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Half-Life 2 Roleplay => Topic started by: psycho on February 22, 2012, 11:34:18 AM
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I notice a lot of people have a skewered version of how Half Life canon really is. This website is a good tool to get the basic run-down on the entire Half Life canon and in chronological order.
http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm
Some important parts people often ask questions about or are confused about:
The Combine Overlord orders some transitional tasks, above and beyond Breen's power. First of all, the Overwatch enact a Suppression Field to prevent humans from procreating. (In particular, protein chains important to the development of an embryo were specifically blocked.) They do this so no new humans can be born, and that the humans left on Earth will be the final generation of them. They also put a biochemical in the water supply to make people gradually forget the past, and so they can more easily comply with Breen and the Combine - to forget why they hate them. Finally, the Combine begin to drain Earth's oceans. These tasks show that the Combine are preparing Earth for new residents.
The Combine's purpose with Breen is also simple. His purpose now is to prepare Earth for an eventual total Combine migration. His job is to eliminate any resistance to the Combine. Using controlled raids and a "civil-protection" force, Breen captures and converts any resistance to stalkers [for definition, see Expanded Info section], human slaves. Additionally, the Overwatch attempt to re-enslave the Vortigaunts, with some success. The Combine's ultimate purpose is to convert all of humanity into stalkers, and all of the vortigaunts into the slaves they were before Gordon freed them.More important minds are taken to Nova Prospekt, where they are stored in containment and experimented on - the Combine want to get as much knowledge out of humanity as they can before they destroy it. All of these things are leading to a drastic change in the purpose of humanity - it is about to become a slave race.
Unfortunately, though Black Mesa has been obliterated, Earth has yet to feel the brunt of this disaster. "Portal Storms", a seeming side-effect from the resonance cascade, form a dimensional rift between Xen and Earth. These Portal Storms spread outside the confines of what is left of Black Mesa and throughout all of Earth, providing temporary, chaotic, and destructive links between Xen and Earth. Aliens (from Xen) of all types are teleported into suburbs. Headcrabs crawl along the aisles of grocery stores while others teleport into swimming pools and homes. Utter chaos erupts on Earth. The freed Vortigaunts use these storms as a ticket out of Xen and onto Earth, fleeing from the Combine.
A huge population shift occurs as people move into the cities, protected by soldiers and barbed wire fences, to escape the monsters. A feeling of safety comes over the people of Earth, as they can once again live normal lives within the confines of the cities, as the alien species continue to infest the outside world. Vast networks of ant-lion nests are formed throughout the Earth's crust, housing millions of new species.
A lot of people think that the Combine killed people who were old and weak, or babies, etc. That may be true, however it is more than likely that they simply didn't survive the portal storms. A large majority of the human race during the portal storms, because it was aliens directly teleporting themselves into suburbs, grocery marts, etc. Imagine you're just chillin' in your room playing some GMod and an antlion walks in and eats your face off.
Yeah, a lot of people didn't survive.
The few who did by some ungodly miracle manage to survive made it to an outpost the United States Military would have provided. At this point, the military would have started making outposts across the continent to keep the aliens from Xen out. This was the beginning of the "Cities" that the citizens live in today.
When the Combine took over, they took the cities that the military started and made them better. Citizens stayed there of course under the ruling of the Overwatch because outside the cities was pure chaos, until the Vortigaunts allied with the resistance forces. However, there were still zombies, antlions and headcrabs rampant outside the city.
OverWatch units were a common tact that the Combine used, which they also used in Xen. The Combine used a tactic when taking over other worlds which involved finding the most dominant species (In earth's case, Humans, and in Xen's case, the vortigaunts. However, the Combine did not finish with the vortigaunts as Gordon interupted), and turning them into a "Super Solider", which is a mix of Combine technology, and the Human body. And that is how the OverWatch Transhuman Arm was formed.
The Combine's hope for the end result is too get as much information as possible out of the earth, then turn everyone either into a slave (Stalkers) or become a part of their army (OverWatch).
