Why do the Combine need water?

[TheOneFreeMan]

It's been stated before that the Combine are systematically draining the Earth's oceans. We can see this in the highway chapters, with the receded coastline. The question is ... why? They obviously don't have too much interest in other resources, because areas such as White Forest which have natural resources aplenty seem relatively untouched by the Combine.

What need do they have for water?

 

[Mech Man]

It is possibly used in some of their machinery , maybe as coolant or something. It could even be used in construction as an "ingredient" to be combined with other things to make certain combine materials. As for other natural resources , where? All we saw in white forest was trees and rocks. I doubt the combine have much use for lumber as they appear to use metal plates and beams soley in construction. It has also been said before that the huge walls present in some areas that move outwards may be a way of harvesting resources to be recycled and used in construction (although I believe this was in the E3 demo and may not apply now).

 

[Polaris]

They've drained the Earth's oceans to acquire new land for mining.

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

They don't they just want ppl to die faster.

 

[Mech Man]

They don't they just want ppl to die faster.

That is retarded. They don't want to kill everyone just assimilate them into the Combine's ranks. They only want to crush any opposition and pressure more to join them (by killing , beatings etc) but killing everyone while they are still of use is the most anti-productive method they could possibly use.

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

That is retarded. They don't want to kill everyone just assimilate them into the Combine's ranks. They only want to crush any opposition and pressure more to join them (by killing) but killing everyone while they are still of use is the most anti-productive method they could possibly use.

Meh..

 

[kepler]

It has something to do with butt crabs.

 

[TheOneFreeMan]

As for other natural resources , where? All we saw in white forest was trees and rocks. I doubt the combine have much use for lumber as they appear to use metal plates and beams soley in construction.

The mountains surrounding White Forest must be teaming with useful metals which could be mined for resources. They certainly use a lot of metal ... where does it all come from?

 

[Mech Man]

The mountains surrounding White Forest must be teaming with useful metals which could be mined for resources. They certainly use a lot of metal ... where does it all come from?

Well I would guess that they have either already mined it or it was still waiting to be mined. And I assume the metal they use in construction is some sort of alloy using alien materials (and possibly / probably some terrestrial materials) as it does not resemble any commonly used Earth metals (to my understanding).

Edit : Actually it seems probable that the combine would strip mine the planet once they are finished with the inhabitants so you may be right in assuming there are still minerals about.

 

[Omnomnick]

Earth is a mineral rich planet, I imagine they would be harvesting water to other planets so they can use them there. Or to power facilities on other planets etc.

 

[Warped]

Who knows, maybe the Combine is a thirsty race. Makes sense

 

[ríomhaire]

One theory I've seen is that the portal storms syphoned off a large amout of the Earth's water to Xen.

 

[kupocake]

The problem with asking this is that there is little in the way of the in game confirmation that the Combine are taking water. Whilst the sea level has dropped (and really, it's hasn't that much) the game doesn't explain whether this is actually a consequence of harvesting water or whether it's a global or local environmental effect in the post cascade world. Perhaps the combine's machines have accelerated global warming to far beyond what humanity was ever capable of. Perhaps the Citadel's mining operations shunt enough rock to draw the water table down. Perhaps portal storms suck water to other dimensions. All these effects only need to be on a local scale if you consider that it's likely the game takes place next to the Black Sea, which is a smaller scale, inland sea.

The claims about the Combine harvesting water are only in the same places that you'll find descriptions of the world outside City 17 as a barren wasteland devoid of life. I doubt it'll be something that Valve ever mention again, or attempt to explain. More important fish to fry.

Also, someone else can make up a reference to "Combine" and "Watersports" because i'm too tired.

 

[Mech Man]

and really, it's hasn't that much

It kinda has , there are whole ships sitting on sand a good distance in land. Especially when you look at the area just after you get the buggy , look how high up the dock is , that should give you an estimation as to how much the water level has dropped.

 

[DireSloth]

It kinda has , there are whole ships sitting on sand a good distance in land. Especially when you look at the area just after you get the buggy , look how high up the dock is , that should give you an estimation as to how much the water level has dropped.

FYI, back in my hometown there is a wharf with a pier rising even higher than that from the water level. Docks that service particularly large ships are by necessity very tall.

 

[Mech Man]

Look at the Coast line and tell me if you think that is the case here.

 

[Maturin]

A ten foot drop across the entire Black Sea (I assume the Combine dammed the Bosporus is a massive amount of water.) Water is the ingredient of life on earth, and we can assume that it is offworld as well. It's an amazing substance that is the base for too much matter to be only useful on earth.

Anyways, Concerned's explanation that the Combine opened large portals just below sea level and moved the water directly to a dimensional holding tank is correct.

Because it's cool, if you were wondering.

 

[JBails]

Maybe they did it for fun whilst the human race slowy dies out...

Then along came Freeman...

 

[gFrohman]

It's for the Advisor toilets. C'mon, their poop must be ginormous...

 

[Adabiviak]

They're taking notes from "V".

 

[Mech Man]

It's for the Advisor toilets. C'mon, their poop must be ginormous...

