harvester (an achievement in HL:A, an unused track from HL2 OST and also sometimes as the supercharged version of the Gravity Gun glowing blue, perhaps a disambig page?)

• Sterilizer (the Combine designation for Combine Sentry Gun. But could also be energy field sterilizing prisoner pods at the Citadel. Or sterilizing chambers in the Advanced Biological Research Lab at the BMRF or some other tech, maybe even the suppressing field since it "sterilizes" mammalian species by messing with protein formation).

• Exogen (Combine troops use it to refer to Antlions in HL:A but does it also generally refer to Xenian lifeforms? Not clear from the game). And Virome as well.

• Parasitic (they use it for headcrabs but is it used it for Xen Cougher as well? Because it's parasitic as well, Jeff confirms. Not clear from the game again. Also if one takes BreenGrub into account, the Combine itself a parasitic civilization but it's probably irrelevant)

• Extractor (same as Bouncer, a disambig page for HL2 and HL:A grenades. BUT a big problem it can be another piece of tech. Like those Vortigaunt pods in HL:A extracting vortal energy to contain the G-Man).

3) Anticitizen One redirects to the chapter in HL2. But it's also a reference to Gordon himself as the 1st priority target for Combine's hunt.

Shouldn't be a disambiguation page with the 1st item linking to Gordon Freeman and the 2nd to the in-game chapter itself (and all the intra-wiki links linking to Anticitizen One from other articles are to be corrected accordignly, there's a "what links here" button on the tools list)?

Also Priority 1, Priority One and Priority one (a Gordon ref in Combine comms).

Correspondingly, Priority 2, Priority Two, Priority two (disambig for Alyx Vance and Barney Calhoun).

4) More generally: Anticitizen. It simply redirects to a human genocide section in Combine.

I thought it may be apropriate to redirect to resistance instead. But then again, it might be misused by Combine forces in reference even to non-resisting citizens as well, just to abuse them? I don't know about this one.

5) As far as I know, the vort genus/species was referred to as Xenotherium subservilia, the tentacle as Hypersuctor sensitiva, the ichthyosaurs as Xenotherus icthycanthus, the bullsquid as Gastropolypus toxophlegmata, the houndeye as Sonicanis myriops, the barnacle as Cirripedia donaldsonia, the alien grunt as Xenotherium myrmex in various gaming outlets (pre-)viewing HL1 prior to its release. Are these taxonomics canon and do they need corresponding redirects? I can speculate that these gaming publications didn't come up with them on their own and perhaps contacted Valve stuff (whom these designations come from in the first place) but otherwise they seem not to be mentioned elsewhere.

6) On a less serious note: what do you think about redirecting cranio-conjugal parasite (a Magnusson's reference to Lamarr) to headcrab? By analogy with headhumper (Barney's insult)?

And maybe even payload anomaly as a redirect to Lamarr specifically (or create a disambig page, the 1st item is for Lamarr, the 2nd is for Garden Gnome, the Prima Guide says you can't decide what causes the anomaly) :D

128.204.79.214 18:01, 31 May 2025 (MSK)

What's the point of adding redirects that no one is going to type in? I guarantee no one is going to look for Alyx by "Vance subprime". No one's going to look for "cranio-conjugal parasite". Overabudance of redirects just because someone referred to something one time isn't needed. Otherwise let's add "the fool" to redirect to Freeman (based on a scientlist line "Freeman, you fool!"), or "the thing with the missing leg", after a guard line from HL1. What's more, it obfuscates other search. Looking for "Vance subprime" brings up the line as it is included in the Overwatch PA transcript. That's what I'd be looking for if I were typing "Vance subprime", so it's doing its job.

The Myrmidont is used a single time in an extremely specific way. There's no need to try and wrangle a different meaning into it.

