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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Battle Ape (talk | contribs) at 09:41, 20 September 2005. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Why isn't this article simply at Half-Life? The radiological term would never be capitalized so I don't see any reasonable ambiguity here. We already have Quantum Leap and quantum leap. --mav 00:17, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC) >

HL uses a modified version of the Quake 1 engine (as explained by Ken Birdwell of Valve ). Though, Birdwell does say that they used about 50 lines of the Q2 source. --Mrwojo 03:35, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Should there be mention of the fact that the original M4/M203 weapon in the game, as depicted in the image, may have been visually inaccurate? The High Definition Pack (comes with Blue Shift) changed its appearance dramatically. The question that has been scratching my brain is whether or not the original weapon was ever meant to be an M4. --Brendan 22:50, 08 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Wasn't it supposed to be an MP5? I question the physical possibility of putting a grenade launcher underneath one, but that's what I think it was supposed to be. HL2 has an "MP7A1" I think. Perhaps the weapons section should differentiate between pre- and post- HD pack.

I have added information regarding the High Definition Pack. Brendan Hide 07:22, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I am just wondering if the special forces/marines/.. are US marines. I've been looking for Valve material stating this, but since HL is a story with fictional locations, I would suggest we change the US marine corp to a more generalised and more NPOV special forces or marines. BFunk 08:36, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

According to the beginning of Opposing Force, the soldiers are USMC Special Forces from a fictional Santego Military Base in Arizona. The Black Ops are a mystery, but they do have a black helicopter ;-). --Mrwojo 16:07, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hmm, you're right, didn't play OpFor for a very long time, I have to admin.BFunk 18:13, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Actually, in Opposing Force it says that Adrian Shepard's training was USMC Special Forces, it says his current assignment is the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. Your allies sometimes yell things like "Let's go, marines!" but that is because they are soldiers that was recruited at the same time along with Shepard. It is quite likely that the majority of the soldiers in Half-Life are ex-marines, but I suspect they also include ex-Navy Seals and other special forces groups. The apache helicopters are marked 'ARMY', the marines would use their own helicopters marked 'marines' or 'USMC'. And in the instruction manual for Half-Life, the MP5 is called the "Navy Seals MP5" or "Navy Seals Sub-Machine gun" or something like that.

Also in Half-Life you hear grnuts saying stuff like "I didn't sign up for this. Monsters, sure, but civillians?" I believe that that the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit is a special military force set up to fight unusual threats or in unusual circumstances, such as aliens or pananormal phenomona. And it doesn't make

Some Half-Life fans actually refuse to acknowledge Opposing Force as being official (though I believe it is official) simply because it was made by Gearbox not Valve, and there is no mention of opfor stuff in Half-Life 2. Half-Life simply refers to the soldiers as 'the military'. And during early development, the soldiers were going to be CIA special forces. The soldiers being marines is consistant with Opposing Force but actually contradicts original Half-Life to an extent, as the original low definition grunts really do not look anything like US marines and there is no mention of them being USMC. If the soldiers are HECU, that is nicely consistant with both Half-Life and Opposing Force.

I would quite like to create a new page for the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, much like the pages that exist for character descriptions. It wouldn't make any sense for me to do so at the moment though, as the soldiers are refered to as US Marines. Would anyone mind if I edited the page and change the US Marines references to the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit / the military and created a new page for the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit? your evil twin 10:50, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

A lot of the equipment you find (like the HD pack's trigger mines, and some crates) have USMC stencilled on them. Also, I think a lot of the MP5's in use by American forces are the Navy version, because that type was specifically manufactured by Heckler & Koch for American forces. Battle Ape 09:41, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

User:Violetriga please explain first why HLDM is correct over DMC? You even removed my link to the correct wiki-entry on Deathmatch Classic. BFunk

DMC is a mod - that sentence is about HLDM, the multiplayer part of HL. DMC is already correctly listed under the Mods section. violet/riga (t) 10:39, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You are right, apologies. I have no clue what the difference is between DMC and HLDM? Can you plz explain these? BFunk 12:01, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

HLDM is the multiplayer part of HL that originally came with the game, with free-for-all or team matches using the original weapons and (originally) about 6 different maps. DMC is a multiplayer mod based on Quake I that was released as a bonus on patch 1.1.0.7. violet/riga (t) 12:11, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

OKay, I just checked it and now completely understand the difference, what I thought was DMC was actually HLDM. BFunk 18:13, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I've removed this once already, so now I'll ask: What's the point in copying the list of weapons added by Opposing Force here? --Mrwojo 22:03, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Day of Defeat: Source

I found the following short article in RC. Can someone incorporate it? It's already a redirect here. Here's the complete contents for your convenience:
Day of Defeat: Source is a Source Engine conversion of the highly popular online first-person shooter for Half-Life, Day of Defeat Mgm| 11:02, Dec 24, 2004 (UTC)

Probably should go into Half-Life 2 or its mod list... I'll see where it fits best. Anárion 11:21, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Listed in mod list, redirect pointed at Day of Defeat (as done with CS and CS:Source). Anárion 11:25, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Egon gun

I can understand re-adding the ghostbusters reference, however i must protest removing the reference to the entities name. Peaple call it the Egon because it is listed in the games code as weapon_egon, thats the entity itself. Also, the model name is w/p/v_egon depending on whether its a peewee or a view model. Referring to the model or entity itself incorrectly leads to a lot of confusion, especially among modders. Superslash 23:37, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Quite right. I hope the current text is acceptable to all. User:Anárion/sig 23:45, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Still seems wordy to me, but its not killing me.---Jackel 14:57, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Half-Life: Absolute Redemption - an 'official expansion'?

