I am a conscientious objector of the Aegis provocation

[Straker]

From an external gamer perspective, a lot of people wanted a challenge and something to shoot at and it appears that the Thargoids are fulfilling this desire. From my internal role-playing perspective this appears to be an Aegis-Thargoid war and thus leaves me feeling a little motivationally conflicted.

I thank Frontier that the Thargoids currently appear not to be the typical Hollywood evil-villain trope, where culturally designated 'good guy' meets culturally designated 'bad guy' and proceed to fight the culturally designated 'good fight'. The Thargoids currently exhibit a more complex behaviour in that they only appear to attack when provoked (as they designate provocation), have only attacked the stations from the provoking organisation (Aegis) and they also appear to be searching for something.

This indicates things are not as black and white as it might appear and puts me in a difficult position because as an external gamer I see all this content being added to the game with provocation in mind yet I still see no real reason why, from a role-play perspective, I shouldn't see Aegis as the real threat. Sure, it's early days as far as the Thargoids true intentions but at the moment I'm not sure I want to participate in the Aegis provocation.

So, from a gamer's perspective, this leaves me out of a great deal of new content. However, I have participated in the evacuation of people from the attacked stations, as it appears to be a Pilots Federation humanitarian mission.

I have more questions than answers. I wonder what Frontier have in mind? I guess I will continue to feel motivationally conflicted for a while longer and will continue to be a conscientious objector of the Aegis provocation.

I don't want all answers handed to me on a plate at once but I would like to see more revealed about intentions and motivations of lore-based characters, organisations and non-human life. For me personally, this is the true 'narrative' as I want to learn more about in-game actors.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

AEGIS, or at least a faction within them, is up to something and are not what they claim to be. Going to quote myself here:

AEGIS is up to something, and it's not what they claim. They are interdicting ships in supercruise in the systems that are calling for aid. Been interdicted multiple times by them. Last time, I submitted, and the Viper just flew off, no scan or anything.

Also, I just visited Communication Hub Zeta 12 again (https://canonn.science/codex/communication-hub-zeta-12/) and the ships that pop in there and attack you are... yep, AEGIS.

AEGIS were officially formed on Aug 4th, 3303, but that Canonn article is dated July 19th.

AEGIS has around for a while. The weren't formed recently, they just came out of the shadows.

 

[Straker]

Interesting points CMDR Corlas!

Aegis are definitely off my Christmas Card list.

 

[TOM USMC]

Yup, not really sure what the deal is, but right now the only thing being supported is developing things to shoot them.

I'm not there, but as of right now I can't fault anyone who decides to not engage in the fight. I'm not saying I won't fight, because I will if there is a reason, but it will be awfully bad if the reason has to be because we shot first and didn't ask questions at all.

 

[Mrat13]

I still need to use some of their equipment, if I wish to study our new neighbours.

Sometimes you have to do things considered 'unethical', in the name of research.

 

[TOM USMC]

I still need to use some of their equipment, if I wish to study our new neighbours.

Sometimes you have to do things considered 'unethical', in the name of research.

Hmmmm. Actually, you never have to do anything ethical or unethical. Everything you do is a choice. We as a species make moral eqivilances and trash everything around us all in the name of "The Greater Good".

It is all rationalizing, minimizing, and justification standing in for a lack of conviction, belief and back bone.

It's as if you think that if we let one street performer outside our shops that overnight, we will be up to our armpits with crusty jugglers.

 

[Le-Betz]

'Know yourself and your enemy' - Sun Tsu

We still have very little idea of what we are up against here. If there is something we really know, than only that we don't know anything.

I tried to learn more about them by dropping into Non Human Signal Sources, had countless encounters with cyclops ships of every known variant, visited about a dozen of their ground sites and was hyperdicted by them on numerous occasions and I must admit that there is still so very little I really understand about them.

However if there is one thing I understand for sure it's the fact that I was never attacked by them without reason (unlike some human CMDRs). It might happen that at first I have no idea what that reason is, but then again I look at my video recordings and I always find something that I did wrong. Some say they are aggressive enemies of mankind, but I feel that hard to belief, because that is definitly not what I've seen. If treated with respect (simply: don't come to close!) they won't harm you.

Something else of the few lessons I was able to learn: Thargoids never attack without a clear warning beforehand (their lights turning red). Now they attacked these stations controlled by AEGIS and it's not difficult to understand that as a warning: DO NOT COME TO CLOSE!!!

But of course it is also easy to predict what's coming next: our side is not going to listen and / or will not try to understand, there will be lots of CMDRs who won't stop attacking them, just because they can and certainly the next message by the Thargoids will be sent in a much louder voice.

