[Mr CharlieCharlie]

We all vaguely know what the Shivan species looks like...what about the Vishnans?

[mjn.mixael]

What's a Vishnan?


OOOOOh, you mean that species from that mod that has it's own forum? Right. Well.. I think they look a lot like Darius.

[The E]

They look like mice. Tiny, cute, white mice. Who float around in wineglass-shaped floating things.

[Darius]

Yes.

[Mr CharlieCharlie]

  Excellent chaps, simply excellent

[mjn.mixael]

Darius looks like a mouse?!

[LordPomposity]

They look like Bosh

[Jellyfish]

No, he looks like mice. He's a hivemind of them.
And so is the rest of the BP team.

[Darius]

Serious answer time   

It's likely they don't take any form recognisable as such. What does a thought pattern look like, for example?

If you wanted a corporeal entity representative of the species, their ships will probably be your best bet.

[LordPomposity]

They look like Ancients with brown skin?

[General Battuta]

They look like Ancients with brown skin?

If the Ancients ever pop up in BP they're probably going to take a very different angle than the Vishnan ship designs - something a little more grounded, and with a more alien social structure than most other depictions have taken.

[Aesaar]

Darius: I know what you meant, but that just made me think of a Vishnan Keeper crewed by a bunch of keeper-shaped aliens with legs.

[-Norbert-]

Weren't the Vishnan ships supposed to be physical incarnations of Vishnans in this universe. I think I remember something like that being mentioned in either the backstory or ingame.

I always imagined them to be something like the First Ones (Shadows and Vorlons among them) from Babylon 5, who are really just blobs of energy, that wear encounter suits to appear like physical beings. In case of the Vishnans the "encounter suits" would be the ships.

[General Battuta]

We will definitely not be doing the Vishnans as Stargate or B5-style 'energy beings' that float around like glowy jellyfish, but the analogy is pretty good otherwise.

If you want to get a few more details on the Vishnans you can check out their tech description post-AoA.

[-Norbert-]

I didn't try to say the Vishnans were a blob of energy, that was just describing how the First Ones in B5 were. The real point I wanted to make, was the part about "wearing" the suit or ship to interact with the younger races, without giving away what they really are or look like (if they're even visible in the first place).
Sorry if that was a bit badly formulated.

[Mr CharlieCharlie]

So, pretty similar to the living starships depicted in the Night's Dawn Trilogy by the sci-fi god Peter F. Hamilton...

*much bowing and scraping to the biologist-turned-writer*

Incredible man, simply incredible

[Mr CharlieCharlie]

On the subject of the Blue Planet and all it's related content, I have just spent the last forty five minutes indulging myself looking at the tech room splendour.

I must admit, the level of design and originality of the UEF ships is nothing short of astonishing.  BP2 WiH prt1 is an herculean effort,(although it is unfortunately too complex for my lowly laptop to manage on some of the bigger naval battles) really encapsulating a possible future where Earth has had to adapt, considering it's loses.

Bloody marvellous I say

[Qent]

They look like Ancients with brown skin?

Ahahaha, this has to go in FS3:SFB.