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So the Overwatch is made up of humans?
This was good to read, very detailed and showed how the HalfLife and Portal stories ran in parallel, which I had always wondered about.
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So the Overwatch is made up of humans?
This was good to read, very detailed and showed how the HalfLife and Portal stories ran in parallel, which I had always wondered about.
Yes, hence why it is called the Overwatch Transhuman Arm.
The basic overwatch unit is 50 percent human, 50 percent combine technology. This means OverWatch units will of course have no emotions or sense of control over their body, etc, but they do function similar to humans. Eg. they (probably) have eyes, ears, and all the other senses.
And yes it was helpful to me too when I first found it.
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Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.
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Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.
While it sounds like a good theory it actually has nothing to do with it. They were called Combine before they even started processing OverWatch.
In 2010 the Combine alien race invaded earth, and started turning densely populated areas into the cities. It wasn't until 2011, a year later, that the rise of the Combine OverWatch transhumans started.
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Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.
Actually, I believe the term Combine, relates to the Combine Empire, a COMBINATION of different superior races who could enslave and unite other species together and forming them together as the perfect super species. Thus, the Overwatch Transhuman, are augmented with the superior parts of other species and keep the parts that make them more suitable allowing for them to retain human shape and form, yet perform at the capabilities of much more advanced species.
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Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.
Actually, I believe the term Combine, relates to the Combine Empire, a COMBINATION of different superior races who could enslave and unite other species together and forming them together as the perfect super species. Thus, the Overwatch Transhuman, are augmented with the superior parts of other species and keep the parts that make them more suitable allowing for them to retain human shape and form, yet perform at the capabilities of much more advanced species.
Thats what it was. I couldnt remember. Lol.
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Hopefully the saga will become a trilogy in my lifetime, I want HL2 ep3.
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Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.
Actually, I believe the term Combine, relates to the Combine Empire, a COMBINATION of different superior races who could enslave and unite other species together and forming them together as the perfect super species. Thus, the Overwatch Transhuman, are augmented with the superior parts of other species and keep the parts that make them more suitable allowing for them to retain human shape and form, yet perform at the capabilities of much more advanced species.
Well Over watch isnt combined with other species as they are augmented with the Combine's technology made clear from the section of http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/expandedinfo.htm talking about the over watch. So think of over watch as ever changing to fit their landscape so ones for other planets are different to best suit the environment.
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I found this image interesting:
(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090528183253/half-life/en/images/3/32/Soldier_bed.jpg)
It shows the combine soldier memory replacement device, at first I thought the brainwashing thing was something made up by HL2RP servers but apparently it actually is a thing.
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I found this image interesting:
It shows the combine soldier memory replacement device, at first I thought the brainwashing thing was something made up by HL2RP servers but apparently it actually is a thing.
Thats an actual prop named props_combine\soldier_bed.mdl so its probably nothing more then a stasis unit.
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Damn, and I thought I knew everything regarding the HL2 Cannon already. This is both disappointing and great at the same time. Nevertheless, thanks for the great reading and source!
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Damn, and I thought I knew everything regarding the HL2 Cannon already. This is both disappointing and great at the same time. Nevertheless, thanks for the great reading and source!
I've been studying the HL2 canon since April 2011 and I still dont know everything. Sure I know almost everything but I dont know everything.
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I never thought of Overwatch to be humans. Thanks for the information.
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Damn, and I thought I knew everything regarding the HL2 Cannon already. This is both disappointing and great at the same time. Nevertheless, thanks for the great reading and source!
I've been studying the HL2 canon since April 2011 and I still dont know everything. Sure I know almost everything but I dont know everything.
That's the whole beauty of it. It's so complex and big, that even when you think you have mastered it, you still haven't.
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So the Overwatch is made up of humans?
This was good to read, very detailed and showed how the HalfLife and Portal stories ran in parallel, which I had always wondered about.
Agreed, I myself learned quite a bit.
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I never thought of Overwatch to be humans. Thanks for the information.
Don't mention it.
