do you think these synths..

who were you referring to victor??..

and anyway, who says hunters grow into striders. they are merely new builds from a similar alien family or species.
 
I've just noticed, hunters appear to be wearing armor, (As opposed to armor plates fused to the skin or a natural shell.) and from what I've heard, hunters are supposed to be very smart, I believe they were an intelligent species before being absorbed into the combine, unlike the strider which seems like a big bad brutish creature.

I really don't think hunters are young striders, like I said they seem very intelligent unlike striders, and with age comes wisdom right? For the strider/hunter sounds, who's to say they wont be different come episode 2? Unless I'm not remembering a gameplay video, in which case point me to it and make fun of me. :p
And as for looks, the hunter's legs are jointed very differently, they have a whole 4 joints in their legs, including wrist, striders have 2, and no wrist, each creature seems suited for different tasks both in nature and in the combine empire.

Here's a picture of what I mentioned in the beginning,
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7784/hl2ep2ministrider1ob2.jpg
look at its left leg, I see a shoulderpad with runic markings similar to the advisor's sweet silk shirt, and an advisor-like skin tone and texture, I'm not suggesting they're related or anything though.

Point is, hunters get sweet green runecarved armor, roam in packs and call out to eachother, flank and corner the enemy and call for heavy support when they need it. Striders get this beige armored shell, don't work closely with one another, instead get information from scanners and hunters and seem to prefer the direct "give me a target and I'll smash it" approach. Hunters seem like an intelligent species, striders are lumbering beasts, the end.
 
GreatEmperor I gotta tell you man, don't take this the wrong way because I don't mean to be rude, but I try to read your posts and I don't understand most of the stuff you say. Like:


I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to say here. I keep reading it but I'm not getting what you're saying. You doubt the striders survived what, being turned into synths? I don't understand that. And, "all those saying the combine are going to spare anything," do you mean parts? Spare parts of the creatures? Or you mean spare lifeforms living on the worlds they conquer? Please clarify.

Anyway, striders and hunters:

Size can be explained easily as one is an infant, so to speak, and the other is a full-grown adult. Planetary mentioned giraffes; look at the size difference in an adult giraffe and its young.

Gait is the same. Simian, leads with the forearms, balances with the rear limb and uses the other two to stomp along and change direction. Hunters are faster and less ponderous simply because of their size. Smaller = faster.

Eyes, skin, and weaponry are all Combine modifications. You'll notice the hunters' eyes are mechanical rather than natural. Who's to say their eyes were originally in that configuration?

See the whole point of forced evolution is that when these things produce offspring they're producing a desired creature that the Combine can use. Something the Combine has engineered to be produced. It keeps the basic structure and movement of the creature but adds on all this stuff to it.

As for striders being built in the factories, yes, they are assembled like that by the citadels. Once they're operative though, they can produce hunters. Even if synths weren't able to self-replicate anymore, even if that was written out of the story, we can see that these 'ministriders' were likely the offspring of a strider. They'd be a strider built on a miniature scale for a completely different purpose in warfare.

Even if they WERE a different species, the gap between them would be like two species of apes, not a giraffe and a tiger. But that's moot because they ARE the same species. ;)

I am not what any would call sensitive so..... i dont give a crap

Im saying that after the Striders were made, the Combine probably decimated the species it came from, they were done making what they came there for. i also meant that is what they are going to do with Earth if they could, you can see they are not building anything or even allowing the humans to rebuild just trying to make the synths and make weapons after that is obvious what may happen.

The hunters are shaped different than the Striders meant to move different, if they were the young, they would be just smaller versions of the adult or undeveloped. These are clearly meant to move like that and the leg position is different. Where would the armor come from, they are not meant to live without the technological parts of the creature just like some of the synths are. they come off the line. This is not a hard concept buddy, the Combine had a reproductive suppresion field because they want to control numbers of potential threats it would be similar for those things and how did you win the first argument with such a crackheaded position.

They could easily be built and it is clear they are meant for the fight in the forests and buildings, so that is why they are being built and we would have seen them earlier if they really are from Striders but they are from assembly lines and now are being used.

I said they were the same creature to start with, just altered fairly well
 
mentally challenged people should be banned from using the internet. i suppose that would kill the forums though.

on a side note, if they're the same species and hunters grow into striders, wouldn't you see size variations for striders/hunters? also, if the biological components are growing surely that would damage whatever weapons/armour have been implanted into the hunter.

