General Allow Rescue Megaships to give Missions to rescue 'Thargoid Bio-Storage Capsules' from nearby Titans

[LadyLucida]

Venturing to the Titan and rescuing Thargoid Bio-Storage Capsules is one of the most difficult Search and Rescue opportunities in Elite Dangerous. Currently, players venture into the Titan with specialized ship builds focusing on low temperatures to avoid being detected by patroling interceptors and Scythes. They successfully extract 'Thargoid Bio-Storage Capsules' with Sub-Surface Extraction Missiles, after scanning the Titan with the Pulse Wave Xeno Scanner. This entire process can take a very long time to do as one false move and all Thargoids will know the player is there. Once safe, the player leaves the Titan and turns in the Thargoid Bio-Storage Capsules at nearby Rescue Megaships. To reward their efforts, the Rescue Megaships gives them 150,000 credits per pod which is much more than a normal escape pod found at wrecked ships. However, a select few players partake in this endeavor at the Titans.
With the recent 'Type-8' (18.06) Update, assisting in clearing Thargoid Invasions and Thargoid Control Systems would reward Engineering Materials based on participation tiers. However, turning in Thargoid Bio-Storage Capsules does not count for progress for the 'Engineering Materials' when a system is cleared. This is because turning in Thargoid Bio-Storage Capsules gives progress to ALL Counterstrike Systems around that specific Titan. It makes sense from a Game Developer perspective, as that would allow players to receive INSANE amounts of Engineering Materials, especially when some Titans have 52 Counterstrike Systems some weeks. Assuming all of those were cleared that would give players
A similar comparison that is already in the game is missions involving Thargoid Spire Sites. Progress in Systems with Spire Sites is "shared" to the furthest 10 systems from the Titan, and the progress that is shared does not count for the 'Engineering Materials' reward when the System is cleared. However, players can grab missions at Rescue Megaships to get materials from a particular Spire Site. Once that mission is completed, they gain access to a new mission that has them sabotage the Spire Site on foot.
So using Spire Sites as a comparison, Rescue Megaships could also give missions to "collect' X amount of 'Thargoid Bio-Storage Capsules' from Titan Y".This could be the closest Titan or a specific one that might still be active. These missions would reward engineering materials, commodities, or credits. It would need to have a warning that players must have Sub-surface extraction missiles, Xeno Pulse Wave Scanners, etc to do the mission properly. This would allow those who participate in this difficult content to be rewarded for their time. Players then would venture to the Titan and rescue X amount of pods from that specific Titan. The amount could also scale based on the current "State" of the Titan. The mission could ask for fewer Thargoid Bio-Storage Capsules if the Titan is already dead as there are very few floating around the wreckage (and also no warnings for proper equipment).
Feel free to chime in with your ideas as well!

 

[Jack Brolin]

Great idea, we seem to be forgetting about all the poor humans trapped on board while we're gleefully bombing these things, and could certainly use some encouragement in the rescue effort

 

[DemiserofD]

Great idea. I think a lot of people don't even realize it's possible, maybe they missed the galnets and such. Having some missions would be nice!

 

[HRDiagram]

Very good idea. I was baffled when I realised that there were no missions for the pods.

I find the activity (extracting pods from a Titan) both relaxing and nerve wracking at the same time, so I do it for fun anyway, but it would make sense to give it some official narrative scope with targeted missions (in addition to the current generic war efforts), like somebody offering a reward for returning a specific group of people, whose genetic signature (or other suitable technobabble) was identified on titan X during a previous recon mission.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Similar to picking up escape pods elsewhere, its not worth the effort. I am a bit surprised at how little human escape pods are worth compared to activities like scanning plants on an otherwise barren planet. Or delivering a bunch of microcomputers. Or blowing up a wanted criminal's ship but allowing them to escape every time. I can see their escape pod floating right in front of me, but its not worth the effort to scoop up the escape pod of the known terrorist or drug lord.

 

[HRDiagram]

Similar to picking up escape pods elsewhere, its not worth the effort. I am a bit surprised at how little human escape pods are worth compared to activities like scanning plants on an otherwise barren planet. Or delivering a bunch of microcomputers. Or blowing up a wanted criminal's ship but allowing them to escape every time. I can see their escape pod floating right in front of me, but its not worth the effort to scoop up the escape pod of the known terrorist or drug lord.

With free access to resources throughout the whole galaxy, I can see how people have basically become a worthless, expendable asset in ED, and the only ones who see any value in them are Etienne Dorn (a true philantropist) and some player driven restaurants (who, I am sure, need lots of workers...).

 

[Phill P]

Top post LL. Agree 100%. It also highlights the mess they've made of this activity.

At one point they thought the people being abducted was such a big story that they introduced a whole new asset for it, the Scythe, and a whole new activity to get them back, Titan pod rescues, and then - did nothing with it beyond having pod rescues affect Counterstrikes a little for war progress.

Then when we got the nanite torpedoes to actually hurt a Titan with we had the Galnet article where Aegis wrote off any abductees that remained, which is flatly contradicted each time a Titan goes down by in game messages telling us to get in there and save them.

As with the Counterstrikes it feels like nobody really thought it through properly and so it's left a lot of people thinking "what's the point then?".

It's about time they made up their mind one way or the other what they actually want to do with them, stop with the mixed messages and understand that throwing in ideas "because they're cool" does not make a consistent or even a coherent narrative.

 

[Greasetrap42]

With free access to resources throughout the whole galaxy, I can see how people have basically become a worthless, expendable asset in ED, and the only ones who see any value in them are Etienne Dorn (a true philantropist) and some player driven restaurants (who, I am sure, need lots of workers...).

And yet people see big value in their own lives. If they are physically conscious. People being evacuated from impending doom are willing to pay giant rewards for transport. Thargoid Station Evac is currently the most profitable activity for myself.

