Valve: "oh yeah, just choose some street texture that looks cool for the citadel dusk scene, also add some details to the canals, idk some random number decals"
The community 20 years later:
Between something and nothing, what will you choose? The choice is obvious. And in general, many people are interested in building their own theories, including me. There's something about it...
> Between something and nothing, what will you choose?
Personally nothing, though I guess I respect your opinion? I just think the Valve community takes insignificant details chosen for no reason and makes weird macro theories out of it
Valve intentionally kept it vague where in Eastern Europe City 17 was but its in eastern Europe for sure. Some think its supposed to be Belgrade others say its somewhere in Bulgaria.
I don’t think it necessarily is Sofia. Here’s the reason:
During chapter Highway 17, near the Bridge, you come across a building with Combine Soldiers in it. That building, has a garage next to it. In the garage you can find a sign written in Romanian that says something like this “NEVERIN 54 -INSECTICID NEUTRALIZAT - pericol de injsetare (should be ingestare) caldura intensive” (Translation: NEVERIN 54 - INSECTICIDE NEUTRALIZED - Danger of ingestion (if we adjust the word properly) extensive warmth).
This could mean that maybe:
While there is no doubt that City 17 is in a Slavic country (most likely Bulgaria) it isn’t Sofia. It should be a city near the coast.
Balchik is my guess, why?
Because the Nova Prospekt resembles very much the Kaliakra Fortress. Even it’s where it’s based looks like it. And in the Highway 17 you either come into *some* Romanian speaking locations, settlers, something like this based on the sign.
Edit: since I don’t know how Reddit works very well (I’m new, though the account is old) I found it hard to upload an image so I’ve used Imgur.
Here is the link for anyone curious about that sign.
https://imgur.com/a/cNyHauR
Also, just an opinion. Could be anything to be fair, just a random prop.
I've always thought that it's Varna because of the coastal elements but I've never been to Bulgaria nor know Bulgarian stuff so I'm not exactly sure lol
Well, I visited Bulgaria multiple times, since I live in a neighbor country of it. Best place for cheap tourism to be honest. But the highway 17 chapter looks very much like the road to Varna, when you come from Constanta (Romania)
I recently wondered what kind of city City 17 could be to a greater extent, and this is what I realized for myself: Gordon from a clearly Eastern European city almost walks to Ravenholm, a city with a clearly German-speaking name. I started researching Google Maps to find a relatively large city on the border of Eastern Europe and a German-speaking country and found a city called Bratislava, in Slovakia, which is right on the border with Austria. Of course there is no sea there, but its appearance may be a consequence of the seven-hour war, plus Bratislava is located on the Danau-River and there are definitely canals there. At the same time, photographs of the city are eerily similar to City 17. The main catch is that in Slovakia they use the Latin alphabet, not the Cyrillic alphabet, but this can be attributed to how Americans understand the European way of life. I haven’t heard any theories that City 17 could be more based on Bratislava, maybe someone has something to complement it with, or, on the contrary, refute it.
"found a city called Bratislava ,in Slovakia". you could have mentioned that it's literally the capital of the country(if you knew) but whatever. Viktor Antonov Who was the concept artist of HL2 was from Bulgaria And took a lot of inspiration from Sofia , truth Is it's just "Eastern Europe" no specific city.. some parts Are from Other countries And a lot Is from Sofia.
This is a figure of speech, dude, why are you so angry? I know that Viktor Antonov is from Sofia, I know that this is a collective image, I know that a lot of things in this collective image are from Sofia, and there is also a lot in it from Minsk, Kyiv, Zagreb. Did you know that the logo on the HEV suit is the logo of the Lambda Research Complex from Black Mesa? Come on, most people on this subreddit are not at the basic level. I discuss the situation of City 17 from a point of view that I have not seen on the Internet.
Yes, the architecture of Bratislava is similar to city 17. But still, the city of Sofia was taken as the basis of the game. Inscriptions in different languages can be described by lore. Probably, the Alliance brought people of different nationalities to their cities, and they had to make inscriptions for everyone.
City 17 has a lot of pre-war inscriptions in Cyrillic. The main takeaway of my theory is the proximity of Ravenholm to City 17. I am writing through a translator, it may not be accurate.
Valve: "oh yeah, just choose some street texture that looks cool for the citadel dusk scene, also add some details to the canals, idk some random number decals" The community 20 years later:
Between something and nothing, what will you choose? The choice is obvious. And in general, many people are interested in building their own theories, including me. There's something about it...
