Rebuilding Earth

P

Perfect

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I hope no one has posted this before, I looked for a thread on it though, and i didn't find anything, so hear goes.


My question is, even if the Combine ARE overthrown, and the rebels regain control of the planet, what do they plan to do next?

The earth's resources are almost non-existent, millions (I expect) are dead, almost all of the planet is inhabitated by man eating Xen creatures, and earth's cities are in ruins. How exactly do these rebels plan to live, when they are not only constantly at risk of being eaten, zombified (SP?) and other horrors, but also have very little to eat, nearly no shelter, and little resources to capitalize on.

I guess my question is, how can they possibly rebuild mankind when so much has been destroyed?
 
  • Set up a stronghold/fortress/city safe from Xen aliens
  • Set up farms
  • Breed
  • Repeat
 
They still have to liberate 30 other cities yet, find a way to shield Earth from the Combine and continue to breed at an extreme rate. And they will never exacty be free of the Xen wildlife - portal storms haven't stopped since day 1.
 
Well If they can find a way to shield earth from the Combine then maybe they can also figure out how to stop the portal storms and rid the planet from all those nasty Xen creatures.
 
1. As of EP2, humanity's most important obstacle that they face are the armies of the Universial Union, along with what remains of the Earth Overwatch and Civil Protection. It is assured that the Union will reestablish a link between their Home Dimension and Earth and bring about massive retaliation. It might be possible for scientists to invent a device that interferes Combine teleportation, but either the Combine can find a way around it or destroy that device. The only way I can see the Resistance surviving for good is if Freeman struck a mortal blow to the Union's leadership in their Home Dimension. Only in that situation can I see the Universial Union decide to abandon Earth as a lost war.

2. With the Combine out of the picture, the old Resistance are now faced with dealing with mere wildlife. Scientists can devote their efforts into ceasing the Portal Storms. However it can't be assured that all Xen creatures can be destroyed, especially if too many Earth creatures became extinct. The Vortiguants might do what they can to tame those they are well familiar with. For the rest, hunting parties and fixed defenses such as Restrictors will be required. At any rate, the humans and Vortigaunts will have to co-exist with the new dominant wildlife of Earth for the time being as the damage might already be done.

3. Repopulating Earth will be a great challenge. Humanity will need to embark to settle both cities and rural areas. As learned in the Seven Hours War, placing everyone in cities leaves them to be conquered easily. Therefore settlements would be scattered around both in cities and in outlying areas (yet having good defenses). With a program of silencing the wildlife threat and spreading out, humanity will be on it's way to recovering from the Black Mesa Incident.

4. I would expect the scientists (like Kleiner) to be the ones who govern Earth as humanity rebuilds, as they seemed to have great influence back in the Resistance. In their spare time, these folk can be off reverse-engineering Combine technology for domestic purposes, restarting projects back from Black Mesa, and training the next generation of scientists. If Kleiner gets his theoritical way, most of the young children of Earth will be subject to a hard education.
 
The humans will attack the Combine homeworld just like the Goths (or Huns...one of those) attacked the Rome and caused the empire to collapse. Then the multiverse will be like "OMG, j00 d3ztr0y3d ci\/iliz4ti0n d00d! lolz" and Gman would be there and go "roffle, pwnzor'd!"
 
Yes... because the denizens of the multiverse communicate in 1337sp33k. :p

I'd say that given the choice between

a.) defeating the Combine

b.) not defeating the Combine

I'd go with option A and worry about the fallout later. One thing at a time, my friends, one thing at a time. What interests me far more is what the Vortigaunts will do once the Mr. Freeman hands the Combine's collective bioengineered asses to them. Will they stay on Earth and help rebuild, or return to the Combine-alicious Xen? If the former, how will Humans and Vortigaunts get along? We can barely get along with ourselves, let alone another sentient, intelligent race that can blast stuff with energy beams.
 
