the population pendulum swing

[OneClassyBanana]

breen said he didn't like the word combine, checkmate

in this timeline union has become the defacto word to describe the occupational force and nothing you will say will bode otherwise

Breen also used the word Combine.
The Combine use the word Combine.

Also, as to the latter point, I can say with some degree of certainty that none of the actual official goings-on of this iteration's timeline have ever once referred to them as the 'Union'. That's been a very, very deliberate point of conduct for us on the server end of things.

 

['77 East]

Try me.

Breen also used the word Combine.

It's a joke, we all know he's a hypocrite anyway.

 

[Cindy]

It's a joke, we all know he's a hypocrite anyway.

 

[OneClassyBanana]

Do it anyway. Flatten mountains and salt the earth.

 

[Cindy]

Do it anyway. Flatten mountains and salt the earth.

Ok I wasn't intending to actually swerve this thread w/ my little shitpost but considering the actual conversation has been dead for a while & ClassyBanana jumped in as well has invoked my wrath I'm doubling tripling down. Squatter's rights.

He (Breen) was also talking about how cosmologically massive in concept the combine are in comparison to our limited understanding in multiple speeches. He didn't dislike the term "Combine", because he used it frequently in the game. Rather, he's referring to humans as having comparatively small minds compared to what's out there: the Combine/"Our Benefactors", meteorological intelligences, sentient fungi, things impossible to describe with our limited vocabulary.

However, some of these perceptions have spiraled out of their own initial microcosms and taken on a life of their own in the greater roleplay community, effectively becoming our own Berenstein Bears vs. Berenstain Bears conundrum where we assume that the lore is one thing because of how much certain perspectives of the lore have been reiterated over and over until players begin to outright perceive them as canon. The three most notorious instances of this being "universal union", "transhuman arm" and "reeducation", which have each been vastly miscontextualized to the extent that a significant portion of the Half-Life roleplaying community have come to accept these things as being just as much part of the setting as the terms anticitizen and malcompliant.

And given the prior assessments into how terminology and language are responsible for depicting the exact nature of a setting, the kind of setting that "the universal union" depicts is not the same as the one that the Combine depicts. The perception that the Combine are in-fact "the universal union" eventually gives way to the shorthand referral to the Combine as "the union" and therein begins to slowly diminish the nature of the Combine in the setting by mislabeling it.

"Universal union" was never a proper noun or pseudonym for the Combine but rather an attempt to elaborate what the Combine is in the context of the dogma Breen spews.

Further elaboration:

Not going to bring in the point of capitalization but rather draw emphasis on the fact that many if not most people in the realm of HL2RP communities took the part about "small minds" to imply that the resistance use the moniker "The Combine" as a derogatory term, but considering that the rest of the speech goes into detail about how cosmologically large the Combine are, I'd say that "small minds" refers to humans wholesale in that they couldn't possibly grasp the entire concept of what the Combine actually are with their comparatively "small minds".

Additional evidence: Breen directly calls them the Combine to Overwatch personnel at Nova Prospekt, and uses the term in other instances as well.

Additional additional evidence: Every "CMB" poster ever.

 

['77 East]

The three most notorious instances of this being "universal union", "transhuman arm" and "reeducation",

Can't have one without the others, write about how the transhuman arm term isn't being used properly & why re-education is a bad thing.

 

[Cindy]

Can't have one without the others, write about how the transhuman arm term isn't being used properly & why re-education is a bad thing.

Well, "transhuman arm" is similar to universal union in that it's used to describe and not as a title/name, but unlike universal union, there actually isn't a proper name to refer explicitly to, well, the transhuman arm of the Combine Overwatch, so it's understandable why people would choose that in lieu of an actual name unless you want to just refer to them as the Combine Overwatch or just Overwatch. We see strong parallels with the term "stabilization", such as "stabilization teams" that compliments the existing "protection teams" for Civil Protection, so whatever they're called it's very likely the term "stabilization" is present.

