[Timerlane]

The Sathanes left behind were a necessary sacrifice(just not enough power(or whatever else) to let everyone jump out), along with(in their minds) all the other Shivan warships left in Capella.

I do suspect things weren't perfect for them; I imagine if the GTVA had just let the Shivans have Capella, the secondary warships' crews would have abandoned their vessels to be on the Sathanes for the superjump, rather than be left behind to be consumed by the supernova.

[General Battuta]

We don't know that (the first sentence of yours, that is.)

Again, it's possible they just don't care about crew survival.

By that point the GTVA had effectively ceased to be a threat of any kind. The Shivans had as much time as they needed to do whatever they liked.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, and I confirmed with QuantumDelta that Shivan pilots are actually generally a cut above their GTVA counterparts (except apparently on Into the Lions Den.)

[QuantumDelta]

The GTVA didn't beat them. The GTVA got its ass kicked.

What about the Lucifur?

We know shivans are very fallible, and they made mistakes before. They failed to stop as at capturing a cruiser, they failed to stop us from getting their tech, or scans, or destroying practicely all of the Lucy fleet.
Not to mention that their pilots are mediocre at best.

I really don't see why shivans making a miscalculation/mistake at Capella can somehow make em less dangerous? They got 80 Sathanasas. Even if they were put retards at the helm they could still plow trough the GTVA.

Canonically there's only about 4 pilots we /know of/ in the GTVA that are better than the AVERAGE shivan pilot.
[edit] apparently bearbaitings friendly ai have a higher rank than the shivans too.

Shivans aren't infallible if they were, neither game would have ended the way it did, it's quite probably as Battuta surmised that they just don't care about individuals.

A lot of people see/look upon the Shivans with a sort of anthropomorphised view of the species, it's quite peculiar since the game continually reinforces how alien and unknowable they are.

Beyond the fact that such disjointed behaviour between the two generations supports strongly, a separate faction(hive/collective/group/legion/whatever) theory, it's highly possible that the process they began in the star couldn't be aborted and there was little/notime to move resources through the node considering the fact that jump drives have a recharge rate, the popular theory is that they used the stars drastically altered gravity during it's collapse into a super nova to jump somewhere completely unknown.

[TrashMan]

Shivan pilots are actually, canonically, often a bit better than GTVA pilots; check out the AI levels in FRED.

AFAIK, I've never seen their AI set to anything more than the default.
And they tend to die in droves, not only by my hand, but also by my wingmen. In all my playtroughs I've never gotten the impression of them being better pilots than a GTVA average.

If the Capella detonation was a 'mistake' it's an enormous pratfall. 'Whoops, we blew up a star and a good number of our invincible juggernaughts! Heh heh heh.'

Whatever happened there was, I'd prefer to think, all part of the plan. And I think the narrative supports that.

There's nothing in the narrative that confirms that. They planing it is no more accurate then they f***** something up.

[General Battuta]

Again, as I've said, it's a case of 'whatever works for your mod', but I strongly doubt that V intended that outro to be some kind of accident or mishap.

The way it's directed and written, including Petrarch's aftermath, suggests an intentional act on the part of the Shivans.

[Mongoose]

Seriously, you don't get Robert freakin' Loggia to deliver your game's closing monologue if what he's saying isn't important.

[TrashMan]

Petrach is speculating, he doesn't know and that is explicitly pointed.

That said, there are many possibilites. It could be the GTVA knowingly or not, caused the shivans to mess it up. That one sathanas that was destroyer (or the other that was lured) could have been critical.

I meas - who knows?

Maybe the shivies wanted to create a super-node (but in the middle of the sun? No friggin way)
Maybe the just blew up Capella for kicks
Maybe the are making an interstellar nebula highway

It's impossible to tell.
I really would love it if [V] would spit out some of the idea they had for FS3.... Who was the main writer anyway?

[Dilmah G]

There were two, IIRC.

[QuantumDelta]

Adam Pletcher wrote most of FS1, he helped someone else write most of FS2, can't remember their name though..
And seriously, if you don't realise that closing monologue = massive hint, even if it's just a character 'theorising' you haven't been exposed to enough fiction.

[TrashMan]

Ever heard of subeversion or deconstruction?


Didn't FS1 talk about shivans rebuilding nodes? Did we see it in FS2? Nope...

Gain, flatout assuming too much from what little we have is...wrong.

[General Battuta]

I'm fairly certain I know why Capella was destroyed, and why the Shivans won't try to rebuild the jump nodes out.

[TrashMan]

Good for you then.

[General Battuta]

Well, you're right that it's bad to assume. There are many possible answers, and it's just a case of 'whatever works for your mod.'

[Droid803]

Shivan pilots are actually, canonically, often a bit better than GTVA pilots; check out the AI levels in FRED.

AFAIK, I've never seen their AI set to anything more than the default.
And they tend to die in droves, not only by my hand, but also by my wingmen. In all my playtroughs I've never gotten the impression of them being better pilots than a GTVA average.

That's because their equipment sucks compared to your wingmen.

I basically agree with everything you said though. We just don't know, and whatever works for your campaign goes. Canonically, all we have is Petrarch's speculation.