[FUBAR-BDHR]

Never said anything about no killing.  Just think about it.  Why have pilots in the ships when you can keep good pilots alive by having fighters controlled from the protection of their caps.  You get the caps you get the pilots as well.  Now ops where there are no caps close by would still need to be piloted ships.

[Mars]

I think that the Shivan fleet as a whole might be controlled Endor's Game style, however, I think it's clear that Shivans use pilots present in their fighters.

[BS403]

Maybe all Shivan fighters/bombers are drones and have no pilots.

They would've found out when they captured the Dragon and the Maras. There is no evidence of that.

They also never stated that there were pilots in those crafts either.

[Taristin]

there was a cavity for a being to pilot the ship though. A la terran dragon, terran mara. Without them, theres no way they would have been able to be piloted in the other mishes.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

The Mara's in FS2 were not the captured ones but Terran built.  Don't know about the Dragons. 

2 more theories:

1.  Living ships.  Would probably be artificially created like the Cylons or the Shadow and Vorlon ships in B5.

2.  Ships piloted by other races.  Again kind of like B5 where the shadows had there minions do the dirty work.  Of course it could be a lot more sinister link linking the intelligence to the ship but removing the free thought. 

[Iron Wolf]

The Mara's in FS2 were not the captured ones but Terran built.  Don't know about the Dragons. 

 

Uh what?

I could have swore snipes said: "And we'll be piloting shivan fighters, which the boys at Triton have made even better then the original". Or something to that effect.

[MP-Ryan]

The Mara's in FS2 were not the captured ones but Terran built.  Don't know about the Dragons. 

 

Uh what?

I could have swore snipes said: "And we'll be piloting shivan fighters, which the boys at Triton have made even better then the original". Or something to that effect.

I don't know about that, but he most definitely does say they were captured early in the campaign.  Terrans didn't build them.

[Cobra]

The Mara's in FS2 were not the captured ones but Terran built.  Don't know about the Dragons. 

Um, what? Dude, you need to refresh your FS2 history (or go back and play Into the Lion's Den). Snipes states that the Maras are captured and reverse engineered fighters.

[Mefustae]

Perhaps every Shivan ship has a minute subspace vortex constantly open inside their munitions hold and new missiles are constantly fed into them as the fighter/bomber expends its payload. Or perhaps the Shivans just don't believe in reloading or never saw the need to do so.

[Snail]

Shivan ships definitely have fighters, as the Dragon captured had a cockpit. Look at the CBanim for the Dragon.

[aldo_14]

1/ I'd note the FS1 descriptions of one of the Shivan transports describe it as possibly carrying Shivan pilots.  I'm sure there's a better example in a cb or species description that mentions Shivans 'integrating' with the fighter control systems.
2/ It's pretty possible we've never seen a Shivan support ship because there's never been need for one (I mean in the game-universe sense) in the combat scenes shown.

[Snail]

I remember reading that Shivan weaponry came from the Shivan itself.

[aldo_14]

I remember reading that Shivan weaponry came from the Shivan itself.

For 'hand to hand', yeah (perhaps you're also thinking of the Shivan species description, which is NOT what I'm thinking ).  I'm sure there was something specifically relating to pilots, though, somewhere.

[Dysko]

Probably we never see Shivan support ships because, AFAIK, enemy can't use support ships.

Though it would be cool to have one: some days ago I was playing a coop multi mission where you are in a Mara defending a Moloch against GTVA attacks. When one of the player depleted his secondaries, an Hygeia arrived to rearm him...

[Snail]

When one of the player depleted his secondaries, an Hygeia arrived to rearm him...

Well, the medics have to help both sides.

[karajorma]

The Mara's in FS2 were not the captured ones but Terran built.

No they weren't.

To give us a fighting chance, our unit will fly a wing of Shivan fighters SOC forces captured early in the nebula campaign. Our engineers have modified and optimized these craft. They'll handle even better than the Shivan original, and if you play it right, you might even avoid enemy detection.

[G0atmaster]

Vasudans are Ramen, Shivans are Varelse.

[Snail]

Ramen? As in the noodle?

[G0atmaster]

Ramen is plural for Raman.  Means essentially "People of another species."  Varelse are just plain Alien, creatures that cannot be reasoned with, that we cannot coexist with.  Read the Ender's Game series.  Especially the latter 3 books.

EDIT: I found it on Wikipedia.  Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varelse#Hierarchy_of_Alienness

[FUBAR-BDHR]

The Mara's in FS2 were not the captured ones but Terran built.

No they weren't.

To give us a fighting chance, our unit will fly a wing of Shivan fighters SOC forces captured early in the nebula campaign. Our engineers have modified and optimized these craft. They'll handle even better than the Shivan original, and if you play it right, you might even avoid enemy detection.

This actually makes my point.  They were modified and optimized.  Modification would most likely included the cockpit.  Weather one was added or changed to allow human piloting is never stated.  Either that or the SOC pilots learned to read Shivan targeting data.