Wait... SuperSoldier thumbnail

[Monkeylizard]

I tried searching this through the forums and I came up with nothing...
So, the combine_super_soldier.mdl thumbnail included in the SDK...

I've seen the concept art for it and read Valve's excuse for not including it ingame [alien characters in alien enviroments throw off the player's immersion]...
But still. It was a working model at some point.

...


Just thought I'd share.

 

[OvA]

www.svencoop.com will have a modified version

 

[Vegeta897]

www.svencoop.com will have a modified version

Hmm, I don't think they were inspired by what the real super soldier looks like, but just used the name.

 

[Insano]

They were inspired by the concept art in HL2: Raising the bar.

 

[xombine]

I don't like those hairs.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I really like this model and the entire concept all 'round, but it really would not have worked because of the alieness.

Imagine all the threads that would be like 'OMG THE REAL COMBINE!', 'IS THIS THE G-MAN??' etc.

 

[Shodan]

I don't like those hairs.

Yeah I think of Maddox everytime I see that picture.

Ding Ding! Here comes the shit-mobile. I've never seen a fire truck that needed to be shaved. I would rather be burned to death than be saved by this hairy piece of shit.

 

[Vegeta897]

at Shodan.

Those aren't hairs, those are things in the model viewer.

 

[Dekstar]

at Shodan.

Those aren't hairs, those are things in the model viewer.

aren't they called "normals"?

Anyway I think it looks Aweshens.

 

[Vegeta897]

Yes, that is correct. Do we know anything else about the Super Soldier? What weapon(s) it will carry?

 

[$kelet0r]

no they are definitely hairs - they are there to remind us that this thing is biological

 

[Vegeta897]

Heh, I don't think you are right... Notice how they are coming out at perfect 90 degree angles to their surface... I think if Valve wanted it to have hairs (for some bizarre reason) they would atleast make them look cooler, and not in random places.

Are the hairs in the concept art in Raising the Bar? Does anyone know?

 

[$kelet0r]

you could be right - the model is too 2 dimensional to tell
but yes there are hairs in rtb iirc on other synths as well
one of the concepts for the strider had hair

 

[Adabiviak]

...don't look like normals to me. I don't think my immersion would have been lessened if some of the combine looked like that, it certainly wasn't when the striders came out. Is that really the reason Valve left that model out?

 

[$kelet0r]

^yes they felt (re raising the bar) that an overtly alien humanoid model would have been wrong in the game's earth based environment

 

[AJ Rimmer]

^yes they felt (re raising the bar) that an overtly alien humanoid model would have been wrong in the game's earth based environment

I certainly wouldn't have minded. Although that model looks a bit... odd. I can't quite figure out it's supposed to behave.

 

[chimpmunk]

It's some kind of bipedal strider.

The hairs are obviously(SP?) used as sensory organs. I really like that model, it's a shame they cut so much things, like the hair exchange et the gasmasks for citizens... plus all the cool intros they had thought of.

 

[ríomhaire]

at Shodan.

Those aren't hairs, those are things in the model viewer.

There are hairs in the concept art I believe so it is fair to asume that they are hairs.

 

[MiccyNarc]

^yes they felt (re raising the bar) that an overtly alien humanoid model would have been wrong in the game's earth based environment

Umm..black mesa?

 

[$kelet0r]

black mesa = alien encounters
city 17 = totalitarian regime

 

[CyberPitz]

Yeah I think of Maddox everytime I see that picture.

You read my mine you sneaky bastard. Maddox ftw on shitty kid drawings.

 

[clarky003]

lol ^,

those are hairs, there definately not normals, the normal lines are blue and red, and when there turned on they are positioned at every vert on the model.

Is it me or does it look like that large front panel on the soldier folds out or something... as if it was a biomechanical suit.

 

[Monkeylizard]

as if it was a biomechanical suit.

Just like the strider, gunship and dropship.
I'd think if Valve kept the hairs they'd have some sort of ragdoll physics on them to make up for them looking pretty sh.tty in screenshots, like the rotting tendons on the Fast Zombie.

 

[flycrusher]

It's a shame that it was not used, it would have been more logical to have some alien fighters the same type as the strider and other flying Combine ships.
I don't think it would have been less immersive, Half-life one had a lot of non human alien fighters and it was totally immersive.

This "human only" fighters is a very frequent problem. For those who have played Quake 4, they surely would have noticed that the aliens were much more human than in the old Quake 2.
We can also notice that in all other recent games. Alien are becoming rare, maybe we have killed too much of them!! Maybe we should found something like the WWF, the AWF (Alien Wildlife Foundation).

But in reality the solution to this is far more pragmatic, it's very difficult to make a motion capture of an non human alien !!, so the numerous handmade animations a modern model needs would take a lot of time.
And with the new technique of animation sharing, many models can use the same anims, so if all your ennemies can use a lot of the same animations you spare a lot of time! That's why we get so many games with the "Star Trek Syndrome" ( we all share the same body but we definitely have a nice skull augmentation!):E

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I think people are misunderstanding the motivation behind the cut.

Valve replaced these guys with the Combine Elite because they didn't want people to think the hairy guy was an actual combine alien.
The Supersoldier is just a man in a strider suit, but it looks too alien to come across that way.

So when presented with these 'aliens' in the citadel, most players would have said "oh, so these are the benefactors that breen is working for" and plot confusion would result.
So they were replaced by guys who are more clearly human.

 

[DoctorWeeTodd]

I actually really liked those hairs or quills or whatever they are.

 

[Canadian Gunner]

I'm not big on the hair thing, but I would have liked to see it in game. Kinda reminds me of the ED-109 in Robocop...Oh well.

 

[Sulkdodds]

That's awesome.

Valve replaced these guys with the Combine Elite because they didn't want people to think the hairy guy was an actual combine alien.
The Supersoldier is just a man in a strider suit, but it looks too alien to come across that way.

Really? Aw, I got the impression that it was like, basically, a soldier-sized Synth. Like taking the Strider design ethos and applying it to a ground-level infantry unit. I think that would be incredibly cool, because obviously the Combine must have some sort of offworld troop they could bring in (not to mention they might have had something smaller than a strider during the seven hour war, before they'd have had human infantry.

In which case, confusion could have been avoided. In the same way that someone says "they're filling the streets with Striders" (or something) towards the end, you could have heard someone saying "situation this desperate, they've brought in offworld troops. I don't know what they are." I'd find it far cooler if they were essentially an infantry-size Strider rather than a guy in a strange suit.

 

[ríomhaire]

The Supersoldier is just a man in a strider suit

No, in RTB it says it was a synth graphted to the size of a man. At least that version was.