I don't see the point in making redirects that include the name of the article already in their name, such as with "Civil Protection officer". You can't type that without typing in the first two words which would already bring up that article, so it's excessive. Cvoxalury (talk) 17:20, 1 June 2025 (MSK)

Redirects are meant for terms that users may intuitively decide to enter in the search bar while looking for a particular subject matter, thus getting redirected to the proper or main title used by the subject matter in question. By and large, most of the redirects you've proposed here are incredibly minor or one-off terms that ultimately don't warrant creation. There is no current guideline on the threshold of what warrants a redirect, but a general guiding principle has been whether or not the redirect would actually get used/searched for along with the desire to avoid bloating the wiki with an unmanageable amount. An overabundance of redirects are challenging to maintain and can actually hamper a user's search efforts due to flooding the automatic suggestions in the search bar. Also keep in mind that, while a specific redirect may not exist, searching for a specific term (song name, achievement name, etc.) will still show the relevant article in the results (soundtrack article, achievement article, etc.)

I'll also point out that a few of your suggestions based purely on capitalization variations ("Suppressing field" and "Suppressing Field") are not needed as search terms are capitalization agnostic. Although those exact redirects don't exist, you can type precisely either of those terms and still be sent to the suppression field article.

Regarding redirects that go directly to a subject matter rather than a disambiguation page, again, this currently errs towards putting users where they would intuitively expect to end up rather than accounting for every possible definition. If there are major overlapping meanings, then that's what warrants a disambiguation page. For example, a majority of users someone searching for Anticitizen One would expect to be brought to the Half-Life 2 chapter since that's what the term is prominently known for. Users who are already aware that the term is a designation for Gordon Freeman would not be searching for his article by that term. They'd just search for his name. The only shortcoming of the current circumstance is that the HL2 storyline article does not give an explanation for the "Anticitizen One" chapter name which is where the acknowledgment of Gordon's designation can be sufficiently declared.

Anticitizen currently linking to a subsection of the Combine article is a good catch, as this is an unintuitive place to redirect the user to which doesn't even mention the searched term. However, this is also illustrative of why we want to keep the number of unnecessary redirects down to a minimum as having so many invisible search terms is difficult to manage. For this "anticitizen" redirect, there's not a great solution since the term is barely used and pretty much exclusively tied to Gordon's designation as anticitizen one, but I've changed it to point to the Resistance article since that's the most sensible place to send the user to.

The last point to address here is the Combine names for different subject matters. Although minor in the grand scheme of things, these are genuine and distinct alternate names that do appear with consistency. It's not at all unthinkable that someone may type in one of the more commonly heard names, so they should be directed to the appropriate article. I will review any currently existing redirects related to Combine terminology and see what the best approach here would be. Marphy (talk) 09:57, 2 June 2025 (MSK)

I'd say "Leggies" could also be warranted. There could be players who started with HL:A and learned this term first. Cvoxalury (talk) 16:42, 2 June 2025 (MSK)

The WIP section of your page is outdated

Not sure how much you care, but the WIP section of your user page has still has Crossfire (multiplayer map), The Hill and Lockdown which have since been declared featured, safe and good respectively. JerryDX (talk) 14:42, 15 June 2025 (MSK)

Ideal brightness/gamma settings for screenshots?

Are there recommended brightness and gamma values for screenshots? I personally use a gamma level of 1.8 and brightness level of 1 or 0 for HL1. But the default* values are 2.2 for gamma and 0 for brightness. If there are, the ones for each game should probably be listed on Help:Images.

*More specifically they're the settings which get generated when you delete your config file, which are different than the ones that you get when first installing the game.[1] I'd assume those are the intended defaults since when they said they updated the default gamma value to 2.2, they only changed those defaults and not the ones which you get on a fresh install. The brightness value was supposedly originally called "glare reduction", which would explain why the default is 0.JerryDX (talk) 15:47, 15 June 2025 (MSK)

For these particular settings in GoldSrc games, the default settings are desired since this is what the vast majority of players see when they play the games, seeing as most do leave most options untouched. This isn't a strict rule since occasionally some images need to be adjusted to make the subject matter more visible, namely in or around dark areas, but these sort of adjustments are typically handled in an external editor after capturing the in-game visual. But, as you mentioned, Half-Life's intended default settings have a conundrum in that they actually differ depending on where you look, specifically with the gamma and brightness. Despite Valve's intentions, they did wholly fail to make their change, so it is still true that the default gamma and brightness respectively remain 2.5 and 1.0. This is unlikely to be revisited since it is readily apparent that these specific default settings have served as the basis for Half-Life's appearance for over 25 years now (dating back to the majority of Valve's own pre-release media), and everything subsequently built on top of the game since then (where Valve doesn't really have the authority to declare the original third party authors' intentions) is objectively reliant on these exact video settings to produce the appearance they always saw. Marphy (talk) 18:13, 22 June 2025 (MSK)

