How/Who built the Citadel?

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Hello,
I have been wondering since i finished the game as to who and how the massive citadel was built. The thing is so big it must have taken years to build. Excuse me if this was in HL1, idk i have never played HL1. But can someone explain the citadel to me? Thank you-
*O*T*C* Escape
 
The citadel was built perhaps on the Combine home world and then teleported on Earth during the 7hr war. It is automated (builds itself) and consumes the neighbouring building like a cancer.

PS: If you would have played HL1 then you would've known that there were no citadels and no Combine back then.
 
No one knows. Acording to an unused scene (explained in Raising the Bar) the citadels were teleported into the middle the remaining human cities and imediatly began pouring out Combine troops.
 
Termite said:
I doubt that it came through a portal...
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Well valve said they were teleported there so probably through a portal, so make up your own story if like, but the facts are there for you to read.
 
Portal is the most likely solution. Why should there be a limitation for the size of the portals, anyhow?
 
According to RtB they are produced in an assembly line at a Combine factory. They are teleported as a whole.
 
Concept art from the game states the citadels assume semi-specialized roles suited to their particular sites. City 17 focused on population processing, while City 16 became a huge military/industrial complex. It also showed a Citadel on Xen, and a vast factory creating Citadels in a production line.
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From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_(Half-Life_2)#Combine_teleportation

As mentioned in the Raising the Bar book, entire blocks from City 17 vanished into thin air, as the Combine delivered the Citadel to Earth.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Combine_non-combat_technology_in_Half-Life_2#The_Citadel
 
Citadels on Xen? Don't believe everything wikipedia says, because thats lies. Combine weren't on Xen, ask Angry Lawyer. Citadels are made in their own world and teleported to their host planets as a central HQ in each city where troops/striders/gunships are manufactured.
 
How does concept art lie?

I dout the person who edited that in was lieing, there does not seem any motivation for him or her to do so.
 
heh, you'd be surprised. Show me the concept art of a citadel on Xen. I've not seen it, or perhaps indicate a page number in RtB for me so i can look for the picture.
 
IIRC RTB states that a chunk of city would just disappear and then a citadel would be teleported in.
 
Dr. Zoidberg said:
How does concept art lie?
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Because it's a concept? How many concepts are there in Raising the Bar? How many concepts are in the game? Are there not concepts in that book that directly contradict what is in the game?

Concept art is not some gospel truth. The wasteland outside of City 17 in RtB is a barren, sandy place where nothing grows and pipes snake towards a factory that replaces earth's atmosphere with something barely breathable by human inhabitants. The wasteland in Half-Life 2 is the same as you would expect in the area the game depicts, and in Episode 2 it'll have forest vegetation and overgrown hill-sides. The concept is wrong. The story and setting of the Half-Life world is constantly in flux. If it isn't in the game, there is no guarantee that it is correct.

And i'll believe this mythical piece of concept art when I see it (it isn't in Raising the Bar or the Gamespot's article on Half-Life 2 development, the two premier sources for concepts, and the page's references don't include anything more than Raising the Bar and the Strategy Guide).

As for the building of the citadel, we simply don't know. We just know that Valve have at some time intended for them to have teleported in wholesale in the first hour of the war, and that they never got round to telling us that. Therefore until they do tell us that, it isn't certain that it happened like that.
 
Things depicted in concept art is not canon, although they are not to be completely dismissed, for example the air exchange may or may not exist in HL2, because it was part of the game for a long time, but isn't anywhere to be seen now. Though personally, I don't think citadels being built on Xen is very realistic, as the combine do not appear to have any presence on Xen. At least not prior to HL2. During or after HL2 I don't know. But the citadels are teleported in as a whole, that I'm sure of.
 
I thought they worked a bit like Headcrab Launchers and went BOOM on a part of a town.
 
From what I understand, it was teleported in fully built.
 
Tyguy said:
From what I understand, it was teleported in fully built.
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It does seem to be growing, so it might not have been entirely whole, when it came through. I do imagine, that it was quite a big to start with, though. As I imagine it, the Citadels contained the Combine armies that overwhelmed Earth's troops in the Seven Hour War.
 
