Factions, organisations and loners

Hey Adios amigos, I clicked both links in your sig. Yes, the second one was hilariously funny... *sigh*, but as soon as I clicked it Norton popped up a virus alert. Trojan horse. Were you aware of this? Luckily Norton caught it before it did anything.
 
Darkside55 said:
In newer screenshots, however, the antlions lack any markings whatsoever. In addition to that, their color has changed from red to a dull brown. They don't look very Xen-like anymore, IMO. Hopefully they get changed back to how they originally looked.
Click to expand...
I think that they changed the antlions to the current colours to dispel the constant (rubbish) complaints of a Starship Troopers ripoff. I liked the original colours too, but I also like it when fools clam up, so I'm happy either way. :)

To me, race x looked aquatic. Or, at least, the troopers did.
They actually resembled the squidgun a bit in their texture and colour.
But, then again, they carried shock roaches that aren't water-friendly.
And, they teamed up with the decidedly non-aquatic Voltigores and Pit Drones.
I guess that the troopers are amphibians evolved in similar surroundings as the squids. Someplace with greenish water, and a yellow sky, based on thier markings.

Hmm, I just realized something:
Valve stated that we wouldn't be returning to Xen. But, they didn't say anything about Race X's home planet... ;)

Oh, and Darkside's website is a great idea. I'd like to contribute if I can. :)
 
Just a heads-up, the model for the squid gun is called baby strooper in the model viewer (shock trooper is called strooper). It would make sense if they were the young because of the sinilarities (spits those spore grenades, green skin, spikes on back). Maybe it also gave them a motive for attack? I cant think of any living thing that wouldnt care if you just came along and snatched its young.
 
Interesting defense mechanism those baby storm troopers have, then...spitting radioactive balls of goop. The larger storm troopers don't even spit out their goop grenades...I think they just have them stored somewhere.

You know what's weird? That has me thinking, now; Race-X didn't appear until much later. It was after Gordon left to Xen, wasn't it? It actually could've been around the time after Gordon defeated Nihilanth. So if that one scientist had never seen Race-X before, either he wasn't part of the collection team that nabbed the squid gun, or maybe he had just never seen its adult form (if that is indeed the grown-up form of the squid gun). Either way, the appearance of the squid gun already in the lab must mean a couple things:

1. Race-X either appeared before Nihilanth's destruction, maybe even before Gordon ever reached Xen, or there were still BMRF specimen collection teams active. That, or the squid gun just dropped into their laps...but even so, SOMEONE must've been working in order to get the squid into a tank, do some tests on it, etc. I find it hard to believe that there'd still be people working during the invasion, so contact must've been established with Race-X earlier...which leads to:

2. If contact was established earlier, either the humans could travel past the borderworld, or Race-X really does exist in some remote part of Xen. We never see the icthyosaur's habitat in Xen, but it's assumed there must be some kind of aquatic area for them to thrive. Maybe a giant, ocean-sized healing pool somewhere? Could the shock troopers have existed in the same area with icthyosaurs? Did they hunt each other?

The shock roaches really don't lend themselves to that idea though, as Mechagodzilla said. But maybe they didn't use them all the time, or something? It could be that their offspring were born in the water, then they just crawled out to land as they matured. The squid gun could kinda resemble a tadpole...then the adults might have gone icthyosaur fishing at times. :E So they're amphibious.

Voltigores may not like a lot of water, but they were living in a sewer...right outside a waterway in BMRF (where those pit drones kept spawning! >_< ). They at least, then, like damp, dark places, of which I'm sure there are plenty of in Xen. Does anyone think they could have occupied tunnels near those of antlions? That would be an interesting conflict. My vote is on the ants, though.

Edit: BTW, Mecha, you can contribute if you like. :) It won't be for awhile though, as I said. Need t3h webspace.
 
