Marines on Xen????

[esplin]

Hey guys, for those of you who didn't read the Race-X thread ill just say hello to you all now and save time.

Now I for one have been bothered by this particular part of half-life for a very long time. There's absolutely no reason for the marines to be on xen as far as I can tell, yet the G-man shows them to you. However, I do have two specific questions that I want to bring up for everyone.

1. Why exactly would the G-man show you a bunch of Marines are on Xen? Is he showing how exactly he took over xen? Not likely considering that all the marines are dead. It just seems weird that the G-man would just show Gordon that the marines are on Xen, but then again the G-man is weird, so.

2. "Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there, I am impressed."
This has always irked me for some reason. Why is the G-man refering to Xen as "there" when you are infact standing in Xen. Is the skybox just messed up and it is really supposed to be Earth? If thats true then why is the G-man showing you these dead marines and talking about the conquest of Xen.
So those are my questions, if anyone has some super secret e-mails from valve or some crazy theory about radioactive monkeys leading a military coup then discuss. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

 

[ríomhaire]

1. Whether or not that is Xen is questionable. I think that it was the portal storms at its strongest. Or it was supposed to be Earth normaly and the Quake engine cannot change skybox mid-map.

2. Maybe he ment in specificaly in Nihilanth's Chamber or that little inconsistancy was never noticed by Valve.

 

[Llama]

Or maybe they, like Aliens from Xen, were simply plucked from their world and stuck on Xen

 

[esplin]

Wow, thanks for posting so fast, when I first signed on I was a little afraid that the board was dead.

Your second point may very well be true. I never thought about him refering specifically to the Nihilanth chamber.
However, I'm fairly certain the skybox was correct because they didn't change it in Half-Life Source. They added a new fighter jet for the cliff sequence and altered the Alien Grunt model. If the skybox was wrong then I'm sure they would have changed it in HL:Source

 

[$kelet0r]

i havent played that part in ages
post a screenshot of the soldiers - i remember a big crater and tank traps as well - what was with that? - but what was the ground, sand or xen?

 

[ríomhaire]

The ground was sand. And I would like to see apic of this fighter and altered A grunt.

 

[esplin]

I'll see if I can find a picture, the ground was sand, though, not "Xen" ground

 

[Langolier]

We saw a few places in HL towards the end of Surface Tension that had Xenian growths... I always figured that the piece of land you saw was a chunk of Earth that had been sucked over to Xen.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

We saw a few places in HL towards the end of Surface Tension that had Xenian growths... I always figured that the piece of land you saw was a chunk of Earth that had been sucked over to Xen.

That's what I was thinking.

Another good explanation is that, like Shephard, these are other soldiers who were sent by G to kill nihilanth and failed.

Antlions show that xen probably has sandy parts anywho.

 

[ríomhaire]

Xen sky with sand
Possible antlion thumpers on non-sand

 

[Angry Lawyer]

That's nowhere near being a thumper. Those things don't shake the ground at all, even though several entities in HL1 are able to shake the ground.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[ríomhaire]

That's nowhere near being a thumper. Those things don't shake the ground at all, even though several entities in HL1 are able to shake the ground.

-Angry Lawyer

I don't think they are either actualy but some people think they are. I'd say they're mineral drills.

I'm surprised you didn't post that pic, you know the one I'm talking about.

 

[chimpmunk]

I don't think they are either actualy but some people think they are. I'd say they're mineral drills.

I'm surprised you didn't post that pic, you know the one I'm talking about.

I always thought those were mining drills, too. But after thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense that they are thumpers to protect them fron the antlions.

I've always thought those "strange machines" looked like viruses.
I forgot wich virus it is (I think it's the flu), but just look and compare:

EDIT:
Also, these "drills" work like viruses, for anyone who doesn't know, viruses "drill" themselves into living cells to insert their DNA, thus the cell now produces more viruses who will begin the same cycle again.
This could lead up to a lot of speculation. Were the combine or the xenians "virusing" xen? Somehow "terraforming" it?

 

[ríomhaire]

I always thought those were mining drills, too. But after thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense that they are thumpers to protect them fron the antlions.

I've always thought those "strange machines" looked like viruses.
I forgot wich virus it is (I think it's the flu), but just look and compare:


EDIT:
Also, these "drills" work like viruses, for anyone who doesn't know, viruses "drill" themselves into living cells to insert their DNA, thus the cell now produces more viruses who will begin the same cycle again.
This could lead up to a lot of speculation. Were the combine or the xenians "virusing" xen? Somehow "terraforming" it?[/QUOTE]
Well, I can see why they would want to terraform it. They probably have system of holding groups of platforms together and also making larger ones.

 

[chimpmunk]

Thus, those drills would be like automated machines "infecting" (as a virus would do) xen to make it more suitable for its inhabitants (as the vortigaunts, grunts and controllers are not originally from xen).

 

[Angry Lawyer]

I don't think they are either actualy but some people think they are. I'd say they're mineral drills.

I'm surprised you didn't post that pic, you know the one I'm talking about.

The rocks are a little small for Antlions to make thumpers viable (considering that the vibrations would only transmit through the rock, I doubt they exist on the smaller rocks of Xen.

And I lost the picture For those who don't know, the picture is of a scientific instrument used for hitting the floor - proof that not everything that hits/burrows in a fixed position is Combine/used for scaring antlions.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

In Opposing Force you can see many spots that have gone from Earth to Xen ground. This ground included Xen Plants and Trees. So, it's more likely that a small part of Xen teleported and grew and spread. So, whos to say that some random portal sends a platoon of marines to Xen? Along with whatever there standing on.....

