Episode 1- Hacksaw + Exit 17 "Glitch"

Sheepo

The Freeman
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Before I start I'd like to say that I'm new here so I don't know if this has been covered, if it has I'm truly sorry.

A couple weeks ago I was playing Ep. 1 for like the tenth time and had just made my first Exit 17 run and Alyx said she'd stay behind to guard the door. That, of course, is when a couple hacksaws come into view, Alyx shoots em down but I grab one with the Grav. Gun. I walk around with it (I like hacksaws, what can I say) and try to walk up to Alyx, but somwhere between me and her theres an invisible wall. I can walk through it but I lose the grip on the saw. I go through the tiny hallway and theres more hacksaws. I grab one and go back to Alyx once again theres an invisible wall. Everytime I've played Exit 17 theres been that glitch.

At first I assumed it was a glitch, then I thought about how often you see Alyx and hacksaws in the same place. In HL2 you see her in Point Insertion and Red Letter Day (no hacksaws), Black Mesa East (no Hacksaws), Entanglement (no hacksaws while shes with you), I can't remember if its Anticitizen One or Follow Freeman where she opens that gate and you and a few rebels fight off combine as they flood in from the fork in the road (a few hacksaws but shes not really nearby), and dark energy (no hacksaws). Then in Ep. 1 theres Undue Alarm (no hacksaws), Direct Intervention (hacksaws but shes not with you while they're there), Lowlife (no hacksaws), Urban Flight (pretty sure there's no hacksaws), and Exit 17 (either shes not there or the glitch is in your way). Also in Ep. 1 there's no cheat for making a hacksaw.

This seemed odd to me at first but then it occured to me you never had a rollermine and Alyx in the same place in HL2 and the first time you saw one in Episode 1 she showed you that she could make them attack the the combine. My bet is that either in Ep. 2 or Ep. 3 they'll show you Alyx can transform hacksaws too. I think Valve should make this the next new weapon also. Imagine this, you're playing Ep. 3, you're in the Arctic Base
and you just took down a row of combine with your shotgun but one of em deployed a hacksaw. You catch it with the Grav. Gun you're about to smash it into a wall when Alyx says, "Wait, may as well put it to good use." and zaps it with her zapper. now it's glowing a greenish yellow color. The little helpy yellow box that teaches you to play in HL2 pops up and tells you to press the Use key. You do and Gordons hand reaches out presses down on the top of it (a button) and it shrinks into a tiny box, like it is before it's deployed. You walk over combine body pick up tiny remote with one button on it.

You walk through a door and you're on a catwalk and below you there's a huge battle between rebels and combine. You climb down the ladder and sneak up behind the combine, switch to weapon slot 6 (advanced combine technology, sorry pheropod fans but I don't think it'll make a comeback), take out a hacksaw, hold it in the palm of your hand press the button blades pop out and it flys after combine, you take out Grav. Gun catch it, shoot it at combine. Combine elite starts shooting at it, you press alternate fire, you press button on tiny remote, hacksaw converts to undeployed, falls to ground.

Thats how it works, you can hold either five or three hacksaws with a tiny remote which collapes them, walk over pick up. Any damage it takes will be on it forever. Also when in hacksaw slot you'll always be holding a hacksaw unless out of ammo (holding remote) or you press alt. fire (take out remote). The reason I put it in Ep. 3 example is that valve doesn't seem keen on giving a new weapon, which is a shame because it would have made sense if at the rebel outpost hey had a whole bunch of converted combine technology. I'm eager to see if my prediction for HL2 snarks (essentially thats what thet'll be) is right.

Well whatever you think of the idea or if you find out about the glitch, feel free to post that I'm an idiot or a genuis. By the way I'm very glad I can post on halflife2.net because for some reson I can't post on PHL or steam forums even though I have an account for each.
 
I assume by "hacksaw" you mean the "Manhack's". Lol. (Watch out for sensitive cry-babies that get sad when people laugh around here...). Anyway, I didn't know that you could actually pick them up as a weapon and then deploy them - not that I ever tried. Slot 6 eh? I'll check it out some time. I did however know that you could catch, hold, and fire them with the gravity gun, but that's about all I ever tried to do with them.

Edit: Is this in EP1? Or are you just making this up for EP2 / 3, or you read it somewhere? It's late, and I just skimmed your post. I might actually read it later.
 
I understand about the "hacksaw" bit. That "hacksaw" is usually known as a manhack.
Perhaps they will be a weapon.
 
sorry

Sorry, for some reason I always call manhacks hacksaws. And also using them as a weapon (besides with Grav. Gun) is not yet a feature. I'm only speculating about what I think Valve should do in Ep. 2 or Ep. 3.
 
No worrys. I always call Combine Elite: Combine Elight.

Its a habit.

(PS: Shasta, dont start.)
 
I'm thinking that the forest setting in Ep2 would be a perfect place to bring back an organic weapon like the barnacle gun. :p
 
Snarks were not Gearbox's idea. Half-Life came out before Opposing Force and Blue Shift and it already had snarks. Barnacle hand was a cool tool though, although I think it's HL2 equivalent would be the Portal Gun if HL2 ever uses it.
 
Ep. 2 should have an organic weapon though.... but I can't think of one. By the end of Ep. 3 Gordon should have: flamethrower, manhacks (as weapon), Portal Gun, and an organic weapon.
 
Why? Seeing as manhacks are programmed by Combine, I doubt you can turn them easily...

Portal gun is a possibility, but a flamethrower seems retarded when you can use explosive barrels the same way...
 
