What do you mean?
Also, Stormseekerâs website is back up, as well as https://onboarderror.com/.
I also checked /thepizzaisalie, and there doesnât to be anything new. 
I donât know if this is of any importance but if you take a look at the BMRF.us source code you can see that it will redirect you to âhttps://store.steampowered.com/app/362890?unforeseen-consequencesâ after the video is over.
Now what is strange about this link?
Normally, it would be enough to just write the Steam-store link like this: âhttps://store.steampowered.com/app/362890â. But in our case theres the â?unforeseen-consequencesâ after the normal link even though this doesnât have any effect on the Steam-store page.
Maybe Storm wanted to tell us that we should look deeper in the âUnforseen Consequencesâ level in the Black Mesa Steam release?
Yeah that was one of the first ones found(maybe the first?) I think.
EDIT:
Update: I got home and checked, and maybe this jenn0 person has more to do than we think(maybe). After a quick googling, I found a(surprise!) Black Mesa dev steam, Jenn0_Bing, and if you scroll the the comments, Storm posted a comment demanding him for QE textures in comical fashion, so we know this person worked closely with Storm. Also, I did find a texture in the files of BMS, qe_jenn0desk.
This has most likely been noted before Iâm sure, but it is interesting. Also, the personâs website can be checked out here, but it seems like nothing is hidden really.
Jenn0 was discovered back in 2012. If you search the name youâll get multiple hits.
Little something in On a Rail. Bear with me for a minuteâŚ
[spoiler]
The red dot on this map in this screen is supposed to represent Black Mesa, right? Note the location of where it is in New Mexico.
Using Google Maps, I note that White Sands Missile Range and Holloman AFB are not too far away from BMRF, noting the practicality of using them as an âsecondary siteâ for the HALOS project.
Unfortunately, thereâs little else we can do to narrow down the location of either BMRF or the HALOS facility in WSMRâŚ
[/spoiler]
[spoiler]âŚbutâŚ
Using the approximate placement of that red dot, one can see that the closest landmarks to that marked location is a set of towns along a highway.
Interesting that one of those town names isâŚ[/spoiler]
âŚTruth or (Unforeseen) Consequences.
I actually noticed that after watching the Doctor Who episode Recently. Also i remember someone finding a Grid Reference on a computer, in the room where you launch the rocket. That was also around the same place as where the other two locations we had where given. So it possible that its used mainly for the location for BMRF. Could it also be a extra point for Triangulation?
I think youâre talking about what I found awhile back too. A little bit after that someone triangulated the two we got from IRC clues and the one I posted about and got a point right by WSMR and HAFB. Maybe HALOS was loaded onto the sattalite that we launch in OAR? Or maybe HALOS is the sattelite? Also something I want to say, on Surface Tension, when youâre on the cliffside, has anyone thought that the buildings in the distance that get bombed on the map could be HAFB? I have screenshots on my computer I think, so Iâll post them later to show what I mean when I get home in a bit. I mean, the facility is directly viewable from Dr. Hornâs shack too even.
Maybe HALOS uploaded itself / physically snuck onto the rocket?
Also had the thought. There are practical reasons to have a military base nearby â to keep the HECU nearby in case of containment breach, for example â but thereâs the blatantly obvious question related to this: If the military was sent to cover up the Black Mesa shenanigans, why did two jet fighters bomb HAFB? (if it is HAFB, that is.)
So the other question would be⌠what location was bombed?
[spoiler]
Someone smell fish around here?
In all seriousness, the thought that HALOS is a rogue autonomous weapon has crossed my mind before. With the fact that we find this jet on Dr Hornâs desk and that very odd jet.ogg file, and the fact that Dr Horn was also working on a giant fucking laser that blew right through a giant brick wall, the weapon idea seems not too far off or out of theme really; remember, these are questionable ethics, such as the topic of autonomous weaponry. Then again, this can be just wild speculation, such as everything in this cluster of an ARG.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler]
The building, you can see multiple military helicopters in the front of the main building, and that storage house(I think) right on the river. Given the odd details that a normal person wouldnât notice while playing, there has to be significance to it. Did we miss dialogue? Does anybody know the text file for the gameâs subtitles so I can go through them to see if there was any reference to this.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler]
I would also like to point out the fact that there are two radio towers right by the bombed buildings. Maybe those have relevance?
[/spoiler]
Also we need to ask âWhat exactly is the military involvement in this storyline?â Given this and the fact WSMR and HAFB are referenced multiple times, we also look over the fact that the qecode room has âDIE FREEMANâ written on the walls; thatâs something that the soldiers write, right?
That is something that soldiers also wrote, but in this case, I believe it wasnât the soldiers who wrote in qe room, but dr. Welsh (or whoever was opposing dr. Horn).
Perhaps the point of the DIE FREEMAN doodad in the QE Room was to attract attention to its presence in that chapter. Someone going through the assets would see âwait a second, DIE FREEMAN in QE? where exactly?â and then thereâs a room with a bunch of weird stuff (that happens to be ARG related).
Maybe thereâs no significance there, maybe there is. Who can we ask for definite answers? Storm. Is he answering many questions to help us along the way? No.
I would not want to play D&D with this guy if he were the GM. Heâd expect us to come up with our own scenarios, and stay mostly silent. Hmm.