Maybe once the Universial Union falls, the Vortigaunts could finally return to their homeworld (as they only sought refuge in Xen). However, it should be assumed that place was all but striped of resources and otherwise mutilated by the Combine. They could always return to the Borderworld and settle with the Vortigaunts that never went to Earth, but then again we don't know whether if the Controllers have restored some of their power or if those Race-X thugs have been causing problems, or even if the folk there all plan to return to their true home.

I perdict then that many of the Earth Vortigaunts will stay to at least help humanity rebuild. After that's been started, they can be free to live on Earth or return to their homeworld to rebuild it or even to Xen. It might be possible for a mass-exodus from the Borderworld back to the Vortigaunt's homeworld to occur.
 
I predict a Land of the Deadesque situation, except without an asshole in charge as it was in that movie.

Well.. after writing that the more I think about it Land of the Dead was pretty much the exact same situation as the Combine/citadel/city 17 (minus aliens is all)

Like someone else said, fortified cities. I mean, City17 wasn't destroyed before the rebellion. When the combine were in power there it still was fairly normal as far as infrastructure/buildings go. I'm sure some elements can be slowly repaired and returned to liveable conditions while maintaining a fortress like situation, especially if they can reactivate the thumpers like the Combine had going in HL2.
 
Haha,how to rid the world out of xen? stupid question, hah...The same way we exterminated every specie that is extinct now!
 
Walter said:
Haha,how to rid the world out of xen? stupid question, hah...The same way we exterminated every specie that is extinct now!
Click to expand...
200 000 years of technological development and consumption of earth resources? Could be tricky... and a long game series...
 
most of the damage we did to Earth has been in the last...300 years?
 
Llama said:
most of the damage we did to Earth has been in the last...300 years?
Click to expand...
Yeah but considering there's like a couple of million people left we're gonna need some time. It takes a few billion people to exterminate a species... Good thing the combine has already consumed all the natural resources so we can just focus on the exterminating part.
 
AJ Rimmer said:
Yeah but considering there's like a couple of million people left we're gonna need some time. It takes a few billion people to exterminate a species... Good thing the combine has already consumed all the natural resources so we can just focus on the exterminating part.
Click to expand...

It requires a tiny change in the climate to exterminate a species. It takes quite a bit more to exterminate an ecosystem - At least under our current technology it's next to impossible to do that without causing quite a bit of collateral damage to ourselves.

I would expect, that the life on Earth, humanity included, will eventually get used to the Xen creatures and the emerging ecosystem will be a mixture of the two worlds' traits. Earth will never be the same it was before the Portal Storms and Combine invasion, but that doesn't mean it can't prosper.
 
Yes, more and more people will begin domesticating headcrabs, you'll see antlions on leashes in people's front yards, etc. etc.
 
Well, I see it as this...

[spoilers]


















Mossman was at the arctic in that recording, right? She talked about a "project." In EP3, you will probably arrive there after spending most of EP2 getting there. I think this "project" could be something to finally end the portal storms which would stop the Xen aliens from coming in (right?) Then it would all be a matter of killing the rest of the hostile ones (headcrabs, bullsquids, antlions...). Although that would take awhile...

Since the Combine cannot teleport to Earth anymore...and they sent that transmission out (maybe to call for reinforcements), EP3 might be the final showdown with them on Earth, which would make them retreat from Earth and never attempt to return.

Then it would just be a matter of rebuilding the cities. But this would take a very long time (especially dealing with the aliens and all the radiation and whatnot).

Just something I thought of.
 
Well the idea of rebuilding Earth to it's former glory is a complicated one. We know that Eli, Kliener and Gordon are the heads of the resistance, but this might be just the local city 17 resistance. Others might have their own ideals. We're not even sure what about the ones that haven't been captured and ensnared into one of the Cities. Like rouge military groups and shadow governments. Someone else in our small little destroyed world might appreciate what Gordon did (helping to free them) but they might not agree with the way Eli and Kliener want to run things. Between difference of ideals, the fight over resources, the rapidly changing ecosystem and the battle with the many other hostile elements of the world, rebuilding Earth will be quite a task.
 
Who said earth will be rebuilt to it's former glory?

