Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: MicroPsycho on January 08, 2006, 06:19:43 pm
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This is just something to generate some discussion that has nothing to do with inter-species mating.
Do Shivans eat? And if so what?
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I'd say no, as the techroom mentions them as possibly having some form of organic fusion used to power their beam weapon. Plus I think they could probably have adapted their bodies not to rely on food; it'd make sense for a cybernetic organism to do so (assuming, of course, they weren't designed in the first place).
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Do Shivans eat? And if so what?
Hang on a sec. <shouts to guys in maintenance> Hey! Somebody go up in the vents and find Carl! We got a question needs answered!
:p
Seriously though, it's a possibility that they do in fact eat. We Terrans know so little about them.
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They also eat Headz. Hence their hatred of Vasudans.
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Hmmmm.. Well, it seems pretty certain that Shivans don't eat organic matter, certainly, though theres little doubt, if they are evolved, or related to an evolved species that they are predators. It'd be kind of hard, even if they were designed, to place that kind of behaviour in prey.
It's possible they could take nutrition from Energy of some sort, possibly Subspace?
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Maybe they have cold fusion reactors inside? :p
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Do Shivans eat? And if so what?
Yes. Babies.
[/pointless]
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Hmmmm.. Well, it seems pretty certain that Shivans don't eat organic matter,
Umm. Can I ask how you came to this conclusion?
I'd imagine that if they are biological in any way, they need something other than energy to survive, no?
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Definitley, law of conservation of energy.
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True, but I can't say I've ever seen any kind of 'mouth' on them :)
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You're all ignoring the greater question:
What does Shivan taste like? :drevil:
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Someone within SOC probably knows. What do you think happened to the Shivans who were originally in those Maras you fly in Into the Lion's Den? A Shivan BBQ, of course. :D
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Yes. Carl has consumed the lunch of many a newbie IIRC.
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Hmmmm.. Well, it seems pretty certain that Shivans don't eat organic matter,
Umm. Can I ask how you came to this conclusion?
I'd imagine that if they are biological in any way, they need something other than energy to survive, no?
What is food but a way to get something that is converted to (essentially) energy?
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Yeah, but you still don't power your body by sticking your finger in a socket, now do you?
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IIRC in FS1 some Shivan cargo containers are revealed to be containing food.
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Yeah, but you still don't power your body by sticking your finger in a socket, now do you?
Because I'm not designed to.
Eating is messy and inefficient; you have the problems of storing food (internally for processing and in ships for supplies), extracting nutrients, removing waste from the body and ship, etc.......
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There are severaly types of energy - kinetic, heat, etc...
Food if fuel for the body - it needs nutrients to keep it's growth, to generate new cells, etc.
Heat is the product of kinetic energy that is again the product of moving muscles and blood flow.
While our body functions are controled by electroical impulses, you can't just eat energy, and genetic modification in that direction are ilarious to say the least.
and kitoftheworld said, there was food in some shivan containers, thus tehy eat.
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But this assumes that Shivans use a standard genetic process to create cells. If indeed they are Bio-Engineered, they might require materials, but not need the injest them. After all, do Shivans grow? Have we seen young Shivans, Old Shivans, different sized Shivans even?
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There are severaly types of energy - kinetic, heat, etc...
Food if fuel for the body - it needs nutrients to keep it's growth, to generate new cells, etc.
Heat is the product of kinetic energy that is again the product of moving muscles and blood flow.
While our body functions are controled by electroical impulses, you can't just eat energy, and genetic modification in that direction are ilarious to say the least.
and kitoftheworld said, there was food in some shivan containers, thus tehy eat.
It's only, er, 'ilarious' if you wish to apply it to present day human physiology. With something like the Shivans - whether built from scratch by a designed or evolved over many years (i.e. of adding technology and genetic engineering) - it becomes more plausible. Particularly given their - suggested - organic fusion capacity.
I'd note that kinetic energy is produced through friction, so you get that (and heat) from any mechanical object anyways. Muscle movement in particular IIRC is caused as a result of the activation of certain proteins in the muscle via electrical impulses. Nutrients... the main issue IMO is the ingestion of nutrients used to get chemicals not naturally produced by the body. However, this does not preclude an engineered solution to produce these chemicals internally. Stuff like growth, movement, etc could all be powered using some form of 'direct' energy source.