This is how wars begin.*

I think the next ship I buy will be named 'Cassandra's Prophecy'.

EDIT:
*Trust me, I know what I am talking about, I am german.

 

[Maka Gucci]

I definitely don't trust Aegis.

I ain't saying roll over, but I'm not ready to write off peace with our new friends.

Spoiler

 

[Le-Betz]

I definitely don't trust Aegis.

I ain't saying roll over, but I'm not ready to write off peace with our new friends.

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/F6aYlPd.jpg

Peace, Bro.

 

[Iskariot]

From an external gamer perspective, a lot of people wanted a challenge and something to shoot at and it appears that the Thargoids are fulfilling this desire. From my internal role-playing perspective this appears to be an Aegis-Thargoid war and thus leaves me feeling a little motivationally conflicted.

I thank Frontier that the Thargoids currently appear not to be the typical Hollywood evil-villain trope, where culturally designated 'good guy' meets culturally designated 'bad guy' and proceed to fight the culturally designated 'good fight'. The Thargoids currently exhibit a more complex behaviour in that they only appear to attack when provoked (as they designate provocation), have only attacked the stations from the provoking organisation (Aegis) and they also appear to be searching for something.

This indicates things are not as black and white as it might appear and puts me in a difficult position because as an external gamer I see all this content being added to the game with provocation in mind yet I still see no real reason why, from a role-play perspective, I shouldn't see Aegis as the real threat. Sure, it's early days as far as the Thargoids true intentions but at the moment I'm not sure I want to participate in the Aegis provocation.

So, from a gamer's perspective, this leaves me out of a great deal of new content. However, I have participated in the evacuation of people from the attacked stations, as it appears to be a Pilots Federation humanitarian mission.

I have more questions than answers. I wonder what Frontier have in mind? I guess I will continue to feel motivationally conflicted for a while longer and will continue to be a conscientious objector of the Aegis provocation.

I don't want all answers handed to me on a plate at once but I would like to see more revealed about intentions and motivations of lore-based characters, organisations and non-human life. For me personally, this is the true 'narrative' as I want to learn more about in-game actors.

I feel the same and I think that is not a bad thing. I like it when a game makes me feel conflicted, because I think that makes it feel like a real life situation.

I strongly believe these particular Thargoids are not the real enemy.
Even the Medusas do not attack on sight, but only respond to provocations.
Aegis, as an organization, clearly behaves as an enemy to the Thargoids and now they finally responded.
This to me is not an act of war, but an act of self defense and it also shows that the Thargoids understand a bit about human organization, because they obviously knew which stations are Aegis threats.

I am still waiting for the real enemy to show itself. I believe these Thargoids are the Oresrians and I think the real enemy are the Klaxian.

 

[Straker]

Great comments everyone. Good to know that others feel the same.

I like it when a game makes me feel conflicted, because I think that makes it feel like a real life situation.

Yes, this is great! I love it when you feel two or more conflicting emotions at once. I don't enjoy quick moral reactive decisions, I like having to reappraise my feelings based on new facts or different points of view.

Behaviour is a result of a biological condition. It seems to me that so often we disassociate our minds from our biology as if our brains and bodies were separate entities along for the ride. Instead our brains and our bodies are one biological organism that is the direct result of the unique interactions of our genetics and environments. I can't help but wonder about all the diverse and multifaceted conditions that might give rise to an alien biology and therefore how extremely different their behaviour might be from ours, based on their unique soup of genetics and environment. I remember watching a video with David Braben acknowledging how different an alien species could be, so it gives me hope that Frontier have something fascinating up their sleeves.

I get the feeling that Aegis has much to withold and the Thargoids have much to tell.

 

[Goose4291]

I don't know what's worse. The Xeno-apologists, their looking down on players in a manner akin to the way PvE purists look down on those who PvP that we've had for the past three years or those that believe we're not on a railroaded storyline despite all the prior evidence that proves to the contrary.

 

[TOM USMC]

I don't know what's worse. The Xeno-apologists, their looking down on players in a manner akin to the way PvE purists look down on those who PvP that we've had for the past three years or those that believe we're not on a railroaded storyline despite all the prior evidence that proves to the contrary.

Lol xeno-apologist? Maybe I missed something while I have been in the dark reaches of space. What have the xeno's done that would require an apology from someone?

Yes the story is canned.

 

[Goose4291]

Lol xeno-apologist? Maybe I missed something while I have been in the dark reaches of space. What have the xeno's done that would require an apology from someone?

Yes the story is canned.

