Yeah I know, it’s just that some people here were theorizing that the Cage hint was suggesting that Halos isn’t an AI but some alien being Dr. Horn trapped, which is just stupid because it spits in the face of everything we’ve seen so far. In reality I think that hint was as in a metaphorical “cage” for Halos so it wouldn’t try to take over the world or kill all if or when it came online.
I’m pretty sure I was one of the first here to theorize over a cage for an AI, and draw the parallels to the Bugs storyline, and that has been my main theory pretty much since the beginning.
The alien entity theory, however, was a more recent “experimental” alternative theory I came up with to try and explain some of the discrepancies and unexplained things in the story, like the unknown energy form that Dr. Horn discovered in his research into bridging methods and axis modulation (which has to do with teleportation and no doubt involves the use of Xen crystals), as well as why there seems to have been something watching from the shadows from an early point in this story, possibly long before HALOS was even finished. There are also possible references to crystallography and there was a crystalline entity in that other Star Trek TNG episode that was referenced.
I sort of thought of the alien entity as something infecting the AI, causing it to go rogue.
But there are other theories that might explain these things…
It’s possible the energy form that Dr. Horn discovered was some kind of new physics that could be tapped into to create a high-energy power source, which could possibly be used to power HALOS. And that opens up other possibilities, like, for example, that maybe HALOS is mobile.
If something was watching from the shadows from early on, it might be because, unbeknownst to Dr. Horn, The AI/HALOS had escaped its cage, while he was building it. But since Dr. Horn was clearly able to complete the HALOS project in some form or another, he must have still had some control over the AI, in spite of the fact that it was free and in the wild.
Then there’s the terminal message telling tales about strange things that was going on during the construction of the facility, and feelings of something constantly watching it all from the shadows. It doesn’t make any sense that this was written by Dr. Horn, given his presumed involvement with the HALOS project. Unless he is perpetrating the lie against us also. Another theory (according to @thewizard99) is that the terminal message was written by Dr. Bottomley. He was Dr. Horn’s friend from university, so one would think that he would be privy to what Dr. Horn was up to. But maybe Dr. Horn deliberately kept things from him, so as to not implicate him in the lie, since Dr. Bottomley was the Administrator (of the Biodome Facility).
Why did the image of the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator flash through my mind when I read this?
Seriously though, outside of the ARG: That’s kinda one point of Half-Life lore that was never explained: What is the origin of the Gravity Gun? Eli Vance just made it one day? Was it a leftover from BMRF? Is it based on Xen (Crystal?) technology?
Is it possible that Storm is trying to give us an origin story for the Gravity Gun in the form of HALOS, somehow?
Reminder: If you are trying to solve the 752, do not use any hints that were given out before November 7th, 2012. I just went off on a tangent about Storms clue “It’s everywhere you look”. I later realized it had to do with the fact that pretty much ever IRC clue after the first related to the word SITE which was obviously meant to point out the adding of the 752 hex code to Storm’s website, AKA nothing to do with the solving of it.
Edit: Oh and I just had an idea. What if the reason we cannot decrypt the Hex Code is because it’s not supposed to be in hex code? Has anyone ever tried to convert it to Base64 or something else and then tried to decode it with AES?
Just in case, but this might be nothing: Patch 0.2.0 has just been released. Keep an eye out for any ARG-related changes.
I double checked bm_c2a4e in Hammer since it was mentioned in the patch notes and noticed nothing new. I also decompiled and searched over Crossfire and the Surface Tension: Uncut maps, bm_c2a5h and bm_c2a5i, and found nothing at all. Kinda disappointing, really. Maybe there’ll be something when they officially launch ST:U? I’ll still keep my eye out whenever I’m on the game though.
For any wondering and don’t know how to, you can decompile the .bsp’s from your C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Black Mesa\bms\maps using BSPsource. It’ll output as a .vmf to be opened in Hammer. I recommend setting the output of BSPsource to a new folder for those in the mapsrc folder of \Black Mesa\bms.
All the announcements are randomized, and use the names of devs as scientists.
Over the past several days i have looked at storms steam profile and some steam profiles from our steam group including Gun’s profile and here’s what i found.
Storms steam profile has a background showing the portal machine that we see at the end of the game in its current state which i do find interesting.
On storms profile in the description storm mentions where in black mesa that he has worked on and we all know what he has worked on so far.
