Plot Hole?

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losermeetsworld

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If City 17 has a force field to protect it from Xen wildlife, and when it fails the wildlife invades, why isn't there any wildlife in Ravenholm? If it was close enough to sap off 17's force fields, I'd say the Citendel is big enough to be seen in the background.... And if the zombies kill them off, where are all the corpses/Xen zombies?



Thoughts?
 
The Antlions knew there wasn't anything except headcrabs in Ravenholm, maybe? Ravenholm was a small town on the Coast, while City17 is very hard to miss.
 
But still, methinks you'd see SOMETHING. And I'm pretty sure a city full of rotting corpses/zombies would smell like, well, rotting corpses and zombies, and seeing as how you see bullsquids and those annoying 3 legged gimp dogs in HL1 feeding on corpses, I'm sure they'd move on in, hunting the scent hoping for free food.
 
losermeetsworld said:
But still, methinks you'd see SOMETHING. And I'm pretty sure a city full of rotting corpses/zombies would smell like, well, rotting corpses and zombies, and seeing as how you see bullsquids and those annoying 3 legged gimp dogs in HL1 feeding on corpses, I'm sure they'd move on in, hunting the scent hoping for free food.
Click to expand...
Uh-huh, and how would they get there? Go down through the mines, through the water while they can't swim, and jump straight up 90 or so feet into the town? :p
 
... I can't think of any sane human being who'd want to do that every day either, so I'm assuming there are other ways in.
 
The perimeter is surrounding by barbed mesh, erected by the resistance fighters formerly stationed there.
 
Just play through Ravenholm, its pretty easy to notice. Besides, I'm sure whatever else entrances there were, they'd be barracaded too. Not to mention the cliffs.
 
And, apart from when you were controlling them with the pheropods and they were invading the prison, the antlions seemed pretty content with staying in the sand, Ravenholm isn't very sandy. So why would they go there?
 
If barbed wire is all that's needed to stop Xen wildlife why do the Combine bother with a force field? ;)
 
Eejit said:
If barbed wire is all that's needed to stop Xen wildlife why do the Combine bother with a force field? ;)
Click to expand...


To stop humans from getting in and out maybe?
 
I suppose it could be something just like the original HL1 - like you have some areas that are totally rotten with Xen life, and some places that are pristine clean in comparison, even though there's nothing really stopping them getting in.

Unless Ravenholm was surrounded on all sides by sand right up to the walls then there'd be no real reasons for antlions to swarm in. I can see your point about bullsquids and such but they would be easily kept out by barbed wire and such like Samon mentioned.

C17 on the other hand is massively noisy, esp. at the end of HL2, not to mention whatever weird vibrations are being given off by the reactor going critical. I can imagine it arousing the curiosity of the surrounding Xen wildlife in a way that Ravenholm never would.

edit: I've just thought of something. I remember in HL1 how bullsquids used to attack headcrabs. Well do zombies and bullsquids fight? They certainly fight with antlions. It could be that zombies are just a deterrent all round, even to xenians.
 
A few wandering bullsquids verses HUNDREDS OF STARVING ZOMBIES!
 
Keep in mind this is years after the otherworld wildlife would have
come to earth, places like Ravenholm might have naturally been
less habitable for Bullsquids and Houndeyes, and the human inhabitants
could have taken time to secure it against other creatures.

In fact, you are given hints that Ravenholm had been a safe haven
for some time, until the combine crabshellled the whole town.
 
Right. And bullsquids, houndeyes, and even the big critters like Grunts or Gargantua (maybe) have figured out that big, fortified human settlements, whether they be rebel towns like Ravenholme or Combine forts, have lots of defenders with guns.

Even a Gargantua isn't going to charge a concrete wall with a half-dozen people on the top of it armed with rocket launchers. No reason to, really, plenty of bullsquids and mutated Earth-based food sources out in the wastelands.
 
What about alien controllers? they could fly right over defenses...
 
Digamma said:
What about alien controllers? they could fly right over defenses...
Click to expand...

What's their motivation? There's nothing that would interest them, in Ravenholm. And it's quite possible, that they all died along with Nihilanth, due some psychic tremor, as we don't a glimpse of them in Half-Life 2. Or vorts could have killed them...
 