 

[Llama]

If you mean the observation areas in Vicarious Reality, then It's more likely those sections were replicated by the scientists and the Xen Fauna taken there to be studied

 

[James T]

I recall a sizeable chunk of a Black Mesa lab being suspended in midair on Xen, containing a writhing headcrab zombie seated on a chair -- I believe that was in OpFor; so -- although OpFor isn't canonical -- it could be taken that pieces of Black Mesa and its surrounds did get transferred to Xen.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

No more towards the beginning where you first see the new mutation stage of the headcran zombie. It was in like some furnace with these flame pipe or whatever...

Hey James did you noclip to get there? Because that sounds more like a glitch...

 

[ríomhaire]

although OpFor isn't canonical

Yes it f*cking well is. And are you sure that wasn't a mod or something? I think I would have remembered something like that.

 

[Que-Ever]

The twitching zombie was at the very beginnign of half-life, right after the resonance cascade...
AngryLawyer, when you were talking of non-combine thumpers, were you thinking of pile drivers?

 

[Langolier]

He is thinking of a Mod, yes. He's thinking of the one where you play as a janitor. I can't recall the name. It's actually a very fun experience with some very interesting maps.

 

[James T]

Ohhhh, the janitor mod, of course!

Heh, sorry about that...

 

[little.rebel]

Hey guys, for those of you who didn't read the Race-X thread ill just say hello to you all now and save time.

Now I for one have been bothered by this particular part of half-life for a very long time. There's absolutely no reason for the marines to be on xen as far as I can tell, yet the G-man shows them to you. However, I do have two specific questions that I want to bring up for everyone.

1. Why exactly would the G-man show you a bunch of Marines are on Xen? Is he showing how exactly he took over xen? Not likely considering that all the marines are dead. It just seems weird that the G-man would just show Gordon that the marines are on Xen, but then again the G-man is weird, so.

2. "Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there, I am impressed."
This has always irked me for some reason. Why is the G-man refering to Xen as "there" when you are infact standing in Xen. Is the skybox just messed up and it is really supposed to be Earth? If thats true then why is the G-man showing you these dead marines and talking about the conquest of Xen.
So those are my questions, if anyone has some super secret e-mails from valve or some crazy theory about radioactive monkeys leading a military coup then discuss. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

LOOK at the the ground.!!
You are on earth
Its new mexico desert sand your standing on.

does that little bit make sense now??

 

[little.rebel]

That's what I was thinking.

Another good explanation is that, like Shephard, these are other soldiers who were sent by G to kill nihilanth and failed.

Antlions show that xen probably has sandy parts anywho.

omg........

shephard was never sent to kill nihilanth, only freeman was...

The patch of ground is of the newmexico desert and ON EARTH, the sky is messed up because its the portalstorm , not xen. You do however teleport to xen and around xen.

There are dead marines and a few tank traps and a tank on fire, obviousl all killed by fighting, or the effects of the portal storm.

And antlions are another race they are not from xen. Most of xen is rock and floaty bits. they cannt live there. MEcha, with all the tme u spend here u should know better

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

LOOK at the the ground.!!
You are on earth
Its new mexico desert sand your standing on.

does that little bit make sense now??

Ah yes Earth....famous for it's freaky sci-fi sounds and it's bacteria infested atmosphere.

 

[Eejit]

omg........

shephard was never sent to kill nihilanth, only freeman was...

The patch of ground is of the newmexico desert and ON EARTH, the sky is messed up because its the portalstorm , not xen. You do however teleport to xen and around xen.

There are dead marines and a few tank traps and a tank on fire, obviousl all killed by fighting, or the effects of the portal storm.

And antlions are another race they are not from xen. Most of xen is rock and floaty bits. they cannt live there. MEcha, with all the tme u spend here u should know better

True shephard wasn't sent to kill nihilanth, but it shows that the Gman did use soldiers.

It could be on earth, I find it more likely that it's a piece of earth teleported to xen, since the reverse is seen to happen.
Marines, well yes. They were killed by fighting. I wish we'd realised that, I suppose the large amounts of blood should have tipped us off.

We only see a few part of Xen. There could easily be areas large enough for antlions to live on. If they aren't from Xen where are they from? Do you think the combine take them with them when they invade new worlds, for, like, target practice, y'know?

 

[esplin]

I'm enjoying the debate guys you all have very unique opinions, not all good but....
I think I'm going to e-mail Marc Laidlaw about this, he won't tell us exactly why the marines are there, but he'll atleast tell us if the skybox is wrong, or portals, or whatever else.

Does anyone know his e-mail address?
PS- I accidently posted this in the combine versus xen thread, if its still there when you read this ignore it

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Saying that the Antlions can't be from Xen because you don't see a major landmass is like saying Polar Bears can't be from Earth if you've only ever seen the Sahara Desert.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Max35]

Saying that the Antlions can't be from Xen because you don't see a major landmass is like saying Polar Bears can't be from Earth if you've only ever seen the Sahara Desert.

-Angry Lawyer

And I'm sure Valve's vision of Xen has changed from the HL1 days. I think they even admitted it was the part of the game they rushed due to time constraints.

Edit: And I'm pretty sure Race x *is* out of the question.