Blast Pit question in regards to location purpose

[Daikatan]

What is "actually" the room into which we are getting to? After you roasted tentacle with fire and jump into the hole tentacle digged, you end up in that room. What's purpose of it, lore wise, for Black Mesa facility? You leave that room to end up in area with toxic wastes and pipes, but before that you go into pool in that room to get into water reservoir and there are also air ventilation things on the bottom... So I don't understand what's the idea of that place. Also... was the hole/tunnel between Silo D and that mysterious room was actually digged by tentacle (what wiki also believes), or wa it actually man made instead? The reason why I'm questioning the theory of "its digged naturally by tentacle" because if you look at ceiling of that room, you see a red and white border that fits the edges of "hole". Too much a coincidence for idea that it was digged by tentacle. But if it's really a man made tunnel between silo and that room, then what's the purpose. Silo is all about rocket engine testing, i dont know what would go there except coal of burned something.

[PsyWarVeteran]

You're asking regular players questions that even the guys at Valve that mapped the thing have no answers for.

[Turambar]

Answering those questions are always a waste of time in this forum but here I will repeat the same mistake again... just in case you really want an answer.

What PsyWar Veteran said is true but not compleatly. These maps are a mess without any logic from an arquitectual point of view. Fixed however, in PS2 version where Gearbox added doors to justify how people entered certain areas.

The hole is there with all the water under the labs to dissipate all the energy from the rocket. Rememeber that Black Mesa was a Silo facility during war reformed to become a facility research.

All radioactive residuals from Black Mesa are managed in some way or other. Those sewers are part of that intrincated system but is not atached to any particular place, we see several places along the saga to process wastes. Several times inside Half-Life. In fact.

And I would like to add an advice never use Wikipedia and follow your own conclusions by looking around the games theirselfs. Wikipedia is made by people like "PsyWarVeteran" totally afraid of thinking and imaging beyond those "Plot Holes". So people like him will never permit theirselfs any way to consider that Half-Life really was made with sense and hard work. For him and others is just a game.

But I really think that Half-Life is good in one only thing. And is giving most of the information you need through the details. And belive me if I tell you that having in mind all the details at the same time to reach any conclusion is not easy at all. Specially when adding the rest of the games. And wiki doesn't take in mind most of such details. So it reach silly and wrong conclusions.

So no. The hole was not there because the tentacle. In fact there is a ladder in the upper hole. If the hole was created by the tentacles... why put any ladder there in middle of such situation? The tentacles born/ apparead downside and found it's way up. And that places just conect with a residue processing area that is close to the rail system. Nothing that complicated.

What's very interesting when you ask... Why the pipes that allowed you to do all that walk were empty and opened? The answer is G-Man. Maybe he set all those places in that way before the accident to allow Freeman pass there, or he just waited to those places to be like that to choose the accident day. But in any case that was not a coincidence. And that my friend add to the plot.

[Daikatan]

Thanks for detailed answer.

Would like to add that I didn't mean "wikipedia" but "half-life wikia" (which is hosted on "fandom" hosting these days) - they have pages that describe every Sector in Black Mesa. Looks like it can not be trusted at all.

p.s.
As for the pipes... somehow at first I forgot they I need to walk on them, and instead was trying to "take a ride" on barrels. Silly me...

[PsyWarVeteran]

What a joker you are Turambar, a simple comment angered you that badly to personally attack me? What a nonsensical comment too, "for him it's just a game" I can write two novels with my knowledge about HL1, which happens to be my favorite game. Basically, you picked the worst possible person to slander.


Anyway, here's some facts for the uninformed:

1- Anything other than the base HL1 is irrevelant.
Expansions, different ports etc. They are made by different people other than the original devs and are basically fanfiction. Valve gave full creative freedom to Gearbox with offering a few pointers and nothing else. None of their work is the vision of the original developers.


2- You can "think and imagine" all you want, in the end you are just inventing stuff to justify things not making sense mapping wise.
This isn't even a secret, during the development the mappers were mapping separately from each other and only afterwards the maps were connected. Not everything is planned ahead or has a purpose, commonly many sections are just connectors that connect section A to section B, thinking otherwise is just naive.


3- There is no point in inventing things just to justify aspect that make no sense.
This comment is hilarious for this very reason:

"Why the pipes that allowed you to do all that walk were empty and opened? The answer is G-Man. Maybe he set all those places in that way before the accident to allow Freeman pass there, or he just wate to those places to be like that to choose the accident day. But in any case that was not a coincidence. And that my friend add too the plot."

^ A total headcanon with zero proof. The real answer is because the mapper had to invent a way for the player to travel to the next area and since HL is a seamless experience most of the time, you can't just take the player from a silo down to the underground train tracks, so bring forth the pipes.


4- "Never use wikipedia and follow your own conclusions" is awful advice.
You can follow your conclusions all you want, it won't change the facts. And please, lose the wiki-allergy of yours, it's ridiculous. Those who are afraid of the wiki only do so because they don't know the actual wiki that's free from misinformation. ONLY visit this site for your HL needs and nothing else:

https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Main_Page


That's all. I hope you learned something today.

