Synths

[AceHault]

Why do the Combine use living creatures as their weapons? Couldn't they just build them like the attack choppers they have? appart from the headcrabs of course its understandable that they use them. But appart from that, whats the advantages one of those combine carriers have over a simple infantry helicopter for example.

[Sovereign]

Why build war machines when you yourself are war machines. A fusion of the organic and the mechanical, all the strengths of both, none of the weaknesses.

The choppers were based of human designs and are designed to operate within Earth's atmosphere while the dropship is an older unit brought over during the invasion, there is no flying Earth creature that could serve that purpose if assimlated. Though they do possess other larger war machines that aren't synths according to Raising the Bar.

[AceHault]

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Why build war machines when you yourself are war machines. A fusion of the organic and the mechanical, all the strengths of both, none of the weaknesses.

The choppers were based of human designs and are designed to operate within Earth's atmosphere while the dropship is an older unit brought over during the invasion, there is no flying Earth creature that could serve that purpose if assimlated. Though they do possess other larger war machines that aren't synths according to Raising the Bar.

Yes, but what advantages specifically does a organic being has over a machine?, in the role of being in a army. For example machines dont feel pain, they dont flinch or react to getting shot, and they might be easier to produce. Another example is the Strider, why not make a mechanical Strider? the combine is powerful and technological enough for that. It's like instead of changing from horses to vehicles just putting wheels on horses.
Also i only played through the episodes once so sorry if im missing anything that explains that.

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by AceHault:

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Why build war machines when you yourself are war machines. A fusion of the organic and the mechanical, all the strengths of both, none of the weaknesses.

The choppers were based of human designs and are designed to operate within Earth's atmosphere while the dropship is an older unit brought over during the invasion, there is no flying Earth creature that could serve that purpose if assimlated. Though they do possess other larger war machines that aren't synths according to Raising the Bar.

Yes, but what advantages specifically does a organic being has over a machine?, in the role of being in a army. For example machines dont feel pain, they dont flinch or react to getting shot, and they might be easier to produce. Another example is the Strider, why not make a mechanical Strider? the combine is powerful and technological enough for that. It's like instead of changing from horses to vehicles just putting wheels on horses.
Also i only played through the episodes once so sorry if im missing anything that explains that.

They're not organic, there synthetic, hence the name, biomechnical machines created through forced evolution and assimlation of species the Combine has absorbed. It enforces the central themes of the Combine themselves, what makes them scary, rather then just being another race of humanoid aliens with vehicles or a completely robotic race they are a collective of cybernetic "creatures" that create more of themselves through forced assimilation. It's critical to the story on several levels, as well as being far more horryfing then simple battle droids, helicopters and tanks.

The Combine aren't blind to manned vehicles or robots when needed but why bother when you already have a species within your collective that can serve the same function for a fraction of the resourse cost and none of the downsides of pure machines. They have all the strengths of both the organic and the mechnical. It's a far more impressive and disturbing feat of technology then a mere robot.

I'm reminded of a quote: "all the intellegience and flexibility of the human brain, amalgamated, with efficiency, and the obedience of the machine." Why try to create AI from scratch when you can use an organic brain as a shortcut.

[AceHault]

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Originally posted by AceHault:

Yes, but what advantages specifically does a organic being has over a machine?, in the role of being in a army. For example machines dont feel pain, they dont flinch or react to getting shot, and they might be easier to produce. Another example is the Strider, why not make a mechanical Strider? the combine is powerful and technological enough for that. It's like instead of changing from horses to vehicles just putting wheels on horses.
Also i only played through the episodes once so sorry if im missing anything that explains that.

They're not organic, there synthetic, hence the name, biomechnical machines created through forced evolution and assimlation of species the Combine has absorbed. It enforces the central themes of the Combine themselves, what makes them scary, rather then just being another race of humanoid aliens with vehicles or a completely robotic race they are a collective of cybernetic "creatures" that create more of themselves through forced assimilation. It's critical to the story on several levels, as well as being far more horryfing then simple battle droids, helicopters and tanks.

The Combine aren't blind to manned vehicles or robots when needed but why bother when you already have a species within your collective that can serve the same function for a fraction of the resourse cost and none of the downsides of pure machines. They have all the strengths of both the organic and the mechnical. It's a far more impressive and disturbing feat of technology then a mere robot.

I'm reminded of a quote: "all the intellegience and flexibility of the human brain, amalgamated, with efficiency, and the obedience of the machine." Why try to create AI from scratch when you can use an organic brain as a shortcut.

Alright you got me there. I got kinda obsessed with the synths lately lol, so the synths all were once ''normal'' creatures? or were they created artificially? for example, The Combine needed a Gunship and they engineered a organic/synthetic creature and enhanced it or they just captured existing creatures that could be enhanced and made a lot of them?

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by AceHault:

Originally posted by Sovereign:

They're not organic, there synthetic, hence the name, biomechnical machines created through forced evolution and assimlation of species the Combine has absorbed. It enforces the central themes of the Combine themselves, what makes them scary, rather then just being another race of humanoid aliens with vehicles or a completely robotic race they are a collective of cybernetic "creatures" that create more of themselves through forced assimilation. It's critical to the story on several levels, as well as being far more horryfing then simple battle droids, helicopters and tanks.

The Combine aren't blind to manned vehicles or robots when needed but why bother when you already have a species within your collective that can serve the same function for a fraction of the resourse cost and none of the downsides of pure machines. They have all the strengths of both the organic and the mechnical. It's a far more impressive and disturbing feat of technology then a mere robot.

I'm reminded of a quote: "all the intellegience and flexibility of the human brain, amalgamated, with efficiency, and the obedience of the machine." Why try to create AI from scratch when you can use an organic brain as a shortcut.

Alright you got me there. I got kinda obsessed with the synths lately lol, so the synths all were once ''normal'' animals? or were they created artificially? for example, The Combine needed a Gunship and they engineered a organic/synthetic creature and enhanced it or they just captured existing creatures that could be enhanced and made a lot of them?

They're not animals, most are sentient (depending on their role). The term "synth" here basically refers collectively to the various synthetic "creatures" that make up most of the Combine. Most are created from species the Combine have enslaved and "evolved" through aggressive and extensive biomechanical assimilation, Raising the Bar implies that the Advisors (the original) created themselves over time through over-reliance on technology. Raising the Bar also says that most are capable of some kind of artificial "self-replication", so they can still create more of each unit once the original "doner" species has been rendered extinct. Overwatch soldiers and stalkers are humanity's "contribution" to this and are the latest synth types as far as we know.

[CoreRelief]

Originally posted by AdamMAG37pl:

How did you know that

Its all in the lore.

[Ghidrah1]

Cybermen, Daleks

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by AdamMAG37pl:

How did you know that

A combination of info from the games themselves, the HL reference guide (Raising the Bar) and the Laidlaw Vault over on Valve.net.

[Saul Goodman]

Well the aliens are obviously powerful creatures in their own way, which is why Black Mesa technically went into chaos

[Saul Goodman]

Why spend a bunch of whatever currency they use to assemble parts of apcs, choppers, n stuff.

Headcrabs are still mini killing machines, t h e y e a t u r h e a d o f f b o i

[Ghidrah1]

They weaponize the HCs in mods, armor