He also mentions the ARG and also says that he has concepted over 90 machines, consoles and similar things to machines which might be why he has that machine in the background of his profile.
He also mentions that he is also the lead designer of the Xen chapters which gives an explanation for the message in qecode.ogg.
He also mentions that he is also working on the bm version of datacore, how fitting for this ARG.
Based on what i saw on the hidden part of Anthony Stones website, it appears that storm took over making the entire qe chapter and datacore.
There was something else that i discovered regarding Guns, he is friends with Stormseeker.
“Don’t trust anyone, its not safe”
Explain yourself Guns.
[attach=4332,none,1366][/attach]
I’d assume a hint. There’s so many intercom stuff, I’m not surprised this hasn’t been called out before. Nice catch!
But residue tanks make me think of Residue Processing. Well, that and the tram ride when you go over the residue spill. Maybe Horn has something to do with one of those?
This ARG has a lot of really subtle details with it’s characters like the example you gave. Maybe we should make a Google Doc or something where we can update and keep track of timelines for all the characters or something and see if that yields us any results. Also I think we need to do an analysis of the previous codes we’ve gotten. Something feels off with them, especially the pigpen one. How come it would be purposefully misencrypted like it was? I only started thinking about it recently and it’s bothered me. Or am I looking too into it?
EDIT:
On Storm’s profile on the second comment page you can see Guns requested to be added under the clause of not mentioning any misgotten cheesy crafts in spherical forms. I don’t think there’s really anything fishy there really.
Also,
[spoiler]
Ha ha, very funny Storm. cries because it’s true
[/spoiler]
Does this mean we have to search FF7 for ARG-related clues, too?
Okay, somebody should dig into the DLC files for Cloud in Smash Bros and see what turns out. 
Just to clarify, I added Storm to my friend’s list, asked him a couple questions, and the only time I’ve even brought up the ARG has been to joke about pepperoni pizzas because of the random webpage I found about Luigi’s Pizza & Wings. Other than that, all communication I have had with him that is ARG-related was relayed to you guys via the posting of the PM’s from Code/0418_, and the two Steam questions, to the forums.
Most (if not all) of you knew this anyway, but I figured it was worth clarifying to save any unnecessary digging. If you need further confirmation, look at the fact that I posted the solution to the SECOM cipher–no ARG master would divulge such a solution, nor allow someone in their “team” to do so. The simple fact is, Storm is the mastermind behind all of this, and I’m on the same side of the fence as you guys. :huh: ||
Yeah that’s pretty much I was thinking. Why would the enemy solve it’s own puzzle… or maybe that’s what you want us to think. (Just kidding, just kidding.)
So that’s been officially debunked by Storm? I can’t remember if it was when it was found(how long has that been btw? Feels like forever ago) or not so a refresher would be good.
Look what i found in questionable ethics today, probably just a glitch but it is still notable.
[attach=4343,none,1366][/attach]
Definitely a glitch. Check the console (press the tilde ~ key) for any textures tat failed to load. That’s definitely what the problem is.
It’s trying to load a texture called ‘monitor_deniz’, which doesn’t exist. The texture that was used in the previous release, ‘monitor_screen_on5’, is however still present in the VPKs.
Been a while since i posted anything here.I’m watching the thread from the start, i just don’t have any programming knowledge to deliver.
Here are a couple of pictures taken in the office complex and in the maintenance room after the big freezer.
Something is written inside the card.I cannot see what though.
Part of the text is hidden behind the folded out paper, so this was the best shot of the entire text.
Fire safety.
The restaurant dish menu.
Best for last, the danger sign with interesting numbers.
It reads:
DANGER
CONFINED SPACE
No. 129B
ENTRY PERMIT REQUIRED
Call Extension 212
So here you go guys, if it’s useful, go crazy on the puzzle solving.
That’s the board seen in Dr Horn’s shack! Doesn’t look like there’s been any changes to it.
maybe the moniter was intended to be shipped with a custom texture for the ARG? or maybe the texture will be shipped once we get to a stage in the arg? or perhaps storm was putting it there for a hint as our heads could be abnormally thick when it comes to the arg
Well, a 212 extension is a DOC extension I think (That’s off the top of my head). I dunno about the 129B thing though or maybe it’s telling us to add that to the HALOS code. Then again, I dunno if it would have any relation because it’s a seemingly random sign.