You forget that they are in league with the Pilot's Federation. How else would they return back home to their permit locked Polaris?
The repair of Obsidian Orbital and The Oracle etc - I might actually bust a gut laughing?
- Thread starter NeilF
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You forget that they are in league with the Pilot's Federation. How else would they return back home to their permit locked Polaris?
I don't know what the problem is...they are just using undermine in solo tactics...half of powerplay does it!
Deleted member 38366
D
One of the things I still find highly amusing :
Both Aegis and the SuperPowers basically are repeatedly calling for help.
Apparently, the biggest "movers" in the entire human Galaxy can't hire a single Transporter? Source a few thousand tons of widely available Commodities?!
And at the same time, the Game has always been telling us "you're just one guy in a single spaceship". Can't do this. Can't do that. No you can't own or fly that. No you can't go there. Yaddi Yaddi.
So now what?
In my books, these Stations are their Equipment. I can't own or construct one by myself.
So whatever happens is their business. They're the big shots in the Galaxy, they own ten thousands of NPC Ships, they call all the shots and drive MegaShips and Capital Ships around.
Their problem - they fix it.
Now... Allow me to build and equip a fleet I can staff with NPCs and put to good use at my Command? Then we're talking business.
But for as long as I'm prisoner in a single Spaceship of my choice... Nope, not going to happen. Big stuff is for big Powers.
I'm just "one guy in a single spaceship".
Both Aegis and the SuperPowers basically are repeatedly calling for help.
Apparently, the biggest "movers" in the entire human Galaxy can't hire a single Transporter? Source a few thousand tons of widely available Commodities?!
And at the same time, the Game has always been telling us "you're just one guy in a single spaceship". Can't do this. Can't do that. No you can't own or fly that. No you can't go there. Yaddi Yaddi.
So now what?
In my books, these Stations are their Equipment. I can't own or construct one by myself.
So whatever happens is their business. They're the big shots in the Galaxy, they own ten thousands of NPC Ships, they call all the shots and drive MegaShips and Capital Ships around.
Their problem - they fix it.
Now... Allow me to build and equip a fleet I can staff with NPCs and put to good use at my Command? Then we're talking business.
But for as long as I'm prisoner in a single Spaceship of my choice... Nope, not going to happen. Big stuff is for big Powers.
I'm just "one guy in a single spaceship".
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Intentionally putting the players of a video game in a bad mood does not seem like a sound decision under any circumstance, regardless of the story reasons behind it.
I don't really see how that's a bad thing either.
Create a scenario such as the current one and I suspect the majority of people will, sooner or later, accept the futility of it all and simply ignore the whole thing.
If, OTOH, you create a scenario that allows players to have some influence on the outcome then it's far more likely people will continue to engage with it.
As part of that, if you can provide choices, you're actually going to encourage participation as people will lobby for support of their favoured station/system.
Perhaps instancing issues mean we can't have a full-on battle to defend a station but it must be possible to escalate the Thargoid presence in a system to indicate an attack and allow people an opportunity to defend a station.
Perhaps there could be a one-week period where Thargoids inderdict players in a system and attack them, indicating an elevated threat and then, after that, there'd be a one-week period where 'goids randomly attack a station, reducing it's "health"?
During the first week, it'd be up to players to notice the elevated threat, rally support and destroy as many Thargoids as possible.
The number of 'goids destroyed during the first week would dictate the strength of the attack in the 2nd phase.
During the 2nd week, 'goid ships would randomly appear around, say, 100km from a station and move toward it.
It'd be up to players to intercept the 'goids and destroy them.
Every 'goid that got to the station would fire their weapons at it, before jumping away, and reduce the station's health by a certain amount.
During that phase, players could deliver meta-alloys to the station in order to repair some of the damage as well as attempting to destroy 'goid ships.
At the end of the 2nd week, if the station is at 0% health, it suffers a catastrophic failure (during a server tick) and becomes damaged, as is currently the case.
If the station health is less than 100%, it'll need some repairs (proportional to the amount of damage) but much, much, less than what's currently required.
If the station health is at 100%, it's business as usual and the 'goids won't be back for at least, say, a month.
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Hi Stealthie,
It's good to see people trying to come up with some mechanisms so that players can have at least a tiny bit of agency in the Thargoid conflict. Personally, I concluded that FDev have their own agenda and are perfectly happy rubbing the community the wrong way to achieve it from the get go after the AX missiles fiasco. Fdev are so heavy handed it defies belief (speak nicely Susie).
