Earth Should've Beat the Combine

[NASAFanboy]

I know once I say this, all the fanboys of Halflife will chase after me and attempt to burn me alive for Heresy, but I'll just say it. "Earth should've won the Seven-hour war, and probably should've taken over the Combine empire."

Why? Let me see their technology (Not derived from Earth) and offer a critique.

Combine Dropship- Slow. It can be easily and quickly destroyed by a F/A-18, which is not even our newest technology.... Yes, it probably has a higher range than the human helicopters and such, but think about it. Does this thing even STAND a chance against a missile charging at it at speeds of Mach-2? Even a human helicopter can outpace it, and still provide enough troops to match it!

Auto-Gun: While the CIWS Phanlax is larger, the auto-gun stands no chance against it. Long story short, a land-based human Phanlax is better and more effective than a auto gun.

Hopper Mine: S-mine *cough* *cough*. Whatever the case, the warning chirp almost completely ruins the purpose. While a human S-mine is inferior, the hopper probably cannot destroy a tank. And the chirp will easily warn alway the soldiers.

Roller Mine: Probably will outclass every mine made by mankind, but the roller mine is completely ineffective against tanks. All it will do is unleash a short EMP effect, but due to the slow speed, the tank will not go out of control.

Strider- No chance at all against a coordinated air-land missile. Looks rather...inaccurate. While it slightly outclasses a human tank, it can be easily taken down by a air strike.

Gunship- Better than a Apache, but totally useless against a human fighter jet.

Please reply and specify what I missed.

Edited July 12, 2013 by NASAFanboy

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

If I were you, I wouldn't mess with the "Call of duty or any rip-offs of it" fanboys.

I think people will continue to enjoy shooting each other for generations to come.

Its sad actually. Very sad.

[NASAFanboy]

If I were you, I wouldn't mess with the "Call of duty or any rip-offs of it" fanboys.

I think people will continue to enjoy shooting each other for generations to come.

Its sad actually. Very sad.

Personally, I believe it is part of tech human nature. We want action, we like to see violence (A good number of us do), and we advance through the pretense of trying to find a bigger stick to kill each other with.

That could be good and bad. It probably means we can advance faster than other races, but means we can destroy ourselves in the process...

[Kryten]

Aren't the combine on earth basically just police? They explicitly say they wouldn't have a chance against the actual combine military-after successfully defeating the forces on earth.

[9911MU51C]

But that is without seeing the full tech of the combine. If they could build the Citadel, think of their warships

If I were you, I wouldn't mess with the "Call of duty or any rip-offs of it" fanboys.

insulting a fanbase and calling Half Life a "CoD ripoff" isn't exactly just chatting. Just because you don't like a genre, don't slander it

[NASAFanboy]

But that is without seeing the full tech of the combine. If they could build the Citadel, think of their warships

Aren't the combine on earth basically just police? They explicitly say they wouldn't have a chance against the actual combine military-after successfully defeating the forces on earth.

Since it does not mention anylarge space frigates or large warships, I will not make any notice pertaining to large warships. The Combine have stationed military on Earth, through the game, the player encounters Combine Striders and Gunships. The Combine Overwatch also is a part of the Combine Military, though the Overwatch are trans-human/human.

[Kryten]

Almost everything faced in the game either is derived from human tech or simply is human, and of the others (the dropship and strider) one's just a light transport (which is able to take multiple anti-tank missile hits), and the other's simply programmed in game to not actually hit the player, lowering the perceived threat quite a bit.

We do see a couple of clearly-combine units within the citadel that look like some kind of armoured ground combat... things, but they never appear at any point afterwards and aren't seen actually doing anything other than moving on a conveyor belt.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Kryten

[9911MU51C]

there is also the Advisors, which are pure combine species that are powerful and can destroy buildings

[NASAFanboy]

there is also the Advisors, which are pure combine species that are powerful and can destroy buildings

While their telekinitc abilities can pose issues and risks, I believe that proper headgear and insulation can easily block off and "absorb" their abilities to the point in which it is unnoticable to its victim. Also, the Advisors are most likely four-star generals/politicans in the Combine Empire, meaning they will most likely NOT go onto the field to face the human armies. Advisors can be taken down with gunfire, and there seems to be very few of them (I'm guessing 3000).

