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Now I really like Nids but they are for sure one of the, if not the very, worst army in the game at present. they have great ideas, which are often either cut short or much too expensive points wise to be usefull against any good player with a real competitive army.
These are some changes that I feel wouldnt be exagerated to consider.
most upgrades are much too expensive to consider (I fully gave up on implant attack and toxic miasma as you will notice) but certain things such as regeneration should be more stable ( I feel that 5pts per wound above the first that you have is an appropriate price) others uprades dont seem to consider the value that this is a horde army.
I added Stars beside the name of the units to give a glimpse of how much of an upgrade I feel these guys needed: one star = minor upgrade needed, two stars = medium upgrade needed and three stars = major upgrade needed
First as a main rule for Nids the Shadow in the warp ability is suppose to be omnipresent when being faced with nids, the Nids destroys your morale in a very literal way, the fluff is great at explaining this but the rules dont represent this at all, so I feel that all Ld test including psychic test should be rolled with an additionnal dice, discarding the lowest, this being true as long as there is one shadow in the warp model that is still on the board. this on top of the regular 12" full 3d6 for psychic test in the regular Shadow in the warp rule.

Hive Tyrant **
Stranglethorn Cannon 15pts, Heavy Venom Canon 20pts, Adrenal Gland 5pts, Toxin Sac 5pts, Regeneration 15pts, Thorax swarm 20pts, Armoured shell 35pt, Wings 50pts, Also any model within Tyrant's synapse may use the Tyrants Ld for Ld test.
- I love the Hive Tyrant but most of his upgrades are just too expensive for what they are worth, also the tyrant should have a special Synapse

Swarmlord *
2+ armour save for 10 pts (effectively 290pts), also any model within Swarmlord's synapse may use the Swarmlord's Ld for Ld test.
- I just dont like the thought that the most badass hive tyrant of all would only have a 3+

The Parasite of Mortrex **
Power weapon for 10pts (effectively 170pts)
- Parasites biggest weakness would be solved

Tyranid Prime **
Bone swords 8pts, Lashwhip and bonesword 12Pts, Venom Cannon 10pts, can get a Heavy Venom cannon for 18pts, Adrenal gland 2pts and Toxin sac 3pts, could also get wings for 30pts
- great idea, upgrades too expensive. should be able to get wings and heavy venom cannon.

Tervigon *
Crushing Claw 20pts, Regeneration 25pts,
- great idea, some upgrades too expensive.

Lictors ***
Can assault on the turn they come into play and pheremone trail's +1 to coming into play roll works both before and after he/they are actually into play
-This was really needed, the fact that they need to uncover for a full turn before assaulting is so insulting to his principles, also the pheremone trails are a nice idea but if we need to wait for him to come in the board and then next turn can use it its just not gonna work, also fluff explains that even after their death the pheremones are out to do their jobs.

Deathleaper ***
Can assault on the turn he come into play and pheremone trail's +1 to coming into play roll works both before and after he is actually into play
- same as Lictor

Hive Guards *
+6" Range for Impaler Cannon and a 3+ save but loses 1 Str and 1 Ws while costing 5 pts more (effectively 55pts)
- this guy is pretty good but not well optimized, there is no reason for them to have higher ws than a carnifex or mawloc or for them to be stronger than a tyranid warrior, but the 24" range is definetly rough since most weapons on vehicles (primary targets) are 36" range or more, leaving them next to no chance of getting them if the opponent is good, also they are guards so a 3+ armour save is average and fits them very well in their role

Zoanthrope **
cost 5 pts less (effectively 55pts)
- great in every way but a bit expensive

Pyrovore ***
+1 WS, Str, Ini and Att. for free
-I dont see any use for this model as its taking some of the all important elite slots but that is where they fit, so considering that they need to get close to the ennemy to use their Flamespurt they thus need to be at least semi decent in close combat, these upgrade would do that but I doubt that even with these great upgrade anybody would use them much.

Venomthrope **
Poison clouds cover save effect now counts as + 1 to cover save bonus for units within 6" and +2 cover save for themselves instead of pure 5+ cover save
- great idea but their models makes them impossible to avoid being seen, so hey just die in the begining of the shooting phase and then the rest of the army never benefited from anything. A 5+ cover wont do the trick, a 3+ cover though might let them survive if they hide behind stuff

Tyranid Warrior **
Rending Claw 3pts, Bone swords 8pts, Lashwhip and bonesword 12Pts, Venom Cannon 10pts, Adrenal gland 2pts and Toxin sac 3pts
- Upgrades too expensive.

Genestealers *
Adrenal gland 2pts and Toxin sac 2pts
- Some upgrades too expensive.

