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Conscripts; What's the point?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JustAnotherBlankProfile
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JustAnotherBlankProfile

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Is this a minor issue? Definitely.
Am I being petty? Probably.

Conscripts or "The Arteria" as they're called, don't make much sense to me in the lore I've seen.

*FUNCTION*
The conscripts are said to serve as a force that acts in the outlands, assisted by OTA, but that just begs the question of why these forces aren't made entirely out of OTA. We've seen that various lesser grade transhuman soldiers exist, that can't rebel, and act far more reliably than normal humans. I doubt the Combine is lacking in numbers, they have entire facilities dedicated to Transhumanisation. The Civil Protection serve the purpose of guarding the Cities and Canals, while the OTA have the purpose of guarding important locations in the prior, and anywhere else outside these areas. Having a random middle tier that does the same thing OTA does but less efficiently just doesn't make sense.ConscriptConvoy.jpg

*HISTORY*
This is the big one for me, Conscripts are still, at their core, unbrainwashed people doing dangerous work with deadly equipment. The Combine have no reason to trust a mechanism like this, atleast in the current year the server is in. The trustworthiness of Humans was dashed after the Eastern Rebellion, to the point where many administrative officials were killed for their inadequacy. That the Combine would just heel-turn and start giving "trustworthy" humans military grade gear (assault rifles and ballistic equipment) in an environment they could overall easily escape from (The outlands) doesn't make much sense. The OTA placed in the units doesn't serve enough of a deterrent, they'd be outnumbered by people with heavy grade weapons, and desertion would not be very difficult. Civil Protection makes sense as it's in an area of near total Combine control, its unlikely even a rogue would get as far as the outlands, if they wanted to. Conscripts don't have this excuse. Cities that have large amounts of civil unrest (Russia comes to mind) could realistically just deploy transhumans to deal with the outskirts of the city.ConscriptBetrayal.jpg

***SOLUTIONS***
As stated earlier, I like the idea and design of the conscripts, but the way they are implemented in server lore doesn't make sense with what we know. I think that a good solution would be to have them be an organization that existed previously, but has since been entirely replaced by OTA. The first 5-7 years of Combine Occupation seem like a long enough period to mass-"produce" transhuman soldiers. That way the conscripts can be in lore, and equipment/backstories involving them can work, but they don't actively go against established lore.
 
Conscripts are simply discount manpower to be deployed. They are terrible in every respect save for numbers. That's the whole point of them. To cover large areas that would otherwise be completely unoccupied due to a lack of Available OTA forces. OTA in our lore are not made in two seconds like it is sometimes portrayed. It is a lengthy process that involves, not only finding suitable subjects, but also transforming them and arming them with needed equipment. Synths are also in limited number and such priority forces have way better things to be doing than guarding some hard-point in the outlands.

The Arteria are just a bunch of losers handed guns that are capable of defending points of interest from xenian or rebel attack. They are kept a watchful eye over and (despite what some lore posts may lead you to think) are complete shit when compared to any other force. They typically are never given heavy armors or advanced weaponry and any vehicles they do get are only supplied enough to get the job done - and nothing more. So desertion actually isn't easy at all. If you do desert - its you against the world. Even if an entire force does desert, attrition would slowly eat them alive and OTA forces could dispatch the little shits without too much trouble. Assuming they even needed to.

CP's and OTA are primarily deployed to cities.
OTA are found in outland regions of high importance
Arteria are everywhere else.

Its simply a matter of logistics that the force still exists. Consider the entire world map and how much activity occurs on it. There are simply not enough OTA to keep an eye on it. Thus, you have the Arteria. Cheap, but effective for what they are.
 
Basically
Conscripts are an incredibly cheap and expendable force there to watch over things that the more well-equipped combine don’t have the time to. You don’t need 300 OTA to watch over a section of forest 250 miles from a city. Send the civs there for a while.

They’re more of a deterrent than anything, likely just reporting back to overwatch if they stumble into anything more than a few lone hunters.
 
Okay, explained like that it makes more sense, I'm just glad we didn't go "Conscripts have tanks and helicopters for some reason" But I still have to wonder why lesser OTA aren't used, like Grunts or Ordinals, I imagine they'd take less resources to make than an full on generic soldier and be more reliable than conscripts.
 
JustAnotherBlankProfile said:
Okay, explained like that it makes more sense, I'm just glad we didn't go "Conscripts have tanks and helicopters for some reason" But I still have to wonder why lesser OTA aren't used, like Grunts or Ordinals, I imagine they'd take less resources to make than an full on generic soldier and be more reliable than conscripts.
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Probably just not worth it to make them. The most they'd really do is supervise the conscripts, but there’s other ways to ensure conscripts don’t just run off and make an escape with their (limited) gear
 
Its really just a matter of if you want "Completely normal grunts" or "Modified but still mostly act normal grunts"? Cause grunts still have access to overwatch, I assume the conscripts are just operating on their own.
 
Conscripts do make sense.