Personally, I am suprised that the armies of Earth did not even send a nuclear missile into the Portal, or atleast attacked the Combine homeworld..... Advisors will die from radiation and the blast too!

[WhiteWeasel]

Please reply and specify what I missed.

Is this under the assumption this wasn't intentional so the player has decent chance of surviving?

[NASAFanboy]

Is this under the assumption this wasn't intentional so the player has decent chance of surviving?

Wut?

Oh, and by the way, here is a quick shout-out to those who think the Combine can teleport everywhere....

They can't.

They have to wait for a Portal Storm, then mobilize, wait some more, and do all that before attacking. By then, the troops in that area would have had time to recover and set up defenses. That's why they use those low-as-heck and unwieldy dropships.

Also, I have to ask, why would the Combine just withdraw their good troops? They've spent alot of time on this planet, and have an extremely important asset/asset(s) (i.e The Citadel). That's like a guy in Afghanistan saying "Oh, the Americans don't really care about us. So their troops here are not the best. Their real ones must be immune to bombs and machine guns". Why would the Combine risk tons of assets by guarding them with a...."militia"?

[ROFLCopter64bit]

If Portal 2 is in the same universe as HL, then it shows in the moon scene that Earth has been restored (The oceans aren't drained). But when this happens is unknown, as Chell was in long-term sleep for an unknown amount of time (Not 999999999 days, the counter could've been broken, there are audio glitches in the announcement).

[Kryten]

Wut?Also, I have to ask, why would the Combine just withdraw their good troops?

Good question. Why don't you guard banks with tanks? They're police, there's nobody around for them to fight other than a few people with cobbled-together SMGs running around forests, and of course there's absolutely no indication that the Combine have stopped needing the forces to invade more planets. You might as well ask why the germans didn't use their entire army to crush the french resistance/AK/soviet partisans...

[WhiteWeasel]

Wut?

As in they have these military weaknesses so a player has a chance of surviving. A mine that beeps and gives warning to the target would make a military officer say "whoever designed this mine is absolutely Re*arded"! But from a game developers' perspective it makes sense. Forcing a player to deal with an obstacle that has little to no warning, means to evade, and basically will one shot them for a mistake, which is difficult to prevent in the first place is not fun for most people.

[NASAFanboy]

Good question. Why don't you guard banks with tanks? They're police, there's nobody around for them to fight other than a few people with cobbled-together SMGs running around forests, and of course there's absolutely no indication that the Combine have stopped needing the forces to invade more planets. You might as well ask why the germans didn't use their entire army to crush the french resistance/AK/soviet partisans...

Because the Germans where fighting most of the other World Powers, and on almost all fronts. The Combine does not have full-scale insurrections everywhere in their Empire, nor are they fighting something like the United States of Other Diemensions or the British Xen.

Banks are commercial interest, they cannot, and will not have tanks and fighter jets guarding their facilities.

The Combine was fighting a full-blown insurrection. Either the advisors are retarded beyond comprehension, or the Combine wanted the humans insurrection to win. The Citadel is the Combine equivalent of the White House, the Capitol Building, the Pentagon, the Treasury Building, the Supreme CourtHouse, and Area 51 rolled into one large complex. They would be stupid not to defend it with altleast some their best troops, even though there are several of these at home.

Earth stood a chance against the Combine, seven hours is ridiculous. Striders can't stand depleted Uranium. The Synth infantry, while being superior to a average human, can be easily cut down by heavy bombardment.

[Kryten]

Why do you think they'd have enough time to send it real military units in the time it took betwen the insurgency starting and the attack on the citadel? And they were perfectly capable of defending the citadel. Even a shooter game protagonist (i.e. effectively some kind of demigod) had to let himself be captured to get in

[NASAFanboy]

Why do you think they'd have enough time to send it real military units in the time it took betwen the insurgency starting and the attack on the citadel? And they were perfectly capable of defending the citadel. Even a shooter game protagonist (i.e. effectively some kind of demigod) had to let himself be captured to get in

I read that Overwatch soldiers are posted off-world. Does the police get deployed to Iraq, then?

[Kryten]

How does that have anything to do with what I said, or even the topic of this thread? How is the situation in Iraq remotely relevant to the situation in HL2?

[9911MU51C]

All I'm saying is, you cannot shoot down a "they might not have all troops there" with an arguement saying " I know all troops are there" for one simple reason

We don't know

[LaydeeDem]

If I were you, I wouldn't mess with the "Call of duty or any rip-offs of it" fanboys.

