I disagree - FD may have a plan/storyline in mind but player actions do influence how they implement it into the game.
The first Cerberus plague took many weeks, many affected stations and many CGs before commanders got coordinated and brought it under control in Bast. Remember the second outbreak though? No? That's because when it first flared up (bloody Palin again ...) several groups, The Teabaggers amongst them, put in a huge effort in the CG to get that one to a level that everything was contained, even though the targets we really high and we only just made it. I don't know for a fact but I did hear that this sank a story arc they had planned for a second outbreak - so don't think player action has no impact just 'cos the implementation of certain steps is manual from FDs side.
The manual implementation (both of the event and of the result) is at the very heart of it all.
FD sets the goalpost, players performs action, FD implements result.
And not always have the results been known beforehand, which in turn allows FD to move the goalposts if they so wish.
Tier hasn't been reached to unlock the new module ? Put it in into a lower tier in the next CG.
Tier not been reached to repair that station service ? Lower the requirements next week.
I am
not claiming that FD has actually ever done any of this.
However the system
can be manipulated and steered that way, and once you got that thought into your head, it's impossible to get rid of the feeling of being a mere puppet on FD's string when it comes to these events and CGs.
Yes, it might feel like "impact" if you're willing to accept the illusion and are somehow able to continue to do so.
I am not trying to burst bubbles, everybody should of course enjoy what's on offer and what appeals to them.
Let's say, and perhaps this would have been unachievable from a programming point of view, the Thargoids would have been implemented as a clever new independently acting AI/algorithm.
Attacking stations in real-time at random places at random times, where players could have intervened if they managed to respond quickly and in numbers, after galaxy wide transmitted distress calls and breaking GalNet news alerts.
Or where stations, after a successful attack, would have spawned missions by themselves to have station services restored and supplies brought in.
See that's what i would call real player impact, a situation arises by itself and players handle it by themselves.
The one example where the game offers something like this, even though it might annoy a number of people when it happens, is the UA/meta alloy mechanic.
You never know when or where it happens, but you can counter it by yourself without outside intervention.
My bottom line would be, as long as FD refuses to give up (or at least loosen) their 100% grip and control over this game world, and finds ways for the game itself to throw up more of these emergent situations, i will (note, didn't say "we"
) always struggle to take any of these events and story arcs (or my participation in them) as impactful.
Cut the strings.
EDIT: As i finished my reply, the thread has been moved to the Alien sub-forum.
And that, in a nutshell, fittingly describes what the Thargoids are, a sub-forum topic.
