User:WehKings

God save us

MY LACK OF TRUST IN THE MAP-FIXERS OF THE HL2 BETA

The people behind all this are Discord users, Redditors, I refuse to believe they can make anything positive and that all their maps or fixes are glued together or are completely inaccurate.

MY CONSPIRACY THEORY

I had always believed contractors were playtesters. After figuring out that how Deadlock playtest model works is by inviting people on your Steams friend list, I been thinking about who is the patient zero of this, how this, and if all playtesters are contractors, and if almost every leak started due to someone mass inviting people over. This must explain the TF2 SFM Beta build leaks, that's why random people had it and were making YT videos out of it. I was spitting the truth too much so I had this negative nancy go "that's an enough from you" and time me out for 8 hours, this is what low-level people like Discord mods do. But then you have stuff like the TFC Beta leaking when Steam didn't even exist yet. I think Half-Life 2 and Portal leaks are partially due to playtesters being invited then being sneaky and saving the game files, Steam was around at this time, primitive, but around when Portal 1 began. Valve themselves described the TF2 leak as "limited depots" but no other detail. I don't think there's depots, I don't think Valve actually gives every company their games with them or vice versa. The Half-Life 1 leaks I believed is due to someone burning down prototypes into CDs. If Valve doesn't repo, do they just throw their raw stuff into their game files? I been trying to figure out and I'll never know the mysteries of the repository, especially because most of the people behind it are anonymous, we don't know the guy behind the HL1 leak, his name was intentionally kept anonymous for his protection. Developers giving their stuff, making repositories, playtesters, there's too many layers.

I should go on about DMCAs and all that drama.

GMOD

Did you know?: The thrusters in GMOD are probably from the propanne_canisters (actually misspelled like that) seen in the end of d1_canals_11. Most of the tools seem to be derived from something in HL2. This is why I think they're garbage and turn around so much and you can't make a decent car out of it alone. I am curious how Beta GMOD is, because although it has the physgun, is it actually its own unique code or is it actually Beta?

What I told Marphy

1. Pages that explain every single prop, geometry, code in the maps

2. Pages for the HL2 Beta that explains how every patch was done and such

3. Something to review the community and its users and how they had contributed to these games

4. Pages that tell you the polygon count, every texture, hyper-detail is what I want Marphy. Extreme details. And I want every article ever made about HL2 to be listed somewhere.

5. If anything's wrong, then make a list of peoples' incorrect thoughts about the games (as it's useful to know how people think, it's the reason why Plato, one of the smartest men alive, did dialogues).

6. Pages that copy the actual file directory of these games as a way to browse

And the seventh, basically, turn this into a real wiki, no limitations.

I'll use my laptop as it already has Half-Life Model Viewer and it's easier to use than the one in the Source SDK, to first write down the polygons of every entity in HL1 and more. I want to turn coding into the same energy as reading a wiki.

The .BMP idea

Every image here is in a compressed filetype, I feel like for things that already compressed to begin with, making it a .JPG makes it more compressed.

JBMmod and The Lost Media That'd Inspired It

The weird thing about JBMod is that it was created 1 year after the leak and HL2 already came out as it was in December (1st and 9th) Valve Developer Community wiki claims. I believe it might've been one of these interviews Gabe Newell talks about the ragdoll porn but I have no clue when this was or it was sourced from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=908dFzfvjeA

Here's something that probably related to the G4T IGN.com interview. No archives. 3 days from release which was November 16, 2004. This confirms Gabe Newell was not talking about JBMod and it was set in 2004 instead of 2005.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/11/13/half-life-2-interview

https://www.jbmod.com/news itself claims it was made in Dec 1 2004. "Our Description" is this: "JBMod was originally made because the nerds on HL2World wanted to get back to making sexual poses with the ragdolls in Half-Life 2, which they weren't able to do anymore since the physgun had been removed from the final game. Both prior to the release of Half-Life 2, and after the release of JBMod, just about every screenshot involved Alyx Vance."

