More worrying would be Bob Holdstock coming back.
Thargoid War balance changes.
- Thread starter sallymorganmoore
- Start date
I have to ask: did this actually work as expected?
Yes, the Thargoids have expanded into fewer unpopulated systems this week, but they haven't taken advantage of that to push into more populated systems instead - it just seems like a straight reduction in their capabilities, as implemented. As well as the big drop in unpopulated systems, they've also Alerted fewer populated systems than in any week since the 9th Feb.
Into that corner, there, Sally, and recite "I'm sorry, it is a terrible pun" 1,000 times!
I'm only jealous...
You might say she...
puts on sunglasses
...threw the book at you-
YYYEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH-
I need another corner...
That's hardly fair, I don't think he would appreciate me sending @AnchorWriter to stand in him...
.... specifically. Just everything generally.
After reviewing this information I have some feedback for "Aegis":
It's not that we aren't willing or able to kill Orthrus ships, it's the fact that they simply do not show up anywhere near often enough to make a difference to the war effort.
They are basically telling us the key to winning the war is to go hunt unicorns.
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Possibly not, we suspect that FDev has had higher expectations of us completing through the Thargoid War and now realizing that the playerbase haven't been able to reach their expectations, decided to drop this bombshell. Lowered systems in Alert in anticipation for U15 possibly.
There is an increased payout on the Orthrus, however it remains unclaimed in the patch notes following this update.
However, the spawn rate of the Orthrus, regardless of any improvement the Orthrus' properties may have underwent, is still abysmally low; possibly recorded 3 or 4 at optimal levels per long hours of gameplay.
The update essentially gives the playerbase nothing. Increased payouts for abysmal spawn rates of the Orthrus, a figuratively net zero statement.
Why should we, the player base, be looking forward to Alert systems when you force a system in Alert into Invasion, then clear the Invasion into Recovery, you have up to 6 additional weeks to focus elsewhere... Whereas if you cleared a system into Alert, it goes into recovery for about a week, before having the risk to be in alert again the week after.
What's the benefit?
That would make ok sense if invading a populated system costs more than an unpopulated system behind the scenes.
So before the thargoids would "waste" more of the points on unpopulated systems (not actually a waste since we can't defend against that) instead of optimizing the spending (around some internal caps/logic) to go for more populated systems.
Thing is, nothing players have done has made any meaningful difference so far to the big picture battle anyway. (Sure, it's mattered to some local PMFs, etc. that particular systems are saved, definitely)
- if we'd done absolutely nothing the Thargoids would be advancing through a bunch of systems generally at 20-30 LY from the maelstroms
- if we'd contained them we'd be fighting a stalemate battle at 20-30 LY from the maelstroms
- as it is, we're fighting in a bunch of systems and slowly giving up ground 20-30 LY from the maelstroms
Containment would require about an 8x jump in effectiveness - 4x, even if the "Thargoids don't get many Alerts any more" change is intended - which feels like it would be implausible even if Alerts were really easy to stop.
Sure - that's what I was expecting to happen: rather than picking "3 inhabited, 8 uninhabited" maelstroms would generally go for "5 inhabited", or maybe "4 inhabited, 4 uninhabited" if we were short on targets to try to get a better pick the following week. A reduction in numbers of both inhabited and uninhabited systems alerted compared with previous weeks just seems like a mistake.
Here is my experience with Alerts.
I jump into the Alert, and scan for threat 4 signal sources to find an orthrus. None are present, so I check the others, and find a threat 5 a few thousand Ls out. This takes me a few minutes to cross, and then I drop at the signal source, where I find 3 scouts and a thargoid sensor. I kill the scouts and nothing else spawns, so I blow up the sensor and leave. Total time spent, maybe 10 minutes, to get 3 scout kills. No orthruses have spawned yet, so I repeat this process. This gives me a total of around 15 scout kills per hour.
After a few hours, I still haven't found an orthrus, so I log off for the day.
Am I missing something? Please let me know if there's something obvious I should be doing.
I jump into the Alert, and scan for threat 4 signal sources to find an orthrus. None are present, so I check the others, and find a threat 5 a few thousand Ls out. This takes me a few minutes to cross, and then I drop at the signal source, where I find 3 scouts and a thargoid sensor. I kill the scouts and nothing else spawns, so I blow up the sensor and leave. Total time spent, maybe 10 minutes, to get 3 scout kills. No orthruses have spawned yet, so I repeat this process. This gives me a total of around 15 scout kills per hour.
After a few hours, I still haven't found an orthrus, so I log off for the day.
Am I missing something? Please let me know if there's something obvious I should be doing.
So, the big news is go kill Orthrus. Hmm. And I was expecting something meaningful. Perhaps I should lower my expectations for future posts.
For a start you should be scooping the sensor to trigger an interceptor to spawn (won't be an orthrus, but at least it will be something) instead of destroying it.
I'm used to FDev being out of touch with the actual issues with the game and the motivations of their players but this is absolutely ridiculous.
Fix the spawn rates and add some other levers to alerts. Nobody that is fighting goids gives a crap about 15 million credits. Orthrus hunting with the current spawn rates is tedious. We aren't "missing something", it's just bad gameplay.
Fix the spawn rates and add some other levers to alerts. Nobody that is fighting goids gives a crap about 15 million credits. Orthrus hunting with the current spawn rates is tedious. We aren't "missing something", it's just bad gameplay.
I tried that with several and they never spawned. Ended up dumping them in my carrier.
Or possibly this goes beyond credit and kills in the sense that we are nudged towards interacting more with the Orthros or alert systems in general. It has been hinted before that there might be something we are missing about alert systems.
Doesn't really match with the payouts for killing them being increased from 25M to 40M, does it? I think that sends a very clear message.