Are Thargoids obsolete?

[Old Duck]

I personally wish the Thargoids had remained mysterious, occasionally pulling people out of hyperspace and perhaps attacking a few random ships here and there. Now they are just another "faction".

I think Elite Dangerous would have been much more interesting a game if there was a galactic war happening between the Federation and Empire, and instead of PowerPlay, the strategic side would have been more like a game of Risk between these two powers. Players would have the choice of playing one side or the other, or neither, but never both. Had Frontier saved the damaged station mechanic for this (and allowed players to be involved in major attacks against stations), that would have been epic.

But of course I have all sorts of "I wish ED was this instead of that ideas", and my only recourse is to just ignore all this crap - PowerPlay, Thargoids, etc. I'm just an explorer these days who sometimes takes tourists out for a ride

 

[Cmdr SpaceMerlin]

I met a few, stayed at a distance, still haven't been hyperdicted (and goodness have i tried!) or engaged. Although i have a fully kitted anti-AX Krait stored in my homebase in case some war should break out, i don't intend to engage them.

I even intend to get as allied to them as the game allows. Well, provided they don't go all genocidal on us.

The way superpowers and shady organizations seem to know more about them than they let out, makes me want to learn more rather than just shoot at them. Plus, from what i've read on the lore (not gonna spoil), being nice to them might someday yield some interesting results.

(and now Juanita Bishop has so put me on a list)

 

[Knispels]

I don't think the Thargoids are obsolete. Being a member of one of the Anti-Xeno groups, the numbers of membership are growing at a remarkable rate. And on some weeks the Thargoid threat has been stopped in systems and the station was not attacked if I remember correctly. It is part of the game and a growing part and people are free to take part or leave it alone. It is part of a storyline that continues to evolve in the game. Whether you choose to take part in that storyline in some form or fashion is up to each individual and how they want to play the game. But I can't see as they are obsolete from all the people that I have seen join in and take part.

 

[Jmanis]

Thargoids (or more correctly, humans) need a new trick besides just combat.

I was racing off to bed when I posted this... but recall this picture?

We all know Thargoids hate Guardian technology... yet in that picture it's the viper shooting the Ancient Relic in front of the Thargoid? Imagine if that actually *did* something, say, acted like an anti-Thargoid smartbomb? Or nullified the Thargoid regeneration, or even made the Thargoid a termporary ally.

Likewise, if there were some way now to analyse the destination of Thargoid wakes, and get clues to where they're going to (Even if it was a permit-locked region).

Imagine if Guardian or Thargoid tech gave us some functionally distinct FSD systems?

Imagine if, like the Thargoids can put our stations into a damaged state, we could put their structures/barnacles into a damaged/weakened state in return, using tissue samples/hearts to synthesize single-use weaponry e.g AX Torpedoes.

Imagine if handing in Barnacle scans at stations came with a clue towards other systems with Barnacles?

... etc...

 

[Thatchinho]

I remember in the interview to the first CMDR hyperdicted by the Targoids who said: "“After all, defending against the Thargoids, or even maintaining peace, will take galactic cooperation.”

Now when I look at the game status right now I see:

> Empire and Federation are fighting eachother without caring about Thargoids anymore.
> CMDR's are collecting Guardians bluprint to increase FSD range or to have better outfit for PvP.
> Thousands of players left the bubble to follow DW2, an exploration expedition that will take everyone away from the Bubble for several months.
> Occasional and veteran players don't fight Interceptors because:
- they don't care
- it requires a complex and expensive outfitting to stand a change against them

Should we consider Thargoids obsolete already?

Clearly the Thargoids’ strategy is actually highly effective.

 

[Knot2clever]

It's the grind behind the grind behind the grind that puts me off. Why even start, there's enough of that already. I took a look to see what was required, first one must grind.

 

[Knispels]

True there is a grind to making the best ships. But once you have one completed you really don't have to worry about 95% of other things in the game. Certainly not npc's and you can high wake or fight other players in the game. They are dedicated ships for the purpose of Thargoid fighting, but with only a very few tweeks they are up to everything there is in the game. Some people get involved in the Thargoid conflict because they are bored of the other gameplay and want to try something new. Granted one aspect of this gameplay is making your ship or ships the very best that they can be and at the same time learning a lot from some very skilled pilots. I have been amazed at how much you can learn from being a part of some of these groups and how much time and effort has been put into compiling the information about how to become a better pilot and experience something new. Pushing yourself outside of what is comfortable in your gameplay and experiencing these new things can really change the game for many pilots as it has for me. So I really don't mind the grind or the time I spend to make credits that I need to experience these new things, because I gain a lot from just being there. Better ships, experience, gameplay, information. And above all a gameplay experience that excites me and gets my blood pumping.