Darkside55 said:
Interesting defense mechanism those baby storm troopers have, then...spitting radioactive balls of goop. The larger storm troopers don't even spit out their goop grenades...I think they just have them stored somewhere.
Click to expand...
I haven't noticed this first-hand, but I've heard others say that the shocktroopers spit the spores into their hands, and then toss them.
That would go with the fact that they don't appear to have any other places to store them, and with the kids' power to fire 'em.
You know what's weird? That has me thinking, now; Race-X didn't appear until much later. It was after Gordon left to Xen, wasn't it? It actually could've been around the time after Gordon defeated Nihilanth. So if that one scientist had never seen Race-X before, either he wasn't part of the collection team that nabbed the squid gun, or maybe he had just never seen its adult form (if that is indeed the grown-up form of the squid gun).
Click to expand...
Actually, race X shows up quite a while before freeman leaves. At first, the shocktroopers just made brief appearances, kidnapping scientists and then disappearing before anyone got a good look.
Then, Aidrian stumbles across some pit drones, which were already there long enough to kill a squad of marines. It isn't until quite a while later that freeman escapes.
Either way, the appearance of the squid gun already in the lab must mean a couple things:

1. Race-X either appeared before Nihilanth's destruction, maybe even before Gordon ever reached Xen, or there were still BMRF specimen collection teams active. That, or the squid gun just dropped into their laps...but even so, SOMEONE must've been working in order to get the squid into a tank, do some tests on it, etc. I find it hard to believe that there'd still be people working during the invasion, so contact must've been established with Race-X earlier...
Click to expand...
The tanks and aquariums holding the baby troopers seem to be part of the bio-dome complex that was still under construction when the incident happened. Those tanks seemed specifically designed to hold the babies, so I'd guess that the race X guys were a pretty recent discovery, but it was definitely before the incident happened.

Also, there is an area in Decay called the Gamma Labs, where the BM scientists used a mini version of the effects generated by the incident to suck aliens over to earth without having to physically go there. They could have relied on this tech long after the surveys were called off. The race X babies could have been obtained that way. It seems that the three baby squid were the only race Xes BM managed to capture though.
which leads to:

2. If contact was established earlier, either the humans could travel past the borderworld, or Race-X really does exist in some remote part of Xen. We never see the icthyosaur's habitat in Xen, but it's assumed there must be some kind of aquatic area for them to thrive. Maybe a giant, ocean-sized healing pool somewhere? Could the shock troopers have existed in the same area with icthyosaurs? Did they hunt each other?
Click to expand...
When you fight Nihilanth in HL1, let him teleport you three times. On the third time, you end up in a room full of vortigaunts and some pools of red-ish liquid. The pools lead down to a large underground lake or pond, in which you can find an icthy. So, I'd bet that the "race X comes from part of xen" theory fits pretty well.
The shock roaches really don't lend themselves to that idea though, as Mechagodzilla said. But maybe they didn't use them all the time, or something? It could be that their offspring were born in the water, then they just crawled out to land as they matured. The squid gun could kinda resemble a tadpole...then the adults might have gone icthyosaur fishing at times. :E So they're amphibious.
Click to expand...
That tadpole idea is probably the best one to explain it. It must be a long transformation though, since they manage to change thier number of eyes, and add limbs.
Voltigores may not like a lot of water, but they were living in a sewer...right outside a waterway in BMRF (where those pit drones kept spawning! >_< ). They at least, then, like damp, dark places, of which I'm sure there are plenty of in Xen. Does anyone think they could have occupied tunnels near those of antlions? That would be an interesting conflict. My vote is on the ants, though.

Edit: BTW, Mecha, you can contribute if you like. :) It won't be for awhile though, as I said. Need t3h webspace.
Click to expand...
Thanks, here's hoping you get that set up. :)

I bet a voltigore-antlion fight would be cool. I dunno who'd win though. Voltigore + snarks = snark win: they're too small for those big slow dudes to hit. But, then again, antlions are much larger.
 
Well, Voltigores have a ranged attack, but the Antlions (Both sorts we've seen) seem to have really powerful melee attacks...

It's been a while since I've gotten up to the end parts of OP4... just replaying it now, as a matter of fact... So the lizard/squidgun is actually a baby Shocktrooper, then? We are talking about Shepherd's friendly, useful little pet, aren't we?

Anyone noticed that the Shock Roaches die if they don't get a new owner in time?
 
