Half-Life and Portal series, general discussion (v6) - Games

[QUOTE=kariko;49068120]Does anyone here frequent thinkingwithportals.com mapping community? And if so do you know what's going on with their site? I was looking into BEEMod after a long time of not playing Portal 2 and of course with my luck, the place to download it seems to be acting up. [url]http://forums.thinkingwithportals.com/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=2781[/url] This is the download location but the site seems to load and then show nothing at all.[/QUOTE] try getting it throu this page [url]http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/-1/882957083795805701/?appid=620[/url] :)

[QUOTE=taz0;49068189]try getting it throu this page [url]http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/-1/882957083795805701/?appid=620[/url] :)[/QUOTE] Well I got BEE2 Version 4.0 working. I do want [url=http://teamspen210.github.io/tspenAddons/]TeamSpen210's BEE 2 Addons[/url] but they don't seem to be compatible with version 4.0, so I tried downloading the buggy and halted development version 2.2.5 but unfortunately it links me [url=http://portal2backstock.com/bee2/]here[/url] which then links me to [url=http://forums.thinkingwithportals.com/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=2781]this[/url] thread but the site is down. Is there some way to make these items work with the 4.0 version? I'd really love it. Whether or not it will work, version 4.0 is fine the way it is, and I thank you a ton for showing me these links!

you could look throu TeamSpens210 gitub page [url]https://github.com/TeamSpen210[/url] by you'll find some thing there :)

Has anyone ever emailed and gotten a response from anyone at Valve about the shotgun and how the secondary-fire is actually supposed to work?

[QUOTE=FloaterTWO;49071731]Has anyone ever emailed and gotten a response from anyone at Valve about the shotgun and how the secondary-fire is actually supposed to work?[/QUOTE] did anyone actually care

[QUOTE=Trekintosh;49068150]3d printed combine train[/QUOTE] I was wondering when someone was finally going to make a model of that! Something like that would look so bizarre on a model railroad.

[QUOTE=Callinstead;49071908]I was wondering when someone was finally going to make a model of that! Something like that would look so bizarre on a model railroad.[/QUOTE] That's one of the things I'm looking forwards to the most. The Razor Train helped to drive home just how much the Combine are in control. They've co-opted one of the most basic forms of transportation that helped build nations with this monstrous behemoth of a completely alien design. It was really awesome seeing it barrel past conventional human trains. I want to replicate that utterly alien yet familiar feeling of seeing that thing juxtaposed against a conventional railway. Speaking of, it's printing now, I'll post pics once it's done.

It's not from Valve, but one of the pieces of concept art that had the most impact on me, was the "Citadel Factory" [t]http://orig04.deviantart.net/5239/f/2010/286/d/c/hl2_city_16___citadel_factory_by_gausswerks-d30pcfv.jpg[/t] Think of how big the Citadel is, now imagine the superstructure that could house hundreds of them, and manufacture them; That puts best into scale how I imagine the combine.

[QUOTE=glitchvid;49075305]It's not from Valve, but one of the pieces of concept art that had the most impact on me, was the "Citadel Factory" [t]http://orig04.deviantart.net/5239/f/2010/286/d/c/hl2_city_16___citadel_factory_by_gausswerks-d30pcfv.jpg[/t] Think of how big the Citadel is, now imagine the superstructure that could house hundreds of them, and manufacture them; That puts best into scale how I imagine the combine.[/QUOTE] I don't like the idea of that citadel factory at all. It's just such a comically simplified concept for what they are portrayed as in the game, it comes over as a quick,poorly thought out explanation from a bad fanfiction and takes away from the idea that it's representing the pinnacle of combine achievement on earth technology wise.

[QUOTE=Lamarr;49075778]I don't like the idea of that citadel factory at all. It's just such a comically simplified concept for what they are portrayed as in the game, it comes over as a quick,poorly thought out explanation from a bad fanfiction and takes away from the idea that it's representing the pinnacle of combine achievement on earth technology wise.[/QUOTE] In the original story the Citadels appear to be "teleported" down onto the surface of the planet, so it makes sense to me that they'd have a number of them queued up when invading. I don't really know what you mean about it being some sort of poor fanfiction explanation. The Combine completely devastated earth in 7 hours, using all manner of technology, including teleporting in war machines. There are also multiple citadel looking objects on the other side of the portal at the end of HL2. So with that in mind, I fail to see why some superstructure that can manufacture them and hold them in queue takes away from their empire's achievements. I do however see how it could undermine the story of HL2, with power such as that what hope does Earth have of ever fighting back, even with the Vorts help.

[QUOTE=glitchvid;49075917] I do however see how it could undermine the story of HL2, with power such as that what hope does Earth have of ever fighting back, even with the Vorts help.[/QUOTE] This is what I was mainly getting at.One thing I liked about the combine in hl2 is that although they are generally more advanced , they were still limited and had their bounds which made them all the more believable. One of examples is that they still couldn't figure out their teleportation technology which Eli/Kleiner and generally Black Mesa and Aperture were strides ahead. The citadel factory seems to pushing their capability just a little bit for me.