 

[Jaylem]

If optional content could choose optional content, Thargoids would be the end result.

I do enjoy taking them down from time to time, especially if AXI needs help. but otherwise I will just do my own thing.

 

[oflow]

I dunno if its obsolete and people tend to exaggerate how bad the grind/cost is to build an AX capable ship. The builds arent that complex either. Get a ship, get as much shield and hull as you can, equip AX weapons if you want to fight the bigger ships. Thats pretty much it. Thargoid weapons dont require complex resistance builds just pure hull and shield and maybe a decontamination limpet to remove corrosive effect.

At this point unless you are new, most people should have already done the engineer 'grind' and they got revamped a ways back so its not totally RNG and far less grindy if you havent.

Especially now that everyone has tons of void opal cash to buy whatever they want. You dont have to unlock every guardian weapon type and class. I say this as someone that recently returned to the game for this update and just unlocked all the guardian stuff in the last couple of weeks. I didnt 'grind' for anything for the most part except pattern epsilons and thats only because I unlocked multiple modules that I didnt really need just wanted. The 'grind' was reading forum posts, guides and watching youtube vids.

Theres also material traders in the game now. Grinding has kind of been taken out of the game for me at least. As someone that played off and on from preview, the current 'grind' cant even really be called a grind. People just need to play smart and not hard. (Examples: if you're doing pve combat carry limpets and suck up materials when you blow up a ship. Wake scan ships outside of stations etc. It piles up in no time then you can trade for other stuff and not grind)

The only thing you really need to unlock to fight interceptor thargoids are guardian gauss cannons which is like 3-4 hours tops. And if you dont want to do that you can still use AX MCs which dont require any grind. The guardian blueprint sites are 700-1000LY out which is at most 20-30 jumps even in a modest ship. Not like they make you fly to Colonia to unlock stuff.

But I have to admit, I returned to the game and expected a lot more from this bubble invasion. I expected to see stations actually being destroyed, thargoids hyperdicting and attacking in the bubble making everyone keep their heads on a swivel. Maybe even an impending thargoid invasion fleet approaching with thargoid capital ships fighting the human navies while the bubble is evacuated via some sort of stargate invented to move survivors from the bubble to Colonia. (what other reason would they want players to start a second bubble 20K LY away for?)

For all the crap The Feds and Imperials stirred up how is it that now these attacks are being left to Pilot Federation contractors? What exactly are superpowers' navies doing?

Are the devs basically saying the superpowers know more than they are letting on and thats why they wont get involved directly?

Anyway, part of the issue to me is the playerbase. If the devs actually forced the Thargoids on the players, people would complain about it just like people complain about pvp in open:

'I just want to trade/explore and my ship was blown up after being hyperdicted!! slap n da face!11'

So they went with the option that lets it be optional which basically works.

I think that and combining it with release during the holidays kinda was a weird decision since it got thrown out there and then everyone went on break.

But the current 'invasion' could easily ramp up. Right now they attack three systems a week, so yeah most people can ignore it. But what happens if it turns into 20 or 50 a week? Things could change dramatically.

I also think that for all the hoopla the Raxxla thing will be tied into DW2 someway by the devs which kinda makes the DW2 thing more understandable. Raxxla is in the codex so its eventually going to go somewhere and its gotta be tied into the Thargoid/Guardian stuff someway. (Again I'm thinking stargates to make fast travelling to distant cross galaxy hubs possible since most of the players wont fly 20K LY for anything)

Just my ramblings on the topic.

 

[Eckee]

I dunno if its obsolete and people tend to exaggerate how bad the grind/cost is to build an AX capable ship. The builds arent that complex either. Get a ship, get as much shield and hull as you can, equip AX weapons if you want to fight the bigger ships. Thats pretty much it. Thargoid weapons dont require complex resistance builds just pure hull and shield and maybe a decontamination limpet to remove corrosive effect.

At this point unless you are new, most people should have already done the engineer 'grind' and they got revamped a ways back so its not totally RNG and far less grindy if you havent.

Especially now that everyone has tons of void opal cash to buy whatever they want. You dont have to unlock every guardian weapon type and class. I say this as someone that recently returned to the game for this update and just unlocked all the guardian stuff in the last couple of weeks. I didnt 'grind' for anything for the most part except pattern epsilons and thats only because I unlocked multiple modules that I didnt really need just wanted. The 'grind' was reading forum posts, guides and watching youtube vids.