It'll (at best) be rebuilt into a habitable planet, but not a comfortable one.
 
Well eventualy through living our lives, we as humens would want to evolve civilisation into at least what is was if not more and better. Maybe former glory is too much to say for the current, but in the long run its something to think about.
 
It would be slow - but i see a world that in some areas is still in the dark ages, food production, etc but in others it is above what it was before the fall; weaponary, teleportation etc...

So it would be a slow mix of tech
 
I don't see what's stopping the Combine, at this point, from simply teleporting in several hundred Citadels and cranking out a thousand Synths from each one. Why not vape the entire planet? It seems well within their means (mastering Dark Fusion and inter-universe (between universes not inter-stellar (between stars) and inter-galactic (between galaxies).
 
0mar said:
I don't see what's stopping the Combine, at this point, from simply teleporting in several hundred Citadels and cranking out a thousand Synths from each one. Why not vape the entire planet? It seems well within their means (mastering Dark Fusion and inter-universe (between universes not inter-stellar (between stars) and inter-galactic (between galaxies).
Click to expand...
Maybe the tear (portal storms) isn't big and they have to widen it again.
 
GordonFreeman911 said:
Or the Tear is nonexistant, so they're trapped untill they find another way in.
Click to expand...
Laidlaw says the portal storms are ongoing, so it is written, so it shall be!
 
If the Portal storms are not large enough, Xen creatures could continue to fall to Earth of course, although the Combine could not. Maybe they need a portal storm large enough that they can actually somehow manipulate to stay open long enough to get men and supplies and such through?
 
Why do they need the portal storms at all to get to earth?

If they use their Dark Fusion Tunneling Entanglement teleporter thing then they can just get to earth when they please cant they?

The portal storms just alerted them to earths existance since they were in effect besieging Xen trying to get at the vortigaunt refugees but Nihilanth was stopping them getting through with his powers.

When the tear opened to earth Nihilanth took his chance and decided that him and his civilization could hop into earths dimension and take up residence there so they wouldnt be stuck in Xen floating on rocks with the combine knocking at the door all day.

Gordon made sure Nihilanths dreams wouldnt come through by blowing the stuffing out of him but all the displacement energy was released upon his death upon his target, the tear at Black mesa. It warped space enough to envelop the whole planet and probably beyond creating the portal storms.

When the combine arrived the next day and knocked on the door they realised no one was home. They entered xen and saw a big whole in the wall straight through into the neighbours house. They saw juicy earth with all its tasty water and powered up the old teleporter and tunneled straight through to earth.

At least thats what I figured the events were. I'm a bit rusty on the half life story so itll be cool if you correct me. Anyways I just figured the portal storms just gave the combine a glimpse at earth but the storms in themselves dont necessitate the combine's teleports to earth.
 
Plus, since the Combine are coming from their own universe, there would be no way to stop them at all. The teleport built by Kleiner/Vance is only capable of teleporting a single person 50-60 miles at best. The ones the Combine uses can literally travel between universes.

There has to be an explanation as to why the Combine simply don't teleport a million citadels right onto Earth. They certainly have the technology, as every city probably has a Citadel right at it's core. While they are unable to teleport back into their own dimension as of Episode 1 (Combine forces are stranded according to Kleiner), the reverse is still possible, as in Combine from their home universe can tunnel through and place an army (or 10,000) onto Earth. They certainly did before, seeing as how Earth's army was devastated in 7 hours.
 
Llama said:
most of the damage we did to Earth has been in the last...300 years?
Click to expand...
I guess MOST of it, but deforestation has been happenning for a few thousand years believe it or not...
 
Alot of the damage has grown expodentially worse since the last ice age when human numbers grew enormously.

I remember reading something saying that the Aborigines and Native Americans of Australia and North America, respectively weren't as "in-touch" with nature as has been said or implied over the last few decades in our schools and the media.

