Combine Code Words

Half-Life Series
#21

Of course! That’s what this thread is really for, to discuss different interpretations of what they say.

Since he’s who they’re referring to when they say it, it makes sense to define it as him, but you’re right, there is more to it than that.

I don’t know, I haven’t heard any announcements that are directly giving orders to the Airwatch. The only references I’ve found to the Airwatch is giving ground units updates as to what it has found or is doing.

Possibly, but it is said in an area that contains an Antlion hive. This leads me to think that it is referring to them, rather that Alyx or Gordon, especially as you hear a soldier on the radio in Nova Prospekt talking about how “Primary Target is engaged in command and control tactics with Biotics”.

That’s pretty much what I meant by “shield”. Although it could also refer to the ones that let authorized citizens pass through, that you see in the beginning.

It’s definitely the Citadel, or at least a description of it. “sentences.txt” gives a list of places, used for metropolice radio chatter (e.g. when they die), an extract of which:

// map 8 citadel
V_G1_LOCATION_MAP08P0 highpriorityregion
V_G1_LOCATION_MAP08P1 terminalrestrictionzone
V_G1_LOCATION_MAP08P2 controlsection[/SIZE]

You can sometimes hear soldiers say “Visual on exogens.” when they see reprogrammed sentry turrets. Of course, this may be an error on the developer’s part.

Bouncer definitely means grenades, but Boomer is a bit more speculative. Thumpers are definitely called Restrictors, so I doubt it could be them. My definition is derived from a soldier radio transmission (filename “prison_soldier_boomersinbound.wav”) that you hear in the final bunker before climbing up to Nova Prospekt, which says something that sounds very like “Overwatch confirms double boomers dispatched, inbound. Coast drop inbound. Prepare for special heavy suppression and wrap 'em.”

Since you meet a pair of Gunships very shortly after that, this leads me to believe that the “boomers” that the soldier was talking about were Gunships. And they do make sort of boomey noises.

#22

About the Airwatch, you said it gives reports on what it sees?
Well, if the voice is from a standard Soldier, then it must apply to either a Dropship or a Hunter Chopper.
Gunships dont seem to do much talking. But they sure are awesome. They remind me of the Halo Hunters, always lookin out for the other one of the pair.

#23

I’ve been trying to transcribe the combine speech sound files, so they’d be easier to understand, but the files with the prison_soldier_ prefix are to fast, long. I was actually bored enough yesterday to do all of them with only a few real complete blanks.

#24

Nice one, would be good to see it if you complete it. I did that for the Overwatch city voice, if only to satisfy curiosity. Which ones do you need help with?

I’m curious as to what ‘winder’ and ‘skyshield’ are when requested by the Combine soldiers. See ‘overwatchrequest’ audio.

#25

They may not do actual talking, but it’s possible that they could automatically transmit any malignant sightings to the Airwatch network.

I’m pretty sure they might be referring to reinforcement or possibly dropships - “skyshield” in particular.

#26

^ Possibly. I’d love it if they were referring to beta creatures. To me, it doesn’t make sense that the enemies shown to the player in HL2 are the only ones.

#27

hey guys,
in the combine phonetic alphabet:
G=ghost F=phantom
GF…it either means gordon freeman or girl friend

#28

^ That’s actually quite a good point. Probably a coincidence, but it’s interesting.

#29

I think political conscript is supposed to mean wallace breen.
Although I think in the HL2 beta conscripts were something like metrocops.
Anyways, nice list.

#30

Political conscript refers to Stalkers due to the context. “Attention Nova Prospekt internal containment teams. De-service all political conscripts in block A7. Prohibit external contact.” (fprison_deservicepoliticalconscripts.wav)

Conscripts might also refer to metrocops, but I can’t tell from the file alone. (citizensummoned.wav) “Reporting citizen summoned to voluntary conscription for general public service detail T94-322” With that combine newspeak, it could mean that they voluntary rebelled, and thus agreed to becoming stalkers. Or something along those lines.

#31

If you use the cvar that allows snipers to speak, the word they call out when they kill something is “blockdown”.

#32

I suggest toggling ON closed captions if you want to be able to read all of the PA messages.

#33

A lot of them don’t have captions, though.

#34

Remember Barney, from the beginning of Half-Life 2? He was undercover as a Metrocop.

#35

That suffers from the same problem. He was working for the resistance too.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.