Theres also material traders in the game now. Grinding has kind of been taken out of the game for me at least. As someone that played off and on from preview, the current 'grind' cant even really be called a grind. People just need to play smart and not hard. (Examples: if you're doing pve combat carry limpets and suck up materials when you blow up a ship. Wake scan ships outside of stations etc. It piles up in no time then you can trade for other stuff and not grind)

The only thing you really need to unlock to fight interceptor thargoids are guardian gauss cannons which is like 3-4 hours tops. And if you dont want to do that you can still use AX MCs which dont require any grind. The guardian blueprint sites are 700-1000LY out which is at most 20-30 jumps even in a modest ship. Not like they make you fly to Colonia to unlock stuff.

But I have to admit, I returned to the game and expected a lot more from this bubble invasion. I expected to see stations actually being destroyed, thargoids hyperdicting and attacking in the bubble making everyone keep their heads on a swivel. Maybe even an impending thargoid invasion fleet approaching with thargoid capital ships fighting the human navies while the bubble is evacuated via some sort of stargate invented to move survivors from the bubble to Colonia. (what other reason would they want players to start a second bubble 20K LY away for?)

For all the crap The Feds and Imperials stirred up how is it that now these attacks are being left to Pilot Federation contractors? What exactly are superpowers' navies doing?

Are the devs basically saying the superpowers know more than they are letting on and thats why they wont get involved directly?

Anyway, part of the issue to me is the playerbase. If the devs actually forced the Thargoids on the players, people would complain about it just like people complain about pvp in open:

'I just want to trade/explore and my ship was blown up after being hyperdicted!! slap n da face!11'

So they went with the option that lets it be optional which basically works.

I think that and combining it with release during the holidays kinda was a weird decision since it got thrown out there and then everyone went on break.

But the current 'invasion' could easily ramp up. Right now they attack three systems a week, so yeah most people can ignore it. But what happens if it turns into 20 or 50 a week? Things could change dramatically.

I also think that for all the hoopla the Raxxla thing will be tied into DW2 someway by the devs which kinda makes the DW2 thing more understandable. Raxxla is in the codex so its eventually going to go somewhere and its gotta be tied into the Thargoid/Guardian stuff someway. (Again I'm thinking stargates to make fast travelling to distant cross galaxy hubs possible since most of the players wont fly 20K LY for anything)

Just my ramblings on the topic.

agreed. I recently build this and fighting Scouts. It took me less than a week to unlock said engineers, collect mats and build it. And this is not one of those moba games where you can pick your character and join the fight. It's kind of a living universe you earn your way through and make your own story. People say it takes too long to get what they want, and here I'm thinking there is not enough gameplay before unlocking and building things. Wish it would take so much more dedication and time. This game is (or should be) about the journey not the destination but lacks so much content on the way.

 

[Thatchinho]

I dunno if its obsolete and people tend to exaggerate how bad the grind/cost is to build an AX capable ship. The builds arent that complex either. Get a ship, get as much shield and hull as you can, equip AX weapons if you want to fight the bigger ships. Thats pretty much it. Thargoid weapons dont require complex resistance builds just pure hull and shield and maybe a decontamination limpet to remove corrosive effect.

At this point unless you are new, most people should have already done the engineer 'grind' and they got revamped a ways back so its not totally RNG and far less grindy if you havent.

Especially now that everyone has tons of void opal cash to buy whatever they want. You dont have to unlock every guardian weapon type and class. I say this as someone that recently returned to the game for this update and just unlocked all the guardian stuff in the last couple of weeks. I didnt 'grind' for anything for the most part except pattern epsilons and thats only because I unlocked multiple modules that I didnt really need just wanted. The 'grind' was reading forum posts, guides and watching youtube vids.

Theres also material traders in the game now. Grinding has kind of been taken out of the game for me at least. As someone that played off and on from preview, the current 'grind' cant even really be called a grind. People just need to play smart and not hard. (Examples: if you're doing pve combat carry limpets and suck up materials when you blow up a ship. Wake scan ships outside of stations etc. It piles up in no time then you can trade for other stuff and not grind)

The only thing you really need to unlock to fight interceptor thargoids are guardian gauss cannons which is like 3-4 hours tops. And if you dont want to do that you can still use AX MCs which dont require any grind. The guardian blueprint sites are 700-1000LY out which is at most 20-30 jumps even in a modest ship. Not like they make you fly to Colonia to unlock stuff.

But I have to admit, I returned to the game and expected a lot more from this bubble invasion. I expected to see stations actually being destroyed, thargoids hyperdicting and attacking in the bubble making everyone keep their heads on a swivel. Maybe even an impending thargoid invasion fleet approaching with thargoid capital ships fighting the human navies while the bubble is evacuated via some sort of stargate invented to move survivors from the bubble to Colonia. (what other reason would they want players to start a second bubble 20K LY away for?)

For all the crap The Feds and Imperials stirred up how is it that now these attacks are being left to Pilot Federation contractors? What exactly are superpowers' navies doing?