Why? Conscripts are the perfect exemple of the product of a secret power dispute between the elitist human consulate and its cities that strive to keep hold of their "human empire" and prove to the Combine that humanity has utility and should be preserved. And the combine overlords that care little about what happens to all of us in the end.

The conscripts seem fairly unjustified and out of place and thast how they should look. Because, as we know, Union governments aren't very functional and there are big but hidden power struggles and disputes of ideologies within the loyalist spectrum. The creation of a conscript army would be a perfect policy a humanist government would support, for exemple.


In a total dystopian world where humanity lives under false governments, led by false presidents that call for a false fight on a false idea of unity towards an alien race that only sees us as mere numbers on their list of avalible resources, the existance of certain policies, social concepts and things that make little sense and just seem unjustified would be expected.

For all we know, no human has ever seen the true face of the Combine.
 
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JustAnotherBlankProfile said:
Its really just a matter of if you want "Completely normal grunts" or "Modified but still mostly act normal grunts"? Cause grunts still have access to overwatch, I assume the conscripts are just operating on their own.
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Conscripts would still be supervised, likely having to report in to overwatch/Dispatch regularly, with loyalist-type people on the ground to ensure they aren’t upto anything they shouldn’t be. I’d imagine they’re relatively closely watched over
 
lemon said:
Conscripts do make sense.

Why? Conscripts are the perfect exemple of the product of a secret power dispute between the elitist human consulate and its cities that strive to keep hold of their "human empire" and prove to the Combine that humanity has utility and should be preserved. And the combine overlords that care little about what happens to all of us in the end.

The conscripts seem fairly unjustified and out of place and thast how they should look. Because, as we know, Union governments aren't very functional and there are big but hidden power struggles and disputes of ideologies within the loyalist spectrum. The creation of a conscript army would be a perfect policy a humanist government would support, for exemple.


In a total dystopian world where humanity lives under false governments, led by false presidents that call for a false fight on a false idea of unity towards an alien race that only sees us as mere numbers on their list of avalible resources, the existance of certain policies, social concepts and things that make little sense and just seem unjustified would be expected.

For all we know, no human has ever seen the true face of the Combine.
Click to expand...

Plus, conscripts are the perfect propaganda tool. They are literally the "cherry on the top" of the whole "War on the Rebels" show. It would be ideal for cities to keep them actively operating.

This is my view on conscripts
 
Conscripts are very useful since Overwatch does not have an infinite number of OTA and OTA creation takes a very long time to do. Overwatch simply just needs more manpower, and Conscripts serve that purpose well.

The only time you'll see Conscripts in cities is where everything went to shit and Overwatch needs to send manpower into the meat-grinder - like City Three.
 
Yeah I guess, I still just find it weird that after over a decade over ruling earth the Combine wouldn't have streamlined the process to mass produce OTA. If not the full scale "Generic" HL2 soldiers than the lesser variants seen in HL:A.
 
I feel that conscripts provide no foundation to the steamrolling force of the Combine's might, having been replaced by superior candidates like members of the Overwatch Transhuman Arm. If the Combine were to utilize conscripts as cannon fodder, that would defeat the purpose of the Overwatch Transhuman Arm.

Additionally, other members of the Overwatch Forces can serve as a filler for manpower, as well. Conscripted members of Civil Protection are applicable candidates to assist the Overwatch Transhuman arm on the field, should the OTA forces stretch thin.

To conclude, I think that conscripts do not make sense in the lore of Half-Life 2 and genuinely serve no purpose beyond making things more intricate than need be.
 
I never got the impression that Combine Soldiers were supposed to be special forces, just the standard grunt of the Combine garrison on Earth. I don't get what it adds to make OTA a hard to produce resource. They just kick rebels ass in HL2RP because they're an in-game punishment for rebels if they get too daring.

My issue isn't that conscripts exist in the lore, its that they're still in use.
 
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JustAnotherBlankProfile said:
I never got the impression that Combine Soldiers were supposed to be special forces
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Breen has managed to convince the Advisors that OTA are the "best humanity has to offer." They are quite literally the most powerful soldiers in human history -- not because they are extremely tanky or buff (they are tough dudes indeed, but there have certainly been bodybuilders in the past stronger than the average OTA soldier), but because they are an impossibly cohesive force that rarely -- if ever -- makes mistakes in the field of battle. Something even the most elite contemporary operatives

Conscripts, on the other hand, are minimally-brainwashed goobers with surplus AK-47s and pipe pistols and the occasional APC. They are only moderately better-equipped than the refugees they typically skirmish with. Conscripts could certainly go toe-to-toe with OTA, but the number advantage would have to be insurmountable.
 
Conscripts aren't brainwashed, that's part of why its so weird they'd exist as an organization after 13 years of Combine rule, Civil Protection gets a pass because they're glorified cops.
 
You just don’t need anything more than a lightly armed, lightly trained human soldier to do what a conscript does.

Im not a fan of conscripts when they’re used as a replacement for OTA, but here they have a far different and more passive role. They’re a deterrent more than anything else.
 
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