So now that these guys are basically confirmed to have a Dyson

>>55065811
>Confirmed to have a Dyson Sphere

I'd wager they have more than one, anon. The Combine are such an advanced civilization that I could scarcely describe them as a government anymore. Ever wonder why The Combine always refers to itself in anatomical terms? Medical terms? Physiological? How they "amputate" their enemies and "subsume" sectors, or if they're too far gone "cauterize" them?

The Combine is not a government. The Combine is an organism. A living state. Breathing bureaucracy. The mere possession of a Dyson Sphere is enough to show their computational power (as Spheres can double as Jupiter Brains) is near omniscient, their reach extending into multiple universes. Not even the Tyranids can match something like this, the Combine is a greater super-organism than the Hivemind can even dream of, for unlike the Hivemind the Combine is not just a living body, it's a living body of unfathomable scale. There is no Hive Tyrant, there is no Norn-Queen. The Combine IS.

>>55065811

Depends on how you define "army". There's plenty of settings whose big bads annihilate whole universes every weekday and double on sundays.

Also Dyson spheres aren't super special. Star Trek had one as the plot of a normal episode.

If they can build a Dyson sphere how come they were so ridiculously incompetent in HL2? Not to mention wearing fucking ancient soviet gas masks and using pretty shitty weapons for a type 2 civilization.

>>55065939
The Combine stationed at Earth aren't actual Combine forces. They're modified humans used to police Earth, which to the Combine is basically a backwater shithole they don't even feel like expending actual effort to man themselves.

>>55065984
Yeah, I know, but I don't really understand why such advanced civilization would bother with all that soviet larp. Also, if they don't care about Earth, why they invaded anyway and if they just want resources why not just extermimate all humans? It just doesn't make sense and seems like style over substance shit.

>>55066117
They see Earth as just another place to grab resources from. Humans are basically ants in their oil field. Actually taking effort to completely exterminate them is pointless because the Combine don't even pretend the register them as an actual threat. Why bother when you can just genetically modify a few to keep the rest in line?

The force that invaded Earth in the first place was probably barely a faction of their main forces, and most of the Combine higher-ups probably forgot Earth is even a thing that exists by now.

>>55066117
Why exterminate Termites when you can enslave them to collect wood instead of consuming wood

>>55065896
Than why the hell can't they put down a shitty human resistance? Or not just increase the personal liberties of their citizenry so as to keep people happy?

>>55066156
>They see Earth as just another place to grab resources from.

Canonically false. The Combine's interest in Earth lay in our mastery of portal technology as seen at Black Mesa and the Aperture Science Test Labs. Our portal technology allows us to teleport within our universe operating at power levels (in the case of Portal 2) equal to the energy given off by a potato. In contrast, Combine teleportation is a high-energy, brutish affair; massive Dark Energy Reactors shoving unfathomable amounts of energy into a localized area to open a huge super-portal, and even then it's a one-way trip. They can tunnel between dimensions, but once they're within a dimension they're bound to whatever transportation methods are available.

That is their interest in Earth and Humanity. They want our technology.

>>55066162
Well, it didn't really work that way and I find hard to believe they did not foresee that happening.

>>55066162
Does anyone actually work in 1/2 life ?
All i remembers about civilians is that they just are kind of there.
They don't seem to have any jobs, all the factories/shops are abandonned, all the Combine held area have no human presence beyond prisonners or rebel fighters, etc...
I don't think combines are after our ressources.

>>55066212
By the time of Half-Life 2, they probably already took most of what they were actually there for.

>>55066212
>I don't think combines are after our ressources.

They're harvesting our resources using more efficient methods, such as vast atmosphere siphons that consume our air or portals in the middle of the Ocean that swallow our seas. They don't need people working factories.

>>55066212
Well, Stalkers exist. And they do... things

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>>55066212
Nah, they most certainly are; They are very clearly draining the Oceans. You can tell from the radically shrunk tidalzone. Originally, they were also after our air as well.

Although, with how powerful the Combine are revealed to be, I wonder how our favorite genocidal AI stacks up now. We know that Aperture science somehow bumblefucked their way into shit even a Dyson Sphere possessing species can't perfect, and I suppose that they also have quite the database on time and space manipulation.

>>55066188
>Than why the hell can't they put down a shitty human resistance?

They were able to take down the planet's armed forces in 7 hours using a finger of their "actual" military apparatus, but their trouble at taking down the resistance is primarily due to their military as of Half-Life 2 being little more than a local garrison of primarily human recruits augmented with a little bit of their tech and supported by a few techno-organic vehicles that can operate under our universe's natural laws. In other words, they can't put down the resistance because The Combine you're fighting is their equivalent of a backwoods American militia armed with M-16s.