Are the devs basically saying the superpowers know more than they are letting on and thats why they wont get involved directly?

Anyway, part of the issue to me is the playerbase. If the devs actually forced the Thargoids on the players, people would complain about it just like people complain about pvp in open:

'I just want to trade/explore and my ship was blown up after being hyperdicted!! slap n da face!11'

So they went with the option that lets it be optional which basically works.

I think that and combining it with release during the holidays kinda was a weird decision since it got thrown out there and then everyone went on break.

But the current 'invasion' could easily ramp up. Right now they attack three systems a week, so yeah most people can ignore it. But what happens if it turns into 20 or 50 a week? Things could change dramatically.

I also think that for all the hoopla the Raxxla thing will be tied into DW2 someway by the devs which kinda makes the DW2 thing more understandable. Raxxla is in the codex so its eventually going to go somewhere and its gotta be tied into the Thargoid/Guardian stuff someway. (Again I'm thinking stargates to make fast travelling to distant cross galaxy hubs possible since most of the players wont fly 20K LY for anything)

Just my ramblings on the topic.

A very sensible post in general.

If I might be so bold to throw in something on part of it... There seems to be a bit of assumption of intent with regard to the Thargoids and what they're doing. If your assumptions lead to conclusions which don't match what's going on then it's time to take another look at the assumptions. Perhaps a slight re-evaluation of the situation might be helpful, in particular taking into account that the Thargoids are Aliens (with a capital A) and not aliens (reskinned humans). (And just for clarity, when I say helpful, I mean in terms of you getting more from the game)

 

[Chaparral]

Thargoids = cqc+grind

 

[oflow]

A very sensible post in general.

If I might be so bold to throw in something on part of it... There seems to be a bit of assumption of intent with regard to the Thargoids and what they're doing. If your assumptions lead to conclusions which don't match what's going on then it's time to take another look at the assumptions. Perhaps a slight re-evaluation of the situation might be helpful, in particular taking into account that the Thargoids are Aliens (with a capital A) and not aliens (reskinned humans). (And just for clarity, when I say helpful, I mean in terms of you getting more from the game)

I can see that. I was initially sort of open to the 'Thargoids arent the enemy' narrative, but there being no way to interact with them besides fighting them after all this time kinda rules that out for me currently. Not to mention that they are the main enemies in the old Elite games. Yeah there's some funky stuff going on with INRA, but until the devs open a communication channel seems like fighting is the only option.

I think people could also be potentially giving the Thargoids too much credit as far as motivation goes. They could literally just be the equivalent of spacefaring colony insects just with a few million years of evolution behind them. They might not have 'intellectual' or 'emotional' human type motivations. They could just be doing what they do because thats how they live and always have. Sort of like an ant colony, termites or roaches. From the Guardian lore they seem to never try to communicate and get instinctively aggressive when another species encroaches on their seeded systems. And its very plausible the Thargoids seeded the bubble long before humans expanded out that far. When they came back to harvest they find us their stealing their stuff. Humans were out in the Pleiades taking every meta-alloy we could find. Basically poked the hornet's nest. The whole Thargoid story in new Elite seems to be playing out a lot like the Formics from the Ender's Game novels.

And if there are two factions of Thargoids fighting, are the ones kiting the 'meaner' bugs to the bubble really 'friendly'? Especially with the interceptors harvesting escape pods, maybe they are trying to develop an anti-human mycoid type virus for a bit of get back. Or they could just be trying to study humans and figure out a way to communicate. Being that they are 'Aliens' just figuring out a way to communicate could be a monumental task for both sides.

So that leaves us with the options in the meantime of fight or move somewhere else far away where there's no bed bugs. Makes Colonia and DW2 more relevant.

Begs the question is there already Thargoid stuff in game thats yet to be discovered? Or is that just an invisibility cloak the devs use while they work on the game?

I'd say they are far from obsolete, without the Thargoid/Guardian stuff in the game, what 'endgame' objectives do the players really have besides exploration?

 

[Squid Gumbo]

Thargoids may seem like a hassle and a half, seeing as how fighting them requires specialized loadouts and training to even stand a chance. I'm sure it would be nice to sit back and revere the Thargoids as useless or non-threatening (by all means I did the same just a few months ago), but that changes once two or three of your systems have come under Thargoid infestation and your only choice is to fight them off. We all thought we had more time to prepare and that "they'll never invade our territory".......so much for that. It's one thing to have to go track them down, it's a completely different story when they're at your doorstep. I've felt more like a Starship Trooper these past few weeks than anything else.

 

[piy]

I think yes. the 4 weapon silliness should go. I cant see any insentive at all to attack or engage with the thargs. even if I win and kill it in a massive anaconda im stumped with a massive bill...na...thanks......not with only 4 weps