I think people will continue to enjoy shooting each other for generations to come.

Its sad actually. Very sad.

What. Since when was Half-Life a CoD ripoff? The first HL game came out in 1998, 5 years before the first CoD game.

Also just because you don't like a genre doesn't mean you have to be a dick to the people who do.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Half-Life 2 was originally supposed to have an opening that detailed what happened in the years since Black Mesa.

First off the portal storms get worse and worse, random aliens from xen start appearing all over the earth's surface. Populated areas are able to deal with this but rural areas are overun with bullsquid, antlions and headcrabs. Gradually society starts to collapse and starving people flee to the safety of the largest cities. The world's millitary is largely focussed on defending these urban centers and many bases are abandoned or cut off.

Then one day the centers of all the major cities collapse into giant sinkholes, they are replaced with mile-high towers of blue metal, seemingly appearing from nowhere. From the citadels issue forth a swarm of insectoid bio-mechanical machines. Clouds of gunships blot out the sun, columns of striders march into the cities. Earth attempts to resist but they are completely unprepared and can't match the firepower of the killing machines. Most millitary units are overwhelmed by gunships and hunters before they even realise what's happening.

As the onslaught unfolds a certain Dr. Wallace Breen (a prominant figure in the defense against the portal storms) claims to be in contact with the invaders. He says the Combine offer peace if humanity will only lay down their weapons and allow them to assume control. Civilization was on the brink even before the invasion, now, utterly blindsided, Earth surrenders.

The Combine appoint Dr. Breen as their representative, he starts recruiting troops to form a security force. The Combine begins integrating humans into their millitary and harvesting earth's resources. They conquered earth with sheer firepower, giving the people and choice between submission and annihilation. However they don't want to destroy humanity, we're useful to them. Instead they plan to hold on to earth with a combination of mass surveillance, strict pollicing and brutal terror (Ravenholm).

[NASAFanboy]

All I'm saying is, you cannot shoot down a "they might not have all troops there" with an arguement saying " I know all troops are there" for one simple reason

We don't know

I'm not saying all troops are there. I'm simply stating that the Combine probably has a good military prescene on Earth.

[Monkthespy]

You know about this F-18s and crap you were talking about? Gunship cannons could easily take one of those out from a huge distance. Those cannons are LITERALLY DARK ENERGY PULSE CANNONS. And the stuff derived from human tech is also incredibly powerful. A combine helicopter could only be taken out BY IT'S OWN CANNON. And in EP2 it took a great amount of bombs from the helicopter to take it out. And it drops, a lot of bombs. A lot.

This isn't about how good the crap is, it's just how much of it there is. It's sheer forces that overwhelmed what is left of the military of the world.

EDIT: by the way, I believe the Citadels are pretty much landed warships.

[NASAFanboy]

You know about this F-18s and crap you were talking about? Gunship cannons could easily take one of those out from a huge distance. Those cannons are LITERALLY DARK ENERGY PULSE CANNONS. And the stuff derived from human tech is also incredibly powerful. A combine helicopter could only be taken out BY IT'S OWN CANNON. And in EP2 it took a great amount of bombs from the helicopter to take it out. And it drops, a lot of bombs. A lot.

This isn't about how good the crap is, it's just how much of it there is. It's sheer forces that overwhelmed what is left of the military of the world.

EDIT: by the way, I believe the Citadels are pretty much landed warships.

However, gunships are relatively slow and unstable, and the FA-18s could just destroy it from a kilometer away. The pulse cannons are directed at enemy ground troops, not enemy aircraft, and so they can be easily taken down by fighter jets. The helicopters are using weak rockets and bombs, not AIM-120 missles. EVen so, two or three hits of a AIM-120 (Which is well within the weapons aresnal of a figher jet), could easily take down a gunship.

I will make no posts on the helicopter, as it is a piece of human technology put into Combine use.

Trying to hit a FA-18 with the cannon, would be like trying to shoot a pilot of a plane with a musket. It does'nt exactly work.

[Monkthespy]

"You know about this F-18s and crap you were talking about? Gunship cannons could easily take one of those out from a huge distance."

EDIT:

http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Crab_Synth

Edited July 13, 2013 by Monkthespy