The very "cute" living weapon he has, yes. That would be the squid gun (although I never knew that was its name...no idea where that came from either; it doesn't look like a squid). And yeah I noticed the thing about the roaches. That's usually how I let them take care of themselves, so that I wouldn't have to hastle with blasting them.

I really need to play Opposing Force again and check out that, "scientist kidnapping" you mentioned, Mecha. I think it's safe to say that the shock troopers are likely to be the second-smartest creatures on Xen, the first being the controllers. Because if shock troopers are teleporting in and grabbing scientists, they're probably bringing them back home to experiment on them, to find weaknesses. Plus I'm pretty sure I remember them using actual tactics...not sure though.

I'll also need to check out that spore grenade thing, to see if they spit them out.

And Decay is on the PS2, correct? Isn't it 2-player only, though? Why would anyone want to create a mini ressonance cascade, anyway? Seems...shifty.
 
The scientist-napping is the first time you see a Shocktrooper. He teleports in, kills a Barney in about three shots, grabs the scientist (Who screams "I don't want to diiiiiieeeee!") and teleports out.

I always called Shepherd's pet the Lizardgun... meh.
 
Darkside55 said:
And Decay is on the PS2, correct? Isn't it 2-player only, though? Why would anyone want to create a mini ressonance cascade, anyway? Seems...shifty.
Click to expand...

It is designed as a two-player game, but you can play it by yourself.
It's just much more fun when played two-player.

Anywho, that mini-resonance cascade thing was more of an oversimplification of what they do.

The scientists built a large 'ressonance beacon' in the middle of a valley that can be used to create a targeted warp in space-time.
The small portal sucks individual aliens over to earth, and they end up trapped in the steep-walled valley, where the science team presumably tranquilizes them and carts them off to the various labs for disection.

So, the scientists use a tiny space warp to capture aliens without risking lives sending people over to capture them manually. It is shifty, but it's not a bad idea.

Edit: I just had a thought...
Since we know that Race X kidnaps humans, maybe they're partly responsible for the disappearances of the original survey teams?
 
...

MY THEORY OF XEN LIFEFORM METAMORPHOSIS
note: This theory is based off of the various species seen in HL1,
which means any new species in HL2 will not be included.

Gonarch (gives birth to...)
|
Baby Headcrab (develops into full-grown... )
|
Headcrab (seeks a host... grabs a human... infestation begins and...)
|
Zombie (Zombie matures (if it doesn't meet Gordon) into...)
|
Alien Slave (the slaves with the most potential (or just random slaves)
| develop into...)
Alien Controller (and finally, the cream of the crop turn into...)
|
Nihilith.

This would be the basic metamorphosis pattern IF the headcrab finds a host.
If the headcrab does NOT find a host I would imagine it would go something like this:

Gonarch
|
Baby Headcrab
|
Headcrab (if the head crab does not find a host it would over time grow
| into what it naturally would turn into if humans were not
| involved)
Gonarch

The other specied assosciated with Xen, the bullsquid, the houndeye, the tentacle, the barnacle, and the ichthyosaur, I assume are the local fauna.
I personally believe that the garg is a metamorphosis of the snark, IF the snark is left in the cocoons we saw all over the place in the beginning of Forget about Freeman.
 
I think the snark>garg theory is on the money. They're so rare because only 1 in a thousand snarks survive. Like baby turtles in fact.

However I think the relation between slaves, controllers and headcrabs is nothing more than they evolved in the same enviorment like, say, a lion, an eagle and a monkey here on earth.

My theory on the Race-X is that they are from some distant, somewhat seperated part of Xen - which is why they are referred to as a different race by their very name: they evolved from different roots than the Xenians. They are a race in opposition to the normal Xenians - most likely, as you say, amphibious ones.. With the events at Black Mesa they see a chance to sieze Earth. Halfway through the incedent, as everybody is busy fighting, they start to send in wildlife to test the humans. They abduct scientists during the experiment to find our weaknesses and then, when Freeman defeats Nihilanth, they send in their armies. Notice that the shock troopers only begin appearing once the Xenians have stopped appearing - because Shepherd's adventure begins two-thirds of the way thrrough Freeman's and ends about twelve hours later. Race-X are stopped however when BMRF is nuked....or maybe the Gene Worm (Op4 final boss) fits in somewhere. Is it their leader? Or one of their leaders?

