How do you all become so informed?

[Darkside55]

We can travel short distances without going to Xen. Because of the way our relay works, however, we always end up passing through Xen if we try to travel far. That ends up being remedied in HL2 by using Xen as a slingshot, going around it rather than through it.

Edit again, hehe: Bullsquids and houndeyes seem rather suited to an ecology from which the sentient races come.

 

[Tyguy]

A lot of HL2 is about the Combine trying to get their hands on the local teleportation tech. Check out the difference in teleporters. If the resistance teleport was to explode, it'd probably just fizzle and die. The Combine teleport is a massive reactor, and when it explodes it creates a tear in space itself.

What about the combine teleporter in which you escape the citadel and are put into a slow time warp? Was that built by mossman FOR the combine? If so, is it assumed the combine have the teleport technology now?

Also, where did you hear the combine portal could create a tear in space?

We haven't seen any headcrabs attacking vortigaunts...can be say for sure that headcrabs are from a different home world than the vorts?

 

[Ennui]

Yeah. A lot of HL2 is about the Combine trying to get their hands on the local teleportation tech. Check out the difference in teleporters. If the resistance teleport was to explode, it'd probably just fizzle and die. The Combine teleport is a massive reactor, and when it explodes it creates a tear in space itself.

Spoiler

Yeesh, does that mean that the Combine might be able to develop local teleportation / entanglement technology now that they've processed the contents of Eli's brain (that is, if they did in fact acquire all of his knowledge when they killed him)?

What about the combine teleporter in which you escape the citadel and are put into a slow time warp? Was that built by mossman FOR the combine?

What are you talking about? When the citadel explodes time slows down due to the explosion or G-Man/Vort interference. The Combine teleporter is used by Breen to (presumably) escape.

 

[Asknoone]

What about the combine teleporter in which you escape the citadel and are put into a slow time warp? Was that built by mossman FOR the combine?

Uh, what? Mossman helped build the teleport at Prospekt, nothing else.

Also, where did you hear the combine portal could create a tear in space?

I said when it explodes. That's what the super portal is. See Episode 1 with that big swirly vortex? That's the tear Gordon created when he blew up the reactor, and what the Combine convert into a gateway.

 

[Darkside55]

What about the combine teleporter in which you escape the citadel and are put into a slow time warp? Was that built by mossman FOR the combine? If so, is it assumed the combine have the teleport technology now?

Biuilt by Mossman, yes. The Combine may have the technology now for that reason as well as the one in Ennui's spoiler.

We haven't seen any headcrabs attacking vortigaunts...can be say for sure that headcrabs are from a different home world than the vorts?

They do attack them in Episode Two.

It's an interesting question because, when you look at how the headcrab developed, it must have fed on something with a round head and a neck. Otherwise it would not look the way it does.

I am always in favor of the simplest solution, that yes, they are from the same world because we found them together on the same world, and we know that the Nihilanth ported what looks to be their entire catalog of fauna to Xen.

I prefer this explanation over something more farfetched, like some race from another world banishing headcrabs to Xen, or the headcrab species finding their own way across dimensions, or that they were all aboard a meteor that smashed into the borderworld.

 

[Tyguy]

Uh, what? Mossman helped build the teleport at Prospekt, nothing else.

Sorry, I confused Nova Prospekt with the citadel :dozey:

 

[Rapstah]

There's a teleporter at both.

 

[paintballphreak]

Where exactly was Dr. Breen trying to escape to at the end of HL2?

That may be a really basic question, but I don't know the answer.

 

[Hellrider]

The teleporter in the Citadel is inter-dimensional, unlike the one that was in Nova Prospekt.

 

[Ennui]

Where exactly was Dr. Breen trying to escape to at the end of HL2?

That may be a really basic question, but I don't know the answer.

He was trying to escape to an undisclosed Combine-controlled location, presumably not on Earth as he was required to assume a host body in order to survive.

 

[Narvi]

Why did he do that anyway? Can't he just hide behind one of his Combine forcefields and then laugh as Gordon got blasted away by the many thousand soldiers inside the Citadel?

 

[Rizzo]

Yeah he could, but you can shoot through the force fields. And with the supergravity gun Gordon whould tear him apart. Wich whould be sweet.