[QUOTE=glitchvid;49075917]with power such as that what hope does Earth have of ever fighting back, even with the Vorts help.[/QUOTE] I kinda thought about how one of the possible endings to the HL2 story arc could be that the humanity somehow manages to make our universe permanently inaccessible for the combine, with the implication that all the other enslaved worlds cannot be helped. Maybe not a truly good ending, but somewhat realistic.

[QUOTE=Lamarr;49075992]This is what I was mainly getting at.One thing I liked about the combine in hl2 is that although they are generally more advanced , they were still limited and had their bounds which made them all the more believable. One of examples is that they still couldn't figure out their teleportation technology which Eli/Kleiner and generally Black Mesa and Aperture were strides ahead. The citadel factory seems to pushing their capability just a little bit for me.[/QUOTE] Hmm, yeah, I can see that. Though I still feel at least a little comfortable with the 'citadel factory''. In my head I justify it by thinking of the combine as prosperous because of the technology and species they integrate, their material prosperity is simply so vast because they've had a lot of time, and conquered a lot of species. Sort of like a communistic bureaucratic hell, marching on despite minor setbacks, willing to deal with massive loss and inefficiency because of how large they are. It'd be hard to pull off in game, so it makes total sense why Valve might choose a scaled back Combine representation. [editline]8th November 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=HGrunt;49076047]I kinda thought about how one of the possible endings to the HL2 story arc could be that the humanity somehow manages to make our universe permanently inaccessible for the combine, with the implication that all the other enslaved worlds cannot be helped. Maybe not a truly good ending, but somewhat realistic.[/QUOTE] I think a solution involving the Gman (and some explanation for them) would be preferable, if we ever see HL3.

hey guys look i made a crossover pic [t]http://orig10.deviantart.net/c8b3/f/2015/312/a/c/what_is_this_by_erkor-d9fyhb1.png[/T]

i remember hl2 :cry:

[QUOTE=HGrunt;49076047]I kinda thought about how one of the possible endings to the HL2 story arc could be that the humanity somehow manages to make our universe permanently inaccessible for the combine, with the implication that all the other enslaved worlds cannot be helped. Maybe not a truly good ending, but somewhat realistic.[/QUOTE]I'm pretty sure that's literally how the show Sliders ended. Fitting, considering all the other stuff Half-Life stole from it. [QUOTE=Lamarr;49075778]I don't like the idea of that citadel factory at all. It's just such a comically simplified concept for what they are portrayed as in the game, it comes over as a quick,poorly thought out explanation from a bad fanfiction and takes away from the idea that it's representing the pinnacle of combine achievement on earth technology wise.[/QUOTE]But don't you want to know how combine factories are made? (I'll give you a hint: it involves a bigger factory.)

[QUOTE=DONOTWANT;49078772]I'm pretty sure that's literally how the show Sliders ended. Fitting, considering all the other stuff Half-Life stole from it. But don't you want to know how combine factories are made? (I'll give you a hint: it involves a bigger factory.)[/QUOTE] And further and further we go, deeper into the rabbit hole...

[QUOTE=HGrunt;49076047]I kinda thought about how one of the possible endings to the HL2 story arc could be that the humanity somehow manages to make our universe permanently inaccessible for the combine, with the implication that all the other enslaved worlds cannot be helped. Maybe not a truly good ending, but somewhat realistic.[/QUOTE] I've always assumed that the Combine aren't actually capable of opening their own portals into new dimensions from their side, instead relying on the native population to somehow fuck up and tear open a rift which they then exploit.

Printer shat out something. [img]http://i.imgur.com/8Vm5mLi.jpg[/img] Scale's wrong and the roof collapsed. it's missing details but that's on purpose for print speed. I only made this one for scale testing. It's a little bit way too large so I'm scaling it down 10-20%.

[QUOTE=DONOTWANT;49078772]But don't you want to know how combine factories are made? (I'll give you a hint: it involves a bigger factory.)[/QUOTE] For some reason I really like the thought of the Combine just having bigger and bigger factories the farther you go. Works into the whole "the entirety of Earth is nothing compared to their empire" thing, as well as the more super-industrial than futuristic style of their technology.

[QUOTE=DONOTWANT;49078772]I'm pretty sure that's literally how the show Sliders ended. Fitting, considering all the other stuff Half-Life stole from it.[/QUOTE] I never saw Sliders, but to me it seems only logical that we cannot ever beat the Combine, only get rid of them and then hide. The only reason I could see us going to the Combine Overworld would be to somehow sabotage relays on their side so they cannot find us again.

