Potentially, the office complex is older (from the 1950s, or so) so it’s quite possible they never had some sort of asbestos abatement procedure. This is quite commonplace for many older facilities and structures built before the 1980s when we started using other materials. Realistically they’re probably gypsum or another type of ceiling tile material.
Meltaway ceiling tiles! (which are also illegal to use anymore, unless your building already has them, they are just styrofoam).
Probably when you stopped paying attention and insisted on being right all the time.
nice 
Tiki quoted me, when I was talking about Episode 1 & 2, then started referencing Office Complex & seemed to insist that that’s what I was talking about when I wasn’t. And at some point or another Raminator posted a wonderful depiction of Tiki being strangled & I fapped to it.
What was that about not paying attention?
on topic:
If possible, the hanging electrical wire should emit a bright blue flash of light when it hits the headcrabs (if it does not already). Something akin to the electrocuted corpse in the Ep1 hospital surgery room. (“what kind of hospital is this?”)
What’s the matter? Out of witty retorts, or just tired of being wrong?
It started with Tongue-Dropping Barnacles, which “did something similar in Episode 1” (as Office Complex did equally similarly), which had you try to make those features make barnacles look like a dull creature with no sinister scripting, which each the Office close-encounters, HL’s beta, and HL2’s concept art insist of.
Assuming someone with an animated-GIF avatar got lost somewhere, there’s still no point in debating whether the Episode barnacles were meant to seem more hostile or just more stupid. The existence of continued player-proximity scripting sets the precedent to introduce a Hard-mode improvement of player-snatching behaviour in Black Mesa, since there’s no way to make a creature harder (like the rest of the monsters) if the players never run into their tongues.
I’d also like to take this post to re-introduce the concept that the barnacle’s tongue needn’t be all the way up, but could at least strive to hold itself a ceiling’s height or two above the ground to keep out of view. The approach would be less radical, the drop-delay would be shorter, and the hold-height may be variable (like being set by an SK_ difficulty value). It presents the best of every world.
Floating barnacles with detachable tongues?
actually yes, that’s the only way to interpret it. not too logical, though…
but as for the sub-topic i’d also like to suggest for the barnacles to be more aggresive in hard difficulty. they should have faster motions when snaching the player almost like a slow whip slash. (“KA-CHIAO! GOTCHA, SUCKA!”) with an animated tongue movement right before it happens.
same thing should apply for when they break through ceilings.
We should give the barnacles silenced mp5’s.
And usable TOWs mounted on Humvees.
^^
Braces for impact.
Yes, that’s exactly where the conversation started.
There’s a significant difference between the three
- Concept Art: Exists only to look cool & is therefore irrelevant.
- HL1’s Beta: was a cheap shot, the reason it was removed from the final.
- Office: has the ceilings explode, showing where they are prior to the tongues falling, showing where they are beforehand.
It is.
Typical ceiling height: 128 units
And cloak them.
But only on hard.
It makes more sense for them to be low to the ground because when there is a fire there will be smoke(duh) and the smoke will be higher up. Also I remember being told in school when I was younger that during a fire it was a good idea to crawl on your hands and knees(to aviod smoke inhalation) and follow the wall until you have made your way out of the building. Now if one were to follow these guide lines then those lights would be at the perfect height for them to see.
No, it’s there because it provides better atmosphere than lights at the roof level. I mean, picture it.