Combine Vs. Xen - the final solution

[UltimaApocalypse]

They put Barney in Half Life 2 because the G-Man wasn't intrested in him. It would kind of screw up the whole plot if you have another guy taken out of stasis to fight with you. I'm sure Marc Laidlaw wanted the story to be based on Gordon Freeman's point of view, and thats why he doesn't give a damn about Shephard. As for Race X, theres enough going on in the game currently without some third party coming in. But it WOULD be intresting if they sided with the rebels and helped fight the Combine. :thumbs:

By the way where in the game does it say that they were called Race X? Because I forget...

 

[Langolier]

Laidlaw never said OP, or BS, or Decay didn't mean anything to the storyline. He said that Race-X itself was not important. And really, where they? I think not. The important things from OP are the nuke and the fact that the Military new a mission was to take place there. Combined with Decay it pretty much proves that the cascade was the result of sabatoge.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

Ok I'm just gonna post this because after reading the thread again I'm not exactly sure wether or not the Combine were on Xen.

First off, the Combine would NEVER have been on Xen in the first place if they used the same techniques with Earth. Second, in Half Life 2 many human buildings still stand. In fact, almost everything is human except the Citadel and a few Combine outposts. So, whos to say that the Combine didn't didn't just leave the Xen structures be? Plus, the outposts and Citadel was created to keep the humans in line, which is obviously not a problem on Xen because of the Vortigaunt hivemind.

Another thing, Nihilanth had that metal life support thing right? Well, in Half Life 2: Raising the Bar it stated that Breen was originaly gonna have the same setup, where only his Torso and head would be unaltered.

Now, I'm sure everyone is gonna scream: "WOW DIDN'T YOU READ THE FIRST POST?" Well the answer is yes, I did. However there are a few things that make me feel unsure. And, like a few people have said, the Combine could have possibly come later and enslaved all of their Vorty asses.

Go ahead, flame me. I dare youz! :sniper:

 

[little.rebel]

Ok I'm just gonna post this because after reading the thread again I'm not exactly sure wether or not the Combine were on Xen.

First off, the Combine would NEVER have been on Xen in the first place if they used the same techniques with Earth. Second, in Half Life 2 many human buildings still stand. In fact, almost everything is human except the Citadel and a few Combine outposts. So, whos to say that the Combine didn't didn't just leave the Xen structures be? Plus, the outposts and Citadel was created to keep the humans in line, which is obviously not a problem on Xen because of the Vortigaunt hivemind.

Another thing, Nihilanth had that metal life support thing right? Well, in Half Life 2: Raising the Bar it stated that Breen was originaly gonna have the same setup, where only his Torso and head would be unaltered.

Now, I'm sure everyone is gonna scream: "WOW DIDN'T YOU READ THE FIRST POST?" Well the answer is yes, I did. However there are a few things that make me feel unsure. And, like a few people have said, the Combine could have possibly come later and enslaved all of their Vorty asses.

Go ahead, flame me. I dare youz! :sniper:

Yes i agree with what you just said. Exactly most of that is very decent evidence that the combines were on xen. It must be the combines general style of subtle taking over a race and its organic and technology.

the things you said actually make good evidence that the combine were on xen, and that nihilanth, as i noticed with his metal parts was another combine representative. And if thats what it said in the book it confirms that nihilanth was a combine under-lord

Nihilannth must have been a long time enslaved-slavemaster of the combine because he obviously gets tired of it and admints his enslavement when he chants away at end of HL1.

and everything else, what the vortagaunts say and everything.

And as for the vortagaunts a hivemind is not controllable, nihilanth was not able to control them like that. Thy were controlled by slave collars, and in hl2 you see a slave vortagaunt with a collar on, this is combine technology. herefore this is more evidenve that they were on xen, and slaved the vort's and slave them still oon earth with a collar too(only difference appears to be the metal its made from). combine Augmentation , i mean its just got to be.

Crikey, you've just repeated every single falsifiable point in the Combine-Xen standpoint.

Explain to me why nothing on Xen actually looks like anything the Combine use in HL2? And why the Combine can't teleport locally, while Nihilanth, whom you say was their pawn, can teleport things wily-nily.

-Angry Lawyer

maybe nihilanth could do this organically, as a superior being?

