Who supposedly built this teleporter? The design doesn't look human. It looks like Alien tech which i guess would mean that it was built by the combine? But wouldn't that mean that the combine have already figured out intradimensional teleportation? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the entire plot of hl2 hinged on the combine not having figured that out? Isn't that why they're after Eli?
I honestly don't even remember where in the game those are, but I'd say it might be vortigaunt tech? Or the nihilanth tech? The combine aren't the only ones with technology, the nihilanth also has that giger-esque bio-mechanical looking tech at least in the original game. And the vortigaunts might also be smart enough.
But don't the combine enslave the vortigaunts and nihilanth? If either of those had access to intradimensional teleportation then wouldn't the combine also have it by the time we get to hl2?
The Combine never got access to Xen. In the first Half-Life game (and, by extension, Black Mesa), it was the Nihilanth who enslaved the Vortigaunts.
Wow idk why I thought all the Xen aliens were being enslaved by Combine, as a retcon or something.
xen is where aliens hide from the combine.
Then why was the Nihilanth also wearing shackles in hl1?
Because he escaped from imprisonment.
Also if there were other races that had already figured out the exact same teleportation technology as the humans why are the combine so hell bend on capturing Eli?
Because the Combine never got into contact with said species. We're told by the Nihilanth itself that it was the last of its species.
Vortigaunt/nihilanth tech.
Nihilanth technology
I was under the impression that the combine were capable of cross worlds travel but actual point to point travel was above their pay grade.
They noticed the humans because Black Mesa had a big mess of a renascence cascade which implied travel to a specific point and the combine probably figured that the Humans could solve it through some hairless monkey science where they fling things near Xen in order to use a sort of "metagravitional pull" to adjust the flight path of the thing traveling through a local dimension. They shoot matter near Xen and it somehow curves and comes back at a fixed point, but it's also teleportation.
Meanwhile the Combine just send as much of their equipment as possible and then capture the locals for an army because they can't send a massive wave through without the human portal tech to guide it.
The humans are playing with guided missiles and the combine are playing with darts and they might hit something good if they're lucky.
Exactly but the portal seen in the screenshot just takes you to another place in xen without switching dimensions.
the humans in Black Mesa had also mastered local teleportation, if you recall the same orbs in Lambda Core. Its clear they appropriated the research from their findings in Xen, whose refugee inhabitants were probably the original inventors.
Now it's important to note that the "Xenians" arent native to that dimension, rather they're stationed there during the events of Half-Life/Black Mesa, hoping to remain undiscovered by the Combine (the inter-universal totalitarian conqueror army of aliens from Half Life 2) who had formerly enslaved them. The dimension Xen is a very accessible hiding place because its somehow bordering every universe at once (like a shell containing every universe in the multiverse), hence why it is sometimes called "The Borderworld".
In Half-Life 2, Mossman explains that past Black Mesa-led research into teleportation (and therefore, the technology originated by the Xenians) worked by piercing into Xen first, then back into our dimension in another spot. Therefore its clear that this local teleportation (which I'll remind you AGAIN was created by the Xenians, as shown in your screenshots) only works by first opening a portal into Xen, THEN back into the universe you started in. This is likely how the Xenians got into Xen in the first place, as they had access to this technology, and used it to enter Xen but stay there to evade their captors.
In Half-Life 2, the technology that Eli's resistance is working on is supposed to enable local teleportation by using Xen as "a dimensional slingshot, so we can swing around the borderworld and come back in local space without having to pass through", somehow using that dimension in order to redirect your mass to the destination you want. Clearly a much more sophisticated method of local teleportation than first leaving your universe to enter Xen and then leaving Xen to re-enter your universe at your intended destination.
TL;DR - The teleportation tech you're wondering about was created by the Xenian aliens, most likely in an effort to escape the Combine, and then reverse engineered by Black Mesa scientists later, with the G-Man's help.
EDIT: as for why these portals simply relocate you to another destination in Xen, it could either be the same principle as portals in Black Mesa ultimately depositing you at another destination in Black Mesa, OR it could be the case that Xen being kind of a nowhere-dimension, it operates with different laws of physics than other universes and somehow you can pierce into Xen and back out into Xen.
EDIT 2: The reason the Combine don't have this tech is because there's every reason to believe they haven't even figured out this Xen stuff in the first place. They can pass through from universe to universe, so their transuniversal teleportation likely was the basis for the Xenians desperate flight into Xen... However, by the time Half-Life 2 rolls around, they had arrived directly at Earths doorstep from their own dimension, there's no reason to believe they crossed through Xen to get here. We even see a portal that leads directly into their homeworld at the climax of HL2. They don't appear to use this Xen technology or appreciate the magnitude of what Xen is (as a borderworld). So to recap, the Xenians probably did adapt the Combines string-based portal technology to "tunnel" into Xen, much like how the Combine is shown tunneling into other universes as it is, but then evolved that tech further than the Combine ever did, by utilizing Xens unique properties as the "borderworld"
You clearly know far more about Half-Life lore than I do, so I wanna ask, who exactly enslaved the Nihilanth in hl1? If you examine the model, it appears to be restrained with shackles, and its body shows signs of what look like surgical modifications (somewhat reminiscent of the stalkers in hl2 imo). I had always assumed it was the Combine who were controlling the Nihilanth and the Vortigaunts, which would imply that they already had at least partial control over Xen at that point.
