Marc Laidlaw Vault

Hey, thanks.
Er, but now, here's a little problem with dates. Certain people tend to put a month either in first or second place, so is '08' august or the day?



skylerllama said:
If this is true, and HL1 is somewhere between 1990 and 2020, it could only have been 1992, 97, 98, 2003, 08, 09, 14, 15, or 2020.
If the manual says 200- AD, then it has to have been 2003, 2008, or 2009.
Click to expand...

Then it would only be 2003, 2008, or 2009. I'd like to think that in this December, the Hadron Collider will be activated or some other facility in New Mexico (of which there is actually a rocket testing one known as 'Black Mesa', funnily enough) that will cause a Resonance Cascade. Once this year passes December, I at least hope to have my Half-Life project done. That will be be in time for the eleventh anniversary as well as the incident date. And that would be good.

By the way... what was the outbreak date for Left 4 Dead?
 
The series of the episodes could go on for as long as it can if the HL2 team and if they get to a point that they cant think of anything else that they'll just have the player play Gordon as a hold man still on the run from the combine but he meets Shepard along the way and they work together to escape the grip of the Combine.
 
Mr. Someguy

I was wondering if Dr. Magnusson was the Scientist in the room where you ruin the microwave casserole. Because the reason the only Scientist that reacts when you ruin the casserole is Black, and Magnusson is not. I was wondering if there is any explanation for this.

PS: What kind of casserole was it?

Thanks.
Alan

Marc Laidlaw

Dear Alan,

Yes, that was supposed to be his casserole, but maybe he wasn't in the room at the time. A deeper explanation is that the scientists in HL1 originally picked their models randomly, so you'd never have the same scientist model in the same scene twice...but over time this changed, and in various ports of the game I believe it might have been nailed down to just that one scientist you observed. Maybe he was just looking out for Magnusson's casserole (and told him what you'd done, sometime before disaster struck). The nature of the casserole is lost to history.

Yours,
Marc Laidlaw
 
Magnusson is the spiritual combination of the casserole scientist and the condecending scientist from just before the test.
 
skylerllama said:
If you look at the calendar in HL1, it is December (on ALL the calendars in Black Mesa) this indicates that the calendar is correct, an not behind.
Click to expand...

ummm... all that indicates is that they only had one calendar model... and it was designed by sonebody at Vavle in December...
 
Noodle said:
ummm... all that indicates is that they only had one calendar model... and it was designed by sonebody at Vavle in December...
Click to expand...
To be fair, what justification would there be to make another calendar model? All calendars tend to be on the same date ...

If it's in the game, it means it was December.
 
TheOneFreeMan said:
To be fair, what justification would there be to make another calendar model? All calendars tend to be on the same date ...

If it's in the game, it means it was December.
Click to expand...

I know, but his justification for the calendars all being correct was that they were all the same date... meaning it would have been incorrect if the calendars were NOT all consistent... it's wierd logic, the way it was written. The point does hold, and the date is December.
 
Hi there, I thought I'd dig out this old (and classic) thread to provide additional information. I got this from Stephen Bahl through Facebook on November 13, 2009. Bahl is from Gearbox and created the Race X and the new HECU classes for Op4. He was kind enough to answer some questions I wanted to ask to fill some gaps for the Half-Life wiki I admin, Combine OverWiki. Here he gives me interesting information about the Race X. Hope it's ok to put that here; I guess it is.

Here's the exchange:

I read on your MobyGames profile (http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,22310/) that for Half-Life: Opposing Force you designed all new HECU classes, all of the Race X creatures, and some of the weapons. Is that true? And what weapons exactly did you design?

Since our game was about being with soldiers, we took what valve had created and improved upon it with new versions/classes. I was responsible for creating all the soldiers; Medic, Sergeant, Engineer, Saw gunner, and any other variation in the game (it's been a long time since I've played so I can't quite remember all of them) I also made the shock trooper and pit worm boss.
As for weapons, I made the m4, displacer canon, spore launcher, rocket launcher, and a few others, again, it's been awhile. I was also responsible for making higher detail versions of all the weapons and soldiers for the HD packs.

Speaking of Race X (http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Race_X). When I first joined the Half-Life wiki (http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page), an article about a Race X creature named Sprite existed (http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Sprite). What I'd like to know is, is that its proper name (since it seems more to be the name of what it is in terms of video game design rather than a proper in-universe name), and is it part of the Race X or not?

It’s just a technical description for an effect in a video game.

What is the Race X exactly? I know they don't fit into Mr Laidlaw's view of the universe, but what was the backstory you chose for them? Where do they come from? What is their purpose? (I read it was to invade the planet to acquire its natural resources, is that correct?) Whose side are they on, if any? What does the "X" stand for?

We wanted to add some new creature variety without messing with what valve had already established. Since the black mesa facility was experimenting with portal technology, it made sense that a rift to different dimension other than xen could have opened up to let other creatures in. Not knowing where this rift was, the name “X” was used to define the unknown.

About the Spore Launcher weapon (http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Spore_Launcher). Its model name is "baby_strooper". Does that mean it is an infant Shock Trooper (http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Shock_Trooper), or that it originally was but was discarded later in development?

Yes, Think of it as a tadpole version of a shock trooper.

What are the ultimate fates of Stanley Rosenberg, Richard Keller, Gina Cross and Colette Green? A body similar to Cross' can be seen underwater on Xen in Opposing Force, is that her or her model put there randomly?

Unknown.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
 
Rosenberg's first name is not Stanley. It's a made up name by the developers of Escape Velocity, a third-party addon for Half-Life. I thought it was his official name. I've used "Stanley Rosenberg" as the title when I created a page for Rosenberg on Wikipedia.

