Citadel portal explosion: how big?

[verbose_mode]

I'd like to get the Community's idea of how big the citadel portal explosion at the end of the game is. I was thinking that maybe a group could do a machima movie of what the portal explosion would look like from the ground, and what the immediate aftermath would be. So post what you think the explosion would look like from various locations, and what the immediate physical aftermath would be.

If you find the poll options don't fit quite right, pick "other" and write it in your post.

 

[Combine Hybrid]

The explosion wiped out the entire City-17.

 

[DeusExMachina]

I don't think it could destroy the whole city. I'd say either half the citadel or the whole thing.

 

[Roland Deschain]

Nah, we're still gonna have expansions, so City 17 should still be around.

 

[theace55]

Maybe so big(beyond the dimensions of space) it was actually what slowed down time. Which makes me wonder, if time slows down wouldn't the light particles slow down too, but everything is still bright as day?

 

[Jintor]

Citadel goes BOOM, City 17 goes BOOM. Well, the middle of it, anyway.

 

[Epsi]

I would say the top half of the citadel would be completly vapourised, with the shockwave blasting the remaining half downwards and outwards.

The centre of City 17 would be completly decimated, and the rest of it would be pretty trashed up, but with a fairly high chance of survival if you were far enough away to dodge the secondard effects of the blast.

I like this scenario because it would look spectacular from ground-level, while allowing people to survive if they were far enough away. This is mainly because I want to see an expansion where you play as a metrocop.

You spend the first part of the game smacking down rebels, then the citadel goes up in smoke, and the tables turn, and the remaining metrocops and rebels have to work together to survive as antlions, zombies etc. start to invade the ruins of the city.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Perhaps, a few microseconds after exploding, the massive gravity of an uncontained singularity at the centre of it caused it to implode? Half of City 17 got sucked into a point no bigger than the head of a pin.

Well, it'd look cool anyways.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Pai-Mei]

Perhaps, a few microseconds after exploding, the massive gravity of an uncontained singularity at the centre of it caused it to implode? Half of City 17 got sucked into a point no bigger than the head of a pin.

Well, it'd look cool anyways.

Yeah... like a super large effect of the strider cannon.

But still, I think that the explosion would wipe out the citadel only, really, or at least most of it. I mean, it's a pretty damn adament structure. (Like the Adament tower of Mordor, now that I think about it.)

Alyx had the idea that if they ran fast enough they could escape it, maybe by hiding in the citadel, maybe by merely outrunning it. Plus, we want some expansion packs with Dr. Kliner, Barney, Dog, and Eli... there's no way that they can wipe out ALL of City 17. Although I guess that they could theoretically wipe out most of it and still make the case that everyone (save Alyx) survived.

 

[TopSpeeD]

i dont think the explosion will be THAT big to destroy all of city 17..only the citadel..include..ALYX!!

 

[caddy]

Yeah... like a super large effect of the strider cannon.

But still, I think that the explosion would wipe out the citadel only, really, or at least most of it. I mean, it's a pretty damn adament structure. (Like the Adament tower of Mordor, now that I think about it.)

Alyx had the idea that if they ran fast enough they could escape it, maybe by hiding in the citadel, maybe by merely outrunning it. Plus, we want some expansion packs with Dr. Kliner, Barney, Dog, and Eli... there's no way that they can wipe out ALL of City 17. Although I guess that they could theoretically wipe out most of it and still make the case that everyone (save Alyx) survived.

