What if we got something to do with the Thargoids that wasn't just killing them?

[Greasetrap42]

The ultimate goal in any war must be peace.

Peace through communication and negotiation might be possible. But ignoring the fact that we don't have any track record on how good they are with keeping negotiated contracts... we absolutely know that humans are terrible at this. Humans can't be trusted to keep a contract for 5 years... never mind 500 or 5000 years.

Peace through through complete extermination works. But without knowing the Thargoid source we have no idea if extermination is possible.

Peace through leaving them alone worked for the last million years. I don't know how to control humans to leave them alone though. Maybe move colonies away from Thargoid space and have governments permit lock the restricted areas? Long term (100s or 1000s of years) this won't last. And Thargoids live on big time scale.



Long term the big problem lies with humans. Not Thargoids.

 

[Jack Winter]

Is it farfetched to think that the titans came to start colonies on the ammonia worlds they circle?

 

[DemiserofD]

We have no idea if peace is even possible. They are a completely alien race with completely alien views. As far as we know, the idea of peace might be incompatible with their existence.

There have been some excellent scifi novels recently about extremely advanced aliens that are intelligent but not sapient. They can solve problems, but have no concept of the self. Such a species is not even capable of conceiving of peace, because peace means respecting the other as equal, and in order to be an equal there must be a self to compare AS equal.

One could easily imagine each thargoid as a piece of a much bigger, but non-sapient whole, like wasps for a hive. Only unlike in Enders Game, there IS no 'queen'; there's just cooperative group action, guided by a group instinct of hatred towards anything but the hive.

 

[Shurimal]

Except the part where they were (I heard Jameson himself was victim to them sometimes).

Well, I misremembered. CMDR John Jameson did the mycoid attack in 3151, after which the thargs disappeared until reappearing in 3303. That's 152 years of absence during which the kept away from humans. That's my point--they haven't constantly bothered us, and hyperdictions in the 34th century only started after we found meta-alloys and went "Mine! All mine!".

Peace through communication and negotiation might be possible. But ignoring the fact that we don't have any track record on how good they are with keeping negotiated contracts...
/--/
Long term the big problem lies with humans. Not Thargoids.

I agree. But still, we should strive for better.

There have been some excellent scifi novels recently about extremely advanced aliens that are intelligent but not sapient. They can solve problems, but have no concept of the self.

Peter Watts' Blindsight and Echopraxia. Fascinating reads

One could easily imagine each thargoid as a piece of a much bigger, but non-sapient whole, like wasps for a hive. Only unlike in Enders Game, there IS no 'queen'; there's just cooperative group action, guided by a group instinct of hatred towards anything but the hive.

Possible, but we don't know. Until we know, all avenues of non-aggressive, non-interfering co-existence should be considered. Else we become the very monsters that we claim to fight against.

 

[SlickPBW]

They drew first blood.

 

[Frankymole]

I know I'm going to get a stern look from the RP crowd, but this point in the story (yes, this is a story we are being told by the game master Frontier) the "maybe we can have peace with them" approach has gone out the window. There have been many whacky theories about "making peace", communicating with them or that hidden long-term Thargoid reputation balance, but after two attempted genocides by humanity and a clear hostile invasion of the Thargoids we're in the "it's them or us" phase. If you think at this point something else is possible, you might be the people having the rooftop party in Independence Day.

But the Far God will come and welcome us!

 

[Planewalker]

Now yes yes I know this post will most likely be taken over with Starship Trooper-esque "OnLy GoOd BuG iS a DeAd OnE"

You can feed them various things like meta-alloys IIRC.
There's also the part where

Spoiler

a CMDR asks a certain dev if there is a thargoid reputation and the answer is "who is to say there isn't one?"

I am not sure how much testing has been done; i did see something that may be a bug from one of the infested sites.

And hey, how about that second Guardian battleground with the passive Thargoids that was supposed to be a big deal? Can we at least know what happened in Witch Head with that last attack it's been AGES-

Fairly sure that is content for a later date..

