I'm not really sure what you mean by this to be honest. Some guardian monoliths require tissue samples from each thargoid variant except the Hydra. So presumably they had the basic same interceptors we have now.
Yes, it doesn't necessarily have to be a whole new species. Some lore from the official novels would support the theory that it's a different faction of Thargoids, or it could simply be that the situation is different after a million years, facing a race that has already beaten them once before.
As for the inconsistencies themselves, there are quite a few behavioural ones, differences in their aggression and whatnot, but the most concrete one is deliberately written into GalNet.
Here is one of Ram Tah's comments on the Guardian logs:
"If the Thargoids adopt the same modus operandi as with the Guardians, their next move will be to start aggressively mining mineral resources. There is no evidence this has yet begun, however.”
And it still hasn't happened. It's an odd detail to include if you just take it at face value, and even odder to specifically point out that it hasn't happened. One contradictory detail written in, not even included in the original Guardian logs, to imply that the Thargoids
aren't using the same tactics. And if they're not using the same tactics, what else is different?
Therefore it is their responsibility to communicate their intentions in a way we can understand.
Well really according to several of the books they have communicated with some humans in the higher up ranks like the club and various scientists. Two way communication is possible; but for whatever reason the average player isnt privy to that.
Exactly - they have communicated. But those with that information hide it from us, when having that intel available would allow us to prepare infinitely better, no need for inefficient manipulation that often just doesn't work. No need to engineer unneccesary conflict and death to incentivise militarization when you could just...tell people what is coming, and to prepare. But they're arrogant. Also, it's another discrepancy with the Guardian's account of events. Either the Guardians lied about the outcome of their communication, or we're dealing with a different group of Thargoids, either scenario casts a lot of doubt on the Guardian account.
See I just dont think that's correct. Not counting the station that litterly fell out of its planetary orbit earlier this year because of an attack they may not deem total annihilation to be the most effective way to wage war.
The Oracle is an interesting point, but I'm not convinced it wasn't a bug. And even if it wasn't, it was one station out of...however many hundreds the Thargoids have attacked, and I don't think that would indicate anything other than extremely bad luck for the Oracle rather than a deliberate tactic. If they've been trying to knock them out of orbit, they're doing a really bad job of it.
The low death counts are recorded on GalNet while Frontier simultaneously give much higher death counts to the NMLA attacks, despite using the exact same assets. Supporting evidence was also given in the
very first station attacks with another low body count.
Footage from starport security feeds indicate that the Thargoid ships used their shutdown fields to neutralise station defences before targeting the main reactor. One eyewitness said, “It’s like they wanted to cripple us rather than destroy us outright.”
But really I only mention that as evidence against it being an arbitrary number. I think that your theory is unlikely given how effectively the Thargoids are able to carry out these attacks - I doubt complete annihilation would take meaningfully longer, or that reinforcements would be able to arrive in time or pose a threat. But since that all happens during the Thursday maintenance, it's hard to prove or disprove it for certain. We'd each be arguing for a different interpretation of why they want to "cripple" us, or the station.
So in that case, I think examining their intent behind the attacks might be more useful in determining why they don't go for the kill. Here's the article regarding the Gnosis attack:
“There’s no doubt that we would have been destroyed if not for some of the Commanders travelling with us. They lured the Thargoids away while ejecting meta-alloys from their holds. The aliens were more interested in scooping up the meta-alloys than attacking us.
I believe that the attacks are the result of the Thargoids searching for stolen cargo. Destroying the station would be counterproductive to that, if nothing else. It also fits with the behaviour we actually can see, how they scan your cargo and then let you go if you don't make any funny moves. On top of that, several ingame logs detailing the distress signals that Thargoid tech can send out, and how Thargoid tech is often found in the wreckage of ships, only to then be scooped up by the attacker. They're there for the cargo bays, which you can see ripped open on the attacked stations.