Xenos attack fed taskgroup
"Oh, we dont know what happened, maybe they were defending themselves"

Xenos abduct escape pods and we know from loresources that thargoids enjoy a bit of living dissection of humans
"Oh, we dont know what theyre doing with the pods"

Xenos attack and wreck three stations, killing untold thousands.
"It was only a measured response"

*story advances down towards its inevitable war conclusion*
"This is all the fault of slack jawed (insert american insult here) trigger happy gweefers with reallife psychological issues"

 

[TOM USMC]

Xenos attack fed taskgroup
"Oh, we dont know what happened, maybe they were defending themselves"

Xenos abduct escape pods and we know from loresources that thargoids enjoy a bit of living dissection of humans
"Oh, we dont know what theyre doing with the pods"

Xenos attack and wreck three stations, killing untold thousands.
"It was only a measured response"

*story advances down towards its inevitable war conclusion*
"This is all the fault of slack jawed (insert american insult here) trigger happy gweefers with reallife psychological issues"

Your string of events, that I'm assuming have been provided as justification of a hostile response, do not take into account humanities long abuse of alien artifacts, and probes. None of what you listed here happened before people had been rampantly abusing their stuff to begin with.

So, while I agree there can be a certain amount of judgment leveled at hostile people, that is not my intent. I am not a "Space Hippie". I will fight when appropriate, necessary, and with a savage ferocity. It is sad to me that no one on the war side seems to remember this hostility was instigated by us.

 

[Goose4291]

Your string of events, that I'm assuming have been provided as justification of a hostile response, do not take into account humanities long abuse of alien artifacts, and probes. None of what you listed here happened before people had been rampantly abusing their stuff to begin with.

So, while I agree there can be a certain amount of judgment leveled at hostile people, that is not my intent. I am not a "Space Hippie". I will fight when appropriate, necessary, and with a savage ferocity. It is sad to me that no one on the war side seems to remember this hostility was instigated by us.

.... which also conveniently overlooks we've been at war with the Thargoids since the first Elite, a war which they started and we were losing till INRA heroically saved us all.

I've always been of the opinion that since they were stopped by the Mycoid virus, they've been licking their wounds waiting to strike. Now we've 'provoked' them by finding them, it was only a matter.of time before they resumed their plans of annihilating humanity.

We need to mouth shot, double tap each one of 'em just to be sure.

 

[TOM USMC]

.... which also conveniently overlooks we've been at war with the Thargoids since the first Elite, a war which they started and we were losing till INRA heroically saved us all.

I've always been of the opinion that since they were stopped by the Mycoid virus, they've been licking their wounds waiting to strike. Now we've 'provoked' them by finding them, it was only a matter.of time before they resumed their plans of annihilating humanity.

We need to mouth shot, double tap each one of 'em just to be sure.

Edit- I made the highlighted statement in the Thargoid sadness post not this one. My bad.

Well, I actually started my original comment saying that I knew we had been at war... your comment just makes my point. We don't know our butts from a hole in the ground on this one, but we have already pre-ordained our justification for hostilities. Your use of justified violence based on scooping up of escape pods absolutely ignores their justified response based on our scooping up artifacts. (Just one example).

The ship may have already sailed, but I'll ask one last question. Under what circumstance would you admit that we over reacted and created a situation where otherwise it wouldn't exist? What would you need to know to admit that?

 

[TheSisko]

The superpowers have created a monster.

Aegis isn't just any ordinary faction. Its a faction which has the means to develop advanced technology and weapons. A faction which has - with considerable financial support and resources - become masters of the Pleiades Nebula, with 20+ bases being constructed.

Has anyone wondered what would happen if the leadership of Aegis falls into the wrong hands? If it hasn't already? Who's to say that Admiral Tanner hasn't got plans of his own, beyond dealing with the Thargoids?

 

[TOM USMC]

There is undoubtedly ulterior motives involved. It almost always boils down to money or consolidation of power, or both. People go along with it because they are either puppets ( people who should know better but delude themselves) ignorant (Just aren't thinking about things critically. Not calling them stupid, just not engaging their brain), or sadists ( for lack of a better word, they don't really care they just like participating or watching others be abused).

 

[Goose4291]

Edit- I made the highlighted statement in the Thargoid sadness post not this one. My bad.

Well, I actually started my original comment saying that I knew we had been at war... your comment just makes my point. We don't know our butts from a hole in the ground on this one, but we have already pre-ordained our justification for hostilities. Your use of justified violence based on scooping up of escape pods absolutely ignores their justified response based on our scooping up artifacts. (Just one example).

The ship may have already sailed, but I'll ask one last question. Under what circumstance would you admit that we over reacted and created a situation where otherwise it wouldn't exist? What would you need to know to admit that?

I think thats my point. Without getting too tropey about it, we're in a reimagined battlestar type scenario

The original war never officially ended. We're still at war.