OOOOHHHHH flaming which looks like a good word for you prick boy

Good to see you stopped bitching about the low quality of posts to lower the argument here a little so shut it
 
OOOOHHHHH flaming which looks like a good word for you prick boy

Good to see you stopped bitching about the low quality of posts to lower the argument here a little so shut it

im just going to throw something in here, take it or leave it: WHAT THE ****?!

Ive honestly had to re-read every single post youve made in this thread, because they have been so difficult to read. If anything causedd the flaming, its your additude towards others and your abraisive manner in which you conduct your self.

Its possible that the striders and hunters are both originally of the same species, both tripods. Because one is bigger then the other now doesnt mean this is always so. The Strider's movements and actions remind me of the drop ships and the scanners, kind of slow, kind of ant like in a way.

The tripods from what we can tell are alot faster on their feet (in every regard).

To be honest, its a stupid stupid argument because we've not played Episode2 yet, so we dont really know very much about the hunters. ontop of the fact that we also really dont know a whole lot about the background of striders, or much of the new species introduced by the combine.

anyway, back on topid. i'd love to fight a crab synth. :bounce:
 
im just going to throw something in here, take it or leave it: WHAT THE ****?!

Ive honestly had to re-read every single post youve made in this thread, because they have been so difficult to read. If anything causedd the flaming, its your additude towards others and your abraisive manner in which you conduct your self.

Its possible that the striders and hunters are both originally of the same species, both tripods. Because one is bigger then the other now doesnt mean this is always so. The Strider's movements and actions remind me of the drop ships and the scanners, kind of slow, kind of ant like in a way.

The tripods from what we can tell are alot faster on their feet (in every regard).

To be honest, its a stupid stupid argument because we've not played Episode2 yet, so we dont really know very much about the hunters. ontop of the fact that we also really dont know a whole lot about the background of striders, or much of the new species introduced by the combine.

anyway, back on topid. i'd love to fight a crab synth. :bounce:

Looking at this post i wonder where you even assume the high ground, learn how to spell and then bitch at me.

We know a lot of the Hunters and the more material they leak the more we can assume

And Victor is a prick read some more and find out
 
threadnukingwp9.jpg
 
And as for looks, the hunter's legs are jointed very differently, they have a whole 4 joints in their legs, including wrist, striders have 2, and no wrist, each creature seems suited for different tasks both in nature and in the combine empire.

Here's a picture of what I mentioned in the beginning,
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7784/hl2ep2ministrider1ob2.jpg
Your picture actually does my job for me. :) I don't see how anyone can look at that and not see a strider. You can even see the curvature of the carapace is exactly the same.

As for the legs, hunters do have that curious backwards-bending section, and an extra joint there. And while you are correct in pointing out they have four joints to the strider's two, if you look really carefully at a strider you will see that they actually have a modified section of leg that could have either been their wrist or that extra section. See here:

Strider diagram

As for intelligence, it's animal intelligence. Pack-hunting techniques. Striders actually do work in groups, it just doesn't show very much because they are large and tank-like in nature, going around stomping on things and blowing them up. But in the strider sections of Anticitizen One/Follow Freeman, you can see striders working together as a group; there are generally three on the screen at any given time, pacing around and cutting off rebel escape routes. Which, as we've seen, is exactly what hunters do, albeit on a smaller scale.

The hunters are shaped different than the Striders meant to move different, if they were the young, they would be just smaller versions of the adult or undeveloped. These are clearly meant to move like that and the leg position is different. Where would the armor come from, they are not meant to live without the technological parts of the creature just like some of the synths are. they come off the line. This is not a hard concept buddy, the Combine had a reproductive suppresion field because they want to control numbers of potential threats it would be similar for those things and how did you win the first argument with such a crackheaded position.
There are literally hundreds of creatures on this planet whose young look completely different than their adult counterparts. We're talking about an ALIEN species here, for one, and for two the hunters look almost identical to the striders. There's nothing that says they have to look like an undeveloped or smaller version of a strider. They look similar enough that you can tell what they are.

The armor's already built into them. Remember, forced evolution. They've been made to be born with the carapace already on them. Check Raising the Bar. Look at the spider-like synth in the design documents and see how its little babies are already fully armored (I don't feel like checking the page number right now; it's easy enough to find when you skim through the book).