Remember this is sci-fi, after all; there's no reason why it couldn't happen, and I guess the main reason is which is more likely. To me, the Shivans seem more likely to be 'powered' in this way then through conventional eatery - largely because of their apparent lack of interest in resources like planets (this would obviously depend on what they eat), and the suggestion of some form of electrical/energy source within them from the Hallfight ani. It's not necessary to assume the Shivans were always 'designed' this way, of course.
I can't remember the mission with 'Shivan food'. Albiet I'm not sure we should always be regarding the content of containers as deadly serious canon, given those in the last mission of FS1 (and how would the GTVA identify Shivan food?).
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We also found all sorts of other ridiculous stuff in cargo cans to be honest, I don't think :v: were exactly thinking canon when they were doing that.
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There are severaly types of energy - kinetic, heat, etc...
Food if fuel for the body - it needs nutrients to keep it's growth, to generate new cells, etc.
Heat is the product of kinetic energy that is again the product of moving muscles and blood flow.
While our body functions are controled by electroical impulses, you can't just eat energy, and genetic modification in that direction are ilarious to say the least.
Biochemistry time for you.
The universal basic unit of biochemical energy is Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). It breaks down to ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate) in the cell, releasing a crapload of usable energy. Later on, the ADP gets reformed into ATP using an enzyme and additional high energy phosphate in mitochondria. So, a body designed to accept non-chemical energy (i.e. food) would simply need to be designed to filter and store phosphorus and oxygen, provide the neccesary energy (pump it in as simple electricty through some sort of biological conductor - thick cluster of nerves maybe) to form phosphate, then send the phosphate into the mitochondria. Complex, but hardly impossible to bioengineer I'd think.
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You're all ignoring the greater question:
What does Shivan taste like? :drevil:
BBQ Chicken. ;7
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Just give me your lunch and i'll leave you alone.
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and the suggestion of some form of electrical/energy source within them from the Hallfight ani.
Not really.
We do see them fireing some sort of energy cannon, however from where it gets it's power is a matter of debate. Allso it's questionable if it's part of their body.
The Tech Room says they have some sort of carpace.
A canno ncould be implanted into their body along with a batters or something, or it can be fused into theri carpace - similar to the pacemaker in human or a typical concept of power armor with integrated wrist cannon.
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and the suggestion of some form of electrical/energy source within them from the Hallfight ani.
Not really.
We do see them fireing some sort of energy cannon, however from where it gets it's power is a matter of debate. Allso it's questionable if it's part of their body.
The Tech Room says they have some sort of carpace.
A canno ncould be implanted into their body along with a batters or something, or it can be fused into theri carpace - similar to the pacemaker in human or a typical concept of power armor with integrated wrist cannon.
I would say an inbuilt (note the 'integrated' part in the following quote) laser cannon - "The integrated plasma weapon also exhibits properties of an organic artificial fusion. The weapon may be a kind of focusing device powered by the energy of the being itself, though this point is the subject of heated controversy" - is a pretty strong suggestion of some internal power source. Volition have stated that the carapace is to be considered part of the Shivan body; it's not an artificial construct in the sense that an implanted pacemaker or power armour (both are somewhat different concepts from each other; one acts to stimulate a failed internal ogan, the other is an operatable machine more akin to a Shivan fighter than carapace), but a part of the Shivan body in the same sense our bones are a part of ours.
There is no mention of a battery/interchangeable power source, though; whilst that's obviously not conclusive (it's not made clear where all this techroom detail comes from), I think that the simple fact the techroom describes the possibility (by inclusion the most likely - to GTVA scientists at least) of some internal 'reactor' makes that the more likely.
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Since their bio-enginerd, mayby there made to eat iron, or whatever kinda metal they use. Then they'd have little suckers on their feet, and since they'd need very little to eat (because they were bio-enginered), they would eat their ship (slowly).
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Since their bio-enginerd, mayby there made to eat iron, or whatever kinda metal they use. Then they'd have little suckers on their feet, and since they'd need very little to eat (because they were bio-enginered), they would eat their ship (slowly).
But why would they want to? The point isn't so much the food source (although it does relate to logistics), as the simple physiological requirements to break down and digest food - if you can bio-engineer it (or bio-engineer yourself, from the non-created species perspective) to eat metal, rock, whatever, why not to take some direct source of energy and avoid the whole hassle of finding somewhere safe to huddle down and eat?
