Just like the last "engineer to use Guardian Weapons" idea, if more was suggested, I'd do exactly the same as the last, nothing at all.
This, in a nutshell, not "go do X, Y, Z & 0 to improve something which will help in the war" is crazy...
GALNET - Thargoid Titan Wreckage ‘Could Accelerate Multiple Scientific Fields’ - 16 OCT 3310
- Thread starter Aleks Zuno
- Start date
Remember that CG where it was revealed that 'goids couldn't detect cold ships and we were required to go find herds of 'goids, sneak up on them and gather tissue samples?
If memory serves, it was a CG that went wrong in some way and got cancelled.
That was a fun CG.
I had to build a suitable ship and then go and do something new to accomplish the objective.
Fighting 'goids is fine, I guess, but ultimately any pew-pew is just the same game-loop as when you first upgrade your Sidewinder so it won't get destroyed by all the scary Adders and Eagles that you might encounter.
I'd be much more interested in engaging in the whole Thargoid thing if it was a war being fought on multiple fronts, with a need to steal stuff, sabotage stuff, deliver supplies, collect intelligence, search for stuff or any one of a dozen other things that aren't just blasting away at something until it goes boom.
You mean like the Spire sabotage missions, the AX restoration missions, the refugee evacuation missions or the invasion supply missions?
Honestly, I dunno. I haven't been playing ED for the last couple of years.
I do know, however, that when I look at the list of available modules at ShinDez, it's exactly(?) the same as it was 2 years ago... except for the new AX weapons.
As I said, I'd prefer it if FDev came up with new modules to create new gameplay rather than just giving us new stuff to do the same thing with.
Strange, it seems I have performed all of these activities (and more) in the thargoid war.
You really feel a need to comment on something you haven't even tried playing?
Probably in preparation for our upcoming invasion of the COL 70 Sector area.
Not exactly certain why, but when I saw the professors first name I could not help but thinking of his statement with a thick Irish accent. Think of the Chief O'Hara character from the 1960s Batman series.
I almost expected to hear "Saints preserve us" somewhere in there.
Confirmed: Next iteration of Elite will be "Great Depression." Expect to see the leaders of each of the great powers out there panhandling with the rest of us.
The leaders will be just fine, while their bodyguards hold out, we will be moaning about how many months it takes to raise enough money to get from a Sidewinder to an Eagle.
Those in Imperial space will be trying desperately to have enough money to avoid being indentured.
I'd far prefer it if they came up with a few more uses for existing modules than adding yet another bunch of single-purpose modules which you either have on your ship or you can't do the thing.
But, again, the Thargoid War sounds your sort of thing if you like it that way:
- there's the new module to stop the Thargoids melting your ship with the caustic environments they generate
- there's the new module to let you get through the Titan's repulsor shield
- there's the new module to rescue prisoners from the Titan
- there's the new module to expose the Titan's core to damage
Four different new modules each for some gameplay or environment that wasn't previously in the game and didn't particularly have much similar to it either.
(Plus an actual use for the ECM module, which sure, was in the game earlier but no-one had found a reason to fit them)
So far as your specific suggestions ... it basically has all of them as gameplay mechanics
It covered about 1200 star systems at its peak, each of which had its own independent progress bar, and varying strategic value to the war as a whole, split across eight major geographic areas. Still over 150 this week near the "end" of the war when it's (mostly) down to a single one of those areas.
Stealing (back) captives from the Thargoids gives substantial progress to multiple systems at once
Sabotage of Spire sites is probably the most effective single action (i.e. 1 sabotage > 1 anything else) for reducing the Thargoid's ability to hold their Control systems, and it's not even close. (On a time-efficiency basis it's a bit more balanced with other things)
A major part of the defence of the Alert and Invasion systems; also can be used to accelerate the repair of recaptured systems. Evacuation of injured personnel in the other direction is also important.