 

[Ennui]

Because the super gravity gun was annihilating the Combine, he didn't trust the Combine to repel Gordon and keep him safe, and because Gordon was presumably going to try and destroy the Citadel anyway (although he ended up doing that in his attempt to stop Breen from escaping).

 

[Narvi]

I guess Breen himself was caught up in Gordan's romantic legend. I seriously doubt Gordon could have taken on an entire Citadel's worth of defenses.

You only got to the Core so easily later because the Citadel was already crumbling around you.

 

[Ennui]

I don't know about that. Gordon was already in the process of taking on the entire Citadel (and doing a pretty decent job), and the only reason the Citadel was crumbling around you was because (iirc) Breen's teleporter was going to destroy the Citadel.

 

[Asknoone]

Breen was worried about the resistance; they could easily assault the Citadel now that they had pushed the Overwatch back to the centre of C17. He said something about delivering Earth, and probably thought he'd be able to manage the situation better on the far-side.

 

[Tyguy]

Is Xen and the combine home world in the same dimension or are all three (Xen, Combine Settlement, Earth) completely isolated?

 

[Darkside55]

All different.

 

[Asknoone]

I imagine that the Combine homeworld is something that's not really relevant at this stage. They have clearly annexed countless planets and species into their ranks, and by now the homeworld would probably be lost in the layers of their own empire. It's not really something you can topple unless you trigger a kind of galactic uprising.

 

[Laivasse]

Why did he do that anyway? Can't he just hide behind one of his Combine forcefields and then laugh as Gordon got blasted away by the many thousand soldiers inside the Citadel?

Yeah he could, but you can shoot through the force fields. And with the supergravity gun Gordon whould tear him apart. Wich whould be sweet.

Because the super gravity gun was annihilating the Combine, he didn't trust the Combine to repel Gordon and keep him safe, and because Gordon was presumably going to try and destroy the Citadel anyway (although he ended up doing that in his attempt to stop Breen from escaping).

All these things, but also because Alyx was with him and her EMP/whatever gadget makes short work of Combine forcefields.

 

[Acepilotf14]

I imagine that the Combine homeworld is something that's not really relevant at this stage. They have clearly annexed countless planets and species into their ranks, and by now the homeworld would probably be lost in the layers of their own empire. It's not really something you can topple unless you trigger a kind of galactic uprising.

I think that perhaps their capital is more of a huge center of industry and science. Of course, they need a place where the Advisors live when they aren't in the fray. Sort of like Rome or Coruscant in Star Wars. They need a centralized location; A seamless empire would be more of a Republic.

 

[victor]

i'm hoping half life is nothing like star wars

 

[The Monkey]

So let me get this straight...

Nihilanth was the leader of a world containing species from different planets that had escaped from the Combine Empire (such as headcrabs, houndeyes, bullsquids, antlions and vortigants). The Vortigants were in shackles because otherwise they might've rebelled against Nihilanth due to their power. After the Black Mesa incident, the Xen animals teleported to Earth and chaos erupted. Then the Combine came and enslaved the human race.

I then have two questions:
1. Who control the Xen world now?
2. Why was Nihilanth in shackles?

 

[Asknoone]

Headcrabs, Bullsquids and Antlions and all that...I don't suspect many of them fled with the Nihilanth because they are just wildlife. They probably got 'stuck' there over time. Nihilanth was something of a defacto dictator himself, I think...

Nihilanth was once enslaved by the Combine - that's why he's in shackles.

 

[The Monkey]

And he couldn't remove the shackles after he had been freed?

 

[Tagaziel]

Fashionable bracelets.

 

[Kevin]

But Valve hadn't thought about the combine back then.
They are just there to look good in the first game, but now we know he had been enslaved.

 

[Frraksurred]

Phreak, I might mention (if some one else hasn't already) that by not reading every little piece of side information, you may not be as "up" on the back story as others...

but you will enjoy the games a whole lot more. No spoilers means more surprise, so don't get too worried about it.

 

[Polaris]

1. Who control the Xen world now?

G-Man and his employers, for the time of being. Aslo Science Team using Xen Relay for local teleportation.

 

[phenomx93]

hey im wit u painballphreak, hell i ddnt even kno who the gman is.. no seriously who is he X), and wat does portal provide???

 

[Llama]

We should collectively create a correct "saga" guide. Might be a fun community project.

I did something like that a while ago, can't remember if I kept the Document. If I can find it, I'll update it and stick on here for you guys to Butcher