Afaik, they want to make expansion packs with Alyx. So she kinda has to survive.
One way to achieve this is that we assume a teleport field attracts matter close to it, depending on the "energetic strength" of the teleportation link. So, as the energy source of the explosion is pretty close to the teleport field, the following could happen: explosion starts, is partly sucked into the teleport field. Energy strength of link increases. More energy is sucked into the field. The explosion expands linear, but the absorption rate increases exponential. Well, the time-slow down at the end. Is it possible that it was not the work of the g-man, but something similar to the effect that took place earlier in the game (slow teleport). Basically, this is a massive super-teleport-device connected to an exploding power source. This means the teleport field could possibly expand into something that is not a teleportion field any more (possibly collapsing due to energetic overload at some point), but merely a temporal distortion, possibly with a virtual black hole in the center (with virtual I mean that it is stabilized merely by energy, not by matter - really much energy). So this time-distortion effect, if the strength of distortion is proportional to the distance from the ex-teleportation field, could allow Alyx to escape, as she could be relatively faster than the explosion. I'm not sure, but this could also mean that the force of the explosion is kind of spread over time, merely vaporizing the citadel instead of the whole of City 17.
Phew.
er ... can anyone point out any obvious mistakes, please?
Greez, caddy.

 

[happymushroom]

interesting idea. lol
but i like it, its wiked

 

[Jandor]

Afaik, they want to make expansion packs with Alyx. So she kinda has to survive.

They'll set the expansions before the events of HL2 or running alongside HL2, HL3 is for the events after HL2

 

[Asknoone]

Jus the very top of it, gone.

Afaik, they want to make expansion packs with Alyx. So she kinda has to survive.

Her expansions would be set before Half life 2, i asssure you.

 

[bliink]

ah.. i say it blows a hole into the quantum plane, obliterating most of the solar system in one big blast.

 

[Pai-Mei]

Phew.
er ... can anyone point out any obvious mistakes, please?

Lets see... since we're talking about 2 technologies that don't exist, in a universe that doesn't exist, in a GAME, much less... I'd say that you're theory is about as right as anyones.

Basically, you're saying that as the explosion ripples out, there is a teleport field that ripples out even faster, eating up the explosion before it can hurt anyone. Then, the teleport is fueled by the explosion and turns into a temporal distortion that affects time as well as space. I don't know how that happens to affect anyone around them, but hey, its your theory. And why don't we throw a black hole in there, too, while we're at it. And, I guess, with this made up black hole-time-warp-teleport-explosion thing, I guess you could also make the case that Alyx could escape.

IMHO, however, the only way Alyx is going to escape that thing is if the G-Man rescues her. And I could see that being the beginning of the next expansion pack... The explosion happens, and everything's going slow... and Gordon seems to be "frozen" and the G-Man comes out, talking to her, and she is teleported somewhere to start the game.

 

[pomegranate]

How big?
As big as your mum.

 

[Firefox]

The top section of the Citadel is blow sky high. But, it threatens the stability of the Citadel and the Citadel buckles under it's own weight. It takes a while, but it falls straight down.

I hate to use this example but the words escape me, it would fall down much like the WTC's did. One layer of it on the other.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Or, it tears a sideways hole through the dimensions, and suddenly, the forces of hell pour through the new portal.

Both the Combine and Humanity have to work together to fight off Cacodaemons and Imps.

Didn't anyone tell you? HL3 is going to be made in collaberation with Id Software...

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Asknoone]

......

I don't....i mean....look there has to be a....

*Shakes head in shame

*Throws self off cliff.

 

[FireCrack]

It turns into a supersie version of one of those combine rifle altfire balls and just hovers there, drifting downwards, endlessly consuming the citadel until it drifts into the earths core and finds a new home there.


But, oh no! this stopped the rotation of the core now they need to send a team of experts down with a nuke to restart it!!!!!


It's just too easy to make references to that usless movie

 

[Angry Lawyer]

We're going to have to find a brilliant young scientist, a french scientist, a female shuttle pilot for the first scientist to fall in love with, and an angry, sceptical older scientist, pack them into a subway train, and drill them into the Earth to detonate some nukes. The usual laws of physics don't apply as soon as subway trains begin drilling into the mantle, and the scientists will be able to walk in a region of heat great enough to turn you into ash in microseconds.

But... does it mean that any Combine with pacemakers will suddenly drop dead, and all manner of flying fowl will start crashing into things?

