THIS is City-17 right here

[The Mullinator]

What is City-17? Thats a question that we have not had an answer to. Until now. For anyone that has read my theory over on the "Combines - Angry Russians " thread. Anyway read this article and you will know what my theory was as to what City 17 might be. This is the article here in this article of Secret Russian Cities. So much of what is in the article applies to what we know of City-17 thus far, and it might even help to explain part of the story of HL2. The article even goes as far as to provide the names and links to some of these former secret cities(although non of the links I tried worked). Here are some of the more important paragraphs in the article...

In response to the immense challenge of the unfolding East-West arms race, Stalin decided to create dozens of centers of research and development excellence in the USSR. Some of these so-called "Naukograds" [Science Towns] were "Akademgorodok" [Academic Cities} devoted to basic research. Others were secret cities which were to provide the technical foundation for Soviet military technology - sputniks, long-range missiles, thermonuclear warheads of extreme yield. Among the work performed in such places were chemical, biological and nuclear weapons research and manufacturing, enrichment of plutonium, space research, and military intelligence work.

Such "secret cities" were known only by a postal code, identified with a name and a number. Originally, the number following the city was the distance in kilometers the facility was located from the city. In practice, the numbers were in some instances arbitrarily assigned, and changed from time to time, to obscure the actual location of the installation. Thus, the All-Russian Scientific and Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) was initially known as Arzamas-60, a postal code designation to show that it was 60 km from the city of Arzamas. But the "60" was considered too sensitive, and the number was changed to "16." In 1947 the entire city of Sarov (Arzamas-16) disappeared from all official Russian maps and statistical documents. The facility has also been known Moscow-300, the town of Kremlev, and Arzamas-75. Zlatoust-20 is probably the same as Zlatoust-36, and Kurchatov-21, Moscow-21, Moscow-400 and Semipalatinsk-121 are almost certainly the same as Semipalatinsk-16.

The "secret cities" share these characteristics, but they were separated from other urban areas, self-contained, and protected by fences and guard forces. The secret cities require a special permit for entrance, and are usually surrounded by a concrete wall. Personnel working in the Soviet nuclear complex were under heavy surveillance by the KGB, and underwent an intensive screening process, and their activities were closely monitored. Soviet-era control systems relied heavily on keeping personnel and materiel in secret cities and facilities, closely monitoring nuclear industry personnel, and severely punishing control violations.

that explains the wall surrounding City-17


Another article can be found here
This is a motherload of info on where HalfLife 2 will take place, please read it all and discuss.

EDIT: Thanks Jager for the Link

 

[Jagermeister]

Originally posted by The Mullinator
For anyone that has read my theory over on the "Combine, Crazy Russkies" thread (which I cannot seem to find anymore).

Here you go...

http://63.247.65.91/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=410

 

[LoneDeranger]

Thats all very interesting, but I doubt thats the case. Right now it seems like every other FPS involves killing Russians (usually with AK-47s) and blowing up their secret bases. Valve probably thought of something more original.

 

[urseus]

Its just....a made up city. It has bits from all european arcitecture. Its not real.

DEAL WITH IT.

 

[Bad^Hat]

They probably made it that way to cause arguments like these

Maybe it is an old secret russian city, that doesnt nessecarily mean the Combine are russkies...

 

[The Mullinator]

First of all I never said the Combines are Russian and I never said that City 17 is built or modeled after a real city. The concept of where it came from is what it is based on, and it is not a Russian city because the Soviet Union broke up long ago and if this was a research base then it may have gone with the breakup to become whatever European city it is now.

 

[Orion]

Holy Crap thats a long read.

For the longest time I thought that City-17 was a dumb name for a city, but after reading those articles it all makes sense now. Everything fits together.

Secret Russia research base, sounds alot like Black Mesa.

Maybe that has something to do with why you are in Europe.

 

[tokin]

sounds correct orion, another secret place just like black mesa was....lets just wait and see what HL2 has in stores for us, ive been playing HL one again and im like 40 minutes past the part when you blow the chopper up off the big dam bridge and with the nasty creature in the water. This game is still my #1 favorite SP game ever and i know valve will bring us all new feelings towards gaming and how we feel about it when HL2 is released....hopefully releasing TF2 with it.