 

[Rainbro]

Fairly sure that is content for a later date..

I'd like to hope so, I am accustomed to Frontier's narrative pace. It's just a little weird hearing Frontier talk about this being the climax of the war when there's so many questions left unanswered. I kind of hoped the climax would come as the result of new revelations, not a random CG after Ram Tah suddenly noticed that his pyramid of relics have magic nanites in them.

 

[jojon]

Is it farfetched to think that the titans came to start colonies on the ammonia worlds they circle?

I don't think so -- in fact, the sudden creation of a small extra sun right next to one of them, sounds awfully familiar... "All these worlds are yours, except..."

 

[Cosmo]

More choices would be good. Thargoid supporters should receive rewards for supporting / defending them.

 

[CMDR ROGER]

More choices would be good. Thargoid supporters should receive rewards for supporting / defending them.

...I don't see any of the superpowers or major institutions awarding commanders for trying to help exterminate the human race.

 

[Cosmo]

...I don't see any of the superpowers or major institutions awarding commanders for trying to help exterminate the human race.

For example if players are interdicted by Thargoids they could choose to cooperate with them. The player could deliver materials to the Thargoids or give intel about the human Powers. If you're allied you could safely travel through their star systems, maybe dock at a Spire. This adds depth to the gameplay.

 

[Firehawk894]

They drew first blood.

They in fact, did not.

Thargoids were passive ever since they existed in this game, merely doing the equivalent of a stop and search when you're travelling through their space. Then expecting you to hand over their stolen technology and materials.

Humans were the first ones to attack them for no reason without provocation.

 

[SlickPBW]

They in fact, did not.

Thargoids were passive ever since they existed in this game, merely doing the equivalent of a stop and search when you're travelling through their space. Then expecting you to hand over their stolen technology and materials.

Humans were the first ones to attack them for no reason without provocation.

Nope.

 

[Kira Goto]

Nope.

Great way to engage with the arguments instead of just categorically writing them off without reason.

And you wonder why PX don't like to talk with AX. Or maybe you don't because you know the reason already and are just trying to troll to get a reaction out of them.

 

[SlickPBW]

Great way to engage with the arguments instead of just categorically writing them off without reason.

And you wonder why PX don't like to talk with AX. Or maybe you don't because you know the reason already and are just trying to troll to get a reaction out of them.

Original Elite. 1984. Thargoids would pull you out of hyperspace and attack without provocation.

That should suffice, no?

 

[Kira Goto]

Original Elite. 1984. Thargoids would pull you out of hyperspace and attack without provocation.

That should suffice, no?

… as far as I am aware that does not count because it is no longer canon. As such you cannot claim its Thargoid behavior is valid to make arguments for the current Elite from Frontier.

I’m also not seeing you detail how the Thargoids unjustly started a war in that one.

 

[Rat Catcher]

We could just remove all of their carapace and make lampshades from them...
They would still be, technically, alive.

 

[SlickPBW]

… as far as I am aware that does not count because it is no longer canon. As such you cannot claim its Thargoid behavior is valid to make arguments for the current Elite from Frontier.

I’m also not seeing you detail how the Thargoids unjustly started a war in that one.

Oh. When I provided absolute proof, from the original game, by the same creator, then you just do what you are complaining about in the first place:

just categorically writing them off without reason.

You don’t get to declare what is canon and what isn’t.

 

[Kira Goto]

You don’t get to declare what is canon and what isn’t.

So those dozens of people who themselves said Frontier doesn’t consider most of the original game canon (please show me undeniable proof in any of the Elite games following with Thargoids in them that they are an intergalactic civilization) don’t count for anything?

I’m just not gonna bother if you want to be like that. Sharing a name doesn’t mean sharing the same behavior and I consider FFE to be a much more reliable source of how to judge Thargoids than the 1984 Elite which largely does not appear to be part of the canon any longer.