Yeah, but the thing is that why would Welsh have a grudge against Freeman specifically? I always thought the DIE FREEMAN was symbolic of the grunts, who do have a reason to not like Freeman at all.
If that was so, I think Storm wouldâve taken it out of the room. Also, the radio in there is identical to the military radios. Given the obsessive detail Storm has put into this, I would think he would have created a different texture than DIE FREEMAN or a different model for that qecode radio if he didnât want us at least speculating about the militaryâs involvement.
puts on tinfoil hat
or maybe halos is illuminati >spooky< =O [/size]
From a developerâs standpoint, itâs more work (and more data, larger filesize, etc.) to include a new model/texture/sprite/whatever for one room/scene/event/instance than to re-use/re-purpose another texture. But it would indeed be intriguing for the military or the HECU to have some sort of involvement with the HALOS mystery.
So this brings to mind a question that I believe was asked long ago but to which we still havenât nailed down an answer:
What was the purpose of constructing this HALOS entity? Is it an AI? If so, what would it be used for?
And is it possible that its creation was commissioned by the military? If so, what for?
Technically, it is more work, but it wouldnât be that bad. Creating the image would be the most time consumingâplacing it in the game wouldnât be that hard at all. All you really have to do is create a plane, affix the image and then place that plane in the game. Or you can simply affix the texture to an existing game object. This is even easier when you donât have to add a bump map, animation(s), or affix any other variables to the image. Iâm not, however, saying that I disagree with your assessment of the use of âDIE FREEMANâ in the chapter.
Which reminds me. So weâve been seeing these âThe pizza is A LIEâ images everywhere, and more often than not thereâs only one. However, we have seen instances where there are multiple. In my opinion, this could be three things:
- Their placement is intentional, and we really should be concerned with their layout (Iâm not convinced of this).
- Their placement is accidentalâperhaps Storm accidentally applied the texture to an entire wall or surface (plane). Based on his meticulousness regarding the rest of the ARG, I also doubt this.
- Their placement is intentional, but only to the extent that itâs meant to convey how textures are applied to objects in the game. We see the Superbus symbol everywhere, too, as well as the pizza boxes. Weâve traced their coordinates, to no avail, so what more is there to do with them, really? That said, I think their only purpose has probably already been servedâto point players of the game to the ARG and, most notably, the QE chapter (hence the Superbus symbol). Yet, it is possible that they are meant to hint at other textures/files.
Yeah, I feel that we donât really need to focus on the location of pizzas right now really or of position of any texture, but just rather theyâre there. I mean, did Code ever mention the placement of the pizzas?
Also, I found something that, after searching the forum, nobody seemed to have mentioned. I stumbled across some guard dialogue, the file being grd01_postlobbyidle03.wav (as in post-lobby fight in QE), that directly references pizza. âYou know, it might be good to stock up on some pizzas before we head out.â Is this brand new??? I think we wouldâve noticed it before. Thereâs also a scene in c3a2d thatâs named âgrd_pizzaguy01.vcdâ Is it telling us to literally bring pizzas with us? I mean, weâve been told before, but what if we literally bring pizzas? Anybody tried that yet?[/size]
O_O
Iâm going to try that out right now. BRBâŚ
EDIT:
I havenât tried the Lambda Core bit yet, but hereâs some info for the QE scene:
Gordon: USE at Guard after the big QE lobby battle
Guard: âYou know, it might be a good idea to stock up on some pizzas before we head out.â
Male scientist: glares at Guard
Guard: âDonât give me that look.â
Is⌠is that Security Officer Sisk?
In order to test the Lambda Core idea, whatâs the âspawn a pizza boxâ command?
Hmmm⌠Half Life 2 spawns stuff with prop_physics_create then the directory of the prop. So try âprop_physics_create /models/prop_canteen/pizza_box.mdlâ or âprop_physics_create /prop_canteen/pizza_box.mdlâ Iâll try it out right now too.
EDIT: Those didnât work Iâll figure it out soon though Iâm sure.
EDIT 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: nope didnât do anything to the pizza guy scene at all. The guard just notes that he was âhoping you were the pizza guy.â So whoâs the pizza guy then? Dr. Horn? Also the reason it didnât spawn was because lack of âsâ at the end of âprop.â So to spawn it in it should be âprop_physics_create /props_canteen/pizza_box.mdlâ
Hey guys, been following this thread for a while now. Youâre doing a great job digging through this incredible complex ARG!
Never thought iâd have an idea to contribute but this got me thinking about the âwhatâs-it-called specimenâ achievement (you know the one where you have to carry the hat all the way to xen).
Would this achievment work if youâd spawn the hat right in front of the teleporter? 'cause I think the idea of the achievement is to actually bring the hat all the way.
âŚmaybe itâs worth a try and actually bring a pizza from QE (is there actually one to be found?) and carry it all the way to Xen. Maybe HALOS - probably being an incredible potent entity - is somehow related to the Xen portal in Lambda Core? I will try it myself, but it will probably take me a few days or more as I am quite busy these days.
I mean âYou know, it might be a good idea to stock up on some pizzas before we head out.â kinda does sound like a challenge, doesnât it?
Anyway, good luck in solving this big bad motherlover!