Why? Accelerating the process means going faster, and going faster means expenditure of resources. Even if we dont know quite HOW the Tyranids use resources or how efficiently, they still USE resources. Why rush and waste what may be useful later (and you dont know when or if it might) when you don't need to?Srelex wrote: I'm skeptical that if it has the choice between fast or slow, the hive mind is going for slow. Considering how methodical the Tyranids like to be, I'm sure they'd accelerate the process if anything. Furthermore, Imperium ships are somewhat sluggish--well, I admit it does vary--and it could come down to the insane variation that hiveships have.
And yes, it could come down to variation, but its likely given the OP that the variations are going to be lumped together (which means a communication of ideas/info/genetics/whatnot.)
We don't know much about the Endor Generators, or even if it WAS a single generator - we hardly saw the whole planet, and the bulk of evidecne points to planetary shield systems being networks (needing multiple relays and projectors at least, even if there is a single generator - which seems rather dangerous and foolish to me.) Besides, Endor was smaller than most in habitable planets.Well, in the game I mentioned, all it took was one generator to apparently envelop an entire world, but said generator was positioned on its orbiting moon. However, I think there are examples of generators doing such a thing whilst remaining on the world they're enveloping--either way, I'd think that a planetary shield generator network could easily be built with the resources of its own planet, but of course facilities are the question, and this is a hard thing to address. As for weather, I'm doubtful about that, as it does appear that air and atmosphere does pass through it, otherwise we'd have troops suffocating on Hoth.
As far as Hoth goes - we never saw the shield operated for prolonged periods of time, and it certainly wasn't encompassing the ENTIRE planet. There's more than just air though. What about the waste heat the planet generates? how do they get rid of that? Where does it go? How about sunlight - does it let it all in or just parts of it? So on and so forth. How do shield interactions iwth the atmosphere affect things? There's alot of shield volume and alot of planet to consider.
Humanity is a significant portion of the SW galaxy, and it takes a dominant role in the galaxy during the GE era anyhow. "The Ones that matter" are likely to be all the core worlds (at least the human ones) and they'll already be fortified with shielding. If anything the Core (and its pro human population) are likely to say "fuck off" to the aliens - thinking that it might occupy the Tyranids while they prepare.Humanity, maybe...but remember, we're not just talking humans here. I'll admit that fortifying every single world is a bit of an undertaking, to say the fucking least, but we can agree that it can be done effectively for the ones that matter. And then again, not all species will be as unresiliant as humies are. However, if the Empire manages to work out in which direction the hive fleets are coming in, it could perhaps isolate which worlds need to be built up--after all, there are some places in the 40k galaxy that the Tyranids aren't visiting any time soon.
And yes, they might track and isolate probable paths. The Imperium does that too, so thee's no reason the Empire couldn't. Although that just means the Tyranids go AROUND, unless its pretty damn extensive. Or they do what Leviathan does and come up from the galactic plane.
No, he built up the Empire because he's a selfish sadistic fuck who think sonly of his own self aggrandizement (nevermind his own godhood, especially later on) and because he wanted revenge against the Jedi and domination of the galaxy. The Vong might have been a factor in that (after all he can't rule if they're conquering territory can he) and he might spin that as a reason to paint him as altruistic, but let's not pretend he's anything but an evil bastard, alright?Ah, but you must remember, one of the reasons he built up the Empire in the first place was the threat of the Vong. It's no stretch to assume that Palps may even assume the Tyranids to be the Vong themselves. Now, of course, we don't know how he would have acted in the event of the Vong coming, but it is safe to assume that even if he doesn't act perfectly competent 100% of the time, he will at least try and ensure the sanctity of the Empire.