Combine Advisors?

[EliteOps12]

I just finished an EP2 marathon and I got to thinking; what are the Advisors, how do they spent their time on their home-world? What position do they have in the combine hierarchy? (I am dangerous when I think, I know. )

Here is my opinion:

I have always thought of the Advisors as a self indulgent, monarchal race; much like the Masters from THe White Mountains (Anyone here read it? Great book) and they spend most of their time well, indulging themselves. As for the position, I think that they are at the top, yet still may be guided by "certain restrictions" (GMan? His employers? Gordon Freeman's dad? (Did you that Mr Freeman Sr. was God).

Anyway, those are my 2 cents--and likely overpriced at that--what are yours?

 

[Ennui]

The general idea is that Advisors are the Combine master race - that is to say, they are the Combine themselves. That's why they have such powerful psychic abilities and weak, useless bodies - after thousands of years of Combine domination they have evolved (or devolved) to their present form since they have their slave races and synths to do all the dirty work.

They are the top Combine on Earth anyway - if there are "higher" forms of Combine we don't know of their existence.

 

[EliteOps12]

I know I contradict my own post, but for the sake of argument; wouldn't the Advisors have more psychic powers if they were in charge, I mean, the Advisors are powerful and all, but wouldn't someone more powerful--with the abilities like the GMan-- be in charge?

 

[Ennui]

Sure, and maybe there is an even higher form of Combine master race to whom the Advisors make their reports, but bear in mind that for the Combine's purposes they don't need utter technological (or psychic) superiority to do what they do - after all, human teleportation tech in HL2 is more advanced than what the Combine have (e.g. being able to teleport people across small specific distances rather than only being able to use trans-dimensional superportals like the one at the Citadel) and we know for a fact that the G-Man has powers that the Combine don't, thus why he's such a thorn in their side.

The Combine's business is simply enslaving inferior races and leeching all of the resources of that race and their home planet - water, genetic material, etc - and moving on, and they are quite adept at doing so despite the fact that they don't necessarily have the same capabilities as the G-Man or even as the human scientists with their entanglement portal tech. What I'm saying is the Advisors don't need to be all-powerful - they just need to be powerful enough.

I do think there are probably higher forms of Combine though, even if the Advisors truly are the "original" Combine species. Hopefully someday we'll find out if Gordon ever takes the fight to the Combine homeworld

 

[ríomhaire]

I know I contradict my own post, but for the sake of argument; wouldn't the Advisors have more psychic powers if they were in charge, I mean, the Advisors are powerful and all, but wouldn't someone more powerful--with the abilities like the GMan-- be in charge?

That's not how the world or organisations work. The person is charge is not the most "powerful" in terms of brute strength and ability. Barrack Obama may be the president of the US but that doesn't mean he can take on Navy SEALs in hand to hand combat.

 

[EliteOps12]

That's not how the world or organisations work. The person is charge is not the most "powerful" in terms of brute strength and ability. Barrack Obama may be the president of the US but that doesn't mean he can take on Navy SEALs in hand to hand combat.

Yes, but in the Combine Empire it would make sense, considering it's command structure (i.e. Elites are more powerful then soldiers, and are obviously ranked higher.

 

[ríomhaire]

How do you know elites outrank normal overwatch soldiers? I don't recall seeing Elites giving orders to groups of Overwatch troops and to me it looks like all of them act as grunts with little to no authority at all. I'm pretty sure they have the exact same AI and act the same. I think Elites are just the next step in the absorption of humanity into the Combine. They're not to be in charge of the Overwatch troops, just to replace the outdated model.

Your ideas of the Combine command structure seem baseless to me. Do Striders outrank Elites? Do we see Gunships giving orders to Metrocops? All I can see is an army that uniformly at the command of the Advisors on top and I would bet that a Strider could tear an Advisor to pieces if it wanted to.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

That's the thing. Striders, Gunships and other synths aren't part of any hierarchy. They are to the Combine as tanks and jets are to any nation's military.

 

[nofreeman]

The Combine Advisors are a race in the Combine to which the posthumans are enthralled. They seem to direct operations on behalf of the Combine (if they are not in direct control of it themselves).