Termagaunt *
Devourers 4pts, could upgrade to Dread Termagaunts for 2 pts each, they get +1 Bs, Ld and 5+ Armour save
- Devourers were a bit too expensive, and I was disapointed to see how little we could change the gaunts as the fluff always mentions that they are suppose to be very easy to evolve for different use

Hormagaunts **
Adrenal gland 1pts and Toxin sac 1pts, can upgrade to Heavy Hormagaunts for 4 pts each: they get + 1 Ws, Ld and a 4+ armour save
-Upgrades were too expensive and once again the fluff mentions that they are suppose to be able to be evolved to be very resistant to regular weaponry, regular weaponry having AP of 5, I figure we could make them have a 4+ armour save if we are willing to make make them almost twice as expensive

Shrikes **
Bone swords 8pts, Lashwhip and bonesword 12Pts, Venom Cannon 10pts, Adrenal gland 3pts and Toxin sac 3pts, also Lash whip and bonesword as well as double bone sword upgrade can replace either the devourer or the scything talons.
- Upgrades too expensive. also would like to be able to make them good at close combat and shooting if we want them to be.

Raveners *
Rending Claws 3pts, Deathspitter 8pts
- Upgrades too expensive.

Harpys **
Twin linked venom cannon 5pts, Adrenal glands 5pts, Toxin Sac 5pts. Also Harpy gets +1 Ws and Att for 5 pts more (effectively 165pts)
- Some upgrades too expensive and for having a few pure close combat ability the ws and att stats were very poor.

Carnifex ***
All upgrades should be 5 pts less except the Fragspine which is fine at 5 pts and the regeneration should be 15pts, main carnifex price should be 10 pts less too(effectively 150pts)
- This guy just needed a big upgrade, they were much too expensive to even consider their 3 per brood potential

Trygon *
Subteranean assault holes can pull out up to two teams each turn instead of one, still needs to fit within 6", Toxin Sac 5pts, Trygon Prime has 2+ armour save but is 60pts for upgrade
- for the subteranean assault thing is a nice idea but allowing 2 teams to come out of it makes it more viable of a tactic, also felt that the prime could benefit from a 2+ armour save

Mawloc ***
Can get an Acid Spray shooting attack for 10pts also gets + 1 Att and double scything talons for 5 points (effectively 175pts) Toxin Sac 5pts,
-This guy just wasting a full turn after coming out was just brutal, he needed a shooting attack, also his 3 attacks werent enough and the fact that he didnt have scything talons was kinda Ridiculous considering he has 3 sets, sure they are smaller but that is why he has Ws3.

Tyrannofex ***
Rupture cannon is Heavy 3, Regeneration is 25pts, Tyranofex is 20 pts less (effectively 230pts)
-Comparing this guy to another heavy support High firepower unit in the game was laughable.

Perhaps I am going too far on some of these but looking at the Space wolves, Blood angels, Imperial guard and even Dark eldars I think that these would not bring the Nids above any of these, I think it might actually make them a real match though.
Any comments or critiques would be welcomed, from both Nid players and Nids oppponents.

The popints are awkard, no. 5 is a nice, even number and means you are less likely to end up with 1999pts in a 2K game.

Besides that, the only thing would be the Mawloc and ST.

The fluff actually says that its limbs are too small to be effective in CC.

To be honest, there are a few simple things they could do to bring them back.


1: Bring back synapse preventing ID.

2: Drop the points of fex's.
You could have a screamer fex for 113, now its around 170.
Great, you can take 9, now wheres the points for the rest of the army?

3: Remove the -1 pen from the venom cannons.
While its allways been a pain, it would help to no end and give you something else to take out armour.

You should check out the Tyranid Fandex - it addresses most of the same points you do, just in slightly different ways.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/403347.page

Points are way too awkward... 2 point and three point upgrades are really annoying for listbuilding.

I dont think that changing some of the upgrades point values to less even number becomes a critical problem as long as you understand basic math, especially since Nids already have many upgrades at 2,3,&4 points with Genestealers, Hormagaunts and Rippers, so closing the last point or two is a bit difficult either way.
It is however a critical problem to round off the point value of upgrades to something that doesn't actually represent its value on the field, its rounding off the point value of upgrades that causes imbalances in the game, creating many upgrades that are either too good or others that are not worth it at all.
Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that its by assigning appropriate point values to units and upgrades, based on how powerful they actually are, that you can make a game balanced.

BTW I knew that the Mawlocs fluff was mentionning that his scything talons were too short to be effectively used (represented in my quote '' sure they are smaller but that is why he has Ws3.'') but I believe that that part of the fluff was kinda slapped on, they could have made some other types of arms to make him more of a worm if really they wanted that, I know that would be more expensive and games workshop prefers to save money where it can but I sorta just look at that model and I see a bunch of scything talons, I felt he needed a bit of a boost too so this seemed like a good change.