The mind wobbles.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Tim F]

That tower must take some serious juice to stabilize itself. I say the top blows off., putting out the lights. Ten seconds or so go by before the tower starts to sway slightly in the wind. Twenty and you can hear the popping and creaking as far out as Kleiner's lab. After a minute the tower leans too far in one direction, lets out a loud POP and becomes a falling object...in the opposite direction from wherever dog is standing. Because I want to play an expansion as dog.

 

[oTis]

i say it takes out half the citadel just based off the looks of the explosion you see before G-man freezes time

 

[justmatt]

Doesn't Breen say something as you're destroying the core? Something about "Don't you realize what you're doing?!?! You're going to cause a ___________!!!". I can't remember what he says, but he says something I'm pretty sure. Would someone go replay the level? (I would but I'm at work)

 

[lasagne]

dude i just had a revalation!!! what if gman talks to alyx just like and she get saved too, omg.

 

[Pai-Mei]

lasagne:

dude i just had a revalation!!! what if gman talks to alyx just like and she get saved too, omg.

Holy shit! I only posted that 6 hours before you did.

Pai-Mei (i.e. me)

IMHO, however, the only way Alyx is going to escape that thing is if the G-Man rescues her. And I could see that being the beginning of the next expansion pack... The explosion happens, and everything's going slow... and Gordon seems to be "frozen" and the G-Man comes out, talking to her, and she is teleported somewhere to start the game.

 

[verbose_mode]

My take on the Citadel explosion and what happens right after.

(I would have posted this earlier, but HL2.net decided to stop working right when I finished, and I really couldn't stick around and wait for it to come back up.)

My thoughts on the portal explosion is that it is partially an explosion, but is also an uncontrolled teleport portal. So it would explode, and at the same time the portal would blast out along a random number of dimentions, taking in a large part of the force of the blast. The dark fusion reactor and the top of the Citadel would blow apart, microseconds before being pulled into the unstable portal and smeared across who-knows-where as subatomic particles and energy. With no more energy to fuel it the portal closes and those parts of the top of the Citadel that were not vaporized crash to the ground.

The force of the blast travels down through the Citadel, all the way to the bottom and into the earth, cracking the ground and causing a minor tremor in the center of City 17. On its way down the Citadel the shockwave causes massive damage to anyone and anything caught within its walls. Without the power of the dark fusion generator, containment fields fail all over the Citadel, loosing plasma spheres to disintigrate everything in their way. The very walls start to fracture and break, as the anti-gravity and inertia dampening forces fade, and weight takes over again.

Seams start to open along the outside of the Citadel, first at the top, where the blast force and loss of power started, then lower and lower. Narrow black lines trace down the massive structure, all the way to the bottom, then stop. Flashes of light and strange sounds spill out of the larger gaps for a few seconds.

Then, like a glacer breaking, great chunks of the Citadel fall outward from the top, sliding across one another with a metallic screeching, bouncing off the outside walls and careening into the center of the city. The rest of the Citadel follows suit in a great blossom of metal blocks and alien tubing.

A megaton of Combine technology smashes into the ground from a three mile high starting point, creating a second tremor throughout City 17. All that was near the Citadel is now buried under a mountain of twisted metal. Many ruins that were close to falling down are flattened by the tremors. Everything else manages to hold together, with only some damage.

That's my thoughts on what happens to the Citadel right after the explosion. Feel free to respond, criticize, whatever.

 

[ríomhaire]

Alyx "I think the portal exploded as we were going through"
Kliener "That it did and the reprucsions were felt far and wide"
That was a dinky portal while Breens was GYNORMOUS. Do the math.
...ok I'll do the damn math...
...carry the 2...
...by x...
...done...
...oh s**t.

 

[cabbs]

When you are at the top of the citadel, chucking ping pong balls at the Dark Fusion Reactor, Dr Breen says

"Dont you realise what your doing?! You'll destroy this entire citadel! think of the people below!"

Dr Breen, being a scientist himself, probably knows the extent of the damage that the Dark Fusion Reactor could cause. Im guessing that the ping pong balls are dark matter projectiles, produced/used by the reactor, the explosion will blow the rubble of the citadel outwards and downwards, to the city below.