The Combine Advisors follow a unique life cycle. They start out helpless, requiring the aid of an incubation pod to survive. Eventually, as they age, they gain enough strength to leave incubation. They soon realize the power they have when they search for food, being half-starved being in the incubation pods for quite some time. Searching for food, they generally discover their power while chasing their target. Once the target gets to a certain distance, the advisor, feeling hopeless, will discover that it can pull the target to itself. They also discover their mind probe ability, which is the concussion effect you see in Half-Life 2: Episode One. They discover they can not only use the mind probe to read minds, but also discover they can use it to stun their prey. Once the advisor reaches a height in strength, these abilities become much stronger.

 

[EliteOps12]

That's the thing. Striders, Gunships and other synths aren't part of any hierarchy. They are to the Combine as tanks and jets are to any nation's military.

Yes, that is my point. I am saying that the Elites have a higher position in the Combine hierarchy then the Soldiers, no, they probably don't give orders to lesser troops, but technically they outrank them [the other troops]

 

[EliteOps12]

I'm pretty sure they have the exact same AI and act the same.

Not my point. I am talking in-universe, not in terms of the game; and also, the AI for the Elites is different, have you ever seen a soldier or a metrocop fire the pulse ball? I thought not. Nope, their AI is different, too.

 

[mechanicallizard]

Advisors? meh. the biggest question is whether the next Half life will have iron sights.

 

[EliteOps12]

:monkee:LOL:monkee:

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Yes, that is my point. I am saying that the Elites have a higher position in the Combine hierarchy then the Soldiers, no, they probably don't give orders to lesser troops, but technically they outrank them [the other troops]

All synths are like equipment, that includes humanoid soldiers. Saying the white armored elites outrank the bluish gray soldiers is like saying that APC's outrank humvees.

The only universal union personnel we encounter with enough free will to do anything are Breen & staff, combine advisors, and metrocops (who havent been gutted like we see the soldiers have in game)

 

[ríomhaire]

All synths are like equipment, that includes humanoid soldiers. Saying the white armored elites outrank the bluish gray soldiers is like saying that APC's outrank humvees.

This.

 

[Ennui]

The Combine Advisors are a race in the Combine to which the posthumans are enthralled. They seem to direct operations on behalf of the Combine (if they are not in direct control of it themselves).

The Combine Advisors follow a unique life cycle. They start out helpless, requiring the aid of an incubation pod to survive. Eventually, as they age, they gain enough strength to leave incubation. They soon realize the power they have when they search for food, being half-starved being in the incubation pods for quite some time. Searching for food, they generally discover their power while chasing their target. Once the target gets to a certain distance, the advisor, feeling hopeless, will discover that it can pull the target to itself. They also discover their mind probe ability, which is the concussion effect you see in Half-Life 2: Episode One. They discover they can not only use the mind probe to read minds, but also discover they can use it to stun their prey. Once the advisor reaches a height in strength, these abilities become much stronger.

What makes you think that the Advisors have such a limited perception of themselves and their abilities? I always interpreted it more as a situation where they have some kind of gestation period or whatever after arriving on Earth that requires them to be on life support while they acclimate themselves to the atmosphere and gravity and stuff like that, but that they were quite aware of themselves and their powers all along. I interpret their growing power and audacity by the end of Ep2 as to do more with their realization that shit has gotten REAL on Earth and they need to do more than lounge around in their comfy life support pods directing the Combine and actually get out there and start participating in a more active role in quelling the rebellion. My impression was that Advisors are super old beings (hundreds of years or more) who came from the Combine homeworld, not newly born beings. However it's been a while since I played through Ep1 and Ep2 so I'm not sure how accurate or well supported my perception of them is.

 

[Asknoone]

/in complete and total agreement with Ennui, nothing more to add.

 

[ríomhaire]

I do believe your Vortigaunt companion is EP2 (his name is Johnson, trust me) mentions the ones in the pod still being in "larval form." Mightn't be literally the young though, could be what Ennui suggests.

 

[Darkside55]

The vortigaunt remarks that the advisors are in incubation pods, but not specifically that they're larval.