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Didn't the shivan in the hallfight vid blow up? Would explain energy storage... >..>
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It was hit with a grenade luncher IIRC
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Well I wish I could eat metal. *pouts*
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It was hit with a grenade luncher IIRC
Hmm, was it really, though? Or is that just the general asumption?
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Wasn't there a massively long thread with people arguing about exactly what did happen to that particular Shivan?
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Emerging from the dark end of the corridor come 3 Shivans. They are huge, easily towering over the soldiers. They move both by jumping/walking and grabbing onto the ceiling, unhampered by the zero-g.. They approach the boarding party but stop about halfway. They pause and appear to be studying the Terrans. They carry no discernible weapons.
[closeup of the front soldier’s eyes over his gunsight, as they widen in shock]
Spice: What the hell is that!
[cut to medium shot of soldiers]
Flex: Oh my God…. look how they move….
[brief pause, as the Terrans recover from shock]
Soldier-1: Open fire!
Massive automatic gunfire erupts from the Terrans. The Shivans react very quickly and start to jump toward the party.
Zombie: *screaming* Die!
[Cut to closeup of a Shivan bounding towards the Terran unit. It’s visibly taking the brunt of the Terran’s firepower, and goes down about 8 meters away. The two behind it quickly bound around/over it and continue on, undamaged.]
They each swing an arm and odd protrusions appear. They appear to be energy blades of some sort.
[Cut to reverse of Shivans coming down on Terrans.]
The Terrans start screaming as one of the Shivans jumps directly on one of the soldiers and nearly slices him in half with the blade. The other one bounds over the first and starts mauling the remaining 2 soldiers.
Soldier-1: Fall back!
Spice: Too late!
Control-1: What’s going on?!? Please respond!?
A Shivan now pounces on Soldier-1 throwing him into the side of the corridor as it lands.
Cut to reverse of Spice backing up slowly. She has stopped shooting and is nearly frozen with terror. The closest Shivan turns and sees her. Camera zooms into it as it turns and rotates an appendage. An odd hole opens up.
Not exactly conclusive, natch, although IMO that would seem to indicate it was more the thing exploding that down to a grenade. Watching the ani, I don't see anything that looks like a grenade being fired, and I think all the guns have visible muzzle-flares (not that this would overrule a grenade thrown or an undermounted launcher); where does the idea of them even having a grenade launcher come from, anyway? I thought the sounds of the larger gun sounded more like a gatling gun(more specifically, IMO there's seemingly one sound that is of one of those, and one soldier carrying a heavy weapon, so I thought maybe that was a sort of futuristic M-60 equivalent).
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Wasn't there a massively long thread with people arguing about exactly what did happen to that particular Shivan?
Beats me, I ignore those hreads as they're filled 90% with useless junk and it's hard to find the important stuff in.
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If you look at the weapons the Terrans are holding in hallfight, there are clearly at least 2 distinct weapons, one of which has a fairly large, open muzzle, possibly being a grenade launcher.
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If you look at the weapons the Terrans are holding in hallfight, there are clearly at least 2 distinct weapons, one of which has a fairly large, open muzzle, possibly being a grenade launcher.
Well, there's something that sounds like a rotary gatling gun, albeit it could be Shivan noises (it stops when the first one blows up, although the soldier with the larger gun also stops firing at that point).
One thing, though - how much use is a grenade launcher in zero-g?
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*Goes to find FS1 CD and watch (without sound as everyone is sleeping)*
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Perhaps the Grenade is rocket propelled...or something.
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*Finds out that his 1:1 copy of his damaged FS1 CD2 and his corrected backup of FS1 CD2 swapped cases* :mad:
*Watches hallfight*
Ok, 4 of the soldiers have machine guns (one handed)
1 has a bigger two handed weapon, that has a grenade launcher-like explosive muzzle flash, and explodes upon impact. *watches again* However, there is no visible explosion up until the shivan dies. All impacts from the "grenade launcher" are off screen as far as I could see, but a small bit of the impact animation can be seen, it's white, like the muzzle flash. The last one is, however, a big yellow explosion, so it is likely that the Shivan exploded.
*watches with sound* I couldn't hear the small booms when the "grenade launcher" was fired (kept the volume down, it's 0.33 here).
It's possible that the power-down like sound that stops when the Shivan is killed was not the launcher.
Perhaps the Grenade is rocket propelled...or something.