Oh yes. Shock Troopers throw their grenades. I have a feeling they secrete them from some unspeakable orofice.

Anyone interested in Darkside's web page pipe up now. We should all meet on MSN sometime - let's arrange something.
 
I think we should meet in IRC. I don't have MSN...I don't like the thing.

I didn't have a name for the squid/lizard/baby shocktrooper gun. At least not that I remember. It was just Adrian's pet blob-shooting creature to me. I kinda feel like replaying OpFor now...might just do that tonight.

About the "Gene Worm," (is that really what it's called?) I figured that thing was a tank. A giant battle monster designed to smash the crap out of everything and plow through human forces. I don't think it generated that portal; I think the shock troopers were building that thing down in an abandoned or secured area of the base. I'll have to go back and really see what was down there, but it was under the parking lot, right? I'm inclined to believe it might've been where large delivery trucks shipped things...those lasers were placed there for a reason, and maybe security guards used to man them when the trucks were being unloaded, just in case anyone tried any "funny stuff." As in, people posing as truck drivers to get into the base, spies, people trying to make off with shipments, etc.

You know what I want to know? Where the heck did that pit worm come from? That thing was scary. Xen is not a very happy place with their lifeforms. Don't they have something nice and friendly (aside from the Mr. Friendly alien that was gonna be in there; that creature looks creepy too) on their world? Something fuzzy, maybe? :p
 
Darkside55 said:
You know what I want to know? Where the heck did that pit worm come from? That thing was scary. Xen is not a very happy place with their lifeforms. Don't they have something nice and friendly (aside from the Mr. Friendly alien that was gonna be in there; that creature looks creepy too) on their world? Something fuzzy, maybe? :p
Click to expand...

I'd guess that the pit worm came in the same way that the tentacles did.
Either it's a rare Xen critter, or it's race X.

There are quite a few non-violent xen dudes so far.
There are one or two types of bird-like flying creatures that don't hurt you, large amoebas that just float in the air, the chumtoad, what appear to be gigantic bacteria and some non-violent 'plants'.

Vortigaunts won't attack unless ordered to either. It's just that they're in attack mode most of the time.

For race x, the baby shocktroopers appear to be pretty helpless too.

None of them are very fuzzy though. The predominate textures seem to be 'slimey' and 'leathery'.
 
What was "Mr Friendly" supposed to act like, anyway?

Oh, and the "Fast walker", or whatever it was called, was supposed to act like a friendly dog, seeking out enemies, and perhaps even using weapons...
 
I think the pit worm is a race x alien. It kinda resembles the shock troopers, in that it has one big eye and has similar mouthparts
 
Too right. As for IRC, may I suggest tonight (saturday) on quakenet, #wiggz.uk?
 
none

Changed my sig for crying out loud!!!

And i think that the shock troopers keeps their spores in their asses (if they got any........?)
 
From memory, they "burp" them up, like the baby one does, except that they can't launch them that way, they throw them. I think.
 
I actually got a virus from your link, Adios Amigos. A trojan.

Fun. It's a harmless one eh? I hope so.
 
Hrmm, since there are 2 biodomes, 1 Xen and 1 under construction presumably the second one was planned to recreate Race-X conditions. The fact that it is nowhere near finished suggests that Race-X were discovered quite a while after Xenians, possibly only a short time before the Incident.

As for the slave clutching it's head and teleporting out in OpFor, does the timing match up with the Nihilanth's death? Or possibly the finale of Decay? Those seem like the most reasonable explanations to me.

I haven't noticed it that much mysef, but I've heard Voltigores and Antlions have similar-looking mouthparts... if so maybe Antlions are a less water-loving Race-X species.

In OpFor when you use the Displacer gun to travel to Xen there are peaceful Bullsquid around - maybe in their natural environment they aren't so aggressive, or possibly they are a mated couple, which could mellow them out.
They also appear to be eating either some kind of weeds or small aquatic (planktonish?) creatures. Perhaps the reason you mostly find headcrabs in small tunnels in Xen is that bullsquid can't fit in to eat them (same reason with Snark-homes?).
 