Maybe thats why they were so pissed off that gordon killed him.

They must have realised also that earth was a massive threat to thier plans and then prioritised thier goal to invade earth and kill humans.

Thanks 4 the help Samon.

Sulkdodds not sure why G-Man contracted Gordon to kick the Combine off earth. Perhaps his group all along wanted control of Xen and Earth. They used the Combine to get a foothold on Earth and maybe it's them who are trying to take over everything. All along they have manipulated races to get what and where they want.

I am sure tho that portals are naturally occuring in Xen but not in other universes. To get there u have to create your own.

Sure it all made more sense last night after a few beers!!!! :rolling:

Why kick the Combine's butt???? Because they are EVIL
because they are interdimensional interuniverse bastards who enslave every race they dominate, they are big fat lazy assholes and insist on killing everything, and every innocent race , in order to preserve themselves as the caste almighty. The combine would muderer the life of the whole universe just too stay in control. Thats why..they have to be stopped, and this time they have been, by g-man , freeman, the rebel alliance of humans and the vorts.

Cannt you see, the combine empire with all its dominated species, (like all those marching about in the citadel) is a huge empire, it must be. Its aslo terrible getting species to kill thier own kind and do the combine masters bidding. With a space Tyrant this big, there will be no wonder the g-man and many other races are at war against it on many fronts. The Employers must be a commitee of aliens trying to use freeman and other people to hit the combine where it hurts most.

This being the nature of the braoder scope of events is quite likely with some of the things you see in hl2.

Edit: sorry for triple post

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

Nice little rebel.....you just triple posted....

 

[little.rebel]

hey, thanks for noticing

and if you are really in the combine HO, you wouldnt mind blowing it up would you??

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

hey, thanks for noticing

and if you are really in the combine HO, you wouldnt mind blowing it up would you??

Well no....I exterminate all headcrab containment breaches in Sector D Subasement 76....but they at least let me get the computer 3 days a week!

Oh and I'll be telling my supervisor about your sig!!!! Hope you like Headcrab missles!!!!!

 

[Eejit]

The other reason I don't think OpFor or Blue Shift are considered 'canon' by Valve is that in interviews, Gabe/Mark/whoever else often speak of seeing absolutely everything in the Half-Life series through Gordon Freeman's eyes, of 'being' him; he never says a word in-game, because the reactions are all yours.

Actually I don't think they do say that. They talk about playing through the games as Gordon, but isn't 1 or more of the HL2 expansions going to be from a different PoV?

 

[esplin]

deleted for being in the wrong thread

 

[Roman Legion]

“Why kick the Combine's butt???? Because they are EVIL
because they are interdimensional interuniverse bastards who enslave every race they dominate, they are big fat lazy assholes and insist on killing everything, and every innocent race , in order to preserve themselves as the caste almighty. The combine would muderer the life of the whole universe just too stay in control. Thats why..they have to be stopped, and this time they have been, by g-man , freeman, the rebel alliance of humans and the vorts.”

“Cannt you see, the combine empire with all its dominated species, (like all those marching about in the citadel) is a huge empire, it must be. Its aslo terrible getting species to kill thier own kind and do the combine masters bidding. With a space Tyrant this big, there will be no wonder the g-man and many other races are at war against it on many fronts. The Employers must be a commitee of aliens trying to use freeman and other people to hit the combine where it hurts most.”

The way you put it remains me of the Romans, the Romans try to assimilate the people they conquer…

So do the Combines want the Humans to join?


And what’s up with the Gold Crystals I see in Xen? Do they have any value to them (like energy).

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Explain to me why nothing on Xen actually looks like anything the Combine use in HL2? And why the Combine can't teleport locally, while Nihilanth, whom you say was their pawn, can teleport things wily-nily.

-Angry Lawyer

i am not siding with anyone here on whether the Combine were on Xen first then Earth but as mentioned in Raising The Bar, Xen is a borderworld right? so in the grand scheme of things this world does not mean very much...which is why the Combine probably wouldn't want to waste time changing Xen to make it look more Combine-ish...thats the only thing i could think of.

again, not siding with or against anyone...just trying to help come to a conclusion.

about Nihilanth having abilities to teleport to Xen but not the Combine? maybe Nihilanth was from another race (he perhaps has teleport abilities before being under control?) in a different world and was "coached"/enslaved to be a slave master of Xenians?

i guess when it comes to the HL series, unless we are all spoon fed the information by Valve, (Marc Laidlaw in particular ) we will always need to be guesstimating what really happened in each installment, be it a HL game or a HL expansion.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Has anybody actually asked Marc Laidlaw outright whether the Combine were on Xen?