Well, I thought it was full, but the "walls" are basically just eating the entire city......
 
According to RTB, in an unused scene, it is said that huge holes would open up in cities, swallowing buildings and people, and the Citadels just rose up out of the holes and began destroying the surrounding area while pumping out troops and synths...
 
AJ Rimmer said:
for example the air exchange may or may not exist in HL2, because it was part of the game for a long time, but isn't anywhere to be seen now.
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I'm pretty certain it doesn't exist now. It went hand in hand with virtually unbreathable air in the wastelands, and caused most of the civilian population to need gas-masks. There is no evidence of such a climate anymore, and to be honest I don't see that it was such a necessary concept anyway. Why would they change the air aside from opressing the masses? They still have to rely on human labour on Earth, and human labour needs breathable air.

Yes it shouldn't be completely dismissed, but no-one is saying that it should. It should just be taken with a pinch of salt. Or an entire barrel for that matter.
aj rimmer said:
Though personally, I don't think citadels being built on Xen is very realistic, as the combine do not appear to have any presence on Xen.
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Well, technically we've not seen Xen for 20 or so years so anything could have happened over there, but teleportation indicates that they're definitely not too hot on Xen so I agree. I also don't think that a Citadel's digging function would be all to useful in such a bizarre world :p
 
kupoartist said:
Well, technically we've not seen Xen for 20 or so years so anything could have happened over there, but teleportation indicates that they're definitely not too hot on Xen so I agree. I also don't think that a Citadel's digging function would be all to useful in such a bizarre world :p
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Actually, the constructions on Xen and combine's constructions on Earth share many characteristics. You should pay more attention on the grunt factory.
 
bbson_john said:
Actually, the constructions on Xen and combine's constructions on Earth share many characteristics.
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Welcome to November 2004.
 
bbson_john said:
What do you mean by this?
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That those "revelations" are meaningless to the inhabitants of the year 2006, and "You should pay more attention" to things people have been finding out in the present day instead of trying to drop stale facts that have been proven meaningless in the meantime?
 
kupoartist said:
That those "revelations" are meaningless to the inhabitants of the year 2006, and "You should pay more attention" to things people have been finding out in the present day instead of trying to drop stale facts that have been proven meaningless in the meantime?
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What are the revelations?
 
bbson_john said:
What are the revelations?
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That categorically the Combine were not on Xen in Half-Life 1 and that any similarities are purely coincidental, so telling someone they should "should pay more attention" to a part of the game which holds no meaning is un-called for and irrelevant?
 
kupoartist said:
That categorically the Combine were not on Xen in Half-Life 1 and that any similarities are purely coincidental, so telling someone they should "should pay more attention" to a part of the game which holds no meaning is un-called for and irrelevant?
Click to expand...

I remember mine is an old argument and Valve denied that the Combine had been to Xen. However, I still think that the plot, which combine has been to Xen, is more sensible. Valve's staffs denied so porbably because they don't want people feel like they had guessed the whole Half-life plot accurately. :D

p.s. Your words are too strong and it feels like I am being scolded.
 
bbson_john said:
I remember mine is an old argument and Valve denied that the Combine had been to Xen. However, I still think that the plot, which combine has been to Xen, is more sensible. Valve's staffs denied so porbably because they don't want people feel like they had guessed the whole Half-life plot accurately. :D
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I think the reason that people (me included) thought that it would be a good plot is because we figured it out ourselves and it made us feel smart to think we'd got it all figured. The smartest move for Valve is in making something that doesn't make us feel to smart, allowing us to predict all that they'll throw at us in future products :p
bbson_john said:
p.s. Your words are too strong and it feels like I am being scolded.
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ROAR!
 
kupoartist said:
I think the reason that people (me included) thought that it would be a good plot is because we figured it out ourselves and it made us feel smart to think we'd got it all figured. The smartest move for Valve is in making something that doesn't make us feel to smart, allowing us to predict all that they'll throw at us in future products :p
Click to expand...

If this is true, sad Valve...
 
bbson_john said:
If this is true, sad Valve...
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Yes, sad, stupid VALVe giving us something new and unexpected instead of something old and predictable. What a bunch of morons.
 
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