Combine Vs. Xen - the final solution

Orfuss, you're my new hero, and have been added to my list of "People who I'll think of first when I chose people to play in the ZM beta"

-Angry Lawyer
 
Haha, I just read this interview in PCZone, came here to post it, and its been done by AL.

Everything I argued for is true. I feel so empowered.
 
I can´t buy this magazine :(
Is something another important for HL story inside?
 
I emailed Marc Laidlaw a pretty long time ago with some questions, including a possible Combine-Xen connection (his answer is somewhere here on the forums, been posted a few times), and basically, he says that we'll have to find out in future games.
 
But not everything, fortunately- there're still choice details that have yet to be revealed.

Of course they might backtrack and say "Angry Lawyer was too smug: henceforth all previous storyline details are declared fluff, and we're starting from scratch. The Xen are actually highly evolved trout, the G-man is Gordon's second cousin and Barney is a lecherous Norwegian drunk."

:p
 
Solver said:
I emailed Marc Laidlaw a pretty long time ago with some questions, including a possible Combine-Xen connection (his answer is somewhere here on the forums, been posted a few times), and basically, he says that we'll have to find out in future games.
Click to expand...
Really? Can I see this e-mail?
 
From : Marc Laidlaw
Sent : Sunday, September 18, 2005 6:13 AM
To : Me
Subject : RE: The Half-Life Plot

Hi, me, there's really no conflict at all, but even if there were,
those things happen.

I'm pretty sure the quote attributed to Doug is partly mine; I'm not
sure where you found it, but quotes are often misattributed in
interviews. Also, in a full interview we will often come up with more
elaborate answers than we can supply to the many fans who write in with
specific questions about plot points. And sometimes Doug will ask me to
help him answer a question and I'll type something up and he'll forward
it. We all pitch in on these kinds of things.

Anyway, Doug's comment simply describes our state of mind about the
general alien threat as we perceived it when we finished making HL1 and
started thinking about what was to come. My comment is more about where
we're at right now, and how we tend to proceed.

Doug is certainly familiar and conversant with the story, as he must be
considering he takes it upon himself to answer about five hundred
questions a day about HL and HL2. But I don't tell him everything I
have in mind, or everything we're working on from a story point of view.
And like members of the fan community, different people on the team have
different interpretations of various events in the games.

Thanks for your interest!

Marc Laidlaw

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 12:11 PM
To: Marc Laidlaw
Subject: FW: The Half-Life Plot



-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 2:16 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: The Half-Life Plot

Dear Mr. Newell,
In a reply to an e-mail concerning whether the Combine controlled Xen
at the time of Half-Life 1 Mr. Laidlaw said this:

"Thanks for writing. 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. So, I
try not to say anything that would spoil revelations and backstory that
we may want to use in the future or are currently developing. The
relation between the Nihilanth race and the Combine is one of those
things."

There was a rather large depate on whether the Combine did indeed
control Xen on www.halflife2.net but it was promply stoped by this
'direct quote'
from Mr. Lombardi:

"We had a glimpse of the larger threat when we were working on Half Life
1.
In other words we knew that once you cleared out the Nihilanth, you were
going to discover something worse beyond it. We knew that some immense
threat had chased the Nihilanth and its creatures out of their own world
and into Xen, from which location they were all to glad to seize the
opportunity to continue on to Earth with suppression through the
citadels. But the exact nature of the threat was left to be solved in
Half Life 2"

These two seem to contradict eachother. So what's going on? Are there
different opinions among your staff as what precisly is the story? Is
Mr.
Lombardi correct or is it undecided? Please respond.

Thank you,

Me







This confuses me even more. :bonce:

Edit: Sorry for the double post. I wanted to post this right after I got it and I didn't realise that the previous post was mine.
 
Translated from Laidlawese: "Yeah, it's probably right, but don't overanalyse every word, because we might change our minds"

It's Laidlaw's way of covering his back/remaining elusive/making sure that he keeps creative control. By being vague in answers, if he changes his mind about a story element, people can't bitch at him as much.

But yeah, in your E-Mail, Laidlaw's claimed responsibility - "
I'm pretty sure the quote attributed to Doug is partly mine; I'm not sure where you found it, but quotes are often misattributed in interviews."

So, to sum up, I percieve it as "Yeah, the Combine chased the Xenians to Xen, but we haven't quite worked out why they were fighting, or how they met."

-Angry Lawyer
 
So in short. We've both been partially wrong the whole time(me more so)
 
I admitted that in the first post - we're both part right as well. I WAS arguing they never met at all, but they obviously have had contact.

-Angry Lawyer
 
I assume Rumours and Speculation is redundant now, it will get a small cheque and a nice clock for its time with Halflife2.net and end up with dementia in a retirement home for unwanted forums. :(

;)
 
It'll become alive again soon. But, yeah, it's a bit redundant considering the "big question" has finally been answered.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Guess now we can start speculation on Half-Life 3 then?
 
Sulkdodds said:
Guess now we can start speculation on Half-Life 3 then?
Click to expand...
No, once Aftermath comes out we'll debate about the gman again. Then over Valve's 'episodic content' for a while. And then stuff of HL3 will start to role out. That's when ye'll debate and I might leave(I hate to find too much about a game before I play it).
 
I dont know why I come here, I dont play Half Life 2 anymore :S

I played through once, tried to play again, but the slowdown is terrible now-a-days.
 