>Or not just increase the personal liberties of their citizenry so as to keep people happy?

Who cares about personal liberties? We're just bio-matter to be consumed to them.

>>55066294
Aperture is made on combine tech.

So we at least know Gordon wins

>>55066193
If they'd only care about that technology why are they fucking with Earth and humans? Just because they're cartoonish villsins that did it for evulz? I mean they could have very easily forced United States to give them teleport technology after just brief show of force if they're really so powerful.

>>55066373
>If they'd only care about that technology why are they fucking with Earth and humans?

They spent the effort to come here, they might as well harvest the world while they find the portal tech.

>>55066358
Where are you getting that from?

>>55065811
>confirmed to have a Dyson Sphere

Since when?

>>55066661
yeah I want a source on this.
>mostly because a lot of people I know is talking about dyson spheres
>they usually don't give an actual shit about sci-fi super structures

Is this something to do with the leaks from the writer?

>>55066682
>Is this something to do with the leaks from the writer?

Gordon Freeman goes through a portal into Combine Space in orbit around a Dyson Sphere, it's meant to let the player get a better idea just how vast the Combine are.

>>55066682
Yes. In the leaks Freeman use the Borealis tp travels to what they believe is the combine home world in the hope of destroy/damage the combine on their home turf and it turns out the Combine's home system is completely colonized down to the last planet and they have a dyson sphere. Humanity never stood a chance.

>>55066682
Yes it was mentioned in Mark Laidlaw's plot synopsis.

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Therians do apparently. They have their own Dyson Sphere.

From AT-43

So humanity in an abstract way I guess.

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>>55065811
God damn HL2 had such good fucking sound design

>YOU WANT A MALCOMPLIANCE VERDICT?

>>55066373
Because if humans invented powerful teleportation technology, then the combine would want to exploit humanity to get their technology and build more stuff for them.

Murder all the humans and you'll just end up destroying everything in the process, show up once and leave is like buying a complex machine and throwing away the users manual. Enslave the humans and you can get them to build, maintain, and test this new tech.

>>55066193
Yeah, This. That is why the Borealis and the resistance's teleporter tech was such a big deal to them.

If the "fan fic" is to be believed the Borealis could literally teleport across time and space. Possessing it would be a huge boon to whoever owned it. This is probably why the G-Man wanted it destroyed.

My theory is that the G-Man works for an as of yet unseen third party who the Combine are at war with. His manipulation of events in our reality is a small part of the greater conflict between the two entities, with Humans and the Vortagaunts caught in the middle.

>>55066294
>>55066358
Portal 2 supposedly takes place at the very end of the time line. I think Portal 1 takes place some time during or slightly after the events of HL 2.

>>55065811
Well, Gordon Freeman thoroughly destroyed them in Half Life 4, so it can't be that hard.
(And fuck you, the ending *wasn't* cheap, I thought it was awesome!)
Of course, you fuckers had to wreck the timeline, so now we haven't gotten any games since Alex's father died.
Whatever we got out of it, I hope it was worth it.

>>55065939
because the game needed to happen that's really all there is to it

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>>55067765
>timeline
>shared universe

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>b-b-b-but if they're so powerful, how did humanity ever stand a chance against them?

Because we had a god manipulating events from behind the scenes every step of the way

All a dyson sphere really does is give you lots of energy and surface area to play with. Doesn't give any major advantages beyond that. Dyson Spheres are also a structure where even slight damage to it can cause the whole thing to come apart because of the forces involved, so anything that punches a big hole along the equator can wreck a dyson sphere.

Without knowing what the dyson sphere is made of, we can't really tell what it would take to punch a hole, but most sci fi settings have a way to deal with unreasonably strong materials. If nothing else, a good dose of antimatter will open up that hole.

>>55065811
I've seen a little bit about this, but I haven't seen where this is shown. Could someone please link me?

>>55069664
The Dyson Sphere isn't the source of their power, it's a visual representation of the resources the Universal Union can bring to bear - a shorthand for their ability to engineer on a massive scale, such that even the most powerful weapon humanity can deploy against them is nothing.

>>55069680
http://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/
https://pastebin.com/q9DMFa7c

>>55069664

They have anti-gravity technology, exotic matter, dimensional travel etc. Structural damage is the lesser of their concerns.

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>>55069760
>They have anti-gravity technology, exotic matter, dimensional trave

Then they can build some thing a lot bigger then a Dyson Sphere.

>>55066117
>Resources
That's exactly what humans are.