News New 'Thargoid Incursion' State

[NeilF]

Bleh; how gamey can you get? How about Conflict Zones which players -clear- after killing X numbers of Thargoids, only for new Conflict Zones to spawn until the incursion is repelled (or successful)?

Overall though, good to see Thargoid content becoming more mainstream. Still need to remove the special weapons requirement, and add more direct thread (Thargoid interdictions).

As gamey as a bonus score for being efficient with infinite DSS probes? Where you can at any time during the scanning, just exit the game, and come back in for another try at the bonus score That gamey?


As I've said a number of times, the whole Thargoid invasions hits me as a missed opportunity as a variation of a Powerplay View, where you could undertake tasks in systems depending on their state to affect the Thargoid position...

 

[B1rdy]

As gamey as a bonus score for being efficient with infinite DSS probes? Where you can at any time during the scanning, just exit the game, and come back in for another try at the bonus score That gamey?


As I've said a number of times, the whole Thargoid invasions hits me as a missed opportunity as a variation of a Powerplay View, where you could undertake tasks in systems depending on their state to affect the Thargoid position...

It is like FDev does good job at a race but then runs out of fuel in the last lap, having to push the car manually over the finishing line. Same with mining, where OA could find a destructible asteroid in 2 hours, or Multicrew in general (as of now).

 

[Arkadi]

If I take a look at current Thargoid NHSS with higher threat levels, those that are spawning both Interceptors and Scouts, I think the difficulty of those new combat zones might be quite crisp.

I do hope these new Thargodid CZ's will provide that content that requires commanders to play together and apply actual wing tactics to succeed. I am looking forward for such gameplay.

If done right combat and bgs gameplay might just interlock neatly with this, I hope at least.

 

[NeilF]

If I take a look at current Thargoid NHSS with higher threat levels, those that are spawning both Interceptors and Scouts, I think the difficulty of those new combat zones might be quite crisp.

I do hope these new Thargodid CZ's will provide that content that requires commanders to play together and apply actual wing tactics to succeed. I am looking forward for such gameplay.

If done right combat and bgs gameplay might just interlock neatly with this, I hope at least.

You mean some joined up gameplay and mechanics, such as a Squadron with a designated "Anti-Xeno" role being able to undertake task(s) to actively change the Thargoid position, ideally also being able to utilise its Fleet Carrier in some interesting/tactical way?

eg: Be able engage Thargoid scouts in a region, by a Squadron choosing to deploy its Fleet Carrier to a location so CMDRs of the Squadron could deploy in fighters directly from the Fleet Carrier to achieve some outcome (eg: take out Scouts attacking a platform etc etc)?

 

[Arkadi]

You mean some joined up gameplay and mechanics, such as a Squadron with a designated "Anti-Xeno" role being able to undertake task(s) to actively change the Thargoid position, ideally also being able to utilise its Fleet Carrier in some interesting/tactical way? [...]

If fleet carriers would be implemented like this, that would be great!

Also I thought, that some sort of BGS tasks, like delivering weapons and supplying food and shelter to the people in the system might be able to decrease the triggers necessary to remove the Thargoid Incursion.

I imagine the combat zones themselves being quite deadly and commanders will have to think about theire roles and outfits. Some players will have to protect others from the sheer numbers of the scouts so the specialised AX ships can focus on killing the Interceptors. Support ships with repair and decontamination limpets might make sense. That's what I thought could be. But we will see soon enough.

 

[Rob At Work]

I Gotta Bad Feelin' about this!

 

[NeilF]

If fleet carriers would be implemented like this, that would be great!

Also I thought, that some sort of BGS tasks, like delivering weapons and supplying food and shelter to the people in the system might be able to decrease the triggers necessary to remove the Thargoid Incursion.

I imagine the combat zones themselves being quite deadly and commanders will have to think about theire roles and outfits. Some players will have to protect others from the sheer numbers of the scouts so the specialised AX ships can focus on killing the Interceptors. Support ships with repair and decontamination limpets might make sense. That's what I thought could be. But we will see soon enough.

Oh joining up gameplay and assets would be useful - An Anti-Xeno Squadron being given the task (via a Thargoid Powerplay view) of defending a platform from Thargoid assaults between a couple of given times (which they could adjust from the Squadron console for gameplay purposes)?

Or likewise at a Megaship where you need to deploy your Fleet Carrier there, and you instead use fighters (CQC style) deployed from the carrier to fend of Scouts?

 

[Micha]

I'm all for Squads/Wings/etc for taking on Thargoid invasion fleets, but there MUST BE solo-player content as well.

From the original lore :

"Though most of the Thargoid Space Fleet is currently engaged by the Galactic Navy in InterGalactic Space, a few of the smaller battle ships make occasional destructor-raids into human space. "

So could take that as a starting point for the current invasion. Make missions for wings/squads to take on the main incursion fleet in a system in the special combat zones, but leave the "smaller battle ships" for civilian encounters via hyperdictions or USSs. Both to feed into the BGS.

