[WMCoolmon]

I was going through the Ancients videos, and had some ideas about the Ancients' culture.
First, I believe they advanced their technology slowly, from the line "For thousands of years our empire expanded...for so long we could imagine ourselves alone in the universe." This may have been the result of few or no wars amongst themselves, meaning less need for the advancing of technology. Additionally, it is said they retreated back to their home systems, which may mean that they took several nearby systems before discovering subspace.
It is also very likely that they did not have an extremely powerful navy, despite taking several galaxies, as they were not able to resist the Shivans very well, despite holding so much area. Though having their fleet spread thinly is a possibility, the monologues hint that they were not able to destroy fighters or capital ships-possibly due to the shields on Shivan craft.
What I personally think the Ancients were was a race of scholars rather than warriors, conquering races only for the resources on their planets.

The Shivans seem to be the exact reverse. They did not take resources in Freespace 1, and the only resourcing we saw the Shivans doing were using "Mining" vessels-which may or may not be true (misidentification by Terran command of support vessels, anyone?). This may have been the reason behind the Shivan attacks on the Ancients.
Oddly enough, the Shivans appear to advance as slowly or slower than the Ancients. In the thousands of years between the Shivans attacking the Ancients and them attacking the Terrans, little advances have been made with drive systems or subspace drives. Indeed, they seem to have done little to advance technologically between their attack on the Ancients' empire and the Terrans/Vasudans, as they were apparently able to traverse galaxies at the time of their attack on the Ancients.

Another interesting possibility is that the Ancients were actually a coalition of species, or two species working together-possibly the Vasudans. This conclusion is entirely possible, as the Vasudans seem to have had contact with the Ancients in the past, and their planet had few natural resources. It may be that their past association with the Ancients was forgotten, and their planet's resource-depleted condition a result of their first expeditions into space and contact with the Ancients.

[Nico]

mmh, I think you're wrong because of a single point:
they said they destroyed shivans by millions... So they HAD a very powerful fleet ( most likely much larger than the GTVA one), and were able to go through fighter shields, and destroy capships. I think the ancinet/ shivan war was much more epic than the GTVA/shivan one...

[WMCoolmon]

No, in the second Ancients video, this is specifically said: "They were like the others...strange, hideous, resisting, fighting. Only these were not like the others;they did not die. We made our first retreat; we could forego one system. We left it to the Destroyers and went elsewhere."

[Nico]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
No, in the second Ancients video, this is specifically said: "They were like the others...strange, hideous, resisting, fighting. Only these were not like the others;they did not die. We made our first retreat; we could forego one system. We left it to the Destroyers and went elsewhere."

yeah, but in another video, it says something around those lines: "we killed millions of them, and yet they kept coming."

[an0n]

"they did not die" might just mean that they were never defeated. Then again, if there ships were impervious to Ancient attacks and millions of Shivans were killed, it could explain why when fighting the GTVA they didn't try and take land. It could be there one major weakness.

[Nico]

Originally posted by an0n
"they did not die" might just mean that they were never defeated. Then again, if there ships were impervious to Ancient attacks and millions of Shivans were killed, it could explain why when fighting the GTVA they didn't try and take land. It could be there one major weakness.

mmh, watch the hall fight again 1 shivan dead, a full marine squad anihilated

[Anaz]

Originally posted by venom2506


mmh, watch the hall fight again 1 shivan dead, a full marine squad anihilated

yes, but that was in space

[Nuclear1]

Ancients #3

And we retreated to our home system;
Abandoned our empire.
We believed at home we would be safe,
for they are not a terrestrial species.
For we knew when we entered subspace
we were trespassers;
but our planet is our home.
And yet still they came.....
And our world is gone.

The Shivans don't land on planets, but rather fight for subsapce control.

From Admiral Wolf's Briefing

....They don't seem to be interested in taking control of any planets in the system, or collecting natural resources... Instead, they seem to be focusing on individual nodes....

[/b]

[Apothess]

yeah, but in another video, it says something around those lines: "we killed millions of them, and yet they kept coming

I have watched the vids and i don't here that i do here that the aincents conquered millions, but they belong to other spieces and not the shivans.

[Nuclear1]

Also, the fact that the Banshee worked so well on the Shivan shields is evidence of Shivans not landing on planets.

Also, during the bombardment of Vasuda Prime, not one Shivan ship landed on the planet [/b], but bombarded from orbit.

From Admiral Shima's Briefing


...which brings me to the reason for this briefing. As some of you may have already heard, shortly after the destruction of the Galatea at 1900 last night, we recieved word the Shivan Lucifer made the jump to Vasuda Prime. The Lucifer fleet bombarded Vasuda Prime from orbit for thirteen hours straight

[/b]

[Stunaep]

They could have had totally different weapons/ships operating on a totally different basis, perhaps they lost the war just because the (unfortunately) developed different, less effective weapons than the GTVA.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Apothess


I have watched the vids and i don't here that i do here that the aincents conquered millions, but they belong to other spieces and not the shivans.

well, they may have messed up the translation then, since it clearlky refers to shivans in my copy.

[FSW]

In the V-T war, we learnt to adapt. That is why we did not suffer the same fate as the Ancients.

[Nico]

Originally posted by FSW
In the V-T war, we learnt to adapt. That is why we did not suffer the same fate as the Ancients.

we survived coz we found the ancinet writings about Lucifer shielding not working in subspace. W/o that, the war would have been lost. We won thanx to the ancients, in fact.

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by venom2506
well, they may have messed up the translation then, since it clearlky refers to shivans in my copy.

Hrm, that's odd. The Shivans are not at all referred to in the first movie (in the English version).

[Nuclear1]

Final Monologue

I know why the Ancient Ones were destroyed.
And I know what they knew....
I know that if not for the Shivans, they would have perished long before....
If not for the Shivans, someone else would have discovered the Ancient ones in their infancy and eliminated them....
Just as surely as they eliminated countless billions of others....
I believe it is only the destroyers who are killed.
The Shivans are the Great Destroyers, but they are also the Great Preservers.
Long had we been the Destroyers. Our turn had nearly come.
In the Vasudan War, we learned how to adapt....
We learned how to study our enemy....
We learned how to overcome....
We learned how to survive.....
And so we did.
All the jump nodes to Earth are gone, but the Shivans can rebuild them.
I am told we can expect them again.... but not in my lifetime.
Such is liberation.

[elorran]

But who's to honestly say the the 'destroyers' that the ancients fought where actually the shivans?

The shivans have evidence of genetic manipulation and guidence through the course of their evolution rather than natural selection and evolution.  It is possible that the shivans are a child race produced by the older species that originally wiped out the ancients.  Or perhaps, though unlikely, the shivans are a product of the anciencts that some how survivied and the original 'destroyers' are else where... now thats a scary thought, something more powerful than the Shivans.

[Knight Templar]

Um well u see, the shivans were being wiped out by the lucifer (sheilded, "invicible"superdestroyer ) but the anceints knew how to defeat its sheild. "in subpace they could be followed and in subspace, they are vunerable" or something to that effect. so that is evedence enought to me that they were ****ed by the lucy and the lucy is and was a shivan ship.

[Boct1584]

Originally posted by nuclear1
Also, the fact that the Banshee worked so well on the Shivan shields is evidence of Shivans not landing on planets

Can you explain how that is?

[Raven2001]

Originally posted by Boct1584


Can you explain how that is?

Because the banshee was a magnetic weapon, so it uses magnetism, something that we have on planets, so the Shivan shields are not able to function on planets, wich means that they were not designed for terrestrial purposes= Shivans are not terrestrial