Like others have said, it is unlikely they'd use the Vortigaunts as infantry. They serve a far greater purpose in the labs and resistance bases. Too valuable to simply send out as cannon fodder.
 
If there's no forcefield seperating America and Canada, why isn't America overrun with grizzly bears yet?
 
Just so everyone knows I don't think any Alien Controllers or Alien Grunts are on Earth.

As most of you likely remember if you decline the G-man's offer in Half-Life 1, he warps you into a room full of Alien Grunts. If you look closer at this scene this room also has several Alien Controllers marshaling the grunts, as well as an armada of "Stingray" ships. This seems to hint that after Nihilanth was killed the alien controllers and grunts left Xen for unknown reasons. (Maybe they knew the combine were coming? Food for thought).
 
If there are any Controllers on Earth I'd say there are only a few, brought by the portal storms, and probably lying low to avoid detection by the Combine.
 
Samon said:
I'm sure they died along with Nihilanth.
Click to expand...

Lies. They're the smartest of the Xenotypes, so likely hid themselves as Eejit said. Or stayed on Xen, trying to stop their entire civilisation from collapsing.

-Angry Lawyer
 
"Alyx, what are you doing? I thought you were on watch?"

"The Vortigaunts released me so I could some see Gordon."

So Vortigaunts are probaly doing some kind of patrol of the area around Black Mesa East, so maybe there used to be Vortigaunts patrolling Ravenholm too.
 
Vortigaunts would be exceptionally useful as patrol/security, because their hive mind would provide valuble communication resources. Plus they are exceptionally powerful.
 
UltimaApocalyspe said:
So Vortigaunts are probaly doing some kind of patrol of the area around Black Mesa East, so maybe there used to be Vortigaunts patrolling Ravenholm too.
Click to expand...

Alyx: "That's the old Ravenholm tunnel. We don't go there, anymore".
I assume that the Vortigaunts are included in we. There is no point in patrolling in Ravenholm - that just stirs up the zombies, as Gordon learns. It's not like Combine could go through there unnoticed.
 
I just thought: thumpers. There are almost certainly thumpers surrounding Ravenholm or at least between it and the antlions. Maybe it's even within range of the influence of the Citadel's gigantic thumper.
 
Sulkdodds said:
I just thought: thumpers. There are almost certainly thumpers surrounding Ravenholm or at least between it and the antlions. Maybe it's even within range of the influence of the Citadel's gigantic thumper.
Click to expand...

The citadel thing was a thumper? I just thought it was there to annoy the shit out of citizens.
 
Ooh, that is cool! I never noticed the resemblance of the Citadel to the thumpers. Very interesting...

However, I'm pretty sure the Citadel served merely as the base of operations/HQ for the Combine. I could very easily be wrong, though :p
 
Sure, but the thumper's like an awesome extra feature. You get it if you buy the Family Edition.
 
JNightshade said:
Ooh, that is cool! I never noticed the resemblance of the Citadel to the thumpers. Very interesting...

However, I'm pretty sure the Citadel served merely as the base of operations/HQ for the Combine. I could very easily be wrong, though :p
Click to expand...
Wouldn't be very good for your home base to be overrun by Antlions though, would it? I mean, you see in the Aftermath shots how quickly Antlions came in force after the Citadel is taken down...which to me seems to fully indicate it was a thumper.
 
The Citadel was certainly not used as a Thumper, it was merely an extra addition. The idea behind the antlions swarming in is that now the Citadel is in meltdown the barricades surrounding the city have all lost their original power and have shutdown.
 
Even then, would it be thumping at the right frequency? I think not.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Lightice said:
Alyx: "That's the old Ravenholm tunnel. We don't go there, anymore".
I assume that the Vortigaunts are included in we. There is no point in patrolling in Ravenholm - that just stirs up the zombies, as Gordon learns. It's not like Combine could go through there unnoticed.
Click to expand...

I said USED to. :)
 
Three things:

When we first meet the Antlions, one of the resistance fellas mentions that they're crazy right now because of the season. Perhaps they're not so violent in other seasons?

Also, the Antlions (unless you have a pheropod), only dig out if you're trespassing on their sand. There is no sand in Ravenholm, as far as I can tell.

Also, you have a climb a very high ladder to get to Ravenholm; could height be a factor?
 
Black Mesa East is underground, so of course you have to climb a large ladder to get to the surface of Ravenholm :)
 
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