[Daikatan]

I forgot that "overwiki" is a thing. Looks like it's more reliable than "halflife.fandom" one.
From a quick look, it doesn't goes in details with that area, though (except screenshot subtitled "the tunnel beneath the silo" and "reveals a set of tunnels" phrase). Which means what Turambar said about using logic and paying attention to details stays true...

[PsyWarVeteran]

Messaggio originale di Daikatan:

(except screenshot subtitled "the tunnel beneath the silo" and "reveals a set of tunnels" phrase). Which means what Turambar said about using logic and paying attention to details stays true...

Stays true how? All it says is "it reveals tunnels" Well, duh? You can also see that with your eyes when you get there. You asked what the tunnels were, not asked for confirmation that yes, those are tunnels.

In this context "logic" and "paying attention to details" is a nicer way of saying "I don't know what this supposed to be so I'll just guess and go with that".

[Daikatan]

"It reveals tunnels" is quote from Combine Overwiki. Which basically says nothing.

Meanwhile Turambar explained that water below tunnels is some needed counter-measure against fuel flame used for rocket engine. I have no idea how such engine testing centers would work, but ok. I still don't understand why there are fans/ventilation systems in that water though.

[PsyWarVeteran]

Messaggio originale di Daikatan:

"It reveals tunnels" is quote from Combine Overwiki. Which basically says nothing.

That's what I'm saying.

Messaggio originale di Daikatan:

Meanwhile Turambar explained that water below tunnels is some needed counter-measure against fuel flame used for rocket engine. I have no idea how such engine testing centers would work, but ok. I still don't understand why there are fans/ventilation systems in that water though.

Meanwhile Turambar "invented" that water below tunnels is some needed counter-measure against fuel flame used for rocket engine. He's speculating, not speaking facts.

[BurningCakeDoesAche]

I hate the Steam Half-Life community.

[Foxpup]

Messaggio originale di PsyWarVeteran:

Meanwhile Turambar "invented" that water below tunnels is some needed counter-measure against fuel flame used for rocket engine. He's speculating, not speaking facts.

What's there to speculate about? Flame diverter pits are real equipment used in real rocket test labs and launch sites, and they are absolutely needed: without them, the rocket exhaust impinging on the floor would completely obliterate the site along with the rocket motor itself. Or is it mere speculation to presume that Black Mesa would prefer its rocket lab to remain intact during each test firing?

[PsyWarVeteran]

Messaggio originale di Foxpup:

What's there to speculate about? Flame diverter pits are real equipment used in real rocket test labs and launch sites, and they are absolutely needed: without them, the rocket exhaust impinging on the floor would completely obliterate the site along with the rocket motor itself. Or is it mere speculation to presume that Black Mesa would prefer its rocket lab to remain intact during each test firing?

Cool, one issue though: Real diverter pits aren't filled with green toxic waste flowing in an endless river with barrels floating on it.

Uh oh.

[Ikagura]

Despite being more realistc than almost every FPS of the 90's sadly Half-Life isn't free from video game logic, the radioactive waste drums are also looping around a closed water cycle (which is not logical in a realist sense).

Half-Life² and Portal 1&2 tried to bring more realism to their architecture (thus leading to the catwalks being really common in Valve's game during the Source era).

Messaggio originale di PsyWarVeteran:

You're asking regular players questions that even the guys at Valve that mapped the thing have no answers for.

There's nothing wrong with speculating with other people. I mean even after the death of an author people are making analysis and theories around the stories in books.

Messaggio originale di PsyWarVeteran:

Messaggio originale di Foxpup:

What's there to speculate about? Flame diverter pits are real equipment used in real rocket test labs and launch sites, and they are absolutely needed: without them, the rocket exhaust impinging on the floor would completely obliterate the site along with the rocket motor itself. Or is it mere speculation to presume that Black Mesa would prefer its rocket lab to remain intact during each test firing?

Cool, one issue though: Real diverter pits aren't filled with green toxic waste flowing in an endless river with barrels floating on it.

Uh oh.

Either the Resonance Cascade created a leak of radioactive waste or just because Valve found it fun to put some obstacles since Half-Life still had roots from Quake.

[PsyWarVeteran]

You can speculate away, it won't be the real answer though. The real answer is the mapper simply thought up a cool area and implented it to tie the two sections together, no big mystery. The guy above speculates heavily and acts like it's the clear cut answer which is false, that's all I'm saying.

[Daikatan]

I would note that the room in question about and room with toxic wastes and barrels are two separate locations even though they are connected. I'm mostly interested in discussion of the room in question (which is directly under the "tunnel beneath the silo", has the pool in center of it, and fans on the bottom of pool", and it looks like the water makes the "cup" around it. While the room with wastes and barrels is what you see when you exit it, so it's the next thing.

[Ikagura]

Messaggio originale di PsyWarVeteran:

You can speculate away, it won't be the real answer though. The real answer is the mapper simply thought up a cool area and implented it to tie the two sections together, no big mystery. The guy above speculates heavily and acts like it's the clear cut answer which is false, that's all I'm saying.

Maybe even the mappers themselves can't remember why they did that.

Sometimes the truth is no longer available, it's still fun to speculate even if we never find it.

I mean if we stopped because we couldn't know then historians and archeologists would just stop bothering to do searches.