1. Good point. Doesn't one of the biodomes go straight to the chamber where the baby Troopers are being kept?

2. Another good point. That would make sense... Some sort of psychic distress call...

3. Maybe.

4. Yeah, Bullsquids only seemed agressive on earth... And they either hate headcrabs, or love to eat them.
 
I'm sure there were four biodomes...I mean, you didn't get to go in them all but I seem to remember someone sayin there were four.
 
Beats me. I can't remember the storyline from that point very clearly. I was too busy figuring out what to do about all the aliens :E.
 
More or less straight there, yep.

Hmm 4 biodomes? I don't recall that.
Maybe there's some confusion due to the OpFor CTF map that is based on the biodome level, but is changed a bit?
Can't think why they'd need 4, unless it was just in case they found 2 more habitats, or for aquatic species or something? Oh well.
 
It's something to do.

BTW; you can edit your posts for a full 15 minutes after posting...
 
Nah, everyone else is under-analysing, so it seems that we over-analyse by comparison. :p
 
Yep. Could soemone check out the biodomes thing? I'm sure at one point there's a sign saying 'biodome 3' or something. In any case, it seems to make sense to have the four biodomes arranged around a central research area.
 
the slaves are very smart ,but the mini nihilanths seem to be smarter with their big heads ;) ! i think that nihilanth enslaved the vortigaunts because they didnt want to die for him ,they were not as dumb as the alien grunts who do what theyare told to do.

originally posted by machagodzilla:
I'm guessing that the slaves have been re-enslaved by the G-man.
So, it depends (to me) on wether or not the other guys were slaves too.

man you are so dumb mecha . . . . sure the g-man have the ability to enslave hundreds of aliens and a whole army of scientists and freedom-fighters . or what did you want to say with this? i can assure you the city-17 ppl fght against the combine soldiers cos they know that they are bad and the vortigaunts joined them for some strange reason . maybe they are glad about that gordon freed them from beeing slaves or maybe they just like what the humans do ;))
 
eber, please stop insulting people. This is a speculation forum, where everyone is allowed their opinion.

Perhaps the Vorts were re-enslaved. The borderworld (Xen) was under the control of the G-Man and his mysterious "Employers" at the end of HL... I don't necessarily agree that the Vorts are still slaves, but we all know diddly about the plot, so...
 
Sulkdodds said:
Yep. Could soemone check out the biodomes thing? I'm sure at one point there's a sign saying 'biodome 3' or something. In any case, it seems to make sense to have the four biodomes arranged around a central research area.
Click to expand...
Last time I played through OpFor I found 3 biodomes. 1 earth environment, 1 normal xen and one unfinished - the green growths associated with Race-X found there (spores and green fungus) may or may not be significant.
 
Ah, there we go. Three bidomes then - or at least, three biodomes you get to see. I still think there's four because the central lab is arranged like that but then again....what does it matter? Why have I been arguing this? What's the point? Oh well.

As for our friends the former 'slaves' I have a feeling they joined the rebels freely to help them...and I wouldn't be surprised if the G-man 'inherited' control of them (like he did with the Grunts - he gets them to kill you if you choose wrong doesn't he?) once the Borderworld (Xen) was under his control.
 
In the first PC Gamer preview of HL2 it said that a beast looking similar to the Garg is chasing you down a corridor in full armor. You run into a room and shut the door only to have the monster punch through the door.
 
Ah yes... I remember. It had eye-stalks, apparently. This isn't in any of the videos, is it? Intruiging. I don't remember anyone saying it was 'similiar to a garg' though.
 
Another preview said it was a guy in some sort of power armour, with a camera on a movable stalk.
 
Aaah, sounds like a Heavy Train, someone onos!
 
Ns? In any case...power armour? I have a feeling that preview was wrong. ALthough it does raise an interesting question...if the Combine can take such weird technology and apply it to helicopter gunships, what could they do with a big suit of power-assisted armour? Giger-style armoured suit? We'll have to wait and see. Got me excites though.
 
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