Air Exchange
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| Air Exchange | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Constructed |
After the Seven Hour War |
| Destroyed |
During the uprising |
| Location | |
| Builder |
Combine |
| Usage | |
| Era(s) | |
| Faction | |
| Game information | |
| Map(s) |
|
| Designer(s) |
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- "She pointed out a mounded shape, just visible through the enveloping smog; it looked like the shell of a vast slumber beetle; a streamlined mountain of corroded metal. From the density of the fumes, the stink of the air and the burning in his eyes, he suspected he had arrived at what Eli had called, "The Air Conditioner"."
- ― Alyx vignette[src]
The Air Exchange[2] (AirEx),[3] also known as the Air Conditioner,[4] is a location and chapter cut from Half-Life 2. It was to be set after the Depot, at the end of the Wasteland / Coast chapters, and before the Borealis,[5] as the penultimate location of the third day. Prototyped and having all its maps made,[1] it was never finalized in order to let the team concentrate on areas more fruitful for gameplay.[6]
Contents
Overview[edit]
Like the Citadel, the Depot and possibly the Weather Control, the AirEx was to be one of the many Air Exchanges spread on Earth by the Combine.[source?]
Similar on the surface to common Earth factories, the Air Exchange was to be a fortified Combine facility garrisoned by Transhuman Soldiers and Stalkers. The role of the facility went through many changes throughout the game’s development. Its first drafted role (and most popular amongst fans) was to terraform the regional air with noxious, murky gasses to make it breathable for the Advisors. but with the expense of rendering it toxic for human life and forcing most of City 17's inhabitants into wearing respirators. The second story draft for the Air Exchange (likely during the 2002 development period) was to have it suck Earth's atmosphere through a portal to operate dimensional turbines to generate power for other dimensions. Captain Vance, the leader of the Conscripts, was to play a compromised and dangerous role protecting the facility (airex_03040506 also features several visgroups named after Vance and a command center).[7] Trucks of unknown use were to be found in the facility, along with refineries.[1]
Early versions of the Air Exchange seemed to be much more focused on solving various puzzles with the facility's air mechanisms such as the vents. The map airex_rough puzzles, one of the earlier Air Exchange maps, contains several visgroups with various puzzle concepts, mostly revolving around using air jets to push the player to inaccessible places.
In this chapter, early concepts have Gordon Freeman arriving by train and crashing into a small depot located before the Air Exchange. There he was to meet Alyx and her pet alien Skitch. The three would embark their journey towards the facility before being ambushed and assumedly intersected by a squad of Combine Elites.[4]
While Vance and his Conscripts were to launch an attack on the Weather Control, three chapters after the AirEx chapter, it is likely that attack was to take place at the middle of the chapter, do to several visgroups named after Vance and a command center in airex_03040506. Eli was also to mention the AirEx existence to Gordon during his slideshow.[8]
Inside the facility, Gordon was to reach the top of the industrial tower where there was located what seemed to be a control room and then jump into a pool of industrial solvents at its base. Then he was to go inside the main reactor of the facility, protected and operated by Stalkers, and sabotage its core (its design is almost identical to the Lambda Core from Half-Life), making the Air Exchange completely nonoperational and triggering the human uprising in City 17. Then, Gordon was to reach the shore, then the Arctic regions, and eventually reach the Borealis.
Fate[edit]
- The AirEx is a part of the storyline set between the Depot and the City 17 street wars that was completely cut, the game's timespan having been reduced to three days instead of the original four. However, some elements were recycled: destroying an important facility to trigger the uprising was merged with the Depot/Nova Prospekt levels in the final game.
- The AirEx was still in the plans by late 2002[9]; the most recent AirEx map found in the WC mappack,
temp3(an overview of the AirEx, with a different design of the reactor's exhaust), was last modified in February 2002.[1]
- It is uncertain whether or not the AirEx exists in the final storyline of the game, but as there are no in-game references to it, it is quite likely that it does not. This is especially true as its effects were to force the remaining human population to wear gas masks apparently at all times, as seen in other related early concepts. The fact that no humans are witnessed wearing said masks means that the idea was almost definitely removed completely.
Gallery[edit]
Concept art[edit]
The Air Exchange's main reactor complex.
Gigantic pistons inside the reactor chamber.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Inside the Air Exchange.
The Air Exchange industrial tower.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Pipes outside of the AirEx compound, with the industrial tower on the top-right.
Razor Train running through the Wasteland near the Air Exchange (reused in the skybox).
The Wasteland, with the AirEx in the background.
Skybox and environment maps[edit]
The skybox,
sky_airexchange01.
Envmap
airex_01.
Envmap
airex_03.
Envmap
airex_04.
Screenshots[edit]
The AirEx industrial tower.
Inside the industrial tower.
Gigantic pistons in the Air Exchange reactor.
Ditto.
Part of the map
airex_start, reused in concept art.
The Air Exchange outer wall and the end of the highway.
Pipes and catwalks under the outer wall.
Fixed AirEx Truck.
Inside the Air Exchange grounds, with the reactor in the back.
The Air Exchange reactor.
Various buildings inside the Air Exchange grounds.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Exterior of the Air Exchange command center.
Inside the command center. Its design is very similar to that of the industrial tower. Conscripts should be there in place of Combine Soldiers. This is also where Captain Vance was to be met.
Pipes inside the reactor.
Ditto.
Combine Soldiers near the Air Exchange reactor.
Tunnel conducting unknown energy near the Air Exchange reactor.
Inside the Air Exchange reactor core powered by an unknown energy source.
A prototype interior in
proto_airexchange001.
Ditto.
Earliest known version of the Air Exchange's main entrance found in the map
airex_0102.
Ditto, with an unfinished model of the AirEx Truck parked on the highway.
Ditto. This place was partially kept in the next version.
The most recent map of the Air Exchange (
temp3), last edited 2002 and featuring a different design of the reactor.
Ditto.
Ditto. Trees can be found in this version.
Pistons model.
Vent model.
List of appearances[edit]
- Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar (First appearance) (Non-canonical appearance)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 WC map pack
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 174
- ↑ Half-Life 2 leak
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 150
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 77
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 178
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 140
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 142
- ↑ Half-Life 2 whiteboard from late 2002
External links[edit]
- Air Exchange mod - complete chapter on the Half-Life Project Beta website (does not contain everything; requires the leak)