Even assuming they did come off the line, which they very well might--I am not debating that--these ARE the offspring of the strider, genetically. They're not going to grow into striders, they're not going to get any larger or start sprouting antimatter cannons, but they're what the original creature's offspring looked like, or similar to it. They're locked into this form and are used for the express purpose of...well, hunting.

Also as to the supression field, that doesn't work in this scenario. The supression field is for human beings who still have free will and are being corraled, so to speak. We're talking about animals that've already been synthified. They no longer have any urges to reproduce. Any reproduction out of them would be regulated and controlled by the Combine. Make no mistake either that once the human race had been completely transformed into stalkers and soldiers for the overwatch, the supression field would've been removed. Words straight from Dr. Breen's mouth, though not as candid. "Flip the switch, that day is coming soon" and all that.

They could easily be built and it is clear they are meant for the fight in the forests and buildings, so that is why they are being built and we would have seen them earlier if they really are from Striders but they are from assembly lines and now are being used.
Why would we have seen them before? At what point would the Combine have wanted to release the hunters into the streets of City 17? You make it sound like the striders would've been birthing hunters in the middle of the street like a gonarch might.

We didn't see them because they had no use before. Having no use in the city has absolutely NOTHING to do with them coming off a factory line.
 
Your picture actually does my job for me. :) I don't see how anyone can look at that and not see a strider. You can even see the curvature of the carapace is exactly the same.

As for the legs, hunters do have that curious backwards-bending section, and an extra joint there. And while you are correct in pointing out they have four joints to the strider's two, if you look really carefully at a strider you will see that they actually have a modified section of leg that could have either been their wrist or that extra section. See here:

Strider diagram

As for intelligence, it's animal intelligence. Pack-hunting techniques. Striders actually do work in groups, it just doesn't show very much because they are large and tank-like in nature, going around stomping on things and blowing them up. But in the strider sections of Anticitizen One/Follow Freeman, you can see striders working together as a group; there are generally three on the screen at any given time, pacing around and cutting off rebel escape routes. Which, as we've seen, is exactly what hunters do, albeit on a smaller scale.


There are literally hundreds of creatures on this planet whose young look completely different than their adult counterparts. We're talking about an ALIEN species here, for one, and for two the hunters look almost identical to the striders. There's nothing that says they have to look like an undeveloped or smaller version of a strider. They look similar enough that you can tell what they are.

The armor's already built into them. Remember, forced evolution. They've been made to be born with the carapace already on them. Check Raising the Bar. Look at the spider-like synth in the design documents and see how its little babies are already fully armored (I don't feel like checking the page number right now; it's easy enough to find when you skim through the book).

Even assuming they did come off the line, which they very well might--I am not debating that--these ARE the offspring of the strider, genetically. They're not going to grow into striders, they're not going to get any larger or start sprouting antimatter cannons, but they're what the original creature's offspring looked like, or similar to it. They're locked into this form and are used for the express purpose of...well, hunting.

Also as to the supression field, that doesn't work in this scenario. The supression field is for human beings who still have free will and are being corraled, so to speak. We're talking about animals that've already been synthified. They no longer have any urges to reproduce. Any reproduction out of them would be regulated and controlled by the Combine. Make no mistake either that once the human race had been completely transformed into stalkers and soldiers for the overwatch, the supression field would've been removed. Words straight from Dr. Breen's mouth, though not as candid. "Flip the switch, that day is coming soon" and all that.


Why would we have seen them before? At what point would the Combine have wanted to release the hunters into the streets of City 17? You make it sound like the striders would've been birthing hunters in the middle of the street like a gonarch might.

We didn't see them because they had no use before. Having no use in the city has absolutely NOTHING to do with them coming off a factory line.

Striders do not show any real signs of pack behavior, they merely moved on paths back and forth

Even if they go through a major change, we would see the chrysalis or if they do not, various sizes of the creature as it grew running around but all we see is those two types. The few times we see two together they only are two sizes, which shows precision.

You are damn sure saying they do not come off the assembly line but reading your argument i wonder, if they are meant to only stay one size, where do Striders come from? If they go and reproduce they would make more of themselves not some different creature even if it is like what the actual young look like. You are saying that Hunters come from birthing but not the large ones, which is pointless, they may be outfitted as they grow but that is not likely or sensible. Also we would see Striders making Striders especially during the urban battle in later chapters when they were being destroyed, they would try to up their numbers to fight further.