Yeah, but it's also quite fast, it's not like a slow rocket launcher. IMO it's a large cannon, like the Maxim. That would also explain why there's no big explosion when it hits, only a small impact animation. It's also possible that it's an ML-16 or something similar
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It's most likely a gun similar to the maxim or any other laser. Don't forget that this is the in the future about 3 and a quarter centuries. A gernade launcher is highly outdated.
The machine guns were one of two things:
1) Do not fire ballistic projectiles (bullets)
2) Fire bullets with some sort of device that absorbs the recoil, allowing it to be one handed.
Also, it would need to be very light for one handed, which would severly limit ballistic ammunition.
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*Finds out that his 1:1 copy of his damaged FS1 CD2 and his corrected backup of FS1 CD2 swapped cases* :mad:
*Watches hallfight*
Ok, 4 of the soldiers have machine guns (one handed)
1 has a bigger two handed weapon, that has a grenade launcher-like explosive muzzle flash, and explodes upon impact. *watches again* However, there is no visible explosion up until the shivan dies. All impacts from the "grenade launcher" are off screen as far as I could see, but a small bit of the impact animation can be seen, it's white, like the muzzle flash. The last one is, however, a big yellow explosion, so it is likely that the Shivan exploded.
Are you sure that's not just impact sparks from bullets, though? I'm sort of wondering myself how much use a grenade launcher (or any explosive weapon) would be in that sort of situation - not fast moving Shivans, but in terms of a zero gravity, constricted environment on a presumably damaged ship.
I don't know what a grenade launcher muzzle flash looks like, so I'll take your word for it; I didn't even know they had a muzzle flash, I thought it was gas-compressed launching or something.
*watches with sound* I couldn't hear the small booms when the "grenade launcher" was fired (kept the volume down, it's 0.33 here).
It's possible that the power-down like sound that stops when the Shivan is killed was not the launcher.
I think it sounds like a rotary sound, but it could be some Shivan roar (not roar, exactly), as it's quite eerie. Hard to say, definately.
Perhaps the Grenade is rocket propelled...or something.
Yeah, but it's also quite fast, it's not like a slow rocket launcher. IMO it's a large cannon, like the Maxim. That would also explain why there's no big explosion when it hits, only a small impact animation. It's also possible that it's an ML-16 or something similar
I don't think so, for the reasons below - even though the model is IIRC quite a bit like the models for ship primaries. Mainly because the cutscene script from the ref bible doesn't mention a laser-wielding trooper, and that'd seem an unecessary detail to add unless it had some purpose.
It's most likely a gun similar to the maxim or any other laser. Don't forget that this is the in the future about 3 and a quarter centuries. A gernade launcher is highly outdated.
The machine guns were one of two things:
1) Do not fire ballistic projectiles (bullets)
2) Fire bullets with some sort of device that absorbs the recoil, allowing it to be one handed.
Also, it would need to be very light for one handed, which would severly limit ballistic ammunition.
RE:1; I believe one of the V employees did say they were ballistic weapons, as there were size issues with a power supply for portable laser weapons. I can't dredge up the post justnow, though - it was on the FDL (http://www.descent-freespace.com/lists/fdl/) mailing list. Um, if you find it, you'll know :D
2; That would seem likely. Although I think they might hold the barrel anyways, and IIRC it fits over the whole forearm, so that might affect how much of an affect recoil has. I don't suppose anyone can enlighten me as to any differences upon firing a gun in zero-g versus normal gravity?
I'm thinking weight probably is not an issue, if the weapon is being used in a zero-g environment (assuming this is a weapon that was designed or altered for use in this type of space ops, of course); an issue would be the bulk of ammunition, although it's hard to judge given the size of weapon and that we don't know how much of that internal space is for ammo and how much for the various firing, etc, mechanisms.
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The woman with the big gun has a number 12 on her helmet, so I'll call her No. 12
I watched the cutscene again, with full sound this time. I still can't make out the individual sound of the big gun, but I can see her hands moving. It's definitely her firing, the others all have machine guns and those are recoilles, while the big gun has recoil. I'll convert the video to bmp's and post some. Maybe the machine-gun like sound was the weapon - she may've just powered it down after she killed the shivan (i.e. she let go of the trigger)
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(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003096.jpg)
That splash is probably from No. 12's gun, it's bigger than the others (also a small error)
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003112.jpg)
No. 12 firing, the splash is already on the shivan, so the weapon hits almost instantaneously
Two frames later:
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003114.jpg)
Next shot:
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003135.jpg)
This time she misses
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003212.jpg)
The final shot
Look at this! These are frame 3221 and 3222:
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003221.jpg)
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003222.jpg)
Something's flying away. A part of the Shivan?
