Thargoid invasion - Next target systems?

Two hearts down.

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source: https://dcoh.watch/system/10477373803
 
Well, I find myself deploring the absence of any station conflicts outside Sol right now. Kind of despise the gauss cannons and even more so for my FDL when it just refuses to stop spiking to near 30 heat when firing two gauss at once, unless I were to engineer it with a weapon focused distributor (which I do not want to do due to the other obvious drawbacks this comes with).

You can imagine this is kind of a problem when facing a Medusa, or attempting to perform the self-imposed torture of soloing a triple Hydra spawn with the ship. Did we have to go so overzealous on the invasion and control clearance?
 
As a little note for making eligible as many Commanders as possible for the Goal reward, it seems Multi-crew damage on the Core is also counted for the Commander in the crew seat. I have not tried it with a Fighter hangar, but very successfully I have brought some Turret-mount AX missiles for the Gunner role to use!

It works best with:
  • Drop at the Titan first before sending a Multi-crew invite.
  • Start with a quick check of the missiles, that the crew seat knows how to take Gunner, change Mode to the outside view, use missiles, and leave Gunner again.
  • Stay out of Gunner during a Heat vents circuit, so the helm has use of Nanites. Note that the helm can set Limited hardpoints access to retain control of utility modules.
  • Take Gunner on the Core approach, attack the Core, then leave Gunner when it retracts.
Many people with second Commanders, out exploring around the Galaxy or otherwise disengaged from making a Titan vessel now have progress visible in Transactions! The sign-up is automatic if one attacks the Core, even in Multi-crew.
 
I'd been doing the same evacs from Mars yesterday evening. All worked fine until I got to Lyutens drop-off rescue ship. The only problem is people pad-hogging. After a 20-minute wait I dropped to solo and had no delay issues. BTW, no ganking issues at the rescue ship, just didn't want to wait for 20-30 minutes.

You would think FD would have made them more like a fleet carrier but with all full-size landing pads. But that's just me. :unsure:
The rescue ships having only one large pad has only been a PITA for us for 7 years, not long enough for it to get fixed :)
 
Consider me the control subject for this experiment. (Can a schlub survive this?)

Got interdicted four times on the way. Able to boost away with no trouble. It's that cloud, and the pulse, that will trip up ships that are not prepared.
 
Hopefully those people also contribute more for each heart and not just show up to hit it once and then wait for the CG to finish to claim their rewards. It’ll be a long crawl if they don’t.
That’s right: 2200 cmdrs 12-13 Dec and now 14 Dec 280 cmdrs
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Of course, I got killed.

Didn't hit the field neutralizer fast enough. Anyway, my hull was under 30%, and I hadn't gotten out of the cloud yet.
Are you using the Caustic Sink Utility, and have you equipped the correct Thargoid Pulse Neutraliser utility (NOT the older Shutdown Field Neutraliser utility)? You'll be able to buy them from the Rescue Megaship Hutner tagged with the Community Goal star in the map. Heatsinks are a big help too, as the minefield responds to heat, as does the Titan itself.

There is indeed a bit of practise involved in getting through the cloud without any issues, but the DBX is a decent little ship for AX work and if you're down to 30% hull before getting through the cloud then there might be something you're just missing as far as important steps go.
 
Completed at 06:45 17th December 3310

Titan progress thus far, along with the finished T. Raijin graph I forgot to make earlier, and time-scaled previous Titans for comparison:

Cocijo.png

Raijin.png
Thor.png
Indra.png
Hadad.png
Oya.png
Leigong.png
Taranis.png

Mind that T. Taranis started mid-week and finished on the following Friday! All others are such that the first Day begins at 07:00 on Thursday.
 

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Titan progress thus far, along with the finished T. Raijin graph I forgot to make earlier, and time-scaled previous Titans for comparison:
Seems to be matching Raijin pretty well for pace so, apart from us being able to see the mechanism by which they balance the scale this time, it's all going to plan on FDevs side. Problem is, Raijin was the Titan I engaged with least, because I found the pace to be too slow.

With some of the earlier Titans I felt like I was racing to try and get damage in before hearts would expire, but now I've done twice the trips to the Titan and twice the damage I used to do (roughly 4 times the effort), thanks to hours of practise at Maelstroms and lovely AGF Shards, but now the heart is barely moving. I know it isn't the case, but from my perspective it feels like you guys are all sitting on you hands doing nothing while others do all the work.

This is especially frustrating given that we see so many extra players are trying to contribute, but I am in favour of everyone having time to participate I just don't like FDev's solution. I think the best solution to slow down Titan progress would have been to increase the Thargoid Patrols in the Maelstrom to the maximum from Heart 1. That would still have allowed players to get in and score a hit to count against the CG, but made it more challenging for those that wanted to do repeated runs in the same instance to pile on that Core damage.
 
I think the best solution to slow down Titan progress would have been to increase the Thargoid Patrols in the Maelstrom to the maximum from Heart 1. That would still have allowed players to get in and score a hit to count against the CG, but made it more challenging for those that wanted to do repeated runs in the same instance to pile on that Core damage.
That was already happening for me last night. Even in Solo, after a couple of runs, it was almost impossible to get near the Titan again without being spotted and harassed by Scouts, so I don't think that needs to be any more hassle than it is already.
 
People have already been complaining about bad lag in Titan instances due to the number of Scouts present, and there was a patch which reduced how many Thargoids could be spawned into one already as they would reach game-crashing numbers prior to said patch. (But some of that might also be just dozens of people showing up as bombers and nobody wants to cover the role of escort to thin out the Scout swarms.)

And as this Titan engagement system is a relatively “simple” one rather than fighting the Titan over several stages (eg when thermal core is crippled instead sections of the hull open up to vent heat become vulnerable, and can be shot instead, as another basic idea) so there aren’t really many ways besides adding hitpoints to lengthen the battle. One I could think of is making the higher tier interceptors - Medusa and Hydra - more likely to appear and not just leave when they’re not getting bothered despite the Titan being attacked.
 
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