The Real Soldier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kCjOD5EkTs&lc=UgwbGjLvMZBq6cpBPU54AaABAg

He DMed me after I was pretty much was done with Discord involving a comment I made on VCC saying the porn is lost media, he'd responded with a link to these porn photos they made in JBMmod (JBMod is branded) claiming it's the porn photos. I logged in just to see if I was banned already but I wasn't, I made a notepad that was suppose to my response that gave my reasoning why I don't believe it is (they're from 2005 and in JBMod, JBMod said it came from people making ragdolls have sex with other in the leak and not JBMmod somehow even though how they would do that, although I believe what Gabe Newell described of Doctor Kleiner getting fellatio by Alyx is probably there). I went to the main website this was likely on (https://web.archive.org/web/20040908022848/http://www.hl2world.com/bbs/album_page.php?pic_id=139) and couldn't access things below 2005 or something, anything below 2005 they're missing forever, what The Real Soldier posted to me could've been lost media too potentially if it wasn't from 2005. Below 2005 or what else, you need an account to see the images submitted that you obviously can't sign in on Internet Archive.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/11/13/half-life-2-interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=908dFzfvjeA

My Images

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/File:IMG_5636.png

My Discussions

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Alien_Assassin

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Crossfire_(multiplayer_map)

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Half-Life:_25th_Anniversary_Documentary

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/User_talk:Klow

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Overwatch_Nexus

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:List_of_Citizen_models

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/User_talk:Cvoxalury

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/User_talk:Marphy

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Jonathan_Coulton

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Half-Life_2:_Episode_One

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Half-Life_2:_Raising_the_Bar

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Timeline_of_the_Half-Life_and_Portal_universe

Brazil (1985)

I seen one (1) comment claim this is one of the inspirations of the HL2 Beta but I don't know the source. I know Marc Laidlaw made a blog after Get Your Free TVs released (not on his own website but another website for it) and he'd mentioned films that'd inspired him, never saw Brazil (1985) as one of them. It is mentioned in the Breencast article: https://combineoverwiki.net/index.php?search=Brazil+%281985%29+&title=Special%3ASearch&fulltext=Search

"BUT, BUT, IT WAS JUST RIGHT THERE"

I swear in https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4txenv/hey_reddit_i_am_viktor_antonov_halflife_2s_city/ he said he was inspired by the creator of Bladerunner and another old architecture guy but I can't find that as a reply anywhere.

Here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4txenv/comment/d5lc4n4/?context=3

>Artists who have inspired are Syd Mead, Hugh Ferriss and of course my dear teachers, Scott Robertson and Neville Page.

If you don't know who Syd Mead is, he was the industrial designer of Bladerunner and neo-futurist concept artist, and Hugh Ferriss, the old architecture guy with the ominous tower that look like the HL2 Beta IRL. For Scott Robertson and Neville Page those probably are his actual teachers if he's not being metaphorical.

And this: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4txenv/comment/d5lfgl4/?context=3

But this is about Dishonored.

WARNING ABOUT MOBYGAMES

MobyGames actually does have sources but it does not cite things. It's a terrible website anyways, you have to pay like for membership to have access to the full resolution images, awful awful! This is the case with them using Steve Theodores' website, this is how they cited him as being behind TFC despite being uncredited.

People claim Viktor Antonov was inspired by Lebbeus Wood

I remember seeing a interesting Quora answer on Google by Steve Theodore about how either Greg Coomer or Ted Backman had Lebbeus Wood artbook circa 2002, the year when Theodore left. It doesn't seem Lebbeus Wood was an intentional main inspiration by Viktor or anyone else, and it's not the two people he says he followed on his Reddit AMA. The two artists he mentions are far closer to his stuff anyways. Problem is that Quora sucks, and I can't copy the link to source it, so help me please. Early HL2 concept art show a very clear Bladerunner and urban inspiration. Somebody must've looked it up for it to appear on Google anyways. I have to find the search result or something for the link to actually work. Unless I really do just need to join Quora. I believe Marc Laidlaw vignette about 'razor sharp door' or something was a reference to this, I assume that was the year of inspiration. Marc Laidlaw has only like one or two vignettes dated and it's 2000. Man, I really have to find a way to squeeze that Reddit AMA somewhere as it's interesting. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4txenv/hey_reddit_i_am_viktor_antonov_halflife_2s_city/

NEW: Here's the Quora page I was talking about which Steve Theodore answered

https://www.quora.com/Did-the-architecture-of-Lebbeus-Woods-inspire-the-level-design-in-Half-Life-2

>I remember seeing a Lebbeus Woods book around the office between 2000 and 2002, although I think i belonged to Greg Coomer, not Viktor, or maybe to Ted Backman. I'd be suprised, though, if Viktor never saw it.