The armor is not all i mean, there are many synthetic parts that they appear to use just to function. If they were born without these things, they would not last to the factory or wherever they were outfitted. And if the Strider is supposed to develop such things, how would it. And as for the Suppression field i was referring to the way they view things, they do not want things making more than they can hold onto, if one or more came out different it would be dangerous, they would want to have an eye on where they come from. Also we have seen the factory but no mention of the birthing, it would be mentioned in game or shown some other way to make that many creatures but it is not in there. And birthing would put units out of commission during the fighting which i do not think they would go for. They are just adapted versions for going into buildings and wooded areas, dangerous to struggle with looks like
 
Yeah, the mortar synth is pretty damned cool, and looks quite different from anything else we've seen.

But why is confetti streaming from the crab synth's legs?

As for the hunter-strider relationship, my belief is that they were originally from the same place, and enslaved by the Combine together, possibly distant relatives, in the same order or family or class of whatever?

As for why they're here, I imagine some big depots in the arctic, kind of like Nova Prospekt, only holding Hunters, not human slaves. That would be why the arctic base is where they show up first, before moving farther south to be encountered in Episode Two. They'd obviously be kept secret, so that the rebels get surprised, like the appearance of the shield scanners. You don't see any before the rebellion, and that one strider we see in Point Insertion uses the normal scanners to help it.
Dude, striders are biotech of HUMANS. HUMANS NODE.
 
Your picture actually does my job for me. :) I don't see how anyone can look at that and not see a strider. You can even see the curvature of the carapace is exactly the same.
IMO, a human resembles a dog more than that resembles a strider.

CRAZY THEORY (which I don't actually believe but just poped into my head)
The hunters are actually COMBINE SLUGS that have been graphted into the right shape and proportions and have been given armour and arms (ie, weapons, not limbs). They are the original Combine military force and pre-date the rest of the synths.
 
IMO, a human resembles a dog more than that resembles a strider.

No.

The hunters are actually COMBINE SLUGS that have been graphted into the right shape and proportions

Wikipedia says this about the Combine Elite:

"early Elite concepts had them as more ambulatory versions of the Combine Advisor, a Strider synth grafted down into the proportions of a human (which in turn may have been repurposed into the Hunter synth"

Hm. :naughty:
 
I disagree Riomhaire. I also disagree that the Hunters are the off-spring of the Strider. Rabarber, Wikipedia is not an official source, do not take what it says as fact.
 
I didn't, I just pointed out similarities in what Riom and wikipedia said.
 
Striders do not show any real signs of pack behavior, they merely moved on paths back and forth
It's coordinated enough that it can be seen as pack behavior. They're not disjointed like a group of say, headcrabs, who also travel in groups but don't really work together.

From what I've seen of the hunters in all the gameplay videos, they're not exactly tactical geniuses anyway. They just sort of chase you and cut you off, try to smash into you or pin you down. They're not THAT smart. And striders basically do the same thing just on a larger scale.

Even if they go through a major change, we would see the chrysalis or if they do not, various sizes of the creature as it grew running around but all we see is those two types. The few times we see two together they only are two sizes, which shows precision.
We wouldn't, because these things aren't out in the wild breeding all over the place and setting up nests or coccoons. And like I said, they probably don't grow. Probably. I'll address that in just a moment.

You are damn sure saying they do not come off the assembly line but reading your argument i wonder, if they are meant to only stay one size, where do Striders come from? If they go and reproduce they would make more of themselves not some different creature even if it is like what the actual young look like. You are saying that Hunters come from birthing but not the large ones, which is pointless, they may be outfitted as they grow but that is not likely or sensible. Also we would see Striders making Striders especially during the urban battle in later chapters when they were being destroyed, they would try to up their numbers to fight further.
Again, I'm not really debating that the hunters CAN'T be built in the citadels exactly the same way everything else is. It's entirely possible they could be. However, synths are said to be self-replicating and there's concept art showing this. Valve's own words which have never been retconned.

Now, as for where striders come from, we see them built. This is what we've seen and as everyone knows, you take what's shown in the game over what's not shown in the game. The game takes precedence over concept art or old scripts. That being said, there's nothing that directly says hunters couldn't grow into striders. Just as nothing says hunters can't be born AND assembled in a factory, it's equally plausible that a strider can be made OR grown from a hunter. The only reason I would even doubt the idea is that hunters and striders are niche-filling warmachines; if a hunter automatically grew into a strider it wouldn't be good for the Combine because they'd lose out on an important part of their fighting force, given time. Perhaps a trigger could be set off that makes a hunter grow, though. Not unreasonable.