Damn, and I thought I knew everything regarding the HL2 Cannon already. This is both disappointing and great at the same time. Nevertheless, thanks for the great reading and source!
Pleasure to be of service.
I remember reading a "critic" review on gamespot about half-life 2 saying that it is "a fun game, but the storyline is lacking".
:v
Well, it's time to forget about that, because Half-Life 2 has arrived. And, in many ways, this big-budget sequel does what it sets out to do: Half-Life 2 is a technically amazing, sharply honed first-person shooter that pulls all the tricks that made Half-Life such a beloved experience. With that said, many of those tricks feel more than a bit familiar now, and the game itself is saddled with a disappointing story. Still, that doesn't stop Half-Life 2 from being a very impressive and engaging shooter, and a faithful follow-up to one of the greatest PC games of all time.
y u no play the game, gamespot!!!
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Well I lost hope in gamespot a long time ago, for the same reason that critic and others were written 8)
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Finally, some people think everything on that page is real. But one thing that confuses me is the dates of Portal. Other than that, I find the Gman theory very interesting from the author of that page.
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The thing is, how do people know all of this? I know newspapers and some props give a little hint of the past, but this is WAY too much information to dissolve in just 3 games (HL2, EP1, EP2) it just sounds like nerdstories
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A lot of the information is 'fan fiction' (not nerd stories) thats based off hl2 beta and decided through logical reasoning. No its not official but its what everyone goes by and thats that. Without this info, hl2rp gmod wide would be a huge shitshow of fighting over what did what and why.
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OHHHHHHHHH! Well that makes more sense. I always thought that everything in Half Life Saga Fiction was all conducted by the developers of the Half Life Continuum itself. Thanks a bunch for clearing this up for me.
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Haha, I'm proud to say that I already knew all of this, but it was still a great read to re-freshen my memory. Reading about half-life always makes me rediscover how epic it truly is.
Valve truly made a masterpiece.
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Skimmed through the thread, dunno if it's been mentioned, but
THEY DIDN'T KILL CHILDREN OR BABIES. THEY INVADED IN 200-, AND YOU PLAY HL2 IN 202-, WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE TWENTY-YEAR OLD LOOKING PEOPLE THERE?!
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Skimmed through the thread, dunno if it's been mentioned, but
THEY DIDN'T KILL CHILDREN OR BABIES. THEY INVADED IN 200-, AND YOU PLAY HL2 IN 202-, WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE TWENTY-YEAR OLD LOOKING PEOPLE THERE?!
You do realize they did,right? People under a certain age were amputated and could not be spared, for any reason.
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Skimmed through the thread, dunno if it's been mentioned, but
THEY DIDN'T KILL CHILDREN OR BABIES. THEY INVADED IN 200-, AND YOU PLAY HL2 IN 202-, WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE TWENTY-YEAR OLD LOOKING PEOPLE THERE?!
Christ, why do you guys always get the timeline wrong. According to our canon, the Combine invaded in 2015 and the RP takes place in 2016. It's simple as that, keep those two years in mind and you'll be fine.
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We must also remember those portal storms, I don't know about you but head crabs and other xen creatures materializing any where don't help those baby survival rates. Though we can assume it only really hampered them and couldn't really be a big dent in baby population lol.
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The Combine's ultimate purpose is to convert all of humanity into stalkers, and all of the vortigaunts into the slaves they were before Gordon freed them.More important minds are taken to Nova Prospekt, where they are stored in containment and experimented on - the Combine want to get as much knowledge out of humanity as they can before they destroy it. All of these things are leading to a drastic change in the purpose of humanity - it is about to become a slave race.
LMAO this shit is so wrong.