Sorry for the late reply, but I still don't get what settings to use. Are you saying to use the values of 1 for brightness and 2.5 for gamma? JerryDX (talk) 15:14, 11 July 2025 (MSK)

Use the default settings: gamma 2.5 and brightness 1.0. Marphy (talk) 19:51, 11 July 2025 (MSK)

Gman Cameo

Hey, what was that thing you changed on The G-man's page? I haven't seen mention of anything Gman in FNAF Mhrtxn (talk) 16:55, 26 September 2025 (MSK)

Email change issue

Hello,

I need to change the email associated to my account, but I am not getting any confirmation email to my new address. I tried multiple addresses and nothing happens. Could you look into this? My old email is going to disappear and I would like to avoid losing control of my account over time because of this.

Thank you and happy new year,

--SwissTHX11384EB (talk) 16:59, 7 January 2026 (MSK)

I can confirm that the change email page is not functioning at the moment. Unfortunately, I cannot address this issue myself, and it likely won't be fixed very soon. If I may ask, however, would it be an inconvenience to create a new account with your new email address? There's very little editing history on your current account, and if you're concerned about the username, I can change those to make the new account use your current name. Marphy (talk) 18:53, 8 January 2026 (MSK)

Actually you are very right, thanks for pointing this out. I thought I had quite an edit history on this wiki but in fact I do not. I will just make a new one. Could you delete this account? :) --SwissTHX11384EB (talk) 21:16, 12 January 2026 (MSK)

There isn't a formal means of deleting an account on a wiki aside from indefinitely blocking the user. However, two accounts can be merged. I would recommend making a new account and then letting me merge your old account into it. Marphy (talk) 20:53, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

I have created a new account into which you may merge mine: User:Kirsikka --SwissTHX11384EB (talk) 03:17, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

And I confirm this is my new account. --Kirsikka (talk) 03:18, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

Gendered language on the Combine Ordinal page

Hi, I saw that you reverted my edit to the Combine Ordinal page for "speculation". However, is there any source that suggests that all Combine Ordinals are male? While suggesting they're all female would be speculation, I'd argue using gender-neutral language is the only truly factual course of action here. As far as I know, no in-game source refers to the Ordinals as necessarily male, and them being voiced by a female VA makes it entirely arbitrary to me to assume so.

86.75.115.1 21:35, 21 January 2026 (MSK)

This matter has been brought up before, and I have delved into it extensively.

Half-Life: Alyx is the first game in the series to release with female Combine human units in the form of female Zombie Hazmat Workers, and aside from the internal model designations explicitly designating this HazMat Worker variation as being female, they are clearly female characters from a visual standpoint. Thus, we have a reference point for a retail female Combine design (as opposed to the long cut Combine Assassin). In regards to appearance, the Ordinal would reasonably be judged as male as there is nothing to visually indicate otherwise. There has never been a suggestion in the series that the appearance of the Combine human units left any ambiguity as to whether or not they're male, and indeed they've been overwhelmingly depicted and addressed as male. Outside of the female HazMat Worker, the one and only real opposing notion to this sentiment is the voice of the Ordinal as the developers cast a woman in the role. That's certainly a conspicuous casting choice, but realistically, as the Ordinal's excessively processed voice lines are already nearly incomprehensible, few if any would assume this garbled speech was voiced by a woman, again especially in the context of the Ordinal's visual design. It's fair to say that the majority would be surprised to learn that this was a female voice role.

Hence, judging the Ordinal as being female (or ambiguous) is clearly not a reasonable conclusion that the average observer would come to. Knowing that the role is voiced by a woman only comes outside of normal gameplay from the closing credits. During the realm of normal gameplay, the Ordinal appears to be male as has been overwhelmingly depicted for the vast majority of other Combine human units throughout the series since HL2. Sticking within the confines of in-game evidence, the Ordinal's unmasked head is exposed via the Zombie Ordinals, and the Ordinal's head is based on the unmasked Grunt's head (also shared with the Charger) who is unambiguously identified as being male in HL:A's dialogue ("He's kicking it."). Even from a behind the scenes perspective, checking the internal designations, looking at early designs and concepts in The Final Hours, or listening to any of the commentary given by the developers in the over half a decade since the game's release, there has never been a single indication that the Combine humans we see could be anything other than male (except for the plainly visibly female HazMat Worker). To put it one way, Valve has never explained why they cast a woman in the role. If they ever said anything about it, it would be prudent to adjust the language accordingly, but as they haven't uttered a single word on the topic, it's speculation to presume the meaning behind their choice.