And again, you're saying that striders would be trying to make more of themselves, or make hunters during battle. They wouldn't. It's probably highly regulated and induced behavior rather than a gonarch-esque reflex to spawn more babies when in trouble. These things are fairly mindless now and have been programmed by the Combine to behave in a specific way. Why would they be programmed to suddenly start shagging in the middle of a rebel-filled street to make hunters? You see what I mean? Ridiculous.

The armor is not all i mean, there are many synthetic parts that they appear to use just to function. If they were born without these things, they would not last to the factory or wherever they were outfitted. And if the Strider is supposed to develop such things, how would it.
They wouldn't be born without those things. Seriously, synths have been modified to such a degree that anything born would already have all the pieces it needs equipped on it. Armor...weapons...these things don't need to be added on in a factory because they're part of the creature now. You notice that even the striders themselves aren't being assembled with the pulse cannon and antimatter cannon, and they're not having their carapaces welded onto them. They're just being assembled like a puzzle and then being carted off. All the pieces are already pre-made, because that's how the creature comes. Then it gets snapped together really easily and it's ready for battle.

Don't look at synths as biological creatures with technological parts added to them. Look at them like a living mechanical species, because that's what they now are. Nothing's added onto them...they come like that. They're living robots, in a sense.

Samon said:
I also disagree that the Hunters are the off-spring of the Strider.
We'll know soon enough, won't we? Wink wink nudge nudge.
 
Looking at this post i wonder where you even assume the high ground, learn how to spell and then bitch at me.

We know a lot of the Hunters and the more material they leak the more we can assume

And Victor is a prick read some more and find out

yeah, i just should not post when its 1 in the morning. still stands, its pointless to argue about. you can assume something, but your assumptions are based on leaked and interpreted material. your arguing over something doesn?t have all the facts available.

besides, this thread has been derailed to the max.
 
I think that the whole bio-organic thing can be solved quite easily. In the Citadel, we see gunship's being repaired with lasers by stalkers. If the repairs are being done on something like the engine, or the gun turret, then you literally are repairing a bit of broken machinery. If, however, one of the antennae or flippers came off, I imagine a sort of regeneration type place, still unseen, where the missing limb/thing is regrown.
So as for the origin, like I said before, I can't see such a radical change in the same species. Even with metamorphosis, the caterpillar and the butterfly have the same basic shape (limbs underneath, wormy body, antennae at the front), that saying that one is the offspring of the other is quite odd to me.
I'm thinking more along the lines of cousins. Perhaps instead of saying giraffe and tiger I should have said housecat and tiger?
 
Yes, those would be good creature's but i think in half life 3 or EP3 they should vier off of the mutant aspect of the game and come in with a new line of enemies. like cyborgs or some robots. They can keep the mutants i just think they should get some new monster. But yes those would be cool to see in the future of half life.
 
The synths are technically cyborgs of a sort, and the rest are aliens dude.
 
Yes, those would be good creature's but i think in half life 3 or EP3 they should vier off of the mutant aspect of the game and come in with a new line of enemies. like cyborgs or some robots. They can keep the mutants i just think they should get some new monster. But yes those would be cool to see in the future of half life.

cyborgs and robots ... yeah lets change half-life into star wars
 
It's coordinated enough that it can be seen as pack behavior. They're not disjointed like a group of say, headcrabs, who also travel in groups but don't really work together.

From what I've seen of the hunters in all the gameplay videos, they're not exactly tactical geniuses anyway. They just sort of chase you and cut you off, try to smash into you or pin you down. They're not THAT smart. And striders basically do the same thing just on a larger scale.


We wouldn't, because these things aren't out in the wild breeding all over the place and setting up nests or coccoons. And like I said, they probably don't grow. Probably. I'll address that in just a moment.


Again, I'm not really debating that the hunters CAN'T be built in the citadels exactly the same way everything else is. It's entirely possible they could be. However, synths are said to be self-replicating and there's concept art showing this. Valve's own words which have never been retconned.