Okay maybe we are transporting the 0.02% that actually have this kind of money. And everybody else is going burn in the station. And most of the random people we find in escape pods don't have a nickle to their name. And future travel insurance doesn't cover escape pod retrieval costs.

So beware to all you rich powerful folks out there... Zachary Hudson, Yuri Grom, Zemina Torval... your escape pod or bio pod is just as worthless as everybody else's! Nobody is coming to save you... cause its just not worth it!

 

[Phill P]

And yet people see big value in their own lives. If they are physically conscious. People being evacuated from impending doom are willing to pay giant rewards for transport. Thargoid Station Evac is currently the most profitable activity for myself.

Okay maybe we are transporting the 0.02% that actually have this kind of money. And everybody else is going burn in the station.

With the personal missions that is certainly true but I think with the group missions it's the faction paying you, not the individuals.

 

[Kira Goto]

With the personal missions that is certainly true but I think with the group missions it's the faction paying you, not the individuals.

Putting aside that Frontier turned group transports into personal lite with the same "I am paying you to get me out of here you idiot, get going" messages the second you accept a mission... when they are clearly not at least by my interpretation.

Certainly makes little sense when the separation exists between the two in the board but other than accepting economy class cabins, and no requests for commodities, the missions seem to act the same. And Frontier mentioned the distinction between the personal and group transport evacs themselves...

Anyway. Group transport should be the mass evac but thanks to poor coding or odd design choices to change the template to "personal lite" does not make it feel like that is what you are doing. And the pod rescue (from Titans) effect definitely does not feel as tangible as it could be, even if you like it as a gameplay loop (because some of us do it for more than the money, believe it or not), or do it for RP reasons, because seeing all 40+ counterstrikes around a Titan cleared out in a single week is yet to happen.

 

[Phill P]

Putting aside that Frontier turned group transports into personal lite with the same "I am paying you to get me out of here you idiot, get going" messages the second you accept a mission... when they are clearly not at least by my interpretation.

Which could as easily be a lazily copied message when the missions changed.

And Frontier mentioned the distinction between the personal and group transport evacs themselves...

In what respect, specifically?

 

[Greasetrap42]

With the personal missions that is certainly true but I think with the group missions it's the faction paying you, not the individuals.

Regardless, the point being humans get help only if they are conscious. Once they are in an escape pod or bio pod, no faction, power, money, or connections makes someone more valuable than anybody else. Which isn't very much.

 

[Kira Goto]

In what respect, specifically?

I would have to dig up the patch notes (when was it? Update 17?) where they added the personal transport missions but I recall them being called out as different to the “standard” passenger/group evacs.

Maybe I would just rather not have some donkeys complaining they are paying me to get them out and why I haven’t left right after they boarded when I am not (and will not) take the missions where it is actually some rich guy paying for expedited evacuation.

Regardless, the point being humans get help only if they are conscious. Once they are in an escape pod or bio pod, no faction, power, money, or connections makes someone more valuable than anybody else. Which isn't very much.

… but you are offered opportunities to evacuate wounded as well as the conscious passengers regardless of whether the port is ‘safe’, being attacked or totally wrecked by Thargoids but not yet abandoned. And especially in the third case you get lots of wounded to evacuate.

The ones in the Titans, uh, yeah, I have my words toward Aegis about that. Not very positive ones…

… but it has also been jarringly evident that a lot of the Titan arcs are cut short by Frontier looking to stay on track for September with Powerplay 2.0(if they still are?), and the whole economic problems they’ve had lately, not that there’s been any reason for it caused by management-level decisions. But that is a whole other subject.

Hopefully those arcs will remain relevant even past the end of the Titan war.

 

[Phill P]

Regardless, the point being humans get help only if they are conscious. Once they are in an escape pod or bio pod, no faction, power, money, or connections makes someone more valuable than anybody else. Which isn't very much.

Sad but true. Makes you wonder why stories make all that fuss about them.

 

[Phill P]

I would have to dig up the patch notes (when was it? Update 17?) where they added the personal transport missions but I recall them being called out as different to the “standard” passenger/group evacs.

It would make sense, group missions are paid for by the faction but those rich enough to pay extra in an attempt to jump the queue do so from their own pockets.

Maybe I would just rather not have some donkeys complaining they are paying me to get them out and why I haven’t left right after they boarded when I am not (and will not) take the missions where it is actually some rich guy paying for expedited evacuation.

Passengers moaning has always been a thing, even before the Titans arrived. They've always been whiny entitled pains in the rear. Unfortunately the game still lacks the "dump the ungrateful sods into the nearest sun if they don't shut up" option.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

With the personal missions that is certainly true but I think with the group missions it's the faction paying you, not the individuals.

Putting aside that Frontier turned group transports into personal lite with the same "I am paying you to get me out of here you idiot, get going" messages the second you accept a mission... when they are clearly not at least by my interpretation.

I figure it's the 'party members' being given tickets out. The plebs never get the opportunity.
Of course some party members have their own bank accounts which they're able to offer to speed things up (as if it's going to affect anything).
They did that back in the old Incursion burning station rescues as well.

The one where they don't seems to be the BGS war evacuations though they may get redirected mid flight as the destination faction decides they don't want the refugees after all.

 

[Phill P]

I figure it's the 'party members' being given tickets out. The plebs never get the opportunity.
Of course some party members have their own bank accounts which they're able to offer to speed things up (as if it's going to affect anything).
They did that back in the old Incursion burning station rescues as well.

The one where they don't seems to be the BGS war evacuations though they may get redirected mid flight as the destination faction decides they don't want the refugees after all.

That works, anyone can do missions for any faction but that's a separate thing to being a member of it. I can go with that.