Combine Factories
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| Combine Factories | |
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| General information | |
| Location | |
| Usage | |
| Era(s) | |
| Faction | |
| Game information | |
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The Combine Factories,[2] also nicknamed "garage" or "industrial",[1] is a City 17 area cut early in the development of Half-Life 2.[2] It was to be seen during the very first chapter, between the City 17 Trainstation and its plaza.[1] It was to be accessed from the back of the trainstation, although Gordon was likely to first pass through the area while arriving to City 17 on its train.[1]
Note: Some of the screenshots featured in this article were taken in altered versions of the Combine Factories maps, fixed by our contributors (some elements were improved and HDR was added, among other things). While they are very close to the original maps, they slightly divert from them.
Contents
Overview[edit]
- A quite noisy and sinister area,[1][3] it was to show the player human servitude under the Combine.[2]
- Workers of these factories would have been consisted of both adult and child Citizens, as well as Stalkers and Vortigaunts. They were to be closely watched by Metrocops and City Scanners.[1]
- Related levels include variants of the maps
d1_garage(1 and 2) andc17_01(not to be confused with the E3 mape3_c17_01) coming in around 15 versions, some featuring the nearby trainstation.[1] The mape3_industrialplanned to be shown at E3 2002 depicts a trimmed version of the Combine Factories.[1]
Features[edit]
The area was to contain several specific sections illustrated in Raising the Bar or found in the several different WC map pack maps, in which a specific journey was to be made by the player, before reaching the front of the City 17 Trainstation main facade through a short tunnel. The areas include:
Railway and streets[edit]
- Factory structures featuring big pipes, catwalks, electric cables and tall chimneys emitting gas flares and pouring smoke into the atmosphere were to be seen all over the place.[1]
- An elevated double-track railway for the (brush) Razor Train was to cross the area, transporting Citizens from the Wasteland or other locations to the nearby City 17 Trainstation.[1]
- Door Towers were to be used by Metrocops to open Combine Barricades while APCs and School Buses were traveling around the area. In early maps, flying APCs ("shuttles") also were to be seen overhead.[1]
- A Sensor Gate was to be seen at the start of the journey.[1]
- While the main road leads directly to the Trainstation Plaza access tunnel, allowing the player to skip much of the area, a turnstile-like Sensor Gate appears in some of the later versions, forcing the player to take a roundabout path through the surrounding factories and catwalks above.[1]
Gallery[edit]
Gloomy street at the start of the map. On the far left is located the Sensor Gate (here unseen).
First broad view of the area, introducing the chimneys, the electric cables and the elevated railway.
A Razor Train passing above the streets among the factories.
The same spot viewed from the other side.
The back/side of the City 17 Trainstation seen from near the garage, with the Vortigaunt building on the left (with green light).
Buildings and pipes up close.
Combine Door Tower in an early map.
View of the street from catwalks.
Elevated railway and pipes in an early map.
The area glimpsed from the Trainstation Plaza in the map "e3_terminal", on the right.
Envmap
c17_01_17for the same map.
Underground / sewers[edit]
- Sewers and underground rooms can be accessed through a large webbed trapdoor located on street level near the elevated railway, then through an extendable ladder that breaks before the player reaches the ground, forcing them to follow a specific path. The first sewer chamber features a deep shaft where Scanners can be seen flying, along with moving lights of unknown nature. After journeying through a drainage tunnel where Xen Plant Lights and a sequence involving two Vortigaunts passing behind gratings in the wall were to be seen, the player was to reach partially flooded underground rooms having undergone a fire (mostly reused from Vertigo, with some alterations). A small portion of the ceiling of one of the rooms was to have collapsed, allowing the rain to pour in. After several dimly lit corridors, the player was to reach the street again.[1]
- An inaccessible underground tunnel can be glimpsed nearby through two drainage grates in the road.[1]
- Certain versions of the Combine Factories have the entirety of the underground section either omitted or separated into its own map,
d1_garage_02.[1]
Gallery[edit]
The entrance to the sewers. The four red lights on each side extend and blink when the grate doors are opened.
Xen Plant Lights in the sewers.
Ditto.
Ladder in the sewers.
Above the ladder.
The burned/flooded room (reused from Vertigo).
Above the flooded room (ditto).
The damaged corridor that follows (ditto).
The end of the corridors (ditto). Opposite is the door leading back to street level.
Cremator factory[edit]
In this factory (also named "Child Factory"[2]), children were to prepare Cremator heads for a processing machine while being watched by a Metrocop.[1][2][4] It was to be seen from the street, then from above on a catwalk, but never directly accessed.[1]
Gallery[edit]
The earliest known Cremator factory with adult Citizens, in
c17_01_42.
Concept art for the Cremator factory.
Ditto, cropped, higher resolution version.
