Marc Laidlaw shares development info from late 2002

[PrisenShift]

It would be nothing out of the ordinary to reuse geometry. And it's a map by Riller as well as the Airex maps.

What we know for sure is we don't have any solid Airex-specific maps past Feb of 2002, yet the whiteboard is from late 2002, proto_docks is from later half of 2002, (and d1 sewer with the ""clamp citadel"" is a year from that, we'll ignore that for now).

So despite Airex being in the cards and needing some rework, we have no materials from it... except a late 2002 map with possible unknown Airex tower design. That by itself is surely much closer to resembling Airex than the Citadel - because the Citadel was long since been shaping up to be much taller than that, and in 2002 was already the prismatic shape.

A new design of the Airex tower that accidentally or for some other reason found its way onto the canals worked on by Riller (same as Airex), is more likely than a mysterious Citadel design that is the most out of place compared to the rest of them.

Probably except the fact that this tower appears on all the canal/sewer maps of that period, probably it makes sense, especially since the late 2002 terminal map has a tall citadel.



Although the fact that citizens stand there instead of gasmasks leaves questions.

[Theuaredead]

Although the fact that citizens stand there instead of gasmasks leaves questions.

The Gasmask Citizens were long gone by 2002, having been replaced 2-3 times before reaching the green jacket citizens.

[PrisenShift]

The Gasmask Citizens were long gone by 2002, having been replaced 2-3 times before reaching the green jacket citizens.

Yeah, but AirEx still existed, according to the table. How then citizens breathe without air?

[Theuaredead]

The Gasmask Citizens were long gone by 2002, having been replaced 2-3 times before reaching the green jacket citizens.

Yeah, but AirEx still existed, according to the table. How then citizens breathe without air?

Have you considered that ideas and concepts evolve overtime? Who's to say that AirEx in 2002 still poisoned the air or poisoned the air to the extent of needing gasmasks? Who's to say that the Combine still unleashed the powers of AirEx at the start of the game and not during Freeman's uprising by 2002's story?

[PrisenShift]

Have you considered that ideas and concepts evolve overtime?

Ofc I considered, I even wrote about the existence of different storyline periods above.

Who's to say that AirEx in 2002 still poisoned the air or poisoned the air to the extent of needing gasmasks?

The name of the location is literally "Air Exchange".

Who's to say that the Combine still unleashed the powers of AirEx at the start of the game and not during Freeman's uprising by 2002's story?

Uhh... I mean it is your theory, but who said it is true? Like, the developers does not finished the storyline in 2002, they could not think through its purpose.

btw why so aggressive?

[Shift]

You don't even need to guess why Airex exists when gasmask citizens don't, when we had this Marc Laidlaw email  for years:

We abandoned it before we nailed down the purpose. Sometimes we thought it was converting Earth's atmosphere for something aliens could breathe, and sometimes we thought it was just a portal displacing atmosphere to a lower-pressure dimension, with some kind of turbines using the differential to generate power, like a hydroelectric plant except using air instead of water, and across a dimensional boundary instead of a physical dam or reservoir. Same principle was behind draining the ocean.

[Scarlett12]

This is so awesome! It's a real treasure trove of information.
I guess we have another proof that this City 17 section map is from late 2002 - early 2003


Also someone made a version of this photo with all the text captioned

I made that caption! It's my only contribution to the community so far, and I did get a little help from Shift and some other people in VCC. I'm glad to have been of assistance though!

[brickbat_enjoyer]

I'm surprised Breen existed this early in development, i thought he was a late addition

[bruno]

I'm surprised Breen existed this early in development, i thought he was a late addition

Breen was always planned to be in HL2. "The Consul" was just an earlier version of his later "Administrator" title in the finished game, but besides that it was just a title.

From what we know, "Dr. Breen" as a name was used at least as early as the year 2000 (Or 2001), as can be seen in Marc Laidlaw's "Train to City 17" vignette, where he's very directly named as such. Of course, this was still an earlier version of him, but in the end his character was always meant to be Dr. Breen, just being called the Consul instead of Administrator.

[hl2 combine beta]

a update?