Here is the old email I got from Marc Laidlaw. I found it to be dated with last November - that is, the conversation took place shortly after HL2 was released.

Hi, Solver, I'm assuming whatever I tell you is going to get posted somewhere, so I'll be very careful in answering.

I will not talk about the meaning of the game or clear up stuff that has yet to be clarified or revealed; it only makes sense to do this in the context of the games themselves. Stuff that hasn't been revealed is that way because we're not ready to reveal it. Everything that's there is there for a reason; ditto for everything that isn't there. I can only say, "Stay tuned."

Race-X was Gearbox's creation, and likely would only be continued if Gearbox were to do more episodes in the HL universe. There were gameplay modes they wanted to explore, and their designers wanted to make some new monsters; Race-X was a great way for them to do this. The universe is expansive enough to allow this without conflicting with the core story. Remember, these are games first and foremost, and the story really is there to open up and extend (rather than shut down) possibilities for fun gameplay. We did coordinate overarching story elements with Gearbox, but left a lot of the details for them to explore and invent according to what worked for their design process. As for whether Shepherd was put on ice before or after the Nihilanth's demise, it's really hard to say, since Gordon's time in Xen and in the Nihilanth's chamber may not be mapped directly against the timeline of events at Black Mesa.

The gman mumbles sound fairly close to what I remember him saying...strangely enough, I can't find the script for that exchange.

Thanks for taking such an interest in the story. Before HL1 came out, it was tough to convince outsiders that FPS players would care at all about having any kind of story in their game. Obviously, given the wide range of reactions, they care quite a bit. The debate over HL2's content is much more varied.

Yours,
Marc Laidlaw
Click to expand...

What we should always remember is that, probably, very few story elements are set in stone. Thus, one of the reasons behind these vague comments are that Valve need to have freedom in adjusting the story as they see fit.
 
So, I suppose this should be posted in the main HL section to make sure everyone gets the message. Someone should update the HL wiki aswell but I'll too lazy. I'll e-mail that story-saga site although he has shown he will not listen to evidence that contradics his own theory.
 
He's not updated his site in ages, when everyone knows that the Combine aren't a subsection of the Synths.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
He's not updated his site in ages, when everyone knows that the Combine aren't a subsection of the Synths.

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...
Once again, I just sent it. And unless he doesn't care about this crap any longer or he's just a retard that won't accept the truth he couldn't ignore something this big.
 
ríomhaire said:
Once again, I just sent it. And unless he doesn't care about this crap any longer or he's just a retard that won't accept the truth he couldn't ignore something this big.
Click to expand...

/shamelessbump

Nope, he's just to retarded edit it himself :dork:
;)

\shamelessbump
 
Looking back on my original theory, I didn't have to change much to incorporate this revelation.
 
ríomhaire said:
Looking back on my original theory, I didn't have to change much to incorporate this revelation.
Click to expand...

Apart from taking the Combine off of Xen.
Your theory wasn't inherantly flawed - but a lot of the other ones people made hinged the whole thing on the Combine being on Xen.

-Angry Lawyer
 
What? STOP LOOKING AT ME! :(

Admittedly I'd always been closer to the Combine-had-involvement-with-Xen crowd (and to some degree I guess we were right, just that it wasn't so direct) but at least the current set of revelations confirms just how big the Valve universe must be (i.e., there's at least one other planet/dimension for the current Xenians to have fled from).
 
Well, the good thing is that everyone turned out to be somewhat right! I was firmly convinced that the Combine conquered Xen before HL1, and was right to the extent that there was a conflict, at least.
 
there's at least one other planet/dimension for the current Xenians to have fled from
Click to expand...

I bet it was....EARTH...BUT IN THE PAST! :borg:
 
I think the best thing that came out of this thread was the fact I was more right than the rest of you.

Now I can sit in my castle of AWESOME, gloating at you all. Muhahahah.

-Angry Lawyer
 
*clears throat loudly*
I lay siege to your castle with my Catapult of wisdom!
 
You have been sued by an Angry Lawyer. GAME OVER.

Start again? y/n
 
yes.
Round beggining.
Llama scores 139 damage against AL.
AL Gibs
Llama is teh winnar!
 
You have been kicked from the server.
Reason: Hax!

Back on topic. Alien Grunts are awesome, and lay the beatdown on the Combine. The masses of them being bred on Xen were likely to ward off the inevitable arrival of the ever-persistent Combine.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Hmm. We need an alternate-timeline mod- whereby the Black Mesa Resonance Cascade was greatly delayed, and the Combine found the refugees on Xen.

Que mass warfare as the two sides clash! 'Twould be awesome!
 
I did a little bit of editing at wikipedia
Half-Life Saga Story Guide - A speculative timeline of the Half-Life games' plot as a whole. This site has not been updated in some time and some information is flattly false.
Click to expand...
 
You know, the fact that Nihilanth and Combine were former enemies makes it way MORE likely that they would use similar technology. :D

So, basically, the debate has changed from "Did the combine control xen?" to "Does xen have combine technology?"
 
Just wanted to chime in here; The quote could imply that the Combine chased the Nihilanth from their homeworld, into Xen (As in, followed them to Xen) and then later conquered Earth by way of Xen. It's pretty vague either way and really only proves the Combine and Xen knew about each other prior to HL1.. which doesn't prove much else.
 
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