[BritishShivans]

uhh i think it's a bit more complex than that sara

mars was fine

vasuda prime was a ****ty planet already that got exterminatus'd

i really don't think there's anyway to actually "restore" it to a point you can live outside of a dome

[-Sara-]

You might be right. But it didn't go 'Alderaan' on the Vasudans either. I suspect beam weapons may far more easily sculpt or peel the planet. It'd come down to if Vasuda Prime may hold religious importance to the Vasudans, I'd have to read over those background stories in the tech library.

Ironically, Terraforming is probably a long-term solution to improving colony worlds for the GTVA. But with only a few decades between the first and second Shivan encounter, the mainstray of the GTVA may be more concerned spending resources on building a fleet, rather than terraforming. Experience taught them that the Shivans would be more likely to appear within decades again, rather than in centuries.

[Phantom Hoover]

i think vasudan spirituality is such that glassing vasuda prime eliminated all special significance they might assign to it

[-Norbert-]

You might be right. But it didn't go 'Alderaan' on the Vasudans either. I suspect beam weapons may far more easily sculpt or peel the planet. It'd come down to if Vasuda Prime may hold religious importance to the Vasudans, I'd have to read over those background stories in the tech library.

Ironically, Terraforming is probably a long-term solution to improving colony worlds for the GTVA. But with only a few decades between the first and second Shivan encounter, the mainstray of the GTVA may be more concerned spending resources on building a fleet, rather than terraforming. Experience taught them that the Shivans would be more likely to appear within decades again, rather than in centuries.

The religious/sentimental importance can swing both ways. It might be an incentive to restore the planet, but it might also be considered taboo, for the very same reasons.
Though judging from the Techroom entries I don't think that is really an issue for the Vasudans. Regarding their living space they seem far more pragmatic to me. As long as the GTVA doesn't run short on living space, restoring Vasuda sounds like it's not worth the effort from a purely logical point of view.

Either way I think the GTVA might very well already be able to terraform Vasudan back into a habitable state, if they really put their mind (and ressources) to it.

[-Sara-]

They can always use it as a giant crystal ball to predict the future, now that it is 'glassed'. 

[qwadtep]

You might be right. But it didn't go 'Alderaan' on the Vasudans either. I suspect beam weapons may far more easily sculpt or peel the planet. It'd come down to if Vasuda Prime may hold religious importance to the Vasudans, I'd have to read over those background stories in the tech library.

Ironically, Terraforming is probably a long-term solution to improving colony worlds for the GTVA. But with only a few decades between the first and second Shivan encounter, the mainstray of the GTVA may be more concerned spending resources on building a fleet, rather than terraforming. Experience taught them that the Shivans would be more likely to appear within decades again, rather than in centuries.

The religious/sentimental importance can swing both ways. It might be an incentive to restore the planet, but it might also be considered taboo, for the very same reasons.
Though judging from the Techroom entries I don't think that is really an issue for the Vasudans. Regarding their living space they seem far more pragmatic to me. As long as the GTVA doesn't run short on living space, restoring Vasuda sounds like it's not worth the effort from a purely logical point of view.

Either way I think the GTVA might very well already be able to terraform Vasudan back into a habitable state, if they really put their mind (and ressources) to it.

I'd point out that Sol has the luxury of a resource-rich system, isolated from external threats for 50 years and colonizing other worlds for even longer, and the "terraformed Eden" of Karen's cabin and other settlements on Mars still can't even be seen from space. I don't think terraforming is that simple.

Also, remember the state of the Earth in the alternate universe--increased tectonic activity, massive volcanoes and nuclear winter. Vasuda Prime is similarly devastated. I doubt anybody would want to go there anymore.

[Aesaar]

The terraformed parts of Mars can definitely be seen from space.  Open up The Intervention in FRED and check the background if you don't believe me.

[The E]

Please refer to this handy guide for the state of martian terraforming

[qwadtep]

I stand corrected. Nevertheless, the fact that a stable, dead planet has only been terraformed to such an extent does not inspire confidence in the GTVA's ability to do the same to an unstable, geologically active one.

[Phantom Hoover]

Who says Vasuda is geologically active?

[-Norbert-]

We don't know for sure, but considering what the Shivan bombardment turned Earth into, in the other universe, it seems likely that the same would have happened to Vasuda prime.

