Advanced aliens didn't invent/discover this one basic thing.

[u/HotUKTakes]

1. The Santi, from The Three Body Problem, are masters of dimensional engineering. They can build an AI computer the size of a planet, and fold it into the size of a photon.

But they never invented the concept of lying.

1. The Asgard, from Stargate, are an advanced civilization with FTL travel capable of spanning different galaxies. But they need the help of humans to fight their enemies the replicators, a mechanical lifeform comprised of replicating lego blocks, because human guns can blow the blocks apart, while Asgard energy weapons are just absorbed.

The Asgard say the idea to use chemical reactions to launch a blunt object at high velocity never occured to them.

1. Despite having the ability to build a simulated beach, complete with simulated earth atmosphere, The Eridians didn't discover relativity and radiation.

2. The aliens from War of the worlds just lick everything, clearly having no concepts of germs. Which is what kills them in the end.

3. Despite having FTL travel, the Havesters from Independence day, never invented network security, as they are hacked by a human macbook.

[u/TheRevanReborn]

In Valve’s Half-Life games, after experiments go wrong at a research lab, one thing leads to another and an intergalactic alien empire called the “Combine” conquer earth after a pathetically short seven hours of warfare.

It’s implied that although the Combine have tech well-beyond humanity in almost every other aspect (including an energy field that can stop sexual reproduction, hover-tech, body-horror cybernetics, directed energy weapons, etc.), they actually don’t have good transportation capabilities. They essentially brute-forced their way onto our world by following through a portal created by the aforementioned experiments gone-wrong. When the protagonists of the games shut down the portal, the Combine garrison on earth is completely cut off from the rest of their empire, allowing the human resistance to begin fighting openly and taking the planet back.

By contrast to the Combine, the humans actually figured out advanced teleportation tech fairly early after the war, using it to outmaneuver their enemy at several key points despite being otherwise terribly overmatched. (I guess that might be basic by some sci-fi standards and not others).

[u/TimeStorm113 → u/TheRevanReborn]

also more of a headcanon but i think the combine also have little to none space tech. but that is mainly based on them draining the ocean for it's water.

water is incredibly common in the universe, and any civilization that can conquer a completely alien world in a few hours should have enough ressources to send out spaceships to land on the closest ice moon.

if they just set up shop on europa they would already have more than double the water earth has to offer. not to mention that it is surrounded by other moons with comparable amounts

[u/Turbogoblin999 → u/TimeStorm113]

I think part of the reason they have difficulty with local teleportation is because they are from a different universe where things are similar enough that a lot of their technology works, but things that reach a level like teleportation breaks apart. In the games you can hear characters talking about "their" calculations and they seem capable of communicating with their home world, but had to blow up the reactor at City 17 to create one single unstable portal to their home world.

[u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 → u/Turbogoblin999]

Maybe it's because local teleportation relies on slingshotting Xen, though that wouldn't make as much sense given it's implied Nihilanth served The Combine

[u/Femboy_Lord → u/TimeStorm113]

In the now non-canon Epistle 3, the Combine's power source for their dimensional technology on their Homeworld was going to be a Dyson Sphere. So it's less that they have very little space tech, and more that their interstellar technology is non-existent or painfully slow.

[u/TheSweetestKill → u/Femboy_Lord]

I think it's Breen that says towards the end of HL2 that the Combine come from another universe. Not from some distant galaxy or somewhere out in space. With their infinity resources, it's easier to tunnel through to other universes than to go out into the stars. Crazy stuff, I love it.

[u/HairyOrange04 → u/TimeStorm113]

My theory is that they do have advanced space techs, but they cant use most of their tech in our universe, because they are created in a universe where the laws of physics are different. Thats why you only see them mostly use modified human tech in half life. They probably have to relearn everything everytime they enter a new universe. The science is different in our universe.

Its also implied that their universe has different laws of physics by the fact that iirc breen said to Gordon about particles in the combine world that don't exist in our universe

[u/Brauny74 → u/TheRevanReborn]

The Combine know how to travel between dimensions, but they have no local teleport - once they're there, they're gonna leg it manually. Black Mesa (and also Aperture Science) invented a way to teleport around Earth using Xen as a median world. Breen promised access to this technology in exchange for sparing humanity and letting them to be elevated to immortality, ending the 7 Hours War.

[u/OrmeaustThere → u/TheRevanReborn]

The Combine have access to inter-dimensional teleportation, but Black Mesa/Aperture stumbled upon intra-dimensional teleportation/portals and that's part of why they're so interested in Earth.

Essentially, the Combine can travel to any dimension they want, but once they're there, they gotta take the long way to wherever they're going.

[u/Limp_Combination4361 → u/TheRevanReborn]

to be fair, the anti-baby field manipulates peoples ability to get aroused both physically and mentally. So it indirectly inhibits all sex and therefore any procreation.

There's a reason everyone seems so blase and depressed in the city besides lack of sex and intimacy. Its also affecting their ability to be interested in things beyond them being so locked down and controlled so thoroughly.

[u/TheSweetestKill → u/Limp_Combination4361]

Absolutely none of this is stated in the games, this is fan theory at best.

[u/Limp_Combination4361 → u/TheSweetestKill]

Except you hear chatter from civilians about not being able to fuck despite wanting to.

[u/Specialist_Impact605 → u/Limp_Combination4361]

Doesn't Kleiner explicitly say that the field prevents embryo formation? I'd imagined that the only reason the Combine was using the field was to ensure that the human population remained more-or-less predictable while they were occupying it. When do the civilians say those lines?

[u/TheSweetestKill → u/Specialist_Impact605]

Correct, in Episode 1, Kleiner says in the Kleinercast that "certain protein chains important to the process of embryonic development were selectively prevented from forming".

[u/TheSweetestKill → u/Limp_Combination4361]

When? Where? What's the file names? You can link to an Overwiki page.