Serious City17 is most likely Varna (Bulgaria)

[Dr.Towers]

Ok, I'm not really into the community's hl2rp lore (and for this reason I'm gonna post this here) but it happend that I stumbled upon the fact that in our canon City 17 is Kiev, however this is literally impossible: assuming that Gordon arrives in the city at around noon (considering citizens are still getting their rations), then reaches Black Mesa East by sunset, stays there until evening, cross Ravenholm for the entire night and reemerges on the railway to the coast by dawn; this would mean that the entire path to the seashore took less than a day by feet/airboat, even less considering Gordon basically ran around in circles while Ravenholm and that the citadel was still visible from the entrance to BME. If we assume that City 17 is indeed Kiev this would make no sense as the distance between the city and the Black Sea (Where we would assume the coast section of the game is located) is 449 Km (279 Mi) (Straight line, it would have took even more to cross the entire Dnepr river by airboat), there is also the fact that the citadel stands at 2.5 Km (15.5 Mi) height and this would make it impossible to see it from even halfway the path to reach the sea.

Now, considering that Kiev is crossed out as possible City 17, I started wondering which city would be the most probable alternative: first and foremost we should consider the fact that the art director for Half-Life 2, Viktor Antonov, is from Sofia, Bulgaria, and he admitted in an interview to have taken the city as inspiration for the desing of City 17. However while the aesthetic of the city is based on Sofia, it cannot be City 17 as it's too far away from the Black Sea. The next, most probable choice is Varna, which is right on the sea, is the third biggest city in the country, is an important industrial center (although while C17's main industry was petrol refining there's no mention of such a thing for Varna) and is a central railway node in the region. With all said we can assume that City 17 is basically the city of Sofia transplanted into Varna. Of course this is just a supposition, there's no way to determine precisely which city would be City 17, expecially since Antonov was just the art director, not the level or game designer, and the game itself has plenty of example of cleverly disguised nonsensical architectures (such as the big windows in the station near the can cp leading into a building), but if there's one thing for sure is that C17 cannot be Kiev.

p.s. If City17 is Kiev, does that mean that Odessa Cubbage named himself after the New Little Odessa base that was in turn named after the real city of Odessa? Or did he took the name of the city and then founded a base giving it his name which was the name of the city? Or did he founded the base giving it the name of Brighton Beach, also known as "Little Odessa", right near the real Odessa and then gave himself the name "Odessa" because he's a fucking psychopath who's last name is one letter away from spelling CAVOLO?

 

[Jer]

You're thinking too much about this

 

[depthjacks]

Ok, I'm not really into the community's hl2rp lore (and for this reason I'm gonna post this here) but it happend that I stumbled upon the fact that in our canon City 17 is Kiev, however this is literally impossible: assuming that Gordon arrives in the city at around noon (considering citizens are still getting their rations), then reaches Black Mesa East by sunset, stays there until evening, cross Ravenholm for the entire night and reemerges on the railway to the coast by dawn; this would mean that the entire path to the seashore took less than a day by feet/airboat, even less considering Gordon basically ran around in circles while Ravenholm and that the citadel was still visible from the entrance to BME. If we assume that City 17 is indeed Kiev this would make no sense as the distance between the city and the Black Sea (Where we would assume the coast section of the game is located) is 449 Km (279 Mi) (Straight line, it would have took even more to cross the entire Dnepr river by airboat), there is also the fact that the citadel stands at 2.5 Km (15.5 Mi) height and this would make it impossible to see it from even halfway the path to reach the sea.

Now, considering that Kiev is crossed out as possible City 17, I started wondering which city would be the most probable alternative: first and foremost we should consider the fact that the art director for Half-Life 2, Viktor Antonov, is from Sofia, Bulgaria, and he admitted in an interview to have taken the city as inspiration for the desing of City 17. However while the aesthetic of the city is based on Sofia, it cannot be City 17 as it's too far away from the Black Sea. The next, most probable choice is Varna, which is right on the sea, is the third biggest city in the country, is an important industrial center (although while C17's main industry was petrol refining there's no mention of such a thing for Varna) and is a central railway node in the region. With all said we can assume that City 17 is basically the city of Sofia transplanted into Varna. Of course this is just a supposition, there's no way to determine precisely which city would be City 17, expecially since Antonov was just the art director, not the level or game designer, and the game itself has plenty of example of cleverly disguised nonsensical architectures (such as the big windows in the station near the can cp leading into a building), but if there's one thing for sure is that C17 cannot be Kiev.

p.s. If City17 is Kiev, does that mean that Odessa Cubbage named himself after the New Little Odessa base that was in turn named after the real city of Odessa? Or did he took the name of the city and then founded a base giving it his name which was the name of the city? Or did he founded the base giving it the name of Brighton Beach, also known as "Little Odessa", right near the real Odessa and then gave himself the name "Odessa" because he's a fucking psychopath who's last name is one letter away from spelling CAVOLO?

I have to disagree, i am from Varna, infact this message is coming from Varna. City17 is just inspired from cities like Sofia. The fact which supports my answer the best is the train activity in hl2. In Varna, we dont have a metro, but in Sofia, there is.

 

[Dr.Towers]

I have to disagree, i am from Varna, infact this message is coming from Varna. City17 is just inspired from cities like Sofia. The fact which supports my answer the best is the train activity in hl2. In Varna, we dont have a metro, but in Sofia, there is.

With all said we can assume that City 17 is basically the city of Sofia transplanted into Varna.