This does not mean that all Combine human units are male. However, just as there weren't any male Black Ops until Opposing Force or female Zombies until Half-Life: Alyx, there's been no given reason to assume at this point that there are some larger intentions to the character appearances that we can plainly see and reasonably conclude from. Marphy (talk) 20:53, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

Upload file > Cat subject & Cat type - not working

Hi, sorry if this isn’t the right place to reach out. I’m trying to upload some images for the Get Your Free TVs! article, but the links that redirect to example categories aren’t working. Instead, they lead to an "Error 404. File not found." — Unsigned comment by TeamClown

You're correct, those links on the upload page are unfortunately broken right now. I can't fix them right away, but the working links are category subjects and category types. However, you don't have to worry too much about this aspect of uploading images. If you're not sure what to use, just upload without categories and I can fill them in myself this time. This should give you an idea of what categories to use in the future, plus don't forget you can check the categorization of existing similar images for additional reference. Marphy (talk) 05:32, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

Title case for chapter names

Hi, I made an edit to the Blue Shift storyline page in which I (almost reflexively) changed the capitalization of "A Leap Of Faith" to "A Leap of Faith", seeing as no well-recognized title case style recommends capitalizing 2-letter prepositions such as "of". Simple enough, but this ended up sending me down quite the rabbit hole! I then noticed several more cases of improper capitalization whenever chapter titles were listed, most notably on the Half-Life storyline page, where "On a Rail" chooses to capitalize the "a". Similarly, the Opposing Force storyline page refers to the first chapter as "Welcome To Black Mesa" - I only know of one title case style that recommends capitalizing "to", the Associated Press style, but this only applies to infinitives, not the preposition. This led me to assume that the OverWiki simply capitalizes all words, until I scrolled a bit lower on the page and found "Missing in Action".

It's become quite clear to me that the OverWiki simply has not established a consistent title case style, whether it be an existing one or one for private use. Is this in the plans whatsoever?

I do believe official sources should come first. For Half-Life: Alyx, "Is Or Will Be" is improper (as it should certainly be "Is or Will Be"), but Valve consistently refers to the chapter with all words capitalized, most notably in the soundtrack release. However, for HL1-era games, as well as HL2 and Ep2, chapter titles are only ever displayed in all caps, which, as far as I can tell, makes all of these inconsistencies exclusive to the wiki. Since writing chapter titles in all caps would certainly not be advisable here, a standard should probably be decided on for cleanliness...

(Although, you could argue that using improper case from official sources coupled with consistent case everywhere else would also be inconsistent, so maybe we should take the Wikipedia approach of applying consistent case to everything regardless of what the original source says? I doubt anyone at Valve has a deep personal attachment to "Or" being capitalized, nor is it likely to hold any profound meaning.)

86.75.115.1 00:00, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

Consistent capitalization has never been the series' strong point. To avoid the need of subjective interpretation or having to come up with our own rules, the wiki defers to the official or most official transcriptions available as much as reasonably possible. As such, the chapter titles are written here as they are officially presented to us. However, the chapter titles are most often shown in-game written in all-caps, which is not how they should be transcribed on the wiki. A couple games do offer a chapter/mission selection screens at the main menu which are kind enough to present said chapter titles in non-all-caps. If that fails, the next place to look is within the maps files, where at least HL1 includes a second set of non-all-caps titles in the BSP files themselves. If these internal chapter designations follow the all-caps formatting as well, the final stop is checking the respective official strategy guides which is typically the last official source where all of the chapters will be acknowledged.