Now, as for where striders come from, we see them built. This is what we've seen and as everyone knows, you take what's shown in the game over what's not shown in the game. The game takes precedence over concept art or old scripts. That being said, there's nothing that directly says hunters couldn't grow into striders. Just as nothing says hunters can't be born AND assembled in a factory, it's equally plausible that a strider can be made OR grown from a hunter. The only reason I would even doubt the idea is that hunters and striders are niche-filling warmachines; if a hunter automatically grew into a strider it wouldn't be good for the Combine because they'd lose out on an important part of their fighting force, given time. Perhaps a trigger could be set off that makes a hunter grow, though. Not unreasonable.

And again, you're saying that striders would be trying to make more of themselves, or make hunters during battle. They wouldn't. It's probably highly regulated and induced behavior rather than a gonarch-esque reflex to spawn more babies when in trouble. These things are fairly mindless now and have been programmed by the Combine to behave in a specific way. Why would they be programmed to suddenly start shagging in the middle of a rebel-filled street to make hunters? You see what I mean? Ridiculous.


They wouldn't be born without those things. Seriously, synths have been modified to such a degree that anything born would already have all the pieces it needs equipped on it. Armor...weapons...these things don't need to be added on in a factory because they're part of the creature now. You notice that even the striders themselves aren't being assembled with the pulse cannon and antimatter cannon, and they're not having their carapaces welded onto them. They're just being assembled like a puzzle and then being carted off. All the pieces are already pre-made, because that's how the creature comes. Then it gets snapped together really easily and it's ready for battle.

Don't look at synths as biological creatures with technological parts added to them. Look at them like a living mechanical species, because that's what they now are. Nothing's added onto them...they come like that. They're living robots, in a sense.


We'll know soon enough, won't we? Wink wink nudge nudge.

The breeding would be instigated they would need the numbers, the Striders were being destroyed quickly and the assemly lines were being used for the crabs and mortars. They would go to a deserted street for the making of them but we would see them around.

The concept art you mention did not say anything of the sort, and it was not used. Also why would only the Striders reproduce, if the Combine had such a mechanism they would use it for the others and not just those, it is clear this is only in the guide.

The fact that they each fill a niche shows that they would be separately made for that. Having to have one thing to make another is inefficient and that is something they are not. The factory processes that makes the Striders shows my point further, the method they use for making them is so different from birthing that i doubt the they even use that method, they do not grow them whole but rather assemble them, which shows different methodology. They would need a different way for birthing and the mechanical parts are probably added to the components before assembly but they are not grown. You can clearly see the contrast between organic and mechanical parts, they are clearly separate and added during further stages. By forced evolution it means they were changed to use mechanical parts more easily, like another limb.

This is simple to see and is clear
 
No.



Wikipedia says this about the Combine Elite:

"early Elite concepts had them as more ambulatory versions of the Combine Advisor, a Strider synth grafted down into the proportions of a human (which in turn may have been repurposed into the Hunter synth"

Hm. :naughty:

That just means they were originally the aliens as soldiers and then were actual human synths that were made like the Strider but smaller for different uses this was early on
 
Check out the animations in the Source SDK. From the look of it the Mortar flies around.

Look at the armored front it is obviously fired into buildings from launchers where it could sprout sharp tentacles to attack with. This would be in close quarters and hard to fight
 
What do you mean, obviously? The armoured front could just as well be... well, armour.
 
What do you mean, obviously? The armoured front could just as well be... well, armour.

The design and the name also show something with this and the launchers seemed too limited when using just headcrabs, this creepy thing would make them appear somewhat even more annoying and savage
 
Excuse me. Synth Crab, ministrider, strider, dropship and gunship are of the same species. And Ichthyosaur is a variation of headcrab.












Just for relieving the stressed atmosphere.


The synth crab didn't come out for a reason. Perhaps it is hard to script or it is too stupid to fight with. Either indicates that we may not meet the crab again. Well, they are cool. I like to fight with them, but they may probably not appear again.

Perhaps it is a bit pedantic. But it is "p.p.s." "Not p.s.s."
 
Look at the armored front it is obviously fired into buildings from launchers where it could sprout sharp tentacles to attack with. This would be in close quarters and hard to fight
Check. The. Damn. Movements.

If you haven't.
 
absolutely must fight mortar synth at least in ep3...
for the crab synth, i wouldn't mind a scripted sequence..
 
