Significance of Highway 17

[okidoki]

Why are there combine all along it? Are they there to fight the rebels or because of Gordon? Are the rebels trying to protect it as a transportation route like the canals? Why would a highway from a small mining town (Ravenholm) to Nova Prospekt (or to the lighthouse at least) be so desirable? Are the rebels planning on attacking Nova Prospekt at some point? Alyx said she had driven the coast road before. What was she doing exactly?

Is that too many questions?

 

[Sam]

I think the coast was full of rebel outposts living in the houses you find. I think as you arrive, the combine have started attacking along the coast, following their attack on Black Mesa East. I'm not sure why all the rebels are hiding out there specifically - maybe the antlions are tasty?

 

[Megalomaniac]

You wanted to get to Nova Prospect and the fastest rout was Highway 17, here you met the antlions, you saw the ocean being drained, some of what the combine where doing, hell, you even saw the G-Man being stupid.

 

[Destroyer.Sam]

Valve needed to populate the level with enemies. The logical choice, Combine.

 

[Shinigami5587]

I agree with Sam-2k. I think the Rebels were using Highway 17 to hid out from the combine. They used the structures (lighthouse, houses, etc) as cover to protect from the Xenian lifeforms. Also they probably figured that the Antlions would derter any attack that the Combine might attempt. But when Gordon came, being a high priorty target they attacked. Savy?

 

[Asknoone]

As well as being alien infested wasteland, its also a great hideout area for the rebels. The Combine realized this and set up several outposts to stem the flow of wasteland refugees. It also helps them keep tabs on the antlion population - they wouldn't want them over-running Nova Prospekt.

 

[cquinn]

It also gave Valve an opportunity to showcase how vast an outdoor area
they could design in one level.

And as Megalomaniac said, it was an important aspect of the story to
show how much the world has changed (and give some more clues as to
where in the world you are) since the events at Black Mesa.

 

[ríomhaire]

The coast had a load of rebel bases like the canals. Remeber the bit about Civil Protection attacking all the rebel bases/manhacking them/shelling them. Overwatch were doing the same with the coast.

 

[knut]

The coast had a load of rebel bases like the canals. Remeber the bit about Civil Protection attacking all the rebel bases/manhacking them/shelling them. Overwatch were doing the same with the coast.

Yeah, and If I remember correctly, some of the houses along the coast had been shelled and were infected zones. I recall a house with poison headcrabs amd I think there was something nasty on the floor above me in one of the houses I went in to. I ran.

 

[Asknoone]

You are indeed right, TheBleeding. One house, the first you come across in fact, had been shelled.

 

[Sulkdodds]

It isn't a road running from Ravenholm to Nova Prospekt; it's the big motorway that runs right out of City-17 and elsewhere, to another city or somewhere else at least. You just happen to get onto it from near Ravenholm and to leave it near Nova Prospekt.

This is why the Combine guard it. What kind of evil oppressive all-controlling totalitarian authority are you if you're not covering all the main routes of transport? You've got to squash freedom of movement. You've got to make sure people can't just go from one place to another as they wish. You've also got to worry about supply lines; an army doesn't feed or equip itself. You've got razortrains, but sometimes you need to use road transport. In a world where horrible aliens roam all over the place feasting on stragglers and lost tourists, you need to make sure your routes of supply are well-guarded and not over-run bu headcrabs.

I would assume the rebels establish their bases along the coast because they need somewhere remote and it's too dangerous inland, and it allows access to the sea for smuggling operations etc.

 

[Lightice]

I don't think that anything moves on the Highway 17, anymore, apart from the rebels and the newly arrived Combine soldiers. The Combine obviously came down entirely in dropships, while the rebels used whatever means they had to get there. No ordinary traffic could run on a road that is blocked and broken in so many points and has hostile alien life all around.

All authorized civilian traffic goes by train and the Combine military make use of their helicopters.

 

[knut]

How did that APC get on the beach, though? The one near the thumper near the boatshed just a short way from Cubbage's (sp?) outpost. Little Oddessa, is it? Forgot, but whatever. The only thing I can think of is that it was dropped there by a Dropship. Not really much choice in direction to go with it, though. Unless it was dropped at that thumper as it was a safe landing zone from the Ant lions and it was going to head to the outpost. Seeing that the other thumper is prety close to the outpost a drop may of been a little risky there. I don't know. Just had me thinking the other day when I drove past it. (Well, I stopped, avoided the soldiers and turned off the thumper before I drove off anyway)

 

[r2000]

How did that APC get on the beach, though? The one near the thumper near the boatshed just a short way from Cubbage's (sp?) outpost. Little Oddessa, is it? Forgot, but whatever. The only thing I can think of is that it was dropped there by a Dropship. Not really much choice in direction to go with it, though. Unless it was dropped at that thumper as it was a safe landing zone from the Ant lions and it was going to head to the outpost. Seeing that the other thumper is prety close to the outpost a drop may of been a little risky there. I don't know. Just had me thinking the other day when I drove past it. (Well, I stopped, avoided the soldiers and turned off the thumper before I drove off anyway)

Are you talkin about the one on the ground by the bridge thats flipped? Cause I figured the driver probably lost control. We never really saw teh off road abilities of the Combine APC's unfortunately.

 

[knut]

Nah, not that one, its near the start of Highway 7. A boatshed, just before you get the rocket launcher. But yeah, I presume the APC near the crane and bridge probably came of the road or something. The soldiers were running away from it pretty desperately to get to the boardwalk.

 

[Barney_Calhoun]

Valve needed to populate the level with enemies. The logical choice, Combine.

Yeah, he got it right.