With that in mind, these are the respective sources for the chapter titles:

• Half-Life - Internal map BSP titles
• Half-Life: Opposing Force - Opposing Force Prima strategy guide
• Half-Life: Blue Shift - Half-Life: Dreamcast Prima strategy guide
• Half-Life: Decay - Menu mission selection screen
• Half-Life 2 - Orange Box Prima game guide, page 2 (table of contents)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One - Orange Box Prima game guide, page 2 (table of contents)
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two - Orange Box Prima game guide, page 2 (table of contents)
• Half-Life: Alyx - Menu chapter selection screen

In most instances, there is no secondary level to refer to. The wiki follows the one and only time many chapter titles have been written in non-all-caps. But that's true for all of them, and even some of these sources possess internal inconsistencies for a single chapter name. The key word to keep in mind here is to follow these sources as much as "reasonably" possible.

In any case, in the process of carrying out this audit, I've found and corrected a couple of existing errors. Unfortunately, "A Leap Of Faith" was an error introduced years ago that slipped through.

But this audit process also revealed conflicts that have actually only been introduced since these chapter articles were first written:

• The Ep2 chapters "To the White Forest" and "Under the Radar" are written as such in the aforementioned Orange Box guide. However, the "rich presence" text introduced in the recent 20th anniversary update for the games writes these chapter titles as "To The White Forest" and "Under The Radar".
• The HLA chapters "Is or Will Be" and "Breaking and Entering" are written as such in the game itself. However, the (more) recently released soundtrack writes these chapter titles as "Is Or Will Be" and "Breaking And Entering".

Hence, we have clear inconsistencies on our hands, and these inconsistencies have been created by Valve themselves. Have they retconned their own capitalization? And what do we do here on the wiki? As I mentioned before, Valve is no stranger to this sort of inconsistency. There is no truly correct answer here, there is no universal standard we can adhere to that wouldn't conflict with itself, and ultimately, the core matter is out of the wiki's hands. However, because something does have to be written in these articles, for the moment, I'm deferring to Valve's originally established capitalization. I don't have an ironclad reasoning here other than things just have to move forward at some point. There is something to be said somewhere about Valve's lack of official capitalization consistency, but the issue encompasses far, far more than just these chapter titles. Marphy (talk) 06:09, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for informing me regarding the use of "Is or Will Be" in-game. Regarding "Breaking And Entering", I have been unable to find it anywhere, as both Valve's announcement tweet as well as its official pages on YouTube Music and Spotify refer to it as "Breaking & Entering", dodging the issue completely. Although, I will say that these can be unreliable, seeing as the YouTube Music title for Ep2's soundtrack is... Half-Life 2 Episode 2, as opposed to the presumably intended title found on Spotify and consistent with the titles for all other soundtracks up to Ep1, "Half-Life 2: Episode Two (Original Game Soundtrack)".

Correction: I have checked again and it appears that his been changed, with Ep1's soundtrack now being referred to as "Half-Life 2 Episode 1" as well on Spotify, but keeping the more appropriate-looking name on YT Music.

Regarding inconsistencies in officially given capitalizations, I feel it's a fair assumption that Valve hasn't retconned their capitalization, and rather that they're simply... unable or unwilling to realize that this is even a discussion that needs to be had at all, instead doing whatever immediately comes to mind without ever considering the wonderful world of title case debates. I may be biased, but it seems to me that when two different capitalizations are given, the one that best follows standard title case guidelines should most likely be prioritized, e.g. "To the White Forest", as that would suggest it was done more thoughtfully than the "let's capitalize every word because it's a title or whatever, who cares" attitude demonstrated by the updated text.

That being said, I am quite aware Valve is no stranger to capitalization crimes. As much as I love the HL:A Chapter 3 soundtrack for its music, an album named "Is Or Will Be" containing a track called "What Did it Taste Like?" is so utterly egregious, sometimes I think they deliberately misunderstand it.

86.75.115.1 12:02, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

About the 20th Anniversary Logo in OverWiki:About?

Greetings Dear Administor!
I’m a new translator works for zh-hans translating project.When I looking through the “About” article I found that the Gallery didn’t include the 20th Anniversary images.I couldn’t edit because lack of permission.Is there lack any updates or just not the time yet?
Best Wishes.
Zorsen Dreeman / Talk · Contribution 10:17, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

The current 20th anniversary logo overwrites the default Wiki.png image. When the logo is reverted back to the normal version later in the year, I'll upload the 20th anniversary version as a separate image and add it to the About page's gallery. Marphy (talk) 23:28, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

Oh,that means just not time yet,right?Anyway,thanks for your kind help.