The breeding would be instigated they would need the numbers, the Striders were being destroyed quickly and the assemly lines were being used for the crabs and mortars. They would go to a deserted street for the making of them but we would see them around.
Who says they can just walk into some deserted street and pop them out? Again, they're not gonarchs.

Besides, I'll give you one good reason we didn't see them: Valve hadn't thought of them yet. :LOL:

The concept art you mention did not say anything of the sort, and it was not used. Also why would only the Striders reproduce, if the Combine had such a mechanism they would use it for the others and not just those, it is clear this is only in the guide.
You must be looking at the wrong thing. It does indeed say something of the sort; actually it says more than just something "of the sort," it says exactly what I've been saying:

Raising the Bar said:
Synths, self-replicating robots that evolve, were created or taken over by the Combine and enslaved through their conquests and wars.

"When approaching the task of the Combine's larger creatures, it was necessary to keep in mind these lumbering war machines were possibly once organic creatures the Combine had enslaved and converted during previous invasions. Therefore we tried to encorporate elements that were neither strictly organic nor purely mechanical. We didn't want to have giant alien creatures with armor attached or implants added, but instead tried to treat it as a forceful evolution of the characters as imposed on them by the Combine rather than nature. In the end, the designs intentionally blurred the line between machine and animal, in their appearance and more importantly their motion and their reactions to the world around them."
-Dhabih Eng

So you see that the mechanical and organic parts are not intended to look separate. Furthermore it expressly says that no armor or weaponry is added to them in the process. They come like that. There are no mechanical parts added in the assembly. Striders, hunters, gunships, dropships, shield scanners, mortars, crab synths, all of them come exactly like that. And then you just snap them together and away they go.
 
so you're saying the pulse rifle on the strider/gunship is actually a biological construct?
 
The combine have a bad habit of adding pulse rifles and extermination cannons to their synths.

And it works.
 
So kinda like a caterpillar and a butterfly? Some sort of metamorphosis?

That would explain the difference is size, eye position, gait, skin color, armament, and all that stuff.

No, I'm thinking more along the line of the relation between a giraffe and a tiger. Four legged, two eyed, but otherwise quite different from each other.
AS for the dropship/gunship thing: Pretty much the same markings on their backs, complete with white underside. Any possibility that the dropship always had those big engines? If it comes from a place with natural propellers, would evolution give two pairs of engines to something as well?

Who knows? I'm sure Dr. Kleiner will explain everything in Episode Two. :)

... Can we get back on topic? I wants to kill the crab synths!!!!!!!!!!
 
IMO the arctic setting I imagine Episode 3 taking place in is perfect for the crab synth. The mortar synth I don't really care if I ever get to fight.
 
wow. i wish my dick could shoot a singularity beam.
 
ah victor, the one who "pyroed" me..your dick shall do just that..

anyway, personally i would rather fight the mortar synth. i always wanted a new character in hl2 that would be an air npc and would drop bombs ect. the crab synth is very bulky and very difficult to code. i would like to see them in scripted sequences though..
 
Who says they can just walk into some deserted street and pop them out? Again, they're not gonarchs.

Besides, I'll give you one good reason we didn't see them: Valve hadn't thought of them yet. :LOL:


You must be looking at the wrong thing. It does indeed say something of the sort; actually it says more than just something "of the sort," it says exactly what I've been saying:



So you see that the mechanical and organic parts are not intended to look separate. Furthermore it expressly says that no armor or weaponry is added to them in the process. They come like that. There are no mechanical parts added in the assembly. Striders, hunters, gunships, dropships, shield scanners, mortars, crab synths, all of them come exactly like that. And then you just snap them together and away they go.

If they wanted it to be effective, they would be able to make them that fast. The urban fighting lasted about a week that should be as long as it takes for this.

That is no reason, Valve keeps continuity so they would not be able to explain this.

I WAS TALKING ABOUT THE PICTURE that you mentioned not the couple paragraphs you base your annoying me on. It shows a big thing and some smaller things that look alike, which does not say much.

The snapping together thing shows what i am arguing, if they were made by just growing the mechanical aspects, all that they would have to do is add nutrients to the vat they are made in and they would just develop the components which they do not. This snapping together thing shows they are made differently.

The thing that was in the book about implants says they were designed around each other, it is not added to a whole creature but instead a thing that is built to integrate with those components, they do not make those components themselves, they are clearly machine parts and not for such means
 
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