And some smoke, looks like it's coming from inside:
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003246.jpg)
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Hmm... that looks like evidence enough for me that it's the shivan exploding. THat big plate would never fit in the gun, and the shivan appears cracked pen in the last shot.
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It seems pretty clear that the explosion was in fact from the Shivan's death and not from a grenade. This is pretty conclusive evidence to suggest that Shivans have some sort of powercell or reactor kind of thing located on or inside them, but as for exactly what its purpose/functionality is is conjecture. Personally I would think that it powers the Shivan's weapons (the beam weapon and the energy blade sort of thing) but it could possibly be a source of power for the Shivan itself.
More on topic, I don't think any of us can say for certain what Shivans eat, if anything.
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Is it possible they live off the energy of the ship? Like a ship would have various hubs with which they......feed off of. Thus the lack of a reason to take recources from planets.
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It's most likely a gun similar to the maxim or any other laser. Don't forget that this is the in the future about 3 and a quarter centuries. A gernade launcher is highly outdated.
The machine guns were one of two things:
1) Do not fire ballistic projectiles (bullets)
2) Fire bullets with some sort of device that absorbs the recoil, allowing it to be one handed.
Also, it would need to be very light for one handed, which would severly limit ballistic ammunition.
There are many small, armour penetrating weapons today, that could be held in one hand (not to mention in zero-g, supported by the fore arm), just look at the P90, MP7 or even some of the Mp5
series of weapons.
I though it always looked like the shivan got too close and the marine shot some sort of explosive/high powered weapon (be it laser or grenade or whatever). And things don't need mass amounts of energy/reactive material within them to explode. A person could explode if hit with an M203, not to mention that the shivan has over lapping armour plating and such for a 'grenade' to get into. and if the shivan exploded from internal energy, I think there would be more damage than just being 'cracked open'.
I think we may need a poll...
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In Zero G (if we are taking the video literally, and not just eye-candy) then an explosion from outside the carapace would have thrown a great deal of 'Dead Shivan' backwards, the fact it remains motionsless suggests that the explosion was internal and forced most of the mass straight downwards, this meaning it hit the floor and stayed where it was. Even then it doesn't actually obey the laws of physics all that well, but hey, it's an in-game video ;)
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Is it possible they live off the energy of the ship? Like a ship would have various hubs with which they......feed off of. Thus the lack of a reason to take recources from planets.
It could be they have been in space so long they have totaly adapted to not having planets or relying on them. So they just dont need to take all the effort of manning and securing and controling a planet, when they could just sit and watch it from up above and have all their manpower already armed, off the ground, and ready to engage.
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I dunno, the impression I get from that is that the gun was some sort of armor-piercing weapon (Or wasn't, but acted that way at close range). The shot hit the Shivan, was slowed by the armor, got lodged inside and then the Shivan exploded - due to the round detonatiing.
It makes sense to have one team member with an armor-piercing gun, actually. You probably don't want to be blowing chunks out of the ship if you can help it, but there still might be some need for such a gun. (The Terrans didn't actually know what Shivans were like at that point, IIRC. "What the hell is that?")
Looking at the body of the Shivan there don't appear to be any wound points that would suggest that anything vital was hit or even punctured though...*idly wonders if the Shivans have a self-destruct mechanism* Seems kind of poor construction if they blow up after being jostled around.
Friggin' MVE compression.
I dunno, it seems kind of odd to build yourself with an explosive stomach.
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Yes, but that power source powers the beam weapon, it has to be volatile if it's that powerful.
BTW, I didn't post the frame where the explosion starts, and I'm not going to, because I deleted the bmps, but the explosion starts from the outside. It can't be the "grenade" exploding, since it didn't explode before. Maybe V decided to do it this way to prevent clipping problems with the animation (note that the part flying away appears completely in a split second, between the two frames, not gradually, as it should in real life).
As for the weapon, that ring of smoke one frame after the muzzle flash reminds me of something, I think it's like the mass driver from Descent3 (it was a sniper like weapon there).