In November 2000 a UK based company called Maverick Developments produced for Valve Software a free PC addon pack called Half-Life: Absolute Redemption, bringing back Gordon Freeman in a single-player mode for 4 additional episodes, and another encounter with G-Man.

Since the product was specifically made for Valve, should we consider the episode to be an 'official expansion' or just a mod? The game starts with Gordon Freeman in G-Man's office (G-Man tells Gordon what needs to be done; the game is about stolen alien artefacts), in some kind of facility similar to Black Mesa. Would the storyline of Absolute Redemption count as a part of the official Half-Life/G-Man story as well?

You can downloadand play Half-Life: Absolute Redemption for free if you have Half-Life.

AFAIK, it isn't officially part of the Half-Life universe: its status is like the Gunman Chronicles or Counterstrike: a sponsored mod. User:Anárion/sig 07:32, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Redemption was not official. It was a popular fan-created mod (that first appeared in 1999) that Sierra included in the HL Platinum Pack in 2000 (with Wasted and Firearms), which is probably what was meant above in the misleading "produced for Valve" statement. I fixed that in the article. --Mrwojo 23:23, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Stop deleteing chapter links!

I added a link to Gonarch's Lair because it is a real location in Half Life not just a level. There are chapter Links in Half Life 2. Please stop deleteing them.

"Rail gun"?

I have never, ever heard the gluon gun / egon referred to as a rail gun. It has always been the egon or the gluon. I've had the game since 1999 and have been active member of the mod community, and not once has anyone called the egon "the rail gun". I can imagine that the spiral-like beam might remind someone of the railgun from Quake 2 or the film Eraser, but if anyone ever did call the gluon 'rail gun' it is not in common usage by the half-life community, unlike 'egon'. I really think that the rail gun reference should be removed.

The tau cannon is also known as a gauss gun, and a rail gun is a type of gauss gun. I have therefore heard people refer to the tau/gauss as being a rail gun. (A gauss gun is an projectile weapon that uses electromagnetism.)

The actual weapon in half-life is a tau cannon, though. The name gauss gun originates from the model name, gauss - this is a reference to when the game was in development, in the past it was going to be a "hypervelocity projectile weapon" (as in a rail gun). Valve changed their minds and made it into an energy weapon that shared ammo with the gluon gun. Half-Life 2 confirms the fact that it is called a tau cannon. Presumably a tau cannon fires tau particles.

(Tau particles are like electrons but with a huge amount of mass (electrons and taus are both leptons. So a tau cannon is like an electron gun, but with a heck of a lot more mass on impact, and also causing a lot of recoil, which you would not get with a gun firing electrons as electrons are very light).

So, I think that the gluon gun section should be called: Gluon Gun ("Egon") and the tau cannon section should be called "Tau Cannon ("Gauss"). And rather than saying it "fires laser-like beams that reflect off walls", say it "fires particle beams that reflect off walls" or even "beams of tau particles that reflect off walls". This is an encylopedia, after all, and it makes sense to include any real science that Valve put into the game. :) Perhaps could find a particle physics link that says what tau particles are and link to it! Should mention that "it is often known as the gauss or gauss gun, due to the weapon's model name, as during development there was a time when the weapon was supposed to be a gauss gun (electromagnetic projectile weapon, such as a rail gun)."

EDIT: Oops, this was posted by "your evil twin", I forgot to log in before adding this section to the discussion.

Half-Life: Uplink

I added a page for the demo of Half-Life (I've only played it, though, I haven't actually done any research). Feel free to edit and modify it as necessary. --Yar Kramer 05:35, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

end of game

i dont know if it is nessisary but at the end of half life gman does say that humans are incontrol of xen. i think it should be added in somwhere but i want a second opinion (Chardrc)

No, actually, his exact words are "The border world, Xen, is in our control for the time being, thanks to you." Presumably "our control" means that of whoever the G-Man is working for, and it could be presumed that they lose control of Xen between the end of HL1 and the beginning of HL2 (hence the "for the time being," I suppose), and anyway this would be more appropriate to add to G-Man (Half-Life). --Yar Kramer 03:00, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm with Yar, the G-Man doesn't say "human control", just "our control". At this point in Gordon's tour of Xen, you see a destroyed tank and a dead soldier, suggesting that the G-Man means "human control", but it's not specifically said. It could be that the G-Man does represent a human faction, but the events in HL2 muddy the waters in this regard (though not irretrievably - the writers are playing their cards close to their chest, so the G-Man may yet be a human agent). Just my five cents. --Plumbago 07:20, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

ok thanks for verifying / just thought i would bring it up. (Chardrc 17:14, 5 August 2005 (UTC))

Tch, in a vacuum of hard facts, we could argue about what the G-Man is until the cows come home. --Yar Kramer 19:12, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

How to do a long jump

In answer to the query that was written into the main article (but now removed) ... Imagine that you are moving forwards and wish to execute a long jump. You are holding down the forward key. When you reach the point you wish to jump, quickly alternate a crouch then a jump. By quickly, I mean fractions of a second. I tend to use keys "Z" and "A" for, respectively, crouch and jump, so it's easy to execute a long jump when I'm using the keyboard (which I find is crucial when long jumping is required - usually, when I'm on mouse, my middle button is also jump). I found that the thing to do was practise when the scientist told me to. Otherwise you're having to practise between the floating islands of Xen - hardly the best time. Anyway, I hope this helps. --Plumbago 08:02, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

And, of course, you have to have acquired the "long-jump module", which you only get just before passing through the portal to Xen. -DynSkeet (talk) 12:56, August 17, 2005 (UTC)

DOD's release

Um, isn't the 3rd quarter of the fiscal year technically over (i.e. it ends in June)? In which case, it'll most likely be in Q4 2005-Q1 2006? --Yar Kramer 23:05, 28 August 2005 (UTC)