It turns out that on arrival in North America 70 per cent of large mammals were wiped out (can't remember the time-line. It certainly was slower than the europeans and the buffalo). Similarly in Australia around 80 per cent were wiped out on arrival of the Aborigines from Asia. It may have taken place at a slower pace to Europeans's destruction of habitats during colonisation over the last centuries but the point is human's in general are completely destructive no matter what colour your skin is.

Which is what I find annoying about Valve's games. When I'm playing and there's some surreal "vista" before me of a barren, once-lush wasteland with graggy oaks and sparse grass you get this feeling "What have the combine done with the place?" and it motivates you to hate them more for destroying not just the people's lives but the earth.

But then you wake up and that feeling evaporates when you remind yourself humans are just as destructive and given the combines technology we'd probably do worse. Humans arent the good guy and the Combine arent the bad guys. It kinda destroys the motivation in the game for me at least. I can't really suspend disbelief.
 
I believe we have the capability to learn from our mistakes and stop our destructive pattern. However the Combine have no interest to stop, they are like locusts moving from place to place and sucking it dry of all resources and life. No matter how you slice it we are bad, but the Combine are much worse.
 
With the combine repelled, the Earth is a barren shell. However, the years under combine rule have facilitated and gifted many technological improvements that ultimately push space and dimensional exploration forward thousands of years. Humans set forth from the earth and begin to exploit the resources of their own solar system as well as worlds in other Universes. After hundreds of years of this practice, with the values instilled under Combine rule long forgotten, the Human race becomes insanely powerful and rather than exclusively exploiting unoccupied worlds, they use their military might to crush occupied worlds they previously simply traded with, taking their technology and enlisting their peoples in a union of universal proportions. They crush all opposition on all the worlds they discover until they occupy one world which is their undoing...
 
kupoartist said:
With the combine repelled, the Earth is a barren shell. However, the years under combine rule have facilitated and gifted many technological improvements that ultimately push space and dimensional exploration forward thousands of years. Humans set forth from the earth and begin to exploit the resources of their own solar system as well as worlds in other Universes. After hundreds of years of this practice, with the values instilled under Combine rule long forgotten, the Human race becomes insanely powerful and rather than exclusively exploiting unoccupied worlds, they use their military might to crush occupied worlds they previously simply traded with, taking their technology and enlisting their peoples in a union of universal proportions. They crush all opposition on all the worlds they discover until they occupy one world which is their undoing...
Click to expand...

I smell sarcasm. WoW the Combine is humanity from the future!!:eek:
 
Its planet of the apes! While we go forward in time the combine universe goes backward in time! They are really us in the future! It was earth all along!!!!
 
I think that the project that Mossman describes in aftermath via the video feed is in fact some sort of virus that kills combines but keeps the resistance safe from them, so in EP2 you spend your time getting there and in EP3 the facilkity it is being produced and experimented in gets attacked, you know the final showdown with Freeman trieing to reach the chamber and release the virus. You know a bit like the original half life, your in a lab and this time instead of the invaders being Xen creatures, its the combine. And so this would keep the combine cities intact and merely killing the combine forces, the cities would be intact and so would the barriers that keep the Xen creatures out of the cities anyway. These barriers are just an idea as you never see zombies or headcrabs inside of city 17, and so implieing they are somehow kept out. Also they would have plenty of resources left over that the combine had, the citadel, electricity, well populated areas once the birth rate has gone sky high. THere would also be plenty of food and those that went without would simply grow crops within the city walls. And so Xen creatures would be kept out, its bye bye combine but still keeping their resources and staying in relative safety. And with the virus on hand the combine would daren't not return....................... Unless they find a way to counter agent it.......................... Half life 3 or 4 perhaps. I'm only joking now.
 
I say we take over the combines planet and kill all combine
 
freeman101 said:
I say we take over the combines planet and kill all combine
Click to expand...
certainly a human thing to do
 
Might be tad too hard though if we don't know where their planet is and you know time and space is rather a long way away and if all our troops die on their planet, then we will have to wait another 100 years just to reach the god darn planet.

Though as Ennui says a very human thing to do and probably knowing us, what we will try first lol.
 
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