E-mail to Marc Laidlow

Free your mind - accept that not everything in a story need be related. So what if the Combine and Xen are completely seperate? It's a big universe, and I'm always right.

It's the right path. I'll dance when Laidlaw sends a letter saying 'You've been right all along, here's a tenner for some beer, and tell Riomhaire my name's not Laidlow, but Laidlaw. As in Laidlawyer. We're alike, Lawyer.'

Or something.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
Free your mind - accept that not everything in a story need be related. So what if the Combine and Xen are completely seperate? It's a big universe, and I'm always right.

It's the right path. I'll dance when Laidlaw sends a letter saying 'You've been right all along, here's a tenner for some beer, and tell Riomhaire my name's not Laidlow, but Laidlaw. As in Laidlawyer. We're alike, Lawyer.'

Or something.

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

Or something. Exactly my old friend, you've already been proven wrong once with the Alyx death scenario, now its time for the chain reaction.

Care to get out while the getting is good?
 
I only said about Alyx getting incinerated to spite people.

But you know the similarity in mine and Laidlaw's name's got more proof than the Combine on Xen thing.

-Angry Lawyer
 
I remember finding Marc's email on the old Valve / Half-life website, but it could be old.
 
Angry Lawyer said:
I only said about Alyx getting incinerated to spite people.

But you know the similarity in mine and Laidlaw's name's got more proof than the Combine on Xen thing.

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

To spite people. :bonce:

Guess you have plenty of time to come up with an excuse for combine/xen :burp:
 
Samon said:
To spite people. :bonce:

Guess you have plenty of time to come up with an excuse for combine/xen :burp:
Click to expand...
Well afterall, he is a lawyer.
 
Angry Lawyer said:
Since when did this become an anti-me thread?

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

When you started to proclaim you are the greatest of greatests, and were on the level of ACENESS of Marc Laidlaw himself.

Then the protests, anti lawyer and rioting started. :p

Your reputation for your dis belief in the combine/xen connection did not help you. :p
 
Angry Lawyer said:
The only thing that Laidlaw will confirm is Biozeminades.

Send him the e-mail, I can almost assure he'll just skirt around the question.

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

thats true.
i sent him an email as simple as "who owns the rights to the IP Adrian Shepherd" and he just wouldn't answer it.

so for all the skeptics out there who think Gearbox owns the character, thats fine.. think what u like but Marc Laidlaw not confirming one way or another tells me something is fishy :p
 
They were supposed to get back to me on the legality of using resources from the original HL, and HL:Source, in my mods. I guess I've got to spam them with messages again...

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
They were supposed to get back to me on the legality of using resources from the original HL, and HL:Source, in my mods. I guess I've got to spam them with messages again...

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

Your allowed, I have an expansion idea in planning and it uses all sorts, and as long as its on source you have the green light. whats your mod about lawyer?
 
Really? You sure?

The next big question is the legality of Opposing Force content.

My mod's a real-time strategy called Conquest: City 17. It involves traditional RTS thingies, involving conflict between the Xenians, the Combine, and the Human Resistance. It's when thinking of these teams that I thought - 'Hold on, the Combine can't have controlled Xen, at least. not until the events of HL2'.
And, just for MechaGodzilla, I'm going to do my best to stick Race X somewhere in it.

Speaking of Race X, that reminds me of early speculation on HL2 that parallels what happens these days. People kept creating threads saying 'OMG the Combine are Race X!' and stuff. They were proven wrong. And then there were a load of other theories on who the Combine were, including "Oh, Combine means a combination of Humans and Aliens - they're half-alien!"
Little theories based on just the name. And the way these theories are presented is strikingly similar to how the current Xen-Combine relationship came about. In fact, the theory actually started before HL2' release, but all of the other theories that it linked with died out when they were proven as crap by the actual game.

Now THATS why I'm sitting happy about my rebuttal of the Combine Xen connection theory. It arose through pre HL2 speculation, and was justified by the sligtest things. But as soon as it's proven wrong, people will stop talking about it.