The second point is that your suggestion requires a sustained effect from a sizable chunk of the community... Not just delivering repair materials to the stations, but actively engaging in the Thargoid conflict in a co-ordinated, dedicated and sustainable way. I can't see that happening, not on a sufficient scale (% of the player base) to justify the implementation of it from FDev's point of view.
Besides, as I started with, I'm pretty sure FDev have their own agenda here. By all means speculate on possible alternatives but I can't see FDev changing direction now. I wish FDev would be a bit more transparent about what that agenda is... And the scope that players have around that agenda. As has been pointed out in other threads, for all we know, once a station has been made operational again through exhaustive player action, FDev may arbitrarily 'decide' to nuke the station again at the next Thursday tick... Yes, I do believe FDev are willing and able to do precisely that! They hold all of the rains and the players are the pigs with the ring through their snouts. That is NOT my idea of fun.
Without some player agency, or at the very least some reassurances that that sort of thing won't happen, I for one am out of this conflict. I'm indifferent about making a Thargoid kill, I'm indifferent about the overall Thargoid activities because I have no agency to affect them, and I'm indifferent about FDev's long term strategy for the Thargoids because they choose not to discuss it openly with the community and explain to what degree we the players may affect the game.
In such circumstances, the only rational option is to go away and play some other element of the game and leave FDev to go play with themselves... (Very politely put due to profanity filter).
It's not the stance I prefer, nor the outcome I want, but that is what it is.
People who crave closure will be sorely disappointed by the Thargoids I think.
It would be more than foolish to create a whole set of assets, only to stop using them because we somehow defeat the Thargoids.
Everything added so far supports an ongoing and unending low level conflict.
Actively engage Thargoids by choice with the NHSS - soon to spread beyond the Pleiades with at least the Scouts.
Randomly get hyperdicted by the Thargoids - that will also likely spread beyond the Pleiades as well - this matches the threat from the original game, the difference is that they are not instantly hostile in ED.
A facility whereby the Thargoids can damage infrastructure, with follow up rescue and repair functionality.
I expect that there will be continued developments that expand on their origins, their relationship with the Guardians, current base of operations, etc., and I expect further types of interactions and active gameplay.
I don't expect an all out war with areas of territorial control or conditions for victory.
It would be more than foolish to create a whole set of assets, only to stop using them because we somehow defeat the Thargoids.
Everything added so far supports an ongoing and unending low level conflict.
Actively engage Thargoids by choice with the NHSS - soon to spread beyond the Pleiades with at least the Scouts.
Randomly get hyperdicted by the Thargoids - that will also likely spread beyond the Pleiades as well - this matches the threat from the original game, the difference is that they are not instantly hostile in ED.
A facility whereby the Thargoids can damage infrastructure, with follow up rescue and repair functionality.
I expect that there will be continued developments that expand on their origins, their relationship with the Guardians, current base of operations, etc., and I expect further types of interactions and active gameplay.
I don't expect an all out war with areas of territorial control or conditions for victory.
I think the current Thargoids are attacking us for one reason. To get us battle ready before the Klaxions pass through human space.
My sentiments exactly.
I'm sure we'll get some progression and, possibly, some link to the Guardians but the more I think about it, the more I think we're just going to see wave after wave of 'goids trampling across the bubble every few months and it'll be up to players to go and do stuff to clear up after them.
I don't actually mind this because it's something that different players can engage with at different times.
I just hope there's a reasonably diverse number of activities associated with it all.
Imagine after many more weeks/months Obsidian Orbital and/or The Oracle finally get repaired, and then, on the following Thursday tick, the invisible Thargoids turn up and "damages" them againSo back to square one, with X trillion tons of Y required again.
I think I might actually damage myself laughing TBH!
But why wouldn't this happen? How do we know that won't happen? What can we do to prevent it?
Or do we simply know as there's no real mechanics/gameplay involved behind this, that we can simply trust FD not to click on those locations again?
With the current rate of hauling, it will take around 2 years until all 21 starports affected (today) are back online again. i fear, if we manage to repair even one station, there won't be anything left in the bubble to repair xD
the numbers are just absurd high
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Agreed. Repped.
The point I tried to make is that FDev made the Thargoid station attacks in the way they did to achieve something.
We might not agree with it, but fundamentally changing the way those station attacks work would change what FDev tried to achieve.
It might be a mistake from FDev to make the station attacks something the players can't influence, I don't know.
Maybe it's something required to make future interactions plausible, I don't know.
I agree with you that scenarios that allow players to have influence on the outcome are more engaging for the players. I would assume that if FDev wanted the players to engage with the station attacks on more combat oriented way, they would have implemented something.
Maybe not as good as the concept you came up with, but something.
