[MatthTheGeek]

I think Battuta's theory isn't that Shivans fear GTVA, but that they are engaged somewhere else and that they can't afford to divert a part of their fleet to fight a war they of course could easily win but maybe not quickly enough and not without necessary losses.

[headdie]

I think Battuta's theory isn't that Shivans fear GTVA, but that they are engaged somewhere else and that they can't afford to divert a part of their fleet to fight a war they of course could easily win but maybe not quickly enough and not without necessary losses.

under that scenario perhaps we were under battling from a reserve fleet, which would explain the number of familiar ship classes when compared to new ones (surely a species capable of building 80+ juggernauts can replace a few aging cruisers like the Cain)

[General Battuta]

I think Battuta's theory isn't that Shivans fear GTVA, but that they are engaged somewhere else and that they can't afford to divert a part of their fleet to fight a war they of course could easily win but maybe not quickly enough and not without necessary losses.

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. (It's not 'my theory', it's just a theory that could work.) I don't think the Shivans are afraid of anybody, nor that they have other wars going on that they can't win. As far as I'm concerned the Shivans are near-omnipotent.

In any case, what I've been explaining is simply what's said in the FS1 outro: that the Shivans exist to destroy races that are a threat to other races. Furthermore, they provide incentive for species to work together.

In FS2 the Terrans and Vasudans are no longer seen as a threat to each other, so the Shivans cut off contact.

[Yuuz]

I think Battuta's theory isn't that Shivans fear GTVA, but that they are engaged somewhere else and that they can't afford to divert a part of their fleet to fight a war they of course could easily win but maybe not quickly enough and not without necessary losses.

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. (It's not 'my theory', it's just a theory that could work.) I don't think the Shivans are afraid of anybody, nor that they have other wars going on that they can't win. As far as I'm concerned the Shivans are near-omnipotent.

In any case, what I've been explaining is simply what's said in the FS1 outro: that the Shivans exist to destroy races that are a threat to other races. Furthermore, they provide incentive for species to work together.

In FS2 the Terrans and Vasudans are no longer seen as a threat to each other, so the Shivans cut off contact.

I had always assumed they destroyed any terrestrial races that colonized other planets, being as that would keep new species and intelligent races from growing.  I believe freespace one postulated this, and that the Shivians there a purely space faring race. I thought that the freespace one shivans were an ancient scouting fleet, being as they had no beams, and less types of craft, and then if there was a race they couldn't deal with the main fleet was called in.

[Paladin327]

I had always assumed they destroyed any terrestrial races that colonized other planets, being as that would keep new species and intelligent races from growing.  I believe freespace one postulated this,

it is stated in one of the ancient monologues that the ancients' empire expanded for thousands of years before they discovered subspace. the shivans did not attack until then

[Liberator]

That would imply that they're "empire" consisted of a dozen planets maybe, as subspace is the only way to travel faster than light

[NGTM-1R]

it is stated in one of the ancient monologues that the ancients' empire expanded for thousands of years before they discovered subspace. the shivans did not attack until then

Citation needed.

[Vip]

Ours was a proud people, and always the strongest. For thousands of years our empire expanded. For so long we could imagine ourselves alone in the universe. For so long never did we encounter advanced life. And we travelled faster and further, spreading in our galaxy and before long we could see the day when our reachable systems would have been exploited. And then there would be nowhere else to go.

And we discovered subspace. It gave us our galaxy and it gave us the universe. And we saw other advanced life. And we subdued it or we crushed it. In months the extermination of billions of years of evolution on a similar but slower path. With subspace, our empire would surely know no boundaries.

[Droid803]

With these storytelling monologues, I can't help but think that they're filled with exaggerations.

[NGTM-1R]

For thousands of years we lazed around our home system is an accurate description of humanity, too, but I don't think we'd want to say it out loud. Unless we're going to accept that the Ancients were significantly stupider than the Terrans and Vasudans?

[Yuuz]

Hmm... I suppose they... were pretty dam lazy... They had thousands of years of empire building and crushing others, and couldn't stop the outdated Shivan scout fleet? Unless what we fought first was a drastically different fleet back then the Ancients must of only had forces on par with ours- yet had thousands of years of building to do it.

Or perhaps they just went around bombing terrestrials or international space stations that whole time and didn't build anything larger than a cruiser..


Heh, our war with Vasuda and massive weapons build up programs prepared us both


So.. do the Shivans think we are a threat then? Thatwe had a bunch more Colossus's to bull out of our belts? the first ship to fight a Sath and win?  Perhaps they destroyed Capella to get away from us....

[NGTM-1R]

Well I'm just thinking that :V: said "hey the ancients were only ahead of the GTVA in subspace tech, and only that by a couple decades".

But the GTVA's member-races discovered subspace before they left their home systems. The Ancients didn't. Were they just that dumb? Were they somehow anti-science? Inquiring minds want to know.

[terran_emperor]

I'm of the opinion that while the Ancients discovered subspace quite late in their intersteller expansion, when they discovered it they made more advances in subspace tech over a shorter period of time than the GTA/PVN did.

Also, I'm of the opinion that the Ancient Narrator was being poetic. Rather than taking the Ancient Lady's words at face ear value (since we never actually see her), I think she was being a bit poetic about their reach into space. I have no doubt that they spent thousands of years speading through their home system. Remember, their is more to a Star System than just it's planets:

Heliosphere: 80-200 AU
Oort Cloud: 2000-50,000 AU Possibly, even 100,000-200,000 AU

Sol's Roche Shpere (the magnetude of its gravitational influence) extends up to x1000 the distance of the Heliopause