Even though it's almost impossible to prove wrong, simply because of its nature. It's a conspiracy theory. Like, how can the US Government prove that they DON'T actually have any UFOs. They could prove it by just saying - 'Oh look, we have a UFO' - but how can you prove that you don't have a UFO?? There'll always be believers.

And back to my mod. It doesn't have a web-site yet, but you'll know about it soon enough. It's becoming pretty playable - the camera system works, and you actually have a mouse pointer to select units by. And controlling groups of Antlions into clusters of Stalkers is kinda fun.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
Really? You sure?

The next big question is the legality of Opposing Force content.

My mod's a real-time strategy called Conquest: City 17. It involves traditional RTS thingies, involving conflict between the Xenians, the Combine, and the Human Resistance. It's when thinking of these teams that I thought - 'Hold on, the Combine can't have controlled Xen, at least. not until the events of HL2'.
And, just for MechaGodzilla, I'm going to do my best to stick Race X somewhere in it.

Speaking of Race X, that reminds me of early speculation on HL2 that parallels what happens these days. People kept creating threads saying 'OMG the Combine are Race X!' and stuff. They were proven wrong. And then there were a load of other theories on who the Combine were, including "Oh, Combine means a combination of Humans and Aliens - they're half-alien!"
Little theories based on just the name. And the way these theories are presented is strikingly similar to how the current Xen-Combine relationship came about. In fact, the theory actually started before HL2' release, but all of the other theories that it linked with died out when they were proven as crap by the actual game.

Now THATS why I'm sitting happy about my rebuttal of the Combine Xen connection theory. It arose through pre HL2 speculation, and was justified by the sligtest things. But as soon as it's proven wrong, people will stop talking about it.

Even though it's almost impossible to prove wrong, simply because of its nature. It's a conspiracy theory. Like, how can the US Government prove that they DON'T actually have any UFOs. They could prove it by just saying - 'Oh look, we have a UFO' - but how can you prove that you don't have a UFO?? There'll always be believers.

And back to my mod. It doesn't have a web-site yet, but you'll know about it soon enough. It's becoming pretty playable - the camera system works, and you actually have a mouse pointer to select units by. And controlling groups of Antlions into clusters of Stalkers is kinda fun.

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

Cool, sounds ace :)

As for OP4 content...dont know....
 
I would post a few shots of it, but that'd ruin the massive surprise when I release some massive media release.

Besides, the interface looks ugly as sin at the moment. I'm a coder, not an artist...

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
I would post a few shots of it, but that'd ruin the massive surprise when I release some massive media release.

Besides, the interface looks ugly as sin at the moment. I'm a coder, not an artist...

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

How much of a team do you have?
 
Just me. It's all I need. I'm out to prove that one-man mod teams can be competitive in this day and age.

The interface is second on the list. I can be artistic, given enough time and alcohol. First on the list, though, is to get some projectile-based units (like Metrocops and Rebels) working without eating all of the bandwidth.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
Just me. It's all I need. I'm out to prove that one-man mod teams can be competitive in this day and age.

The interface is second on the list. I can be artistic, given enough time and alcohol. First on the list, though, is to get some projectile-based units (like Metrocops and Rebels) working without eating all of the bandwidth.

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

Wow, good luck to you man.
 
Thanks.

Well, being that the subject matter is the HL2 storyline, I don't need to do much modelling - most of it's already done. The only real hiccup on a modelling front is increasing the detail on original HL models, like Alien Grunts.
Coding-wise, everything's good, with me being a coder. Mapping's one of the harder parts though. I've been mapping for years and years, but I'm only able to produce average maps. Still, if the community like my mod enough, they'll likely create a load of custom maps.
2D art is a small, but difficult area. I've not got anywhere here, but all I need to do is design what the interface will look like, and create it, in addition to making things like my mod's logo, and things like that. Still, beer and time make good art.
Music and sounds are pre-packaged with HL2, nothing to worry about here.
PR - I'm always on the messageboards, but rather than promote my mod ages in advance and then have it fade away, I'm generally not releasing much until it's almost ready for the public to play/beta test. That way, everybody will be like 'WOW!' and be able to play it shortly afterwards.
The web-site is my biggest stumbling block. I only know HTML, and everyone else has super-duper PHP sites that lay the beatdown on it. Anyways, people aren't coming to my website to look at how my site looks, but to see how my mod looks.
I've got most things covered. Except alpha testing - being a one man team has its difficulties. But I already have a number of people who I'm probably going to ask to help me test it. Generally, those who I think have a high enough intelligence to be able to give me constructive feedback, rather than blind praise. You never know, I might put you on the list.