I'm not sure if players will ignore the Thargoids just because they can't change the outcome of the station attacks. I don't know, might be the case.
I do agree that there is an overall problem with player engagement with the Thargoid story line. Mainly because there not enough clear informations and not enough things the players can do.
Even with the worst attack rate (3 per week) two years (104 weeks) would mean we lose about 300 starports. There will be enough left of the bubble
And it's quite safe to assume that The Oracle will be put up online in about two months, and Obsidian Orbital a month or two later. The others, we shall see.
And the Starports with Aegis labs run out in two weeks. Who knows what happens then...
So, no doom yet I think
Even with the worst attack rate (3 per week) two years (104 weeks) would mean we lose about 300 starports. There will be enough left of the bubble
And it's quite safe to assume that The Oracle will be put up online in about two months, and Obsidian Orbital a month or two later. The others, we shall see.
And the Starports with Aegis labs run out in two weeks. Who knows what happens then...
So, no doom yet I think
While the gameplay added as part of the biggest ingame event (X years in the coming) is basically passenger missions with heat sinks, and trading CGs, I don't feel very enthused to take part TBH...
So personally I almost hope more and more stations burn, and less and less CMDRs do anything, so FD get the hint that maybe adding gameplay with more involved mechanics and depth instead of simply more and more rebadged grind might be worthwhile?
You sound so Jaded, the Aegis attacks and content are just a small part of the storyline. Personally I had a lot of fun spending hours rescuing escape pods from burning stations, one of the most intense experiences I have had in this game, and as always I appreciate that I am slightly biased due to using VR. Sure we all wan't more gameplay, the devs already know this. What you are suggesting sounds like a kid throwing his toys out of the pram.
My only issue with the station repairs is the low payouts, am not fussed about money in this game, but if Aegis want me to work for them they can pay a decent amount to repair the stations. These stations could work as a long term lucrative contract for longhaul truckers, as it stands the only reason to help is for a show of unity. Personally I couldn't care less about Obsidian orbital, Darnielles progress and Maia point are the important stations.
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Personally I've nothing against more involved mechanics and depth, but in the meantime I do what is possible in the current mechanics. That is amongst others the imho very cool rescue gameplay.
To be totally honest, I'm not a big cargo hauler, I think I trippled my hauling tonnage since start of Operation IDA and I'm not having a lot of fun in the grind mechanics by themselves.
But the group on the discord is just fun and enthusiastic, and my personal motivation is to a) demonstrate that a starport can be repaired and b) my curiosity what comes after that.
Will something interesting happen? Will it provide more content? Will the starport get shot up again? We don't know. But if we don't do it, we will never know, so I'll do my best to get it done.
And I kicked all docking computers out of my ships as The Oracle has no auto-dock anyways so I have the personal benefit of gitting gudder with landing
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Jaded? Maybe? Possible? Accurate?
Ultimately we'll see where X years of planning takes us, and what it ultimately delivers, and ultimately how engaged players become I guess...
Regarding the passenger missions with heat sinks, doing them you are way more likely to cue up in front of the only large landing pad at the destination, because the occupant decided to drop a deuce. The waiting time probably makes you want switch to solo mode. On a more serious note: The only thing that drove me to take part was the mission rewards.
If you are going to extrapolate from the past of this game, what do you think? I guess a repaired station will be the same as before the attack, maybe some signs will be changed and a news article will be published.Personally I've nothing against more involved mechanics and depth, but in the meantime I do what is possible in the current mechanics. That is amongst others the imho very cool rescue gameplay.
To be totally honest, I'm not a big cargo hauler, I think I trippled my hauling tonnage since start of Operation IDA and I'm not having a lot of fun in the grind mechanics by themselves.
But the group on the discord is just fun and enthusiastic, and my personal motivation is to a) demonstrate that a starport can be repaired and b) my curiosity what comes after that.
Will something interesting happen? Will it provide more content? Will the starport get shot up again? We don't know. But if we don't do it, we will never know, so I'll do my best to get it done.
And I kicked all docking computers out of my ships as The Oracle has no auto-dock anyways so I have the personal benefit of gitting gudder with landing
As I'm only playing since october 2017 my faith is still there
So what do you make of FDev's decisions? Were you playing from the start of the Thargoids and around when FDev nurfed the AX missiles fifty fold because they didn't like the large scale Thargoid Ganking that was taking place to insta-kill the Thargoids? Plenty of videos on YouTube about it. That was only days after the CG that made these weapons available to the player base. For me, that was the final straw that broke the camels back and they lost what little remaining respect I had for them.