Same spot in the map
e3_industrial.
The Cremator factory in
d1_garage_01(the children and the Metrocop are missing in that fix).
Ditto, detail of the machine.
Male child model, holding a Cremator head.
Ditto, female model.
Animation of the female child model transporting a Cremator head.
Stenographer's chasm[edit]
- This huge elongated building with a glass roof and its walls covered with white tiles (similarly to one of the early Citadels) and City 17 posters was an attempt to create a nightmarish environment, but it proved bereft of gameplay. The building was to feature multitudes of Citizens wearing light blue outfits and typing on stenographs, with Metrocops watching over them.[2]
- While only a relatively small part of the building was situated above the ground level, the eponymous chasm was to extend deep down through the bedrock, with more chimneys and train tracks glimpsed below.[1]
- The stenographer's chasm was not to be directly accessed (though some early prototype maps show intentions for the player to go through it), and only observed from a balcony or through windows. Corridors run beside it, and one includes stairs with machinery that pierced the wall under them.[1]
- In the playable Half-Life 2 leak files, only the textures of the stenographer's chasm worker model can be found. Added to the light blue outfit, it was to have the head of the retail "Cheaple Male" Citizen model. A sheet of paper was also to be used, as well as a desk model possibly coming in three colors, also missing.[3]
- More recent versions also contain other types of machines mostly involving pistons, as well as working children and Metrocops on guard in suspended elevators.[1]
- Several pieces of concept art for the interior of the early City 17 Trainstation appear to be based on a map similar to the stenographer's chasm building.[1][5][6][7]
Gallery[edit]
Concept art for the stenographer's chasm.
Stenographer's chasm with fan-restored worker models.
Ditto.
Ditto.
The most recent stenographer's chasm, without stenographer (children should be present but are missing from the fix).
Ditto.
Ditto, drop-down view. Scanners were also to be seen flying in the chasm.
Stairs right before the stenographer's chasm, with machinery going through the wall.
Back texture of the stenographer's chasm worker model.
Front texture of the worker model.
Head texture of the worker model.
Texture for the sheet of paper used by each worker.
Fan-made model using the original textures.
Concept art for the City 17 Trainstation's interior possibly based on a recycled stenographer's chasm map.
Ditto, cropped, higher resolution version.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Stalker building[edit]
Stalkers were to be seen welding a rotating container using their laser tools in a room adjacent to the Vortigaunt building. Upon approaching the locked entrance door with a slot, a scripted sequence named "windowscare" was to be played, involving a Stalker suddenly appearing, banging furiously on the door, and then closing the slot.[1]
Vortigaunt building[edit]
A Vortigaunt was also to be seen briefly under a room containing tube-like devices with green highlights near the Stalker building.[1]
Gallery[edit]
The Vortigaunt on the ground floor. He is scripted to walk through the hallway once the player looks inside through the window.
View of the first floor.
Garage[edit]
A garage featuring a partially dismantled APC with its engine removed and attached to a small operable overhead crane was to be located opposite of the Vortigaunt building, near the back of the City 17 Trainstation. Odell's model was to be found there, used as a placeholder as it is often in the WC map pack. The building was also to include two operable vehicle lifts and several props such as the early brush vending machine.[1]
Gallery[edit]
APC in the garage. This fix replaces the old brush VAB APC by the early Gage Commando model. Odell's model is also not included.
Other factories[edit]
Other unidentified factories appearing only in concept art were also to rely on child workers.[2] The maps d1_garage_01_32 and e3_industrial contain brush and model versions, respectively, of the pistons featured in one of the concept arts.[1]
Gallery[edit]
Concept art for children working on an unidentified machine.
Concept art for children working on piston-based machines similar to the ones seen in the more recent versions of the stenographer's chasm.
Fate[edit]
- When the Cremator was cut and the team decided that human reproduction had been disabled by the suppression field, the presence of children, as well as their factory, were rendered irrelevant. The whole area then disappeared when the journey to Kleiner's Lab was heavily shortened and the general atmosphere of the game changed.
- The slavery/factory themes were recycled in the Citadel chapters in Half-Life 2 and Episode One, and the slavery work was kept for the Stalkers only.
- The whole idea of visiting a Combine-controlled industrial area of City 17 was brought back in Half-Life: Alyx for chapters 6 (Arms Race) and 7 (Jeff), where Alyx passes through the Industrial Zone that features the Holden Company Processing Plant and the Golden Lion Distillery.
List of appearances[edit]
- Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar (Non-canonical appearance)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 WC map pack
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 171
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Half-Life 2 leak
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 172
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 193
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 194
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 195
External links[edit]
Overview of a fixed "e3_industrial", with working Cremator factory on YouTube- The Combine Factories partially remade in the CryEngine on YouTube