 

[ríomhaire]

Has anybody actually asked Marc Laidlaw outright whether the Combine were on Xen?

Me, previous to that interview. He said it was undecided, like much of the story.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

Me, previous to that interview. He said it was undecided, like much of the story.

Undecided? Wow it probaly won't be mentioned in the story. Xen is most likely dead. So the decision might not be made. I mean, why make it if it's not going to be in the story? Though this gets me thinkng...was that world you see at the end of Half Life 2 in the portal Xen? Because perhaps the Combine entered Xen after Nihilanth was killed and used that area as a like fallback base for whatever reason and perhaps a place to teleport the citadel. Just a guess here.

 

[taurenw]

Here's what I understood after reading the thread, all HL related stuff found on Wiki and after playing the games:

The Combine arrive on the homeworld of the Vortiguants (by Vortiguants I mean the creatures refered to in HL1 as: Alien Slaves, Alien Grunts, Alien Controllers - the creatures that have an third arm and that share the Vort-essence - as revelead in HL2).

The Combine enslaved the Vortiguants and surgically alter them (the equivalent of stalkers and overwatch soldiers on Earth in HL2) to transform them to warriors (the Alien Grunt - the armor is definitely not an effect of the diet and most likely surgically implanted (just take a look at the tubes sticking out of his chest and his feet viewed from the bottom - that pattern CANNOT be natural)).

The Combine craft an puppet leader (same as Breen for humans) for the Vorts using one of their own kind (this explains his similarity with the Combine Advisor from HL2 - the skin color and texture), altered with Vortiguant parts and Combine metal. He is also the slave of the more powerful Combine lords. Nihilanth then is used to control the Vortiguants using collars and bracelets - found on all Vorts. The Combine use the newly enslaved race of the Vortiguants to conquer new worlds from their dimension.

The Combine also use biological weapons - the Antlions - to breed panic among the worlds they attack. IMO Antlions originate from the Combine homeworld (or some other universe), as well as headcrabs (both like to dig under the sand and have similar feats, like color - tan - to blend in with the enviroment).

But, Nihilanth rebels and flees with his race - the Vortiguants - to Xen, the borderworld between Combine's dimension and Earth's Dimension. Here he is able to seal all the portals from the Combine. As he flees, he also picks up headcrabs and antlions - that have infested almost everything - to Xen. This explains the thumper-like structures found in Interloper - to protect the structures against antlions. Here, on Xen, the Vortiguants blend in with the native race (composed from Bullsquids, Sound Dogs, Barnacles, etc).

Gordon kills Nihilanth, and humans take control of Xen (perhaps this is what G-man wanted to do), but not for long, because with Nihilanth gone, the Combine invade Xen, defeat the humans and discover Earth. And the rest is HL2.

Man, Half Life's story is so complicated And there are so many questions unanswered!

 

[Asknoone]

Me, previous to that interview. He said it was undecided, like much of the story.

He certainly didn't say it was undecided. I remember that when you posted it, he said it wasn't something they were going to reveal to the public yet.

 

[Llama]

Teh Combine were not on Xen. I really hate having to say it so much X_X

If you believe they were, then you a FOOO!

(Edit: Samon that isn't directed at you )

 

[ríomhaire]

He certainly didn't say it was undecided. I remember that when you posted it, he said it wasn't something they were going to reveal to the public yet.

Explanations outside the context of the game are
not really something we want to get into. Most of the things that are
hazy are that way simply because the right time and place has not come
about for clarifying these things in the context of the games.

Seems to me that it means undecided, but that's just me.

 

[Asknoone]

No, that sounds more like they just haven't found the right time within the games to reveal these things without them being crammed in.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Random fact: I'm writing an article to rival the "Half Life Saga" website! D:

-Angry Lawer

 

[ríomhaire]

Random fact: I'm writing an article to rival the "Half Life Saga" website! D:

-Angry Lawer

Random Fact
-ríomhaire

 

[Asknoone]

Random Fact
-ríomhaire

Why does it say Breen died.