The Combine OverWiki states it as follows:
https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Nihilanth
I guess this would imply that the Nihilanth managed to escape from the combine and took the enslaved Vortigaunts with him to xen? I feel like that sounds kind of unlikely. Why would he invade another dimension if he was hiding out in Xen? And also why is he still in shackles like the Vortigaunts? I find it more plausible that the Nihilanth during the events of hl1 was under the control of the combine and carrying out their commands.
I don't think it's very confusing that the Nihilanth would start pushing its forces through to Earth after the Resonance Cascade. Think about it from its point of view. You're hiding out in the crack between the dimensional couch cushions, and suddenly you get rammed in the head with gateways to another universe full of people who clearly aren't connected to the Combine. Earth probably seemed like a MUCH better outpost than Xen ever was. For one, it's not separated by a thin membrane from every other universe (including Combine controlled ones) the way Xen is, so the odds of the Combine stumbling across it are more slim.
However I dont think anything outright disproves your theory that the Nihilanth was still actively under Combine control. It would be a tidy way to explain how the Combine found Earth so quickly after the events of the first game. However, this isn't exactly a mystery, it's implied that the "Portal Storms" that started popping up all over Earth after the Resonance Cascade somehow alerted them.
Personally I think that given the Combine portal seen in the Citadel leading directly into their homeworld and not Xen, the fact that the "We are their slaves..." voice line from the Nihilanth was cut, the lack of Alien Grunts in any form in HL2, and the inverse (the lack of any Combine synths in HL1), it's difficult to believe the Combine had control over Xen. I also highly doubt that Gordon could secure Xen by himself if the Combine had direct access to it, and were actively monitoring it. G-Man probably wouldn't be so triumphant if you killed the Nihilanth and the Combine sent in the rest of their infantry to investigate immediately after, would he?
I guess your right. That does sound more plausible.
I think the pieces are all there in what you observed yourself. Its all speculation past this point but I'll give my interpretation.
The Combine certainly did enslave the Nihilanth, however by the time we met it, it had already made its escape from the Combine. It was an ex-slave hiding from its masters, essentially. This is reason enough to believe that the Combine did not have any control over Xen at all, because if they did they likely would have found it. As I've said, we don't have solid evidence that the Combine ever discovered Xen, or (if they did) understand what's so interesting about it. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, as the Nihilanth is ex-Combine and it had access to Xen. But the Combine's inactivity in Xen is probably the reason the Nihilanth chose to escape there.
The Nihilanth's ability to control the Vortigaunts is likely the reason for the Combine's interest in it in the first place, if not also a result of their modifications to its body. The Vortigaunts themselves are highly dangerous, their Vortessence empowers them to thwart the actions of even the G-Man, so it makes sense that subduing or utilizing their abilities would be considered important to the Combine. However, by the time we see them in HL1, theyre STILL in shackles, being controlled by the Nihilanth.
As an interesting aside, the Alien Grunts also probably were never under Combine subjugation as they were being produced in the Xenian factories we find, which we can assume the Nihilanth had created after fleeing the Combine. This process of producing biological beings in a factory is probably something the Nihilanth learned from the Combine, which IMO is a tantalizing clue regarding what exactly the Nihilanth is
So the Nihilanth is controlling the Vortigaunts but is not itself controlled by anything. The Combine probably were trying to find a way to mass produce Nihilanths in a way perfectly suited to their industrial complex, just as they have with Gunships, Striders and Hunters, and are in the process of managing with humans by the time of Half Life 2. Hence the surgeries you've pointed out.
Have you continued playing the game from this point onward? If you keep playing, it explains.
I haven't played much further. I just came across this and was curious.
Well the portals teleport you to other parts of Xen, so my explanation is that Xen is a borderworld, in essence parts of Xen are in different universes, or between universes so something, something teleportation works differently. If this was the intention, than in the original Half Life it was portrayed better because every xen map that was not "indoors" (like the grunt factory in interloper) had a completely different skybox, like i remember one having 2 "suns" and another having wonky colors and all. In Black Mesa there are not much variation in how the sky looks in Xen so maybe that clue is lost.
Dosen't those portals just teleport you to another part of xen?
Yes exactly. In hl2 the combine haven't figured out any form of teleportation within a single dimension. They only have inter dimensional teleportation which takes them from one dimension (like xen) to another (like our dimension)
I never played after the Xen update, did they not include the factory level?
This is a damn good question and nobody has an airtight answer.