[schattenkralle]

We don't know for sure, but considering what the Shivan bombardment turned Earth into, in the other universe, it seems likely that the same would have happened to Vasuda prime.

I want to point out that the "other" Earth was probably bombarded by more than a single ship unlike Vasuda Prime (which was only attacked by the lucifer itself if I remember correctly) And with that I doubt Vasuda Prime is as heavily devestated as the Earth we seen in the parallel universe. Though some could say that the Lucifers main firepower and a continued bombardment over serveral hours turns everything to ash.

[MatthTheGeek]

Huh. Why would the alternate universe earth have been bombarded by more than the Lucifer ? There is nothing even hinting at that that I know of, and it goes against what we know so far in BP canon (that the Shivans didn't use any other beam-capable warship than the Lucifer during the GW era).

[Drogoth]

Well considering the FS1 briefing for Exodus says tha they estimate 4 billion vasudans lost their lives in the attack we can make one of two assumptions:

A) The evacuation effort was SUPER effective. This I consider to be unlikely, considering how tight things were for the PVN/GTA.

B) Vasuda was sparsely populated compared to earth. Considering on earth TODAY we have 7 billion people, and I seriously doubt that the PVN and GTA had the lift capacity to move 3 billion people off Vasuda ahead of the bombardment. And that would only have brought them up to Earth population for 2012. 3 centuries later I expect that Earth was much more densely populated then it is now, necessitating MUCH heavier bombardment then Vasuda Prime did. So I doubt Vasuda prime is nearly as devastated, geologically active or no.

Remember the Vasudan colonization effort was driven by the inhospitable conditions of their planet though, so I don't know if 'restoring' it is really worth it. It was never our Blue Planet

[NGTM-1R]

considering how tight things were for the PVN/GTA.

Things are bad because you can't stop the Lucy. You just blew the **** out of the Eva, there aren't too many Shivan destroyers running around, and so far the Shivans haven't really picked big fights with the Vasudans; most of their approach was through Terran systems.

In other words, the evacuation really could have gone that well.

[Drogoth]

considering how tight things were for the PVN/GTA.

Things are bad because you can't stop the Lucy. You just blew the **** out of the Eva, there aren't too many Shivan destroyers running around, and so far the Shivans haven't really picked big fights with the Vasudans; most of their approach was through Terran systems.

In other words, the evacuation really could have gone that well.

Well we know that the Vasudans are doing poorly enough to have their fleet in vega 'decimated' by the Hammer of Light, so just because the Vasudans haven't been in any major actions against he Shivans (that alpha one knows about) doesn't mean they are sitting pretty.

[##UnknownPlayer##]

considering how tight things were for the PVN/GTA.

Things are bad because you can't stop the Lucy. You just blew the **** out of the Eva, there aren't too many Shivan destroyers running around, and so far the Shivans haven't really picked big fights with the Vasudans; most of their approach was through Terran systems.

In other words, the evacuation really could have gone that well.

Well we know that the Vasudans are doing poorly enough to have their fleet in vega 'decimated' by the Hammer of Light, so just because the Vasudans haven't been in any major actions against he Shivans (that alpha one knows about) doesn't mean they are sitting pretty.

Conversely the Hammer of Light was an insurrectionist movement. It's entirely possible that the Vasudans were simply damaged enough to not be combat effective by a bunch of ships suddenly going rogue, and the resulting confusing leading to widespread damage beyond what you'd expect. Also likely that in doing that, there were simply a lot of Vasudan ships that were scattered and being cautious about regrouping.

[Drogoth]

Which would make an organized exodus of 3+ BILLION Vasudans a pretty difficult trick to pull off no?

[##UnknownPlayer##]

Which would make an organized exodus of 3+ BILLION Vasudans a pretty difficult trick to pull off no?

Combat ineffective doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't cram a bunch of Vasudans into the hangar bay and tell them to hang on tight. But I have to say that generally FS2 has always been a bit hazy on ship capacities and how hard it is to get people off planet and the like.

[QuakeIV]

It has (been rather vague).  I'd say considering the terrans were helping out extensively with evac efforts however, its likely that they got a good chain going, even if it was terrans organzing/protecting vasudan transports.