"Re-education" isn't even used at all except by Breen when he's talking to Mossman in the Nova Prospekt sequence about what'll happen to the BME survivors who were captured, but it very likely refers to being literally re-educated with the propaganda given the rest of the quote & not a phrase word for "go beat this person up with ur stun baton lmao"

 

[OneClassyBanana]

Canonicity aside, re-education could've lowkey had some real potential as an example of effective doublespeak in roleplay if it had been handled better in the Days of Old. Shame.

 

[boots]

Make the possibility of losing as a faction very real. Make raids and attacking strategic targets provide a bonus beyond mindless pvp. I guarantee you'll see at least some balance in population.

Although as it gets later in the day pop will drop naturally, but the concept of actually losing ground will mean you won't see such drastic swing in pop.

Let the winning faction take the territory as their new 'FOB'. Capture points per say? When captured, they get repaired after 30minutes-1 hour of capturing and holding them. They give each faction access to gadgets, depending on the side. CMB could get manhack production facility. Rebels could get hacking rewiring stations to convert CMB hoppermines/turrets.

Thoughts?

They would last around a day before they can be attacked again, with group size restrictions to make it easy to attack/hard to defend. So like 15 attackers, 6 attackers. Or vice versa, 15 defenders, 6 attackers.

 

[Cindy]

Let the winning faction take the territory as their new 'FOB'. Capture points per say? When captured, they get repaired after 30minutes-1 hour of capturing and holding them. They give each faction access to gadgets, depending on the side. CMB could get manhack production facility. Rebels could get hacking rewiring stations to convert CMB hoppermines/turrets.

Thoughts?

They would last around a day before they can be attacked again, with group size restrictions to make it easy to attack/hard to defend. So like 15 attackers, 6 attackers. Or vice versa, 15 defenders, 6 attackers.

I believe you've posted in the wrong thread. As you can clearly see, this is a lore thread on setting terminology.

 

[Erkor]

lore on pendulum dynamics

 

[boots]

I believe you've posted in the wrong thread. As you can clearly see, this is a lore thread on setting terminology.

Not at all mate, if you look at both the post I quoted and number's original post how does it say anything about lore? lol

 

[OneClassyBanana]

Not at all mate, if you look at both the post I quoted and number's original post how does it say anything about lore? lol

Damn.

Let the winning faction take the territory as their new 'FOB'. Capture points per say? When captured, they get repaired after 30minutes-1 hour of capturing and holding them. They give each faction access to gadgets, depending on the side. CMB could get manhack production facility. Rebels could get hacking rewiring stations to convert CMB hoppermines/turrets.

Thoughts?

They would last around a day before they can be attacked again, with group size restrictions to make it easy to attack/hard to defend. So like 15 attackers, 6 attackers. Or vice versa, 15 defenders, 6 attackers.

Good in theory, no telling how this'd work in practice. It'd require some stringent and consistent oversight. Not always a guarantee.

 

[Kafe]

the who, now?

Written in a combine character perspective.

My rebels say combine
My Backers say union

Anyway this woke me up early on a monday, go away i wanna sleep

 

[Cindy]

Not at all mate, if you look at both the post I quoted and number's original post how does it say anything about lore? lol

Think you're delusional, man.

 

[Cindy]

My Backers say union

the Backers in mention:

 

[boots]

@Cindy bruh way to silence me and derail the thread
thanks for invalidating my idea and attempts at contributing!!!

 

[Cindy]

idk how a silly shitpost tangent that spanned a page before you decided to resurrect the topic of a days-dead thread invalidates your idea or silences you

 

[boots]

idk how a silly shitpost tangent that spanned a page before you decided to resurrect the topic of a days-dead thread invalidates your idea or silences you

yea true unless there is a serious tag on the thread people are allowed to shitpost, sadly.

 

[Numbers]

Cindy is a rogue chatgpt model