 

[urseus]

Id say theyll release tf2 as an addon, like day of defeat 2.

 

[The Mullinator]

heh, finally someone that agrees with me, thanks Orion.

 

[tokin]

i agree too mullinator

 

[The Mullinator]

Whoops, im sorry. I extend my thanks too you as well Tokin. :cheers:

 

[Belisarius]

If you get the link about the city that has the number 17 in it, it is a city on the sea of japan that has a port and dismantled nuclear submarines lying all over the place. The only problem is that it isn't really in Europe.

 

[Yakuza]

yeah it probably is some exsisting city, I mean it's not like valve is creative or anything.

 

[Orion]

No im absolutly positive that Valve did not make City 17 after a city that already exists. They simply created a city that was supposedly one of these secret cities and gave it a name that has not was not used. After all it says in the article that there are many of these places that have still not been revealed and are still secret to the public. Whats to say that Valve didn't intend for City-17 to be like on of those.

 

[The Mullinator]

Originally posted by Orion
No im absolutly positive that Valve did not make City 17 after a city that already exists. They simply created a city that was supposedly one of these secret cities and gave it a name that has not was not used. After all it says in the article that there are many of these places that have still not been revealed and are still secret to the public. Whats to say that Valve didn't intend for City-17 to be like on of those.

That is exactly what ive been thinking. :afro:

 

[Sushi]

But if these cities are supposed to be so top secret, so that many still are unknown, how come the resistance was able to find one of these cities to stay in?

 

[The Mullinator]

Well the resistance doesn't exactly seem like the "public". I get the feeling they would be able to find out one way or another.

Besides, the original HL takes place a few years in the future, and HL2 takes place (maybe) 15 years after the original. Who knows what might have happened.

 

[Wesisapie]

WHO CARES, IT'S JUST A GAME. AND I LIKE GAMES AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY, BUT PICKING THE STORY APART WAY BEFORE THE GAME IS RELEASED, PATHETIC.

 

[Vertigo]

Originally posted by Wesisapie
WHO CARES, IT'S JUST A GAME. AND I LIKE GAMES AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY, BUT PICKING THE STORY APART WAY BEFORE THE GAME IS RELEASED, PATHETIC.

You might want to get a new keyboard. Your caps button seems to be stuck.

-Vert

 

[Wesisapie]

And you might want to stop using tired cliche responses.

 

[The Mullinator]

Originally posted by Wesisapie
WHO CARES, IT'S JUST A GAME. AND I LIKE GAMES AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY, BUT PICKING THE STORY APART WAY BEFORE THE GAME IS RELEASED, PATHETIC.

Please enlighten us as to why it is "pathetic". This is the HL2 general discussion forums, what is so bad about discussing what the story of HL2 is going to be.

 

[Vertigo]

Originally posted by Wesisapie
And you might want to stop using tired cliche responses.

No, actually, I don't. I'm very happy with my cliché responses, thank you.

-Vert

 

[Orion]

I found a map of the locations of 10 of these cities. And another article here http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/forasst/doe/closcity.htm

 

[votka]

That's an impressive theory Mullinator, and plausible

Although Valve have said that the city is more northern European based, and I suspect it could even be at Gordon's old university city (Innsbruck?) that is mentioned in the front of the HL manual.

The name City-17 might be a Combine code name similar to the Russian style of renaming cities, perhaps it is their seventeenth assimilated city, or maybe Valve didn't want to upset anyone by giving it a real city name

 

[The Mullinator]

Originally posted by votka
Although Valve have said that the city is more northern European based, and I suspect it could even be at Gordon's old university city (Innsbruck?) that is mentioned in the front of the HL manual.

Well I found this map which shows countries that were once part of the Soviet Union, but are now independant European countries. City-17 could be in one of those.

The pink colour is modern day Russia, while the other colours represent places that are now independant countries but were part of the USSR.