[Lone Knight]

How really certain are we that the Ancients were destroyed completely?  Maybe they had some common sense and collapsed a node behind them, sealing themselves off from the Shivans in a system the Shivans wouldn't think of looking.  

If that happened, they could begin their own civilization again, isolated, but alive.  Maybe that's what the Lucifer fleet of FS 1 was looking for?  The Shivan rulers went, "Hey, we think some got away, but we sure as hell are gonna get those bastards..."  and they sent the Lucifer and a small fleet because they thought not many Ancients survived, therefore, they couldn't put up a fight.

Secondly, just how much space did the Ancients rule?  I know that it was said that some of the Vasudan space was once in Ancient territory, but perhaps the Ancients' systems stretched past Gamma Draconis?  I mean, since they said they wiped out a bunch of simpler civilizations in the various cutscenes, what stopped them from wiping out early humans and vasudans?

[Carl]

Originally posted by Lone Knight
just how much space did the Ancients rule?  I know that it was said that some of the Vasudan space was once in Ancient territory, but perhaps the Ancients' systems stretched past Gamma Draconis?

IIRC, the Ancients' territory was huge. much larger than both the Terrans and Vasudans.

[Kie99]

Their empire "Spanned many galaxies"

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Lone Knight

Secondly, just how much space did the Ancients rule?  I know that it was said that some of the Vasudan space was once in Ancient territory, but perhaps the Ancients' systems stretched past Gamma Draconis?  I mean, since they said they wiped out a bunch of simpler civilizations in the various cutscenes, what stopped them from wiping out early humans and vasudans?

That's disputed. The Ancients cutscenes say something along the lines of "Subspace gave us our galaxy, and it gave us our universe" Personally, I think it's poetic hyperbole, but it could conceivably be taken as meaning the Ancients had an intergalactic empire. I doubt that very much though.

As for us and the Vassys, I doubt we were advanced enough 8000 years ago fo rthe Ancients to bother with us. I mean, we were well on the way to civilizations (Catal Hoyuk was almost 10000 years ago after all, and certainly not the first of its kind), but what's a barely-out-of-the-stone-age bunch of sentients to a race that uses space ships, plasma weapons and subspace. Less advanced races were probably those at somewhere fluctuating around our present technological level - primitive steps into space, atomic weapons etc.

[Charismatic]

Why did they not kill us off? Shivans. They stopped them from destroying us. Maby even before they knew it was the Shivans. "The Great Perservers" (Perservers or protectors i beleive, Shivans were called.

Some how that conflicts within itself. Maby if we find out the ballance of this, e can figure out the "Mind" of the shivans. How they think.

And if it was a near inter galatic empire or galatic empire (I do beleive they spanded many galaxies) then there is no posible way all of them were killed, and every ship gone. They must have had some trick up their sleeve(Sp?). I think in FS- we would discover the ancients. And maby they are not the 'good people' we thought they were. Maby some connection between the Ancients and Shivans.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Charismatic
And maby they are not the 'good people' we thought they were.

Who think's they're "Good People"? I always hought one of the key story elements of FS1 was that the ancients were not a nice people at all.

[Charismatic]

Everyones like "i wana meet the ancients, i wana meet the anceits!".

[karajorma]

I'm certainly not.

The ancients exterminated several races in their attempt to take over the entire galaxy. They only failed because they came up against something far nastier than they were.

[spaceman spiff]

but since we defeated the shivans (sorta) wouldn't that make us the more superior race?

[Black Wolf]

We only technically beat the Shivans in FS1 (And that was only with the help of Ancient knowledge and subspace tracking technology), and they kicked our arse in FS2.

[V] have said that the Ancients were only a few decades ahead of the PVN/GTA, except in subspace. So they were probably at around FS2 levels of technology when the Shivans wiped 'em out.

[spaceman spiff]

ahh.. now it's clear to me now.

[pyro-manic]

The Ancients were forced back into their own system by the Shivans, and their planets were destroyed like Vasuda. Perhaps a tiny fraction of the people survived that (a few ships that were elsewhere at the time perhaps), but with nowhere to go they'd either have been hunted down by the Shivans or simply drifted off into deep space on the edges of the system and died of starvation/ power failure when their fuel ran out. The only surviving Ancient ships would be those left on installations (such as that on Altair), and those that moved into deep space to hide. Either way, there would be no living crew left after 8,000 years.

[RED DIAMOND]

I think there is enough info out there to speculate that the Ancients were Vasudan.

[pyro-manic]

They're certainly linked, but beyond that we don't know. It was postulated that the Ancients interfered (or at least had a hand in) the early development of Vasudan civilisation...

[aldo_14]

Perhaps a few ended up on Vasuda Prime, too..........

[RED DIAMOND]

They could have visited more than just Vasuda Prime mate.

[Charismatic]

Originally posted by pyro-manic
Either way, there would be no living crew left after 8,000 years.

If there was one male and one female and they reprodused, and their family had 8,000 years to keep reproduseing, and createing more, id expect a farily large amount of them in the hidden systems. Maby they are sticking to their own area for fear of being discovered by the shivans. I think they are there..watching us.

Wow were only a decade of two behind them. Hmm they must be smart then if they can beat us Terrans;7. Ancients must have found those pritty ships of the shivans if they got wiped in their FS2 world. Probably they had dubble what we saw, so 80 x 2 = 160 sathanis's and they no no had Colossus(tm). Musta had sathys blowin up the ancients stars and killed out half of them sathys.

[Solatar]

They helped a civilization arise from the desert on Vasuda prime...

...no idea WHO built the Sphinx, but them Ancients sure like deserts.

[kv1at3485]

The Ancients are probably still around in small isolated colonies insignificant enough to be ignored or missed by the Shivans, but their civilization will be mostly gone, a direct result of the horrendous decimation of their population and infrastructure by the Shivans.

The whole situation is something akin to what would happen if today the human population was reduced to a few million and our major centres of commerce, industry, and culture were wiped out.  We'd still be here, but the 'level' of our civilization would quickly degenerate.

[Ghost]

Originally posted by Solatar
They helped a civilization arise from the desert on Vasuda prime...

...no idea WHO built the Sphinx, but them Ancients sure like deserts.

Pyramids...