By the way,I'm organizing a translator team to systematically improve the simplified Chinese section of COWiki. I want to ask if I can be the administrator after the construction results, because here seems to be deserted and lacks maintenance.
Zorsen Dreeman / Talk · Contribution 00:14, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Do you mean changing your account role to become a formal administrator? At the moment, there is not a great need to add more administrators to the wiki as a majority of necessary actions can be carried out by regular registered users. However, if you come across a task that requires administrator permission (such as editing protected articles or templates), you can simply ask me and I will assist. Marphy (talk) 00:24, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Alright then,just want to ask if it is necessary to contribute to the management of Wiki. In this case, I will try my best to organize the translation work on the zh-hans side. If there is a permission request, I will contact you in time (although probably very small, coz we basically will not change English page)

Again,thanks for your reply.
Zorsen Dreeman / Talk · Contribution 01:02, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

About the “Translation Progress” page

Greetings,it’s me again.Seeing this wiki has few languages,I wonder if we can build a central page of Translation just like TFWiki.If possible,I’ll create “Combine_OverWiki:Translation_progress” then establish the main.
Waiting for your reply!
Zorsen Dreeman / Talk · Contribution 01:26, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes, you are welcome to create hub pages for translation efforts. As of now, the OverWiki does not have all of the same translation features that the TF2 Wiki has, but it is our aim to build up to a similar level of translation support. Thank you for contributing your efforts towards this goal. Marphy (talk) 01:36, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Glad you can say that! But I have to explain that in fact I just a beginner who has begun to edit few weeks ago , and have only worked as a translator before, however I have the enthusiasm and determination to build. During this summer, I’m going to learn html and editing skills. Hope I can contribute some valuable to COW!

Zorsen Dreeman / Talk · Contribution 02:19, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

What’s the meaning of “Combine Over”?

Sorry to bother you again,but seems you are only active adminsitor on this wiki.

May I ask how to translate the Wiki name “Combine OverWiki”?I want to make a Chinese name but not sure about the meaning.
In my opinion,it seems a reference for “Combine Overwatch”,which is called “装甲核心” in zh-hans.
I talked over with our community,however they didn’t give any useful information.
Is it OK to translate OverWiki into “装甲核心维基”which refers to “Combine Overwatch Wiki”?
Zorsen Dreeman / Talk · Contribution 10:54, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

The wiki's name "Combine OverWiki" is a play on the term "Combine Overwatch". "OverWiki" has no logical meaning, and I wouldn't expect the English wordplay to translate into other languages. I'm afraid I don't have any specific guidance to offer in this case other than to suggest that maybe this specific name should be left untranslated. Marphy (talk) 02:05, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

I agree with you to keep the original name, but have to say it will difficult to expand popularity in the community without a localized translation name, which is not conducive to the development of this wiki and will also make our career meaningless. So I plan to name it with the Chinese translation of "Combine Overwatch". Will continue to negotiate with the community. If most people do not support, I will keep it as it is.

Zorsen Dreeman / Talk · Contribution 04:49, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

why I don't have permission to create a page?

I need a user page but can't edit anything The'ZC (talk) 08:51, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

To be able to create new pages, new users need to have been registered for at least 24 hours and have made at least one edit. As this talk page message fulfills your first edit, you now just need to wait a day until you can create your user page. Marphy (talk) 09:53, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

SLEADER?

I hope this question does not inconvenience you.

Looking over the map files for Decay, most of them have radfile fields which refer to the directory "\hl\team\maps\", and the radfiles match the map names. But Intensity (ht11lasers) is an outlier, as its radfile field says "\hl\sleader\blackop3.rad". Since it is not in a "maps" subfolder, sleader is unlikely to be a mod directory, but is it known why Intensity was in a separate folder and named blackop3? — Unsigned comment by MyScorpion42

The "sleader" and "blackop3" names were previously investigated here, and as no contacted Gearbox employee could say anything about them, it remains uncertain as to what they mean and how, if at all, they relate to Decay. Marphy (talk) 03:35, 19 July 2026 (UTC)