So, what reasons do we have, as of now, to shoot &/or kill any Thargoids we encounter?

[[VR] Frank_G]

I had at least five encounters with the 'Goids. None of them attacked me, but all of them came and scanned my ship. One was threatening me, but backed off and continued with its doing, when i moved away a few 100 meters. So far i have seen no evidence, the these aliens were firing at human ships first and there is absolutely no reason for me to attack.

Looking forward to get some of the new scanner and limpet equipment today to continue researching and trying to communicate with them.

 

[Drelthar]

2 Million credits.

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

Current reasons: fear - hate - greed - because we can - for da lulz - its in the game - 'cause everything else is boring anyway
Good reasons: -

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Maybe they are simply rescuing them, but yet have no clue where to "return" them? And escape pods are a doodad anyway, because when we die we respawn at station, so what are those? Damaged escape pods or something?

As to the "be afraid" part:

Spoiler

simple look through unencrypted text strings in the beta showed that they are capable of station damage, so yeah, it's probably nefarious.

Also we view them now as kinda dummies, whereas they may be simply AI drones and probes sent ahead in a given task and view us as an interference not worth much further action except when threatening the mission.

Current reasons: fear - hate - greed - because we can - for da lulz - its in the game - 'cause everything else is boring anyway
Good reasons: -

Yeah, what we lack now is some tools to attempt to communicate, scanners, comm attempts etc. TO BALANCE THE AGGRESIVE INTERACTION WAYS ALREADY AVAILABLE.
OR
A propaganda throughout the media channels that the taking of human escape pods is viewed as an act of war and need to be acted upon switftly etc...

 

[Rob At Work]

for the LOLz

 

[Teldja]

As far as I've seen, alls the ones that we encounter do, is scavange, and creepily stare at us. No one has actually seen a Thargoid lay waste to a fleet. We've only seen the flowers be passive, and only resorting to violence when we ignore their warnings to stay away, or if we fire upon them. The only alarming things about the ones we have seen thus far, have been their love of human escape pods, (and we don't know the reasons behind this) and their impenatrable shields, which are now no longer invulnerable. Which just leaves their love of humans. Why are they collecting us? Research? Food? Saving us from something? Are they sadists? Has any Galnet articles come up about escape pods showing up at stations?

Now that we can kill them, we should be asking, "Should we?"

To me, based on the current available informations we have ? None.
We do not know who are the aggressors for sure.
The Thargoids Interceptors do not shoot on sight but only response to provocations.
So, in that scenario we are the aggressor

What if the Thargoids Interceptor are just here to investigate a crime scene ?

 

[Valorin]

The Thargoids we met so far seem to be no more than robotic drones. They seem to be on autopilot and considering that not even taking escape pods can be considered hostile. They make a clear distinction between a body in a box and an active ship, though there's also a human inside. So there is no indicator about their hostility yet, only that they are passive until provoked or interfered with.
Question is: should we let them take escape pods? Hostile by design or not, I guess we shouldn't. Thing is, I guess most pilots attacking them really don't care about other people's lives and some also ejected slaves to see what happens. And those "Xenos must die!" screamers are plain and simple racist, well speciesist in this case (disclaimer: I don't call any player racist here, it's about your persona as a pilot in the game).

 

[Mithos09]

Think about it this way: How would the US react if an unknown tribe somewhere on an island in the southern pacific collected some lifeboats filled with survivors from an American cruise liner?

Side note: Compare the presumable reactions of GalNet and US Media.

 

[Jaylem]

No reason at all....

in this game, we are the heartless monsters going around killing things because they are different

 

[Jmanis]

Well, we can get tissue samples off them using the research probes, and various salvage for each heart you destroy. Presumably there'd be a CG to collect these, but if it's anything like the last three it'll be pointless when you can contribute far more effectively and safely by shipping vanilla market commodities :/

 

[Vasious]

If they are picking up escape pods....all they are doing is playing the BGS...and turning those in for missions and credits.

Messing with the BGS is a reason to kill them

You're right, looks like in the ED universe there is no prime directive for close encounters, and most of the pilots feel like they are in the Wild West.https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lio_sJ9T1MM/hqdefault.jpg

Doesn't þe prime directive prevent þe interference in cultures less advanced then your own?

