Why is the Resistance not using the HEVs?

[-$ilver-]

Why are the rebels (that we see at least) not wearing the Hazardous EnVironmental suits? Granted there would not be enough to go around for every rank and file, but presumably some suits had to of been saved from Black Mesa, even if never upgraded from the Mark IV to the Mark V as Gordon receives. One would also assume the Special Forces of the Resistance or at least Captains and maybe even Sergeants would have them. We know it was pretty standard issue for Black Mesa personal in dangerous work environments before all hell broke loose. Even the soldiers attacking Black Mesa or at least the HECUs (Hazardous Environment Combat Units) were wearing something similar called the PCVs (Protective Combat Vests).

As of the events of HL2, the rebels are basically acquiring either new stolen armor or stripping them from dead Combine units in the field to supply themselves. But as we know the armor vests of the Metro Cops and Overwatch, although better than nothing, are more like modern day bullet proof vests and no where near as good as a fully powered HEV suit which is basically a shield, not to mention being able to mend or at least administers morphine/first aid to the wearer. Imagine teams being teleported deep into Combine territory with HEVs and just tearing them a new ass. So why is only Gordon with an HEV suit?

Also either the Mark V allows for the Vortigaunts to share some energy with the new HEV suit or they use a smaller current of electricity to charge the suit rather then fry it. If it is the former then that would not help the rebels in the least. But I am sure a minor adjustment would at least allow the older suits to be able to use the Combine power nodes located around the enemy territory.

Which begs the question... we never come across any Overwatch soldiers or any soldiers with shielding. Why do they have nodes for recharging then? Just for weapons? I have seen an Overwatch Elite in the white suits have a mini shield on their forearm in Half Life 2: FireFight Reloaded, but nothing officially.

And I thought this was funny. Enjoy! ^_^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=981BU3u5imU

[Thlormby]

While it would be justified in the plot, the point was to make the player (Gordon Freeman) feel special. They wanted you to feel like a badass because you were the one with the armored suit, the unstoppable tank who could plow through combine like a knife through butter. It would make sense in the plot for Gordon to be dispatched with a team of special forces wearing HEV suits, but the point of the game was to make you feel like a messiah, and like you were the only man capable of leading these poorly armed rebels into battle.

For example, its pretty obvious how their morale raises when they see you. Everybody knows who you are. "Hey, I can't believe my eyes, Gordon Freeman!" kind of deal. Everyone thinks you're some sort of god because of how much you went through, and none of that would be possible without the suit. So the suit is what separates the player from the rest of the rebels.

[coolman552]

Because they were rare and the only training facility was nuked

[Mkhuseli5k]

The same reason every body doesnt have N.A.S.A. Pleiades Supercomputers. They cost a lot of money to make. Plus the materials for the suit is probably rare so they cant make a lot.

[Sovereign]

Both the HEVs and PCVs were fairly rare experimental equipment that a lightly armed civilian militia 20 years later who had to scavenge or improvise their weapons wouldn’t have access to.

Overwatch soldier armour presumably works the same way as PCVs, hence the Combine chargers.

[Xenon 0w0]

there really is only one Hev suit left im pretty sure

[Infinite_Data]

While we don't know how many HEV suits made it out of Black Mesa, all those that didn't have been destroyed (not counting the ones stuck in Xen). We never saw any HEV-equipped scientists escaping the facility other than Gordon. Since HEV suits were, as far as we know, exclusive to Black Mesa (Aperture Laboratories presumably made their own versions but if they did, they're most likely still inside the Enrichment Center; the PCVs were used only by HECU, a relatively small, elite unit, most of which was killed and nuked in Black Mesa - we don't know what happened to the rest of the PCVs, they may admittedly still be out there - but they would still be extremely rare and many of them would have probably been reused and destroyed in the 7 Hour War or the years of Resistance activity before Gordon's return), we can assume that very few (or none at all) were brought out of the facility in time and survived until the Combine occupation. Also keep in mind that the government was still there for a while and would definitely try to reacquire such expensive equipment from whoever was temporarily in possession of it, so even if any HEVs actually made it out of Black Mesa, they would not just be lying around in people's houses.

Because of this, I assume that the HEV Mark V we see Gordon wear is one of three things:

1. A prototype suit (as the Mark IV was still clearly the standard at the time of the Incident) stolen from Black Mesa by Eli Vance or Isaac Kleiner. Both of them were high-clearance Anomalous Materials personnel and could have had access to wherever a prototype like this would have been kept. It's possible that one of them just took it (perhaps even wore it) while escaping the facility and was able to keep it afterwards, either illegally or with permission from his superiors (as at least Eli continued to work with creatures from Xen so it wouldn't seem unlikely that he'd be able to persuade his bosses to let him use the HEV, if he was working for someone at the time).

2. A unique model built by Vance and Kleiner, perhaps originally intended for Alyx or Barney (or another valuable Resistance member). As mentioned before, they were both Anomalous Materials employees and they probably had a lot of experience with HEV suits. Considering the fact that they built a fully functional teleporter in a warehouse, it doesn't seem unlikely that they would have been able to reverse-engineer an HEV suit - we know they at least modified it to use Combine energy sources.

3. Gordon's original Mark IV suit, upgraded by Vance and Kleiner to become the "Mark V". After Freeman killed the Nihilanth, the Gman took away all of his weapons but not his suit, stating that Gordon had earned it. However, when Gordon arrives in City 17, he doesn't have the suit. If the Gman wanted Freeman to have the HEV, it seems quite suspicious that there just so happened to be one waiting for him as soon as he made it to safety. I think the Gman could have personally ensured that it would come into Gordon's possession. Even if he had straight up appeared out of thin air and given it to Eli, it wouldn't have been that strange - we know Eli knows about him anyway.

