Only 158 colonist

[pblewett]

This is a minor nitpick but one thing that always bothered me while watching Aliens was that there are only 158 colonist on LV-426 which means at most there are only 157 Xenomorphs in Aliens. i have always felt that there should have been at least 300 to 450 colonist. It would have made it scarier to think that 12 marines were up against 400 aliens, 150 seems pretty low to me. Why such a small amount of colonist if they have been there for twenty plus years. And why did James cameron write in such a small amount of colonist?

[SiL]

The exact number was pretty irrelevant when they were pretty much wall-to-wall, and the marines (despite popular opinion) were doing a really, really bad job of killing them.

As for the low numbers, cheaper for the Company, probably.

[whiterabbit]

Maybe that sign that said 158 colonist was 20 years old... perhaps there were maintenance crews not included in the population that come and go. Such as on Fiorina 161. Maybe a colony ship with 100 families stopped over to drop off some parts and got face hugged and were stuffed somewhere outside of the facilities scan... or wait, maybe their transmitters weren't implanted yet.

Just trying to bullshit out a solution here guys.

The exact number was pretty irrelevant when they were pretty much wall-to-wall, and the marines (despite popular opinion) were doing a really, really bad job of killing them.

As for the low numbers, cheaper for the Company, probably.

Oh come on, they were using flame throwers and harsh language for the most part. When they had guns they were standing their ground until the ground literally fell out from under them. Then they were back to using Hudson's harsh language.

[SiL]

Yeah, and flamethrowers and harsh language are really, really bad at killing Aliens

[Darkblade 25]

The marines would not make it their where more aliens and they will not have a lot of ammo to fight them all.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Well, this is certainly a novel complaint. Most people tend to complain that there were too many aliens, that Cameron basically turned the creature into cannon fodder.

[Local Trouble]

Simple answer: LV-426 was a desolate shithole.  Sure, it was minimally habitable, but it had no flora or fauna and was as dreary a place as you'd ever want to visit.

Also, the atmosphere processor was fully automated.  I'm sure there were company technicians there to maintain it and of course a number of prospectors and miners to exploit the mineral wealth, but why would anyone else want to live there?

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Helluva expenditure to provide breathable air for just 158 people.

[Local Trouble]

People had only been there for ~20 years.  Give it another 20 and maybe it would be a lush and fertile garden world.  Then you'd probably see mass migration.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Maybe, but Fiorina was still a shithole even after terraforming.

[Elmazalman]

People had only been there for ~20 years.  Give it another 20 and maybe it would be a lush and fertile garden world.  Then you'd probably see mass migration.

The planet was volatile-plenty of volcanic activity,which further damaged the Derelict.

[Local Trouble]

Maybe, but Fiorina was still a shithole even after terraforming.

Who ever said Fiorina was terraformed?  It was always strange to me that a (by our current standards) rare gem of a planet like Fiorina wouldn't be massively colonized, given its atmosphere and gravity were obviously suitable for long-term human habitation.

Then again, it seems to me that the entire planet was the company's private property and not some cooperative effort between Weyland-Yutani and Colonial Administration like LV-426 was.

Hell, maybe artificially engineered "shake and bake" colonies end up being preferable to human settlers than naturally habitable but otherwise unattractive shitholes like Fiorina.

People had only been there for ~20 years.  Give it another 20 and maybe it would be a lush and fertile garden world.  Then you'd probably see mass migration.

The planet was volatile-plenty of volcanic activity,which further damaged the Derelict.

So?  Our own planet has plenty of areas of volatile volcanic activity.  That's why most of us live far away from those areas.  Presumably, the company didn't build the colony and the atmosphere processor on top of a caldera, so it was obviously deemed safe and stable enough to establish a multimillion dollar installation there.

[whiterabbit]

Helluva expenditure to provide breathable air for just 158 people.

The processors job was to change the planets environment. The 158 people were just there to make sure it did it's job. Oh and to stake a claim, for else there would be no exclusive rights for anyone.

Oh and the planet had one kind of fauna, sure it wasn't indigenous... but it was something.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Who ever said Fiorina was terraformed? 

SM.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=50841.0

[Local Trouble]

I think you should read his posts again...

Was Fiorina terraformed?  That fact that it had indigenous life indicates to me that it wasn't.

I should've emphasised 'after' in my post as I meant to suggest that this could be the after picture rather than before.

He never gave a straight answer to the question, but as a Juilliard-trained SMologist, I can confidently state that he never outright said it was terraformed.