-Angry Lawyer
 
It sounds great. Xen, Resistance, Combine, Race-X.

Is it set around the events of HL2?
If so I wouldn't make it glaringly obvious that the Xenians were not controlled by the Combine, as a lot of people would dismiss it because it seems to fly in the face of the 'accepted' storyline.

Plus, I think the Combine probably do control Xen now.

I can't wait for my Mortar Synth and Stalkers to carve up those Rebels :)

Damnit, I wish my broadband would hurry up and install and pay for itself, I need it in time for the release ;).
 
Angry Lawyer that sounds good :thumbs:
i hope that if u do end up needing help, that u ask for it and the mod/idea just doesn't fall through the cracks because it sounds so good.

anyway good luck :)
 
Angry Lawyer I didn't acualy know that was a theory before HL2 came out (I didn't look much up exept for the new guns and stuff because I didn't want to spoil a game that hadn't even come out yet). I came to that conclustion myself listening to the vorts talk so I amn't one of the people following an acepted theory.
 
Well, to skirt around the most sensitive issue of the Combine Xen interaction, the campaigns will be set at different times. Assuming I get the time to create a campaign.

1. The Black Mesa incident. The player controls Xen in this one, fighting off the marines, and generally causing havoc. It concludes with the portal storms, and the arrival of the citadels and the Combine.

2. The Combine conquest. The player controls the Combine during the 7 hours war (although, some liberties will be made to make the humans a little harder than they were in the storyline). It concludes somewhere in the middle of HL2's storyline.

3. The Rebel uprising. Control the rebels, help a computer controlled Freeman reach the citadel, and try to reclaim City 17, to an extent. Probably concludes somewhere near the end of the HL2 expansion.

I doubt I'll make Race X a campaign, but more like some bonus missions. But as the multiplayer aspect is the focus, a campaign isn't going to get done any time soon.

No, the mod isn't going to be falling through the cracks, considering I prototyped it over a year and a half ago on the HL1 engine, so I know it's feasible. I've been working on it that long...

And I'll probably include a mission about the Xen and Combine first contact if people keep agitating me about their link. It'll be like 'WTF? What are theze aliens, Mr Commandor???' - 'I don't know, cadet, but the humans call them Xen. Kill them on sight.'. Or something.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Get a talented mapper like me (I have at least 3 months under my belt now) to make you a shoddy quickly slapped together giant let down of a campaign ;) .

Or

Get a talented mapper (Who has at least 3 years under there belt) to make you a proffessional campaign on par with Total Annihilation ;) .

Quick question.

In multiplayer, will the Rebels and Combine get Vorts? Obviously they help the rebels out, and the Combine have some enslaved in HL2.

I reccomend a capture option by the Combine for the Vortigaunts.
and maybe a [Disable Rebel Vortigaunts] option in the menu, for Rebels vs. Xen scenarios.

Also, in the far future, will the Marines get a side? They will obviously need units, for your Black Mesa campaign, but will you get to control them in MP?



and also, this is wildly off topic ;) .
Apache verse Gunship!! :)
 
There weren't enough Combine enslaved Vorts in HL2 to justify the inclusion of a Combine vort. And it might give people the wrong idea about whether a connection exists. But, yeah, I'm thinking about giving the Reistance access to Vortigaunts - ones without any forms of slavery - and the Xen ones have the obvious manacles, but are weaker and more mass-producable. Besides, the Combine have enough on their side.

Marines might get a side, but that'll be distant future. For the campaign, they'd probably be very similar to the Resistance side, only, less dilapidated.

And I have been mapping since the days of Doom - that's a lot of years of experience. Still not very good at it though.