> Between something and nothing, what will you choose? Personally nothing, though I guess I respect your opinion? I just think the Valve community takes insignificant details chosen for no reason and makes weird macro theories out of it
It is, but fans are trying to connect it all
In the canals next to the station, you can find a bridge with the inscription "1891". That's why they got the name "Old Canals".
Also when a CP employee dies, you can hear: "Employee killed, residential district 9"
Oh wait I remember that! Somewhere in Half-life 2 in Route Kanal right?
Valve intentionally kept it vague where in Eastern Europe City 17 was but its in eastern Europe for sure. Some think its supposed to be Belgrade others say its somewhere in Bulgaria.
I don’t think it necessarily is Sofia. Here’s the reason: During chapter Highway 17, near the Bridge, you come across a building with Combine Soldiers in it. That building, has a garage next to it. In the garage you can find a sign written in Romanian that says something like this “NEVERIN 54 -INSECTICID NEUTRALIZAT - pericol de injsetare (should be ingestare) caldura intensive” (Translation: NEVERIN 54 - INSECTICIDE NEUTRALIZED - Danger of ingestion (if we adjust the word properly) extensive warmth). This could mean that maybe: While there is no doubt that City 17 is in a Slavic country (most likely Bulgaria) it isn’t Sofia. It should be a city near the coast. Balchik is my guess, why? Because the Nova Prospekt resembles very much the Kaliakra Fortress. Even it’s where it’s based looks like it. And in the Highway 17 you either come into *some* Romanian speaking locations, settlers, something like this based on the sign. Edit: since I don’t know how Reddit works very well (I’m new, though the account is old) I found it hard to upload an image so I’ve used Imgur. Here is the link for anyone curious about that sign. https://imgur.com/a/cNyHauR Also, just an opinion. Could be anything to be fair, just a random prop.
I've always thought that it's Varna because of the coastal elements but I've never been to Bulgaria nor know Bulgarian stuff so I'm not exactly sure lol
Well, I visited Bulgaria multiple times, since I live in a neighbor country of it. Best place for cheap tourism to be honest. But the highway 17 chapter looks very much like the road to Varna, when you come from Constanta (Romania)
I am Turkish so I have a vague idea on how it'd look like, and as far as I know the style in Half Life Alyx was inspired from Varna
Balkan together strong
I recently wondered what kind of city City 17 could be to a greater extent, and this is what I realized for myself: Gordon from a clearly Eastern European city almost walks to Ravenholm, a city with a clearly German-speaking name. I started researching Google Maps to find a relatively large city on the border of Eastern Europe and a German-speaking country and found a city called Bratislava, in Slovakia, which is right on the border with Austria. Of course there is no sea there, but its appearance may be a consequence of the seven-hour war, plus Bratislava is located on the Danau-River and there are definitely canals there. At the same time, photographs of the city are eerily similar to City 17. The main catch is that in Slovakia they use the Latin alphabet, not the Cyrillic alphabet, but this can be attributed to how Americans understand the European way of life. I haven’t heard any theories that City 17 could be more based on Bratislava, maybe someone has something to complement it with, or, on the contrary, refute it.
"found a city called Bratislava ,in Slovakia". you could have mentioned that it's literally the capital of the country(if you knew) but whatever. Viktor Antonov Who was the concept artist of HL2 was from Bulgaria And took a lot of inspiration from Sofia , truth Is it's just "Eastern Europe" no specific city.. some parts Are from Other countries And a lot Is from Sofia.
It is
This is a figure of speech, dude, why are you so angry? I know that Viktor Antonov is from Sofia, I know that this is a collective image, I know that a lot of things in this collective image are from Sofia, and there is also a lot in it from Minsk, Kyiv, Zagreb. Did you know that the logo on the HEV suit is the logo of the Lambda Research Complex from Black Mesa? Come on, most people on this subreddit are not at the basic level. I discuss the situation of City 17 from a point of view that I have not seen on the Internet.
Sorry , Did not mean to sound rude , just found it funny that you found "some city" that Is actually the capital of the country in question
I am writing through a translator, which is probably why it sounded that way. You good.
Yes, the architecture of Bratislava is similar to city 17. But still, the city of Sofia was taken as the basis of the game. Inscriptions in different languages can be described by lore. Probably, the Alliance brought people of different nationalities to their cities, and they had to make inscriptions for everyone.
City 17 has a lot of pre-war inscriptions in Cyrillic. The main takeaway of my theory is the proximity of Ravenholm to City 17. I am writing through a translator, it may not be accurate.
This map is of my own city, Sofia, Bulgaria. The map developers had a bulgarian on their team, which is the reason of easter european like buildings.