Looking at the body of the Shivan there don't appear to be any wound points that would suggest that anything vital was hit or even punctured though
Yes but No 12 hit a leg of the Shivan in both frames I posted (left and rear leg I think), what looks like an armor plate. Even if it was an armor piercing weapon, that wouldn't cause an explosion. The third time she might've hit a weak spot
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One question is perhaps whether Volition could be arsed modelling damage for a hectic 30-odd second segment? Or whether it looks better to have an explosion or just the thing slumping down....... cos I do sense the risk we're (and I include myself here) being a) overly anal and b) forgetting it is just a short piece of entertaining fightery video.
NB: knn, what WMC is suggesting is that the round could have penetrated the carapace, lodged in the body, and then exploded, like an armour-piercing anti-tank round would (er, I think it does, anyways).
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Yeah, it is kind of being over-anal. :p It's what we do.
I thought about watching body-langage - ie does the soldier fling her arm up before, or after the Shivan explodes - but it'd be hard to tell if she was doing it because she knew the Shivan would explode, or just because she was instinctively trying to protect herself.
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One question is perhaps whether Volition could be arsed modelling damage for a hectic 30-odd second segment? Or whether it looks better to have an explosion or just the thing slumping down....... cos I do sense the risk we're (and I include myself here) being a) overly anal and b) forgetting it is just a short piece of entertaining fightery video.
Yes, you're right. I say we ignore the fact that the explosion starts from the outside in the video. The smoke is coming from inside after all.
NB: knn, what WMC is suggesting is that the round could have penetrated the carapace, lodged in the body, and then exploded, like an armour-piercing anti-tank round would (er, I think it does, anyways).
I know, but she fired half a dozen times before, and it did not explode immediately like the last time she fired.
Yeah, it is kind of being over-anal. :p It's what we do.
I thought about watching body-langage - ie does the soldier fling her arm up before, or after the Shivan explodes - but it'd be hard to tell if she was doing it because she knew the Shivan would explode, or just because she was instinctively trying to protect herself.
After, her weapon is twohanded
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*idly wonders if the Shivans have a self-destruct mechanism*
More than likely not. Somewhere said about the GTI doing experiments on live shivans, so if they did have a self-destruct device, they would have been too stupid to use it.
I don't think shivans explode when they die, because when we boarded the Icene, we were able to Identify the remains as shivans.
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I think bits of carapace and odd legs laying about would sort of give the game away there ;)
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But this assumes that Shivans use a standard genetic process to create cells. If indeed they are Bio-Engineered, they might require materials, but not need the injest them. After all, do Shivans grow? Have we seen young Shivans, Old Shivans, different sized Shivans even?
The Shivan carapace (and presumably appendages, though this is not explictly stated) are cybernetic in nature and so presumably constructed from standardized parts. One should not, therefore, draw conclusions based on their external similarities.
It should also be remembered that the only Shivans so far encountered have been aboard combatant craft or combat auxilaries, and so we may very well be seeing only the "warrior class" version of the Shivans. There could be non-cybernetic Shivans or differently augmented ones; we just don't know.
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*idly wonders if the Shivans have a self-destruct mechanism*
More than likely not. Somewhere said about the GTI doing experiments on live shivans, so if they did have a self-destruct device, they would have been too stupid to use it.
I don't think shivans explode when they die, because when we boarded the Icene, we were able to Identify the remains as shivans.
Cough
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/N-x/003246.jpg
Cough
The outer shell is mostly intact from what we can see in this frame. (The killed Shivan is the one on the bottom of the picture, with the smoke)
But this assumes that Shivans use a standard genetic process to create cells. If indeed they are Bio-Engineered, they might require materials, but not need the injest them. After all, do Shivans grow? Have we seen young Shivans, Old Shivans, different sized Shivans even?
The Shivan carapace (and presumably appendages, though this is not explictly stated) are cybernetic in nature and so presumably constructed from standardized parts. One should not, therefore, draw conclusions based on their external similarities.
It should also be remembered that the only Shivans so far encountered have been aboard combatant craft or combat auxilaries, and so we may very well be seeing only the "warrior class" version of the Shivans. There could be non-cybernetic Shivans or differently augmented ones; we just don't know.
We don't know if they are cybernetic. It's just a possibility stated in the techroom entry. Also, the transport was not a combat craft, but it probably did have a few soldiers, and they would be the first to engage the enemy attempting to board the ship. So you might as well be right.