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I've had this theory for some time now, and have not expressed it until now. I'm not sure if any of you others have ever wondered what an overlord exactly does, and how it sustains the Zerg armies, such that more overlords are required for a hive to expand.
I always assumed that overlords emitted psi, a psychic energy which comes up often in Starcraft lore. I assumed that they, like the Overmind and like Kerrigan, sent out some kind of brain waves that keep Zerg armies informed and purposed and conscious and moving. Perhaps they do that as well.
I've also looked it up online just now, and some lore, not sure whether official, has it that Zerg somehow absorb nutrients through the creep. My little cousin was watching me play the other year and I told him some version of "I dunno. They just fly around and do stuff." I've since wondered how it might be better explained in a way which is interesting, imaginative, gross as the Zerg ought to be, and which actually sort of makes sense.
What I've come up with is that overlords are giant flying space squids (obviously), and their tentacles that hang down like spaghetti hair are actually feeding tubes. You see, the overlord vigilantly floats overhead, miles high in the sky, perhaps, like a meaty hot air balloon, and it stays with the armies. When the workers and the soldiers get hungry, they reach up their sucking little bug lips and grab a tentacle tit, and draw forth sweet essence. Sometimes they are able to do this without even stopping their work, as if they had a beer helmet full of meat puree.
This is one of the many ways the Zerg are such efficient, such graceless, such prideless, such voracious killing machines.
Thank you.
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Sc1 Overlord -> creepy alien thing
Sc2 Overlord -> nosegay of flowers
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Maybe ZergNeedsFood knows more about this. His username suggests he's been contemplating this issue for an extended period of time, but you seem to be on to something. If they need to travel through the vastness of space, and can't take creep with them, overlords seem like the only option of transporting and supplying the swarm with nourishment.
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On November 15 2016 17:46 zobz wrote:
I've also looked it up online just now, and some lore, not sure whether official, has it that Zerg somehow absorb nutrients through the creep.
That's even explained in the good old StarCraft manual and in the Zerg Campaign (the first mission it is, i think). Which is the reason why Zerg structures can only be built on creep because it gives the living organisms aka buildings the nutrients they need. Which again is why in SC2 Zerg structures end up dying when there's no creep providing structure around anymore.
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I'm more interested in how Zerg can fly through open space. How do they propel themselves?
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On November 15 2016 19:53 Jae Zedong wrote:
I'm more interested in how Zerg can fly through open space. How do they propel themselves?
space farts?
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On November 15 2016 19:53 Jae Zedong wrote:
I'm more interested in how Zerg can fly through open space. How do they propel themselves?
IIRC they found small space-faring animals that could generate wormholes and assimilated them into the hive, enlarging them in the process to use as transports.
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![[image loading]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/10/21/1445424736885/13e7bfe7-4f5b-4270-938b-b6616af995fc-1020x612.jpeg)
Must be some sort of sailing on cosmic, hyperspace-particle winds they anchor themselves to by generating the necessary anchorage molecules in their cell structure. One thing is floating through space, with moderate propulsion, but traveling at multiples of c to actually get somewhere within a reasonable timeframe is something else entirely.
Maybe zerg are a rip-off of the biological race which the borg were losing to, at one point, in star trek next gen and probably voyager, and we should ask Eugene Wesley „Gene“ Roddenberry's ghost or his successors.
I'm sticking with interstellar tachyon winds, resulting from matter - void matter recycle transactions and the resulting particle streams, that are generated as a byproduct. They are more sensible to the gravitational pull of stars than regular matter, and immune to energy into mass equivalence. Maybe their evolved cell structures can somehow trap them by generating insulating molecules of the same polarity, so they can diffuse along with the tachyons like marry Poppins .
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Good post, but then one big question remains. How did Mary Poppins fly??
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This is actually addressed in the manual/campaign story.
Zerg supply isn't really food like for terran, it's control. The overmind controls all zerg units and to assert its control over smaller groups, they use overlords. If an overmind is killed, all zerg units under its control become mindless and just wander around aimlessly.
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On November 15 2016 22:05 razorsuKe wrote:
This is actually addressed in the manual/campaign story.
Zerg supply isn't really food like for terran, it's control. The overmind controls all zerg units and to assert its control over smaller groups, they use overlords. If an overmind is killed, all zerg units under its control become mindless and just wander around aimlessly.
That is why you should lose control over your units when you get negative supply as Zerg. Lore wise.
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What they do is put it in their mouth and let the meat slide down their throat hole.
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On November 15 2016 22:49 riotjune wrote:
What they do is put it in their mouth and let the meat slide down their throat hole.
Whoa. But what if the meat isn't perfectly tender? Then they might need "teeth" and a "digestive system". Glad I'm not a zerg 
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On November 15 2016 23:07 Jae Zedong wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2016 22:49 riotjune wrote:
What they do is put it in their mouth and let the meat slide down their throat hole. Whoa. But what if the meat isn't perfectly tender? Then they might need "teeth" and a "digestive system". Glad I'm not a zerg
Some zerg species do have teeth, don't they?
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On November 15 2016 23:33 Miragee wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2016 23:07 Jae Zedong wrote:On November 15 2016 22:49 riotjune wrote:
What they do is put it in their mouth and let the meat slide down their throat hole. Whoa. But what if the meat isn't perfectly tender? Then they might need "teeth" and a "digestive system". Glad I'm not a zerg Some zerg species do have teeth, don't they?
You are right, I just checked some official BW artwork. I wouldn't count anything SC2 related as official since that's basically fanfiction as far as I'm concerned.
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Terran armies are limited by logistics (supply)
Protoss armies are limited by psionic power (psi)
Zerg armies are limited by how many controllers there are (control)
Terran armies eat food but not the other stuff they collect at depots.
Protoss armies don't eat psi, they photosynthesize.
Zerg don't consume control for nourishment, they consume creep (even structures do.) How? Maybe, they take handfuls of it then stuff it into their feeding orifices.
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Overlords are just hot air balloons.
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Zerglings don't live long enough to need to eat.
Also, how do Protoss get nutrients? Just because you photosynthesize doesn't mean you don't need nutrients.
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On November 16 2016 05:27 Jerubaal wrote:
Zerglings don't live long enough to need to eat.
Instead they get eaten by a defiler dude^^
+ Show Spoiler +
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Although in SC2 overlords can dump creep wherever... So maybe overlords do both? Or have I gone too far bringing up SC2?
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TErNX1m.gif)