I imagine advisor poop is always diarrhoea.

 

[gFrohman]

Lol. Too many burritos for them.

 

[Darkside55]

They're building a giant swimming pool in the Aleph universe.

 

[swan_song1973]

its prolly a mix of them: needing water for themselves, killing people, and mining.

 

[coheedswicked]

they may just be teraforming.... taking water from one area of the planet and moving it somewhere else (they also may be altering the landscapes in different ways elsewhere as well) to suit their needs. It may very well be a temperature related issue as water has a large effect on the temperature of the land mass near it. Less water, cooler temperatures or hotter temperatures depending on the latituide, but where city 17 is the temperature would drop. This could have something to do with the temperature preferences of the adviser race... it seems like the farther north we go the more we see and all the episode 3 concept art features them. The combine could be trying to cool large areas of the earth so that advisers can live comfortably (as opposed to in pods). But then again this is just purely speculation/

 

[bl4ckd0g]

It kinda has , there are whole ships sitting on sand a good distance in land.

you don't have much confidence with geography of places like normandy and cornwall, don't ya?

btw, seas in the HL2 world definitely has shrunk, but there is no clue during the game about Combine doing that purposely.
The best guess is the natural factor; Combine were supposed to change the climate with the Air Exchange. But Valve scrapped that concept... you have to accept that some design ideas are made just because of the coolness, and arrived to the point they were with the development when they dropped the Air Exchange, the dried sea was just part of the iconography of the world.

 

[Maestro]

My guess? Oceans got colder.

Ice cap expansion and the fact that water shrinks a small amount when it cools (which with the sheer volumes of water would easily lead to a drop like the one we see) could conceivably lead to such dramatic changes.

Moving water off-plant would be idiotic, though. Even the comparatively small changes of mass to the total mass of earth would modify our orbit which could lead to some serious ass-rape of the atmosphere which is bad for a planet you're turning into a troop-producer.

 

[bl4ckd0g]

I was going again through the Rising The Bar, in the Wasteland description they say they wanted Combine to pull away the sea with a portal, but they also say: "only the railway concept stayed, all the rest changed" so i think it's safe to say that the sea shrinking it's a matter of climate change (bare in mind combine wanted to change the atmosphere, that's why they were the masks). Expansion of the ice caps sounds nice, also because the worls isn't hotter in HL2 and because higher temperatures would melt the ice caps raising the sea level.

 

[Nixt]

Because Valve wants to literally **** with your mind.

 

[Maturin]

I was going again through the Rising The Bar, in the Wasteland description they say they wanted Combine to pull away the sea with a portal, but they also say: "only the railway concept stayed, all the rest changed" so i think it's safe to say that the sea shrinking it's a matter of climate change (bare in mind combine wanted to change the atmosphere, that's why they were the masks). Expansion of the ice caps sounds nice, also because the worls isn't hotter in HL2 and because higher temperatures would melt the ice caps raising the sea level.

The portal explanation wins out because the alternative is lame.

 

[6umm]

Water is composed of basic elements.
Elements are good for making things.

 

[Maturin]

Water is composed of basic elements.
Elements are good for making things.

Water doesn't have any special elements, but it's the building block of all Carbon-based life, and even Advisors have blood and veins.

 

[Is This Tea]

Water is composed of basic elements.
Elements are good for making things.

Yeah, Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe (75% of the the mass in the universe) and Oxygen, the third most abundant element.

 

[Maturin]

It's the best solute, though.

 

[amaranth]

Because they're big juicy grubs.

 

[TheOneFreeMan]

If anybody's still watching this thread, I found out why the idea of the Combine draining the oceans was so set in my mind.

In Raising the Bar and the leaked beta of '03, it says there were areas where it would be more obvious that the Combine were draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the Earth's atmosphere with noxious gas. Showing this stuff actually happening in the game was cut before release.

Interesting ...

 

[Schall]

1. It gives more land for harvesting minerals in the earth's crust.
2. It makes it hard for the rebels to flee an under-attack continent
3. It makes it harder for the rebels to live in general.
4. More land to make cities for the citizens and metrocops...

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I forget -- in the final version of the game is the ocean still ruled by a cloud of man-eating leeches?

 

[TheOneFreeMan]

1. It gives more land for harvesting minerals in the earth's crust.
2. It makes it hard for the rebels to flee an under-attack continent
3. It makes it harder for the rebels to live in general.
4. More land to make cities for the citizens and metrocops...

I'm not quite understanding the logic behind a couple of those, to be honest. More land makes it easier to flee; water is not easily traversable. Plus, why would they need more land for more cities? The population is being reduced, not increased.

Though the harvesting of minerals is a good point, and one I've read somewhere before (probably someone else speculating too).

I forget -- in the final version of the game is the ocean still ruled by a cloud of man-eating leeches?

It is.

 

[Schall]

Without water in the oceans, the sea floor would be just wet sand and dirt(I believe), and when it would which would be hard to run through. Also, what i meant by it being hard to flee, it would connect the continents, making anywhere you go accessible to for the combine.