Those hyperlinks in the quote aren't actually done as wiki courtesy, Steve Theodore himself did those hyperlinks and they link to "half-life-wikia.com".

Bladerunner

You can see these Bladerunner-like buildings still in e3_industrial and other City-17 maps, but they're just like textured over or grayed. Viktor definitely painted them over to have the bladerunner look with the glow 'n' stuff. E3 2002 Citadel almost definitely is inspired by Bladerunner.

There's no way HL2 started in July 1999.

I believe this is an estimate based on when Kingpin: Life of Crime was released, a game that Viktor Antonov worked on. But how was he hired on the same month, the game released and why would that start a project right away? It wasn't probably that financially bad despite releasing during Columbine as boomers still remember it and it has a remaster. I think it's far more possible HL2 started late 1999, it would explain why Marc Laidlaw vignettes are so strange and why 2000 is seen more than 1999. I bet the Borealis seen in Brotherhood of Arms was also fairly late, pretty sure the archives go from like April to November, it's also used because Dario Casali worked on both Team Fortress and the Borealis. Marc Laidlaw I think accidentally dates himself when he revealed how he got Barney's last name by saying he had just watched Ravenous, a film released in March 19, 1999. Marc Laidlaw is very interesting as he claims this was before HL1 hit gold, which Raising the Bar doesn't help make too clear when it hit gold, but it took a while lol, and that a lot of the weird choices were to avoid "creative suicide". Anyways these have been my crack theories. I think these people would just be too busy or enjoying their lives to do HL2 at this time, but also because I assume development is way more sporadic and crunched than that. This makes the Borealis kinda funny, because I doubt they were doing anything at this time. Marc Laidlaw just asked him to make it as he was one of the few people with a production going on. Wat I'm talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2#cite_note-:0-5

NEW: THE NUMBER ONE PROOF THAT SHOWS HL2 STARTED IN JANUARY 1999

>Half-Life wasn't a big hit at that time; it was quite a while before it became a bestseller

When did this happen?

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/References:Marc_Laidlaw_emails

AI really isn't telling me much, but it claims HL1 surpassed 500,000 units by January 1999 (from Wikipedia), does that count as a bestseller? I think so. That actually dates it way earlier than probably anything we have about HL2 Beta. A 3 or 2 month break at best.

The vain of my enemy: Interviews

Interviews are the #1 sole cause of things that go unsourced with bizarre information, also the wiki was young at this time. I 100% believe that's where people learned "Avalon" inspired HL2's Beta. You see, I was on Valve Cut Content wiki, there's this interesting information about how Alex Gembe had a copy of Invasion, but apparently it was from a interview that was deleted, god damn. Now this isn't a big deal, Alex Gembe hangouts around comments sections, but wherever that "Avalon" comment came from, I will find. Probably Marc Laidlaw, he's like a kinophile who watches obscure Polish films. Or what, you think people would just like tell like weird lies? What was Marc Laidlaw doing back in the old days, was he having podcasts or something? There must be like lost media from him. The worst thing is that they're still here but they probably all forgot about this.

And don't even get me started on Raising the Bar citations. Seriously, go to the back of the book and try to wrap your head around about these interviews cited. It all has to be paraphrasing or hearsay, there's no way this is accurate. Raising the Bar: Uncorrected Proof have several different quotes than the one seen in the final about the same things. Viktor must've told them that it was July 1999 to the IGN guy behind Final Hours of Half-Life 2, or maybe that was a interview 3 years ago where a dozen people were interviewed on THE SAME DAY. Because that's how the citations work on the book, I'm not joking. Geoff Keighly is lucky that he makes articles and not a book where he needs to cite things like this. If they're not paraphrasing, they're combining sentences together from even different interviews I'm pretty sure. But how do they got this recorded? DDDUDE THEY EVEN CITE EMAILS. U even see email archives in the book, who gave them email archives? U know what's crazy, how did these people scan the images on the book? I swear, they literally take a camera and snap whatever they have. You know the white shirt rebels? Zoom out, and you'll notice they took a photo OF THEIR BOOK!!!!!!!!

Videos

I notice videos and media are very obscure on this wiki, why? I think I should experiment a little bit. I will add a video section to Episode 2, and if warranted with enough information, their own pages. It also be nice for people to upload the highest actual quality there is of these. Here's the videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0l5N6Exjz0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZl1s_Tl_5g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuD_boVOl54