By a mechanism which isn't entirely clear narratively, dismantling a Thargoid into samples with research limpets and returning those samples to an appropriate contact is one of the more effective ways to clear uninhabited Control systems of Thargoids. Certainly more so than shooting the Thargoid and going home would be.
More general search and rescue activities in Thargoid-affected systems do move the progress bar (there's probably more efficient ways to do it, but it's usable)
That also works and a lot of people seem to like it, but it's often not the most efficient way to defend/recapture a system - though there are quite a few new types of Thargoid combat encounter too for people who do want to shoot different things.
You quoted the first line of my post so I assume you read the rest of it?
To be fair, if FDev have managed to come up with new things to do, using existing modules, that's great news.
There's no way that anybody can deny that the overwhelming majority of newly-introduced assets, resulting from the Thargoid war, have been weapons that don't actually add any new gameplay, though.
That's because some of the new modules are only available on rescue megaships. Like caustic sink launchers and pulse neutralisers, for example, which you'll need to access the maelstroms. I consider the whole maelstrom stuff "new gameplay", even if some of it is still pew-pew. Pew-pewing a Titan is quite different from standard combat.
I highlighted this part of your reply just to point out that I was talking about strategic fronts rather than geographical ones.
In general, the vast majority of the stuff you're talking about involves pew-pew and then picking up stuff afterwards.
I wouldn't really class that as new gameplay.
I take your point about coming up with genuinely new things to do with existing modules and I'm all for that.
I just wish that FDev could come up with more genuinely diverse gameplay - stuff that forced us to build new ships, figure out new tactics and complete different tasks.
Coming back to the original topic, I get that SCO drives are probably really a QoL feature, disguised as a 'goid derived item, so that's fair enough but I hope that future modules aren't just limited to "slightly better versions of something we already have".
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That IS a fair point.
As I've said, I just wish FDev had put a bit more effort into coming up with a broader range of ways that a player could engage with the 'goid war though.
It's not that I'm averse to pew-pew (combat Elite on two accounts) but I just prefer doing sneaky stuff in games so blasting away at Titans isn't really for me and I'd prefer it if FDev came up with ideas that encouraged more diverse activities.
I'm not entirely sure that I see the distinction - the varying strategic value of systems was to a large extent led by the geography, and that applied both within and between the eight Titans. A system was a strategically-important bottleneck, or a useful staging point for further counter-attacks, because of its position relative to the others around that Titan.
Again, rescuing people from Titans sounds like it fits? You're using a (new) hardpoint-fitted module as part of the rescue which reduces (or eliminates, depending on how many you bring) your ability to shoot back, and it generally goes a lot smoother if you don't get spotted by the patrolling ships while you do it because they'll either attack you or steal the pods back or both, so most rescue ships won't be set up to do more than run away and hide / take what they've got and flee if they do, and run as cold as possible. You're not going to damage the Titan itself as part of the rescue and pretty much anywhere else you could be fighting Thargoid interceptors/hunters/scouts would be more productive so direct combat generally isn't part of the plan.
Guess you missed all this;
We have had stuff that forced us to build new or rebuild old ships for years so nothing new there. Odyssey and the Thargoid war have given us new tasks and tactics to complete them.
What new things do you want to do in a game whose core is flying armed starships to keep ourselves in the funds and resources needed to keep flying those starships?
In use the SCO drive is more than just a QoL that lets you travel a bit faster it is something that removes or at least reworks all the AFK stuff people would try and get away with rather than flying their ship in cruise. Slightly better than something we all ready have is a little derogatory, and most of human progress has been about getting that.
You really should try a few of these things as the experience is often better than reading about it here or watching it on the tube.
And the complete devaluation of the credit, our billions will become worthless!
Yes, and it makes no sense..
There have been plenty of new modules, in fact IMO there have been far too many modules (and some new engineering). Not sure if you get all of them at SD though, as I normally don't shop there.
I'd imagine that you'd have a better idea about what actually goes on in the game if you actually played it..