[black mesa security]

hazardous enviorment suits were only used and made in black mesa wich got attacked by aliens then the military and the the black ops and then it got nuked im pretty sure any h.e.v suits would have been destroyed and proably everyone who made the h.e.v suits is dead also seeing as just about every bit of industry was destroyed during the seven hour war theirs no one manufacture the materials to make them

[black mesa security]

but from what i can remeber their were a lot of hev suits on xen even the one colette green wore https://youtu.be/D3ZbpSnbjW4

[-$ilver-]

Even if none were saved from Black Mesa, (That is hard to believe by the way, people grab things on the way out especially something as important as that.) what is stopping the scientists from making more? I mean they have a teleporter in their lab for crying outloud and Eli built and Alyx improved upon Dog. Surely some more suits were capable of being produced by someone, somewhere.

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Overwatch soldier armour presumably works the same way as PCVs, hence the Combine chargers.

I am pretty sure they do not. I have never seen nor read any evidence of that. They die to quickly even on hard nor appear to have any "shielding" surrounding them before, during or after being hit. No shimmering or sparks, etc.

Edit: Like I said I do not expect them to be common and only the higher ranks and not even all of those would have them. But I would assume some would. But you all bring up good points too.

[Ghidrah1]

Who would the higher ranks be in the resistance?

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

Even if none were saved from Black Mesa, (That is hard to believe by the way, people grab things on the way out especially something as important as that.) what is stopping the scientists from making more? I mean they have a teleporter in their lab for crying outloud and Eli built and Alyx improved upon Dog. Surely some more suits were capable of being produced by someone, somewhere.

BM was nuked and barely anyone made it out, let alone any HEV suits, most of which had already been lost on Xen. They're blueprints would have been lost as well.

They don't build any more because they can't. They don't have the resourses, the facilities or the know-how, it took them 20 years to cobble together a barely functioning teleporter out of scrap. There is no way they have the ability to manufacture experimental power armoured suits with build in radiation shielding, HUD and on-board AI.

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Overwatch soldier armour presumably works the same way as PCVs, hence the Combine chargers.

I am pretty sure they do not. I have never seen nor read any evidence of that. They die to quickly even on hard nor appear to have any "shielding" surrounding them before, during or after being hit. No shimmering or sparks, etc.

Edit: Like I said I do not expect them to be common and only the higher ranks and not even all of those would have them. But I would assume some would. But you all bring up good points too.

The Combine armour working like the PCV just makes sense, they are far more advanced then the HECU and it would also explain way they have all those suit chargers everywhere.
Combine soldiers have the same amount of health as HECU soldiers who wear PCVs and who also don't "spark" when shot.
What's all this about "shielding"? PCVs don't project energy shields, this isn't Halo. Yes the HEV and PCV provide a sort of electrically powered "protective layer" of armor that absorbs some of the kenetic energy from attacks but it's not a literal Master Chief-style energy bubble.

[AimNot]

[Vassago Rain]

For the same reason armies don't wear spacesuits.

[black mesa security]

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

Even if none were saved from Black Mesa, (That is hard to believe by the way, people grab things on the way out especially something as important as that.) what is stopping the scientists from making more? I mean they have a teleporter in their lab for crying outloud and Eli built and Alyx improved upon Dog. Surely some more suits were capable of being produced by someone, somewhere.

BM was nuked and barely anyone made it out, let alone any HEV suits, most of which had already been lost on Xen. They're blueprints would have been lost as well.

They don't build any more because they can't. They don't have the resourses, the facilities or the know-how, it took them 20 years to cobble together a barely functioning teleporter out of scrap. There is no way they have the ability to manufacture experimental power armoured suits with build in radiation shielding, HUD and on-board AI.

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

I am pretty sure they do not. I have never seen nor read any evidence of that. They die to quickly even on hard nor appear to have any "shielding" surrounding them before, during or after being hit. No shimmering or sparks, etc.

Edit: Like I said I do not expect them to be common and only the higher ranks and not even all of those would have them. But I would assume some would. But you all bring up good points too.

The Combine armour working like the PCV just makes sense, they are far more advanced then the HECU and it would also explain way they have all those suit chargers everywhere.
Combine soldiers have the same amount of health as HECU soldiers who wear PCVs and who also don't "spark" when shot.
What's all this about "shielding"? PCVs don't project energy shields, this isn't Halo. Yes the HEV and PCV provide a sort of electrically powered "protective layer" of armor that absorbs some of the kenetic energy from attacks but it's not a literal Master Chief-style energy bubble.

hey sovereign i got a question did any boids come to earth during the cascade ?

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by AAC-1:

Originally posted by Sovereign:

BM was nuked and barely anyone made it out, let alone any HEV suits, most of which had already been lost on Xen. They're blueprints would have been lost as well.

They don't build any more because they can't. They don't have the resourses, the facilities or the know-how, it took them 20 years to cobble together a barely functioning teleporter out of scrap. There is no way they have the ability to manufacture experimental power armoured suits with build in radiation shielding, HUD and on-board AI.


The Combine armour working like the PCV just makes sense, they are far more advanced then the HECU and it would also explain way they have all those suit chargers everywhere.
Combine soldiers have the same amount of health as HECU soldiers who wear PCVs and who also don't "spark" when shot.
What's all this about "shielding"? PCVs don't project energy shields, this isn't Halo. Yes the HEV and PCV provide a sort of electrically powered "protective layer" of armor that absorbs some of the kenetic energy from attacks but it's not a literal Master Chief-style energy bubble.

hey sovereign i got a question did any boids come to earth during the cascade ?

Unknown, but quite possible.