I'd wager the Thargoids are more advanced

 

[DustyArne]

There is no reason to shoot them if you ask me.

the dozen Thargoids i scanned and observed, left me alone, got a warning or 2, they turn all red are are like: "Back off!!".

But as soon as i took my distance again, they turn green again, and just go about their business. they even left some escape pods for me to pick off after they jumped system.

 

[CMDR MadRaptor]

I for one will not harm one of these Thargoids unless I need to. Peace until my hand is forced. Like stated, we have not seen one outright be aggressive, they get aggressive when they feel like they are in danger when needing to defend themselves. Otherwise they go about their search and head on their way. Not until we get more information should we rush to make enemies so quickly but it looks like that might just be what is happening anyways.

 

[Trafalgar Law]

Hmm. Ships using corrosive weaponry similar to that employed by the Thargoid ships we've seen so far have attacked and destroyed large numbers of human ships from all factions as well as civilian vessels. Furthermore they are actively engaged in harvesting the escape pods from the destroyed ships and become hostile if you attempt to rescue the survivors. These things would seem like a pretty good Cassus Belli to me.

 

[CMDR MadRaptor]

Hmm. Ships using corrosive weaponry similar to that employed by the Thargoid ships we've seen so far have attacked and destroyed large numbers of human ships from all factions as well as civilian vessels. Furthermore they are actively engaged in harvesting the escape pods from the destroyed ships and become hostile if you attempt to rescue the survivors. These things would seem like a pretty good Cassus Belli to me.

But we have no real word on who shot the first shot. After all, this all started after we found their probes and barnacles and started getting in their business....who knows what INRA and the rest have done to them before us independant pilots did.

So until the full story is out we may never know just what happened and until we have actual video proof of Thargoids attacking without provocation then we can't be certain. Yes, being scanned and being found with some of their technology does get them angry and counts as provocation towards them, I'm sure you'd be upset that another mysteries race has a cargo hold full of your technology.

 

[Trafalgar Law]

But we have no real word on who shot the first shot. After all, this all started after we found their probes and barnacles and started getting in their business....who knows what INRA and the rest have done to them before us independant pilots did.

So until the full story is out we may never know just what happened and until we have actual video proof of Thargoids attacking without provocation then we can't be certain. Yes, being scanned and being found with some of their technology does get them angry and counts as provocation towards them, I'm sure you'd be upset that another mysteries race has a cargo hold full of your technology.

At this point who shot first is largely irrelevant as we're clearly already at war. Leave who shot first to the historians, they'll change their minds every 20 years or so anyway.

 

[CMDR MadRaptor]

At this point who shot first is largely irrelevant as we're clearly already at war. Leave who shot first to the historians, they'll change their minds every 20 years or so anyway.

Don't think we are clearly already at war. We have had some encounters yes, but I think we are still a bit away from the real war happening. Again, I'm all for taking action when it's needed but up to this point, it is still very important to who shot first. Hate to start that war and then find out that they were only looking to study us but now they are going to do sometihng else.

 

[PandaBear]

Countless destroyed human ships floating in several by human populated systems, damaged by thargoid weapon systems. Do you call that accidental hugging?
Peaceful aliens should be able to find more inteligent solutions to interact with their neighbourhood.
They dont try to comunicate, else than collecting our pilots nomatter of dead or allive and collecting all alloys they can get.
They dont react on any form of comunication.

i am sill looking for good arguments dont using these rockets.

 

[AnotherVoice]

i am sill looking for good arguments dont using these rockets.

When you meet them in USS, they don't straight out shoot at you, they take the time to scan you and even don't turn instantly hostile on you if you have their stuff in your hold.

I don't believe anything the superpowers are saying. I strongly believe that the current ships we're encountering aren't the real threat, and that they attacked Feds / imp only because they stole their stuff.

 

[Rankaze]

If the Thargoids didn't want to fight, they wouldn't. They are perfectly capable of avoiding action, even avoiding detection. They've been doing both for a long time. The artifacts and probes we've picked up certainly aren't worth fighting over, those are trifles.

They think they have an interest in fighting us, or they'd just go on ignoring/avoiding us.

Also, remember the history. They first met us with blind aggression. If they don't expect to be greeted with distrust and hostility, they aren't as smart as their tech suggests.

If they wanted peace, they'd be trying to establish peaceful contact.