That way people can choose their level of interaction - participate in the full-on defense of a system, or risk smaller encounters while blockade-running supplies or evacuating the population.

 

[Havvk]

So long as Shinrarta Dezhra, Sol and Erevate are left alone, there's nothing else that will ever make me go a fightin bugs. I need one for my harem one day

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

Can I make 2 suggestions?

1) Would it be possible for a 'Thargoid Attack' State, showing the system that are under attack but not yet in 'Thargoid Incursion'. I know that Cannon and AXI do fantastic work getting those systems names every Thursday but it would be nice to have those in-game.
2) One thing I did enjoy about the Gnosis Event (when the bugs were resolved) was defending the Capital ship from constant Scout attack. I would suggest that the the same gameplay mechanic could be reused to defend the medical mega ships which appear to help evacuate the damaged systems.

To be honest, looking forward to this one.

 

[Ian Skippy]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, but if the Thargoids run into a system in the Bubble, would the Militairy not be activated instead of private citizens that happen to have a nice ship with combat capability, whatever is the military even for otherwise, same for System Police, what is their purpose if not to counter alien attacks, give out speeding tickets while a Thargoids kill everything around?
Just saying. --- DK
-

Hence Aegis, and the wiped-out fleets you occasionally see. Besides, this is a game: 'realistically' everything would be automated and none of us would fly spaceships anyway.

 

[Stewart_]

deleted.

 

[Arkadi]

Hi - Condesending cmdr - I full well know the Thargoid's have been in the bubble for a long time. The Thargoids do not attack stations yet in real time and neither do stations fire back.

I have seen a station firing on a Intercepor recently. And, guess what, that Interceptor was immune, because stations don't fire AX-weapons. The whole situation did cost me two rebuys but it was worth it, to see that Baskilisk or what it was in relation to the station.

But you are right, there is no actual game mechanic in place that results in Thargoids attacking stations in realtime, it's only some players luring those bugs to the stations. Never the less, nitpicking, but it's possible.

 

[ick]

Don't forget to turn off the no-fire zones for pilots defending stations.

Looking forward to new content. Nice.

 

[Cosmo]

Maybe there should also be a non-combat choice. Such as deliver X amount of cargo to the Thargoids and they will give the player a reward.

 

[Malicron]

This still strikes me as certain death for the Bubble. I just don't see any way the player base as a whole can keep up the level of dedicated combat necessary to keep the Thargoids from slowly but surely wrecking everything in their path. Either that, or FDev will be forced to nerf the Thargs to the point that they're no longer any kind of legitimate threat.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

This still strikes me as certain death for the Bubble. I just don't see any way the player base as a whole can keep up the level of dedicated combat necessary to keep the Thargoids from slowly but surely wrecking everything in their path.

There's a lot of bubble, so if the Thargoids continue their current progress of attacking three systems a week and winning two of them - and then presumably continuing to finish the job in the systems they win, it will take ten thousand weeks (i.e. two centuries) to destroy the entire bubble.

 

[Stewart_]

Wow - no need to be so condescending... and I’m fully aware of
the proximity of the thargoids...

I see some people live under a rock or something. I am gonna be this guy that will crash your thinking about what is going on around you. THEY ARE ALREADY HERE. For many weeks in fact. Thargoid invaded The Bubble for long time now, and every week hundreds of CMDR's (AXI, Hive and independed pilots) are fighting with them to protect systems. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Don't believe me?



And here you have what you wanted to see.

 

[Aakkonen]

*Sniffs* Smells like Incursion expansion in EVE Online... I like it

Aakkonen

 

[Sapyx]

I've seen several people in this thread bemoan the lack of fleet carriers to fight the Thargoids. I'm not entirely sure bringing fleet carriers to an Incursion system would be a good or smart thing, in the light of this sentence in the OP:

When a system enters Incursion, the following happens:

• All megaships in the system at the point of the state enters Incursion, will appear damaged and unable to continue on their journey.

I'm assuming a Fleet Carrier would be treated like any other Megaship in this regard. So, if your Fleet Carrier is moved into an Incursion system, it gets automatically attacked and damaged. Which presumably would then mean the squadron owning it would need to ship in 100 million tonnes of bauxite or whatever, in order to repair it, before they are allowed to move it again. That doesn't sound like something an AX combat-oriented squadron would consider to be "fun".

I would presume most Carrier-owning squadrons will be pulling their carriers out of potential Incursion systems as soon as possible.

Or even better, add a simulation of "NPCs repairing the station" - the amount of materials required is constantly decreasing, and if left for long enough (no more than a month), the station effectively repairs itself.

Would be nice if this is coupled with increased profits (yes, the current profits isn't enough, especially for some far-away stations). You get nice profits AND help to repair a damaged station! Everybody wins!

+1 Rep. Putting in some kind of baseline "auto-repair" for damaged stations, with the handwavium that NPC freighters are doing some of the gruntwork, would alleviate many of the concerns posted here about "what about if the home base for my small player group gets attacked".