-Angry Lawyer
 
hey lawyer, i hope u inlcude Adrian in ur mod :thumbs:
it sounds quite promising :)
 
Well, the multiplayer isn't including any story characters from the games. Campaign is a different matter, though.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Make the rebels piss-weak but with Gordon, Alyx and Barney who as well as kicking ass would increase moral!
 
I'd imagine it's quite hard to make a good rebel side, or Race-X, but there just a bonus race :)

Will there be Cremators? Sorry, but I had to ask.
 
Depends if they're used in Aftermath...

The Rebels can be quite good, assuming they get bonuses from fighting in cover, etc. They just get owned by tanks.

-Angry Lawyer
 
What kind of resource system will be inplace?

Also having the Combine have a unit that will capture others could work quite well. You could them bring them to a special building
Humans=free stalker/soldier
Vorts=Slave (sorry for bringing that up again)
Anything else=credits
 
The Combine were supposed to enslave Vortigaunts, so sayeth Raising the Bar, but what they do with them is the interesting bit.

They use them as living batteries.

The resource system is capture-point based, and I'm avoiding having building construction at all, due to the close-up scale of the game. Still, you can have things like gun turrets placed, but other than that, it's all about strategically setting up your troops, and stuff.

Not sure about the enslaving thing, but I did have some ideas about having neutral civilians in a map that each side could use. Combine could Stalker them, the Resistance could arm them, and the Xenians could eat them.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Overwatch get those cool turrets and those mines.
Xenians might get those purple things that shoot you?
Rebels get?
Race-X get?

The Overwatch get so much stuff.
 
The reply is here.

Dear X,

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. As for Race-X being from Xen, I'm not sure any of the aliens
we've seen were actually from Xen originally. Xen is a borderworld--a
place you have to go through to get to other places. It was colonized
by certain creatures that could adapt to it. The Race-X creatures
didn't seem particularly well adapted to Xen. I imagine their home lay
somewhere beyond.

Marc Laidlaw
Click to expand...

No surprise on the Combine Xen conection.
But suprising on the other. So nobody is from Xen! Race-X could still have colonized, a bit more recently than the Xenians
 
The relation between the Nihilanth race and the Combine is one of those
things
Click to expand...

So, for the time being, we're either both right, or both wrong. Or I'm right, because in the absence of proof either way, the idea of no connection wins. :p I'd imagine Laidlaw just hasn't got around to even thinking about a connection - it remains unwritten, like whom the G-Man really is.

Xen is a borderworld--a
place you have to go through to get to other places. It was colonized
by certain creatures that could adapt to it.
Click to expand...

So, Xenians aren't native to Xen? The mind wobbles. This actually has loads of implications. Obviously the Vortigaunts, grunts, controllers, and Nihilanth (which, according to Laidlaw, is a race?? Even bigger consequences) are all from the same world originally. But that means Headcrabs, and all the other wildlife, are likely so diverse simply because they all come from different worlds originally.

How weird is that?

-Angry Lawyer
 
For a writer he seems to lack in the ability to paragraph effectively, or is it something on my end, or is it riomhaires fault.
 
I'm not sure any of the aliens
we've seen were actually from Xen originally
Click to expand...

Whoa! That's a crazy unexpected bit of plot...don't tell me we were actually expected to infer that from the information in the games??
 
I think it's Riomhaire's e-mail program that's distorted the formatting of it. But, yeah, if you think about it, Xen is a borderworld, touching all places at once. It'd make sense if the species are all from different worlds. In a weird way.
Which might be why you never see anything on Xen headcrabbed.

-Angry Lawyer
 
As for Race-X being from Xen, I'm not sure any of the aliens
we've seen were actually from Xen originally. Xen is a borderworld--a
place you have to go through to get to other places. It was colonized
by certain creatures that could adapt to it. The Race-X creatures
didn't seem particularly well adapted to Xen. I imagine their home lay
somewhere beyond.
Click to expand...

A place you have to go through to get to other places, this would seem to imply that the Combine have had to come through Xen to get to Earth.
also, how does Race-X not seem particularly well adapted to Xen? They seem very similar to Vorts and Humans in there shape.
and what's this "I'm not sure" stuff, it sounds like he's just making stuff up :rolleyes:
 
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