[QUOTE=kariko;49068120]Does anyone here frequent thinkingwithportals.com mapping community? And if so do you know what's going on with their site? I was looking into BEEMod after a long time of not playing Portal 2 and of course with my luck, the place to download it seems to be acting up. [url]http://forums.thinkingwithportals.com/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=2781[/url] This is the download location but the site seems to load and then show nothing at all.[/QUOTE] BEEMOD 1.5 [URL="http://portal2backstock.com/bee/"]Hosted on GameFront[/URL]: New static palette of items (my personal fav version) BEE 2.2.5 [URL="http://portal2backstock.com/bee2/"]Hosted on TWP[/URL]: Dynamic palette creation. I stopped working on this a while ago, but TeamSpen210's addons make it worth using. TeamSpen210's Addons [URL="http://teamspen210.github.io/tspenAddons/"]Hosted on GitHub[/URL] BEE 2.4.0 Hosted on GitHub: Re-coded BEE2 in python, pretty much entirely re-coded by TeamSpen210 himself. Items are being added in more slowly, and methodically. We designed this version to be much easier to add your own items, with plans to GreenLight it so that people can share their own items and custom styles using the workshop. BEE2.4 Program [URL="https://github.com/BenVlodgi/BEE2.4/releases"]Hosted on GitHub[/URL] BEE2.4 Items [URL="https://github.com/BenVlodgi/BEE2.4/releases"]Hosted on GitHub[/URL] I guess this is as good a place as any to apologize for stopping BEE2 development, but I found that it was really difficult to develop a product that I myself didn't use. I did it originally for other people, but it just got more difficult as time went on. I also wanted to work on my other project Backstock, which slowed greatly in development. I hope the new versions of the BEE2 continue to get better, make sure you thank Teamspen210, because he has really done a fantastic job revitalizing the BEE2. [Edit] The best place to find info about the BEE2 is probably still this [URL="http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/-1/882957083795805701/?appid=620"]Steam Thread[/URL] which I did see someone else above share. As far as TWP, I messaged the owner of the site, it should be back up soon.

Perhaps the combine have a weakness and that is nukes? Maybe they haven't figured out how to defend against it... Plus you can literally vaporize anything with them... Maybe we end up finding a working missile, throw it through a teleporter at something important, and we end up never seeing them again as a result? Works into the whole "CANNOT B DEFETEDZ" but then it's a "Screw you, take this nasty surprise and don't follow us". I do wonder why they never launched any during the 7 hour war, they would have had lots of time... Edit: Woah okay, thought this was a legit question. There are plenty of areas they could shot them at but whatever. Why not launch any through the portals themselves?

[QUOTE=Kickin Balls;49086343]I do wonder why they never launched any during the 7 hour war, they would have had lots of time...[/QUOTE]that's a big assumption to make, considering we don't know the details of that little brawl

[QUOTE=Kickin Balls;49086343]I do wonder why they never launched any during the 7 hour war, they would have had lots of time...[/QUOTE] Fire them at what? Our own cities? After the Black Mesa Incident, the world was rocked by constant portal storms, which teleported hostile Xenian wildlife all over the place and caused damage to unsecured structures. Essentially think of the first few chapters of HL1, now picture that world wide. People began flocking to cities en masse for protection, and military forces were deployed to protect the cities from the ever-encroaching alien wildlife. Cities became fortresses guarded by their nation's respective militaries. When the Combine launched their invasion, the majority of Earth's civilized population lived in overcrowded cities, with the majority of their military strength set on patrolling and defending them. There was basically no where they could use a nuclear bomb, because they'd only blow up their own cities and their own armies in the process.

[QUOTE=Kickin Balls;49086343]Perhaps the combine have a weakness and that is nukes? Maybe they haven't figured out how to defend against it... Plus you can literally vaporize anything with them... Maybe we end up finding a working missile, throw it through a teleporter at something important, and we end up never seeing them again as a result? Works into the whole "CANNOT B DEFETEDZ" but then it's a "Screw you, take this nasty surprise and don't follow us". I do wonder why they never launched any during the 7 hour war, they would have had lots of time...[/QUOTE] That's almost literally the plot for the first Avengers movie

[QUOTE=_charon;49083348]For some reason I really like the thought of the Combine just having bigger and bigger factories the farther you go. Works into the whole "the entirety of Earth is nothing compared to their empire" thing, as well as the more super-industrial than futuristic style of their technology.[/QUOTE] Citadel factory factories.

[QUOTE=Kickin Balls;49086343] I do wonder why they never launched any during the 7 hour war, they would have had lots of time...[/QUOTE] It may seem like a lot of time, but in an actual war, every minute and second counts. First you'll need the confirmation that an actual attack is happening, next you'll need to determine if a nuke launch can be averted and then prepare the nuke for launch,by which it would've been too late. And let's not forget the travel time needed for them as well. Not to mention like what was stated above, Xen species had invaded Earth so civilians are more inclined to move to big cities. However, I would not rule out the possibilities that some nations were about to launch them and a nuke or ICBM might be hidden in some underground missile silo that's just as secretive as Area 51 and ready to launch but never got the confirmation to do so.

[url=http://www.moddb.com/mods/radiator/news/radiator-1-is-finished]Radiator got finished if anyone remembers it.[/url]

This mod was made by the same guy who made the game about masturbating a gay car, right?