 

[ríomhaire]

The "ping-pong" balls are power cores.

 

[Epsi]

I got the feeling the repercusions of the Nova Prospekt blast were metaphorical.

It proved the Combine could be fought, and beated, and thereby signalled the uprising.

 

[happymushroom]

thats a good theory actually. proving to the repressed humans that the combine could be taken on and defeated by two people, neither with a military background, one a physist and the other a scientist daughter, proved that anything could be done.

Prehaps not all the citizens of city 17 had heard about Gordon's return, and as he seems to be a cult hero, hearing that he had struck a major blow to the combine would surely spark the rebelion???

just a thought

 

[Jus]

The whole citadel goes kaboom. Gman rounds up everyone that is necessary for his cause and places them in places they need to be (Gordon in stasis, Alyx outside the blast radius, etc) since he can manipulate time. Anyone close to the blast that is not important to his cause is killed.

If there is a being that can move through time and space, one can only assume that time and space are manipulated as they see fit.

 

[baron insig]

it is actually a massive implosion as when the explosion begins it is exploding but happens like big bang big crunch jus tuber fast ina smaller area, then it goes all crazy and dlows a hole and creates a permanent worm hoel to the other planet, then a dumbass vortiguant steps thru fall t its death and war begins again!!!

 

[Asknoone]

since he can manipulate time

You say that like he can, when i honestly do not think he can. Its most likely the singularity collapse, because thats what they do, stop time.

 

[Reaper-X]

You spend the first part of the game smacking down rebels, then the citadel goes up in smoke, and the tables turn, and the remaining metrocops and rebels have to work together to survive as antlions, zombies etc. start to invade the ruins of the city.

Just read this and got to thinking; If the citadel was destroyed does this mean the brainwashing (let's say it's using some sort of mind contol device) that the metrocops have to go through will stop working? They could regain their normal human thoughts/emotions and retain their combine implants? Then they could fight alongside the humans.

 

[verbose_mode]

(Thread topic's wandering a bit... Remember its about the Citadel explosion and its immediate (less than 10 minutes after) physical effects.)

A couple of things to think about when making your post: how far does the dark fusion reactor extend from the top of the Citadel?What things does the reactor actually power?

If it extends all the way down to however far the base of the Citadel is from the top, then the explosion would be enough to leave a good sized crater in the Earth and level City 17. This is, of course, assuming that a dark fusion reactor explosion works something like a nuke going off, and the force isn't siphoned off somewhere else, or spread across multiple dimentions, or some other weird thing.

Another option would be the reactor is at the top of the Citadel because it only supplies power to the Combine portal generator. When it explodes the rest of the Citadel still has power from other sources, assuming the explosion doesn't smash the structure to pieces or vaporize the city.

Yet a third choice is that the dark fusion reactor isn't the source of the explosion, but that it is in fact the portal and/or portal generator that is exploding, or doing something that looks like it's exploding but is really something different. If it's the portal or portal generator that is exploding and/or suffering catastrophic failure, then all sorts of other weird teleportation/cross-dimentional/matter anihilation/etc. stuff can happen.

How about a unstable "portal storm" caused by the catastrophic portal generator failure, pulling random people, places and things from the Citadel and City 17 across into other worlds and dimentions, perhaps intact, perhaps not, perhaps something between the two. A runaway portal might even dump a good chunk of the Citadel into whatever destination world Breen was headed for, in the form of basic sub-atomic particles and radiation, similar to a bunch of fusion bombs going off.

Man, with that unstable portal in play we can say all sorts of crazyness can happen! Time travel, wide area teleportation, the sky's the limit here, folks!

 

[Dan]

Maybe so big(beyond the dimensions of space) it was actually what slowed down time. Which makes me wonder, if time slows down wouldn't the light particles slow down too, but everything is still bright as day?

You need to read up on your relativity. Speed of light changes for noone, no matter how slow time is going.

 

[azz0r]

I think itll explode all the way down and then collapse down