They turn so quickly both in terms of the angular speed they can reach and how fast they accelerate to and decelerate from it. It looks as if they move with little regard to mass or inertia, so I am wondering is this intentional they behave like that? These things are larger than our largest (playable) ships yet seem to turn like a Vulture...
Is it intentional that the Thargoid ships turn as if they had no mass or inertia
- Thread starter Mephane
- Start date
They seem to have some timespace changing tech (see distortion of light near Thargoids ship) while staying in real space. Technology way beyond anything humanity will be capable of most likely.
Apparently they did have inertialess drive technology in previous game(s). I think I read that on Drew Wagar's lore site.
I suspect it's more space distortion tech than gravity. Tractor beam is like wiggling a cloth to get something slide towards you. And the inertia is overcome by rotating space more than the ship.
They aren't human, buddy, they don't use the same propulsion. They're alien. Doing alien things, in alien ships, of alien (and unknown) capability. Welcome to no-longer being at the top of the food chain.
"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave." -- Roy Batty, Bladerunner.
They are are practically born into space.
It's like questioning why a fish can move better than a human in water
This is a very relevant thing; thargoids essentially swim, in space. They are naturally attuned to space, we, mere oxygen-sucking, perambulating, bi-pedal water-bags, are not. That does given them a bit of an advantage, really. Shall be most interesting as things develop. I am excite.
Reminds me of the Liir in Sword of the Stars 1 and 2, except gravity wells don't seem to slow them down.
If I were to hazard an educated guess, I'd say the tech's not even more advanced in basic concept, it's just a more refined and efficient iteration of the same tech we use for superluminal travel. It would be rather wasteful for our ships to use their alcubierre drives to move around at combat speeds, considering the energy requirements and mass interference we'd have to deal with. The Thargoids clearly have no such issues and can bend spacetime to their will, allowing them to forego the need for conventional thrusters, as well as likely offering additional protection against human weaponry. I'd imagine a bullet passing through a warp field probably won't come out the other side looking the same as it went in.
Exactly. Our thruster tech is capable of much more, only with the unfortunate side effect of turning the pilot into pink goo.
They are are practically born into space.
It's like questioning why a fish can move better than a human in water
To be fair though, the larger a sea creature is the slower it turns about.
I agree that the way the thargoids move looks ridiculous and just plain wrong, that stays true even if explained through advanced space mag....technology that is "beyond our understanding".
Its the reason Star Citizen, while trying to be kind of hard-ish scifi, fails so horribly with its flightmodel as every ship acts as a toy ship at the end of a stick...
Does depend on Mass though, so creature can be big .. but depending what it's made of .. doesn't need also to be heavy. Haven't seen a Thargoid yet myself though aim is to start rescuing escape pods from them asap.
Thats because they’re moving in a medium (water) these things don’t have anything to push against when turning, they only have to deal with their own inertia.