The whole point of the ration chemicals to cause memory loss is for humanity to eventually forget that the Combine invaded and defeated them in a 7 hour war to the point where they can be indoctrinated into the rest of the Universal Union/Combine, like all the other sentient races you've seen in Hl2 that have been modified with synthetic changes (eg striders and gunships are both organic creatures that have been extensively modified, much like overwatch soldiers)
Finally, the Combine begin to drain Earth's oceans. These tasks show that the Combine are preparing Earth for new residents.
actually its because its the valve team trying to be symbolic of the fact that the combine are drilling earth out of all its resources, including water xxxxxxxxxx
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Skimmed through the thread, dunno if it's been mentioned, but
THEY DIDN'T KILL CHILDREN OR BABIES. THEY INVADED IN 200-, AND YOU PLAY HL2 IN 202-, WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE TWENTY-YEAR OLD LOOKING PEOPLE THERE?!
Christ, why do you guys always get the timeline wrong. According to our canon, the Combine invaded in 2015 and the RP takes place in 2016. It's simple as that, keep those two years in mind and you'll be fine.
It's nothing to do with our canon, it's something people seem to think is part of the actual canon.
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The Combine's ultimate purpose is to convert all of humanity into stalkers, and all of the vortigaunts into the slaves they were before Gordon freed them.More important minds are taken to Nova Prospekt, where they are stored in containment and experimented on - the Combine want to get as much knowledge out of humanity as they can before they destroy it. All of these things are leading to a drastic change in the purpose of humanity - it is about to become a slave race.
LMAO this shit is so wrong.
The whole point of the ration chemicals to cause memory loss is for humanity to eventually forget that the Combine invaded and defeated them in a 7 hour war to the point where they can be indoctrinated into the rest of the Universal Union/Combine, like all the other sentient races you've seen in Hl2 that have been modified with synthetic changes (eg striders and gunships are both organic creatures that have been extensively modified, much like overwatch soldiers)
Finally, the Combine begin to drain Earth's oceans. These tasks show that the Combine are preparing Earth for new residents.
actually its because its the valve team trying to be symbolic of the fact that the combine are drilling earth out of all its resources, including water xxxxxxxxxx
well sir, this website shows the ACTUAL REAL HALF LIFE canon. not the skewered fucked up catalyst canon. so yes it is correct.
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Also, the only person in the entirety of Half-Life 2 to mention the memory loss is the guy in the trainstation, so that's probably not fact either.
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Skimmed through the thread, dunno if it's been mentioned, but
THEY DIDN'T KILL CHILDREN OR BABIES. THEY INVADED IN 200-, AND YOU PLAY HL2 IN 202-, WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE TWENTY-YEAR OLD LOOKING PEOPLE THERE?!
You do realize they did,right? People under a certain age were amputated and could not be spared, for any reason.
Do you mean in the CG Canon or the HL2 canon? If you mean CG, who cares, if you mean HL2, you've very, very wrong. Notice the people who look in their twenties. There is absolutely nothing to suggest all the children were amputated, bar that screaming at the swings, which just highlights the absence of children due to the supression field. The Combine would also have gained nothing but more problems from amputating children.
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Also, the only person in the entirety of Half-Life 2 to mention the memory loss is the guy in the trainstation, so that's probably not fact either.
That's because it's a video game, not a story book. The majority of people buy HL2 because they want to get a gun and shoot at things, not to listen to a story about aliens invading the earth. Valve focused Half-Life 2 on the shooting part, but still put a nice story in for the real fans.
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We should just make our own damn apocalypse oppression story and make a rp out of it. Anyone down? Im thinking one communist country taking control of the world with their military and putting humans into slave work like industries and some resistance groups in the wilderness. Not nuclear kill all life apocalypse. We could even incorperate some hunger games shit into it.
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Sounds like a good idea, Statua - I'd be willing to help out.
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@Statua: I was working on that for a while. I had some good ideas and code and shit but everyone I told seemed not the least bit interested.
@Psydog: Wrong. Half-Life 2 was very much designed to be rich in story, you can just very easily miss it. I've spent so long looking into it that the game has a very strong emotional impact on me and it's clear, and been stated before by Valve many times, that the story is definitely there, you just have to look for it. Everything that was done was done for a reason. Why do you think Half-Life 2 is regarded as one of the biggest masterpieces in modern gaming?