about the citadel and some enemies of HL 2

Half-Life Series
#1

after replaying hl2, i still got questions:

  • at the chapter where Gordon infiltrates the Citadel, there was some kind of giant hammer thing at the base of the building. At first, I thought it was some sort of bombimg system (I don’t know if I used the correct word), but when I zommed in and used the crossbow’s scope, that hammers were actually hitting the ground itself. Is it a raw matterial collector, as the ever-expanding metal borders around the citadel and Nova Prospekt?
  • Also, there was those tubes with (I really don’t know) something inside. If it was a bombing system, there should be a movement on the tubes. what are being transported by them?

There are more questions, but I don’t remember now. I will edit this post when I get them.

ps: changing video configuration doesn’t solved the problem.

#2

The Citadel’s pounders are unexplained, but presumably used to scare away antlions from the city. And to make delicious flatbread.

#3

Those things are giant thumpers to keep the Antlions out of City 17.

EDIT::ninja:

#4

^This. Plus I also think that they’re used to balance the Citadel itself. Where you infiltrate it looks to be but a single “leg” of the Citadel, and given it’s so huge, I imagine there would be more, but given its immense height, I imagine that it would need to be balanced to stop it from simply toppling over into the city.

I want to know how the hell they got the Citadel there in the first place. Given the massive hole(s) it’s sat in, was it simply “dropped” in from the Combine homeworld? Or has it been built in situe?

#5

actually, that’s a pretty awesome idea. That they’re actually moving around to offset the natural sway resulting from it’s excessive height.

I also figured that their motion might in some way power the “eating wall” that surrounds the citadel. It’s constantly walking itself out wider as the combine apparently are mining out as they go.

#6

Oh so that’s what those walls are for. I could never figure it out. I just assumed the Combine used them for blocking access to increasingly larger areas of the city, for whatever reason.

I do like the idea that they simply dropped the Citadel into C17 from their own universe, imagine the science going into that. Not to mention the sheer awesomeness. :awesome:

#7

that’s my best guess. it explains why as soon as you get to the other side of those walls you see nothing except for a gigantic endlessly deep crater surrounding the combine citadel. It also fits with the combine philosophy of sucking every bit of useful material they can out of wherever they conquer.

#8

Actually, what you see is the whole thing. It’s actually a bit larger than it looks, though.

#9

? You confuse me. Are you saying you thought, that I thought, that the Citadel is made up of multiple parts? Nono, that’s not what I was saying. Hmmm, lemme see, how can I best explain… ASCII art I suppose.

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See what I mean? With the legs attatched to the side of the building, rather than a base the tower is sat on. That would just be unstable as hell, plus it could just slide off…

#10

I’m a bit skeptical about the whole antlion thumper idea. Alyx implied in Ep1 that antlions were kept out the city due to a supression field.

#11

Those moving pieces may be part of what keeps the suppression field running, or may be throwbacks to when the citadel was first being built. They didn’t have the suppression field set up immediately, and needed some big ass ant lion thumpers to keep the pests at bay until they could finish getting the citadel set up to broadcast the suppression field properly.

#12

But then why is it still going after the suppression field has been set up then? Maybe its task has been changed to something else? I thought that maybe it was just the citadel just mining downwards, and continuing to increase its size.

#13

^That’s actually a pretty awesome idea. Given it’s primary function seems to be the manufacture and storage of various Combine weapons and tech, that would actually make sense…

#14

In EP1 we see that the giant “thumpers” on the citadel are no longer working. Also, what else do you see in City17 in EP1? Antlions!

#15

so they are just a means of keeping the antlions out?? have to ask the developers XD

#16

Well, not ONLY, they also provided the beat for the mandatory biweekly City 17 dance-off.

#17

And what else did you do in HL2? Turn off the suppression field!

#18

sure you don’t mean the suppression device? the suppression field being destroyed was just a side effect of the citadel fusion reactor exploding.

#19

no, the fusion reactor didn’t explode until the end of Episode 1, the suppression field was down at the beginning of Episode 1. The explosion at the end of HL2 was the Combine Teleportation station blowing up.

#20

In the map those “hammers” are named “digger”. Also the Citadel goes deep underground, about 10000 HL-units (approx. 250 meters) below the bottom of the crater so there is hardly a problem with stability.

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