How you suppose the breeds of the extended Zerg swarms are composed?

[Mislagnissa]

That's kinda my point. Given how I said it was supported by the SC:Ghost units. Blizzard having them show up in other stuff means they exist - and if they exist, whats wrong with some of the weirder things being prototypes, defunct strains or exotic ships made by a specific tribe? Heck, theres even lore for some like the Nomad.

I am actually surprised the zerg have so few units considering they consumed countless worlds over countless millennia. Although the same may be leveled at the terrans and protoss. I guess it must be due to gameplay being an abstraction of reality. Trying to account for every model of fighter jet is just not practical for a video game.

[ragnarok]

I am actually surprised the zerg have so few units considering they consumed countless worlds over countless millennia. Although the same may be leveled at the terrans and protoss. I guess it must be due to gameplay being an abstraction of reality. Trying to account for every model of fighter jet is just not practical for a video game.

The Overmind probably took what he thought was the best of the best and discarded what he didn't want. After all, the zerg follow the whole "survival of the fittest" concept, which means those too weak deserve to die. Even in the SC2 lore they kept that.

[Mislagnissa]

The Overmind probably took what he thought was the best of the best and discarded what he didn't want. After all, the zerg follow the whole "survival of the fittest" concept, which means those too weak deserve to die. Even in the SC2 lore they kept that.

That is not what "survival of the fittest" means and your definition of "weak" is nonsensical. The zerg do not care about physical strength specifically, they care about anything that could be useful to them or has the potential to be useful. They assimilated overlords for their enhanced senses (and only later used them as control nodes due to a happy side-effect) and they assimilated sonaran mold because it was a key ingredient for explosives. Most of their core genuses, such as the caterpillar slothien and the weaponless brontolith, were extremely "weak" before the zerg turned them into monsters. The zerg seem to be extremely frugal, and even a species which has no new genes to offer the zerg would still serve a purpose as food for the nest.

Between SC1 and SC2, a period of four years, the zerg supposedly developed a dozen new breeds without discarding what they had. Logically, they should have thousands of different breeds by now. It makes no sense from a military perspective to discard all that diversity because diversity is a zerg value. The only explanation is that it is not feasible from a game design perspective to design all those units. It does not make any sense to take game mechanics literally, as the youtube series Starcrafts attests.

[ragnarok]

Between SC1 and SC2, a period of four years, the zerg supposedly developed a dozen new breeds without discarding what they had. Logically, they should have thousands of different breeds by now. It makes no sense from a military perspective to discard all that diversity because diversity is a zerg value. The only explanation is that it is not feasible from a game design perspective to design all those units. It does not make any sense to take game mechanics literally, as the youtube series Starcrafts attests.

Then you can consider that after fighting the terrans and protoss for years, they simply kept what was the most practical and kept what wasn't in reserve, only to be used in the direst of emergencies

[Nolanstar]

More likely, the genetic history of the zerg contains many hundreds of organisms, and we see the current combat roster. The strains that proved most effective at their roles. I like to think lots of the other species got incorporated into the core strains rather then being a primary host themselves (Things like Hydra's having seven notable species in the DNA). All those weird variants we see in various SC1 maps have different supplementary genetics from different organisms.

[ragnarok]

More likely, the genetic history of the zerg contains many hundreds of organisms, and we see the current combat roster. The strains that proved most effective at their roles. I like to think lots of the other species got incorporated into the core strains rather then being a primary host themselves (Things like Hydra's having seven notable species in the DNA). All those weird variants we see in various SC1 maps have different supplementary genetics from different organisms.

And yet for all the books, comics, short stories, etc, we've hardly seen any other zerg organism....

[Nolanstar]

Current roster, heck just comparing the visual differences from SC1 imply a good amount of genetic change.

[ragnarok]

Current roster, heck just comparing the visual differences from SC1 imply a good amount of genetic change.

I'm not sure if visual differences from SC1 count, hell Blizzard could just say improved graphics as a reason

[Mislagnissa]

I had a few ideas for species the zerg could have assimilated before they discovered humanity.

"Dimensional Shambler" from the Cthulhu mythos
"Data Overmind" or "Sky Canopy Dominion" from Haruhi Suzumiya
"Arn" from Animorphs
Honestly just pick any alien species from any work of fiction you think could be useful to the zerg in some capacity

[Nolanstar]

Field guide lists several sc1 unit depictions as older strains, and given that SC22 cinematics use a different Zergling model for the Kerrigan abduction flashback its safe to say that most breeds looked like their SC1 appearances at the time.