Bite (Escape Velocity developer) said:
I made up Dr. Rosenberg's first name myself, but later I discovered a Wikipedia article that had also denoted his first name as Stanley. Since I had no knowledge of that, it's kind of weird how both names coincided.
Click to expand...

Me, and my friend emailed Randy Pitchford for Rosenberg's official first name. This was his respond:

Randy Pitchford said:
"...of course Dr. Rosenberg has a first name. I do not recall what it is off hand (and I don’t think it’s relevant to any of the things that are revealed in Blue Shift)..."
Click to expand...

Brian Martel is the creator of the textures and models for Opposing Force. He's still at Gearbox Software.
 
Hey, Barnz from Decay!

Damn for Stanley. Now that you say it, yeah, it's not given anywhere... Thanks for pointing that out.

Brian Martel could be contacted. As the Gearbox guys don't work anymore on the HL series, I guess it would be easier to get answers from them, as I surprisingly did.
 
I wouldn't bug them - many people who worked on Opposing Force left Gearbox ages ago. Here's a little trivial information - Rosenberg's entity name is Rosencrantz in some of the Decay missions.
 
Since the black mesa facility was experimenting with portal technology, it made sense that a rift to different dimension other than xen could have opened up
Click to expand...
2yl49jm.png
 
Because his existance has become meaningless. The only thing he knew about himself was where he came from, and now even that is being taken from him by the small and continuityly challenged minds of Gearbox.
 
Well they come from somewhere else, and we already knew that. Nothing originally comes from Xen anyway.
 
But now they might never have been on Xen, period. It opened a different rift, a rift to another dimension entirely. Ten years I been wondering where Race X came from. I always hoped they lived on another part of Xen, also having migrated there.

I was sad when I first read it but the more I think about it, a nondescript, blank slate dimension about which nothing is known is actually...kind of cool...
 
Well, seeing how their portals are, I can imagine their homeworld with a lot of pink, and my eyes are bleeding already.
 
Thanks for your informations klow!
Of course, we know for a long time that Race-X is not from Xen.

Marc Laidlaw said:
The Race-X creatures
didn't seem particularly well adapted to Xen. I imagine their home lay
somewhere beyond.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, nothing is from Xen! And that's why we only see Sprites there.
 
klow said:
Well, seeing how their portals are, I can imagine their homeworld with a lot of pink, and my eyes are bleeding already.
Click to expand...

I think Matthew Armstrong was responsible for the part. I don't have his contact information. You can find him on the Gearbox forums, his username is "hellface".

According to the strategy guide, they use Gene Worms to assimilate planet resources, and turn them into something they can use (similar to what the Combine does) - the sprites are entities to powerup the gate at the end of the game.
 
Do you have a link or something to that strategy guide?...
 
It's no longer available. You can get a copy from eBay, or Amazon. The guide reveals a lot of background information about the Race-X.
 
I knew about the guide, I just never read it, so I don't really know how much interesting facts it provides. And there's no "hellface" on the Gearbox forums...
 
Ah, thanks. I guess the a-z sorting is case-sensitive...
 
Barnz said:
I wouldn't bug them - many people who worked on Opposing Force left Gearbox ages ago, same goes for Valve. Oh, and here's a little trivial information - Rosenberg's entity name is Rosencrantz in some Decay missions.
Click to expand...

Interesting find.

klow said:
Nothing is trivial for me
Click to expand...

Have you looked at the Gearbox .plan files on Blue's News? There's some interesting stuff there, like that the Shock Trooper was prototyped with the voice of Greedo from Star Wars: http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/finger.pl?id=293&time=19991028175005
 
Darkside55 said:
I've raised contention with that before. They would have been very well adapted to Xen.
Click to expand...
Also the fact that the scientists were studying their young would indicated they were from Xen.
 
ríomhaire said:
Because his existance has become meaningless. The only thing he knew about himself was where he came from, and now even that is being taken from him by the small and continuityly challenged minds of Gearbox.
Click to expand...

I thought it had always been clear race X was from somewhere else than Xen.
 
chimpmunk said:
I thought it had always been clear race X was from somewhere else than Xen.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct. I do believe Race X was from another dimension, universe, or even planet, and saw a good opportunity to take over earth during the original portal storms caused by Nihilanth. ;)

However, it may not only be Earth they are after. Maybe they see Earth as a good strategic possition, because it could be possible that Earth is the perfect place for portals to Xen. Maybe Earth has some sort of anomaly, making portals to Xen to be formed easily. :O They plan failed.

Oh and by the way, first post here, hope I will become a part of the community :cheers: cheers !
 
Welcome! One hint, use less smileys (or at least don't use that annoying-as-hell cheers one)
Enjoy your stay, It's safer here...
 
As Morgan said, welcome.. welcome to C17 (you know the rest). I hope you have your HEV suit juiced up.. It will be one hell of a ride.
.
I ne zabravyai kaskata... :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Ennui
HL2 20th Anniversary Update + Documentary
Replies
8
Views
357
Xtremecherry95YT
Xtremecherry95YT
Teta_Bonita
I made contact with a DEMON?!
Replies
4
Views
242
Mr Stabby
Mr Stabby
Terminator
Long time...
Replies
16
Views
1K
Xtremecherry95YT
Xtremecherry95YT
Acepilotf14
steam group bad link
Replies
3
Views
574
Xtremecherry95YT
Xtremecherry95YT
Krynn72
You guys, what the **** is up.
Replies
11
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Back
Top