OMG - Thargoid Cinematic was ACE!

[NecoMachina]

Cinematic was great. But if they want me to be "hyped", I need to see some rock-solid gameplay with some meat on it first. Something more than re-skinned conflict zones. How about some of that "more ways to interact with them besides shooting at them" you guys promised us? Ya, that'd get me hyped.

 

[SAB380]

Peace through superior fire power and firing first!

 

[kofeyh]

GG forced thargoid war, and here I was looking forward to players making the decisions.

You assume there was ever a choice that we'd have conflict at all? The developer has been very clear this was coming. Since kickstarter, actually. Also there is choice; don't get close, don't shoot - be ignored. Get to close, there's a warning. Ignore the warning? Pay the price.

Seems entirely reasonable, and opens a lot of options, including a lack of hostilities. There is also new (defensive) trade ship coming. There are a lot of signals in that clip, even if it is mostly a cinematic.

We will get to make a ton of decisions. But whether or not the other significant species will roll over and play dead, is not one of them. We never had that right to expect, to begin with. They are apparently quite prepared to not only defend, but go on the offensive as needs arise.

That does not, by any means, make combat the only solution, in return. But it does suggest the flower people were never going to be defenseless. Give Frontier at least some credit.

--

Any species capable of making it to the top of the food chain, sustain that, cross the not-insignificant barrier that is get to space, then the massively not-insignificant barrier that is space travel, is going to have cross many hurdles; not all of them pleasant ones.

 

[Manticore]

Mm, those innocent flower tourists then proceeded to send the perpetrators a very polite message in the form of more missiles/ combat probes than I could count; which were ignoring shields. It didn't seem to be working out for the wing + multi-crew wing. So, there's that. The trailer also shows something rather important; keep your distance and things do not automatically turn very real.

If this is a 'poke the bear' mechanic, then it's probably the best we can hope for from Frontier; allows for teeth, but not always, so there are alternative ways to continue in Elite.

Retaliation much? As far as the cinematic goes humans fired first.

Evacuation shelters surely?

Perhaps. My escape pod may be occupied....

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

As I figured, the AEGIS group is nothing more than a group to eradicate thargoids, zero actual research into them or attempts at communication "Oh hey we have new tech to suppress their pulse.... LETS FIRE NEW MISSILES AT THEM!". GG forced thargoid war, and here I was looking forward to players making the decisions.

AEGIS is INRA evolved methinks.

I do believe that the player base basically sealed their own coffins when it came to interaction with anything Alien...and you were played by your own greed. It's like "oh, I need that thargoid resistant cargo bay"...oh dear, wholesale slaughter of their mini me's which probably didn't upset them at all....much. This isn't to mention the kidnapping of their Artifacts, which many humans sold for their own profits or to disrupt other humans activities, forcing them to survive in what would be an Alien environment to them.
This also isn't to mention those who experienced the interdictions...plenty of evidence to suggest that shooting them was the fun thing to do...
They weren't even aggressive when you were powerless yet you kept on having a go at them until they got mad.
Now, you only have yourselves to blame.

I liked the cinematic, I see it as a culmination of the first contacts scenario and I'm not surprised how it worked out. I think it's a fair representation of humanity, as a whole, and how they would react to any alien threat.

 

[TartanDragon]

Retaliation much? As far as the cinematic goes humans fired first.

Don't let Lucas near it then.

 

[kofeyh]

Retaliation much? As far as the cinematic goes humans fired first.

Perhaps. My escape pod may be occupied....

Sure. We shot. They shot back. This indicates they don't take kindly to being shot at. Which means they are at most, ambivalent. So if we're just doing our thing, nowhere near the hot zones, then apparently life will go on as normal. But if we elect to get involved, we can. How that plays out? Is still 100% up to each commander.

It's just if you poke the bear, it might remove some limbs. That's not the actions of a peaceful, unarmed species only interested in trade 100% of the time. Pretending this is "our" fault (as if commanders shooting at a few things ostensibly changes the developer's course) for why the other species can't just be nice and polite and trade 100% of the time is a popular one, but we're not setting the pace.

The developer is. A good story teller, will give people the illusion that something is their choice; even when it never was. It appears Frontier has sowed the seeds, all the same.

 

[Faybs]

You assume there was ever a choice that we'd have conflict at all? The developer has been very clear this was coming. Since kickstarter, actually. Also there is choice; don't get close, don't shoot - be ignored. Get to close, there's a warning. Ignore the warning? Pay the price.

Yeah, that's the biggest thing I got from the trailer, and I hope it's not just wishful thinking: thargoid reaction to humans is proportional to the threat they pose. Get too close and you get a (harmless) reboot sequence, open fire with something that hurts and you get a few dozen thargons. If that really is the design, I applaud FDev for giving all kinds of players a way to interact with thargoids; traders and explorers get a cool weird encounter, and the pew pew contingent get a new kind of enemy.

 

[SAB380]

Its time to bring freedom and democracy to the Thargoids.

 

[Captain Willard]

THAT'S the elite I've been waiting for. The one who thumped me many times from the 80's on. Ready to be thumped many times again and in the end see. [Who is the Master of Orion]

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Yeah, that's the biggest thing I got from the trailer, and I hope it's not just wishful thinking: thargoid reaction to humans is proportional to the threat they pose. Get too close and you get a (harmless) reboot sequence, open fire with something that hurts and you get a few dozen thargons. If that really is the design, I applaud FDev for giving all kinds of players a way to interact with thargoids; traders and explorers get a cool weird encounter, and the pew pew contingent get a new kind of enemy.