 

[ríomhaire]

Why does it say Breen died.

We're entitled to our opinions.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Random fact: Mine's better than yours

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Eejit]

Needs tidied up a bit, e.g.

"Breen enters a teleporter to another Combine world. Gordon destroys the teleporter before Breen can go through, the resulting explosion the two circling gunships, does great damage to the top of the citadel, and damages much of the citadel’s internal system kills Breen and damages much of the citadel’s internal system but cools too quickly to do much more."

...but pretty good.

 

[Asknoone]

We're entitled to our opinions.

Random fact:
Breen isn't dead.

You can quite clearly see him....

 

[ríomhaire]

Needs tidied up a bit, e.g.

"Breen enters a teleporter to another Combine world. Gordon destroys the teleporter before Breen can go through, the resulting explosion the two circling gunships, does great damage to the top of the citadel, and damages much of the citadel’s internal system kills Breen and damages much of the citadel’s internal system but cools too quickly to do much more."

...but pretty good.

Oops. Can't wait to read yours AL.

edit

Random fact:
Breen isn't dead.

You can quite clearly see him....

He could have died after the g-man took him out. Anyway, I'm leaving it that way 'til Aftermath comes out and then we'll see.
Edit 2:
Yes I am very stuborn

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

I really can't see Valve killing off Breen after you just met him.

Heres my spam theory:
Breen gets teleported to the Combine Homeworld, and the Combine perform horrible operations on him giving him godlike powers....and make him leader of the whole Synth Army! He fights alongside the Synths, using his godly powers on the weak forces of the planets he conquers. Then, one day, Breen's powers malfunction and he gets teleported back in time, to Xen! And he takes control of the Vortigaunts and renames himself Nihilanth because it was his girlfriends name.

I know, this theory is shit. Just give it time to develop

 

[Eejit]

My name isn't Al...?

 

[ríomhaire]

My name isn't Al...?

The oops was replying to you. The other sentance was at Angry.

 

[Sam]

I apologise if it has been mentioned but I think the lack of mutation of zombies (into gonomes) in halflife 2 from the headcrabs launched by the combine suggests the headcrabs the combine use have been altered to make cleanup easier. Since zombies in hl1 mutate within a few hours into gonomes it suggests that the combine were not on Xen.

 

[ríomhaire]

I apologise if it has been mentioned but I think the lack of mutation of zombies (into gonomes) in halflife 2 from the headcrabs launched by the combine suggests the headcrabs the combine use have been altered to make cleanup easier. Since zombies in hl1 mutate within a few hours into gonomes it suggests that the combine were not on Xen.

My theory:
There is far too much competition in Ravenholm and the fact is all the zombies are starving. When you first enter they're all hibernating. I think they don't have enough food to reach the gonome stage.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

Um....What are the Gonome? I've heard of the name used before but thought it was a mispelling of gnomes or something.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Stage 2 of zombie evolution. The Chuck Norris of zombies:

 

[Sam]

My theory:
There is far too much competition in Ravenholm and the fact is all the zombies are starving. When you first enter they're all hibernating. I think they don't have enough food to reach the gonome stage.

Zombies aren't unique to Ravenholm though, although it does seem that in areas with zombies there are no living humans and few dead ones.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

Stage 2 of zombie evolution. The Chuck Norris of zombies:

That was an Opposing Force thing, correct?

 

[Sam]

yes but I believe Opposing Force and Blue Shift are taken as official.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

The story, yes, but not the creatures. *cough* Race X *cough*

 

[ríomhaire]

The story, yes, but not the creatures. *cough* Race X *cough*

The creatures are part of the story. I don't want to argue this again but I'm just going to say this.
DEACY, BLUE SHITF AND OPPOSING FORCE ARE OFFICAL HALF-LIFE GAMES, EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THEM HAPPENED, PERIOD.

 

[Krabjuice]

Zombies aren't unique to Ravenholm though, although it does seem that in areas with zombies there are no living humans and few dead ones.

Not just, Zombies exist wherever lucky Headcrabs, and unlucky Humans exist. However, the reasons why those Headcrabs are there in the firstplace are quite variable. But yes, commonly, wherever there are zombies, people have either ran, or died running.