Dear Ridge,
See original post of this thread. All shall be explained.
P.S. The Cake Is A Lie
 
I read your original post and find it to be a pile of recycled garbage.

And everyone knows the damn cake is lying to us...
 
I read your original post and find it to be a pile of recycled garbage.

And everyone knows the damn cake is lying to us...

Why bother with the air tanks? Get a fuxxing hose with a sodder on the end, and hook the gas tanks up to it. That's all it is. :)

Well... It's recycled garbage... so that means you've heard this before? Where?
 
First off Ridge, usually when you recycle garbage it's turned into something else. So either you're not calling my post garbage or you're calling it garbage I stole from somebody else. I don't see what you think is garbage I just found something interisting in Ep. 1 (that I doubt you've even checked to see if it happens to you) that, might be hinting to a gameplay change that Valve used with another NPC in that very same episode, happening to Manhacks in future episodes and gave input that it might make an interisting weapon in future episodes. So which is garbage the idea that Valve has used before or my application of it (also used before, snarks).

Also I don't see why everyone seems to think that having explosive barrels and a flamethrower are the same thing. When I want to make a barrel explode first I switch to my pistol (why waste ammo, its a nonmoving target that takes 3 bullets), shoot it twice for delayed explosion or three times for instant and whatever it hurts doesn't even catch on fire it either dies or is hurt and if you launch it with Grav. Gun the same thing happens. Don't try using mini flame tanks or flares as an excuse either because instant death (even if the body is flaming is not ideal) and a time limited weapon that activates the minute you pick up and ends a minute later that you either have to be on top of the person you're lighitng or launch it and waste time finding it to use. And from what I've seen in gameplay vids there aren't that many explosive/flame items out there in the woods, which makes sense. So I simply prupose a very rebel-ish flamethrower. Short range, perfect for ambushes or zombies/headcrabs or antlions.

You'd have to hold the flame on the NPC for a second before they catch fire but they would go into panic when they did, shooting and running around everywhere, their friends and foes they collide with all sharing inthe flames. The weapon would look really cool too, sort of like new pyro without fuel tank on back, they'd have the mini flametanks in a rectangular metal wire box with sweet blue flame in front... awesome.
 
Ammunition could be an issue.
You dont have much fuel on the post-apocalyptic future.
 
Yeah thats what I still haven't figured but Valve will think of something.
 
Well Valve does like to turn enemies into friends (antlions, hoppers, rollermines for example), so I would be suprised if it hasn't at least crossed their minds to change Manhacks into a player friendly weapon. However I don't think they would work that well as a player friendly weapon for example:

Antlions - Changing them from friend to enemy meant they no longer attacked you so you could attack the combine and use them to invade Nova Prospect. There were many places in Nova Prospect where you had to help and protect them and other places where they helped and protected you.

Hoppers - Changing them ment clearing a mined area, gave you Gravity Gun ammo and in some situations allowed you to mine an area.

Rollermines - you are low on ammo and they give you a way to attack enemies, they can go though combine force fields and remove snipers.

As you can see from Valves perspective it's not enough just to have a new weapon, it has to add something (hopefully multiple somethings) to the gameplay as well. I'm not sure if friendly manhacks could do that.
 
Friendly scanners would be damned useless, wouldn't they?
Maybe good distractions.
 
Friendly scanners would be damned useless, wouldn't they?
Maybe good distractions.

Friendly manhacks NOT scanners. Scanners would be useless.
Also I agree with Operational about how Valve usually applies enemy-ally switcheroos, see a gameplay gap.. something missing, little too difficult... got a cool idea, perfect. But what if rather than filling in all weapon slots we've all ready had we get a gravity gun, a pistol, manhacks, and Alyx with situations that favor that weapon combo. Also from the glitch I just think it might be hinting to something and everybody loved snarks. So think of them as that, flying snarks that fit the HL2 storyline.
 
Mmmm, I've found Snarks to be fun in Multi Player but not that useful in Single Player.
 
I think there was only one point in the entire game that I found them useful.
 
Coporal Shepherd, i <3 your sig.

And i doubt manhack can do alot on their own agaisnt the overwatch, I mean mabye 5 M.h. on a Combine would rock but come on, 1 v 1? So where j00 going to find that many M.h.?
 
Thanks I love the Boondock Saints. It's an awesome movie.

And btw this is uber speculation. At the beginning Alyx would convert captured manhacks but later you would get to a rebel outpost (I think you'll spend a chapter fighting here) where they have a cache of them (think about the uncharged rollermine in HL2, maybe there's more than one grav. gun and more than one of Alyx's zapppy doooda). They would probably only have them in Episode 2 but HL2DM could keep them.
 
And btw this is uber speculation. At the beginning Alyx would convert captured manhacks but later you would get to a rebel outpost (I think you'll spend a chapter fighting here) where they have a cache of them (think about the uncharged rollermine in HL2, maybe there's more than one grav. gun and more than one of Alyx's zapppy doooda). They would probably only have them in Episode 2 but HL2DM could keep them.

So basically they are flying snarks? Will they attack everybody equally, or are you immune? They would really lend an advantage towards whomever uses them, after all.... try dodging a manhack and then getting shotgunned in the face. It'd be interesting if you could gravgun them and then turn them against their owner...

I heartily endorse this product and/or service!
 
They would probably work just like reverse rollermines, attacks everyone but rebels. And yes they are Gravity Gun compatible.:p
 
You can kill combine with unfriendly rollermines with the gravity gun but Valve made them changable anyway.
 
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