Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I was thinking about the Nids. Do they have a greater plan at all? Like Nids that think and act and use Tactics. Or are they just like army ants who keep marching without much thought to where they are who what they are doing. What do you guys think?

If they were mindless, they wouldn't have Zoanthropes. My guess is that they're all part of a collective, like ants, but they are capable of choosing their actions.

Synapse Creatures can probably make decisions and calculate odds, and what-not... but I'd assume that the regular Tyranids are much too stupid for that.

They do have a greater plan. Eat, Eat and evolve when something starts getting good at killing them. For the race to be able to adapt so well to different enemies and environment they must have some form of higher intelegance. Besides some stuff can infiltrate in the game, if they were dumb they'd try to do it right in the middle of a tank company or something.

Tyranid 1: "look no-one will see us behind these metal cans"
Tyranid 2: "Stupid humans. Hey whys that barrel moving in our direction?"
*And thats the end of our Nid heros*

Yeah no normal nids have no internat organs. they just have a skin and armour and thats it.

They have a stomach surely? They just eat and eat when they kill stuff so they need one of them don't they?

Nope. Only rippers have stomachs.

Also define 'normal nids' for a hyper advancing species surely that keeps changing

Tyrant Guard, Guants, Gargoyles, Biovore, Carnifex.

I wouldn't call all of them 'normal' after all Biovores were specifically made to deploy spores-so not really normal, more adapted for special purpose. If you see where I'm coming from

Yeah but a normal nid is one without the Ability of Synapse. Also known as either dependent or Independant Tyranids.

I think they are more like the bugs from Heinlens Starhip Troopers. (not the horrible movie the epicly awsome book) The warriors and builders and such have no intelligence at all. They simply feed information to the brain bug and the brain bug then coordinates them and uses their instinctual behaviour for their own good.

Im pretty sure this is where the nids came from anyways. (at least the inspiration for them)

What year was the book made? If its after the start of RT its the other way around. I never read the books, but people have recommended it to me

I haerd off someone the Eldar had made the Nids as pets, but then the fall 'lost them' and hey presto now they want to eat people (wierd huh). if that was true then I would be more inclined to say they have no higher intelect, Eldar wouldn't make pets that could upsert them!

The Eldar hate nids now (after Iyanden) but that is a new idea for me. Anyway how did they get in from outside the Galaxy? Because the Tyranids are found nearly everywhere throughout it.

Tyranids are alot like Borg with their collective conciousness. The Borg had tactics, they could think, they could act. I think the Termagants don't have too powerful a thought process, but I'm sure they must have greater brains as you go up. Why would the hive mind let a brainless monstrousity lead his swarm in a cleansing rampage? He has to be smart enough to know that he can't be prepared for everything, and he needs a leader with just enough wit to see the Nids through to sweet, sweet bloody victory. Sure, you could argue that the Hive Mind controls everything, but if more and more nids are being spawned and radiating outwards to feed, it's hard to be in so many places at once, he has to block some thoughts out and leave it to slightly intelligent leaders while he oversees other things. That's how I see it anyway.

That would be a Norn Queen, pure Brains that live onboard Hiveships, They are huge and mean but i mean do the tyranids in one hive fleet know about nids in another? liek do they have battle reports or the like?

Ebullient wrote:The Tyranids are a total rip off of Zerg, and Zerg was a little bit of a rip off the Borg with their collective conciousness

aaaaaaaaarrrrhhhhhhgggggg..... You just made my head explode, the Zerg were based strongly upon their precursers. It goes Starship troopers(1959)>Aliens(1979/1987)>Tyranids(1990)>Zerg(1998). Starcraft was released in 1998, the Tyranids made their first appearances back in the 80's. genestealers were first, in 1990 or so the rest of the hivefleets were established in 2nd ed. The 'Nids have the Zerg by a good Decade!

I always thought of the 'Nids having a semi-collective consciousness. The Big bugs use the little bugs like subprocessors of data, and the larger the Bug the more intelligance it has, and the closer to an independant being it is.

Dont worry, a exploded head is quick comman in 40K universe it happens all the time. What about the Hive Mind? What is it?

I'd say, based off rumor, hearsay and street talk, that it's the Outsider, a C'Tan.

Wow, really? That would be cool. I always thought of the Hive Mind as, like, a mother figure. Maybe the Outsider's a chick C'tan!

...no. Just no. Far from motherly, if it's the Outsider, then it's a C'Tan, and they devour the life energy of living beings, so it's using the Tyranids to harvest worlds.

I read somewhere that Nids will be in the Warhammer 40,000 MMORPG, which could be quite amusing.

*hiss* *hiss* *hiss*
"Go and kill 5 humans for your quest"

I guess Nids are like Bees, but the Synapse dudes are big fat bees with stabby things to make the smaller chaps do as they're told.

Tyranids in a MMORPG? What class could you be? How do you get better do you evole seeing as tyranids wear no armour and dont carry guns? Would be fun to see though.

Gargoyle would pretty fun

Its a pity the game isnt going to be an FPS (its still early stages so im not sure though). If it was an MMOFPS like Planetside it would probably be quite popular

Wait - so the leaders of the Necrons are the leaders of the Tyranids? And They are phonetically similar to a type of imperial guard? :O connections..

EDIT: I always thought it would be an FPS, how else would 40 k work?

a WoW Stylee 40k MMO would'nt work in my opinion, but im interested in seeing how this game develops

Well, I don't think it works quite like that blinky. You can't just say the C'tan are a part of the Necrons, cause they're a whole different being all together. Sure, the Necrons are their 'slaves' pretty much, but that doesn't mean they're the only girls in the C'tan's lives. Plus, the Outsider is 'outside' the galaxy, thus the name, and is freaking crazy. It might not be him/her but another one of the C'tan he/she ate that's driving him/her crazy that's still somehow directing the Tyranids with the Outsider's shredded mind as a vessel. Or it could be none of these things, it could be a giant egg shaped thing pulsating somewhere in a damp living structure. Perhaps Blizzard got it right a decade later.

But the Nids have some form of commander then? Like a nid general thats stupidly big and smart?

Don't the Nids use the warp though? if so the Outsider can't be connected to them as it hates warp based things, as do the rest of its kin. Besides the C'tan hate life, and nids are still living, whereas Necrons aren't-making them perfect slaves.