But there is more commonly sized Zenith vessels (beam frigates, Zombards, etc, plus the special Dyson Gatling). What are they? Unmanned autonomous combat ships?
On the gatlings:
I've always seen the dyson golem as being one big Zenith that is super ancient, yes. The dyson gatlings are basically a good example of the little "helper creatures" that are alive but not super smart. They aren't Zenith per se, but they service the Zenith and live on and around them. The utter scale of the dyson golem is such that even its "tiny little guys that live on it" are very large by human standards.
Posted by x4000 here:
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,17063.msg184764.html#msg184764On the human-built and AI-built Zenith vessels:We know that the current form (and, from what I remember of past versions, most or all of the previous iterations) of the Zenith Starship is a product of reverse engineering alien artifacts (which are presumably Zenith in origin; hence the name of the starship) from the description of the vessel. As a starship rather than a fleetship, it's probably a manned vessel (at least if my memory serves me well; I seem to recall that being one of the main distinguishing features of a 'starship' as opposed to a 'fleetship,' with another being scale). As a product of reverse engineering, we know that it's a replication of the function (and perhaps the form) of Zenith technology using the human technology base rather than Zenith technology induced to replicate itself.
We also know that the Zenith Devastator is a Zenith designed vessel, and so probably a "helper creature" similar to the Dyson Gatlings. In this case, I'd tend to say that it's something that the human and AI factions were able to induce to reproduce rather than replicating the technology using the human tech base, though the latter is possible if they went for the somewhat foolish option of copying the original exactly (or as nearly so as they could manage) rather than asking themselves how to best apply the technology derived from the reverse engineering process.
I would tend to think that the majority, or perhaps all, of the fleetship Zenith vessels are, like the Zenith Starship, applications of technology developed through attempts to replicate the function (and perhaps form) of Zenith technology within the human tech base rather than being Zenith or Zenith helper creatures cloned or induced to reproduce by the humans and the AIs, in part because we don't really get any indication that we're "growing" Zenith ships, and in part because the Zenith Devastator is a much later addition to the game than most of the other Zenith stuff and could be something that we gained access to through, say, the Zenith nebula factions, which were introduced in the expansion preceding the one which introduced the Devastators (Zenith starships were base-game; VotM introduced the Devastators and Hydras; Ancient Shadows introduced Medical Frigates, Siege Engines, and Reprocessors; and Zenith Remnant introduced Autobombs, Beam Frigates, Bombards, Chameleons, Electric Bombers, Mirrors, Paralyzers, Polarizers, and Viral Shredders; note that it's only in VotM that any of the Zenith ships are explicitly a Zenith development, and even so none of these are used by any Zenith factions of which we are aware, and that prior to this all indications are that alien techbase fleetships other than the Neinzul are applications of the results of human attempts to replicate alien technology). This would put the majority of the human-built and AI-built Zenith ships into the unmanned (semi)autonomous combat ships, in my view.
Another possibility for the Zenith vessels which were introduced later is that they're the product of cooperative development between the humans (or AIs) and the Zenith factions with which they're in contact and friendly, much like how the Spire Corvette is the product of a joint project between humanity and the Imperial Spire (based on the unit description; ok, fine, it's not necessarily a joint project, but the humans got those Spire Frigates from somewhere before they were modified to the Corvette standard).
Regarding the nebula-Zenith ships:I would tend to think that these are either relatively "young" Zenith (though how "young" is open for debate since indications are that Zenith start out roughly human-sized based on post #14 in the above-linked thread, also by Chris) or more examples of helper creatures similar to Dyson Gatlings (in which case the actual Zenith are probably the starbases they're trying to defend).
Regarding the trader toys:I kind of like the idea that these are young(ish) Zenith or larger varieties of helper creatures that you feed (probably with an additional Trader fee) in order to "build." No real basis outside of the whole "Zenith technology is a byproduct of how they grow and (possibly) shape themselves" thing.