My concern is then this will feel a little underwhelming in terms of conflict. On the one hand, you have CMDR's fighting tooth and nail to repel the Thargoids but on the other, you have some traders/bounty hunters/pirate/whatevers just pootling along doing their own thing like there isn't an extremely powerful and highly advanced civilisation trying to push their way into the apartment.

 

[Faybs]

My concern is then this will feel a little underwhelming in terms of conflict. On the one hand, you have CMDR's fighting tooth and nail to repel the Thargoids but on the other, you have some traders/bounty hunters/pirate/whatevers just pootling along doing their own thing like there isn't an extremely powerful and highly advanced civilisation trying to push their way into the apartment.

Someone posted a Babylon 5 clip where someone was explaining how these super powerful aliens relate to other species, basically as we would relate to ants. We share the world with all sorts of bugs, if you see one you usually ignore it or avoid it, but if it becomes aggressive you actively try to kill it. I remember an old video where David Braben said that they wanted to make Thargoids be truly alien, not just some guy in a suit. By giving them aloof attitudes and an inscrutable purpose you get to achieve a lot of that.

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

AEGIS is INRA evolved methinks.

I do believe that the player base basically sealed their own coffins when it came to interaction with anything Alien...and you were played by your own greed. It's like "oh, I need that thargoid resistant cargo bay"...oh dear, wholesale slaughter of their mini me's which probably didn't upset them at all....much. This isn't to mention the kidnapping of their Artifacts, which many humans sold for their own profits or to disrupt other humans activities, forcing them to survive in what would be an Alien environment to them.
This also isn't to mention those who experienced the interdictions...plenty of evidence to suggest that shooting them was the fun thing to do...
They weren't even aggressive when you were powerless yet you kept on having a go at them until they got mad.
Now, you only have yourselves to blame.

I liked the cinematic, I see it as a culmination of the first contacts scenario and I'm not surprised how it worked out. I think it's a fair representation of humanity, as a whole, and how they would react to any alien threat.

I just hope we get some form of translator so we can see if they are even saying anything to us. Like if we drop into a signal source and see an AEGIS wing fighting Thargoids, and instead we blow up AEGIS ships and leave the Thargoids unharmed, maybe some form of communication, instead of allying with the human factions that are to be honest.... boring... we can if we protect enough Thargoids maybe get some sort of trust thing going or experimental tech from them to help aid them more. Would be nice to have some true choice.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Someone posted a Babylon 5 clip where someone was explaining how these super powerful aliens relate to other species, basically as we would relate to ants. We share the world with all sorts of bugs, if you see one you usually ignore it or avoid it, but if it becomes aggressive you actively try to kill it. I remember an old video where David Braben said that they wanted to make Thargoids be truly alien, not just some guy in a suit. By giving them aloof attitudes and an inscrutable purpose you get to achieve a lot of that.

Fair point; it assuages some of my concern.
Interested to see how the story plays out and how it affects us.

 

[kofeyh]

I just hope we get some form of translator so we can see if they are even saying anything to us. Like if we drop into a signal source and see an AEGIS wing fighting Thargoids, and instead we blow up AEGIS ships and leave the Thargoids unharmed, maybe some form of communication, instead of allying with the human factions that are to be honest.... boring... we can if we protect enough Thargoids maybe get some sort of trust thing going or experimental tech from them to help aid them more. Would be nice to have some true choice.

So shooting at aliens bad, shooting at fellow commanders, who are shooting at aliens is good, because shooting at aliens is bad. I can't imagine AI will be; well, they could, but they aren't going to survive at all given the huge difference in capability?

There's quite a lot to unpack in that statement, though. Not to suggest it's an invalid choice. But this is also called aiding and abetting the enemy. Good luck with that; it was stamped out in powerplay, despite being exactly what you describe. Apparently, no-one likes a fifth column; even if it's pretty much a valid action. Oh I'm sure it'll happen. Until it's inconvenient. Your fellow commanders are exceedingly fickle over such things.

There's a reason the factions have become boring. It's what the player base (with the most sway at Frontier) wanted.

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

So shooting at aliens bad, shooting at fellow commanders who are shooting at aliens is good, because shooting at aliens is bad. There's quite a lot to unpack in that. Not to suggest it's an invalid choice. This is also called aiding and abetting the enemy. Good luck with that; it was stamped out in powerplay, despite being exactly what you describe.

Apparently, no-one likes a fifth column. Oh I'm sure it'll happen. Until it's inconvenient. Your fellow commanders are exceedingly fickle over such things.

I just wanna worship our bug overlords and support them! Death to the filthy humans!

 

[Faybs]

Fair point; it assuages some of my concern.
Interested to see how the story plays out and how it affects us.

Yes. Given that we know there are two different kinds of Thargoid at odds with each other, plus a few human organizations with big goals and loose ethics (see the lost logs), I'm hoping that there's going to be a lot of interesting intrigue, false flags and general messing with people's heads.

 

[Cheapchips]

Love the new cinematic. Looking forward to more of these. GJ Frontier.

 

[kofeyh]

Yes. Given that we know there are two different kinds of Thargoid at odds with each other, plus a few human organizations with big goals and loose ethics (see the lost logs), I'm hoping that there's going to be a lot of interesting intrigue, false flags and general messing with people's heads.

I do hope so. Game is at risk of atrophy because there's no real reason to do anything, even though there is much to do. This might kick off a bit more reasons for doing, lots of red hearings and messing with people.

I just wanna worship our bug overlords and support them! Death to the filthy humans!

lol, one hopes the flower people embrace your desire, and don't consider you some sort of two legged speed bump. Best of luck!

 

[Toumal]

Always those PvT gankers!