[Luis Dias]

I don't think cosmic radiation is a sufficiently worrying problem in FS2verse. I don't think resources are a problem.

I also think that the Gef's idea to spread through empty space is a worthy approach. Treat suns as dangerous spot zones where shivans dwell, and try to thrive in the dark space between them. If they are sufficiently successful they will have "conquered" a lot of space and material hidden in it (lots of "lost" planets and planetoids to mine and exploit - one single planetoid found might be sufficient for thousands of years of mining, if they are organized). Perhaps they will even learn to live a good live in the dark space. For millions of years.

The problem is that McDuff is the stupidest person alive in BPverse. To grant this guy the status of "hero" can only be done when speaking with the irony mode on. Not only he failed his mass murdering project, he put the lights on gefs as amazingly dangerous terrorists, capable of doing what even the Tevs wouldn't dream of doing. Yeah, not only was he able to destroy his own cell, now all the other cells are tainted, and perhaps even noticed by the shivans and the vishnans.

[Legate Damar]

What if the Shivans send out STL ships of their own?

[Luis Dias]

That's why you don't want to provoke anyone.

[Vidmaster]

Fanatics who are trying to impose their will on others using extreme measures are NEVER positive, no matter if religous, political, social, cultural or personal in nature. I do think that founding and subsequently ruling a sect with an iron fist plus building a doomsday device is kind of extreme (plus inhuman).

[-Sara-]

I'd pay to run into a species who somehow found out about the Shivans and subspace prior to using subspace, relying on near-lightspeed travel of alternate means, sort of remaining more or less undetected. Far away from suns and further away from nodes.

Or a sort of von Neumann probe, which seeds every suitable (yet different) planet with seeds of life of a same species, as a legacy to a dead species which hopes to strike gold by having a species evolve far enough to survive and take to space again. Their genetics giving them the instinct to unite with others of their species, grown up elsewhere, so that they each contribute different technology and science as it evolved in unique circumstances to quickly form a fast collection of knowledge and abilities. A sort of think-tank, engineered to grow and learn from eachother. Quite xenophobic (maybe unintentionally) to outsiders as they know only to trust what in their genetic mind is similar to them.

[Buckshee Rounds]

An interesting idea, but in my mind it'd be far less idealistic mostly because I can't see any way for different factions of the same species not going to war, somewhat because that's what we're familiar with for our own species and mostly because pew pew pew boom is more flashy and interesting than sharing and utopia.

[Woolie Wool]

I don't think a species could make it to the status of a spacefaring civilization if it wasn't as brutal and ruthless as humanity is.

[-Sara-]

I don't think a species could make it to the status of a spacefaring civilization if it wasn't as brutal and ruthless as humanity is.

The galaxy of Freespace is pretty empty, possibly as a result of Shivan and/or Vishnan actions, or factors not directly related to these two. External threat seems limited. Internet global threat before getting to space, perhaps more likely. Curiosity seems important though, to reach out.

[FSW]

The galaxy of Freespace is pretty empty, possibly as a result of Shivan and/or Vishnan actions, or factors not directly related to these two. External threat seems limited. Internet global threat before getting to space, perhaps more likely. Curiosity seems important though, to reach out.

Not every star has subspace nodes. Perhaps the galaxy is teeming with life, in places the Ancients and Shivans could never reach.

[Luis Dias]

Space is big.

[SpardaSon21]

Yeah, you may think that's a long ways down to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

[Buckshee Rounds]

The galaxy of Freespace is pretty empty, possibly as a result of Shivan and/or Vishnan actions, or factors not directly related to these two. External threat seems limited. Internet global threat before getting to space, perhaps more likely. Curiosity seems important though, to reach out.

Not every star has subspace nodes. Perhaps the galaxy is teeming with life, in places the Ancients and Shivans could never reach.

If they are unable to leave their home systems then they aren't really worth the Shivan's attention since the only species they could jeapordise would be themselves. Interstellar travel is probably one of the things that keeps species from ripping themselves apart since they inevitably encounter other species to compete with, case in point with Humanity and Vasudans. If a species can't leave its home system then it must eventually destroy itself or at the very least be forever isolated and irrelevant. If a species is able to leave its home system then it either destroys itself in a war with another subspace-capable species or gets culled by the Shivans. This is why I think the T-V relationship is sort of out of norm:- we haven't destroyed each other and haven't been destroyed by the Shivans (yet). Maybe part of the reason the Shivans and Vishnans have any interest in us at all is precisely because we tolerate an alliance with the Vasudans.

[qwadtep]

The galaxy of Freespace is pretty empty, possibly as a result of Shivan and/or Vishnan actions, or factors not directly related to these two. External threat seems limited. Internet global threat before getting to space, perhaps more likely. Curiosity seems important though, to reach out.

Not every star has subspace nodes. Perhaps the galaxy is teeming with life, in places the Ancients and Shivans could never reach.

The node in UT dealing with the Lucifer specifically notes the emptiness of the sector following the Ancient hegemony and subsequent cull, which implicitly suggests that other regions of space are teeming with life and the Terrans and Zods just evolved at the wrong place at the wrong time. Or the right place at the right time, since a region with four, five different races competing against each other would get culled that much more brutally.

[Luis Dias]

The problem is not infighting between various species. The problem is the formation of a hegemon.

[-Sara-]

Here's another one to think on. A species which communicates with another species, possibly but not per se over subspace, without an actual rendevous, sans live contact. Basically two Skyping civilizations which share science and knowledge while sticking to their own turf, perhaps for religious, moral or self-restraining reasons. In metaphore, like monks, sealing themselves in their cloister to not thread on the sacred grass outside, yet curious enough to share ideas and philosophies with a likeminded group through smoke signals.